A/N - I am so sorry with how long this has taken! I had it written ages ago and the internet went down for 2 weeks! Hopefully the next chapter will be ready next week.

Disclaimer: Star Trek 2009 is not mine... but I wish it was...

Jim was startled awake as his alarm went off, heart beating wildly, still half believing he was in another's arms. He stretched and turned to look at the clock and groaned, "Goddam it, it's only 7am..."

Still grumbling, he stood up slowly, trying not to jar his abused muscles. He was nearly upright when his hangover hit and caused him to stumble, holding his head in his hands.

"Owwwwwww..."

Jim seriously considered staying at home for the day to work off the hangover and the twinges he had throughout the night, before he realised he had to be there.

He worked at the shipyard in Riverside as a computer programmer for the new starship being built. It was an exciting opportunity and he was using the very latest technology. There was a major update being planned and a programming specialist was being brought in for a few weeks, starting that day. Jim had been looking forward to it for weeks.

Jim had always been interested in electronics, almost nerdily so, and had even secretly installed his own creation into the ships programming. A specially written code that would allow the computer to run the ship on its own regardless during emergencies; deploying its own life support systems in times of trouble, sending out recorded distress signals on numerous wavelengths at the same time and using pre-programmed destinations to travel to the nearest safe star base. If he had given it more thought he might even have been able to make the system entirely self-sufficient. But that would probably be quite dangerous – there was a reason A.I. was banned by Starfleet regulation.

He was quite proud of it – even if he couldn't actually tell anyone.

"Work had better be worth it today."

The harsh midday sun beat down on the grounded ship and the men were moving around the shipyard sweating and cursing the warmth as they lifted heavy machinery. The programmers however were inside the ship, thankfully the environment stabiliser with built in air conditioning had been installed a few weeks prior.

Jim however had it even worse than the men outside in the heat. Despite the modern, top of the line air conditioning system, Jim was sweating like a turkey at Thanksgiving. The twinges he had felt throughout the night had evolved into hot flushes – not good in this kind of weather. The blondes' vision would sometimes blur and he would feel his body tilt sideways before he wrenched himself upright, determined to finish his work in time.

He could no longer make sense of what the other programmers were saying, their voices registering as gibberish to his hot ears. Jim breathed in slowly, trying to concentrate on them despite his brain being cooked, barely hearing a garbled shout before his eyes rolled up into his head and he knew no more.

Sepek glided into the shipyard, eyes quickly taking everything in, as he moved towards the Head Programmer who was staring at him.

Earth was such a strange planet, he decided, there was such an excessive amount of flora. At least the temperature was moderately warm – he would not be staving off shivers. It was apparently exceptionally warm for the area, though it was nowhere near Vulcan weather in terms of heat.

Of course, Earth also reminded him of his shortcomings. He had failed his son, sent him off planet to a colony while he and his adun'a* had visited what they had believed to be more hostile worlds. In reality, Striyon had been in much more danger.

They had sped to Tarsus IV when they had been notified; he would admit he had been shamefully emotional when he had seen his son unharmed, though underweight, safe in a Starfleet vessels bed. They had placed him in their ship still unconscious, determined to take him to Vulcan so his mind would be healed of the undoubtedly horrific things he had seen as soon as possible.

That had been his first failing – he had taken his son far away from his bonded. Striyon had been distraught when he awoke to find his mate gone. He had shown an uncharacteristic amount of emotion and his irrationality had stunned his parents (as much as a Vulcan would admit to being stunned).

Then had come his second mistake – he had not believed that Striyon could have undergone Pon Farr so young. He was barely more than a child, still mentally developing, and his telepathic shields still in their initial stages.

He had been blind to Striyons suffering as his sons health deteriorated, as he became prone to emotion when he begged permission to go to Earth. His proud child had begged.

Eventually he and his adun'a had taken him to a medical doctor to put to rest the outrageous accusations. Sepek's poise had broken when they learnt that their child had already survived Pon Farr. Their child was already bonded. Striyon had been telling the truth.

If Sepek would admit, even to himself, that he was capable of such emotion he would have drowned in self-hatred. He had finally, mortified, allowed his child to search for records of Tarsus survivors only to be told the names were confidential. Even to other survivors.

Next, they had tried to search Earth records with the sparse information they had – a young human male with melanin* deficiencies named Jim. They had followed up every lead, tried every indication of his existence but had not found him.

After the first few years of unfruitful searching, Striyon had become resigned to his death – refusing to eat as he lost hope. His mother had been inconsolable.

Now, 7 years after Tarsus, Sepek was still praying nightly to Valdena* that this search would be successful; that he would not lose his child to the madness of plak-tau*.

But for now, he had a responsibility to complete. He would update the newly built Enterprises computer systems as quickly as possible while his adun'a searched and his son slowly died.

Sepek stared at the computer screen, amazed at the sheer ingenuity displayed in the previously hidden coding. This was at a higher level than even his own work – he was loathe to admit that he was curious. He would never have believed a human could have written anything like it.

"Who designed this program? It is very complex – I desire to speak to the programmer who created it."

The Head looked flustered for a moment, almost certainly about to take credit, before one of the lower workers spoke out "It was probably Jim, that's his workstation. He's very talented."

Sepek coolly raised an eyebrow, displaying none of his anticipation, before speaking in his usual monotonous voice, "I wish to meet this Jim. I would like to ascertain how this code was written and implemented so well."

The Head coughed uncomfortably, "Unfortunately he's not well at the moment. Just passed out in the heat this morning. Bit odd since he was inside but you come to expect it around here."

"He is in the medical bay, then?" After the answering nod, Sepek began to stride away, leaving the Head gaping.

Sepek walked into the medical room, and stopped suddenly. There was a young man lying on the bed, gasping for breath as sweat poured from his face. A young blonde man who matched his son's description of his bonded exactly.

Sepek, like all Vulcans, refused to presume: every hypothesis needed testing before it could be established as fact. He stepped forward till he reached the bed and took a closer look at the flushed face.

This was not due to the heat; the air cooler next to the bed would have dealt with his overheating. If the boy had been Vulcan he would have said it was the early stages of Pon Farr – but much more pronounced on the cooler human body.

There had only ever been one other human mated to a Vulcan, and that had been a female. Sepek's heartbeat increased despite his rigid posture - there was a 99.9% chance that this was Striyons bonded. Sepek closed his eyes as he allowed himself a small relieved almost-smile, more a twitch of his lips, with no one there to watch it.

The elusive Jim had finally been found.

Sepek entered his son's room quietly, carrying his precious package, surprised to find Striyon was not there. He gently laid the blonde man on the bed, leaving him on top of the covers and turning the air conditioning on to its maximum setting – the human was much too hot.

The Vulcan left the room to wait in the communal area for his wayward offspring. He did not have to wait long.

"Father, you are back early." Striyon spoke with a defeated voice, dull eyes and pale skin even more prominent in the unforgiving light of the Sun. "My search has been unsuccessful."

Sepek stood as he stared into the others eyes, "Mine has not been so unfruitful." Striyons head whipped up, eyes wide, to see his father's serious face in as close to a grin as was possible for a Vulcan.

"W-W-What?" he whispered, adamant that he had misheard.

"I have found your bonded. He is suffering from overheating and is currently unconscious in your private quarters."

Striyon had already bolted for the door before Sepek had finished speaking.

He stood motionless, like a statue, before the bed, gazing enraptured at the man contained within it. Smooth tan skin on show that made him sweat profusely and hair that shone even in the dim light from the hallway.

Striyon held out a shaking hand, his control lost, as he touched his ashayam for the first time in 7 years. As soon as he touched cool skin, the Vulcan leapt for his bonded and held him close on his bed, face buried in soft golden hair as tears ran silently down his face.

It was Jim. His beautiful ashayam. After years of searching, after so much pain and despair, Jim was in his arms as he should be. The festering wound deep in his body was healing as he breathed in Jims scent, stroked his skin and gazed at his characteristic features.

After his eyes dried, Striyon smoothed the golden hair back and stared at Jims unconscious face, older but still just as perfect as he remembered. Striyon held the human tightly as he slept peacefully for the first time since Tarsus IV, knowing that there would be trouble when they woke. They would not have long before Pon Farr was upon them.

The computer system Jim developed is based very loosely on the M-5 system from TOS. It was created by a genius and so I think even a Vulcan would be impressed by this slightly simpler version.

Melanin is the pigment that makes your hair and eyes dark – being deficient means you're blonde with blue eyes (or albino in extreme cases). I'm trying to use more scientific words when in a Vulcans POV. Don't really know how well its working.

*Translations – again from starbase-10. de/ vld

Adun'a – Wife

Plak-tau – Blood fever (before Pon Farr)

Valdena – The Maiden, goddess of love, joy and beauty