Thank you to everyone who read or reviewed the last chapter a good three months ago. Also thank you to Unforgiven1290 for being the beta on this chapter. I really was planning on doing one more update before the new film came out but I became preoccupied with finishing Starfleet Family Values before May 17 (which didn't happen). In doing that, all other stories fell to the wayside. But now that I only need to write one more chapter for that story, I decided to work on my other stuff and begin new stories.

Spoiler alert: The remaining A/N will contain spoilers for the new film as well as my plans for upcoming stories including this one.

Now that I have seen the new film, I can tell you that this will not be a complete rewrite of Into Darkness. (I will be doing a rewrite of that movie but probably not until it hits DVD.) I thought long and hard about it and I decided that certain events in the first story made it impossible for certain things to unfold exactly how they did in STID. First of all, this story takes place about 28 months after the events of STID. I strongly believe a Spock that willingly changed the Kobayashi Maru would not send in a by the book report, especially if it meant he would be throwing his husband 'under the bus'.

Also, I am not sure Spock would be as suicidal with all the therapy and psychiatric drugs he is on. In this universe, Spock has already had his flipping out moment and is more well-adjusted. (For those of you who have forgotten, Marshall refers to Spock's other personality.) He also has his bond mate to ground him emotionally. Then there is of course the fact that his father's death will affect him differently than his mother's death.

The other thing is the Kobayashi Maru trial incident in the YDHTBMBF universe made a lot of people cognitive of corruption in Starfleet. The fallout triggered a massive investigation. I honestly don't see how Admiral Marcus could have survived the great purging of the admiralty or get away with his special project. This chapter will explain how some things are different.

Of course, the more things change, the more they stay the same and I will be incorporating elements from the new film in to TTAL. Any elements that occurred before the dividing point, which will be when Spock became Carol's TA in a class, may have some influence on what's happening. One thing I will say is I'm not using Khan as my main villain in this because considering some of the angry things I've read on message boards the character is viewed as sacred and I'm not touching him. I'm going to go with something original-ish but do expect some interesting parallelisms.

There will be some spoilers from the new film in the story such as Christine and Carol being friends but it will be mixed up with a lot of crazy stuff from my imagination. Also, there's a little bit of an inconsistency with how Spock met Carol compared to what was in Unmistakably T'hy'la. I had to change it to make it fit better. Go with the new interpretation.

Also, a little reminder in the YDHTBMB universe Jim dated Christine a couple of times before realizing that if he slept with her and did not call the next day Bones would kill him. Of course, Christine was going to remember things a little differently.

This chapter was inspired by To Zion by by Lauryn Hill

Lyric excerpt: Woe, this crazy circumstance
I knew his life deserved a chance
But everybody told me to be smart
Look at your career they said
"Lauryn, baby use your head"
But instead I chose to use my heart

Chapter 6: Every Story has Two Sides (The Truth Usually Exists Somewhere In Between)

Christine Chapel became very good at keeping her emotions in check over last the two years. No one was aware of her discomfort at serving under a man that she was slightly in love with who didn't feel the same way about her. She thought that there was something there when they went out a few times but she obviously missed all the signs that she was not his type at all. She was female and human. If he wasn't happily married she would be far away in the frontiers of space despite what her best friend made her promise. The fact that he was in love with someone else made it tolerable in a weird way.

She was there because Carol asked her to be aboard Enterprise in case the worst happened and the worst did happen. Carol was dead and it was now her job to make good on her promise to make sure David had a happy life with his father and stepfather. (Of course, Christine was not completely sure how to do that yet.)

Because of her experiences with keeping her Kirk related emotions in check, she could keep her emotions to herself as she picked up the dead body of her closest friend. (They have been friends since Carol's final year at the Academy in San Francisco before she switched to her first love biology just to spite her father and transferred to the London campus.) She stayed as professional as possible despite the urge to cry. She stayed focus on her job of identifying the bodies and taking care of her dead friend's son.

Thankfully, David did not let anyone know that he recognized her from his mother's pictures, if nothing else. She did spend some time with Carol when David was firstborn, right before Carol convinced her to come to Enterprise just in case after Carol decided to accept the position as head of the research facility on the isolated planet. Although she doubted David would remember that, she made the little boy promise not to tell his new daddies anything. She would take care of that herself once things were calmer. Although, she doubted that was going to happen anytime soon.
Her commanding officer was going to kill her when he discovered that she knew his husband had a son and said nothing during her time on board. She was not sure if her reasons for doing so will lessen that anger. She kept quiet for David's safety because even though Alexander Marcus was no longer a member of the Starfleet Admiralty, due to his plans to start a war with the Klingons being discovered, he was still a formidable man. Formidable enough that he survived the incident with only losing his job and not prison time. She didn't want a sweet child like David being at his mercy. Carol made her promise to do everything possible to keep David from her father.

The fact that Carol had a child from her first love was a closely guarded secret that only she, Rebecca, and Carol's secret benefactor knew the details. The fact that Mr. Marcus was responsible for Carol and Spock's relationship falling apart was also a closely guarded secret. (Of course, Carol got him back in the end. It was his fault for believing she was still his perfect little girl after what he did to her.)

Christine literally had to bite her tongue as she was forced to listen to her Captain (and others) criticize Carol when he had no idea what she gave up and did not understand why she had no choice but to conceal David's identity. They had no idea what really happened. They thought that Carol didn't love Commander Spock, mostly because of the lie she told him when she was forced to end the relationship. They didn't know that Carol died thinking that the guy she was in love with didn't love her even though Christine tried to convince her otherwise. They didn't know that the whole story was practically a Shakespearean tragedy of star-crossed lovers and controlling fathers. However, Christine knew both sides of the story.

Carol started at the Academy at the age of 15 because of her father's position and her above normal intelligence. It was hard enough being the Admiral's daughter without your classmates realizing you're a 15-year-old physics major that can do quadratic equations mentally. She tried to act like every other freshman at the Academy and maybe she did some things (or people) that she should not have done including lying about her age and last name. During her second semester, she fell head over feet for her Vulcan TA in one of her physics classes. He wasn't even supposed to be there but the other TA, Mr. Johnson, was kicked out of the class for inappropriate behavior with one of the students. Mr. Spock was three years older than Carol but they were drawn to each other due to their mutual intelligence. They were friends first and eventually they became more than friends. Then there was a little science experiment that deactivated Carol's contraceptive shot. That's when everything fell apart.

But Commander Spock and Captain Kirk did not know that and it wasn't her place to tell either man. Carol may be dead but she will not betray her memory by breaking her promise.

Christine focused her energy on trying to find the person who murdered her friend. She volunteered to compare the DNA samples collected from those that died at the research facility to the crew manifest. Doctor McCoy didn't trust the computer to not screw this up. She was glad that she did because due to her friendship with Carol she had a greater understanding of what was going on in the colony. Within an hour, she knew that the not dead crew member was Erin Williams, a longtime friend of Carol's father, that she didn't trust at all. Despite her position, Carol could not get rid of the guy. He was a close associate of Admiral Jackson.

Also, because of her friendship with Carol, she knew that there should have been at least one more person on the colony. Carol mentioned her by name several times because she helped save David's life when the child stopped breathing once, (that was an over simplification of things, David was clinically dead for at least 10 minutes.) Unfortunately, she could only remember the woman's nickname of JJ, that came from her initials. If the name would have been on the manifest of personnel on planet Christine would've recognized it but she knew it wasn't there. No one had that particular combination of initials. The best thing to do would be to look through her old emails from Carol. She knew she would need to turn over some of the less personal ones for the investigation anyway. Of course, before she could look through her old messages she saw one on top of her email box from a woman who died nearly 48 hours earlier. Christine knew she needed to talk to her Captain now.

Jim doesn't know how they did it but somehow miracle of miracles they managed to get David to take a nap after finger paint therapy. Jim was looking forward to taking a nap himself, but nap time waits for no Captain, even when Nyota was the one in charge. Unfortunately, Nurse, or was it Doctor, Chapel showed up at his door. He can never remember if Christine has actually finished med school yet. Spock was going to yell at him later for forgetting things like that about crew members especially one that Bones made him go out with. He could instantly tell that she was distraught by her fidgeting.

"What brings you here?" He asked letting her into the room. "If it's anything work related, you probably should talk to Nyota right now."

"It is, but this is something you and Commander Spock need to know because it relates to the David situation." The woman said taking a deep breath. "Permission to speak freely, Sir?" She asked instantly slipping into the mode of the trained soldier that she was, almost as a defense mechanism.

"Permission granted." Jim said rolling his eyes, hating the formalities of Starfleet sometimes.

"I asked Dr. McCoy if I could help work on identifying the dead because Carol was a friend of mine and I wanted to help find out who killed her. I probably know the most about what's going on in that facility than most." Christine started.
"I doubt that." Jim mumbled under breath. He wanted to say a lot of other things along the lines of 'how can you be friends with a person like that' or ask her if she knew about David. However, after being a Starfleet Captain for over three years he's learned the importance of keeping your mouth shut in certain situations.

"The facility on the planet is really the relocated special and supposedly nonexistent research facility that was hidden beneath the Kelvin Memorial Archives until two years ago after parts of the project became public knowledge during the great Admiralty Purging. This was the section developing advanced weapons for Admiral Marcus's personal war. After Carol's father was kicked out for trying to incite war with the Klingons, allegedly." Of course, Christine said that allegedly in a way that made him sure that there was nothing alleged about it even if Jim did not already knew the sordid details.

"Admiral Jackson was given control of the projects that were not obviously in violation of the Federation charter. The facility was also moved to the rejected site for the Vulcan colony. Because nobody understood Admiral Marcus better than his daughter, Jackson asked her to relocate to the planet to head up the research project and allowed her to bring David with her." Jim felt a headache coming on because he just knew something bad was going on here.

The story of what happened to Admiral Marcus was legendary, even if the bastard just got a slap on the wrist for almost causing a interplanetary incident. The man was already slightly unbalanced after his wife, Commander Wallace-Marcus, was killed by Klingons during a mission. Then the destruction of Vulcan happened and the man just fucking lost it. Because of the man's paranoia, he allegedly did something that was so bad he lost his command because somebody had the good sense to report it. According to rumor, the man was trying to antagonize the Klingons in hopes of bringing tensions to a head and starting a war. For reasons unknown, he was planning on using Enterprise as the bait hoping to get everyone on board killed in the process, allegedly. Like Jim said, the man lost it or at least that was what Chris told him in regards to his former mentor.

Jim groaned when he realized that this man was his stepson's grandfather. Now he can understand why Carol turned out the way she did if she was raised by that guy. The guy almost made Frank seem like a nice person.

"Okay, you know more of what's going on than we do." Jim said rubbing his temples. Spock was standing beside him at that point.

"I don't know what they were working on though. Carol never told me anything except it was supposed to help people. She said it was safer if I didn't know," Christine explained.

"That was probably true," Jim mumbled under his breath.

"Why was she granted special permission to bring David with her?" Spock asked because he was kind of David centered at the moment. Jim knew Spock really wanted to ask 'why did she bring David with her?' or possibly 'why the fuck did you not tell me I had a kid in the first place?' Of course, his husband wouldn't say that out loud. He was being all super Stoic Vulcan right now. Any Carol related conversation usually did that.

"David was really sick when he was a baby and she couldn't bear to be away from him. The doctors said it was a side effect of being born premature and the embryo freezing process." Christine said covering her mouth after realizing she said way too much. "Shit, I wasn't supposed to tell you that." Spock was displaying the Vulcan equivalent of falling down shock with two eyebrows raised as high as possible. Jim was not surprised because Spock was just essentially told that he accidentally got Carol pregnant when they were sleeping together and she put the baby on ice for reasons unknown.

"Considering that Carol is now dead, I think we need to know. Obviously, David is better now. Actually, he's really doing great for a half Vulcan kid, that is supposed to be a quarter Vulcan kid, if he really was created the old-fashioned way." Jim said snidely.

"I concur with my husband. I have a right to know if during the course of our relationship I impregnated Dr. Marcus." Spock said the name as coldly as possible, even using her title for the sake of emotional distance. Jim quickly grabbed Spock's hand. He knew his husband needed his support more than anything else at this moment.

"Yes, you got her pregnant due to a lab mishap that deactivated her birth control. Because her father was a high-ranking Admiral, the doctors at Starfleet medical disregarded doctor-patient confidentiality and told him everything. Admiral Marcus was not happy that his little girl managed to get pregnant by the wayward son of a Vulcan ambassador. Let's just say both men tried to convince her that termination was the best option. Actually, your father told her that you were engaged to a Vulcan Princess and were merely using her to study human sexual behavior. He also told her that you would not want to have anything to do with a child created outside the sanctity of a traditional bond." Okay, Spock was beyond angry and he completely believed what Carol told Christine because he knew his dad would say something like that. He knew that Spock's relationship with Sarek was complicated but he didn't think it was this bad. What he was experiencing through the link was overwhelming.

"My engagement was terminated at that point and my father had no right to say such things to her." Spock spat out in the iciest tone he has ever heard from his husband. It was frigid. "He most likely told her these things to encourage her to terminate." Of course over the link he heard Spock wondering if Carol broke up with him as harshly as she did because of what his father said to her. Jim wouldn't blame her. Apparently, Spock didn't either because his Carol hatred was starting to subside.

"Fuck! Not to speak ill of the dead but your father was a real piece of work." James mumbled under breath before he decided that maybe it was not good to mention anything regarding his father. It was already a very sore subject for Spock and he really did not want to deal with 'Marshall' right now. "I should not have said that. There's no point of us being angry, your father is not around to give his side of the story and obviously she decided to take a different path because David is here." He said wrapping an arm around his husband, not caring that Chapel was in the room. "I don't know why your fathers made such a big deal out of it. She was over 18 anyway and it was her life. It wasn't like they could force her into doing anything." He has learned enough about being diplomatic in the last couple of years to leave off 'although, apparently, emotional blackmail was on the table.' Despite that, he still noticed Chapel biting her lip.
"Why do I have a feeling you are not telling us something?" Jim asked with a sigh.

"Actually, this all happened a month before her 17th birthday and Admiral Marcus used you to convince her to do what he wanted." She said turning to Spock. "If she stayed pregnant he was going to kick you out of Starfleet and have you arrested for statutory. He was going to make sure that your diplomatic immunity from being the child of a ambassador would be useless." Considering the rumors that he has heard about the Admiral, Jim was not that surprised. Everything else was a little shocking. He knew that Spock wasn't as straight lace as everybody assumed (their sex toy collection was testament to that) but Jim didn't expect his husband to screw the underage (even if Spock wasn't quite 20 himself at the time, if Jim was doing the math right).

"I am sure that would be my father's doing. Sarek was quite displeased with me at that time due to the termination of my engagement." Spock said darkly.

"You got the underage daughter of an Admiral pregnant?" Jim asked still in shock.

"Apparently," Spock remarked dryly.

"More importantly, you impregnated the underage daughter of the Admiral that, according to rumor, tried to use Enterprise and everyone on board as Klingon bait to start his personal war. Actually, Admiral Marcus wanting you dead makes perfect sense now. Shit, Spock! You're supposed to be the responsible one. Me getting an underage cadet pregnant, I understand. But you're supposed to be the good one in this marriage." Jim said raising his arms in the air.

"I was unaware that she was under the age of consent by Earth standards during the course of our sexual relationship. I was only 19.8 years of age when our relationship ended." Considering the Vulcan curse words that Jim was hearing over the bond, he knew that was true. Spock believed that Carol was only a year younger than him not three. Now Spock was mad at her again.

"He wouldn't have been. She lied about her age because being a 15-year-old super genius is difficult. She even used her mom's last name for most of her time at the Academy to keep people from figuring out she was the Admiral's daughter. She told me that Spock was one of the few people who knew her real last name." Christine explained and he understood because he did a lot of dumb stuff too at that age and he hated being viewed as George Kirk's son. Also, considering how much he was in love with Spock, Jim personally would not care about the age of consent either.

"Let's just stop talking about the age thing. It doesn't matter anymore. Obviously, she didn't go through with it and Spock was not arrested, so what happened?" James asked trying to keep this conversation on task. He would like to know how this all relates to the current investigation before David wakes up from nap time.

"Carol knew she couldn't carry the baby to term so she lied to her father about terminating her pregnancy and had the embryo frozen instead. She did this despite believing everything Spock's father said." Jim decided it was best to not ask how a 16-year-old could afford to do that procedure behind her father's back. It was not important right now. "She instantly loved David before he was even born because he was a part of you. Carol still loved you but she hated you as well…" Chapel said looking directly at Spock as she tried not to cry. It was obvious that the woman was having trouble processing her friend's murder.

"Therefore she had Rebecca convince me that she was doing to me exactly what my father said I was doing to her," Spock said out loud.

"Essentially, yes," Chapel said with a sigh.

"Okay, how does this all relate to how Carol and everyone else on that planet died?" Jim asked because at this point he was confused and overwhelmed.

"It's all connected in the end. After Vulcan happened, Carol decided that it was the right time to have David or more like she felt she had to do her part. She told her father that she went through invitro because she wanted to have a child with her girlfriend. She was working in London during her pregnancy at the 'Kelvin Archive' and her father told her too much including he was trying to use Enterprise to start his own war. That was the final straw and she told on him." Jim was sure there was more to this story but he was afraid to ask.

"Everyone knows about what happened next," Jim started. "Thanks to the great nepotism of Starfleet and the fact that they couldn't exactly prove everything Marcus got a slap on the wrist because his lawyer blamed the whole thing on him going crazy after his wife died. Basically, he just lost his job and spent a year in mental health rehab. The man is now working for some private tech firm making 10 times the money." Jim said bitterly.

"It could have been a lot worse if Carol said nothing. The whole situation was too much for her and she went into labor three months early. David spent a week in neonatal intensive care." As Chapel said this Jim could feel worry and concern coming from Spock. "The doctors were not sure if David was going to make it, despite all the advancements in technology. Jackson promised her that the research they were working on would help children like David. Carol was desperate and was willing to do anything for David, even sell her soul to somebody like Jackson. Rebecca just went along for the ride," Chapel explained.

Jim was not sure how true this story was. He doesn't know a lot about Carol's character in this dimension or any other for that matter. There must have been something about her that made his other self almost married the woman. Maybe, she wasn't the devil. She did die for David. They say the greatest way to show love was to give one's life. It was obvious that Carol did love David.

"When David was four months old, I got an email from Carol telling me that David stopped breathing in the middle of the night. Actually, she believed that David was dead. They were not able to revive him until Dr. JJ injected the infant with some new drug they were working on. Not only does David survive but he's healthier than ever. I sent a copy of that email to both you and Commander Spock." It felt like she wasn't saying something and Jim was sure it had something to do with his stepson's DNA.

"He's also now 50% Vulcan." Jim said snidely. Internally, Jim was thinking about what type of drug brings a baby back from the dead and changes him at the genetic level. Spock was thinking the same thing.

"I do not remember a Dr. JJ listed among those who were on planet. I assume that is not the doctor's real name." Jim's response was to growl at Spock's words.

"You weren't supposed to be reading that. For once, I'm trying to avoid the appearance of impropriety. You can't touch this investigation. I shouldn't even touch it. You are going to need to repeat the non-personal parts of this conversation to Acting Captain Nyota." Jim said as he quickly sent a message to Nyota telling her to get here as quickly as possible because he knew the situation was bad. He also had a feeling they were going to have to call Pike because something very strange was going on and Jim was sure that this was the rumored Section 31 at work.

"That was Carol's nickname for Dr. Jane Jackson. I looked at the list of crew twice and that name wasn't on there.

In her last email three days ago, Carol mentioned that JJ was still there." As Doctor Chapel said this she passed a PADD to Spock. "I guess I shouldn't say last email because I received another message 20 minutes ago from my best friend containing her last will and testament in the event of her untimely demise." Christine said bitterly as she showed the message to Spock.

Jim on the other hand was trying to remember why the name sounded so familiar. Jackson was a common last name. The Admiral that despised him had the last name Jackson. He was married to some scientist name Jane. That's when Jim realized why Jackson did not want him looking too closely at what was going on. Considering the look Spock was giving him his husband obviously pieced it together as well.

"Shit,"

To be continued.
I was originally planning to get back to Chris and Winona in this chapter but the plot needed to be moved forward. I really would like to avoid a 200,000 word plus story if at all possible.

Note about updates: On Wednesday night, my computer died and until I get it back from the repair shop, I am using my old computer with voice recognition software that is dreadful. There for regular updates will not resume until maybe the end of the month.