Chapter Ten: Let Them Look
"Damn it, Spock let me do my job!"
"Commander, I must ask you to desist. Jim's in safe hands now and it'd be best if you let the doctor patch up that fracture before it sets wrong."
"He requires a healing trance, not the expertise of a human doctor."
"And were he able to sink into that trance, I'd gladly allow it but he can't, you pointy eared…"
Jim sat on one of the many beds of the Sickbay, watching the argument between Bones, Spock and Pike through a wavy haze of pain medication, a smile on his lips though his skin had turned a shade of pale that was most alarming. His hand lay stretched out before him, the broken limb wrapped in a stasis gauze for the moment, a procedure Bones had flew through rapidly much to the silent and subdued aggravation of the stoic Vulcan who had refused to leave his side.
To his right, Valec sat beside him on the bed, another strange Vulcan who had refused to leave him. The copper haired alien was relaxed as he watched the battle of wills, his head tilted to the side in what Jim could only assume was amusement.
"Someone should probably fix my hand… It's turning blue."
The words Jim was almost sure he had spoken in his mind, but when Spock's dark gaze snapped to his, Jim inhaled so sharply he almost swallowed his tongue. The scent of the taller man was one Jim had come to know as subtle, musky and dense. Right now, it was anything but. It came from the Vulcan in waves, fogging Jim's brain worse than the painkillers Bones had forced into him. God but he smelled good…
A gentle hand brought his body back from where he had been stretching forward without his knowledge. Valec's lips seemed almost tilted in a smile. Could Vulcan breeder's smile?
Well of course they could, he was one of them. Jim snorted a laugh.
"The pain medication seems to having an adverse effect on him."
Bones grumbled something inaudible at Spock's words, blinding Jim for a split second as he shone something in his eyes. "Nah, that's just Jim. You raise a Vulcan to be Human and this is the outcome."
Jim felt mildly insulted.
"Alright, Jim, listen up," Bones' voice sounded in front of him, drawing him from his musings, "I'm gonna use the regenerator on your hand and it's gonna pinch. With the amount of drugs I've pumped into you, shouldn't hurt too much but just to be warned."
A stab of panic went through Jim's heart as the doctor turned his hand over gently, his other holding a small device. It was one Jim had seen hundreds of times before, had had it used on himself when he broke his nose but damn, he never thought he'd fear it like he did right now. McCoy gave him a steady look and flicked \the 'on' switch.
Jim winced, his face flinching to one side before it registered that there was no pain. He didn't even feel the gentle grasp of Bones' fingers around his wrist. One eye opened cautiously to find the regenerator fully at work, all three men watching him as though they expected him to start screaming. With a frown, Jim felt something tug him further from the scene, a wall of ivy too thick to see through forcing the pain back from his conscious mind and leaving him in a space devoid of any feeling but the gentle pulse of another mind.
Dimly, the blonde knew it to be Valec. Slim hands were wrapped around his upper arms, skin to skin, a soft voice against his ear urging him to be still, be still. He existed like that for what could have been seconds or hours, he did not know but when the light of the device blinked off, Jim's hand was completely healed and his consciousness flooded back to him in a strong wave. Valec's hands had left his arms.
"What the fuck was that?"
Jiim's voice, though slurred with the haze of painkillers that had swamped him, was panicked, his blue eyes blowing wild. He'd felt as though the world had been cut off from him, pleased as he was that there had been no pain the gentle patter of minds against his own had vanished. He'd been alone inside his head completely and utterly for the first time in his life. Was this what Vulcan shields did? Was this how they controlled themselves, by ridding themselves of empathy?
"What did you do?"
Pike's question was aimed at Valec, the Vulcan breeder looking up at him with no small amount of hesitation. His lips clamped shut, his eyes darting downward as a flood of green filled his cheeks. Submissive. The Orions had called him submissive.
"Vulcan Breeders are taught at youth never to respond to a male who is not of Vulcan, Captain," Spock's voice was almost loud in the near empty Med Bay, his eyes pinned on Valec curiously, "They answer questions directed solely at them by Vulcan males or not at all. I am told they commune with ease amongst one another, however friendship amongst Breeders is prohibited on Vulcan. I do believe that what transpired between Jim and this Breeder is the reason why such relations are prohibited.
"A carrier's mind is not as attuned to the reason of logic as that of other Vulcan's. They feel emotions more strongly, more deeply and form familial bonds with those they care for. As it is within a breeder's instincts to care for all, any small show of acceptance is enough for a breeder to form a bond. Though it is not a marriage bond that exists between them, it is strong enough that, should it be broken, it would cause both grief and loss; a trial no Vulcan wishes a breeder to ever go through. May I enquire what it is your name is?"
The final part was spoken to Valec, Spock's voice softer as he took in the sight of the Breeder half-hidden behind Jim. The copper haired carrier was older than Jim, but not by much. He appeared just old enough to have been given leave from the temple at which he had been trained, to be escorted to one of the larger cities in search of a courtship. He glanced at Spock with wide green eyes before dipping his head once more in submission.
"My name is Valec, sir."
Spock nodded once, his gaze skimming to where Jim had lifted his newly healed hand before his face, staring at it in bemusement. The vulcan's lips twitched upwards, the heat within him coiling slowly in his stomach. "And, if I may be so bold as to enquire, Valec; where were you that enabled the Orion slavers to capture you?"
The breeder's cheeks turned emerald, his hands clenching in his lap. "I had been gifted to a Lord Amkreth on Vulcan, as a sign of goodwill between those of us who follow the path of Surak and those who believe it illogical to ignore our baser instincts. The notion of marrying one whom I had never known… It frightened me. I escaped my escort and hid within a merchant ship readying to travel off-planet. None but I survived the Orion invasion."
The voice was subdued, as though he expected to be reprimanded for doing what Jim would have done in his place. Spock watched the smaller man with something akin to sorrow in his eyes. "You understand that they will search for you."
Jim lowered his hand, watching Valec bow his head and nod, his lips pressed tightly together. Had a Vulcan the ability to cry, Jim had no doubt that Valec would have been unable to see past his tears. This was a man who had offered him a moment of peace to avoid pain, who had been a shelter to hide behind when the pressure in his mind had grown too high. If it was true what Spock said, Valec and he had formed a subtle bond of friendship, one deeper than any he would share with another human. He couldn't let Valec defend himself because the green eyed Vulcan simply did not know how. He'd never been capable of thinking for his own safety.
"Let them look."
Brown eyes snapped to him, Spock's scent all the more prominent with the haze of painkillers beginning to wear off. Had the Vulcan always smelled this good?
"What are you implying, cadet Kirk?"
That voice was silk against his ears, Jim's blue eyes lidding as he tried to think past the heat that seemed to have hit his cold limbs. "I… Uh…"
"Eloquent as always Jim." Bones voice huffed from beside him, drawing a gasp not unlike a squeak from the blonde before he scowled at his friend.
"What I meant was, let them look for him. Valec's ship was taken in by Orions, the crew killed. They'll assume Valec was killed or sold off already. He can stay here and find a life on Earth once we return. No one will be the wiser."
"Except for the fact that Vulcan having a separate race of men capable of giving birth isn't exactly common knowledge on Earth, Jim. Valec won't pass for human."
"He doesn't have to," Jim argued stubbornly, his eyes flashing, "and neither do I. I know what you guys did for me was for my own good, Chris, but I'm sick of hiding and I'm sick of not fitting in. Earth will just have to learn about us and deal with it and Vulcan can go stuff itself. It's not they did anything for me! Did you say capable of giving birth?"
The final question seemed to run onto the end of the rant, Jim's heated cheeks suddenly turning pale as he glanced from Valec to Spock and back to Pike. "Did you say birth?"
Chris arched an eyebrow in his direction, "What did you think Breeder meant, Jim? I'll have sleeping quarters set up for Valec near your own and I'll have to contact the Admiral and explain all of this, and I do mean all. No more blasted secrets, I'm too old for them. In the meantime, we'll have to stop off in Vulcan for a few hours to drop off that bastard that tried to buy you. Valec, you can hide on the ship. Commander Spock, come with me."
Bones clapped a hand across Jim's back as they left, grinning down at his friend. "I always wondered what that spare pocket of space was that showed up on your scans; never occurred to me that it'd be a womb. Alright, Jim, you're good to go. Why don't you give Valec here a tour of the ship?"
Jim watched him leave to attend his other duties, the blonde's mouth open in disbelief. He turned to stare up at the other Vulcan breeder when a hand touched his shoulder briefly.
"Did he say womb?"