Chapter Text
After Jim’s recent visit by another psychologist who had finally excused themselves, he had time to think about his situation a little more. He came to the conclusion that proved to be rather hard to swallow.
Jim couldn't do much. At all.
Well, he probably could, but reason tells him that he really shouldn't.
He's obviously scared his family half to death, if he tries anything and gets caught doing it at this current age, well.
He can't even imagine.
It's already been bad enough, the child psychologists all know something is off with him already. It's only a matter of time until one of them starts questioning his parents about possible past traumas. A few of them might even just outright imply or state that he's most likely being abused in some way and will call CPS on them for an investigation.
It might be better if he just comes clean with his current circumstance. I mean, why be so secretive? Well, about that, if Jim keeps his mouth shut about this, he will most likely be taken away from his parents. He can't do that to them. But on the other hand? If he comes clean, he’ll most likely be dismissed, or it will be taken as evidence of a mental illness or something like that. And who knows what will need to be done with him afterwards.
If a species that could tell if he's speaking the truth or not, say a vulcan, confirms it as truth then what then? First of all, why would anyone even check the validity of Jims statements with a vulcan anyway? Secondly, he knows about future events. Major ones. He’ll just be putting a target on his own back as well as his family’s if word got out about that. This is an incredible advantage that Jim couldn't just let go of. He was given a second chance and he's going to do this right.
He can't have the same ending as last time.
He doesn’t have a whole lot of time left to process things, Jim will only be left alone for a little while longer. The psychologist only stepped out for a second to collect their findings. He wouldn’t exactly be putting it past them if he was under observation right now either.
Jim shook his head. As of right now, freaking out wouldn't do him any good. That much was obvious. He needed a distraction.
The room he was brought in wasn’t much. Lots of natural light, with flowy curtains. A colourful rug was in the middle of the room, with a short table in the middle with Padds on it. Most likely all programmed with childrens books. However, he could probably add more books, preferably to his own reading level.
Wait. That gave Jim an idea.
He scrambles off the chair that he had been told to sit in and makes a beeline to the table, almost tripping several times in his haste. Jim almost couldn't believe that he didn't think of this before, but he believes he’ll get a free pass for such a mistake just this once.
He seizes the first padd he could get his mitts on, searches for as many supplies as he could find (a stylus that could be taken apart, an additional padd for extra parts, a string he found on the ground yadda yadda) and sits down to get to work on his new project. In plain view of a monitoring system even Jim, with all of his starfleet training, had barely spotted.
After around an hour and a half, longer than he knew was warranted for a ‘second of reviewing findings’ he thought with a grin, he had finished what he had set out doing.
Creating an up to date version of the padd. Not his date, the padds were rather old, even for this place. Jim just improved its performance only to what he deemed would be acceptable standards. Or at least believable.
He messes around on it for a while, playing some popular games and some online chess. He probably switched up his sitting position at least a dozen times, his latest was just him on his stomach laid out with his improved padd on the floor, screen up in front of him. Just when he was finishing up his latest chess game, winning for the fourth time in a row, Jim looking as content as ever, did the door finally open.
His eyes flick up from his screen, tilting and craning it just slightly to the side as though to get a better look. It was the last psychologist, Barrens. Though they weren't alone.
It seemed as though the spectacle he had made had paid off, Jim thought to himself in satisfaction.
Almost everyone Jim had met today was there, he realized, along with his family. His dad must have pulled some strings to have put so many staff members onto his case.
They all walk in the door, though a majority of them stay by the door while what looked to be the head doctor, or maybe the head psychologist, heads forward to sit across from jim. She held a padd with her, with what seemed to be notes and a form of some sort, from what Jim could get from a single glance he got off the screen.
She glances to the screen and back to Jim, before asking for him to sit in the chair he was sitting in previously. He does so, closing out of the padd, and after a moment's consideration he leaves the padd behind. It's not like he can clean up his work space, so he had to just leave it all like that too.
As Jim started to get comfortable in his seat, she turned to the door where his parents got brought in, being led in by a nurse. Mrs. Head poncho, as he was calling her, clears her throat once everyone has been seated, minus those at the door. “Hello Jimmy, as you well know by now you have been in hospice for over 3 days in a type of coma. We are lucky to have been able to wake you from such a thing in such a short amount of time,” Here she smiles at him momentarily. He blinks.
She turns the warm smile onto his parents, who are holding each other's hands now for support.“Now, Mr. and mrs. Kirk, I believe we have found a possible cause for your son's behavior.” Jim's parents both perk up, looking at each other in trepidation. “After our evaluations of your son, we have all come together to discuss his case and what the possible outcomes could have been possible in this situation. After viewing your son's behavior without interference, we came to the conclusion that he is simply intelligent.” With a smile she gestures to the altered padd.
Both winona and george both blink, at the seemingly lackluster answer. They glance at the padd on the ground, then to me, who is pretending to be entirely innocent.
“Thus we have come to the conclusion to do an iq test of your son. It can be described as a lengthy test, so we give you the option of either taking the test another date, or to just do the test right now.”
Jim's parents glance at one another, then agree to take the test right now.
And thus, the plan worked, with flying colours. A guaranteed all-win scenario, if he did say so himself.
Operation pretend to be a prodigal genius was an outright success. It easily laid all of Jim's worries to rest. Since he was now classified as a child with an adult IQ, and then some. It has explained about him in many ways. Originally they had assumed that the coma had changed something vital in him, and not in a good way. Then they suspected foul play. Then because Jim altered the padd, and made it run even better than it had ever before, on camera, it had laid everyone's concerns to rest.
And now he wouldn't even have to sit through kindergarten again. He was really dreading it actually.
Going back to his childhood home was as weird as he thought it would be. His hometown predictably heard of what happened and had asked his parents for details. All of Jim's childhood friends had also come to see Jim, but kids man. They were intuitive, and immediately knew something wasn't right. It's not like they had breakdowns immediately when they saw him, but they sure as heck kept their distance from him.
Jim supposed it was for the best, Jim was weird around his supposedly older brother Sam already. Even younger kids, he wouldn't know what to do if they were as weirdly insistent as Sam was being. Jim is pretty sure he's already treating him like he's his nephew but it's not like he could help it. Sam was pretty confused at how much their dynamic changed.
It wasn't just Sam either, the same thing is happening with his parents. George is surprisingly taking it rather well, probably because Jim doesn’t cling to him whenever he has to leave the house. His mom, well, she's trying to do something. The number of bonding, mother and son outings is almost outrageous.
And so that was how his day to day played out after his stay at the hospital.
Jim was given a tailored lesson plan, he only occasionally needed to go to a schooling facility for it. However, Jim was told that Vulcan had offered him a place to learn using their advanced schooling facilities; they had even given them two options for how he could attend. The obvious of moving to vulcan permanently, or Jim could just get a vulcan tailored plan instead of his earth one and occasionally visit the facility for it.
He said yes to the second offer. He knew that spock lived in a city called shi’khar. With a heavy heart, he told them he wanted to get his schooling there.
He didn’t let himself think about it for long, not wanting to get his hopes up. That maybe. Just maybe Spock might’ve come with him here. If he took the opportunity now, it would increase his chances of finding Spock.
His parents were obviously hesitant about such a thing, but he managed to convince them about it. Afterall it seemed like a good deal all things considered. Getting educated by Vulcan facilities is quite the brag, though Jim is a little nervous about the whole thing. Sure jim was well above average intelligence even as an adult, but vulcan schooling? It's a bit much, though Jim was confident that he would at least prove to be adequate. As the vulcans say.
So before Jim knew it, he was already 5 years old, ready to start his education with vulcan.
Now, once he gets the plan, it will have to be updated frequently. Meaning loads of visits to vulcan.
So, in order to get his lesson plan, they had to go to Vulcan to register in one of their schools. He wouldn't be able to use their most common learning technique, the learning pods. All they had time for was the lesson plan they had been promised. The vulcan learning system worked differently than earths, and an example of it will be the fact that vulcan doesn’t use grades based on age for vulcans but their learning level. All of a child's education is tailored to their individual needs on vulcan. Sounds good right?
Jim made his way to the building, sweat building on his brow. He was only speed walking a few steps ahead of his parents. Passing vulcans rarely spared them a glance, all resolutely making their way to whatever destination they needed to be at.
Jim wasn’t paying them much mind either, he was walking with a slight bounce in his step. He was in the middle of thinking of the possibilities and whatnot. When he spotted him.
A young vulcan with a high collar holding a padd was walking with an older vulcan and.
Oh.
A human woman.
His eyes widened as he abruptly froze in place. No way. No way. Already? What were the odds?
He ignores his parents' questions and urges, he just stares the kid down.
Just when Jim was feeling a little weird about it, especially after what had to have been Sarek started to stare him down as well,
His widening brown eyes confirmed it, however he didn't stop walking. In fact he just went a little faster in his direction while typing away on a small padd. As Jim was right in front of the doors to the building that ran the schools, he half figured that's where he was heading.
What does one do in this type of situation? What if Jim calls Spock's name and vice versa, how would they explain away their recognition. If Spock even recognises me. He might just want to avoid his staring.
However Jim couldn't think about it any long, as Spock turns off through the door, he mumbles this.
“There is a place we can meet. A garden used for meditation.” and he's gone, his parents in tow.
Jim blinked himself out of it. Well, that was one way of finding out that It was him. A slow grin brightens his face.
He follows right after them, to his parents' relief.
An hour later of talking logistics, the vulcan staff asking him questions with him trying out a learning pod, they gained all they needed to know. He was told by the vulcan staff that he could go wait outside in the waiting room as they needed to discuss topics they deemed as adult only.
He readily goes out into the waiting hall hoping to find who he wanted to find, and yes, there he is already.
Spock was sitting on a bench against the wall, messing with the padd in his hands. Jims makes a beeline for him and sits right next to him.
Spock looks at him from the corner of his eye at first before putting his padd away, and giving jim his undivided attention.
“Spock.” Kirk said softly, in his now juvenile voice and body.
“Captain, I-” Spock says, before shutting his mouth at the look Jim gave him. “Jim. I have come to the conclusion that the weapon we were previously exposed to has caused this situation to arise.”
Jim huffs fondly, shaking his head slightly. “Ah, yes. I myself have come to a similar conclusion.” he humors before driving on. “Spock, it is good to see you! I almost believed that, well.” He glances down momentarily, not really bringing himself to say it.
Spock gazes at him steadily. “Jim, I believe that as I have attempted to block you from the weapons path, it was rather easy to think that I was the only one in this situation.”
“Ah you would have grounds to think that, yeah.” Jim conceded with a slightly sheepish smile. “It was a comfort to me, however spock.”
“Jim, do you…you must understand i-” Spock cuts himself off, his cheeks colouring jade. His gaze is now firmly on his lap, avoiding looking at him.
Jim smiles encouragingly, despite being sure of the fact that Spock couldn’t see it. He stays silent, sure that if he said anything Spock would just change the subject before he could even open his mouth to encourage anything. He does however move his hand to be in Spock's line of sight.
It was silent to the point of Jim being resigned to the fact that Spock wasn't going to say anything about it, but then Spock takes in a breath and lets it out silently.
“Jim, I believe it is obvious that my father and I have had trouble understanding one another. Before I was de-aged.” He gazes resolutely at seemingly nothing, his eyebrows scrunched together imperceptibly. “However, now that I have assumed the title of prodigy and am now well known to have advanced intelligence, all that has served to do was exacerbate the misunderstanding.” He confides.
His eyes widened slightly, surprised and oddly touched at the fact that spock was telling him this at all. In order to allow him to continue, as he could tell he wasn't quite finished, he stays silent. His hand however inches closer.
“Look spock, we already found each other already.” He says tenderly. Before smirking slightly. “Prodigy? Great minds think alike alright. What are the odds that we have both come up with the same cover story?”
“Jim, it was one of the only logical choices for the best outcome.” Spock replies with a raise of his eyebrow. And Jim couldn't help giggling at seeing that look on his friend's face.
Yes, they had each other. and so early in the game too. Jim had a feeling it was only going to get better from here on out.