Disclaimer:: I do not own Star Trek or the Star Trek characters, obviously.

Summary:: Spock has noticed a change in the good doctor, and Jim is the one to point him in the right direction. Spock must admit that he did not foresee this happening, but he has no reason to go along with the doctor's feelings. Strange. One Shot. Spones.

Not the Plan

It was quite illogical to be a doctor and shy away from people, but that is what Spock thought Doctor Leonard McCoy was avoiding: interaction that was not of the medical sort. The Vulcan had attempted a conversation about the latest planet-side landing party and its mission. Leonard had pushed it aside with an abruptly forceful and not grumpy as much as dismissive, "Not now Spock! I'm trying to get Jim back down here for a check-up! I swear he's already torn his stitches in two. So unless you want to help. . ."

Needless to say, Spock had not stuck around for much longer after that since a recovering Jim was the most stubborn person to deal with when avoiding the doctor and if he had not already 'torn his stitches in two' then he was sure to do it in his attempt to escape. Surprisingly enough— and this was how Spock came to his theory— when he asked Jim about it later that day and suggested he see the doctor, the blond captain did not seem to know what he was talking about and showed him a bandaged calf but no stitches. Similar instances happened in the following days and Spock had to assume the doctor was in some sort of feud with the captain.

Another time was when the doctor had come up to the bridge on a low time, bored probably, and had chosen to linger around young Lieutenant Nyota Uhura. In digression, Spock had done his best to make his logical clean break from the woman, and she had taken it quite well for a human Spock had to say. Whatever she was saying to the doctor now had a thirty one point two two one percent probability of being the source of the doctor's stares and one or two half-angered glances. He ignored them. The doctor left as soon as Jim tried to cajole him into conversation. Spock merely shifted slightly as he looked over to Nyota and then back to his scanners. Was the doctor fleeing from interaction with his best friend as well? This was most unorthodox for the temperamental human. Spock was starting to suspect something, but he just did not know what.

Spock really started to wonder what was going on three days later when he was sitting in the mess hall, picking daintily at his salad. He was not all that hungry but he knew he needed to eat. His mother had been on his mind recently and even though he was pushing past the stage of mourning to give his mother what she would have wanted, happy memories being rejoiced, it was still a particularly faltering processes for the man. Leonard McCoy had walked in unaccompanied by anything other than his PADD and walked toward the replicators. Spock watched him with the knowledge that the doctor would take a seat at his table then either start complaining about the nurses and their constant gossip and blushing, or Jim who was easily their favourite topic. But Leonard simply caught his eye for a fleeting second before turning and quickly leaving as if he remembered he had somewhere to be in a hurry.

Spock sat there in silence for the remainder of his meal. He headed over to the captains quarters after that and knocked on the door. The blond greeted him with a huge smile and a wave of his hand from where he was sprawled comfortably on his sofa. Spock stepped inside. [color=goldenrod][b]"What can I do for you Mr. Spock?" Spock refrained from pointing out how entirely illogical wearing fluffy socks was in a moderately warm room, kept his eyes focused on the captain's head and reported that there might be something bothering the doctor.

"Why would you say that?" Jim was still grinning, but his voice sounded a bit surprised.

" has been acting increasingly abnormal for the past week. He has become more jittery, increasingly quiet and seems to be avoiding interactions with people."

Jim looked at the Vulcan carefully, then shrugged and took a sip of something suspiciously vibrant in colour and set the glass back into his lap. Spock stood there awaiting an answer, until Jim finally sighed. "You should ask him then. I can't go telling everyone everything I know about Bones. He'd probably shoot me in the neck with something poisonous! Besides, the crew seems to think it's funny enough! And as long as they're still half afraid of him, I don't think Bones really cares."

Spock's eyebrow rose delicately. "Captain?"

But Jim would say no more and they sat and tried to sort out a new rotation so that Tactics could get their allotted training time, and Spock was left to ponder his friend's advice. Seeking out the doctor would mean that he would somehow have to get him into a position from which he could not escape. It was tricky, since he was notably on-call even when he was not. Leonard liked to be a doctor, and he liked to know that he was not sitting back when he could be doing something, Spock understood that well enough, but it made things difficult. He decided it was logical to have a full functioning, not distracted chief medical officer in order for the ship to be its most efficient, and it was therefore logical to find out what was making the doctor noticeably anxious. Therefore he attempted to find him when there was a lull in all ship's activity, in the early hours of the morning.

The sickbay doors slid open, and two polished standard federation boots clacked into the clinic. The doctor, already sitting at the outside desk with his eyes closed and a large mug of dark liquid in his hand, peek open his eyes and groggily asked "What happened?"

Spock did not allow him to gain too much focus, because he was certain that the doctor would excuse himself once again when he saw who it was.

"There is something I would like to inquire about in private, if I may," Spock announced, hands folded behind his back and face not betraying the pinprick of awe that his logic beat down: at the sound of his voice, the doctor had instantly gained some appearance of life! Leonard had sat up straighter, his eyes blinking rapidly to focus them on Spock, his skin darkening into a pink hue. Fascinating, Spock mused. The doctor merely looked away quickly.

"I've got reports to do. Can you make it quick?"

"In private," Spock prompted again, fully set on asking the doctor about what was bothering him out of ear shot of the nurses.

"Something happened to you?"

Spock just looked at him.

"Fine," the doctor grumbled.

They headed into Leonard's office. Spock could not help but notice the glance the doctor made down the hall that was longer a normal peek to see if there was someone there. He chalked it up to the fact that he knew the doctor was tired and had told a half falsehood in an attempt to get out of his conversation. After the door slid shut behind him, Leonard questioned again in a more awake and annoyed tone "Is there something wrong with you?"

Spock resumed his straight posture, arms behind his back.

"No doctor. There is nothing wrong with me. I wish to inquire about your peculiar behaviour these past days."

Leonard visibly bristled, his back straightening, his eyes narrowing, his fingers curling into loose fists as if he needed to physically defend himself. Spock continued, "You have become quite evasive and exceedingly quiet when visiting the bridge, not talking to the captain even when he initiates a discussion. Is there something bothering you?"

Straight to the point and not too invasive, Spock thought it was a smart question coming from an acquaintance or friend. He was not sure which he would consider himself to be, though the look on Leonard's face as his lips curled and his brow ridge sunk in distaste made it clear that Spock should ponder that particular question later.

"Something the matter with my job?"

"No doctor-"

"Have I missed a stitch somewhere an' someone complained?"

Spock was getting the feeling that Leonard was not going to tell him much in the way of what he had been thinking.

That is highly unlikely-"

"Then you must be talkin' about my personal life, an' if so I'm not about to share."

Spock stood there, not phased and unmoved.

"If this lack of interaction continues with the ship's personnel, there will come a time when it will cause a set back or an unpleasant incident. It is logical for me, as the ship's first officer, to make sure that the crew is able to function as a whole."

Leonard crossed his arms tightly over his chest, looking tense and awkward. Spock did not understand why. Leonard shifted, sighed and mumbled, "Well, if I don't do my job, feel free to tell me. Anything else?"

Spock stared coolly. The man was not going to be moved. He had made this formal as to not make the doctor, and himself, uncomfortable but it had not succeeded in more than proving that the doctor's work had not been affected by his change in personality. Spock stood there, watching as Leonard shifted in the setting silence and made a noticeable expression of impatience and well pushed down discomfort. Spock did not know how to ask the doctor about his personal feelings, considering he disregarded his own with a certainty, but he did not move until the doctor turned anxious eyes on him and questioned harshly, "Well?"

The Vulcan tilted his head. "If you have anything to talk about, I shall be more than willing to listen."

The doctor huffed in reply, the lively pink colour in his skin increasingly slightly under the Vulcan's observant gaze. Spock noted this, turned and left.

The next week went the same, with Leonard now talking to Jim sometimes, and not others. Spock also noticed a devilish grin on Jim's face when Leonard purposefully dismissed him. Obviously the captain was fine with his chief medical officer's bad mood and deliberate ignoring. No one else seemed to think it was anything more than momentarily amusing as far as Spock saw. Leonard was now seemingly unable to hold any level of eye contact with him now, and this made Spock uneasy. This was the doctor who went out of his way to argue with him on a daily basis and now the arguing had been reduced to a couple nondescript words a week. He spoke to everyone else with that same gruff voice and hard glares when necessary, but when it came to Spock, the glares were there sometimes but nothing wicked or non-formal audibly came his way. The Vulcan therefore came to the conclusion after a month, that the doctor's problems stemmed from him.

Jim was the first to hear about it and he smiled. Spock was stumped.

"You are smiling Jim. I do not believe that this situation is deserving of any sort of mirth."

Jim sighed and tried to straight his expression, but succeeded in snickering and hiding his mouth behind his hand. Spock's eyebrows furrowed in a Vulcan frown.

"Is there something I do not know which makes my assumption funny?"

Jim shrugged. "I told you to ask Bones about it. Did you?"

"I did so thirteen days ago and he was adamant that he was not going to tell me anything. He said, however, that if he did his job poorly that I was to tell him. Quite illogical. The doctor is a professional and very efficient with what he does."

Jim sunk into a wordless stupor, sinking onto his bed and slapping his hand to his forehead. He dragged it down to his chin, well aware that Spock was looking at him expectantly.

"Spock?"

"Yes Jim."

Jim paused, and to Spock it looked as if he was planning a strategic attack on an enemy vessel. The captain at there for a few long seconds. "Spock, Bones's been avoiding you because he likes you. Now, don't tell him I told you so, or he'll have my head." Jim sighed. Spock cocked his head to the side slightly.

"I was under the impression that the doctor had undoubtedly turned to aggressive and quite illogical arguments to display his affections. Is he now directing a more focused affection towards me with his change in attitude?"

Jim threw his hands to his head and doubled over into his knees as if he was going to be sick, sighing violently. "Agh! No Spock. No. He actually likes you. As in not platonically. Not like how I like you. Likes you, romantically."

Spock did not move a muscle, trying to make sense of this. Jim tried to explain more to make this easier on the poor Vulcan. After all, if Bones was going to kill him, he might as well give up all the information he had, right? Or it would be lost.

"I was kidding around last month and was teasing him that the only people he ever argued with— really argued with— were those he loved. And then I told him that he was arguing with you the most lately and that I was jealous- I was teasing him Spock! I don't actually love him like. . . that."

The look on Spock's face was suddenly stone covered in a transparent disbelief. Jim continued, "And, well, he got really quiet. I looked at him and started teasing him again, and then he practically started beating me up, telling me to shut and and that he didn't like you at all. It's not true of course, because the amount of times he's done something like that is twice. But those were at me. And the wall once when he tried calling Jo and Jocelyn wouldn't let him speak to her. . . Anyhow. I kinda figured it out and he made me promise not to tell. But I've been teasing him and he's just clammed up. I should stop, but it's not like I have any actually power over Bones when I'm not ordering him to do stuff as captain. So there. You know."

Spock did not know how to respond. He stood there, his arms tight behind his back, his eyes on Jim. The blond looked as if he had just broken something important but small in engineering and he knew Scotty would come after him with a wrench.

"What're you going to do?"

"I do not know."

Jim nodded sympathetically. "Well, if you're not going to do something about it, I think it'll be best to ignore it. Bones doesn't need more of a broken heart."

Spock raised a eyebrow at the strange Terran metaphor but did not comment. At least he knew what was bothering the doctor.

It was not long, as it normal wasn't, for the Enterprise to enter a dangerous new zone and then beam down to explore a planet. The natives were not that hospitable and strangely accurate but disjointed weapons created new problems for medical. They already had one person in the morgue and two being beamed up from the planet with stretchers awaiting them in the transporter room. By the time the rest of the landing party was beamed up, the two were in the ICU room, hidden away from the bio-beds in the general main room. Leonard greeted them, only to explode when he saw the two red shirts with bleeding bruises across their legs and what may have been more than one knock to the head each, a long strip of flesh hanging from Spock's shoulder and Jim supporting a couple of what looked like mini pick-axes sticking out of his side, held up with one hand while the other looked dislocated.

"Four hypos, one cc of zythanine each!" Leonard roared automatically, listing off a sedative that Jim was not allergic to as he directed a free nurse to the two ensigns and all but shoved Spock and Jim onto bio-beds. "What the hell happened?" Leonard complained, and not quietly either as he stabbed a disinfectant into the Vulcan's neck then turned to Jim and was forced to run a tricorder over him before he fiddled with a disinfectant.

"The native did not speak standard, nor did they speak any language wh-"

"Shut up. That was rhetorical damn it!"

The red shirts were treated much faster than either commanding officer, because by the time Jim was on his back, breathing a bit deeper and wincing at the dermal regenerator being dragged over his side, the nurses had just gotten to Spock and were cutting away his shirt. Leonard glanced over, glared, and snapped, "Get me a reading before you put that back in place."

The nurse immediately fetched a tricorder and did as she was told, Leonard glancing over every few seconds. Jim finally gave a weak laugh.

"Hey Bones?" His voice was wobbly and he sounded far too happy to be drugged up and unable to move.

"What?"

"Spock looks hott without a shirt, huh?"

Leonard clenched his teeth and rolled his eyes the best he could, but the Vulcan noticed it happen seven point one seconds after the comment. Five point seven seconds after the normal reaction time. Leonard merely gave Jim a dose of something else with a bit of excessive forcefulness and the captain's eyes slid out of focus for a few seconds, but he said nothing else.

Leonard looked over at the nurse who was now holding the flap of skin right above where it was supposed to be. Spock noticed the dart of his eyes but then the only show of wanting to escape turned into a determined coldness and he watched the doctor scan the reading before taking up the dermal regenerator. Spock knew it would hurt, but he would do nothing about it just as he had done nothing about it when the nurse had cleaned his wound. He watched the pinched expression as the doctor instructed the nurse to hold the flap still while Leonard inspected the edges then slowly began to drag the device over his arm. The patch was put right within half an hour, and Spock was donning a new shirt and stepping up to Jim's beside. The captain was sleeping like a baby. Leonard was no where to be found in the room until the Vulcan left. Spock was slightly disappointed.

The day after the incident when most reports were filed and dinner had been finished by the majority of the crew who were not on-duty, Spock went to see the doctor with the excuse that he felt some pain in his arm. It was a poor excuse since the muscle was readjusting the skin above it and he knew so, but as long as it got the doctor to talk to him he was sure it did not matter. He had spent the last week thinking about his options and decided that since he did not find any emotions that seeped out from under his steeled will, that if Doctor McCoy should find enough pleasure in being around him and it changed nothing, then Spock would allow that. It made little sense to have a visibly changed commanding officer on the ship when things could be as they were. And besides, it was a bit more boring not having the doctor there to poke him in the side and call him wrong; he was missing that and even if he did not 'love' he could be there. He had knowledge of what to do from his romantic encounters with Nyota. He would attempt to get the doctor back to his usual gruff, moody self— and Spock silently admitted he enjoyed the sharp combativeness of it all.

The sickbay doors opened and Spock stepped in, not seeing the doctor with his first scan of the room. Nurse Chapel was there though, and she looked up at him.

"Hello Mr. Spock."

"Nurse Chapel," was the acknowledgment that went along with a nod. ]"Is Doctor McCoy in his office?"

The nurse nodded and went back to her work. The Vulcan headed down the hall to the door and stepped in front of it, then over the threshold when it opened. The doctor was at his desk, head bowed, pen in hand, notes open in many books in front of him. Spock waited for a few moments before announcing his presence.

"Doctor? May I have a word?"

Leonard looked up, slightly startled. "Spock? Why're you here?" There was a bit of nervous hostility in his voice, but Spock dismissed it.

"My arm was a bit more uncomfortable than I had predicted today."

Leonard sprang up, instantly in doctor mode. "Lemme have a look at it then."

Spock carefully removed his shirt and held up his arm. Leonard took it cautiously, his fingers at his wrist and behind his upper arm. He examined it with his eyes, then lightly touched the light line of a scar where the tissue had not yet healed properly. After a minutes, he let Spock's arm go and stepped away.

"It's jus' still new! Don't use it so much if you don't want it to hurt."

But Spock was staring at him, his slender fingers coming to the place where Leonard's fingers had wrapped loosely round his wrist. The doctor immediately looked less relaxed and handed Spock his shirt before hurriedly sitting down behind his desk again.

"There something else? I was finishing the medical report for the last mission, so if it's nothing-"

"Would you join me for dinner in my quarters tomorrow night?"

Leonard's eyes slowly raised to meet dark chocolate ones. Spock looked as if he had asked about some rare disease that might have been affecting Sulu's plants, calm blank. Leonard looked as if someone had told him Joanna had died, pale and fearfully wide eyed. Spock could not identify the other emotion swimming in the doctor's eyes, but he did not have time to ponder as the question came at him.

"What's the occasion?"

It came out more strangled than either one of them would have liked, but Spock thought he would try again. According to Jim there were underlying problems with Leonard and any sort of positive advancements in relationships. He just had to do what he would have done anyhow. There was no point in trying to change this to fit a certain situation; there was no certain situation with a volatile human involved. He had learned that from Nyota.

"I believe humans call it 'a date'," Spock replied evenly as even more colour drained from the doctor's already pale face and he looked away. For an instant, Spock could not tell if he was angry, or sad, or overjoyed, or horrified. Then Leonard raised his head as he leapt to his feet, and his fingers jarred the intercom button with an attack of pokes.

"McCoy to Kirk!" he snarled into the speaker.

"Hey Bones," was the answer not to much later.

"What that hell did you tell Spock? What did you tell him? I swear I'll hunt you down and jam a hypo so far up your-"

"Geez Bones! Bones! Calm down! I don't know what you're talking about!"

Spock crossed over to the intercom and spoke the moment Jim's voice cut out, deciding that this would not go over well with either party.

"Captain-"

"Get away you hobgoblin-!"

Spock firmly but gently moved between the intercom and the doctor. "Captain, the doctor is overreacting. Everything is fine."

There was a pause, filled with "I know you did something Jim! What did you say? What did you say?" then a sigh from the intercom and a cheerful. "Okay. See you later. Kirk out."

Leonard drew in a deep sharp breath and then pulled himself up, puffing out his chest and balling up his fists.

"What did he tell you?" His voice was quiet and low, almost hurt. Spock turned and looked at him, measuring the amount of anger and betrayal in the man's eyes against the pain in his voice before replying.

"I inquired to the reason why you were acting radically differently. Jim told me that you were attracted to me and after some consideration, I found no reason to deny you of an answer."

Leonard pursed his lips, his voice still soft though his body language spoke like a trapped rat cornered by a cat or dog. "I didn't ask a question to get that answer."

Spock merely blinked. "Your actions have spoken for you. After some meditation on your change in demeanour, I came to the conclusion that Jim was indeed correct and that I would not be adverse to courting you if that would stop you from being withdrawn."

Leonard agreed quietly to meet him at his quarters the next night, and Spock left him to his own thoughts.

The next night came and Leonard arrived at his door with uniform, just having come from the sickbay. Spock was inside, setting the bottle of bourbon that the doctor loved, on the table when the doorbell rang.

"Come," he called, and Leonard entered the room with a roaming eyes. He had seen the inside of Spock's quarters before, and the sofa and chair pushed to the corner, the wide space for meditation and the curious artifacts around the room did not surprise him. The thing that caught his eye was the table Spock was standing next to.

"Good evening doctor."

"Hello Spock. Please, if we're going to do this, don't call me 'doctor'," was the first thing that came fro his mouth, though his eyes were still swooping around the table. Spock could see why that would be slightly awkward and nodded amicably.

"As you wish, Leonard."

The hitch of breath might have been audible if Leonard had been standing closer to the Vulcan. Leonard exhaled slowly, a light shade of pink on his cheeks. He was not entirely sure if this was a prank, a settlement, or if Spock actually decided to give this a shot. He stood in the doorway, either not wanting to move or completely unable to find the will to do so. Spock offered him a seat though, and he accepted, looking closely at the candle, the short buddy scotch glasses and thin water glasses and the small arrangement of purple long petaled flowers that looked like overgrown roses. It was something of a curious dream.

"It looks beautiful," he announced, his southern accent suddenly appearing and making his words deeper and more chopped.

"Would you like some bourbon?"

Leonard's face quickly fell into cheeky grin and he fired back, his heart racing. "Trying to get me drunk already?"

"That was not the intention," Spock assured him, only to see Leonard's sudden daring faded back into anxiousness. "If you get inebriated, it might spoil the night."

That night consisted of a vegetarian stir-fry for Spock and a pork chop, potatoes and steamed asparagus for Leonard for dinner, along with scattered small talk and quiet, dimmed lights and the lit candle, and a fruit ice cream for desert. After dinner came another glass of bourbon— Leonard almost had a second when he panicked because Spock was leaning too close to him, only to find out the Vulcan was attempting to out the flame on the candle— and a walk to the observatory. Leonard got nervous at this and hid it quite well.

Or so he thought, until he got there and realized when the Observation Deck 4 was vacant and Spock locked it with an override, that his anxiousness was probably tangible: "Why'd you lock it."

"I assumed you would like some privacy."

"Why? I was just fine."

"You were nervous, though about what I can not tell." Leonard looked crushed, so Spock felt the need to explain further. "We were walking our hand brushed, and it was a strong enough emotion to radiate from you. Being alone on a deck is not what makes you nervous."

It was put as a question, and Leonard shifted his shoulders as an answer. There was a short pause. Spock felt a bit confused at the silence, but Leonard eventually spoke.

"I haven't done this for about ten years, and I don't know if your just playing along or if you honestly thought to give this a shot. So yes, I'm thinking, and I'm nervous."

"There is no need to be nervous. I did mean what I said and I am going to 'give this a shot'."

Leonard took a breath and then let it out slowly, a small smile on his lips. It looked strange to see the normally grumpy man give way into a genuine, meek smile, but even odder to hear the relief and softness of his southern accent, "Okay."

That first date was amazing, and though it ended with Leonard forcibly telling Spock that "I'm going to walk you back to your room. End of story!", Spock felt that they both enjoyed it. He was a bit surprised when Leonard came up to the bridge the next day, glared at Jim then nodded at Spock and went to sit by Nyota. He thought the doctor and the captain would have been on speaking terms by then. But that took a total of two days before they seemed relatively normal, and a total of two weeks before Leonard forgave Jim. By the time a month had past, Spock had had his first human and Vulcan kiss with Leonard, who seemed slightly embarrassed by it since it was in a turbolift which had ultimately been better than outside his door. Leonard had not known anything about the special way Vulcans kissed and had been a bit embarrassed for Spock since almost everyone he met who shook his hand was molesting him. Spock had also gotten the honor of walking the doctor back to his room four times. The other few times he had been beaten down with an almost violent display of proud, determined emotion and had conceded before the doctor started a rant about something. Little did he know that Leonard would have been a pushover and allowed him to do it after the first sign of a reaction to his argument.

Nothing seemed to be going faster than more than an inch, due to Leonard's caution and both he and Spock's choice of not sharing this with the drew which left them in a very secretive, hard-edged relationship. It was going well though, and they had gone on dates, some more romantic and some more casual to make it seem as though they were just friends to everyone's eyes.

But the thing that really boosted their progress just happened to be something that slowed it down altogether: unconsciousness. The doctor had been paged down to engineering for someone who had broken their leg so badly that they could not move it. Even Scotty was afraid to beam him to the sickbay, so Leonard took a team with a stretcher and a kit down to Shaft Eleven. On the way down, Leonard missed a step on the shaft ladder, shouted as he swung by one hand, then got his other hand stepped on by a jumpy nurse who had been startled. The doctor fell the rest of the way to the floor.

Spock heard about this the same time Jim did: through the intercom. But Jim caste him a pained look and went for him, because it would look strange if Spock started running to the sickbay for Jim's best friend. Especially with their unknown relationship. Jim knew Spock would have been there faster than him, but he also knew Spock was itching and straining not to mess this up for Bones. He even knew that he had recently caught Spock talking about the doctor in terms of affection. It had been sweet. But this situation was not the least bit affectionate toward the new couple.

Spock hurried in at the end of his shift, stopped at the end of Leonard's bed by M'Benga who shook his head. "He's still unconscious," the dark skinned doctor reported as Spock stood motionless at the foot of the bed, staring at the bandage around Leonard's temple and the cast on his lower left arm. After that he left Spock to his own devices. The Vulcan knew it had only been five point six three two hours since Leonard had fallen, but that did not stop the gnawing feeling at the pit of his stomach that wanted Leonard to wake up and open his eyes. It was illogical to wish, to want, because science would do what science would do, and if the human body said it was time to give up. . . Leonard would usually yell and curse at it until it was back in fighting order, Spock mused glumly.

Yes, glumly. That was the word Jim used to describe his friend when he came to check on Leonard three hours later. He was staring unblinkingly at the prone figure of their friend, slanted dark eyebrows expressionless and one hand on the very edge of the bio-bed as if inching slowly toward the other man's arm. Jim stood there for a few minutes before he said anything, just watching the statuesque hybrid sitting and staring. He was not sure Spock had even registered him slipping into the room, but the reply to his question was fast enough.

"Any change?"

"Negative."

Jim sat down on the edge of the bed, gaze slipping from the brunette man lying there motionless, to the equally still Vulcan on the chair. He knew Spock and Leonard were seeing each other, and how much Spock had been attempting to feel something, anything, for the doctor because Jim had very selfishly hinted that his mother might have told him to do so. Leonard had been more than happy to just be given attention and have his feelings not thrown back in his face in rejection, and Jim made sure Spock knew this. So now he felt almost as if it was his fault that the Vulcan was sitting there with no signs of living except for the occasional twitch and shift or blink.

Fourteen hours passed. No change. Twenty two hours passed. No change. Twenty nine hours passed. No change. Thirty seven hours. Still nothing. Spock only left Leonard's side to go to his shift, and even then he was only half there, not bothering to look over at Jim or Nyota to give her a pleasant look of acknowledgment. Then at at forty hours, fourteen minutes and thirty eight seconds, when Spock was outright holding his hand and staring, the Vulcan felt something through the telepathic touch stir and seconds later Leonard opened his eyes. Hazel eyes met chocolate eyes and Spock immediately leaned forward and pressed a tender, slightly awkward kiss to the man's forehead. Leonard simply shifted and coughed before the nurse came running, alerted from the monitor. After twenty minutes of tests and too much noise, and Spock not letting go of his hand for one second with a terrifying look of possession in his eyes while Leonard look positively waspish, Jim, Leonard and Spock were alone in the room.

"You sat there the whole time?" Leonard looked confused and humbled, but a bit upset. Probably because he was thinking about Spock health and not the fact that Spock was out right showing how much he cared. Jim nodded as Spock replied, "I did."

Leonard looked as if he wanted to hit them both over the head and start yelling at them for being so self-negligent.

"And he didn't eat, or sleep for an entire two days," Jim added. Leonard's gaze darkened and turned to Spock whose expression did not change.

"Damn it Spock! What if I hadn't woken up?"

"But you did."

"What if I didn't?"

Spock decided he did not have to stand for that nonsense and leaned forward, grasping the back of Leonard's head and pulling the man up slightly then kissed him hard in front of Jim. It was quick and Leonard lost his breath and train of thought, so when Spock sat back into his chair, Leonard's hand clenched around his, he said, "You did."

Jim stared, then cleared his throat. "I need to check up with Scotty and Kesner. Get back up on your feet soon Bones!" And he left.

Leonard looked at Spock in a daze, his face slipping from its upset charade, and then yawned."I'm tired. . . Come take a nap. You look like you damn well need one."

He patted the bed beside him, shifting over to let Spock fit on the bed if he curled up right next to him. They had shared a bed before, just to sleep or cuddle, but Spock hesitated.

"Leonard, we have not yet told anyone about us. Do you think it wise-."

"Spock!" Leonard snapped, his tired, lined eyes opening on the Vulcan and glaring. "I nearly went into a coma and died as you wanted to keep reminding me jus' now! I've got a broken arm, my head hurts and I hate it that I'm stuck to a damn bio-bed! You think I care if anyone finds out right now?" Leonard paused, heard no reply then continued sharply. "Good! Now get up here and try to sleep!"

Spock did so with a graceful singular motion and allowed Leonard to curl his arm around him. The Vulcan awkwardly set his head onto Leonard' chest, an arm across his stomach, and then admitted softly as if trying to give a reason why he had not left the man's bedside, "I didn't want you to die."

Leonard's grip tightened slightly. "Spock. . ." Leonard took a breath, then it all came tumbling out as his heart rate jumped rapidly. "If it was you, I would've done the same. I don't think I could stand to let you die . . ."

There was a pause, in which Leonard swallowed and nudged his nose into Spock's hair as he reached for his hand.

"I love you."

And over their physical telepathic connection, Spock felt that affection well in his chest, filling his body. He slowly and carefully pushed it into Leonard's mind as he had only a couple times before.

"I believe I feel the same for you."

Nothing else was said, and when the nurse came back to check on their doctorly patient, he was fast asleep with an equally asleep Vulcan on his chest, curled up in each others arms.