Fic: Five Dreams That Sort-Of Came True (And One That Definitely Didn't)
Title: Five Dreams That Sort-Of Came True (And One That Definitely Didn't)
Author: denorios
Rating: G
Pairing: A little bit of Pike/Number One
Summary: Er, does exactly what it says in the title?
Author's Notes: I don't write anything for weeks and then I write two fics in a day. I have tried for years to successfully write one of these '5 Things' fic and this one came spilling out in a flood in the middle of the night when I was trying to sleep. Go figure.
I.
Christopher Pike ran away when he was eleven years old. It was no spur-of-the-moment decision; he had planned it carefully for weeks. He took his father's best horse and rode out into the desert in the middle of the night. The ranch was twelve miles from Mojave City; once there he planned to barter the horse for passage on a shuttle.
He was picked up by the highway patrol half a mile from the city limits. He could smell the water in the air, the fresh scent of the carefully-controlled parkland. He was so close. When the patrol officer asked him where he was planning on going, he thrust his chin in the air, balled his small hands into fists and announced, "I'm going to join Starfleet." The patrol officer laughed.
II.
George Kirk was three years ahead of him at the Academy. Everyone knew George would make captain in record time - he was top of his class, intelligent, brave, friendly. It was impossible not to like him, especially when he took a scrawny kid from Mojave under his wing. Chris wouldn't quite have called it hero-worship, but it came close. George Kirk was like every Starfleet officer Chris had dreamed about and the big brother he'd always wanted.
"When I'm captain," George would say, "you can be my first officer."
"When I'm captain," Chris retorted, "you can be mine," and George just laughed.
He always knew legends would be written about George Kirk. He didn't expect them to be posthumous.
But there were times when Jim turned his head a particular way, when he rubbed the back of his neck, when he scrubbed his fingers through his hair, and especially when he laughed, there were times when Chris thought that maybe a part of George did come home after all.
III.
She existed in his mind for years before he got to touch her, before he got to walk her decks, trail his fingers along her bulkheads, sit in the chair on the bridge and look out through the viewscreen. The Enterprise, the fleet's flagship, the biggest, fastest, most advanced starship ever built, and she was his. Or perhaps he was hers.
She deserved fireworks and fanfare, speeches, a lap of honour around the solar system, news cameras. She deserved better. They both did. And yet, he thought, somehow they both survived. That was some consolation.
IV.
Chris never found time for children. Even if he'd found a woman he loved enough to want to settle down with, it was probably too late now.
But when he looked at Jim Kirk standing before him, eyes shining with youthful pride, tall and strong and so unbearably like his father, Chris thought that if he'd had a son he'd want him to be like Jim. For the first time in many years he envied George Kirk with a sudden vicious pang. To be the father of such a boy...
Later, Jim stood in front of him again, more subdued this time but still heartbreakingly young. "I never knew my father," Kirk said, "but if I had I'd like to think he was like you."
V.
He'd loved her for years, quietly, steadily, without even realising it. He'd convinced himself that the loss he felt was for his former ship, his crew, the stars, the excitement. He never realised it was her.
And then she stood in front of him, quiet and self-contained and alive and he saw it had always been her, that she'd always been standing in front of him, waiting for him to see.
"I wanted to walk you down the aisle," he said, and she laughed.
"It doesn't matter," Number One smiled and touched his hand. "I was never the marrying type."
VI.
He never walked again.
Author: denorios
Rating: G
Pairing: A little bit of Pike/Number One
Summary: Er, does exactly what it says in the title?
Author's Notes: I don't write anything for weeks and then I write two fics in a day. I have tried for years to successfully write one of these '5 Things' fic and this one came spilling out in a flood in the middle of the night when I was trying to sleep. Go figure.
I.
Christopher Pike ran away when he was eleven years old. It was no spur-of-the-moment decision; he had planned it carefully for weeks. He took his father's best horse and rode out into the desert in the middle of the night. The ranch was twelve miles from Mojave City; once there he planned to barter the horse for passage on a shuttle.
He was picked up by the highway patrol half a mile from the city limits. He could smell the water in the air, the fresh scent of the carefully-controlled parkland. He was so close. When the patrol officer asked him where he was planning on going, he thrust his chin in the air, balled his small hands into fists and announced, "I'm going to join Starfleet." The patrol officer laughed.
II.
George Kirk was three years ahead of him at the Academy. Everyone knew George would make captain in record time - he was top of his class, intelligent, brave, friendly. It was impossible not to like him, especially when he took a scrawny kid from Mojave under his wing. Chris wouldn't quite have called it hero-worship, but it came close. George Kirk was like every Starfleet officer Chris had dreamed about and the big brother he'd always wanted.
"When I'm captain," George would say, "you can be my first officer."
"When I'm captain," Chris retorted, "you can be mine," and George just laughed.
He always knew legends would be written about George Kirk. He didn't expect them to be posthumous.
But there were times when Jim turned his head a particular way, when he rubbed the back of his neck, when he scrubbed his fingers through his hair, and especially when he laughed, there were times when Chris thought that maybe a part of George did come home after all.
III.
She existed in his mind for years before he got to touch her, before he got to walk her decks, trail his fingers along her bulkheads, sit in the chair on the bridge and look out through the viewscreen. The Enterprise, the fleet's flagship, the biggest, fastest, most advanced starship ever built, and she was his. Or perhaps he was hers.
She deserved fireworks and fanfare, speeches, a lap of honour around the solar system, news cameras. She deserved better. They both did. And yet, he thought, somehow they both survived. That was some consolation.
IV.
Chris never found time for children. Even if he'd found a woman he loved enough to want to settle down with, it was probably too late now.
But when he looked at Jim Kirk standing before him, eyes shining with youthful pride, tall and strong and so unbearably like his father, Chris thought that if he'd had a son he'd want him to be like Jim. For the first time in many years he envied George Kirk with a sudden vicious pang. To be the father of such a boy...
Later, Jim stood in front of him again, more subdued this time but still heartbreakingly young. "I never knew my father," Kirk said, "but if I had I'd like to think he was like you."
V.
He'd loved her for years, quietly, steadily, without even realising it. He'd convinced himself that the loss he felt was for his former ship, his crew, the stars, the excitement. He never realised it was her.
And then she stood in front of him, quiet and self-contained and alive and he saw it had always been her, that she'd always been standing in front of him, waiting for him to see.
"I wanted to walk you down the aisle," he said, and she laughed.
"It doesn't matter," Number One smiled and touched his hand. "I was never the marrying type."
VI.
He never walked again.