.o0o.

"What is that?"

McCoy looked up at the unexpected guest that he strangely hadn't heard coming in. He wondered if Kirk intruded on Spock's personal space this much on a regular basis or if he was taking exception since his doctor was currently detained there. "It's the mobile botanical synthesizer unit."

"Bigger than I remembered it." Kirk coughed. He hadn't made it down to the botany labs in... ever, to McCoy's memory. McCoy hardly had reason to go down there himself. "What's it doing in here?"

"Well, since I'm not allowed to be working on anything medical, and I'm not allowed to leave this room, I've been bored out of my gourd. I finally broke down and asked Spock to get me something to work on."

"It's only been two days. You couldn't read a book?"

"You're one to talk." McCoy retorted, standing up straight and folding his arms across his chest. "You've been going stir crazy since you got back and Baker wouldn't hand the reins over. Looking at you, I'd guess you haven't slept a wink." At least McCoy was doing something he found relaxing. He wasn't prepared to admit it, but the break from all the medical emergencies and taking some time to re-immerse himself in his scientific roots hadn't been all that terrible.

"So, why would you want this thing?" Kirk promptly changed the subject.

"The Indyrin seed that we found on Andar IX , we've tried everything we can think of, but it still won't grow." McCoy shrugged. "It's not exactly pertinent, but it gives me something to do. I'd hate to see the entire Indyrin species wither away when there was something we can do to prevent it."

"Well, what have you tried?" The captain scrolled back through the logs and scanned them. Although he often tried to underplay his intelligence, McCoy knew him to be quite brilliant. He might have several ideas that neither himself or Spock had come up with yet.

"All the standard stuff: mimicking the exact environment on Andar IX, recalibrating the oxygenation levels, soil content, and light exposure. Then about a thousand other minor alterations." McCoy shook his head. "It hit me last night that given the Indyrin's emotional dependency, it may need to be more based on emotions than anything else. So, I've spent the last twelve hours attempting to reenact every emotion known to man. In alphabetical order, of course." He held up his PADD with a long list, then chuckled.

"What?" Kirk plopped into a chair and McCoy followed his lead.

"I'd gotten through 'angry', 'annoyed', and 'anxious' when Spock came in to investigate the source of my distress. I'd completely forgotten that he'd know what I was doing but not why. I think he was genuinely concerned that I'd gone off the deep end."

"I'd be concerned, too." Kirk's tone was positive, but McCoy wondered if he was feeling left out. He hated being taken from the center of attention. "Maybe we should try asking the Indyrin directly?"

McCoy paused; he hadn't thought of that. "Not a bad idea. We're not going to be able to raise anyone parked out there, though. Not with the atmospheric interferences. It'll be at least a month to get a message across, assuming a message would make it onto Starfleet's current to-do list, which seems kind of unlikely, if you ask me."

"Maybe you're not giving it enough juice."

"Excuse me?"

"Maybe you weren't angry enough or happy enough. You know, give it a little more umph."

McCoy snorted. "I think I'll need to be inspired."

"I'm pretty damn inspired right now. Suppose it works with any emotion?"

McCoy shrugged, so Kirk went ahead and rested his hands against the soil and stared. The seed glowed brilliantly for a moment, then dulled. The two men gave each other a look. "Brightest I've seen it so far. Maybe it takes more time?" McCoy suggested.

Kirk stood back up and made for the door. "I'd better get back to watching Baker."

"Get some sleep." McCoy used his doctor's orders voice, but he doubted Kirk would oblige. "You'll be better prepared to deal with a crisis if you've slept."

"I think I've heard that one before." Kirk grinned. "Hey, do you know an Elease Hovard?"

McCoy crinkled up his face as he thought. "Not well. Met her in Med school, but we never really ran in the same circles. I've read some of her work."

"Well, she's the one who took over your Sickbay." Kirk said it as if he were trying to incite anger, but McCoy didn't feel like he should be angry. He felt more like he should be ashamed. "Tell me she's a lousy doctor."

"Uh, no. She's actually a pretty good doctor. I wasn't surprised to see her as CMO on the Pioneer and she'd be the best choice to take over for me here."

"Figures. The one time I don't want a positive review, you and Spock both give her excellent credentials. Starting to wonder why I didn't pick her over you for my own CMO." Kirk grumbled.

McCoy didn't take it to heart, but he did take it as a sign that his captain really should be sleeping more. "Probably because I'm your best friend and just happened to be a world class doctor."

"Other way around. Why do you think I worked so hard to make friends with your grumpy old ass if not for your skill in medicine? After all, Pike scouted you out for himself." McCoy blinked. He hadn't ever thought about it that way before. Was that how their friendship started? Was the timing even right? "Don't look so concerned, Bones, you know our love is pure."

McCoy completely ignored his last comment. "I really didn't know her all that well, but if I had to come up with a flaw, I'd say she was one of those push-over types. Had a reputation for dating assholes. If you want to know more about her, why don't you go down and talk to her directly?"

"You know what? I think I will." Kirk waltzed out of the room with slightly more spring in his step than he'd seen in a while.

McCoy was glad that some of the oddness between them seemed to have been stamped out of their friendship. Unlike his friendship with Spock, which just seemed to get more awkward as they went, no matter what they did.

Without his First Officer duties to perform, Spock had way too much time on his hands. He wasn't sure what the Vulcan was trying to do exactly, but it frustrated him to no end, and the worst part was that he couldn't put his finger on why it was so frustrating. What he did know for sure was that if Spock did one more thing for him without asking, he was going to start yelling.

The door chirped.

McCoy sighed. He knew Spock was on the other side of that door and because he was asking for entrance to his own room, probably meant he was letting McCoy know that he was not alone. McCoy bit down on his lip and concentrated hard on his work. Maybe if he kept himself distracted, he wouldn't explode.

"Enter." McCoy looked up briefly when they entered, noting an ensign beside Spock that he didn't remember, most likely someone off the Pioneer. He bent back down to his work. "Not interested."

McCoy didn't need to be looking to know that Spock's eyebrow had flown up. "It was my understanding that you were quite fond of the piano. Ensign Zarov is a skilled tutor."

For a moment, McCoy considered changing his mind. He had been quite bored since being taken off rotation. On the other hand, he didn't need anything else in his life associated with Spock. "Thank you for the offer, but I'm much too busy to be learning an instrument right now."

Spock's second eyebrow met with his first, but he didn't call him out on the blatant lie. "Very well. It shall be myself only, then, Ensign Zarov. Dismissed." Zarov nodded and scooted backward out of the room. Spock stood by the door and looked at McCoy in silence. McCoy kept working, but he wasn't actually making any progress. It was nearly impossible while under Spock's scrutiny.

McCoy gave up. "We both know that this marriage is a sham. You can stop with all these... gestures." Spock didn't respond and McCoy suddenly considered that he should probably have spent all of this downtime looking up Vulcan customs because he was certainly doing something wrong here. Then he realized what Spock must be concerned about. He fiddled with the seed so he wouldn't have to look at Spock. "I mean, of course I'll help you with Pon Farr stuff, but that doesn't mean you owe me or anything. You can quit all that. We're not in a relationship."

"It would be most logical-"

"See, that's just it!" McCoy cut him off, clamping down on the seed that was now glowing white, as if the light might destroy the atmosphere of the room. As if it might make it hard for him to say what had been burdening him. "Relationships have nothing to do with logic. It's not about some frustrating loop of mutual dependency. It's not about doing nice things for someone or about making compromises. It's not about refraining from arguing when you disagree. In fact, being able to disagree, argue, and still like each other afterward has more to do with it than suppressing the arguments." McCoy took a breath from his rant, and tried to continue more calmly, but his frustration was still there and more alive than ever. "A relationship is about love. It's about emotions, and you ain't got any."

Spock paused a beat, as if waiting for more punishment, then straightened. "I see." He turned sharply around and left the room.

McCoy felt like shit. "And for my final act, I'll kick you out of your own room." He muttered to himself. He could probably get Kirk to switch his room assignments. Ideally, Kirk would put him up, but really anyone else would be better right then. Ironically, he felt like a married man having a big fight with his spouse.

He went to settle his hand against his head to massage a quickly forming headache, but found his head connecting to something hard and unforgiving instead. Looking at his hand, McCoy was startled to see that the Indyrin seed had latched itself onto the center of his palm.

First, he shook his hand to dislodge it. Then, he yanked on the seed, but it felt like he was just tugging hard at his own skin. He brought the seed up to his face and inspected the new attachment. It seemed almost like it'd molded into his hand.

McCoy debated what to do. If it had been his own room, he'd have more medical supplies to examine this new development and try to remove it. Instead, he stuck his hand back into the botanical unit and scanned the seed. It was finally showing some signs of growth. He was no longer sure that he wanted it to grow.

.o0o.