Spock knows what must be done, but even knowing that his choice will save Jim and countless others, he is struggling to face it. He is drowning in pain, grief, guilt, and exhaustion, until at his lowest point, Christine knocks on his door and asks him for one simple gift.

This story is a missing moment from Li'l Black Dog's shattering story, Six Degrees of Separation. It would help a lot to read that one first. http://www.adastrafanfic.com/viewstory.php?sid=781. It takes place at the end of the five year mission, and explains the distant relationship between Kirk, Spock, and McCoy at the beginning of The Motion Picture.

Spock's mother has left his father and returned to Earth with him in tow. The move brings many hardships, and soon the young Spock has to find a way to survive or end up like all the other street children. How can a homeless Vulcan child get by on the mean streets of Earth?

Between viruses, mind-melds and spores, Spock spends much of the first year of the Enterprise's mission with his mental walls broken down and his emotions out of his control. Nobody knows what it costs him to go through those events...or why he keeps letting it happen. Nobody but the one whose job it is to notice.

Takes place immediately after The Devil in the Dark, which is the episode immediately following This Side of Paradise.