Chapter Text
"I didn't take the summer off of med school to sleep in an RV every night." Leonard complained, trying to pop his back.
"No one made you come, Bones." Jim replied.
"Well, someone had to keep you out of trouble."
“He’s got us for that.” Christine spoke up pointing to herself and Nyota.
“If you two are watching Jim, we’d have no one to watch Hikaru and Pavel.” Leonard chuckled.
Jim leaned in between the front seats, “Hey, Pav, are we gonna pass through Palm Springs on our way to Nevada?"
Pavel looked down on their map and scanned for the city’s name, “It is off course by tventy miles.”
"That's not too bad." Jim shrugged and turned back to Leonard, "I'll call Sam, and see if we can stay with him a night after we go to Mt. Palomar. How's that sound?"
“Thank God.” Leonard sighed, “A real bed and some good food.”
"Who's Sam?" Nyota asked.
"The Kirk that actually has common sense." Leonard flicked the side of Jim's head.
"Ow." Jim pouted and rubbed his head.
~Chasing The Stars~
Sam rushed to the door when he heard doorbell ring. When he opened it, to no surprise, standing on the other side was his brother, Jim.
It hadn’t been that long since he’d last seen his little brother, but that didn’t make him any less exited for him to visit. Jim rarely stayed in one place for long. It was difficult to keep him around longer than a few days.
“Hey, Sammy!" Jim smiled, "Thanks for letting us stay."
"It's no problem, really." Sam glanced out the door hoping to greet Leonard, instead he found a small group unloading bags from an RV, "Jimmy, how many of you are there?"
"Only seven." Jim replied, toeing off his shoes so he wouldn't track dirt into his big brother's house.
"I thought it was just gonna be you and Leonard." Sam said, still staring, shocked at the RV in front of his house.
"Your brother likes to pick up strangers." Leonard grumbled, "Good to see you again, Sam."
"They aren't strangers anymore, Bones." Jim patted his brother’s shoulder and picked up his shoes, “We can look for a motel, it's fine."
"No, no." Sam pinched the bridge of his nose, "I said you could stay. Stay. Just let me know if you’ve acquired a pack of people first.”
"Sam, are they here?"
"Aurelan!" Jim dropped his bag and ran to hug the woman. He lifted her off the ground and spun her around.
"Hi, Jim." Aurelan giggled.
"How's my favorite sister in law?" Jim asked, setting her back on the floor.
"I'm good." Aurelan said, “Peter's going to be excited to see you."
Jim looked around quickly for his little nephew, "Where is Peter?"
"A friend's house." Sam said. He rubbed his eyes and mumbled, “Maybe I should have him stay the night."
"Aw come on, Sam. The crew’ll love him." Jim nudged his brother, “Besides, I wanna see him.”
A young brunet, no older than eighteen walked through the door, smiled at Sam and took his hand, “You're the Keptin's brother?"
"Captain?" Sam looked to his brother confused, still shaking the young man’s hand, Jim only laughed.
"Lad's running the whole mess." A man, closer to Leonard’s age, piped up, stepping past the young brunet, “Seemed fitting."
Jim invited three others in. Two young women and another young man. He smiled proudly at his brother and sister in law.
"Sam, Aurelan, meet the crew of The Enterprise.” Jim gestured to his small group, “This is Nyota, Christine, Pavel, Hikaru, and Scotty."
"I think we'll need a bigger meal than I prepared." Aurelan laughed, somewhat nervously.
"Oh, it's alright. We have plenty of food." Nyota said, smiling reassuringly.
“I’ll gladly take something to eat, if it’s being offered.” Leonard clarified.
~Chasing The Stars~
Jim was just finishing showing his friends around the house and helping them settle into the guest rooms and the pullout sofa when he heard a little voice yelling, “Uncle Jim!"
"Peter!" Jim hardly got the boy's name out before he was crashing into his legs, nearly knocking him over.
"I missed you!" Peter grinned up at his uncle.
Jim chuckled, "I missed you too."
"Dad got me a new telescope! You've gotta see it!" Peter said, tugging on Jim's hand.
"Why don't you show me when it gets dark and I can tell you about the stars."
Peter nodded, "Yeah."
"Peter, go wash up. It's almost dinner time." Aurelan said, nodding toward the sink.
"Okay, Mom."
~Chasing The Stars~
Jim sat with Peter for hours watching the stars. He showed his nephew all of his favorite consolations. And Peter showed him his.
“Jim, it's past Peter's bedtime." Sam said from the doorway of his son’s room.
Jim smiled, "I've just got one thing to show him."
Sam sighed but nodded. He pulled the door closed as he left, allowing the two a bit of privacy.
Jim looked back through the telescope and repositioned it to the spot he'd been searching for, "See that one? Right there. The red one."
Jim scooted back away from the telescope. Peter rushed over and looked through the scope. His eye quickly locked onto the red spot his uncle was referring to.
"Yeah."
Jim pulled the boy into his lap and wrapped his arms around him, "That's Mars."
"Is that where the aliens are?" Peter asked, looking up at Jim wide eyed and grinning.
Jim was sure he saw the boy's eyes light up.
"Probably not." Jim shrugged, "If it's got any aliens, they're real good at hiding."
The twinkle in Peter's eyes almost seemed to dwindle, "Then where are they?"
"Not sure." Jim admitted, he couldn't lie to Peter, "They could be from a whole other galaxy for all we know."
"I thought you knew everything." Peter leaned back against his uncle's chest.
"Nah, I just know more than your dad." Jim poked at Peter's sides.
Peter squealed and giggled. As he tried to squirm away, Jim picked him up and dropped him onto the bed.
"Come on, bedtime." Jim pulled the blanket over Peter, dropping it so it covered his face.
"But I'm not tired." Peter pouted, sitting up and shoving the blankets off of his body.
"Yeah, sure you aren’t. But your dad is gonna kill me if you don’t go to sleep soon." Jim said, sitting down on the edge of the bed.
"Fine, but you’ve gotta sleep in here with me." Peter smirked.
"Alright." Jim chuckled and rolled his eyes.
Jim turned off the lights and laid down next to the boy. He wrapped his arm around Peter and pulled the blanket back over the boy.
Peter's yawned and cuddled up to his uncle's side, "Goodnight, Uncle Jim."
"Goodnight, Peter." Jim whispered.
He stayed awake a while longer, looking up at the ceiling. Stars and planets decorating the white space began to glow green. They reminded Jim of his childhood bedroom, decorated in stars and planets, aliens, astronauts, and model space ships.
He closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep to the memories of playing space travel as a child.
~Chasing The Stars~
Jim was careful not to wake Peter when he climbed out of bed early that morning. He found Sam awake making breakfast. Hikaru and Christine where chatting at the dinning room table.
“Have a seat, Jim.” Sam said, “Breakfast will be done in a few minutes.”
Jim sat down next to Hikaru, “Hope you’re making coffee, Bones isn’t a morning person. No matter how good your food is.”
“I didn’t think Leonard was accustomed to any time of day.” Sam joked.
Hikaru laughed, “Speak of the devil.”
Leonard trudged into the dining room, half asleep followed by Pavel and Nyota. Leonard sat down and rested his head on the table.
Sam set a mug of coffee in front of the man, stifling a laugh, “Sleep alright.”
“Best sleep I’ve had in a month. That’s the problem.” Leonard grumbled, reaching for the mug.
Nyota kissed Christine’s cheek then sat down next to her, “Scotty’s not awake yet?” She asked.
“He was up an hour ago.” Sam said, “Said he wanted to check on your RV. Make a cup of coffee and disappeared.”
“The Enterprise is his baby.” Jim said, “Never have to pay for a mechanic when Scotty fixes everything before it’s a problem.”
“Really? It looks like that thing is held together with duct tape.”
“Who said it wasn’t?” Hikaru smiled.
Sam chuckled a little, although he didn’t entirely believe it was a joke. He brought out the pancakes and bacon he’d made and got each crewman their own cup of coffee.
They dug through their food quickly and were packing there things before Sam could even begin eat his own breakfast. Pavel had grabbed a few extra pancakes, Sam could only assume were for Scotty, and was the first to rush out the door.
Sam was glad that Jim had, for once decided to slow down a bit. He was afraid he wouldn’t get a chance to say goodbye to his brother at the rate all of his friends were going.
Jim was just tying his shoes when Sam had finished cleaning up. All his friends, except for Leonard, who was taking his sweet time packing up, we’re already in the RV again.
Before Sam could begin his goodbye Peter was yelling, “Wait!"
Jim turned to see his nephew running toward him. He managed to kneel down and open his arms before the boy came barreling into him.
"I'll miss you." Peter mumbled into his shoulder.
Jim gave him a small squeeze, "I'll miss you too.”
"I made these for you, I forgot last night." Peter said, grinning widely. He handed Jim a handful of lose papers, "Bring me back an alien, Uncle Jim."
Jim tussled Peter's hair, "Thanks. I'll see what I can do, Bud."
Peter turned and wrapped his arms around Leonard's leg as he was walking toward the door, catching the man off guard, "Bye Uncle Len."
"See ya, Kid." Leonard said, patting the boy on the back.
Peter let go and smiled at both men before running off to his room. Sam sighed, rubbing his eyes.
"He wants you to bring him back an alien." Sam mumbled.
Leonard took that as his cue and patted Jim's shoulder, "I'm gonna load up, Jim."
"It won't hurt him to have an imagination, Sam." Jim replied, placing the drawings into the front pocket of his backpack.
"It's not about him having an imagination. It's you dragging him into your childish alien fantasy."
"He's a kid, he's allowed to be childish." Jim stood up and smiled at his older brother, "You don't know what could be out there. We've only explored a small portion of space. What are the odds Earth is the only planet that can support life?"
"I just don't want him growing up and wasting his life, chasing something we don't know across the country." Sam said.
Jim huffed and leaned against the door frame, "So that's what this is really about. You think I'm waisting my life."
"I think you're one of the smartest people I know and I think you could be doing something more than driving around the country for the rest of your life."
Jim rolled his eyes. Sam wasn't as bad as their parents but he always reminded Jim about the opportunities he'd turned down. He couldn't get five minutes into a conversation with his mom without her asking when he was going to go back to school, at least Sam could sometimes give him the mercy of a normal conversation.
"If you want to keep studying space that's fine, but you aren't going to get anywhere unemployed, looking for UFOs." Sam said, he chuckled a little as a thought crossed his mind, "You know, I always thought you'd be the one kid who stuck with his kindergarten dream and became an astronaut."
"I like what I do, Sam."
Sam placed his hands on Jim's shoulder', "I just don't want anything to happen to you."
"I know, I know. I'm your baby brother and you're protective." Jim huffed and blew some hair out of his face, "I won't have any scholarships or anything, but if I change my mind I can go back to school. Until then, I want to hold onto this 'childish alien fantasy' a little longer."
A horn honked loudly outside, "Captain! Let's go!" Sulu yelled.
Jim sighed and jerked his shoulder's free, "I've gotta get going."
"Jimmy." Sam caught his arm, "Don't stay away too long. Please. I miss you sometimes."
"I'll try." Jim nodded, "I miss you too."
Sam pulled his little brother into a tight hug, "Please, just be careful, okay."
Jim smiled, "I will, Sam."
Sam pulled away, "Get outta here." He lightly shoved Jim's shoulder, "You don't want your team to get abducted without you."
Jim chuckled and slung his bag over his shoulder, "I don't think I'd be able to keep my promise then. Bones might kill me."