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“You little shit,” the man muttered to the prone figure in the bed. The machine’s breathing noises mingling with the rest of the noises indicating life that the body still held. “You ain’t takin’ what’s mine,” he never noticed the nurse’s startled look before she backed out of the room, and headed for the Nurse’s Station and Security.
“You see, Jimmy, you’ve been a thorn in my side most of your life. You drove your father’s car off a cliff when I wanted to sell it. You had the temerity to survive Tarsus IV, and now, when I’m this close to benefitting from your death, you’re alive. Well, I’m going to make sure that that ends here and now,” the man reached for the machine against the wall, only to find himself making best friend’s with the floor as darkness rose up to greet him.
Frank awoke in another room in the hospital with four humans and a Vulcan staring at him. He lurched upright as he realized that all were looking at him with relative hostility, “Frank, how did you find out where Jim is?” the man in white asked.
“Some Starfleet Officer told me,” he answered. “Said I should establish my rights as his father,” he sneered as he recognized one of the other men, “Hello Tiberius, I thought you were dead.”
“You’re not his father, Frank,” Tiberius snarled at him. “What makes you think you have any power over him?”
“This,” he said, thrusting a document at them. A Starfleet Officer in grey took the document, leaning on the cane he held in the other hand. “It names me next of kin.”
The other men hovered around the paper muttering to each other, “Well, it does name you next of kin of nine year old James.” The older man looked at Frank with pity, “It’s even signed. Although, the courts won’t allow something signed by a nine year old.”
“Admiral,” the Vulcan said. “This is not legal,” he pointed to something at the end of the document.”
“Screw you!” Frank screamed at him. “Of course it’s legal, I’m not letting some damn alien take away what belongs to me…”
“Excuse me sir, but his name is James Tiberius Kirk, is it not?” the Vulcan asked.
Frank was taken aback, “Yes.”
“This was signed by ‘James Thomas Riker’, and even if it was signed by Kirk, he was a minor and unable to sign anything that was legal,” the Vulcan continued.
Frank flew at the door before another human intervened, “Besides,” the grey suited Admiral addressed him. “As Jim’s husband, I’m his next of kin. I would receive all of the benefits before you did, but, he willed them to his brother, Sam, before he left on the Enterprise on his first mission. If Sam were dead, they would go to a little girl named Joanna. You, sir, will not benefit from his death.” At this point the Zurich police arrived to take him away. “Attempted murder of a Starfleet Officer is a serious offense, sir, you’ll have a long time to think about it.
Tiberius settled into a chair next to Jim’s bed, just looking at the frail form lying there, “Is he going to be alright?” he asked.
Bones sighed, “I don’t know, I hope so.” Bones smiled, “He always talked about you fondly, Tiberius. He said you gave him and Sam candy.”
“Yeah, until his mother married Frank,” Tiberius sighed and looked at Chris, “You be good to my boy, hear me? Married or not, you’ll be hearing from me if you mistreat him.”
Chris walked over and touched Tiberius’ shoulder, “Of course I will, I’m not Frank.”
They all stared as one of Jim’s hands drifted over and touched his grandfather’s. It was almost as if Jim were saying ‘Back off, Grandpa, he’s mine’. Tiberius chuckled as did Chris and Bones.
“Good thing Sarek was here,” Bones said.
“Yeah, could’ve been much worse,” Chris said as they watched Jim breathe.
“Hang in there, Jim,” Tiberius whispered. “We won’t let Frank do this again. We love you too much.”