- "Surprizes are foolish things. The pleasure is not enhanced, and the inconvenience is often considerable." –

Jane Austen, "Emma"

"Hey, Bones. How's it going?" Jim strolled into sickbay, his stride forcefully confident and a cheerful smile glued to his face.

"Badly. Now get out." His friend did not even turn to look at him.

Jim shook his head stubbornly. "Not gonna happen. You know, actually talking about it might help you, Bones. That's what friends are for."

"I don't want to talk, Jim."

"Fine. Then I'll do the talking and you'll listen, how's that?"

"Don't you have a ship to command or something?"

"Spock's doing just fine on his own, but I appreciate the concern. Anyway, Bones… uh, you know, I'm probably going to suspend you again."

Finally, the doctor turned around, flashing Jim an angry look. "And why's that?"

"There," Jim pointed at him, "your hands are shaking. And personally, I wouldn't want that in a doctor who might mess with my inner organs. I'm quite fond of my heart… liver… kidney, hell, whatever body parts one needs to function properly."

Bones looked down at his hands almost accusatory, but there was no point denying it – they were trembling ever so slightly, and Jim, of course, had instantly picked up on it.

"Fine." The doctor growled.

"No, it's not fine, Bones. I need you to be fit for duty. What I don't need is for you to suffer from a broken heart, because Pike's a pigheaded fool, who declares the Second Cold War over a silly misunderstanding. Which, by the way, has been cleared up."

"I'm not…"

"Yeah, you are. Would the two of you PLEASE stop lying to me and everyone else? You love each other, and everybody thinks that's cool, so why on Earth – or off it – are you raising such a fuss? Just relax. Breathe. I'm going to tell Chris the very same thing, next time we meet – which will be in about 72 hours -, but for now, I just want you to know that everything's going to be alright, Bones. Look, I'm going to fix this."

His friend shot him an incredulous look. "Since when can you do magic, Jim?"

"I'm Merlin, didn't you know that? Now, seriously, Bones – finish whatever it is you're doing here, then go back to your quarters and catch some sleep. Let me take care of everything else. I'll make it an order, if that's what it takes."

"You can hardly order me to sleep."

"No, but I can threaten to sit by your bedside and sing until you do. And you know from past experience that for all my considerable talents, I'm definitely not musical."

Bones shuddered at the recollection.

"See? You do remember. Therefore, if you don't want to face torture, you had better get a mild sedative from your stores and a good night's sleep."

"Huh."

"Transport Shuttle 711-3-DELTA Carmen is ready for departure."

"Roger, Carmen, please proceed."

"That's nice; they're naming their shuttles for girls. And it's Spanish, nonetheless," Jim remarked cheerfully.

"It means 'song'," his communications officer dutifully explained. Uhura sat between Spock and Sulu at Jim's right side, to the left were Bones and Chekov. Christine Chapel, Mehpare Seker, Scotty and three other members of the engineering staff sat facing them.

"I am so looking forward to my sister's cooking," Christine remarked.

Jim raised his brows. "How come?"

"Her sister is Eleanor Chapel, quite possibly one of the best chefs in this quadrant of the universe" Uhura informed him, rolling her eyes. "Really, you've got no taste in foods, Jim."

"Since when are you calling him Jim?" Leonard cut in. He had been staring out of the window the entire time.

Uhura shrugged. "We're on shoreleave."

"Not yet."

"Close enough. By the way, Jim – Pike is likely to have half the medical personnel stationed in San Francisco standing by. Maybe you had better inform him now that their services won't be required."

"No way, I'm not going to spoil the surprise."

Leonard frowned at the two of them. "What are you talking about?"

"Nothing," Jim said quickly.

Uhura rolled his eyes once again. "You're such a child."

"Hey – I'm still the Captain, you don't get to insult me, even if we're on shoreleave!" Jim grinned at her.

"Jim," Leonard asked pleasantly, the hint of a growl behind his words, "do you by any chance want to tell me something?"

"Um… no…?"

"Spock , you're the regulations guy – can I smack him for being an obnoxious idiot while we're on shoreleave?"

"I do not think that would be wise, Doctor."

"I didn't ask you whether or not it was wise, I just wanted to know if I'm allowed to do it."

"I would advise against it."

"Shame. I'll do it anyway."

"Ouch!" Jim protested. "Now, that was uncalled for!"

"You totally deserved it," Uhura said smugly, "and wait till Admiral Pike gets his hands on you."

"I think he'll be too preoccupied to even notice me, Nyota."

"Change of topic, please," Leonard said, staring pointedly out of the window.

Jim leant over and patted his shoulder. "You'll be fine," he assured his friend.

"I highly doubt that."

There was a small crowd of people gathered to receive them when their shuttle arrived. Among them, Leonard easily recognized Pavel Chekov's numerous, loud and obviously happy family; there were at least three siblings as well as his parents and an aunt or two. There were also several friends and the mother of Christine Chapel, and a number of other family members of various crewmembers that he recognized.

A little apart from them stood Admiral Christopher Pike in the company of several apparently rather annoyed FO officials who stood out in their formal white uniforms, as well as Commodore Rebekka Roseleaf, who was arguing with them, another man in a black Starfleet command uniform and two civilians who seemed a little out of place. Pike, too, was dressed in civies, though his dark grey pants and black sweater weren't that easy to discern from his usual dark uniform.

"There's your welcoming committee," Jim joked, nudging him onward.

"I doubt that they're here for me, Jim."

"They probably aren't," Jim agreed, "I'm guessing that Chris is actually the only one who came for you and that everyone else came for him."

"Who the hell are these people?"

"The FO guys are Ambassador Luster and what seems to be his entourage, and they are probably quite put out with Chris for returning to Earth instead of going to Romulus. The woman arguing with them is Commodore Roseleaf, who formerly worked with him. They are close friends, so she's probably trying to defend him. The silver-haired guy on the right, who's quietly laughing his ass off, is Admiral Malcolm Reed of Starfleet Command. I guess they called him in to give Chris a dressing down, but it seems that he's just here to watch the fun. The pretty girl next to Chris is his personal assistant, Lieutenant Lafayette. I have no clue who the other two are."

Leonard looked at the commotion in front of him, shaking his head in disbelief. Trust Chris to be melodramatic…

"You have any idea why he came?" He asked Jim.

"May I hit you for deliberately being stupid? He came for you, obviously."

Trying to ignore the warmth that spread in his chest at these last few words, Leonard frowned. "What did you tell him, Jim?"

"Me?"

"You heard me. Chris and I argued. What on Earth did you tell him in order to bring him back?"

"He told me that you were dying," an all-too familiar voice replied quietly behind him.

Leonard spun around, only to face Chris, who had somehow managed to sneak up on him on cat's paws. His eyes, stormy grey and softened with sorrow and relief into an expression of exhaustion mixed with pure joy, were locked on Leonard's face.

Leonard swallowed hard. "Well, I'm not."

"I know."

It was hard to tell who made the first move, but a moment later they were locked into a firm embrace, with Leonard's face buried at Chris' shoulder as he held on tight. No words were spoken, but they weren't necessary, either.

Surely, everyone around them noticed that their embrace was just a tad too intimate and lasted a little too long to be based merely on friendly feelings, but they all politely referred from drawing attention to the fact. When Chris finally let go of Leonard, he turned to Jim, his grey eyes narrowing.

"Jim Kirk, I am going to kill you for this! Whatever were you thinking, scaring me to death?"

"I had only your best interests at heart," Jim replied innocently.

"I bet," Chris growled.

Malcolm Reed chuckled quietly.

"Excuse me, Sir, but maybe you could put off killing him a day or two? He promised me dinner, you know," Peace Lafayette cut in, smiling.

"Did he now?" Chris said, eyeing both her and Jim warily. "So you've corrupted my assistant, too, Jim? For that, I'll make it slow and painful!"

"I'd start running now, if I were you, Captain Kirk," Admiral Reed commented, "take the lovely lady with you and get the hell away. He usually keeps his promises."

"Good point. Bones – I guess you won't need my help anymore. So… have fun. Be happy. And try to persuade him to spare my life." He winked at his friend, before offering his arm to Peace Lafayette, who took it, smiling up at him.

"Let's run."

"You know, it's probably a good thing that you left him in Spock's care," Malcolm Reed told Chris conversationally. "That boy definitely needs some form of supervision."

"We're trying to raise him to be a responsible adult, Sir, but it's a hard piece of work," Uhura remarked.

Reed chuckled again. "Lieutenant Uhura, I presume?"

She nodded, apparently pleased.

"Would you care to join us for dinner, Lieutenant? I already asked Christopher and Rebekka to join me, and obviously, the invitation extends to Dr. McCoy and any member of the Enterprise's command crew who wants to come along."

One of the FO officials, presumably the Ambassador himself, cleared his throat. "There is still that matter of Ambassador Pike being sorely missed on Romulus," he remarked dryly.

"Oh, come on, Frank, give the man a break," Commodore Roseleaf protested, "It's not as if relations with Romulus were good enough to be worth this kind of trouble. They've waited years for a capable ambassador; I'm sure they'll be able to wait a little longer…"

"Becky, you know perfectly well that…"

"Don't call me Becky when I'm arguing with you!"

"He's her husband of fourteen years," Chris quietly told Leonard, Reed and Uhura, who were looking at the couple with varying degrees of puzzlement, "And as far as I can tell, they're always like that."

"Well, seeing that Dr. McCoy appears to be in perfect good health, you probably won't need me or David here any longer," one of the civilians said to Chris.

"No, but thank you for coming, Leyla. I do appreciate it."

The woman smiled and nodded. "Good luck to you, Christopher."

Then she and he companion turned to leave.

Leonard looked at Chris questioningly. "Who…?"

"Dr. Leyla Maliki, San Francisco's lead expert in space related medicine, and her colleague Prof. Dr. David Goldmann of Berlin's Charité Hospital, he specializes in the same field."

Leonard looked at him incredulous. "You called in a physician from Berlin?"

Chris shrugged. "Just calling in favors. His daughter is in Starfleet, she was on one of my crews and I saved her life after an away mission went wrong… Leyla treated me for the after-effects of Nero's infernal bug, as you might remember. I trust her expertise…"

"You should, she's a virtual legend," Leonard huffed. "Heavens, Chris…"

"Don't say it. I realize that it seems a little excessive in hindsight, but I had no way of knowing that Jim was actually lying to me. And not only he himself – it seems that Lieutenant Lafayette and Lieutenant Uhura went along with it." He looked at Uhura sternly.

She apologized instantly. "I felt bad about it. But then… Jim usually knows what he's doing… in his own way… doesn't he, Leonard?" She winked at him.

"I'll tell you about that once I'm done being mad at him for messing with my life."

"I thought you would be, by now." She cast a sideways look at Chris.

"Curiosity killed the cat, Lieutenant," Chris told her, "Leave him alone, will you? I'll take care of it."

"I never doubted that, sir." Uhura grinned at him.

"Smart girl."