Stardate: 226250.13.6986301

Spock follows his T'hy'la's approach and puts it into his role as First Officer. The approach has rectified the distrustful glances from his colleagues and improved their work ethic and efficiency, including his fellow Senior team members. They speak more freely to him now and ask for his advice and expertise more often.

Working with humans and their emotions is very complex. As soon as Spock thinks he has a grasp on how the members of the crew handle themselves different factors come into play and Spock is left wondering and fathoming how humans manage to get anything done. The ship is full of laughter and a dedicated crew. He had overlooked utilizing what humans needed to form strong working relationships. He would not do so again.

Spock knows he is not perfect with his interactions. But he tries. To win the affection of his T'hy'la - a conversation he is still yet to have with her - he tries. They play chess together now in the break room. Jamie plays with no particular pattern or strategy from what Spock can tell. Yet he has lost to her twice. Ever since finding out why she is late all the time Jamie has become more relaxed in his presence. Spock knew this to be true as Jamie started to gesture wildly as she spoke, often speaking to herself something she had never done within his presence before.

"Good to have the Captain back to her usual self," Sulu spoke loudly to the rest of the bridge team after Jamie had started cursing loudly as she left them in the mess hall racing towards the turbo-lift. "I was starting it miss it."

"I was starting to think McCoy had said something to her -"

"You've heard the way those two argue, even if he had, she wouldn't listen to him," Uhura said. "How they came to be best friends is beyond me."

Spock had wondered this himself. He had watched the two of them when they ate together on breaks.

"She got me through Med-training," a gruff voice spoke from behind them all.

Spock recognized that the voice belonged to McCoy. He is surprised by his statement, though the doctor does not redact it.

"I'm after you Spock. Your expertise is needed on the medical bay."

Spock and McCoy work together in somewhat silence. The doctor makes the occasional mutter as he fiddles around or hums when Spock tells him his findings.

"Thanks, Spock," McCoy states as they finish up.

"You are most welcome. I do however wonder why you did not call Jamie."

"She's in engineering Spock," McCoy states as though it is supposed to answer him. When it becomes apparent that it does not, McCoy takes a deep breath. "Rule number one: never pull Jamie from engineering Spock - not unless we are under attack - the ship has been torn apart - not even when an Admiral hails. Just don't do it. She will bite your head off."

"Starfleet regulations state that the Captain -"

"She doesn't care. If she is in engineering: it's for a good reason. She will not leave. The safety of her crew, of this ship, always comes first. It's probably why we got our issue here in the first place. She hates having to reroute the power supply. It causes all sorts of issues."

'This is your Captain speaking. We had some minor issues with the power supply -"

Seemed McCoy's theory was on point.

'which has now been rectified and Scotty is officially BANNED from messing around with my ship -'

"She's going to kill him. He always does this when he's researching."

"This situation occurs often?" Spock said.

"Relax, Scotty knows what he's doing. Jamie wouldn't have anyone else in charge of engineering but him. He'd never put the crew in danger. He just gets carried away from time to time. Fixing a problem that doesn't need fixing in Jamie's mind. In Scotty's - well - anything to improve efficiency."

Spock lets the matter go. For now.

"She will let you in eventually."

"I'm not quite sure what you mean by that statement Doctor."

"Jamie," McCoys states calmly. "I'm Medical-proxy for the crew members on this ship Spock. I've seen your file. I know about the bond -"

"Pike!"

"Yeah, Pike had to inform me. Good thing for you I took an oath and can't say a damn thing to her. You need to, however, or you will lose her."

"Doctor?"

"She's been hurt before. By a lot of people - she won't talk about it. Not even to me. Things she's had to tell me I've had to wrangle out of her. That's all I'm able to say on the matter."

"Or you'd be breaking your oath as a doctor."

"No. I'd be breaking her confidence." McCoy states firmly. "I wasn't kidding when I said she got me through Med-training earlier."

McCoy sighs heavily. "We met on the first day of recruitment. Got stuck next to each other on the transportation. I remember looking at her and thinking she couldn't be much older than my daughter she looked so young. There was something in her eyes though. Seemed aged before her time. Anyway, we got talking. I got my nickname and we were assigned close enough on campus that we'd run into each other. Her nose always stuck in some book."

"I had lost everything. Wife - ex-wife took off with my daughter, strict no contact. I had no one and no place else to go. Jamie pulled me out of a dark place. Helped me study - god that girl has a determined mind when she wants to use it - we became family. She saved me and when Pike rostered her but hadn't picked me she turned Pike down. I couldn't believe it when Pike told me how lucky I was to have a friend like her. I was furious with her when I found out -"

"Why?"

"She told Pike she'd get the ranking of Captain in three years. Yet she turned the job down because she didn't want to leave me behind. I saw the thirst, I saw the want more than anything. She was giving it all up for me. Yet, Pike did something that surprised me at the time. He put me along with Jamie on his roster that very evening. That's the type of loyalty you'll get from Jamie. Tell her Spock. She deserves to know that there are more people out in the world who care about her as much as I do and as much as Pike does."

A.N so I know in the series Kirk's stardates are 2265 to 2270 because that is when the original is set for when Kirk does the five-year mission. I set this one before then as it's A.U and not canon. Please note I'm a fan, not a mathematician stardates are based on calculations I researched online and I could have miscalculated as I based this one on a non-leap year and I wanted it to look somewhat authentic. Please set your phasers to stun.