Hello, readers! I know I'm back a little later than I promised, but I could never abandon this story! Hope you all enjoy this new chapter (apologies in advance... you'll soon see why)

Thirty

"– And that's everything," Victoria smiled and pressed a button on her console, shutting off the screen behind her. "Questions?"

Innumerable hands shot up, and she resisted the urge to sigh. Rookie officers were usually fun to train, because it was rare they had any knowledge of the workings of a starship, let alone space, outside of their lessons at the Academy. Their naivety was usually dangerous; fortunately, Jim was of the opinion that there was no better way to learn than to throw rookies into the fire, and he made sure there were plenty of fires burning to keep everyone occupied.

Nodding at the closest ensign, Victoria began the seemingly endless task of fielding questions, for the first time grateful for her training in the Laurentian system at the beginning of her career that had effectively prepared her for this moment. Three days, one hundred and four physicals, eighty four shortlisted officers, all with constant reports to Spock and being in the same room as Leonard McCoy for hours on end talking, laughing, flirting… it was a miracle she was still standing upright.

One hour later, when the officers began to file out of the conference room, Victoria exhaled and sank into the seat behind the console for the first time. She allowed herself a brief respite, closing her head and resting her forehead against her palm, until…

"Great job!" Jim's enthusiastic voice interrupted her, and her head snapped up. He was weaving through the thicket of chairs towards her, closely followed by Spock. "Of course, I knew you could do it," he continued, still sounding entirely too energetic for Victoria's tastes. "But as your captain, I think this is a good time to tell you I'm very impressed. Did you approve, Mr. Spock?"

Spock merely nodded wordlessly, and Victoria smiled. "Thank you," she said, nodding to them both. Jim handed her a mug of coffee that was still steaming, and she accepted it gratefully. "Although, I didn't know you were both going to be here."

"Spock was here; I just came in," said Jim, nodding to the coffee in her hands. "So, Spock and Bones are beaming down first?"

"At the Commander's insistence," nodded Victoria. "It's probably for the best. If something goes horribly wrong, at least we can rely on these two to make it out alive. The rest of your officers… not so much."

"They'll learn," Jim waved away her concern, then turned to grin at Spock. "Excited, Mr. Spock?"

"It is a training exercise, Captain."

"So, you can't be excited?"

"I will reserve my emotions for a more fitting opportunity."

"The Commander is very excited to get the readings from our sensors afterwards," cut in Victoria. "And so am I."

"That is correct," nodded Spock. "Your idea to repurpose tricorders to act as sensors was excellent, doctor. The increase to our productivity will enable us to move on from this system much sooner than we initially anticipated."

"Thank you, Commander, I appreciate the opportunity to help."

"Look at you two, friends already!" Jim folded his arms across his chest smugly. "I wonder who called it."

Victoria rolled her eyes and stood up, gathering her PADDs and unceremoniously shoving them into Jim's arms. "Take those to the bridge, I'll join you when I'm done fitting the Commander and Dr. McCoy with sensors," she instructed. Jim opened his mouth to argue, and she glared, lowering her voice slightly. "Jim, I'm running on one cup of coffee and three days of paperwork that made my hand cramp four times just yesterday. Do not test me."

Sheepishly, Jim nodded and left the lab, arms laden with PADDs. Victoria picked up the last PADD and her mug of coffee, only to find Spock watching her. She grimaced. "Let's go, Commander. I don't really want to hear about how unprofessional I am, I don't have enough caffeine in my system for that conversation."

"I was not going to comment," replied Spock, gesturing for her to precede him out of the lab. "I have already noted that your relationship with the Captain is… irregular."

"Just imagine if Jim's older sister was on the ship," advised Victoria. "Would you expect her to take his bullshit all the time?"

"What I expect does not matter, doctor."

"As First Officer, the senior-most Science Officer, and Jim's best friend?" Victoria raised his eyebrows. "I'd say it does matter, Commander."

"Very well. Your lack of professionalism appears to be at odds with what I know of you and your career, prior to having met you," said Spock. "I find the discrepancy quite odd."

They reached the turbolift and Victoria continued to sip her coffee thoughtfully. "Humans are odd, Commander," she said finally. "You only ever met me socially, and now… well, the circumstances aren't exactly ideal to form a purely professional relationship. Perhaps that's why we didn't like each other very much in the beginning. I also tend to hide behind professionalism, when I'm not sure how I'll take to someone personally. We didn't have that buffer."

"Personal feelings are irrelevant in our line of work."

"I disagree," Victoria shrugged. "Personal feelings and relationships are the reason I'm on your ship, and the reason you haven't tried to dump me into an escape pod and eject me out into deep space. And I appreciate that, but maintaining a professional façade around someone who doesn't like you very much is quite difficult."

"I have not intended to make you feel uncomfortable, or unwanted on the ship," said Spock, and his words surprised Victoria enough that she turned to look at him with wide eyes. He kept his own gaze fixed on the door of the lift. "You are a talented scientist, and an excellent officer. I have merely disagreed with the deception that it took to get you onto the ship, and I do not believe in disguising my opinion behind politeness when we both know the truth."

"I see," said Victoria, because she had no idea what else to say. "Well… I appreciate your honesty, I guess. If it helps, it makes me dislike you a little bit less. Maybe once we're on course back to Earth, I'll even start liking you. No offense."

"I am not offended. Humans do not tend to find my personality conducive to friendship."

Victoria snorted. "Yeah, right. Admiral Pike talked about how great you were for hours. Your best friend is Jim, your girlfriend is Uhura, and you've even made Dr. McCoy like you. Hate to break it to you, Commander, but you're very well-liked. For a half-Vulcan, that is," she added teasingly.

Unsurprisingly, her teasing was lost on him. Spock tilted his head to the side, his gaze almost curious. The turbolift arrived and Victoria quickly drained the last of her coffee as they headed towards the transporter room. Just before they arrived, Spock suddenly spoke. "You knew Admiral Pike?" he asked.

Victoria smiled sadly. "Yes."

The doors slid open before he could question her further, and Victoria walked into the room quickly. She headed straight for Homer, who was standing next to Dr. McCoy and holding the sensors in his hands, looking at them a little suspiciously.

"Morning, boys," greeted Victoria. Leonard nodded, a little stiffly, and Homer still looked apprehensive. She knew this wasn't Leonard's first choice of activity, and he wasn't exactly known for his sunny disposition when annoyed, clearly evidenced by his expression. Deciding to take pity on both him and Homer, she turned to the latter and gestured towards Spock, who was on the other side of the room talking to the transporter chief. "I'll handle Dr. McCoy, Homer. You can fit the Commander with this," she said, taking one of the sensors from his hands. "Remember, his points of contact are based on Vulcan anatomy. In fact, you should probably let him do it himself, just check him over once when he's done."

Homer nodded and walked off, leaving the other two alone. Victoria turned to face Leonard, still smiling, and wasn't surprised to find that his grumpy expression cleared a little when she caught his eye.

She smirked. "I knew Jim would talk you into this in the end."

"He told me it'd mess up your experiment if I said no," grunted Leonard. "No good, lyin' little –"

"Language," admonished Victoria. Setting her empty mug and PADD on the console behind her, she picked up the sensor – a reworked tricorder that was small enough to fit into the palm of her hand – and held it up for him to see. "As flattered as I am that you're doing this for me, this is for science. I'm going to attach this to you, you just have to make sure it doesn't fall off, and keeps contact with your skin at all times. There's also an emergency signal attached to it, in case you can't use your comm," she tapped the centre of the device; in lieu of the usual hardware, this one only had a small button. "Keep that pressed until we beam you up. Clear?"

"Clear," Leonard nodded. "Where's it goin'?"

Victoria bit her lip to stop herself from smiling. "Nowhere special," she said innocently. "I'm just going to need you to strip."

"Right," Leonard snorted. "Nice joke, darlin'."

"I'm not joking," she jerked her head to the scene over his shoulder, and he turned around to see Spock, shirtless, attaching the sensor to his side – where Vulcans hearts were located – as Homer explained something to him. "I didn't think Spock would appreciate Homer or me touching him, so I let him do it himself," she added. "Didn't know you had the same problem, though."

Leonard turned to look at her. It took him less than five seconds to start smirking. "So you volunteered to help me? I'm flattered, darlin'."

"Good. Hold on to that thought," she said, and beckoned him closer. "I guarantee I'm probably going to enjoy this way more than you."

Leonard gave her an odd look, but she maintained a completely innocent expression, and he sighed. Reaching a hand behind his back, he grasped the back of his uniform shirt and pulled it up over his head in one go, tossing it at her when it was off. Victoria caught it with one hand and draped it over her shoulder, carefully avoiding looking at him as she turned and tapped out a few commands on her PADD. The sensor suddenly lit up, turning from dark grey to a bright red, indicating that it was now ready to be attached; finally out of reasons to avoid Leonard's gaze, Victoria looked up at him.

He just had to be ridiculously fit. Victoria had only just managed to convince herself that her attraction towards Leonard McCoy was purely physical, and refused to allow herself to budge from that conviction. She told herself that his personality was just a bonus: he had a nice accent that was capable of making her swoon, especially when he had too much to drink and it thickened a little; sometimes, when he was in the middle of arguing with someone, and his eyes fell on her, his expression would immediately change and his eyes would twinkle; and he had the rare ability to make her forget where she was, what she was doing, and why she was doing it when it was just the two of them, alone together. In fact, she had been half-hoping he wasn't absolutely delicious under that uniform, simply because it would really help her get over her stupid crush if he didn't have a nice body. A physical attraction could be ignored, but anything more than that… Victoria wouldn't allow herself to dwell on it. All she would allow herself, she decided, was the indulgence of a look; after all, who could blame a girl for just looking? But Leonard saw through her cursory glance in a second, and folded his arms across his chest – a chest that was way too well-defined for him to not be in the gym at least three days a week, though when he found the time was beyond her – and smirked.

Victoria spoke quickly before he could say anything else, holding up the sensor so he could see it. "Red means it's on; it needs to go right above a vein to monitor your heartbeat; and it's self-adhesive so it won't fall off," she explained, speaking a little faster than normal. Leonard's smirk grew, and she tried to pretend that the reddening of her cheeks was completely normal, gesturing towards his chest. "May I?"

"Be my guest," he answered, and the humour was barely disguised in his voice. His amusement only made her – stubbornly – refuse to acknowledge her own blush, and she boldly stepped up and rested a hand against his chest to hold him still, pressing the sensor right above his heart without warning. It took him about two seconds to register what she'd done, but she was impressed when he only flinched, and didn't step back in surprise.

"Did I forget to mention the adhesive stings?" she asked, smiling innocently. Leonard gave her a dry look, and she patted his chest comfortingly, trying to ignore the heat coming off his body, and the fact that this was the first time she had been around a shirtless man in a very long time. "I'm sure you didn't feel a thing, big strong man that you are."

"I didn't say nothin' about bein' strong," he pointed out, and despite his expression she still heard the amusement in his voice. "That was all you, darlin'."

"Yes, well," she rolled her eyes and took a step back, busying herself with her PADD and trying to ignore the way her palm still felt warm from his skin. "I'm not blind. You're ready to go down now. Any questions?"

"Just one."

"Yes?"

"Can I have my shirt back?"

Victoria blinked and looked up from her PADD, realising that he was still shirtless in front of her, and his shirt was… still draped over her shoulder.

"Right, of course," she cleared her throat and handed it back to him. He was still smirking as he pulled it on, and she chalked up her next question to embarrassment and years of forced celibacy, blurting out, "How do you find time to still look like that?" before she could change her mind.

Leonard raised his eyebrows at her as he adjusted his sleeves. "I may be old, but I ain't that old," he pointed out. His normally immaculate, gelled-back hair was now a little messy, and she suddenly wanted to run her fingers through it, just to see if it was as soft as it looked despite the product. Stop it, Victoria.

"Age has nothing to do with the view, Leonard," she said. She curled her fingers into a fist and stuffed her hand into her pocket, not trusting herself.

"Yeah?" he raised his eyebrows. "Didn't know you felt that way."

I don't know how I feel either. "Easy, tiger," she tapped the sensor from on top of his shirt and gave him a pointed look. "Remember, the emergency button is there for a reason."

He nodded. "Got it."

"Don't do anything stupid."

"Don't worry about me, darlin'. I ain't Jim."

Victoria gave him a suspicious look. Homer called out that they had thirty seconds before the team was beaming down, and she walked him up to the transporter, nodding at Spock. "Good luck, Commander."

Spock nodded back, and she turned to Leonard. "I don't think you both can be friends with Jim and have a good sense of self-preservation," she said matter-of-factly. "Just don't die out there."

Leonard shrugged, then offered her a smile that was warm, and devoid of the usual hint of teasing. "Wouldn't dream of it, darlin'. You and me still gotta talk."

Despite herself, Victoria smiled. "Keep dreaming, McCoy. See you in a few hours."

!

"What's our status, Lieutenant?" asked Jim.

"They're right on schedule, Captain," answered Hannity, from her station where she was monitoring the officers who had gone planet-side. "They've entered the third quadrant we'd outlined on the planet's map, and the readings we're getting are in-line with expectations."

"Excellent. And, Dr. Woodville, they're holding up okay?"

Victoria didn't look up from her station as Jim came over to stand next to her. "Yes, Captain. Commander Spock's temperature is slightly elevated, but Dr. McCoy's vitals are normal. I'm chalking it up to a Vulcan anomaly for now. If it persists, I'm going to have to recall him and run some tests."

Jim frowned. "What's the likelihood of that happening?"

"Very unlikely," Victoria assured him. "The Commander would have let us know by now if he wasn't feeling up to it."

"That would be the logical thing to do," Jim smirked and nodded, headed back to his chair. "Good work, Woodville."

"Thanks," called back Victoria absently, her eyes stilled glued to her console. Or rather, Spock's console, which she had taken over the second she had stepped onto the bridge to monitor McCoy and Spock's training exercise down on the planet. Over three hours later and absolutely nothing had gone wrong, which only made everyone on the bridge continuously compliment Victoria on her carefully-crafted training plan, while she tried desperately to avoid eye contact. Still, she couldn't be too uncomfortable: it was fun, to have control over a project that was completely hers, and after so long. She almost wanted to thank Spock for forcing her to take it over. Maybe she would use her access to the ship's botany labs to see if she could grow those weird Vulcan vegetables he was no doubt familiar with; they were hard to replicate, and she suspected Spock was a picky eater when it came to Earth food. That would probably suffice as a gesture of gratitude, she decided.

After all, Spock was basically the reason she had gotten that view of Leonard McCoy with his shirt off. She figured she owed the Commander more than just a cursory thank you.

"Something funny?" asked Uhura, suddenly appearing next to her.

Victoria bit the inside of her cheek to stop smiling and shook her head, pushing a PADD at the communications officer. "Spock's log," she explained. "I assume you want to catalogue it." Uhura nodded and took the PADD back to her console, and Victoria returned to hers. The readings made her frown a little, and she tapped a button to activate the comm link with the team on the surface. "Woodville to Commander Spock."

"Spock here."

"Commander, your heartbeat is elevated," said Victoria, eyes narrowed as she considered the datasets in front of her. "How are you feeling?"

"Perfectly fine, Dr. Woodville," answered Spock. He didn't even sound out of breath, which was at odds with the numbers on Victoria's screen; he should have at least been a little uncomfortable by now.

"I see. Woodville out," she ended the link and set up another one. "Woodville to McCoy."

"This is McCoy."

"How're you feeling?" she asked. "Vitals good? Any shortness of breath?"

"I feel fine. Nothin' out of the ordinary," answered Leonard. He didn't sound tired, or stressed; then again, his readings were normal. "Somethin' wrong?"

"Maybe," Victoria bit her lip. "Did you take your tricorder down with you?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"I need you to check the Commander's vitals," said Victoria. She heard Jim get up from his chair and join her by the console again, but didn't turn around. "I'm getting a weird reading from him and I want to make sure something on the surface isn't reacting to his Vulcan physiology. Is he nearby?"

"We haven't split up yet," said Leonard. "I'll send an updated report, tell Uhura to be on standby."

"Thanks. Woodville out," she flipped the comm off and turned to face Jim, folding her arms across her chest. "I'm just being careful," she said defensively, when he didn't immediately speak. "The Commander can't feel what's wrong with him but my data says something is, and it doesn't add up. We should get a second opinion."

"I trust your judgement," nodded Jim. "How long will the report take?"

"Depending on how amenable the Commander is, only a few minutes."

"Don't bet on that," Jim grimaced. "Spock can be –"

"Spock to Woodville."

"– stubborn," finished Jim. He gestured towards the comm. "Please, go ahead."

Victoria sighed and tapped the comm. "Woodville here. Yes, Commander?"

"My vitals are normal, doctor, we are wasting time."

"Commander, I'm just being careful."

"It is unnecessary."

"All due respect, sir, you put me in charge of this exercise which also means I'm in charge of your safety. And I think something's wrong," she bit her lip. "Perhaps you should beam back and we can –"

"Negative. We are entering the fourth quadrant now. Estimated time to completion of task is two hours. Spock out."

"Damn it," muttered Victoria. She pressed the comm again. "McCoy?"

"He's bein' stubborn," sighed Leonard. "I'll keep an eye on him, but he seems fine."

"Alright, keep me posted. Woodville out."

"Told you," said Jim, when Victoria turned back to face him. "Don't take it personally. Spock values efficiency over personal safety, it's the most human thing about him."

"I was kind of hoping the logical side of him would win out in this case," muttered Victoria. She turned to the ensign who was shadowing her and handed him her PADD. "If the Commander so much as breathes wrong, I want to know about it," she instructed, and the ensign nodded. She turned back to Jim and shrugged. "I can't do much now. The fourth quadrant has really dense vegetation, we need to get the readings from the sensors back before we can pinpoint what his body is reacting to."

"Tell me about this quadrant," said Jim. He indicated the map on her console. "You mentioned something about carnivorous plants?"

"I don't know how scientific that description is, but yes," Victoria smiled. "I told you botany was a… hobby of mine."

Jim grimaced, no doubt remembering the time Victoria had threatened to set the man-eating plant she kept in her garden shed on him during Sulu's and Ben's wedding. Victoria's own smile faded at the memory. It felt like decades ago…

"It's highly unlikely they're dangerous to humans, but they do have something like an in-built defence mechanism," continued Victoria, drawing herself out of her memories. "It's only interesting because it points to the vegetation's place in the food chain, even though we know there isn't any intelligent life on the planet. Basically, it's like a forest of Venus fly-traps. Get too close, and it will attack you for food. Except, they shoot you."

Jim's eyebrows shot up. "Excuse me? Shoot you?"

"Hey, Tori, I've got McCoy's updated readings coming in," called out Uhura from across the Bridge, interrupting their conversation. "Patching them through now."

"Thanks!" called out Victoria. She pulled up the file on her console and turned back to Jim, blinking as she tried to remember what they had been talking about. "Oh, yeah, shooting," Victoria nodded absently. "It's a tiny pellet that the plants produce, and they fire it like a gun fires a bullet, at the intended target. The pellet acts as an immobiliser that causes paralysis for a few hours, and then the ground sort of absorbs your body for nutrients," she finished lamely, scanning Spock's report. As she looked up, she saw that Jim looked slightly horrified. She hastily added, "Don't worry, they're not going through the forest, they're just supposed to get a sample of the plant, which is totally safe since they just have to snip it from the root. I've briefed them thoroughly, and the Commander and I decided on this course of action ourselves. Plus, McCoy has really steady hands."

"Does he?" despite his expression just a few seconds ago, Jim was now smirking. "I mean, I know you're right. I'm just wondering how you know that."

"He's a doctor," said Victoria, ignoring his knowing look. "If he didn't have steady hands, you'd be dead by now. At least twice over."

"Right," Jim chuckled. "Well, I hope you've briefed them properly, Tori. I'd really like to go one day without Bones wanting to kill me because I sent him planet-side."

"Don't worry," she was still staring at the console. "The likelihood of something going wrong is –"

"Dr. Woodville, I've got something!" yelled the ensign Victoria had handed her PADD to. He practically ran back to her, his face slightly ashen. "The Commander is –"

"McCoy to Enterprise, transport us out of here now!"

Victoria froze as Leonard's voice blared out of Uhura's station, and the entire Bridge seemed to collectively halt for what felt like hours; in reality, it was only a second. In the blink of an eye, Jim was barking orders at Scotty, Uhura was demanding to know their exact location, Hannity was paging Sickbay, and Victoria found herself dropping the PADD she had been holding and heading straight for the turbolift. She was barely able to gasp out her destination before she realised she should have probably stayed on the Bridge in case she was needed, but her feet had moved of their own accord, and she didn't want to think about why. She didn't want to think about how her heart was racing, how she felt faintly nauseous, and how Leonard McCoy's panic-stricken voice was still ringing in her ears as she impatiently waited for the lift to arrive at her destination. She couldn't think about those things, because she had spent the better part of the day convincing herself that she had no reason to be attached to him, that she shouldn't be attached to him, and yet here she was, tearing through the halls and bursting through the doors of the transporter room, barely making eye-contact with a concerned looking Dr. M'Benga as two figures materialised on the transporter pads.

It didn't take her too long to figure out what was wrong. As two nurses and Dr. M'Benga immediately converged around Spock, Victoria found herself still rooted to the floor, her eyes fixed on Leonard McCoy. He stood up slowly, almost shakily, nodded at something Nurse Riley quickly said to him, and stepped off the transporter. None of the medical professionals around him tried to stop him, no doubt concerned for the wellbeing of the ship's First Officer, who had yet to make a sound even as everyone around him talked all at once, the steady stream of medical chatter almost overwhelming. But Leonard was pressing a hand against his side, as if holding a stitch after having run a marathon, and Victoria's gaze immediately narrowed onto his hand. The dark red liquid that was slowly staining his shirt and oozing through the gaps in his fingers wasn't invisible to her, no matter how hard he seemed to be trying to hide it.

He caught her eye after Nurse Riley turned away from him, and seemed to try to smile at her. Victoria didn't smile back, the adrenaline still coursing through her veins as he slowly approached her, now looking a little concerned. For her. Of course. Because Leonard McCoy could be bleeding out on the floor of his best friend's ship, but he still had to make sure she was alright.

However, neither of them got the chance to speak. He was a few steps away when Victoria saw his eyes glaze over, and whatever adrenaline was left in her system prompted her to quickly close the distance between them. She caught him just as his knees buckled, but he was heavy and she was unprepared to take his full weight. She ended up just barely breaking his fall, gently laying him down on the ground as finally, finally, one of the nurses noticed the trail of blood behind him and yelled for help. A gurney appeared out of practically nowhere and someone was lifting him up onto it, away from her, but Victoria was already standing and following them out, the overlapping conversations going completely over her head even though in the back of her mind she knew she would be able to understand some of it. But her brain refused to work; all she saw, as she blindly followed the gurney and two nurses running to sickbay, was Leonard McCoy's face right before he had collapsed in her arms.

He had smiled at her.