Before and After (fanfiction-Star Trek)
Title: Before and After
Author: slash4femme
Pairing: Spock Prime character study with past Spock/McCoy
Universe : Star Trek Reboot/ Star Trek movie-era
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: mentions of canonical character death (sort of), kissing, sweetness
Summary: There is a peach tree in Spock's garden and it makes him feel strangely nostalgic
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or the setting only the plot is mine.
Note: You thought I was dead but in fact like the monster from a B-rated monster movie I never really die. I am working on a much longer Spock Prime/McCoy story with reixgaara and it has inspired me to actually write some fanfiction. I wrote this in snatches while I should have been doing other things. Not beta'd sorry everyone.
There is a peach tree in the garden attached to the apartment, which is more of a small house really. It is where he stays while on Earth and it had been assigned to him when he'd asked to not be housed in the Vulcan Embassy. There is nothing wrong with the Vulcan Embassy, he had lived there off and on for many years, or at least would in a different time and place. At this point in his life though Spock wants his space, from everyone including the other delegates from the new Vulcan colony.
The house is a short, easy walk from the Vulcan Embassy down relatively quiet street. Other Federation officials live on either side of him, mostly bureaucrats although there os one Federation High Judge two houses down, but she keeps to herself most of the time.
Spock tends to keep to himself as well, he likes it that way.
There is a small garden out back behind the house with a high white wall around it keeping up the illusion of isolation and privacy. The garden has a small patio, a grey tiled smaller square set into the larger square of green. The tree is across the green from the patio in the corner of the garden.
It is a peach tree, Spock recognizes it the first time it blooms, made heavy with delicate pink blossoms. It makes him feel strangely nostalgic.
There had been peach trees in McCoy's garden. A small orchard really surrounding the ramshackle farmhouse where McCoy had gone to hide after Jim's death.
"This will not help." Spock had told him, standing on the porch while McCoy glared at him through the screen door, "you do no one any good cutting yourself off like this Doctor."
"What would you know about it Spock." McCoy had snapped, "Humans don't grieve like Vulcan's do."
"I miss him as well." Spock had said, and watched McCoy's face soften, his shoulders sag.
Come on." McCoy opened the screen door that separated them, "since you came all this way you might as well sit down and have something to drink. I think there's some iced tea that doesn't have anything you can't have in it."
There was peaches on the kitchen table in a blue china bowl and Spock picked one up and examined it while McCoy poured them two glasses of iced tea.
"Go ahead and have one." McCoy said placing the glass in front of Spock and nodding to the bowl of peaches. "I have plenty, the trees produce a lot and I don't like them myself."
Spock hesitated for a moment and then ate the peach in his hands carefully and as neatly as he could given the circumstances.
"How is it?" McCoy sipped his tea, he seemed at ease in this moment, one hand toying with the glass the other slung over the back of the wooden chair he sat on. He was wearing jeans and a soft shirt that buttoned down the front in faded shades of blue. He wore socks but no shoes and Spock thought he was thinner then he'd been at Jim's funeral, too thin really. There was a tension that lurked under the calm surrounding the doctor, emotions that flitted at the edge of what Spock was capable of understanding.
"It was acceptable." He said and McCoy smiled at that, a slight curve of his lips that only partly reached his eyes.
"My Gran loved them." He looked up and around the kitchen, "this was her house before it was mine you know. I used to like them a lot too." He nodded again at the peaches and took another sip of tea, "Now, I don't know, don't have a taste for them anymore I guess, too sweet."
"and yet you drink the tea." Spock pointed out and McCoy arched one eyebrow in an obvious imitation of Spock's own mannerisms.
"I think it's been well established that I don't make sense sometimes."
Spock's fingers were sticky with juice and he wondered if McCoy would somehow take offense if he excused himself to wash his hands.
"What do you want Spock?" McCoy asked sounding tired with the tint of grief underneath the words. He pulls himself forwards hands loosely clasped in front of him on the table and giving Spock his full attention now.
"Want, Doctor?" Spock arched an eyebrow as McCoy had done a few seconds earlier. McCoy just watched him silently and Spock did not quite sigh. "I would request that you accompany me back to San Francisco." He said, "Starfleet Medical Academy has offered you a teaching position, I am here to ask that you take it."
"Why?" McCoy asked propping his chin on his fist, elbow on the table looking genuinely curious now. "Why do you care Spock?"
Spock looked away at that and after a long moment McCoy sighed and stood. "Go wash your hands. The bathroom's down the hall and up the stairs to your left."
Spock stood and left to find the bathroom.
"Would it make a different?" He asked walking back into the kitchen were McCoy was washing his glass out at a very old fashioned sink. "If I," he took a breath, "wanted you to come with me?"
McCoy went very still at the sink and then turned slowly to look at him with eyes far too open and emotional but Spock did not flinch or look away.
"Please Doctor." He said and then again. "I miss him too." And do not want to lose you he did not say because that was far too logical, after all every one of them would die at some point.
"Let me think about it." McCoy crossed his arms over his chest, "okay Spock?"
Spock could do nothing but nod, "very well Doctor."
In a entirely different reality Spock sits and drinks his tea and looks out across his tiny yard at the peach tree in full bloom.
"They will not grow on Vulcan." He had told McCoy when they had first moved there after the Doctor had retired from Starfleet Medical Academy. "besides you do not enjoy peaches if I remember correctly."
"I'm genetically engineering these ones to withstand Vulcan's damned inhospitable climate." McCoy had told him bending over his desk squinting at the computer screen "and it doesn't matter if I like them or not I'm not living somewhere without peach trees."
Spock had folded his hands in front of him and recited a little calming meditation practice in his head. "Leonard-"
"Oh no Spock, darlin' you are not winning this one so don't even start." McCoy held up one hand without turning from the computer but he was smiling now.
Spock did not pinch the bridge of his nose although he had considered doing so, "As you wish." He said after a long moment, "but they will have to be in pots so we will be able to take them into the house during sandstorms or you will have to build a protective shield over the garden."
McCoy had made a distracted noncommittal noise fingers flying over the controls of the computer and Spock had raised one eyebrow at his mate's back and gone in search of tea.
The tree in Spock's garden produces small tough peaches, not particularly enjoyable to eat so Spock allows whatever birds or small animals still live in the city to pick them over. He does do some research about caring for fruit trees though. He began to regularly feed the tree fertilizer and trim back the dead branches whenever he had the spare time to do so.
"Do you like peaches?" Jim T. Kirk asks the first time he visits Spock's small house on one of Spock's rare days off.
"I find them acceptable." Spock says trimming off a small branch on which the leaves were withered and blackened.
"Just wondering because you take really good care of that tree." Kirk sits at the table on Spock's patio slowly swinging his legs back and forth. "do you get many peaches?"
"I did not last year." Spock tells him, "perhaps this year though."
"I should bring Bones over." Kirk's feet scrape against the stones with a soft 'shush, shush' sound, "he likes them I think." He grins like he's making a joke Spock does not understand.
"If you wish to bring the Doctor with you on your next visit I would not object." Spock says and carefully cuts back another branch.
McCoy had liked kasa, the blue green fruit that grew across most of Vulcan. They were small and firm, with a soft, silky skin and a tart flavor. McCoy kept a bowl of them in the dining room at all times. He tended the peach trees attentively though, lavishing them with loving care and made Spock eat the fruit or gave them away to guests.
"They taste a little like those apples." McCoy said once holding on of the kasa in his hand, "the small, green, sour ones."
"I was considering" Spock told McCoy then, "of retiring after this treaty with the Romulans is finalized"
McCoy had looked up at him from where he sat across from Spock at their small dining room table. "Is that what you want?"
"Want." Spock shrugged and looked down at the table turning the word over in his mind. He didn't know how to describe his thoughts to McCoy, 'want' seemed to be both too simple and too complex a thing for Spock to be wholly comfortable with. Not to mention far, far too human.
McCoy stood and walked around the table. He touched Spock's face tilting it softly up with his long, thin fingers and kissing him gently on the mouth. Spock's eyes slid closed after a moment lips parting a little, hands circled McCoy's waist. The press of their lips was hot, sweet and slow, and McCoy took his time, was thorough and a little demanding like it was the first time they've ever kissed before.
"Do what you want." He said when they pulled back far enough to breath. "Promise me."
But Spock did not promise it. Not then.
The peaches from the tree in his are much larger and more prolific that year like Spock had hoped. He picks them careful and puts them in a bowl on the table and has them for breakfast and with his tea.
Kirk, McCoy and the Commander are busy now planning for the five year mission, being honored promoted and briefed, ready to go off into an universe that still has yet to be explored. Sock puts some of the peaches into a bowl and then after a moment's hesitation goes out to the closest shop that sells actual Earth grown produce.
The peaches are for you, Doctor McCoy, Commander Spock or whomever you choose.
he writes on a note he folds and tucks in among the fruit.
If Doctor McCoy does not find the peaches acceptable the apples are for him.
He sends it off with a very confused young Vulcan intern from the embassy. He does not hear anything back but it does not concern him that much. The next day he gets up early and picks more peaches which have ripened on his little tree, puts them with the others in the bowl on his breakfast table and is content.
Author: slash4femme
Pairing: Spock Prime character study with past Spock/McCoy
Universe : Star Trek Reboot/ Star Trek movie-era
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: mentions of canonical character death (sort of), kissing, sweetness
Summary: There is a peach tree in Spock's garden and it makes him feel strangely nostalgic
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or the setting only the plot is mine.
Note: You thought I was dead but in fact like the monster from a B-rated monster movie I never really die. I am working on a much longer Spock Prime/McCoy story with reixgaara and it has inspired me to actually write some fanfiction. I wrote this in snatches while I should have been doing other things. Not beta'd sorry everyone.
There is a peach tree in the garden attached to the apartment, which is more of a small house really. It is where he stays while on Earth and it had been assigned to him when he'd asked to not be housed in the Vulcan Embassy. There is nothing wrong with the Vulcan Embassy, he had lived there off and on for many years, or at least would in a different time and place. At this point in his life though Spock wants his space, from everyone including the other delegates from the new Vulcan colony.
The house is a short, easy walk from the Vulcan Embassy down relatively quiet street. Other Federation officials live on either side of him, mostly bureaucrats although there os one Federation High Judge two houses down, but she keeps to herself most of the time.
Spock tends to keep to himself as well, he likes it that way.
There is a small garden out back behind the house with a high white wall around it keeping up the illusion of isolation and privacy. The garden has a small patio, a grey tiled smaller square set into the larger square of green. The tree is across the green from the patio in the corner of the garden.
It is a peach tree, Spock recognizes it the first time it blooms, made heavy with delicate pink blossoms. It makes him feel strangely nostalgic.
There had been peach trees in McCoy's garden. A small orchard really surrounding the ramshackle farmhouse where McCoy had gone to hide after Jim's death.
"This will not help." Spock had told him, standing on the porch while McCoy glared at him through the screen door, "you do no one any good cutting yourself off like this Doctor."
"What would you know about it Spock." McCoy had snapped, "Humans don't grieve like Vulcan's do."
"I miss him as well." Spock had said, and watched McCoy's face soften, his shoulders sag.
Come on." McCoy opened the screen door that separated them, "since you came all this way you might as well sit down and have something to drink. I think there's some iced tea that doesn't have anything you can't have in it."
There was peaches on the kitchen table in a blue china bowl and Spock picked one up and examined it while McCoy poured them two glasses of iced tea.
"Go ahead and have one." McCoy said placing the glass in front of Spock and nodding to the bowl of peaches. "I have plenty, the trees produce a lot and I don't like them myself."
Spock hesitated for a moment and then ate the peach in his hands carefully and as neatly as he could given the circumstances.
"How is it?" McCoy sipped his tea, he seemed at ease in this moment, one hand toying with the glass the other slung over the back of the wooden chair he sat on. He was wearing jeans and a soft shirt that buttoned down the front in faded shades of blue. He wore socks but no shoes and Spock thought he was thinner then he'd been at Jim's funeral, too thin really. There was a tension that lurked under the calm surrounding the doctor, emotions that flitted at the edge of what Spock was capable of understanding.
"It was acceptable." He said and McCoy smiled at that, a slight curve of his lips that only partly reached his eyes.
"My Gran loved them." He looked up and around the kitchen, "this was her house before it was mine you know. I used to like them a lot too." He nodded again at the peaches and took another sip of tea, "Now, I don't know, don't have a taste for them anymore I guess, too sweet."
"and yet you drink the tea." Spock pointed out and McCoy arched one eyebrow in an obvious imitation of Spock's own mannerisms.
"I think it's been well established that I don't make sense sometimes."
Spock's fingers were sticky with juice and he wondered if McCoy would somehow take offense if he excused himself to wash his hands.
"What do you want Spock?" McCoy asked sounding tired with the tint of grief underneath the words. He pulls himself forwards hands loosely clasped in front of him on the table and giving Spock his full attention now.
"Want, Doctor?" Spock arched an eyebrow as McCoy had done a few seconds earlier. McCoy just watched him silently and Spock did not quite sigh. "I would request that you accompany me back to San Francisco." He said, "Starfleet Medical Academy has offered you a teaching position, I am here to ask that you take it."
"Why?" McCoy asked propping his chin on his fist, elbow on the table looking genuinely curious now. "Why do you care Spock?"
Spock looked away at that and after a long moment McCoy sighed and stood. "Go wash your hands. The bathroom's down the hall and up the stairs to your left."
Spock stood and left to find the bathroom.
"Would it make a different?" He asked walking back into the kitchen were McCoy was washing his glass out at a very old fashioned sink. "If I," he took a breath, "wanted you to come with me?"
McCoy went very still at the sink and then turned slowly to look at him with eyes far too open and emotional but Spock did not flinch or look away.
"Please Doctor." He said and then again. "I miss him too." And do not want to lose you he did not say because that was far too logical, after all every one of them would die at some point.
"Let me think about it." McCoy crossed his arms over his chest, "okay Spock?"
Spock could do nothing but nod, "very well Doctor."
In a entirely different reality Spock sits and drinks his tea and looks out across his tiny yard at the peach tree in full bloom.
"They will not grow on Vulcan." He had told McCoy when they had first moved there after the Doctor had retired from Starfleet Medical Academy. "besides you do not enjoy peaches if I remember correctly."
"I'm genetically engineering these ones to withstand Vulcan's damned inhospitable climate." McCoy had told him bending over his desk squinting at the computer screen "and it doesn't matter if I like them or not I'm not living somewhere without peach trees."
Spock had folded his hands in front of him and recited a little calming meditation practice in his head. "Leonard-"
"Oh no Spock, darlin' you are not winning this one so don't even start." McCoy held up one hand without turning from the computer but he was smiling now.
Spock did not pinch the bridge of his nose although he had considered doing so, "As you wish." He said after a long moment, "but they will have to be in pots so we will be able to take them into the house during sandstorms or you will have to build a protective shield over the garden."
McCoy had made a distracted noncommittal noise fingers flying over the controls of the computer and Spock had raised one eyebrow at his mate's back and gone in search of tea.
The tree in Spock's garden produces small tough peaches, not particularly enjoyable to eat so Spock allows whatever birds or small animals still live in the city to pick them over. He does do some research about caring for fruit trees though. He began to regularly feed the tree fertilizer and trim back the dead branches whenever he had the spare time to do so.
"Do you like peaches?" Jim T. Kirk asks the first time he visits Spock's small house on one of Spock's rare days off.
"I find them acceptable." Spock says trimming off a small branch on which the leaves were withered and blackened.
"Just wondering because you take really good care of that tree." Kirk sits at the table on Spock's patio slowly swinging his legs back and forth. "do you get many peaches?"
"I did not last year." Spock tells him, "perhaps this year though."
"I should bring Bones over." Kirk's feet scrape against the stones with a soft 'shush, shush' sound, "he likes them I think." He grins like he's making a joke Spock does not understand.
"If you wish to bring the Doctor with you on your next visit I would not object." Spock says and carefully cuts back another branch.
McCoy had liked kasa, the blue green fruit that grew across most of Vulcan. They were small and firm, with a soft, silky skin and a tart flavor. McCoy kept a bowl of them in the dining room at all times. He tended the peach trees attentively though, lavishing them with loving care and made Spock eat the fruit or gave them away to guests.
"They taste a little like those apples." McCoy said once holding on of the kasa in his hand, "the small, green, sour ones."
"I was considering" Spock told McCoy then, "of retiring after this treaty with the Romulans is finalized"
McCoy had looked up at him from where he sat across from Spock at their small dining room table. "Is that what you want?"
"Want." Spock shrugged and looked down at the table turning the word over in his mind. He didn't know how to describe his thoughts to McCoy, 'want' seemed to be both too simple and too complex a thing for Spock to be wholly comfortable with. Not to mention far, far too human.
McCoy stood and walked around the table. He touched Spock's face tilting it softly up with his long, thin fingers and kissing him gently on the mouth. Spock's eyes slid closed after a moment lips parting a little, hands circled McCoy's waist. The press of their lips was hot, sweet and slow, and McCoy took his time, was thorough and a little demanding like it was the first time they've ever kissed before.
"Do what you want." He said when they pulled back far enough to breath. "Promise me."
But Spock did not promise it. Not then.
The peaches from the tree in his are much larger and more prolific that year like Spock had hoped. He picks them careful and puts them in a bowl on the table and has them for breakfast and with his tea.
Kirk, McCoy and the Commander are busy now planning for the five year mission, being honored promoted and briefed, ready to go off into an universe that still has yet to be explored. Sock puts some of the peaches into a bowl and then after a moment's hesitation goes out to the closest shop that sells actual Earth grown produce.
The peaches are for you, Doctor McCoy, Commander Spock or whomever you choose.
he writes on a note he folds and tucks in among the fruit.
If Doctor McCoy does not find the peaches acceptable the apples are for him.
He sends it off with a very confused young Vulcan intern from the embassy. He does not hear anything back but it does not concern him that much. The next day he gets up early and picks more peaches which have ripened on his little tree, puts them with the others in the bowl on his breakfast table and is content.