Authoress' Note: This is my favourite chapter so far just for the fact that I like Nurse Chapel, and this was a fun chapter to write. It's short and hopefully provides a bit of humour in an otherwise angsty story. Thanks for the kind reviews! They truly keep my muse and I going at times.
Difficulties and Miscommunications
The first thing Captain James T. Kirk does after he beams back up to the Enterprise and has set them on a course for Earth is see his first officer in sickbay. Dr. McCoy meets him just outside the door with a bemused expression on his face. This greeting surprises Kirk, as Bones is usually extremely agitated after spending too much time with his Vulcan commander.
"How is he, Bones?" Kirk asks casually, not wanting to sound too worried about a simple stab wound, which he's sure his friend can mend in an instant.
McCoy shakes his head, exasperated. "He's gonna be fine, Jim. Don't worry. Sure, he lost a lot of blood, but we were able to stitch him up all right. He did one of those trance things that Vulcans do when they need to heal themselves. He's awake now, unfortunately."
"Unfortunately?"
"He's a God-awful patient, Jim. You tell him to lie still and rest so that he doesn't screw up any of the work we've done with putting him back together, and what does he do?"
McCoy pauses for dramatic effect before continuing, "He tells me that as long as you aren't here he is acting captain and must therefore resume his duties. Nurse Chapel had to hypo him four times in the last few hours!"
"Okay, okay," Kirk says, his hands up in front of him to stop McCoy's onslaught of complaints, "I'll talk to him. How long will he need to be in sickbay?"
"Oh, I'd say at least another twenty-four hours should do the trick. At any rate, it will be punishment enough for giving me hell while you were gone."
The sickbay doors slide open, and McCoy and the Captain step inside. Spock is sitting up and glances up at them upon their arrival. In a chair positioned next to his bed is Nurse Christine Chapel tapping a hypo against her leg.
"Your Nurse is most persistent, Doctor," Spock comments, "She does not fail to threaten me with your orders if I do not sit quietly enough according to her judgment."
"I knew you were something special when you got here, Nurse," McCoy says, grinning.
The young woman returns the smile and gathers up the hypo and some other items left on a tray next to Spock's bed.
"Thank you, Doctor," she says courteously and exits the room.
The three men stare after her, and as soon as the doors whoosh shut after her Kirk makes a low whistling sound and raises his eyebrows at the doctor.
"She's a fine catch, Bones," he says, knocking his friend in the shoulder with his fist.
McCoy scowls at him, picks up his PADD and begins to read Spock's charts.
"Aww, what's the matter Bones? C'mon, I didn't mean anything by it," Kirk says, looking utterly defeated by the events of the day and his friend's attitude.
"I believe, Captain," begins Spock, "that the Doctor is upset by the fact that Nurse Chapel is already engaged to a Doctor Korby."
"Damn it, Spock," McCoy says, gritting his teeth, but keeping his eyes on the charts, "Why can you never mind your own business?"
"It is my nature, Doctor," the Vulcan says with the smallest hint of a shrug.
Kirk pats McCoy on the shoulder. "Better luck next time, Bones. Sorry about that. That's really disappointing."
"Oh, shut up, Jim. You just wanted a piece of her for yourself."
McCoy says this seriously enough, but he and Jim know it to be true, and they burst out in a fit of laughter that causes Spock to slide down under his covers, pull them up to his chin, and close his eyes.
"He's gone into that trance thing again," McCoy gasps, as Kirk grasps the stitch in his side.
"I think it's safe for me to mention that Spock was trying to get something out of the Nurse also," McCoy says in a conspiratorial whisper.
Kirk leans in closer so he can hear his friend.
"They were deep in conversation about who knows what when I left, and they've been talking non-stop since. It's a downright shame she's engaged. I would've liked Spock to fall for her."
Before Kirk can say anything the door opens and Christine Chapel walks back into the room. She eyes the two of them warily and beams at them with that ambiguous smile that says I-know-what-you're-up-to. The two men can't help smiling back, completely caught up in the spell that is Christine.
"You know Doctor, Mr. Spock informed me of the most interesting thing today," she says conversationally, while making up one of the beds in the corner.
"What's that, Nurse?"
"Well, he said that when Vulcan's are in a healing trance they can still hear everything that's going on around them. Isn't that fascinating?"
Kirk looks at McCoy with wide eyes, and the two burst into laughter again as the Nurse exits the room looking thoroughly confused.