Fic: As Morning Shows the Day, AKA 'Untitled Kid!Spock' [part 1]

[jade_dragoness]

Title: As Morning Shows the Day [Part 1]
AKA ‘Untitled Kid!Spock’
Author: J.D. aka jade_dragoness
Rating: PG-13, for language. Gen [for this part]
Pairing: K/S pre-slash friendship pre-slash/friendship
Status: WIP
Spoilers: Star Trek XI
Warning: Dangerous & Near Fatal Levels of Cuteness
Summary: Based on the switched version of the prompt: A de-aged fic where Spock has to take care of a kid-Kirk; preferably Kirk only listens to Spock, and freaks out when he's not around. (Or, you know, switched). Written for the st_xi_kink meme, found here.
Word Count: 5,560
Disclaimer: Never ever will be mine. *sadness*
A/N: I’m still writing this so I don’t for certain how long it will run. Or even everything that will pop up in it.
Feedback is hugely welcomed. Feel free to point out any errors I missed.
*-*-*-*
[“The childhood shows the man, as morning shows the day” - John Milton ]
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AO3 Link: here
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There was something devastatingly cute about the mix of wide brown eyes, pale skin, pointed ears, and neat hair cut when packaged in a body barely over three feet tall and swimming in a blue science uniform top and dark undershirt that was entirely too big for his body.

Which makes it all the more disconcerting, thought Jim, when you realize that the kid is Spock.

“What happened?” Jim demanded.

Sulu, who hovered around sickbay while radiating so much guilt that it practically manifested as visible rays, turned and shot his Captain a look full of dismay.

Bones grunted and waved a medical tricorder over Spock. His frown grew deeper and it took all Jim had not to peek over his shoulder to look at the results. Last time he’d tried that, Bones had threatened to sedate him. So, he directed his glare at Sulu who winced.

“Captain Kirk!” said Sulu as he gulped hard enough to be audible. “I‘m not too sure what happened, sir.”

“Give it a shot,” said Jim, dryly.

Sulu shot the small Spock a look, flushed and turned back to his captain. “The head of the Order of Life, the main priest-”

“-the one whose life you saved,” nodded Jim.

“He wanted to give me a gift. I told him that Starfleet officers weren‘t allowed to accept gifts for performing services in the line of duty, and well,” Sulu shuffled his feet. “He insisted. He gave me, what I thought was a crystal sphere. Even the tricorder didn't seem read it as dangerous. But then it started radiating energy. Mr. Spock started to examine it. Then-”

Sulu shrugged, “There was a flash of light and Mr. Spock- was - ” He pointed at the child. “- miniaturized.”

“I am not a miniature. I am a child.”

Fascinated, Jim turned his gaze to his now very, very young first officer. Well, at least no one could say that he was too young for the captaincy anymore.

The little boy was staring up at him with a solemn expression and a wild edge to his brown eyes that reminded Jim of the much older Spock when Jim pushed him to the limit. Normally, it filled Jim with unprofessional delight to see it but in young Spock’s eyes, well… it was just disturbing. And sad.

“Yeah, I know,” Jim answered him. “He thinks he‘s being funny.” He shot Sulu another look. “He‘s not.”

Sulu looked apologetic.

“I can‘t find anything wrong with him, Jim,” McCoy broke in. “As far as every med scan tells me, he‘s perfectly normal. Even his bio readings are within normal parameters. Only, he‘s six years old.”

“I am 5 years, 10 months, 1 week, 12 hours and 3.45 minutes old,” corrected Spock.

Jim grinned in delight. That was Spock, alright.

That’s when Uhura stepped through the doors and into sickbay.

Everyone, with the exception of Spock, stilled at the sight of her.

She took one look at Spock, and went so pale she looked gray, causing Bones to grab a hypospray and step towards her.

“No, Doctor,” she flinched and held up a hand. “I can‘t- I just-”

She spun around and headed back out the door.

“Oh, that can‘t be good,” said Jim, baffled.

Sulu looked even more guilty than he had before.

Jim slapped him on the back. “Hey, this isn‘t your fault. You didn't ask for this to happen, and once it did you reacted quickly and got Spock back to the Enterprise and into Bones' clutches. That was good. Now, go on, you‘re off duty. I‘ll keep an eye on things here.”

Sulu nodded in gratitude to his captain and headed out of sickbay.

Spock was watching all this so intently that Jim had no doubt that nothing was getting past him.

“Jim,” said McCoy. “Whatever that crystal was, you need to get a hold of that priest. We need to know if this is going to be permanent or-”

Jim nodded, cutting him off. “I know, Bones.”

“Do you remember what happened to you?” Jim asked Spock bluntly.

“No, sir,” said Spock.

Jim twitched in surprise at that. Little Spock sounded damn near respectful. Yes, this entire thing was quickly becoming very freaky. But he could handle it. He was the captain.

“What was the last thing you remember?” Jim asked.

“I had just said goodbye to my mother” - Jim managed to throttle his wince that time - “and I had just entered the school. May I inquire as to how I came to be aboard this ship? From your words you know me.”

Ah, yes. Now the hard part.

“You‘re not really five years old,” Jim said gently.

“Jim-”

Jim waved Bones to silence. He wasn’t going to start lying to his first officer, even if said first officer was nearly bite-sized and even shorter than Scotty’s friend Keenser down in Engineering.

Those big brown eyes shone with the same intelligence, the same determination to understand the universe around him. Lies, would do nothing but break the still emerging trust that was growing between them as Captain and First Officer, let alone their developing friendship. Jim sure as hell wasn’t going to risk that by lying either.

“Something happened that turned you back to a child. You‘re normally the first officer of the ship, the Enterprise. My first officer,” clarified Jim. He couldn't help adding, “I‘m the captain.” Yeah, six months of saying that still hadn’t worn the glow of pride off those words. He hoped they never would.

“My names is James T. Kirk,” he continued.

This was followed by a moment a silence that stretched to a nearly unbearable limit as Spock carefully thought over Jim’s words. There was a stillness to him that made Jim silently fret.

“Captain Kirk,” asked Spock, politely. “May I leave the medical bay? I have no injuries that require the attention of a physician.”

Bones sputtered. “Oh, wait just a minute-”

“Bones!” Jim interrupted him. “Does he need to be here?”

“Well, no. But I sure as hell would be happier if he stayed where I could keep an eye on him,” scowled McCoy.

Jim grinned at him. “Stick a bio-sensor on him if you want, but Spock‘s got his own room. He‘ll only go stir-crazy if you try to keep him here.”

A bored highly intelligent child was a dangerous child. Jim knew this better than anyone.

Spock’s eyebrow went up as he watched the men bicker amicably. “Fascinating.”

Jim grinned harder, and cocked his head in Bones direction, who sighed and threw his hands up in exasperation.

“I should to get my head examined for letting you talk me into this! But fine-” Bones pulled out a bio-sensor and quickly stuck it to the front of Spock’s chest. Then he picked him up under his arms and set Spock on the floor without so much as a by your leave.

Little Spock’s eyes widened in shock at being so man-handled before his face smoothed again.

Jim had to bite his tongue to keep in the laughter. And, even with the situation being so serious, he hoped that when - not if! - they got Spock back to normal he would remember Bones doing that.

“And you!” Bones poked Jim in the chest with a hypospray.

Jim eyed it warily and wondered when he’d gotten so close to him with it. Damn, usually he had better warning when Bones started getting hypo-happy.

“Don‘t forget that you‘re not to set foot on the planet! Find out what you can, but I still haven‘t cleared you for active duty,” growled Bones. “If you try, I will sedate you. Your liver still hasn‘t recovered from that spear! It‘s still too busy healing for you to go about abusing your body.”

Jim would have cursed but there was a child present - even if it was Spock - so he restrained himself. He did give his best friend a dirty look, though.

“Fine, Bones. I‘ll send Uhura down there. Somehow, I don‘t think she‘ll have a problem grilling the priest to find out happened,” said Jim. He turned to Spock. “I‘ll show you to your room.”

Spock automatically raised his hand. Jim blinked and slowly took a hold of it.

Human mother, he reminded himself. Right. And wow, was it strange to feel that tiny dry palm against his own, knowing it was Spock holding onto his hand so tightly.

Bones was grinning at him now. Jim shot him a glare and then pointedly ignored him when he just grinned harder. He led Spock out of sickbay.

“Sir, may I inquire as to the possibility of getting other clothes?” asked Spock. He was tugging at the blue science shirt. It was so long that his toes barely peeked through the bottom of the hem. Every step he took was carefully chosen so he wouldn’t trip. There was also a faint shiver that Jim wouldn’t have caught if he hadn’t been holding Spock’s small hand.

Vulcans are comfortable at a higher temperature than humans, Jim remembered. And for this kid it was as if he’d gone from heat to cold without much warning.

“Yeah, we can get the replicators to cough up something,” Jim agreed. He idly wondered if he could get a small science uniform for Spock. And he now understood why some parents had the urge to dress their kids up in various outfits.

Jim wondered what else he could get Spock to wear, and how badly would Spock beat him once he was grown up again.

It would be worth it. Especially if he got pictures!

It was pretty funny walking through the ship with young Spock. Various crew members kept doing double takes, and three people had been so distracted they’d walked straight into bulkheads.

Spock’s reactions were also fascinating.

Jim was practically beaming with pride as those brown eyes widened and widened as they walked past various labs filled to the brim with the latest in scientific equipment. Spock stayed silent but just the way he slowed down as they passed the astro-metrics lab, told Jim how utterly cool he had to be finding everything.

He was pretty regretful when they finally got to Spock’s quarters. Jim rather liked the awe that was so obvious on Spock’s little face, even with his attempts to hide it.

Jim quickly keyed in the override code for Spock’s quarters.

As soon as they were in, he let go of Spock’s hand. The boy looked instantly more relaxed. The temperature of the room was set Vulcan high. Making Jim start to sweat in moments. He resisted the urge to get the computer to change it.

Jim walked over to the replicators.

“Sir?”

Jim turned back to Spock, who hadn’t moved. “This is your room, Spock. You don‘t need my permission to touch anything, if anything, I should be asking you.”

That earned him a nod, and a lessening of tension.

Jim smiled. He had to admit that it was interesting being in Spock’s room. He had only been inside it a handful of times, and it hadn’t ceased being intriguing. For a guy that was so very buttoned down, his quarters were surprisingly ornate. There were quite a few decorations, not just Vulcan stuff either. Vulcan tapestries hung next to a painting of an ocean. Small statues of Vulcan figures stood next to carvings of Earth animals.

Spock’s room was as much a representation of his dual biology as his DNA. Jim tore his attention away from his inspection of the room and headed over to the replicator.

It just took a moment to get the replicator to spit out a resized uniform for Spock. It also helped that Spock knew his measurements and plugging that data into the computer took little effort. He also made it turn out a small pair of boots. It wouldn’t do to have his first officer run around with bare feet.

It was disconcerting to notice that both shoes fit in one hand.

Jim handed Spock the clothes and wandered over to the com-unit as Spock figured out how to get himself into them. Jim drew the line at helping Spock get dressed. If he had to, he’ll call for help from a yeoman. Rand had to be around somewhere.

He keyed in his code and got in contact with Uhura.

“Captain Kirk,” she said, answering the com call after a minute.

Jim looked her over. Her eyes were red and there was a unhappy firmness to her mouth.

“Lieutenant,” he said gently. “I want you, and a security officer to head down to the planet. You are to question the priest and see if you can‘t find out what exactly he did to Spock. The universal translator hasn‘t exactly been perfect with these people and I want you to be there to catch any mistakes.”

Her expression was stiff, but she nodded in acquiescence.

“I want to give Sulu a chance to get some sleep,” Jim continued. “He‘s been down on the planet for nearly twenty-four hours, but if you are having any difficulty getting answers, you‘re authorized to order him down there. He‘s got more pull with the priest that’s responsible for changing Spock, than the rest of us combined.”

“Yes, captain. I‘ll get answers,” she said, fiercely.

Jim lifted his hand to cut off the call but he stopped half-way there. “Uhura, are you alright?”

“I‘m fine, sir,” she said, raising her chin.

Jim gave her a look. “Really? Because that scene in the med-bay isn't what I would call ‘fine’.”

Uhura dropped her eyes.

Jim watched her carefully, and rubbed his mouth. He decided to use one of the best weapons in his arsenal. The one he didn’t dare use unless the situation was serious.

“Nyota,” Jim said quietly.

Uhura’s lovely brown eyes snapped back to his. Then she shivered. “Captain… Jim… You know that as the Communications Officer, I have access to a lot of the communications traffic being sent along various frequencies to Starfleet Command.”

“Yeah, that‘s kind of why the job is called Communications Officer,” said Jim, unable to help himself.

Uhura ignored his smartass remark.

“I also get a lot of reports from other starships. And Jim… every single time that a member of Starfleet has been changed or altered, they‘ve never been able to get them back 100 percent.”

“What? Never?” That didn’t sound right. Hell, that didn’t sound reassuring.

“Never,” she said grimly.

Jim sat back. Well, that explained Uhura’s reaction in sickbay.

Seeing Spock like that. Damn. It would be a like seeing him dead. Because the Spock she knew - the grown up Spock - was gone.

He involuntarily looked back to Spock, where the little boy was staring up at the replicator, his face intent. He looked like he was thinking of replicating something, or maybe even trying to figure out the best way to take the machine apart.

And Jim couldn’t help but smile.

“That may be true of other ships, Uhura but we are the Enterprise. We will get Spock back to normal. I‘m not giving up,” he said confidently. He grinned harder, “No such thing as a no-win scenario remember.”

Uhura’s mouth quirked with a small smile.

“Now Lieutenant, get down there and kick ass,” Jim said cheerfully.

“Yes, Captain.”

Satisfied that he’d done what he could he waved her off and turned back to Spock.

The boy had dressed himself in the science blue uniform sometime during Jim’s conversation with Uhura and he was now pressing his hands to the replicator controls.

“Are you hungry?” asked Jim, after watching him for several minutes too fascinated with what Spock was doing to interrupt his concentration.

Spock nearly jumped, spinning to face Jim. His eyes widening. Jim kept his body still and unthreatening.

“No, sir. I do not currently require sustenance,” Spock said.

“You can call me Jim, you know,” said Jim.

“Yes, sir,” said Spock.

Jim shook his head in amusement and exasperation. Stubborn Vulcan kid. He’s just as bad as the grown up version.

“So, were you wondering how the replicator works?” asked Jim.

Spock nodded, “The replicator at home has a lesser capacity for replication. I was curious as to the upgrades to the technology.”

“Well,” Jim smiled and sat on the deck so he was closer to eye-level with him. “I know a few things about replicators. What do you want to know?”
*-*-*-*

They spent a good three hours taking not only the replicator apart, but also the com-unit and a couple other things.

That’s how McCoy found them. Both of them sprawled on the their backs, their head tucked into a panel of communications circuits that led into a bulkhead with only their lower bodies visible to the rest of the room. Spock was only visible from the waist down, while Jim was visible from the chest down.

“And see this line of circuitry? It helps to coordinate various signals from all parts of the ship-”

“Jim!” said McCoy, scowling with frustration. His hands on his hips. He had to resist the urge to kick at Jim’s feet.

Jim’s body jerked and a low thud answered McCoy.

“Ow,” Jim pulled himself out of the circuit panel, rubbing his forehead. He glared at McCoy. “Bones! Can‘t you knock?”

“I did,” McCoy said dryly. “Someone took apart the ringer. I also tried the com-unit, but for some reason the signal won‘t go through.” He gave the open circuitry of the computer a look then raised his eyebrow at Jim.

Jim blinked then grinned. “Oh, right.”

Spock popped up next to him, his hair is disarray. While his face was still, his eyes were practically glowing with delight. The bio-sensor on his chest was humming away its lights blinking green and blue.

McCoy couldn’t help but smile as he took in the small Vulcan wearing a smaller version of his usual uniform. It even had the golden Commander stripes on the arm.

He opened his medical tricorder and scanned Spock.

“The bio-sensor went strange a few minutes ago,” McCoy said.

Jim frowned, concern in his eyes. “What do you mean ‘strange’?” He got to his feet and hovered next to Spock. He looked down at the kid, his brows knotting.

“I don‘t rightly know,” murmured McCoy. “Whatever it was, it vanished nearly as fast as it happened.”

His medical tricorder beeped as it finished it’s scan. McCoy looked over the reading and his eyebrows went up in surprise. “Huh.”

“Bones…” said Jim, warningly.

“Oh, the kid is perfectly fine, Jim,” grumbled McCoy. “It‘s just - I don‘t know what did this, but he‘s jumped up in age by a few months.”

Jim stared down a Spock who stared back.

“How old are you now, Spock?” Jim asked.

“6 years, 2 months, 1 week, 2 days and 3.58 hours old, sir,” answered Spock promptly.

Jim and McCoy exchanged looks.

“He‘s getting older. How?” asked Jim. “We‘ve been in this room the entire time. We haven‘t even had anything to eat yet.”

“I don‘t know,” said McCoy, looking frustrated. “I wish I could tell you that the scans say he’s getting older, faster but they’re not. They show that he’s still aging at the normal rate that we all do. There’s no reason his age should have shot up like that.”

“Do you think there‘s a chance that whatever that crystal thing did will just wear off?” asked Jim.

“What part of I don‘t know, didn‘t you understand?” scowled McCoy. “But I want Spock down in the medical bay so that I can run him through more tests. I obviously missed something.”

Little Spock looked dismayed for a split second before the expression was quickly masked. He turned his face up to Jim so that his eyes looked huge and pleading as he gazed up at Jim.

Aw, don’t pull out those puppy dog eyes, kid, thought Jim. That just wasn’t fair. He didn’t have any kind of defense against it. He could practically feel his emotional defenses crumbling before that look.

Abruptly, Jim felt grateful that grown-up Spock has never turned such an expression on him. Then Spock would have no problem talking him out of his crazier plans.

“Okay, we‘ll go down to med-bay,” agreed Jim. “But not for long! We‘ve still got to eat dinner.”

McCoy grumbled some more but agreed.

And as they stepped out of Spock’s quarters, Spock once again raised his hand out to Jim, who held it gently, giving it a reassuring squeeze as they followed McCoy.

Whatever was going on, they would find out.
*-*-*-*

They ended up being stuck in sick bay for entirely too long while McCoy had ran every test he could think up on Spock. He also press-ganged every free doctor and nurse into helping run scans, blood work and various other medical things that Jim had quickly lost interest in. Jim was even certain that Bones had tested Spock for Tholian Fever which neither Vulcans or humans could get. Twice.

And from the darkening looks being aimed at McCoy by the medical staff as he made them run redundant tests, Jim suspected that Bones was about to face his first ever mutiny as the Chief Medical Officer.

Hell, if Bones doesn’t let us go soon, I’ll help lead the way. Jim thought grumpily. His stomach had been clamoring for food for nearly half an hour and there was no way he was going to use the sickbay’s food replicators. For some crazy reason, the food came out tasting like all hospital food did in any hospital on any world. Bland, tasteless and with the texture of wet cardboard.

Some things were just universal. Unfortunately.

“Bones, now what are you doing?” asked Jim, eyeing his friend warily as McCoy got close and scanned him.

“Figured since I had you here, I might as well check up on you too,” said McCoy, his eyes firmly on the readouts.

Jim glared. “Oh, now you‘re just trying to find excuses to keep us here. Just admit that you haven‘t found anything and let us escape before I‘m forced to launch a prison break.”

Jim refused to admit that his voice was more than a little whiny. Captains did not whine.

Bones ignored his complaints, talking right over him. “Have you been feeling any a pain?”

“No,” Jim lied. He’d been getting small twinges in his side whenever he twisted too quickly, or leaned against something before remembering he was suppose to keep pressure off his liver.

Bones grunted at him and from the look on his face he obviously didn’t believe him. He demanded, “And tell me again, why you thought it was a good idea to step in front of that spear?”

Jim grimaced at him. “Come on, Bones. You know why.”

“Yeah, yeah. Couldn't let the green-blooded hobgoblin get hurt,” McCoy rolled his eyes. “I still say he‘s tougher than you and could’ve taken it.”

“No,” Jim said grimly. “Not even he would have been fine if he‘d been hit where they were aiming.” Jim rubbed at his right side as a flicker of pain lanced through him. And he was glad - for the millionth time - that he made it a point of learning something of Vulcan physiology, especially where their hearts were located.

“It nearly killed you too,” said McCoy, but he also sighed with defeat and dropped it.

Jim looked over to where Spock was sitting on the bio-bed. His feet neatly tucked together and his back straight. Boredom was plain on his small face, though Jim suspected that wasn’t too obvious to anyone else.

Nurse Chapel was talking to him, trying to distract him with a toy and getting nowhere fast.

Jim rolled his eyes. As if Spock would find anything entertaining about a soft plush bear.

A soft hiss and a flash-pop of pain at his neck made Jim jerk.

“Ow! Bones!” Jim yelped. “What the hell?!”

“For the pain,” said McCoy.

“What pain? There was no pain!” growled Jim.

“Yeah right. You keep forgetting that I know you and I can tell when you lie,” said McCoy with a scowl.

Jim sulked. He was certain there was a benefit to having his best friend as his doctor, but he sure as hell couldn’t think of one right now. He rubbed his neck and glared.

“Keptin Kirk! Bridge to Keptin Kirk.”

Jim leaped away from Bones in relief and headed over to the nearest com-unit.

“Captain Kirk, here,” he said.

Chekov’s young face peered at him. “Keptin! You wanted to be informed when Lieutenant Uhura returned from the planet Cromtic.”

Jim straightened. Now they were getting somewhere. “She‘s back? Perfect.”

“She wanted me to tell you,” continued Chekov. “That she brought the priest up to the Enterprise.”

Jim blinked. “What? Why?”

“She said she would need access to the computer for a more accurate translation,” answered Chekov.

“Where is she now?” asked Jim, frowning.

“She is in Xenoliguistic Lab 3,” said Chekov, after checking his readouts.

“Okay, tell her I‘m on my way. Kirk out,” said Jim. He was about to sign off when-

“Keptin!”

“Yeah, Chekov?”

“Mr. Spock. How is he, sir?” There was so much concern in Chekov’s eyes and face that Jim couldn’t help but smile.

“He‘s fine, just rather on the small side. We‘ll get him back to normal before long,” Jim said confidently.

“Yes, Keptin,” said Chekov, with relief.

“Kirk out,” Jim said again. The view screen went black.

Jim looked over to Spock who was still being talked to by a frustrated looking Nurse Chapel while the boy looked blank. Bones was also at his side waving his tricorder, running yet another scan. And knowing Bones, Spock would be forced to endure even more tests for a least another hour. More than long enough for Jim to duck out to see what Uhura was doing.

He sneaked out sickbay and all but ran to the nearest turbolift.

Bones said he wasn’t allowed to go down to the planet which was the only reason he hadn’t been the one to question the priest about what the hell he’d done to Spock, but now the guy was here. There was nothing stopping Jim from asking his questions. Jim was just sorry that the Cromtician people were friendly and had given them no cause to worry, well other than their tendency to youthify his officers. He would have liked to been badass captain for this, instead of diplomatic captain.

He usually left the sweet-talking to people who had the patience for it. Like Uhura or Spock. Which was another reason for him to get Spock - older, first officer version - back. Even is he was getting a huge kick out of the child version. Still, Jim rather missed arguing with his first officer and being certain that if he whatever he said, no matter how smartassed, Spock would dish it right back.

Jim nearly bounced into the lab driven by his eagerness. There he found Uhura talking softly with the Cromtician priest.

The Cromticians looked a lot like large bipedal ant-eaters with shorter snouts, thick cream colored fur, and three red antennae that bifurcated at the tip on top of their heads.

The priest was thinner than the usual Cromtician, and his antennae were paler. Jim suspected it put his age at a much higher scale than any other Cromtician he had seen.

“Captain Kirk,” Uhura said with a nod. “Perfect timing. I was just about to run the universal translation with its new linguistic subroutine.”

“Go on then,” said Jim.

“Priest Kret, this is the Captain Kirk of the Enterprise,” she said. “Captain Kirk, this is High Priest-Engineer Kret of the Way.”

Priest-Engineer? That was different. The Way? Huh, I thought it was the Temple of Life. Clearly, Uhura had caught something being mistranslated while down on the planet.

They exchanged bows of greetings.

“I find I must apologize for my actions,” said Kret, his voice deep and pleasant. His brown eyes were gentle and wise. “I had intended to give a gift to the human named Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu. I had not considered that the Cub Sphere would activate so early upon the inspection of the one named Commander Spock.”

Jim watched with interest as his antennae waved, curved and flickered as Kret spoke.

“Can you repeat what you told me about how we can restore Commander Spock back to his usual age,” said Uhura, her eyes glittering with excitement.

Jim held in his breath.

“Unrestrained happiness is the gift of childhood. The Cub Sphere helps regain this joy,” said Kret, his voice coming out in a chant.

Jim’s eyebrows went up. Uhura frowned and turned to give the computer a poke, obviously not pleased about something.

“And the gift restores the cub to age,” continued Kret.

Jim frowned. Then his eyes widened as he worked it out. “Making Spock happy will make him get older?!”

Kret’s antennae all waved at once in clear agreement.

Jim pressed a palm to his eyes, feeling incredulous. He dropped it after a moment and stared right into the priest’s kind eyes.

“I’m guessing that your people haven‘t had that much contact with Vulcans,” Jim said dryly.

“Surely, giving a cub happiness is not a difficult task?” Kret asked, his antennae curling and twisting.

“A normal kid? Yeah,” said Jim. “It would be easy, more than easy. But Spock?”

Jim and Uhura exchanged looks.

“Lets just say that Vulcans have a certain reputation that Spock often tries to outdo,” Jim continued. But at least what the priest had said about the cure sounded true. It would explain why Spock had that sudden age jump. And why Bones’ scans failed to find a reason for it. There was no way that Spock would be happy at all while in the medical bay being poked and prodded by strangers.

Of course, it also brought up the interesting fact that Spock had been feeling happy while he’d been with him. That made Jim rather smug.

“I do not understand,” said Kret, confused.

“The captain is merely pointing out an unexpected difficulty in restoring Commander Spock to his usual age,” explained Uhura. “Vulcans are a species whose way of life involves the control of emotions and suppression of all emotional expression. This training begins at a very young age.”

Kret’s antennae flattened against his skull. “That seems to be a rather restrictive and oppressive Way.”

Jim started saying, “Yes. That‘s actually an understa-”

“Captain Kirk!” He was cut off by the com. “Jim! Damn it! Answer.”

Frowning, Jim answered. “Bones, what the hell?” He could hear crashing noises coming through the com. Bones was scowling and looking more murderous than usual.

“Where in blazes did you go?” McCoy snapped. “Never mind. Get you ass back down to sickbay, right now!”

A voice howled, “No!”

Jim frowned at that. He was almost certain it had been Spock.

“I‘ll be right there,” he said quickly. He signed off and turned toward Uhura. “Keep finding out what you can.”

And he ran out the door.

By the time he made it to the medical bay, Jim had a stitch in his side that had nothing to do with being out of shape. Fortunately, whatever Bones had stuck him with was helping and the pain stayed mild enough that he ignored it as he barreled through the parting doors of the med-bay. He skidded to a stop.

Chaos had been unleashed.

Jim’s eyes widened as he took in the sight of various medical staff taking cover behind bio-beds, desks, or whatever was available. Bones was swearing. And Spock-!

Oh, it was glorious. Spock was throwing a temper tantrum to end all temper tantrums. Throwing medical tricorders, hyposprays, whatever he could get his hands on. All while glaring and shouting.

“No! No more scans! No more tests! I want to go home! I want my mother!”

Oh shit! Jim winced. He’d been afraid of this.

Something broke with a delicate sounding crash that was bound to have been complicated and vital. McCoy’s cursing got louder.

So Jim did something he’d been desperately wanting to do since that bar fight in Riverside that had changed the path of his entire life. The one that had led him to this moment. He put his fingers to his mouth and whistled. Loudly.

Everyone froze and turned towards him, stiffening to attention. Even Spock got quiet and still.

Jim very carefully kept from grinning at the sudden ‘Oh fuck!’ expression on everyone’s face. Being captain never got old.

“I know that you people can‘t live without me,” Jim said, planting his hands on his hips. “But just because I leave for a moment is no reason to start off a war.” He gave everyone a mock-disappointed look. Jim could see McCoy rolling his eyes. He shifted his gaze to Spock who was looking stricken and struggling to hide it. He instantly dropped the humor.

“Hey, Spock,” Jim said gently, slowly walking closer to the young boy. “Why don‘t you let me spring you from here? I‘m starving and could use some company for dinner.”

“Yes, sir,” Spock nodded. He then bit his lower lip and Jim could see that there was a wet sheen to his eyes that made them look ever bigger than usual.

Jim held out his hand this time, and after a moment Spock slowly took it.

TBC in [Part Two]