The problem with being a communications officer is that she just can't turn it off. Uhura notices everything, from Chekov's hero-worship of Kirk, to Sulu's embarrassed infatuation with Chekov, to Kirk's obvious and highly inappropriate crush on Spock. Not that he ever acts on it, which almost pisses her off even more, because she can't go and yell at the captain for a feeling she's only ninety percent sure he has. And she can't quote regulations at him either, because she's not a hypocrite and she'd like to keep her slightly illegal Vulcan boyfriend, thanks very much. Not that she'll be able to, at this rate.
She's tuned into Spock's emotions and body language like no one else, knows what it takes to elicit any kind of emotional response from him. He shows her affection, allows her to kiss him, but it's a cool, almost dispassionate thing, a satisfaction of his illogical need for physical and emotional stimulation. He loves her, in his reserved, unresponsive way, and that's an enormous victory, she knows.
Enter one arrogant, handsome cadet with the bluest eyes Uhura has ever seen, biting into an apple as his virus hacks into Spock's program and turns it into a win, and Spock gets irritated. He takes a low blow and snipes at the man. Granted, it took the Vulcan weeks to write the program, so Uhura decides it's reasonable. And then Kirk hops on board the Enterprise, incenses Spock enough to ditch him on Delta Vega, somehow manages to beam back, and deliberately provokes a quietly repressed, grieving Vulcan.
Spock snaps, like Uhura has never seen him snap before, and starts actively trying to kill the man with his bare hands. And Kirk lets him, smiling a sad quirk of a smile up at him as he admits that he's emotionally compromised. And there's so much sympathy in those deep blue eyes, and regret, and Kirk's body language says that there is nothing he'd like more than to take it back and hug the man. But he can't, because he's got a captain and a world to save. Uhura's heart sinks slightly, for no apparent reason, and she has a brief, irrational surge of jealousy because she's the only one who gets to worm herself under Spock's rational Vulcan skin, damn it.
Afterwards Spock is determinedly on his way to New Vulcan, and he apologizes to her and hugs her, in that careful, awkward way of his, and tells her that this is how it has to be, and nothing she says changes his mind, so she cries, like she never cries. And then James T. Kirk comes blazing into the dorm where Spock's staying and orders him to stay with Starfleet and dares him and kind of tells him that he needs him and can't do it without him but covers it up with a wave of sheepish bravado, and not once during the entire visit does he try to hit on her.
And Spock shows up. He requests permission to come aboard and accepts, and somehow that ten-minute speech did what all her tears and love couldn't, and damn it all to hell.
And the banter. The fucking banter. They bicker and fight and nitpick at each other and guard each other with their lives, and after a while she notices that Kirk responds to Spock's emotions about two seconds after she notices them, and Spock keeps giving him that almost-smile and using his dry sense of humor, and they play chess, which in any other circumstances she would have thought was a colloquialism but this is freaking Spock so she assumes they're actually playing chess. In a nutshell, Kirk's making Spock open up in a way she never could. But she holds on to that tentative love the Vulcan's still offering her, and closes her eyes tight against the evidence, because she's head over heels for the lonely alien and like hell is she letting him go without a fight.
About six months into their five-year mission Kirk gets himself near-fatally injured while on a recon mission with Spock and when Scotty beams them up Kirk's in Spock's arms staining the Vulcan's clothing red but he refuses all attempts to take the captain from his weary arms, bearing him to Sickbay as fast as he can go without hurting his friend further, and Uhura catches a glimpse of such overwhelming fear in the Vulcan's eyes that it stuns her motionless. As McCoy's fixing up the captain Spock hovers nearby, in the most illogical way she's ever seen him act, and Uhura thinks she's beginning to understand what the word t'hy'la means.
A few weeks later she breaks up with Spock, who looks sad but understanding, and tells him to go and kiss the fuck out of his t'hy'la before the man dies of frustration and watches as Spock goes red and stutters and pretends not to know who she's talking about, but eventually leaves, probably to meditate. And then she goes and bitches to McCoy, whose first name is Leonard and who is actually a decent guy who has an emotional range larger than a teaspoon and they get horrendously drunk and bitch together about best friends without any time for them anymore because they're so fucking enamoured with Vulcans and boyfriends who are in love with their captains and when she stumbles into Sickbay the next morning with a massive hangover Leonard gives her the sobriety shot in a way that's almost tender and she thinks she's made a friend.
The first time Jim kisses Spock in public a lot of people owe other people money and Leo cashes in his bets and takes her out for a drink because even though she was over the man it still gave her a sad, nostalgic little shock and maybe she needs that drink but she needs Leonard's silent brand of comfort more, and she looks up at his scruffy jaw and his worn eyes and the pessimistic quirk of a smile and she can't believe she hasn't noticed how beautiful this weary traveler of a man really is. She blames Spock. He won't mind, he's got his t'hy'la to comfort him, and maybe she's a little more drunk than she thinks she is because when they leave she brushes a kiss along Leonard's jaw and watches him stiffen and stare at her in shock and then tell her that thanks but he'll wait until she's sober before he takes that seriously, and there's a sort of pessimistic fear in his eyes and his entire body says he wants to sweep her up and kiss her but he won't because he's a gentleman and she loves him for that, for loving her.
The best thing about being a communications officer is that she never really turns it off. Nyota notices Chekov holding hands with Sulu surreptitiously under the mess hall table, and Spock going out of his way to make Jim laugh, and Leonard's step becoming lighter when she smiles at him. At this rate, she thinks, Starfleet's going to have to either revise the relationship policy or fire the whole damn ship.
She isn't worried. It's not like any of them are any crazier than they were before.