Welcome back again, and I hope you enjoyed reading this far. Have fun with this one as well! Let's see how Jim will react!

On the way to their shifts, Christine and Spock met in the turbolift.

"I told Uhura. She says you're a lucky Vulcan."

Spock nodded. "My parents approve as well. My mother was especially…happy."

"I bet she was, Spock. Will you tell the Captain?"

"Yes, I will tell him after our shift."

"I'll tell Leonard then, in the meantime."

Spock nodded again and they rode on in silence.

"What's gonna change now that the cat's out of the bag?" she asked quietly after a while.

Spock looked down at her with a characteristic raise of his brow. "As much or as little as we want to," he said matter-of-factly.

Christine smiled up at him, and just before the door to the bridge opened, stood up on her toes to press a kiss to his cheek.

She stayed in the lift as Spock went out, quickly waving to Uhura who winked back before the door closed again.

"Could you come here for a moment, sir?" Uhura asked.

Spock bent over her station. "Is something the matter?"

"You have lipstick on your cheek," Uhura whispered, smirking mischievously.

"Ah yes. Thank you, Commander," Spock grumbled, quickly wiping the offending substance away and moving to his own duty station.

Apart from the conversation that he knew was looming, the shift was unremarkable. As Kirk and Spock were alone in the turbolift after their hours of work on the bridge, the Captain asked him if he wanted to go to the rec deck with him.

Spock shook his head. "May I talk to you in private, Jim?"

"Sure, Spock," his friend said. This was out of the ordinary, but anything out of the ordinary meant Spock had a serious concern. "Your quarters?"

They walked in silence until they had reached Spock's cabin. There, he sat down in his desk chair and faced Jim.

"It's about…Doctor Chapel," he said.

Jim leant against his desk, meeting Spock's indecipherable gaze. "What is it then," he asked, "have you been arguing because of the oversight on the planet? You've been getting along so well."

Jim had noticed the unusual distance between the two during the last week and had hoped his second-in-command and deputy CMO were not having any personal issues. But if they were, they were both adults and could handle their arguments on their own. If there had been arguments. Whether or not there had been any, Spock seemed unusually preoccupied with the doctor.

"Jim…It wasn't an oversight."

"It wasn't…" Jim stared at Spock, certain to have misunderstood, and not sure how to react. Spock would need to explain if he was meant to say anything.

Spock shrugged helplessly and met Jim's eyes with an almost apologetic look. "According to Vulcan customs, we are legally bonded," he explained.

Jim frowned. This had to be a joke. But from Spock? No, Vulcans did not joke.

"You got married to Christine Chapel?" he exclaimed, struggling for words. "You…you could have told me!" he spluttered. "I thought I was your best friend; I could have been your best man."

"Technically, you were there," Spock answered, unfazed by the strength of Jim's reaction.

"Explain!"

"We did not so much as marry, as being declared bonded by the Vulcan High Command on basis of the latest reports."

Jim sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. Alright, Spock hadn't become married without telling him, the Vulcans had declared him married without telling anyone. For a moment, his inquisitiveness outweighed his shock.

"You shared minds, didn't you? And you didn't even find it all that uncomfortable," he ventured a guess. "So, they decided that what you already have between you is equivalent to being married and updated their databank?"

"Bonded. But yes, that is exactly what happened."

Spock pulled up the original message on his computer, engaged the translate function and stepped aside for Jim to read.

The Captain's features changed from shock and mild disappointment to cheerful curiosity.

"What are you doing now?" he asked.

"Nothing," the Vulcan answered. "We did try to break the bond last week, but we couldn't. We decided to…do nothing. As you already said, the Vulcan decision is only a pro forma statement, not a development."

Jim nodded, thinking that maybe he was beginning to understand. "It just states what's already the case."

"Exactly."

A smile formed around Jim's lips. "Of course," he murmured, shaking his head. "I should have seen it. It all makes sense now."

It was Spock's turn to look confused.

Jim chuckled at his questioning expression and recounted some of the events that had made him wonder in the past just how close the two officers had become, even though he had not guessed just how close: the dinners because of which Spock had been too busy for a chess match more than once, seeing them sit together at lunch, being witness to their friendly banter during missions, and the fact that he was calling her 'Christine' without a fuss.

Spock's eyebrow rose even higher. "You have noticed all that and you were still surprised?"

"Well, concluding you were married would have been a giant leap."

"Evidently, it was just a small step in our case."

"Well…" Jim clapped Spock's shoulder. "Congratulations, Spock."

He wasn't sure he had understood everything, but what he understood was that Spock had not actively withheld this news from him longer than it took them to figure things out and that he was happy, even if he would never admit it.

Jim bumped into McCoy as he left, and they exchanged a knowing glance.

The doctor leant against the support beam in the middle of Spock's cabin and frowned at the Vulcan. He had come directly from Christine's quarters where she had confronted him with probably the biggest revelation of his life.

He had planned to tease her a bit after seeing her and Spock kissing, but as he had asked slyly how her evening with Spock had been, she had simply shrugged and said they had had a nice time, and he might want to talk to her in private after their shift. Expecting a rebuke for prying into her personal affairs, or a monologue about Spock at most, he had accompanied her into her quarters. And what she had told him there had outmatched all his prior imagination.

"So, it's true?" he asked, crossing his arms. "You and Christine are in a relationship? Married even?"

Spock nodded, not correcting him on the terminology.

"You might have told me," the doctor muttered.

"I'm hearing that a lot lately," said Spock, with an apologetic shrug.

"Yes, no wonder," McCoy murmured, then broke off his tirade.

He stepped closer to the Vulcan, pulled out a medical scanner, moved the instrument over him a couple of times, shrugged at the result and looked at him intently for some long seconds.

Before Spock could feel any more uncomfortable, McCoy smiled and put the scanner away again.

"You're serious about this, aren't you?" he asked calmly as he leaned against the desk next to his friend.

"Of course I am."

"Of course," Leonard smirked at the matter-of-factness with which Spock had spoken. "I am happy for you, Spock. My only regret is that I couldn't give her away."

Spock raised one eyebrow. "I have no intention to get rid of her."

"Hm."

McCoy decided not to indulge Spock's attempt at banter for once. Instead, he fixed him with a measuring gaze. He could only imagine how overwhelming this affair had been for the Vulcan, being confronted with previously unknown or at least unexplored emotions with such wide ramifications. As surprised as McCoy had been to hear about it, Spock's initial confusion must have been stupendous.

"I know it's a lot, Spock," he said on a hunch. "It's gonna be alright. More than that, if I trust my guts."

After leaving Spock's cabin, he went back to Christine's. He had left her immediately after her revelation, to confront the Vulcan himself.

"Is he still alive?" Chris Chapel joked as he stormed back into her cabin almost as fast as he had left.

Leonard ignored her question and stood in front of her with folded arms.

"Are you happy with him?"

"I am," she said without hesitation. "Come back to give your blessing?"

"You don't need that from me," Leonard grumbled. "And it's a bit late for that, isn't it?"

Christine only shrugged as she waited for Leonard to continue. Surely, he had more to say to this. She was surprised though, at what came next.

Leonard took her by the shoulders and looked deep into her eyes.

"Does he tell you how much he loves you?" he asked, "And that he'd do anything for you?"

"No, he doesn't!" she exclaimed, laughing loudly. "Leonard, this is Spock we're talking about."

Leonard nodded. "Good, then he really means it. Congratulations, Chris, I'm happy for you."

Christine chuckled at her colleague's endearing outburst and freed herself from his clutches. She winced slightly as she sat down at her desk.

"Are you alright, Chris?" Leonard asked. "Did you sprain something?"

Christine met Leonards look. No, she couldn't possibly tell him. Leonard stared back for a moment, then blushed furiously as he realised.

"Well, congratulations for that, too, I guess," he mumbled awkwardly before they said goodbye and he quickly excused himself.

To be continued...

Most of their friends know now. But wasn't there something about the parents visiting? Feel free to review if you liked it, and stay tuned for the next chapter!