Fair enough, [ he agrees, smile widening crookedly, looking deeply charmed by the observations. ] I was getting a little stuffy, I guess.

[ and he's served with spock long enough at this point to know him inside and out. this is just how he shows his concern for people.

the hesitant, tacked-on question makes him pause, considering. technically, they shouldn't talk about it. it's a regulations thing, so no one accidentally changes the timeline they live in. but then again, this place has already bent the rules of what they know of temporal anomalies that at this point, jim's not sure it can hurt anything to tell him. ]

At my point in time, you've been my XO for a while now. As far as I'm concerned, you're the best first officer in the fleet.