This is it – the final chapter. Still rated mature. Hope everyone enjoyed this.

Jiminy and Cricket

Chapter 8

It's light out when she next wakes up next and the first thing she sees are Jim's blue eyes staring down at her.

"Morning, sleeping beauty," he smiles at her, stroking the hair off her face.

"Morning," she replies, stretching against him. "What time is it?" she yawns.

"Almost eight o'clock," he tells her. "Time for one last romp before I hit the shower and go to work." He smiles at her, but she can sense the melancholy in his voice. She feels it too. She only asked for one night and that one night is over. Or it will be over soon. She thought that it would be enough, but now that she is looking at him, sleep warm and ruffled, the smell of sex wafting from the sheets surrounding them, she's not so sure. Her heart is aching and she doesn't ever want to leave him.

He must see something in her eyes, because he smiles wryly at her. "Is this were you try to make an honest man out of me and make me see the error of my ways; how the love of a good woman will make everything better?" He says it flippantly, as a joke, but she can see the wariness in his gaze.

She clears her throat and shakes her head. "No. I'll always love you, Jim," she admits to him. "But someday I won't be in love with you. I know that. I'm not going to be the one that saves you or fixes you," she tells him honestly. "Only you can do that. I only want this one night before I leave."

"Will you come back?" he asks her. "To Riverside, I mean."

She shrugs. "I honestly don't know," she tells him. "The only reasons I have to come back here are Alexander and mom and…you."

"And me," he repeats softly, trailing one finger down her cheek; watching her intently as if he's never seen her before.

Suddenly she grabs his finger. "And you better not be here when I come back to visit, Jim Kirk," she tells him fiercely. "You better get the fuck out of this place and find your life. You are so much more than you let people think you are. I know you're smart. I know you're clever and I know that you care about people. You need to let go of the past and live your life the way you want to. You're so much more than a drunken, womanizing, mechanic. You can do so much more than that if you would just let yourself."

There are tears on her face, as she lectures him. These are thoughts that she's had for a long time, but was always too afraid to voice. She's as surprised as he is when they come pouring out of her mouth.

"Funny," Jim says stiffly, getting out of bed and as far away from her as possible. "You didn't seem to mind sleeping with a drunken, womanizing, mechanic," he tells her defensively. He's still naked, leaning against the kitchen sink, staring at her.

"That's because I didn't sleep with that guy, I slept with Jim. Jimmy. Jiminy," she waves her hand in the air dismissively. "Whatever you want to call him. I made love to him, not the façade you show everyone else."

"You don't know me," he starts, but she cuts him off.

"The hell I don't, Jimmy," she declares getting out of bed to stand in front of him. "I know you better than any of your so called friends or your one-night stands or your brother or step-father or your goddamned, fucking excuse for a mother!"

"Leave my mother out of this," he snaps.

"Fine, we'll leave her out of it," she answers snidely, "it's not like she's been in it that much anyways."

"Kristen," he growls. His mother has always been a no-go topic, just as her father was before he died. Some people you just love because you have to.

"Fine," she waves her hand, dismissing that particular topic. "This isn't about her, this is about you Jim. About you living your life and stopping all the wallowing and self-pity."

"I don't…"

"Shut up," she pokes him in the chest. "You are a fucking genius and you are working as a mechanic, drinking your nights away in a bumfuck town that has nothing to offer you except disdain and ridicule. I know you," she poked him in the chest. "They look down on you because your dad died a fucking hero and your mother couldn't seem to live without him. And because of Frank and then everything that happened when you got back from Tarsus and you give them exactly what they expect." She ignores the tightening of his lips at the mention of Tarsus. She knows it's another taboo topic, but this will be the last time she can ever say these things to him.

"You are not what they think you are, Jimmy. You are not worthless. And you are not going to amount to nothing. You do not live to drink and sleep with women – not really. There is so much more to you; so much potential. You can do anything. That's why I want you to leave. That's why I'm not going to try to make you stay or try to tie you to me. I love you. I've loved you since I was four, and will always love you in some way, but I'm going to college and I'm going to become a doctor and if I come back here and you are still working as a fucking mechanic then I'm going to hurt you in ways that no one will be able to fix, do you hear me James Tiberius Kirk?"

"Are you done?" he asks defiantly, looking over her left shoulder so she can't tell how pissed off he is.

She nods. There are tears streaming down her face and she needs to blow her nose, but she's done. She's said what she had to say and that's it. He'll either listen or he won't.

"Good," he says before he sweeps in and begins kissing her. She hadn't noticed during her tirade, but he was hard and it was now pressing against her belly. "You talk too much."

Picking her up, he walks the five steps back to the bed and gently lays her down before quickly covering her with his body. She'd used the words make love earlier, but honestly, their two previous encounters had been amazing, but nothing more than sex. This time it was more; so much more. This time she could easily admit that he made love to her, and that she made love to him.

It was tender and it was sweet; it was hot and it was passionate, and when it was over she wanted to cry because she knew that this was the end.

xXx

Two days later she sees a worker from the shipyards riding Jim's bike. She hasn't seen him since she left his apartment and his boss has contacted her because he didn't show up at work and doesn't answer his comms.

Everyone has an opinion as to where he's gone. People who were witness to the bar brawl with the Starfleet cadets are convinced he was conveniently disposed of after their officer left. Other's think he finally snapped and ran away or drowned himself in the river.

No one seems to really miss him, except for his boss who knows he's an amazing mechanic, and the local bartenders who counted on his credits every week to help their budgets.

She likes to believe what the shipyard worker told her. That a young man with a busted face and a cocky smile tossed him the keys to the bike and told him he could have it. Then the busted up, cocky kid boarded a cadet transport to Starfleet in San Francisco.

She always knew his future wasn't here. She could only hope it was somewhere in the stars.

I can't believe this is finished. It was a quick ride for me. Normally stories percolate and stew for a long time before I have to write them or go crazy. Jiminy and Cricket had to be written. NOW. According to my muse. I hope it was worth it.

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