Unfinished Business
Chapter 27 : Walking About
May, 2273
He presented himself at the door to her quarters, an hour after everyone had left the mess hall. "Would you walk with me?"
She stood there, for a moment, looking into his eyes, and then she stepped out into the corridor, and nodded at him, and they started off. After a few minutes, she hesitantly touched his arm, and he looked down at her. "A little slower, Spock. We don't really have a destination, do we?"
"No, we do not. I do apologize. I will slow my steps." And so he did, adopting a more leisurely stride that accommodated her shorter legs. He must remember this in the future.
They walked the corridors for an hour, speaking only occasionally. And then he took her back to her quarters, and thanked her for her presence. And she gave him a tiny, tiny smile in return, before the door shut behind her.
Almost every evening after that, they could be found, somewhere in the many corridors of the ship, walking side by side, not quite touching, sometimes speaking and sometimes not, but always very conscious of the other, there so close.
Occasionally they would stop in the observatory, and stand before the wide windows and look out at the stars. And sometimes they would sit on one of the benches, and talk quietly to each other, of things that had happened between them in the past, and things that had happened to them while they were separated for almost three years. And so he learned of the time she had spent as Kirk's assistant while the Enterprise was being refitted, and she learned of his life at Gol. And slowly, so very slowly, they approached the period that they must eventually discuss, but they could not go there, not yet.
After some time, it occurred to him that she would enjoy walking in the arboretum, and so one evening he took her there, and they walked slowly down the paths, admiring the lush foliage, smelling the lovely scents, commenting on the bright colors. It was calming, and something that he made sure happened again, on a regular basis, at least once a week, but never on the same day two weeks in a row. He did not want her to feel that he had formed habits where she was concerned.
It seemed a logical extension of their walking to walk side by side on the treadmills in the gym. And so their previous Saturday morning routine began slowly to reappear. First it was merely walking, and then they added some laps in the pool, and after that there were the stretches that they did before the walking. As the weeks went by, the stretches grew to include simple work with the dumbbells, and the walking on the treadmill became slow jogging, and the number of laps increased. But neither of them was ready yet for the sparing that they had done previously. Although they both thought of it, now and again.
As the days passed, and then the weeks, they became more comfortable together, and the hesitancy between them all but disappeared. They spoke more confidently now, and occasionally, they touched each other, quickly, gently, fleeting motions of the fingertips only. But the link stayed closed between them, as he was not sure what her desires were on this subject, and he had no wish to impose on her, nor frighten her.
And all the crew became used to seeing them, walking about, talking to each other, and none thought it strange to see them so. And McCoy was eased somewhat, to see that she watched him, even when he did not seem to be aware of it, and her eyes were softer than they had been. There did not seem to be so much pain there, as there had been. And when she came for her quarterly exam, and he asked her how she was doing, she smiled, and said she was fine. And he thought perhaps it was true.