A/N: I watched an interview with Zachary Quinto a few days ago in which he commented on how Uhura essentially expresses for Spock the feelings he keeps bottled up inside; I wanted to explore that a little. Forgive me for taking any artistic licenses, I hope you like it.

Disclaimer: I so, so wish!

Tears

"I need everyone to continue performing… admirably."

She wept. She waited until he had left the turbolift, his back, usually so straight and strong, weighed down with a grief she knew he could not express, and somehow that made her own tears come all the quicker. She held them in, however, until he disappeared around the corner, and then she stabbed at the turbolift panel, leaning into the wall as the doors shut before her, sealing her in, alone.

His grief. She had felt it, in his shoulders, in the slight trembling of his hands, seen it in those eyes which always revealed far more than people would think, if only they knew how and where to look.

She choked, dashing tears away with the back of her hand. She had no right to grieve. She did not know the Vulcans who had died, it was not her planet that had imploded before her eyes, not her mother who had fell into the void. But she was sure she had heard, in the back of her mind as the planet vanished, a cry of such grief and pain that she had almost cried out herself, on the bridge. She had bit her cheek, and the pain was so bittersweet, for she knew from that cry that he was alive, that their tentative bond had not been broken, but she had known too that he had lost someone dear. When he stumbled onto the bridge some minutes later – she had never seen him stumble before – it had taken all of her self-control not to embrace him then and there, as though by physical contact she could take unto herself the grief that so bowed his back.

She bit her cheek again, sucking in air and almost sobbing aloud. That bastard. Nero. A whole planet. Amanda Grayson. Her Spock, pained beyond belief.

Nyota Uhura stood in the turbolift, alone, and cried for the man she loved the tears he could not cry himself.

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