Disclaimer: I don't own Star Trek or any of the characters.

This is an alternate universe (AU) about Jim, that a few things had been changed. I purposely didn't mention Frank or Sam because I couldn't really fit them in this story. Events will be rewritten to fit this story, such as Jim's childhood. Feel free to criticize but no flames, please.

Hope you enjoy! And review!

When Angels Gain Their Wings

The signs started showing up when Jim was four.

Winona had heard him talking to someone on their front porch. Curious, wondering if a neighbour or Pike had come by, she wiped her hands and went there herself.

To her surprise, there was no one but her son, sitting on the dusty wooden planks, chatting amiably to the thin air.

" - and I went after Vicky – she's my dog – up into the barn ladder. She wouldn't come down so I went after her. But then, the ladder fell down with me and Vicky still on it. When Grandpa and Grandma found out, they weren't too happy. They said that it was a good thing that there was a haystack underneath us or else we really would have gotten hurt."

Jim then paused, as if listening. Then, he eagerly bobbed his head. " That's exactly what Grandma had said. When Mommy came back from the grocery store, she wasn't happy to find me and Vicky covered in hay." Another pause. Jim suddenly laughed. " Really? Mommy got covered in hay too?"

It was then that Winona couldn't take the abnormality of this apparent one-sided conversation anymore. She cleared her throat, alerting Jim of her presence.

" Mommy!" He leapt to his feet, hugging her around her waist. " I made a new friend!" he excitedly said, pointing to the steps of the porch. " He was really nice and friendly and told me a lot of things."

She suspiciously swept her gaze over the porch. When she found nothing, she merely nodded her head once. Children Jim's age were bound to make up imaginary friends and the like. No reason for her to be too critical of her son. " I see. What kind of things did your friend tell you?"

" He told me lots of stuff. He told me about space and the stars. He told me about how he was captain of a ship once!" Jim breathlessly babbled.

" Did he have a name for his ship?" she asked good-humouredly, for her son's sake.

" The Kelvin," Jim proudly said, without realizing how stiff his mother became. " He told me how he was captain of it for twelve whole minutes and how he saved a whole ton of people – I think he said eight hundred."

Something fluttered uncomfortably in her stomach. It was impossible that Jim would know about the Kelvin. She never mentioned it to him before, not even in the pictures. And how on earth did Jim know about his father's accomplishments, when she thought he was too young to understand them?

" And how did you know about this?" she asked, her voice shaking slightly.

" Because my friend told me," Jim said matter-of-factly.

" Really, Jim. I'm being serious. Did Uncle Chris tell you? Or Mrs and Mr Teller down the street?"

" They didn't tell me. My friend told me, Mommy."

" Jim. You know how I feel about you lying to me."

" But I'm not lying! He told me. He told me all about it. Honest!"

" Who, Jim?"

Jim's eyes were round with confusion, wondering why Mommy had suddenly become so very odd and not like her usual self. " George," he said simply. " George Kirk. That's the new friend that I made. He's still standing right there." Jim pointed at the steps again, looking up at her in bewilderment. " Can't you see him, Mommy?"

Winona didn't know what to say then. She simply gathered up her son and ushered him into the house, ignoring his questions. She took one last look at the dirty steps.

No one was there.

O – o – O – o – O

After a while, Winona had hoped that maybe all the nonsense about Jim's imaginary friends would end.

Unfortunately, it didn't. According to him, Jim had met more than a few, other than George Kirk. He described to her in detail about a very nice old lady called Mrs Auburn. Mrs Auburn had told him he should give his mother some nice peony flowers from the valley below, whenever she's sad. After all, those were her favourite flowers.

Winona decided not to mention how Mrs Auburn was in fact a neighbour of hers since she was a child, always bringing her a handful of peony flowers every morning, and how she passed away a few years before Jim was born.

Another friend Jim had "met" was a younger man, a boy barely out of his teens. He told Jim that he was an old friend of his mother's and asked him to pass on one message to his mother." Winnie, I'm sorry I didn't make it to prom," Jim recited back to her.

She cried that night. She knew that man, after Jim gave her his name. Oliver Gallows. Her high school sweetheart. He had died a few weeks before their prom night, due to a drowning incident when he tried to save a little girl. It took years for the pain to disappear and for her to finally move on, with the help of George.

The next morning, Winona was surprised to find a vase of yellow peony flowers on the kitchen table. " Mrs Auburn told me to get them when she saw that you were sad," Jim merely said when she asked him. He chewed his waffles thoughtfully before saying, " George said that I should pick yellow ones. They are your favourite colour." He grinned, his mouth smeared with syrup and butter. " He said whenever he gave them to you, you would shine like the sun. Just like the flowers."

Smiling a little, she kissed Jim on the cheek. " George said that?"

Jim drank his milk first before answering. " Uh huh. He says you're shining right now."

Her breath hitched. " He's here?" She hoped that her voice hadn't trembled too much for Jim to notice.

He didn't notice, as he tugged her skirts with his sticky fingers enthusiastically. " Right there!" he chirped, pointing next to the sink.

" Can he hear us now?" Her voice suddenly dropped to a whisper.

Jim frowned. " George can hear us fine. Right, George?" He tilted his head, listening, before a smile burst jubilantly on his face. " He says that you look pretty."

Even a small comment like that was able to make her blush. Just like how when they first started dating. " Tell him I said thank you," Winona said softly, looking hard towards the sink, and willing herself to believe that George was there.

" He knows." The smile on Jim's face was glowing and for a split second, Winona could George smiling warmly, just as he did many times before, back at her. " He knows, Mommy."

O - o - O - o - O

Just before Jim started school, Winona took him aside and warned him about telling others about his ability. When he asked why, she reluctantly admitted to him that there isn't many others who have this ability. " They might get scared," she explained. " Because they don't understand."

Winona knew that Jim was a smart boy. He knew when to keep his mouth shut. True to his word, Jim didn't say a word about it to any of his new friends or his friendly teacher. If she didn't know better, Jim Kirk appeared to be a perfectly normal boy.

One day, she got a call from the school about Jim. She rushed there without a moment's hesitation, dreading the worst. It had nothing to do with Jim's ability to communicate with the dead, she found out with relief. But something just as bad.

During reading time, Jim's clear blue eyes became clouded and distant. And no matter how his friends or the teacher called and shook him, he didn't respond. When they tried to bring him to the nurse's office, he screamed back to consciousness. He then vomited on the floor, nearly passing out. The teacher quickly sent one of her students to get the nurse as she knelt down to do what she could to comfort Jim. He didn't even notice her, repeatedly whispering about "eating fire" and "yellow-eyed beasts".

Winona found Jim in the nurse's office, lying on a bed with a cool towel on his head, refusing to speak to the nurse or the psychiatrist that the teacher also requested. They immediately hounded her about this, asking about any fires that could have affected Jim's life or any horror movies that he might have watched. She calmly reported none, thoroughly as confused as them about Jim's newfound visions. In the end, they deduced it was probably some childhood nightmare or fear that was better left for his mother to deal with. When Winona did ask Jim about this, he shook his head, looking frightened and pale, clinging to her tightly.

" I wish I knew what it meant," he frustratedly admitted.

One week later, a classmate of Jim's died in a fire with his mother and father, caused when his mother accidentally left the stove on. Only his older sister survived, with hideous burns marring across her face and arms. Shivering, Winona now knew what it meant by "eating fire".

And not too long after that, a truck crashed into the school late at night. Fortunately, nobody was hurt, though three classrooms were destroyed completely and needed to be repaired. The second floor was too dangerous for the classrooms, shuddering from the cracks and damage from the foundation below. Witnesses reported that the truck almost looked like some sort of monster, with the way its yellow headlights blazed in the night.

Neither Winona or Jim said anything about the matter.

O - o - O - o - O

Chris Pike was the first one to find out about Jim's powers.

It was nearly a year since Jim's first visions started. They came often, though not with the same intensity or blinding pain as when they first started. Jim gradually got used to them, often interpreting them to his mother, who tried her best to understand them.

" Sometimes, they are images," Jim explained. " Like smoke and ripples. They come and quickly go. Those are the ones that don't make sense most of the time. The other ones make a lot more sense. They are a lot clearer. Like looking at a mirror or a watery reflection."

She simply accepted his explanations without any further questions.

After returning for a brief shore leave, Pike had called her up, wondering if he could stop by and stay over for dinner. Reluctantly, she agreed, only by the joyful look on Jim's face to be reunited with his beloved Uncle Chris. Dinner passed by rather uneventfully, when suddenly, Jim dropped his fork with a clatter, his eyes glassy and faraway.

" Jim? Are you all right, son?" he asked, worriedly shaking him on the shoulder.

By now, Winona had experienced with these visions and how to deal with others when they happened. " I think he's feeling unwell. He had been complaining of a headache earlier," she quickly said, lightly slapping Pike's hand away. She scooped Jim up and carried him up to his room before Pike could say another word.

" Uncle Chris is in danger," Jim said urgently, the moment he blinked and his eyes returned to normal. " This one was clear. I saw everything. Klingtons are going to ambush his ship, the Artemis, when they go to the planet Nerxuss after a call of distress. It's a trap, Mom! We've got to stop him! He's going to die!"

" Jim, keep your voice down!" she hushed, pressing a finger to his lips. " Not so loud. He could hear -"

" Hear what, Winona?"

They both froze. Spinning around, they realized that Pike was standing at the doorway, staring at them in an indescribable look. He heard them, was the thought that went through both their minds simultaneously. " What's this about me dying?" he demanded, his tone the one of a captain wanting answers.

But he didn't know that Winona had prepared for this day for a long time. Faster than a cat, she grabbed the bed lamb and threw it at him, catching Pike off guard. " Jim, now!" she yelled.

Jim jumped out of the window, followed by Winona. He landed on the haystack, tumbling and rolling. Winona winced when she realized she had sprained her ankle, but she ignored it. " The car!" she hissed, hobbling after her dawdling son. Jim fumbled out the keys from the visor of George's beloved Corvette, tossing it to his mother as soon as she reached the car. Winona sharply turned the car, almost out of the driveway, when Pike jumped directly onto the front of the car hood.

" Winona, wait. Please," he panted. " Talk to me."

She would have ran him over without hesitation, if it wasn't for Jim tugging insistently at her sleeve. " Mom," he said, looking at Pike with a fixed, inexpressible gaze. " Dad says that we can trust him."

If she was surprised, Pike was. His head swivelled dubiously from her and Jim. " What -? Winona, what is he talking about?"

And so, Winona told him. She told him Jim was special, more than special than she had first believed. She told him how Jim had the ability to talk with ghosts, including his own father, and how he had visions of the future that almost always come true. In ways unimaginable and overwhelming.

Pike sat across from her, a mug of coffee in his hands, trying to comprehend the revelation that had just come to him. " Give a man a minute," he muttered when Jim concernedly asked him if he was all right. He pinched the bridge of his nose for a moment of clarity. " So Jim was born with this?" he affirmed.

" Yes." Winona re-adjusted the ice pack on her ankle gingerly. " I don't know how it happened or why it happened. Only that it did." She looked up at Pike, eyes burning in a resolute determination. " Now you know why I can't let anyone, especially Starfleet, know about Jim. You know what they will do to him if they found out. And I won't let you or anyone do that to my son."

With a sigh, Pike rubbed the back of his neck. " What a mess George left us," he grumbled. " Suppose he will haunt me for the rest of my life if I don't protect his son."

Even Winona smiled. Now this was the Captain Chris Pike that she knew.

O - o - O - o - O

After the successful prevention of the Klington ambush, (the media hounded after Pike to discover how he knew), Pike became an important aspect in the Kirks' lives. Jim was quite pleased to share his little secret with someone else other than his mother and even she agreed that it would be beneficial for Jim to have a father-like figure in his life. Not including ghostly ones.

Winona remained wary of Pike. She didn't know if she could trust him or if he was just playing along to get close to them before selling them short. No matter how Jim assured her that George trusted Pike and the unspoken how Jim trusted Pike too or how Pike helped them get out of some sticky situations earlier (like the incident at the mall, involving a couple of nosy parents and the speaking-in-tongues vision Jim had), she held her guard. She didn't tell anyone, not even Jim, about the fully charged phraser underneath her pillow.

The years went by peacefully, thankfully. At thirteen, Jim could easily charm any girl if he worked at it. And he made plenty of friends, with his wit and charisma. The teachers are stunned by his intelligence and how he could score perfect on all his tests, when he barely does his homework or studies. Winona proudly pinned the tests up on the fridge.

But the peace wasn't meant to last. On a particularly hot sticky afternoon, two boys collided with each other, after one boy had made a scathing comment about the other. Soon, the whole cafeteria erupted in chaos and a full-fledged food fight occurred.

And in the middle of it, Jim crashed down on the floor, semi-conscious, clutching his head.

Pike was the one to go pick up Jim, due to Winona being visiting her mother and it would take another twenty minutes before she even reached the school. It took some persuasion on Pike's part, but Winona finally consented and he went.

He found Jim sitting by the principal's office, with an ice pack pressed against his head, surrounded by worried peers. " I'm fine," he told them patiently. " I get headaches like these all the time. Because I have anemia. Not a lot of blood in my system."

It was the story that Winona, Pike and Jim had came up with, rather than making up a whole bunch of stories and leading others to suspicion. Pike explained things to the principal, who was distracted with the two boys, who continued glaring with nothing but utter loathing at each other. He absently nodded and let Jim leave early.

Pike waited until they were in the car and driving in silence for a few minutes before he asked, " Was it a vision?"

Jim shook his head, still looking a little pale. " No, it wasn't," he said. " It was something else. Something ..." He drifted off, looking shaken.

" What do you think it is?" Pike prompted.

" As soon as those two started fighting, I felt - hate. Hot, blinding anger. And desire to hurt. I wanted to throttle the other, get my hands around him and punch him to death for what he said. And I didn't know why." Jim looked imploringly at Pike to understand. " It wasn't me. Those feelings didn't belong to me. I don't even know who those two boys were! Or what they said. I just kept feeling their hate and their pain and the fear and confusion from everyone else in the room and - and - and the -"

" Calm down, Jim. Take a breath. Nice and slow, son," Pike gently said. And Jim sucked in a breath to soothe his frazzled thoughts. " So what you're telling me is that you felt what those boys felt?" he asked, trying to take the boy's mind off the disorientating whirlwind of feeling those emotions.

" Yes," Jim said, more much calmer. " Which doesn't make any sense. I'm only able to see ghosts and the future. Right?" he added, in a timid voice.

Pike rubbed the back of his neck, feeling the years pile up on him. He had his suspicion that Jim now had powers of empathy, the ability to feel what others are feeling, to detect unbidding emotions from people around him. He wondered if Jim was sensing his frustration right now and his confusion as to why Jim had to go through this and the dread when he would have to deliver the news to Winona.

Pulling into the driveway, he could see said worried mother standing on the porch. " I wish I knew, Jim," he honestly said.

O - o - O - o - O

Jim grew up to be a confident, brash young man. He knew people who could be a lot more dangerous than the living, their secrets and information a great asset for him to twist things to his advantage. His visions certainly helped him out whenever he got caught in a pinch. And his empathy allowed him to smooth over conversations and misunderstandings.

His mother and occasionally Pike had tried to talk to him, to get him to settle down, but Jim was a force on his own, unmatched and uncontrollable. He was tired of being smothered and watched over like he was a child.

He remained in Iowa, having no desire to go anywhere in particular. There was no challenge, no point, no reason for him to do so. It would be boring, despite what his mother and Pike said. He enjoyed drinking, flirting, partying and living. He felt alive, exhilarated, free. This was his emotion, not his mother's, Pike's or any other nearby person standing within distance of him. This was him, who he was and what he will be.

On this particular day, he noticed how several cadets had came down for leave, coming especially to his favourite bar. Sipping his drink, he spied a female cadet making her way to get some drinks. A very pretty cadet, in fact. Grinning, Jim slid over to her, batting his eyelashes at her and tossing her a winning Kirk smile. There was amusement from her and a good healthy dose of annoyance, but it was nothing he couldn't handle.

Another cadet appeared behind Jim, along with a few of his buddies. Jim leaned against the counter, eyeing the man. He was annoyed for sure, with some jealousy thrown in for the measure. But there wasn't enough jealousy to be her boyfriend, Jim sensed. Perhaps he had a crush on her and never acted on it. Oh well. It was his loss.

The punch happened faster than Jim could react. He crashed backwards into the counter, scrambling to avoid another punch. The man's annoyance was replaced by anger and demanding vengance, affecting Jim also, much to his own irritation. He fought back, throwing punches and kicks, even a bottle or two, whatever he could get his hands on. The room smelled of fear and panic and interest, as bystanders tried to flee the scene or watched in fascination. Their apathy and need for violence sickened him.

Finally, he was down on the table, feeling punch after punch walloping him on the face, feeling the blood pooling from his nose and mouth. Jim could barely see through the haze of his own blood and pain when he saw it.

It ended as a sharp, piercing whistle silenced the bar and while lying upside down on the table, Jim could see the lopsided stern face of Chris Pike, commanding the cadets to leave.

O - o - O - o - O

Winona was appalled to see the nasty bruises and blood crusting over Jim's face and shirt when Pike brought him home that night. " Can't your visions prevent you from ending up a mess?" she muttered, hurriedly grabbing bandages and some ointment to clean him up.

Jim grinned at her, his usually white teeth bloody and a little chipped. " You know as well as I do Mom, that they come whenever they want to," he cheerfully reminded her, allowing her to fuss over him.

She hmphed. " Well, they should." She finished dabbing the ointment into the last cut and ordered him to keep the ice pack firmly on his head. " Goodness knows how many times I had to patch you up after a fight." She went to wash to her hands, while Pike took over the scolding.

" What were you thinking? They outnumbered you four to one," Pike angrily said. Next to Pike's unnoticed side, his father was cordially nodding and agreeing with him, occasionally calling Jim stupid, idiotic, reckless and several other names. Jim rolled his eyes, gingerly moving the ice pack to another ugly bruise on his head. " Not to mention, they're cadets!" Pike continued, not realizing that George Kirk furiously said the exact same thing. " They've got training and everything else to beat you senseless."

" Not for long," Jim absently murmured.

" Huh?"

" I'm joining Starfleet," he announced. Suddenly and loudly. It made Winona flinch over the sink and Pike stare.

" Jim, you know you can't join Starfleet. If they find out about you, they will use you like a lab rat and worse - apologises, Chris."

Pike dipped his head in mild acceptance. " Your mother is right. As much as I hate to admit it, they probably will."

" Then, I'll be careful and I won't get caught," Jim stubbornly retorted. " I've survived before in places with people, you know," he pointed out.

It took her years to try to get Jim to go somewhere in his life and now when he made his decision, she opposed of it. " Why?" she asked finally. " Why Starfleet and not somewhere else?" Why not somewhere safer? she silently pleaded.

" Because," Jim struggled to explain the irrationality and sudden inspiration for it. " I got this good feeling about going there. I - I don't know what it is, but I have to go." His blue eyes stared beseechingly towards her. " Trust me on this, Mom," he added softly.

Winona sighed. She knew that look and the tone of his voice. It was the legendary resolute Kirk attitude when it came to something they're determined to get done, dead or alive. George had it too when he saved eight hundred lives, including his wife and son's, without a care to his own. Jim had made up his mind and whether she wanted or not, he was going.

She went to Jim then, inspecting the bruises and cuts on his face, watching him squirm under her examination. Pike was quiet by the counter. She knew that he would grudgingly accept Jim's decision, no matter what path it led to.

" Promise me you'll be careful?" she implored.

Jim looked at her with a sympathetic, understanding gaze. She knew that he was sensing her emotions right now, her concern and fear radiating in waves and pulses from her. " I will, Mom," he promised nevertheless.

" And you'll write at least once a week?"

" Yes, Mom." He rolled his eyes.

" And you'll wash all your clothes every day?"

" Mom! I will," he impatiently fidgeted under her touch. " Can I pack now? We're leaving at 0800 tomorrow!"

It was her turn to roll her eyes. Impatient as always. " Fine." She shooed him off to his room, where he practically ran there, containing a gleeful whoop. From below, she could hear him rummaging about in his room, grabbing things, dashing this way and that, muttering to himself.

" Just when you think you know a person," Pike commented dryly.

She chuckled. Her Jim was certainly full of surprises. But Winona supposed that was what made life interesting.

At 0700 the next morning, Jim stood at the front porch, a sack slung over his shoulder and wearing the jacket that had belonged to his father. Pike waited at the driveway, giving mother and son their last moments in peace.

" You never really told me why you're going," Winona murmured, vaguely fixing the collar of his jacket that she had just given him minutes earlier.

" I said that it was a good feeling -"

" It must be more than that," she interrupted. Her hazel eyes melted into his blue ones. " What did you see?"

He hesitated before answering. " I was on a ship. On the bridge. There were people there, people I didn't recognize. Their faces too blurry to tell. But I knew that they trusted me. That they would give their lives for me. And I had this feeling that I would do the same for them." He licked his lips, an obscure gleam burning in his eyes. " Mom, I need to know why."

So it was his curiosity that urged him. His undying love for adventure and a challenge and perhaps a little nudge of fate. It was something that the two most important men in her life shared. And by now, she had quietly accepted that there wasn't much she could do about it, but to patiently wait and see the outcome of it.

Pike honked from the driveway, signalling it was time. Jim bent down (how did he grow taller than her already?) and kissed her on the cheek. " I'll be back, Mom," he assured her. " I promise."

Winona gave a little laugh and for the umpteenth time, Jim could see the beautiful woman that his father fell in love with. " Another vision, Jim?" she teased.

He smiled. " No. Because I just know," Jim cheekily replied. He then drove away in a whirlwind of dust, waving frantically at her, mouthing a farewell, his voice caught away by the wind. She remained standing at the porch, until she could no longer see the tiny outline of the car.

At that moment, Winona Kirk could say that she was at peace. Her boy was going to be all right after all.