AN: THIS CHAPTER IS VERY HEAVY. THERE IS VERY LITTLE FLUFF. To answer some questions that have come up, in no particular order.... I"m saying the car incident happened when Jimmy was eight (maybe he was tall for his age)....just go with it. Also Pike is from the Mojave desert area, as per the Star Trek movie website (and TOS). TOS stands for The Original Series. I am not planning on taking this exact story through the movie, because that would be a wicked long fic, but I can write you guys a sequel from this same universe. However, I won't be starting till after I finish this one. We'll see, it may just end up a wicked long fic.

Longest chapter. Ever.

If you don't like plot spoilers then attempt to not read the warnings for this chapter.

This chapter's almost exclusively plot exposition. Sorry. It has to go somewhere. In the TOS episode Conscience of the King, they mention that Kodos picked those to live and die according to eugenics. Also this chapter references the episode The Trouble with Tribbles. (No Tribbles were harmed in the making of this chapter. No tribbles were included in the making of this chapter, actually.)

Disclaimer. I don't own them. Obviously.

Warnings for this chapter. (And some of these are new)...Torture. Genocide. Child abuse. Implied possible Rape. Implied possible Sexual assault. Implied possible Non-con. None of this is graphic, but it gets mentioned.

And now....we open the box....

It was not as easy as Pike thought it would be to explain to Captain Moritari why he was adopting Jim Kirk. The captain was...hostile to the idea, to say the least. As it was decision that would affect his status on the ship (being in charge of a dependent), Pike was required to inform his immediate chain of command of his decision. Technically, he should have done it before filing the paper work for temporary custody, but since he'd only filed for temporary custody, it wasn't a huge deal. Besides, he could file for full custody when they returned to Earth for leave.

In this case, the chain of command Pike was required to inform was his captain and the first officer. Moritari made his displeasure plain, while Commander El Sayed smiled at him the whole time. So she was on board, at least. She liked kids. And Jimmy would probably like her. Pike was confused about Moritari's attitude though. The captain had been the one to suggest to him that it would be a shame if Jimmy had no where to go.

Moritari sighed. "You understand, Commander Pike, that the boy is likely to have lifelong authority issues?"

"Yessir. But he listens to me." Pike said. Well, Jimmy did listen...most of the time. Well, some of the time.

"I will not have him running wild or throwing tantrums on my ship." Moritari growled.

"He won't, sir. I promise you that." Just so long as you don't mind him hacking your security systems, we'll all get along fine, Pike thought.

Moritari was definitely in rare form today as far as bad moods were concerned. "You'll be exclusively responsible for him while he's here. "

Pike nodded. "I understand, sir."

Moritari stared at Pike for a few moments. Pike met his gaze without flinching. The captain had nothing on Jimmy Kirk for assessing gazes. Pike did wonder though, why the captain was being such a bastard, when El Sayed caught his eye. She was giving the captain a look of extreme sympathy. Pike wondered at that. There must be something more going on that he didn't know about.

"Very well," Moritari said, finally breaking his gaze, "I approve. Dismissed."

Pike felt light headed with relief...it would have been a hassle to go around the captain to keep Jim.

Mara El-Sayed walked him out. Pike looked at her and sighed with relief. "For a minute there, I thought that was going to be really difficult."

She eyed him thoughtfully. "I'm glad he agreed. But don't be too hard on him, Chris. What I'm about to tell you isn't common knowledge, but his son was killed on a starship when the boy was younger; the boy was only there as an observer when a maintenance coil blew and took out the bulkhead. He would have been about Jimmy's age, I think. The captain, in his own way, was probably hoping to protect you."

Pike nodded, but didn't respond. He wondered if he would survive Jimmy's death now that he wanted to keep the kid. Probably not as well as Moritari had. He wondered how the captain had stayed in the service. Then again, he wondered that about Win when George had died.

Mara studied him thoughtfully. "We all find ways to carry on," she said.

Pike nodded. "Indeed we do."

Later that night, alone on the observation deck, Pike fought to keep his fingers from shaking as he opened the clasp of the box. He hesitated. He wasn't sure that he really wanted to know what was in here. He ran his fingers through his hair as he stalled. Any of the ship's other senior officers could override his lock, but he doubted they would do so. He'd made it pretty clear that he wanted privacy. He wanted, no, he needed, to be alone to do this. Pike didn't have any idea what he'd find when he opened this box, but it was pretty clear that whatever it was, he wasn't going to want it to be common knowledge.

Well, here goes, he thought. And before he could stop himself, he opened the box.

The envelopes were still there. Just as they had been this morning. Pike sighed. He removed the one labeled JTK. He used his thumb to slit the sealed part open and wondered about what he'd find. Almost all of the information was about Jimmy in some way. His school records previous to Tarsus were included. He'd done pretty well, but Pike imagined the kid was likely bored a lot. Jimmy had clearly skipped a couple grades and was definitely doing work above his level.

Jimmy's medical records were also present. Damn, these would have been helpful a few days ago. The kid was allergic...to everything. Shellfish, nuts, wheat....shit, what could the boy eat? Pike would have to keep this list in mind. Pike peered at the list and noticed that Jimmy had had quite a few injuries for a while when he was younger. Well, the kid did seem to have a knack for getting in trouble....it would be just like Jimmy to get into a few scrapes. Pike smiled despite himself; he remembered what it had been like to be a kid. But he scanned the list anyway, to see if any of the injuries would present lasting problems. But as Pike read, his trepidation grew. Broken arm (well that happened), broken leg (could be explainable), broken ribs, lacerated lung, punctured spleen, broken nose, black eyes. Fractures to both eye sockets. Jimmy had been admitted to the hospital for that set of injuries. Oh god, no...not again...what the hell had been going on?

Well, Jimmy wasn't the only person on the ship with hacking skills. It only took Pike half an hour to worm his way into the Iowa police files.

The boy's stepfather had evidently taken the kid for treatment after a fall down the stairs. Yeah, fall my ass, Pike thought. No one fell onto both sides of their face at once. Something which the doctors had evidently noticed. They had apparently tried to question Jimmy about the nature of his injuries, but the kid had refused to talk. So the doctor had called the authorities. Because among the marks on the child's body was a hand print shaped bruise on his abdomen. The stepfather had been arrested and Winona had been recalled from her mission off world. Pike wondered how long she'd been away. He paused the medical records and had the computer look up Winona Kirk's service record in Starfleet.

All of the injuries happened while she was off planet. And she'd never been gone for more than a month at a time. Just long enough for the bruises to heal. Maybe she hadn't known about it. That might explain why she hadn't taken action.

She'd married the man when Jimmy was five. And she'd divorced him when Jimmy was eight, apparently as soon as she'd found out about the bastard abusing her son. She'd pressed charges too. Good for her. So her ex-husband had gone to jail for aggravated assault and attempted murder, and the next time Winona went to space, she took her son with her.

Pike looked the man in the records of the Iowa's penal system...Frank Levitson had only been out of prison about six weeks. So that explained the man's hostility to Jimmy when Pike had commed him earlier.

That made Pike wonder. What had Winona done with the farm? Pike had always loved going there with George. His roommate had often taken him home on breaks during their time at the academy. Now he was curious. Pike put the information about Frank on hold and looked up the Kirk property. It was to be held in trust by the state and would revert to Jimmy when he reached his majority. Well, that made sense. But it left the kid little in the way of assets before he turned eighteen. But the setup would have prevented anyone one else from accessing the land. Well, that wasn't really a problem though. Pike had a pretty decent salary and no one to spend it on save himself. He could care for Jim's needs rather easily. That made him wonder though, if Jimmy had been raised in Iowa, would he even like the desert? Cause Pike sure missed it.

The article provided the name of the firm holding the deed to the land, and Pike copied it to his Padd so he could remember to contact the firm when the temporary custody papers came through. He wondered whether he ought to just file for full custody. Maybe he should ask the kid. Jimmy had only said he wanted to try it out. He hadn't mentioned wanting to keep Pike around forever or anything. Maybe he wouldn't want.... Pike sighed and pushed his hands through his hair. This day had been too long already.

So Kodos had probably known that Jimmy had been abused as a child. What use could that be to him, Pike wondered. Their was a copy of Winona's death certificate. Pike hadn't been expecting that. It had been printed out on real paper, and appeared to have been crumpled slightly. The edges of the sheet had dirty finger prints on it, and Pike compared the size of the prints to his own, he realized they must be Jimmy's. Curious.

Why would Kodos have a paper copy of Win's death certificate. And how had it gotten Jimmy's fingerprints?

Pike shook his head. He was hating this box more by the minute. How had Kodos gotten a hold of all this shit? He'd clearly been obsessed with Jimmy for a very long time. Pike was starting to get a sinking, sick feeling about all this. Kodos was clearly obsessed, and in Pike's mind obsession was never a good thing.

He got up and stretched and took a swig of whiskey from the flask he'd thought to bring with him. Pike hadn't known why, but he'd thought liquor would be necessary tonight. It was a good thing he'd already told Jimmy he'd be late; he didn't want the kid to see him like this. Hell he didn't want anyone to see him like this. And he wasn't even halfway through the box. Pike was afraid to take it back to his quarters. He didn't want Jimmy to recognize it.

There were a number of unlabeled envelopes containing holos. They were organized only by date as far as Pike could see. He pulled one at random from an early envelope and looked at it. Jimmy doing homework. It was some kind of surveillance feed. Nothing interesting going on. Pike sped it up, and recognized the setting. Jimmy playing chess. (He won every game he played, Pike noticed with a smile.) Jimmy sleeping. Jimmy showering. Pike's stomach rolled over.

God, had Kodos wanted Jimmy...like that? Please God no. The kid had been through enough. Oh please god no. But maybe...the feed monitored everything that Jimmy did that week. Maybe Kodos had only been keeping an eye on Jimmy. Maybe....Pike pulled the disk out and threw it back into the envelope. He was tempted to burn it. But it be needed later...as evidence.

If Kodos had touched his kid.... Blood would be spilled.

Pike's vision flared red at the edges and he fought to get himself under control. Whatever had happened, it was obvious that Jimmy felt guilty about it. That was common enough among victims of assault and torture. Pike sighed. He couldn't let Jimmy see him while he was still so angry. Pike didn't need the boy to blame himself for anything else.

Pike forced his trembling hands to still as withdrew a new disc from a different envelope. This one was a different color from the others, but it was completely unmarked. It had only two data files in it. One labeled JK, and the other unlabeled. Pike pulled the one with the kids initials on it and fed it into the computer. The first image on it was a bio-organic chemical structure. It was complicated. Pike stared hard at it, and decided it was a form of grain...wheat, maybe, but genetically modified. Pike pulled up the specifics of the report. God, in Heaven, it was nearly perfect. It had been modified somehow to be nearly disease resistant, no fungus, no virus could touch it. The proteins that formed the outermost cellular layer were nearly impenetrable to kind of invasive particle. The author detailed the weakness of traditional grains and had attempted to created a hybrid absent the weakness of any of its parents. Pike had never been a botanist, but looking at the molecule onscreen, Pike was sure he might have known what love at first sight felt like. It would mean an end to nearly all famine, including the one that had just destroyed the planet below. He shook his head, thinking that if they'd only gotten this in time, the colonists could have modified their crops....

Pike searched for some reason that Kodos might have kept this file in the box, wondering what the creator of the grain called Tritacaline would have to do with Jimmy. And then, Pike found it. The report had been submitted by James T. Kirk (age twelve) to the Governor's Board for a grant to the Tarsus school. Pike sat back and closed his eyes. He'd known the boy was smart, but he was a little bit blown away by this. God, the kid had to be a certifiable genius. GENIUS. How was Pike ever going to keep him occupied? Pike wondered how much of the boy's research and conclusions were legitimate. As far as Pike could see, Jimmy had submitted only a preliminary report, and this nearly a year before the crops failed, so he might not have had time to do the actual research on the project before everything went to hell. Pike made a copy of file and sent it to the science department asking them to check the facts. If it was as fail safe as it looked, then the kid was headed for a huge award and a fair amount of money, because Pike was going to publish it. Maybe he'd publish it without telling the kid, and surprise him when the awards came.

Pike shook his head. So...the report may have been what drew Kodos to Jimmy. Pike was pretty sure that no one reading the report could come away from it with anything other than awe for the mind that had created it.

Pike grabbed the other chip and stuck it in the computer. This was another organic compound, but it wasn't like the first. It was more...simple. Pike stared at it a long time before realizing what it was. The fungus. And the longer Pike stared at it, the easier it was to recognize. Kodos had taken Jimmy's report and used the weaknesses the kid found in the grain. The fungus was designed to exactly attack the weakness of wheat, rice and rye. Pike allowed his eyes to close. He sent a copy of the fungus's structure to the science department along with another copy of Jimmy's report. He'd see what they could make of it. There had to be a reason that Kodos had created it.

Why the hell would anyone want to do that? Why would you ever design a disease to attack a food supply? Pike couldn't think of a reason. He rubbed a hand over his tired eyes. No wonder Jimmy felt guilty. His research project had allowed the research that created the fungus. Well, Pike wasn't going to let the kid feel guilty about that. Jimmy's research on the Tritacaline could save hundred of thousands, if not millions of lives and Pike was going to make sure that Jim Kirk knew it.

Pike wasn't sure he wanted to look anything else in this damn box. But...he had to know.

The rest of the contents of the box were all holos and data files. There was a very elaborate file of of the trap Kodos had set to catch Jimmy. It was brilliant in its knowledge and audacity. Kodos had taken three children and tied them to posts in the courtyard. He given the kids a death sentence for the next morning and then he waited for Jimmy to come that night and release them. And come he had. Kodos's guard had caught him and dragged before the governor. It had taken some doing, too, the kid hadn't gone without a fight. Pike recognized Winona's right cross in Jimmy's fighting style. When the guard finally subdued the boy, the took him to Kodos. As near as Pike could make out, Kodos hadn't been certain that Jimmy was betraying him until that moment. His rage was palpable. Then again, so was Jimmy's.

He glared at Kodos and spat, "You would kill three kids to catch me?"

Kodos narrowed his eyes and responded, "I would kill three hundred kids to capture you." Jimmy spat in Kodos face. Kodos backhanded him so hard that the kid fell backwards into the arms of his captors. "You will tell me where to find those you have aided." The kid was already way too thin.

"Go fuck yourself." Pike was surprised at the vehemence the boy demonstrated. Jimmy then switched languages and proceeded to Kodos exactly what he could do with himself in most of the main languages of the Federation. Some of his suggestions were quite...inventive, and possibly anatomically impossible. Pike was pretty nearly impressed. The kid might look like George, but that fit of imaginative temper was all Winona.

The governor had the guards bind Jimmy over a table and then Kodos whipped him. Kodos whipped Jimmy. The bastard had done it himself. Well, Pike had his answer about that now. He was going to kill Kodos himself if the security teams could ever manage to find him. The whipping was particularly brutal. Watching the scene unfold was one of the hardest things Pike had ever done. Kodos laid the strokes slowly, almost lovingly across Jimmy's back. It was sickening to watch. Between the lashes, Kodos caressed the boys' back and face, promising the kid that everything would be alright if only he told. He would be fed. He would be welcomed back. He would regain his place with Kodos, if only he did this one little thing.

Jimmy didn't speak. He didn't scream, and he didn't beg, but tears slowly made their way down his face.

Pike couldn't help it. He wept as well. And he decided that he'd had enough of the box for today. He took a deep breath. And another. He replaced the files back in the box and walked slowly to sickbay. He allowed no emotion to show on his face as he asked Dr. Adamson to keep the box locked up for him. The doctor nodded and Pike left without speaking further.

He walked in a trance to his quarters, where he found Jimmy sleeping like a baby. The quilt had once again fallen off, and Jimmy's back and shoulders were exposed, glowing silver in the starlight. Winona's lullaby was playing.

I know you're lost and drifting, but the clouds are lifting.
Don't give up, you have somewhere to turn...

Pike couldn't help himself, he turned and sat on the boy's bed and stroked Jimmy's hair, as he allowed the tears to stream down his face. The boy turned into the touch curled around Pike without waking. Pike shifted the Jimmy so the kid's head was laying against his leg as Pike stroked his back gently. He's okay now, Pike told himself. He's okay, and no one's ever going to hurt him again.

"You would kill three kids to catch me?"Kodos narrowed his eyes and responded, "I would kill three hundred kids to capture you." Is very nearly a quote from Zorro.

Please review. You know...like you did last time. Thank you all for that, by the way. I"m glad you don't seem to think this is crap.