B for Bedtime

The room was quiet and still, you could tell it had been empty for a couple of days. You place the samples you'd collected from your away mission on the lab bench in front of you and pulled up a stool and sat down. You grabbed your PADD and began to process the samples by the usual protocol. Time passed slowly and exhaustion began to tug at your eyelids. Realising this you headed up to the mess hall to grab a coffee.

The past two days had been hell you'd been working as part of an away team with Spock to gather samples of the plants from a nearby planet. Hours upon hours of endless walking and at the end of the day you could barely sleep because Spock had insisted that the away team were to stay on the ground and were not permitted to beam back up to the ship unless it was an emergency.

You sighed walking back to the lab coffee in hand knowing today was going to be a long day. Working with near to no sleep was going to be difficult, but at least you had coffee to keep you going.

You took a seat back at the lab bench and prepped the equipment ready for your first series of tests to be conducted on the samples when your communicator buzzed. Sighing you pick it up and flip it open. "Hello?" you speak into it.

"Y/N!" someone shouts from the other side "I'm glad to have you back on the enterprise."

"Thank you, Captain." You smile before picking up your coffee and taking another sip.

"Find anything interesting?" The captain inquired from the other side of the communicator.

"In all honesty Sir I've not been working on things for long, so I don't have any conclusive information as of yet."

Spock had walked into the room to check on your progress as you were mid-sentence."Lieutenant Y/L/N I don't think you'll make much more progress either if you continue to avoid work."

You slate the man inside your head, wishing he'd just let you get on with it. You hear a noise from the communicator and turn your attention back to it. "Interesting news Y/N, well you'd better get back to work, I'll be down later to check on the progress." You could hear the smile in his voice from Spock telling you off. "Jim out."

You flip your communicator closed and look towards Spock "I'm very sorry, I will return to work shortly." You say before picking up the coffee and chugging the remainder.

"Shortly is not soon enough Lieutenant." He says before turning and leaving the room.

You sigh, why did he have to walk in just as Jim had called to check on you. You rest your forehead in your hands for a moment before sitting up and continuing with the work.

The sample work, in theory, shouldn't have taken too long but it had already been an hour and you'd barely even finished one; distractions kept creeping up everywhere. Heat moving to your eyes and you knew it was time for another coffee. You stood from your seat when your communicator buzzed again, sighing you turned back to the counter and picked it up, opening it once again. "Lieutenant Y/L/N here."

"Y/N it's Christine" you exhaled, thanking the God's that it was your good friend Christine rather than anyone else on this God damned ship.

"Hi, Christine." You say leaning up against the counter. The two of you have a brief conversation.

"Sorry but I'm going to have to go I need to do these samples for Spock and I'm dying for a coffee." You say rather defeated.

"Tell you what Y/N, give me five minutes and I'll be down with a coffee. It saves you a trip." You smile she was a life saver.

"Thank you so much!" you say with a smile before hearing the communication cut off. You shut the device and once again took your place on the lab stool. You sit down and begin prepping the next sample when the first sample is finally completed.

You take the readings from the test and input them into the PADD. You quickly place another sample to be processed and took out the next sample. You heard the swoosh of the doors opening and you looked up. Christine was walking towards you beaming, a cup of coffee in hand. "You're a lifesaver," you say taking the cup from her hands.

She smiled. While you prepped the next sample. "When you going to have some free time so we can catch up?" she inquired giving you a big smile.

You exhale "Sorry Christine probably won't be for a while, Spock wants these samples processed ASAP."

Her smile wavered and she leaned down on the table. You looked up at her "How did you even get away from sickbay?"

She smiled "Well I was due break hours ago and it quietened down so I thought I'd take it now."

"You snuck away from sickbay" you say raising an eyebrow.

She laughed "Yes, pretty much." She paused "Well, I'd better be getting back actually. Let me know when you're free Y/N" she said as she exited the room.

You looked back at the samples and note down the completed sample's findings before replacing it. God today was going to be long.

Your communicator buzzed, waking you from your zombified state of completing the same task repeatedly. You took it in your hand and flipped it open "Lieutenant Y/N speaking." You say not taking your eyes off of the sample processing.

"It's Jim again, sorry to bother you. How're you getting along?" you frown looking over at the pile of samples.

"Well, I've processed about a quarter of them." You sigh going back to work, forgetting your communicator is still open.

"It's been hours Y/N," Jim says questioningly.

You look up at the wall ahead of you "Well I'm sorry but I'm working as fast as I can." You snap regretting it instantly.

"Spock's on another away mission so he won't be bothering you." He says, you not giving a reply. "I'll be down later to check. Kirk Out."

You let out a big sigh and a string of curse words. Great Jim ended the communication with Kirk out which meant he was pissed off as he normally ended a communication with you with Jim out. Great. You snapped the communicator shut and slid it down the workbench not wanting any more distractions.

Time passed quickly, and you'd began speeding up the processing rate. Which meant that you'd be done quicker, which meant getting back to bed quicker. You looked up at the pile, you had about a quarter left to process. Not too bad.

You continued for a while before feeling your eyes droop closed. You opened them and looked at your clock, God you must have fallen asleep for 5 minutes.

You continued working and went back into the Zombified state, there were only a handful more samples to process but it was too hard to stay awake at this point. You supported your head in your hand before closing your eyes. Ten minutes wouldn't hurt surely? You can still hear the noises of the machines around you, which was a good thing because then you'd know if someone joined you in the room.

The swoosh of the door alerted you someone was in the room but it was hard to open your eyes. "Y/N?" you hear someone say. Groaning you open your eyes blinking until they adjust to the light. Jim standing in front of you with his hand on his hip, his blue eyes staring at you. Sitting up and groaning you say a hello to the man.

"Y/N you've done over time this shift. You should've been off the clock three hours ago." Really 3 hours ago? Time must have gotten away from you.

"But Spock needs these samples done." You grumble, slowly falling back asleep.

Jim takes a step towards you resting his hands on the workbench "When was the last time you actually slept?"

You were delayed in answering, your brain not wanting to do anything other than sleep. "the night before the away mission." You mutter quietly.

You begin to slip off the stool but Jim grabs your upper arm holding you in place. You flutter your eyes open "You set off 2 days ago so this is day 3 of no sleep?" his tone seeming serious

You sleepily nod "Well I was supposed to sleep but I couldn't" You barely got the sentence out before you feel hands on your sides helping you up.

Knowing what was going on you object "No." You paused energy leaving you "Spock needs this done ASAP." You mutter.

You feel Jim shift putting his arm around your waist and pulling your arm over his shoulder. "Spock can wait, you need to sleep."

You comply waking up more and walking with Jim supporting you. Before long you were at your quarters. The doors whooshing open.

Jim guided you to your bed; you could barely keep your eyes open. You felt something cushioned beneath you and you could only guess that it was your mattress. You shift getting comfy before you feel the covers being pulled up around you. You heard a laugh "Never thought I'd be putting you to bed Y/N"

You mustered a smile "What time is it?"

You felt Jim push some strands of hair behind your ear "It's bedtime."

You smile "Thanks, Jim." Feeling the darkness creep in you feel a hand on your cheek

"Sweet Dreams Y/N"

Thank you for reading this chapter and I hope you enjoyed :) Reviews would be appreciated.