Throughout the whole day, Leonard was bouncing his legs and drumming his fingers everywhere he went. He was pretty fidgety, but out of nervousness. The previous day, they had left off on message 1990 since it was getting too late to finish through to the 1999th and on. Today was the day. And by God he was nervous as hell.

Only during dinner did anyone ask what in the hell was wrong with him (the nurses usually avoided such topics out of fear), and that person of course had to be Jim. Nosey bastard.

"Hey, Bones, are you okay? You're being kind of... twitchy." Jim asked, knitting his eyebrows together in worried curiosity.

"I'm fine. I'm just a little nervous." Leonard replied, frowning down at his food. He had absolutely no appetite, but he knew that he had to eat anyway to keep his health up. He jabbed a fork into a piece of meat and shoved it in his mouth.

"Yeah, you seem pretty intense. Wanna talk about it?" Jim asked, and Leonard immediately shook his head as he finished chewing.

"No." He looked around. "Where's Spock?"

"Why do you want to know?" Jim asked frantically, looking alarmed. Leonard narrowed his eyes at him.

"Because you usually drag him to dinner with you?" Leonard answered skeptically, and Jim looked relieved. "What's your problem? Your emotions are telling a story here."

"No they're not. I was just worried if Spock got hurt... or something. And uh, I just realized that he told me to F off earlier because he wanted to do some work." Jim said, and Leonard almost didn't believe him. Almost.

"I'm sure he didn't actually tell you to F off, but I suppose your story is sound. Damn Vulcan is always working." Leonard grumbled the last part, and Jim laughed, sounding awkward. Honestly, Leonard didn't want to know what was going on with him.

"Yeah, uh, anyway, I'm sleeping with Scotty." Jim said, and Leonard froze with his fork half way to his mouth. Jim looked alarmed before saying, "I mean tonight I'll be bunking with him! We're not having sex. We're just friends. I just, uh, don't want to be in my room tonight. But if anything happens, just know that I love you and don't come yelling at me because it'll stress me out!" As he finished blabbering, Jim got up and all but ran out of the mess. Leonard glared at the empty spot across from him before shaking his head. Weird kid. Leonard would find out what's up with him sooner or later.

In the meantime, Leonard looked at the time. It was just a little while before he and I-Chaya were to start messaging each other for the night. At the thought, he felt butterflies in his stomach, and his heartbeat sped up. He was back to being exponentially nervous again.

Leonard followed his usual ritual once he got back to his quarters. He got dressed into some grey jogging pants (incredible comfortable to sleep in), and a fitting black shirt. He often considered wearing the shirt in public since it showed off his muscles, but he hadn't had any use for that since he arrived on the ship. It was always uniform on duty, sweatshirt and jeans off duty. Sometimes it was just too damn cold for t-shirts. It's like they were in space or something!

He brushed and flossed his teeth flawlessly, and got onto his computer. He breathed deeply before continuing the conversation from yesterday. It was the home stretch now.

They made the most incredibly awkward small talk until message 1999- since it was no doubt that both of them were excited. It was Leonard's turn to send message 1999, though, so he typed up a quick little thing.

"I-Chaya

Here we go. At 2335, we both send our personal-information messages. See you then.

Meonatio"

Leonard breathed deeply for a while before checking the time. Again. They both had about four minutes. He quickly typed up all sorts of things about himself in the message. He talked about his childhood, where he grew up, what his family was like, his daughter, his work... God forbid, he even talked about Jim, and how he was the one that made him get on the website! He ran out of time though, because at 2334 his finger was hovering over the send option. He wasn't shaking.

At 2335 he sent it immediately, and clenched his eyes shut. That was it. Messages 2000 and 2001 were now sent between them. This was the next step in their advancing relationship. He took a deep breath, and opened his eyes. A small notification was there.

"CONGRATULATIONS! You and your pen pal have reached 2000 sent messages, and your names will now be revealed!

You have been talking to: Spock

We hope you have a wonderful time together!"

Leonard blinked. Nah, it had to be a different Spock. No reason for him to get worked up about it. There were probably thousands of Spocks in existence. He clicked away the notification, and read their message.

"Meonatio,

I am of the S'chn T'gai clan of planet Vulcan. My father is a Vulcan named Sarek, and my mother was a human woman named Amanda. I have one half brother, Sybok, who I have not seen in many years. I also have a very good friend named James Kirk, who is the captain of the starship that I serve on.

I hope that this is sufficient information.

I-Chaya"

Sufficient indeed. Leonard clenched his fists hard, his knuckles going white. He couldn't believe this. He couldn't believe any of this. It's been Spock the whole goddamn time?! There was no way. No fucking way.

He was about to type up a very stern message, but he decided that he should just march over and see the man in person instead. He pushed away from the desk, knocking his chair down in the process, and left his quarters. The floor was cold on his socked feet, but he was fuming. He couldn't believe it. There was absolutely no way that some goddamn computer could have had those nice conversations with him. No Vulcan was so heartfelt.

As soon as he got to Spock's door, he pounded on it. The door slid open to reveal the Vulcan, who tried to say something, but Leonard pushed his way into the room to look at the computer. There it was. All their messages, all their shared experiences, all their slight intimacies... it was all there. He rose up and glared at Spock.

"What the fuck?!" Leonard yelled, not knowing what else to say. Spock stood there, emotionless like fucking always, with his hands behind his back. Leonard shook his head and continued to yell. "It couldn't have been you! This person... they- they're sweet! They're nice! A pain the ass sometimes, but we had good times together! They are an amazing person!"

"Thank you, Doctor." Spock replied, his face still a wall. Leonard growled and neared him.

"But that's not you! You're an asshole! An emotionless asshole!" He jabbed his finger against Spock's hard chest. "Did you ever feel anything?! Do you feel anything now? Are you angry, Spock? Or are you just a computer?!" He yelled, and Spock's hand whipped around and grasped Leonard's hand in a tight hold.

"I am angry," Spock said very slowly, the slightest glare on his face, "that my pen pal turned out to be so hateful. Leave my quarters. Now." He glared Leonard down (even though their height difference was about an inch) before letting go of his hand. Leonard was about to keep yelling, but the Vulcan's intense glare made him clench his jaw shut. He knew that Vulcans were, on average, three times stronger than humans.

Leonard shook his head at Spock, still scowling, and walked past him to get to the door. He hesitated at it, shutting his eyes to think. Just because he and Spock had problems before... it didn't really change the fact that their messages were so... great. He felt a presence behind him, and a hand came to rest on his shoulder.

He shrugged it off, and walked out the door. Spock was still an emotionless bastard who was always belittling him in every way. He couldn't deal with that. He just couldn't.

Leonard went back to his quarters, and couldn't fall asleep until 0400.