Show Me How To Love You

Emotions

And boy, was Sean an idiot. Before the man could advance two steps in their direction, Leonard roundhouse kicked him in the head, effectively landing him on the ground and knocking him out. Leonard took a deep breath, centering himself, and turned to the petrified Jocelyn. "I guess it's time for us to leave now." Leonard said, rubbing his left cheekbone. He'd have some light bruising, but luckily no black eyes or a bloody nose. He never was very easy to bruise, thank god. "His head will hurt pretty bad when he wakes up. You can keep him here or take him to the hospital. He should stay in bed and rest for several hours after waking." Leonard said, but Jocelyn just gaped at him.

Leonard bent down and hugged Joanna, who held onto him tightly. "I love you daddy, no matter what." She said, before whispering in his ear, "Thank you for putting him in his place." Leonard smiled and rolled his eyes, even though she couldn't have seen that. He kissed her cheek and let go of her.

"I love you too, Jo-Jo. Be sure to video call, a lot." Leonard said, and she nodded avidly. He turned to Jocelyn while Joanna rushed over to say her goodbyes to Spock. "Goodbye, Jocelyn." He said quietly, and she nodded.

"Goodbye, Leonard." She answered quietly. Leonard nodded and turned around. Joanna hugged Spock suddenly, and the poor Vulcan didn't really know what to do before he hesitantly hugged her back. Leonard snorted and went to the door, avoiding the man on the floor. Spock joined him shortly, and they exited the house.

After a silent trip back to their hotel room, Leonard sat on the bed and sighed. "That... felt good."

"No, it did not." Spock said shortly, standing in front of him. Leonard glared up at the Vulcan.

"What's your problem? It turned out okay in the end." He said, but Spock shook his head.

"He hurt you." Spock said quietly, and Leonard continued to glare.

"He hurt YOU!" He said louder, and Spock held his gaze.

"It wasn't necessary to be violent." Spock said, making Leonard sigh. Again.

"He made it necessary. He hit you, and I wasn't going to let him get away with that, damn it!" Leonard argued and stood up, heading for the bathroom. "I'm going to take a hot shower." He grumbled, closing the door behind him.

The water felt good on the places that he got hit, and he let out a deep breath. Did he do the right thing? Maybe. Did it feel good? Definitely. Even though he was hurting, even though he'll have at least a couple of bruises on his face and on his knuckles, he still felt good. Before he could justify his actions by thinking of his feelings for Spock, he thought about how he'd do the same thing if it were Jim. Wouldn't he? ... No. No, he wouldn't. In fact, there had been several occasions where Jim had gotten into fights, and Leonard had either waited it out (harmless drunken brawl), or just took Jim away from the area completely. He usually tried to avoid fights, being a doctor and all that.

Maybe he finally found someone worth risking his safety for.

Or maybe he was trying to defend his pride. Yep, it was pride. Definitely.

He got into bed, feeling infinitely tired, and fell asleep quickly. Shore leave wasn't supposed to be this stressful.

Leonard woke up to the room filling with sunlight, and opened his eyes to (predictably) find his and Spock's noggins pressed together. He sighed quietly, and got up as quiet as he could. He was still tired, but he didn't think that he could go back to sleep. He just headed down to the hotel's lobby to see if they had any breakfast down there.

And so shore leave ended a few peaceful days later, with no significant events whatsoever. Spock continued to be quiet and thoughtful about everything, and Leonard continued to stare at the rear ends of waitresses and glare at anyone who looked at him.