"We'll always be best friends — something between you and me. Six years — such a long time." — from Hooverphonic's Out of Sight

When the door chimed, Uhura had to force herself not to get overly excited. These days, not many guests stayed long. If the heat didn't chase them away, the inevitable light-headedness did.

"Come," she called without bothering to rise from where she lay on the sofa.

She'd become accustomed to the alterations to the life-support system in the quarters she shared with Spock, but didn't see the point of exerting herself for a visitor who would likely be there for less than ten minutes. When her eyes drifted over to the doorway and registered that it was the doctor himself entering, she came as close to leaping to her feet as she had been able to since being confined to her quarters three weeks earlier.

"Sit down, woman!" Bones barked as he walked across the room to join her. "Last thing I need is for you to trip over your own feet now that you can't see them. Then I'll be forced to catch you, and you'll melt into my arms and just our luck, your green-blooded loverboy will walk in just in time to catch us giving in to our hidden desires."

She couldn't stop herself from breaking into a grin as she plopped heavily into a corner of the sofa.

Len would stay — whether from sheer stubbornness, or out of guilt for being the one who'd assigned a naturally gregarious woman to enforced loneliness — he always did more than duck in and out before Uhura had a chance to say more than a hurried "Hello. How-are-you? I-really-miss-being-on-the-bridge-too."

He'd been insistent that a few weeks spent in higher heat and lower oxygen would ensure she'd acclimate more quickly once she and Spock reached T'Khasi Vokaya. And while she didn't doubt that his prescription was correct, she did regret its social side effects.

"Then you'll just have to fight him for my heart," she joked, and stuffed several soft pillows behind the small of her back. "Winner gets my undying devotion — until the next challenger steps up."

Scowling, McCoy sank onto the sofa next to her.

"You only say that because you know he'll win every time," he muttered.

"It's one of the benefits of having a Vulcan husband on a ship mostly full of humans."

"I don't even want to know what the other benefits might be," he said with a snort of laughter.

Uhura just smiled innocently and waited for him to get down to business. Sometimes Len stopped by just to say "hey" and shoot the breeze, but his somber expression and low-rent teasing indicated that he was there for something more serious.

For several minutes, the two sat in silence. When he finally seemed to realize that she was waiting for him to take the lead, he shifted in his seat and grunted.

"I'm going with you," he told her at last.

"Come again?"

"I said, I'm going to Vulcan Beta with you and Spock," he clarified.

The communications officer hadn't actually been looking for clarification.

She was too disconcerted over his news to even laugh at his adamant refusal to learn how to pronounce the colony's Vulcan-language name.

"No — no, I understood that," she told him, her smile fading a little. "It's just… Why, Len? It doesn't make sense for you to come. There are plenty of healers there now, and—"

He cut her off.

"And you're my patient, not some Vulcan healer's experiment!"

She reached out and placed a hand on her friend's forearm. The small smile still played at her lips.

"Oh, Len," she said quietly. "You know how much Spock and I both love you—" She gave him a light kick in the shin when he grimaced at that. "We do. And you know it. But they need you here on the ship.

"Those kids fresh out of Starfleet Medical come here because they want to work under you. We can't ask you to leave them behind for two or three months or however long this takes just so you can play midwife for me. Technically, I'm not really your patient, anyway."

"First of all, I don't recall either one of you asking me to come with," he told her. His furrowed brows might have intimidated someone who didn't know him so well. Uhura was unaffected.

"Secondly, anyone who gets sick, injured or knocked up on this boat is my patient. Doesn't matter who their primary is; if they get treated in my god-damned sickbay, they're mine. You got that?"

All at once, he seemed to run out of steam. He turned to her, frowning fiercely.

"This is a Starfleet decision, doll," he mutter gruffly.

When she opened her mouth to respond, protest, do something, he held up a silencing finger.

"Let me finish. The Federation is as interested in this as the Vulcans are, Nyota. You already know what your pregnancy could mean to them, but have you thought about what it could mean to the Federation?"

He stood and folded his arms across his chest. The shiny blue fabric of his Sickbay uniform pulled across his broad shoulders. When he turned to face her again, he was no longer frowning, but his hazel eyes, willing her to understand, sent a tiny tremor through her body.

"They've spent the last five years sending aid to Vulcan Beta, but in spite of doing everything they can to help, no one really knows if it's been enough. No one can tell when it might end." He sighed heavily. "Sure, everything looks hunky-dory on the surface, but they're still so damned closed-mouth about themselves.

"Ny, if Spock and I are on the right track, here — if all of this is because of you and not because of him — then maybe they'll be forced to open up, take a chance on letting other people have a little peek behind the curtain. Humans, at least. But, if that's gonna happen, the Federation, and Medical, too, needs to understand what's going on from the beginning. They need to know. And since I'm already involved, they want me there."

Uhura didn't know what to say. It didn't seem fair that something as simple and natural and mundane has having her husband's children should push her — and Spock and Len — into the spotlight. Childbirth was supposed to be a joyful event for family and friends, not a matter of interstellar importance.

Part of her wanted to launch herself into his arms and weep at the injustice of the universe. But she wasn't a whiner. Nyota Wangari Uhura, daughter of two powerful old families and strong in her own right, was constitutionally incapable of crying over her lot in life.

"Damn it, Bones," she said instead. "This isn't how it's supposed to be."

McCoy sat back down and wrapped his arms around her anyway.

"I know, gorgeous," he told her. "But this is how it is."

.

.

Spock was not disturbed when he entered his quarters to find his bond-mate in the arms of another man.

"Leonard, you have explained already," he said as he walked over their eating area and deposited two trays on the table. "Good. I brought dinner."

Nyota disentangled herself from McCoy and rose to greet her husband.

"You're okay with this?" she asked. "You think Len should just give up his work on the ship to hold our hands on T'Khasi Vokaya? Is that logical?"

The half-Vulcan knew better than to engage his wife when she was spoiling for a fight. He also understood that fear, combined with concern for her — no, their — friend and a sense that decisions were being taken out their hands were leaving her somewhat on edge. The addition of pregnancy hormones did not calm the already volatile mix.

"Yes," he said simply. "I trust the doctor more than I trust the Vulcan healers. His interests lie with our well-being, rather than with that of my father's race. Is it not logical to desire the support of a friend in times of potential distress?"

He saw immediately that naming Doctor McCoy "a friend" had a soothing effect on his adun'a. Tension drained out of her shoulders and she relaxed the fighting stance she had unconsciously adopted. Her mouth worked wordlessly for four point two seconds before she nodded without speaking.

She glanced first at the covered food dishes on the table, and then, turning, at Leonard. Finally, her gaze returned to Spock.

"Did you bring enough for three?" she asked.

"Indeed," he replied with a slight bow. "As Leonard will be spending the five days remaining before we depart acclimatizing, it seemed wise to have him join us for our evening meals."

McCoy grunted and Spock looked over at him, eyebrow raised.

"I've been 'acclimatizing' part-time in my own quarters for the past two weeks. And, uh, I'm not particularly interested in eating any of that vegetarian cra—, er, food, tonight, thank you," he answered the first officer's unspoken question. "I'll be eating enough of that starting next week."

"Then it is fortunate," Spock told him, "that I have obtained one of your favorite meals, instead."

He leaned over a lifted the cover from one the array of dishes on the tray.

"Barbecued ribs? Why you big tricky devil!" McCoy exclaimed, a broad smile making his eyes gleam. He rubbed his hands together in mock over-enthusiasm and rushed over to the table. After taking in an exaggerated lungful of the fragrant steam rising off the meat, he waggled his eyebrows at his hosts.

The three took seats around the table and began uncovering more dishes. Spock had brought enough food to feed six average humans, but as both he and Nyota tended to eat more than was average, he doubted there would be any leftovers.

In spite of his aversion to "vegetarian crap," the doctor took a sample of everything available in addition to his animal flesh and appeared pleased with it all.

Halfway through the meal, Spock felt the intense focus of the other man's eyes. When he looked up, he found McCoy grinning at him.

"I knew there was a reason I liked you, Spock," he said, and speared another piece of meat covered in a dark spicy sauce.

"On the contrary, Leonard," Spock replied, a hint of amusement tingeing his voice, "you have frequently claimed not to like me at all."

He bent over his meal once more.

Nyota stifled a giggle and then her heard her whispering to their dinner guest.

"I told you we both love you," she said.

A/N: Again, sorry for the delay. I'll try to post more frequently, but I want to wrap up the preface to this story, Don't Lose Your Compass, before I finish this one.

The title of this chapter is taken from a quote often attributed to the Biblical verse Ecclesiastes 6:16.

"A faithful friend is the medicine of life and immortality" actually comes from the book Sirach.

The mistake is understandable as Sirach is also known as Ecclesiaticus.

Ecclesiastes and Ecclesiaticus are completely different books (if I remember my religious studies courses, Protestant Christian religions don't consider the latter to be canon, while Catholic and Eastern Christian religions do. Feel free to correct me if that's not true.)

Anyway, I thought it fit Bones's relationship with Spock and Uhura pretty well.

Disclaimer: I don't own 'em.