DISCLAIMER: Don't own them, wish I did.... (preferably chained in my basement * giggle * shhhhh)

Author's Note:

So I originally intended for this to be a K/S oneshot - but as per usual, once I started writing, the story took on a life of its own and did what it wanted to. I'm now in the process of writing chapter 3. I don't INTEND for this to be a very long or drawn out story. (however - 'the best laid plans of mice and men' right? so we'll see.)

I am actually working on a much longer and much different story that will be entitled "Saving Grace". This little snippet of an idea just kept popping into my head and interrupting me, so I took the advice of my dear friend Spylar, and "went with it". She's awesome! What would I do without her.

At least I have not uploaded any of "Saving Grace" yet - so I don't have anyone chomping at the bit waiting for updates.

I will try to finish this one quickly and update often. - Try being the operative word.

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My Own Interrupted Iowa

Chapter 1.

Road Trip!

It all started with a drunken conversation over a poker game. They'd been talking about shore leave over Christmas and what everyone's plans were – and they were all drunk. Except for Spock. But contrary to his normal pristine and stiff demeanor, he had seemed to really loosen up and was having a good time.

Jim decided it was because Spock was finally starting to feel at home on the Enterprise, like he was part of something, and had a family. A family of good friends. He was glad for that. Jim knew that losing his planet and his mother had taken a toll on Spock and he wasn't sure if he would ever be able to cultivate the friendship and camaraderie with Spock that Selek, Spock's elder counterpart from the alternate future, seemed to think was so important.

Now he had hope that maybe things were changing. Maybe Spock was starting to warm up to him and all these 'great things' that they were supposed to accomplish together would really happen.

Jim, Bones, Scotty, Sulu, and Chekov usually spent one or two evenings a week in each other's company either at Enterprise's makeshift bar, or in the rec room playing chess, watching old movies on the vid screen, just talking, or occasionally playing poker in Jim's quarters. Normally Spock would have been off doing whatever it was that Spock did when he was off duty and would never have indulged in socializing with Jim and the others, but after his break up with Lt. Uhura, Spock had started joining in the rec room activities from time to time. However up until that night he had never joined them for poker. Jim was sure that Spock found the pursuit of gambling, drinking and smoking cigars to be highly illogical, but he always extended the invite, just in case.

For whatever reason, Spock had agreed to join them and had obviously enjoyed himself. Maybe it was because he was winning. That Vulcan emotionless demeanor gave him a great poker face, plus, with everyone else drinking and buzzed, or flat out drunk, Spock was the only one with a straight head, and he was raking it in.

The conversation had been a general one, and had turned to their upcoming shore leave over Christmas. They would have just over two weeks to spend with their families and enjoy the holidays while the ships systems were being udated in space dock.

As they talked about their various Christmas plans they realized that they all had the week after Christmas free. Jim was going home to see his Mom, but then she was going to see his brother and sister-in-law and their kids, and Jim wasn't sure if he wanted to make the trip with her. It wasn't that he didn't want to see Sam and Aurelan he did, he just didn't want to spend the whole week with his mom's boyfriend Wayne, who was going with her. According to Sam the guy was a dick and he didn't really want him in his house, but their mother was insisting and the kids wanted to see grandma. So he was stuck, Jim however wasn't, and Sam urged him to just stop by on the next leave.

Bones was spending Christmas with his daughter. But she was going on a ski trip with her friends the day after Christmas, and he damned well wasn't gonna spend the remainder of his shore leave with his ex-wife! Pavel's parents would be in Chicago visiting his older brother and he would spend Christmas with them, and Sulu would spend Christmas with his parents as well, but the two of them had decided that the perfect gift for parents would be to send them on a Caribbean Cruise. So they had pulled some strings and both of them had bought their respective parents Cruise tickets on the same Cruise for Christmas, so Pavel had been planning on spending the remainder of his Christmas vacation at Sulu's house in San Francisco.

Montgomery Scott was going home to see his Mum and Da but he expressed that he could only take so much of them before they started gratin on his nerves. A week was plenty. Anything more than that and he and his Da started fighting over every little thing. His Da was a brilliant man but they didn't see eye to eye when it came to physics and sooner or later the scotch came out and they ended up in fisticuffs brawling on the living room floor and breaking him Mum's favorite knick knacks.

Jim assumed Spock would be going to New Vulcan for his leave, but apparently that was not the case. Spock stated that while he would very much like to assist in the rebuilding efforts, two weeks was hardly enough time accomplish anything of merit, and as he had no nostalgic attachment to the new colony, there seemed to be no need to visit. He received regular updates from his father and Selek, therefore he saw no purpose in traveling such a great distance just to see in person what had already been described to him in great detail.

When Scotty found out that Spock intended to spend his entire shore leave at Starfleet Academy he immediately started protesting.

"Well that's just a cryin' shame Mr. Spock! A damn bloody cryin' shame! You canna be spendin' ur whole shore leave sittin' at that bloody Academy workin whilst the rest of us are out an about enjoyin' our time with our famlies. Iz jus not Right! Its not that I don luv my job mind ya, I do! I rally rally do! And I luv the Enterprise. With all me heart! Aye she's the light of my life dontcha know, and I'll probly end up spending a gud deal of my leave with her as well, but its still not right. This here, in this room, this is yer family now Mr. Spock, ain't we boys? An family doesn't....families don't.......*HIC* well ya jus shudnt be alone at Christmas thas all!.......HEY I KNOW....you boys know what we shud do? We should take Mr. Spock here on a ROAD TRIP! Let him see some of gud 'ol U..S of A while we got the time! I'd try to talk yer all inta comin' to Scotland, but I gotta come back to the states anyhow. Come on then, les do it!!"

Sulu and Chekov had chimed in with "Hell yah! ROAD TRIP BABY!" and "I have alvays been wanting to see za Grand Canyon also and Las Wegas too!"

"Las Vegas? Ur not even old enough to gamble kid – but I'm in! As long as this Road trip goes in the Opposite direction of where my ex-wife is – I'm IN!"

"If I am not old enough to gamble, zen why did I just win half of your las paycheck zen ...meester doctor?"

"Oh hell you only had it for three minutes, then that overgrown, green blooded elf took it from YOU!... I don't know why I even let myslef get roped into these damn games – I never win. So where are we goin' on this Road Trip?"

"The Grand Canyon is in the state of Arizona, and Las Vegas is in the State of Nevada, which are adjacent states. I have never been to either location and I believe I would find it pleasurable to indulge my curiosity and visit them."

"So if Commander Spock and I are in San Francisco, and Pavel is in Chicago, and the Captain is in Iowa and Dr. McCoy is in Georgia, and Scotty is in Scotland, where are we meeting and when, and where else are we going besides Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon? I mean we have a week and it is a Road Trip right? Who's driving? What are we driving? - So many questions...I have so many questions? HEY? Are we there yet?"

"Well I can jus have the blokes working on the Enterprise beam us all ta Riverside Shipyard and we can commandeer a Starfleet shuttlevan fer the trip – take it 'cross country and end up at Starfleet Academy. No problems there. Bein' Chief Engineer of the Enterprise does come in handy sometimes ya know."

"Zees is gud, but it still leaves Meester Spock alone at Christmas, and zis is still not right."

"That's no problem – he can spend Christmas with me and my parents since he'll be in San Francisco anyway."

"That's a generous offer Sulu, but it won't be necessary, Spock's coming home with me for Christmas. You all can beam to the shipyard, I'll arrange for the transport van to be available, and you can come pick us up at my house after Christmas, say the 27th?. - Being the Captain comes in handy too Scotty" Jim said all that in a half drunken haze with a smirk on his face – but he didn't miss the raised eyebrow from his first officer when he'd insisted that Spock was coming home with him for Christmas.

"Aw come on Spock," he'd continued, "please, you'd be doing me a HUGE favor. According to my brother my mom's new boyfriend is a total DOUCHE BAG! I need a buffer. You'd be a GREAT buffer. I bet you could talk his ear off and make him feel stupid and I'd never have to deal with him. Whadya say?"

"I do not know how your mother's boyfriend resembling a feminine hygiene product necessitates the need for a "buffer" but I would not be adverse to accompanying you or to meeting your mother Jim." He'd said this with a smile and a twinkle in his eye. It was a great smile. Jim remembered thinking he should do that more often. He also remembered feeling kind of warm and tingly when Spock smiled at him too, but he was sure it was just the alcohol.

So that's how it started, and now Spock was coming home with him for Christmas and they were going to spend a week together with his mom at the little farmhouse he called home, and then a week with his new Enterprise family on an old fashioned Road trip to see, who knows what, besides Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon. Maybe the world's largest ball of twine, or the world's largest frying pan. All Jim knew was, it was going to be a great shore leave and he was looking forward to all of it, minus the 'mom's new boyfriend part'. It was a good thing the guy wasn't living with her, or he might not have even visit her.