- "There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness." –

Friedrich Nietzsche

To say that Lieutenant Nyota Uhura was annoyed would have been a serious understatement.

No, she wasn't annoyed. She wasn't irritated or exasperated, either. In fact, she was at this point pretty close to tears. Her nerves were worn so thin that you could almost see through them.

And unfortunately, the one responsible for causing such severe damage to her peace of mind happened to be one of her best friends and higher up the figurative food chain than she was. Therefore, Nyota couldn't simply tell him to go to hell and stop bugging her. Especially, since he wasn't even aware of what he was doing to her poor, overworked nerves.

He sat across from her at the dinner table, and Nyota watched him as he ate his way through a vegetarian's dream of an evening meal without any real appetite. He pushed his food from one side of the plate to the other, his long fingers idly toying with a pair of intricately carved chopsticks.

"Spock. It's already dead."

He raised his head, his dark eyes wide, beautiful and somewhat lost in an oh-so-innocent look that didn't fool her.

"I beg your pardon?"

"The mushrooms did you no harm. Nor did the cabbage or the carrots. Stop torturing them and me, please. You could just say that you don't like it."

He blinked. "The food is excellent."

"But you're not hungry," she stated.

He inclined his head and she took the gesture as a nod.

With a sigh, she put her own pair of chopsticks down. "Okay. Let's talk about this. Spock, I believe that you are sick."

His eyebrows went up. "I can assure you that at my last medical exam, I was pronounced to be in very good health."

"But you aren't feeling well."

She half expected him to ask well, and how do YOU know?, but he didn't.

"Define 'well'."

"I can do better. I can tell you what your problem is." She looked at him expectantly.

A human would probably have shrugged, but he waived her on with an elegant gesture of his right hand. "I am most curious. Please, feel free to explain yourself."

"Spock, I believe you've contracted a very serious disease. It is fairly common, but very hard to treat with common medical means. The only good thing you can say about it is that it's not usually contagious – or maybe, that's a bad thing, depending on your point of view. In any case, the symptoms include inexplicable behavior, loss of appetite and sleep, daydreaming, verbal incoherence, frequent blushing, as well as sudden outbursts of romanticism, jealousy, and mood swings. You have exhibited nearly all of the above, and it's progressively getting worse. I think it's time to face the truth: Spock, you're in love."

He studied her for a minute or two, as if trying to evaluate whether she was being serious or not, and Nyota remembered that Spock had always had his difficulties understanding irony. Well, he'd have to get used to it one of these days. She returned his gaze steadily, waiting for him to reply anything.

"You are very observant," he acknowledged after a moment of silence.

Oh. So no denials, no questions, no arguments…? Well… this was, as Spock himself would have put it, fascinating.

"I'm proud of you, you know. You're not even trying to deny it."

"Denying the obvious would be somewhat pointless," Spock replied silkily.

"If I had asked you a year, or even three months ago, you would have denied it."

Spock's dark eyes grew troubled. "Maybe," he admitted. "It is… a very delicate matter."

"Oh, absolutely. Being in love with your Captain can be so inconvenient," she retorted slyly.

"If you are trying to provoke an emotional response, you may be disappointed. Others have tried… and failed."

"Except Jim Kirk, of course. Somehow, he never seems to have trouble getting you to shed that dispassionate mask. Even though I'm sure he never intended to provoke you to the point where you tried to kill him… twice, if I remember correctly."

Once again, Spock inclined his head. "I regret those incidents. I was acting illogically." His face darkened slightly and he added softly: "As I am now..."

Despite her annoyance, Nyota felt pity for him. It was a terribly awkward situation, after all. "Have you tried talking about it lately? Your feelings for Jim, I mean."

"I am talking to you, am I not?"

"Yes, but maybe, as your former lover, I'm not all that qualified for this particular conversation," Nyota suggested. "At least, I seem to have to force the information out of you. Maybe you should talk to someone else, who isn't serving aboard the Enterprise. Have you tried Leonard?"

"He is Jim's – the Captain's – best friend," Spock reminded her.

Nyota had noticed the correction and smiled. "Okay, you may have a point there. Even though I'm certain he would keep it to himself if you asked him to. I just thought of him, because he once faced the same, or a very similar problem. With the slight difference that he's now married to his former Captain, of course."

Spock shot her an almost pained look. "It was an entirely different situation."

"If you say so. Anyway, I think you should find someone to talk to. And as you obviously don't want to talk to Jim – which would be best, of course – I suggest either Leonard or Christopher."

"I will think about it."

Which translates to: I most certainly won't…, Nyota thought, sighing inwardly.

Leonard was half asleep, when someone touched his shoulder.

"Hey." Startled, he looked up into a pair of familiar grey eyes. Laurel Rasmussen was over a decade younger than her brother, but other than that, they looked very much alike.

Her face was troubled as she stepped closer to the bed, gazing at Chris, who was still asleep. "How is he?"

Leonard rubbed his tired eyes. "He's been worse. That's about the only good thing I can say about it."

Laurel made a noncommittal sound and moved back to his side, drawing an arm around him in sympathy. "Well, as you are with him, I'm not too worried about him. You brought him back from the dead."

"That's a rather dramatic way of putting it."

"You know what I mean. Try to be optimistic, Leonard. My brother is a tough old bastard. He'll probably wake up laughing at us for worrying so much." She cast him a sidelong glance, then sighed. "I'm not making you feel any better, am I? I'm sorry. I've never been very good at comforting others. That's usually Chris' department."

"It's okay, Laurel," Leonard murmured, his eyes never leaving Chris' sleeping face.

"I'll take Joana home with me. The girls are already looking forward to seeing her. "

"Thanks."

"Don't mention it."

Taking her own advice, Nyota had tried to contact Leonard and/or Chris, but without success. She had neither reached them at their respective offices, nor at home.

However, it was not necessarily a reason to get worried. Maybe they had simply taken the day or the weekend off and gone on a little trip with Joana. She remembered that Chris owned a boat and that they frequently went sailing, so that was probably where they were now.

Still, it bugged her. She would have liked to talk to Leonard and told him about her Spock-related quandary. He would have been sympathetic to her problem, since he had probably been the first to suspect that Spock had a thing for Jim.

Well, Leonard had always been pretty perceptive… except when it came to his own feelings, but that was another matter, and Jim had successfully taken care of it years ago. Which left Nyota with an interesting question – if Jim was clever enough to figure out the complicated relationship between Leonard and Christopher and give them a push in the right direction that ultimately led to happily ever after, then why on earth hadn't he realized that his first officer and closest companion was in love with him…?

Or maybe he had, and was trying to resolve the problem by ignoring it.

Nyota frowned. No, that didn't sound like Jim. Jim liked to deal with problems directly. And yet – what would he do, if he learned that Spock had an epic crush on him? Jim trusted the Vulcan with his life and the lives of his crew and to learn that Spock was keeping a secret of that magnitude would probably not go down well with the spirited young captain.

In any case, something had to be done. She didn't want Spock to suffer, and she was growing real tired of suffering along. Let Jim deal with this… preferably either by hitting Spock over the head with something heavy to make him see reason, or by taking him aside for a private, nonverbal conversation.

"Leonard…?" Chris' voice sounded hoarse, nothing like the smooth baritone Leonard had grown so accustomed to, but right now that didn't matter. He was happy to hear Chris talk at all.

"I'm here," he replied softly, leaning over and taking Chris' hand. "How do you feel…?"

"Thirsty."

"That can be helped," Leonard said, reaching for the glass on the nightstand and helping Chris, whose hands were still unsteady. "Better?"

Chris nodded. He looked up at his husband with a wry smile. "You look horrible, love."

Leonard snorted. "Well, thank you, darling. That might be the result of spending the last two days at your bedside."

"You worry too much. I've always said that," Chris replied, still smiling.

Leonard leant closer, fixing him with a reprobative gaze. "Is it so hard to understand that I'm scared of losing you…?" He asked quietly.

The smile disappeared from Chris face. "I'm sorry."

"You better be," Leonard replied, before placing a soft kiss on the front of his head. "I need you, Chris. Don't you dare to leave me."

"I wouldn't," Chris said simply.

Hi guys! I'm sorry it took me so long to update this story. Right now, my attention is divided between classes and "Oh my God, I'm moving to Morocco in two weeks!" ;)