As he left Spock's quarters Kirk just didn't feel right about the situation. Uhura, he knew, had been under a lot of stress lately. He also knew the lieutenant hadn't been sleeping well and sometimes not at all. The biggest chunk of sleep deprivation he knew the lieutenant had undergone over the past month was nearly 72 hours. Given the circumstances he saw exactly why the communications officer couldn't think straight enough to want to tackle a case of sexual harassment.

He decided to do a little checking of his own and went straight to sickbay. As he walked in, he saw that McCoy and Chapel were both there.

"Hello, Captain," said Chapel in greeting.

"Nurse, how are you today?"

"Fine. Is something wrong?" she asked.

"Yes and no," he said to the nurse. Then he turned to McCoy. "Bones, can I speak to you in confidence?"

"Sure, Jim. Step into my office."

The two walked over to the side and waited until the door closed. "What's wrong, Jim? Your salt intake affecting your performance with the ladies?"

The captain was not amused. "This is serious, Bones. I need to know if Lieutenant Commander Mickelson has had a psyche evaluation lately."

"What's going on, Jim?"

"I'm surprised you haven't heard by now. It's practically all over the ship. The lieutenant commander can't seem to get it out of his mind that our own Lieutenant Uhura is supposed to be with him. It doesn't matter how often she's let him know she isn't interested."

"Tell her to put him up on charges, then, Jim," said McCoy. "Has that bastard put his hands on Uhura?"

The captain nodded. "If that were the case, Bones, this matter would already be settled. No, he hasn't touched her as far as I know. And as for her putting him up on charges, I suspect the lieutenant is so overwhelmed by this situation with the communications lab and the lack of sleep, she isn't thinking too straight. But I have my own suspicions. Can his latest psyche eval be pulled or not?"

"Fortunately those sorts of things are for commanding officer's eyes only, so you're in luck, Jim. I'll send it to you by this evening."

"Thanks, Bones," said the captain as he began to depart.

"Where you going now?"

"Records division. I'm working on a hunch."

"What hunch?"

"When he was assigned to the enterprise the lieutenant commander didn't have anything like this in his personnel record. But there are other things to look for besides direct charges. I'd like to know how many women have transferred out of the lieutenant commander's department, here and his last assignment."

"Why don't you get Spock to help while you're at it?"

"I'd like to keep this investigation as confidential as possible," said Kirk.

"He gets on my damn nerves, but we both know that if you're conducting an investigation, Jim, Spock is the best you've got."

James Kirk felt like he was standing between the proverbial rock and an uncomfortable hard place as he scratched his head thoughtfully. One thing he didn't want to do was betray Spock's confidence. "He's a member of the bridge crew, McCoy. And most of the bridge crew and some of engineering, including Scotty, would like to rearrange Mickelson's face over this."

"Especially for that reason you won't get anyone as impartial as Spock, Jim."

"Not this time, Bones. I'm going this one alone. I have my reasons."

McCoy only frowned as he watched the Captain leave. "What the hell was that about?" he asked aloud.

####

Uhura was in a sound sleep that night when she received another communiqué alert. "Lieutenant Uhura to the Communications Lab," Junior Communications Officer Ensign Jamal Enriquez said over the intercom.

She struggled up to the surface of consciousness and looked at her clock. Her bleary eyes read what it said. 0128 hours. She hit her intercom, "On my way, Ensign."

"Enriquez out," he signed off.

She dragged herself out of bed and into her bathroom to get herself together as quickly as possible. She knew Spock had most likely already been alerted and was warmed that he would be in her quarters waiting for her after she was done. Since she had already worked out a new encryption code, at the most she would be in the lab four hours. She might be able to snatch over two hours of rest before having to get up, get ready and report to the bridge.

After getting herself out of her quarters she made her way to the bowels of the ship and walked into the lab to see Enrique on his way out. "The work is already there, ma'am," he pointed as he left. He paused, "Oh, and Mr. Spock is also on his way down."

"Spock?" she said, truly surprised.

"I don't know why either, but he said he is."

Enrique left and Uhura began her tedious work of checking the transmission over and pinpointing the origin. By the time she'd worked that out, the door opened and shut and she could hear the unmistakable sound of Spock's footsteps coming toward her. She turned to see him and smiled widely.

"You appear quite tired, Nyota," he said with concern.

"I am," she admitted as she began to pull out the log books and sign off on page after page of reports about this latest communiqué.

She noticed he sat down in the only available chair and then she felt his hands pulling her into his lap. "Sit lieutenant. Surely it will be overly taxing to stand throughout your entire shift."

She smiled and leaned back against him as she spared him a quick kiss on the lips before she leaned all the way forward to the desk to begin working again. He had a data PADD and began scrolling through it to organize his own project. Soon the two were working in companionable silence.

They heard the door of the lab open and shut and both looked up. Lieutenant Commander Mickelson was there, staring at the two of them. They just sat there with data PADDs in their hands, blinking back at him. The couple then remembered the position they were in.

Mickelson seemed to be in a state of shock as it registered in his mind that the woman he'd been pursuing, dreaming of day and night for months, wanting with every fiber of his being, was sitting in the lap of the Vulcan first officer of his ship. He didn't even say a word. His face colored over as his lips pressed into a thin line and he turned and walked back out of the room.

The two still in the lab said nothing at first. Uhura then found herself bursting into laughter after a full minute of stunned silence passed. She was practically crying, she was laughing so hard.

"Nyota, what is so humorous about this situation?" he asked as he put down his PADD.

"Ahhh!" she almost screamed laughing. "Oh, Spock, the look on his face as he connected the dots…he realized that when he walked up on us in the observation deck he'd actually interrupted us on a date." She positively couldn't breathe by that point. "Oh," she nearly panted, "this is just too much. I've been under way too much stress and not getting nearly enough sleep. Anytime that happens, it causes me to have terrible laughing fits sometimes. I'm sorry." She took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down.

He pulled Nyota closer to him with both arms. "When do you estimate you will be finished with your task?"

"About an hour," she said as she rubbed at her aching neck.

His fingers began to knead the muscles of her neck and back while she groaned in relief. "I will stay with you until then," he said as he continued to rub.

She turned back to her task and finished it up a little over an hour later. She then stood and began the process of sending it through her already prepared encryption codes. She then sent it on to Starfleet. By the time she was done, it was already 0630. "I have to be on the bridge in two and a half hours," she almost wailed.

The morning shift in the lab was due any minute. "You may at least obtain a small amount of rest before then," said Spock. "I will accompany you to your quarters."