A weight pressed into Kirk's shoulder. Still mostly asleep, he instinctively rolled away from it. It was, most likely, his subconscious insisted, merely the science officer that he was sleeping with - never mind the fact that Spock was on his other side.

As the weight pressed against him a second time, he shot up, eyes open but unable to discern much in the dim light of Spock's quarters, and reached for his phaser.

"I don't think there is a need, Captain," Spock said, standing above him, pressing his arm down with one hand and gesturing towards the far side of the bed with the other. "I don't believe Dr. McCoy poses any threat to us, unless I'm very much mistaken and the good Doctor has come into my quarters to commit mutiny. I find the odds to be against it, however."

"Mutiny," McCoy muttered, his eyes, undoubtedly, raised, though it was impossible to tell in the dark. He climbed off the bed and turned so that he was facing Spock, "Damn it, Spock, you know exactly why I'm here."

"Well, I'd like to be in the know, too, Bones," Kirk said as he reached for the light switch. He grinned broadly as he turned towards McCoy, "What are you doing trying to climb in bed with Spock?"

"Like you're one to talk, Jim," McCoy retorted, waving at the bed. To Kirk's immense amusement, he was blushing.

"I did warn you, Doctor, of this eventuality," Spock said, giving McCoy a pointed look.

"And the warning was totally unnecessary," McCoy said. "I still don't know what makes either of you think I don't know what goes on between you. Hell, the whole ship probably knows."

Kirk proceeded to exchange a weighted glance with Spock as McCoy rolled his eyes.

Ignoring McCoy, a hint of mischief in his eye, Kirk asked,"So, Spock, are you saying that this isn't the first time?"

Spock, seemingly impervious to Kirk's playful tone, replied,"It seems, Captain, that the Doctor has been suffering from somnambulism for some time now."

"You've been sleepwalking?" Kirk asked, turning his gaze to McCoy, some of his amusement shifting to concern. He wondered why they hadn't told him.

McCoy nodded, looking defeated, as Spock continued,"And the trajectory of his path has consistently led him first to my quarters and second to my bed."

Well, maybe that was why.

Kirk had to hold his hand over his mouth in a completely failed attempt to stifle his laughter. He knew that he probably shouldn't find this funny, as it was, in point of fact, a medical issue. But the circumstances, were, nevertheless, comical.

Of course, now Spock and McCoy were both glaring at him - well, in Spock's case, simply staring might be more accurate - but, regardless, he put himself in check and pulled himself back to captain mode, "How long has this been going on? And why didn't you tell me?"

"We didn't see the point, Jim," McCoy said.

"You mean you two agreed on something?" Kirk asked, with a smirk, realizing that, perhaps, he was still enjoying this rather too much.

"Something like that," McCoy muttered. Kirk suspected that meant that there had been a great deal of bickering before arriving at this decision.

"Dr. McCoy convinced me that, as his condition has not been affecting the ship's operation, bringing the problem to your attention was not necessary," Spock said, though the tension around his eyes suggested that he still did not entirely agree with this course of action.

Kirk thought briefly that he ought to mention that the repeated disruption of sleep for his second in command and his chief medical officer did, in fact, affect the ship's operation. However, he disrupted the sleep of his second in command often enough himself that he thought that might be a tad hypocritical.

"Besides, you've been busy entertaining the ambassador and her wife," McCoy said. "There was no reason to bother you, Jim. There was nothing that you could have done."

"Doctor, I believe you're leading the Captain to think that this has only been a recent occurrence," Spock said.

"Well, hasn't it?" McCoy asked. "It's only the second time this week I've wandered into your blasted room."

"It has been some time since the last incidence, true," Spock said. "It seems worth noting, however, that there have been two previous ones."

"When?" Kirk asked.

Spock looked at McCoy momentarily, as if asking for his permission to go on. McCoy raised his eyes slightly but did not otherwise react. Spock hesitated a moment longer then said, "The first time this happened was not long after we returned from Minara II."

Kirk rubbed at his forehead as he asked, "That's where we found the empathic woman?"

"Yeah, Gem," McCoy said fondly as Spock nodded.

"The second time was almost immediately after we left the Yonada's ship," Spock continued.

"Where Bones almost left us for the married life?" Kirk said, shaking his head.

"Yes, Captain," Spock said.

"Hey, I was dying, and they were going to kill you two," McCoy said. "I wasn't going to die with that on my conscience."

"You're saying you wouldn't have married her otherwise?" Kirk asked.

"Maybe, maybe not. That's beside the point now, isn't it?" McCoy said.

"Alright, Bones, the past is in the past," Kirk said, clapping his hand over McCoy's shoulder. "Now, Spock, the last planet we were on before the ambassador came on board was Sarpeidon, correct?"

"I believe so, Captain," Spock said.

"Spock, you know as well as I do we haven't been anywhere else," McCoy said. "Or are you still trying to forget falling back on your primal Vulcan ways? Too embarrassing for you?"

"I am not able to be embarrassed, Doctor, and if I were, it would not be about that so much as making the mistake of going through the time portal with you," Spock said. "After all, Doctor, do I need to remind you that if it were not for your choice to look through materials on the planet's ice age, we would not have ever been there?"

At that, McCoy simply rolled his eyes.

Kirk glanced uneasily between the two of them. Although neither of them had divulged the full story of what had happened to them in the Sarpeidon ice age, he had gathered enough to know that McCoy had been suffering from a near deadly case of hypothermia for most of the time they were there. Consequently, although he wasn't entirely sure of the how of the situation, he now strongly suspected the why . Getting the two of them to realize it - or, more likely, admit that they already had - however, was going to take some work.

"Surely, gentlemen, you see the pattern here?" Kirk said, glancing between them. "The common link between these sleepwalking spells?"

Although neither of them responded to the question, Kirk saw in their mutually averted gazes an unspoken affirmative.

"Spock?" Kirk said.

Spock hesitated again, but under Kirk's emphatic stare, he said, "Each of these incidents have occurred after Dr. McCoy has fallen seriously ill."

"Bones, is suffering the aftermath of a serious illness a cause of sleepwalking?" Kirk asked.

"No, but sleeping poorly is," McCoy said, rubbing at his temple. "Damn it, Jim, I can't be my own psychologist."

"So this is a psychological problem?" Kirk asked.

"I don't think I even need to be a doctor to tell you that much," McCoy said.

"As the Doctor has not suffered from somnambulism at any other point, that would be the most logical conclusion," Spock said. He lifted his tricorder away from Dr. McCoy, who had reluctantly been allowing him to read his vital signs. "This time is no different from the others. His vital signs read normally... for a human."

Kirk nodded at that. He had really suspected as much already, given the situation.

"And I suppose Vulcans don't sleepwalk?" McCoy muttered.

"They don't, Doctor," Spock said. "Has your research on my species not been revealing on that subject?"

"Well, Spock, if I hadn't made the mistake of joining you, I would have assumed you slept hanging from the ceiling," McCoy said.

"From the ceiling, Doctor? I see no reason to assume that. Vulcans and bats do not share a common ancestry," Spock said.

Kirk thought Spock should just be glad McCoy hadn't compared him to the devil again. Vampires seemed, to him, to be an improvement. In any case, they weren't getting anywhere.

"Spock, is it possible for you to learn what is going on in Bone's mind when he is sleepwalking?" Kirk asked.

"I have already asked Dr. McCoy if I could meld with his mind, but there are two obstacles to this course of action," Spock said.

"Explain," Kirk said.

"The first is that Dr. McCoy has requested that I "keep my hand and its Vulcan voodoo away from him" and the second that he would need to be sleepwalking when I did it. We've always discovered that he was doing so after he has already fallen asleep at my side, with no memory of arriving there," Spock said.

"Bones, surely you can let Spock mind-meld with for your own well-being?" Kirk asked.

"Now that you're both asking, I don't suppose I have choice," McCoy said, throwing his hands up in the air, "but don't ask me to be happy about it."