There hadn’t been much time between Captain Kirk subduing Khan and the hearing to determine what to do with him, his followers, and Lieutenant McGivers, so when the events of the last few hours had finally caught up to Uhura, she’d been on her way to the captain’s quarters to drop off the record tapes as a wave of dizziness overcame her and the mild ache in her head exploded to a relentless throb. Groaning, she sagged against the wall and slid to the floor, her grip on the tapes and her padd loosening, and the items falling at her sides. She was glad she was alone in the corridor, although she suspected that wouldn’t be for long.

“Uhura!”

She winced at Scotty’s concerned cry, falling over to stretch out on the floor. If they could all just be quiet, she could sleep it off.

“I’m—”

“Shut up!” McCoy snapped, falling to his knees beside her and cradling her face gently in his hands. “Damn it, Uhura! I should’ve known—”

“Wait! What’s wrong? Did Khan give her something—?”

“One o’ his henchmen ‘gave her’ a nice whack across the face, Captain!” Scotty said, his renewed anger making his brogue almost indecipherable. “For all o’ their ‘superior breeding’, they displayed a great lack o’ manners!”

Uhura would’ve smiled at that had it not hurt to blink, much less anything else, and she whimpered when McCoy’s fingers brushed along her temple.

“You knocked your head on the table, didn’t you?” McCoy murmured. “Damn it! You could have a concussion—”

“From a smack?” Uhura asked incredulously, although considering she saw three Dr. McCoys right then, he might be right.

“They have five times our strength, Uhura; it’s entirely possible,” Kirk said, his voice tight with rage. “Surprised you weren’t knocked out completely—I almost was when Khan hit me!”

This time Uhura did manage a grin. “Well, my grandmother always said I had a hard head…”

McCoy chuckled and brushed a gentle finger along her nose. “We’ll make you right as rain in a bit, darlin’. Up you go—”

“Allow me, Doctor.”

“I can stand,” Uhura insisted, trying to get up under her own power, but McCoy told her to sit still. She glared at him but obediently looped her arms around Spock’s neck as he lifted her in his arms.

“Are you comfortable, Miss Uhura?” he asked, his lips brushing against her uninjured temple. One arm was around her shoulders and the other braced the underside of her thighs.

She snuggled close without thinking. “Mmm, very…you’re very warm, Spock…”

His arms tensed and his breath came out slowly. “I am Vulcan.”

“Warm Vulcan,” Uhura whispered and snuggled closer.

“Let’s hurry her to sickbay,” Uhura heard McCoy snap before darkness overcame her.

She had no idea how long she’d been out, but upon coming to, she was greeted by Scotty sitting bedside frowning over a padd in his lap.

“That good, huh?”

His head popped up. “Uhura!” His excited smile was contagious, and she returned it. “How do ye feel, lass?”

“The left side of my face is numb,” she admitted. “And I have a slight headache, but otherwise I’m fine.”

“Oh, Uhura, I’m sorry this happened to ye. If I could’ve I would’ve—”

Uhura reached out and grasped his hand, squeezing. “You did all you could. I can handle a smack, as you can see. If you had tried anything worse he would’ve killed you.”

Scotty frowned and sighed. “Aye, but in a fair fight, we could’ve taken them!”

“And by ‘fair’ you mean armed to the gills with phasers?”

“Aye!”

They laughed and Scotty patted her hand. “You do make a girl feel special, Mr. Scott, up here while your beloved engines languish away…”

Scotty frowned good-naturedly. “I’mna that bad, lass!”

Uhura smiled and squeezed his hand once more before settling back into the bed. “No, but I thank you for being here.”

“Humph! I just finally got me turn! Mr. Spock and Captain Kirk were run out by Dr. McCoy aboot an hour ago. Hoovered like a pair o’ mother hens, they did!”

Uhura frowned. “What?”

Scotty raised his eyebrows and shook his head. “Ye’ve been out fer a very long time, Miss Uhura. In the meantime I spent the last two stardates undoin’ the damage Khan wreaked up the Enterprise—”

“Two stardates?”

“Concussion, Miss Uhura,” Dr. McCoy said from the sickbay doors. “And a little dehydration. Why haven’t you been taking care of yourself, darlin’?”

Uhura looked at her fingers guiltily. “Oh, you know me. I get really busy and—”

“As much time as you spend with that Vulcan you forget that you aren’t?” McCoy asked, frowning at her.

“Not his fault, Len,” Uhura said gently.

“But he should be more aware—”

“I can take care of myself.”

McCoy’s expression darkened for a brief moment, then he came over to the bed. He took her hand in his and squeezed hard. “I’m a doctor, which means I’m used to people comin’ in and out of my sickbay in various stages of injury. It gets to the point you have to build up a certain amount of numbness to it or else you’ll never get the job done. Still, there are a few people who’ll always get my heart up in my throat when they come in here and especially if they’re not moving. You are one of them.”

“Aye, lass, yer very important to the crew. I like the sound of your voice over the com—far more pleasin’ than the captain’s!” Scotty said with a wink.

“I’d be offended if I didn’t agree with that entirely,” Kirk’s voice carried over their laughter. Scotty turned red and immediately stood, gathering his padd and stylus.

“I reckon I best be goin’,” he muttered, “don’t want the engines gettin’ jealous!” He winked at her, squeezing Uhura’s hand one last time before leaving, giving short nods to McCoy and the two superior officers who’d just entered sickbay.

“Hello Captain, Mr. Spock,” Uhura said, surprised they were here. “Aren’t you two supposed to be on duty?”

“They wanted to be contacted the minute you opened those pretty brown eyes,” McCoy said with a grin.

Uhura blushed and looked at her fingers again. “Oh, okay…”

“What’s this? You appear surprised I’d personally see to the well-being of a crewmember…and friend,” Kirk said, sitting in the chair Scotty had vacated. He grasped her chin and tilted her face to the right. “That’s a pretty bruise there, Lieutenant.”

“My badge of honor,” Uhura cracked.

Everyone but Spock chuckled at that. “Yes, well, I prefer the ones pinned on dress uniforms than ones that mar your beautiful skin, okay?” Kirk said, touching the injured left cheek tenderly.

Uhura nodded, her expression serious. “I’ll do my best not to be smacked in the face by a super-human in the future, Captain.”

Kirk chuckled again and patted her hand. “Also, Lieutenant, you’re off for the next three days, starting today, obviously. Want you to take it easy—”

Uhura shot up, only for McCoy to ease her back down on the biobed. “Wait—!”

Kirk gave a weird look between Uhura and Spock. “What have you done to her, Mr. Spock? Most people would jump at the chance for downtime!”

“I have done nothing. Miss Uhura simply has a strong sense of duty.”

“And it’s not doing her any favors,” McCoy said sharply.

“But I’m fine—”

“Your biofunction monitor says otherwise,” McCoy mumbled.

Uhura looked to Spock, but he raised his shoulders. “There is nothing I can say that will change the Doctor’s mind. You will have to stay here. Fortunately, Lieutenant Palmer is an adequate replacement for you in the interim.”

Uhura frowned, and so did Spock before he turned and left sickbay.

“Unfeeling overgrown elf,” McCoy muttered.

“Unfeeling, Bones?” Kirk asked, sending a meaningful glance to the glowering woman on the bed.

McCoy met the fire in Uhura’s eyes and sighed. “Fine. Overgrown elf, it is.”

Kirk gave Uhura one last smile before leaving as well. She and McCoy were silent as he checked her pulse the old-fashioned way and looked her over with a critical eye.

“For all his talk about being a Vulcan…” McCoy sighed as he stepped back and made notations in his medical padd. “You know, every time the bridge took a break he came down to see you.”

Uhura kept her focus on anywhere but McCoy. “Oh?”

“Yes. Whether he likes it or not, you’re under his skin in a bad way, honey.”

Uhura grasped her fingers together and frowned. “He shouldn’t be so concerned. Captain Kirk gets in more scrapes than I ever will and Spock doesn’t…do what you say he’s been doing.”

McCoy snorted. “That’s because Jim often gets himself into those scrapes and Jim orders him not to!”

Uhura chuckled and shook her head. “Just my luck Spock outranks me, huh?”

McCoy shrugged. “Reckon it’s not so bad. There are worse things than a Vulcan on your side.” He bent down closer and lowered his voice. “And if you tell him that, I’ll deny it to high heaven!”

Uhura laughed, closing her eyes at McCoy’s kiss to her forehead.

The rest of the day passed by slowly. Uhura used the biobed’s computer to do check some old communications logs from earlier missions and at various times Christine had come in for a little girl talk. Riley and Sulu came down to see her as well; and by the time they left she had a headache from laughing so much. Even Captain Kirk saw her once more, very briefly, at the end of his shift.

But no Spock.

Uhura tried to hide her disappointment by reading romance novels from Cygnet XIV, which she belatedly realized only made her mood worse, yet she brightened when Dr. McCoy said she could return to her quarters.

“If you feel the slightest twinge I want you back up here on the double!” he told her from the sickbay doors. He’d offered to walk her to her quarters but Uhura felt she’d been babied enough.

“I will.”

“You promise?” he asked.

Nodding, Uhura stood on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek. “I promise.”

She made a quick stop to the mess hall for a bowl of matata, for some reason feeling a little homesick. And though the clam and peanut stew was tasty and filling, it somehow didn’t hit the spot as fully as it did when her father prepared it.

Suddenly struck with the thought to record a message to her parents, Uhura immediately changed her mind. One look at her face and her father would take first space shuttle out of Maputo and demand retribution. Instead, she wrote the message longhand and sent it via e-mail. That would have to do for now.

The next two days consisted of filling out reports and researching the latest communications protocols for Dakala. At some point during her first day out of sickbay she’d stopped by McCoy’s office for headache relief. He’d given her some and checked her over with the medical scanner just to ease his mind even though nothing he found was a cause for alarm. On her way back to her quarters, Spock had been leaving the lift just as she’d been entering.

“Hello,” she’d said.

“Greetings,” he’d returned with a quick nod and kept going.

That had been the first and last time she’d seen him since being in sickbay.

It didn’t take a genius to realize Spock wanted space, so Uhura gave it to him. She took her meals in her room, far too exhausted to be her normal, cheery self, and just wanted time to mope in peace. And even though in the back of her mind she knew she was being petty, she couldn’t help it.

She missed Spock.

“Oh, Uhura, come on,” she whispered to herself. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t come to see her, after all. Just because she’d been unconscious for every time save the last…it was clear he cared. And he was Vulcan, committed to his people’s philosophy. Just because he allowed her to see glimpses of emotion didn’t mean he’d act like one of the heroes in the romance novels she’d been reading!

She imagined Spock climbing up a tower to profess his never-ending love and almost died laughing.

She was still chuckling when her door buzzed. Settling her mouth to a smile, she stood and stretched, granting entrance as she padded to her living space. She couldn’t wait to tell McCoy the thought she’d had about—

“Spock!”

His eyes traveled down her body slowly and Uhura suddenly felt naked despite the satin burgundy nightgown she wore.

“You are tired,” he stated.

She frowned, then saw his lute case in his hand. She started backing away and slapped her palm against her forehead.

“Oh, I forgot!”

He also frowned and pulled her hand away from her head. “Do not reinjure yourself.”

“Why are you here?” she blurted, suddenly angry he’d come to her now when for three days since she regained consciousness she’d only seen glimpses of him. “Didn’t even occur to me you’d want to continue our lessons…”

Spock did not answer immediately. He put his case down and stepped very close to her, so close she had to lean back to continue looking into his eyes. His face appeared blank, but his eyes were full of something she was convinced she was imagining.

“I have not come to see you because I have been meditating in my spare time. I did not mean offense,” he said quietly.

Uhura looked away, not wanting him to see the tears of shame that filled her eyes. “Oh, Spock…”

Warm fingers touched the fading bruises of her left cheek and brushed away the tears that fell from her closed eyes.

“I was having difficulty processing the events that have happened, particularly to you. While I am certain my actions were the most logical to ensure the maximum safety of the crew in the captain’s absence, my response to those actions has been most illogical and I needed time to make sense of things before I saw you again.”

Uhura looked at him in confusion, and then a revelation bloomed in her mind. “Spock—”

“Dr. McCoy informed me I may have been insensitive to you when I said Lieutenant Palmer was a satisfactory substitute while you convalesced from your injuries. That was not my intent.”

“It wasn’t as if you were wrong, Spock.”

“No, I was not; however, it could have been construed that I considered you replaceable. I do not think such a thought.”

Now Uhura felt even guiltier for being upset about Spock not coming to see her. “Spock, I know. Forgive me for being such a brat about everything.”

“A brat?”

Embarrassment flushed her cheeks. “Yes. I’ve been moping.”

Spock’s expression turned amused. “I cannot imagine you doing so.”

“Oh, but I have,” Uhura said and laughed. Spock’s eyes and mouth softened and Uhura’s heart clenched. “I’ve missed you, Spock. Isn’t that sad? My day is off when I don’t see you. And I don’t mean to sound overly sentimental but that’s how I feel and—”

Spock’s lips on her forehead brought an immediate stop to her words. He leaned into the kiss and his hand spread gently over her bruised cheek. She breathed slowly through her nose, afraid to move, afraid to break the moment. When she felt him shift as if about to move away, she spoke.

“Spock, may I hold you?”

He stilled. “Hold me?” His lips were so warm against her skin.

“Yes. May I give you a hug?”

He did not respond, but instead brought his body close so that it was flush against hers. She felt his heart beating rapidly against her breast and Uhura couldn’t help but place her hand over it.

“Very well,” he ultimately replied, his voice not nearly as strong and steady as it usually was.

Uhura brought her head back so she could look into his eyes. As her arms came around him, Spock stiffened, and she stopped, her wrists level with his waist.

“You may continue.”

“If this is too uncomfortable—”

“Uncomfortable, yes. Unpleasant? Actually, quite the opposite.”

Bolstered by that, Uhura grinned and slid her arms around him, her head resting against his chest. He was so, so warm, and she thought he’d be fantastic to snuggle on a cold, wintry planet somewhere.

“Fascinating.”

“Fascinating?”

“I apologize, Uhura, but—my mental shields are down and I became privy to that thought.”

She laughed and gave him a light squeeze. “Well, it’s true. I know I wouldn’t be able to provide enough heat for you but—”

“I am quite warm right now,” Spock admitted, and his hand slid up her back to grasp her shoulders. “Is this hug acceptable to you, Uhura?”

“Nyota,” she said, pulling back to look into his brown eyes. “I hope we’re friends enough that you can call me by my given name.”

Spock squeezed her shoulders and his eyes fell to her lips for a brief second. “Nyota.”

Uhura hid her face back into his chest and closed her eyes. She hoped his mental shields were up because she couldn’t stop wondering how soft his lips would feel against hers.

“Curious, Nyota, as I was pondering the same.”

She started laughing again. “Spock…”

“Again, I apologize, Nyota, but for some reason I am having difficulty holding you and my shields at the same time.” She began to pull back but he, surprisingly, tightened his hold. “You do not have to leave.”

She gazed at him again and grinned. “Rome wasn’t built in a day, Spock.”

“You are correct. It took approximately—”

“May I kiss you?”

He froze and frowned, no doubt trying to figure out what her request had to do with Rome, or what Rome had had to do with anything at all. But his eyebrow rose and his hands quirked involuntarily around her shoulders when he realized her non sequitur. His hesitation told her everything despite the nod of his head. Yet she would take the permission he granted, because she doubted there would be another opportunity to show him just how dear he’d become to her.

Standing on her tiptoes, she placed a hand on his cheek, smiling a little when his skin turned green and became even warmer under her palm. He bent lower to give her easier access, and her smile widened before she placed her lips at the corner of his mouth. She felt the short burst of warm air hit her cheek and she nuzzled his skin as she moved her lips to his ear.

“Thank you for your friendship, Mr. Spock.”

He let his lips graze the shell of her ear and held her even closer. “Thank you for yours, Nyota.”