A/N: Thanks for all the kind reviews. Please continue to review! It helps me gather motivation for writing! Also, does anyone have any ideas or little requests that I could perhaps think about putting into the story? I'm always open for considering thoughts of others. Anyway, here comes Chapter 1!
It had been nearly two days since the rescue of the planet's survivors. And, due to his Science Officer's knowledge, Seth was informed that the inhabitants were descendants the Athenian race, ones that were distinguished by their extremely fair hair. True to his word, he not only dined with his father and brother that night, but also the young girl that he had promised his presence to. She was as thrilled as a child could be after the loss of her parents and her planet, but Seth's heart wouldn't have allowed him to perform admirably otherwise.
The Alpha shift had just ended and Seth was spending his time alone in his cabin, sitting stiffly in one of the chairs around the small, rectangular table near the door. Both of his hands were intertwined together in thought, and his cerulean eyes stared off towards the far wall, as if looking through metal and steel—his mind was far away, on the night his family had arrived two star days previous to the current stardate…
After dinner, Seth invited Jim and Sven back to his cabin to talk. The little girl, who he had come to know as Fariya, clung to his pant leg until a yeoman whisked her away to join the other children. Jim jokingly commented on how children seemed naturally reliant on him because of his father figure qualities, to which Seth merely scoffed and shook his head, a grin very evident on his face. Once in his cabin, he offered Sven and Jim a seat on the couch extended along the far wall, where they sat a half an arm's length apart.
Growing up, Seth had lived under the influence of both his parents, as did Sven. The only difference was that Seth had been born during one of the Enterprise's five-year voyages, and Sven's birth had occurred on New Vulcan. Seth had come to believe that their different futures had derived significantly from their births, but there was no way to tell for sure. The Captain sat in front of the two in his favorite reclining chair—the only chair that would be competition to it would be the conn—just in front of the couch, and crossed his legs at the ankle on the ground, making himself quite comfortable.
"Okay, Dad. You're quite content, are you? Now I hope you'll inform me as to why you and Sven boarded my ship during the rescue mission of Renok IV." Seth sniffed slightly and adjusted himself.
"Very. Alright, son, let me start out by telling you that there was a purpose to our presence here. And I'll be quite blunt with you, too. Your brother is going to stay with you on your remaining journey aboard the Hudson. You can consider that an order."
Frowning slightly, Seth leaned forward, finding the predicament a bit more demanding than he had thought. "The reason?"
Jim glanced to his left, where Sven sat twiddling his thumbs and staring indifferently at the ground. "The assaults by the Vulcan children have gotten a little too out of hand. Yesterday two of them brought him out into the canyons and nearly threw him over the edge. Now tell me, where's the logic in that?" If it hadn't been for the fact that Jim had married a half Vulcan, Seth would have thought those words were a direct distaste for the race itself. Then again, both he and his brother were a quarter Vulcan and bore a majority of the traits, so perhaps it was just a dislike for the prejudice. It was uncalled for.
"They were fully Vulcan?"
"Yes, and their parents justified their actions by saying their children were 'simply trying to keep the heritage pure'. Can you believe that? They could have killed your brother and all they would have gotten was a slap on the wrists!" Jim's features contorted into an expression of anger, one that he didn't show often as an Admiral. He leaned back against the couch, throwing an arm over the back of it behind Sven.
Seth sighed, running a slender hand through his raven curls. "Where's father? If things are this dire, I'd think he'd want to be here, too."
"He's back on New Vulcan," the Admiral chortled, "Said he had something to do of the utmost importance. Completely cut me off."
"They're fighting," Sven muttered, finally glancing up and giving Seth such a pitiful look that made the Captain want to leap up and wrap an arm around him. "Dad says they're not, but that's not true. I heard them arguing before we left on the shuttle."
"We weren't arguing, Sven. We were—"
"You were what, having a 'creative discussion'? That's unlikely, and illogical due to the tones of your voices." The two on the couch shared a brief glare before Seth cleared his voice. Sven then continued to stare stoically at the floor, leaning away from Jim.
Again, Seth sighed, only this time with a sense of hopelessness. "If that's the case, then why did you accompany him? With Sven's knowledge, he could have controlled the shuttle on his own. Please don't tell me you did it just to get off of New Vulcan. You and father couldn't have gotten into that bad of a fight, could you've?"
"He cut me off, Seth. As in he blocked me out of our bond. I've lived for nearly thirty years with that link closely connected to my heart, for so long that I barely know how to function properly without it now. You know how important telepathic bonds are to the Vulcan people. What am I supposed to think when he blocks himself from me?"
"What are you saying, Dad?" Seth completely leaned forward now, sitting awkwardly on the edge of his seat.
"I'm saying that I think he doesn't trust me with his emotions, even after all these years of being together, of raising a family together. It's pretty damn selfish, sure, but yes, that's why I'm here, Seth. I couldn't stand being so close to him and not being able to feel him."
There was a long pause during which no one in his cabin seemed to move. Finally, after what felt like a short stretch of eternity, Seth reached a hand over and lightly gripped Jim's knee, giving him an emotional look and a light squeeze. "It's gotta be something else. Father isn't like that. You're too important to him, Dad, you're his t'hy'la. Maybe he's protecting you from something."
"Protecting me from what, himself? I experience his darkest sides every seven years, and you know what I'm talking about. I just don't see the damn purpose of this. He needs to suck it up and tell me already!" Jim exclaimed in an emotional feat that he would only show at this age in front of his children, or his husband, who was the cause in the first place.
They spoke for another hour or so, during which Sven and Jim made up—it wasn't in Sven's nature to be angry for long, if he ever was at all. By the time Jim began suggesting they should get some sleep, the bridge called for Seth. Apparently they were being hailed via digital communication from New Vulcan. Seth eagerly switched on the monitor and stood back as both Jim and Sven crowded around him. Sure enough, seconds later the screen was filled by the familiar face of the two boys' father, formally dubbed Ambassador Spock. Jim regarded him briefly and diverted his eyes.
"The two of you left before I could relay more information, but seeing as I am not in any condition to board a shuttle and warp to your current position, I will have to inform you over visual communication. Seth, it is a pleasure seeing you uninjured and healthy," Spock spoke rather quietly, a fraction of his usually confident tone.
"The same to you, father. Are you well?"
The first indication that something was wrong had been that Spock admitted to not being in any condition to fly a shuttle, and the second was avoiding Seth's question all together.
"Jim, I suppose you are angry with me due to our misunderstanding earlier. For that, I do sincerely apologize. You may also be upset for my lack of connection to you, but I do have a reason behind my avoidance, and I had to be sure that I was indeed correct before I allowed you to feel what I have been feeling. It is not… comfortable. In fact, it is painful."
Jim's eyes had nearly glued themselves to the small screen, worry and concern obvious in his body language and again when he quietly replied. "Spock, what's wrong? Damnit, you should know by now that you can trust me with your emotions! Haven't we been through enough?"
"We have, Jim. And as previously stated, the reason behind my severed connection to you was because I had to be sure I was accurate. And I was. I deeply wish I was not, but I was."
"Spock, just tell us already—"
"I visited the healers on New Vulcan, and they informed me that due to the recent quake on the planet, I miscarried a child that I was not aware I was bearing. I believe you were with me when I fell two star days prior. The pains I had been harboring were indications of the miscarriage." The three on the Hudson were immediately silenced, and Jim seemed to grow instantly pale upon the word 'miscarriage'. Seth recalled their fathers telling them that their first attempt at starting a family ended up in a miscarriage, and the memories of it were still painful, even now. The Captain was suddenly aware of his brother's hand searching for his, and he quickly gripped it.
"No...," Jim breathed, sounding at a loss for other coherent words.
"Unfortunately, yes." Spock glanced away for a moment, and despite his attempt to hide it, Seth could see the emotion burning in his eyes. "I do hope that you return to New Vulcan soon, Jim. Although I would not expect Seth to alter his priority course for our personal matters."
"Father!" Seth exclaimed, sounding hurt, though he knew that Spock hadn't meant for the words to seem accusing. "Your personal matters include me as your son. We're not due to arrive at the Beta Colony to accommodate the survivors for another week and a half. The Hudson can make a detour to New Vulcan and still arrive there en route as planned."
Spock slightly tilted his head down in a quiet thanks, but Seth didn't need it. He knew how much his father would need his dad at a time like this.
"Wait. Spock, will you..?" Jim's voice trailed off, finally snapping out of his disbelieving stupor. He must have been talking about their bond, the mental string that connected their hearts and allowed them to feel each other's emotions, because his father nodded and a millisecond later Jim was gripping the table, shoulders hunched as if bracing himself against a current or a strong wind.
Sven eventually picked up his head, though he didn't pull his hand away from Seth's comforting grip. "I do not see the logic in refraining to tell us this, father." Jim silenced him with the slight wave of his hand, though he was silent and still bracing himself against the emotions he had been lacking on their father's end of the connection.
"I apologize for keeping this from you, but due to past difficulties with the matter, I did not want to bring up the subject without knowing if my source was accurate." Spock's gaze moved between the three of them, until he closed them for the better of a few moments.
"I'll have the helm alter the course to New Vulcan, father. With the repairs underway with the main engines, we should arrive there within the next day and a half. The atmosphere of Renok IV wasn't kind to our equipment, even so far out in orbit," Seth explained, attempting to ease the tense aura admitting from the troubled news. He pulled his hand back from Sven and moved towards the speaker on the wall beside the door, pressing a finger to one of the buttons on its remote access. "Captain to bridge. Ensign T'gena, please set the course for New Vulcan at best speed. Kirk out."
Ensign T'gena acknowledged with a quick, "Aye, sir," and Seth turned around, fairly tempted to run his fingers through his hair, a habit he found himself doing quite often. With his eyes now adjusted back to his family, he watched painfully as his two fathers staring at each other through the screen.
"I'll be home to you soon, t'hy'la," Jim whispered, and Seth felt his ears burn from witnessing such an intimate moment. Their dad didn't usually use the Vulcan language. Even so, Jim's words were true. His ship would arrive at New Vulcan as quickly as she possibly could, and he would see to it that their family was reunited.
The familiar chime of his cabin doorbell snapped Seth out of his thoughts and he dispersed them while addressing his guest. "Come in."
His cabin door whisked open and his First Officer Solar, a full Vulcan and Seth's current Alpha Navigator who had been a child survivor of Vulcan's destruction, stepped casually inside, his hands clasped neatly behind his back. The stature reminded him of his father, but Solar's features were much more refined and less angled. The neat, cleanly cut haircut was similar to his brother's and his father's, but the color was lighter. "Captain, your family has been escorted to the transporter room. We've arrived at New Vulcan as of 5.642 minutes ago."
Seth quirked a delicate, angled brow. "Personal report, Mr. Solar? Wouldn't it be more logical to hail me over the speakers?"
Solar mirrored his inquired look. "Quite the contrary. I was passing your cabin on my way to the transporter room. It seemed much more fitting to retrieve your personally. After all, I am joining the landing party. It is not every day a Vulcan enlisted in Starfleet is allowed to visit his home."
"Very true. Well, I'm ready to leave, so let's go, shall we?" Seth grunted a bit as he got to his feet and motioned for Solar to go first, but the First Officer seemed to insist that the Captain should have that "honor", so he simply walked ahead of him. They passed crewman and the yeoman who was taking care of Seth's young acquaintance, but because of their tight schedule he had no time to stop and discuss anything. Upon arriving in the transporter room, the Chief of Engineering, Mrs. Lament, nodded towards him with a brief, apprehensive smile. Jim and Sven were already waiting on the beaming pads, both looking nervous, though his dad was better at hiding it. Solar advanced to the pad beside Sven and titled his head towards the younger male, and Seth couldn't help but notice that Sven's ears seemed to flush slightly green.
Seth stood beside his father while a few ensigns saluted Admiral Kirk off, and Mrs. Lament prepared the energizing sequence. But before she finished, the transporter room door flew open and their Chief of Medical, a certain Doctor McCoy Jr., burst through, looking peeved and out of breath. "The hell you were going to leave without me, Seth Kirk! Don't energize yet! I have the right to help you both out, in the name of my father!"
Those in the transporter room seemed surprised by the outburst, but Jim looked amazed and almost admiring. "Well, if it isn't little James McCoy," he mused, though his tone didn't contain even half the amusement and mockery as it usually would.
"Ha-ha, Admiral Kirk. Just because I'm named after you doesn't make you my keeper. When my Pa told me to keep an eye out for you and your green-blooded family, that includes watchin' in on your hobgoblin boyfriend. So I won't be takin' no for an answer." James took his place behind Seth and snorted, and Seth was sure that if he hadn't been holding his equipment, he would have crossed his arms. "Speakin' of which, he's kind of pissed off that you hadn't returned any of his recent calls as of the past month. You tryin' to give him a heart attack?"
"Why of course not. Has he been calling?" Jim asked, rather mock innocently. James began to get a little red in the face, but the conflict was cut off when the Admiral quickly demanded, "Energize!" and their molecules scattered to reappear on a New Vulcan landing pad below.
Spock was waiting there for him. As soon as they were put back together, Jim left the pad and drew so close to his husband that Seth suspected they might have embraced. Instead, Spock slightly drew up his hand and Jim brushed his fingers over the Vulcan's. It was like the Vulcan equivalent to kissing, so to speak—an intimacy. They did it quite often, if Jim didn't engage Spock in a chaste kiss or two in public. For the sake of their sons' sanity, they stopped at that.
"It is a pleasure to feel you so close to me, Jim," Spock said quietly, and as Seth, Sven and the others approached, he could make out the faint smile that tinged on his dad's lips. When they were within a close distance, Spock's eyes turned to the two of them—plus James, who stood behind them—and he reached his opposite hand out to them. "My sons."
"Father," the two of them said in unison, and in turn touched the tips of their fingers to Spock's before drawing their hands back to their sides.
"Boys, do you think you could give your father and me a bit of time alone before we all talk?" Jim asked, his voice on the verge of a subtle desperation. Sven nodded, straightening himself when he noticed someone at the door. Seth did the same, suddenly, already recognizing the authority of their grandfather Sarek. He swept his eyes over the small, gathered crowd and folded his hands in front of his robe.
"I will converse with your offspring, Spock. You may take your time alone," he said airily, not keeping his eyes off of Sven, who went green in the ears for a completely different reason. Seth soothing nudged him in the back with his fist.
Spock, Jim, and eventually Solar left, leaving the four of them plus a few Vulcan workers who took shifted in the landing bay. Ambassador Sarek beckoned them with a wave of his fingers and departed as well, and James simply followed because he currently had nowhere else to go.
"About your difficulties, young Sven, I have arranged for new accommodations in the academy if you should so please to adhere to them. I do believe if you separate yourself from the others, you should have fewer problems among them," Sarek began as they roamed the rocky halls, towards a destination Seth was unsure of.
"With all due respect, Grandfather," Seth piped in, silencing whatever timid acceptance Sven might have given, "I've invited my brother to join me on the Hudson for the remainder of her voyage. My First Officer Solar would be a good teacher to him, if Sven should need a tutor, otherwise he could learn off of software on the ship's computer."
"Is that wise?" Sarek questioned, resentment towards the idea burning in his voice, but not enough to count as anything other than the Vulcan way of suppressing emotion. Seth could only pick up on it because he was used to hearing as such from his father, and many of the other, full Vulcans he had come across since his birth. "He would learn best if he continued to study under New Vulcan's Science Academy. He need not let mild threats turn him towards cowardice."
"Cowardice?" Seth nearly snapped, but caught himself at the last minute. It appeared that Jim's tendencies had been most apparent in his blood. "He's a coward for wanting to get away from bullies who nearly killed him?"
Sarek paused in his step. "Ah, is that what you were told?" Their grandfather glanced back at him, rather cold in his stare.
"Are you trying to say my dad was lying?" Seth stopped a few feet away from him, causing James to nearly ram into his back from the sudden cease of movement.
"I am merely stating that perhaps you were informed incorrectly."
"You sonuva—"
"Seth!" Sven chirped, gripping lightly at his arm and ignoring his usual Vulcan mask that he wore around their grandfather, and sometimes even their father. "He's not lying. They didn't try to kill me. I slipped and nearly fell."
"Because they were cornering you!" Seth argued, the vein he sometimes got popping out on his throat when he was beginning to get ticked off. And he was. "That's still an attempt to harm you, even if they weren't pushing you themselves, which I'm sure they would have done if you hadn't have nearly slipped on your own!"
Out of nowhere, it seemed, a man cleared his throat, and all eyes shifted towards its source. James had made his way in between the two boys and their grandfather, a mediator in a near vocal argument between similar blood. "If you don't mind me, fellas, I'd rather you discussed more peaceful matters, like when the hell I'm going to properly examine your father and tell my dad how one of his close personal friends is in bad shape."
"Ah, yes, the miscarriage," Sarek recalled, "Perhaps if he was not so emotionally dependant, his actions would have been more logical."
"Oh hell n—" Seth was cut off, and it wasn't by Sven suddenly gripping his arm.
"Father, that is untrue. If I were emotionally dependant, I would not be a candidate for a Vulcan Ambassador." Heads turned to see Spock appearing around the next corner, though he wasn't trailed by Jim. "I would also appreciate your cooperation to no longer insult my children, or myself. We are experiencing a loss, and times are troubling enough as they are now."
Silently, Sarek nodded his apologizes, and then also towards Seth—who was still seething—and Sven. James didn't mind being ignored, for he didn't really have anything to do with Sarek in the first place. "My apologizes, Spock. I was brash. You have my condolences." He left rather swiftly, and Seth tried hard to resist the urge to glare at his back, but Spock was soon upon them.
"Do not think of it. James McCoy, you have permission to examine my condition to ease the mind of your worried father," Spock said. For a man who had just lost a child, he seemed more uplifted than he had when they arrived. Jim must have assured him.
"You could have called him and told him what was going on," James mumbled, but nodded and followed after Spock, also trailed by the two Kirk sons. The halls were familiar to Seth, as he had often spent a year or so here during his childhood, after Sven was born. Sure enough, they arrived at their family's master door, which was almost like an entrance to a longue and a small hotel with four rooms. If that were so, then their fathers had the Presidential Suite, because their large room came accompanied with a balcony, a bathroom, and a walk-in closet. The smaller rooms only had a small bathroom and furniture.
Jim was waiting for them on a couch in the center of the room, and quickly jumped up when they entered. Spock passed him, lightly—almost undetectably—brushing his fingers against Jim's as he took his seat on the couch and looked up expectantly at Bones's son, who neared and began fishing through his bag of doctor's equipment. "How have you been feeling since it was removed?" James asked, moving a miniature tricoder over Spock, one that was specifically used for medical patients.
"Physically, Doctor, I have been feeling no pain or discomfort," Spock stated carefully, not watching as Jim sat next to him.
"Hm. Physically, you're fine then. According to this, you're as healthy as a horse. A green-blooded horse, I guess." James eyed Spock in the face gingerly. "How about mentally, then?"
Spock's angled brows slightly creased. "Mentally, Doctor, I am in great pain." James gave him a pitied look and leaned back, allowing Seth and Sven room to squeeze into the couch beside their father. Seth, who already had a hold of Sven's hand, reached for Spock's and squeezed the warm flesh gently. As a family, they shared their grief. But also as a family, they would overcome these difficulties just like any obstacles they had faced together in the past. And, of course, the McCoys were always included as part of that family.