"So what's up with Spock, huh?" Jim leaned back and rested his feet on the desk. Leonard looked up and glared when he saw the boots on top of his work.

"Get off my desk or I'll hypo you into next year." Leonard threatened, and Jim removed his feet with a sigh.

"I think his bad temper might have spread to you." Jim joked, but Leonard only rolled his eyes. "Hey, everyone seemed to have enjoyed that one night in the observation deck. Only you and Spock seem to be sour after it. You guys get into another fight or something?" Leonard chuckled dishearteningly.

"Hell if I know, Jim. I don't remember anything after Chekov karate chopping Scotty in the schnoz." He half-smiled at that. Scotty was pissed.

"Yeah," Jim started laughing. "Didn't he say something like 'you better get yer wee head ou' of yer arse before I roundhouse kick ye outta here'?" Leonard snickered at that.

"Yeah, something like that." He said, looking at a monitor to see if he had gotten any emails from Joanna. God was he happy that the ex-wife finally let her start emailing him at least. Even though emails were so late 20th century. There were no messages from her yet, though, so he sighed and closed it out.

"Yeah, anyway, I'll leave you to your work." Jim stood up and stretched, and Leonard watched him.

"Take it easy, alright? And get some exercise in before I make you start runnin' laps round my sickbay." Leonard ordered, and Jim rolled his eyes.

"Yeah yeah, bye Bones." Jim left his office, and sighed. He didn't even have any work left, but he couldn't bring himself to move. He started feeling really strange. Well, he started feeling strange right when he woke up a few days ago, but he had blamed it on the hangover. But now it was a different strange. He hoped to dear God that he wasn't getting sick with something so early on in the mission. He was usually in tiptop shape for his age.

Deciding that nothing was left for him here, he stood up and walked back out into Sickbay to see how everything was going. A couple ensigns were being treated, as well as a poor redshirt. Leonard always felt bad for those guys. Redshirts always had the worst of luck. After walking around a bit, he finally spotted the lovely Christine Chapel and went over to her. She was organizing medications, so he helped her.

"How's it going, Christine? Haven't had the time to chat since lift off." Leonard said, and Christine smiled at him.

"It's going pretty good, except for a few people who 'spontaneously' got sick right after we left." She said, making Leonard growl.

"Damn it, don't they know that they're supposed to be healthy before they get on this goddamn ship? We can't afford an epidemic so early on in the game!" He complained, and Christine smiled and shook her head.

"It's alright, Leonard. Just small common colds." Christine said, and Leonard grunted. He didn't mention how threatening the Terran common colds could be to other species that are aboard the ship. He just continued helping her, all but stalling a certain question.

"Hey, Christine," Leonard said, putting away the last segment of meds. "How about we head to the Ten-Forward after we're done here? Just for a couple drinks on me." She smiled at him again. He liked that about her- she was always smiling, even when it got difficult. She was optimistic, and kind, and strong. Everything he liked in a woman.

"Leonard, I..." He's heard this before, so he waited for the rejection. "I'd love to." He smiled back at her. Leonard had a feeling that this was going to be a good five years.

Jim knocked tentatively on Spock's door. He rocked back and forth on his heels and wondered how he was going to tackle this. He knew that Spock wouldn't respond to begging, so he was going to have to be dominate him. Yeah, he would have to dominate Spock. In every sense of the word. Well, maybe not EVERY-

Spock opened the door, and just looked at him. He looked as expressionless as ever. Jim smiled awkwardly and gestured. "Can I... come in?" After a few seconds, Spock finally let him in, and Jim let out a breath of air when he entered. Man, this would be hard. When the door closed, he dropped the smile and looked Spock in the eyes. "Look. I know something happened. And I can see you tensing up right now. You and Bones left together, and I just met Uhura in the mess. She turned down poker, Spock. She never turns down poker. What happened?" Jim crossed his arms and hoped that Spock would say something.

Except, nothing happened. Spock put his hands behind his back, and just looked at Jim. He tried not to freak out as he hoped that the damn Vulcan would just say something, or show a clue, or anything. But nothing happened. Jim closed his eyes and sighed. He had to pull out the big guns.

"It's affecting your performance. As your captain, I kindly order you to disclose this information." Jim ordered with his best Captain Voice. Spock blinked at that.

"My performance has been unsatisfactory?" Spock said, his eyebrows lowering a fraction. Jim tried not to smile.

"Your performance is never unsatisfactory." Jim said, but he wouldn't let it end there. "Which is why I'm shocked now. It's too early on in the mission for you to be acting off." He said, and let the words sink in for a bit. When Spock looked like he was going to say something, Jim cut him off. "Tell me what happened, Spock. Don't make me force it out of you." He knew it was an empty threat, and he was sure Spock knew that too, but he wasn't afraid to keep going. Spock performed the tiniest of sighs before sitting at the small table. Jim sat across from him.

"It is difficult to describe." Spock said, but Jim didn't do anything. He just waited. He knew when to be quiet. "When I had decided to return to my quarters, Dr. McCoy also desired to leave. Since he did not know the way to his own quarters, I accompanied him. The journey took longer than expected- an approximate 57.31 minutes. When we arrived at his quarters..." Spock swallowed hard, and Jim could tell that the Vulcan was getting irritated. "I woke up in his bed." Spock said shortly, and Jim tried not to show any emotion. He could've guessed that part. But he wanted to know all of it.

"Nope. Whole story. There's more to it than that, and we both know it." Jim tried not to make it sound like he wanted to know because he was a pervert, but well, old habits die hard. It was for Spock's own good, though.

"While inside Dr. McCoy's quarters, the light had never been turned on. It is only my inference now that we had partially forgotten who each other were. He started... touching me, in various places. I had mistaken him for Nyota, at some point." Jim nodded, but he knew that Spock was only saying that to justify himself right off the bat. His use of "at some point" clearly showed that he knew that he was with Leonard for most of the time. "I am unsure as to when exactly we became naked..." At this, Jim could see the green rising to Spock's ears and cheeks. He didn't know if it was anger, embarrassment, or a combination of several things.

Jim gestured for Spock to continue. "We partook in a rather violent intercourse for... approximately 63.22 minutes." At that, Jim couldn't help but raise his eyebrows. He had to intervene.

"Hold on, wait up." Jim held up his hands in surrender. "You're meaning to tell me that you two spent an hour fucking each other, and you didn't even realize that what you were doing was, y'know, wrong?" One of Spock's eyebrows twitched, so Jim held his hands up higher. "Don't get mad, just hear me out. Clearly you two weren't in some sort of drunken rage if you fucked for-"

"Please refrain from using that term." Spock demanded, clearly looking angry now.

"What? Fuck?" Jim said, and Spock clenched his jaw. "Alright, sorry. But stop distracting me. On topic, I've gotten drunk with Bones before. He doesn't fu- sex with anyone while drunk. I've tried." He knew he wasn't helping with Spock's anger, and he knew that his point was probably already across, so he just gestured for Spock to continue the story.

"After engaging in intercourse for that amount of time, we fell asleep in his bed." Spock continued, looking only a little angry now. "I awoke at approximately 0400 hours and returned to my own quarters, removing any trace that I had been in Dr. McCoy's company." Jim nodded again. He could agree with that. If Leonard woke up next to a Vulcan, all hell'd probably break loose.

"I can guess the rest. What about Uhura?" Jim asked, scooting forward a bit in his chair. He could only guess how uncomfortable he was making Spock feel.

"After dinner that day, I ended our relationship." Jim's eyebrows rose to the heavens at that, but Spock continued. "I did not disclose any details, but I assured her that it was not her fault." Jim was shocked, to say the least.

"Why didn't you... you know... talk it over with her?" Jim laughed nervously. "Why'd you have to end a relationship because of some drunken act? It happens to the best of us." Spock shook his head a little, and Jim frowned.

"There is... something else." Spock spoke slow and quiet, making Jim lean forward even more. He was far inside Spock's bubble by that time. "I had feared it as soon as I awoke in his bed that morning. However, over this short time I have collected sufficient data for it to be highly suspected. With enough meditation, it was evident." When Spock said no more, Jim flailed his hands in a wide gesture for him to continue. There was another tiny Vulcan sigh. "I had formed a bond with him during our... coitus."

Jim gaped. He gaped for a long time, and sat back in his chair. He scoffed and crossed his arms while shaking his head. He muttered, "Well bend me over and call me Sally..." And Spock gave him the Vulcan version of The Look. Jim smiled widely. "You and Bones! Never in a billion years would I have seen that coming..."

"Captain, I am sure you are aware that I have much intention to sever this bond, as I am sure that Dr. McCoy will once I inform him of it." Spock said, and Jim felt like he was hit with a brick.

"What?! Spock!" Jim slammed his hand on the table. "No. You already have a severed bond and an ending of a serious relationship on your shoulders. You know what too many severed bonds do to Vulcans. You can't. I won't allow it. You both will just have to work it out."

"Captain, I am half-human-"

"Spock, I don't give a rat's ass about any of your complicated genealogy. You are not severing that bond. That bond was formed of something else, you know." Jim's voice went soft, and he leaned towards Spock again. "Your arranged bond hardly mattered. This one was formed willingly. You can't have this mess you up. Don't sever it." He stood up and crossed his arms defiantly. "You two will work this out. I don't care how it happens, or what it takes. Whether it takes a relationship or not, that bond will survive, damn it." He didn't know why, but he was starting to think of Spock and McCoy's bond as an actual being. They couldn't just go and kill it. When Spock said nothing, Jim nodded to him and left through their shared bathroom.

Once in his own quarters, he sighed. It was going to be a long and hard five years.