An AU in which Spock, rather than joining Starfleet, accedes to his father's wishes and joins the Vulcan Science Academy, where he quickly rises to the position of Chief Scientist. Since he has remained on Vulcan, Spock marries T'Pring, but he is not happy with her: he finds her unintelligent and overly emotional. For her part, T'Pring is also disappointed in her husband. Knowing herself to be more emotional than most, she had been optimistic that Spock, being half human, could understand her and share her struggle, but instead she has found him even more coldly logical than is usual for a Vulcan.
Spock leads an important scientific mission to a planet that will soon be destroyed. Due to his unique physiology, there is concern that Spock might experience pon farr much earlier than is usual, so he must take T'Pring with him on the mission. This concern is borne out, and T'Pring, being younger than would ordinarily be the case for a Vulcan wife, is physically unable to respond to Spock's pon farr, so in essence he--painfully--rapes her, before returning to his work as though nothing happened. Soon after this, the planet begins to be destroyed, and T'Pring, sent to activate the radio to call for pickup, is killed in an earthquake. Spock is little affected by her death, except that he feels relieved to be free of her.
Happily, the Enterprise picked up the Vulcans' transmission before it was cut off, and arrives in time to rescue the remaining members of the expedition. Thus does Spock meet Kirk. They rapidly become friends, filling a need that Spock has long felt, without realizing it.
The Enterprise science office, Vaz, an argumentative Tellurite, is not so welcoming of the Vulcans, who he perceives to be intruding on his domain. While on an away mission, Vaz and several of his senior underlings are killed, and the Vulcans agree to fill in for them, with Spock acting as a science officer, so that the Enterprise will be able to complete its important scientific mission.
When the mission is complete, the Enterprise returns to Vulcan to drop off the scientists and to undergo repairs. Additionally, they must wait to be assigned a new science officer, though it is difficult to locate anyone suitable. When one is finally found, it is, to Kirk's surprise (if not ours), Spock, plus another of the Vulcan scientists to fill an opening.
It's a pretty interesting idea for a story, and fairly well executed, but it's rather jarring and disturbing how people are removed to make room for Spock. T'Pring is presented very sympathetically, and her story is very tragic, but very little note is made by anyone of her passing. Vaz, too, is presented as merely unfriendly and insecure, but when he seems to have gotten killed, they scarcely even bother to look for him. They find evidence that one member of the away team was killed, so they just assume the others are also dead. The replacements are already lined up, so that's that.