Epilogue

Many, many years later, Admiral Leonard McCoy, Chief of Starfleet Medical, was in his lab, working on an experiment that wasn't going the way he had hoped. The chime on his door sounded and he grumbled to himself at the interruption. "Come!" he spat out forcefully, keeping his eyes on what he was doing. He didn't hear anything and no visitor announced themselves, so he turned, prepared to either chew out someone for lack of manners, or himself for being senile and imagining a door chime.

Instead, he stared in shock, his hand going to his heart. He started to wheeze and cough, then sat down forcefully. A vision from his distant past strode towards him gracefully, her delicate brow furrowed with concern. It was only when she spoke that he realized he was neither hallucinating nor spontaneously time travelling, and that this young vision before him might look like her mother had so many years ago, but her voice was completely different.

"Admiral McCoy, are you well? Forgive me, I didn't think…" her voice trailed off as he held a hand up to stop her. He stilled the shaking in his hand at the same time he regained control of his breathing.

"Don't worry, young lady, I'm fine. You just… startled me."

Her silvery grey eyes, so much like her mother's, shone with compassion, "I should have called ahead to let you know, but I had some free time and made an impulsive decision. Please, if I have…"

He held up his hand again as he stood, "I am glad you did. I've always wondered…" his voice trailed off, not sure how to continue, not even sure which one of T'An's children was standing in front of him, like a vision from his distant past. "I'm sorry, shall we start again? Doctor Leonard McCoy, a pleasure to meet you," he gave a courtly bow, his bones creaking just a little bit as he did so.

"I am T'Len, a Vulcan Healer and soon to be a student at StarFleet Academy. It is I who am pleased to meet you, Doctor McCoy, I have wanted to for many years."

Seeing that he was about to speak, it was she who raised a hand, "I do not wish to intrude or impose, and I will understand if you decide that I am too much of a reminder of what might have been, but I wanted to thank you, and to express my admiration for your work. Stories of you were a major contributing factor to my decision to join StarFleet."

"Stories of me?" his voice cracked a bit, not sure what sort of stories a Vulcan mother would tell her child about a man she had once loved, but had left to marry someone out of duty to her people.

"Yes, indeed, you were the topic of many conversations when the Enterprise crew visited our home over the years. It was not until I was older, and had a conversation with my father, that I understood why you never joined us."

He paled, then reddened, and she continued, "Forgive my bluntness, it is unforgivably rude. But, I feel as if I know you. Even without the stories, I would have wanted to meet the man for whom I was named."

He understood then why the name T'Len had sounded so familiar, and realized that this must be T'An's youngest child. She had two older brothers and an older sister, two sets of twins, but he had tried very hard over the years not to learn too much, nor even to think too much, about T'An and her family.

He was about to speak when the door chimed again. A young Vulcan male stood there, nearly an identical copy of his father, save for his eyes, which were silvery grey like his mother's and sister's.

"Well, it never rains but it pours," McCoy muttered to himself, then, "Come in, son, come in, it seems your sister beat you to it by a few minutes."

The young man quirked his eyebrow at him and entered, "Forgive me, Admiral McCoy, but I had some free time and wanted to meet you. It appears that my sister had the same thought. I am Selen, a scientist and soon to be a cadet at StarFleet Academy."

The young man walked into the room and stood next to his sister, raising his hand in the ta'al. His black hair, cut so like his father's own, shone in the lights from the ceiling. McCoy smiled at him, not even bothering with the Vulcan salute, and said gently, "It's very nice to meet both of you. Please accept my condolences for the loss of your father. He was a great man and is deeply missed."

"We thank you for your sentiment. He lived a long and worthy life, Doctor. While his absence is felt in our lives, he was very ill by the end and it was a welcome release for him."

McCoy was about to ask if any other family members were in San Francisco, afraid to even mention their mother's name for fear of losing control of his emotions completely, when the door chimed again. The twins turned to each other, "Sojak and T'Jam," they chorused. Selen turned to McCoy, "Forgive us, Admiral McCoy, but it appears that our elder siblings may have had the same impulsive urge to visit you while we were in town."

McCoy sat down, his knees weak. A group of cows was a herd, geese was a flock, so what the hell was a plethora of Vulcans called? He realized that he sounded a little hysterical, even in his own mind, and tried to get a better grip on his emotions. The door opened to admit two more Vulcans, several years older than their siblings. Both had their mother's hair and father's eyes, identical twins, as opposed to the fraternal ones standing somewhat shamefacedly near him. He found himself trying to work out the genetic odds of their particular features cropping up in that combination and found it soothed and occupied him enough to still his shaking hands and addled wits again.

"Come in, come in, the more the merrier," he said heartily. The two newcomers greeted him and exchanged bemused looks with their younger siblings. Sojak spoke, "Forgive our intrusion, Admiral McCoy, but curiosity is an emotion to which even the most logical of Vulcans will admit, and we have all been curious about you since we were very young."

"No forgiveness necessary, I guess it was past time that I met all of you. Have you come to join StarFleet too?"

T'Jam replied, "No, we are merely here for a visit and to get our siblings settled in to the Academy. I am an engineer, working on Vulcan with my husband, who is also an engineer."

"I am a Healer. I work with my aunt at her clinic near our home."

"How is T'Nal? I haven't seen her since that conference twenty years ago on Andor."

"She is well and sends her greetings. She and our uncle have adopted three orphans and have their hands full raising them, otherwise she would have been here."

"A real family trip, then?" McCoy said, trying to quell the rising, panicky hope within himself.

"Indeed. Our mother was meeting our uncle for a tour of the new Enterprise," T'Len said.

"Ah, I always wondered what you decided to call him," McCoy babbled. "How is Captain Spock?"

Four identical eyebrows rose, "What else would we call the man who has the same parents as our father?" enquired T'Len.

"Well, when that man is the same man as your father, only a lot younger and from a different universe I… well, I suppose a logical Vulcan might not see it as odd, but I certainly did."

T'Len spoke again, "We always considered him our uncle. Any other improbabilities posed by time travel were irrelevant. But, I can see where it would be an interesting puzzle to work through, especially for one who did not grow up thinking of the elder Spock as 'Father' and the younger as "Uncle'."

McCoy tried not to think too hard about T'An's marriage to the elder Spock. He had spent too many years alternately (and privately) cursing 'that dirty damned old man' and himself for thinking such things. As the younger Spock had once tried to explain it, it was perfectly logical. The two had worked together to integrate the ShanaiKahr's crew into Vulcan society and come to know each other during that time.

A year after the ShanaiKahr's crew returned, they married. McCoy had never asked, but had gleaned from hints dropped by others, especially Jim Kirk, that the marriage was one of friends and partners, but romantic love had never been a factor. They had both succumbed to pressure from family, and their own sense of duty, to help ensure that Vulcans did not become extinct.

The marriage lasted many years, Spock having lived longer than most ever thought he would. He had died at a venerable old age just over a year ago. Everyone from the original crew of the Enterprise, except McCoy, had travelled to Vulcan for the funeral. Even Jim Kirk, who was currently an "Admiral-At-Large" and had been off on a deep-space exploration in an experimental vessel, had come back for it.

Jim had been the only one who even dared bring up the subject, in the hope that enough time had passed for McCoy to go and show his respects to a man he truly had respected. He had considered it, but as soon as he thought about what a small, petty, selfish, pathetic little old man he would seem to be if he rushed to her side before her husband's body was even cold… if she wanted to see him at all after all these years, and chose not to go. In the end, he sent a message, not even a vid, but an actual letter of condolence, and buried himself in his work again.

McCoy spoke to T'An's children, trying not to think of how they might be different if they had been his children as well. That road was long past him, and had never been a path he could have travelled, except in his wildest imaginings. He had lived a good life, one that he hoped to continue for many years. He had his friends and his work, and that was enough. If, in his darkest moments he dwelled on how it really wasn't anywhere near enough, he soon pulled himself out of that deep, dark hole and busied himself with some other project.

He had just about got up the courage to say their mother's name, and ask about her, when the door chimed again. His heart clenched in a wild surge of hope and fear, and he turned to the door as it opened. She stood before him, a little silver in her hair to match the light in her eyes, but unchanged save for a few more lines in her face. Her children straightened guiltily and turned to her.

"Leonard," she said, that much-loved and long-remembered voice sounding more beautiful to his ears than it ever had.

"T'An…" he found he couldn't continue, his throat so choked with emotion that he was having trouble breathing. He sat down and tried to regain control once again. She quirked a maternal eyebrow at her children and they took their leave quickly and filed gracefully out.

She took a few steps towards him, then stopped, as unsure of herself as she had ever been. "I had intended to visit you and see if you would like to meet my children, but it seems they had other ideas. Forgive me if they intruded, but my sister raised them for the most part, while I was working, and they seem to have absorbed her particular brand of bluntness through some sort of osmosis. As young children it was sweet and amusing, but I don't find it nearly as cute now that they are fully grown."

"No, I'm glad they came. I should have met them years ago, but…"

"Leonard…" her eyes glistened with unshed tears and in moments she was kneeling by his side with a fluid grace that Vulcans seemed to keep no matter their age. She rested her head on his knee, as she had done so many years before in the privacy of his cabin, and his hand stroked her hair, trembling a little as it did so.

There were no more words between them for some time. They merely sat and absorbed each other's presence, as if it could make up for all the years they had lost.

Time passed and they began to speak, of what they had been doing and of their families. McCoy had a daughter named Joanna, who he hadn't even known about until she was an adult. His ex-wife had never told him she was pregnant when she left him, and had passed Joanna off as her new husband's child for many years. It wasn't until McCoy's ex-wife had died and the man who thought he was Joanna's father had become ill that the truth was finally revealed.

McCoy had spent a lot of time in the last ten years getting to know Joanna, who was also a doctor, and tried hard not to resent all the years he had missed out on with her. It was just one more reason to hate the woman he had once loved, and there were already so many of those that he didn't really need another.

T'An and McCoy both knew that they could never make up for all the years that they lost, that it was counterproductive to try. Neither had any expectations of starting up where they left off, but it felt as if they were doing just that. Minus the wrinkles and grey, they could have been parted for days, not decades, so seamlessly did they fall back into the warm and easy relationship they once had.

McCoy tried to bring up his age and what he referred to as his 'advancing decreptitude' but she brushed off his fears with a wave of her hand, "If you want to talk about age, Leonard, I was born more than six centuries before you were, I seem to be robbing the cradle."

He laughed and kissed her, then took her hand and led her out of his office. He intended to bring her out to dinner and court her in the way he had always wanted, but had never had the luxury of time to do. After so many years apart, and after what she felt was a decent period of time for the elder Spock, she had other ideas and brought him back to his apartment instead.

There are many things that could be said about what happened next, but all that truly needs saying is that she opened her mind and heart to him as she had wanted to do for so long, and it was even more amazing and wonderful than either had ever dreamed.

They spent all their remaining years together, never parting for more than a few hours at a time. When advanced old age finally took him to his eternal rest, it took her as well. They were found the next morning held in each other's arms, identical expressions of peace on their faces, having gone to sleep one night and been spared the heartbreak of waking to find the other half of their heart and soul passed on before the other.

The End…?

***Author's Note: Thank you all so much for reading and reviewing, I hope you enjoyed it even half as much as I did!