Half Enemy

"Spock, I know you're thinking about the problem, have you come up with any ideas?"

The First Officer of the ENTERPRISE still remained unmoved. What if Jim couldn't be reunited with his other half? He'd die, both of him.

"Doctor, I am sorry, I cannot offer any suggestions."

"Come on, Spock, can't you think of any Vulcan options?" Spock thought about it for a long time.

"On Vulcan, there are certain rituals we can use when our normal controls fail and we display emotion, to help reinforce those controls.

McCoy got up, looking into the Vulcan's eyes."Sounds good to me. What are you waiting for?"

"I'll go to him." Spock said softly, and left sickbay. McCoy gazed after him, somehow sensing a deep emotion inside Spock. He was concerned about Jim, too, but the Vulcan seemed to feel more than that.

Spock went to the Captain's quarters. He hesitated reluctantly for a moment, then pushed the door buzzer.

"Come in, Spock. Anything new?" Kirk asked anxiously.

"Unfortunately, not. How are you, Jim?" Spock came closer, maintaining a respectful distance.

"I'm quite calm... but unsure... vascillating... You're the only one I can tell this." Kirk turned away.

"I'm always yours, Jim, even if you're only one part of the man I know."

Spock still stood in front of him, his calmness just a facade because his Human and Vulcan halves struggled, the emotions of the conflict distracting his logic. But he knew what Kirk needed right now, familiarity and reliability.

"I feel so strange, Spock, so vulnerable..." The Captain's voice faded.

"I could offer you a kind of mind meld to stabilize your condition." Spock announced cautiously.

Kirk couldn't decide, as had happened often during the last hours. What was he proposing? His strength faded so rapidly it seemed practically non-existent. Jim wasliterally pressed inside the chair his arms and limbs moulded in wax.

"If you think...I don't know...I need..."

Tears ran down his face. Spock moved towards him. Softly his fingertips touched Kirks face and reached for the tortured soul of his friend. Compensating for Kirk's lack of energy was exhausting his last reserves, but the Vulcan had a bottomless strength concerning James Kirk.

As they sat closely side by side, Kirk could feel the warmth of Spock's body somehow traversing the small space between them, seeming to seep into him and refill him with pulsating life. He sensed the peculiar smell of the Vulcan he was so familiar with. It seemed to Kirk he would need to cry even more now because Spock's gesture touched him so deeply.

But when the thoughts of his First Officer flooded into him, he fell slowly into a silence as deep as endless space. Both men remained that way and even Spock felt temporary peace.

He let go of Jim and caught his gaze.

"How do you feel?"

"Like home, Spock. I'm always at home where you are."