AN: Much as I hate to be the bearer of bad news (or good news, depending on how you fill your glass), this is the conclusion of Paralyzer. I'd like to thank everyone who read and reviewed, I'd like to especially thank those who read and reviewed repeatedly, and I'd like to give a big hug to everyone who left reviews totaling more than one line!

My girls at WA have been invaluable, they're like my own private support group; "Hi I'm Doc, and I'm a smut addict", so thank you ladies for being made of all shades of awesome.

Coming up after Paralyzer will be either a ST:09 epic (which I am part way through writing) OR a Heroes psychological drama (which I have a big toothed plot bunny for), so keep me on alert if you like, and the shiny FFbot will alert you when I post it (whichever it may be).

So, without further ado, chapter 8 of 8! *Wipes away a tear*

AN 2: EDITED TO ADD, THERE WILL BE A SMUTTY EPILOGUE... EVENTUALLY.


Paralyzer

8. Burn

Tom held a PADD in each hand. Glancing from one to the other and then back again, he finally made a noise of disgust and thrust them at Nyota.

"Help me! I can't decide!"

From over the cosy restaurant table, Nyota took the devices being shoved in her direction and flipped them round so she could read them. Silently mouthing the text that was displayed on the PADD in her left hand, she nodded along congenially with what she was reading. Switching to the screen in her right hand she got as far as the first line and nearly lost both eyeballs as her eyelids retracted almost completely into her head in shock.

She snapped her gaze back to her dinner companion and almost threw the PADDs at his head. "You're nuts! Choose this one!" She waved the device in her right hand.

Tom grinned with pride, then deflated a second later and propped his chin in his hand. "I know I should, but working for Spock has been so amazing and insightful that I'd be a fool to pass up the chance to keep working for him, especially with the Cygnet long range sensor array coming online this year. Do you have any idea how much new data from outside of the Alpha Quadrant we'll have access to once it's active?" His eyes glazed over in sensor-geek bliss.

Nyota had to physically restrain herself from leaning over and rapping on his head. "You dummy! You're being offered the Enterprise! You won't have to stop working with him, he'll be there too!"

Tom abruptly snapped out of dreamland and locked sharp eyes on her. "What? How do you know that?"

Nyota froze; had she just released classified information? She slowly lowered the PADDs to the table in front of her as a modulated reply sounded form her lips. "Uh, I heard that he was being considered for the role of First Officer." It wasn't a complete lie; she had heard it, from the man himself.

Thomas Jason Franklin was an expert at deciphering coherent information from within sensor garbage. Oddly enough this was a skill that could be applied to people as well as data. He may not possess the social airs and graces of many of his peers, but he sure as hell knew how to pull the truth from within bullshit. He narrowed his eyes shrewdly and watched his friend closely for her reaction to his next question. "He told you didn't he?"

Blinking rapidly and trying not to get flustered, she stammered, "N-no, no he didn't."

Tom threw up his hands in victory. "I knew it!" Leaning forwards and lowering his voice to a conspiritory whisper, he said, "There is something going on between you isn't there?"

Tunnel vision immediately set in, blinkering Nyota's view of the room around her as sheer panic triggered an autonomic Fight or Flight response. She moved to push her chair back from the table and her words rushed out, "Dinner was lovely, thanks Tom, I'll see you-"

A hand shot out to grasp her wrist, stopping her from standing. "Oh no you don't." Relaxing his grip, Tom attempted to calm her down, "It's okay, Nyota, no-one else suspects a thing and I won't breathe a word, I promise." He felt the arm in his hand relax somewhat so he released her and tucked the discarded PADDs back into his bag and folded his hands on the table in front of him. "Do you want to talk about it? I'm guessing you haven't told anyone, it's probably eating you alive having to keep it to yourself."

She pinched the bridge of her nose. He already knew and she had been itching to tell someone...

"It was an accident."

Tom snorted, then struggled to smooth the hilarity from his face as hers descended into horrified mortification. "What was an accident?" He had a pretty good idea, considering the colour she had turned.

"We, uh, you know..."

He raised an eyebrow in an uncanny impersonation of his boss, "You what?"

She cast a quick, furtive glance around which made her look ridiculous, seeing as they were in a crowded restaurant. She leaned closer and whispered, "We slept together," then blushed to approximately the same shade of red as their tablecloth.

Tom couldn't fight back the smirk this time. "You accidentally slept with him? What happened, you tripped, fell, landed on his-"

"Tom!!"

He was laughing now, "I'm sorry, Ny, I fail to see how you can 'accidentally'," he mimed inverted commas with his fingers, "do something like that." He pulled his napkin out of his lap, tossed it onto the table and waved for the cheque. "Let's go, this isn't the best place to have this conversation."

-UFP-

She was below him, over him, touching him, enflaming him.

He writhed below her, his skin intoxicated with her touch, his body crying out for more.

He reached up towards her but could not reach, his fingertips were desperate to feel the softness of her face, to slip into her mind, but she held herself aloof, mere millimeters away from his grasping fingers.

"Nyota... please... please let me touch you."

She shook her head slowly as if moving underwater, her hair cascading around her shoulders. "No, Spock, don't you see it's better this way?"

He didn't see, he didn't care, he needed her and he'd be damned if she was going to stop him.

Spock awoke with a jolt, a reaction to the sudden onset of consciousness that had not happened to him since he had been a boy. Laying stretched out on his back, he listened to the sound of his own shallow breath, felt the sweat beading at his temples and lost himself to the intoxicating rhythm of blood thundering through his veins. Sliding one hand down the length of his body, he took hold of himself and groaned into the dark silence of the room as pleasure rolled through him at his own touch.

It took two strokes for him to realise what he was doing and he snatched his hand away from his body as if he'd been burned.

Rolling out of bed, Spock checked the chronometer and decided he'd had quite enough sleep for tonight, thank you very much.

*

He was over her, below her, his skin was hot to her touch and he sighed as she explored him.

He writhed in pleasure and she stroked lower, watching with glee as his breath caught and his muscles tensed.

He reached up towards her but she dodged away from his skillful fingers, knowing that she would be lost to him if he made contact.

"Nyota... please... please let me touch you."

His voice was almost her undoing, she'd never heard it tremor like that before. She shook her head slowly as if moving underwater, her hair cascading around her shoulders. "No, Spock, don't you see it's better this way?" It was better this way, they were safer remaining as student and teacher. If they were to return to 'lover' status, even once, there was no way that she could keep her hands off him, and that was just too dangerous.

Something shifted in his eyes and she swallowed.

Danger-

Nyota woke up with a start and lay blinking rapidly into the darkness of her dorm room. Gaila's soft snores were the only sound to break the silence and Nyota squinted at the chronometer by her bed; five am?! There was no way she was getting up at such an ungodly hour.

Rolling over and snuggling deeper into her blankets, she squeezed her eyes shut, forced thoughts of Spock from her mind and her body and attempted to go back to sleep.

-UFP-

It was a bleary, shadow-eyed Nyota Uhura who entered the language lab for her one to one with Spock.

It had been five days since her dinner with Tom Franklin and three days since the dreams had begun, starting with the one where she wouldn't let him touch her. She hadn't been able to sleep through the night since. Each dream made her wake up hot, sweaty and aroused; each dream was worse than the one preceding it and each dream made her question the wisdom of her decision to leave Spock the hell alone.

She yawned mightily and set her bag down on a console, taking a seat next to it as she waited for Spock to join her in the adjacent chair. The Vulcan in question greeted her without looking up from the work station he was bent over, facing away from her. Nyota swallowed, his position gave her an unobstructed view of his buttocks and was it her imagination, or were his uniform trousers particularly well fitting today?

"I will be with you in just a moment, Cadet." He shifted his weight from one hip to the other as he worked and Nyota blinked, convinced she was going to go blind if he kept moving like that. The dreams had been wearing her sanity thin and she had known that she was going to be hyper aware of him when they next crossed paths; fortunately she hadn't had to be in a room with him since before they had started. This one to one was the first time she had seen him since her ordeal of sweet torture had begun and she had been dreading it with almost every fiber of her being.

From his position at the console, Spock felt his lips flicker at the corners as a self-satisfied smirk threatened. Sheer, unadulterated lust was transmitting loud and clear through the bond; it looked like his plan to get his way was going to be easier than he had anticipated. Experimentally, he reached for a far control, the movement causing him to arch his back and pull the fabric of his trousers tight over his buttocks. The almost inaudible hiss from behind him communicated his success and this time the smirk very nearly burst onto his face.

Nyota willed her eyes to blink, but they refused to run the risk of missing even a nanosecond of this spectacular sight, remaining fixed open and staring. He finally turned around to face her and she startled, looking away guiltily and trying to find something else to look at. He approached her slowly, his head tilted down so he could gaze at her through his brows and she swallowed again; that was definitely a weighted look. It looked like he was deliberately tempting her and damn it all but her body was reacting to it. What had happened to her resolve? Where was the iron clad will not to re-engage as intimately as they had? Why wasn't she stopping him from prowling towards her? Why-

He came to a stop beside her, reaching across her to activate the screen she would need and inadvertently offering her the long column of his throat. Unable to stop herself, she took a deep breath in through her nose and reeled at the scent of him; warm, male, spice, the intoxicating aroma of pheromones. Clamping her legs tightly together she refused to give in to the flutter in her belly as he withdrew.

"Shall we begin?" His voice was soft, low and far too close to her ear as his breath ruffled the hair at her temple.

"Uh-huh." She couldn't articulate beyond grunts. This was bad. If she had no resistance to him at a distance then how was she supposed to stop him if he decided to try and sway her now? She chanced a glance at him and almost swallowed her tongue.

His gaze was fixed on her lips and as her own tongue unconsciously darted out to wet them, his eyes dilated.

She groaned in dismay, "Oh God."

His eyes immediately snapped back to hers and he leaned closer, the mild concern on his face at odds with the arousal in his eyes. "Is something wrong?"

She hadn't realised she had spoken out loud but was both mad (brain) and glad (body) that she had as he moved to within her personal space. She licked her lips again, perversely enjoying the way it made his eyes darken. "Uh, no, there's nothing wrong."

His eyes scanned her face before he said softly, "You made a sound of discomfort, are you certain that you are well? Perhaps we should postpone this session." He began to move back to a safe distance.

Nyota's libido was not at all happy with this arrangement and took control of her mouth, making her blurt out, "No!" damn it! "I mean no, I'm fine. I'm just tired, I've not been sleeping very well."

Neither have I.

"Very well." He indicated the text on the screen in front of her, "Please translate this passage from Federation Standard to the mountain dialect of Rihannsu, to Anakana Vulcan, to standard Rihannsu then back to Federation Standard."

As she squinted at the text, her fingers flying over the type pad, she became aware of a pleasant, relaxing sensation between her shoulder blades. She was so tense that she didn't stop to question what it was or where it was coming from until after she had finished the near impossible task of making the final translation coherent. Sitting back in her seat with a victorious flourish she relaxed as the gentle massage of Spock's fingers between her shoulder blades filled her with languid heat.

Wait... Spock's fingers?

She jolted upright and away from his hand which was resting on the back of her chair. "Spock! What are you-" his finger on her lips silenced her and his own lips pouted into a gentle shushing motion.

"I am merely attempting to facilitate a state in which you can work. You are clearly suffering from your sleep deprivation." He withdrew his fingers and slid his chair away from hers. "I apologise if I have caused you discomfort."

"I'm not uncomfortable, it was just a little, uh," nice "surprising."

The hand on her back and his finger on her lips had been the first physical contact between them since the day of the identity revealing lecture. Her lips twitched involuntarily as the digit was removed, as if trying to keep it where it was. She took a deep, calming breath, blinking rapidly as she received a second wave of male scent and realised that there was no way she was going to be able to keep her hands to herself.

So she sat on them.

Spock, noticing her strange action, quirked an incredulous eyebrow but said nothing. Nyota nodded to the screen, refusing to release her hands until he was out of range again, "Please continue with the exercise."

He returned his seat to its position next to hers and reached across her again, this time being sure to 'accidentally' brush her upper arm with his hand as he did. She shuddered and he had to fight back the smirk again; the outcome of this exercise in flirtation seemed extremely hopeful.

The remainder of the session tested every ounce of control that Nyota Uhura possessed. Spock seemed determined to break through her defenses, although she wasn't sure if it was just her sleep-deprived mind imagining his flirtatious behaviour. He whispered something in Vulcan directly into her ear - an exercise in 'Vulcan whispers' he had said, the concept being similar to the information lost through Chinese Whispers - and she blushed; she definitely wasn't imagining it.

"Did-did you just say what I thought you said?"

"That would depend entirely on what you thought I said." The smirk was audible in his voice.

"Spock-"

"Whispered Vulcan loses a considerable quantity of meaning, due to the inability to express natural verbal rise and fall." He shifted close, too close, his chest bumped lightly against her upper arm and he placed his lips next to her ear to whisper hotly, "The same does not apply to Federation Standard." His tongue flicked out to lick his lips in anticipation of success, catching her earlobe as it did so.

Nyota was in trouble.

There was no way on God's green Earth that she was going to be able to resist giving in to him if he didn't move away from her within the next thirty seconds. His body heat was bleeding into her despite the combined depth of their uniforms, his heavenly masculine scent had long ago filled her senses to fog her mind and his lips against her ear were going to quite literally melt her brain inside her head.

Steeling the last of her resolve she took a breath to speak, but he beat her to it, husking desperately into the hair at her temple,

"I want you."

There was a pause...

...She turned her head to face him.

There were precisely five millimeters between their lips.

Spock's eyes dilated.

Nyota swallowed.

Without unlocking his gaze from hers, he addressed the computer quietly, "Computer, lock the door."

The computer chimed its unwitting assistance in this irresistible seduction.

Nyota swallowed again, but made no move to belay the order to Spock's digital accomplice.

Spock's voice returned to its heated whisper, this time against her lips. "Denial is illogical."

Nyota found her voice, it was a lot less assured than she would have liked. "So is seducing your students."

His lower lip brushed against hers as he murmured, "Too late."

Something snapped.

She was in his lap and straddling his hips before the thought to do so even had chance to finish forming. Sinking her fingers into sleek, black, Vulcan hair, she drank deeply, intoxicatingly of his lips as strong, male arms came about her and crushed her to him. Reason had fled, restraint hot on its heels and Nyota gave in finally to five months, six days, two hours and forty five minutes of lust. Retrieving one hand from the delicious depths of his hair, she grazed her fingernails over his temple.

An unrestrained groan of pure satisfaction and a glorious writhe from the incredibly aroused man below her was her reward.

The part of Spock's mind that was still operating a modicum of sense noted cooly that the exercise in flirtation had indeed been successful. It then raised an incredulous eyebrow at the activities taking place before it and returned to introspection, leaving the instinct-driven Vulcan free to submit to the moment.

Submitting was the last thing on his mind right now.

Grasping Nyota's wrists, he removed her hands from his head and pushed on her arms until they went behind her back. Holding both of her wrists in one of his, he brought his free hand up to trail telepathic fire from her forehead, over her cheekbone, along her jaw and down her throat. She quivered against him as he passed over the fluttering pulse in her neck, so he did it again and she broke their kiss to pant against his face, "Tom knows."

Spock froze.

In the next instant Nyota was standing unsteadily on her feet, having been unceremoniously placed there by Spock, who had immediately surged into anxious pacing the second she was off him.

"You are quite certain?"

She nodded, unable to articulate verbally just yet, after all he had just turned her synapses to mush.

"Tom has been an exemplary student and assistant, I only hope he can be trusted to be discreet."

Nyota's tongue decided to start working to form words again. "He can, he assured me that no-one else even suspected anything. I trust him." She suddenly became very self conscious, despite the fact that none of her clothing was out of place and she was not too disheveled. She reached for her bag, intending to leave; Spock caught the movement and stopped pacing.

"Where are you going?" His expression was habitually blank, but his eyes were still blazing with need.

She pulled her bag onto her shoulder and shrugged, feeling ridiculously immature but unable to quell the sensation. "I should go. This was just a moment of weakness, we can-"

"Commander Dyson will be recovered by the end of the week." He blurted, deliberately interrupting her.

"He will?!" Nyota's voice was shrill with relief and she silently thanked everything that was holy. At least now she might stand a chance of graduating without being kicked out of the Academy first.

"At which point you will no longer be classed as my student."

She didn't like the way he was heading with this line of thought, despite the excited leap in her chest. "And?"

He was fast.

He had her pinned to the wall before she could blink, his arms either side of her holding her trapped against the unyielding surface.

His eyes were dark with promise and his voice came out in a growl. "I tire of this continued, imposed restraint, Nyota Uhura."

Despite her determination to behave, she thrilled in his possession of her name and pushed her hips forwards until they brushed against his; she felt his arousal quickly returning through his trousers. She bit her lip and replied in perfectly translated (into the third dialect of Rihannsu) verse:

"Doing, a filthy pleasure is, and short;

And done, we straight repent us of the sport:

Let us not rush blindly on unto it,

Like lustful beasts, that only know to do it."

Spock's inner scholar beamed in pride as she finally understood what he had been trying to teach her, even as his libido wailed in dismay at its defeat. "Petronius. Interesting." He closed his eyes, took a deep, calming breath and forced his body to cool its almost uncontrollable ardor.

Once he was in control of himself again, he turned his back and took a step away from her. "Very well. We will wait, but I promise you this." He spun to face her and Nyota realised that he was not quite as under control as she had thought; his eyes seared her with the intensity of his desire. "You will be mine as soon as I am in a position to take you."

A slow smile spread over Nyota's face, pulling into a smirk as she noted the effect it had on him.

It was going to be an interesting post-graduation party next year.

~Fin~

^You see that? You see it? Fin... FIN!!! IL EST FINI! *Slumps happily in chair* It went nowhere, had no major impact on anything but by golly I had fun writing it.

Fanx for lasting this far! Reviews are made of dreams...

*Schleps off to bed*