Admiral Archer's Office

Admiral Jonathan Archer's office, where he sometimes meets with Jim and Pock, as well as other Starfleet officials.

Jim had spent the half an hour it took to get to Earth hiding away from everyone and everything. He had really never intended to tell Pock why he called her kitten. As it was, he had met Pock and Pax in the transporter room to beam down to HQ. He and Pock were dressed in their grey uniforms, to meet Archer.

The secretary ushered the three of them into the office, where they were met by James Kirk and Archer.

James' eyes lit up upon seeing his wife again, in person this time. While he would have preferred their reunion be private, he couldn't have everything he wanted. He moved to stand in front of her, smiling brightly. His eyes held nothing but love and affection for her.

He knew that this would be the hard part. Convincing her that he really was who he said he was in person. The broken end of their bond all but whimpered in his mind. It hurt, and if what Archer said was true, it had been a long time since Pock had seen him. How long, he didn't quite know.

He smiled down at her, grin slightly crooked. It was the grin he reserved for his wife, and his wife alone. "Hey, kitten," he murmured, quiet enough for no one else but her to hear. He didn't touch her, because he knew that even a Vulcan at her age could still take him down in a heart beat. He wanted to. He wanted to pull her greying hair out of its confines and bury his hands in it, and hold her close to him. But he couldn't. Not yet. Not until she was convinced.

Jim stood beside his own partner and watched as James took in Pax's face for the first time in what must have been years.

Given that it was his own face, he knew what to look for. James's face was soft and welcoming, with that tiny bit of longing, kept well hidden. Jim knew that the only time he ever had a look like that on his face was when he was looking at Pock.

It was that look on the older man's face that convinced Jim that James Kirk was who he said he was.

Pax met her husband's eyes, scanning every inch of him. The creases in his forehead, the wrinkles by his eyes, the laughter lines carved into his face through years and years of never allowing himself to be so broken that he did not shine. It was impossible for James T. Kirk to be anything at all but a supernova.

"Hello," she murmured.

She said no more than that, still hesitant, but her voice betrayed the emotions that accompanied standing face to face with the man she'd loved and lost nearly a hundred years ago.

Pock turned from the couple to Admiral Archer. "Admiral," she said.

"Commander," Archer said with a nod, standing. He extended his hand towards Jim. "Captain." The Admiral's eyes flitted to Pax and James. "Casanova, give the Vulcan a little breathing room, will ya? She looks like she's seen a goddamn ghost."

Pax swallowed nervously. "I have, Admiral. Abstractly speaking."

Jim took Archer's hand, shaking it. "Admiral."

James stepped back a half step, eyes flickering over his wife's face. He knew how to read her, and the vocal inflections that she never let anyone hear... "How long has it been?" he asked, slowly, not sure he really wanted to know the answer. "How long have I been gone from your life?" She was so much older than he remembered her being. She was still as beautiful as ever, in his opinion. When they had parted ways, there was only a tad bit of grey at the temple, where as now, it was more grey than black. How long had she been without him? And he without her?

Pax swallowed nervously. "97 years," she said slowly. "It has been 97 years since I have seen you, James Kirk. If you are truly who you say are." She met his eyes and swallowed again, clearing her throat. He certainly looked like her Jim.

What she didn't say out loud was how she had spent those 97 years. How she had dreamt him into reality, dreamt of his touch and his voice, only to wake up in the morning and shatter once more at the realization that it had been nothing more than a dream. How she spent her nights working because she couldn't sleep without him.

She didn't say that, over time, she had forgotten the color of her mother's eyes. She had forgotten the exact slope of her mother's cheekbones. She had forgotten what her father got her for her sixteenth name day. She had forgotten why Sybok had called her 'butterfly' when they were children. But in all that time, the color of Jim's eyes had never faded. She had never forgotten the words he first said to her, or the last exchange they'd shared, or how he had asked her to marry him all those years ago.

Her memories of him had not faded because they couldn't: not when she still loved him this much after a hundred years.

James stepped forward. "Ninety-seven years," he breathed. "Jesus, Pock." He didn't like that she had spent nearly 100 years alone. He reached forward to cup her cheek like he had so many times when they were younger and on a spaceship, and stopped abruptly. She still didn't believe him. "What can I do, to convince you I'm the Jim Kirk you were bonded to?"

Off to the side, where Jim, Archer and Pock were speaking in hushed tones, Jim couldn't help but overhear what was being said between his and Pock's counterparts. He filed the words away for later. Maybe Pock would explain.

Jim reached out for her, and Pax bristled. She couldn't handle his touch. Not now. Now after a hundred years without it, not when there was still a chance that the man in front of her wasn't really her husband. She wouldn't survive losing him again. "You can tell me how it might be possible for you to be him," she said briskly. "How could you be alive, here, in another world so far from our own?"

Pock noted the curious look to Jim's eyes, and she filed it away for later. What was it that had sparked his interest so keenly?

Archer took note as well, reaching over and thumping the younger Kirk on the back of the head. "You mind, cupcake? The grown-ups are trying to have a chat over there."

James' hand dropped slowly, attempting to hide the hurt in his eyes as she bristled like a cat. His chest constricted in the worst possible way, and... and... she wanted to know how he got here. "I saved the Enterprise-B, and ended up somewhere. The Nexus, I think. It was really fuzzy as to where, and then the bond broke and I started getting really antsy, and they kept trying to force this woman who wasn't you on me and I just couldn't deal with it, and the next thing I know, I was in a transporter room here at Headquarters." He met her eyes. "I'm sorry, kitten, that's the best I can do."

Jim tossed a half-hearted glare Archer's way. He was used to the man's actions. "Oh, if they're the grown-ups, what does that make us?" Jim was tempted to make an older than rocks joke.

Pax nodded. "I see." A moment. "Perhaps if you would allow me access to your mind, I could affirm your memories for myself. That is the most surefire way, if you would consent."

Archer scoffed. "It makes you the brat we keep around as a tax write-off."

James nodded. "Of course. You've always had access to my mind. Why would now be any different?"

Jim raised an eyebrow at Archer. "And that would make you the older than rocks bastard we keep around for those same purposes?" He couldn't resist the older than rocks joke. He just couldn't.

Pax met his eyes with hesitance. "I am required to ask," she said simply, "in case you are not my husband. It is forbidden to access the mind of another without their consent." With that, she lifted her hand, pressed it to the proper meld points on his face, and let her eyes flutter shut in concentration.

Archer grinned. "With age comes maturity, smartass. Respect your elders."

Pock just shook her head. Children. All of them.

James' eyes closed, and his mind extended toward his wife. Pock! his mind cried. Believe me now? Told you I wasn't lying, kitten.

Jim raised an eyebrow at Archer. "Respect you? Ha! Good one, sir."

Instantly, Pock could feel him, familiar even after all this time. His mind was warm like the ocean, sun-baked, submerging over her and enveloping her consciousness completely. There was no suffocation, though: no lack of breath or fighting to survive. It was the most beautiful kind of drowning, like falling asleep in a warm bath never to wake up.

Ashayam, her thoughts cried, emotion snaking through their bond and diluting into the heat of his mind. Disbelief, shock, grief, joy, love, love, love. Jim.

Archer just shook his head, suppressing the amusement in his eyes. "Watch it, kid. I'll put you on shuttle runs for a month if you're not careful, you hear me?"

James's mind wrapped around Pax's soothing her and her mind. Joy, love, tenderness, and more love poured from him onto her. I missed you, kitten. I missed you.

Jim just grinned. "What, you mean you weren't going to do that anyway?"

I missed you too, she said within the confines of their meld. It was him. It was really him. Her husband, her Jim, the man she had believed was dead. Her t'hy'la.

Archer chuckled. "You've got a point. I can extend your sentence a little, though, if you're hankering for a little monotony in your life."

Outside of the meld, James had stepped forward, hands coming to rest on Pax's hips, just like they had when they were younger and melding in the confines of their quarters. We have a lot to talk about. You realize that, don't you?

Jim gave a shudder. Honestly, the shuttle runs weren't his favorite, but if it meant that he got to spend a little extra time asleep beside Pock because the shuttle runs didn't really need them on the bridge... "You wouldn't."

Pock's hands rested on her lover's shoulders. I do, she told him. I really do. Just... let me show you something. Instantly, she sent him her memories of the time she had spent without him, of her standing at his grave, of her pon farr, of all the nights she'd spent without him. All her life was reduced to a sequence of images and feelings that she shared with him.

Archer raised an eyebrow. "Try me, squirt."

James' hands squeezed her hips tightly as the images bombarded his brain. All he knew was that she was alone and he hadn't been there for her when she needed him. He knew how little sleep Vulcans needed compared to humans, but even what Pock had pulled was almost too little for her. He forced his hands to relax and rest on her hips lightly.

His disappearance and apparent death had hurt her, and he hated that he hurt her.

The mischievous glint in Jim's eye glistened brightly. "Shuttling what to and from where, then, sir?"

Pock shivered at the touch she had missed for so long. I missed you, is what the purpose of that was. I grieve at the time we have lost.

Archer's eyes laughed, glinting with the challenge. "Shuttling something big, annoying, and awkward from somewhere with rude docking agents to somewhere cold, horrible, and generally unpleasant. Over, and over, and over again. And then a little bit more."

I'm sorry. I'm sorry you went through that, love, he said. If it's any consolation, I missed you terribly, as well. Still locked in the meld, forgetting that others were in the room, he pulled her close to him, as if he wanted to absorb her grief and take it from her. Though I still have a good fifty to sixty years left. We have that together now.

Jim grinned. "So, you mean normal docking agents. You forget, sir, the cold doesn't phase me. I grew up in Iowa."

I will cherish this time with you, nash-veh ashaya, she told him, laying her head on her husband's shoulder. She had missed this - him. The way he held her like he never wanted to let her go. She could not believe that after all this time without him, all this heartbreak, he was here with her again. I swear it.

"I'm sure I could find something that would phase you, cupcake," Archer said. He turned to Pock. "Like, for instance, a temporary reassignment for your first here? I can think of a few scientific inquiry teams who'd kill for a brain like hers."

I know you will, he murmured, arms tightening around her. You're never getting rid of me. Ever.

Jim blanched. "She's the only people who keeps the ship running, sir. Would you really do that to the crew?"

I will hold you to that, Pax thought. She sent another wave of love through the bond for emphasis.

Archer chuckled. "Of course I would. Pock, what do you think? Maybe it would do Jim a little bit of good if you took a little vacation from the hustle and bustle of the Enterprise. Teach him not to poke the guy who signs off on all his paperwork."

Pock smirked devilishly. "Perhaps, Admiral. Perhaps not."

James smiled, thumbs rubbing small circles into her hips. He sent a wave of love of his own back at her. I can think of other things we could hold each other to.

He knew they were in public, of course, but it was always fun to try and get a rise out of his wife.

Jim's shudder was real this time. "You wouldn't dare, sir."

Pock lifted an eyebrow. 97 years and you are still attempting to seduce me in public. You are the one true universal constant, Jim Kirk, without a doubt.

Archer just met Jim's eyes challengingly. "Wouldn't I?"