(no subject)
Title: The Hazards of Love
Rating: PG-13
Characters: James Kirk, Winona Kirk, Sam Kirk, Frank
Pairing: Winona Kirk/Frank, I suppose.
Summary: Five times Winona Kirk tried to be a good parent and failed, and the one time she made up for it.
Warning: Mentions of child abuse.
The Hazards of Love
One.
While she was pregnant, she had read all the literature on raising children that she could find. Every book she read about infants insisted that breast-feeding was far superior to formula-feeding. Not only was it important for the infant to develop a healthy immune system, but it also encouraged bonding between mother and child.
It would be so easy for Winona to turn her back on this child. If not for him, she would have died on the USS Kelvin, at her husband’s side.
But she tries to look at it logically - James was a part of George, as much as Sam was, and she knew he had done nothing to deserve her animosity.
She sat in the old rocker - the one she had nursed Sam in while George looked on - and began to nurse her son.
After three days of non-stop crying, she took him to the pediatrician.
“He’s just not getting the nutrients from you that he needs,” he told her. “It might be all the stress your body has been under. You’ll have to start feeding him formula.”
She cries the entire way home, certain that she will never be able to bond with her youngest son.
Two.
When Jim is three years old, and Sam is seven, Winona meets Frank Gibbs at the research facility where she has been working part-time. He is a delivery-man, has never been off-planet, and she thinks he will make a wonderful father for her boys. He will provide some sense of stability, she is sure of it.
They have been dating for just three months when he proposes, and they are married six weeks later.
When she notices bruises on Jim’s arm a few weeks later, she scolds Sam for being too rough with his little brother.
Three.
She is trying to finish a project that she has been working on for the better half of a year. She wanted to leave by three, though, to see the last game of the season. Jim had been begging her for months to watch him play, showing her the different tricks he could do with the soccer ball, and relaying every single goal he made.
She glances at the clock and realizes it’s five-thirty. She breaks the speed limit trying to get there on time, but when she arrives it’s to an empty field.
Jim is sitting on the bleachers, his eyes red and wet.
Four.
When Sam tells her that Frank has been beating them for years, she is shocked. She cannot imagine Frank hitting anyone, much less a child. He has always been so gentle and attentive.
She corners Frank that night and demands to know what the hell is going on.
“I made a mistake,” he admits, softly.
“What did you do?” she screams, disgusted that she has left her children with this man for the past four years.
“All I did was slap him - I swear. He called you a bitch, and I wasn’t thinking, and I hit him. But it didn’t even leave a mark, Winona, you know I would never do that! I was just so frustrated with him, it’s been one thing after another.”
She is about to call him a liar, to demand that he pack up and leave, but she has a nagging feeling that he is telling the truth. Sam has been getting in trouble constantly, and she has received more than a few phone calls from teachers concerning his behavior and his tendency to lie.
She looks Frank in the eye. “If I find out you did anything more than that, so help me God, I will kill you.”
When she asks Jim about it later that night, he insists that it isn’t true. She does not notice Frank standing in the doorway.
Five.
She is off-planet when she gets a call from the Starfleet Hospital in Iowa.
Her youngest son has just been admitted with multiple contusions, broken bones, and a minor head injury.
It takes her forty-eight earth hours to get permission for emergency leave, and another twelve hours to make it back to Iowa.
When she arrives at the hospital, she is met by a social worker. It is unlikely that her son’s injuries were caused by his jump from a moving vehicle.
Her head is spinning. Why was Jim jumping out of a moving vehicle? Where was Frank? Why hadn’t he been keeping an eye on him?
But then the implications of the social worker’s comment cause her mind to go blank for a moment.
“Did my husband - Frank - did Frank come in here with him?” She asks anxiously.
“No, he was brought in by a neighbor. Police were sent to your residence, but they were unable to locate anyone on the property, which is why you were called.”
“What about Sam? Have you been able to find him?”
“No, m’am. As I said, there was no one on the property and you are the first relative to arrive here.” The social worker does not look particularly sympathetic, but she does allow Winona to spend some time with her youngest boy while she files her report with the police.
Winona sits by Jim’s bed, gently stroking his bruised face, but he refuses to look at her.
And the one time that made up for it all...
When Jim returns from the incident with Nero and the Narada, she is the first person to greet him when he steps off the ship.
She holds him and cries and tells her how proud she is of him, and he lets her.
He will never admit it, but hearing her words of praise mean more to him than the captaincy he is awarded a few days later.
Rating: PG-13
Characters: James Kirk, Winona Kirk, Sam Kirk, Frank
Pairing: Winona Kirk/Frank, I suppose.
Summary: Five times Winona Kirk tried to be a good parent and failed, and the one time she made up for it.
Warning: Mentions of child abuse.
The Hazards of Love
One.
While she was pregnant, she had read all the literature on raising children that she could find. Every book she read about infants insisted that breast-feeding was far superior to formula-feeding. Not only was it important for the infant to develop a healthy immune system, but it also encouraged bonding between mother and child.
It would be so easy for Winona to turn her back on this child. If not for him, she would have died on the USS Kelvin, at her husband’s side.
But she tries to look at it logically - James was a part of George, as much as Sam was, and she knew he had done nothing to deserve her animosity.
She sat in the old rocker - the one she had nursed Sam in while George looked on - and began to nurse her son.
After three days of non-stop crying, she took him to the pediatrician.
“He’s just not getting the nutrients from you that he needs,” he told her. “It might be all the stress your body has been under. You’ll have to start feeding him formula.”
She cries the entire way home, certain that she will never be able to bond with her youngest son.
Two.
When Jim is three years old, and Sam is seven, Winona meets Frank Gibbs at the research facility where she has been working part-time. He is a delivery-man, has never been off-planet, and she thinks he will make a wonderful father for her boys. He will provide some sense of stability, she is sure of it.
They have been dating for just three months when he proposes, and they are married six weeks later.
When she notices bruises on Jim’s arm a few weeks later, she scolds Sam for being too rough with his little brother.
Three.
She is trying to finish a project that she has been working on for the better half of a year. She wanted to leave by three, though, to see the last game of the season. Jim had been begging her for months to watch him play, showing her the different tricks he could do with the soccer ball, and relaying every single goal he made.
She glances at the clock and realizes it’s five-thirty. She breaks the speed limit trying to get there on time, but when she arrives it’s to an empty field.
Jim is sitting on the bleachers, his eyes red and wet.
Four.
When Sam tells her that Frank has been beating them for years, she is shocked. She cannot imagine Frank hitting anyone, much less a child. He has always been so gentle and attentive.
She corners Frank that night and demands to know what the hell is going on.
“I made a mistake,” he admits, softly.
“What did you do?” she screams, disgusted that she has left her children with this man for the past four years.
“All I did was slap him - I swear. He called you a bitch, and I wasn’t thinking, and I hit him. But it didn’t even leave a mark, Winona, you know I would never do that! I was just so frustrated with him, it’s been one thing after another.”
She is about to call him a liar, to demand that he pack up and leave, but she has a nagging feeling that he is telling the truth. Sam has been getting in trouble constantly, and she has received more than a few phone calls from teachers concerning his behavior and his tendency to lie.
She looks Frank in the eye. “If I find out you did anything more than that, so help me God, I will kill you.”
When she asks Jim about it later that night, he insists that it isn’t true. She does not notice Frank standing in the doorway.
Five.
She is off-planet when she gets a call from the Starfleet Hospital in Iowa.
Her youngest son has just been admitted with multiple contusions, broken bones, and a minor head injury.
It takes her forty-eight earth hours to get permission for emergency leave, and another twelve hours to make it back to Iowa.
When she arrives at the hospital, she is met by a social worker. It is unlikely that her son’s injuries were caused by his jump from a moving vehicle.
Her head is spinning. Why was Jim jumping out of a moving vehicle? Where was Frank? Why hadn’t he been keeping an eye on him?
But then the implications of the social worker’s comment cause her mind to go blank for a moment.
“Did my husband - Frank - did Frank come in here with him?” She asks anxiously.
“No, he was brought in by a neighbor. Police were sent to your residence, but they were unable to locate anyone on the property, which is why you were called.”
“What about Sam? Have you been able to find him?”
“No, m’am. As I said, there was no one on the property and you are the first relative to arrive here.” The social worker does not look particularly sympathetic, but she does allow Winona to spend some time with her youngest boy while she files her report with the police.
Winona sits by Jim’s bed, gently stroking his bruised face, but he refuses to look at her.
And the one time that made up for it all...
When Jim returns from the incident with Nero and the Narada, she is the first person to greet him when he steps off the ship.
She holds him and cries and tells her how proud she is of him, and he lets her.
He will never admit it, but hearing her words of praise mean more to him than the captaincy he is awarded a few days later.