Jim lays in bed as per ordered by the very scary, very angry Doctor McCoy. Rather and be sedated, as he knows Bones will do to him should he leave the bed even to take a leak, he stays in bed and reads. It's been a while since he had time to just sit alone in his room (or any room for that matter) and read for fun. He liked books, always had, but being in space was like being inside a book, something interesting always happened at the turn of a corner. Why would he need books, old books printed on paper or those on his PADD, when he had a real-life adventure to get to?
He found himself unable to get into the story, however, even though it was one of his favourites and the most relatable to his current life. How would Bilbo react to waking up from a coma and not be able to recall the events that lead up to the event? How would he feel if his friends, even the elusive Gandalf, refused to tell him what had happened? What if he'd slayed Smaug all by himself and now had forgotten about it? What if Gollum/Sméagol had hit him across the face causing him to fall and tumble out of the things cave and hit his head? So many possibilities that clearly showed that James T. Kirk should not be allowed in a room, alone with only a book to keep him company.
He put his PADD down on the side table and sighed in frustration. Why won't Bones tell me anything, he wondered. It couldn't have been that bad, could it? I wonder what I did, not even Spock has come to see me. Probably trying to fix whatever intergalactic mess I created before falling into a deep slumber that one my charming prince could wake me from. Which would... be ... Spock since he was the only person in my room when I woke up... whoa.
"BONES!" Jim bellowed as loudly as he could, sitting up in his bed and throwing off the covers. "BONES! BONES GODDAMIT WHERE ARE YOU?!"
"What in God's name do you want, Jim?" Doctor McCoy screamed back, trying to outshout Jim who was trying to get up from bed and failing miserably. McCoy ran to the man's side as he tried to take a wobbly step away from the bed, wobbling to the side before plummeting down. Luckily, he wasn't as old as everyone thought and the doctor managed to catch Jim before he could cause any serious injury, again. He helped him back to bed, rolling his eyes ad Jim complained like a five year old in the back of a minivan on his way to Disney Land nine hours away. "You just came out of a damn coma, Jim. You're body is still recovering, you can't get up expectin' to run a marathon."
"I just wanted to stretch my legs a bit," Jim corrected. "Maybe take a tour of my gran ship and see what's happening. That's it."
"Well you ain't going anywhere, mister." McCoy wagged a finger in Jim's direction. "You're gonna sit your ass down, rest, eat and read your damn books until I say so."
"What if I have to use the-"
"You call me!" Doctor McCoy checked his vitals before clamping a hand down on Jim's shoulder. "You scared the crap out of me, Jimbo. I'm just trying to make sure you aren't gonna go comatose on me again."
"I know, Bones," Jim muttered, "but I'm really bored."
"Maybe you should ring up the Vulcan and play some chess," McCoy advised. "He's been hassling me non-stop since you woke up - too chicken to come see you himself."
"Maybe I will," Jim said as Doctor McCoy left. "Maybe I will."
Spock breathed in deeply, his chest puffing out as the oxygen entered his lungs before exhaling and feeling his chest return to normal. Try as he might, he could not stop thinking about Ji - Captain Kirk. He wanted to inquire about his condition once more but knew that - having already commed Sick Bay ten minutes ago and having a very loud, very impatient Doctor McCoy, once more, say that Jim was doing fine and he should just come down and see for himself - Jim was doing well.
He didn't need to go see the human to know, however. He felt it in his mind, in his very soul that Jim was doing well. He could just about feel the edges of Jim's mind at the edge of his own. The mind meld had formed a temporary connection between the two and that was why Spock had left Sick Bay and immediately returned to his room to meditate. Jim's mind was too tempting, too great to be able to avoid without effort. Even after meditating for 14.7 hours, Spock could still feel the want radiating from his body and soul, the need to reach out for Jim's mind, the desire to drown in his cluttered, irrational and completely emotional soul. It was overpowering.
But he had to at least try to close off the gaping hole that his mind had created in order to accommodate for Jim's ever-growing presence. He had to close it off before Jim felt the connection himself. Once Jim felt it, Spock was sure he would be unable to resist much longer and then things would be truly lost – he would be truly lost within Jim.
His eyes snapped open when the chime from his COMM system sounded, interrupting his latest attempt. He elegantly got up, blowing out his meditation candles before making his way to his desk.
"Spock here."
"Heeeeey Spock. Wanna come over and entertain me by beating me in chess?" The Captain's voice rang out, enveloping Spock until he couldn't breathe. He had missed that voice, the way in which he spoke, the twang he preferred to speak in rather than to talk the way Spock knew he could. Spock stared at his desk, unsure what these new thoughts meant and unable to reply. "Spock? You there?"
"I-I'm here, Captain," Spock managed to finally say. "I - I don't think-"
"Great!" Jim interrupted. "Be here in five, okay? Kirk out."
Spock breathed in and out slowly. Meditation was not working; perhaps being in close quarters with the Captain would help. Logically, being near the source of his problem was not the way to solve it but he needed to be near Jim and this was a perfect excuse to do it. Later, once Jim was entertained enough, he could return to meditation and expel every single one of the thoughts that currently coarse through his mind, the very human thoughts. But for now he had a game to get to and only 4 minutes and 32 seconds to get there.
It turned out that Spock wasn't very entertaining at all. First, he had forgotten to bring the game board. Something Jim pointed out after a few minutes of staring at his Science Officer who lingered at the foot of his bed, hand behind his straight-as-an-arrow back and dark eyes on the wall above him. Jim had wanted to jump up and down and scream 'Hey! Spock! Over here! Look at me, Spock! I'm over here!' but managed to push down the urge and instead said, "Not everyone can play mental chess, Spock. Where's the board?"
Second, although first in the list of most worrying, was the stuttering that suddenly invaded Spock's vocabulary. Adorably cute on Chekov, the stumbling and repeating of words did not suit the normally very succinct half-Vulcan who, very flushed and still not looking at Jim in the eyes, stammered, "T-the … boa-board, C-Captain?"
"We are going to play chess, aren't we?"
"Yes. Of course." Spock seemed to snap back into his body, nodding briefly at the wall. He turned without another word to get the board, leaving Jim very confused and worried. What in the hell was happening to Spock?
Third, when he finally returned, game board in arms, they play. At first, the game goes as Jim expected, with him loosing horribly. But then there is a change in Spock once more when, as he usually does, Jim reaches over stopping Spock from moving his piece by putting a finger on Spock's elegantly thin ones which hold the chess piece like it was made of glass. The moment their skin connected, Jim felt something pass through them - something hot and electrifying, something that had Spock pull back as if Jim had just turned into a Klingon, something that made the, normally balanced half-Vulcan, fall from his seat. The chessboard and pieces fell to the ground along with him, decorating the floor around the stunned Vulcan whose eyes were ask dark and wide as a cats.
"Shit man, are you okay?" Jim asked, sitting up from his bed. "What happened?"
"JIM!" Doctor McCoy's voice boomed as he entered the room. "I heard a commotion what-" he stopped when he saw Spock on the floor. "What happened? Spock, are you okay?"
It took Spock a second to react, clearly having not heard or seen McCoy enter the room, yet another alarming thing Jim was adding to his list of worrying's for the day. When he did see the doctor, he stood up with all the elegance he usually had, dusted himself off and stood up straight. He pulled down his regulation shirt and said, "I am fine, Doctor."
"It was my fault, Bones," Jim added.
"Whatever," the doctor muttered. He pointed at Spock and said, "I need you out. Jim needs another check up and I rather not have your nosy-ass in my way."
"Yes, Doctor." Spock left before Jim could protest.
"He's acting kind of odd, don't you think?" Jim asked McCoy as he approached, the doors having closed silently behind Spock a moment before. "I mean he's acting weird towards me. What happened during our trip down to the planet, Bones? Did something happen?"
"Look, Jimbo, alls I can tell you is that yes, something happened and that you should ask Spock about it, not me and not anyone else. If you want to know, ask Spock. Now lay your ass down and be still."
Spock rushed to the quarters that Ziggy was confined in. They had two more days of shore leave before the Federation and, not-so-trusting admiralty would check in with them. They already knew about Ziggy, both Spock and Captain Kirk had sent out a deep-space memo when they'd first encountered the man and learnt of his background story, before the alien decided to mess with their lives. Spock couldn't worry about that now – no, he had but one thing in his mind and that was Jim.
When their fingers had touched, there was a spark of electricity, which passed between them. If Spock were in his rational mind, he would have been able to explain this easily. But he wasn't. He just wanted answers and the only man who seemed to know everything was confined to his quarters until further notice.
As he approached, motioning for the guards to stand down, Spock prepared himself. The man had been responsible for Jim's current condition and there was no telling what he would do now that he was awake. His main goal might have been to kill Jim, hiding this by lying to the Doctor and Spock, hoping that Spock's attraction to Jim would be enough to distract him from finding the truth.
Attraction? Is that what he felt? It seemed like an odd word to describe what he felt towards Jim, not enough to accurately sum up what Jim meant to him. There wasn't a word in Standard that could encompass what Jim was to Spock. And there laid the problem. Should Spock want to, one day, tell Jim of his feelings how was he to do it if there was no single word that could explain the way Jim's voice made his heart race or the way his touch made Spock yearn for more? He couldn't let his mind stray, not now. Ziggy knew of this attraction and the alien was sure to use it against Spock to get whatever it was that he wanted.
The door slid open and Spock stepped inside, looking around until locating the strange alien at his bed with a printed book resting against his knee, a small smile on his face. Spock walked inside, the doors closing silently behind him and tried to put his thoughts into words. He didn't like this… he was Vulcan, not some bumbling human. Something was obviously wrong, now to find out what.
"Have you ever read Oscar Wilde, Mr Spock?"
"Yes, I have." Spock cocked his head to the side, not sure where this was going. "The Captai-"
"Ever read The Picture of Dorian Gray?"
"Yes."
"Then you will understand what piece of advice I shall now give you," Ziggy said cryptically, his eyes glued to the book. "The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield it."
"I do not understand."
Ziggy sighed, tossing aside his book and standing up. He walked up to Spock, their stature nearly identical, and said, "If you want Captain Kirk so much – ah, ah, ah I know you do. You cannot lie to Uncle Ziggy! If you want him so much, why not just go and get him? You might be surprised and find out he wants you too."
"He's lost his memory of the past few days," Spock informed him. "He knows nothing of what happened between us."
"Better for the both of you, don't you think?" Ziggy asked biting his lower lip. "I advice you to meditate. Find out what that spark of energy you felt was, how you feel about Jim and, how you're going to put aside your Vulcan pride and declare your undying love for him." He waved a hand in the air and dramatically said, "Take it or leave it, it matters not to me. Leave me now, peasant."
"I don't-"
Ziggy rolled his eyes, a small sigh leaving his thing lips. "I am stuck here, in this room, for two more days. My only source of entertainment comes from my link to you, my telepathic friend. Entertainment which is seriously lacking … entertainment." He stilled, taking a step back and rubbing the back of his head, looking at Spock with mournful eyes. "All I've been feeling the last few hours is your pain and I'm damn tired of it. I shut you out of my head because you started screaming and I – I can't take your pain on top of mine." He paused. "I – I lost my family, my friends, and my planet just like you and all I had left was myself. But you, you have Jim and McCoy. They care about you, deeply."
"Why is this important to you? What do you get out of this?"
"I want to experience love again, through you I got a glimpse but real love is hearing your soul mate say I love you and saying the words right back without a thought." Ziggy smiled. "I want to feel that through you, Spock. I want to feel loved because you feel loved. That's all I want. A voyeuristic love experience via Vulcan international airwaves."
"I-"
"No," Ziggy interrupted. "Just go and do what you must. I've given you my thoughts, once more. It is up to you to make things happen. Jim might not remember what happened but he will remember what happens next."
Spock left with more confusion that what he had arrived with. He needed to meditate and find a way to block out Ziggy, perhaps once he did, these very human thoughts would be gone along with the invasion of privacy.