"Mister Spock, I want to apologize for reaction to what Doctor McCoy did when you and Officers Lomms and Uhura returned to the ship. I know you might have thought that I being childish but,"

"What I thought, Nurse Chapel, was that you displayed the behavior I would expect from a trainee nurse at any one of the many Starbases where they take trainees for their first year of exposure to more interesting and varied cases than those they encounter at the planet based training hospitals. What you did was inexcusable for a nurse of your experience and caliber. I find it also incomprehensible that you would think that Doctor McCoy would ever torture a patient. The treatment did cause the patient discomfort but it was necessary." Spock had looked from her to Lomms who was, the Vulcan could tell from the monitors as well as his breathing, in a deep sleep. "The decision to use an old method of treatment was that of your senior officer and you failed not only your profession but, more importantly, Doctor McCoy and your patient. Had Lieutenant Uhura and I not been there to immediately assist Doctor McCoy with his treatment it is highly likely that Officer Lomms would have died. I would suggest that you go and search deep within yourself and ask if you would have such a reaction if an even more difficult and antiquated form of treatment that would cause the patient even more discomfort than that did Lomms. If you would react like that again perhaps you should consider a position on a Starbase and not a starship. Now, if you will excuse me I must report to the Captain."

After Spock had left McCoy looked at Nurse Chapel, "You alright, Christine?"

"He, he was right. I was totally unprofessional. I did not think of you nor of the patient only my own thoughts of such a barbaric treatment. I could not believe you would have even suggested such a treatment."

"You have had enough experience, Christine, to know that there are times when we have to do the unusual. I just had to think of my patient not what I thought or felt. I think that Spock helped because he did not consider his feelings and Uhura did it because she considered only her feelings for him." He gently reached out and put a hand on her shoulder, "I hate to admit it but I do agree with him. I cannot afford for my chief nurse to fold on me like you did. Perhaps you should give some thought as to how you would react if I had to do something even more extreme than that for treatment."

Nurse Chapel turned then stopped and looked back at McCoy, "I will get back to updating the records I was doing. I can assure you that I will never let you, him, or myself down as I did then. I have thought many times since about why I reacted as I did and all I could think of was that it was me thinking about me and not that patient and not about you. I was thinking of what I was expected to do to another, of it being like torture, not of it being treatment."

"Okay, Christine. I thought later it would have to have been something like that but I wanted you to tell me rather than me going to you. Finish the updates then have two shifts off. When you come back you can help with Lomms. He is now in very limited duties and comes here after three hours on duty to sleep for seven hours. \he will make a full recovery in time if he takes it slowly." The doctor did not miss the way his chief nurse looked at the patient they were discussing, "I doubt if Uhura, Spock, or the Captain will let him overly tax himself. And I know that he won't like being constantly watched so it will be interesting."

Interesting had not been what the next twenty-four days had been as Officer Lomms had tested the nerves of his senior officers by pushing himself almost to the point of collapse. On the twenty-fifth day a relieved Doctor McCoy had summoned his Captain, First Officer and Lieutenant Uhura into Sick Bay and they all stood looking at Officer Looms as he sat on the bed looking at them uncertainly. "Officer Lomms, I am releasing you back onto full duty. I want your permission to use what was done to you in the way of treatment in a paper I am writing. I wanted to have them here to reassure you that I will make no mention of what took place in Plorer apart from mentioning that you were attacked there while on approved leave."

"If they looked at who was also on leave,"

Lomms looked first at Spock and longer at Uhura as McCoy said. "There are no records of Spock or Uhura being in Plorer and Captain Kirk and I were only there on a short fact finding tour."

Spock looked at Lomms as he looked at him again and saw how even in the safety of the ship this man was concerned about the two of them, "There's absolutely no way they will know you two were taken there? of what happened there"

"There is no record anywhere of us being there, nor of the events that took place, and those there had no idea who we were nor where we went. As seen by all that were there, all that saw the performance you put on to rescue us, none would believe you were anything but what you that is on record is that you were on the planet for rest and recreation while we resupplied the ship and that you were in a skirmish with an unknown who had Fallet in a hypo as a weapon."

Kirk looked at his friend and First Officer then at Lomms, "They were not the only ones who believed your act."

Uhura moved over to Lomms and hugged him, "That was the first time we ever spent the night together alone in a bedroom and you never came to bed but let others think you had."

"And from what I saw I would have, I believed you had been beaten." Kirk looked at his Communications Officer and remembered how he had seen her in the bar then looked at Lomms, "I even believed you had not only beaten her but attacked Spock." "Captain, I am no actor, just a search and rescue officer who helps out in engineering. I just did what I had to do to get them out. If you ask Miser Scott he will confirm I am no actor."

"Perhaps, Officer Lomms, but," Spock looked from Kirk to Uhura and then at Lomms, "I believe that be it in how you do your routine work, or how you treat a female officer in a bedroom, or even how you rescue two fellow officers under difficult and different circumstances you certainly know how to act."

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A/N One of the ones where my friend wanted something (in this case "as seen by") used in dialogue towards the end. About a third of the stories I wrote had things/themes she asked for. . .