McCoy twirled idly in his chair, staring at the stack of finished paperwork. Stuck in Spacedock, without shore leave, there was literally nothing for him to do. He picked up his datapadd to comm Jim. "Hi."

Kirk's datapadd buzzed, drawing the attention of several admirals. He put it in his lap and glanced at it discreetly. It was McCoy. He rolled his eyes and set the pad to silent.

Jim didn't answer. McCoy tried again. "Whatcha doin?" he typed. "I'm bored."

"I'm in a briefing with the Admiralty," Jim replied finally, keeping his eyes firmly fixed on the present speaker, to give the illusion of paying attention. "Join the club, Bones."

Spock noticed what he was doing and raised an eyebrow at him. "Admiral Komack," he muttered, barely moving his mouth.

"Oops." Jim cleared his throat and answered the question, making sure to pay attention to the rest of the briefing, studiously ignoring the steady pile up of messages from McCoy.

When they got out of the briefing McCoy was waiting for them. "You never replied!" he said, poking Jim's chest. "I got stuck doing crew evals with Chapel!"

"And I got glared at by Admiral Nogura," Jim replied. "We're even."

Spock raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything except, "Admiral Archer."

They turned to see Archer there, grinning at them. "Capt. Cmdr. Doctor."

"Admiral," they chorused.

Jim shook his hand, grinning. "How's Travis, sir?"

"He made Admiral a couple weeks ago," Archer said.

"You must be proud," McCoy commented.

"Yep." Archer looked at the time. "Can I treat you gentlemen to a drink, while you're here?"

"Thank you sir," Kirk said, nodding.

Spock started to decline, but McCoy shot him a pointed glare, and he stayed put.

Archer and Kirk led the way, Spock and McCoy bickering quietly behind them about the benefits of consuming alcoholic beverages in company. "Do they ever stop?" Archer inquired, sotto voce.

Kirk rolled his eyes. "No sir, they don't."

"We do too," McCoy protested.

"Only when one of you is unconscious," Kirk retorted.

McCoy started to reply, but he frowned. "Actually that's true."

Spock rolled his eyes.