Antique Locket, Chapter 4
Title: Antique Locket
Author: narknon
Fandom: ST XI
Word Count: ~1440
Characters/Pairings:Winona Kirk, K/U, past S/U, G/W, OFC/OMC
Rating: PG-13 for lang.
Warnings: Het, probable tense shifts
Summary: It's a long road this time, but the Kirk locket is always part of the journey to love
Original Prompt: At Between Love and Duty
Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek. In writing this, I mean no harm to the owners of Star Trek.
The box for Nyota arrives about a week after her conversation with Mrs. Kirk. Normally, it would have taken months to reach them out in the far reaches of the beta quadrant, but Mrs. Kirk has ways of making sure things get done and this box is important. Important to her, important to the Kirk family, and hopefully, important to Nyota.
Nyota leaves the box on a table in her quarters, unopened, for a week before she gets up the gumption to open it. Meanwhile, she and Jim are so-maturely ignoring the situation.
When she does, she is astonished. Books - honest-to-God paper and leather and printed words books, letters, trinkets, holovid chips; it’s a mishmash of things that she finds dates back to 1942. She can’t quite bring herself to watch the most recent holovids - those she’s sure are of Winnie and George - so she opens the oldest letter.
June 17th, 1942
Dearest Miranda Sue,
I don’t know how to say this to you, so I’ll just say it. I love you. I know graduation is just days away and that I’ll be reporting for training with the Navy in a few weeks. I know that we’re young, that we aren’t even going steady, just dating. But I love you, and I want to marry you someday. Don’t tell anyone, though. I’d never be able to bear it if you told all your friends I was mooning over you and wasn’t I a fool because you were going to marry that Champ Miller down the way.
I love your smile, the way you look at me when we’re sharing a shake at the malt shop, and the way you snuggle up close to me when we’re at the drive-in. It makes my day when you seen me across the quad and wave like crazy so I’ll see you - you should know I always notice you right away, whether you see me and wave or not.
Miranda Sue, darling, will you be mine? Will you wait for me while I serve our country?
Love,
Blake T. Kirk
The next letter is dated about a month later.
July 22nd, 1942
My Dearest Miranda Sue,
It’s almost last post and I’m exhausted. Boot Camp is challenging. I thought I was in good condition before I left Iowa, but darling, you should see me now. I’m taking to being a sailor like a duck to water. I’ve passed all the basic tests so far, and I think I’m going to do well enough to track either aviation or special ops. Can’t you just see me piloting a Navy bomber? My grandpa was so disappointed that I went Navy instead of Army, but I’m so glad I did. I think the Navy fits me. I miss you and Iowa something fierce, though.
I was so happy to get your letter last week. I read the part about your cousin Sissy to the boys here, and they couldn’t believe it. I just told them that was how Sissy is. When I come home on leave, we’ll take her to the malt shop with us. When I come home on leave. Those words. Darling, I can’t wait to see you again, to kiss you, to hold you. We’ll go for a walk at sunset and watch the stars come out. And after, maybe we’ll stop for ice cream.
Well, darling, it’s curfew, so I’ll end this as always - I love you.
With all my heart,
Blake T. Kirk
Nyota’s smiling at the two letters, happy at the thought that Blake and Miranda had been such adorable sweethearts. So she looks at the next letter, and the next, until she reaches one of the only two letters from Miranda to Blake.
December 26th, 1942
Dearest Blake
Darling, thank you so much for the locket! I’m wearing it now, and I’ll wear it until you come home safe. I am so scared for you. The news we get here in Iowa about the War is giving me nightmares. Last week, I dreamed that your Mama came over because she’d gotten one of those telegrams. I woke up shaking, darling. I wished so hard that you were there to hold me or that at least we were already married so I would have something solid that could reassure me. The locket will help, I think.
I wish you were home for Christmas. It just isn’t the same without you. The church had midnight services and I visited with your family and mine, but seeing the church all decorated for Christmas and hearing the choir just made me wish you were home. It’s not as beautiful without you to share it with me. And there was no Christmas kisses and no caroling for me this year. I didn’t want to go without you, not when I was fair certain Champ Miller would be there. He’s nice, but he’s not you.
Darling, I hope we win the War soon. I know it hasn’t even been a year since it started, but I think of you and all the young men with you and all the girls like me, and how everything is so different than it was. I remember when we were little and how times were hard and I know they say things will be better soon and we’ll win the War. I’ve been helping my mama and your mama and the aunties with the church collection effort. I’m sure your mama has written you all about it, and asked you if there’s anything your shipmates need or especially want, but if you think of anything while you’re writing me, I’ll pass it on to her, too.
Well, I’ve got to go or this won’t make the post today. I love you ever so much, darling. I’m praying for you and for the Enterprise and for our country. I hope you are home safe, soon.
Love forever, always and beyond,
Miranda Sue Johnston
P.S. I can’t wait until I can sign my letters to you with your name
So the locket had been a keep-safe gift, something for Miranda to hold on to when she couldn’t hold on to Blake. Nyota picked up the locket and looked at it again, carefully. She wondered just how many women and men had held this locket and the promise it represented. And then she thought about the Captain. Jim.
Why had he given her the locket? Given their history, given their whole…relationship, if you could call it that, it didn’t make sense. He was a ridiculous flirt, with her and any and every passably attractive humanoid - and often non-humanoid - female he came into contact with. He had tried for years to get her to give him her first name when he could have hacked the system and found it at any time. When he had found out her first name, he hadn’t said much, and he’d never addressed her by it afterwards. She’d seen his antics, his actions, his commitment to ship and crew, all first hand and when she’d been in a scrape, he’d been there just as he had for anyone else on the ship. She’d thought his concern for her had been that of a friend, of a Captain, of an over-sexed teenager in a man’s body. But now, especially with the box, the letters between Miranda and Blake she’d read so far, the books of love poems, the old novels, the holovid chips, the little trinkets that so clearly delineated a history of not just love, but of deep affection and commitment and hope and passion between generations of couples, she was confused.
The realization that maybe Jim - because how could she call the man willing to give her something of this importance anything less personal? - felt the same way about her that Blake had felt about Miranda was no less than earth-shaking. Lust for her, well, Jim lusted after her from first sight, but the idea that lust was merely part of it….well.
And he had given her the locket even though he thought she was with Spock. There had to be more. Somewhere in the box Mrs. Kirk had given her, somewhere in the past and somewhere in Jim there had to be a stronger reason. Family heirlooms didn’t just pass into random hands and they didn’t get given out of the family without a damned good reason. Nyota’s sculptures were almost all heirlooms and they’d been handed down with stories and love and she knew she’d never give them to anyone outside of her family.
Suddenly, she needed some air, some exercise, something to clear her head.
Author: narknon
Fandom: ST XI
Word Count: ~1440
Characters/Pairings:Winona Kirk, K/U, past S/U, G/W, OFC/OMC
Rating: PG-13 for lang.
Warnings: Het, probable tense shifts
Summary: It's a long road this time, but the Kirk locket is always part of the journey to love
Original Prompt: At Between Love and Duty
Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek. In writing this, I mean no harm to the owners of Star Trek.
The box for Nyota arrives about a week after her conversation with Mrs. Kirk. Normally, it would have taken months to reach them out in the far reaches of the beta quadrant, but Mrs. Kirk has ways of making sure things get done and this box is important. Important to her, important to the Kirk family, and hopefully, important to Nyota.
Nyota leaves the box on a table in her quarters, unopened, for a week before she gets up the gumption to open it. Meanwhile, she and Jim are so-maturely ignoring the situation.
When she does, she is astonished. Books - honest-to-God paper and leather and printed words books, letters, trinkets, holovid chips; it’s a mishmash of things that she finds dates back to 1942. She can’t quite bring herself to watch the most recent holovids - those she’s sure are of Winnie and George - so she opens the oldest letter.
June 17th, 1942
Dearest Miranda Sue,
I don’t know how to say this to you, so I’ll just say it. I love you. I know graduation is just days away and that I’ll be reporting for training with the Navy in a few weeks. I know that we’re young, that we aren’t even going steady, just dating. But I love you, and I want to marry you someday. Don’t tell anyone, though. I’d never be able to bear it if you told all your friends I was mooning over you and wasn’t I a fool because you were going to marry that Champ Miller down the way.
I love your smile, the way you look at me when we’re sharing a shake at the malt shop, and the way you snuggle up close to me when we’re at the drive-in. It makes my day when you seen me across the quad and wave like crazy so I’ll see you - you should know I always notice you right away, whether you see me and wave or not.
Miranda Sue, darling, will you be mine? Will you wait for me while I serve our country?
Love,
Blake T. Kirk
The next letter is dated about a month later.
July 22nd, 1942
My Dearest Miranda Sue,
It’s almost last post and I’m exhausted. Boot Camp is challenging. I thought I was in good condition before I left Iowa, but darling, you should see me now. I’m taking to being a sailor like a duck to water. I’ve passed all the basic tests so far, and I think I’m going to do well enough to track either aviation or special ops. Can’t you just see me piloting a Navy bomber? My grandpa was so disappointed that I went Navy instead of Army, but I’m so glad I did. I think the Navy fits me. I miss you and Iowa something fierce, though.
I was so happy to get your letter last week. I read the part about your cousin Sissy to the boys here, and they couldn’t believe it. I just told them that was how Sissy is. When I come home on leave, we’ll take her to the malt shop with us. When I come home on leave. Those words. Darling, I can’t wait to see you again, to kiss you, to hold you. We’ll go for a walk at sunset and watch the stars come out. And after, maybe we’ll stop for ice cream.
Well, darling, it’s curfew, so I’ll end this as always - I love you.
With all my heart,
Blake T. Kirk
Nyota’s smiling at the two letters, happy at the thought that Blake and Miranda had been such adorable sweethearts. So she looks at the next letter, and the next, until she reaches one of the only two letters from Miranda to Blake.
December 26th, 1942
Dearest Blake
Darling, thank you so much for the locket! I’m wearing it now, and I’ll wear it until you come home safe. I am so scared for you. The news we get here in Iowa about the War is giving me nightmares. Last week, I dreamed that your Mama came over because she’d gotten one of those telegrams. I woke up shaking, darling. I wished so hard that you were there to hold me or that at least we were already married so I would have something solid that could reassure me. The locket will help, I think.
I wish you were home for Christmas. It just isn’t the same without you. The church had midnight services and I visited with your family and mine, but seeing the church all decorated for Christmas and hearing the choir just made me wish you were home. It’s not as beautiful without you to share it with me. And there was no Christmas kisses and no caroling for me this year. I didn’t want to go without you, not when I was fair certain Champ Miller would be there. He’s nice, but he’s not you.
Darling, I hope we win the War soon. I know it hasn’t even been a year since it started, but I think of you and all the young men with you and all the girls like me, and how everything is so different than it was. I remember when we were little and how times were hard and I know they say things will be better soon and we’ll win the War. I’ve been helping my mama and your mama and the aunties with the church collection effort. I’m sure your mama has written you all about it, and asked you if there’s anything your shipmates need or especially want, but if you think of anything while you’re writing me, I’ll pass it on to her, too.
Well, I’ve got to go or this won’t make the post today. I love you ever so much, darling. I’m praying for you and for the Enterprise and for our country. I hope you are home safe, soon.
Love forever, always and beyond,
Miranda Sue Johnston
P.S. I can’t wait until I can sign my letters to you with your name
So the locket had been a keep-safe gift, something for Miranda to hold on to when she couldn’t hold on to Blake. Nyota picked up the locket and looked at it again, carefully. She wondered just how many women and men had held this locket and the promise it represented. And then she thought about the Captain. Jim.
Why had he given her the locket? Given their history, given their whole…relationship, if you could call it that, it didn’t make sense. He was a ridiculous flirt, with her and any and every passably attractive humanoid - and often non-humanoid - female he came into contact with. He had tried for years to get her to give him her first name when he could have hacked the system and found it at any time. When he had found out her first name, he hadn’t said much, and he’d never addressed her by it afterwards. She’d seen his antics, his actions, his commitment to ship and crew, all first hand and when she’d been in a scrape, he’d been there just as he had for anyone else on the ship. She’d thought his concern for her had been that of a friend, of a Captain, of an over-sexed teenager in a man’s body. But now, especially with the box, the letters between Miranda and Blake she’d read so far, the books of love poems, the old novels, the holovid chips, the little trinkets that so clearly delineated a history of not just love, but of deep affection and commitment and hope and passion between generations of couples, she was confused.
The realization that maybe Jim - because how could she call the man willing to give her something of this importance anything less personal? - felt the same way about her that Blake had felt about Miranda was no less than earth-shaking. Lust for her, well, Jim lusted after her from first sight, but the idea that lust was merely part of it….well.
And he had given her the locket even though he thought she was with Spock. There had to be more. Somewhere in the box Mrs. Kirk had given her, somewhere in the past and somewhere in Jim there had to be a stronger reason. Family heirlooms didn’t just pass into random hands and they didn’t get given out of the family without a damned good reason. Nyota’s sculptures were almost all heirlooms and they’d been handed down with stories and love and she knew she’d never give them to anyone outside of her family.
Suddenly, she needed some air, some exercise, something to clear her head.