Show Me How To Love You

Chapter Six

Leonard's days passed "normally" over the next couple of weeks. Spock came to his quarters and they worked together for twenty minutes before departing. Leonard didn't really see much point in doing it, but it kept the Vulcan quiet, so he suffered through it. Jim kept bothering the both of them on the progress of his "baby," but they never really had anything to tell him. Things were just... going. And it was nice.

But then, things are never nice and swell for long on the Enterprise.

When he felt an intense pain in his abdomen, it was enough to make him bend over in pain and groan loudly. He felt like a knife had slashed along his torso, resulting in a horrific pain. Christine rushed to him.

"Leonard! What's wrong?!" She frantically asked, helping him sit down on a nearby chair.

"It's not..." Leonard heard himself talking before he realized it, and then the revelation came. "It's not me!" Recovered from the initial pain (but still hurting), he ran to a biobed to prep it. "Christine! I need..." He was lost for words, his mind working frantically. Suddenly, hands grabbed his shoulders and swung him around. Christine's big, round eyes bore into him.

"Is it Spock?" She asked in a soft, soothing voice. Leonard nodded rapidly. His comm went off, and Christine answered it before he could even move. She spoke, but he couldn't think. He couldn't feel. He just stood there, helpless.

As soon as he saw the unconscious Vulcan laid out on the biobed, it was like Leonard just snapped. Suddenly he was in action, barking out orders and working on Spock with the equipment, and his nurses worked rapidly along with him. Leonard felt as though all his many years of medical training were defined by this moment. Minutes passed like hours, but he felt like time was racing by him. If he was being honest with himself, he never felt more confused in his life. And yet after what seemed like days, Christine said that they were finished with the procedure, and he knew that he could only rely on the Vulcan voodoo for the rest.

When Leonard became more aware of himself and his surroundings, he realized that he had been staring at Spock (alone) for the past twenty minutes. The Vulcan was in his voodoo healing trance, and Leonard couldn't do anything about it. He felt so worthless right then. He felt a hand on his shoulder, and he thought it was Christine until he looked over. Jim stood next to him.

"You did good." Jim said, nodding to himself. "He's been in worse shape than this, Bones, you know it. He'll be fine."

"Who said I was worried?" Leonard retorted, realizing how he must seem right now. "Of course he'll be fine. I'M his doctor." Jim snorted.

"Anyway," he said, "turns out that our diplomatic mission didn't turn out so well. Well, I guess it depends on how you look at it. In the end, we all came to an agreement. But as we were leaving, some deranged man came up and started attacking us. Evidentially they were some rebel isolationist group of some sort." Jim sighed, rubbing his eyes. "The queen of the planet told us that her people would handle the rebels, and that we should leave before anything worse happened. I was thankful, but I'm worried about those people down there." Leonard nodded. He could understand that. "We're not leaving orbit until I've heard good news from the queen. I don't want to leave these people while they could still need our help."

Jim clapped Leonard on the back before he could reply, and he gave his captain a scowl. Jim just grinned and said, "Glad to know my baby will be okay." Leonard glared and opened his mouth to yell at him about bigger problems at hand, but Jim beat him to it. "I'm more happy that Spock'll be okay, though. He may be an ass sometimes, but he's a bitchin' First Officer."

"Yeah. I guess he is..." Leonard replied quietly, looking at the still-breathing body on the biobed. Jim's comm went off, and after a few seconds he turned back to him.