Title: Autumn Break

Author: Islaofhope

Series: TOS

Rating: PG-13, implied m/m sex

Codes: K/S

Summary: Kirk and Spock go on shore leave to Banff National Park with Selek, their son. Selek has an announcement to make concerning his mother, Leila Kalomi.

Disclaimer: Star Trek and its characters all belong to Paramount, Viacom, and Rick Berman. I'm just borrowing the characters for a little while. This is fan fiction. I won't make any money from it.

Thank you to my betas, Jat Sapphire, Roisin, and T'Aaneli. Also, Selek had a look at it to approve what I was doing w/ his namesake.

Please send feedback to islaofhope@aol.com. Both positive and negative feedback is welcome.

"Autumn Break"

by Isloafhope

I steered the groundcar onto the TransCanada Highway, leaving behind the urban sprawl of Calgary. The groundcar was an anachronism required in the protected area of the Western Canada National Park Preserve.

I glanced over at my sleeping companion. Were we in a spacecraft, he would have automatically taken the pilot's seat, but he generally deferred to my piloting skills when we used planet-bound forms of transportation. If we were headed for shore leave, as we now were, he invariably fell asleep: a logical way to conserve energy since he sacrificed sleep to finish several projects before he took time off. Also, once we were at our destination, he would wish to sacrifice sleep to 'make the most' of our time together.

He had called this a vacation rather than a shore leave since he currently held an earthbound Starfleet assignment. I no longer questioned the logic of 'resting' from exertions by ten-kilometer hikes and scrambling over rocks. I knew that he would return back 'rested and relaxed,' and we would both benefit from the calm that would be restored to his mind.

I was aware of our son, Selek, sitting quietly in the back seat. His mind was a low, warm hum in my own. Our relationship was far warmer than the one that I had with my own father, but we were not physically demonstrative nor did we require conversation to enjoy each other's company.

The scenery had a curiously soothing effect on my nervous system. At one time, I would have insisted that I was immune to such effects. Deciding that Jim would also benefit from the aesthetically pleasing scenery flowing past us, I reached for his hand to wake him.

"Mmm, what is it, Spock?" he asked as he came instantly awake. "We can't be there already, can we?"

"No, but I did not wish you to miss the pleasures of the journey."

He looked out the window, noting the flat, golden fields punctuated with rolls of hay, and, in the distance, the snow-dusted peaks of the Canadian Rocky Mountains that appeared to beckon to us. The contrast between plain and mountain was an exceptionally pleasing sight, one of the many beauties to be found on the planet of his and my mother's birth. He squeezed my hand, silently thanking me for the sight. Gratitude is not logical, and I could not claim responsibility for the beauty around us, but I wordlessly accepted his thanks.

When we stopped at the park gate, we removed the top from the groundcar, so that we could more fully enjoy the sight of the mountains. The temperature was not as warm as I prefer it, but I controlled my shivering by wrapping an additional sweater around myself and enjoying the warmth of his pleasure. By then, Selek had roused himself from his private thoughts to lean forward between us to display his knowledge of the mountain peaks around us. He unerringly called out their names, to Jim's evident amusement.

I stopped the groundcar in front of a log cabin, and we picked up our bags to take them inside. Glancing at our son, Jim said, "Well, it's not the Ahwahnee, Sel, but I hope that you'll like it."

Selek's eyes sparked with amusement. "Dad, you don't have to compete with Mom. I know you're ticked off that she took me to Yosemite and we stayed at the Ahwahnee Grand Hotel just before the three of us were planning to go camping in Yosemite. I think it's great that you brought me here to Banff, but you didn't have to go to the trouble of getting a cabin. I would've been perfectly happy camping out the way you prefer."

Jim favored me with an amused glance before he turned back to Selek. "Maybe I'm just getting old, and I've lost my taste for sleeping on the ground."

In truth, I had made the arrangements and had booked this cabin without consulting him. He had not known until we arrived that it was the same cabin that we had stayed in many years ago. Like Selek, I did not mind indulging him in his preference for camping out, but the thought of a warm bed and a hot tub after a day of hiking appealed to the hedonistic tendencies that our years together had developed in me.

We put our bags in the larger bedroom to the left of the common living area while Selek laid claim to the sleeping alcove to the right. "This is bigger than I remember it." Jim looked out appreciatively at the hot tub on the patio connected to our bedroom.

"It has been many years. No doubt they have upgraded. They were able to command a greater fee for the rental."

"But it's worth it." He laughed before he turned to put his arms around me. He tilted his face up for a kiss, and I savored his taste, his pleasing smell, and the feel of him in my arms. All too quickly, he broke the embrace, and walked back into the living area.

"Who's ready for a hike?" he asked, and Selek popped out of the sleeping alcove with a map in hand.

"Let's go up to the Lake Agnes teahouse! It says here that after a four-kilometer hike up from Lake Louise, you can eat soup or sandwiches or desert with tea or hot chocolate."

"It is a 3.8 kilometer hike." I said. "And if you are hungry, we can make something here. I do not see how you can be hungry already after the large meal that you had in Calgary."

"It's not about being hungry, Father. It's a new experience." His response was without rancor and with a grin that mirrored Jim's. They share no genetic connection, but he shares many of Jim's more pleasing qualities.

Jim had sole custody of him for the first two years of Selek's life, but we began to share custody with his mother, Dr. Leila Kalomi, a research scientist at UC Berkley. Always, Jim has been a devoted parent. Although we have raised him to appreciate his Vulcan as well as his Terran ancestry, I frequently accuse Jim of 'corrupting' him towards his Terran side. In truth, this is not so. Even before I came back into their lives, Jim taught Selek the Vulcan language as well as Standard and exposed him to my culture through close association with Vulcan relatives.

I looked out the window and ascertained that a light rain had begun. "If you two insist on this hike, you must wear your rain gear. I have some work that I must complete and I will stay here to prepare dinner."

Before Jim could protest, Selek said, "Oh, no, you don't! Just because I'm here to keep Dad company doesn't mean that you're going to bury yourself in this cabin. We're here to enjoy each other as a family, and you're coming with us." I was reminded of a similar lecture from my mother when I was the teenager and tried to extricate myself from an outing with my parents.

"Besides," Selek continued, "if we eat at the teahouse, you won't need to make us any dinner."

Jim was grinning, but he didn't say anything before he went to find rain gear for all three of us.

When we were alone, Selek suddenly looked uncomfortable. "There's something that I have to tell Dad, and I want you there for emotional support."

"Support for him or for you?"

"Him, of course." He responded with exaggerated patience, his face solemn, but with a twinkle in his eye. "I'm a Vulcan. We don't need emotional support. Remember?"

I considered pointing out to him that, if that argument were to hold, one could also argue that a Vulcan would not be capable of offering emotional support. But before I could reply, Jim came back into the room. "Are you two ready?"

Random chance operated in our favor, and the rain stopped shortly after we began our climb. Selek darted ahead, but we frequently stopped to admire the view of the turquoise lake below, and the green and golden trees around us. We walked in silence, except for an occasional observation from Selek. We breathed in the cool, fresh air, and allowed the peaceful setting to refresh our minds.

As we followed Selek up the steps to the teahouse, Jim broke the silence between us. "He's amazing, isn't he? I only told him two days ago that we were coming here, and he researched it completely. And he remembers everything that he read. He's certainly inherited your mind."

The boy suddenly let out a whoop of joy as we walked into the teahouse. "And your ability to attract attraction," I said as the other patrons turned to smile at the boy's enthusiasm.

Jim laughed at that as we joined Selek at a table on the outdoor deck. I was grateful that I had brought an extra sweater in my backpack. The late afternoon autumn sun provided enough warmth for the other two members of my family, but I welcomed the additional layer.

I caught Jim's look of amusement at the many layers of clothing I now wore. "You look like a Vulcan Teddy Bear, minus the six-inch fangs." His voice was very quiet, for my ears only.

My response was equally quiet. "Nonetheless, I am quite capable of biting." As I had hoped, he chuckled at that.

Once we had steaming bowls of vegetable soup and thick sandwiches in front of us, we stared contentedly out at the view of the snow-capped mountain peaks spread out before us. I sipped my herbal tea, grateful for the warmth. Jim and Selek had opted for hot chocolate, claiming that they would burn the additional calories on our hike. Selek mirrored Jim's unfortunate fondness for sweets, but they both maintained their weights at healthy levels through frenetic activity, and I voiced no objection.

"This was a great idea, Sel." Jim reached out to ruffle the boy's hair affectionately. It was a gesture that Selek and I each found annoying when applied to us, but we each bore it with patience before we reordered our hair.

I studied our son for a moment. Although he was 3/4 Terran, he had the characteristic pointed ears and upswept eyebrows of a Vulcan, and I had tended to enough scraped knees when he was younger to know that his blood was green. His hair had darkened from the pale blond that it had been when he was a small child to the golden color that Jim's had been in his youth. And in this light, both Jim and Selek's eyes were green and gold, although Selek's were closer to turquoise.

They were sitting in an identical attitude of pleased excitement as they enjoyed the view. If it were not for the fact that Selek divided his time between our home and his mother's, I could almost believe that the boy was genetically Jim's and mine.

"I agree. I regret my earlier reluctance." I sipped from my teacup placidly, before dropping my next comment into the comfortable silence.

"Well, Selek, perhaps now would be an acceptable time to tell us your news."

I was uncertain whether the look Selek gave me was gratitude or annoyance. Perhaps a little of both. Although he had been anxious to talk to Jim about something that was troubling him, now he was nervous about beginning.

Jim glanced from me to Selek. "What's up? Are you two conspiring against me about something?" The smile that lit his face told me that he was pleased at the thought that Selek and I were sharing a secret: evidence of a close paternal relationship.

"Actually, I haven't told Father the news. I just told him there was something that I had to tell you." He took a deep breath. "Mother is planning to relocate to Rigel temporarily, and I want to go with her. It would be good for me to live off Terra for a while."

Jim's face became dangerously calm as he put his mug down on the table.

"When? For how long?"

"At the beginning of the new year. She's on sabbatical from Berkley, and she wants to join a research team. Maybe six months, but if she likes it, we'll stay for a couple of years."

I saw the sudden tension in Jim's shoulders and made a mental note to convince him to accept a back rub tonight. Although I had as much at stake here as he did, I allowed him to respond. I sensed that he would have liked to explode with anger directed at the boy's mother, but I trusted that he would refrain from showing that anger to our son.

"And she asked you to talk to me before we got the lawyers involved to renegotiate our joint custody agreement."

"Yeah, that's how she said that you would react." The bitterness of his tone surprised me.

He lifted both eyebrows at him. "Oh, did she?" He looked away, and refused to recognize the cautioning look in my eyes.

"Sure, she said that you think it's okay to run off into space whenever you want, but if I want to go somewhere, you'll shout about your parental rights."

I pla