A/N: The response that the first chapter has got has been so great! I can't believe how many people put this story on alert, favourited or reviewed it. So thank you!
Show Me How Big Your Brave Is: Chapter 2
I had not realised that as I was leaning tiredly on the wall of the Captain's room that Scotty had been watching. He made his presence clear as he tapped me on the shoulder as I was walking away.
"Are you alright, Sir? You didn't quite seem yourself down at breakfast?" he asked with the tilt of his head and a hint of concern in his voice.
"I assure you that I am perfectly fine, Mr Scott." I nodded and held my hands behind my back neatly.
"Are you sure? You do look quite tired, maybe you should have a wee nap after the lecture this morning." he suggested as he patted me on the shoulder and turned a corner. Mr Scott had seemed quite light hearted in his concern for me which in it's own way was slightly more comforting. It was not pity that he radiated but a concern for my health which I welcomed a little more. I nodded in his direction as he left and leaned on the wall once more. Holding my professional stance had suddenly become quite tiring and I let out an ungainly yawn. I decided to set off once more.
I was walking down the corridor towards one of the Academy's main auditoriums when the two Lieutenants, Uhura and Sulu, rounded a corner. Lieutenant Sulu appeared to be counting something on his fingers, a grin gracing his face while Lieutenant Uhura laughed, dropping her head to look at the ground as she did so as if to muffle her emotion. He dropped his hand to the side as he saw me however and rather indiscreetly informed Lieutenant Uhura of my presence. She too stopped her actions as she looked up and the helmsman raised an eyebrow in my direction, his hands now clasped together behind his back.
"I'll meet you in the auditorium." I heard her mutter to him and he nodded once before walking in the direction I was heading in.
"How can I help you, Lieutenant?" I asked as I reached the conclusion that she had broken away to confront me about something.
"You barely touched your breakfast, Spock," she sighed as she walked over to me. Her footsteps echoed down the hall but they were the only noise I could hear, "And I sure you didn't eat much of your dinner last night either. In fact, you have either been eating very little with us or you haven't been showing up to meals at all."
Lieutenant Uhura unfortunately gave off the feeling of too much concern which had been the very feeling I was trying to avoid from my fellow crew members. Her eyes skirted mine and I did my best not to let my eyes form any sort of contact with hers as I shook my head to try and convey that I was not willing to take part in this conversation. I did not wish to discuss my late eating habits. She, however, took a step closer and I inhaled deeply. The Lieutenant stood on her tip toes and let a frown cross her lips. She raised a delicate hand and carefully raised it to my face. I followed her fingertip as it was brought towards my eye.
"You haven't slept at all, have you Spock?" she whispered, tracing the marks under my eye from the lack of sleep. I still continued to make no conversation with her and she dropped down to her original height. "Go and see Dr McCoy, Spock."
"What about the new weapons training, Lieutenant? We are supposed to group in the auditorium for the lesson on how to use them before we trial them at the end of the week?" I asked, now feeling that the conversation could no longer on in such a one-sided manner and forcing me to reply.
"Oh, so you were listening at breakfast," she raised an eyebrow and then frowned, "I thought we were working with them today? How do you know tha-"
I cut her off as to waste less time.
"We received notices about it yesterday, I must have been the only one to pick mine up." I spoke, thinking back to the piece of paper that had been lying inside my door yesterday morning.
"I see," she paused for a moment, "Well then, I'll see to it that you get a copy of the notes and bring it to you afterwards, then you can read up on it and you'll in the know for Friday, yes?"
"I really do not see why I shou-" I was the one to be cut off this time around as she patted my shoulder with a smile.
"Good, I'll explain your absence." she stated and continued to walk down the corridor that Lieutenant Sulu had also gone down. I did not wish to to incur the wrath of Lieutenant Uhura if I decided to go to the auditorium despite her request and so I turned to re-walk the route I had just taken. My own thought reminded me of a moment during our previous mission.
"This isn't going to work." grumbled the Captain as we watched Lieutenant Uhura face an army of Klingons alone and unarmed.
"It is our only logical option," I responded to the dubious captain while watching her intently, "If you interrupt her now you will not only incur the wrath of the Klingons but that of Lieutenant Uhura as well." I added for good measure, raising an eyebrow at the Captain.
I had been unaware that I had stopped walking as I remembered that moment until somebody in a Starfleet uniform bumped shoulders with me as he ran down the corridor. Quickly, I began to start walking again as more people came from various directions. I did not walk back the medical ward however. Instead I took a turn out of the main building and began a walk towards the library.
I did not need to been examined. I was perfectly fine, just not hungry and perhaps a little tired. It would change though as soon as the Captain woke. I would then find myself sleeping properly I was sure. There would be no awful flashbacks to awaken me every night in the early hours of the morning. There would be no horrible thoughts plaguing my brain of him dying and there would be no reason to worry. We had been back on Earth for 4 days now and the Captain could awaken any day now, we had all been told so what would the point of troubling Dr McCoy any further when my problem would easily be resolved in a few days?
With these thoughts I kept walking towards the library to await Lieutenant Uhura's notes from the lecture. As I pushed open the large glass doors of the library I looked at the large water cooler in the hall. I had also not drank anything during breakfast and I found my mouth in a state of uncomfortable dryness so I took one of the small plastic cups and filled it to the brim. I gulped it down quite quickly to my own surprise, I had not realised the state of dehydration I had become and so I filled it up once more and took into the main library with me.
It was relatively empty inside with most of the Academy students being in lectures at this point of the day. Of course there were students who did not have a class but most of these took to the outside world and not the inside of a library. I was in a state of wonder why however, as I set my little cup down on the table and went to fetch one of the holographic tablets. I had decided to use my time to maybe catch up on today's lecture before receiving the notes from the Lieutenant.
Swiping my hand across it's screen I typed in my name and password and brought up Starfleet's internal search engine. Searching the hard drives for the newest weaponry I managed to find the presentation that must have been used in the lecture that my crew members had sat through. I gave myself a satisfied smile at having found it and waited for it to load. I looked away from the screen momentarily to take another sip of my drink and find my eyes taking a while to adjust to the dimmer light. I blinked hard and the blurriness disappeared quickly enough as I took a drink and then placed the cup back down. The tablet beeped as the required the document loaded and as I looked back down the brightness burned through my eyes and into the back of my brain. It presented a searing pain in the form of a headache in my frontal lobes and I scrunched my eyes up slightly. I rubbed my temples and opened my eyes once more, the headache remained but the burning feeling had gone. As I tried to read the words my eyesight went blurry once more and I sighed in frustration.
The couple of students who had been at the surrounding students now looked at me in confusion as I gave out a disgruntled grumble at not being able to read on the bright screen. One raised an eyebrow while another gathered her things and clattered out of the room rather loudly.
I pushed away the holographic tablet and took another drink. At that moment I heard the sound of familiar footsteps. Lieutenant Uhura appeared from behind one of the bookshelves, brandishing a wad of paper with writing across them and a smile across her face. She took the seat opposite me.
"I brought you the notes, just like I said I would," she smiled cheerily and pushed them across to my side of the table and I nodded my thanks. "How did your appointment go with Dr McCoy?"
"It went fine," I replied simply, an answer that appeared to frustrate the Lieutenant. It was hard to lie to her, I had to rely on my half-human side of me to get me through this moment.
"Alright," she sighed, "Is there anything wrong with you? I hate to be blunt but I think you were going to avoid the having to answer the question if I did not ask you outright."
"I am fine, perfectly healthy in fact, Lieutenant." I said and stood up, pushing my chair backwards and hiding the small stumble that occurred from my still pressing headache.
"That is good to hear, but a little surprising." the Lieutenant spoke, raising and eyebrow and nodding her head. She did not join me in standing. I reached for my notes and grasped them in my hand firmly, my plastic cup of water in the other hand
"Thank you, I think." I spoke once more and began to walk away, my back to her.
"You just couldn't wait to get the notes before you needed to know everything, could you?" Lieutenant Uhura said with an exasperated sigh. I turned on my heel and found her holding up the tablet I had been working with. It was still on the page of the weaponry class and I bit my bottom lip with a sigh and turned away once more.
"No, I could not." I replied and briskly walked out of the building. I scrunched up the cup I had been holding and let the water spill over my hand as I did so, placing the ruined cup into the bin I walked past. I was not angry at the Lieutenant, I was in full control of my emotions. That is what I told myself at least. I was frustrated about not being to have read on the tablet, not only was I frustrated but I was also confused.