"You want me to decide?" Bones asked her. Jamie nodded. She came up with a couple options about their children and she wanted Bones to pick. As far as Jamie was concerned, there were only two ways to go; she stays with the kids in one place or they come along for the adventure.
"I refuse to be my mother. We're gonna be gone for five years, I just can't… I won't put them through that. I was already thinking about this before the baby because I hate that we're away from Joanna. You have to pick because I'm stuck," she told him.
He looked at her and chuckled, "No, you aren't. You know good and damn well that you couldn't stay in one place for too long."
She shrugged, "This is different. I never had a reason to stay in one place. Taking care of our children is a damn good reason. I could take a planet-side posting like going back to Iowa and working on ships or teaching at the academy or something."
Bones took a breath, "From the Hero of the Federation to shipyard worker, ha! Aside from Frank, Sam and the boys, nobody is gonna like that… not even you. The other option is to take them with us?" She nodded, families on ships wasn't unheard of; research and survey ships were already doing it for their longer tours. Their mission was one of exploration and diplomacy, if she gave the okay, some of the crew would bring their families along. "We both know what you're gonna do, Jim."
She nodded, "I'll tell Archer."
Because she was banned from helping to repair the ship by Bones, Spock, Scotty and everyone else, Jamie worked with Archer. She was tasked with leading the Starfleet Command/Internal Affairs/Starfleet Intelligence Task Force that was investigating all of Marcus' activities. She asked Archer if there was someone better suited to the job but he shook his head and told her that he preferred someone he actually trusts to run the investigation. Trip would help however he could, mostly by giving her access to encrypted data and helping her small team weed through intel.
"It's not the only ship," she told her friend. Jamie was reading over the report from the Io Facility. There were four other ships from the dreadnought-class. "They have cloaking, advanced torpedo launchers, powerful phaser arrays, the ability to transport through shields, a highly automated operations system that was enhanced so one person could command the whole ship with voice commands. This is insane. Think of all the things that we could've avoided on the Enterprise with some of this stuff." She forwarded all the technical data to Scotty and told him to go crazy with the legal enhancements.
"Malcolm talked to Marcus today, he wants to see to you," Trip told her. Jamie just nodded, she wasn't thrilled by the idea of being in the same room as him, not while she was six months pregnant. "I won't let anything happen to you, J.T."
She chuckled at him, "Am I that easy to read?"
Trip shook his head, "Nope. I just know you. You value life more than anything and usually, you can put yourself between others and danger but right now, you can't. It makes you antsy, not being able to jump in without thinking about it."
Jamie chuckled, "Pike calls it 'leaping without looking'."
Trip smiled, "That's a very apt description of your attitude towards danger. I think he'll be there too." Jamie rolled her eyes and agreed to go.
Jamie sat between Trip and Pike in the interrogation room. Usually, Reed was the person that interacted with Marcus but the man obviously had something to say. He walked in the room with his armed escort and sat down across from Jamie. No one said anything for the first few minutes, he stared at them and they stared back.
"If this is what you brought us here for, we can go," Trip said to Marcus.
"I asked to see her, not you. How far along are you?" the -former- admiral was looking at Jamie.
She took a breath, "Almost seven months."
He nodded, "I remember when Jane was pregnant with Carol, she was worried about everything. I doubt that's the case with you since you're married to a doctor. Or maybe it's worse since McCoy used to work with sick kids before he joined up. Children are interesting. Take mine for example, she won't come to see me."
She looked at him, "You tried to kill her. What did you expect her to do? Come to you with open arms and tell you that it was okay? You should feel lucky that I even showed up." He huffed, she had a point. The hardest part of all this –aside from Trip almost dying- was watching Carol. The younger Marcus was helping Jamie's team figure everything out about all the stuff they gathered but Carol looked like she was ready to break down at any moment. It was a feeling that Jamie knew all too well; knowing that your parent –Jamie's mother and Carol's father- didn't value your life. Jamie and Scotty were both keeping an eye on her.
"I guess I deserved that. How is she?" he asked with genuine concern.
"She's dealing with the fact that you tried to kill her and all of us to start a war," Pike told him.
Marcus looked at Jamie, "And you?"
She raised an eyebrow, "I'm fine."
He smiled, "No woman ever means it when they say that they're fine."
Jamie shrugged, "I do. I didn't come here to be social, Marcus. I have things to do."
He chuckled, "Right, tearing down everything I built. You think that will help? You think that war with the Klingons isn't on the horizon? You can't be that naïve."
She smiled, "I'm not, just because you think I'm an idiot doesn't actually make me one. I don't know what the future holds any more than you do. What I do know is that you sent my ship, my crew, my family out there to get slaughtered. Our job is dangerous enough but an admiral ordering us up as sacrificial lambs to the Klingons isn't part of the job. The crazy thing is that I agree with you, I think war with the Klingons is coming and we aren't even close to being prepared but where we differ is that I'm trying to help the whole Federation while you hid all your intel behind the Section 31 banner and left the rest of us to fend for ourselves. The problem is not that you believe that a war is coming, it's how you tried to start that war. Deception and deceit and murder. Do you not realize what you did? You killed almost four-hundred Starfleet officers. You almost killed your daughter, your little girl who grew wanting to be like you. I'm not the naïve one here, you are. If you honestly thought that this was the way for us to win, then you're crazy too." Jamie was calm, calmer than she usually was but she's had months to think about what she would say to him if she had the chance. He wasn't going to get under her skin, she had more important things to worry about.
Marcus took in what she said and after a minute he smiled, "I may have underestimated you, Kirk."
She chuckled, "Most people do, it's my best weapon."
He smirked, "I could've used someone like you."
Trip jumped in, "Over my dead body."
Marcus looked at him, "I would hope not. You do good work even though the Federation thinks you died a hundred years ago. The marvels of modern medicine."
Marcus looked at her, "I know she hates me but would you tell my daughter that I love her. I won't apologize for what I did but, in a way, I'm glad that I didn't succeed. War is coming, with someone like you to lead it, we might have a chance."