Requital

Fanfiction
Title:	Requital
Author(s):	JS Cavalcante
Date(s):	1994
Length:
Genre(s):	slash
Fandom(s):	Star Trek: TOS
Relationship(s):	Kirk/Spock
External Links:
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Requital is a Kirk/Spock story by JS Cavalcante.

It was published in the print zine Naked Times #32.

Summary

"After Henochʼs death, Spock realizes that he raped Chapel and that she saw his love for Jim while they shared consciousness."

Excerpt

"It is late, very late in gamma watch when he comes to my door. I know instantly who it is, and I open the door before he speaks. "Christine." He stands in my doorway in the shadows of ship's night, the answer to every dream and hope I've ever had… "Christine, I have come to -- " "I know. You want to say you're sorry for what Henoch did. It wasn't your fault." He looks at me again. "I know it is illogical. I was not present; I could not prevent his actions. Yet I know he used… my flesh, my Vulcan abilities, to v-violate you."

Author's Comments

For the record, I don’t believe Spock will be in a love relationship with anyone other than Kirk—“Requital” is a K/S story — but I can believe that he might have sex with someone else, given a good enough reason. I don’t consider any story, any author, or any type of story “the last word” on this character or this pairing. K/S to me is a big, messy experiment. It’s never finished and done with. There’s always something more to be said. It’s like the Arthurian Legend. Just because one author imagines it one way doesn’t mean there isn’t room for someone else to imagine something totally different. There’s infinite diversity (where’ve I heard that before?), and that’s a good thing. The reason I sometimes write other scenarios is that they’re so confronting for Spock. They can be embarrassing, humiliating, terrifying, fraught with conflict for him. They might force him to make a choice between two bad options. They might force him to tell the truth about what he feels for Kirk. They’re interesting.

Reactions and Reviews

1994

Told from the first person of Christine Chapel, this unusual story tells of Spock making love with Christine in order to help replace the bad memories of being raped by Spock/Henoch. Because they "shared consciousness", she knows of his love for Kirk and they both share unrequited love - Christine for Spock of course, Spock for Kirk.

Neat idea, neat story, one not easily taken since Christine is not generally well-liked, nor a totally sympathetic character and this story is certainly not an easy one to write. But J.S. finesses these problems with aplomb. Here, Christine is wise and patient despite her own quite considerable pain and deals delicately yet directly with Spock's emotional turmoil at not having love. In fact, this is felt more strongly by the reader when seen through her eyes. She helps to assuage and release her own pain by helping Spock and therein lies the premise of the story.

Even more interesting and unusual, is watching K and S make love as Christine is "inside" Spock, an internal voyeur giving us both Spock's sensations and emotions as well as her own. The "dream-which-was-not-a- dream", as she describes it, was "a great gift" and led her to release her unrequited love for Spock.

Besides all this, what author do we know who can casually throw in a realistic Vulcan phrase complete with Standard translation as smoothly as if she came from that place herself? My suspicions are being confirmed - J.S. Cavalcante is in reality a Vulcan from the planet Vulcan. The secret's out.

I dislike Spock and Christine stories, but with "Requital" I make an exception. Of course, it's not really a S/C story anyway. It's very nicely written. Some lines are quite witty or very striking. The story's not perfect, but I admire a writer who tries to be different and perhaps falters a little to one who does the trite well. Definitely recommended reading. My quibbles are highly subjective. I did find it hard to believe Spock so easily accepted Christine's "involvement" with his life.

This story was quite a pleasure. First-person Christine is an interesting perspective, and present tense allows for some unusual effects. allows for some unusual effects. A unique scenario to bring her in; perfectly thought-out.

Excellent Vulcan words; an entire sentence yet! Even the runes on Spock's robe, we get the Vulcan words for: Challenge, Breakthrough, The Unknown. What a fine imagination.

Henoch in Spock's body had violated Christine. So when she and Spock shared consciousness, he knew all; and now she knows his secret love for Kirk. Spock knows her memories; her unrequited love for him. All this was very beautifully written, subtle, her perceptions of Spock's love for Kirk, and her thoughts of how it felt when their consciousness were joined.

Spock offers to block her memory, but she wants to keep the memory of Spock's body loving her. A fine description of when Henoch/Spock raped her. She couldn't help loving it. And I'm glad the author had Christine acknowledge her feelings that it was a "betrayal to all women" to desire the rape.

Spock offers to share with her physically, to replace the violent act with a loving one.

There were a number of those exquisite moments in this story when I could hardly bear it; I had to stop reading and gather myself....

And being in first-person, the author got to say things in such a charming way. "He likes it." (When she took his organ in her hand.) "A single stroke that stops my heart." All the words of the lovemaking are absolutely divine. "His thrusting reaches a higher octave."

Spock is also Trying to sate his love for Kirk; it doesn't work. But at least for Christine, now it's over, even as they lie in bed as lovers. She no longer can carry the torch.

During a meld which Spock offers, to help her assimilate the experience with Henoch, Christine shows Spock her fantasy of him admitting his love to Kirk and Kirk responding lovingly to it! This was really lovely, their lying in bed and talking about Kirk.

Later, Christine finds herself still feeling Spock's consciousness. The sex had bound them, so soon after the psychic merging. I don't know if I buy that Christine would really "witness" the whole scene between Kirk and Spock that night in quite the way it was presented, but it was explained later as a one-way emphatic bond. An elegant concept. A heart-stopping (mine) talk, Kirk and Spock admitting their love. It was amusing when for a little while they speak of "him" (the one Spock loves) in the third person. "He does know, but doesn't know what to do or say."

A lot of gorgeous lines, such as: "Love, a long summer night of a sound."

Kirk is so beautifully Kirk here. Of course he wants to explore; he thinks he wants t'hy'la too. Lots of sweet love-talk; and beautiful sex.

Thank you for a fine K/S story including Christine!

1998

Under occupation by Henock. Spock's body rapes Christine—a fact not unknown to the Vulcan when he regains his form. In a broadly stretched interpretation of Vulcan guilt the whole Spock decides to help Christine heal by making love to her. Help her it does, but it also brings her in tune with Spock to the extent she discovers his unrequited love for Kirk. She does a little engineering to bring about the inevitable, which she is then unexpectedly privy to in grand and colorful detail through the echoes of their shared consciousness. A very inventive spin on an episode.

2003

Well, I did not like this story, on account of the suffering Chapel goes through. (I should note that it is not at Kirk and Spock's hands.) However, I was fortunate enough to have a talk with JSC about the story and her reasons for writing, and it's clear to me now that she was exploring an idea suggested by the episode it is based on, and not sticking it to Christine just to show to S/Ch crowd, or whatever it was a thought she was out to do. It's a very well-written story, although it's only K/S/Ch in a technical sense. (It begins and ends K/S ER.) To be blunt about the story content, it considers the aftermath of Hennock ("Return to Tomorrow") raping Chapel. I've always had a problem with women being raped in stories so content-wise it was not for me, but if you can handle that aspect and the not-so-happy ending, then there's no reason to pass up a well-written story and an interesting look at Spock.

2006

Some of the most powerful slash stories are those set from the perspective of a person outside the relationship. "Requital" is from the POV of Christine Chapel and is set immediately after the episode "Return to Tomorrow". In that episode, Chapel and Spock 'shared consciousness together'. And during that sharing, they learn certain truths about each other.

The story opens with Spock visiting Chapel. He intends to find some way to make amends for what he learned in her mind: that Henoch raped her while that entity was in possession of Spock's body. Chapel, in turn, has learned that she and Spock have something in common: unrequited love. As much as she loves Spock, he loves Kirk. But he has never found the ability to tell Kirk what he feels.

Their meeting is a catalyst for change for both of them.

J S Cavalcante's writing is powerful, lyrical, beautiful.

2007

“Requital” by J.S.C. Any story by this author is worth taking a good look at. Here, Spock realizes that when he was in the body of Henoch he raped Christine Chapel. And...she might have gotten a glimpse of his true feelings for his captain. J.S.C. handles this material delicately, with realism and genuine feeling. I would venture to guess that many K/S fans aren’t too happy with vivid sex scenes that don’t involved captain and first officer, but there are some stories that absolutely require them, and that’s true here.