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For reference, though mostly because I accidentally deleted this in iPad notes first time round, this is stuff for what I like to call Star Trek: Into Spirkness. (yes, I do have too much time on my hands)
Note 1: I have not seen the movie. Everything I know of it is from gifs and blogs.
Note 2: my headcanon is Kirk and Spock are already bonded due to mind meld transference int the first reboot, a la Seperis’ wonderful fic ‘You’ll Get There in the End’
Note 3: Coherence? Accuracy? What are these things of which you speak?
Kay. So Kirk and Bones are running through a kool-aid cornfield for reasons idk. Did Bones try and hypo Kirk but he ducked and Bones hypoed a kool-aid corn-eating creature by mistake who reacted just like Jim would have, but with fangs? Hubcap sized fangs? Wevs; they’re running. Bones is pissed because a day that already involved beaming now involves running. And also, he soon realises, involves Jim babbling away excitedly to the pointy-eared hobgoblin who isn’t even dirtside. See, when Jim’s adrenaline levels reach a certain level, he forgets that when communicating with Spock through their bond link, he doesn’t actually have to talk out loud. Bones catches enough to realise that Jim is playing tour guide. While they are running. From a recently hypoed, hubcap fanged, kool-aid corn-addicted creature who is just as, if not more, pissed than Bones. Which is why Bones deems it necessary to remind his illustrious captain that, was Kirk paying attention, he would realise that they are not, as sane people would be, running toward the beach, they are running toward the edge of a cliffffffff *falls*
While Kirk is falling, vaguely hoping those sharp looking rock things are sentient and will skedaddle before he and Bones are turned into shish kebabs, he’s smiling. Not simply because, as Bones likes to say once a day if not five times, he’s a crazy sonofabitch with the survival instincts of an epileptic moth, but mostly because: Spock hadn’t shielded at all while Jim was yelling to him about Iowa infecting ‘us’ (and dammit if Jim doesn’t love using the ‘u’ word) with a magnet attracted to every quasi-cornfield in the cosmos. It’s the first time their bond has been entirely open since the Enterprise relaunched after her post-Nero facelift, and Spock decided a certain degree of detachment is required for starfleet officers while on assignment.
Jim has gently reminded his T’hyl’a (aka yelled repeatedly and loudly at his stupid face) that:
1: He is fairly certain there is no regulation governing an alternate universe provoked pon Farr bonding between a captain and his half-human half-vulcan first officer so if Spock could please stop trying to write ones that implicitly suggest Spock can very easily drop kick Jim’s little psi-null butt into a frontal lobe ravine and assume control of the Enterprise, that’d be just swell.
2: It does not make the bond less obvious to those who don’t know about it (aka almost everyone); it makes it more obvious ‘cause Jim’s got this constant sense of a massive hole in his brain where the mental hum that is Spock’s soul has covered itself with a freaking filter. And, yes, Jim will mix his fucking metaphors if he wants to. You would to if your bond-mate was deliberately cutting you off from certain parts of himself
3: Jim is perfectly capable of making his own decisions even if Spock were to set up a rowdy protest (or more likely a passaive aggressive sit-in) in his cerebral cortex with placards stating ‘this is a bad idea’ and ‘I’m bonded with stupid’. An unshielded bond does not circumvent the chain of command, god dammit Spock, do you not think we’re going to have this fight enough times when we disclose to to the brass? I kinda of thought you’d be on my - our! -side.
4: is this you letting me down gently with a mental version of it’s not you it’s me?
Point 4 is always as far as the argument gets. Even Jim can’t keep a fight going when his Vulcan bond-mate is clutching his mind and body so tight that he temporarily forgets that breathing is actually necessary.
So yeah, plummeting from a cliff is kinda the highlight of Jim’s month ‘cause he’s whole. ‘Cause Spock is fully there. Which is…awesome. Until he hits the water and realises.
Jim doesn’t really remember getting from the water to the bridge, though there was a turbo lift involved somewhere. He has a slight recollection of being in motion whilst telling Spock to quit trying to reactivate any mental shields, he’s already aware they only fell ‘cause Spock thought Jim was in dire peril and now Jim knows Spock actually is.
‘Seriously, dumbass’ Jim’s thinking as he walks onto the bridge and that damn viewscreen is full of fire. ‘How is being stuck in a volcano ‘a minor failure in mission implementation?’
‘I am unsure as to the bearing the intelligence of my posterior has on our current situation.’
‘Awesome. You pick now to be funny’
‘It seems unlikely there will be another time period to select from’
“Shut up.” Bones looks at him then so Jim figures he’s spoken aloud. He’s really got to do something about these adrenalin spikes. Yeah, Bones and Uhura know everything, and Scotty, Sulu and Chekhov know most, but the rest of the crew are still sufficiently in the dark and Jim’s not about to enlighten them with a poorly placed ‘T’hyl’a’ if he can help it.
Another explosion. Jim recalls a different day of falling followed by explosions. Panic kicks in. Panic is good. Panic leads to ideas. ‘Course it’s a lot easier to think of insane, last ditch suggestions if the obvious answer isn’t sitting under Scotty’s fingers.
‘No, Captain.’
‘Really? Captain? You’re in my freakin mind, Spock! I think Jim is acceptable’
‘We are on duty’. Is the calm and noticeably soft reply. A pause. ’I am not the exception, Jim’
‘You are always the exception, lameass.’
‘In this conversation you have referred to my posteria as both ‘dumb’ and ‘lame’. To use a human expression, ‘you never had any complaints before’
Usually, Jim’s laugh would be skirting the line between boisterous and hyperactive, but now it merely crowds and poisons his throat, and he only just manages to turn his choke into a cough, the shake in his hand into a curled fist. ’Goddamn it, Spock’.
“Options”, he says aloud. The silence on the bridge may as well have Prime Directive as its sponsor.
Fear laces the panic - ‘Spock, don’t. No win scenario’s, remember? - as Jim senses the shroud creeping back. Spock is deliberately muting each emotion, pulling back even as Jim’s mind reaches out to hogtie everything that is Spock to his own damn cortex. Of course, it’s futile. Scant months of learning can’t compensate for a lifetime of telepathic impotence and Spock will win this fight everytime.
‘You’re not protecting me, Spock.’ No response. ‘There’s a way; there’s always a way.’….’So what? You’re just gonna bug out and give up? Take one for the team?’ And now Jim’s getting desperate because this can’t be happening again.
Jim’s will relegate ‘Fleet to second priority because Spock will always be his exception.
“What would Spock do if he were here?” Jim’s always had a penchant for a special kind of emotional self-mutilation and he knows Spock can still hear him and he has to know if he’s the exception too.
Bones’ cracked “he’d let you die” is not what half kills Jim; Spock’s agreement earns that commendation.
Even if it is in the form of: ‘T’hyl’a, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one’.
TBC…
