Author's Note: Another drabble that got in my head and wouldn't let me rest until I posted it.
Inspired by watching the movie for the hundredth time and the scene with SpockPrime on Delta Vega.
Still no Beta, let me know if I missed anything majorly f-ed up.

Disclaimer: Not mine… I'll let you know if that changes.


Spock was no longer in his prime. He was cold and tired, weighted down by agonizing failure but he was unwaveringly strong in his mental capacities.

(James T. Kirk)

He could have melded with this raw edged younger version of Jim with out letting him 'hear' the echoes of a bond, a love, that had been severed so long ago.
Spock was uncommonly gifted for a Vulcan, he'd managed to meld through a wall once, in long past golden days.
It would have been simple to pass along the necessary memories without expressing the enduring depths of his faith and unbending devotion.

And yet…Spock was no longer in his prime. He was old and tired, weighted down by agonizing loss even as he was filled with disbelieving joy and growing hope.

(… How did you find me?)

He melded with this strange, heart-wrenchingly familiar, mind and saw terrible loneliness and a horrifyingly isolated, loveless childhood.
Spock was strong, well versed in suppressing his own emotional responses but Jim had always, in any universe it seemed, been able to break through that control.

(I have been and always shall be, your friend.)

So Spock made a choice, and it was simple.

He gave the memories and information carefully, holding tightly to everything else.

He ruthlessly locked away his more cherished memories and private thoughts. He refused to think of the time he'd spent on board the Enterprise, with his Jim.
But as he touched Jim's mind he gave it a gentle, painfully familiar, caress, and gave him one glimpse.

It was an almost unthinkable gift.

(I am Spock)

A glimpse of endless friendship, unwavering devotion and unparalleled love.

Spock knew that he had no right to show this Jim these things. This time line, this entire universe, was different.
Almost everything had been irrevocably changed… but it was Jim.
A mangled reality's unfamiliar, yet breathtakingly similar, James T. Kirk... and this Jim needed the reassurance that only this Spock could give.

It seems that Spock was incapable of denying Jim, of any universe, anything but he limited himself, his caress, his impression on a beloved golden mind, to a heartbeats worth.

'T'hy'la.'

No more.

As the meld broke, all Spock could do was hope that his younger self had the same chance.

To bond with, to live with, to love someone as precious as James T. Kirk.


Reviews always appreciated, Flames will be used to roast marshmallows. : )