.o0o.

"Captain."

"Captain."

"What's a girl like you doing in a place like this?" Kirk said with a smile, disarming the force field of the cell.

"I'm not sure if that's better or worse than your other pick-up lines." Baker snorted, her usual reaction when he stopped by to visit. "Afraid I'll be stuck in a place like this until they give the verdict." She leaned against the wall but made no attempts to leave the cell. "And probably quite some time after that, too." Kirk wondered if she regretted killing Terik. No one expected the verdict to be in her favor. They were just hopeful that she could avoid jailtime on top of whatever destruction they decided to reign upon her career. Willful violation of a direct order was heady enough without the additional charge of endangering a peace treaty. Kirk thought it was ridiculous since the Romulans only puffed smoke and did nothing when they found out about Terik's death. Still, the Federation couldn't risk not giving her a punishment. Since this was the last time he'd likely be seeing her for a very long time, he decided to ask the question that had been plaguing him. "Why did you kill him?"

Baker's eyebrows flew up. "I thought he was too much of a threat to return to the Romulans." It was the same response, word-for-word, that she'd given as testimony.

Stepping closer, Kirk shook his head. "It's just you and me here. What were you thinking?"

"I was thinking," Baker began, much more responsive than she'd been at any point during the trial, "that I've lost my ship, my First Officer, and I don't think I'd want them to give me new ones even if they would. I'm done with Starfleet. And I figured if I was leaving anyway, I might as well rid the universe of that scum." Baker smiled, pushed off the wall and took a step closer into his personal space. "Besides, you can't say that you weren't thinking of doing the same thing."

Kirk sighed and dropped his voice because he wasn't sure he even wanted to admit this. "I have to say, with what he did to Spock and Bones, the thought of killing him hadn't left my mind for a minute."

Baker took one more step forward to where Kirk could feel her breath hot on his face. "Maybe I did it so you wouldn't." Closing the gap between them, Baker pressed her lips to his. Kirk eagerly returned the kiss, pulling her even closer and wrapping her in his arms.

They pulled apart breathlessly, and he took a step back. He licked his lips. "That's one hell of a goodbye."

"Goodbye, Captain." Baker said with a bittersweet smile and walked over to the guards. They pretended like they hadn't seen a thing and were quick to cuff her wrists together before escorting her from the room. She didn't look back.

She was being transferred to Starbase 6 now that they were docked, along with almost all of her crew. A dozen had requested to stay on the Enterprise, and he'd granted permission for a few of them to replace some of the ones they'd lost. It would certainly feel odd to have the Enterprise at normal crew sizes again.

Departing the brig, Kirk nearly ran into two stragglers who were making their way to the Starbase. He got a couple salutes. He nodded back and worked his way to his quarters, which were clear across the ship. It was a shame to lose Baker. Starfleet didn't know what they were giving up.

He had some wayward thoughts of giving the Admiralty a piece of his mind, and squelched them in the bud. He was already in enough hot water for sending the Romulans back on autopilot while still locked in their own brigs. There was no way Kirk was about to trust a fleet of Romulans to not destroy the Enterprise while they were still outnumbered.

Kirk paused at the fork that would take him down to Sickbay. It'd been almost three weeks and the Vulcan was healing up nicely, though his continued unconsciousness was worrying everyone. He wasn't sure when McCoy and M'Benga's whispers had shifted from Vulcan trances to comas, but he was fighting a building fear that Spock might never recover. Finally, he turned back to his own quarters. He tried to keep his visits down to one a day, but it was always tempting to just run to Sickbay every moment of his downtime.

Starfleet had practically ordered him to take another First Officer before they left the base, but he managed to convince them to wait a bit longer. Uhura got the position of acting First Officer and even Kirk was a little astounded by her efficiency.

Kirk slipped into his room and sighed. "Captain Kirk, personal log. Our next mission is to Andar IX where we will be transplanting the Indyrin that joined with Serin onto the planet's surface. The Science Department is having a blast studying the Indyrin, and they say that Serin has thus far maintained much of himself though he reportedly claims that he and the Indyrin are now one. He also says he cannot seem to extricate himself, even just to determine the possibility. It... scares me to think that it was very nearly Bones stuck inside that damn tree. Said tree has been slowing our progress down because we have to tow it on a shuttlecraft to avoid the electrical interference and the stormclouds. Scotty nearly had a fit when we first brought it on board, even though he'd done most of the work for the transfer himself.

"Spock-" The door chirped and Kirk stopped his recording. "Enter."

Although Bones came to his room more often than anyone, with the possible exception of his yeoman, he was still surprised to see him outside of Sickbay while Spock was still in it. Bones also had to testify that Baker did the shooting. It was the first time Kirk had seen him anywhere other than at Spock's bedside in weeks. He was pretty sure this visit was the second. The doctor slid in and leaned against the wall beside the door as it snicked shut. He looked like shit.

"You look like shit."

"Always the charmer. Don't know what these countless alien ladies see in you." Bones retorted, but his heart wasn't in it.

"Seriously, you need to get some sleep in a real bed." Kirk got a glass of bourbon for his friend and set it on the table like he was trying to coax a scared alcoholic deeper into his lair. Bones didn't take the bait.

"I am sleeping in a real bed, doctor." Bones responded, emphasizing the last word with a hint of real threat in his tone. Kirk could tell it wasn't meant to be mean, but to point out that his comment had been construed as an insult on his self-care, something McCoy took very seriously. 'Help thyself so that you might help others,' he'd said numerous times when Kirk was neglecting himself. "Sickbay has many good beds and since you've managed to keep this crew in one piece for a change, there are plenty to choose from."

It was a jibe rolled into a compliment and Kirk gave a grin in reply.

"I'm worried about Spock." McCoy admitted. "I'm terrified that he won't wake up."

Kirk returned the favor. "Me too."

"I've tried everything medical I know how to do and even made up some more and still nothing. I've even tried using the link but I can't seem to contact his consciousness. It's like he's disappeared from his own mind." Bones sighed and sunk down into the open chair, playing with his drink instead of drinking it. "I want to try and see if the Indyrin can help."

"What? That's a terrible idea, Bones. You know I don't trust the Indyrin." The words were right, but Kirk found his own tone to be off. He didn't like the idea but they both knew that they were running out of options. He couldn't imagine his life with Spock gone forever.

"I know you don't trust the Indyrin, but you trust Serin. He's saved me, what? three times now? He's giving Spock a run for his money." Bones gave a crooked smile like he always did when he found something funny but still confusing. "He said I have a beautiful mind."

Kirk nearly choked on his first sip of the drink. "Sounds like a Vulcan come-on to me. He always did find you... fascinating."

Bones looked like he might hit him for a moment, but valiantly resisted the temptation. "Permission to take Spock to the Indyrin?"

Kirked sighed as he thought. He didn't want to say yes, but how could he say no?

The doctor took a large drink from the cup in front of him and continued on, obviously taking his hesitance as a no. "I'm in love with Spock."

Kirk did his best impression of Chekov when someone else admits something was invented in Russia. "Is this supposed to be news?"

Bones rolled his eyes in a 'heaven help me' manner that was usually reserved for Spock. "Don't be an ass, Jim, I'm trying to confide."

Kirk straightened his face and folded his legs. "I'm all ears."

A snort and Bones did continue. "When Terik shot him, I felt like my entire existence had been painted on a pane of glass and some kid had chucked a baseball through it. And that's when I knew."

"That you were in love with him."

"No, that I couldn't keep questioning that I loved him. And that I had to stop denying it. It's hopeless. I love everything about the guy from his compassion to his goddamn amazing intellect. I even love his horrible jokes and his stupid eyebrows. The irony is that I was too busy thinking about my emotions to simply feel them." Bones cringed and Kirk couldn't tell if it was the drink or the words. "And don't you dare tell him I said that."

"My lips are sealed." Kirk promised, "And not that I'm not thrilled by your sudden return to reality, but are you really going to be okay with someone who refuses to express his emotions?"

"He won't say as much, but there are many more ways to get your message across than words."

Kirk let his eyes grow wide and made a face.

"That's not what I meant, you pervert." Bones huffed indignantly. "He's been doing nice things for me, making an effort, trying to say without saying how he's feeling. I wasn't listening.

"Did you know that Vulcans feel things differently than us?" The doctor continued without waiting for a response. "They actually feel different emotions in a different way. I didn't really understand that until Serin explained it to me. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I hadn't been willing to accept how I felt about Spock because for all I saw of his emotions, I didn't see that he loved me. I thought that he was just doing all this because it was the logical thing to do. But after I found out that some of the things slipping over the link that I hadn't recognized were also emotions, just of a different sort, I realized he'd been feeling love for me for a long time. I know he loves me; I can feel it and it's kind of way better than hearing it or seeing it." Bones took a breath in his rambling. It occurred to Kirk that for all his passionate protection of emotions, Bones didn't usually talk about his own feelings. "And even now, when the link is so far down and barely present, the only thing that seems to be holding it together, the only thing that I can still feel from it is that strange kind of love of his."

Kirk found himself in an abnormal state of speechlessness, where his mind went blank and his jaw got a bit more slack than it needed. Bones wouldn't look at him and his cheeks were quite reddened in color, but Kirk was impressed. His two best friends were really and truly in love.

"And if you repeat one word of that to anyone, I will end you."

"Yes, sir." Kirk chirped. "Permission granted."

.o0o.