Chapter Text
“Baby, you’re getting more of that ice cream on you than in you!”
Winona Kirk crouched down to inspect her soon to be four-year-old son, Jimmy, at his eye level. She grabbed several wipes from her bag and started dabbing at Jim’s chubby cheeks and sticky chin.
“I not baby!” Jim squeaked petulantly.
“George, would you please clean your brother’s hands for me?” Tired but pleased with today's successful holiday shopping, Winona looked up, winking at her first-born son, just turned eight in September.
It tugged at her heart how much more, with each passing year, George Samuel, Junior, favored his father. She hoped wherever heroes go at the end of their watch, her beloved husband could look down and see his handsome young namesake...see both of their amazing sons.
“Sure Mom, but then who’s going to hold my cone while I do?” George gave her a look, clearly teasing. One she was certain he had picked up from his Grandpa Kirk, whose favorite pastime was playfully pestering Grandma Kirk, who in turn usually grabbed the closest dish towel and snapped it at his behind.
Winona sighed. “Honey, just help Mom out here and throw your little brother’s cone away or we’ll never finish our shopping. We only have one more stop and it's both you boys' favorite place. I saved the best for last, remember? Just like we talked about.”
“But Sammy, I not through.” Jim’s chin quivered, fighting back the tears threatening his bright baby blue eyes, trying so hard to keep from crying in front of his brother.
Jim was the only one in the family who called him by his middle name, ever since ‘George’ had been too hard for him to say when he first began talking. But even now that they were older, Jim wouldn’t give it up. He idolized his older brother, who in Jimmy's eyes was his very own personal defender. And after all, every superhero deserved a special name.
“Jimmy, we can’t go into the store until you’re cleaned up," Winona explained. "They won’t even let us look at their pretty decorations. You do want to go in, don’t you, sweetie?”
“Aw right Mommy. Here Sammy.” Jim thrust his pudgy hand full of chocolate ice cream and what was left of a half-eaten, soggy cone toward his brother.
“There you go, buddy, and see? I’m throwing the rest of mine away, too.” Sam bent down and whispered in his little brother’s ear. “But don't worry. I promise I’ll buy you another one before we go home.”
With that, Sam straightened, fondly rustling Jim’s unruly blond hair with his clean hand, while groaning at the gooey mess oozing from the other. He quickly disappeared around the corner, searching for a recycling receptacle and facilities where he could wash up, Jim's eyes shining with pure hero worship.
The boys had been excited for weeks, ever since being told they’d have this special time with their mom while her ship was docked at Earth’s International Space Station Lambda, its crew dismissed for a month of shore leave. Happily for Lieutenant Commander Kirk, this coincided with the winter holidays, her sons’ favorite time of year, as it was always packed with surprises and happy secrets and love-filled homemade presents and goodies. Always lots of goodies! And an extra bonus for Winona, it also meant binging actual non-replicated seasonal coffees.
“James Tiberius, please stop fidgeting!” A few seconds more and Winona finally finished her task, her beautiful younger son passably clean enough to enter 'Holiday Dreamland', their final destination before beaming back down to their Riverside, Iowa, farm where the boys would have their mom all to themselves. Unless of course her 'icky' sometimes-boyfriend Frank, as George called him, butted in.
When George rejoined them, they approached the shop they only got to visit when their mom returned from deep space missions. As soon as the door slid open, it was like walking through a time portal to an old-fashioned magical winterscape, complete with happy music and snow and artificial trees wrapped in twinkle lights and every ornament and decoration imaginable, scattered throughout.
Ice cream already forgotten, Jimmy pulled from his mommy’s hand and grasped onto his brother’s. “Sammy, over here, over here!” George glanced back to his mom and she waved them away, smiling conspiratorially. All was going according to their plan.
As all little ones, Jim had wanted everything his eyes landed on since last Christmas. Even though the toys he’d already received last year in the spirit of ‘Santa’ were plentiful and well loved, Jimmy grew bigger and more mature every day, as did his little boy tastes. Games and sleds, stuffed animals and rolling toys he could ride to his heart’s content, drew his gaze as quickly as his little mind could process their purpose. And always the daredevil, quite a few of Jim’s wants were a bit beyond his abilities still.
George was Winona’s clever young confidant, updating her throughout the year any time he heard Jim point out something that seemed extra special to him. The boys’ mom kept notes shared through holo-conferences and messages when she was off exploring space, especially since Jimmy's birthday was also coming up soon—only ten days after Christmas.
The commander contacted her sons faithfully every week when in range of a Federation subspace comm relay, as they lived with their paternal grandparents while she was off planet. And of course, she made sure if they needed her they could contact her directly, emergency or not.
Her position as astrophysics department chair provided her with a bit more leeway to reallocate duties amongst her team as necessary if the boys needed more talk time with her immediately; especially since all of Starfleet knew her husband, George, Senior, temporary captain of the Kelvin, had sacrificed his own life to save as many crew members as possible; including his own wife who, in the middle of the crisis and evacuations, had gone directly into hard labor almost three months prematurely, giving birth to their tiny new son during her husband's final moments of life.
The son her precious husband never got to see, but did get to name and briefly hear Jim's healthy first cries and sweet, soft noises before being wrenched away from them forever as he rammed the Kelvin into the terrorist Nero's ship.
“Wow, Sammy! Look at this one!” Jim flitted from toy to toy, each more wondrous to him than the last. George had trouble keeping up with him, making mental notes of what Jim liked most.
“Remember buddy, today we’re mostly just looking for decorations for the house. Not really toys so much, okay?”
“Okay!” But that didn’t slow Jimmy down one bit, as he bounced from one temptation to another.
UNTIL…
Jim froze in his tracks. “Wow!” he whispered, in awe. “Look, Sammy.” Jim was instantly captivated by a crystal globe encircling two happy children seesawing among the stars as snow swirled around them. It was a very rare, old-fashioned antique musical snow globe, one that when switched on set in motion both the seesaw and the music of 'Jingle Bells', little Jimmy's favorite holiday song.
George could hear his tiny brother softly humming along, sometimes trying to sing words, though often he substituted babbling for some lyrics he’d misunderstood or couldn’t yet pronounce. Still, it melted George's heart to hear Jimmy try so hard to join in while reverently gazing at the little figures inside.
“Please, Sammy. This one! Please please please? I'll be good I promise. I'll never ask for ‘nother thing ever my whole life if you get Mommy to get me this. Okay?”
“I don’t know, Jimmy. I’ll ask her in a few minutes. But let’s look around some more and see if there’s anything you like better.”
“No no no! Want this one. This is the bestest in the whooole world, Sammy. Please?” Jim whined with that tiny squeaky voice that usually charmed both him and his mom till they'd finally give in.
George seldom resented his mom for trying to spoil his baby brother, especially since she had always doted on George, too. But more than that, George knew how close he came to losing not only his dad but also both his mom and his tiny brother that day on the Kelvin. And Jimmy still hadn't caught up in size with others his age.
It was also different for his brother because Jimmy had never gotten to have both his parents the way the older boy had, at least for a little while.
George barely remembered his dad since he was about Jimmy's present age when it all happened, but he’d never forgotten the feeling of his dad’s love and protection. And spoiling. George and his mom wanted to do whatever it took to make Jim smile...the same way his dad had tried to coax giggles out of George when he was little, in the holo-videos the brothers watched together, over and over.
Plus, his daddy had given his first-born son his very own name, a special gift that Jimmy would never get to have. The very mature eight-year-old was very proud to be George Kirk, Junior.
He looked around and finally caught their mom’s eye. She’d been spying on the boys, trying to catch just this kind of moment, when her baby’s heart finally settled on one most special thing.
She raised a finger to her lips in a silent “shhhhh” and pointed to the globe, nodding in approval. She and George had guessed right that this was the perfect place to find Jimmy’s ‘Santa’ gift.
Winona never taught her boys to believe in a literal Santa, because she wanted them to trust she’d never lie to them. But she did give special gifts every year in the spirit of Santa Claus, which occasionally required her to bend the truth a bit, or at least delay it for a few days.
Finally, Winona crept back out of sight, which was George’s cue. “Jimmy, let’s go find Mom and see what she’s picked out.” Jim pouted, reluctantly allowing Sam to lead the way. But only because it wouldn’t be long till Santa's spirit would be landing at their house, so he was trying his best to be a really good boy till then, no matter how hard it was.
When they reached her, Jim latched on to his mom’s pants leg and began tugging her toward the snow globe. “Mommy, come see, come see! I found it! The bestest thing in the whole world!”
Winona gasped in delight. “Well! And here I thought you and George were the bestest things in the whole world!”
“Oh, Mommy. We not things. We your little kids! Come see what me and Sammy found!”
“Sammy and I,” she corrected. “And we’ve got to get back home soon. Your grandma will have dinner on the table in just a few minutes.”
“Mommy pleeeeeease,” Jim whined, unable to hold back a few tears. He snuffled and wiped them away with his sleeve, as again he didn’t want his superhero big brother to see.
“Well, all right. Just a few minutes more, but that’s all, boys. You hear me? It’s not fair to keep Grandma waiting when she’s been working hard to cook up all our favorites from scratch for tonight!”
“You'll see, Mom. It won’t take but a second.” George looked ten feet tall to his younger brother, who gazed up at him like he’d just saved the universe, the way Jimmy believed his daddy had a long time ago.
Jimmy continued dragging his mom toward the whimsical display. “See Mommy? Isn’t that the bestest thing you ever saw?”
“Well, it’s nice, Jimmy. Definitely very pretty.” Winona reached way over to make an exaggerated show of checking the price. “Oh, baby, this is very expensive. I don’t have that many credits with me today. Maybe we can cross our fingers and hope very very hard, and maybe we can buy it soon. Now come along, it’s time to go.”
This time, Jimmy couldn’t help it; he began sobbing. He had just seen something he wanted more than he’d ever wanted anything.
And Mommy said no.
