A/N: A little bit of very gentle Spock/Kirk slash, from Uhura's POV. Enjoy. :)

Logical Conclusions

"Where to, Captain?"

Captain James Tiberius Kirk waved a dismissive hand at Hikaru Sulu, his helmsman. "Forward," he replied vaguely. "Where else?"

Sulu grinned. "Aye, Captain."

He punched in the details and the Enterprise murmured her agreement as the ship and crew shot away from yet another disaster and onto new, unexplored space. The crew breathed a collective sigh of relief, while the Captain simply lounged in his chair, as if they hadn't just been fighting for their lives mere moments before, but they were almost used to such events by now.

"That situation was closer than I had foreseen," Commander Spock said, striding silently across the bridge and taking up a position behind the Captain, his hands clasped tightly behind his back.

"No problem," Jim Kirk answered, lounging in his chair, his obvious self-satisfaction shining through his broad smile. "We got out of it, didn't we?"

"Indeed," Spock replied, only someone who knew him well would have heard the faint whisper of relief and amusement in his tone.

"As always," Jim muttered.

"It is illogical to assume that, because of this, the outcome will always be the case," Spock pointed out, raising a single lone eyebrow, but not changing his stance.

In answer Jim sat straighter and looked theatrically pensive. "Although, looking at out past record it is logical to assume the results will be in our favour."

Spock showed no evidence of his Captain's comment having incited any emotion but the faint lift to one eyebrow had dropped, betraying his true feelings.

"Surely this would mean that very soon you are due a defeat?" he said evenly.

Kirk hesitated, taking a moment to fish a comeback out of the air. "I think," he drawled, "that I experience more than my fair share of defeat every time I play you at chess."

Spock's eyebrows nearly lifted off his forehead.

"There is only one answer I can suggest for that," he decided, tone unreadable.

Kirk looked expectant. "Ooh?" he murmured, scrutinising the other mans face in a fruitless search for his hidden expression.

"How about a game of chess?" said Spock without a hint of irony.

xXx

From across the bridge Nyota Uhura sat, staring fixedly at the screen in front of her, pretending the ghost of Jim's laughter didn't echo in her ears and the treacherous hint of a smile on Spock's face didn't slice straight through her heart.

It seemed every day they flew further away from their first mission and into unexplored adventure, the further apart it drove her and Spock and the closer it dragged Spock and Kirk.

This unlikely and unforeseen alliance was growing stronger by the day and had become the Federations greatest asset. Cool logic and unsurpassed intellect fused with passionate instinct and charismatic leadership to create a team that truly was greater than the sum of its individual parts. There seemed nothing the combined skills of Spock and Kirk couldn't achieve.

The more Uhura told herself she didn't hate every one of their triumphant moments, the less she believed it.

She couldn't help sharp pangs of jealousy and stabs of regret itch at her soul every time she saw them together, and perhaps it was just her biased opinion but they were together a hell of a lot. Still, it was a long while since she'd last spoken to Spock, but his every word was printed in blood across her heart, and her own left sharp gouges in her mind.

At the time it had seemed like the only way. He'd always told her it was illogical to think that they could ever make a life together, and how statistically unlikely their union was, but when she had looked in his eyes, the emotion buried so deep under the surface she had to be drowning in them before she saw it, she invariably forgot about logic. For a while, she knew he had too.

Stolen kisses, secret touches, whispered passions; for a brief, beautiful time it had been the only thing in the universe that mattered. Then reality had kicked in. Work, responsibility and danger had jolted them out of their hazy fantasy and back into the harsh real world. Uhura had turned her focus back onto her job and Spock had hidden behind his responsibility. Then slowly and silently he had slipped away from her...

The sound of laughter from behind Uhura alerted her to the fact that Spock had just beaten Jim at chess, again. Against her better judgement she turned around, her injured gaze brushing against Spock's. Without meaning to she felt herself sinking into his calm eyes, ending up knee-deep in his pent-up emotions. She felt his eyes on her and pulled out before he could notice her interest, but not before she had felt the expression lurking in his gaze. He nodded at her, respect, and perhaps the echoes of love, in his eyes. Then he turned sharply and followed Jim Kirk across the bridge, the two of them deep in earnest conversation.

Uhura's heart rate increased, and her breath caught in her throat. She cursed herself silently for her pathetic but unignorable infatuation. She was a strong-minded woman, tough and adaptable, but her tattered heart positively sang every time Spock looked at her.

In love she may be, but she was always unfailingly logical, and she knew unquestionably as she watched them, that the spark between Captain and Commander was lit deeper than most people could comprehend. The bond they'd forged was something different and wouldn't be challenge simply by her love.

It had gradually become clear to her, as time and events marched on and they faced increasingly more difficult challenges in the line of duty and at home, that if ever Spock was forced to choose between Jim and her, he was never going to choose her.

Nothing she did was ever going to change that now.

xXx