Reach


There was no one to look for. Everyone knew how his father died, and maybe only Bones and Admiral Pike knew of his own mother’s death. She was in a hover car accident when Kirk was only fifteen. She never remarried so Kirk and his older brother ended up with their uncle Frank when she was offworld and ultimately when she died. Uncle Frank had no idea how to raise children. Then Sam took off when Kirk was sixteen and Kirk doubted Sam would just magically appear on a somber but important day in his life.

So, why Kirk’s eyes flickered to that public balcony overlooking the assembly hall was a loss to him. What did he expect to see? His parents’ ghosts like on that one ancient movie series his uncle liked to watch? Of course, his parents weren’t there, and some almost thirty version of Sam wasn’t there either.

But, he was there, that older Spock with all the emotion in his eyes. Kirk saw him just as the elderly Vulcan turned away to leave. Impulse seized Kirk, but he took a deep breath. He couldn’t go after him right now. He was a Captain and people wanted to talk at him and congratulate him.

Kirk’s eyes flicked back up to the balcony briefly when Chekov and Sulu latched onto his arm as those he commanded swamped him. Spock was gone.

Kirk eventually made it out of the celebrations. He was on his way to meet Bones, Scotty, and whoever else for a celebration at a local bar after a quick pit stop at the dorms to change out of his stupid red cadet uniform. In street clothes, he took a shortcut through the campus gardens, which opened up on a street that led to the nearest local nightlife. Passing a fountain lit up by lights that mimicked the tone of moonlight, Kirk drew up short. In the chaos that followed graduation ceremonies, he almost forgot that the older Spock was stateside.

The elderly man was on another path in the gardens. He walked in a direction away from Kirk, yet his gnarled hands were where Kirk could see them and their intentions. If Kirk stepped forward, he would continue to the bar, but if he stepped to his right….

“Should you be here? I mean what if you run into…uh….you?”

Okay, it wasn’t the best greeting, but Kirk had to wonder. This wasn’t the first time he ran into a Spock in the gardens, but it was the first time to run into the older Spock here. Actually, they were probably all lucky his First Officer was conveniently absent from graduation all things considered.

Kirk chased away thoughts of his first officer taking a glance into the balcony and everything imploding just as Kirk shook Admiral Pike’s hand at the ceremony.

“My friend,” Spock greeted Kirk. As he turned slowly, his hands moved to his front, again taking an unassuming position. His face remained in the Vulcan default, though his eyes were welcoming. If Kirk was surer of this man’s facial expressions, he might think Spock’s gaze conveyed amusement. “I will not run into my younger self again,” Spock answered.

Kirk nodded, then his eyes snapped up to meet Spook’s gaze. “‘Again?’” Was this all the warning he was getting before the universe imploded?! “You met with him?”

“Yes,” Spock answered. The muscles in his face relaxed almost imperceptibly.

Kirk looked around. There were no dimensional rifts in the sky, no flames on water; no birds dying mid-flight. He was also still very male and very much alive, but still! “You told me that I’d destroy time space if I brought you back with me.” Someone needed to tell that culture teacher where to shove it when the professor harped about Vulcans having an inability to lie.

“I did not ‘tell,’” Spock clarified, his fingers flexing. “I theorized.”

Kirk snorted. All that trouble over a theory. Then he shifted his weight. Kirk wanted to say this earlier, but this was the first chance he received. “Sorry we had to destroy your craft.” ‘And leave you stranded in this world,’ seemed to add to the humid spring night. He knew that it was necessary to use the craft, that it was possibly the only way to accomplish what they did, but Kirk didn’t like the taste in his mouth. He couldn’t imagine being in Spock’s position.

Spock unfolded his hands and then he folded them again. His dark eyes found Kirk’s gaze easily. “Do not worry, my friend. It was necessary.”

‘”But – ”

“It will be all right,” Spock asserted. “I will be all right.”

Kirk nodded and something tickled the back of his mind. People were probably wondering if he ditched them for some hot piece of ass or something. “If you…” Kirk proposed, clearing his throat, “If you need anything, let me know.” It was weird, but he meant the offer. Maybe it was because of the emotion in those eyes, maybe it was the residue of all those intense emotions of the mind meld, or maybe it was the fact Spock came here to see this moment when no one else not affiliated with the current Starfleet could show up that made his offer genuine. “I don’t know what I can do from space, but I can try.”

Spock’s face moved in what had to be the Vulcan equivalent of a smile. Before he could respond, Kirk offered a hand and then retracted it as though thinking better of it. That was like kissing in Vulcan right? Though, if his culture teacher was all full of bull about the lying and Uhura was always macking on his first officer the human way, it could be wrong.

“I....” Kirk tried to assert that he wasn’t being rude, he was doing his best not to be rude actually. Spock’s patient gaze oddly wasn’t helping his words. Words always came to Kirk better when there was adrenaline or his ass was about to get kicked.

“Try this.” Spock raised his right hand. He pressed his fingers together and spread them into a V between his middle and ring fingers.

Kirk mimicked the gesture. His fingers curved and the space between his ring and middle fingers wasn’t quite right but it was a start.

“Live long and prosper.”

“You too, Old man.”

End