Ty Mira Black-Snape for beta

Notes: remember /-/ means mental talks

That morning, Spock and James decided it was imperative to tell the commanding crew. The last day's check-up wasn't good. The poor captain now was only 140 lbs (64,5 kg), 6 weeks into the pregnancy.

The captain was at the table, waiting for his husband to deliver the much-needed food. Since the beginning, he could no longer eat meat, opting for Vulcan's dishes. Today, he craved for Plomeek broth, something bland in taste, but to help him Spock added some basil. Stealing a kiss from the sick man, the hybrid set the plates on the table and joined him. "How do you feel, love?" he said.

"Really peachy honey. I am really worried that the pregnancy won't last. I can't suffer the possible loss of our child."

"Do not have such thoughts, ashayam. We Vulcans believe in life. Every living being is precious. But I cannot bear the idea of losing you. We can have children in other ways. You, on the other hand, are irreplaceable. Now eat please" he begged.

After the little talk, they finished their meal in silence, ready to start their shift.

STSTSTSTSTTSSTSTSTTSTS

Checking the status of the ship after the change of shift, Kirk asked Uhura to call all the senior officers to a meeting in 15 minutes and to have a temporary replacement for their absence.

People entered the room, a little confused. The captain was seated at the head of the table, elbows on it, and his forehead resting on his fists. The commander was standing next to him on the right, face blank as usual. McCoy took the seat on the left, mentally checking the man. After everyone was seated, the captain raised from the chair, nervously fidgeting with his too-big uniform. They all could see how thin he was. (Damn, he forgot to replicate a smaller shirt and pants). He scanned every face: Uhura, Sulu, Chekov, Scotty, Giotto, McCoy and last Spock and then turned, to not face them. It stayed that way for some time, and eventually, the young man spoke: "I'm 6 weeks pregnant."

/That's it. I said it/.

/Indeed. Do not fear James, Dr. McCoy and I are here for you/.

Kirk moved around the chair, facing once again his officers. There were worried looks, shocked looks, disbelief looks. And then all Hell broke loose as all the officers began to speak at once. Spock for his part looked a bit concerned from the crew members and his calm mate and spoke.

"Do not talk altogether, please. We know that this must be difficult for all of you. The captain's statement is true, the doctor can confirm it. He is indeed pregnant with our offspring even if we do not know what caused this pleasant news. However, so far the pregnancy is giving him a hard time therefore we are not yet sure he will be able to complete it." He moved his hand to his lover's shoulder, squeezing it. "We will appreciate your discretion toward the crew and the admiralty, we will inform them both when we will have more information." The pair gave the officers time to think about what emerged from the conversation. It was McCoy that broke the silence.

"Guys, this is new for everyone, but I think I can speak for the three of us when I say that we will need your help." He thought about the confrontation he had the previous day with Jim, and that he was allowed to tell the seniors everything, and still didn't like it.

"As you can see, the captain has already lost more than 30 lbs, so I'm not sure I'll allow him on away teams for the time being. Any efforts to reduce his stress will be appreciated. We don't know what's ahead of us. And since we know how fearless the kid over here is, all of us will have to look out for him. Report to me or Spock everything not normal because he won't. At the moment, he is banned from the gym, away missions, no running around in the Jeffrey tubes."

Angry, Jim stepped in the conversation. "Now STOP Bones, what the hell is wrong with you! I don't need babysitters and I am still the captain of this ship. I can't just stop doing missions, I have duties to perform that can't be delegated and …"

"And you don't need to do it by yourself, only Kirk." stated Uhura. "I'm sure when I say that we all will be very happy to help you. It's already hard for a woman sometimes to be pregnant, and I'm not sure how it's for you, but take our help. We will do our best and more for you." The captain was amazed by the woman's statement.

"But what about the diplomatic missions I must attend? The Admiralty will have my head if I stop them completely."

"Let's worry about that when the time comes Jim. I know you dislike it and you are not used to relying on people. I promise you that if you are fine, I won't pull ranks on you and let you do your job. But the second that I will see you unfit for duty, of any kind, you are grounded. We all have your wellbeing in mind." Added the doctor, who moved from his chair to stand near his best friend, hugging his shoulders.

And they really did. All the officers tried to filter the reports from their inferiors the best they could. They went to Spock first, to make sure that there was little that could concern the captain. They even helped him with meals. Now that they knew the matter, it was blatant how very little their superior was eating. Each of them started to study meals that could help. So far Giotto's idea was the most appreciated. It was an Italian meal called Pizzoccheri, a buckwheat flour pasta with herbs, chard, spinach, cabbage, potato and a lot of cheese that really made Jim's day. If they noticed the captain dozing off in his chair, nobody complained, more since Spock kept them in the loop, how little sleep James was getting due to the retching.

Spock was supportive of everything. Unfortunately, Jim couldn't keep his core temperature up. Snuggling with his husband in bed or on the couch helped in their free time, but on-duty not even the thermal clothes helped. He was under tremors non-stop. He missed the work-out time, but with low blood pressure, he was constantly tired.

McCoy on his account kept a constant vigil on the boy, daily shots with supplements such as vitamins, copper (the baby was in part Vulcan and was sucking the element like a vampire from Jim's body), folic acid to avoid malformations, and the damn anti-nausea med. He finally gave up on forcing the captain to go to the sickbay and gave Spock enough supplies to cover for days.

Notes: next in 10 days ?If I get reviews, I'll post sooner