Chapter 9 - Hey Bartender!


"A bartender, Spock?" Uhura said. "It's beginning to occur to me that there is a lot about your past that you haven't told me."

"It was not exactly among the high points of my career," Spock remarked dryly.

"Hard to picture you as a bartender," MCoy said, leaning in, "I can't wait to hear how you comforted blubbering drunks crying about the girls who'd left them."

"I do not believe that was ever a requirement of the position, Doctor," he replied stiffly. "However, on a few occasions it seemed advisable to provide a logical perspective on a patron's complaints about romantic entanglements. I believe my advice must have been efficacious, as most abandoned their self-destructive desire to 'drown their sorrows' and left the establishment."

"Management must have loved you," Kirk deadpanned as McCoy snorted laughter.

"Actually, the manager was most appreciative of my ability to handle the more disruptive inebriates," Spock replied.

"Nothing like a Vulcan nerve pinch to subdue a violent drunk," Selina stated. "One Vulcan skill I truly wish I could have mastered."

"Is that how you ran into each other again?" Uhura asked. "Did he come to your rescue when a drunk got too pushy?"

She bristled slightly. "I said I hadn't mastered the nerve pinch. I did not say that I could not defend myself."

"In point of fact," Spock said quietly, "Selina was more or less ordered to come to my rescue."

"You needed rescuing?" Kirk's eyebrows rose this time.

"A long story. I believe we should order lunch first."

After ordering, Kirk turned to them. "Okay, enough delaying tactics. One of you start talking. I've seen my XO take out three Klingons all by himself, so I have got to hear how your roles got reversed enough for him to be the damsel in distress." Kirk grinned mischievously at Spock, who managed to convey "You really did not just say that, did you?" with a single angled eyebrow.

"Perhaps I should start at the beginning," Selina said. "I left Vulcan at 16 in order to experience High School on earth before beginning college. Probably a wise decision on my mother's part, since it gave me time to adjust to normal human society in a setting with little academic challenge. However, I would not relive it for all the latinum in the quadrant. There were people my age in the earth compound on Vulcan, but only a few dozen of us and we had tended to take on to some degree the reserve of our hosts. But adolescents on earth have remarkably unruly minds and even non-telepaths somehow tend to project all manor of strong emotions like random phaser fire. Imagine hearing nothing but classic music all your life and then suddenly being being dropped in the middle of Flak Clash concert." She shuddered slightly.

"Let me guess," McCoy ventured. "You battened down the hatches and used Vulcan techniques to shut down your emotional responses."

"Most perceptive of you, Doctor."

"It's Len. You had the advantage of Vulcan training, but it isn't exactly an uncommon strategy for sensitive teenagers." He smiled. "It must have been pretty disappointing for the male population of the school though."

Spock raised an eyebrow at McCoy. "In any case, when I arrived on earth two years later, we both entered our post-secondary education and excelled as students, but our social lives left, perhaps, something to be desired."

She coughed. "You mean, they were non-existent. Neither of us fit with humans or the few Vulcans there and we were perfectly convinced that that was fine." She looked off into the middle distance for a moment. "It seems mothers worry about that sort of thing, and so ours conspired against us. Spock was prevailed upon to fill in for a human relation who had been badly injured in some preposterous extreme sport. 'As a favor and an opportunity to observe human behavior.' Because this proved to be a bit like being thrown into the deep end of the pool, I was strongly requested to drop by the bar during his shifts to 'help out an old friend'."

"So your mothers tried to fix you up?" Kirk smirked.

She rolled her eyes. "Does his mind run to no other course?"

"You get used to it eventually. Just try to ignore him," Uhura advised.

"We all knew that arrangements had been made for Spock to have a Vulcan marriage," she continued. "Their goals were to force us to frequent a social setting and have us provide a sort of safety net for each other while doing so. In that, they were successful - despite some initial resistance."

"I really did not need a babysitter," Spock said, sitting back.

"No," she replied with a grin. "What you needed was a human shield."

.


Selina stopped inside the doorway of the pub and surveyed the scene in front of her. There were several large screens projecting various sporting events and some generic sort of music in the background. The place was not particularly crowded, which was not unexpected given that summer break had begun three weeks ago.

Looking toward the bar, she identified a familiar-looking Vulcan mixing drinks with the precision of a chemist. He seemed to be standing as far back from the counter as possible without actually touching the shelves of alcohol opposite. She couldn't really blame him, the bar area itself seemed more crowded than than the rest of the establishment and at least two of the patrons appeared to be swaying a bit already. She took a deep breath and rechecked her shields. How had Spock ever been persuaded to subject himself to this?

As she approached, she observed that he carefully, but skillfully, slid a glass down the counter rather than placing it in front of the blonde at the end of bar. That seemed odd. Kind of flashy for a boy she remembered as usually trying to avoid drawing attention to himself. Surely two semesters on earth hadn't changed him that much? But then the woman on the receiving end of a glass, who was scantily clad even by earth standards, called out teasingly.

"Hey bartender, you're going to have to come down here sometime. You have to let me pay you." Her demeanor left no doubt as to her preferred method of payment.

Spock did not move from his position or look at her. "On the contrary, madam, I have your ID in our records and will put tonight's charges on your tab."

Selina smiled. That was the Spock she remembered.

As she approached the bar, one of the men gave a low whistle (which reminded her why she avoided bars). "Hey Spock! Looks like you've got a new new talent for your fan club."

Fan club? Spock? Surely not. She tried to look at him not through the eyes of memory, but more objectively. He was no longer the gangly 17-year-old he had been when she left Vulcan. His shoulders had broadened and he had filled out enough to look lanky rather than skinny. But what she could see of his face was essentially the same. She decided that while he was not unattractive, he certainly did not possess the looks of someone likely to be cast as a leading man. Perhaps the comment had been meant as a joke.

Still, she examined the clients more carefully. There did seem to be a more unattached women than usual for a sports bar and several of them did seem to be following Spock with their eyes. She did not understand it, but there was definitely something...predatory...in the way some of them were looking at him. No wonder mother had insisted she chaperone him at the bar.

to be continued...


Thanks to everyone for comments. I've been swamped at work, and haven't had much time to work on this or reply, but I do appreciate it.

Note: Admit it, if you heard a Vulcan were tending bar at a pub near you, you would have to go check it out. And if the Vulcan tending bar looked like Zachary Quinto, you would stay to watch him. ;

That Selina doesn't see him as particularly attractive shouldn't be a surprise. I have had far more male than female friends for most of my life. While I realize objectively that some of my oldest male friends have matured in men that others would find attractive, I just really can't see it myself. It would be like contemplating kissing my brother. And her assessment of him is a bit of a nod to Nimoy. I always thought he was kind of cute (more as Paris in Mission Impossible, than as Spock), but I don't think anyone has ever cast him as leading man.