Fic: Luck and Circumstance
Fandom: Star Trek: Reboot
Rating: PG
Pairings: Kirk Prime/Spock Prime
Disclaimer: If I owned Star Trek this story would be official canon.
Written for the Kink meme prompt: I would really like it if anyone could write me a fic where Kirk Prime is somehow transported to the Reboot Verse, hopefully the Enterprise. He needs to be reunited with Spock Prime.
Notes: I took the idea of transporting Kirk to the other universe literally and tweaked Generations slightly. In this case the Enterprise D didn’t crash into the planet in the name of plot convenience. Thank goodness.
Luck and Circumstance
“You’re coming with us, right?”
Spock didn’t answer immediately. He shouldn’t go; this Jim and that Spock needed each other. They needed to work through this crisis on their own. On the other hand one always needed a Plan B, it wouldn’t do to jeopardize the galaxy for personal reasons, and he would be far more useful there than here.
“Yes.”
He went over to the computers and helped Mr. Scott set the necessary coordinates before stepping onto his section of the transporter. He looked over to the young boy who he knew would become a great man, and a great captain, one day.
“Jim, remember Starfleet regulation 619 which states that any command officer who is emotionally compromised by the mission at hand must resign said command.”
Before Jim could ask what the hell Spock was talking about Mr. Scott got on the pad.
“All right, Laddie, live or die let’s get this over with.”
***
The moment Jim arrived on the Enterprise the whole situation went to crap. Mr. Scott ended up in one of the water coolant tubes and that alerted the crew their presence and security quickly surrounded them. As they were dragged off Jim noticed that they didn’t have a third intruder with them. Spock wasn’t there. Hopefully he had beamed in somewhere else in the engine room and had evaded the security team and not- he didn’t even want to think about it.
He and Mr. Scott were brought into the bridge. Jim knew he had to think quickly he couldn’t explain the situation truthfully now, without the other Spock as evidence, no one would believe him. Then the other Spock’s words came back to him. Starfleet regulation 619, he had to emotionally compromise Spock, somehow, and take command of the ship to get it to Earth before it was too late.
“Who are you?”
“I’m with-”
“He’s with me.”
“We are traveling at warp speed, how did you manage to beam aboard this ship?”
“You’re the genius, you figure it out.”
“As acting captain I order you to answer the question.”
“Well I’m not telling, acting captain. Well now that that doesn’t frustrate you my lack of cooperation, that doesn’t make you angry-”
“Are you a member of Starfleet?”
“Uh, yes, can I get a towel please?”
“Under penalty of court martial I order you to explain to me how you were able to beam aboard this ship while traveling at warp speed.”
“Don’t answer that.”
“You will answer me.”
“I’d rather not take sides.”
“What is it with you, Spock? Your planet was just destroyed your mother murdered and you aren’t even upset.”
“If you wish to imply that these events in any way impede my ability to command this ship you are mistaken.”
“And yet you were the one who said fear was necessary for command.”
“I will not allow you to lecture me on the merits of emotion.”
“Then why don’t you stop me?”
“Step away from me.”
“What is it like not to feel anger or heartbreak or the need to avenge the death of the woman who gave birth to you.”
“Back away from me!”
“You feel nothing! It must not even compute for you! You never loved her!”
***
One attempted murder later Jim was flying the Enterprise to what most of the crew believed was certain doom and Spock was in the transporter room staring at the pad.
“Speak your mind, Spock.”
“That would be unwise.”
“What is necessary is never unwise.”
“I feel anger for the one who took mother’s life, an anger I cannot control.”
“Then you must put those feelings to productive use.”
Spock turned to the sound of that voice as another Vulcan stepped through the doors.
“Who are you?”
“Who I am is of no consequence at the moment. The information I have is of great value though in obtaining a certain stolen black-hole device to avenge those who have been lost.”
***
“Did we do it? Did…we make a difference?”
“Oh, yes we made a difference. Thank you.”
“Least I could do for the captain of the Enterprise, and it was fun.”
Picard’s communicator beeped.
“Captain, we-”
“Beam us up! Now! Right now!”
So, Picard’s ship had found them at last. Jim felt himself begin to dissolve, the weight of the bridge was released from his chest and he gasped for air, as the transporter took hold.
***
Apparently lights got very bright in the 24th century.
“Nice timing, Scotty!”
“Hah, hah! I’ve never beamed-oy! Who’s that?”
Spock turned back to see an older gentleman lying prone on the pad and bleeding.
“I do not know, Mr. Scott, but he appears to be gravely injured.”
McCoy handed Captain Pike over to his nurses and came rushing over.
“Yeoman, get a gurney! Hurry!”
Jim felt himself being lifted up, placed on a hard surface, and rushed away from the voice that sounded like Spock.
“Hang on, sir, I haven’t lost one yet and I’m not starting now!”
He blinked in acknowledgment to the man who looked like an impossibly young Bones and yet didn’t at the same time. He has to keep fighting he thought as the lights of hallway raced by over his head. He had to hang on because something in the back of his mind told him that he wasn’t alone.
***
Doctor McCoy was starting to think his legs were going to fall off. Between the mess Captain Pike was in, the man nobody had been able to put a name to yet, and the sheer number of crew coming in with everything from burns to lacerations they were running he and his team ragged. So, of course Murphy’s law had rear its ugly head as Mr. Scott entered sickbay holding up a Vulcan he didn’t recognize from those Spock had saved from the planet that had a deep gash in his side.
“Mr. Scott, what happened?”
“He was down in engineering with me. He helped with the warp core. There was shrapnel-please, Doctor, you’ve got to help him!”
“I can try.”
Spock Prime opened his mouth to protest that he is old, that he does not belong here, that there are others in greater need, but for some unexplained reason being pulled fully into the room suddenly filled him with a warmth he had not felt for years and he could say nothing. As he was rushed over to a bed and prepped for surgery there was a voice in his mind that seemed to whisper, don’t leave me. Please don’t leave me.
***
“Jim, I need the green blooded hobgoblin. One of the Vulcans needs surgery, has a rare blood type, I have to have a donor and he’s the lucky match.”
“Acknowledged, Doctor,” Spock answered and raced down to sickbay. They had already lost so many now was not the time to lose anymore.
Back on the bridge Jim breathed a sigh of relief that the other Spock was safe on the ship after all, at least he hoped it was him, but really how many Vulcans could there be with Spock’s exact blood type? And who else would be anywhere on this ship where they could be hurt, but that meddling old guy. Jim pulled at the arm of the captain’s chair nervously he really hoped the Vulcan was going to be okay.
***
When the Enterprise was confirmed to be safely away from the singularity and limping home to Earth Jim was called down to sickbay as well.
“What do you need, Bones?”
Bones beckoned him over to where the stranger from the transporter room was laying on a bed the sensors still blaring away over his head.
“How is he?”
“He’s a tough old bastard I’ll give him that. I don’t know what’s holding him here now, but…”
“But?”
“But I can’t keep it up! He needs more surgery and I don’t have enough blood left to do it. Pike is already draining our reserves from all the exploratory surgery we’ve had to do to fix all the internal bleeding from whatever they did to him over there.”
“Bones, what does this have to do with me?”
“I shouldn’t do it you’re already suffering symptoms of fatigue and exposure. It would be risky, but I need a donor, Jim, and you’re the best match.”
“Me?”
“I can’t explain it, Jim, but you’re a perfect match! Completely perfect, your DNA is identical!”
Bones doesn’t have an explanation for it, but Jim does. He knew now that that was the James T. Kirk from other Spock’s world he just knew it. How he got here was anyone’s guess, but he was here all the same and now Jim had to make sure he stayed here. He saw the look in the old man’s eyes when he had looked at him for the first time. Not really seeing him, but a memory that he reminded him of. Jim glanced over to him; laying prone on another bed with green liquid still traveling between him and his Spock. He had to save him at all costs. That Spock did everything for him and now he had a chance to repay him.
Jim rolled up his sleeve.
“Drain me dry if you have to, Bones.”
***
By some miracle all three patients pull through. Captain Pike was now resting comfortably, the old Vulcan had stabilized, and finally the man who had enough injuries that McCoy was quite confident he had fallen off a cliff was out of immediate danger and heavily sedated to keep him unaware of the lingering pain. Jim was snoring away in one bed and Spock was sleeping or meditating or whatever it was Vulcans did in the bed beside him.
McCoy glanced between the two Vulcans one last time resolving to ask just what their deal was when they woke up. There was far too much resemblance between them to be normal. Going into his office he sat down at his desk and pulled out a bottle of brandy. He put his head on his arms to admire the label on the bottle for a moment and promptly fell asleep.
***
Jim Kirk slowly dragged himself back to reality. His first thought was to wonder if he was dead. No, his body hurt in places it shouldn’t he was alive then. The Nexus must have picked him back up, wonderful. He blinked as his eyes adjusted to the darkness and he saw what looked, sounded, and smelled like sickbay.
Jim gently propped himself up on his elbows and noticed there were other people here who had never been in the Nexus before, he carefully eased his body to a sitting position and got up to go take a closer look. Somehow himself as a boy was stretched out on a bed. Strange. He was quickly distracted though by the body in the bed next to him. It was not hard to put a name to those pointed ears, deep black hair, and beautiful face. Looking at the boy, because he was a boy, so young and not the friend he has known Jim wanted to cry out in despair. It’s not really him he will never see him again. It’s not paradise Jim decided it’s purgatory.
“Jim?”
He turned around to look at another bed to see an older Vulcan he shouldn’t recognize and yet he did.
“I have an illogical question.”
He nodded, his mouth hanging open in shock.
“Am I dead?”
“Not unless I am too.”
“History considers you to be.”
Neither man said anything to that not quite sure whether they were in a dream or some sort of afterlife or if this was truly reality, until Christopher started choking. He fell out of the bed and Spock and Jim were quickly at his side trying to make sure he could breath.
“Lights!” They heard as the other Spock woke up.
Jim glanced up to see his mirror self, or whoever he was, sitting up and rubbing his eyes.
“Go get a doctor!” he yelled.
Jim obeyed the older Jim, quickly left, and brought a blurry eyed McCoy into the room as Sarek came rushing in from the hall where only Nurse Chapel, who had been there as well, knew he had been waiting and watching over his son the whole time.
Christopher kept retching and gagging until something large slimy and moving fell out of his mouth. Older Jim awkwardly squashed it under his boot.
“Thank you.”
Jim nodded and turned to look at the Vulcan who met him with a deep searching gaze.
“This is reality then,” Spock said.
“Well paradise has yet to include people regurgitating bugs so I agree with you.”
Meanwhile Nurse Chapel and doctor McCoy helped Captain Pike back to his bed and began to recheck his vitals. The two younger men sat down on their respective beds, both still woozy from blood loss.
For Jim and Spock though there was no one else in the world. There were so many things to say, to ask, and yet there were no words. Both men just continued to stare at each other letting the bond they had shared so long ago come back together and fill them with warmth and security.
“You know I hate to interrupt this little sit in, but who exactly are you two!?”
“Isn’t he one of the elders from Vulcan, doctor?” nurse Chapel asked.
“Not according to the logs, all Vulcans were accounted for.”
“He is not from the planet,” Sarek said stepping closer to the two men on the floor.
“May I ask how you know that, Father?”
“I have no logical explanation for his being here. Nor why he is so much older than I, but I shall always recognize my son.”
“Your what!?”
“While I agree that the circumstances are far less than ideal it is good to see that you are well…father.”
“Oh, great because that’s just what the universe needs; two of them, and wait just who the hell does that make you?”
“He’s James T. Kirk.”
“How do you know that?” Jim asked his young duplicate.
“We were a perfect DNA match there’s no reason for that unless you are me.”
“Angels and ministers of grace, may God help us all,” McCoy said and looked longingly at the bottle of alcohol in the other room
“You don’t seem surprised to see me,” Jim said, rather intrigued by this other version of himself with piercing blue eyes.
“I’m not. I’ve already dealt with him,” he said, gesturing to the Spock on the floor, “and now I’m just very scared of getting older.”
“Hey, kid, you try having a bridge fall on you and see how good you look.”
“A bridge? Do I wish to know how you accomplished that, Jim?”
“I was saving a planetary system from destruction with the new captain of the Enterprise, Jean-Luc Picard.”
“You have met Picard?”
“You know him?”
“We have a passing acquaintance.”
“What the hell happened to this ship since I’ve been gone!?” Pike yelled.
“Sir, if I knew the answer to that my life would be much less complicated,” McCoy said in exasperation.
Meanwhile Jim was starting to piece together the puzzle of how he could be in a room with a much younger, mostly undamaged, Captain Pike and younger versions of Spock and himself.
“Alternative universe, am I right, Spock?”
“Indeed, Jim.”
“And our time stream remains safe and intact?”
“It would appear so otherwise we could not be here.”
“Well no one’s sporting a goatee so it can’t be all bad.”
The others in the room just stared at him.
“Inside joke.”
Spock chuckled a bit at that and then winched as the movement aggravated his wound.
“What happened?” Jim asked, concerned, noting the outline of a large bandage beneath Spock’s shirt.
“I was aiding Mr. Scott in his plans with the warp core to get the ship away from the singularity.”
Jim knitted his eyebrows together. “What is it with you and engine rooms?”
Spock didn’t answer and instead turned his attention to their younger selves.
“Many thanks to you both, you saved our lives.”
“Just returning the favour I mean in some weird convoluted way we owe you ours.”
“Agreed.”
“All right enough of the mushy feelings, and breaking universal barriers for today. You two need to be drinking more fluids, and you two need to be resting.”
McCoy helped them up off the floor while they seemed to have a silent argument over who would hold up who. Spock eased himself back onto the bed and Jim quickly joined him.
“I meant on separate-oh forget it! At least they’re lying down!”
As he checked them both to make sure they hadn’t reopened any wounds in their need to be heroic Spock watched them curiously.
“Sir, I do not understand something. Why conceal your identity, why separate yourself from Kirk when you alone could have explained the entire situation?”
“Because you needed each other. I could not deprive you of the revelation of all that you could accomplish together. You have not disappointed me.”
Jim gaped at his lover in shock. “You sneaky Vulcan.”
“I see nothing deceptive in my actions, Jim, it was perfectly logical that I do all I could to insure a stable time stream,” Spock said, his eyes bright with mirth.
Jim could only laugh.
“It has taken a century, Jim, but you have made me believe in luck,” he said hugging him closer to his body.
“And you have made me believe in miracles, Mr. Spock,” Jim answered and tilted his head up to kiss him.
The End
Rating: PG
Pairings: Kirk Prime/Spock Prime
Disclaimer: If I owned Star Trek this story would be official canon.
Written for the Kink meme prompt: I would really like it if anyone could write me a fic where Kirk Prime is somehow transported to the Reboot Verse, hopefully the Enterprise. He needs to be reunited with Spock Prime.
Notes: I took the idea of transporting Kirk to the other universe literally and tweaked Generations slightly. In this case the Enterprise D didn’t crash into the planet in the name of plot convenience. Thank goodness.
Luck and Circumstance
“You’re coming with us, right?”
Spock didn’t answer immediately. He shouldn’t go; this Jim and that Spock needed each other. They needed to work through this crisis on their own. On the other hand one always needed a Plan B, it wouldn’t do to jeopardize the galaxy for personal reasons, and he would be far more useful there than here.
“Yes.”
He went over to the computers and helped Mr. Scott set the necessary coordinates before stepping onto his section of the transporter. He looked over to the young boy who he knew would become a great man, and a great captain, one day.
“Jim, remember Starfleet regulation 619 which states that any command officer who is emotionally compromised by the mission at hand must resign said command.”
Before Jim could ask what the hell Spock was talking about Mr. Scott got on the pad.
“All right, Laddie, live or die let’s get this over with.”
***
The moment Jim arrived on the Enterprise the whole situation went to crap. Mr. Scott ended up in one of the water coolant tubes and that alerted the crew their presence and security quickly surrounded them. As they were dragged off Jim noticed that they didn’t have a third intruder with them. Spock wasn’t there. Hopefully he had beamed in somewhere else in the engine room and had evaded the security team and not- he didn’t even want to think about it.
He and Mr. Scott were brought into the bridge. Jim knew he had to think quickly he couldn’t explain the situation truthfully now, without the other Spock as evidence, no one would believe him. Then the other Spock’s words came back to him. Starfleet regulation 619, he had to emotionally compromise Spock, somehow, and take command of the ship to get it to Earth before it was too late.
“Who are you?”
“I’m with-”
“He’s with me.”
“We are traveling at warp speed, how did you manage to beam aboard this ship?”
“You’re the genius, you figure it out.”
“As acting captain I order you to answer the question.”
“Well I’m not telling, acting captain. Well now that that doesn’t frustrate you my lack of cooperation, that doesn’t make you angry-”
“Are you a member of Starfleet?”
“Uh, yes, can I get a towel please?”
“Under penalty of court martial I order you to explain to me how you were able to beam aboard this ship while traveling at warp speed.”
“Don’t answer that.”
“You will answer me.”
“I’d rather not take sides.”
“What is it with you, Spock? Your planet was just destroyed your mother murdered and you aren’t even upset.”
“If you wish to imply that these events in any way impede my ability to command this ship you are mistaken.”
“And yet you were the one who said fear was necessary for command.”
“I will not allow you to lecture me on the merits of emotion.”
“Then why don’t you stop me?”
“Step away from me.”
“What is it like not to feel anger or heartbreak or the need to avenge the death of the woman who gave birth to you.”
“Back away from me!”
“You feel nothing! It must not even compute for you! You never loved her!”
***
One attempted murder later Jim was flying the Enterprise to what most of the crew believed was certain doom and Spock was in the transporter room staring at the pad.
“Speak your mind, Spock.”
“That would be unwise.”
“What is necessary is never unwise.”
“I feel anger for the one who took mother’s life, an anger I cannot control.”
“Then you must put those feelings to productive use.”
Spock turned to the sound of that voice as another Vulcan stepped through the doors.
“Who are you?”
“Who I am is of no consequence at the moment. The information I have is of great value though in obtaining a certain stolen black-hole device to avenge those who have been lost.”
***
“Did we do it? Did…we make a difference?”
“Oh, yes we made a difference. Thank you.”
“Least I could do for the captain of the Enterprise, and it was fun.”
Picard’s communicator beeped.
“Captain, we-”
“Beam us up! Now! Right now!”
So, Picard’s ship had found them at last. Jim felt himself begin to dissolve, the weight of the bridge was released from his chest and he gasped for air, as the transporter took hold.
***
Apparently lights got very bright in the 24th century.
“Nice timing, Scotty!”
“Hah, hah! I’ve never beamed-oy! Who’s that?”
Spock turned back to see an older gentleman lying prone on the pad and bleeding.
“I do not know, Mr. Scott, but he appears to be gravely injured.”
McCoy handed Captain Pike over to his nurses and came rushing over.
“Yeoman, get a gurney! Hurry!”
Jim felt himself being lifted up, placed on a hard surface, and rushed away from the voice that sounded like Spock.
“Hang on, sir, I haven’t lost one yet and I’m not starting now!”
He blinked in acknowledgment to the man who looked like an impossibly young Bones and yet didn’t at the same time. He has to keep fighting he thought as the lights of hallway raced by over his head. He had to hang on because something in the back of his mind told him that he wasn’t alone.
***
Doctor McCoy was starting to think his legs were going to fall off. Between the mess Captain Pike was in, the man nobody had been able to put a name to yet, and the sheer number of crew coming in with everything from burns to lacerations they were running he and his team ragged. So, of course Murphy’s law had rear its ugly head as Mr. Scott entered sickbay holding up a Vulcan he didn’t recognize from those Spock had saved from the planet that had a deep gash in his side.
“Mr. Scott, what happened?”
“He was down in engineering with me. He helped with the warp core. There was shrapnel-please, Doctor, you’ve got to help him!”
“I can try.”
Spock Prime opened his mouth to protest that he is old, that he does not belong here, that there are others in greater need, but for some unexplained reason being pulled fully into the room suddenly filled him with a warmth he had not felt for years and he could say nothing. As he was rushed over to a bed and prepped for surgery there was a voice in his mind that seemed to whisper, don’t leave me. Please don’t leave me.
***
“Jim, I need the green blooded hobgoblin. One of the Vulcans needs surgery, has a rare blood type, I have to have a donor and he’s the lucky match.”
“Acknowledged, Doctor,” Spock answered and raced down to sickbay. They had already lost so many now was not the time to lose anymore.
Back on the bridge Jim breathed a sigh of relief that the other Spock was safe on the ship after all, at least he hoped it was him, but really how many Vulcans could there be with Spock’s exact blood type? And who else would be anywhere on this ship where they could be hurt, but that meddling old guy. Jim pulled at the arm of the captain’s chair nervously he really hoped the Vulcan was going to be okay.
***
When the Enterprise was confirmed to be safely away from the singularity and limping home to Earth Jim was called down to sickbay as well.
“What do you need, Bones?”
Bones beckoned him over to where the stranger from the transporter room was laying on a bed the sensors still blaring away over his head.
“How is he?”
“He’s a tough old bastard I’ll give him that. I don’t know what’s holding him here now, but…”
“But?”
“But I can’t keep it up! He needs more surgery and I don’t have enough blood left to do it. Pike is already draining our reserves from all the exploratory surgery we’ve had to do to fix all the internal bleeding from whatever they did to him over there.”
“Bones, what does this have to do with me?”
“I shouldn’t do it you’re already suffering symptoms of fatigue and exposure. It would be risky, but I need a donor, Jim, and you’re the best match.”
“Me?”
“I can’t explain it, Jim, but you’re a perfect match! Completely perfect, your DNA is identical!”
Bones doesn’t have an explanation for it, but Jim does. He knew now that that was the James T. Kirk from other Spock’s world he just knew it. How he got here was anyone’s guess, but he was here all the same and now Jim had to make sure he stayed here. He saw the look in the old man’s eyes when he had looked at him for the first time. Not really seeing him, but a memory that he reminded him of. Jim glanced over to him; laying prone on another bed with green liquid still traveling between him and his Spock. He had to save him at all costs. That Spock did everything for him and now he had a chance to repay him.
Jim rolled up his sleeve.
“Drain me dry if you have to, Bones.”
***
By some miracle all three patients pull through. Captain Pike was now resting comfortably, the old Vulcan had stabilized, and finally the man who had enough injuries that McCoy was quite confident he had fallen off a cliff was out of immediate danger and heavily sedated to keep him unaware of the lingering pain. Jim was snoring away in one bed and Spock was sleeping or meditating or whatever it was Vulcans did in the bed beside him.
McCoy glanced between the two Vulcans one last time resolving to ask just what their deal was when they woke up. There was far too much resemblance between them to be normal. Going into his office he sat down at his desk and pulled out a bottle of brandy. He put his head on his arms to admire the label on the bottle for a moment and promptly fell asleep.
***
Jim Kirk slowly dragged himself back to reality. His first thought was to wonder if he was dead. No, his body hurt in places it shouldn’t he was alive then. The Nexus must have picked him back up, wonderful. He blinked as his eyes adjusted to the darkness and he saw what looked, sounded, and smelled like sickbay.
Jim gently propped himself up on his elbows and noticed there were other people here who had never been in the Nexus before, he carefully eased his body to a sitting position and got up to go take a closer look. Somehow himself as a boy was stretched out on a bed. Strange. He was quickly distracted though by the body in the bed next to him. It was not hard to put a name to those pointed ears, deep black hair, and beautiful face. Looking at the boy, because he was a boy, so young and not the friend he has known Jim wanted to cry out in despair. It’s not really him he will never see him again. It’s not paradise Jim decided it’s purgatory.
“Jim?”
He turned around to look at another bed to see an older Vulcan he shouldn’t recognize and yet he did.
“I have an illogical question.”
He nodded, his mouth hanging open in shock.
“Am I dead?”
“Not unless I am too.”
“History considers you to be.”
Neither man said anything to that not quite sure whether they were in a dream or some sort of afterlife or if this was truly reality, until Christopher started choking. He fell out of the bed and Spock and Jim were quickly at his side trying to make sure he could breath.
“Lights!” They heard as the other Spock woke up.
Jim glanced up to see his mirror self, or whoever he was, sitting up and rubbing his eyes.
“Go get a doctor!” he yelled.
Jim obeyed the older Jim, quickly left, and brought a blurry eyed McCoy into the room as Sarek came rushing in from the hall where only Nurse Chapel, who had been there as well, knew he had been waiting and watching over his son the whole time.
Christopher kept retching and gagging until something large slimy and moving fell out of his mouth. Older Jim awkwardly squashed it under his boot.
“Thank you.”
Jim nodded and turned to look at the Vulcan who met him with a deep searching gaze.
“This is reality then,” Spock said.
“Well paradise has yet to include people regurgitating bugs so I agree with you.”
Meanwhile Nurse Chapel and doctor McCoy helped Captain Pike back to his bed and began to recheck his vitals. The two younger men sat down on their respective beds, both still woozy from blood loss.
For Jim and Spock though there was no one else in the world. There were so many things to say, to ask, and yet there were no words. Both men just continued to stare at each other letting the bond they had shared so long ago come back together and fill them with warmth and security.
“You know I hate to interrupt this little sit in, but who exactly are you two!?”
“Isn’t he one of the elders from Vulcan, doctor?” nurse Chapel asked.
“Not according to the logs, all Vulcans were accounted for.”
“He is not from the planet,” Sarek said stepping closer to the two men on the floor.
“May I ask how you know that, Father?”
“I have no logical explanation for his being here. Nor why he is so much older than I, but I shall always recognize my son.”
“Your what!?”
“While I agree that the circumstances are far less than ideal it is good to see that you are well…father.”
“Oh, great because that’s just what the universe needs; two of them, and wait just who the hell does that make you?”
“He’s James T. Kirk.”
“How do you know that?” Jim asked his young duplicate.
“We were a perfect DNA match there’s no reason for that unless you are me.”
“Angels and ministers of grace, may God help us all,” McCoy said and looked longingly at the bottle of alcohol in the other room
“You don’t seem surprised to see me,” Jim said, rather intrigued by this other version of himself with piercing blue eyes.
“I’m not. I’ve already dealt with him,” he said, gesturing to the Spock on the floor, “and now I’m just very scared of getting older.”
“Hey, kid, you try having a bridge fall on you and see how good you look.”
“A bridge? Do I wish to know how you accomplished that, Jim?”
“I was saving a planetary system from destruction with the new captain of the Enterprise, Jean-Luc Picard.”
“You have met Picard?”
“You know him?”
“We have a passing acquaintance.”
“What the hell happened to this ship since I’ve been gone!?” Pike yelled.
“Sir, if I knew the answer to that my life would be much less complicated,” McCoy said in exasperation.
Meanwhile Jim was starting to piece together the puzzle of how he could be in a room with a much younger, mostly undamaged, Captain Pike and younger versions of Spock and himself.
“Alternative universe, am I right, Spock?”
“Indeed, Jim.”
“And our time stream remains safe and intact?”
“It would appear so otherwise we could not be here.”
“Well no one’s sporting a goatee so it can’t be all bad.”
The others in the room just stared at him.
“Inside joke.”
Spock chuckled a bit at that and then winched as the movement aggravated his wound.
“What happened?” Jim asked, concerned, noting the outline of a large bandage beneath Spock’s shirt.
“I was aiding Mr. Scott in his plans with the warp core to get the ship away from the singularity.”
Jim knitted his eyebrows together. “What is it with you and engine rooms?”
Spock didn’t answer and instead turned his attention to their younger selves.
“Many thanks to you both, you saved our lives.”
“Just returning the favour I mean in some weird convoluted way we owe you ours.”
“Agreed.”
“All right enough of the mushy feelings, and breaking universal barriers for today. You two need to be drinking more fluids, and you two need to be resting.”
McCoy helped them up off the floor while they seemed to have a silent argument over who would hold up who. Spock eased himself back onto the bed and Jim quickly joined him.
“I meant on separate-oh forget it! At least they’re lying down!”
As he checked them both to make sure they hadn’t reopened any wounds in their need to be heroic Spock watched them curiously.
“Sir, I do not understand something. Why conceal your identity, why separate yourself from Kirk when you alone could have explained the entire situation?”
“Because you needed each other. I could not deprive you of the revelation of all that you could accomplish together. You have not disappointed me.”
Jim gaped at his lover in shock. “You sneaky Vulcan.”
“I see nothing deceptive in my actions, Jim, it was perfectly logical that I do all I could to insure a stable time stream,” Spock said, his eyes bright with mirth.
Jim could only laugh.
“It has taken a century, Jim, but you have made me believe in luck,” he said hugging him closer to his body.
“And you have made me believe in miracles, Mr. Spock,” Jim answered and tilted his head up to kiss him.
The End