I do not own Star Trek or any of its characters or storylines.

Stardate: March 30th, 2252 (Julia's POV)

Today was the day we were going to The Rusty Nail. It was a day I had been looking forward too and dreading at the same time. Questions kept flying through my head: Would they get along? Would Jim offend Spock? Would Spock offend Jim?

"Juliana?" Spock asked from the driver's seat of a rented Ford car. I blinked, collected my thoughts and turned to my husband to be. I'd been so lost in my thoughts that I'd zoned out.

"What?" I asked, his eyes studied me, and I could tell he was trying to see if I was okay. I gave him a smile. "I was just zoning out is all."

"Indeed," Spock accepted my explanation with a nod, and looked back to the road. I cleared my throat, and he looked at me from the corner of his eyes.

"What were you going to ask me?" I said, turning in my seat so I could see him better. He was way more attractive than anything out my window. Dusty roads, gravel driveways, farmland, mining facilities - I'd grown up with all of these sights, and their visages still haunted me sometimes.

"I was wondering if you would like to stop by your mother's house," He said, I could see the nervous twitch in his eye as he said it. He had always been nervous about me meeting his parents (specifically his father), but he was also nervous about meeting my mother.

"You want to meet my mother?" I asked, a little shocked. "I thought you hated the 'meeting the parents' sort of thing." A little smile tugged at my lips.

"If you do not wish to attempt such a thing…" Spock's hands gripped the steering will till they were paler than usual. And I felt bad for teasing him. He didn't get my humor sometimes, especially when he was anxious about something. I put a hand to his, gently.

"Spock, I was teasing," I explained, and I could feel his muscles relax. "I would love to visit my old home." I removed my hand then, hoping he didn't sense the pain and fear that came with going home. My home had been dominated by my Uncle Frank - he had verbally abused my mother, and even tried to hurt her sometimes. He'd hurt my older brother Sam, that's why he ran away. And as for Jim and I...well, he'd caused us both pain in one way or another.

I pushed away the bad memories that came with my home, and concentrated instead on the good ones. The ones that I loved about Iowa. The memories about me and Jim playing by in the fields, of mom reading to Jim and I as kids, when Sam showed us how to ride a horse…

"Then, we will stop by your old home," Spock stated, and I nodded. He gave me a barely perceptible nod. And so, the two of us rode in silence the rest of the way to my old home. The both of us lost in our heads.

The Farm

We pulled up in the driveway, no other car in sight. That wasn't a good sign if we were looking for my mother, she usually had her silver-white convertible in the driveway. But, the good news was that Uncle Frank's truck wasn't there either.

With a sigh of relief, I stepped out of our car, and stood on the gray gravel of our driveway. It felt good to stand here, to feel the hard gravel beneath my feet. Spock got out from his side, and locked the car before turning to give me a questioning look. I smiled at him, feeling giddy to be home in such a long time.

"Should we knock?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. "Or perhaps wait for them to arrive home before going inside?"

"No," I said, shaking my head and practically dancing over to a broken wheelbarrow. Beneath it's flat tire was a key, pressed firmly into the dirt. I picked it up, and dusted it off, holding it up for Spock to see. "This is where my key for the house is always place."

"They will not be displeased that you are here?"

"You kidding?" I walked over to the house, now feeling my excitement melting into nervousness. My mom would be glad to see me, wouldn't she? "Mom always told me to come by anytime." I said this last part more for my benefit than for Spock's. But, he nodded, and came up to the house beside me. I tried the door, and seeing that it was locked, pushed in the key and turned it.

The door opened into a house I hadn't stepped foot in for at least 4 years. Surprisingly, it looked much the same. The coat rack was to the right of the door, the stairs leading up to the bedrooms was still straight ahead, the kitchen to the left of the door way, and the living room to the right.

Putting the key in my pocket, I closed the door once Spock and I were inside. Then, out of habit, I locked it. Then, grabbing Spock's hand, I dragged him upstairs. He didn't question me openly, but I could tell he was wondering what I was doing.

"I want to show you my old room," I stated as we reached the top of the stairway. I took a sharp right then, going to the first door on my left. It was unlocked, and when I pushed it open, I was surprised to see that most of my stuff had been packed up. Frowning, I let go of Spock and wandered into my now very different than I left it.

"Judging by your reaction, I assume you did not pack these items," Spock observed as he looked around.

"Your judgment is correct," I replied, my hands traveling to my dresser bureau. I opened its drawers to find them bare - and the box stuffed beneath it suggested my items were there. Bending down and lifting the lid, I could see they were. "Who's been messing with my stuff?" I asked out loud.

"I do not know." Spock answered, squatting down beside me. I glanced at him, ready to correct him, until I saw the sparkle in his eyes. He was teasing me, now. Answered questions that he knew were rhetorical was one way he liked to implement humor. Smiling, I gave a little shoulder nudge.

"Nah," I said, "I know you had something to do with this. You probably got a friend to come pack this up early so you didn't have to wait very long to leave for our honeymoon."

"Indeed, I did not want to hinder either of use on our honeymoon."

"I wonder why that is," I smiled and gave him a kiss on the cheek. He raised an eyebrow and smiled back.

"You will have to wait and see." I giggled, and got up, walking over to my bed and flopping down on it. I lay down on it, staring up at my ceiling, and my face blushed red.

Staring back at me from my ceiling was a poster of a famous Star Fleet Captain that I'd thought was cute back when I was in High School. Still blushing, I got on my bed and stood up on tiptoe to remove the poster. I hoped that Spock wouldn't notice who was on it. No such luck.

"I did not know you had a poster of Star Fleet above your bed," He commented, coming to stand beneath me.

"Uh, yeah..." I said, glancing down. "Yeah, that's so what this is."

"Your tone suggests it is something more." One of his hands reached up to take the poster from me as I peeled it from the ceiling, but I pulled it away from his reaching hand. He didn't take the hint, and reached more for it. Instead of handing it to him like any sane person would, I pulled it back more, leaning way to much to the side.

And I started to lose my balance and fall towards the end of my bed. Spock, seeing this, jumped up on the bed with me, and caused me to be knocked off my feet - and then caught by his arms. Looking up, I felt my self blushing again.

"I would like to see your poster," he said in a more serious tone. And, being in the position we were, he holding me at a side angle and looking down at me as if we were in a romance novel - I couldn't refuse. I let the poster unroll and blushed as he looked at it. "I do not understand your shyness at showing me the poster."

"Oh," I said, feeling relieved. If he didn't know what it was, than that was fine. But his eyes told me they wanted to know more. "Um, well...I had the poster up on my ceiling to look at," He raised an eyebrow. Blushing even darker red, I stumbled over the rest of my explanation. "I had it there because I thought he was cute."

"You did not have the poster there because you were interested in Star Fleet?"

"Not exactly," I answered, crumpling up the poster and tossing it to the side. I tried to stand up, but Spock kept me in this position. "I had it there because when I was a teenager, I always thought that the person I'd meet would look like that."

"Indeed?"

"It's stupid, I know," I said, pulling my hand through my hair. "But there was another reason for it."

"Please explain."

"I felt like he would understand me," I said, feeling like I was spilling my secrets to him. "If we ever met, I thought we would hit it off - his dad was in Star Fleet, and so was mine. His father died on a Federation mission of peace, and mine did too."

"So, it was less about loving a man, and more about feeling understood?" I nodded. "Good."

"Good?" I asked, raising my eyebrows at him. "Why is it good?"

"Because, I would prefer not to have a rival," He said. At that, I smiled slyly at him and couldn't help but laugh a little.

"You would be jealous of a poster?" I folded my arms and gave him a look that said 'yeah right'.

"Would you like me to prove this to you?" He asked, cocking his head to the side. I nodded, not expecting what came next. In a moment, Spock pulled me straight upright on the bed, leaped nimbly down, grabbing the poster, and tore it to shreds. Then I watched as he darted out my room and I heard a toilet flush. He came back into my room with a look of satisfaction on my face.

"I can't believe you did that," I said. "I thought you were joking about -" I was interrupted when Spock grabbed my waist and twirled me around the room, pulling me to his side and pulled me into an embrace. One hand remained on my waist, making sure I was pressed to him, and his other went to my head, burying itself in my hair.

My own hands had grabbed Spock's neck when he twirled me, and there they remained. Both of them holding him down while we passionately kissed. But, the moment did not last long, as a car pulled noisily into the driveway, and Spock pulled away from me.

"I trust that that was sufficient evidence?" He asked, his hand moving from my hair to my cheek. Leaning into his palm, I smiled widely up at him.

"Sure did," I said, "It seems I need to get posters of hot guys more often." At my statement, his eyes widened, and my face broke into one of glee and laughter.

"I hope that is a joke," He said, leaning in close to my ear, "Because I would not enjoy you staring at other men."

Laughing, I pulled him into a hug. His hands hugged me tightly, like he was possessive of me. I pulled back and looked at him after a minute.

"Of course I was joking," I said, smiling up at him. "But my joke suggested that I enjoyed our intimate kiss."

"Indeed?" he asked, raising an eyebrow suggestively. I nodded, but retreated to the staircase as I heard the door lock being worked at.

"I better get down stairs," I said, starting down the stairs. "Join me when you can." I called this as I was midway down. My eyes, though, were always on the front door. The lock jangled, and I couldn't help but wonder if maybe it was Jim coming home with a girl. Hoping it wasn't, I stood on the first stair, watching the door.

When it opened, my body's stance became guarded. I tried to look, well, not disappointed, as Uncle Frank opened up and roughly pushed the door in. He froze when he saw me there.

"Julliana," he said, nodding to me. Someone moved behind him, and I wondered who it was. I tried to not stare too much behind him, not wanting to seem rude. He caught my stares, and stepped inside and out of the way - revealing someone I hoped I'd never see again. "I trust you remember Devon Carters."

Devon Carters, the one who stood in the doorway, stared open mouthed at me. I hadn't seen him since I was 14, and for good reason.

"You." I stated, unsure how to react. The fact that he was here in the house - now of all times - made me fearful. "Get away from me." I tried to make my legs move, but they wouldn't budge.

"Jules -"

"Don't call me that," I shouted, finally making my feet sidestep the stair way and move towards the back door.

"Julia?" Spock's voice came from upstairs. At that voice, Uncle Frank's eyes went upstairs, and he glanced at me. But my focus was on Devon. My mind was panicking, my body in fight or flight mode.

"Who's up there?" Devon asked, taking a step towards me. I took a step back, and he glared harder at me. "Why don't you answer me, Jules."

"No," I said, feeling like this had all happened before, feeling like it was happening all over again. Trembling, I ran for the backdoor, my mind racing.

"Julia!" Uncle Frank's voice boomed throughout the house as I tossed open the back door and raced out. My heart beating a mile an hour, I leaped over the fence to the horse field we have, and I ran. I knew that I should probably have not run outside, that I should have gone up to Spock - but instinct had taken over.

And the last time this had happened - I had run to the only safe place I knew...

Thanks for reading! Sorry to keep you all in suspense, but I wanted to put this story into several parts so it's not too long a chapter. The next chapter will shed some light into the last interaction between Julia and Devon. I should get it posted soon, so you hopefully won't have to wait too long for chapter 10 to be posted.