Epilogue

There is only one thing that comes anywhere near close to being as good as the night before and that is being back in the captain's chair the morning after. Being home. Being himself again; back with the people who know him and care. It is deeply touching to see the evident happiness on the faces of all the crew – even Bones manages to crack a smile at seeing Kirk back and whole again. In fact, kirk suspects that they are all restraining themselves quite hard from cheering. Even Spock turns to meet his eyes when he walks on to the Bridge and Kirk can feel him smile. He gives him a look that says both – they will never know how close they came to losing you too and also how do you always manage to get up and be ready before me?

And with that they are gone; headed far far away from Priapus twelve, with intent to return only to see if the new order they have established is being at all maintained. For now they have two dozen slaves to return home and only one further incident to remind them of the previous few weeks.

Half way through the morning Kirk gets called down to med bay –

"There's a young lady here who wants to see you."

Spock joins him a little too quickly, Kirk sighing lightly as they get into the lift –

"You don't have to do that you know."

"Do what Captain?"

"Just because I young lady wants to see me does not instantly mean that I want to jump her bones."

"I should hope you do not wish – as you put it – to "Jump" Doctor McCoy, indeed Captain."

"No Spock it's a – never mind" Kirk sighs, half smiling as they enter med bay and a young lady he does not immediately recognise turns as he walks in and smiles faintly.

"Captain" she nods. Spock frowns, trying to remember where he knows her from –

"Aislinn Roberts" she says – "I heard you were returning home everyone you rescued from Priapus Twelve."

Spock nods to himself; the bright, bird like eyes, the slightly crooked smile – the girl from the compound. Kirk also nods –

"You heard correctly – that is agreeable to you I hope?"

"I don't mean to sound ungrateful –"

She bites her lip a little and continues anyway – "But if it's all the same to you – you see – before I was taken I was in my final year on command track with Starfleet – so if it wouldn't be too much trouble I'd like to be returned to the academy to complete my training."

Kirk looks her in the eye and does not ask her if she thinks she can manage after everything she has been through.

"It's no difficulty Lieutenant, we'll see to it."

"Thank you captain" she says, nodding efficiently, then putting a sudden light hand on Kirk's arm – "Captain?"

"Mr Roberts?"

She opens and closes her mouth several times, stumbling on all the words that feel insufficient to express what she wants to say –

"Thank you" she manages, and it is sufficient.

"Whenever you're ready join us on the Bridge, we'll start to bring you back up to speed."

She smiles widely and nods.

"See?" Kirk whispers to Spock as they head out – "No jumping. No boning."

"Indeed captain."

_x_

Later that evening Kirk lies on Spock's bed looking dreamily around the room. He frowns as he notices a gap on a shelf that was not there before.

"Spock?" he asks, as Spock comes back in from the bathroom, sliding into bed beside him.

"Yes Captain?"

"What happened to that statue you used to have?"

"Statue?" Spock feigns ignorance.

"Yeah – the one I told you looked like a cat with no feet and you got all offended 'cause it belonged to your mother and you said it was a priceless and important work of art – something like that anyway."

"I – sold it" Spock admits, reluctantly.

"Why?" Kirk almost explodes in surprise – "When it meant so much to you?"

"Jim, Starfleet does not finance anything that goes into illegal operations – even to buy back the freedom of a Starfleet Captain" he says, awkwardly. Kirk registers this and looks faintly guilty –

"Spock I'm sorry" he frowns – "You – shouldn't have –"

Spock puts a finger firmly to his lips to silence him.

"Jim please" he scowls – "Do not be ridiculous. I would have given everything I have and myself as well to get you back and it would have been worth it a thousand times over."

"I thought Vulcans didn't exaggerate."

"We do not."

Spock lets the brief silence speak for itself. Eventually Kirk breaks it –

"So – technically –" he smiles – "You still totally own my ass."

"A curious choice of phrase – but I would never claim such rights over you as I am sure you are aware."

"But –" Jim smirks – "I might like it if you did – now and then."

"Jim –" Spock half growls, rolling around to position himself over Kirk – "You are nobody's property. You belong to yourself. Nevertheless do you really think I require a financial transaction to claim you as mine?"

Kirk swallows; wondering why the prospect of being anybody else's property is unendurable but the idea of belonging to Spock does nothing but turn him on enormously. Spock hears this in his thoughts and so continues, his hands claiming Kirk's body as his words claim his heart –

"You have been and always shall be mine Jim and nothing can change this. Just as I will never be anything other than yours."

Kirk groans with delight at this, arching into Spock's touch –

"Mine" he whispers, more than reverently and Spock answers back like a constant prayer –

"Mine."

_x_

Guys this story is finally complete! Yaay! It took so much longer than I thought – My new long project is a great angsty fic called "Clarity" which is still Spirk but solely TOS Spirk this time! Check it out – tis coming soon!

I'm still working on my crack fic "Standard Starfleet issue – easy tear shirts" and taking ideas for that and I'm a good way into a pile of fluff called "Cat in the larder" where Spock and Kirk are basically honeymooning – so check out any of them that sound appealing! ….I can't write just my long angsty fics – gotta break them up writing fluff and crack at the same time! :-)

Thank you for reading and thank you all my lovely reviewers, you keep me going when I start to fail! I love you all :-)