"I tried. They couldn't find any space."
"Well then, boy genius, use your hacking skills."
"To do what? It's high season; everything's full," Jim said hollowly. "I'm not going to make a crew member give up their room so I can hide from my own First Officer."
"Jim - "
Spock quickly stepped inside, heading off any more ideas from McCoy. The humans were already standing on the transporter pad, and immediately fell silent at the sight of him. Spock stepped up on the transporter pad, heading for Jim's right where he normally stood.
But McCoy shifted, and suddenly he was pointedly standing in-between Spock and Jim like a protective wall of human flesh. A frisson of something hot and unpleasant stabbed at Spock's stomach, taking Spock by surprise.
An Ensign appeared in the doorway. "Ready to beam on your order, Captain," she said as she took her station, utterly oblivious to Spock's mysterious internal turmoil.
Jim smiled, but it looked far from real. "Ready, Ensign. Energize."
*****
The hotel was a luxurious building, packed with a variety of species, Federation and non-Federation alike. It was evening on the planet and most of the guests were already quite loud, behaving in the rowdy, boisterous manner typical of vacationers.
The bellhop showed them to their room, which had a large window facing the city's main street. It had three separate beds; one single and two in a bunk configuration. Jim and McCoy automatically headed for the bunk-bed, their attention on each other as if Spock wasn't there.
“I’ll take top, because you know that’s how you want me,” Jim said, throwing his bag on the top bunk.
McCoy snorted. “Please, little boy. With your pretty face you’d be the girl, and don’t you go thinking otherwise.”
As often happened around humans, Spock did not understand what Kirk and McCoy were talking about. However, he did know that McCoy had just referred to Jim as attractive, and it sent that same hot, unpleasant jolt to his stomach that he'd felt on the transporter pad.
“Besides,” the doctor continued, “I distinctly heard Nurse Chapel say that you have the nicest ass in Starfleet.”
“Did she now?” Jim raised his eyebrow. “Do you think she’d like to see it up close and –”
“You keep your paws off my nurses.”
“The doctor is quite correct,” Spock cut in, surprised to hear a note of sharpness in his tone. “You have no business engaging in sexual relations with Starfleet nurses.”
Jim stiffened. McCoy looked towards Spock, expression deeply irritated, but Jim just stared fixedly at McCoy's lower bunk, jaw set. He looked - hurt, Spock realized. And he experienced an unpleasant twinge at the knowledge that he’d somehow just hurt Jim’s feelings.
“Spock, it’s a joke,” McCoy snapped. “Jim’s a great catch, and anyone in the fleet would be lucky to have him. Not that you’d –”
“Bones.”
“Hmph.” McCoy turned away from Spock and back to his bags.
Spock set his own bag down on the single bed, unsure what about his words would have hurt Jim. He pulled out his communicator and headed for the hallway, thinking to check in with Nyota. As he exited the room, he heard McCoy whisper, “I don’t like it when he talks to you like that, not after what he said.”
Jim’s response was tired. “He already told me, straight to my face, that I'm not good enough for him because he thinks I’m a slut. Why should it matter if he says it again?”
“Jim –”
The door swung shut, but not before Spock finally understood why Jim had looked hurt. He palmed the communicator indecisively for a moment. His statement to Jim on the ship had been logical. Jim was promiscuous, and thus would not make as satisfactory a mate as Nyota. Spock's words had been a simple declaration of fact, not some emotionally-laden judgment passed on Jim's inclination towards frequent sexual encounters.
So why did remembering what he'd said make him want to apologize? Illogical.
Besides, his previous statement notwithstanding, Jim had misunderstood him tonight. He hadn’t intended to imply promiscuity on Jim’s part, not at all. On the contrary, he was simply uncomfortable with the notion that Jim might engage in intercourse with Christine Chapel.
Uncomfortable enough with the notion to cause his voice to sharpen.
Spock stared at the communicator in his hands, confused. Why? What logical explanation could there be for him to feel uncomfortable thinking about Jim and Chapel together in the first place? Jim could sleep with the entire Enterprise, and it was of no consequence to -
That white-hot burn seared his stomach again.
Spock forced it away. The Captain was recovering from serious injuries and should not be engaging in intercourse until his wounds were healed. As First Officer, Spock was responsible for Jim’s physical health and should take steps to discourage Jim from engaging in risky behavior. That was the logical explanation for his physical discomfort at the thought of Jim in the arms of -
He was going to stop thinking about it.
He opened the communicator, intending to contact Nyota. Then he hesitated. She was still on duty and unlikely to be free to talk. Beyond that, she would almost certainly want an explanation for why he had chosen to take shore leave - and why he hadn't chosen to take it with her. This was a perfectly reasonable inquiry on her part.
He had no answer for her.
He stared at his communicator for a minute more, and then slipped it back onto his belt. Deciding he would wait to contact her for the time being, he turned and stepped back into the room.
The sight awaiting Spock arrested him in his tracks.
Jim was on his back on the lower bunk with McCoy leaning over him. His shirt was gone, his golden skin almost luminescent against the dark comforter of the bed. McCoy knelt on the bed with his hands on Jim's chest, pressed against Jim's bare body, gently exploring, touching –
The words were torn from Spock's mouth before he could stop them. "Remove yourselves from each other at once."
McCoy turned in surprise, but Jim grabbed McCoy by the shoulders and moved him to the side so Jim could stand up. Still shirtless, eyes now blazing, he said angrily, "Don't talk like that to Bones."
Spock's eyes widened. Jim had never raised his voice at Spock before. Spock didn't think he cared for it now. "But - "
“I wouldn't throw him down for a quick fuck in the two seconds you're gone from the room!" The defense of his friend was giving Jim more life than Spock had seen in months. "He’s my best friend and my fucking doctor, and he’s just checking to see if the claw wounds are healed."
Oh. What an astonishingly simple and reasonable explanation for their actions. "I - "
Spock's words abandoned him as Jim moved deliberately between Spock and McCoy, his protective actions towards the doctor making Spock feel inexplicably and uncomfortably hot. "I know you think I’ll screw any thing at any time," Jim snapped, "but whatever shit you think about me, leave Bones out of it.”
No, Spock definitely did not like being yelled at by Jim. "I - "
“I don't want to hear it,” Jim said dangerously. He turned back to the bed. His chest bandages and sling were gone, likely removed by McCoy. He still had bandages on one arm, but he moved the arm freely now. He grabbed a shirt out of McCoy’s duffle, and pulled it over his head. “Let’s get out of here, Bones.”
Spock watched silently as they left the room. He hadn’t been invited wherever they were going – no doubt because of the 51 invitations he’d already rejected, and the one time he’d made it quite clear he wanted nothing to do with Jim.
"For the record, accusing me of fucking a hot young thing like you is a compliment," he heard McCoy say, as the door swung shut.
Spock's fists involuntarily clenched.
He sat down on the edge of his bed, harder than he'd planned to, and stared at his clenched fists. He was conflicted and needed to meditate, needed to clear his mind and purge his threatening emotions. But the hall outside their room was filled with the cheerful shouts of vacationers, and a cacophony of noise poured in from the main street through the window. The vast quantities of ambient noise from the night revelers made the possibility of satisfactory meditation less than 4.567%, and so it would have to wait until he was back on the Enterprise.
