Endings and Beginnings (Star Trek: TOS story by Charlotte Frost)

Fanfiction
Title:	Endings and Beginnings
Author(s):	Charlotte Frost
Date(s):	1987
Length:
Genre(s):	slash
Fandom(s):	Star Trek: TOS
Relationship(s):	Kirk/Spock
External Links:
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Endings and Beginnings is a Kirk/Spock story by Charlotte Frost.

It was published in the print zine Naked Times #13.

Summary

"Kirk and Spock visit the Kirk farm after Kirkʼs motherʼs death, but Kirkʼs guilt at not being there for her more threatens to disrupt their stay."

Reactions and Reviews

Nobody in fandom writes quite like Charlotte Frost does, straight-forward, without recourse to any fancy tricks, but with heartfelt sincerity. Endings and Beginnings takes us to Iowa, where Kirk is visiting the family farm for the first time since his mother has died. Peter lives there now, but he’s leaving to visit a woman he wants to make his wife, leaving Kirk alone, waiting for Spock’s arrival. Although they are bonded and are establishing a home on Vulcan, Kirk’s mother had never known about their relationship.

The story is filled with simple things that nevertheless stick in my mind. For example, Spock arriving in an air car from whatever conference he’d been attending. “...dressed in a yellow sweater, beige jacket and white slacks.” I’ve never been able to get that image of Spock out of my head. Spock in a yellow sweater! Years after I’ve read the story for the first time, I still haven’t decided if I like that or not, but the author certainly managed to capture my attention.

More simple events: Jim and Spock discuss whether they want to take a rocking chair to their home on Vulcan. They go up to the attic to look at a trunk filled with Jim’s childhood momentos, and when they want to move it downstairs, they look for portable anti- gravs to help them do so.

Why do these images stay with me? Perhaps because the author writes them so clearly, so simply, without anything else cluttering the story.

And of course, I am extremely partial to “real life” stories, even when they include domesticity. Or maybe especially when they do.

When Spock first arrives, it takes a few minutes for them to share a greeting kiss. I’ve pondered that one for a while. How long does it take me to kiss my best beloved when we’ve been separated for a while? Finally, the reason for the title, they discover some very odd things in a scrapbook that Kirk’s mother had kept for him, items that hint that maybe she had deduced the relationship between them without much evidence, and also that there was some precognitive ability on Kirk’s part when he was a child. I must say, I found it all a little bit spooky, and agreed with Kirk’s decision to leave the house the next day, despite his apparent comfort in receiving a message from the grave, so to speak.

And for some odd reason, the last scene of the two of them in bed together is one of the most intimate, real feeling scenes I’ve read. No sex, just a little comfort, a lot of them simply talking to one another, but very compelling nevertheless. I like it!

ENDINGS AND BEGINNINGS (by Charlotte Frost) is a Kirk-and-Spock-visit-the-farm story; and though I've read several of these tales in the short time I've been involved in K/S, this one is among the most interesting. It had nice characterization, gentleness between the characters, and a real potential to "go somewhere". My major complaint was that this story seemed to end too quickly, as if the writer ran out of steam or wasn't compelled to follow through on the 'bait' she put out in the earlier parts of the story. All in all, though, this is a well-written tale with intriguing ideas.