Watching the Vulcan Sleep 2

When the Ship's Chief Surgeon made his way to his office, Captain Kirk was there, hands behind his back, studying some of the charts on the wall. He must have come in while McCoy was watching Spock sleep; and, not wanting to interrupt the doctor at work, had come here to wait.

He turned when the doctor walked in.

McCoy continued on, and collapsed into the chair behind his desk.

Kirk sat on the other, in front.

Leaning both elbows on the desk, Leonard looked down and scrubbed both hands through his hair, and then over his face. His thumbs were in the hollows under his cheekbones, and his fingertips massaged all the furrows in his brow.

They had both been here before.

Jim waited for Bones to speak.

Staring at nothing on the desktop, Leonard let out a huge sigh.

Finally he raised his eyes to Jim's.

Jim's eyebrows went up. So did Bones' – then one corner of each mouth.

Bones slumped back in his chair. "Yeah, he'll make it." He tried to make his voice a little disgruntled, but he was too relieved to pull it off – and they both knew better anyway.

Jim nodded. He leaned back, now, too. "Good job, Bones."

Leonard shook his head. "Honest to God, Jim, I don't know how much longer I can keep doing this."

Jim looked over at him, one eyebrow doing a passable imitation of the Vulcan one.

"Spock's a careful son-of-a-bitch. No one more, really. And tough as hell. But even something small can be iffy. One of these days…" Bones couldn't even complete the thought.

Now Jim was the one shaking his head. He was smiling, just a bit. "Bones, you're doing fine. I trust you. Spock does, too. I know he's not gonna say so, but it's true."

"Besides - " The smile was threatening to turn to a grin; Jim was keeping it back, but barely. "You are a grouchy, stubborn old man. You gotta keep him alive - if only so you have another friend beside me."

McCoy scowled. "I'll 'old man' you, the next time you're in here."

The grin was out, now. "Uh-huh. I know." Kirk rose to his feet, and started to go.

When he was outside the doorway, McCoy called after him. "Jim, get some sleep."

Jim's feet were still carrying him to the Vulcan's bedside, and his gesture turned into a wave of acknowledgement.

Bones leaned back and propped his boots up on the desk. He picked up his padd, flipped on his console, started recording his notes.

Sometime later, he heard Kirk's retreating footsteps, and saw the Captain's form pass from the Medical Facility.

The doctor put aside his paperwork and rose to his feet. He went out to the bed where Spock was still sleeping.

The readings were as crazy as before, but steady. His color was better - if greener was better…

Spock was healing, McCoy was sure of it.

The Vulcan's face still had that curious inward-turned look that defied accurate description.

McCoy watched him sleep.

He thought about what Jim had said. Did Spock trust him? McCoy supposed he must. Now that he was thinking about it, Leonard realized that, given a choice of the doctors here, Spock always came to him.

Were they friends?

With a Vulcan, who could tell?

No, wait.

Honestly, now: Were they friends?

Spock was hardly conversational; but he was as likely to stand silently alongside McCoy as he was anybody else – more likely, in fact – with the exception of Jim, maybe, and Uhura.

Spock didn't joke around, or get chatty, but he had an amazing memory and attention to detail. Sometimes, during a meeting, Spock would refer to something that McCoy had told him, by the by, months ago. Leonard was always surprised that the Vulcan had been listening carefully enough to catch those little things – and file them away, even though they weren't of any real significance…

Several times, now, he had even initiated a discussion – not about things that Leonard might ordinarily think were 'friend' topics – but still, about things that Spock would be likely to think were of interest to the doctor: Research, medical discoveries – once, even, the development of peach hybrids.

Peach hybrids. Just the thought made Leonard smile.

'I'll be damned,' he thought, looking down at the pale solemn face of the ship's Science Officer, 'I've been befriended by a Vulcan.'