A/N: Still Don't own them. Thank you to Bookdragon01 for the superfast Beta-ing on this chapter. Please read and review, I love hearing what you think.
I tend to write accents how they sound. I've cut back alot on how much I put in, still I apologize if Soctty's hard to read.
Winona hurried with her errands as much as she could; drawing a few comments about her unusual haste from the people she knew. All she did was smile and remind them that Jim was home. She pulled into the shuttle terminal a few minutes early and while she waited, pulled up the holos Jim had sent her of the bridge crew on her PADD. Some of them were pretty funny. Her favorite though was the one that Leonard had sent her of Jim sleeping in his command chair after a tough mission.
There were several images of the chief engineer in the group. She'd been a bit concerned that she'd somehow miss him in the crowd but it was almost ridiculously easy to spot Montgomery Scott.
"Mr. Scott!" she called waving as he reached the bottom of the ramp. He glanced around for a moment before he spotted the blonde woman waving at him and hurried over.
"Ye mus' be Missus Kirk. Pleasure ta meet you," he said shaking her hand.
"It's good to finally meet you too, Mr. Scott. I've heard a lot about you from Jim, so please it's Winona. I don't mean to rush but I left Jim with orders to put together a late breakfast for all of us, and I've got groceries in the car," she said as they walked out to the van.
"Then it's Montgomery tae ye. An' tha' sounds wonderful Missus-Winona. Ah had tae skip my mother's this mornin' or Ah'da missed the shuttle. Ah overslept an' jus' managed tae bolt out the door in time tae make it. Ah think my nephew, Matty, fiddled wi' the alarm, cheeky little bugger, says he wants tae follow me an' be an engineer. No' likely if he keeps tha' up," Scotty replied cheerfully, staring out the windows as they started the trip to the farm.
"Well you never know what will happen as he grows up. I certainly never thought that Jim would join Starfleet, let alone become Captain of the flagship. How old is Matt?"
"He's goin' on twelve an' startin' tae think tha' he's the only one wi' any brains 'round the place. Ye know there's a part of me that'd love tae drop 'im in the middle of engineerin' and see what he does, bu' then Ah git thinkin' of all the damage he could do tae my engines an' Ah change my mind," Scotty said with a shudder.
Winona chuckled, "I used to feel the same way about Jim and pretty much any vehicle when he was that age. Who knows give him a few years to settle down and then see. You might be surprised at what he decides."
"Ye're right no sense in borrowin' trouble. Thanks." They rode in comfortable silence for a while then Scotty started asking questions about the area and the shipyards for the rest of the trip.
They arrived to a riot of breakfast smells.
"We're back." Winona called as they walked in.
"Hey Mom, Scotty; leave your bags in the living room for right now and come wash up." Jim told them coming out of the kitchen to help grab the groceries.
Entering the kitchen Scotty could hardly believe the amount of food, or the fact that his Captain was responsible for at least part of it. McCoy was standing at the stove stirring a pot of something that had Jim making faces as he poked around for a minute looking for something.
"Bones, you see the pot holder anywhere?"
"No Jim I haven't, why would I be keepin' track of somethin' I wasn't usin'?" McCoy answered rolling his eyes.
"It's over by the toaster Uncle Jim," Joanna said, and Scotty's attention snapped to the girl collecting the plates and silverware on the other side of the large room.
"Thanks JoJo," Jim said darting over then back to nudge the doctor out of the way of the oven and pull out a serving dish of bacon and place it on the table.
"Watch out JoJo, let me take those," Jim said a moment later rescuing the silverware off the stack of plates she was trying to bring to the table.
"Thanks Uncle Jim. Mornin' Miss 'Nona," Joanna said setting the plates down and coming to give Winona a hug.
"Good morning to you too, Joanna," she chuckled returning the hug. As she stepped back Joanna looked up at Scotty a faintly wary look in her eyes.
"Good mornin ta ya lass," Scotty said with a small smile. She really did look like her father, the same dark hair and hazel eyes.
"Mornin' sir," She replied softly, as he pulled out a chair and sat down facing her. Seated he was just slightly shorter than her, and he hoped it would put her at ease.
"Montgomery Scott at year service; an' ye are?" he asked offering his hand as if he didn't know.
"Joanna McCoy, Mr. Scott," She replied carefully taking his hand and giving him a ghost of a smile.
"Ah thought so. Lass ye look too much like year Da ta be anyone else. An' don't worry 'bout the Mister lass," he told her grinning as Joanna giggled at his accent.
"Daddy, need any help?"
"Not right now Jo, but thanks," her father replied pouring the contents of his pot into a bowl and bringing it to the table.
Jim started looking around for a minute, checking the oven and a few other places, then turned to the table. "Ok its ready, dig in," he announced cheerfully, motioning them all to sit.
As they ate Scotty kept darting glances at Joanna sitting across from him. He'd been in enough fights and accidents to be able to guess by the remains around her left eye that it had been one hell of a 'shiner' as his grandda had called them. The only other signs that something had happened to her were the fading shadows of bruises on her arms, the faint pink line from a dermal regenerator on her lip, and the wariness in her eyes.
Talk was what was tentatively planned for the rest of the week and anything that he wanted to do that they hadn't thought of. Afterwards he begged off going to get the others in favor of a nap.
As he unpacked in the den and got comfortable on the bed, he heard Joanna laughing outside with her father and thought about what had happened and the warning Winona had given him about Joanna's nightmares.
'Ah hope the lass can lose her nightmares, she an' the Doc don' deserve 'em,' was his last thought as he dozed off.
The terminal was busier so they had to work their way through the small groups of travelers and others waiting to get to the correct landing pad. Thankfully there weren't many others waiting. Fifteen minutes later the shuttle landed.
Uhura and Spock came down the steps, Uhura's hand rested in the crook of Spock's elbow, as usual when off duty, their version of holding hands. They were both more relaxed than they'd been when they'd left and Uhura was almost glowing.
Jim had to grin as they reached them, "Looks like you two enjoyed your trip."
"Indeed Captain, Kenya is partially a desert, so the climate was most agreeable," Spock replied his eyes just barely creased at the corners in a Vulcan smile at Jim's observation.
"True Spock, But I am glad you had a good time," he replied turning to Uhura. "I don't have to ask you how the trip went, you're almost glowing, Uhura." He was a bit surprised to see a faint blush appear on her cheeks.
"Thanks Kirk," she said with a faint chuckle.
"Spock, Uhura I want you to meet my Mom. Mom, these are two of my best officers and friends, Cmdr Spock and Lt Nyota Uhura," Jim said.
"It's wonderful to finally meet both of you," Winona told them, shaking hands with Uhura and retuning Spock's bow with a smile.
"I hope we aren't putting you to any trouble, Mrs. Kirk," Uhura said as they started for the van.
"No trouble Lieutenant, the house is really too big for just me, so it's a nice change to have it full. And please call me Winona, both of you," Winona replied.
"We brought lunch since Chekov is due in half an hour and Sulu at 2:30." Jim said pulling out the cooler as they loaded their luggage in the back.
Lunch was spent talking about their trips and bouncing ideas around for what was going to happen with having children on board.
Chekov of course was his usual slightly hyper self when he arrived and had them laughing over his family's antics, particularly his grandmother, who was, at 102, getting hard of hearing but refused to admit it or get anything done about it.
They wandered around the small terminal, window shopping and talking until they had to meet Sulu's shuttle. Then they headed back to the farm.
"I hope Bones remembered that he was in charge of dinner tonight. I really don't want to cook on short notice," Jim remarked to his Mom as they turned onto the road to the farm.
"Oh I'm sure either Joanna or Scotty reminded him," Winona replied with a smile. "Besides it wouldn't kill you to have to make another meal today, Jim."
"You can cook? That's a shock Kirk," Uhura remarked, over hearing them.
"Not really Uhura, I had to eat somehow when Mom was off planet. Who did you think helped make lunch? I'm not great but at least you won't starve," Jim replied, glancing back at her. "The only time you would have found out about my being able to cook was on that mission to Epsilon Alpha IX and I wasn't going to endanger the conference to try and help. You and Chapel did fine on your own, though I'm still wondering what that one dish of Chapel's was."
"Me too. Whatever it was sure was awful, but the rest of what she made was good," Sulu joined in.
"Come on guys she tried. If I remember right, she said it was supposed to be potatoes au gratin. At least none of us were poisoned by any of it. And it was better than what our hosts were eating," Uhura defended her friend's cooking mishap.
"I vill agree zhat zhe dish vas not so good, but it vas much better zhan vhat our 'hosts' vere having," Chekov added.
"That's true. The natives were eating bugs and partly cooked birds and stuff. We had to explain to them that to us it was inedible because of our physiology, so being a good patriarchal society they 'allowed' the ladies to prepare food more to our taste," Jim clarified for his Mom who made a face at the idea of the planet's idea of food. "Our sentiments exactly Mom; it was probably a good thing Bones was back on the ship treating Martin's broken arm by 'dinner' time," he chuckled as they pulled up in front of the house.
Joanna came running out ahead to greet them. After hugging Jim, Winona, Uhura, and Spock, she cautiously approached Sulu and Chekov as they were unloading to help with the bags. An hour later as everyone met to help with dinner and talk, Joanna had relaxed again and was peppering them all with questions, as they shared details of their shuttle trips.
When Jim mentioned about the recordings of the Memorial, as they cleaned up the kitchen, they agreed to watch the first one that night and at least the one for Vulcan the next. Jim brought down the plaque while they were waiting for Joanna to change into her pajamas, since everyone wanted to see it again and hear about the rings' history.
About halfway through the recording Spock sat up even straighter.
"Jim, rewind it please," he said urgently as Jim picked up the remote and hit the button, trying to figure out what Spock might have seen to make him react so surprised. "Stop now play it slowly. I'll tell you when to stop."
"Ok, Spock," Jim said as the camera panned over the crowd of Ambassadors.
"Stop. Look straight back from my father's head at the back row and across to our right," Spock told them, getting up to point at the screen.
There in the back row was a group of Romulans, even the hooded robes they wore couldn't totally conceal their shaved heads, and the faint signs of tattoos.
"Oh my God!" Uhura gasped as she identified them. "It's a delegation from Romulus."
"Pointy-eared bastards," McCoy muttered darkly. After the Narada he didn't trust Romulans as far as he could throw the Enterprise.
"Yes, my Father, or more likely, Ambassador Selek must have convinced them to come," Spock added clearly awed.
"I know your father's an Ambassador, Spock but who is Ambassador Selek? I've never heard of him," Winona asked, puzzled by the name.
"Ambassador Selek is the one who assisted Jim on Delta Vega; though he's actually my elder self," he explained quietly indicating the elderly Vulcan at the opposite end of the Vulcan delegation, aware of everyone's eyes on him.
"How can there be an older you, Mr. Spock?" Joanna asked in confusion looking from the old man on the screen to the young one. Spock looked a bit helplessly at Jim not sure how to explain it to her.
"The way Ambassador Spock, er, Selek explained it to me, Mom, Joanna, was that he tried to stop a huge supernova before it reached Romulus; but before he could get there it sped up unexpectedly and destroyed the planet. He did manage to stop it by making it a black hole. But as he was trying to get back he got attacked by Nero, and both got sucked into to the black hole.
"Unfortunately Nero went in and came out first and attacked the Kelvin, then spent the next twenty-five years, we found out later, on a Klingon prison planet. He broke out and managed to capture the Ambassador as he came out of the black hole, then marooned him on Delta Vega so he could 'watch' as Vulcan was destroyed.
"Our Spock marooned me there because it was the closest planet, and he didn't want to listen to me argue with him anymore. The older one saved me from getting eaten by this nasty red monster, a henguraggi and we traveled to the outpost and met Scotty," Jim explained carefully remembering how hard this could be to swallow.
"He's righ', they came in an' woke me up. Th' older one gave me the correct formula ta git us back on the Enterprise. Wha' he wrote an' what Ah'd had done almost matched, 'cept one part was slightly different. Ye see, Ah hadn't thought of space bein' wha' moves in tha' kinda beaminin', but it's like a warp drive equation tha' way," Scotty said getting a bit excited in his explanation even though only Spock and Chekov totally followed what he was saying.
"I think all of us thought that Jim had gone crazy when he started tryin' to explain why he'd done what he had to get Spock to step down as Captain. Especially when he started babblin' 'bout an older Spock. I don't think any of us was quite sure if we should believe the two of them, till Jim pointed out the logic of the argument for the Narada being from the future, and got us all thinkin' again 'stead of just reactin' like we had been," McCoy added with a glance at the others. "I don't think any of us realized we were all in some form of shock until then."
"I have also talked with my elder self. It was he who encouraged me to remain in Starfleet, and rejoin you on the Enterprise, though he did not mention the ship specifically. He did advise me to forgo logic and 'do what felt right'. I had felt equally compelled to both follow my human desires as well as my duty to my Vulcan heritage, but I did as he suggested and have felt like I have found where I am most suited to be." Spock explained softly sending a glance at Uhura then down at his hands in slight embarrassment.
"Well we definitely wouldn't be the same ship without you, Spock. We're glad to have you," Jim told him with a small smile as he restarted the recording.
Afterwards Joanna told everyone sleepy good night, hugging Spock twice, before heading up to bed.
"Anything I should know about sharing a bed with her, Len?" Uhura asked after she was gone.
"She loves to snuggle is about all. It could just be that she does it to keep me from stealin' the covers but she stays plastered to me when she comes in after a night mare," he replied softly.
"Well I'm going to head up myself. See you in the morning. Where is a good place for a morning workout?" Sulu asked yawning.
"Behind the garage is where I've been doing mine, Sulu," Jim told him.
"Sounds good, I'll try not to wake anyone. Good night," Sulu said heading upstairs with a wave. They all soon followed his example and found their own beds.
The next morning Uhura met McCoy waiting outside the bathroom.
"Morning, Len," she said leaning back against the wall beside him with a yawn.
"Mornin', Uhura, how'd you two sleep?"
"Very well actually; it just must be you, Len, because other than right after she woke up she stayed on the other side of the bed," Uhura chuckled at the look of surprise on his face as Jim opened the bathroom door.
"Morning, Uhura. Whoever was next go ahead, I'm going to start the coffee. See ya downstairs," he told them as he headed for the kitchen. Jim managed to keep from laughing until he was in the kitchen at the conversation he'd overheard and the look on Bones' face.
That night Spock asked to speak with Jim and Winona. "I do not wish to offend either of you but I may need to slip out during the Memorial recording," he explained quietly as the others were getting settled to watch it.
"No problem Spock, we understand," Jim assured him.
"Take all the time you need, Spock. I know this has to be hard on you. It took me years to be able to sit and listen or read what happened to the Kelvin," Winona added letting her hand hover over Spock's sleeve not quite touching him but unable to totally stop the gesture.
"Thank you, Captain, Winona. I will try not to disrupt the others," Spock replied shifting slightly, letting Winona's fingers just brush across the fabric as he turned.
The next few days flew by; Winona reveled in having them there and took tons of holos: Sulu teaching Joanna to fence, and working with Chekov on his technique; Jim, Spock, Leonard and Sulu sparing; Spock teaching Joanna the beginning movements of Vulcan martial arts, and working with the others on more advanced techniques. Uhura and Joanna curled up under a tree or on the couch in the late afternoons as she taught the girl Swahili and greetings in a few of the more common Federation languages. The stories of their visits home were some of her favorites; Nyota and Spock telling of dances, relatives, and animals, Sulu of his cousins and their wedding and family traditions, Chekov and Scotty's large extended families' antics.
The funniest incident though was Monday afternoon when Jim brought out an old motorcycle he and Bones had found in the back of George's tool room. George had bought it just before the last mission as something to work on with Sam after the baby was born and had hidden it back there as a surprise for him; thankfully Frank hadn't found it. Jim wanted to try and get it running and they all joined in to help.
From the moment they started working on it the teasing and jokes hardly stopped. Everyone ended up covered in grease, oil, and other dirt after a few mishaps getting the engine out and disassembled. The only tense moment was when Joanna had forgotten and covered Spock's eyes, leaving him with a handprint mask, he froze at the inadvertent slight telepathic connection and it took him a minute to recover and realize why they were breathing sighs of relief and grinning. But by the time they called it a day and started cleaning up the bike was running. Cleaning up added to the mess but they made the best of it. Winona was the cleanest so she volunteered to get their clean clothes. And it took awhile for everyone to get a turn to use the closet like mudroom bathroom, but Winona wouldn't let them upstairs until most of the grease and grime was off.
After dinner Joanna went to apologize to Spock. "I'm sorry Mr. Spock I didn't mean to hurt you, I just forgot 'bout you being a telepath," she almost whispered when she found him sitting on the porch.
"Joanna I am not angry at you. And you did not injure me with your touch; you inadvertently touched one of the main cerebral telepathic points for Vulcans. Since I was not expecting it my mind was not prepared, and you -startled me That is all," Spock assured her calmly.
"I'm glad you're ok. Are there others that I need to be careful of?" Joanna asked puzzled.
"My hands and face are the most sensitive Joanna. The same is true for any Vulcan. Though I am- relieved- that you are comfortable enough with me that you forgot that I am not totally human, not many people do," Spock replied calmly.
"I'll remember that, and try not to do that again. I've heard too much about you from Daddy and Uncle Jim to be scared of ya or anythin'. So ya look different, so do all of us," she smiled at him before heading back inside.
Early Tuesday morning they were woken by a call from Rhymer reminding them that they still needed statements from McCoy and Joanna. Jim told him that he'd made arrangements at the Riverside PD, and Rhymer promised to pass that along to Capt Logan who'd woken him asking if he had them.
Breakfast brought a call from Captain Logan, warning that Jocelyn's lawyers were planning on showing up that afternoon to get a statement; McCoy thanked them, and surprised everyone but Jim by shutting himself in the mudroom bathroom and swearing viciously for several minutes before placing a call back to Rhymer with the news. Rhymer promised to be on the next shuttle and meet them at the police department.
"The interview went about as well as expected," Rhymer reported that night over dinner. He'd arrived half an hour before Jocelyn's lawyers and used that time to good effect, by warning the police chief of the history of relations between the firm and McCoy. "They tried to pull a cheap trick thinking that as small as Riverside is they'd get away with it."
"What did they try to do?" Uhura asked not trying to hide her irritation.
"They tried to present paperwork to allow them to question Joanna alone for an unlimited amount of time," Rhymer reported causing more than a few scowls and mutters from the rest of the table. "Fortunately it was the same law firm from five years ago, different partner. Captain Harris had already called in Judge Ray Bone when I told them what happened five years ago. Judge Bone took one look at the paperwork and threw their stuff out. Then he chewed them out for trying to intimidate a minor and thinking that just because they were in a small town that they could run rough shod over the law," he finished with a chuckle.
"Judge Bone is still on the bench? Man I got hauled in front of him once, he's worse than you on a tear Bones," Jim said shooting his friend a look.
"Oh I don't know, Jim, he seemed like a pretty good guy to me," McCoy drawled back.
"He is, just not when you're the one on his bad side," Jim replied.
"And what mischief were you involved in to accomplish that?" Spock inquired.
"I, uh, got in a fight on Main Street one night and, uh, a couple windows got broke. I wasn't the one throwing rocks, just the only one they caught. I gave the cops the names 'cause they started it by jumping me, but they all alibied each other and by then I'd been in enough trouble that no one wanted to believe me, especially Detective Gerard. I think Judge Bone was the only one that really looked at the case. He said that he understood I was defending myself, but still chewed me out for fighting, Gerard for using me as a scapegoat, and once they got the others in there, chewed them out for everything else. I still got sentenced to community service but the others got that and a week in jail," Jim explained, as Scotty started chuckling, and Joanna finally managed a small smile.
Joanna had been almost silent since they got back and Jim could tell the others, especially Bones, were worried. As soon as the table was cleared, he tapped her on the shoulder as Rhymer took his leave, he was catching a red eye back to San Francisco.
"JoJo, I need to check and make sure that stuff's locked up, you wanna keep me company?" Jim asked hoping that getting her alone would get her to talk; it usually worked with her Dad.
"Ok, Uncle Jim," she responded quietly and went to get her shoes.
It didn't take long to check the outbuildings but Jim hadn't gotten her to talk so he led her back to the area behind the garage they used for exercise and sat down in the grass at the far edge.
"I know it's hard to talk about what happened, but it does get better. I promise," he told her softly leaning back on his hands watching her from the corner of his eye.
"How would you know?" she shot back, her McCoy temper starting to get the better of her.
"I had a stepfather like Victor when I was your age; his son and my brother tried to keep me safe when Mom was off planet but there wasn't much they could do. And he was careful so that she wouldn't know and threatened us to make sure we wouldn't tell," Jim explained, glancing at Joanna; her eyes were wide but it was too dark to really read her expression.
"This isn't one of your stories is it, Uncle Jim?" she asked, with a blend of suspicion and hope.
"No, JoJo, I kinda wish it were sometimes," Jim sighed, and told her a bit about Frank, and what happened to him, Sam and Johnny. They sat in silence for a few moments after he finished before she started crying.
Jim gently scooped her up and let her burrow into his shoulder, murmuring the same kind of nonsense he'd heard Bones using after her nightmares.
"JoJo, you can talk to any of us ok? Even if some of us never went through this we can listen," Jim whispered to her as she sat back and looked at him.
"Ok but Daddy's mad at me. I mean ya didn't see his face, I ain't never seen him so angry," Joanna said softly leaning against him again.
"Joanna, he loves you and I can promise you one thing; he's not mad at you. Remember how I reacted when I opened the box room door?" he felt her nod. "Did you think I was mad at you?"
"No," she whispered.
"I was furious at the fact that you were hurt, but not at you. That's what your Dad's going through Sweetheart, he's mad at your Mom and Victor, but he's also mad at himself for not being there to stop it. Heck so are all of us," Jim explained.
"But Uncle Jim, the more I said the worse he got," she protested.
"Joanna, you have a good imagination right?" Jim asked her.
"Yeah," Joanna replied, puzzled.
"Well so does your Dad, as you were talking his mind was 'seeing' what happened to you. Like yours does when we tell you stories about stuff that's happened on the ship. But you are the most important person in the world to him so the idea of you hurt deliberately-," Jim trailed of and swallowed hard. "Right now all his training and everything he knows about medicine can only do just so much to really help make this better for you and it's tearing him up, 'cause he hates feeling helpless more than anything," he finished looking down at her.
"I think I understand, but he scared me a bit," Joanna said slowly thinking about his explanation.
"JoJo, let me guess he looked like he did this morning before he shut himself in the bathroom?" Jim asked chuckling slightly.
"Uh-huh only worse, but he wouldn't leave me," she said softly.
"He's what I've heard Nurse Chapel call a 'mother hen' where you're concerned right now. So he's not going to leave you with anyone unless he knows they'll do anything necessary to keep you safe. I think the only people he really trusts you with right now are the six of us from the ship, Mom and Adm. Pike. He acts the same way with me when any of us get hurt, me especially. Did you know that noise we heard outside after you got back was him out in the barn?" Joanna looked at him and shook her head.
"I went out to check on him, and he was still 'swearing a blue streak', as my Grandma Mary used to say," Jim told her making her smile a bit.
"But what was all the bangin' 'bout?" she asked puzzled.
"He was throwing those old cans around; he dented most of them pretty bad. When he heard me he turned and threw one at the door frame, without missing a syllable, so I left him to it. He's been shutting himself up and swearing like that as long as I've known him. The only times I've had a problem with it were the ones he locked me out of our dorm bathroom and I had to 'borrow' one from one of our neighbors at some ungodly hour of the morning cause he had a bad shift," Jim said only slightly exaggerating, and finally got a small giggle from her.
"JoJo, your Dad's well respected as a Doctor for what he did to save Adm. Pike's life and all the others he's saved since then. So even if someone tried something to make the judge mess up, like before, it would take a hell of a lot to make any Starfleet judge think badly enough of him to not let you stay with him," Jim said softly, looking at her as she relaxed against him and yawned.
"I hope so, Uncle Jim. I love you," Joanna murmured as she closed her eyes.
"I- I love you too Sweetheart," he whispered gently placing a kiss on her forehead. Jim sat for a while watching the stars, and thinking about everything that had led him here, back to Iowa sitting in the grass holding his best friend's sleeping daughter. A small part of him was thinking about holding his own child someday the way he held Joanna. But Jim dismissed that as the pipe dream he felt it was, pushing it aside, as he carefully stood and carried her back to the house and to bed.