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Special thanks to Beta "Notes from the Classroom". Check out her latest "What We Think We Know" in my faves. I think it is her best yet (and that is saying something).

And This Would Be...

It was time to rendezvous with Nyota and Captain Kirk. Spock made his way from the tent where the pillar was housed towards the little porta-shelter with the reception area. He knew Nyota was waiting for him there - she'd misplaced her comm, but she'd communicated her locale through their bond. Spock had located her comm with his own; it was in the new chamber that had just recently been discovered. He was passing by in that direction to pick it up.

As that thought flicked through Spock's consciousness, he felt Nyota in his mind. I can't believe I lost it like that. His stomach welled up with anxiety that was hers, not his.

Spock felt his lips quirk up in a half smile.

It's not funny! Nyota's mental presence said.

No, it is not 'funny' that you misplaced your comm, Spock thought back, But it is...peculiar that you find misplacing your comm more anxiety causing than our last battle with Klingons.

That was life or death, Nyota responded. This is stress. I'm too young to be losing my mind.

I do not believe you are in any danger of -

"Uhura -"

It was the Captain's voice. Spock looked ahead to see the Captain duck into the new chamber. He must have caught Nyota's comm signal and thought she was there. Spock quickened his pace and headed towards the open door.

"Uhura?" said the Captain again.

Entering the room, Spock instantly knew something was amiss. His sensitive ears detected two people in the room - it was odd the other wasn't responding to Jim's calls. He instinctively transmitted his unease to his bond-mate and felt her anxiety disappear and the same cold level-headedness that always overcame her in dangerous situations reappear.

Heading in Jim's direction, Spock rounded a wall of the seemingly decorative hexagonal chambers filled with elongated crystals. He was about to call out when he saw Dr. Coleman sliding one of the crystals into what looked like a piece of one of the barriers in his hand.

Spock's vision went black, as though he'd stared into a bright light that had suddenly been withdrawn, and he felt himself go light-headed. The next thing he knew he was blinking up at the ceiling and there was a splitting pain in the back of his head. He tried to access his internal clock and found he could not - the injury to his head...He'd worry about it later. Lifting his body, he found himself face to face with a scowling Dr. Coleman still holding onto the crystal in its honeycomb sheath.

"You will listen to me, now," Dr. Coleman said.

Spock staggered to his feet and barreled towards the man. He felt light and weak, and although his body contacted the doctor's, the man, hardly an athlete, barely budged. Instead Coleman raised a fist that came in contact with Spock's jaw before he could dodge it. Reeling back, Spock managed to grab the human's shoulder and apply a nerve pinch. Nothing happened.

He stared at Coleman in confusion. Coleman pushed him backwards, fumbled at his belt, pulled out a phaser and clicked off the safety.

Spock froze. The sickening sound of breaking bone filled his ears. Coleman's head fell back and his body sank to the ground, phaser in one hand, honeycomb and crystal in the other. Before Spock had a chance to fully process what was happening, the crystal slipped from its sheath and shattered. Spock looked up.

Nyota stood in the space behind the human man, brandishing what looked like a stake from the tent they'd built above the pillar. Her eyes met his. "Jim," she said, eyes wide and worried. "What's happened to Spock?"

"Nyota," Spock said feeling his brow ripple in confusion, "It's me." Even as he said it, he knew something was wrong: his voice, the way his face contorted so easily, the bond -

He tried to reach it and found it wasn't there. He took a few choppy deep breaths. Nyota was under one of his arms an instant later, supporting and guiding him towards the door. "You've been hurt, Captain - Jim, Spock's worse."

Turning his head to her, he said, "No, I'm-" and stopped. A groaning noise caught his ears. He shifted his eyes to the floor in front of them. A Vulcan in science blues was lying on the floor, eyelids flickering, groaning slightly. Nyota was moving them closer to him. It took a few moments, moments Spock discovered he couldn't count, but realization hit him.

"Nyota, it's me," he said.

"Captain, I think you need to sit down," Nyota responded.

Spock didn't have to be asked twice. He knelt down beside the body that was his own. He picked up a wrist and touched the pulse points. "My pulse is weak." The body felt so warm.

Nyota was furiously patting down the science blues to the uniform waist. "Found his comm," she said. "I'll call the Enterprise now." He heard her punch in a few numbers and then Spock stopped listening. His attention was drawn to his hands, or the hands of the body he was inhabiting. The palms were rougher and squarer than his own. The fingers shorter, nails blunter. The undertones were pink.

"I'm Jim," he whispered.

"You're going to be alright," said Nyota, putting down the comm. Squeezing one of the limp hands of the Vulcan form on the ground she said. "They're beaming you, Spock and Coleman directly to sickbay."

Before Spock could correct her, he felt the familiar buzz of static and then he was in Dr. McCoy's domain. The doctor rushed towards him. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Dr. M'Benga run to him...or the body that belonged to him, now stretched on a gurney. In another corner Coleman's body was being wheeled away – probably to surgery and intensive care.

"Jim," said Dr. McCoy, "Uhura said you've got possible head trauma -"

"I'm Spock," Spock said.

"Hang in there, buddy," said McCoy, touching his shoulder and checking a tricorder. It struck Spock that McCoy was really worried about him-or about Jim anyway, and he knew that, without stopping to analyze McCoy's words or his facial expression. He just felt it in his gut.

"Blunt trauma to the back of the head," McCoy said.

"It probably happened when Jim fell," replied Spock.

Dr. McCoy met his eyes for a moment, then he looked back at his tricorder. Jamming a finger at a the screen he said, "Readings in the hypothalamus and prefrontal cortex are off the chart."

"Same over here," called M'Benga.

Across sickbay the door whooshed open. Nyota rushed into the room and over to the form of Spock's real body. "How is he?" she said.

Before M'Benga could reply, Spock's body, his real one, began to groan.

"I'm here, Spock, I'm here," said Nyota, taking his hands. Her eyes were bright and moist. It hurt Spock's heart to look at her in distress. Spock, in Jim's body, took a step towards her. "Nyota...Nyota...I'm over here."

She didn't look up. He saw M'Benga and McCoy's eyes meet. Was this a body swap, like had occurred in the other timeline? If so, was Jim's consciousness in Spock's own body? How had the swap resolved itself in the other timeline?

Spock knew the answer to it, although he was certain Jim hadn't given him details. In the other timeline, his elder self had melded with Jim in Lester's body. His other self was the only one who had believed Jim when he was in Lester's form.

So now the only person who could definitively identify him was in his own body. Out of the corner of his eye he saw McCoy finger a hypo and glance sideways at M'Benga.

"I am Spock," Spock said again, "You must believe me."

"Jim," said McCoy, taking a step forward. "You had a nasty blow to the back of your head. I think it would be best if -"

His Vulcan body began to groan again and Spock, McCoy and M'Benga all looked in that direction.

"Spock?" said Nyota, clasping Spock's real body's hand.

"I'm here," said Spock, taking another step forward.

Human-Vulcan eyes flickered open. Spock watched as they immediately went to Nyota.

McCoy took a step towards Spock in Jim's body. "Okay, Jim, I think you need to step back for a moment -" He had a hypo in his hand.

Spock eyed it with dread. Should he struggle? Should he run? Should he submit?

Nyota suddenly stood up as though bitten. "This isn't Spock."

"No," said the Vulcan form.

Nyota turned her head slowly to Spock. "Spock?"

"Yes," said Spock. It was odd, hearing Jim's voice when he spoke.

There was a moment of silence that Spock could not quantify; he had no internal clock. He and his wife just stared at one another. Nyota's mouth was slightly open. Her forehead was smooth, her eyes large, still moist and bright. It occurred to him that she was probably in shock.

"It will be alright," he heard himself whisper.

Nyota tilted her head...perhaps unnerved by his choice of words. It wasn't something he would normally say. It was imprecise, unprovable, but it just slipped out. He licked his lips nervously - another thing he wouldn't normally do; again, this body's reactions.

"So who is -" said M'Benga turning towards the half Vulcan on the gurney.

"You know," the Vulcan said in a flat voice, "This is really very fascinating. But it would be much more so if I had the opportunity to swap bodies with Uhura."

Eying the Vulcan form, McCoy said, "That would be the Captain."

A/N:

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