Sorry for the delay, I've been working on my outlines for the whole story, and it's slowed down my writing.
Spock sat in the Captain's chair in quiet contemplation as the Enterprise dropped out of warp near Starbase 2, where the delegation for the upcoming mission awaited their arrival. He had held the conn since the end of the staff briefing six hours and forty one minutes ago, and for the duration of that time all of his attention not required by shipboard tasks had been taken up contemplating the revelations brought up by Dr. McCoy and Lieutenant Uhura, as well as the potential problems they posed to the upcoming mission. As it was, this mission was not expected to be easy, as there were many scientists with many opposing viewpoints coming aboard actively anticipating arguing with each other. Keeping the peace would've been difficult enough without such a personal problem preoccupying the Captain. Yet despite the difficulties, relatively little of Spock's thoughts focused on anticipating these difficulties, the majority taken up by the Captain himself. No, not the captain. Jim.
When the two first met, Spock had thought Jim to be insubordinate, childish, and altogether incapable of following the rules. Someone who would require a great deal of seasoning if he were to become a productive Starfleet officer. Jim had also had an overall negative opinion of him, for reasons which Spock still wasn't entirely sure of, but he believed it had something to do with his ill-advised comments regarding Jim's father at the hearing regarding the Kobayashi Maru scenario. Even after their encounter with Nero and with his alternate future self had opened them to the idea of becoming friends, it had still taken time for the initial ice to thaw.
Months of time and many missions together had led the two of them to start seeing approachable qualities in each other, and by the time of their survey mission to Nibiru, Jim at least had recognized the close friendship that had been developing between them. The confrontation with Admiral Marcus and Khan, however, had cemented their friendship. Seeing each other at their worst, the two had supported each other through the ordeal, providing the backup needed to keep either one of them from becoming bogged down in the problems they were having. Before they had been friends. Now they were partners, brothers.
The concept was a rather novel one for Spock. As a child growing up on Vulcan, he'd been ostracized from those around him for the apparently unforgivable crime of having been born to a human mother. He'd had no close friends. He'd been bullied and picked on by the other children, leading to a life of loneliness and self-sufficiency. He never could've imagined that Jim Kirk, his first true friend, had had a similar upbringing, only with even less than he'd had. When Spock was having difficulties emotionally, his last and only fall back had been his mother. For Kirk to have not had that, more so, for his own mother being a source of his emotional difficulty… Spock couldn't understand how Jim had grown into the man he was in such an environment. He wondered if his Captain and friend would ever cease to surprise him. Somehow, he doubted it.
Spock was lifted from his musings by Lieutenant Sulu's announcement that they were approaching the planet on which Starbase 2 was situated. He opened his mouth to give a reply when he was cut off by the voice of another figure entering the bridge from the doors to his right.
James Kirk had been well and truly stunned by the revelation brought to him by his communications officer. He'd been looking over the guest list every chance he'd had since they'd received it, but given all the preparations he'd had to oversee, he still wasn't even halfway through. When Uhura had unknowingly dropped that bombshell, that his mother and Frank- Frank!- of all people were coming aboard the Enterprise, he'd needed some time to process it.
After he'd staggered out of the briefing room and headed for his quarters, still yet to actually force the reality of the situation to penetrate, he'd spared a thought to the men and women he'd left in the room staring at him. He knew that as soon as Bones would look at the PADD or ask Uhura, something he was sure to do rather quickly considering the way Jim had left, Bones would know what was going on. He knew Bones would deflect the others and then come looking for him, but he couldn't let that happen. He needed the time to process on his own, as much as he knew McCoy meant well. And as for the rest of the senior staff… those people were his friends. His family. He had never wanted them to find out about his secrets from his childhood, but at this point, there wasn't a whole lot that he could do. He knew there were going to be some major hiccups on this trip because of this, and they were going to have to have his back. They needed to know what to expect. Better tell them now then wait for the certainty of having to tell them later when it was already too late for them to help him keep from making a colossal mess. (And if the requirement of Bones telling them put off the time Kirk would have to keep him away, well, at least he could get something out of it.) So he'd entered his quarters, gone straight to his personal PADD on his desk, and sent Bones a message asking him to fill them in on the little that he knew. With that he sighed and flopped down on his bed. He thought about going to one of the Observation Decks for the calming sight of the stars but at this point they were all being prepared for the incoming delegates, so this was the only place Jim could seek refuge.
Jim had wanted so very much to get absolutely, irrevocably plastered during those next few hours, but with the delegates' imminent arrival, he knew he could not afford to. He would not embarrass his ship, his crew, or himself by showing up to greet such a range of brilliant and important minds drunk. So instead he spent that time trying to figure out how he was going to deal with having the two of them on board his ship.
His ship. Jim sighed to himself. That was the problem, really. If he had run into either his mother, Frank, or both on Earth or some random Starbase, he wouldn't have been jumping for joy but it still wouldn't be bothering him quite this much. But he'd spent years trying to find the sense of home with the two of them. Now the first (or the second, but the last thing he needed right now was to go there…) place where he'd found a real home, a family, was being invaded by the two who'd denied it to him in the first place. While he didn't believe anything on the Enterprise would change due to this visit, he still couldn't help but feel violated.
Bones rang the door to his room about an hour after Kirk left the briefing, but a swift explanation through the COMM had actually been enough to get him to give some space. Kirk chuckled lightly to himself. That was one of the best things about Bones. When you needed to talk but didn't want to he'd beat your brain into the floor until you let up, but if you genuinely needed space he'd back off and wait for later. A later Kirk was under no delusion wouldn't be coming, but now was really the time he needed to himself.
At first he started going over some memories, the birthdays (or lack therof), the disappointment, the shouting, the hitting, but after fifteen minutes this proved just too painful. It wasn't going to help him cope with their presence and it wasn't going to show him a way to deal with them on a day-to-day basis, so he shoved the bitter memories aside and analyzed their general behavior tactically, the way he'd think about an angry Klingon with his disruptors trained on the Enterprise.
Frank was a loudmouth and a drunkard with an obnoxious tongue and a violent temper. Jim had never been able to please him no matter what and had been hard-pressed to figure out any way to keep him from getting angrier. Responding to a tongue-lashing was likely to just make any potential situation worse, so Jim decided to simply do his best to ignore the man if he decided to run his mouth off. In the past that was just as likely to get Jim a bruise as anything else, but here on the Enterprise that was one thing Jim didn't have to worry about, and it was also the best thing he could potentially do for the images of himself and his crew (and if it was bound to insult Frank more than anything else Jim could do, well, there are just some sacrifices Captains have to make…)
His mother was a bit harder to define. Winona had never hurt Jim physically, but her absence had been with Jim all his life. She had never been able to look Jim in the eye, only seeing her dead husband if she did. The attention and love that every child wants were just too much for her to give to the person who'd kept her from dying with her husband. Nothing Jim did could ever measure up to what she felt he should be, so he was constantly an insult to his father's memory. The only thing Jim could see to do was to ignore her as much as possible and focus on the pride he felt in the Enterprise and her crew no matter what she said.
After hours of painful thoughts broken up by repeated futile attempts to distract himself, the computer alerted Jim that Enterprise was almost at Starbase 2, so he dragged himself away from losing to the computer at chess for the first time, took a shower, and got into his gray dress uniform before leaving his cabin. As he still had a couple of minutes to go Jim took a somewhat longer, more leisurely route to the bridge, just taking in the peace and belonging of being on his ship, with his crew.
He arrived at the bridge just in time to hear Sulu's announcement that they were coming up on Starbase 2. As he passed through the starboard-side doorway leading out into a corridor, Jim called out an order both for the necessity of it being given and to announce his presence. "Standard orbit, Mr. Sulu."
Sulu turned his way and regarded him for a split second with an unfathomable expression. "Aye aye, Captain," Sulu responded as he turned back to his helm. Spock, who'd apparently found a moment despite having the conn to change into his own dress uniform, promptly vacated the command chair and acknowledged him with a solemn nod and a "Captain." Jim nodded back and came to stand next to him between the Captain's chair and the navigation station.
"Status report, Mr. Spock?" Jim asked.
"All systems operational, Captain, all departments report they have or are about to complete their preparations for the arrival of our guests. "
"Fantastic. Lt. Uhura," Kirk turned to the communications officer to see her in her own dress uniform just as the also dress-clad Bones and Scotty emerged from the port-side turbolift, "what's the word from the starbase regarding the delegation?"
Kirk could make out in those exotic eyes the tremendous struggle Uhura was going through not to let her own emotions show, and he felt a surge of gratitude to her for shielding him from the pitying look he knew was in there just below the surface. "Starbase reports the shuttles carrying the delegation have taken off and are en route to meet us, sir."
Kirk was momentarily surprised that they'd gotten off the ground so fast, but the moment passed as he caught the fleeting nod between Uhura and Spock. They knew Kirk would rather get this over with than wait around in orbit for an hour, so they must have made sure to grease things along on long-range. Kirk felt a rush of gratitude for the presence of both of his friends. "Thank you, Lieutenant," he responded with a nod both to her and to Spock to let them know that he'd noticed and appreciated it.
Jim took a quick moment to glance around the bridge. He could see the loyalty from everyone there, the support from the ones in the briefing who knew what was going on; Bones and Scotty waiting by the turbolift, Sulu and Chekov in front of him at their stations, Carol from the secondary science/operations station opposite Spock's, Uhura at Communications, Spock himself standing at his side. Even if he'd felt inclined to speak of it, Jim had no words to describe what this meant to him.
Quickly shoving down the lump in his throat Jim started giving orders. "Mr. Sulu, you have the conn. Initiate docking procedures, try to make sure nobody crashes into each other. Spock, Bones, Scotty, Uhura, I believe we have some geeks to greet." With that, Jim and his officers headed for the turbolift.
As they all piled in and instructed the lift to take them to the shuttlebay, Scotty started a conversation about a new bioengineering implant being developed by one of the Siakan scientists. While anyone else would've simply seen this as Scotty trying to include McCoy in his natural exuberance at all things technical, Kirk could see in his body language as well as the others that they were trying to give him one last moment of peace. He was quite appreciative, since his nerves were wound up so tight that Jim could just see the scowl on McCoy's face had the doctor had his tricorder on Jim at that particular moment.
As the others traded technobabble and Jim worked to keep himself calm, he felt the brush of a hand against his. Uhura's hand, judging by the position. You'd never know it for looking at her though, as her head only indicated her trying to keep up with the discussion as best she could. For the life of him Jim couldn't understand why this meant so much to him or felt so supportive so he decided to just be grateful for the comfort.
When the lift stopped at Deck 20, the officers got off and headed for the doors to the shuttlebay. Since the delegates needed several shuttles to come up it was decided that they'd meet them just outside the room so as to greet them all at once. When they got there, they met Security Chief Hendorff and the seven other men making up the honor guard for the delegation. As the minutes passed, Jim focused on the presence of Bones on one side and Spock on the other, while the guards got into position. Finally the bay was pressurized and the doors opened giving Kirk a view of a large, mixed group coming toward them, passing through the doors and along the path toward Kirk lined by the honor guard. Jim didn't see Frank or Winona, but considering the crowd before him all that told him was that they weren't at the very front. Jim took a deep breath and stepped forward.
"Ladies and gentlemen, as well as any other genders represented, it is my distinct honor to welcome all of you aboard the Federation starship, U.S.S. Enterprise. I am Captain James T. Kirk."
Jim heard a small bit of snickering coming from one corner of the crowd at this but ignored it relatively easily. He was rather touched by the tensing of several of the security guards though.
"I hope you've had an easy journey. I know that between the trip and the late hour on the Starbase you must be rather fatigued, and some of you have a few things to take care of before anything else. Given that it is also late evening by ship's clock we've decided to forgo the formal reception for tomorrow morning so you can all get some rest. My first officer, Commander Spock, has room assignments and guides for all of you. I know that many of you brought special equipment. To see to its storage please speak to Lt. Commander Montgomery Scott, my chief engineer. Any of you with special medical requirements should talk to Dr. Leonard McCoy, ship's CMO. For those whose languages are either too sophisticated for or beyond the perception of the standard universal translator badges, please see communication's officer Lieutenant Uhura to tie into the ship's library translation matrix." Jim indicated each of his officers as he introduced them.
"Any initial questions regarding ship's protocols should go to either Commander Spock or Lieutenant Uhura. If you have any questions or problems later on my crew will be at your disposal to answer or forward you to those better able to. I'm going to wish you all a good night, and once again, welcome aboard." His speech done, Kirk waited for a moment or two to see if anyone wouldn't listen to his instructions and try to get his attention, but thankfully the delegates simply decided to mob his officers instead. Kirk decided to get out while he still hadn't had to meet any particular guests and turned around to stride back down the corridor to relieve Sulu and get the ship moving. The sooner Enterprise got under way the sooner he could have his ship out from under these specters from his past.
Please Review! Also, feel free to leave or PM me with any ideas or things you'd like to see in the story, and I'll see if I can work it in.