"Good. Exactly what I would have done," Jim said. "I don't know how they'd react to this arrangement, and I think it's best if we reserve the option of not telling them." Jim believed in, loved, had given his life to Starfleet. But he was not a stickler for rules. It was the spirit of the thing he had sold himself to. And he felt that spirit resided inside him, not in a batch of regulations.

He smirked at Jim. "Good. I'm not nearly done with you yet, either." But they'd have to be, one day. Sooner, rather than later, for the sake of everything but... this. This thing they had.