I keep saying I'm gonna slow down with posting and give you all a break, but I love Spock and Uhura so much, I just keep writing so I keep posting.

How long can Nyota and Spock keep their secret with Nurse busybody on the case?

Friends and Lovers

"Nurse Chapel, Doctor McCoy asked me to files these medical records but I have a hot date and I'm running late. Do you mind finishing up?" a cute little young nurse asked Christine just as she was preparing to leave sickbay for the day.

"Sure," Christine said to the young nurse. Why not? It was not like she had a hot date herself. She had nowhere to go and nothing to do. Her best friend was avoiding her and there as no one else she wanted to talk to. Spock was out of the question. She'd learned long ago to give him his space. If she asked him about Vulcan and his illness he would only answer her questions with more questions or icy silence and then leave her feeling like a fool. So sure, she'd stay late and do this filing.

As she worked, her mind wandered. How had she ended up as a glorified file clerk? Christine had studied to be a bio-researcher but her career choice had gotten sidetracked when her fiancee Roger Kirby disappeared out in deep space. She had abandoned her promising career and signed on as a medic in Starfleet. It had taken a while, but she finally got a plum position as a nurse assigned to the Enterprise so that she could personally search for her lost lover.

But during that journey, she had made some shocking discoveries. First, she learned that space travel was dangerous and more demanding than anything she could have prepared for. She also learned that space travel was lonely and that on a ship of over 400 people she could be awfully isolated. She thought she would be occupied with finding Roger but most of her time was spent in the sickbay treating space sickness, bumps and bruises from overzealous crewmen spending too much time in the gym, or patching up crewmen who got the rough end of a mission.

But the most startling thing she learned was that her memories of Roger were fading. She was starting to forget what his voice sounded like, what his lips tasted like, and what it felt like to be in his arms.

And there were the new feelings she was developing for a fellow crewman. Mr. Spock was like no man she'd ever met before. He was young, handsome, intelligent, and utterly socially inept. But he was so polite and apologetic. Christine had bumped into him one day while exiting the turbo lift and even though she was at fault he had apologized to her. That was the first time she had touched him, and there had been a spark when her hand grazed his as he steadied her. She felt a flash of heat that leaped between them. It had been a magical moment for her and before she knew what was happening she was falling in love.

She tried to fight it at first, tried to remind herself that she already had a man, that she would be reunited with Roger and they would marry and live happily ever after. But late at night when she was alone in her cold bunk she didn't think of Roger anymore, she thought of the strange Mr. Spock and his warm hands and the way he made her feel young again.

She began to read everything she could get her hands on pertaining to Vulcan. She learned that Mr. Spock was also half human but he carried himself as a Vulcan without any human traits. Christine didn't care, she liked the man, not his race. She even told him so when she lost her inhibitions when the ship got contaminated with heavy water sickness.

Everyone had collectively agreed to forget the shameful things people had done and said during that strange episode. But Christine remembered how disgracefully she had thrown herself at Spock and even though infected himself, he still rebuffed her advances. But even that humiliation couldn't stop the way she felt about him.

When she finally found Roger and learned of his terrible fate, she was heartbroken but not devastated by the outcome. She already loved another man who filled that empty space in her heart Roger's absence had created.

Over the years she had loved Spock from afar and even agreed to stay on the Enterprise so she could be near him. She knew he did not return her feelings but that was okay. He didn't have those kinds of feelings for anyone. She was content to just be able to work with him and call him her friend.

During her time on the Enterprise, she slowly made other friends, you couldn't help it with the ship being an enclosed community. She'd become good friends with Lieutenant Uhura almost from the first day, she was just such a friendly and outgoing person. And she's become friends with Dr. McCoy and Dr. M'Benga and the other medical and science staff. They were a close-knit group in the sciences. But Nyota had been one of her best friends and she often shared her feelings about Spock with her.

And Nyota seemed to have a close friendship with Spock, they shared a common interest in music, and Nyota had finagled her way into getting Spock to teach her his lute. She had also finagled her way into getting him to teach her the Vulcan language. Christine didn't know how she did it. Spock would not even drink her soup but, like the other men on the ship, he jumped at the chance to do Nyota's bidding.

People tended to respond to Nyota and they usually tried their best to accommodate her. She was friends with everyone, you couldn't walk down a corridor without everyone she passed saying hi and stopping to share a little gossip. She had friends in engineering, in communications, on the bridge, below decks in the service sections, she had friends everywhere.

But Chris had never been jealous of Nyota because Nyota didn't have the one thing that mattered. Spock.

She should have known that Nyota Uhura was too good to be true. That she was really just rubbing it in Chris's face that she was able to get so close to Spock. The truth was out there no, Nyota was not nor had she ever been Christine's friend.

All this while as she was telling Nyota how she was in love with Spock her 'friend' was making moves on him. It was all too clear now, the way Ny would fawn on his every word, the way she would make a beeline for him whenever they were in the same room, the way she took up his time with her music lessons and her language lessons, the way she flirted and teased with him every chance she got. It all made sense now. And Chris had stood by and let her good and dear friend steal her man right from under her nose.

Well, she wasn't gonna get away with it, no sir. She may have every other man on this ship brainwashed with her overstuffed uniform but she couldn't fool Chris anymore. The more Christine thought about it the angrier she became.

She had even felt concern for Ny when she had been taken to Vulcan by an out of control Spock. What a fool she had been. She had begged Dr. McCoy to tell her about her friend's safety and he would not give her any information. Well, now she knew.

Spock and Nyota's medical records had been sealed but Chris had access even to sealed records and what she just read there was shocking. Spock and Nyota Uhura were listed as bonded! Married under Vulcan law and listed as each other's next of kin!

It was incredible. At first, she didn't believe it, didn't want to believe it. She couldn't keep it to herself so she stormed into Dr. McCoy's office with the offending records.

"Doctor, what is this?" she tossed the record tapes on his desk.

"Nurse why do you have those records, they are sealed, eyes only."

"And I have top secret clearance. I was doing routine filing when I saw that the records had been changed. Please tell me that this is a mistake, that it is some kind of sick joke. Tell me Commander Spock and Lieutenant Uhura are not married!" she said her voice rising sharply as she became more hysterical.

"Shh, keep your voice down, do you want everyone to hear you?"

"Doctor, I don't give a flying fig who hears me, now please just tell me is this true?"

Mccoy sighed, "Yes it's true but you didn't hear it from me."

"I didn't hear it from you, nor from my best friend. I had to read it by accident in medical records!"

"And you will keep that information to yourself, Nurse, those are orders that come straight from Starfleet command. This is a private matter between Spock and Uhura and you are to stay out of it, do you understand Nurse?" McCoy ordered.

"Yes, Doctor," Christine answered with a clenched jaw.

This was too much. She felt sick and hurt and lost and she had nobody to turn to. Her best friend had betrayed her and even Doctor McCoy who'd been there for her when she learned of Rogers passing seemed to be taking Uhura's side. Who could she turn to? Who was going to be on her side?

She stormed out of McCoy's office in a panic. She didn't know where to turn or what to do. She stumbled back to her own office and bumped into M'benga.

"Christine?" He said as he steadied her from falling. "What's the matter?"

Christine didn't know it but she was hyperventilating.

"Sp... Spo... Spock is married!" she stuttered and burst into tears.

M'Benga guided her into his office and held her as she cried.

"Shh. It's going to be alright. Its nothing to get so upset about." He soothed her.

He knew she was obsessed with Mr. Spock. Knew she couldn't see anything but Spock and her together. The silly fool. She could have any man on this ship and she had to pick the most unobtainable one.

Vulcan men didn't just marry women they met at work. They were bonded in childhood to other Vulcans. On rare occasions, like with Ambassador Sarek, they were divorced or widowed and left free to marry whoever they wanted, but still, it was usually a mutually beneficial pairing based on logic, not romance.

The fact that someone like Ambassador Sarek had married a common human woman was unheard of, for good reasons. The odds that lightning would strike twice, in the same manner, was astronomical. But according to Nurse Chapel, it had happened. Another high profile Vulcan male had married a human woman. And the bitch of it all was that it was Spock and Uhura. M'Benga bet that caused a few ripples back on Vulcan.

He couldn't begin to imagine what Christine was feeling right now. She was hurting for sure, but surely she had to realize she never had a chance with Spock? If he had not responded to her advances in all this time he never would. Not because he was a Vulcan and she a human, but because he was a man. And like any man, he knew what he wanted and what he didn't want. If he had wanted Christine he would have found a way to get her. Like he apparently did with Lt. Uhura.

M'Benga could have told Christine that he could see this coming from miles away. He knew Vulcans. He had studied with them at the Vulcan science academy. And he knew Vulcan males were nothing if not determined to get what they wanted. Spock had pretty much scared off other men from approaching Lieutenant Uhura a long time ago. And M'Benga had never seen a Vulcan male pay so much attention to a single female that he as not bonded to. All the signs were there. Christine just refused to acknowledge them. Until it was too late.

"Christine, listen to me. I know you cared for Mr. Spock. But you have to understand he was not-"

"I didn't just care for him. I love him!" She yelled

"Vulcan's are betrothed in childhood. He was probably betrothed all the time he served on this ship. He was never going to betray his bondmate for you." M'Benga tried to explain.

"But he's married to Uhura! I just saw it on their record tapes. They were just bonded while on Vulcan. She took him from me."

"NO, Christine, Uhura didn't take Spock, he was never yours."

"How do you know? Why are you taking her side?"

"Because I know Vulcans. I practically grew up on Vulcan. And I am telling you Vulcan males are... they are just different. If Mr. Spock has married Lt. Uhura he must have had a good reason. Vulcans don't marry just anyone. They have clans and families they have to get approval from. If they are married she was vetted by his clan and matriarch you can believe that."

"So?"

"So, this marriage was probably in the works for a long time."

"No! They were not bethrothed in childhood. They only met when she was assigned to the Enterprise, same as me. It has to be something else. You know he kidnapped her from the ship right?"

"Did he?"

"Yes! He was sick, he had a fever and he broke his restraints and next thing you know he's carrying her to the shuttle bay and off to Vulcan."

"Oh. No, I didn't know it went down like that. Regardless, if his family didn't approve her then she'd be out. They would pretty much be shunned."

"Do you think so?"

"That's how it is on Vulcan. Marriage is a family affair."

Christine wiped her eyes. Spock and Nyota were not married. They couldn't be. They had returned from Vulcan as if nothing had happened. They were barely speaking to one another. Maybe his family had rejected Nyota? Maybe this was one big misunderstanding? Spock had been sick he wasn't in his right mind. And Nyota tricked him.

"Do you think his family could have rejected her?" She asked M'Benga with hope rising in her voice.

"Christine, please, even if they did, Spock is not for you. You don't know what Vulcan men are like. You have to give this up."

"Never!" she vowed. "Don't lecture me about Vulcan men Doctor. You may have grown up on Vulcan but you'll never be one. You don't know Spock. He's not like other Vulcan men. He's different," she insisted.

"Christine you don't know Spock either. He's not what you think he is."

"I don't care. I love him. Love can overcome anything. Nyota hasn't won yet." She announced as she stomped out of his office.

M'Benga shook his head. Christine was in for a rude awakening. No, Spock was not like other Vulcan men. He was worse. He was a Vulcan man in love.