The following morning Uhura felt so relaxed and limber, and yes just a little smugly relieved that she wasn't losing her mind or her lover, that she indulged herself in a water shower to start her day on a fresh note. She pressed the button that released a dollop of exfoliating scrub-paste - a gift at Christmas from Sarek, who'd decided to carry on his Terran wife's love of the holiday - and gave a passionate sigh as she inhaled the scent. This was why Spock always smelled so good, she thought as the mingling fragrances of cedar, honey and a hint of strawberry filled her showering tube. He'd been using this type of hygiene product since he was a child and now it all but floated off his skin every time he breathed. Uhura wonder if-

Crash!

Startled out of her daydreaming by the sudden noise, Uhura all but leaped out of the shower, and foregoing her robe raced into her bedroom to find Spock in his skin-tight undershorts, chest heaving and staring at the shattered bottle on the floor, the fumes of an old perfume rising around him. His face was a study of emotions, as anger swirled with guilt, and his fists clenched and unclenched in rhythmic measures.

'Spock? Are you okay?'

His head whipped over to face her, and for a moment Uhura felt her mouth go dry as she saw the burning in his eyes. There was power there, no question, but the way he looked at her, not with rage or hatred but with pure primal lust made her feel weak in the knees and warm in the belly. He took a breath, then another and when he spoke, she understood a little better his apprehension about sharing this time with her.

'No, I can feel…everything,' he confessed to her. 'I felt so much anger about the possibility I could have caused to doubt my affection, my…love for you. Before I knew what I was doing, I picked up that vial and was throwing it to the ground.'

'Spock-'

'Please accept my apologies for destroying one of your possessions.'

The note of pleading in his voice alarmed Uhura only slightly; she'd seen him like this before when his mother had died and knew he was using every available ounce of energy to keep from going completely to pieces. Instead she went to her small linens cubby and retrieved a dust-pan and hand-broom, thrusting the former at him while keeping the latter for herself.

'Hold this on the floor while I sweep up the glass.'

'Did you not hear what I said?' Spock pressed her urgently, and Uhura smiled sympathetically.

'Spock, there is no need for an apology over your physiology. Isn't that what you told me the first time you had to see me deal with my period?'

'As I recall there were several seemingly illogical solutions that appeared to have a great tranquilizing effect on you. This…' Spock trailed off, lifted his hands to look at them. 'There is no cure, one simply needs to let the symptoms run their course.'

'Didn't you tell me there are a few things like meditation or a pharmaceutical remedy that can help alleviate your condition?'

'I do not care for non-Vulcan medication, but meditation could help.'

'My grandmother told me when her husband was fighting in the war, when the stress got to be too much for her, she'd retreat into her kitchen and spend her time baking whatever came to mind to help her deal with her emotions,' Uhura told him, standing up with the dust-pan and depositing the contents into her rubbish chute. 'Perhaps you need to find an activity like that. When you had a hard day as a student at the Academy, what did you do to unwind?'

'Unwind?'

'Relax.'

'The Earthly practice of yoga was very similar to daily exercises I learned on Vulcan as a child. Attending the symphony as you know, losing myself in coding.' Spock frowned as a memory surfaced. 'When I was taking my third year engineering course, a required training course for those seeking command school as I did, I often found myself creating a reward system that I would program holodeck combat training applications once I had finished the tasks before me. No coding until the essentials were completed. Perhaps I could take advantage of my personal hours today to do so.'

'There you go. When I'm cranky, I have chocolate ice cream picnics and scary movies to comfort me, you code martial arts combat programs.'

Picnic. The word sparked another memory to life, and Spock cleared his throat, pointed at the floor where he had broken the bottle. 'Was that item cherished?'

'No, it was just a trinket I picked up on that outpost near Gothos. Why do you ask?'

'It occurs to me that I should be offering to replace it, regardless of value, or if that endeavour fails, offering an item of equal sentimental value to ease your pain at the loss.'

'Spock, it wasn't my bottle of Romulan ale, it was just some perfume I got because my preferred type had run low and they had a similar fragrance,' Uhura reassured him, then squirmed a little at his penetrating gaze. 'What?'

'How, precisely, did you acquire a bottle of Romulan Ale, Lieutenant?'

'I have my sources and mysterious ways.'

'That you most certainly do.'

Spock held her gaze just a little longer than normal, brushing his hands over her naked shoulders; in his heightened state he was unable to stop the meld before he could even blink and he watched her gasp, shudder, then grin slowly.

'You keep holding onto me like that and I'm going to be late for my shift.'

'For which you would be much maligned by the captain.' Spock dropped his hands, went to retrieve the spare set of off-duty clothes that Uhura had logically offered to let him keep in her closet. 'I wonder if you could pass on a message to him?'

'Sure.'

'If he needs to be in contact with me, I will be in the holodeck programming room for an indeterminate length of time, and that any verification inquiries should be directed towards either Mister Scott or Mister Chekov.'

'Of course.'

They finished dressing for their respective mornings, and as Uhura went to press the door-release button she found her wrist caught in Spock's surprisingly strong grip; a second later she was spun into his arms with his lips crushing onto hers in a passionate kiss. When they drew back, Spock actually gave her a cocky little smirk.

'Something to remember that ponfarr isn't always scary,' he told her, then reached over her shoulder to press the button. 'I trust your shift will pass pleasantly.'

Uhura watched him go, and only when he was around the corner and out of earshot did she let out a little laugh as she tapped her fingernails on the doorjamb. Nope, she thought with her head still reeling form the kiss he'd planted on her, she was definitely going to be a few minutes late.

Kirk cracked his jaw wide as he yawned while on-line at the mess hall's after-hours cafe; the day's unexpected encounter with the Cygnusian consulate ship and the insistence of the captain that they board for an informal social gathering had gone well past the end of his twelve hour shift. Cygnusians were undoubtedly delightful people - they combined the respect of rules and formalities of Vulcans with the joviality of Tyrolleans - and their violet complexions always made for a great change in the stark colour palate of the mess hall, but he was ready for a break tonight. Mostly he just wanted to talk to Spock, see if his Vulcan-bro had come to terms with his biology and needed a hand in helping plan anything for the Big Date with Uhura. But he knew that to ask would be a violation of their friendship; Spock had grown in the years they'd become friends and was less and less hesitant about sharing his opinion on various topics whether they related to the job of Star-Fleet or those of a more personal nature.

'Long day, sir?'

Kirk turned his gaze to the source of the voice, saw the effervescent Christine had joined the line behind him. She was a pretty Floridan blonde, with generous curves that Kirk knew had made a few of the male crew drool without her ever realizing it, and a bright flashing smile that didn't always reach her haunted blue eyes. The only time that seemed to vanish was when her mind drifted to someone who made her incredibly happy, but who that someone was Kirk had no clue. In a vein very similar to his friendship with Uhura, despite Christine's rocky return to the Enterprise Kirk considered Bones' right hand woman a friend and himself a decent enough man that he wouldn't tease her into sharing things she didn't want to share.

'Yeah, but I think you guys have had longer dealing with that near-miss of the Tribbles?'

This earned Kirk a snorting sigh and an impatient eye roll from Christine as she perused the late night options of crispy Tyrollean sea bass and Barilkian chipped-potatoes done British style or blackout chilli with Rigel Seven beans. There were other sandwich options, along with coffees and a smattering of various baked good but Kirk wanted actual dinner and because he felt obligated since he was in front of the best nurse on the ship, asked for the chipped-potatoes topped with the chilli.

'An excellent choice,' Christine told him, then ordered one each of the fish and chips and the chilli-fries, making Kirk lift an eyebrow.

'That's a lot of snacks, Nurse Chapel, didn't take you for a monster appetite.'

'Well given how much fun we had with the damn Tribbles-' Christine's smiled turned lethal as the words eked out between her gritted teeth '-we're behind about two hours on lab work so working dinner for me and the man.'

'The man? Something I should know about?'

Christine fought the flush that wanted to wash through her cheeks. 'Doctor McCoy,' she replied, her heart pounding at the slip up, but the captain seemed to take no notice of it as Kirk selected the small cups of salsa and crema-fresca for enhancing his meal. 'I swear, that guy wouldn't think to feed himself if it isn't put in front of him some days.'

'Well, he's a farm boy, used to having someone tell him to come and get it,' he reminded her in an exaggerated accent, which made Christine's nerves unwind as she accepted the to-go containers for returning to the medical bay. 'Remind him he owes me a rematch in my quarters for billiards tomorrow night!'

'Only if you promise to get the holodeck fixed within the hour.'

At this the captain furrowed his brow in confusion. 'The holodeck?'

'It's been on lockdown mode for the whole freaking day and I wanna go for a swim once I'm done in med-bay. So either get it fixed or I will kick some ass myself. Sir,' she added hastily, remembering she was speaking to her superior officer after all.

'Huh.'

Kirk's thoughts were too tripped up by this development to notice the way Christine grinned when she saw the incoming text on her PADD; he hadn't heard from or seen Spock at all that day. Come to think of it, no one had, really, which was odd in itself as Spock was prone to meditative walks about the floors of the ship and Kirk often overheard irritated snippets of conversations about Spock's frosty manners.

Deciding on a second helping of the chilli-fries, as he had a sneaking suspicion of where he'd find Spock after Christine's casual comment, Kirk thanked the ensign on duty and headed for the turbo-lift.