A/N: THE STAR TREK BEYOND TRAILER CAME OUT TODAY AND IT'S EPIC (I've only seen it like 20-30 times today...).

Anyway, this is, sadly, the last chapter. I hope it's a decent ending to the story!

"Jim. Jim, wake up."

He groaned. It couldn't have been more than a few minutes, judging by the lack of nightmares, so why the hell was Bones making him get up?

"Come on, Jim, it's morning."

It's… "What?"

"I know, I know, I promised to wake you up, but I fell asleep and Spock was kind enough to let us-"

"No, not that. Well, yeah, that, but – I actually slept."

He blinked open his eyes to see Bones's confused face. "Yes…?"

"I slept. No nightmares."

That didn't happen. Ever. Not during a full night of sleep. Even when he was totally drunk, or curled up in Carol's arms. Not since he was thirteen.

Bones's lips twitched upwards, somewhere between a relieved smile and a triumphant smirk. "I told you talking would help."

Jim rolled his eyes – of course Bones would jump on the "I told you so" opportunity. "Really, Bones."

Bones shrugged. "Just sayin'."

Jim pushed himself upright, futilely fighting a yawn. It had been ages since he'd slept that well, uncomfortable ground and wet uniform aside.

"Captain."

And now it's captain time again.

"Yeah, Spock?"

"I believe I have circumvented the interference."

All thoughts of sleep vanished from Jim's mind; even Bones perked up. "What'd you do?" Jim asked.

Spock opened his mouth to answer, but Bones cut him off. "Vulcan voodoo. Does it matter, so long as we can get off this rock?"

Bones wasn't wrong. Making a mental note to ask Spock later, Jim declared "He's right. Just try to comm. the ship."

"It is not exactly a communication. I could not restore verbal communication, so I will be attempting Morse code."

"You know Morse code?" Bones exclaimed.

Spock glanced at him. "Nyota taught me. If, as I suspect, she is on duty and paying close enough attention, she will hear. But there is a danger that she will dismiss this as static."

Jim mentally ran through the duty rosters – he'd definitely put Uhura on this shift, but if she had put in overtime last night, she might not be there now… "Nah, she's good at this stuff. She'll notice."

Spock closed his eyes and tilted his head in concentration, his fingers ever so slightly hesitant on the communicator, mouthing letters to himself. Jim trusted Spock, but he found himself wondering just how long it had been since he'd last used Morse code – it wasn't exactly a coveted skill in the 23rd century. Although it probably should be.

As the wait for a reply stretched out, Bones fidgeted impatiently. Jim elbowed him, ignoring the pouty glare he got in return. Spock continued to send out his message, and from reading his lips, Jim guessed he was saying "Enterprise." Or "In the price," but the ship's name made more sense.

The wait stretched on.

-LLAP-

Winona strode through the corridors beside Uhura, heading back to her station. After Winona had cleared her head, she had returned to the bridge and hung around Uhura's station until Lieutenant Sulu ordered them both to get a meal and some shuteye. They'd both tried to get some shuteye, failed miserably, and then Uhura had found Winona in the mess hall. They'd talked over their meals, about Jim, about Spock, the Enterprise, random subjects until they decided it was time to return to the bridge before they both went crazy doing nothing to help.

"Really?" Uhura laughed. "Kirk's favorite toy was a slinky?"

Winona grinned. "He loved that thing, especially watching it flip down the stairs. He was devastated when he lost it."

"Well, now I know what to get him for his birthday."

"He celebrates those?" Winona asked, surprised.

Uhura shrugged. "If we surprise him, which we normally do a few days after his actual birthday. On the actual day, he tends to make himself as scarce and drunk as possible, and he's tense the week leading up to it. Afterwards, though, he's happy enough to bask in the fact that, for a couple months, he's only two years younger than Spock."

Winona chuckled at the last part, but her heart sank at the rest of it. "So we ruined that part of life for him, too," she murmured.

"No," Uhura rushed to reassure her as they entered the turbolift. "Well, it wasn't entirely you and – I'm assuming 'we' means his brother – Sam. Celebrating his birthday on that day is like celebrating Mother's Day around Spock or Father's Day around Leonard – it's just a reminder of what they've lost. They're just naturally averse to those specific holidays, despite what anyone says or does."

"Oh," Winona sighed. The turbolift doors slid open, and she paused before following Uhura to her station, letting her gaze take in the bridge crew, among them Ensign Chekov and Lieutenant Sulu, each one diligently doing their duty to help recover her son and his friends.

Jim could've done a lot worse for himself, she thought to herself.

"Hey, Uhura-"

"Shh," the young woman cut her off, holding up a finger to signal "Wait a minute." "I think I'm getting something."

The whole bridge turned towards her, Winona fastest of all. Questions – demands, really – surged towards her tongue, but she bit them back. Uhura closed her eyes and tilted her head, pressing the earpiece into her ear, her fingers tapping a rhythm on her console, her lips mouthing letters.

"E-A-T-E-D-P-D-I-U-E… No, that's an N… Those are R's, and that's an S… Enterprise!" Her eyes flew open, darting to Winona. "It's Spock. I taught him Morse Code years ago."

"Respond," Sulu ordered urgently.

Uhura forced her fingers to remain steady as she replied "S-P-O-C-K."

A wide grin split her face as she slowly interpreted Spock's response, quickly returning her own. "They're ok," she reported. "And he's sending me their coordinates." After sending one last message, she hit the ship's intercom button. "Bridge to transporter room."

"Scott here. Wha' is it, lassie?"

"Spock made contact. I'm sending you their coordinates. You can beam them up, right?"

"Aye. The necessary repairs and tweaks have been made, so ye best hurry down here."

Neither woman needed telling twice. Uhura threw down her earpiece, and they darted into the turbolift.

-LLAP-

"Well, that was rather anticlimactic," Bones commented.

"I thought you'd like that, Bones."

"It wasn't a complaint, just a statement."

"Yeah, right."

Spock flipped his communicator shut. "We will have to exit the cave before the Enterprise can beam us up."

Bones helped Jim up, and they followed Spock outside. A few moments later, white tendrils of light began to wrap around them, and Jim allowed himself a small sigh of relief. As he was blinking and adjusting to his rematerialization in the transporter room, someone threw themselves on him, pulling him into a massive bear hug.

"Jim," his mom gasped in relief.

Warmth chased away the chill from the planet. He wrapped his uninjured arm around her and dropped his face into her shoulder. "You're still here," he whispered.

She leaned back a bit, cupping on side of his face. "Always," she promised fiercely. "From now on, I'll always be here."

"She means it, too," Uhura added, a brief pause in her mothering of Spock. Three years of away missions, and she still acted like a mother hen every time he beamed back aboard after one that had gone wrong – a luxury no one denied her in non-emergency situations.

"I'm back, too," Bones announced sarcastically.

"Ye wan' a hug, Doc?" Scotty asked cheekily.

"Uh, I'm good, thanks. Who's up for an obligatory trip to medbay?"

Jim groaned. "Really, Bones? Now?"

"What, you didn't see that coming?" Bones retorted.

His mom edged back, smiling at his antics. "Come on, sweetheart."

"You too, Spock," Uhura said firmly. Exchanging a resigned glance with Spock, they allowed themselves to be tugged after Bones.

"How about a nice hot dinner afterwards?" his mom suggested. "I could cook up something."

"Yes," Jim agreed instantly. Her cooking was one of few good memories from his years on the farm. "There was that one thing-"

"Curried pumpkin and peas – you could never get enough of it."

-LLAP-

Later that night, well-fed by delicious home cooking and dressed in warm civvies, the five of them ended up in Jim's relatively roomy quarters, though they were still just a rectangle with the office furniture near the door, the bedroom furniture placed near the bathroom on the opposite wall from the entrance. Spock sat in Jim's desk chair, Uhura perched on his lap, their intertwined hands resting on her lap. Leonard reclined in Jim's reading chair, while Jim sprawled out on his bed, his head pillowed on Winona's leg. His arm rested in a sling again, for caution's sake, and Winona was mindful of this as she massaged it gently with one hand, her other smoothing his hair.

"Nyota," Spock was protesting.

She grinned teasingly, turning a pair of warm brown puppy eyes on her fiancée. "Come on, let me tell the story," she pleaded. "They know not to tell."

"No," Spock insisted.

She sighed, kissing his forehead. "One day."

"Please can it be today?" Leonard begged.

Spock shot him a stubborn glance.

"Jim, help me out here," Leonard said, glancing at the young man. "Order him- Never mind," he cut himself off, dropping his voice to a whisper.

Jim was fast asleep, oblivious to the world.

Uhura slid off Spock's lap. "That's our cue. Good night, guys."

As the couple made their exit, Leonard stood up and stretched. "Do you want help getting him properly settled?" he asked Winona.

"It's not a problem-" she started.

"I've done it a million times," Leonard reassured her. "Really, it's nothing. I like taking care of my baby brother. When it's not a life-threatening injury or illness or something like that, anyway."

Winona smiled. "He's lucky to have you."

Leonard snorted. "He knows it, too."

"All right," Winona agreed, reaching back to tug down the blankets.

Leonard carefully slid his arms underneath Jim's torso and legs. He stirred sleepily, complaining "Boooones" softly.

"Go back to sleep," Leonard urged quietly, lifting him to the space Winona had cleared – it was a maneuver much easier with a little girl, but they all knew he'd do anything for Jim. He settled Jim in the sprawled position he'd been in, pulling the covers over him. Jim burrowed into them as Winona shifted to sit beside him, holding him and stroking his hair, gazing down at him like he was her entire world.

"G'night, Bones," Jim mumbled.

"Ditto, kiddo."

-LLAP-

"Do you have to go?" Jim murmured.

It was the morning after, and he was walking her down to the transporter room, where she would beam to a cargo ship passing by on its way to Earth, and Carol would beam aboard from the planet the Enterprise was orbiting, her vacation over. After the long week and last night's long, revealing conversation before he fell asleep in her shelter, Jim was reluctant to let her go.

His mom nodded. "My conversation with Sam didn't end well, remember? Gotta fix that now."

"Oh. Right."

"There's no need to sound so dejected," she half-reassured, half-teased him. "We're back on good terms, but you do still have to share my attention with your brother. Plus, the Enterprise is your home, not mine."

"I know that. Just-"

"The last time we left like this, we didn't see or talk to each other for sixteen years," she finished.

"Yeah."

The doors to the transporter room slid open to admit them. She stopped inside, turning to face him and taking his hand. "How about, if I don't comm. you within a week, you can comm. and yell at me as much as you want?"

Jim half-laughed. "Maybe I'll even get Bones to yell at you, too. Might want to get Sam's kids out of the house."

His mom grinned and stretched up to kiss his cheek, enveloping him in one last hug. "Deal."

Jim hugged her back. "Talk to you later."

As they broke apart, a flash announced someone's arrival. Jim looked up with a grin, breaking away from his mom to hug her, greeting her with a long kiss. "Hey, Carol."

Carol grinned, her smile blinding until she noticed the sling. "What did you do to yourself this time?" she demanded, concern darkening her face.

"I had a run-in with the turbolift wall," he muttered, edging away from her probing fingers.

"It was a bit more than that," his mom chimed in. Glancing back, he saw her raising a pointed eyebrow at him, eyeing the way their hands lingered on each other. "You want to introduce us?"

He cleared his throat awkwardly. "Uh, Carol, this is my mom. Mom, this is Carol, my girlfriend."

Had she been eating, Carol probably would have choked on her food. "What? Mom?! I thought-"

Jim held up a hand to stop her. "It's been a long week. I'll explain later, ok? Meanwhile, Mom, don't you have a cargo ship to rendezvous with?"

"Aye, tha' she does."

Jim jumped. "Scotty? Why didn't you say anything?"

The engineer grinned mischievously. "Firs' off, I figured ye had seen me when ye walked in. Second, tha' there was very entertainin'."

Jim rolled his eyes. "Time to beam her off," he ordered, moving Carol's bags off the pad.

His mom stepped onto the pad. "I want to hear all about this," she said, gesturing at Carol, "when I comm. you."

"Really, Mom? Seriously? You've been my mom again for a few days, and you're already going there?" Jim moaned.

"Yes," she stated. "Bye, sweetheart."

"So," Carol began once she left. "Your mom, eh?"

Jim pulled her into a one-armed hug and kissed her forehead, staring at nothing. "Long week, Carol. A very long week."

Carol brushed against his hand. "Let's go to my quarters, and you can tell me all about it on the way, ok?"

He nodded, and Carol picked up her bags and led the way, managing to find a way to hold his hand as they walked. Jim talked, explaining his mother's arrival, his reaction, Bones and Spock's involvement, the panic attacks, the conversations, the away mission – everything, really. By the time he was done, they were in her quarters, and Carol had unpacked and dressed for their shift that had started ten minutes ago.

"Come here," she whispered, pulling him into a hug. "How about some quiet time and an old movie tonight, just the two of us?"

Tension eased from his being at the thought of curling up with her, no talking, just silent comfort – or listening to her talk about her week, and pretty much anything she said was soothing because of the effects of an attractive British accent.

"Sounds good to me. Now, we're late for our shift."

"Nothing new."

They meandered their way to the bridge, wandering out of the turbolift with their hands lightly clasped together.

"About damn time," Bones commented, stabbing his good arm with a hypo.

"Ow!" Jim yelped. "What the hell?"

"Just some belated protection against anything you might have picked up on that cursed planet. Welcome back, Carol," he added.

"Good to see you too, Leonard," she greeted, grinning.

"That hurt," Jim pouted.

Carol rubbed his arm. "Does the whittle Jimmy need a kiss to make the booboo stop hurting?"

Sulu and Chekov stifled laughter behind their hands.

Jim let out an exaggerated sigh and went to his chair, Bones standing behind him and Carol retreating to her own station. "We ready to go, Sulu?"

"At your command, sir," the pilot reported, still fighting back a laugh.

That's my family.

"Warp 2. Punch it."