Thank you to everybody who read or reviewed the last set of letters. I appreciate it. We now begin a fresh batch of chapters. This is the first batch I have written post-surgery and after my mother's death. I get to start with Jim writing to his mother. Yeah, there's a reason why I didn't start working on new chapters until I only had one left in reserve.

Please note I kept one voice recognition typo in intentionally because it was hilarious. See if you can spot it.

Day 357: Home Again

From: KirkWX
To: Spock's_cuddlebunny
Time arrived: 02/09/2261 00:00:01
Subject: Now safely back in London.

Your letter had excellent timing. Or maybe it was just waiting for me on Earth. I arrived back in London yesterday. We did a few extra inspections. It made me thankful that I'm never going to have to live on a ship long-term again. I'm glad I'm mostly doing teaching stuff now as a contractor. Active Starfleet life is just exhausting. I much prefer being on Earth.

You would think I could take a few days off to re-acclimate to being on Earth, but I have a class tomorrow. I've been doing the lectures virtually, but it's good to be back in person. I have a meeting with my TA later today to figure out where the students are before I take over. I'm under the impression that several didn't show up because the lectures were virtual. We will see what happens.

Attached are fresh pictures of Nhi. Yes, she looks 11 months pregnant in all the pictures, but never tell her that. Even I am starting to wonder if she got implanted earlier than she told us. I've already been informed that there is a betting pool at the Academy regarding when she will go into labor. I have Valentine's Day.

I think you should know that the rumor mill is being stupid, and a lot of people think that you're the dad of the twins. [Frustrated emoji] It took me a while to realize which grandchild people were congratulating me on. But eventually, I realized they weren't talking about Peter.

So how exactly do you want me to deal with that right now? I've just been smiling politely and showing them pictures of Peter. You know how much I hate using my polite smile. I did too much of it when you were a baby. I assume that the fact that Peter will be my only biological grandchild should stay close hold?

I'm just glad nobody has asked Nhi to her face. I don't know if she would break down in tears or punch people. It could be either one with her. Why can't people mind their own damn business? The rumor mill can go flock itself.

Oh, I love the picture of your husband covered in baby jam handprints. No one sent that to me, probably because I was with you guys then. I remember Spock having to change, but I didn't see the baby's handprints. They're adorable. I am sad that I won't see the babies again until summer.

However, I'll have the twins soon. I might not be their grandmother, but I will be another honorary grandma. I love all my grandbabies and am happy to get more—hopefully, none from Liz and Kevin. I'm praying to the contraceptive gods that Kevin doesn't give me grandkids for another decade.

I know you think they won't elope, but I feel like the wedding is coming sooner rather than later, which is fine. Even though they've only been dating for a year and a half, they've been in each other's life since Tarsus. That's a long time. Also, I feel like that whole episode aged them like ten years. They're not your average 20-somethings.

Well, Liz is definitely more mature. There are moments when Kevin shows his age. He cares way too much about what other people think about him. He is telling you more than me about what's going on with his internship. If I didn't know better, I would think everything is going great, and he doesn't want to throw his roommates out of an airlock. Even though he objected, the Admiral should've got him a private room. They're already being nasty to him for alleged preferential treatment. You might as well get preferential treatment.

So how is ship life going? I know the mission near the New Vulcan system with the VSA is wrapping up soon. Do you know what you're doing next? Spock mentioned something about repairs due to what happened in engineering. But what about after that?

Anyway, give Peter kisses for me. I am sorry I didn't cc you on my last email to him. I meant to, but I forgot. I pretty much just hit reply to the previous email. Sorry, I'll do better next time. It was mostly about me being sad to leave the grandbabies behind, but you already know that. Anyway, I miss all of you and look forward to summer.

PS: Send more pictures and videos. I need more images to show people when they make stupid comments about the twins.

PSS: Yes, I read the kids' history paper and am not surprised, just very disappointed.

PSSS: Actually, I think that T-shirt came from Nhi.

Xxxx

From: KirkWX
To: Jim's_cuddlebear
Time arrived: 02/09/2261 00:00:01
Subject: Yes, my former mother-in-law is horrible

I'm not even surprised that my former mother-in-law is anti-Semitic in addition to her homophobia and xenophobia. There's a reason why I kept Jim and Sam far away from her.

She was so awful that I thought Frank was the better alternative for childcare. I was wrong, but I still feel significant damage would've been inflicted if I had left my kids with her. I've gotten that impression from your counterpart, at least. Yes, Jim has a lot of trauma, but at least he's comfortable in his skin. I have it on good authority that that's not the case with another version of my son.

I regret not leaving Starfleet when the kids were little. I should've left. Jim told me that if the kids on Enterprise program isn't renewed, you and Jim are leaving Starfleet for Peter. I did that eventually, but not soon enough, not until the damage was done. I'm glad that the two of you will not make that mistake.

I will be honest; my relationship with Frank fucked me up and made it hard for me to trust anyone. Tarsus made it worse. Ben is my first new friend since the cataclysm. I'm automatically wary of all new people, including my children's significant others.

Finding out that my oldest living child is now kind of married to the guy that choked him out did not do you any favors. Of course, I'm going to react badly. In hindsight, I should have talked to you and Jim about that instead of being antagonistic. Again, I'm sorry about that.

I'm not good at dealing with my own emotions. I'm getting better at it. I am addressing them instead of drinking them away. That is a significant improvement. I don't want to lose what I have, so I'm doing my best to work through my decades' worth of baggage. It's still a work in progress.

I would love to do a call. Shoot me a work email, and we can work out the logistics. I am going to talk to Adm. Chen about the lag time. It's been a year and a half, and there hasn't been another Vengeance-like conspiracy. Maybe we can go back to rapid messages being the default.

OK, there was that small coup, but that was all internal communications. Also, there was the entire Hamilton fiasco, but that's not your ship's fault. OK, I just want more pictures of the grandkids and videos. Thanks for sending one of them making vegan sugar cookies. I would love more of that.

I know it doesn't seem that way, but you and Jim are doing a great job with Peter. Your dad wouldn't come to you for advice if that weren't the case. I know I can't make up for the loss of Amanda. No one can. But I'm here if you need a mom to talk to. I will try my best to help.

Xxx

"She wrote you again?" Jim asked his husband as he sipped on his cup of coffee. He and Spock were going through their emails while waiting for Peter to arrive for breakfast.

"Yes. She wants more pictures." Jim rolled his eyes because the same thing was in his email.

"You seem surprised," Spock commented as he took a drink of his tea. It was a Vulcan blend but not one that contained cannabis. Usually, they don't consume those teas before work.

"A little. But she never turns down an opportunity to talk shit about Grandma Kirk. They really hate each other." Jim explained.

"She thought that Frank was the preferable guardian." Spock was giving him the annoyed eyebrows.

"In her defense, none of us realized he was a pedophile then. I am pretty sure Grandma Kirk is also physically abusive in addition to the psychological abuse. Frank issues aside, I'm glad I didn't turn out a closet case."

"This is true."

"Do you want me to write her back for both of us?" Jim asked.

"I think she would benefit from hearing from us separately."

"Despite the fact we're trying to wrap everything up right now." The last few days of a mission are always chaotic, even when it's just one piece of a bigger mission.

"I am an excellent multitasker."

"This is true. Since we'll stay overnight at your dad's house on the 14th, we don't have to return to the ship."

"Because he invited us during our video call last night, and you were afraid to say no." Spock pointed out.

"Because your father still scares me, and I'm trying to stay on his good side. Maybe we can call my mom with the kids from your dad's house? Do you think he would be okay with that?" Jim asked.

"I will email him today to check, but I doubt he will say no. We could call her, and then, after speaking to her briefly, we can leave on our date. This would allow her to speak to the children alone."

"I love how you think, cookie Vulcan." Spock kissed Jim on the lips.

"I will write to your mother once I hear back from my father. I will email him after breakfast."

"On the work account, will the email get to Winona before the 14th?" Jim suggested.

"Yes."

"Perfect. Thank you."

Xxxxx

From: Spock's_cuddlebunny

To: KirkWX

Time sent: 02/09/2261 22:41:01

Subject: I am glad you're back in London

I'm glad you made it back to London safely. However, I'm sure your students are not. I hope your first entire semester of teaching goes well. We will wrap up in two days and then drop the scientists off on New Vulcan. We will be back on the planet for two days for debriefings. We arranged to send the kids to the Ambassador's house for dinner. Spock is checking with him now to see if he's okay if we call you from the home. If that works out, you'll probably see a work email or rapid message from Spock first. I apologize now for the out-of-sequence emails.

Yes, I'm very well aware of that particular rumor. Kevin mentioned it as well in his last email. Also, people were dumb enough to come up to Spock and ask him about it. We are all fortunate he hasn't nerve-pinched anybody. He's a good captain like that. I wish they would confront Nhi directly with this because she absolutely would slap them. And they would deserve it.

Just ignore people. The rumor mill will say what it says, and I don't want to give them additional ammunition. I don't want the public to know about my fertility problems. It's none of their business, my kids are my kids, and it doesn't matter if they are biologically mine.

Also, between you and me, I feel like I will end up in a big brother, father figure hybrid role for the twins, along with Spock. It doesn't bother me that they think I am the biological dad, except that means they think I had sex with another mother figure. Which is creepy, but they also apparently think I'm having sex with my brother. So yeah, the Starfleet rumor mill is gross. I'm done caring about what they think about me. I think Kevin will get there eventually, but he is young.

Kevin and Liz will make it to graduation without getting married, but not much longer. Kevin wants me at the wedding, and if the Sulu wedding date stays where it is, that will not happen. The Admiral can't do what she did before and set up a mission for Enterprise to conveniently be near Yorktown on June 8.

As of now, we're going to be several light-years away at that time. So that means people will have to take leave for the wedding. Under normal circumstances, Spock and I can't be gone simultaneously if Sulu is also gone. One of us needs to be on the ship. Christmas was different because we were still close by and technically working.

However, after the baby coup d'état, I think our Admiral is less inclined to bend the rules even if it is possible. Unfortunately, we just found out that Spock and I will have to attend a conference at Babel on the day of the wedding after playing diplomatic fairy. We have to speak about the Vengeance incident and how we prevented it from becoming a new war with the Klingons. (I can't wait to see how sanitized our Starfleet-cleared talking points are.) It's going to be the last year of the conference being there since everything moves to Yorktown the following year. The new facilities are still under construction. I wonder if we can pick people up from Yorktown? That would at least mean we wouldn't have to use Scotty's extraordinary tech to get Sulu to his wedding.

So, if I'm not attending, there will not be a Liz and Kevin wedding. He at least told me that much. I think the people Kevin tells the most about what's going on are Peter and Josephine. I don't have exact details, but it was an epic rant. Although Liz probably got more. Unless he's putting on a brave front, is that what he did in your letter?

We've had several meetings with management in the last few days about what's next. After two weeks of repairs and us going through an evaluation of the Enterprise kids program, we begin the next phase of our multiyear star mapping project. We get to chart uncharted space. I hope we don't discover anything else like invisible rocks again. We will be doing that till at least mid-May. Maybe a little longer. Then we will have a few weeks of diplomatic fairy and dance for the cameras. You know how much I hate that. I have to break out my own polite smile.

You should know that I had a tiny little work accident. About a week ago, I was leading the away mission to one of the moons and accidentally tripped over an invisible rock. Yes, that is a thing, and the science team is working on it. I broke my leg, but I'm good now. I'm back on duty and have been for a few days. However, I would prefer not to break any more bones, so hopefully, we won't run into that again.

It's OK that you forgot to CC me. Peter is at the age when he tells me things, but it's also OK for you to talk to Peter directly without me being an intermediary or seeing everything. I trust you; it's part of why we'll let the video call continue while we're on our Valentine's Day date. However, I expect the Ambassador to be there. You can conspire without us.

I'm not surprised you were disappointed by the report. I was very disappointed by the report, mainly because I had to classify it to make the Vulcans happy. If I remember correctly, from my proper handling of classified materials training module, you're not supposed to classify stuff to avoid embarrassment. I guess they mean embarrassment for the Federation government, not the Vulcan government.

I hope things go better for the new class project. It's about Starfleet propaganda, so I doubt it will. The observer who is evaluating the program will be there for the class presentations. This could blow up spectacularly.

Did you know that Starfleet used my actual baby pictures as part of the recruitment drive the year after the Kalvin incident? I didn't until Peter uncovered it yesterday as part of his research. Was that even authorized by you? You know they tried to do something similar after the battle of Vulcan, but Chris gave me a heads up, and I put Shawn on them. I love my lawyer. At least I am getting paid for being part of the propaganda.

More pictures and videos this time. Most of them are from the Botany lab. Gina wants the kids to do things that require them to get their hands dirty. That means fun with botany. Anyway, this is getting long, and I have a dinner to make. Well, replicate. We're doing dinner in our quarters tonight. We try to meet at least every other night for family time. I think it's working.

Anyway, I'll talk to you soon.

PS: I hope you lose the baby pool because I do not want Nhi to have the babies a month early. Fingers crossed, the kids make it to March.

To be continued