"You are driving me nuts with that mad pacing," Damien said angrily. Hamid ignored him and continued pacing, all the while trying to reach Spock on his comm. unit.

"You deaf, asshole?" the younger boy asked again, almost yelling this time.

Hamid looked at him coldly.

"He should have been home hours ago," he said. "And I have no idea where he might be. I don't even know the location for his today's exams. So excuse me for being rightfully worried about my friend."

Damien smirked. "You shouldn't be worried about your bitch," he said maliciously. "He's probably out whoring himself to someone. I saw that picture. His poker face actually had emotion on it. Tell me, doctor, does he scrunch up his face when you give it to him hard? Or does he like it gentle and slow?"

Hamid could feel his temper rising again.

And Mike saw it. He intervened before things could get too out of hand.

"Damien, let us go inside," he said. "It is getting late."

"But tomorrow is Saturday," he retorted. "I want to stay awake and finish this game. You go on. Besides, I want to see a freshly fucked Vulcan, so I'm gonna wait here."

"You bastard…." Hamid roared and flew at Damien.

However, Damien was ready. He moved out of Hamid's way moments before the doctor reached him.

"Don't even think about it, fag," He said. "Just don't."

The argument would have escalated anyway, had Hamid's comm. unit not beeped just then.

He glared at his bratty flatmate before answering.

"Sheikh speaking," he answered.

For a moment, his face was blank. But then his expression grew worried.

"I'll be there in 15 minutes," he said and rushed out.

Mike and Damien did not stop him. It sounded like something had happened to Spock. Mike was a little concerned. But he didn't dare say anything in front of Damien. And as for Damien himself, he couldn't care less. In fact, if the Vulcan was injured or better yet, dead, then that was for the best. He just hoped it had been painful as fuck.

XXXXX

Captain Pike was glad that Hamid had responded so quickly. It was upsetting that Spock had not listed anyone on Earth as his emergency contact. It would have been logical to have someone from the Vulcan embassy as his emergency contact, but Pike understood why his favorite cadet might not have chosen that option.

"Cadet Sheikh, how are you?" Pike began.

"How's Spock," he asked, not bothering to engage in pleasantries with the captain.

"Ahh..He's okay," the older man replied. "But he's still shaky on his feet. The command tests were a little demanding. And they weakened him somewhat."

Hamid thought about this for a moment. He was a doctor. Even though he was not a Vulcan specialist, he knew enough about medicine to be able to help Spock if he was given more specific information.

"Can you give me more details, captain?" he asked.

Pike handed him Spock's reports, hoping that Hamid would know how to care for Spock at home.

Hamid looked through the information closely, reading every word carefully, in order to be sure that he didn't miss anything. Spock was okay, but he had actually been put through a pretty heavily demanding test. And while the tests had only tired him out and strained his muscles a little bit, it was the hypothermia that had caused him to collapse. And in his weakened state, he was now running a fever.

"Can I take him home?" he asked meekly.

"You can," Pike said. "Spock is waiting for you in the doctor's office. He just completed his psych evaluation for the mission. He should be ready to leave now."

As if on cue, Spock walked out, looking as regal and unfazed as ever.

The only lingering signs of his discomfort were the bruises around his eyes and the fine sheen of sweat around his brow and temples. He looked surprised to see Hamid.

"I took the liberty of asking your friend to pick you up, Spock," Pike said jovially. "I hope you don't mind."

"Negative, captain," Spock said. "I appreciate your consideration."

Hamid looked at them before clearing his throat.

"Er… Um., Spock…I think I should request a hover cab," he said. "I guess that would be the better option since you aren't feeling so good."

Spock did not believe in wasting credits where it wasn't required. But it was true. He was still a little weak and unsteady on his feet. And he was unbelievably tired. While he was sure he could force himself to walk all the way to the apartment, he definitely preferred to have a transport just this once.

"That won't be necessary, Cadet Sheikh," Pike interrupted. "I can drop you both to the apartment in my own vehicle."

Hamid and Spock looked at each other, unsure of whether they should accept the offer or not. Pike sensed their hesitation.

"Boys, it is not big deal," he said reassuringly. "And Spock, you are to be an officer on my ship. I'm even grooming you to take on bigger responsibilities eventually. If I am to be your captain, you need to stop behaving like a cadet."

"Yes Sir," Spock replied.

"Good," the captain said. "Now, let's get you both home."

XXXXX

The ride to their apartment was short and uneventful, except for when Pike asked Hamid a little about himself.

"You are Hafada Sheikh's brother?" he asked midway through the conversation, surprised at that piece of information.

"Yes sir," Hamid said, not sure how to respond in a better way.

Pike looked contemplative for a moment and then he answered.

"I knew her," He began. "She was deployed to our peacekeeping forces by the Syrian military, I believe. But the number of times she was asked to enlist into Starfleet fulltime… It was amusing how there was such a battle between Captain Edwards and Captain Kobasa because they both wanted her on their mission. Finally, she chose to serve aboard the USS Atlantis with her husband, under Captain Feocco. Caused a mini-scandal, because Edwards accused Kobasa of having a thing for women officers… but of course, that was just nonsense."

There a faraway look in Pike's eyes, and a fond smile on his face as he remembered the young woman who had come to mean so much to the entire peacekeeping department seven years ago.

Hesitatingly, he turned to Hamid. "I… I was told her son survived… How is the child?"

Hamid gave a small smile to the captain, completely understanding his hesitation at asking the question.

"He is doing well," he replied. "And he is the naughtiest little kid in the neighborhood. He lives with my partner in Damascus."

"What is his name?" Pike asked softly.

"Aimar Hafid… after his parent's first names," Hamid answered.

"There are so many young people in all the departments of the fleet," Pike said. "And I have lost count of how many such conversations I've had with relatives who come back to join the fleet, even after losing someone to a mission. I can only marvel at your courage, Hamid."

"I…thank you, captain," he replied in a quiet voice.

The rest of the ride passed in silence.

If only the peace could have accompanied them into the apartment.

XXXXX

"You didn't die?" Damien asked Spock the minute they entered in.

"Obviously," Spock answered in a cool voice devoid of any emotion.

Damien went back to his replicated pasta.

"Pity," he said. "The doctor looked like something really bad had happened to you when that call came. I knew you were probably not dead. But I couldn't help hoping now, could I?"

That was so blatant, rude, and direct, that even Hamid was left speechless.

"Come on, Spock, you don't need to deal with this," Hamid said, pulling the Vulcan into the bedroom.

"Yeah, yeah…ride him hard, doc… make your bitch moan, I bet he didn't get any up his ass from his boyfriends in the locker room…" Damien yelled.

Spock stopped at that. He looked directly into the younger boy's eyes, wondering if his ears had deceived him.

"I heard all about it, Vulcan," Damien said, his eyes menacingly wide. "And they said they will get you again. And again. And as many times as they want."

"You do not know anything," Spock said through gritted teeth, fighting hard to control his expression.

"Don't I?" Damien asked rhetorically. "I know you got away that day, Spock, but that image was not just a way to humiliate you in front of everyone else. It was a message. A warning. For you. That is what is coming to you, mighty asshole."

Hamid's throat dried up at the implications of what Damien was saying. He could see the fear behind the blank mask Spock was struggling to hold in place."

With a strength he didn't know he had, he wordlessly pulled Spock into the room.

XXXXX

"Why does he always insult me with such sexually explicit phrases?" Spock asked once they were inside.

Hamid sighed.

"I've told you, Spock," he said. "I am gay, and it is very obvious that I am gay. People make fun of me all the time. And because you are my friend, they think you are gay too."

Spock did not say anything.

"I can tell that you are having a headache," Hamid said gently. "Let me give you something for the pain."

"No, Hamid," Spock said. "Dr. Puri gave me medication, I do not require more."

The older man only sighed in response.

"Did you eat anything?" he asked. Spock again did not answer.

"I knew it," Hamid said, reaching into his bag for a small, insulated tin of soup. "At least have this. It will help with your headache as well. Your sugar levels are probably low."

Spock accepted the tin and opened it. Immediately, a warm, pleasant smell of tomato soup filled the room.

"Will you not have some, doctor?" Spock asked.

"No," Hamid replied. "I ate dinner before I came to get you."

Spock ate his soup, which was delicious, at least by his standards. But on the other hand, there was too much corn flour in it, which made him feel full even though he had only consumed a third of the tin's contents.

"I cannot consume any more," he said. "I am going to store the remaining soup in the refrigerator."

"Be careful," Hamid said, but Spock had already closed the door behind him.

XXXXX

Spock was walking back to his room when Mike stopped him.

"Mr. Spock, your mother left a message on the apartment's vidcom earlier in the evening," he said.

Spock thanked the younger boy and walked to the video communicator installed in the living area. Damien was still sitting there. Thankfully he did not pay him any attention for once. He was sipping a can of bear and seemed to be rather engrossed in his PADD.

Spock wondered why his mother had left a message on the communicator instead of his comm. unit. Perhaps there had been an interference with the signal. He didn't know.

He opened the message.

"Spock, I wish you would keep in touch with me… but no. How does it matter to you that an old woman is waiting to hear from her son? And while I wait for your news impatiently, from now on, I am not going to be able to do that either. Because I received news about you informing me that you had collapsed during a test. Do you have any idea how worried I was? I left 16 messages on your comm. unit. I wonder if you received any of them. And then I received another message a few minutes ago that you had been discharged. And you still didn't respond to my messages. I am worried, son. It is okay if you don't want to talk to me. But please, please let me know if you're alright. I'll be next to the vidcom for another two hours. If you wish to speak with me, call me."

Spock did not want to engage in in video call with Amanda while Damien was around. But he did not want to disappoint his mother either. Sighing inwardly, he placed the earpiece in his left ear and called his mother.

A moment later, Amanda's lovely face filled the screen. She looked worried.

"Thank God, Spock… I was so worried…Jesus Christ…"

Spock interrupted her babble. "Mother, are you well?" he asked.

Amanda let out a humorless laugh. "Leave it to my Vulcan son, to ask me if I'm well, barely hours after he collapsed during an exam."

"It was not major, mother," Spock said, irritated that they had informed Amanda of his brief bout of illness.

"Anyhow, did you eat something?" she asked, noticing how tired Spock looked.

"I did," he answered. "My roommate is most kind. He gave me a can of soup."

Amanda looked relieved to know that there was someone in that apartment who cared about her child.

Spock did not notice when Damien got up from the couch and left the room. A few minutes later, the temperature in the room dropped drastically. He was puzzled by this. Had the thermostat just malfunctioned? He shivered as the residual warmth of the room quickly dissipated. Thanks to this, he paid no attention to what Amanda said next.

"Spock, are you even listening to me?" she asked, sounding thoroughly annoyed with her son.

"I am exhausted after the day's labors, mother," he said abruptly, hating the fact that he had to cut the conversation with his mother short. But he was starting to shiver violently. And his legs were threatening to buckle under his weight.

"Oh.. Alright, son. Take care of yourself," Amanda said. Spock did not say anything more and ended the call.

And then he took stock of the situation.

As he had expected, the thermostat settings of the room had been changed. From an optimum 95 degrees, the temperature had been lowered to a freezing 32 degrees. He was sure he knew the culprit.

He started walking out of the room, in order to first reset the thermostat. But it was hard. In his fevered and tired state, he just wanted to go back to his room and sleep. But it was necessary to raise the temperature of the room. He was reasonably sure that only the living room temperature had been changed. And he was right.

The moment he reached the door to the balcony where the thermostat was installed, Damien pushed him in roughly.

Spock stumbled back.

He could smell alcohol on the human's breath.

"You fucker," he snarled. "You think you are so much better than all of us. I will teach you, you pig." He punched Spock in the face. Spock raised his arm to defend himself, but Damien punched him again, this time directly on the nose. Spock did not want to fight. But Damien was out of control. He punched him twice more.

His nose started bleeding after the fourth punch.

Sure, he was sick and drained. But this was not happening. With a mighty effort, Spock flipped Damien onto his back.

Even though his voice was hoarse with the cold, he managed to make himself clear to the younger boy.

"I have put up with your immaturity for too long," he said in a voice completely devoid of emotion. "You will cease in these pranks of yours. They do not scare me. And they do not hinder me. I do not wish to waste any more time and energy in dealing with you. You will cease your antics."

"Fuck off, asshole," Damien yelled, struggling to pull Spock off himself. "I will make you hurt, you bitch."

Spock was having none of it. He did not loosen his grip on the human, but he picked him up almost effortlessly and carried him to his room.

Mike's eyes almost popped out of their sockets when he saw Damien being carried into the room like a sack of potatoes.

"Mr. Gallagher, I implore you to keep Mr. Harper here until he has sobered up," Spock said, laying Damien on the bed.

"I will get you, you bastard," Damien yelled again.

Spock paid no heed to him as he left the room.

"Why do you hate him so much?" Mike asked his roommate once he was sure that Spock was out of earshot, truly worried for the first time that this whole issue was becoming much bigger than the average flatmate problems that everyone had.

"Because a pointy-eared dickhead like him took away everything from me last year," Damien answered. "I was all set to join the Academy for Intergalactic Politics, and it was an uppity Vulcan who came in at the last minute and took my position. And this one is no different. This fucker is the same. They all are."

Damien was almost weeping at this point. "And do you know who was heading the fucking jury for the incoming class?" A damned Vulcan. A pointy-eared old freak, who told me in that sadistic way of his that I could "attempt to reapply next year." Can you believe that shit, Mike? Can you fucking believe that?" Damien was yelling and screaming now, calling the Vulcans all kinds of nasty, bigoted things.

But Mike was not sure why this was such a big deal. People got rejected from colleges all the time. Why was Damien making such an issue out of it?

"Er..Damien," he began awkwardly. "I understand why you are upset. But you got into Starfleet. Isn't that good enough?"

"No… NO, IT ISN'T," He screamed, still crying. "I will be a fucking guard and nothing more while my father and brother head the fucking federation. Do you know how the fuck that feels?"

"Your dad and brother are on the federation's high council?" Mike asked stupidly, still not sure if that was what Damien had just said.

"Yes, they are…." He responded bitterly, a bit more composed now. "And before them, so were both my grandfathers. And they expected me to make it as well. But no. These Vulcans will have it all. It wasn't enough that they took away the academy of politics from me. They had to take Starfleet also."

"But you are in Starfleet," Mike said, quite bravely. "Spock is just another cadet."

"Just another cadet?" the distraught boy asked incredulously. "He is a fucking snake. That's what he is. You saw how he has climbed up the ladder in two fucking weeks. Watch how he makes life miserable for us and fills the fleet with snooty little Vulcans like himself."

Mike did not say anything. He personally thought that Damien's reasoning was extremely faulty. But he had to agree with him on one thing. It was certainly very suspicious that Spock had been allowed to progress literally at warp speed. He was willing to bet that there were other cadets who were smart enough to make similar progress at such a fast pace, if only they were given a chance. Spock had gotten it only because he was Vulcan. The others would never get it because they weren't. It was unfair. And he understood where Damien was coming from. He was just glad that he, himself came from a simple family, where expectations weren't so high.

XXXXX

After resetting the thermostat, Spock staggered into his bedroom.

"What the hell happened to you? Hamid demanded as he saw the Vulcan's bleeding nose and bruised cheek.

"Nothing, doctor," he said in a voice thick with pain. "It was a minor altercation with Mr. Harper."

"Those bruises look a lot worse than minor, Spock." He replied. "Here, let me apply some antiseptic ointment on them."

Spock did not protest. When the doctor touched his face, he pulled back as if burned.

"Yallah, Spock," he almost shouted. "You are cold as ice. What the hell happened?"

Spock clutched his head tiredly, desperately massaging his temples. "Please do not shout, Hamid."

"I'm sorry, Spock," the older man responded, guilty that he had caused Spock's migraine to flare up. "You just suffered an episode of hypothermia. What did you do to get your skin to be so cold again?"

"The thermostat in the living room malfunctioned," he lied.

Hamid nodded, not quite sure if he believed Spock. But he let it pass.

"Come, let us get you into bed," He said gently. "It has been a very long day. You should get some sleep."

Spock couldn't have agreed more. He climbed into his bed and almost groaned in relief when his back hit the bed. Before he knew it, his eyes fluttered close and he drifted into sleep.

Hamid sat beside Spock for a long time, just watching him sleep. In two days, the Vulcan would leave for the mission. He wondered if Starfleet had thought this through. It seemed highly unusual to send such a young and inexperienced cadet for a mission. Everyone knew there was more to it. But only Hamid seemed to be mature enough in the entire batch, to know that the reason had to be more than just Spock's alleged skills in the bedroom. What wouldn't he give for people to stop spreading those particular rumors? Perhaps the success of this mission would do it, and everyone would finally see Spock for his actual brilliant self.

Hamid had no idea when the Vulcan had become so dear to him. But now he cared for the man with everything he had. Owing to his sexual preferences, he might have once thought that he loved Spock. But that wasn't true. He loved Zain. What he felt for Spock was a deep friendship that reminded him of his childhood with Hafada. After all, he hadn't just lost a sister when she died. He had lost his only best friend. And that was why perhaps, he was so protective of Spock. It felt good to have a best friend again. And he was not going to lose him like he had lost Hafada.

A/N: Hey guys. I hope you are enjoying the story so far. I started this fic also to improve as a writer. Like I've said before, I love hearing from you and reading what comments, suggestions, and criticisms you may have. Please leave a review. It makes me very, very happy.