They were out by the barn. Jim getting wood for the fireplace. His mom checking on the pony she’d bought from Mr. Jenkins up the road.
They, he and Spock, were there in Riverside in November to visit Jim’s mom. It would be a short visit. They were on leave. Jim had been surprised when Spock wanted to come with him. He supposed Spock’s recent breakup with Uhura had left him with no one to spend it with and no particular place to go.
They’d arrived that day. Had barely settled in.
“What’s between you and your first officer?” Mom asked.
“Between us?” Jim shook his head as he loaded wood into a wheelbarrow. “What do you mean?”
“I see the way you look at each other. There’s more there than friendship, isn’t there?”
Jim laughed. “No. There’s nothing between us like that, Mom. Honestly it took forever to even be friends.”
His mom frowned and came to sit on a little stone wall near where he worked.
“Really?”
Jim took a break from loading wood to go and sit by her. “The first time we met it was at an assembly to accuse me of cheating on a test he’d programmed. He detested me. Then when the distress signal came from Vulcan and we were on the Enterprise, well…”
“What?”
She hadn’t heard any of this before. She hadn’t told her.
“We had a…a fight. We disagreed on what was to be done to battle against Nero. You have to understand, Mom, he loathed me at that point.”
She pursed her lips. “Go on.”
“He had them dispose of me.”
“Dispose of you?” she asked sharply. “Just what does that mean?”
“He sent me off the ship in a pod that landed on Delta Vega.”
“The ice planet?”
“Mm.”
“I don’t understand. Isn’t that against Starfleet regulations?”
Jim shrugged slightly. “Yes. Save for the appearance of…of another…I would have lost my life there. It was inhabited by giant creatures who wished to make a meal of me.”
“Jim!”
Jim looked away. “Even now I sometimes think of that time. When I returned to the Enterprise, Spock…tried to strangle me.”
She stared at him, coldness in her eyes. “And how is it that he was not brought up on charges?”
“It was a long time ago and his mother had just died.” Jim shook his head. “I’ve made peace with it.”
“I’m glad you have because I’m furious!”
“Mom.” He reached over and took her hand. “I don’t tell you this to make you hate Spock. It’s just…I’m explaining why it took us so long to even be friends. Until recently he was in a long term relationship with a human woman. We’re friends now. Good ones. But there’s…Spock isn’t interested in me that way.”
She sniffed. “Well his loss.” She patted his leg. “I’m going to go get dinner started unless you need help.”
“No, I got this.”
A few minutes after his mother left, Spock approached and began to help him put wood in the wheelbarrow.
“You done with meditating?”
“Yes.”
Spock seemed pensive and kept glancing Jim’s way.
“What?”
“May we speak, Jim?”
Jim straightened. “Sure. What’s on your mind?”
“I…I was unaware you still thought about your time on Delta Vega.”
Jim looked at him in surprise. ”You heard?”
“It was not my intention to eavesdrop. I did overhear though.”
“Well. I can’t lie. Sometimes I do think about that. I’ve dreamed about it.”
“Jim, I would never—”
He held up his hands to stop him. “I know, Spock. I know we aren’t there anymore.”
Spock stared at him, dark eyes tumultuous. “I have definitely been too subtle.”
“Hmm?”
“Jim, I wished to come with you because—”
“You had nowhere else to go?” Jim guessed. “I mean we didn’t have time to go to New Vulcan.”
“I did not wish to go to New Vulcan. I chose to come with you because I want to be with you.”
Jim blinked. “Uh. Like-like a friend?”
Spock slowly shook his head.
“Damn.”
“I am uncertain as to what that response means,” Spock said.
Jim nodded. “Then let me show you.”
He stepped forward, grabbed the collar of Spock’s sweater and pulled him into a deep kiss. He smiled. “Well?”
“Enough talking.” Spock pulled him into his arms and covered his mouth with his.
After a few more minutes, Jim stepped back, eyes shining. “Let’s go start a fire. Mom’s going to be surprised.”
“I do not think she likes me.”
Jim laughed. “She’ll grow to love you. Trust me.”
“And you?”
“I’m already there.” He took Spock’s hand. “To the future.”
Comments
33 responses to “Flash Fic, November 09, 2022”
I love Jim’s mom here. She got his number and quick. But I also love her reaction to Jim’s story. So perfect. But then Spock swooping in with “I have been too subtle”. Chefs kiss.
Excellent.
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thank you my friend!
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Oh I wanna live there!
I do not, however, want my food out on that mucky ground! LOL
Now for the hard part.
This is perhaps the most honest of anything I’ve read of them.
Because yes, if my son told me those things, I wouldn’t have finished. I’d have taken a stick to Spock and run him off my place and forbade him to ever return. I don’t care WHAT Jim said.
I mean, have we ever considered what would have happened to Spock if one of those monsters HAD killed Jim? There wouldn’t even be a body to recover for a funeral or burial.
And since it was against regulations, Spock would have been court martialed and imprisoned.
So not only does Jim owe his life to Spock Prime, so does young Spock. And the mess that makes to the time continuum and … well, this is why I personally believe time travel is not a thing of possibility. If it were, all our problems would have been solved by future travelers and we’d have never seen them!
(I think?)
Anyway, there’s a Shaq commercial where his mom is on a game show and she rings the buzzer before the emcee even asks the next question and answers correctly. Shaq just says something like Mom’s are ALWAYS right! LOL
And in this case, she was!
(And a much more forgiving and gracious Human than I ever could be).
I’m glad Jim was up front with her, but I’m even more glad Spock overheard.
We can’t change the past – but the guys were sure on their way to change the future.
Just AWESOME AWESOME Fic! I’m so glad I’m here to read it.
And of course…..this one I’d love to see on AO3.
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(of course, in truth, had Jim been killed on Delta Vega, the Enterprise AND Spock would have been destroyed, as well as many Federation planets by Nero…so I guess, NOTHING would have happened to young Spock particularly for his causing Jim’s death. He just would have died at the ‘confab’ he had ordered them to attend with everyone else.)
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Exactly. If that doesn’t prove who the real genius is (ahem not Spock) I don’t know what does lol
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Absoutely. From the moment Jim started piecing all the puzzle together about Nero’s initial attack forward. Jim saved PLANETS of people – including Earth. Trillions and trillions of lives and future lives. Period.
(BTW – I totally admit I was wrong back in 2017 and our discussions. WAY wrong. [I believe that is what led you to lead ME to Shine Like The Sun]. I just hadn’t dug into it, taking it as just another feel-good ST movie. There is knowledge smarts – and there is tactical smarts. Both are important. In this case, tactical smarts are what saved those trillions of lives – MUCH more important.)
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Tactical smarts definitely won the day
I still read and read and read Shine Like the Sun. Definitely a stellar example of Spirk fanfic if ever there was one
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Me too. At least once every couple of months.
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Isn’t that picture cool? I love picking pictures to post here. So many good choices. And I 100% agree with no food on the ground! LOL
I just couldn’t get it out of my head how Winona would feel about how Jim was treated on that first voyage if she ever heard about it. Plus I’ve always thought Jim would have nightmares considering those creatures that were after him. I mean yeah that’s another thing kind of brushed off, though Jim DOES mention he thinks it’s against regulations, but I know if I were Jim’s parent I’d be a little frosty to Spock at minimum. Fortunately, Spock Prime DID save the day allowing them all to survive
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Heck yeah he’d have nightmares – to join his Tarsus IV nightmares.
Seriously, if not for meditation, and particular after learning about the monsters AND Tarsus IV Jim survived, I wouldn’t know how Spock could even live with himself after what he did to Jim.
I don’t think I could were it me.
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I think Spock is indeed lucky that Jim has a massive amount of forgiveness in him 🙂
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I enjoyed reading this flash. I’m with Winona! I’d be mad as a wet he if my kid was treated that way! Like seriously?!! Spock was definitely not thinking at that moment. Sending Jim down to an ice planet in a pod!
Love Spock eavesdropping and his comment that he’s been too subtle. Yep, you have. Once Jim catches on though, he’s onboard with the idea! I’m sure Winona will relent and come to love Spock when she sees how happy he makes Jim now!
❤️💚😘🖖
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thanks I am sure it will take her a bit of time to thaw out but it’ll happen
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BTW Where can I find Shine Like the Sun mentioned above?
🤷🏻♀️
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I have a PDF copy of it, not sure if it’s still available online. Maybe J knows. J???
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I had looked on ao3, but it’s not there. So after I asked you, I tried Googling it on my phone’s safari and found it that way on Live Journal.
https://kyliselle.livejournal.com/13917.html
I just feel so alone snd depressed today. I just needed something to read. 😘❤️💚
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Yeah it was always on LiveJournal but wasn’t sure it was still there
I think I created my own PDF of it to be able to read it. It’s amazing if you’ve never gotten the chance. One of my first ones I ready and absolutely inspired me to write in the fandom
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Shine Like the Sun on the author’s LiveJournal page: https://kyliselle.livejournal.com/13917.html
I’d suggest saving it because so many awesome things have disappeared from LiveJournal. And most of these people quit writing ST or spirk years ago.
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No idea how to save it.
Could saving it on my IPhone notes save it? Or no? Because it would still link to live journal?
I’m computer/ technology illiterate. 🤷🏻♀️
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I used to have your email address – I’d just send it to ya! Do you email with Ivan? Ivan has my email address – I’ll send it to Ivan and Ivan can email it to you.
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I don’t have anyone’s email address sorry (well not Evenings anyway)
What I did was copied each chapter and then cut and pasted it into a document and then saved it to PDF.
I didn’t fix typos LOL
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That’s exactly how I did it.
And trust me, by the third time you read it, and see the same typos over and over – you get tired of them and fix them. I didn’t fix them the first couple of reads either because it was practically sacred to me – didn’t want to touch a word. Then….nah!
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As I said I painstakingly right clicked on each chapter (highlighting the text) and copied it and then put it into a word doc
Don’t know any other way, sorry to say
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Yeah, I put it into a word document and I can read it as often and easily as I wish!
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(This is tacky as crap, so don’t tell anyone. But putting it in Word, I could correct the typos! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ )
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LOL
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And then you made your pdf from the word doc right?
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exactamundo
I find reading books/stories easier as a PDF then a word, a personal thing
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And I like Word better because depending on how my eyes feel on a given day, I have much more control over font size than a pdf. Though I download fics off AO3 in pdf and read those all the time. I just save the ones I wanna keep special in Word. (Plus – I know, I like to fix typos. And EVERYTHING has them. And for a one-time read, no problem. But for something I dearly love and read all the time, I keep expecting mistakes to not be there the next time I read it – lol – silly me. So those I like to fix.)
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J I found your email address, on my mostly unused alternative email account. I’ve used it like half a dozen times. I sent you an email… like what else would I send on it? Lol! .
🤷🏻♀️🖖
Thanks, 😘
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I got it and just sent back what you requested! (I hope it worked anyway)
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❤
To the future, indeed 🙂
I'm looking forward to the of the stories this month!
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thanks!
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