Thanks to everyone who read and to FrankieHS, She-Elf23, sunsethill, and LauraCynthia for reviewing.

"It appears that we have failed to accurately account for the final step in the assembly."

"You can say that again." Jim tapped his portion of the model against Spock's lightly.

"As I have already stated my conclusion, I see no advantage in repeating myself."

"Idiom. Which in this case I'm about ninety percent sure that you already knew."

Spock raised an eyebrow. "A noticeably high level of certainty, upon what do you calculate your basis?"

He grinned. "Funny how you didn't disagree with me. But fine, if you prefer: I agree with your assessment. Now do you have any suggestions as to what we do about it?"

Spock returned his attention to the more critical matter of the looping internal braces that should have been interlocked but instead were now preventing the two halves of the model from being joined. The glue was already dry so a simple disassembly was no longer possible, however…. "I believe if we break these two supports at this juncture and that one there, we will be able to both complete the assembly and also access the broken points with sufficient margin to repair them."

"Hm. You're probably right, but I'm not sure I've got that kind of control." Jim tugged at the indicated support on his half cautiously. "Just breaking it would be easy enough, but—"

Spock slid his fingers along one of the pieces in question, finding the appropriate spot before pinching abruptly and was rewarded with the snap of breaking plastisteel.

"Okay, or I'll just hand it to you."

"Logical." Spock broke the second support on the half he was holding and then traded it for Jim's, and as he'd hypothesized, with those alterations they were able to fit their sections together. Although getting the glue in to repair the broken pieces was somewhat more difficult than he had anticipated, and it was as well that Jim was less averse to using his fingers to apply it directly than he was.

"Hah." Jim shifted back against the couch, rubbing his hands together to dry the glue that had been smeared across them as Spock carefully affixed the final panel. "One complete Kalaranian something-or-another. Moon jumper?"

"Indeed. Class three, I believe, although the rendition of the aft viewports is somewhat exaggerated." He paused. "What do we do with it?"

"Well, if you want it, its yours. For myself I usually end up sticking them somewhere until I'm cleaning things up, and then they get 'cycled since like I said, I don't have a reason to keep them around."

Spock nodded and turned, setting it on the small table at the far end of the couch. The model served no function for him either, but its immediate disposal was unnecessary.

"Looks like we've still got a couple hours before we need to start for the transit point," Jim said, stretching, and then his hand knocked against the empty plate when he dropped his arms again. "Wait, did I eat your breakfast?"

"No."

That got a stare and then Jim rolled his eyes. "You, Bones, and a locked room, I swear. Although thanks for not…." He looked away again. "Thanks for not pushing." He started to reach back to grab his PADD off the couch before shaking his head and rolling to his feet, grabbing the plate as he did so. "Give me a couple minutes to clean up and figure out what the heck I did with my notes from the Kobayashi hack before I forget, all right?"

Spock nodded, and when he heard the kitchen sink begin to run decided that this would be an opportune time to review his messages as well. Retrieving his PADD was the work of less than two minutes, and since Jim's attention was firmly on his own when Spock returned, Spock sank down at the other end of the couch. Another fourteen status reports had arrived regarding the retrofit to the Enterprise, none of which had been deemed objectionable by Mr. Scott, Nyota had provided an update on her activities and an unnecessary reminder that he should not allow the captain to insist upon his participation in 'anything crazy,' and the response from Dr. McCoy was….

He tilted his head. "Jim?"

"Hm?"

He offered the PADD. "Please rephrase Dr. McCoy's opening paragraph without unnecessary colloquialisms."

Jim accepted it, frowning slightly as he began to read, and then choked in a manner that indicated that he was attempting to hold back laughter. "Damn, that's impressive. Even I haven't heard a couple of these. I'm not sure there's much point in rephrasing, though, you can pretty well just assume that we've both been thoroughly insulted." He handed Spock's PADD back. "I'll give him a call later, I'm guessing he's not having a great time."

"Indeed." Spock supposed that he was fortunate that the data provided regarding Jim's current physical limitations was marginally more intelligible.

"Unfortunately a couple of those insults might be a little bit accurate in my case," Jim said, waving his own PADD. It turns out I left all of the information that I should have sent you sitting in my drafts folder for review. I just triggered the send so you'll be getting it shortly, but I'm really hoping you know where to forward it from here because I kind of don't want to admit to some admiral that I figured out a tunnel into a Starfleet Academy simulation database more than a year ago and then kept my mouth shut about it."

The information security team should have long since located and closed whatever mechanism Jim had used for entry or reached out to Jim themselves if they had been unable to do so, but Spock nodded anyway. "I have maintained contacts in the computer science and security departments and will ensure that, if they have not already taken the necessary steps, they do so promptly."

"Thanks."

His PADD indicated the arrival of Jim's message, and after another scan to ensure that he had not overlooked anything of import from Dr. McCoy, he brought it up. And then shifted back to peruse the information more thoroughly because when Jim said that he'd 'sent all that' it seemed that his writeup was indeed quite thorough. "Fascinating."

"Good fascinating, or I should find a reason to be in another room for a while fascinating?"

"Staying would be preferable. It appears that you primarily targeted the external libraries that I used in the creation of the simulation database when looking for weaknesses?"

"Yeah, I didn't have much of a choice since your code is damn tight. Obnoxiously so, in case you were wondering."

"I was not." He had been entirely truthful in his assessment of the access mechanism as fascinating, though, and Jim's specific technique was not one that would have occurred to him despite having a more than passing familiarity with both standard and advanced computer security protocols. "You attempted additional hacks?"

"No, but after doing some poking around I had a couple different ideas about how to get in, and while I went with the most promising, I figured I kind of owed them to cover everything when I was writing stuff up."

Admirable, and there was data here that almost certainly should be passed along to the security team since while Jim's secondary solution looked similar to what he had eventually used, the third and fourth were considerably more complex. "Explain your initial assumptions."

"Besides the fact that it's a bad test?"

"That is an opinion, not an assumption, and one which we have already discussed."

Jim smiled. "Fine." He moved so he could look over Spock's shoulder. "But assumptions about...ah, okay, so scroll up a little."

Two hours later and Spock ignored Jim's protests and removed his PADD from his captain's grip. "You will not."

"Well, since you don't believe me, isn't the logical thing to do prove it?" He scooped his own PADD up from the cushion beside him, and after less than half a second of consideration Spock took it as well.

"No." Spock would never again behave violently towards his captain—that he had done so once remained inexcusable despite Jim's insistence after the fact that he had deliberately provoked the assault and thus the fault had been entirely his own—but in this specific situation he would welcome the doctor's presence as his response after taking the PADD would almost certainly have involved smacking the captain over the head with it. Lightly, of course, and entirely illogically, but under the circumstances that was an accurate reflection on the captain's own behavior.

Particularly as Jim's next action was to reach across him in an attempt to grab the PADDs.

"I assure you, Captain, there would be absolutely no logic in attempting to hack any Academy computers at this point in time," Spock said, keeping them firmly out of reach. "And furthermore, to do so would with near certainty bring the wrath of the admiralty down upon your person. Again."

Jim scowled at him for a moment and then blew out a breath and sank back, crossing his arms over his chest. "That's mean."

"It is truthful." Spock paused, considering. "I will send your information to the appropriate contacts at the Academy but request that they not make any changes regarding your last solution until the Enterprise has left orbit. Assuming, obviously, that there have not already been changes made in that section of code. If there is time upon our return to Headquarters, we will set up an approved closed-circuit system where you can attempt to prove your theory. Acceptable?"

That got a sigh and then a nod. "Fine."

"You will fail as my assessment is entirely correct and it is not a viable mechanism for bypassing the secondary security checkpoints," he added.

"Oh, yeah? Bet you right now I won't." Jim's smile had returned, though, and his closed fist knocked against Spock's arm lightly. "Can I have my PADD back, please?"

Spock returned it, realizing as he did so another anomaly regarding this captain. In this instance one relating entirely to himself because while he had intended no disrespect and indeed none appeared to have been taken, he could not conceive of a situation in which he would have forcibly removed an item from any other ranking officer's hands short of an emergency. That could almost be extrapolated to any other sentient being, in fact, although there were certainly cases where he might order such an action. He had not been incorrect in preventing the captain from carrying out his stated plan, obviously, but his means for doing so….

He considered his previous thoughts regarding Dr. McCoy's likely reaction in this situation and decided that—while additional introspection on his part would not be inappropriate—both his captain and the Enterprise's chief medical officer should be considered 'bad examples' with regards this particular facet of interaction.

"Spock? You okay? Seriously, that was a good idea about the closed-circuit system." Jim flushed slightly. "Like I said, impulse control still comes up as a problem sometimes."

"I am adequate, as is the resolution of the matter in question. However, we have approximately thirty minutes before we must begin walking given your assessment as to the amount of time it will take us to reach the transit port so perhaps lunch would be appropriate at this juncture?"

"Oh, yeah, that's a good idea. I'm guessing they'll have pizza brought in at some point, that's pretty typical if you've got a crew working, but if we're starting at 1300 it might not happen until later this afternoon. And do you even like pizza?"

Spock hesitated. "I have found certain variations on vegetarian recipes to be of marginally adequate nutritional value."

"Okay, so very much not a fan, and we should definitely grab lunch before we go."

That did not accurately reflect what he had said, but as he had tried several variations during his time at the Academy given its existence as a study group and review session staple and universally found them to be unnecessarily heavy and with varying levels of imbalance in their oil-to-vegetable ratios, he would prefer not to rely upon one for sustenance if there were other options.

"And do you want to borrow a t-shirt or something?" Jim asked as they got to their feet. "I doubt I could loan you a pair of jeans, but your off-duty stuff is more formal than mine, and I wasn't kidding when I mentioned roofing."

"Unnecessary as Vulcan casual wear is sturdier than it might appear at first glance, but thank you for the offer."

Jim nodded.

"Why did you not take more computer science at the Academy?" Spock asked as the entered the kitchen. "You are clearly not incapable, but you were also correct when you stated that you don't precisely code in the way that it might be typically defined."

"Not much to it, I just ran out of time. Had a bet going that I could graduate in three years, and…." He shrugged.

"A bet?" Spock dialed in his lunch selection and then turned back as the synthesizer began to work. "I was aware that you were on an accelerated track, but I had assumed that there was some purpose behind it."

"Not really, at least not aside from a general desire to be in space instead of school. Captain Pike said four, so I said three, and it was pretty much just a matter of me proving it after that. Well, that and Bones was going to be done in three too since he already had most of the medical stuff covered, and I'm not sure what I'd have done if he wasn't around." Another shrug and he took Spock's place in front of the synthesizer as Spock moved his meal to the table. "I tested out of what I could and sat in on as many additional interesting classes as were manageable given the ones I had to have—well, and that they'd let me into which ruled out a lot of the sciences given lab space and TA time and everything—but there was no way to manage all of them. And computer science did get some coverage when I was younger, it just wasn't as extensive as it could have been." He collected his plate and took a seat as well. "What?"

"There is logic in your actions given your priority of service in space," Spock decided. The 'bet' portion was a variable that he did not choose to analyze under current circumstances.

"And the rest of it was just nuts?" Jim asked with a grin.

"I shall leave such unscientific diagnoses to Dr. McCoy."

That got a laugh, and then, "As long as we're talking about the Academy, can I ask a question that I've been curious about but is absolutely none of my business?"

"You may ask, certainly." It was nothing more than the same courtesy that Jim had offered him.

"How did you and Uhura end up dating? Because even if it's not entirely against regs for a professor to date a student, it's sure as hell frowned upon, and neither of you are the kind of people who'd ignore that. At first I thought maybe you knew each other before, but you've got what, three or four years on me? And I know she's a couple years younger, so that doesn't really work either."

Self-consciousness was illogical, particularly with regards to that which had already occurred, but even so Spock found himself considering his meal more closely than strictly necessary.

"'None of your business,' remains an acceptable answer even if I stated it as part of the question," Jim added. "I'm just curious as a friend, I'm not questioning anybody's professionalism."

"The query was not objectionable." And he appreciated the confidence, although no doubt the subject would have been addressed both earlier and more formally if he had not had felt so. For all Jim's occasional impulsiveness, he was an excellent captain. "The circumstances were simply...unusual. I am uncertain if you are aware, but the majority of Vulcans in the San Francisco area have typically been associated with the Embassy rather than Starfleet."

"I guess I never thought about it, but it doesn't surprise me," Jim said after a moment. "I've never taken a headcount, but Starfleet's not exactly overflowing, and if I remember right there've been concerns about nonhuman enlistment numbers as a whole dropping for the last however many years. I'd say forever, but you'd yell at me."

"I do not yell, I merely note the ongoing numerical inaccuracy in your understanding of the concept." Not that the captain was incorrect otherwise. After the Kelvin had been so quickly and decisively defeated by a declared Romulan vessel of a strength and configuration never before seen...obviously they knew now how this was so, but at the time it had been a frightening mystery, and the majority of analyses had pointed to it as the vanguard of an invasion force. As a result the Federation's many races had drawn together in fulfillment of their mutual defense pacts, triggering increases in both Starfleet enlistment from all quarters and also technological advances greatly outpacing those of the entire previous century. But after a decade had passed with no invasion force materializing, the situation had begun to revert back to the previous status quo, and the typically pacifistic—and equally typically insular—Vulcans had been at the forefront of that. While several hundred remained in service, or had prior to Nero, there had been precisely two others attending the Academy during Spock's time as a cadet, both of whom had graduated the year after he'd enlisted. And the one whose upcoming enlistment he had learned about shortly after his acceptance to the science posting on the Enterprise had no longer been in attendance by the time he'd taken up a faculty position.

"So I take it that means she thought you were attached to the Embassy when you met. But why would you even—oh. Duh." He shook his head. "With your dad being the ambassador, you probably would have spent quite a bit of time there, wouldn't you?"

"In fact my mother was the one who requested that I make myself available for some amount of visitation upon each of her trips to Earth, although such occurrences were more infrequent than you likely assume given their primary residency in Shi'Kahr. Beyond that, however, your hypothesis is fundamentally correct. Approximately 1.3 months into Nyota's first year as a cadet and my first year teaching, we were both in attendance at an Embassy reception and seated at the same table. When I arrived she and an ambassadorial attache were already involved in a discussion regarding phonetic similarities between the Vulcan and Orion languages, and while he was less than fully conversant in the subject, I found her observations—while somewhat overreaching—quite fascinating. We violated several minor social conventions by failing to properly engage with others for the majority of the rest of the evening, to my mother's entirely unnecessary amusement, and prior to departing exchanged contact information and an agreement to provide each other with references to several papers that had been cited over the course of our discussion." He paused. "If she had been Vulcan I would most likely have invited her back to my quarters to review them directly, which would have rendered the ensuing failure in communications impossible, but I was uncertain as to how a human would view such an offer and thus electronic messaging seemed advisable. Captain?"

He shook his head, obviously biting back laughter. "It's Jim, and I don't know why I'm surprised that a Vulcan offering to show someone his etchings actually meant etchings."

Spock raised an eyebrow. "I assure you that the publications in question were all relevant articles from well-respected peer-reviewed journals."

"Of course they were." Another headshake. "Never mind. For the record, the messaging idea was probably a good one since I don't think even Uhura would have interpreted the other invitation how you meant it. But how did you talk for what must have been hours and not cover what either of you actually did with your time? Like career-wise? Or not recognize each other's uniforms, for that matter?"

"When the attache in question introduced us, he indicated that she was a student of xenolinguistics, and that her presence at the Embassy was in recognition of a particularly prestigious award that she'd won as part of a cultural exchange during her final year of secondary school. Given the additional data that I have now, I assume that her choice of clothing—formal, of course, but culturally representative rather than Academy dress—was due to the nature of said award, but at the time I incorrectly interpreted it to mean that she was attending one of the numerous civilian universities in the area and thought no further on the matter. Particularly as our discussion that evening involved very few details about our personal lives."

"Okay, fine, but what about you? I don't care if she'd only been a student for a month, Starfleet formal is kind of hard to miss."

Spock hesitated.

"What's wrong?"

"There is nothing amiss." He focused past Jim. "Sarek did not find it pleasing that I chose Starfleet over the Vulcan Science Academy, an opinion which underwent no significant revision upon my graduation, posting on the Enterprise, or indeed at any point since. As I was also attending that specific function in a civilian context, albeit in my case simply as a guest of my mother, I chose to wear Vulcan formal robes in the interests of...keeping the peace, I believe she termed it. And while I did state that I had recently taken a position as an instructor, I similarly chose to refrain from all references to the specific institute in question."

He expected additional questions and was mildly surprised, not to say illogically relieved, when Jim only nodded with no sign of his previous amusement in evidence. "So how long were you two the universe's geekiest penpals before you finally figured things out, then? I assume you were using personal message systems so Starfleet wouldn't have come up there either."

"Using Starfleet's message system for unrelated external communications would have been entirely inappropriate," Spock agreed. "However, I object to the usage of 'geeky' in reference to a fascinating and quite topical subject of study."

"You're about to tell me that it was literal years, aren't you?"

"I am not; it was approximately 0.86. We initially began messaging with a regularity of roughly three exchanges per month, but our conversations at that time were almost entirely in written form and regarding notable articles in our shared field of interest as both of us were focused on familiarizing ourselves and then becoming adept with our new routines. The frequency began to increase during the second quarter of our acquaintance, however, and expanded to include a number of other subjects, although we both remained entirely properly circumspect with regards to the actual identities of anyone discussed." Despite the need for anonymization he had greatly appreciated her perspective on some of the situations he'd faced as a new instructor, particularly since while Professor Encan'nal had always been receptive to his queries, their advanced age and decades of experience in the classroom had rendered some of their advice less than entirely applicable for one who could still easily pass for a student. "We also began to engage in the occasional video chat, but as those were always scheduled well in advance, we each had time to return to our quarters and our casual clothing, and on my part I noticed nothing identifiable in her desk setup."

"Yeah, one dorm looks pretty much like another no matter which school you're at, and I kind of doubt that's what you were paying attention to anyway," Jim said with a quick grin, and Spock decided that it would be best to refrain from inquiring into his familiarity with non-Starfleet dormitories.

"Indeed, it would have been quite discourteous to focus my attention upon her surroundings while we were engaged in conversation."

"You really didn't notice any similarities in what you were talking about, though? Like, at all?"

"We did not. If she had named a specific professor rather than simply identifying them as, for example, her philosophy or anthropology instructors, I would have known, but she did not. And while she did name both her roommate and a few additional friends as our acquaintance deepened, I had no direct contact with any of the first year students and thus no reason to recognize them."

"And philosophy and anthropology and most of the other first-year courses aren't going to be too different at the Academy than any other school. Heck, it's why I tested out of so many of them, just let me eat a textbook and be done with it."

Spock tilted his head, but Jim's opinions in that respect were not entirely unaligned with his own assessment, and indeed he had also tested out of a number of the most introductory courses. Although in his case he had chosen to replace them with additional relevant studies rather than pursuing an early graduation date. "You are not incorrect. On my part I was similarly discreet with regards to naming the colleagues I interacted with, and since I had no reason to believe that she might recognize Academy landmarks, I simply referred to the labs or linguistics building generically."

"Well, I guess I didn't even know who you were at the start of the disciplinary hearing and up until then I'd have said that I could at least recognize any of the instructors if not name them, so maybe it's not as crazy as I first thought," Jim said after a moment. "So how did you figure it out?"

"Our communications continued into the third quarter, and in retrospect I believe that I may have overlooked certain cues regarding a more...personal...interest at that point, particularly with regards to two invitations to meet again in person that I declined citing the need for additional time to review upcoming publications. However, while she returned to her home for the majority of the summer forcing our communications again to be entirely electronic, immediately before the beginning of the next academic year she requested that I join her for a beverage at an off-campus cafe and inquired directly as to any potential interest I might have in beginning a romantic relationship."

"You know, given Uhura, that sounds just about right."

Despite his obvious amusement his tone was not mocking, and Spock nodded. "I indicated that I was amenable but required additional data given my unfamiliarity with specific human customs in that area, and since she agreed that she was also unfamiliar with such matters as relating to Vulcans, we arranged a dinner later in the week to discuss further. And with regards to how much longer our mutual ignorance might have continued after that, the point was made entirely moot when Professor Talbert requested that I stand in for him for his first Intermediate Interspecies Protocol class of the quarter on the morning of the planned dinner while he attended to a critical family matter, and Nyota was in the front row."

"Oh, shit," Jim said with a laugh.

"Perhaps unnecessarily vulgar, but not inaccurate."

"Yeah, I'm good like that. I'm also guessing that that dinner was real interesting, assuming you didn't just cancel."

"We did not, although I seriously considered the action. Regardless, a number of private topics were discussed at length that I shall not elaborate upon, and in the end we concluded that as I was not her direct instructor, we were both aware and consenting adults, and our individual specific reasonings for being willing to enter into a relationship had not materially changed, we—provided neither of our advisors objected—would engage in a trial period and re-evaluate at its conclusion. And proceeded to do so."

"Very logical." Spock raised his eyebrow again, and Jim shook his head. "Sorry, but even if I never thought about it before, you two really officially are the universe's geekiest penpals."

Spock would have objected again to the terminology, but an—unfortunately far-belated—consideration occurred before he could. "Jim, Nyota may not—"

"Relax," he interrupted immediately. "I might tease you, but that's because you don't scare me half as much as your girlfriend."

"That is reasonable." He was the more physically capable of the two of them, but Nyota was...creative.

Jim glanced between their empty plates. "If you don't want any more, what do you say we start walking a little early? I don't know about you, but I wouldn't mind some extra time in the sun, and we probably ought to get there early if we want seats on the transport anyway. Unless you want to end up packed shoulder-to-shoulder in the standing section."

He did not, and despite what Jim would no doubt argue, having the opportunity to sit after the walk would be entirely appropriate for the captain's current strength levels as well. "That would be satisfactory."

"And hey, I won't even drag you across any rail bridges this time," he said, grinning.

"Far more acceptable than the alternative." Spock would be able to evaluate the safety of said bridge much more clearly during daylight hours, of course, but there was a high probability that he would not find his conclusions pleasing.

They retrieved coats and boots before beginning the walk, and once again the silence was not uncomfortable as they headed out across the less-than-entirely-flat plain. And not long after up and over another fence, but Spock pointedly declined to comment when Jim aimed a smirk in his direction.

Jim had indeed somewhat overestimated the walk time, although not by a significant amount, but it seemed that they were not the only ones who had thought to arrive early, and Spock shifted to the captain's shoulder as they approached the waiting cluster. Several of those present greeted Jim immediately by name or some variant thereof; in this place 'Jimmy' seemed as common as Jim although to his knowledge the captain was not in favor of the diminutive. Additionally there were a number of handshakes other forms of physical greeting, and Spock was very abruptly glad of the captain's presence as he stepped fully between Spock and an older woman and explained that Spock was a friend of his, was indeed a Vulcan, and while he was certain that Spock appreciated her gratitude for his willingness to assist—in fact Spock saw no use for such given their lack of acquaintance and the low likelihood of encountering each other in the future, but he was not unfamiliar with social niceties—Spock did not in any way desire to be hugged as a token of said gratitude.

It would be illogical to attempt to hide behind his captain given his marginally greater height and additional mass, but unless Jim voiced an objection to his position, Spock would remain where he was.