Not Mine, Never Mine, Usual Disclaimers.

McCoy had grumbled before acquiescing to his request, agreeing that the Cap... Jim posed a flight risk. It had taken nearly ten minutes to acquire the four legged captain, twice he slipped out of McCoy's grip and the threat of being picked up was ignored. Spock resorted to entrapping the pup in the wet towel from the bathroom and restricting the wriggling movement. In so doing, Kirk accidentally brushed up against his hand and Spock was given the brief image of a rat in a cage. The image was curious, but it was filed away for later interpretation.

The trip to sickbay turned more than a few heads, but thankfully no one approached either of the two men, but Spock had no doubt that it would be all over the ship within the hour. Once inside a private room, with the door firmly shut, Spock freed the squirming captain, who backed up into the wall, tail between his legs and shaking. McCoy busied himself with a piece of equipment and left Spock alone with the now terrified pup.

'Does this have anything to do with the image of a rat in a cage?' Spock asked him quietly.

The pup looked up at him, ears laid back and hackles slightly raised. Spock sat next to him, hoping that the captain would be able communicate what was wrong. The pup looked away before rubbing along Spock's hand. It wasn't like reading a human mind; it was distorted and conveyed mostly in images. Yet the feeling of being trapped, the loss of freedom and fear of losing something, Spock was unsure of what exactly, but the mast logical answer would be pride, were coming through clearly.

Spock continued to stroke the pup, feeling the silky smooth fur under his fingers, calming the pup with the action. When Jim had calmed down enough to begin to relax, Spock with drew his hand to find McCoy looking at him.

'Does he allow you to touch him like that often?' McCoy asked.

Both Spock and Jim shook their heads with Spock adding, 'He normally won't let anyone touch him at all.'

'Hm,' was the only reply.

'He is however worried about being put through these tests.'

'Aye, having someone poke and prod at ya to work out what's wrong can be undignified at best.'

Dignity then, not pride.

Spock watched closely as McCoy put Jim through several tests, none of them as invasive as Jim had thought and two hours later McCoy was able to start giving some answers.

'The energy does appear to be dissipating faster than it is replenished, I would say that this won't last longer than a month at most, a week at the very least.'

Jim wagged his tail at the news and Spock was relieved at the news, at least things would soon be back to normal.

'When the energy fully dissipates, then all effects will be reversed,' Spock wanted to clarify.

'There might be some residual effects, but they should theoretically fade in time. So just ignore it if he starts scratching his face with his foot, rather than his hand.'

A/N: So I was supposed to upload this yesterday but forgot... anyway life is about to get really hectic for me now that it is cyclone season (the joys of living in the tropics), plus I'm going away for Christmas, so if it takes longer than a week to update I apologise now, and I will finish this story. It's actually finished, so It's just updating whenever I feel like it and remember when I have the time.