Chapter Eighteen:

Valec hummed, his fingers swift and light as they traced over the padd. His time for meditation had come and gone several times over in the time he had been in the Med Bay. He had all but thrown it out the window himself what with his newfound fascination. THe videos Doctor McCoy had drawn up for him on the dances of Earth still played before him, bright and colourful and just as enticing as the first time he had laid eyes on them.

His favourite was the waltz.

It was one he felt he could master if nothing else, such a simple rhythm and step but so effective. He watched the couple sway in the video playing out before him, one young and sweet and the other old and brash. He could not recall the name of the old Earth film, but he knew it was bizarre.

And some of the dance moves!

By Vulcan, his face has flushed so swiftly and his stomach taken such a swoop, he felt as though he must have broadcasted his sudden arousal to all and any within radius. But he was alone in his little room that McCoy had given him to rest in, a private section to the Med Bay where Valec could gaze at the fascinating movements with little shame.

The grinding, the touching of hands and faces with little to no thought for pride or those around them. It made his blood simmer in a way he almost regarded as his Time, had that notion not been a ridiculous one. Senla himself had taken Valec not a rotation ago with the coming of his First Time. Valec's mind thrummed in humour even now as he imagined his temple guardian, flustered and unsure despite the years he had been guiding Breeders through their Time.

That was a pleasant memory, soft and simpering in his mind like a scent that aroused his senses and brought the barest smile to his lips. Senla was a good Vulcan, full of good values and a strong sense of self.

But there was also a good man here.

Valec's eyes flitted from the film briefly, green eyes dark and lidded as he regarded the doctor through the section of uncovered glass pane by the room's doorway. The man held one arm out straight, a sleek rope of tanned muscle braced against the wall as he regarded something on the screen in regards to a patient, no doubt. His face wore a familiar furrow, dark brows drawn down over darker eyes and the rasp of stubble across a storng, square jaw.

Valec blinked at the spike of arousal that lit inside him as the man stretched an arm behind his head to ruffle dark brown locks, the muscles in his back stretching beneath the flimsy white shirt.

What on Vulcan was he doing?

Valec brought his eyes back down to stare at the padd screen, in time to catch a mesmerising roll of hips against hips, his mouth drying instantly. He had better control than this, surely? What would the Council think of a Breeder lusting after someone freely, and a human man at that? What would Senla think? Well... Perhaps the open-minded man was not one whose opinion should be taken into consideration. Senla would no doubt encourage him to feel whatever it was his body wanted him to feel, as he had done with all the Breeders in his care, despite the Council's warnings. Senla would spur him on, he was sure, eyes wide in fascination and humour as he grinned in the feral way he grinned when it was he and his Breeders alone in their Temple. Perhaps Senla's was the only opinion which he wanted to take into consideration... Never had the young Breeder seen the man more broken than when Valec had been taken from him to be bonded against his will...

"Valec?"

The Vulcan's eyes darted up, mouth tugging in an almost smile at that dark, fascinating drawl. He watched the doctor lounge in the doorway, face a mask of stern features despite the brightness of those eyes. "Are you hungry, lad?"

An imperceptible shiver raced up the Breeder's spine, thoughts of the Council and all their... ridiculous rules gone from him like a wisp of errant smoke.

"I am."

Doctor McCoy all but jolted with the response, his brow raising in surprise that the Vulcan had actually given him a verbal answer, before his lips pulled back over beautiful white teeth. "Is that so? And I don't suppose you'd be a good lad and tell me what is you fancy eatin'? I know Spock's fond of the soup."

Be a good lad.

Valec placed the Padd by his side, his limb weak with the brazen, unforgivable streak that allowed the next words out of his mouth.

"I can be very good, Doctor."

Surak be damned, what on Vulcan's name was that!? He held McCoy's gaze, frozen and petrified, as the man's eyes locked on his own and darkened considerably. The human leant further into the room, broad arms crossed over an impressive chest as those dark, human eyes grazed down and back up Valec's slender form sitting cross-legged on the bed.

"Can you, now?"

###

"May I?"

Spock wrapped arms already braced and solid tighter still around a weeping James Kirk, his heart breaking in his side at the man's pitiful thoughts and cries. His mind was wild with thoughts of a mother he would never know, a bond he would never be able to make. A mother that, in Jim's eyes, may not even have wanted him as it was his very existance that had caused her isolation, her fall from grace.

And on top of that wound, he whimpered for the loss of a family still alive but cold to him. They hated him.

"It is their loss, ashayam."

Spock spoke the words softly in his ear even as he nodded to Senla. The Temple Guardian reached out a sure hand, eyes locking with Jim's tearful blue ones as he pressed warm fingers to the Breeder's meld points.

Distress.

Pain. It hurts, it hurts, it hurts... They don't want me. They don't want me. They don't want me. They don't want me.

Senla hissed, teeth grit against the onslaught of a Breeder's course emotions with absolutely no training. The thougths were tormented, instinct seeking out a bond with a family despite Jim's initial insistance that he did not want them, did not need them. Still, he had been hoping... A soft, fluttering, fragile Hope that had been sweet and beautiful in the centre of his mind and now, it was shattered.

The Breeder clung desperately to the golden link that connected him to his bondmate, a bond so strong, Senla noted with surprise that he could feel Spock also. The Vulcan's mind was a storng, stoic, pained thing wrapped so securely around Jim's frantic flutterings that Senla doubted the bond could ever have been dissolved in the first place.

It was magnificent.

And it made it so easy for Senla to guide Spock's questioning curiosity to Jim's wounded thoughts and wrap their bond around them in the tightest knot. THe Breeder would feel, would be in pain of that their was little doubt. But at least with the bond so secure and bright and... real wrapped around his errant thoughts of abandonment and betrayal, then he would take the pain with the security of knowing he was not alone. Senla soothed a mental hand against those raging waters with a gentle whisper of a shush, smiling as anguished waves gentled beneath the touch, Jim's child-like curiosity and gratitude lapping at his fingertips gently.

And he felt it.

Twined near Spock's impeccable bond with the Breeder, flourishing in the waves of Jim's own thoughts was a bond wrapped in ivy leaves and soft friendship and love.

Valec.

Jim froze, eyes wide as Senla withdrew from his mind slowly, his own eyes unblinking as he stared straight into Jim' s and begged a silent question.

Please... Please tell me he is alive...

Jim's bright blue eyes darted to Spock, the man's nod a fraction of a thing seconds before Jim flooded Senla with images of his capture, of Valec standing over him tall and proud, of arms wrapped around him and shielding his mind and ears from violence. He flittered over Valec in clean clothes, uninjured and with a gentle smile on his lips as Jim promised him a life all his own, a life of his choosing.

Senla's thoughts gave an exhale of relief, his heart quickening in his side and his gratitude spilling forward until Jim was near dizzy with it.

"My blessing on you both, Spock, son of Sarek" Senla withdraw his fingertips from Jim's face slowly, face more open than it had been, "and James. Your bond is that of T'Hy'La and it is a thing of great beauty and strength."

He turned and bowed with a flourish, locking eyes with T'Pau where the vulcan woman was sitting, proud and a near smugness to her impassive face as she regarded the pair. Her lineage. "T'Pau, as a member of Council, you are already aware that I have requested an approved Bonding with Temon at the coming of his First Time."

The Vulcan's eyebrow twitched at the sudden turn in conversation, Kerak and Sarek both stilling where they had been about to leave the room to give the affair a sense of privacy. The older woman glanced from where Jim was still stood, wrapped in her descendant's arms and staring at her like a tiny wild sehlat, unkempt and ridiculously wide-eyed. "I am."

"I ask that, as his intended bonded, Temon be granted permission to be at my side at all times." Senla's voice was even, his stance casual where he stood beside the bonded pair, the air of innocence.

T'Pau raised an eyebrow.

"Naturally, Senla. You have served well as a Guardian and guided many to successful homes. Your request had been granted the moment you asked for the hand of Temon N'All'Ba and it is your power alone, as Guardian and Future Bondmate, to allow the Breeder be at your side. But if I may query as to why this question is asked of you now?"

Senla offered a bow of his head, his shoulder's straight.

"James Kirk is untrained, his emotions unstable and a detriment to his health as a Breeder and bondmate. I ask that you allow myself and my bondmate, Temon off-planet as James' official Guide and Medical aid to assist his breeding time."

Jim felt his eyebrows rise, his mouth agape. Spock's own surprise flared out quickly, though his features remained schooled. Kerak twisted where he stood, his mouth a near-scowl. "You cannot mean to say you intend to take not one but two Breeders from Vulcan? That is insanity!"

Senla threw the man a frigid look. "I see nothing but logic in wanting to assisst a Breeder who was had absolutely no training, Kerak. To assume that James would want to stay on Vulcan after the display his family has just created would be most illogical. It is only right that a Breeder be granted a Guide, as is our custom. As I am trained in the breeding process and a medical stand-in, it serves a secondary purpose should the bonded pair choose to further the House of Surak."

He added a minute bow in Council member Sarek's direction, turning away before the man's bright eyes could add to the imperceptible uplift of the corner of his mouth.

"It would be most illogical to allow an untrained Breeder who is possibly already with child to soar away with no medical assisstance and no help, would you not agree?"

T'Pau turned to Kerak slowly as she spoke, gaze daring the younger man to question her logic before turning back to Senla with a warmth to her dark eyes.

"Request granted, Senla," she raised her hand swiftly in the Ta'al, "live long and prosper."