We start June’s flashes with a little melancholy.
Though the mission had been very successful, Jim found himself incredibly tired and he just wanted to go straight to his quarters and to bed.
He stiffened automatically when Bones approached.
“You need to come in and let me check you out.”
“Nothing happened, Bones. I’m fine.”
Bones shook his head. “I’ll be the judge of that.”
“I just want to go to bed.”
“This won’t take long,” his friend insisted without sympathy. He steered Jim into sickbay. “Now sit there on that biobed while I scan you.”
Jim did, mostly because he was too weary to argue. He did mutter, “No one attacked me.”
Bones ignored him again and lifted up his scanner and moved all along Jim. Eventually lowered it and declared, “You seem to be okay.”
“Told you.” He slipped off the bed.
“Come on to the mess and have dinner with me.”
“I just want to go to bed.”
“You gotta eat. Come on.”
Jim let himself be dragged to the mess room even though he wasn’t hungry. Bones ordered him pasta with vodka sauce, normally something he really liked, but he just stabbed at it and barely took a bite. It seemed like too much effort to chew.
“You’re not eating much.”
“Not that hungry.”
“Are you sure everything went all right down there?”
“Couldn’t have gone better.” Jim smiled. “Just tired, Bones.”
Bones sighed. “All right. Go on. I won’t keep you.”
Relieved, Jim got up and started to leave the mess room, but his exit was blocked by Uhura.
“Captain, do you have a moment?”
“Well, not really. I was on my way to go to bed.”
“Don’t worry, this won’t take long.”
Jim pursed his lips. “Okay, shoot.”
“I wanted to go over my report about the recommendations I made regarding communications—”
Jim’s mind wandered and he struggled to pay attention.
“Captain?”
“Whatever you want, Lieutenant. You have my permission.”
“Really?” She seemed eager, yet skeptical.
“Yeah, you’re in charge of communications, you make the decisions. Provided it doesn’t violate any Starfleet policies or regulations.”
“It doesn’t.”
“Good. Now, excuse me.”
He reached the corridor.
“Keptin—”
“Tomorrow, Pavel.”
Finally he got into the turbolift. Unfortunately it was occupied.
“I’m ready for that drink now,” Scotty told him, cheerfully.
“Drink?”
“Aye. You said you’d come have a drink with me. I’m on my way to engineering and I happen to have a bottle of scotch there. Don’t tell the captain of course,” Scotty joked.
“Scotty—”
“Just a wee one. Won’t take long.”
Jim nodded and tried not to sag against the wall of the turbolift.
He followed Scotty to Engineering.
He’d taken two sips of the scotch when his vision blurred and he would have gone down except he was suddenly held by two very strong Vulcan arms. Even though everything was blurry, he would have recognized those arms anywhere.
“Excuse us,” Spock spoke to Scotty. “The captain is going to bed.”
He could have kissed Spock and maybe he did, Jim didn’t know.
The next thing he was conscious of was being undressed and placed in bed in his quarters.
“Thanks,” he whispered.
Spock tucked him beneath the covers and then sat on the edge of the bed. “Do you need anything else, ashayam?”
“No. Just tired.”
“I know. It’s been a rough day.” Spock leaned over and brushed Jim’s hair off his forehead. “Your brother is at peace now.”
“How’d you know I was thinking of Sam?”
Spock tapped his head and Jim chuckled softly.
“Yeah. Thank you, love, for understanding.”
“I do. Go to sleep. It will be a new day tomorrow.”
Jim closed his eyes.
On a lark, I asked the AI here to create an image of Captain Kirk asleep, I am attaching it here (naturally they went with Bill although it’s almost a mix!)
Spirk (with a small dose of Pinto) 