He kept an eye on Lee all through the morning. 1300 hours found the captain in the engine room, helping some ratings working on the back up generator. Chip stood over him until Lee looked up at him in exasperation.

"Lunch, Skipper."

He could see Lee hesitate, but he stood and waited him out. Giving an exaggerated grimace of distaste, Lee rose to his feet and followed him back to the wardroom. Chip managed to get him to eat part of half a sandwich with his soup. When Lee tried to leave the table Chip shook his head, "Cookie's got a treat for us."

So they sat and talked about boat business for another fifteen minutes while they drank milk shakes and ate a dozen chocolate chip cookies. Finally, finishing his glass and tipping it so Chip could see it was empty Lee quirked an eyebrow at the doorway.

"I feel like I'm going to burst," Lee said as they walked forward from the wardroom toward the Conn.

"Eating isn't that hard, we'll keep working on it and in no time at all you'll find it quite natural," Chip suggested.

"Thanks for the milk shake."

"Just being a good exec and looking out for my captain."

"Your captain appreciates it more than he usually lets on." Chip reached up and put his hand on Lee's shoulder. He found that more and more he needed to touch Lee to make sure he was really there and safe. It'd begun shortly after Lee came on board to take command of the Seaview.

It hadn't been that way at Annapolis. He'd watched out for Lee certainly and tried to make sure his intense friend took care of himself but he hadn't felt the same urgency about his wellbeing. He wasn't sure what had changed; maybe it was because now he felt that part of his job was watching over Lee. For what ever reason he often found that the last thing he thought about before going to sleep at night was Lee and that when he woke in the morning the first thing he wanted to do was see his friend and make sure he was okay. Lee was right; he was like an old mother hen. He smiled at himself as he watched Lee working his way around the Control Room, checking on all of the stations. Well if anyone ever needed a mother hen it was certainly Lee Crane.

In the evening they had dinner with the Admiral and Dr. O'Neil in the nose by the big windows. The scientist was very full of his research and seemed determined to explain his entire life's work to the two younger men with a little help from the Admiral. Chip kept a careful eye on Lee and could tell as the second hour of lecture approached that his captain was fading fast. He caught a quizzical look on the Admiral's face and a minute later the OOM looked at him and turned his head toward the circular stairs to their cabins. Chip nodded his understanding as the Admiral stood and walked over to the carafe of coffee.

"Will you join me in a cup, Tom? Lee I think we can excuse you and Chip now, I know your day started a lot earlier than ours did." Chip could see the speculative look on the Admiral's face as he spoke to Lee; a softer tone in his voice that he knew was caused by the other man's obvious discomfort as he started to rise. "Are you okay, Lee?"

"Just a little stiff, sir," Lee was leaning on the table with one arm; half bent over as he spoke, giving lie to his words. The Admiral stepped quickly over to him and grabbed him under the elbow.

"Did you see Frank when you came back on board, are you injured?" The Admiral sounded less concerned to Chip now than angry and he quickly stepped up to Lee's other side.

"I'm fine, sir, honestly, I took a couple of punches is all, nothing the corpsman can do for that." Chip kept his face carefully neutral and didn't contradict Lee's soft sale of the beating.

"Okay, but go get some rest, there's nothing else you need to do tonight is there?"

"We're done, sir," Chip put in before Lee could come up with some excuse for walking around the boat one more time. "I'm headed to my quarters, I'll make sure the Captain gets to his."

"Good, good, Chip, get him tucked away." Nelson said and gave Chip a quick nod before turning his attention back to Lee. "You should go see Frank in the morning anyway, he can at least give you something to ease the pain."

"Yes, sir." Lee said in a noncommittal voice, as the two men walked toward the stairs. Chip glanced back at the Admiral and saw the concern on his face. Now that Nelson had noticed how badly Lee looked Chip knew he would be more observant. He suspected Lee would be seeing Frank before very much longer.

"I can put myself to bed," Lee said sourly, as Chip followed him into his cabin.

"I'm here to make sure that's what you do." Chip leaned against the door, effectively blocking any escape by Lee who went and sat at his desk.

"I'm not tired, I'm going to work on this pile of reports for a little while."

"You're exhausted, even the Admiral finally noticed how tired you look."

Lee didn't say anything as he ran his hands down his face. He started to lean back in the chair and then, grimacing, straightened again. "Okay, I can't sleep and don't feel like lying in that bunk for eight hours thinking, okay, happy? So I'm going to sit here and do reports and when I get sleepy I'll lie down and sleep, now go away."

Chip hesitated, unsure how much more he could say. Lee looked like a refugee from the gulag, sitting in that chair hunched over with his arms around his stomach. Chip went into the head and got him a glass of water and some ibuprofen from the cabinet. Lee took the proffered pills without comment and swallowed them.

Chip knelt down and untied his shoes so Lee could toe them off without needing to bend over. Then he stood and put one hand on his friend's shoulder and waited until Lee opened his eyes and looked up at him.

"Thanks."

"I'll check back in a little while, get changed now so when you get tired you can sleep." He stroked his hand down Lee's back, resisting a sudden desire to pick Lee up and carry him over to the bunk and force him to lie down. He looked so tired, his face pinched with pain.

"Sure."

Chip hesitated, but couldn't think of anything else Lee would allow him to do and left. He worked on reports until 2230 and then walked back to Lee's cabin. He found his friend asleep at the desk still in his uniform.

"Hey," he gently stroked Lee's back, not wanting to shake him, knowing how sore he must be. At the first touch of his hand Lee jumped and then folded forward with a groan.

"Oh shit," Lee moaned softly as Chip squatted down next to his chair.

"Come on, let me help you, you've got to get some sleep." It took almost fifteen minutes to get Lee up and undressed, he was so stiff and sore he could hardly move. Chip suggested that he take a hot shower and see if he could relax his muscles. After standing silent for what seemed an age Lee eventually nodded and half walked half shuffled into the head with Chip following closely behind to make sure he didn't fall. When he finished Chip got him dried off and into the bunk. He sat on the side of the bed, relieved that Lee was lying down and no longer in danger of falling over.

He stroked Lee's damp hair back off his forehead and smiled when Lee looked up at him through half closed eyes. The shower might not have helped with the pain but Lee certainly looked drowsy and relaxed lying on the bunk. "Stay here for a while, nothing is going to happen, we're on our way home with this windbag of a scientist."

"I've got a boat to watch out for."

"And a crew to keep track of her for you. I'll let you know if we need some help, you need to sleep, you need to rest those sore muscles." Chip knew that stubborn set to Lee's jaw and pulled out his heavy hardware, "The admiral sees you shuffling around like some arthritic geriatric you'll spend the rest of the cruise in Sickbay." He saw that he had Lee's attention and pulled the sheet up. He brushed Lee's hair back off his forehead one more time so he could check him for a fever.

"I think your fever is down, I'm going, you sleep." Lee nodded up at him and the two of them remained still, Chip's hand on Lee's forehead, looking at each other. Chip ran his hand back through Lee's hair, "Sleep tight, buddy."

"Night, Chip." Lee smiled one of his beautiful smiles and Chip realized he was blushing. He couldn't understand where that'd come from but returned the smile with one of his own.