7 Weeks Later
Jamie
"Hmm, what are you doing, Captain?" Chris kissing a path along her spine awakened Jamie.
"I am trying to wake you up, Doc," he said, planting kiss on her neck and one behind her ear, "I think, it's working."
Jamie smiled, "You're askin' for trouble, sweetheart." She could feel his desire for her pressed against her thigh.
"So, that's what the T is for. Jamison Trouble Kirk, suits you," Chris replied with a chuckle as he continued to kiss and caress her body. This is what she gets for sleeping naked, he was driving her crazy.
Jamie made a move to roll over so she could see him, but he wouldn't let her. Instead, Chris gently grabbed her hips and pulled her up on her knees. Jamie couldn't control the shiver that rolled though her body as he entered her. She whispered his name as he pulled back and pushed in again. Jamie could feel the tension building inside of her as he pushed her closer and closer to the edge with slow measured thrusts. She lost herself to the feel of him moving inside her. It felt like fire was dancing along her skin when Chris whispered her name against her back. He increased his pace; his hands were holding her hips, almost painfully.
"Ch-Chris," it came out a stutter. He pulled away and maneuvered them both so that she was on top of him.
Jamie opened her mouth to protest but the words died on her tongue when she looked at him. In his eyes was something so primal and raw; he was losing control of himself. Jamie would bet that this has never happened to him before. Chris was not a man who lost control; it's what makes him a good officer and a good leader. Her heart flipped in her chest at the realization that she was the cause. His gray eyes locked with her blue as she slid onto him; Chris let her set the rhythm. Every thought was pushed from her mind as she focused on the feel of him, she couldn't even remember her name.
His hands moved from her hips to her hair, pulling her down for a kiss. She increased speed as her tongue moved with his. Jamie pulled back to look Chris in the eyes, it was enough to make her come apart; he continued his movements, harder and faster pulling another orgasm from her on the heels of the last one. Her name was on his lips as he joined her fall over the edge.
Jamie collapsed on his chest, "Please tell me that's my new alarm." When Chris didn't respond, she looked at him. "You ok?"
"Sorry, lost myself for a second there, J. Never…" he trailed off.
"Hey," she kissed his neck, "It's ok, I think I like it when you lose control." She was rewarded with a chuckle.
"That so?" he asked.
"Yea, and as much as I want to spend all day in bed proving it to you, you have work to do, Captain. We'll be back on earth tonight; we can lose control when we get home."
Chris
"Captain, we have received our berth from Starbase One and have been cleared to dock," the communications officer notified him.
"Thank you, lieutenant. Helm, take us in." Chris was ready for this tour to end. It wasn't a long trip, just annoying. He thought it was funny that he spent three years on a research ship but the second he's back on a cruiser they get a research mission. He knew that part of the reason behind it was the assessment that Jamie and her team made on the warp system but the point of a ship like the Yorktown wasn't to play taxi for a team of scientists, especially when they couldn't get along for more than five minutes.
Chris was a person of action and judging by her actions on the Hernandez, so was Jamie. He had always known she could handle herself but to watch her problem solve, execute a mission, and shoot somebody to protect him was something he never thought he'd see. When Loh asked her about it a few days later, she simply shrugged, "wasn't the first time." One and Loh were surprised, Shran was impressed –Andorians and their violence- and Boyce understanding. Chris wasn't surprised, he thought back to the things she told him about Tarsus; the men she killed to protect her children, the 'missions' she went on in order to feed them and the torture she endured to keep their location from Kodos. Chris was considering having a long conversation with Jamie about joining the fleet.
"Do you have a minute, sir?" Chris looked at his first officer and nodded.
"Lieutenant Randolph, take the con," he ordered. One followed Chris as they entered his ready room. When the door closed, he spoke, "What do you need, Commander?"
"I wanted to apologize. I know you told me that Kirk was the one who deserved the apology but I feel that I owe you one as well. I not only questioned your actions as my captain but I questioned your morals as a person. I know you that you wouldn't put anything before your crew, I let my jealousy get the best of me and I was out of line. I just wanted to say that I'm sorry."
Chris looked at the woman before him, he knew that she and Jamie had come to a truce of some kind but he never considered that she felt the need to apologize to him, too. He read her the riot act but he didn't give her an opportunity to apologize, if it wasn't about the ship he stayed away from her.
"I accept your apology, One." He noticed that she seemed to be relieved. She looked at him like she had something else to say, "Go ahead."
"What's Kirk's next assignment, if you don't mind my asking?" Chris regarded her for a second, unsure of why she would want to know. Seeing that she seemed to just be curious, he told her.
"She'll be at HQ for the next month and then she and Loh are going with the Lovell for two months. Why do you ask?"
"Curiosity. I'm guessing she hasn't considered the fleet, although, given her parentage, it would be hard to get anyone to see past her name. She would make a good officer." One had just put voice to his own thoughts. She continued, "I know someone who's in engineering on the Lovell. He was one of my students at the academy and he's as brilliant as Kirk is. I can give her his contact info and give him a heads up. That way she and Loh will have someone on the ship who isn't a complete stranger. Least I can do after all the trouble I caused her." Chris will admit he was shocked but not surprised. He knew she had a heart, once she got over the fact that he's taken.
"I think she'd appreciate it. Thank you, One. I guess we should get back out there." The she nodded and followed the captain back to the bridge.
Charlie
"Hobelia!" Charlie couldn't help but smile as Jamie launched herself at his wife. He watched on as Hobelia wrapped his arms around the girl.
"Hey, sweetie. Welcome back, did you have fun?"
Jamie smiled, "Yea. I'll have to tell you about it later." The two women released each other and Jamie turned to hug him, "Hey, old man." Charlie chuckled at Jamie's adoption of Chris' nickname for him.
"Hey, kiddo. How was it?"
"Amazing," she told him with a smile.
"Not that I don't love you, but where's Chris? We haven't seen him yet." Jamie turned her head towards the shuttles that were still landing.
"His shuttle is last, I came down my buddies from engineering. That should be him." She nodded towards the last shuttle to dock. Soon enough, the senior staff of the Yorktown disembarked. Chris walked toward the small group and pulled his step-mom into a hug first.
"Hi, Hobelia. Missed ya," his son whispered.
"I missed you too, welcome home. honey." Chris moved to from his step-mom hugged his dad.
"Hey, old man."
"Welcome back, son. How was it?" Charlie noticed a look pass between Chris and Jamie.
Chris chuckled, "Other than the mess on the Hernandez, a jealous first officer and a group of scientists who wouldn't stop fighting, it was good." Charlie looked at Chris, who had taken Jamie's hand, there was something on his mind and the older man was going to find out what it was.
"Well, where to kids? Home?" Charlie asked.
"Actually," Jamie spoke up, "I'd like to stop by the Kelvin Memorial first, if that's okay with you guys."
Charlie smiled a sad smile, "The Kelvin Memorial it is."
Jamie
"Oh my God!" Jamie was sitting on the floor in what was technically her room –not that she sleeps in it anymore- looking through the two footlockers that contained her mother's belongings. Charlie must have just come into the condo because a second later he walked into the room
"You okay, kiddo?"
"My mother was keeping track of me, look." Jamie handed Charlie the PADD that she had just decrypted, it had information about her from the time she got back to earth on the Aldrin all the way to her working on the Yorktown. In the file there were her grades from Berkeley, copies of her doctoral dissertations and her thesis on pre-Surak Vulcan, the formula for the 'indestructible' grain that she and Tommy created a few years ago, holo-images of Jamie over the last five years taken mostly at Berkeley or on Starfleet property, there was some stuff about Cody, and even some classified intelligence about her role in ending the catastrophe on Tarsus. There was a locked file that Charlie couldn't open, from the look of it, it was locked with a voice key.
"What do you think it is?" he asked as he handed the PADD back to her, Jamie sat the holo-image she found of her, Sam and grandpa James on her desk and took a look.
"It's locked, voice key might take me a while to hack since I don't know who it's coded to. Bet it's something simple like 'George'." As she said her dad's name, the file opened, "I'll be damned." She skimmed the file it was a letter addressed to her. She glanced at Charlie, "Should I… Should I read it? She never sent it to me but…" Charlie understood what she was trying to ask.
"It was meant for you, read it. I'll be in the other room. Chris is on his way home, I'll keep him in there unless you call for us, okay?" She couldn't speak, so she nodded, Charlie placed a hand on her shoulder and left the room.
Jamison,
I don't know if I'll ever send this to you but I figured that you were overdue for an apology. I am so very sorry that I wasn't a better mother or a stronger person. I know that the only thing I've ever done for you was leave. I was such a mess after your father died that I didn't know what to do with myself, the only thing that made sense to me was work. As soon as the fleet let me go back into the black, I did.
You and Sam were with dad so I figured that you would both be okay, and you were. At least, you were until I married Frank. I guess you're old enough to know that I didn't really love him, lusted after him, sure, but never love. I can admit that I didn't think it through when I married him and I didn't know him well enough to leave you kids with him. I just figured that since he was fleet that you would at least be safe, I was such an idiot.
After I found out about what he did to Sam and to you, I thought I should just stay away; I didn't want to do any more damage to you. I thought letting Marie and Jeff take you with them was for the best. You would get to know Cody and see part of the universe. It was good for you, at least until the governor lost his shit. When I heard about what happened, I felt like I failed you and in a way I failed George too. I was also proud, my daughter saved so many people, I couldn't talk about it because all the info for everyone under sixteen was classified, but I was still proud.
I've been keeping up with the things you've been doing, all the work you've been doing in engineering, especially. You got your PhD's and you design and upgrade warp systems, just like I wanted to do before I married George.
I saw pictures of you with Cody at Berkeley, he looks so much like his dad, and you look so much like yours. Despite all the bad things that have happened to you kids, it brought a smile to my face and tears to my eyes to see you both smiling. That's a trait you got from George, he used to smile no matter what, even when he was terrified.
I don't know how this message will find you, I hope that if I'm still around maybe we can talk. I haven't seen you in almost ten years so I don't think I have the right to call myself your mother but maybe we can try to be friends. I just wanted to tell you that I'm sorry, I'm proud of you and, even though I didn't show it, I love you more than anything.
Winona
Jamie was stunned. She got up from the edge of her bed and walked into the living room, Charlie and Chris both looked up at her. She sat down next to Chris and handed him the PADD, "She loved me."
Cody
"Working hard or hardly working, cuz?" Cody looked up from the PADD he was reading.
"Pre-law isn't light reading. 'Sides, can't all be geniuses like you, Jimmy." Cody was the only person alive who could get away with calling her that, the other person had been Sam. Cody watched as his cousin sat down in the booth across from him. He liked this diner, it reminded him of his mother. When he told Jamie that, she smiled, "Yea, it feels like somewhere she'd be." Jamie ordered an iced tea and looked at him.
"I went through my mother's stuff the other day." When Jamie had comm'ed him from the Yorktown with the news, he wanted to be indifferent but the more he thought about it, the more he realized that if Aunt Winnie had never sent Jamie with his parents they would all be dead. Even though he was older then her, she was smarter and because of Frank, she was tougher, too. "She was keeping track of us." Jamie relayed all the information she found on a PADD in Winona's belongings.
"Wow, she said that?" Jamie just nodded, Cody couldn't believe it, he just thought his aunt was being a bitch when she gave Jamie to his mom. To realize that she just didn't want to hurt her more then she already had made him sad. "It sucks that you never got a chance to really talk to her."
Jamie chuckled, "Tell me something I don't know."
"I'm engaged." The look on Jamie's face was priceless.
"To Zane? Since when?" she asked.
"Yes, to Zane. I asked him last week and he accepted. I didn't want to tell you over the comm." Jamie reached across the table and grabbed his hand.
"That is awesome, Cody. So the big day is when and where?" she asked.
"Two weeks from now, in Texas. I know it's short notice but I hope you can come, Chris too."
Jamie smiled at her older cousin, "I wouldn't miss it, I doubt Chris would either. I always knew you two would end up together." Zane was her study partner at Berkeley. They got really bored one night and decided to go out with some friends, she invited Cody along. The two men met and the rest was history.
"Us," Cody let out a laugh, "I'm waiting for Chris to ask for your hand, or for you to tell me that you're getting married or for you to tell me you got hitched. I mean, you and Chris have been in love with each other since forever and a day ago. I can't wait to see your kids."
"Can you really see me as a mom?" Cody had never seen the look of terror and doubt that crossed her face. From the minute Kodos started killing people, Jamie had taken care of them, even him. He bet she even knew where all the kids had been sent after they returned to earth. After watching Jamie with them, especially Kevin, anyone with eyes could see that she was going to be an amazing mom.
"Jamie, you're already are a mom. At least, at heart. Remember what you told me about Misses Riley when she handed you Kevin. You said you didn't know why she trusted you to keep him safe, I do. You take care of people, you always have. After what Frank did, you still tried to help Sam. And on T4, you protected a bunch of kids that weren't even related to you. You love each and every one them, too. I have no doubt that when the time comes, your children are going to be the luckiest kids in the universe."