Leonard's days passed "normally" over the next couple of weeks. Spock came to his quarters and they worked together for twenty minutes before departing. Leonard didn't really see much point in doing it, but it kept the Vulcan quiet, so he suffered through it. Jim kept bothering the both of them on the progress of his "baby," but they never really had anything to tell him. Things were just... going. And it was nice.

But then, things are never nice and swell for long on the Enterprise.

When he felt an intense pain in his abdomen, it was enough to make him bend over in pain and groan loudly. He felt like a knife had slashed along his torso, resulting in a horrific pain. Christine rushed to him.

"Leonard! What's wrong?!" She frantically asked, helping him sit down on a nearby chair.

"It's not..." Leonard heard himself talking before he realized it, and then the revelation came. "It's not me!" Recovered from the initial pain (but still hurting), he ran to a biobed to prep it. "Christine! I need..." He was lost for words, his mind working frantically. Suddenly, hands grabbed his shoulders and swung him around. Christine's big, round eyes bore into him.

"Is it Spock?" She asked in a soft, soothing voice. Leonard nodded rapidly. His comm went off, and Christine answered it before he could even move. She spoke, but he couldn't think. He couldn't feel. He just stood there, helpless.

As soon as he saw the unconscious Vulcan laid out on the biobed, it was like Leonard just snapped. Suddenly he was in action, barking out orders and working on Spock with the equipment, and his nurses worked rapidly along with him. Leonard felt as though all his many years of medical training were defined by this moment. Minutes passed like hours, but he felt like time was racing by him. If he was being honest with himself, he never felt more confused in his life. And yet after what seemed like days, Christine said that they were finished with the procedure, and he knew that he could only rely on the Vulcan voodoo for the rest.

When Leonard became more aware of himself and his surroundings, he realized that he had been staring at Spock (alone) for the past twenty minutes. The Vulcan was in his voodoo healing trance, and Leonard couldn't do anything about it. He felt so worthless right then. He felt a hand on his shoulder, and he thought it was Christine until he looked over. Jim stood next to him.

"You did good." Jim said, nodding to himself. "He's been in worse shape than this, Bones, you know it. He'll be fine."

"Who said I was worried?" Leonard retorted, realizing how he must seem right now. "Of course he'll be fine. I'M his doctor." Jim snorted.

"Anyway," he said, "turns out that our diplomatic mission didn't turn out so well. Well, I guess it depends on how you look at it. In the end, we all came to an agreement. But as we were leaving, some deranged man came up and started attacking us. Evidentially they were some rebel isolationist group of some sort." Jim sighed, rubbing his eyes. "The queen of the planet told us that her people would handle the rebels, and that we should leave before anything worse happened. I was thankful, but I'm worried about those people down there." Leonard nodded. He could understand that. "We're not leaving orbit until I've heard good news from the queen. I don't want to leave these people while they could still need our help."

Jim clapped Leonard on the back before he could reply, and he gave his captain a scowl. Jim just grinned and said, "Glad to know my baby will be okay." Leonard glared and opened his mouth to yell at him about bigger problems at hand, but Jim beat him to it. "I'm more happy that Spock'll be okay, though. He may be an ass sometimes, but he's a bitchin' First Officer."

"Yeah. I guess he is..." Leonard replied quietly, looking at the still-breathing body on the biobed. Jim's comm went off, and after a few seconds he turned back to him.

"Time to talk to some ass-chewers." Jim smiled at Leonard again and waved.

"Good luck, Jim." Leonard said, smiling at the man's retreating form. He walked over to Spock, and looked at the wound. He guessed that one of the rebels slashed him. It was a long, jagged, and very deep cut along his lower torso. Leonard grabbed a couple extra blankets and covered him with them. He gave one last look at the sleeping Vulcan before pulling the curtains around the biobed and going back to his office.

Leonard tried to do some work- he really did. He just couldn't focus. He'd like to think that this happened every time a fatally injured person was in his care, but he knew that there were only a few exceptions. Jim, Spock, Christine, and the rest of his friends were all he really worried about. There was nothing he could do about that, though. How he felt when Jim got hurt probably outmatched every other injury he'd ever had to deal with (not including his dad). Except for now, with Spock out there. The man had lost a lot of blood, but he was fine. And yet Leonard was still overreacting about it. He didn't know if it was because he'd actually been hanging out with Spock or because he shared a mind with the man, or maybe it was both. They were closer than they had ever cared to be before.

Christine knocked on his door and told him that she was finished for the day. He thanked her for her work, and looked at the clock. Time was quickly going by. He was technically off shift, but he couldn't bring himself to leave. Leonard decided he would just ask M'Benga if he could take his shift. He doubted the man would let him, but it was worth a try.

When M'Benga came to his office, he smiled. "You're still here? Worried about the Commander?" M'Benga asked, crossing his arms and leaning against the doorway.

"He's my friend. I wanna make sure he's fine." Leonard retorted, not at all feeling defensive. "Let me take this shift." He said and M'Benga laughed.

"Not a chance, McCoy. That'd be detrimental to your health, after all." M'Benga said, and studied Leonard's glare. "I won't bother you if you decide to stay here, though. I imagine you have some more work to be done." His eyes flickered over, and Leonard picked up what he was putting down. So M'Benga was giving him an excuse to stay, as long as he didn't actually do any real work. He was fine with that.

"I suppose I might." Leonard grumbled, standing and grabbing a PADD. He passed by M'Benga, ignoring the man's smirk. Leonard thought that M'Benga would be more stoic having studied on Vulcan for so long, but no. The man always irritated him. He carried his PADD to Spock's biobed and went behind the curtains. He sat down on a chair next to the bed and tried working on the PADD. There wasn't too much he could do. Look through files, check for messages, hell he even started writing a goddamn article to pass the time. It wouldn't have been the first time he did that, but it was a useless attempt. He couldn't get more than two pages done before he gave up. He was still feeling useless.

"Leonard," he almost threw his PADD when he heard that, and his head snapped up to see Spock looking at him. Leonard stood up frantically.

"I need to scan you for-" he barely made out before Spock grabbed his wrist.

"I apologize. Had I been awake for the procedure, you could have been able to help me further." Spock said, and Leonard glared at him and pulled his wrist away. He didn't want him reading his mind.

"I'm glad you weren't awake." Leonard said, thinking about how much pain the Vulcan would've been in if he was conscious. Also, he wouldn't have wanted Spock to see him so out of it like he had been. "Are you done healin' yourself? It hasn't been that long."

"I am finished, for now." Spock replied, then looked him up and down. Leonard glared again. "You need sleep. With the knowledge of my well-being, it is illogical for you to idle here and ignore your own health."

"Yeah, well, I probably wouldn't be able to sleep if I tried. I'm stayin'. And I ain't worried about your well-being. I'm just..." Leonard paused, wondering what WAS holding him back from leaving. "I'm just not tired." He decided and nodded. He sat back down in his chair. Spock eyed him, but said nothing else on the subject.

Spock sat up, to Leonard's mild dismay, and straightened out the shirt that one of the nurses had shoved on him earlier. "May I be discharged now?" He asked, folding his hands in his hands. He just looked so goddamn proper. Then the curtains ruffled from behind Leonard, and M'Benga's dark form appeared.

"I'll take that as my cue." He said, examining Spock. "I kicked McCoy off duty, so I'll take over from here." Leonard stood to his level and glared him down.

"Have you been listening this whole time?!" Leonard asked, getting angry at that damn doctor. M'Benga, however, hardly reacted as he continued his examination.

"Of course not." He replied calmly. "You just talk loud when you get emotional. Either that, or you grumble so people barely hear you." Leonard's glare went deeper.

"I don't do that!" He said loudly, and M'Benga rose both his eyebrows and smirked at him. Even Spock raised an amused eyebrow. Leonard sighed, having enough of this. "Is he good to go or what?" M'Benga hesitated.

"Well..." He trailed off, and Leonard frowned at him. Not angry, but in thought. What could have gone wrong? There was a cut, and it was fixed. Unless something else happened on that planet? M'Benga showed him a PADD that modeled Spock's brain activity. It was moving, so he wondered just when and where he got that. At one place, M'Benga paused it, and Leonard looked closer. Certain parts of the brain lit up. Simple things, like emotional responses and endorphin release. He wondered what was so important about that. M'Benga pointed to the time on the screen. It displayed the same time right around when he went in to sit next to Spock. So?

Still frowning, Leonard looked over at Spock. He was waiting patiently, and rose a questioning eyebrow. He looked back at M'Benga, who just smiled at him. That bastard was just trying to prove a point! Leonard scowled and said lowly, "You son of a bi-"

"You're good to go, Spock!" M'Benga said as if nothing had just happened. "No major movement for another day or so, try not to stretch the wounded area too much, and get your rest. You should be fine in no time." With that, he just left. That bastard. Spock uncovered himself and swung his legs over the bed. Leonard shook his head when the Vulcan stood up with no problem. Goddamn Vulcan voodoo.

"I'll accompany you to your quarters," Leonard said before he even thought about it. He almost regretted it, but decided that it would be a nice thing to help a friend out. Even if said friend was a Vulcan who hardly ever was too injured or ill to do anything. Spock nodded, and they exited Sickbay together. He could feel M'Benga's eyes boring into him as they left.

Thankfully, Spock didn't ask about what M'Benga showed him on the PADD. It was extremely bothersome information, if Leonard was being honest. He didn't want to think about that sort of thing right now. He was fine with just walking with Spock through the halls in silence. There wasn't anything to talk about anyway. Well, that was actually a major lie considering recent events, but Leonard could dream. Dream of a simple life where no one ever asked "why" or "how" or anything like that.

Once they arrived at Spock's quarters, they stopped and looked at each other. Leonard had a sudden desire to hug the man, but he immediately warded that off. He didn't even know where that thought came from. It must not have come from him. He looked Spock in the eyes, feeling nervous. The hobgoblin wasn't going to try anything, was he? Leonard cleared his throat awkwardly and said, "Well, goodnight. And uh, follow M'Benga's instructions. Rest good. Eat healthy."

"Goodnight, Leonard." Spock nodded once, and left into his quarters.

When Leonard got back to his own room and was laying in bed, he couldn't get certain thoughts out of his mind. The emotions, the endorphins, the desire to hug, Spock's use of his first name. Did Spock actually, in every sense of the word, like him? Did Spock even swing that way in the first place? Leonard never did. He was always into the traditional ways, where a man would come home to a woman and their two children, and everything would be swell. But it wasn't like that. It was different. He was practically stuck with a man. He would never, ever have that great simple life of sharing a life with a sweet, gentle woman. He would've done just fine with Christine. He could probably marry her! Wouldn't be worse than his first marriage.

But he knew he was chained to Spock. He probably never understood the saying "The old ball n' chain" more than he did now. So what would he do with that? What COULD he do with that? He couldn't just flip a switch and automatically like men. It didn't work that way.

Leonard suddenly thought of That Night, Spock's memories having unlocked a few of his own. Sure it was rough and rushed and violent, but there were nice times too. It lasted about an hour if he remembered right. A whole goddamn hour. That was a lot of stamina. But he remembered how during that hour they'd just caress each other, or whisper (slurred) things in each other's ears. He remembered how they fell asleep tangled up together, and how it didn't even matter that they were covered in all kinds of bodily fluids. He couldn't decide if it was a good memory or a horrible nightmare.

Leonard knew now that Spock actually did like him. But what could he do? Spock wasn't a female, and probably never would be. But then again, did it matter? Something about how they slept tangled up together without a care in the world That Night was just... refreshing. Warming. It was just nice. To think about how they just accepted it without a second thought.

But then, they were drunk. And people did stupid things when they were drunk.

Leonard just didn't know what to think. He rolled over, and hoped that he could get a few hours of sleep in before he had to get up again. His mind just wouldn't stop working.