Co-authored with the effervescent SailingAwaySoftly.

Disclaimer: Don't own it, but we're working on that.

-_-_-_

Bee shifted her weight from foot to foot as she waited impatiently for the away team to be beamed aboard. She heard the familiar high-pitched whirling and suddenly they all stood before her. Commander Andrews, the first officer of the Indy, supported his half-sedated captain. Isla looked very unhappy. They'd all heard about the Klingon colony, and Bee knew that her friend felt somewhat helpless.

Arlo was smiling, but his expression was still sort of sad. It was no surprise, since Jim was carrying Lieutenant Barrow's body. Spock, her Spock, looked impassive as usual. She let out a sigh of relief that he was apparently unharmed.

Arlo rushed forward to hug her. She was glad to see him. Something about the way he embraced her made her feel as though things were finally alright between them.

Kirk was talking to Scotty, still holding Lucy's body. Scotty nodded wordlessly as the corpse was passed to his arms. Jim left for the bridge. Isla, who looked extremely angry, stalked off to the medical bay, Troy and Ben in tow.

When Arlo pulled away, saying that he had to return to engineering, Spock approached Bee. He held out his hand to her, and she took it, pulling him away with her. If Jim was going to bitch about his first officer not being on the bridge, Bee didn't care.

Your son has been wondering where you went.

I promised you I would return.

Not soon enough, Spock.

We were in surprisingly little danger. The Klingon pirates were more disorganized than we initially thought. There was no real reason to fear them.

It is a shame about the colonists.

Indeed. No Vulcan elder would even suggest such a thing. A quarantine, yes, but not abandonment. Not even the Romulans would do that. Your friend is lucky that she was not infected.

Isla?

She was attacked by a diseased Klingon.

McCoy will kill Jim for that.

Not, I think, if Lieutenant Knight kills Dr. McCoy first.

"What do you mean?" Bee asked aloud.

"I should not have spoken," Spock said. "It is not mine to tell."

"I understand."

Spock pulled her to him once they were inside his quarters. He placed a hand on her belly, receiving a thump in answer. Bee winced.

"I just want him to be born already," she muttered.

"As do I."

Bee smiled slightly and leaned up to kiss him, but she stopped half an inch away from his mouth. She'd caught sight of the greenish bruise developing across his left cheekbone.

"Someone hit you. Backhanded, from the look of it."

He nodded.

She narrowed her eyes suspiciously. Suddenly, she reached forward, grabbing the hem of his shirt and pulling it sharply upwards. Bruises much uglier than the one on his face blotted his torso. Bee growled softly. Spock raised an eyebrow.

"They hurt you," she said through clenched teeth. She saw it in his mind. Jim instigated the fight. Then she saw the phaser fire that grazed Spock's arm. Oh, she was going to give her captain hell for that.

"Do not blame Jim."

"The hell I won't. Spock, you're hurt!"

"The wound is not bad."

There was an audible click as she snapped her teeth together. She was still gripping his shirt. After staring at him for a moment, she jerked it upward. She knew it was selfish and that he was probably tired, but she didn't care, and it didn't stop her.

He caught hold of her wrists. There is no need for force. I have been impatient to return to you since the moment I left.

She smiled wickedly in her triumph. She was thrilled to have the heat of his body surrounding her again, and she was impatient to have every inch of herself consumed by every inch of him. And he was more than willing.

-_-_-_

McCoy knew he was in trouble the moment Isla set foot into the medical bay trailed by Andrews and Dale. She explained to him in clipped tones the nature of their situations and stood in a corner, arms folded, as he tended to the new patients. She glared at him as she waited for him to deal with Scotty, who had just carried in Lucy's body. They took her to the small mortuary, covering her lifeless shell with a sheet. Scotty left without a word. Bones decided to keep Ben where he could be watched, so he gave him a stronger sedative. Knocking him out for a few hours was the least that could be done for the man. He dismissed Andrews.

Without looking at Isla, he strode decidedly to his office, closing the door after she'd followed him inside. He bravely met her eyes but remained silent.

"Why would you lie to me?" she demanded.

"I wasn't aware that I'd lied to you at all," he replied careful to keep his voice devoid of anything that might make her angrier.

"You have a kid? A daughter?"

A missile could not have hit him with more force. The blood drained from his face, and he grimaced as though he were in actual pain.

"Jim," he managed to say.

"Don't bring Jim into this. It was an accident that he told me. Why did you lie to me?"

"I didn't."

"Not telling me is as good as lying."

"I was going to tell you."

"When? At my deathbed?"

"Really, Isla."

"No! You can't just bloody act like it's nothing at all!" But she could see that he wasn't, and she wished she hadn't said it.

"Do you honestly think I was intentionally hiding this from you? I wasn't! She's… she's barely a part of my life. The last time I spoke to her was when we returned to Earth for the Blessing. I haven't actually seen her in three years. I'm hoping that as she gets older, she'll be able to contact me more freely, but she's only eight now, and her mother restricts her contact with me."

"Mac, I – I'm sor–"

He lurched forward, putting his hand over his mouth. "Please, Isla, say anything but that. I'd prefer it if you were still angry at me. I –" He froze. "What happened to you?"

"I was attacked. Mac, it's only a cut. See? It's already mostly healed."

But his jaw was set, his grip on her arms just a little too tight. Isla guessed he was probably seeing red.

"Easy, Mac. Just calm down."

He did. "I'm sorry," he muttered. "I've just been out of my mind, especially since we had to leave you all…"

She suddenly pressed herself against him, kissing him hard. She knew he hated that he had been the one left behind to worry. In all honesty, she hadn't stopped thinking about him the entire time. After her body's spectacular return from a boring and frustrating period of celibacy, she didn't plan to go back anytime soon.

He caught her wrists. "Not here, Isla. I don't mind you undressing me, but I think Nurse Chapel might."

"This is me jumping you, Mac. Don't try to stop it."

He laughed. "I'm not stopping it. But not here again." He took her wrist, leading her out. "Nurse Chapel, think you can hold the fort for a while?"

The blonde woman smiled with decided indifference. Who was she to talk? It would certainly make things easier for everyone. "Of course, Doctor."

And then they were practically running. As soon as the door to his quarters slid shut, things got frantic. Bones wasn't sure exactly what happened to their clothes or when they ceased to be two separate beings; he was only aware of Isla and the mind-bending pleasure he had gone years without receiving or giving. He vaguely wondered when the frantic, animalistic desperation would wear off, when they would reach a point where it could be tortuously slow… But it seemed neither of them had much control, because it wasn't too long before they were spent – that could have been a result of the strain they'd both been under though.

Isla snuggled close to him. McCoy drifted off too in a matter or minutes. He was too lost in his own bliss to notice that she was too warm.

-_-_-_

A/N: OHSNAP. REVIEW.