Welcome back. This is the second to last chapter, and we're beginning to wrap things up. In this one, Christine talks to Spock, about dinner and their first plans for the future. And the matter with the soup. Have fun!

When Christine stepped into Spock's cabin, he was sitting at his desk, in sleepwear, but engrossed in some data PADD.

"Burning the midnight oil?" Christine asked as she put the pyjama she had brought from her quarters on the Vulcan's bed.

Spock only quirked an eyebrow in her direction and resumed his reading. It was neither midnight already, nor had he any petroleum in his cabin. But he was aware of the idiomatic nature of Christine's statement.

"This merely needed my signature. It is Mr Scott's report on engine's efficacy, along with an approval request for a warp core overhaul while we're in orbit for the conference," he answered as he put his signature under the request and pushed the PADD to the side. Turning around, he said, "If it all works out to the engineer's liking, it is the midnight plasma we will be burning shortly."

Christine had changed into her pyjama as they had been talking and stepped towards Spock.

"Are you always that lenient in granting requests? I have a few ideas about sickbay," she said with a smirk as she leant on his desk.

"I am sure I can have a look at whatever ideas you might have if Doctor McCoy shares your enthusiasm. However, we must take into account which systems are dispensable. Us being in standard orbit for the next few days is a convenient time for a warp core overhaul. As to updates regarding sickbay, with the statistically unforeseeable number of injuries due to negligence among shore leave personnel, I would not advise…"

"Oh, Spock," she stopped him, leaning forward and taking his hands, "no work talk, please."

"Alright." Spock raised one eyebrow and decided not to remind her that it was she who had started to talk about work. "What did you have in mind?"

"What do you think about the ceremony?" she asked, referring to what Sarek had said earlier.

Spock stood up and moved towards his dresser, where he absentmindedly extinguished the candles that were still lit from his evening mediation.

"I am neither against it nor do I think time is of the essence," he said softly. "That decision can be postponed until we are closer to Vulcan again." He turned around to face her. "If it is all the same for you?" he asked carefully.

"Oh, it is!" She smiled up at him. "I don't care to divert the ship for just another marriage ceremony of yours."

"Indeed," he said dryly. Then, "What is it?"

Christine had laughed softly to herself.

"Oh, I was just thinking…Funny how we were both engaged to other people before but didn't marry them, and now we're sort of married without having been engaged."

Spock nodded slowly and sat back down at his desk. Looking up at Christine, he raised one eyebrow and asked, "Would you say our experience constitutes…a joke?"

Christine laughed again, and took one of his hands, putting her other one on his face. "Oh, I'm sure it does, Spock, in some regard," she murmured. "But it doesn't mean it isn't genuine."

"Evidently."

He met her sincere gaze and smiled very lightly.

They didn't talk for a while, not when Christine kissed him gently on the forehead, and not when she sat on his desk in front of him, holding his hand in both of hers and caressing it absentmindedly.

Spock could have done well without these physical displays of affection, but he had learned long ago that most humans thrived on them. And if he was being honest with himself, he did not mind it much, as long as it was kept in private and did not become common knowledge.

He brushed a strand of hair behind her ear, noticing how she pouted for a moment and crinkled her nose as the hair tickled her.

"Is there anything you regret?" Spock asked.

"No, not really," Christine said and tore her eyes away from their hands to look at him. "Well, if there was anything, it would be the lack of courtship, and how little time I had to savour our relationship as what it was, while it was starting."

Spock cocked his head and met her inquisitive look, saying, "But you did savour it. We both did. We just did not know yet what we were starting."

"That is the joke, isn't it?" She chuckled lightly. "Not the Vulcans and their unflinching bureaucracy, but our obliviousness."

Spock nodded. "While you are better schooled in the use of jokes, I tend to agree. It is seldomly a Vulcan who is the source of a joke."

"Seldomly," she repeated, shaking her head at his use of humour, always so faint and innocent that he could still deny it.

With a last pat on his hand, she stood up to go to bed. She stretched with a yawn and slipped under his covers. Only after some minutes did she remember the other topic she had wanted to address.

"Talking about Vulcans, what was the matter with the soup?"

"The soup?" Spock asked as he stepped next to the bed, looking down at her.

"When I mentioned my plomeek soup, Sarek changed the topic. Why?"

Spock sat down heavily on his bed and sighed. "Because it is considered unseemly for a woman to bring food to a man who is not hers," he cited the Vulcan customs.

"Ah, yes. I should remember that," Christine murmured, remembering indeed, a bowl of soup crashing against a wall behind her, thrown by the ship's compromised first officer. "But you are bonded to me now," she said.

"But I wasn't in several instances of you bringing me soup."

"And yet you never protested again," Christine teased him, lightly touching his back.

He turned around and raised an eyebrow in mock defeat. "Indeed, I did not," he said and lay down next to her.

Christine shuffled closer and snaked her arm around his slim waist.

Spock misunderstood and looked down at her slightly amused. "Again?"

"Huh?" Christine frowned up at him. "Oh. No…I just want to cuddle." She flashed him a bashful smile. "Is that alright for you?"

Spock nodded, and after a while, he turned off the lights.

After some minutes of silence, Christine heard a sigh coming from him in the darkness.

"Spock?"

His answer was a low murmur. "I never would have thought…"

"What? That we'd end up together?"

She felt another puff of air on her head as the Vulcan sighed again.

"No…I never would have thought that I could…" He hesitated and Christine recognised how hard it was for him to formulate these emotional matters. "I never would have thought that I could form meaningful connections with people, with humans. That I could have…relationships, friends…without sacrificing part of my identity. That's what Jim always tried to teach me during the five-year mission, but it took me at least until after the V'Ger mission to fully comprehend and accept."

Christine was silent but he knew she had been listening intently to his revelation. Curious, how the absence of light loosened the tongue.

She snuggled closer to him, unsure of what to say. One of the rare times he opened up like that, and she didn't know how to react.

"I'm glad you did," she whispered eventually, and she was quite glad he couldn't see her face.

To be continued...

Stay tuned for the last chapter, before we send them off into a happy future together! And, as always, I'm happy about reviews, so feel free to leave them if you wish.