Fic: Those Who Loved Her First
Title: Those Who Loved Her First
Author: sunriseinspace
Character(s): Jaimie Kirk / Leonard McCoy, Sam Kirk / Aurelan Kirk, Peter Kirk, George Kirk (/ Winona Kirk)
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I own nothing about Star Trek (2009), its plotlines or characters, including any recognizable dialogue.
Summary: Prompt fill for the Jim and Bones buckleup_meme: "Would love to see a multi-generational Kirk genderswap AU where Winona's the one who died on the Kelvin and a bereft George raised his daughter(s - depending on how you feel about Sam) in Iowa. Specifically, girl!Kirk bringing Bones (still male, please) home to meet her father." ( here)
A/N: I'm thinkin' Yvonne Strahovski as Jaimie Kirk, uh, Josh Lucas as Sam Kirk, Jennifer Love Hewitt as Aurelan Kirk, and Robert Pine as George Kirk (heehee!).
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"Bones, you promised," Jaimie reminds him as they pull into the driveway.
Leonard glances over at her, surprised to see the white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel - she was the one who'd begged and pleaded him to come meet her dad. She'd been so giddy after they got back to Earth, such a change from the remorse and anger immediately following their escape from Nero's dying ship, that he'd have agreed to just about anything, just to see her keep smiling like that. A spur-of-the-moment wedding had been easy to decide on, easy to pull off, and easy to enjoy. Her insistence that they visit Riverside and he meet her dad before shipping off for their mission, not so much.
"That I did, darlin'," he sighs, reaching over to pry one of her hands off the steering wheel, lacing his fingers with hers, taking as much comfort from the touch as he knows she does.
The 'car rounds the last curve in the driveway and the cornfields part to reveal an old farmhouse, white paint faded and worn, but still well-kept. Comfortable. A family home. With her daddy standin' on the front porch.
Shit.
.:::.
"So, how'd you and Jaimie meet?" Jaimie's brother, Sam, asks as they take their places around the large dining room table. It's a tight fit, what with Sam and his wife Aurelan also come to visit, as well as their two small children. Leonard glances up from the napkin he's spreading across his lap to see the keen stares directed his way and feels heat rise in his face.
"Oh, uh, we, uh-"
"He threatened to throw up on me," Jaimie supplies, blue eyes bright with mischief and amusement when he turns to glare at her. Sam snorts and Aurelan brings a hand to her mouth, no doubt covering a smile.
"Eww," Peter chimes in from where he's settled between his parents. Jaimie chuckles and nods at him.
"Yep, he was real mad, too," she continues, leaning across Leonard to see Peter better, voice sly and quiet, in full story-telling mode. "Talkin' 'bout 'disease and danger wrapped in darkness and silence.'" Peter giggles, scrunching up his nose, the sounds of his baby-laughter releasing some of the tension knotted in Leonard's stomach.
Jaimie reaches for his hand, entwining their fingers briefly before reaching for the bowl of mashed potatoes, serving herself and Leonard before passing it on to her father. George Kirk takes it with a fond smile, the laugh-lines around his blue eyes - Jaimie's blue eyes - deepening. Conversation moves off of Jaimie and Leonard's relationship while everyone serves themselves, focusing instead on local news and the latest developments in Sam and Aurelan's research. Leonard finds himself enjoying the conversation, well able to keep up with both biologists as they discuss alien organisms and habitats, including the new colony on Deneva. Occasionally, Jaimie chimes in with a political observation or something about the Federation's plans to mine the asteroid belt, but she seems content to just sit back and watch him interact with her family, a soft smile on her face.
Toward the end of the meal, Aurelan pushes out of her chair and walks around the table to take her youngest from her father-in-law. Leonard recognizes the sad, half-longing look in George's eyes, has seen it occasionally on Jaimie's birthday, when she wasn't quite drunk enough to be anything but introspective. It's also the same look Leonard's own daddy wore occasionally and Leonard knows that, while George loves his granddaughter, it's a different Winona he wishes was at his side.
"Leonard, you have to tell me, how'd you convince Jaimie to marry you?" Sam asks after his wife's left the room, surreptitious glances over his shoulder telling Leonard that Aurelan probably wouldn't approve of her husband's question. "I mean, this is the girl that swore she'd never marry anyone, even punched out Carl Marcus when he asked her after high school. How'd you do it?" Shrewd blue eyes flick between Leonard and Jaimie while Jaimie bites a knuckle to keep from laughing at her brother and Leonard feels his eyebrow making a break for his hairline. "She's not pregnant, is she?"
Aurelan walks back in just as Leonard inhales sharply at the question, choking on his drink. Laughing, Jaimie beats on his back while Aurelan runs for a glass of water, swatting at her husband as she passes. Sam's hugging his sides, laughing at Leonard's reaction, though he ducks to avoid his wife as she comes back to the table. Eyes watering, Leonard finally manages to draw a clear breath, waving Jaimie off as she jokingly asks if he needs the Heimlich. George just watches in quiet amusement, though his eyes are dark with some unknown emotion.
"No," Leonard declares hoarsely, coughing again afterward. "No, she asked me. I had nothin' better t'do at the time so I said yes."
"It was all very romantic," Jaimie assures the table at large and everyone laughs.
.:::.
After dinner, Leonard helps Sam and Aurelan clean the kitchen, drying dishes while Aurelan washes and Sam puts them away. Leonard discovers that Sam and Jaimie share a sense of humor and that Aurelan may be sweet as good Southern iced tea, but she's got a razor sharp tongue and a mind to match. They laugh their way through the dishes, Aurelan flinging soap water at her husband and Sam flicking her with Leonard's dishtowel, all while Leonard leans back against the counter and watches, seeing the same ease with which he and Jaimie get along.
Dishes done, Aurelan and Sam head for the back porch and some alone-time, and Leonard wanders through the house, looking for Jaimie. He passes through the dining room, trailing his hand along chairbacks as he goes, smiling at the occasional picture on the walls. In the décor and furniture, he can see some of Jaimie's tendencies toward the old-fashioned, what with the paper photographs, leather-bound books, and antique converted gas-lamps filling her childhood home. He doesn't see what may have made her the hellion she was when they first met, but he figures that it isn't always the home or the family that determine personality; she and Sam may be obvious siblings in looks and temperament, but Iowa could never be enough for Jaimie and Leonard suspects that it might be more than plenty for Sam, so long as he has Aurelan.
Leonard's a little lost but content to just drift from room to room, slowly figuring out the layout of the rambling old farmhouse again. All the bedrooms are upstairs, he knows, leaving only the kitchen, dining room, family room, and George's study downstairs, with sizeable hallways in between. And pictures line the walls, spanning several generations of Kirks, though Leonard's most drawn to those of the more recent. There's no discernable timeline in use and he smiles when he sees yellowing pictures of people only recognizable by the Kirk-blue eyes hung immediately next to Sam's high school graduation photo. He pauses at that one, hungrily studying the image of Jaimie, age 15. She's tiny in the picture, blonde hair lighter around her rounded cheeks, laughing in open, honest amusement from her piggy-back perch on her brother's back, his mortarboard on her head. Smiling and shaking his head, Leonard moves on, hearing voices from another room that he recognizes as George and Jaimie's.
Peter's on the floor in front of the vidscreen, engrossed in some children's show Leonard only barely recognizes from the Pediatrics wing at Starfleet Medical, while Jaimie and her dad sit on the couch, heads close in quiet conversation. Leonard leans against the doorway and watches them, seeing the sadness lessen in George's eyes as Jaimie laughs softly at something he said. It's a comfortable sort of picture, something that warms the soul and puts a smile on one's face, the easy companionship and love shared between father and daughter. Whatever problems Jaimie may have had through her childhood, it's obvious that none of them were family-related.
Jaimie makes room for him on the couch when he goes over to join them, snuggling into his embrace the same as she would back in their apartment, and he can't help but smile as he presses a kiss to the crown of her head.
"Have fun with Sam and Aurelan?" she asks, looking up at him from where her head's pressed against his shoulder.
"Yeah. They sure are somethin'," he replies with a nod and she grins up at him.
"Kirk women are always fire-crackers, Bones, even when they're adopted in. We're a lively bunch, if you've noticed," she quips and George chuckles at her comment.
"In that, you are correct, Jaimie," he says, gesturing over his shoulder to the large picture hanging on the mantel. It's George and Winona on their wedding day, George in his dress uniform and Winona resplendent in a flowing white wedding gown, both beaming at the camera. George glances fondly up at the image before turning back to them. "That," he points at the photo again, "was about the only time I saw your mother in a dress. She never wore anything she couldn't get greasy in. I can't tell you how many of my shirts she filched and returned with grease stains from clambering around the Engineering Bay, even when she was pregnant with you and Sam." He falls silent, blue eyes dark with old pain that Leonard well remembers from his father's eyes.
They all turn to stare at the playpen set up in the corner, where dark-headed Winona Kirk sleeps soundly. From what Leonard saw earlier, she had her mama's dark hair and her daddy's light eyes, making for a truly beautiful baby, though she would likely grow up to look nothing like the grandmamma she would never know. Leonard hugs Jaimie tighter, feels her take a shuddering breath before melting back against him, and wishes he could know exactly what was in Jaimie's head right then.
"You two will be good for each other," George says and Leonard turns to look back at him. He's watching them with a knowing smile, something like the way Pike tends to look at Jaimie, and Leonard can't help but wonder how much of his past George sees in him and Jaimie. "You balance each other out and ground each other, I think, just the way Win and I did. You'll do good together," he decides firmly, slapping his hands on his thighs and levering himself off the couch. "Now, I think it's time for old men and little boys to get to bed," he growls, scooping up his giggling grandson and flying the kid through the room, making old-fashioned plane noises as he swoops and dives the little boy.
"Aaaahh! Aunt Jaimie!" Peter squeals, reaching out with flailing arms for his aunt and Jaimie bounces off the couch to pull him into her arms, planting loud kisses on his cheeks as he continues to giggle. She swings him around, blonde hair flying, and as she glances up, Leonard's throat closes up at the sight of her flushed cheeks and sparkling eyes, not to mention the blonde-haired, blue-eyed boy in her arms. There's something insanely appealing in the image and he clears his throat and stands, coming over to help her tickle her nephew, delighting in the laughter it draws from both Jaimie and Peter. George carefully picks up Winona and, together, they all make their way upstairs to settle the kids into their proper beds.
.:::.
"So," Jaimie asks later, sprawled out across his chest in her childhood bed, "glad you came to visit?"
He looks down at where she's lying, chin propped on her folded hands, staring up at him with blue eyes luminous in the moonlight shining through the window. He's never seen her quite so relaxed or happy and if braving her family is all it took, he has no regrets. Not even with the way her brother continued to tease, despite his wife's admonishing glances and reproving swats. The Kirks are a fine bunch of people, though if asked he will swear he got the best one.
He leans up to kiss her, watching as her eyes flutter shut. "Yeah, I am."