Title: Discovery
Characters: Spock, Kirk, bit of McCoy at the end
Rating: K
Word Count: 250 (is there a name for a drabbley-thing this length?)
Summary/Warnings: Missing scene from For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky.
Even work-absorbed, his superior hearing did not fail to register the hiss of the Science Lab doors opening and then closing. He permitted a glance up as a figure slid into the chair across the table.
Kirk was covering a wide yawn, though black-purplish circles under his eyes showed that sleep was an entirely different affair than sheer exhaustion. Still dressed in his uniform trousers but with a curious woolen sweater over his tunic – a gift from his human grandmother, no doubt – he looked more lost than the Vulcan felt, though Spock would never admit as much in all the centuries he might live.
"Couldn't sleep," the Captain murmured curtly at his questioning look. "Nightmares. Bad ones. Any luck?"
"Not as yet," he admitted reluctantly.
"You've been at this for eight nights now…" Kirk stifled another yawn.
"And I will continue to do so until we discover what we seek," he answered firmly. "The cure is here, I am certain." It must be, he did not add.
"Can I help?" Kirk slurred, resting his head on one arm upon the polished table-top.
The dark eyes softened. "No. It is a matter of finding the correct entry in these logs and decoding it, a task you are incapable of performing."
"'Mkay," came the sleepy response. "Wake me up if you find it…"
Around 0400 hours the next morning, he did find it.
But he allowed a whooping, half-hysterical Leonard McCoy the dubious privilege of waking the Captain to tell him so.