Thank you Mrs Tom Riddle for the reviews :D you pointed out that their going to have to use the bathroom eventually, and im kind of glad you pointed that out

this may sound crazy / far fetched but i have this weird head cannon involving that. I have just kind of accepted in my head that this far in to the future, people wont even need to go to the bathroom, they just take a special pill or something... i know its kinda dumb, i probably should haven mentioned it earlier. But hey, this is the future, and aint-nobody-got-time-for-dat

plus, i didn't really wanna have to deal with it.. feels a bit too awkward and it'd happen way to early if that makes sense.

anyway. on with the story...

Chapter 5

"Breath deeply and slowly" He told her. "Try to block everything else out"

Her breathing was hard and heavy and her eyes were squeezed shut in a frown.

They were both sitting on the floor of Spocks quarters, the room dimly lit and quiet.

"Slower than that" he said, for what felt like the 100th time "relax"

She took a long drawn out breath, held it for a moment, and released it.

"That's better" he told her "now, if you feel like you can, try again"

She nodded, not caring if his eyes were open or closed to see it. The frown of concentration had reappeared on her face as she slowly lifted her hands to rest on his face.

As soon a physical contact was made she wanted to pull her hands away. She had known that Vulcans were touch telepaths, and Spock had always avoided skin to skin contact when ever he could, but she hadn't realized it would be so uncomfortable and strange. It had shocked her each time.

She knew he could sense her high level of anxiety from the contact. She concentrated on the feelings she was receiving from him, calm, focused, and relaxed. He was trying his best to project those feelings onto her, to calm her down.

After a moment or two of this, she took a breath, and tried to allow their minds to very slowly merge, and become one.

She emptied her mind, taking down the mental walls, and searched for his presence.

As soon as she found it, it all came flooding in. The sound of the room, as silent as it was, amplified by thousands. Feeling the outside would from two bodies, every shift of weight and brush of clothing. Memories from the last couple of hours, minuets, years, all in flashing images much too fast to see what was what and who was who. It was too much, too fast.

She gasped and pulled her hands away.

Another failure.

"Dammit!" She muttered in anger with her head in her hands "God dammit"

They had been at this for .. she didn't even know how long. It was hard to even feel a sense of time in that state. The more they tried, the more her senses got muddled up, the harder it was to even be able to identify her own mind from Spocks.

"Do not be disheartened, Captain" He offered "It can take some people years to master mind-melding"

"We dont have years Spock" She said "This is our best chance at fixing this, I just didn't think it'd be so hard"

He was about to say something when her communicator beeped loudly from her belt, breaking the quiet atmosphere. She flicked it open to the sound of a frustrated sounding McCoy.

"Dammit Jane." he grumbled "I heard you and Spock haven't been on the bridge all morning. People are wondering where the hell you've been!You cant just abandon your crew because of this. At this rate we'll be stuck charting this region of space for decades unless you get your sorry-"

"Okay, got it Bones" She said, cutting him off. He tried to continue his rant and she spoke over him, sounding like a teenager being told off by a parent. "Yeeees Bones, we'll get right back to work" before snapping the thing shut.

She had hoped that no one would notice their absence. She knew that was unlikely though, and kind of stupid.

She sighed, preparing herself for what was to come.

Spock was already by the door and ready to leave by the time she had gotten up to stretch.

This day could turn into a disaster. fast.

Acting like Spock would be a breeze, be professional, raise the eyebrow a little, easy. But how the hell was he going to act like her? He was more than capable of taking on the role as captain, some times she wondered why he wasn't the captain instead of her. But making jokes and keeping the crew entertained was part of the job description as far as she was concerned. keeping up morale was important in times of boring star-charting (and a pretty good excuse to piss about)

Bones was right though. The crew were more than capable of charting without her or Spock, but its much slower without someone giving orders. No one wanted to spend more time than necessary here.

They left the room with out saying anything and began walking for the bridge. They were both mentally exhausted already and barely half of the day had passed.

"Spock, can I ask you something?" she said, keeping her voice low. The corridors weren't empty and people were going about their work like normal.

He looked up at her, questioningly

"Yes captain" he said.

She rolled her eyes. "I don't like it when you call me captain when were alone, Spock"

"That is not a question"

"no, no. My question is... are you.. feeling emotions? y'know, since we switched?"

He contemplated this for a moment while they walked.

"yes" was his answer.

She hadn't been expecting that and didn't really know how to respond. Every time she had seen Spock show emotion, he had completely lost control, or tried to kill someone. but now, he seemed.. himself.

"Is it a lot?" she asked. he contemplated again before answering.

"It is only on occasion, Jane." he said "95% of the time I am in complete control of any emotions"

When the doors to the turbo-lift swooshed open, all eyes were on them.

"Captain, Spock, welcome back. we missed you" laughed Sulu casually.

She looked to Spock. They had rehearsed what exactly what he was going to say and how to say it.

"uhh, yeah" He began, making a clear effort to look relaxed "sorry, something important came up"

phew, that wasn't so bad. He went to the captains chair and she went to his station.

Things went pretty smoothly for a while. Spock gave orders and took information. Jane would glare at him when he was being too ... Spock, and he would lean back in his chair, or pretend to laugh at a joke someone had made. Jane just sat quietly and tried to look like she was working. She had no idea what Spock did all day with these numbers and science-y charts. She figured he could catch up on the missed work.

After a while Janes communicator went off and she was just about to answer it before realizing that she was supposed to be Spock.

She awkwardly walked over to him to swap their communicators around. It was obvious that a few people exchanged looks and raised eyebrows.

Thats not a weird thing? right? people mix up their personal devices all the time...after walking in late... together.

who knows what they were thinking.

god dammit, she knew what they were thinking.

After that she decided to run some reports down to the med-bay. maybe kill some time by talking to Bones.

When she entered the med bay she almost wanted to turn around and run. The only other person in the room was nurse Chapel, who gave her a beaming smile when she saw her.. well, that smile was probably meant for Spock.

It was almost instinctive for her to smile back, but luckily she stopped herself. Everyone knew how bad Christine had it for Spock, but he always looked so uncomfortable when she was around. If Jane didn't know any better, she would say that Spock was even annoyed by her. She had felt bad for Christine, she was obviously head over heels and rejection isn't fun for anyone.

Once, on an away mission, She had paired Christine and Spock together, and he had actually personally requested to swap partners with someone, anyone, just to avoid her.

but man, can that woman take a hint

"Oh, hello Mr Spock" She smiled. putting down the sheet she was halfway through folding. "what brings you down here?"

" Uh..Where is Doctor McCoy?" She said in her best Spock impression.

"Oh, He's seeing to a patent right now" She had now completely stopped what she was doing to stand next Spock. "I can leave him a message though, if you'd like"

dammit she thought there goes my opportunity for an early break

"I was just going to hand him these" She gestured to the documents she was holding

"oh, well I can pass those along" She took the papers from her hands and brushed her thumb against Janes skin.

The contact made her want to jump away and shiver for two thousand years, but she just quickly pulled her hand away.

It had obviously been on purpose, in a flirtatious way. But it left her feeling irritated. Did she have any idea how weird unwanted physical contact is for Vulcans? She must know, shes a nurse. It just seems rude, if anything.

Chapel hadn't broken her intense eye contact since the touch and Jane realized she had just been stood their, frowning at her in shock.

She got on well with Chapel, but sometimes she wondered why Spock didn't just tell her to piss off?

Jane had literally never been happier to see Bones walk in from the other room.

"Spock" he said grinning, like there was some kind of inside joke. "what a surprise" He removed his gloves and put them in the bin before walking over to them

"Spock was just dropping these off" said Christine, handing him the documents. he scanned them for a moment

"why didn't you just send these to me Spock? just wanted to visit us?" he questioned, still grinning subtlety. If she wasn't already wearing the Vulcan-death-glare, she was wearing it now.

Christine pressed her lips together in a suppressed smile. the thought of Spock coming all the way here just to see her probably making her giddy.

"Actually, I needed to discuss something with you Doctor"

"fine" He said "but im a busy man Spock"

She awkwardly shuffled passed Chapel and they walked into his office. As soon as the door was closed Jane sat in her chair and slouched lower than thought possible, finally able to relax.

"Do you actually have anything to talk about" asked McCoy "or are you just bored?"

The dramatic sigh she gave was answer enough. Bones sat at his desk and pulled out some paper work, he often got most of it done during their chats.

"Is she always like that with Spock" Asked Jane, gesturing to the door behind her "its a little intense"

His eyes darted up for a moment from his paper work

"why?" he smiled "you jealous?"

"Oh haa-haa Bones" she wined sarcastically "that's just want I need from you"

"oh you love it" he laughed "and for the record, I have tried telling her that Spock is an emotionless cold robot who's incapable of feeling love, but she doesn't wanna hear it"

She rolled her eyes at his description of Spock. She knew he didn't really mean it, besides, you couldn't really accuse him of being incapable of love. He clearly loved his mother for one.

and McCoy was just probably looking out for Christine, they were good friends too. Jane knew that Chapel had confined in McCoy with things like this, and he was always careful not to say too much in front of Jane.

"well I've just never seen her flirt like that before" she said

"well she wouldn't very well flirt with him in front of the woman who's gotten him emotionally compromised however many times now would she? plus you are the captain, its a little unprofessional"

"Bones, you know its not like that" She moaned, referring to the emotionally compromised part.

He laughed "that's not what she thought"

She raised her eyebrows "seriously?"

"well, for a while, yeah" he said "oh get real Jane, everyone thought so. You just make a good team is all, some people just cant see past the fact that you're different genders"

She paused for a moment. "did you think so?"

He smiled without looking up

"Bones!" she exclaimed, laughing "seriously?"

He held up his hands in surrender "I thought you just liked him a little bit, okay? I didn't think there was anything going on. you just look at each other funny sometimes"

"my god Bones" She threw her head back in frustration and laughter

Thanks again everyone for reading everyone!

im going to try to conclude this fic pretty soon now.. i've had my fun, and i've had an idea for a fic i'm more interested in

it would be FemKirk, Spock, and Bones, kinda stranded on a foreign planet after loosing contact with the enterprise. I imagine that they go to this planet for some peaceful reason and their hosts end up hunting them for sport and they have to survive and get to the finish or something line before being captured... so let me know of any of you would read it :D

please review!