A short ride and walk later and he was using his captain's all-access pass to override the lockdown code on the holodeck. Once the door whisked smoothly open, Kirk nearly dropped the containers when he saw the vast space filled with holo-screen after holo-screen of complex programming language. There was the gentle whisperings of classical screen-music in the background; in the middle of the room was Spock in as disheveled a state as Kirk had ever seen him. His normally surgical-precision bowl cut was showing signs his slender fingers had been raking through it, and his shirtsleeves were rolled up to the elbow as he appeared to be muttering to himself.

'Commander?'

Spock jumped a mile out of his skin, his heart beating manically in his chest; he whirled around and glared at his friend with a small snarl on his mouth. 'What!'

'Easy, Spock, I'm just checking to make sure you ate something.' Kirk held out the container. 'French fried potatoes with blackout chilli.'

'Thank you, Jim,' Spock replied, his chest heaving as he fought back the rising tide of her temper at having his private work time interrupted. 'Forgive my outburst. Unfortunately, ill manners are a symptom of my…current condition.'

'You're forgiven,' he replied kindly; Kirk wasn't offended in the slightest so it was an easy thing to brush off for himself and comfort Spock's unhinged psyche. 'So, what's all this?'

'I took your advice, and spoke with Nyota, told her of the situation,' Spock replied, giving commands for his progress to be saved so he wouldn't become distracted and close the program on important half-finished items. 'She was unexpectedly sympathetic and understanding. At first, she believed I wished to terminate our bond.'

'Bet she had something to say on that,' Kirk muttered, then raised his voice, 'What did she say when you explained the truth to her?'

'That is private, Captain, however there was a conversation that gave me an idea for the method in which we should celebrate the anniversary of our first social engagement.'

'So I take it you barricading yourself in your Fortress of Solitude here is you working out that idea?'

'It is not a fortress, sir, it is a…' Spock trailed off as his annoyance threatened to get the better of him, but he forced his heated words back in his throat. 'Am I right to assume Fortress of Solitude is an Earth metaphor for a location where one prefers to have tranquility in order to achieve clarity on a particular matter?'

'Or just get some work done.' Kirk pulled up a rolling-foot chair, passed Spock a hermetically-sealed fork - he knew his Vulcan friend was a fiend for cleanliness - and dug into his own dinner. 'What's all this?'

'An attempt at a very important recreation.' Spock lifted the lid on the container and felt the very human longing that the fragrance of the veggie-friendly chilli stirred in his palate. He opened his fork packet, stabbed it through the veritable mountain of steaming beans in tomato sauce. 'The aroma of this dish is indeed enticing.'

'Kinney does a good job with it,' Kirk agreed, cramming in his first bites and ready to melt in culinary bliss. 'Oh yeah, that's the good stuff right there. What are you trying to recreate?'

'The location in San Francisco where Nyota and I shared our first social engagement where it was understood that she and I were in the first stages of pair-bonding and that it was not a mere kindness on my part or one of reciprocal gratitude on her part.'

'So you guys had a few accidental dates before this night?'

'I do not understand what you mean calling them accidents, as they were planned and schedule prior to their occurrence.'

'Wanna show me what you've got so far? Maybe some fresh eyes will help you iron out the kinks.'

Spock's impatience chafed at him, as real and uncomfortable as a leather collar choking his throat, but he knew that his friend hadn't come here to be intrusive. On the contrary, Kirk's presence was logical: Spock had come to him with a personal problem the night before, and now his friend was balancing the scales, so to say, by following through to ensure his mental and emotional state was improved.

Taking a bite of the meal Kirk had brought him, Spock pressed a few buttons on the programming console to run the preview mode. The far wall shimmered to life and showed a restaurant of some type, with comfortable looking wooden-backed booths and pale teal walls with the outline of beach-surf scenes. Kirk gave a little sniff and swore he could smell frying garlic and tomato sauce.

'Is this-'

'It is what was commonly referred to as a pizza parlour in mid-twentieth to early twenty-first century Earth vernacular of the United States,' Spock confirmed. 'One of my concerns upon moving to Earth to attend Star-Fleet was the challenges I might face to my vegetarian diet. However, because I attended the San Francisco campus of the Academy I discovered there were a great many vegetarians such as myself who enjoyed plentiful dining options. Then when I discovered that the lieutenant eats both meat and vegetarian dishes, I was concerned that it would be an immovable obstacle for us to engage in dinner engagements.'

'That I get,' Kirk agreed, 'I've tried to go meatless for hard-core herbivores and it didn't end well on any level.'

'When I expressed my concerns to her, she reassured me that she knew of particular cuisines that would allow each of us to remain faithful to our chosen culinary lifestyles and we made what she called a dinner date at this place. It was then I knew that we were meant to be a pair-bond.'

'See, I knew there was a romantic side to you,' Kirk chuckled. 'What did you guys talk about?'

'We discussed the music of the previous night, what music we listened to growing up. She was rather intrigued by the lullabies my mother sang to me as a child. I remember joining hands with her, inadvertently forming a bond and I felt something so strong that I hadn't expected.'

'Lust?'

'Empathy, Captain,' Spock replied with a wry smile. 'She understood the longing for a far-away childhood home.'

'Did she ever get to meet her?'

'Clarify.'

'Before her…her passing,' Kirk explained, hesitating a little to use the word 'death' when Spock was already under such emotional strain judging from the way he stabbed at his French fries, 'did you ever introduce Uhura to your mother?'

'I did indeed, though the meeting was unintentional. I has desired to introduce them formally during the evening of a linguistics conference where I was a member of a forum panel and my mother was giving a keynote address I knew Nyota would be attending. What was not anticipated was my mother inviting Nyota to join her as part of a focus group following the keynote.'

'Let me guess you came to meet your mother, and she put it together that you two were dating.'

'If you are already familiar with the story, sir, then I suspect you are simply mocking me.'

'No, it was a guess. What you and Uhura do is your business,' Kirk reassured him, then rose to walk over to the preview walls. 'You've done a great job on this, Spock, I'm sure she will really love it.'

When he got no answer, Kirk turned around, felt his heart freeze as he saw the look of raw emotion on his friend's face. It was a look he hadn't even seen when Amanda had died in the destruction of Vulcan but he was seeing it now - years of pent up grief threatening to spill out of him. Immediately, he rushed over and grabbed Spock by the shoulders to try and soothe him.

'Hey, hey hey hey, it's okay Spock, you've got a right to miss your mom.'

'Do you ever miss your father?'

'Yeah, actually I do. Everyone who knew him that I've met says he was a great guy, a stand-up man who always did the honourable thing. Makes me wish I'd gotten to know him so he'd get to see I made his sacrifice worthwhile, you know?'

'I do understand your perspective,' Spock agreed. 'My mother approved highly of my selection of Nyota as a mate. She referred to her as a breath of fresh air that I desperately needed. There are times when I wish I could speak with her so that I could hear her ideas, or seek her counsel on my pair-bond with Nyota, or even just to hear her voice.'

This very human admission had Kirk wondering if the whole scope of his advice to both Uhura and Spock had been way off base because he had no idea how deep Spock's feelings ran. Fighting to find another topic to discuss that was a little less cumbersome to the soul, Kirk pointed to the console were the other program was still blinking away in code-mode.

'Why don't you tell me about the other program you've got working there?'

'No.' Spock shook his head emphatically, scooped the next bite of his meal up. 'That one is quite personal, even more personal than breaking form and sharing details of my…current predicament.'

'Must be something very good for you and Uhura, then,' Kirk grinned, lifted his palms at Spock's glare. 'Not prying, just an observation.'

'I appreciate your concern for my wellbeing, Jim, I mean that sincerely.' Spock looked around, frowned. 'What time is it?'

'Just after twenty-three-hundred. I ran into Christine in the mess-hall and she said she and Bones are just finishing up some lab work so maybe you join me to go find him and get him to join us for a drink at the Archer and Sparrow.'

'Thank you for your invitation, Captain, however Uhura has invited me to her quarters for a session of meditation prior to slumbering.' Spock paused, felt the swell of his human ego get the better of him. 'I believe this is what North American culture of the early twenty-first century referred to as a boot-call.'

'I think you mean booty call, and maybe it is but those sure can be fun and they're a great way to reset your brain chemistry.'

'Captain, if I offered the hypothesis that I lived four hundred years longer, I believe I would be safe in drawing the conclusion I will never fully understand the human fascination with people wanting to know the sexual habits and mating rituals of their companions.'

Kirk laughed richly, rose to leave Spock to his thoughts. 'Alright, I'll let Bones know it's just him, me and Scotty. You're only allowed in here for another ten minutes. Other people do want to use the holodeck besides you, Spock.'

'I fail to see why my use of the holodeck for a short amount of time-'

'Spock, the timer says you came in here just after oh-eight-thirty this morning, that means you've been programming for nearly fifteen hours straight.'

'Noted, Captain. Was there any specific crew member who was affronted by my monopoly of the resource?'

'Nurse Chapel said she wants to go for a swim once she is finished in medical bay.'

'Very well.'

'Spock, you'll get through this, it's okay.'

'Thank you for your concern,' Spock replied, then waited until the captain had exited and re-sealed the door to the holodeck before turning to his console and hitting a keystroke that had a holographic snapshot of himself and Uhura appearing. It was one they'd taken on another important first date, and the image was keeping him from completely losing his mind. He studied the strong angles of her face, the deep colour of her eyes and their ever-changing expressions; it was the image of her eyes that had stuck with him after his thoughts had begun to devote their time and energy to the way she smiled when she thought he was making a clever point, the way they went flat and cool when she was debating her opponent in command-ethics class.

The first time they'd kissed, they'd gone so dark Spock nearly mistook them for black; when they'd made love the first time, they'd glittered like polished onyx. Her eyes were her most beautiful physical trait, as they always told him what she was thinking and exactly what her opinion was. Spock suddenly recalled the look in them the night before when she'd incorrectly assumed that he'd wished to terminate their relationship; the look of utter sadness there was motivation enough for Spock to lock himself away on the holodeck to plan their special evening.

He'd nearly begun to delve deep into the programming when he heard the incoming alert on his PADD; annoyed, he glanced over and saw the blinking dot alert of a new text message.

Spock, I mean it, leave now or I will come down there and make you share your feelings again read the message from Kirk, and it actually made Spock chuckle. Sighing, he paged through his contact list and video-dialled Uhura who answered with a blearily 'Huh-low?'

'Forgive me Lieutenant, did I wake you?'

'Yeah, but it's okay.' Relief washed through Uhura, waking her body up more effectively than ten triple espressos. 'You on your way here?'

'I am,' he replied as he saved his work on the console and closed the program. 'I- forgive me for not being in touch with you today, I was working on a project for you and I lost track of the time.'

'It's okay, I thought you might need a little breathing room after the talk we had last night, to meditate or go out with the guys or something.'

'I required private reflective time and to work on your present.'

'That's very sweet of you. I hope you like the gift I'm giving you.'

Spock felt his heart thump a little harder, the longing she stirred in him rising to the surface. He looked at her, considered and realized that her shoulders were uncovered but for the gentle swing of her long black hair. 'Lieutenant,' he asked, lowering his voice, 'are you wearing any nightclothes right now?'

'Well, I do have a sheet I'm wearing, and underwear.'

'I believe you're trying to tempt me by wearing virtually nothing, knowing that my attraction to your physical person will be heightened by such information.'

Uhura smiled at this; he had such a cutely understated way of flirting with her when he was actually horny and tonight seemed to qualify as one of those nights. 'Why don't you hurry up and get over here and find out?'

'Lieutenant, the lifts are only capable of moving at certain maximum speeds.'

'It's a saying, Spock, it means I cannot wait for you to get here so I can share this body with you in person.'

Uhura shook her head - man for a smart guy he was really dense some days - then groaned at the noise of her door-alert. 'Hang on, someone's at the door.'

Finding a t-shirt long enough to cover the vital bits, Uhura went to her door and blinked in shock to find Spock standing there. 'Good evening, Lieutenant, I see you dressed just for me. But please, by all means, finish your conversation.'

'I'll call you back,' she managed to get out, and then wrapped her arms around his slender shoulders to pull him in for a steaming kiss he happily returned.