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The particulars of the mission are of little importance; what is relevant now is that there is a ninety-seven percent chance that Spock will freeze to death. While the cave he found offers shelter from the wind and precipitation, the temperature is well below freezing and Spock's Vulcan heritage has left him particularly vulnerable to the cold. His Starfleet-issued parka will not be enough, and he can feel his heartbeat slowing, his thoughts diffusing and scattering like falling snow. It's all he can do to stay upright, leaning against the cave wall.
He is barely conscious when he hears Kirk's voice. A hand presses against his cheek, so warm against his cold skin that it feels like it's burning, and Spock wonders if this is a hallucination. It seems unlikely. His subconscious doesn't use nearly as much profanity as the real Kirk.
Kirk, who is kneeling in front of him, staring at him with wide blue eyes. His hand stays on Spock's cheek, and his mouth is moving. Spock can't hear the words – or perhaps simply can't process them in his hypothermic haze.
Kirk's hand is so very warm, and his mouth is so very close.
"Captain," says Spock, forcing the words through his sluggish lips. His teeth stopped chattering. That's a bad sign.
"Spock," says Kirk, and Spock can feel a rush of relief, like the entire universe untensing its shoulders. Kirk glances down at his hand and removes it; the cold is harsher on the uncovered skin than it was before. Spock can't stop watching Kirk's eyes. They are the blue of a warm ocean against his pale, chapped skin. A bruise is halfheartedly mottling along his orbital socket, though he didn't have it the last time Spock saw him.
Kirk takes Spock's right hand, pulling it out from where it was tucked under his left arm, and meets Spock's eyes. Then he carefully runs his index and middle fingers across Spock's fingertips.
This time, instead of relief, Spock receives one crystal clear sensation: safety. He is safe, he is found, Jim is here and the emergency medics are just behind him, and he will survive. Spock is struck, without warning, with the certainty that this will always happen. When he is hurt, Jim will tend his wounds; when he is lost, Jim will find him; when he ventures into danger, Jim will be a step ahead of him.
Jim says, "Time to get you back home," and Spock thinks, yes, it is.