The thing people always forget is that it was a Vulcan ship that reached Tarsus IV first.

The thing people always forget is that it was a Vulcan ship that reached Tarsus IV first.

Spock is the type of person who cleans dishes as he goes (of course he is, Jim thinks fondly) so there's very little mess when they're done, and Jim grabs a bottle of wine and three glasses and is joining Spock and Nyota in his living room less than five minutes later.

"I only have red," he tells him them, setting out the glasses and filling them anyway, not waiting for their response. He hands a glass to each of them, sitting on opposite ends of the sofa, and he only hesitates for a moment upon assessing the seating situation, but it is enough for them to notice. In the end, it is Spock who reaches purposefully for Jim's hand, pulling him down onto the couch between them.

Nyota settles into him, sipping her wine, and Jim finds himself relaxing into their company almost immediately. They chat aimlessly through the first round, and then the second, and Jim is feeling blissfully warm and drowsy when Nyota's voice cuts through the fog.

"—and you know we're not doing this casually, right?" she asks, and Jim shakes himself, thrown by the abrupt turn in conversation.

"What?" he asks, suddenly feeling wide awake, looking from Nyota's grin to the amused glint in Spock's eyes.

"This," she says, and then Nyota is kissing him, gently at first but with more insistence as he opens to her, and Jim thinks that maybe this was inevitable.

The thing is, ever since he began spending most of his spare time with first Spock and then Nyota, he's felt more like himself than he has since he was injected with Khan's blood, since he kneeled over Pike's dead body, since the Enterprise was last under his command.

Being with them has done what Khan's blood never could, has made him happy as well as healthy, and whole.

After everyone had breathed a sigh of relief and shared laughter that bordered on the maniacal; that was when the real work began and the crew became intimately familiar with the old Earth expression "no rest for the weary"

The Academy drops 100 cadets in the desert for a little survival training; Jim decides he's got a better plan.

Jim asked five questions about Tarsus. He received five answers.

The kid takes him to the ground, hard and fast, and the knife punches right through his throat. The man gurgles and blood sprays, and the kid’s head snaps up, blond hair flying everywhere, as he gives the blade a final, savage, twist and pulls it free. He’d know those eyes anywhere. It’s Jim Kirk.

It really does take a village to raise a Jim.

The members of the Kelvin's crew watch over Jim as much as he lets them.

[Podfic by templemarker: http://www.audiofic.jinjurly.com/graduate-vulcan-for-fun-and-profit-audiobook]

"The first three years of the rebooted ongoing mission. Destiny forced them back onto the right track but everything else takes work. Things come together and fall apart and come back together, over and over until it turns into a habit. Until the road stretches far up ahead, no matter what the obstacles along the way."

Uhura knows how promiscuous Kirk was during the academy. She isn't hopeful about him leading the Enterprise.

The officer doesn't look like he's about to laugh, which is a plus.

A Captain is all things to all people. Jim is running on fumes, and it takes more than good luck and nerves of steel to be the leader the crew of the Enterprise need.

They wanted Jim to grow up and take on real responsibility, too bad no one in the school was prepared for it. When Jim starts teaching a class, he throws the entire Academy into chaos. Can Spock help Jim with his problems and help the school? Will Jim even give this stranger the time of day? See how Jim matures or if he crashes and burns and how the school handles it.

Spock's unfamiliar with Tarsus IV, understanding it only in the abstract through the lens of distant history, and so it's difficult for him to understand the uproar over a man long-thought dead coming forward to proclaim his culpability in the killing of half a population of colonists.

In the back of your mind was what he'd said the night before you all boarded Enterprise for this mission.  "You're going to hate me sometimes, the things I'm going to do to keep the crew and the ship safe.  You need to accept that."

Even in the Federation, there are times when accomplishing the needs of the many means sacrificing more than just lives.  McCoy learns what Uhura means when she says " They take that stain on and don't expect anyone to understand, which is why they need us to love them."

Bones plays "I Never" with Jim, Gaila and Nyota. Somewhere between the first round and the walk home, he figures out that some marks have more meaning than he ever thought.

Nyota Uhura always thought Jim Kirk was a simple man, easy to read.

If Leonard McCoy's life could get any fucking weirder, it would be … Jesus, he didn't even want to think what that could possibly mean, because it's already been too fucking weird to make any kind of rational sense.

Kirk is forced to relive memories of Tarsus IV. WIll he finally be able to tell another person about them?

James T. Kirk is not so easily understood.