Another wonderful fanfic I want to recommend. It's a prequel to STXI, to fill in some plotholes the movie had. Like the question WHY somebody like Pike got to look after a few wanna-be cadets. Why the Enterprise was build on Earth instead of Spacedock and how exactly Jim and Bones ended up in that shuttle. ;)

Convergence by mijan
Summary: Christopher Pike wasn't supposed to be in Iowa, but there he was, weighing his future against scales that would never balance. Jim Kirk had given up on his future long ago. Leonard McCoy's past had been pulled out from underneath him, and he was ready to let his future go with it. Paths converge in the least likely places as three people realize that their futures are what they make of them.
Note: Prequel to "And All the King's Men." This takes place a few months before AAtKM, during the Riverside sequence in the ST:XI movie.