There are two days in which the captain, the first officer and the CMO wish to be off at the same time, two blips in an otherwise simple year. The first year they had wanted to request the day off the admiralty had made it very clear (Jim's ears still rung if he thought about it too much) that it just wasn't possible. So instead they came up with a system that one would work and the other two would take the day off. So the crew of the Enterprise over the long course of their various missions grew used to seeing them take those dates off every year.

The reason for the first date was obvious, a well known date that everyone acknowledged one way or another, a black ribbon around their wrist or a quiet nod in the direction of the star quadrant that the horrible event took place in. So it is to no ones surprise that Captain James T Kirk takes that day off, as one of the few survivors of Tarus IV it made sense that he would wish to spend the day set aside for mourning, on his own away from prying eyes.

Each year Spock and Bones would take it in turns to sit with him, taking the day off and providing Jim with the comfort he needed. The tight physical affection of pressing their arms around him tightly as though he needed to remember he was indeed alive. They would listen to his quiet tales of the others who were with him on that damned planet, would hold him tighter when he would shake. They would bring him the simple food he preferred to eat in memory of those who were lost and eat it with him, then they would together (as the night shift took over) bundle him into bed and hold him between them as he shivered and finally let himself cry after a whole day, week or year of not allowing himself to.

The next day Bones would wake him up by grumbling and pushing a heaped pile of pancakes onto his lap before climbing back into the bed, allowing Jim to kiss his cheek. Spock would gently press his fingers to Jims, and allow his telepathic walls to lower just slightly so he could help Jim remember that he was here now with a quick affectionate pulse. They would sit with him, eating his pancakes with him (he always shared his food no matter what, which is why Bones had gotten into the habit of making enough for three and putting it on one plate) until the shrill computer alarm would urge them to go to their jobs.

The second date wasn't anything special, just another date in most calendars and no one quite knew why the were so adamant that they have it off, or why Christine looked at the place where Bones normally sat so sadly. No one knew that back on Earth, in a house old and worn there was a child celebrating another birthday without her father. No one knew that on the Enterprise there was a father watching the clock religiously until he could connect with his daughter and spend just ten minutes talking to her.

Each year Jim and Spock would take turns sitting with Bones in his room distracting him as time crawled along slowly, Spock would ask about his medical journal, about his new lab anything and everything about his work. Would tell him snippets of the sacred art of healing on Vulcan, breaking rules just so Bones would stop watching the clock. Jim would push him down onto his bed, put on a playlist of cheesy sci fi movies from the 20th century and cuddle the life out of him until he was forced to watch them and complain about how horrible they were.

Then when he had talked to Johanna and who ever had been working came back they would spend the evening keeping him away from alcohol, listening to him talk about how he should be there for her. Telling him again and again that he wasn't a horrible person for not being able to there. Then they would place Bones between them and hold him until he fell asleep.

In the morning Jim would eat the fruit salad and grains Spock made because it would make Bones happy to see him eating healthy, Spock would go back to sniping at him to help him regain his footing after a day of emotional vulnerability.

There was many nights that would find the three of them sharing a bed, and just as many days that would require either one or two of them to help the others. It was not a task they minded. Not when Bones showed up drunk and sobbing at three in the morning after holidays. Not when Jims hands shook because fuck he had screamed at that poor intern who didn't know what they were doing by putting their leftovers in the bin. Not when Spock would close in around himself afraid that he had opened up too much, or got a message from his father.

They would never mind because they loved each other, and that's all there is to it.