“My ankle is killing me. I need to rest.” Jim panted and slunk down on the nearest rock. It felt like maybe his ankle had shattered. It was excruciating.
Spock, though, was giving him that sort of almost frown. “Captain, we should keep on moving.”
“I know that, Spock. I need a moment.”
They had been running for a couple of hours on this stupid planet. The inhabitants had not been friendly but they hadn’t been aware of them for a while. Jim was pretty sure they had lost them. But they’d also got lost themselves.
They had to meet up with the rest of the party at the beam up point. Spock had been trying to keep them both moving.
Five minutes passed.
“Captain.”
Jim gritted his teeth and stood. “Okay.”
He made it another mile but then he fell onto his knees, crying out in pain.
“Jim!”
Jim groaned. “I can’t do it, Spock. You’re going to have to keep going.”
Spock had crouched down beside Jim. “And leave you?”
“Yeah. I can’t walk like this. I can’t move. I can’t even put weight on it anymore.” Jim shook his head. “You’re going to have to go to the beam up point.”
“There is absolutely no way that I am going to abandon you here.”
“You have to, Spock. It’s ridiculous for both of us to be stuck here. You go on and they’ll have to send a medical team for me.” Jim only hoped their unfriendly hosts didn’t find him there.
Spock shook his head. “There is no scenario that includes me leaving you behind.”
“Spock, your duty—”
“Is to you,” Spock responded. “The Enterprise will survive without us. I will not survive without you.”
Jim blinked at Spock, his jaw dropping open.
Spock’s nostrils flared.
“Is there something maybe you’d like to declare, Spock?” Jim asked, trying to keep his tone neutral.
“This is hardly the place or time.”
“True. So then—”
“I will be carrying you.”
“Carrying me? Spock, you can’t—”
“I can.”
“That’s pretty humiliating,” Jim groused.
Spock gave him a look, Jim stopped arguing, and allowed his first officer to swoop him up into his arms. Their gazes met.
Jim smiled. “Same, by the way.”
Spock shook his head. “You are impossible.”
“Yep. All right, Mister Spock. Get us out of here.”
Jim chuckled. Okay, sure, he was feeling pretty good considering he’d nearly been killed. It was no doubt the pain meds he was being given. Happy Juice.
“I was thinking that I ought to save the life of a very important serving officer of Starfleet. Very valuable.”
“Did it occur to you that description applied to you too and should leave that to your security guards?”
“Nope,” he said cheerfully.
“Nope?” Bones shook his head and jabbed Jim with a hypo. That Happy Juice was magic. He hadn’t even felt that. “Well, you are the captain of this bucket of bolts, you know.”
“Sure, sure. But Spock could take over.”
“Spock does not want to take over,” Spock himself said stoically as he approached Jim’s biobed. “And he does not appreciate you risking your life unnecessarily.”
Jim waved this away. Or he thought he did anyway.
“Someone had to save you, Sweetheart.”
Spock flicked his glance to Bones, who shrugged. Then Bones walked away and Spock moved closer.
“How do you feel, Captain?”
“Like all my blood drained out and then got put back in.” Jim smiled and held out his hand, which Spock took. “How are you feeling, Sweetheart?”
“I am feeling well, thanks to your actions that prevented my injury.”
“Well, good. You are welcome, Sweetheart.”
Spock frowned.
“What?”
“That is the third time you called me sweetheart.”
“And? Oh, I know! You prefer another endearment. Honey? Baby? Sugar?”
“Sweetheart is acceptable. But you have…that is…you have never called me an endearment before.”
“No?” Jim licked his lips. Shook his head. “We are doing it, yeah?”
Spock nearly laughed. Jim could see the twitch of his lips and the merriment in his eyes.
“Yes, Jim. Although not at the moment,” Spock said gravely.
“Okay then.” He paused, arched both brows. “You don’t like endearments?”
“Actually, I find that I do.” Spock touched the tips of his fingers to Jim’s. “I have one for your.” He leaned down and whispered it int Jim’s ear.
“What?” Even as Spock asked the question, the cats claws dug into his skin painfully, but Spock dared not let him go.
“My cat. That cat belongs to my wife and me,” the man explained. “I saw the notices about looking for the cat’s owners.” He grinned. “Well, you found me!”
Automatically, Spock took a backwards step. He couldn’t even explain why.
“So.” The man held out his hands. “Give him over.”
“What is the cat’s name?” Spock heard himself ask.
“Hmm?” The man frowned. “The name?”
“Yes. You should know his name.”
“Well, of course I know his name! It’s…Kirk.”
Spock’s blood ran cold. It made no sense. It was likely a mere coincidence that this man would name this cat Kirk. And yet…Spock rarely observed coincidences.
“If it’s a reward you want—”
“No, I do not want a reward. I do not believe this is your cat.”
The man’s face reddened. “How dare you! Give me that cat.”
Bombay hissed and this time as he scratched at Spock’s neck, he had no choice but to release the cat. But rather than fly past the fedora man, Bombay ran toward Spock’s bedroom, presumably to hide.
“I demand that you leave my house,” Spock said coldly.
“I want that cat, it belongs to me!”
“I think not.”
The man stepped closer to Spock, who’d had enough. He reached up and pinched the man’s shoulders and watched as he slid to the floor, unconscious.
A while later, he went to his bedroom to seek out Bombay’s hiding place. He crouched down by the bed.
“It is all right. He is gone, taken off by the authorities for trespassing.”
He could see the cat’s glowing eyes under the bed.
Taking a chance, though strange it was, Spock said, “Come, Jim. It is all right. I will help you.”
And then the cat slunk out from under the bed and onto Spock’s lap on the floor.
Jim felt vaguely silly carrying the stuffed animal he held in his arms to a convalescing Vulcan, but he was doing that actual thing.
He heard low voices as he approached Spock’s hospital room and for a moment he hesitated, thinking Uhura was probably in there with him, but just as he took a step backward, a somewhat harried looking nurse appeared.
“You here for Mister Spock, Captain?”
He nodded.
She grimaced. “Good luck.”
Then she walked away.
With a slight shrug, he went through the doorway and into Spock’s room. The Vulcan was sitting up, his usually impeccable bowl cut mussy. He cradled a cup of tea in his hands and in front of him was an untouched plate of food.
“Hey,” Jim greeted him with a smile.
“Captain!” Spock straightened like he planned to salute or something.
“At ease, Spock. I’m not here as your captain, but your friend.” Jim thrust the stuffy at him. “Uh. This is a…”
Spock stared at the stuffed creature in his hands. “A sehlat?”
Jim felt his face flush. “Yeah. Um, so your dad—”
“My father?”
“Yes. He told me where I could get one.” Jim chuckled self-consciously. “Your dad’s okay.”
Spock’s gaze moved to the sehlat. “Thank you.”
Jim smiled and put it on the table beside the bed. “Uh, I don’t know if I…did I properly thank you for saving my life yet again?”
“Thanks are unnecessary.”
“They probably are.”
Spock shook his head, his gaze rather intense.
“Well, uh.” Jim cleared his throat. “We weren’t even on the ship.”
“An assassin attempted to end your life, I have no regrets.” Spock paused. “Fortunately.”
Jim licked his lips. “I’m just glad you’ll be okay. And that fucker was taken into custody. Did they say when you’ll be released?”
“Two more nights,” Spock said, sounding bitter. “I do not believe it is required. They think otherwise.”
Jim hid a smile. “I ran into one of your nurses.”
“A most disagreeable woman. You should sit, Captain.”
“Jim.” He looked around for a chair, but Spock padded a space on the bed. Surprised, Jim blinked and sat on the small space there. “I’m surprised Uhura isn’t here with you.”
“Nyota was here earlier to see me but she left some time ago.”
“She coming back later?”
Spock frowned slightly. “Perhaps tomorrow.”
“Oh? I thought she’d want to stay close the whole time you are here.”
Spock shook his head. “We are not together.”
“What?”
“Jim, we dissolved our relationship before the attack on Altamid.”
“But…I thought after you helped rescue her and at my party you guys seemed to be reconciling.”
“We considered it for a brief time,” Spock acknowledged. “But it became clear that it would not work considering the depth of our emotional attachment to each other had altered.”
Jim shook his head to clear it. “Uh. Okay.” Sometimes he really wished Spock would find an easy way to say something. “Why is that?”
Spock held out his hand toward Jim, who though surprised, took Spock’s hand in his.
“My affections are for someone else,” Spock said simply.
“For someone…” Jim’s eyes widened as he looked into those dark chocolate eyes. “Oh.”
Spock’s lips curved into an almost smile. “Yes. Oh.”
Jim laughed, feeling rather giddy as he leaned forward for Spock’s kiss.
The rest of the day proved to be fairly normal, but in the morning when Spock went to leave his apartment, Bombay ran out the door.
“Bombay, come back,” Spock called after the feline, but the cat was gone out of the outside courtyard.
At first, Spock wasn’t sure if he should go after him. Bombay wasn’t his and perhaps the cat had decided to leave to seek his real home. But then Spock knew that he could not just let the cat go without knowing he was safe, especially given his already witnessing a person abusing the animal, and so he set out in pursuit.
When he got to the street, Spock glanced first to the left which would take him in direction of a less crowded suburban area. He saw no sign Bombay had gone that way. He turned to look to the right toward the city and the direction Spock himself would go when going to Starfleet Academy. He spotted Bombay’s raised tail as the cat trotted off in that direction.
With a bit of a sigh, Spock followed after, increasing his pace the more the cat seemed to get ahead of him. Once more he wondered if he should just let the animal go.
He was about to slow his pace when Bombay ran into the intersection of a street and missed getting hit by a speeding hover cab by mere inches. The cat stopped in the street then, looking disoriented, and for a moment Spock thought perhaps the cab had not missed the feline after all.
Spock rushed to his side, ignoring the twinge in his leg, and scooped the cat up into his arms. Another hover vehicle honked at Spock and the cat, so he hurried back to the safety of the sidewalk.
“You cannot run out in front of cars,” Spock admonished the cat, as though the furball could understand him. He glance back toward the way to his apartment. It would take him time to take Bombay and then he would be late to begin the teaching of his class. His leg already ached from overuse considering his prior injury.
Spock made up his mind. He would have to find something to keep the cat in while he taught, but, “You are coming with me.”
****
The day proved to be much more uneventful than it had begun, Spock realized, as he made his way home with Bombay in a cardboard box he had obtained at the Academy.
During two of his taught courses, Bombay had made something of a ruckus but eventually when he realized he wasn’t getting free, Bombay had curled up in the box and went to sleep.
He had just fed the cat when there was a knock on his door. The cat jumped into his arms and began to rub against Spock’s neck and purr.
“Apparently you have forgiven me for trapping you n that box,” Spock said, as he made his way to the door. Whoever was knocking was impatient, as they rapped again, this time much louder and with more force.
Spock opened the door, holding onto Bombay tighter so the cat wouldn’t try to escape.
There stood a man Spock did not know. He wore a fedora, which seemed odd. He grinned broadly.
“Happy President’s Day.” Jim sat down hard in the rec room chair across from Spock. He clutched a giant cup of coffee in his hands.
Spock looked at him with no sense of friendliness. “The Federation recognizes no such day.”
“Yeah, I know. But where I come from, what used to be America, well they did. You know Washington and Lincoln. That kind of thing.” At Spock’s barely concealed derision, Jim sighed. “Never mind.”
“Is that all you are having for breakfast?”
Jim glanced down at his coffee. “Mm.”
“That’s not very good nutrition, Captain.”
“Thanks Mom.”
“I am not your mother.”
“No kidding. Or my doctor.”
Spock continued to study him. “You seem tense and a bit pale. Are you feeling all right?”
“A little…out of sorts. Not sure what’s wrong with me. I’m cranky. Crankier than you or Bones, which is saying something.”
“I…am sorry for contributing to your general bad mood. I spoke with my father last night.”
“That explains a lot.” Jim sipped his coffee. “It’s fine, Spock.”
“Is there anything I can do to make you feel better, Captain?”
“Not unless you wanna give me a full body massage,” he joked.
Spock’s eyebrow rose.
“And don’t report me for that, Spock. It was a joke.”
“I am amenable to providing you with a massage.”
Jim had seen some cartoon once where the character wiggled his finger in his ear to establish the joke that he couldn’t believe his ears. Jim did that now.
“Say what? I think I didn’t hear you right.”
“You did. When our shift is over, I’ll come to your quarters.”
“Spock, are you…you’re not…are you coming on to me?” Jim felt foolish even asking that. He figured he’d got it wrong and Spock would tell him.
“Of course I am.”
Jim’s mouth opened.
Spock stood. “Do you accept?”
“Uh.” Jim blinked. “Yeah?”
Spock nodded. “I will be by your quarters with my massage oils after shift.”
After Spock walked away, Jim gasped, “Massage oils?” His day had definitely improved.
Spock decided not to wait for Nyota’s class as he was too curious about James T. Kirk to adopt his usual amount of patience. He tried to pretend to himself it had nothing to do with how uncommonly attractive Kirk had been. At least in Spock’s opinion. And there was the added fact that Bombay’s eye color seemed to be an exact match for Kirk’s. A coincidence of course but it made Spock all the more curious. After doing some preliminary research, Spock decided to contact George Samuel Kirk, the older brother and seeming spokesperson for the family. He requested communication with him if it was permitted. It was a few hours later when Jim Kirk’s brother contacted him. George Samuel Kirk, he told Spock the family called him Sam to distinguish him from George Kirk, resembled George Kirk more than he did his younger brother, Spock thought. Sam leaned back in a rocking chair and stared rather sourly at Spock. “What is it you want exactly?” “To make inquiries about your brother’s disappearance.” “Don’t you mean death?” Spock shook his head. “Your Starfleet has declared him dead.” “I am sorry. But you and your family have doubts.” Sam snorted. “You bet we do. They never found a body in the wreckage. Nothing like that.” “What did they find?” “It’s all a matter of record,” Sam said with no hidden disdain. “They found the burned out crashed shuttlecraft and the remains of Doctor Helen Moore, and her two medical assistants, Ensign Allen Luras and Ensign Inid Harr. The door of the shuttle was inoperable and there was no sign it was ever opened after the crash. They found no trace of Jim’s remains, though there was evidence someone had used the seatbelt in the co-pilot’s seat beside Helen Moore.” “And they are certain Commander Kirk was on the shuttlecraft when it left the Endeavor?” “Yes.” Spock nodded. “Do you have any theories?” Sam hesitated, then slowly shook his head. “Other than someone must have abducted Jim. That’s always been our belief.” “For what purpose?” “How should I know?” “And how would they have done so when the door was inoperable?” Sam’s lips thinned. “There was a hole in the door.” “How large?” “Large enough for Jim,” Sam insisted. “But there was no sign of him on the planet anywhere. Or so they said.” “You don’t believe it?” “No, I don’t. Jim’s alive. I can feel it. And someone has him. I don’t know why they haven’t come forward. But my family hasn’t given up no matter what they tell you. Starfleet may have decided Jim’s dead, but he’s alive.” Sam frowned. “I gotta go.” And then the screen winked out and Spock was left staring at nothing. HE couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something Sam was not telling him. Some elusive clue.
I had hoped to have a fic with Sarek and Winona for today but time got away from me and I’m just not able to get it done for this week, so I hope to have it up for February 22, the last flash for February. This week I wrote a short but hopefully sweet one for today. But hey, you got two this week so there is that!
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight For the ends of being and ideal grace. I love thee to the level of every day’s Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light. I love thee freely, as men strive for right. I love thee purely, as they turn from praise. I love thee with the passion put to use In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith. I love thee with a love I seemed to lose With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath, Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death.
“Jim?”
Jim looked up from the poem he’d been reading out loud and smiled when he saw Spock standing in the doorway of their shared bathroom. “Hey. You ready to play chess?”
“Yes. You were reading a love poem?”
Jim nodded. “Yes. My favorite poem about love. I think my favorite lines are ‘I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach’ and ‘I love thee with the breath, smiles, tears of all my life: if, God choose, I shall but love thee better after death’. It’s a beautiful poem.”
Spock steppe inside Jim’s quarters and handed him a small red box. “I believe it might be a good time to give you this.”
Jim took the box and stared at Spock. “What is this?”
“A gift for Valentine’s Day.”
He smiled quizzically. “I didn’t know we were exchanging gifts for that. I asked Uhura if that had been a thing and she said—”
Spock shook his head. “We did not, it is true. And I expect nothing from you, save your answer.”
Jim sucked in a breath and flipped open the box. “Yes.”
Photo by Acharaporn Kamornboonyarush on Pexels.com
Jim waited to see Captain Pike in a crowded waiting room. He knew Pike was a busy man. He knew he probably should have gotten an appointment. But he hadn’t wanted to wait for that but apparently he was having to anyway.
He felt pretty stupid. Mortified might be a better word. He stared down at his now bleeding cuticles. He’d been picking at them since he’d been sitting there waiting.
And he had to pee. But he was afraid if he got up to do so, the severe looking brunette ensign manning the desk outside Pike’s office would skip right over him and give the next slot to someone else waiting.
“Kirk. Cadet Kirk,” the Ensign said in a loud, nasally voice.
Jim went up to the desk and she sniffed. “He’ll see you now.”
He nodded and went past the desk to the double glass doors. They opened at his approached and he stepped inside.
Behind a large oak desk sat Pike. He hadn’t seen the captain since that day in Riverside Jim got on the shuttle after Pike dared him to do better.
Pike looked up and gestured to a chair in front of the desk. “Jim. Have a seat.”
“Thank you, sir.”
After Jim took the chair, Pike raised both eyebrows in query. “I didn’t expect to see you here.”
“Yes, sir. I have a request to make.”
“Okay.”
“I’d like to be reinstated to Professor Spock’s Merits of Logic class.”
Pike steepled his fingers. “That course is an elective and not required for command.”
“I realize that. But it was a course I found interesting prior to my…being kicked out.”
“And why were you booted from that class, Jim?”
Why?
****
Jim smirked as he read the text from Feeney. It was a stupid text, really, and only mildly amusing, but he responded to it anyway.
So what if I do want to sleep with the teacher? He’s hot. You want to too, don’t even pretend otherwise.
And then Jim located the “eggplant” 🍆emoji on his communicator and added it to his text.
I’ll bet his is massive.
Jim looked up at Spock’s back just before he hit send. He was busy demonstrating something on an overhead screen. Jim hit send.
And Feeney, the swine, burst into loud guffaws.
Jim turned red and slunk down in his chair just as Professor Spock turned around.
He glanced at Feeney who was still making a loud nuisance of himself and then to Jim as Feeney took a second to point to Jim.
Spock frowned slightly. “Why is there an eggplant on your screen?”
And the entire class busted up.
****
“I see,” Pike said slowly. “So you were disruptive, inappropriate, and insubordinate.”
Jim winced. “It could be viewed that way.”
“It was viewed that way by Spock. And he’s not wrong. Request denied.”
“Sir—”
Pike held up his hand. “Spock requested that you not be reinstated.”
“He knew I would request it?”
“Apparently. He also requested that there be no mark on your record for the dismissal from the class. He did likewise for Feeney. As I said, this was an elective course that you don’t actually need so the only reason for you to want to go back is to prove something that no one thinks needs proving. And of there is nothing else, Jim, you’re dismissed.”
“Sir—”
“Jim, I have a lot of people waiting out there to speak to me. And this is Valentine’s Day and I still need to get flowers for my wife. So, dismissed.”
Jim left, realizing there was really no point to arguing further.
He went to the restroom on his way out and then left the building feeling dejected.
He should be celebrating. He would have no mark on his record and it would be one less class he’d have to deal with for the semester.
Too bad he had liked that class and most especially Spock. And his idiotic foolish behavior with Feeney had cost him that. And likely any chance he ever had with the Vulcan. If there had been any, really.
He was only vaguely surprised to find his best friend, Leonard “Bones” McCoy, waiting for him.
“How’d it go?”
“I’m not allowed back in.”
Bones nodded. “Consider yourself lucky because that class was boring anyways.”
Jim frowned. “Anyway.”
“Huh?”
“You don’t need the s after anyway. That’s not correct.”
“Are you the grammar police?” Bones demanded.
“A guy has to have something. Apparently it’s not going to be on my record that I got kicked out though.”
Bones chuckled. “His massive eggplant.”
Jim groaned. “Don’t remind me. I feel stupid enough as it is. So where are we going tonight?”
“You thought wrong. Sorry, Jim. But this time you’ll have to find something to do on your own.”
“Fine. Whatever.”
As it turned out, Jim went home to his dorm room alone. He was, admittedly, feeling sorry for himself. His reputation as some kind of Lothario was mostly exaggerated anyway. And the only one he really wanted to spend time with wouldn’t give him the time of day.
Jim had just opened a bottle of whiskey to drown his sorrows when there was a knock at his door.
Standing there was Spock. One hand was behind his back, but in the other was a brightly wrapped box.
Jim blinked. “Uh.”
“May I come in?”
Jim stood back to allow him inside. He glanced around his messy room. “I, uh, I wasn’t expecting anyone so the place is a mess.”
“That is fortunate.”
“It is?”
“Not the mess part, but that you were not expecting someone.” Spock held out the box. “Happy Valentine’s Day.”
His mouth dry, Jim opened the box. He stared at the large eggplant inside. “What—”
“It is my massive eggplant.”
Jim’s gaze flew to his, his face hot with embarrassment. “Uh—”
Spock shook his head. “It is an effort at a joke, Cadet.”
Then he brought his hand from behind his back to reveal a large bouquet of at least two dozen pink and red roses.
“These are for you.”
“I don’t understand it.”
Spock sighed. “You cannot be a student in my class and date me.”
Jim’s mouth dropped open. “Did I…are we going to be dating?”
“I have presented you with flowers and my eggplant. I would think it was obvious.”
Jim laughed. “I see.” He tossed aside the eggplant, grabbed the flowers, and planted a long lingering kiss on Spock’s lips. It was returned most enthusiastically.
Spirk (with a small dose of Pinto) 