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“You’re not going in there, Jim!”

“The hell I’m not,” Jim insisted to Bones, who had grabbed onto him to prevent him from going into the farmhouse after the Klingon.

“I’m your doctor and I forbid it. Now I know Spock did his mumbo jumbo to your head and now you mostly remember, but you were injected with a drug that wasn’t meant for you and you had a bad reaction. I need to thoroughly examine you back on the ship before I clear you for regular duty!”

“This is hardly normal circumstances and I need to…where’s Spock?” Jim looked around the immediate area and sure enough his husband and first office was nowhere to be seen.

But before he could panic too much, the Vulcan appeared carrying the other now unconscious Klingon.

Jim turned to Bones, giving him the stink-eye. “You deliberately distracted me while Spock went in there, didn’t you?”

“You bet I did. I meant every word too.”

“This isn’t over.”

Bones snorted. “Seems over to me. Now let’s get the other one and get back to our time.  And our mess. Let’s leave theirs to them.”

Jim looked back at the farmhouse. The pumpkins and the scarecrows. A much earlier version of the same house he had grown up in.

He suddenly felt such sorrow it nearly brought him to his knees. This had been a happy place once.

“Jim?” Spock spoke softly.

“Yeah, I’m coming.”

****

“This is the place?”

“So it would seem.”

Jim eyed Spock. “How do we do that with twiddle dee and dum here? Do we have to go through all five us at once? How is that going to work?”

“I am fairly certain I can carry them through with me, you two just need to keep up.” Spock sounded amused. Jim was anything but.

“Ha ha.”

“Can we speed this up?” Bones asked. “I’m getting nervous. I don’t want this thing to close on us so we can’t go back.”

“Okay, okay. You’re such a weenie,” Jim teased.

“Just call me Doctor…you know what? Never mind. You totally would.”

“Ready?” Spock asked.

“Wait! I can’t leave.”

Bones and Spock gaped at him.

“Not until I find out who shot JR.”

“It was Kristin,” Spock said calmly.

“Kristin? Are you sure?”

“Who’s Kristin?” Bones asked. “Who the hell is JR?”

“Yes, Kristin. Let’s go, Captain.”

“I can’t believe it. I mean I guess it makes some sort of sense,” Jim said, then he said, “Go!”

A moment later they ran back out of the Guardian of Forever.

But there were only three of them. Spock, Bones and Jim.

“Damn! The Klingons!”

“Fear Not,” the booming mechanical voice of the Guardian spoke. “The Klingons have been returned to their Bird of Prey in their sector. They will have no memory of their time in Earth Nineteen Eighty.”

“Are you sure?” Jim asked.

“Yes, Captain Kirk. When you return to your ship, you too will have no memory from your time there. We will see to that.”

“And did I change history? Did they? My ancestor…James Kirk…”

“He is once more alive in Riverside at the farmhouse in 1980.”

That made Jim happy.

“Thanks. Is he okay?”

“He is in good health and has no recollection of any adverse events.”

“You mean of being dead?” Jim asked, dryly. “Did they do that?”

“Your appearance necessitated his temporary removal. Had you remained, he would have ceased to exist as he was known.” There was a long pause. “As would many others. You are responsible for the lives of millions having been saved, Captain Kirk. Do not take that lightly.”

“I don’t.”

“Goodbye.”

And the Guadian went dark.

Still Jim lingered and after a moment he realized he and Spock were alone. Bones had gone off to the beam up point.

“Jim?”

“I’m just…in a lot of ways, I really liked living in 1980.  I liked the house. Decorating for fall. The simplicity. Free of all the complications in my real life. It was…good for a while.”

Spock shook his head and drew Jim into his arms. “I am not certain you would adapt to such a life long term. You are not a sedentary sort who can spend his nights on the couch watching television.”

“But see, Spock, that’s exactly what I did. And I don’t know, for the time I was there, I really wasn’t bored.”

“It was an escape from reality that perhaps you required.” Spock tilted his head. “And Becky?”

Jim smiled. “She was a nice lady but to be honest I don’t even remember that much about her or the time I spent with her. She…never felt right. Not for me.”

“And?”

Jim kissed him. “You’re the only one who’s ever felt right.”

“I am gratified.”

For a long time they just held each other.

“There is no where I would not go to retrieve thee,” Spock said softly in Vulcan.

“I know.” Jim briefly touched their foreheads together.

“Shall we?”

“Mm. Still it would have been nice to remember all that happened there. It’s already fading though.”

“Indeed.”

They started walking away from the Guardian.

“I don’t think she’s right for him either.”

“Becky?”

“Uh-huh. She wants him to move to Colorado. I don’t think he should.”

Spock made a humming sound. Jim looked at him.

“You know something?”

“You are quite correct. He does not go to Colorado with Becky.”

“I knew it! That’s great.”

Spock shook his head, took Jim’s hand, and led him to where Bones stood waiting. Spock handed Jim his communicator.

“Kirk to Enterprise. Energize.”