This one is set during the regular holiday season and let me tell you, I could have completely made an entire holiday story out of this. I wanted to keep writing and writing on it. So, maybe you will see more come December! If you’d like to…maybe it was just me, intrigued by these two.
The holiday season was a bad time to be in the hospital. Not that there was ever a good time, of course, but for some reason this time of year seemed particularly sad when it happened.
Though Spock himself did not participate in any celebrations of that nature, his Earth born Mother had at times, and had on occasion mentioned to Spock over the years, “Aunt Ida is in the hospital! And during the holidays.”
Spock understood that Humans felt this way.
So when he had been advised that his friend, Nyota, had fallen down the stairs and suffered a broken leg and a concussion, he had made his way to the Starfleet Hospital where she was recuperating.
At the nurse’s desk he had been told she was in Room 22, so Spock made his way there.
The only occupant of the room was a young man in his early twenties with short-cropped sandy colored hair and bright blue eyes. He was vaguely familiar to Spock, but he couldn’t quite place him.
The young man looked up at him with a bright smile.
“Hey! Are you here to see me?”
“I believe I actually was given the wrong room number,” Spock explained.
The smile fell. “Oh.”
“Oh, Jim, you have a visitor! Your first one.” An older woman in a nurse uniform came bustling in. She greeted Spock warmly. “Who do we have here?”
“Spock,” he replied automatically.
“Spock. Well, what’s your relationship to Jim?” The nurse moved to the bed to tuck an already tucked blanket around the young men’s legs. “It’s all a mystery to us at this point.”
Spock stared at her blankly.
The young man, Jim, he assumed, made a distressed sound. “Mabel, he’s not here to see me.”
She straightened and turned. “You aren’t here to see Jim Kirk?”
Spock wasn’t entirely familiar with the name, though Kirk did sound a bit familiar, but Spock thought perhaps he’d seen him around the campus at Starfleet Academy.
“He’s not,” Jim interrupted. “He got the wrong room.”
“Oh.” Her expression turned just as despondent as Jim’s did. “Oh. I’m sorry, Jim. I’m sure just as soon as others realize you’re here, you’ll have visitors.”
Spock couldn’t have said why but the entire situation distressed him. The young man looked ready to cry and his nurse was not helping at all. Spock saw no sign of any flowers, cards, or gifts.
There was something about Jim that Spock guessed he was missing.
Mabel gestured to the door. “Here, come over here and I’ll help you. Jim, I’ll be right back.”
Jim just nodded and looked away.
Spock reluctantly followed her to the door.
She sighed. “I’m sorry about that, sir. It’s just…we’ve been so hoping someone who knows Jim would come and see him. So far, no one. Part of a patient’s recovery is emotional stimulation and—”
“What happened to him?”
“An accident. He was thrown into the air and hit his head pretty badly. The only thing he could tell us was he went to the Academy. We found his name in some of his belongings. We’ve tried contacting the staff there and even family members we thought might have something to do with him, but no one has responded. We know it’s the holidays and maybe his family is away. The Academy’s on Winter Break, so they don’t have a lot of staff, but he hasn’t even had any friends to come by and help him remember. I was so hoping you…well, never mind. Who are you visiting, sir?”
“Nyota Uhura.”
“She’s in Room 42. She must be your girl.”
Spock opened his mouth to correct her, but decided not to bother as it really did not matter.
“Thank you.”
She went back into the room and he could hear the false cheer in her voice.
“Now, Jim, what special treat can I get for you?”
Spock exited and found Room 42 quickly enough. And as Mabel had said, Nyota was there sitting up and stabbing at her communicator like it made her mad.
“Spock! Thank God. Tell these people I’m perfectly fine to leave.”
He arched a brow. “Did you not break your leg?”
“Oh that. They’ve already mostly healed it. It just needs to rest for a week or so. I can do that at home.”
“Likely. How long do they wish for you to stay?”
“They won’t release me for two more days!”
Spock pulled up a chair. He noted she had flowers and balloons and even a stuffed bear. All of it made him ache for the stranger in Room 22.
“They know best, I am sure. Nyota, do you know a cadet named Jim Kirk?”
“Should I?”
“He is a patient here and attends the Academy.”
She snorted. “I don’t know every cadet at the Academy, Spock. If you don’t know him, why would I? We run in the same circles mostly. What’s he in for?”
“An accident where he hit his head. The nurse advised he seems to have some memory loss and, though they have contacted authorities to inform his friends and family, no one has come by the hospital.”
“That’s too bad. Poor guy. Now back to my problem.”
Spock frowned. “Your problem?”
“Getting out of here!”
But after Spock was able to free himself from his demanding friend, he found himself going back in the direction of Room 22.
As he approached he couldn’t hear any voices, so it appeared that the young man there was once again alone. Spock peered around the doorway.
Sure enough Jim Kirk was the only occupant of the room. He was staring down at a small cup of red gelatin, his spoon raised above it as though he couldn’t quite decide whether to try it.
Spock made a decision and stepped inside the room. “Hello.”
Jim’s gaze flew over to him. “Oh. Spock, right?”
“Yes, that is correct. May I approach?”
“Sure,” Jim replied, though he looked confused.
Spock didn’t entirely blame him. He couldn’t have said what drew him so strongly to this room and this man, but he was drawn, nonetheless.
He found a chair and gestured to it. “May I sit?”
Jim nodded. He had set the gelatin aside now.
“I do not wish to prevent you eating your dinner.”
This actually caused Jim to smile. “It’s not that exciting anyway. Right now I’m on some kind of liquid diet. That stuff is about as solid as I am allowed. Tomorrow I guess I get to switch to semi-solid.”
“What do you remember?”
“About myself or the accident?”
“Either or both, I suppose.”
Jim sighed. “Not really much of either. I was wearing one of those cadet uniforms, you know, for Starfleet. Mabel says I walked out into the street and this hover car hit me and threw me in the air. When I landed, I guess I hit my head on the asphalt. I’m lucky it didn’t crack my skull or damage my brain.” He paused. “Well, anymore than it already is, I mean. With the memory loss.”
“It’s not thought you walked out on purpose?”
Jim’s eyes widened. “Like suicide? Uh, no. Is there something you know I don’t?”
Spock shook his head. “No, no. To be honest, I had a cousin that did that exact thing and it the only reason I even thought of it.”
“I’m sorry about your cousin, but I don’t think that’s what I did. No one has suggested it and it…it just doesn’t feel like that to me.”
“The nurse said they have had trouble reaching your family.”
Jim smiled. “She sure is a chatty thing. But yes, that’s what they tell me. According to what they learned from Starfleet, my name is James Tiberius Kirk, son of George and Winona Kirk—”
“George Kirk,” Spock interrupted. “That is where I likely am familiar with the name.”
“Yup. Apparently he was famous for saving hundreds while dying himself.”
“But you don’t remember?”
“I don’t. I read about him when they told me. And I guess I’m from Riverside, Iowa. None of that is familiar to me.” He shrugged. “I guess I don’t have any friends or whatever here. I’ve had no visitors except you and you were a mistake.” Jim smiled ruefully. “The doc thinks it’s temporary though.”
“I do not know of any permanent amnesia cases,” Spock replied. “But I am sorry you are suffering from it even briefly. And I do find it difficult to believe you have no friends in San Francisco concerned for your welfare. You are an attractive and amiable individual.”
Jim’s smile widened. “Did you just call me cute?”
“Not in those exact words, however, I acknowledge that the descriptor applies.”
Jim laughed at that, and it was a sound that warmed Spock everywhere.
“Why, thank you,” Jim said. “But it is the holiday break, so I guess, it’s possible, if I do have any friends, they went home to their families?”
“Quite possible.” Spock stood and tried not to notice the disappointment in Jim’s eyes when he did. “I should be going. Jim, do you play chess?”
“Maybe?”
“If you would like, I will return tomorrow with a chess set and we can play.”
“Yeah? I’d love that.”
And Spock realized, he would too.
****
When Spock continued to come to the hospital to visit Jim long after Nyota had been discharged, he knew he was falling for the amnesiac cadet.
Every moment Spock spent with Jim he realized how charming, gorgeous, brave, funny, and intelligent he was. Spock still didn’t understand why Jim had no other visitors but him, but Spock decided he was very lucky to have the young man’s full attention.
“What did you bring me?” Jim asked when Spock came one afternoon carrying a drink container.
He had started to bring Jim little treats a few days earlier. A gingerbread cookie, caramel corn, a pumpkin scone. Jim’s blue eyes lit up every time and Spock found he wanted to please Jim like this all the time.
“An eggnog shake.”
“With real ice cream?”
Spock arched a brow. “Is there any other kind?”
“No!” Jim eagerly reached for it, immediately taking a large sip from the fat straw. “Oh, gosh, I love you.”
And each time, Jim made that declaration, though it was over trivial things like this, it warmed Spock like nothing else. He feared becoming a sap. If his father and other Vulcans could see him now.
“So, they want to release me,” Jim said, after a few more sips of his shake.
“That is good, isn’t it?”
“Well, yeah. I just…”
“What is it you fear, ashaya?” The word was out of his mouth before Spock could stop it and he found himself hoping Jim wouldn’t catch the Vulcan endearment.
“What’s that word?”
He should have known.
“A Vulcan word.”
“I figured that much.”
“Let us focus on what bothers you about being released,” Spock said, trying to sidestep Jim’s query.
“I’d be going back to some strange dormitory I don’t even remember and staying there by myself because the winter break isn’t over yet.” Jim shrugged. “I guess they tell me I have a roommate named Leonard McCoy. A doctor, I guess. But I don’t really remember and he’s not there anyway I hear.”
“I see.”
“But I guess the memory thing takes time and all my physical injuries are healed, so there’s no reason for me to take up a bed. Only…”
“What, Jim?”
“I’ve loved being here every day that you’ve come to see me.” Jim was now picking at his blanket.
“I feel the same.”
Jim’s gaze rose. “Yeah?”
“Very much so. And,” Spock paused to take a long breath, “of you do not wish to stay alone in an unfamiliar place during the remainder of your recovery, you can stay with me, in my apartment.”
“You’d let me stay with you?”
“It is the only thing that makes sense and is acceptable,” Spock told him. “I can assist you until you get all your memories back. And Humans don’t like to be alone this time of year. Right?”
Jim smiled. “That is right.”
“And I can continue to spoil you…that is provide you with eggnog shakes and the like.”
“That sounds like heaven, Spock,” Jim whispered.
Spock cleared his throat. “Then it is settled. You will stay with me.”
He found himself moving closer and then, bravely touching his index and middle finger to Jim’s.
Jim’s bright blue eyes gazed at him. “Then maybe you can tell me what ashaya means.”
“Yes, perhaps I will.”
