Spock and Jim are like a bow and arrow. Jim is the arrow, Spock is the bow. They need each other to hit the target because one without the other isnāt going to do the job. Without each other, they canāt serve theyāre purpose. They need each other.
Spock is the force that keeps Jim grounded, keeps him sturdy. Heās what holds the captain together because Jim is running and racing, barreling toward a finish line that heās not even sure is there. Heās chasing the sun and the stars that blaze so bright in his blue eyes, too bright. Jimās burning and burning out far too fast. The half-Vulcan keeps him going while also slowing him down.
Without Spock, Jimās just another star in the galaxy that burns and burns as it goes supernova before collapsing in on itself. Heās the gravity in which keeps Jim together, keeps him from spinning and spiraling out of control. Jim needs him to keep his feet firmly planted on the ground while he tries to reach out and hold the entire galaxy and all itās stars in his hands, but itās too much because one person cannot hold all of that in the palms of their hands. He needs Spock to keep the weight from crippling him.
If there is one thing that Jim needs to learn is that some leaps require him to look. To think it through. Spock is the one that can get him to step back and look at everything around him before he charges ahead into the next mess that life has laid out before him. Jim realizes that maybe, just maybe, he doesnāt always need to be moving. Sometimes, he doesnāt need to be running towards the future like it will slip between his fingers like sand. Every now and again, itās a good thing to stand still and actually see whatās going on around him because the future will always be there, but the present wonāt be.
He still has trouble because all his life heās been sliding down a steep and slippery slope towards an end he canāt see, but so desperately wants to find. That meaning behind everything. That light at the end of a long and dark tunnel. Because he is truly crumbling into dust even as he races towards a goal he canāt quite make out in the distance.
Spock is what stitches him back together after heās been broken. He fills in the cracks and missing pieces from something that could so easily be shattered. He makes Jim whole. Complete. Makes him something better. Something that, together, is damn near perfect.