Alright, let me just get Christine out of the way so she can leave Spock and Nyota alone and move on with her life.

Note: I hope Y'all don't think I was bashing Christine too much in this story. I needed an antagonist, and she was the logical choice. Her character is a bit 'problematic' though. Sure, she was a woman in love, but she did some messed up stuff on the show that if a man had done it, he'd be locked up... But I digress. I hope I redeem her honor and dignity a little bit here. If not, meh! I tried. Also, her story takes a surprising turn after this.

I am a woman in love

And I do anything

To get you into my world

And hold you within

~Woman in Love by Barbra Streisand~

Woman in Love

Today was Spock's first day back to work since he had been exonerated, and he had gone right back to working overtime in the ship's science labs. Nyota still had not been cleared for duty and would not be until Dr. McCoy was certain Spock's Katra was not interfering with her health. They were still not sure how and why she had suffered from that Pon Farr fever or her other emotional outbursts. It seems so long ago that those events happened, but they were still trying to reach Vulcan for answers to Uhura's health issues.

Life on the Enterprise should settle down to a normal pace again soon. Spock and Uhura were an openly and happily married couple now. Mrs. Uhura was even walking around with a ring on her finger that Spock had presented to her in front of everyone. There should be no more doubts about the nature of their relationship.

Christine had left the rec room before she saw the spectacle, but to hear others talk about it, Spock made a big show of it. No doubt trying to make their sham marriage seem legit, she thought. Marry in haste repent at leisure, as the saying went. Why else would Spock be avoiding his new bride and working overtime if he was as happily married, as the gossip claimed?

No, Christine believed nothing she heard from the gossips. She knew this marriage was doomed from the start. Spock was a logical man and to marry Nyota Uhura out of the blue was an illogical act. Nyota was not even Spock's first wife. She was his second one. And if his first marriage was anything to go by, Spock and Nyota would live their married lives separately until such time that Spock had another one of his 'fevers'. At that time, he would seek out a new wife, Christine speculated.

She didn't fully understand what went on at these Vulcan weddings, but she was fairly certain that was how it all happened. Spock went into something equivalent to heat, and being divorced, he sought a replacement wife and stumbled upon Nyota. If it happened once, it could happen again. To her knowledge, Spock suffered these fevers about every two years. Well, that was the time between his first and 2nd bout with the fever while on the Enterprise. That meant that Christine had to do whatever she could in the meantime to convince Spock to choose her the next time his blood burned. She had to make sure she was in his vicinity so that the next time he needed a wife, he stumbled upon her instead.

Christine still believed she and Spock were meant to be together, no matter what anyone said. And this time she was not going to let anything stand in her way, especially not Nyota Uhura. She blamed Uhura for her failure with Spock before, but perhaps she had been too subtle in her pursuit of him. She had offered Spock love, but he was an emotionless Vulcan. Maybe she should have been offering something more physical.

She should have been more like Nyota, who was more direct with what she had to offer. Nyota was assertive and outgoing. She had all the men on the Enterprise wrapped around her little pinky. And how did she do it? She appealed to their baser instincts. She stroked their egos and pretended to care about their work and hobbies, hopes and dreams. But most importantly, she flaunted her sexuality. She wasn't shy about showing her sensuality, all while leading men to believe they might have a chance with her.

Christine had noted more than once that Nyota even had the nerve to touch Spock casually as if she had a right to do so. And he didn't flinch and pull away from Nyota's touch the way he did when Christine dared touch him. He was taken in by Nyota's charm like all the others. Well, Christine could play that game too. She could be sensual too.

Right now Spock was in his research lab trying to catch up on his neglected work. It was well after hours, a time when the majority of the crew were on their sleep cycle so there would not be many people roaming about down there below decks. It was quiet and the ambient lighting was set for the evening.

While he was hunched over a scanner deep in concentration, Spock felt someone touch him, boldly massaging his shoulders. He immediately stiffened and straightened his back, turning to see who had dared such an assault on his person.

"What are you doing, Nurse Chapel?" he demanded.

"You looked tense, Mr. Spock I was just trying to help." Christine smiled as sensually as she knew how.

"Nurse Chapel, this is quite inappropriate. Why are you here?"

"What? Can't two friends help one another relax?"

Spock was prepared to say that they were not friends, but he knew that would hurt the woman's feelings, and according to Nyota, Christine was already in a great deal of pain. Still, this sort of behavior was intolerable, and he chose his words carefully.

"Nurse Chapel, I value your contributions to the medical sciences on this ship. I respect you as a colleague and would like for us to continue sharing a professional relationship. However, anything beyond that is impossible. I am married to Lieutenant Uhura and I have no desire to change our status."

"Yes, I know you're married," she said bitterly. "That's all anyone on the Enterprise can talk about. 'Spock and Uhura eloped right under our noses', 'married in secret', the 'romance of the century'! Tell me, Mister Spock, just how long was your relationship with my dear friend Nyota going on behind my back?"

"Nyota and I have done nothing behind your back. What Nyota and I do now is our own affair and has nothing to do with you or anyone else aboard the Enterprise or anywhere else." Spock replied calmly.

"I don't believe you. I don't believe any of the stories I hear either. They say you and Nyota have been secretly dating since she came aboard the Enterprise, but you and I both know that isn't true. You were married to a Vulcan woman until two years ago and I know there were other women too, like that girl on Omicron Ceti Three. Ny may have made a play for you, but you never showed her any interest beyond friendship. I would have seen it," Christine insisted.

"Meanwhile, I have always been there for you, Spock. You knew how I felt, how I still feel about you. I've never made any secret of it. I've fought for you, sacrificed for you, I begged the Captain to take you to Vulcan when you were sick and dying of fever that first time."

Christine's expression changed and became menacing and in a lowered voice she accused him, "You came on to me! You wanted me before you went to Vulcan and came back divorced. I know you did. Do you deny that?"

Spock sighed inwardly. He knew this would not be an easy conversation, but he had delayed it long enough. Christine would not make it easy for him to let her down gently. He told Nyota that he would prefer to tell the unadulterated truth, but now he realized a lie could indeed be more convenient. However, he was a Vulcan first and foremost, and he would not lie to Christine.

"No, I do not deny it. However, I never meant to encourage your continued infatuation with me. At that time, I was not myself. I was not in control of my emotions or my actions. Still, it was no excuse for my behavior that day and for that, I beg your pardon." He said, gathering his thoughts.

He supposed she deserved to know the truth about what he was. "Christine, as a nurse, you must know the stress my body was under because of the chemical imbalance I was suffering from. That fever is a cyclical condition every Vulcan male must endure. It is a time of Vulcan mating. During that time, a Vulcan male must bond and mate to preserve his life. Under most circumstances, we seek out the one we are bonded to in childhood. However, if a bonded mate is not available, we will often seek out an alternative, another available female or whoever is convenient."

Spock searched her face for any hint of understanding, but all he saw was anger and resentment.

"Christine, by playing servant to me that day, by being in my private quarters unchaperoned, you made yourself vulnerable to me. When I was under the influence of the fever, I could have done you great harm. It was unwise of you to visit my quarters alone. So yes, I would have used you had the need become great enough, but I would not have remembered it afterward and it would have changed nothing. It would have been nothing more than a physical act of fulfilling a biological urge. I would not have bonded with you."

"So you admit you wanted me that night?" She said, desperate hope gleaming in her eyes.

"I needed a female, and you made yourself available. If I had not had a wife waiting for me on Vulcan, and if I had not maintained my faculties, things could have gone very badly for you, Christine. I would have regretted hurting you just as I regret it now."

"You wouldn't have hurt me, Spock. You couldn't have-" Christine reached out to touch his hand but Spock drew away from her quickly.

"I could have and I would have," Spock insisted. "Because to that fever crazed beast, you were just a means to an end. That is my Vulcan nature. One I've tried to protect you from. Because the beast within me would have used you, but the man in me would not have accepted you as a wife. I do not care for you Christine, not in that way. I never have and I never will."

"No!" she cried, slamming her fist on the console. "If what you say is true, then why did you take Uhura to Vulcan? She wasn't convenient or available. I was in sickbay that day too! I was available and convenient for you then too! Why didn't you take me and use me then?" she demanded.

"A Vulcan will always seek his bonded mate first. If it was not T'Pring, then it was Nyota."

"But you and Ny weren't bonded then-"

"Not formally, no. However, a bond had formed and had been growing between Nyota and myself for quite some time, even before my first Pon Farr. In my mind she was mine. The pull of the bond was irresistible to me. Nyota is my wife. She and I have shared a bond since before Nomad attacked her. I desire no one else."

"But she doesn't even want you!" Christine spat out cruelly now that her feelings had been hurt. "She struck you! She's been playing you ever since the two of you returned from Vulcan. You're just wasting your time with her. Everyone knows underneath all that tight uniform she's just a tease. Even Riley said-"

Spock cut her off. "Christine! Please do not say these things."

Christine continued anyway. "You could still have me, Spock. I won't run from you. I won't tease you and then push you away. Just give me a chance to show you," she reached out for him again, but Spock backed away. "I could give you what you need. Nyota can't love you the way I do," she pleaded.

"I don't want your love, Christine. You are correct. Nyota does not love me the way that you do. She does not see me as some exotic prize. She doesn't hold me up as a paragon. With Nyota I am just a me. She-" Spock stopped himself from revealing any more. "She is my wife. Please respect that."

"No! I can't believe you want to be married to that harpy. She has treated you like crap and you just take it. What is wrong with you! Why would you let her hit you and touch you and kiss you in public? You're a Vulcan prince, yet she treats you like trash. If I were your wife I'd worship you, Mr. Spock. I would please you day and night. Where is your Vulcan dignity? Where is the man that I love?"

Spock had tried to explain, but she would never understand. "Nurse Chapel, that man does not exist. He never did."

"No!"

"Christine, Nyota treats me the way I want to be treated, as a normal man. That's all I want. I am not a prince, Vulcan, or otherwise. I do not want to be worshiped as a deity." I just want to be loved, he thought, but he didn't dare say that to Nurse Chapel who thought she loved him.

"Then what do you want?"

"I only want Nyota. She is all I have ever wanted." Spock said gently.

Christine did not want to believe it. How could he say these things to her? But Vulcans do not lie. He didn't want her. "Did you ever feel anything for me at all?" she asked, feeling resigned.

"No," Spock said with finality.

Christine felt gutted! She had loved him for so long. Didn't he even care? Did he even have feelings?

"But you do feel something, don't you? You feel for Nyota?" Chris asked with a choked voice. She knew she was pushing it, asking such personal questions, but she needed to know once and for all.

Spock straightened even further. At first, she thought he wouldn't answer, but then she saw his expression change subtly, his face softened and he looked dopey. Christine knew.

"I do," he said, as if confessing to a crime for which he felt no shame in committing.

Christine had always dreamed he would say those two words to her one day, but never like this. This was it. She'd seen Spock's emotions before when he was sick and out of his mind with fever. She'd seen him in the sickbay enough times to know just by looking at his stoic face just how sick or in pain he really was, even though he denied it. She'd seen him show grief at the loss of the Intrepid and seen him smile in joy when he discovered Captain Kirk had not died by his hand. But she'd never seen him while he was in his right mind show as much emotion as he just expressed. That little slip, that softening of his usual blank expression told her everything she didn't want to know. He felt for Nyota, in a way he didn't feel for anyone else, at least not her. He was in love with Nyota.

"So you do care for her," she said, wiping her tears. "I guess that's all I really need to hear. It was right in front of my face, but I just refused to believe it. I thought maybe... No. It doesn't matter what I thought. I'm sorry, Mr. Spock, for the way I've behaved. It was undignified wasn't it?" Christine said, recalling Spock's remarks to her previously.

"No offense is received where none was intended. But perhaps you should not waste your apologies on me for whom they are meaningless and unnecessary. I am certain they could be put to better service."

Christie tried pulling herself back together, straightening her uniform and smoothing her hair back into place. "You mean apologize to Nyota?"

"Yes."

"She will never forgive me, not after everything that's happened. I've said and done some terrible things to her." She laughed bitterly, "I just tried to seduce her husband."

"I think you will find her most receptive if you truly wish to make amends."

"I do. I never meant to hurt her or you. It's just that I was angry and took it out on her, instead-"

"Instead of on me?" Spock finished for her.

"Yes, well," she said, "my anger would have been wasted on you, wouldn't it?" A bit of that anger crept back into her voice.

"Indeed, it would have. I have a human mother and now a human wife, yet I will never understand the workings of the human female mind."

"Don't even try to understand us, Mr. Spock. Just enjoy the mystery," she advised with a laugh, and then a tear spilled from her eye again.

For the first time in a long time, she felt at peace. She'd lost Spock, but according to him she never had him anyway. She just had to accept that it was never meant to be between them. Five years was a long time to waste pining away for a man who only thought of you as a colleague and who would never look at you twice, except when he was injured or delirious.

She had wasted five years of her life, the best years of her life, first searching for Roger and then waiting for Spock to notice her and fall in love. But here he stood, practically telling her he thought no more of her than that of a piece of gum that got stuck to the bottom of his shoe.

And maybe Christine always knew deep down inside but didn't want to admit it, but looking at Spock now while he seemed so pleased with himself, she realized he was an asshole. No wonder he got under McCoy's skin. He looked as smug and as arrogant as his ambassador father, and as aloof and unfeeling as all the rest of his race. Why did she even fall for him? "Mr. Spock, I think I will hate you for just a little while."

He raised his brows in surprise at her declaration.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to do anything else to bother you or Nyota. Just stay out of my way for a while. I think I need a long break from you."

"I seem to evoke that sentiment in people," he said honestly.

Yeah, he was an asshole. "Mr. Spock?"

"Yes, Nurse Chapel?"

"Please shut up," Christine said, turning her back and marching out of the lab without a backward glance.

Note: Do you think Spock should tell Uhura about this incident? Or should he forever hold his peace? Yes or no?