Disclaimer: SSDD

Warnings: Hmm not much for this chapter – maybe a slight hint or two at K/S but it could just be interpreted as friendship. Take it how you want to.

Author's Note: I know I said this before – but let me reiterate, I have been working on this story on the side for a while now. What I have is not very long however, so I hadn't posted it previously.

I have two more short chapters finished and will post those this week as well.

I'm posting This Story – to say thanks for all the reviews on MOII and Saving Grace – because I don't have updates done for those stories to thank you with yet.

YES I am working on both. - That said – I have finals this week – Both on Thursday – and it is the week before Christmas – so Please be patient.

I will get MOII updated and finished as soon as I can – but it won't be before Monday or Tuesday.

Saving Grace will come next – in conjunction with this one – but Saving Grace will be Slow. - Sorry but that's how it is. :(

Thanks for all the attention this has gotten so far!

Destiny's Child

Chapter 3

Of Blue and Brown and Bestest Friends

When Spock returned he found Jim pouting once again. Dr. McCoy was tending to an Ensign with a large cut and a goose egg on his head. Nurse Chapel seemed to be rummaging around in the storage room. Jim sat cross legged on the bed, arms wrapped around himself, frowning at a story book laid open on the bed in front of him. He looked up at Spock approaching him but didn't brighten. He sighed heavily and remained stoic and silent.

"Did you get enough to eat?" Spock asked, attempting to engage him.

"Yeah."

"And did the doctor give you your grape soda?"

"Yeah."

"Then why are you so unhappy? I was not gone long, and I have returned as I promised."

"I know."

Spock crossed his arms and raised an inquisitive eyebrow. A gesture he'd used with the Captain on numerous occasions to let Jim know that he required more information that what Jim was providing. Either Jim remembered this, or somehow he was just still able to read Spock. He heaved a final sigh before submitting to Spock's unspoken request.

"I'm still cold an I'm tired and I wanna go to bed and Bones ain't payin' no attention to me no more and this book is dumb. It's a baby book and I'm not a baby."

"Of course you're not a baby Jimmy. You are a big boy and you can read very well. I did say I was sorry about the book though. It's the only one we have here in sickbay and I haven't had a chance to find you anything else." Christine Chapel reminded him as she walked back toward them with something blue tucked under her arm.

"I know, cuz it's leftover from when those Aldarian kids were on board right?"

"I didn't tell him about that," Christine said to Spock. "Do you remember the Aldarian kids being on board Jimmy?"

"I dunno, I guess." he shrugged. Spock gave him another inquisitive eyebrow. "It's just, everything's kinda, fuzzy and mixed up all over."

"Well that's a good thing for you to tell us. That's the kind of thing that we need to know so that we can help you make sense of it, so that it won't be all mixed up anymore."

"Okay. Did you find me another blanket?"

"I've tried three already" She said more to Spock than Jim. "He's a little cranky and I can't seem to please him. I did happen to find one more but it's not very big and I'm betting you are going to reject this one as well."

"What seemed to be the problem with the first three blankets you offered him?" Spock inquired.

"One was all crinkly and blankets aren't asposed be crinkly, and one was itchy and the other one smelled bad." Jim broke in and explained earnestly.

"Don't you think you are being a bit too particular Jim. Nurse Chapel is obviously trying very hard to help you, and you should endeavor to be more appreciative of her efforts. On a similar note, you mentioned that Dr. McCoy was not spending time with you. You can see very well for yourself that Dr. McCoy is busy treating a patient who needs him. That is his job, and it is unfair of you to feel resentment towards him for doing his job and helping those in need of his assistance."

Jim's gaze dropped to his lap immediately and he stuck out his bottom lip, but this time he did not cry. He mumbled something very quietly and then looked up through his lashes at Spock to see if he'd been forgiven.

"I am very glad that you are sorry Jim, however, it is not to me whom you owe the apology, and I am quite certain that Nurse Chapel did not hear you." Spock prompted.

"I'm sorry for bein' grumpy Christine. You been really nice to me. Thank you," he said and then turned back to Spock. "I can't not tell Bones I'm sorry though cuz he's way over there."

"Can't not is a double negative, but that was a very nice apology and it was good of you to thank her." Jim brightened at that little bit of praise.

"How about if I tell him you said you were sorry for being grumpy for you?" Christine offered.

"Oh would you?" Jim asked.

"Of course sweetie. Now, do you want to see this last blanket?"

"Yes please."

"Okay, but I'm afraid you are going to think this is a baby blanket, just like you thought the book was a baby book." She said unfurling a smallish flannel blanket. It was soft blue flannel on one side with thick padding and drawings of toys spilling out of a big wooden toy chest on the other side. The drawings were all in different shades of brown on a white flannel background. Jim's face lit up like a Christmas tree when he saw it.

"Is that left over from the Aldarian kids too?"

"Yes it is. What do you think?"

"I think it's perfect! Do you think they will need it back?"

"No I don't think so at all, it didn't belong to any of the children. It was just part of the supplies we had for the nursery and daycare while we had them on board."

"Do you think maybe I could have it? For keeps?"

"I think that would be just fine Jimmy." she said wrapping it around his shoulders.

He rubbed his cheek against the soft flannel and brought it around and spread it out so he could look at all the pictures. He traced the lines of many of the drawings with care before looking up at Spock with big his sparkling blue eyes.

"Look Spock, isn't it great? It's my favorite colors too! See this side is blue just the same as you and Bones's uniform shirts, and this side has all kinds of things to look at, and I like how it's all different kinds of brown and not just one kind. Like this one see. This bear, he's my favorite, cuz he's all warm brown, just the same as your eyes when you're happy, or you think something's funny. You don't laugh or smile but your eyes do.

And see this baseball bat and glove, they are the same color as your eyes when you are thinkin' all kinds of sciency stuff. I even like the big toy chest. It looks just like real wood. I even like these dark metal looking parts on it in the corners, even though they're the same dark dark as your eyes when you're mad Spock. I don't like it when your eyes get mad, but they're still pretty and I still like you, so that's okay."

"Well that was quite a mouthful. I think that means he likes it. He also seems to remember some things with vivid clarity more than others, wouldn't you say Mr. Spock?" Christine said with a twinkle in her eye and a bit of amusement in her voice.

"It would seem so. Most curious." he replied looking inquisitively at Jim as he continued to poor over the pictures on the blanket.

"I like how he thinks your eyes are pretty and change color with your mood?" Bones offered, suddenly standing beside them. He'd obviously heard enough of what Jim had said to get his own little jab in.

"You are merely jealous Doctor, as he seems to think you are mean." Spock simply replied, refusing to give in to the doctor's goading.

"Didn't ya hear? I 'm not mean anymore. I gave him grape soda. Now I'm his bestest friend again."

"Hey Bones, look at the blankie Christine found me." Jim said excitedly as if to emphasize McCoy's claim. "She said I could have it for keeps."

"That is a pretty neat blanket Sport." McCoy said, shooting a wink at Spock that might have said 'hah hah, who does he like best now?'.

He moved over to sit next to Jim on the bed and ruffled the man's hair a bit as he did so. He was quite aware that to an outsider the action would appear ridiculous, but Jim's regression had made his usual charms completely irresistible to his best friend, who was also a father who missed his own child.

"Yeah, an it's soft an warm too, and snuggly." Jim grinned, snuggling the blanket to his cheek again. Then he draped it over his front and leaned into Bones and closed his eyes a bit. "I'm sleepy." he yawned.

"Well why don't you go ahead and lay down Sport. You can sleep right here."

"Huh uh. Spock promised to take me back to home wif him. I wanna sleep there."

"Wait I missed this. What dy'a mean home? You can't take him home Spock. Earth is two weeks from here. Granted we are going to have to redirect if this situation doesn't rectify in the next day or so. We won't be able to to keep... well we'll just have to, but we can't get there today." McCoy had trailed off before inadvertently mentioning in front of Jim that they wouldn't be able to keep him on board the Enterprise if his regression didn't reverse itself soon.

"Not Earth silly. My room. My room and Spock's room, they're knektid you know. That's good enough for home. Sickbay is not home." Jim explained looking apologetically at Bones.

"That's okay kiddo. You don't have to stay here if you don't want to." Bones reassured his friend. Then he turned to Spock. "You okay with watching him overnight Spock?"

"I am fine with it Doctor. We will all have to pitch in until the situation is resolved. I have completed my duties for the day and am not due back on the Bridge until Alpha shift. I will however need someone else to volunteer to take over at that time."

"Aw, can't I just come to the Bridge wif you?"

"You cannot."

Jim scowled and sighed dejectedly at this news, but seemed to accept it.

"Well you can just bring him back here. Even if by some miracle things have reverted to normal by morning, I'll need him back here. I want to do follow up scans in the a.m. either way. After that, Christine and I can start putting a tentative schedule together and recruiting volunteers if need be."

"A highly logical plan. Perhaps we should just meet in the commissary as usual for a.m. meal."

"Actually that sounds great. It might help Jim to experience a bit of his normal routine. That sound okay to you kiddo?" Bones asked as Jim sleepily looked up at him.

"Sure. Can I have pancakes?"

"If you have some fruit with them."

"I like grapes and apples."

"I know you do. You like a lot of other things too, but you'll have to learn to trust me on that and try them all over again even if you think they look yucky okay?"

Jim smirked and shrugged, not disagreeing but also not consenting to anything. Then he climbed down off the bed carrying his new blankie with him, slung over one shoulder. He moved over to Spock taking his hand once again, but Spock didn't seem to mind.

He could shield his telepathic ability and skillfully control what he sent and received, but this ability didn't lessen his sensitivity to touch. It seemed however that he was willing to make an exception for children, even if the child in question currently resided in a the very adult body of his Captain and friend Jim Kirk.

Of course maybe it was possible that the exception had more to do with it being Jim, than in Jim's current condition. Whatever the reason, he simply accepted Jim's hand in his own. They bid their good nights to the doctor and Nurse Chapel, and he led Jim out of sickbay and down the corridor towards the turbolift that would take them to the deck their quarters were on.