Polyamory | Star Trek (Spirk x OC)

2.2 - Third Time's The Charm

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The next day at lunchtime, Cali was surprised when he received a message from Jim telling him that he wanted to arrive at the testing room an hour early. He was told by his partner that he wanted plenty of time to prepare, which Cali agreed Jim needed, knowing he hadn't done any before today, but was still suspicious of the request. 

This meant that Cali was already in the observation room before anyone else. It was nice, watching the test being set up in the empty room, since he could stand casually without the instructors or the test's programmer in the room. He watched as all of the participants that would be playing Jim's bridge-crew entered the room to prepare and be told what to do by one of the invigilators. He gave a small smile and wave to both Bones and Uhura as they entered and spotted him at the window above them. 

While Cali would have preferred to have his partner present when he finally had to interact with his commander alone for the first time in the several weeks since the incident, he didn't mind having the time alone to mentally prepare himself either. Jim would be there after and they'd both console each other over their losses.

It wasn't too long before the first inspector came in, giving a look over the early cadet before giving a respectful nod and setting themselves up. Of course, after the first came more and soon all the invigilators were in the room, two closer to the screen with clipboard like PADDs to write down their observations of Jim's character while the others manned the screens to load up and ran the actual program.

Cali noticed with relief that his Vulcan Study professor had yet to enter the room, giving him a little more time to prepare, though he wasn't quite sure how he was meant to do that.

His time, however, was very limited as the door to the observation room opened one more time and in Commander Spock walked.

Spock noticed Cali immediately, still always able to spot the familiar silver hair out in a crowd, let alone when he was standing by himself right next to one of the large windows in plain sight of the room entrance. Cali's head had turned as soon as he had heard the door open but turned back to the room below as soon as he accidently made eye contact with the commander. Spock frowned upon seeing the slight distressed look in those electric blue eyes he was once so familiar with. 

Some of the invigilators greeted him as he entered, but he paid them little mind, with the exception of giving them a polite nod of acknowledgment, his mind too focused on the cadet stood not too far from him. Walking over to the window so he could see below, Spock stood a fair distance away from Cali, not being able to stand too far due to the size of the room and the position Cali had placed himself in.

A moment passed between the two in awkward silence, them both rather obviously looking anywhere but each other as they both respectively observed the setting up of the room below. One of the invigilators, who Cali had recognised from the last time he had been in the room to observe Jim taking the test, gave the two a curious look, obviously having noticed the tension between them.

Cali spotted the man's look from the corner of his eye and frowned. Deciding to bite the bullet, he turned slightly to the commander and greeted him politely, "Good afternoon Commander Spock."

Slightly shocked for a moment, Spock did nothing but turn and look at the cadet next to him. Although he had wanted it, he didn't think that Cali would speak to him with so many around to witness them, especially since it was him who had plainly told him how it was best to stop their interactions in the first place. He watched Cali look down again, though still in the direction of himself, and fidget slightly with nerves.