Common Ground (Star Trek: TOS story)

K/S Fanfiction
Title:	Common Ground
Author(s):	Dina Collins
Date(s):	2005
Length:
Genre:	slash
Fandom:	Star Trek: The Original Series
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Common Ground is a Kirk/Spock story by Dina Collins.

It was published in the print zine Beyond Dreams #8.

Summary

"Spock follows Kirk to Kirkʼs family home when his captain accidently leaves his medication on board ship and, while there, discovers an unpleasant truth about Kirkʼs childhood."

Reactions and Reviews

I’m not familiar with this author, but if this story is an indication of what she can do I think I’m going to like her work.

So little was said about Kirk’s background in the series that it’s always been a wide-open field fertile with unexplored possibilities. We’ve all read stories where Kirk comes from a comfortable middle-class background, even some where he is the privileged son of wealthy landowners, but rarely has there been a story where he comes so thoroughly from the wrong side of the tracks as he does in this one. Your heart will ache for our captain seeing what life was like for him growing up. This version of Winona Kirk is so disagreeable I wanted to jump into the story and just shake her to pieces. The author does try to soften our opinion of her by explaining her alcoholism as a disease, which it most definitely is, but as a teacher I have little sympathy. I’ve run across too many parents like her to be anywhere but solidly on a child’s side. In a way, this type of a background for Jim Kirk makes him even more of a heroic figure than he is usually portrayed in order to have risen from this background and achieve what he has both personally and professionally. Spock’s background runs truer to fanfic canon than Kirk’s but still is somewhat darker than usually shown. When Spock comes to seek out his captain on shore leave, he understands Kirk’s reluctance to speak about his childhood, and the two men find they have more in common than they ever thought possible.

A well-executed story that alternately made me angry and happy by turns. Nicely done.

This is a portrayal of Kirk’s mother as I have never seen her. Thinking of the indomitable JTK growing up in a totally dysfunctional home with an alcoholic mother who has lost all self-respect gives me pause. It doesn’t make me think of this as an impossibility, because I have seen many fine people who have managed to rise above squalor and parental depravity and make something of themselves. I thought this author did an outstanding job of describing Kirk’s feelings when Spock stumbles upon his well-guarded secret. It seems very real to me that he has been able to disregard the home front up until he learns that Spock knows. He takes the shame upon himself and feels embarrassment and guilt for all his mother’s shortcomings. As one might expect of Spock, he takes it in stride, neither denying his surprise or allowing it to alter his feelings for his captain and friend. This is but the beginning of the story, but it adds to what follows because we now know that things are not always easy for Captain Kirk and they were never easy for Jimmy Kirk. The acceptance and adoration he feels from Spock takes on new importance, or at least more significance in light of his unhappy early life. Spock relates a bit of his own struggles, and these revelations are a catalyst for their affection. Very nice character study.

What a story! What a background this author has created for our delectable Captain! Unbelievable! The first few pages I really didn't believe, then it got irresistably interesting.

Shoreleave is imminent, Kirk is in a bad mood and tilts with McCoy over his diet. Captain's kind of grouchy. I don't blame him and wait till you find out why. Spock has plans to attend a class on some unpronouncable subject. He's supposed to be there for five weeks or so. We learn that Kirk has designs on his best friend but beams down alone. We find out later where he is hiding out. They say their farewells, Spock wearing a sexy long black robe, embroidered with light blue and silver. Now there's an image I took away with me. I always did go in for a guy in a dress! Kirk does too but is very tentative after his comm contact with his mother. It seemed the Captain was feeling fragile and vulnerable, and he had a right to be. He was so sweet and wounded, I worried for him and wanted him and Spock to go to some romatic place together to heal each other. Didn't happen and I got impatient. I should've realized that my dreams might come true later, since I found that the Vulcan's mind was also turning on becoming intimate with his best friend. In any case they go their separate ways. However, before Spock leaves, McCoy asks him to deliver a medication to Kirk, one the Captain had forgotten. Or maybe the doctor had. Spock agrees of course and follows up on his Human, first at Winona Kirk's 'home'. The Vulcan gets the shock of his life when meeting her and is concerned about Jim. Then, from the ridiculous to the sublime, Spock locates Jim on an island in the Atlantic. Pastel cottages, bone- white beaches beside the crystal blue sea. Romance on the horizon?! My heart jumped and I began to really enjoy this story and to anticipate love love love. Lord help me I was right! Spock finds Jim naked, lying face down on the sands, getting sunburned. Pant, pant! Spock is one lucky Vulcan. This is an inventive, terribly romantic and well- crafted story. Kirk and his closest friend share similarly unhappy childhoods. I loved how they opened up to each other in the ensuing time they spent, falling in love. Strolling on the beach, watching the sunset...holding hands no less and sharing, sharing everything. The two of them come to terms with their troubled pasts, and come together in a most fabulous love scene.

I was thrilled at how Spock responded to Kirk's hungry kisses, how they sent his senses reeling. Mine too! You have to read it to absorb all the flavors of affection this talented author offers us. And there was my favorite element included--the bond, the meld! But after all this bliss I have this to say: look out, Winona! This author has it in for you! And Sarek comes in for some punishment too. Poor Spock, poor Jim, but lucky for us that this tale is in our memory banks.

This was an unusual and enjoyable story about love and acceptance. Kirk has been keeping his rather less than perfect family background a secret from Spock and the rest of the crew, fearful that they might think less of him as a result of his origins. This particular picture of Winona Kirk is very different from most of the others I‘ve seen, here she is shown to be a very weak character, exploited and abused by the various men in her life and an alcoholic to boot who is not above using her son as a source of money when necessary. We immediately see how proud Kirk is, in that although he tells Spock he will be spending leave with his mother, in reality he would rather spend his leave alone than admit to his friends what she is really like. After he goes on leave, he accidentally leaves a prescription behind and of course Spock volunteers to deliver it, which results in his discovering the truth about Kirk‘s true origins and family, which is exactly what Jim was trying to prevent happening. However, when Spock finally tracks Jim down, he makes it clear that Kirk‘s family background makes no difference to him whatsoever, in fact it has increased his admiration for him, in that he has managed to overcome such a bad start in life to achieve his current rank and position. This was a nicely written story about overcoming people‘s perceptions and acceptance of people on face value, I particularly liked the bit where Spock tells Kirk that his own background was not so perfect as he might think, in order to convince him that Spock appreciates the man he is now, and how he got there makes no difference at all.