Thank you for all the kind reviews!
I wasn't planning on keep going with the story, but this one just popped into my head. I believe this time it's over for real, though. =)
Author's Notes: This not beta-ed, so feel free to point at any errors you find.
Disclaimer: I own nothing or no one. Kirk's been following me around by his own will, I'm not forcing him into anything.

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The yearly observance of the Kelvin at the Starfleet Headquarters in San Francisco was more than a personal tradition to Jim Kirk. He'd been to every single one of those ceremonies, even the ones he'd been too young to remember, and they'd all been the same. He would sit at the front row reserved for the families of the fallen crew members - first with his grandfather and his brother, then only with his grandfather, and ever since he was sixteen, alone - and allow Starfleet to parade his pain as the main symbol of the sacrifice his father had made, a sacrifice that should always be honored and never forgotten.

This year, though, things were different. He was placed in a different tribune, and did not sit there as George Kirk's son. He sat beside his crew as the Starfleet Flag Ship Captain, as the hero who had saved Earth and finally brought light and justice to the tragedy of the Kelvin. This was the first observance of the Kelvin after the Narada had been destructed and Jim had been named captain of the Enterprise. This was also, by Starfleet Command decision, the last time the attack on the Kelvin would be observed as an independent ceremony. After this, the fallen members of the Kelvin would be honored in the same ceremony that would start to be held in Vulcan's honor, given that the two tragedies were related. And Jim wasn't sure how he felt about it.

He rationally understood that things were different now, and that the lost of Vulcan was infinitely bigger than the lost of the Kelvin. He could understand that there was no point in holding two different ceremonies for things caused by the same enemy for the very same reason - they were in reality two acts of the same tragedy. Jim could understand those things, and every other reason he'd been given for such decision. What Jim could not understand nor accept was that, this time, instead of honoring his heroic father, Starfleet was honoring him. Him. Today he was not James Tiberius Kirk, son of Lieutenant George Kirk, but Captain James T. Kirk, of the USS Enterprise. He had been chosen to replace his father as a Starfleet hero. And it felt wrong to him in so many levels Jim didn't even know where to start. Things may have changed around him, but that didn't mean he had to agree with them. He still felt like the fatherless boy sitting there so everyone could value the magnitude of George Kirk's sacrifice.

It felt strange for him to be sitting in a different place from the one he was used to, and with his crewmates, his friends, beside him. He had never allowed any of his friends to accompany him in those ceremonies, not even Bones, and now they were all there. People he had fought beside, and whose lives were now his responsibility. Spock, Uhura and Checov sat quietly to his left, and to his right Jim could hear Sulu whispering something to Scotty and Bones. He paid no mind to them as his eyes scanned the crowd for the one face he'd learned to associate with these ceremonies: Captain Pierre Robau's daughter. Anissa K. Robau was now a commander of the Starfleet Diplomatic Corp, and Jim considered her to be the only other real orphan child of the Kelvin beside himself.

As he expected, she was sitting in the front row reserved for the family of the fallen crew members, her eyes lost gazing at the Starfleet logo as she always did during those long rites. The familiarity of her look stirred something in him. She looked so much like what he'd learn to expect from her in every single time he'd seen her during those ceremonies that he wondered if it hadn't occurred to her that things were different. Jim sighed. Finding the truth about the attack on the Kelvin had been as hard on her as it had been on him, and Jim was sure she had felt the changes under her own skin. On the other hand, she didn't seem as restless and troubled as he was - shouldn't she be mad at him for taking her father's place? Jim shook his head at the childish of his thoughts, but he couldn't help wondering about how she felt about the whole thing.

With the ceremony just about to start, he made up his mind. He stood up from his place in the tribune specially reserved for the crew of the Enterprise and marched to the area reserved for the families. He could hear Bones and Uhura calling him, and he knew Spock was citing regulations on how he was supposed to sit here and not there, but he ignored them. All that confusion in his head and those weird feelings in his chest were suffocating him, and he desperately wanted to find some normalcy to ground himself. He stopped next to Anissa, and she raised her eyes to meet his. Instead of the confusion and pain he'd expected to find in them, he saw only pride. Anissa was proud of him, and that made him only more confused. He wasn't supposed to be the hero of the day, their fathers were.

Jim broke eye contact and sat on the empty chair next to her, staring into the Starfleet logo. Anissa's gaze followed his eyes and they sat in silence for a moment. When the ceremony started, she reached out a hand and patted his thigh lovingly before letting her hand rest on his knee. Jim passed his arm around her chair and placed his hand on her shoulder. She rested her head on his shoulder and sighed, whispering just to him.

"Weird, huh?" Jim couldn't help the laugh that formed in his throat. Yep, she definitely understood how he felt.

"Tell me about it!" They shared a quiet laugh, then remained in comfortable silence during the whole ceremony, Jim holding Anissa firmly in his arms as she rested a comforting hand on his leg. He could feel his senior officers staring at him with confusion, but he paid no mind to them. He had enough confusion of his own to deal with.

Once the ceremony was over, Jim and Anissa remained in their seats. Jim kept running a hand up and down her arm, and watched as his senior officers passed through him in their way out staring at him suspiciously. Bones raised a questioning eyebrow at him, and Jim answered it with a tired but honest smile. Bones understood he was being dismissed, and only nodded in return. Once everybody was gone, Jim turned to her and voiced the questions that had bugged him during the entire ceremony.

"Aren't you upset?"

He didn't have to explain any further, he was sure she would know what he was talking about. Anissa sighed.

"Not really… I guess it's time for us to find some closure. Maybe this is what we need to move on, you know?"

Jim hadn't thought about it that way. She was better at putting things into perspective than he was, and he'd lived through so many changes in the past few months he wasn't sure if he could - or wanted to - deal with yet another one. She turned her face to him and stared deeply into his eyes before she went on.

"Besides, when or where is not the matter, but how we honor them. And I think we're doing a pretty decent job, aren't we? I mean, look at you!"

Jim could see that pride in her eyes again, and it made him uncomfortable. He understood her reasoning and knew she was probably right, but that wasn't exactly the part that was bothering him. He looked away from her. Could she understand that he felt like he was stealing their fathers' places in history? Despite everything that had happened and how he had proved himself over and over again ever since joining Starfleet, Jim still didn't think of himself as worth being put on the same level as his father. He sighed. This whole thing was a mess in his head.

"Jim?" He looked at Anissa, and saw her staring intently at him, almost as if she was trying to read his mind. That was probably what she was doing, anyways. "That's not what's eating you, is it?"

Jim smiled faintly at her and he shook his head.

"No…" He trailed off and she waited for him to find the right words. "It doesn't feel right. They're placing me beside my dad, beside you dad, as if I was as good as them. I don't think I deserve that. It feels like I'm stealing their place or something… It's like I'm cheating my way through history." Jim looked back at her, and she was smiling tenderly at him.

"You are a cheater."

"Anie…" Jim started to protest but she brought a finger to his mouth and cut him off.

"I have seen you cheating your way through life, beating all the odds and becoming a great man. That's part of who you are." She moved her hand to cup his face. "I cannot say I'm happy that my father is not the hero of the day anymore, but I know his sacrifice won't be forgotten. My dad has his place, and you have earned yours. And I'm proud of you for that." Running a thumb gently over his cheek, she held his gaze solemnly for a moment before continuing. "The Kelvin may have taken away my father, but it gave me a brother."

Jim stared at her intently, a myriad of emotions swimming in his chest, and he was startled to realize how deeply he returned the feelings she had just expressed. A familiar presence behind him brought Jim back from his reveries, and he broke eye contact with Anissa to turn and face Spock as her hand fell to his lap. The Vulcan gave his captain a short nod and spoke quietly in an emotionless tone.

"Captain, your crew waits for you outside. They would like to know if they are dismissed for the evening."

Jim blinked. He'd completely forgotten this had been an official event for his crew, so they actually needed his permission to leave. Running a hand through his face to recompose himself, he sighed.

"Yeah, Spock. You're all dismissed. Sorry to keep you waiting."

Spock nodded again and was turning to leave when Anissa's voice stopped him.

"Wait!" Both Spock and Jim turned to her with raised eyebrows, and Anissa raised an eyebrow back at Jim, amusement written all over her beautiful face. "Aren't you going to introduce me to your crew?"

Jim shared a quick look with Spock, then turned back to Anissa. She was smiling at him so brightly he knew she had to be up to something. Jim narrowed his eyes at her a little, but instead of finding out what she was planning, the only thing he got from her was a wink. He raised a playful eyebrow at her.

"Do I wanna know what is going on in this pretty head of yours?"

She looked briefly at Spock then locked her eyes with Jim again, the devilish grin on her face letting him know he was in for big trouble.

"I heard rumors around the Diplomatic Corp about how a little Romulan ale can turn any diplomatic meeting involving the Enterprise crew into a kick ass party."

Jim finally realized what she had in mind, and he smirked. He could already imagine his crew's reaction when Anissa drank both Bones and Scotty under the table. Spock's face alone should be totally worth it. He raised an eyebrow and his grin grew to match hers.

"Party? You wanna party with my crew?"

Grin firm in place, Anissa winked at him. "Hey, it's your birthday, isn't it?"

Jim sobered up a little after her comment but, before he could protest, she raised a finger to his lips then ran a hand through his face, cupping his cheek. She spoke quietly, but her tone left no margin for doubts.

"The fallen fathers have been mourned enough, and they'll always be remembered. Now it's time to start celebrating the rising children."

The intensity of the emotion in her eyes was enough to silence and convince Jim, so he only nodded. Anissa smiled brightly at him and kissed his cheek before standing up. She took his hands and brought him up, then turned to Spock, who had watched the whole exchange silently.

"Very well Mr. Spock, lead the way. I'm eager to meet Lieutenant Uhura!"

Spock tilted his head and raised an eyebrow at Anissa.

"I'm surprised you have heard of the Lieutenant, Commander Robau."

Anissa looked mischievously at Jim, then turned to Spock and smirked.

"All I know about her is that it took Jim three years to figure out her first name, and that only happened because he never learned not to overhear other people's conversations. Though I must say that's enough information to know I'm gonna like her"

Spock shot her what Jim had come to recognize as an amused look, and Anissa laughed at the Vulcan's reaction. Jim shook his head and laughed softly, his hand resting on the small of her back as he led her outside. There was no way he was going to say no to her. Not today, anyways.