How Late I Came to Love You

K/S Fanfiction
Title:	How Late I Came to Love You
Author(s):	Karen Dates
Date(s):	1997
Length:
Genre:	slash
Fandom:	Star Trek: The Original Series
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How Late I Came to Love You is a Kirk/Spock story by Karen Dates.

It was published in the print zine Scattered Stars #10.

Summary

"When Spock leaves for Gol, Kirk almost dies when their bond is broken but recovers and takes command of an elite task force while waiting for Spock to realize that they belong together."

Reactions and Reviews

A delicious mixture of joy. humour, lightheartedness, a cute Kirk and attractive characters. All in all, a heart-filling, spirit-uplifting story. It felt like drinking champagne. But all is not well in fairy tale land. I had a devil of a hard time following her leaps and bounds in her timeline, at some point she even lost me completely. This is just an indulgence of mine; I would have loved to have it from the start, Kirk's inauguration as starship captain, his adoption by Sarek. the bond with Spock ... in short, everything prior to the start of this story. In fact, there's more than enough material for a novel.

A much longer story this, which deserves complete attention. There is much in the first few pages and then throughout this story which could well be written up into several chapters, or more, which would turn this quite long story into a novella or zine that would stand on its own.

Suffice it to say that for reasons explained in the story Spock has run off to Gol, convinced that he would injure Jim, his bondmate, very badly during pon farr. The high priestess T’Sai, (sister to T’Pau) convinced that the bond cannot be true between a human and a Vulcan, breaks the bond causing Kirk to suffer agonisingly and in fact die. He is retrieved from death, and his mind rescued by the combined forces of Sarek, Amanda, McCoy and T’Pau. They are now in a composite bond with Kirk, and he needs one or more of them near while he recovers. In this story McCoy is bonded to a Vulcan healer called T’Pela, Kirk has donated sperm to a Vulcan called T’Pria and fathered twin girls, and while the Enterprise is undergoing extensive refitting Commodore Kirk is to command a new Vulcan Starfleet Elite Corps, V’Sec in a prototype smaller, faster vessel, the L’Matya. It has been accepted by Kirk’s adoptive parents Sarek and Amanda, and T’Pau, that if Spock never returns, Kirk, whose telepathic and mental abilities continue to increase throughout the story, will need a warrior bond to complete and sustain him for the rest of his life. They get over 200 hundred applicants! But Kirk’s Head of Security S’Talon has no plans for any other mate but himself for Kirk I particularly like his thought that he “would drag Spock back by his aristocratic little ear” if he thought it would help. Naturally various vicissitudes come up which Kirk must battle, The Romulan Commander puts in an appearance with Spock’s daughter, promptly adopted by Kirk as Spock’s bondmate, and a vengeful renegade Romulan subjects our boy to torture.

There are also some delightful family scenes, including a Christmas holiday, in the snow for the whole extended family. Intrigued and manipulated by Kirk, T’Sai sends Spock home for three months, before allowing him to complete his vows, so we can guess what happens then, but Karen Dates keep us guessing almost to the end. A very satisfying read with my only criticism, her several references to Kirk’s fragile appearance when injured. Our Jim is a chunky lad, illness would fine him down a bit, but it would take a lot of persuading for me to imagine him fragile.