Jim could only imagine and he was just on the receiving end of being in the dark, not the one having to hide. Then again, he has to hide some on his own as well. Bones still kept an eye on him for any changes, but this long after---well, it looked like they were in the clear.

And damn right it would have been jeopardized, the only thing that would have kept Jim from turning that ship around and heading back to earth would have been Spock and Bones and screw their mandate. So as much as he might not like it, it did make sense.

They helped a lot out there, even if it hadn't always gone to plan.

Then he mentions the news stories, and Jim groans. "Don't remind me. Most of my crew just wants to head home, see their families and get some leave time in while we undergo a refit---they don't want holo-reporters delving into every aspect of our time out there."

He finally takes a sip of it. "Anyways, it's not as glamorous as they make it out to be. Unless they like their closeups with being captured by Klingons and flung halfway across the galaxy for a month---yeah."

He still has hundreds of reports to go through, and Spock is going to meet up with him tomorrow to go over more. Spock---

"I can't tell, Spock, can I?" Not really a question. At least not when he probably already knows the answer. Spock had been there too, had melded with him and---

God, this was a lot to get his head around. One might think if you survived something similar, it'd be easier, but no.