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Spock set the last dish on the table, then stepped back and looked over everything with a critical eye. He was hoping to surprise Jim, and everything needed to be perfect. He could feel the tension his husband was carrying through their bond, even though Jim was trying his best to shield it from him. A long week assisting with a diplomatic mission had left the whole crew feeling tense, and Jim had borne the brunt of the ambassador's displeasure.
Spock allowed himself a small smile at the memory of Jim stepping between the angry ambassador and a junior officer, deftly redirecting his ire away from the girl and onto himself. His husband really was the perfect captain. Spock lit the candles he had set out, allowing the gentle fragrance to begin to fill the room. Jim should be here any minute, just enough time to let him finish cooking. He was right on schedule. The last few minutes were a blur of preparation as he dished up the food, setting the filled plates on the table and sitting down himself.
Ten minutes later, Jim had still not arrived. He tried to reach out through their bond to find him, but Jim had closed his end of the bond off. Spock sat back in his chair and resigned himself to wait.
Ten more minutes, and there was still no sign of Jim. The food was growing cold, and Spock was growing impatient. He tried calling up to Jim's personal comm, but recieved no answer. Frustrated, he called the bridge. "This is Commander Spock. I wish to ascertain the whereabouts of the captain."
"Commander, the captain is not here." Sulu's voice answered. "He left thirty minutes ago with Ambassador Vermat. I assumed he had already returned to his quarters. I can try to comm him if you want."
"Thank you, Mr. Sulu. I have already attempted to contact the captain via his comm. I will look for him in the ambassador's quarters."
Spock ended the call, turning to leave the room. It wasn't like Jim not to let anyone know where he was or to not answer his comm. It left him uneasy.
The walk to the ambassador's quarters was not long, and made shorter by the uncharacteristic speed with which Spock was walking. He wouldn't have admitted it out loud, but he was worried. Jim was still cutting of their bond, and with no contact, Spock was left to assume the worst.
He knocked loudly on the ambassador's door. 6.4 seconds later, the door hissed open. "Commander!" Vermat turned a sickly shade of blue. "Wh-What can I do for you?"
"I am looking for the captain." Spock glanced behind the ambassador as he spoke, peering into the room for any signs of his husband. "Have you seen him?"
"The captain? I haven't seen him since this morning. I'm sorry, Commander."
The uneasy feeling growing in Spock's gut exploded into full-blown certainty. Sulu had said the captain and ambassador had left together. He pushed past the man, ignoring his protests and stepped further into the room. Activating his comm, he hailed the bridge again. "Bridge, this is Commander Spock. I have found the captain. He has been knocked unconscious, but breathing and pulse are steady. Send security and medical to the ambassador's quarters. Mr. Vermat has quite a bit to answer for."
Aye, Commander." Sulu's calm voice came over the comm, and Spock could hear him in the background ordering security to get moving. He was sure that Doctor McCoy was already on his way. Clicking off the comm, he knelt down next to Jim, lifting him up and laying in him on the bed. He could hear the ambassador moving behind him, and was prepared for the attack when it came. Spinning around, he caught the lamp in one hand, the other swinging into a punch that knocked the man to the ground.
"How dare you?" He sputtered from the floor, hand rubbing his jaw. "I am a Federation Ambassador. I will have your job!"
Spock glared at him. "And I am a Starfleet Commander, and with the incapacitation of the captain, I am currently in command of this vessel. I am authorized to do whatever is necessary for the safety of the crew, and if that includes knocking you unconscious, then I will happily do my duty. No one lays their hands on our captain and gets away with it."
"Hear, hear." McCoy's voice from the doorway startled Spock, and he jumped without meaning to. "If you plan to try anything again, there are several thousand men and women out there who would be happy to show you just what the Enterprise crew does with traitors."
McCoy moved to the bed as he spoke, reaching for Jim. Spock stepped away to allow the doctor access, moving to supervise the security team that had just arrived as they took the ambassador into custody.
As they dragged him away, Spock stood hesitant, torn between his duties as acting captain of the Enterprise and his duty to his husband. "Go with them, Spock. I've got Jim. Once you've got that scum taken care of, come down to the medbay. Jim will be fine. He'll be awake in a bit, with nothing worse than a bad headache."
"Thank you, Doctor." Spock hurried after the security crew, leaving his husband in the very capable hands of his best friend.
The security crew were none too gentle as they dragged the ambassador to the brig. Spock spent the trip composing a short message to the Admiralty, informing them of the current state of events. A flick of his finger sent off the message, leaving him with no other distraction from the man who had attacked his husband.
"Would you care to explain your actions tonight?" Spock leaned against the wall outside the brig, glaring at the man inside.
"I don't need to explain my actions to you. You're just going to take his side." The man in the brig crossed his arms, frowning petulantly.
"I don't know what the sides are. Perhaps you could explain them, and I might be able to make my own decision?" Spock was barely holding himself back. This man had the nerve to come onto their ship, spend the last week making Jim's life a living hell, and then to pout like a child when confronted with the consequences of his actions.
"I don't think I will."
Spock stepped forward, directly in front of the force field. "Let me make one thing clear. You are on a Starfleet vessel, under arrest for assaulting a Starfleet captain and attempting to attack the First Officer. I am currently in command of this vessel, and I am much less forgiving than the captain. If you would like to live to see the next planet, and not, for instance, be 'accidentally' flushed out of an airlock, I would suggest you cooperate. Now!"
"H-h-he deserved it." The prisoner stammered hastily. "I am an ambassador, and I deserve a certain level of respect. Ever since I arrived on your ship, your captain has contradicted me at every turn. He has refused me the most basic of requests, and attempted to demean me in front of the crew. He was walking me back to my quarters tonight, and I simply suggested that he could repay me for the honor I brought his ship by my presence by sending an ensign or two to my quarters tonight. For some reason, that made him angry, and he attacked me. I was only defending myself."
"Let me make sure I understand this clearly." Spock said quietly. The security crew around him knew that voice, and started to step back. "You have brought much honor to this ship by allowing us to transport you, and in repayment, you asked that some of the crew pay you with their attention."
The man in the cell nodded vehemently, seeming unaware of the danger he was in. "Exactly. And then the captain tried to hit me, and I knocked him out in self-defense."
"Lieutenant, open the cell." The man in the cell puffed up happily, clearly thinking he was about to be released.
"Commander!" The lieutenant protested.
"Open it." The field fizzled out, and Spock stepped forward, towering over their prisoner. "You come onto our ship, harass the crew, insult the captain, and demean our mission, and then you have the audacity to demand repayment, all because you are an ambassador. Well, I can assure you, you will not have to deal with our disrespect toward your rank much longer. I am sure, as soon as I inform Starfleet, you will no longer be an ambassador. In fact, your planet will have some explaining to do if they don't wish to make a powerful enemy."
Spock stepped back, allowing the force field to snap back into place behind him. "Keep an eye on him. We will drop him as soon as we reach the next Federation planet."
The security crew saluted as he left the room, hurrying towards the medbay, and Jim.
The lights were dim in the medbay. For once, the place was mostly empty, the only two beds occupied were an ensign from engineering with a bad burn, and Jim. Spock crossed the space between them as quickly as he could without running. Jim was awake, blinking around the darkened room blearily.
"How is he, Doctor?" Spock questioned, barely refraining from reaching for Jim's hand in front of McCoy.
"He's fine. He's got a hard head, so nothing much was damaged. He has a mild concussion, but other than that he's fine. He just needs someone to keep an eye on him overnight, and I can clear him for duty. I could keep him here-" Jim's protests from the bed interrupted him. "Hush. Let me finish. I was going to say, I can keep him here, or he can go back to his quarters, assuming you're still staying with him."
Both of them stared at the doctor in surprise. "Yes, I know about you two. You're pretty obvious to anyone who knows you as well as I do. Spock, I can tell you're barely stopping yourself from holding his hand right now. And Jim, whenever Spock speaks, you look at him like he hung the moon." McCoy reached back, pulling the curtain around the bed. "You two sit here for a few minutes, and I'll be right back. I just need to finish some paperwork, and I'm not really supposed to let you out yet."
Spock took the chair beside the bed as the doctor left their small alcove. Reaching out, he took Jim's hand in both of his. "Ashayam, I was so worried about you. Why were you blocking me out? We swore to love each other for better or worse. What was so bad that you needed to keep it from me?"
Jim shifted nervously at the question. "What do you already know about what happened?"
"I know that the ambassador was unworthy of his title. He requested that you order some of the ensigns to provide him with 'company' tonight. You refused, and fought him, which ended with you unconscious."
"Is that what he told you?" Jim laughed bitterly. "Of course he would leave out the key details."
"Which are-?" Spock prompted gently.
"He was angry with me because I haven't let him run my crew for the last week. Apparently other ships he's traveled on, the captains have basically given him free rein to mistreat the crew as much as they wanted, as long as he left them alone. Stepping between him and the crew upset him so much, he went searching for anything he could use to hold over my head to get what he wanted. He found-"
"He found our marriage license." Spock finished. "You were protecting me. You knew if I found out he was threatening you using me, I would do something I would regret."
Jim nodded, reaching out to run his fingers through Spock's hair. "I went to his quarters to try to come to some sort of compromise. When I got there, he suggested that I could buy his silence by sacrificing the crew. I told him there was nothing he could say or do that would tempt me to allow that, and he got MAD. He attacked me, and I wasn't prepared." Jim winced, and Spock could feel him trying to shut off their bond again to hide the pain he was in. "Then I woke up here."
"Let me help you." Spock trailed his fingers over Jim's forehead, running them through his hair in a way that he knew the human found soothing. They didn't talk much. They didn't need to, connected as they were. It was enough to simply be together.
The doctor reappeared with a padd that he offered to Spock. "I just need your signature that you're going to keep an eye on him for the next sixteen hours, and before you protest, I'm removing you both from your shift tomorrow. You've both had a traumatic day, and by my authority as Chief Medical Officer, I'm ordering you to take the day off and rest."
Spock took the padd and signed the required form. "Thank you, Doctor." Jim slid off the bed, stumbling as soon as his feet hit the floor. Spock jumped up and looped his arm around his shoulders, keeping his husband upright. "Come along, Jim. Let us get you to bed before you break something."
Jim groaned, squeezing his eyes shut tightly. "Everything's spinning."
"I know, Jim. You will feel better once you are in your bed. It is not much further now."
Spock keyed in the code for Jim's door, and gently deposited him on the bed. "Computer, dim the lights to fifteen percent." Jim sighed in relief as the light level dropped, daring to open his eyes slightly.
"Just rest, Jim. I have something I need to take care of, and then I will join you." Spock headed to the kitchen, quickly cleaning up the now-cold food. The candles had burned themselves out, which was fortunate, as he had forgotten to extinguish the flames before he had run out.
He could feel Jim watching him as he worked.
"You made dinner?"
"I did. I felt that you would appreciate it after the week you have had."
"I'm sorry I missed it."
"It is not your fault. There was no way you could have prevented what happened, and you did not know about the food."
"I'm still sorry I missed it."
"I do not understand why you insist on apologizing. I have already assured you that you bear no fault in the matter."
"That doesn't mean I don't wish things could have gone differently." Jim reached for him from the bed, and Spock, finished with his cleaning, went to him willingly. "We don't get enough time together, especially not with home-cooked food. I know it's not my fault I missed it, but I'm still upset about it." He curled himself around Spock, resting his head on his chest.
Spock wrapped his arms around his illogical human, relishing the feel of his husband’s weight on top of him. The downtime together was rare, and not to be wasted, but this wasn’t a waste of time. There was no where else he would rather be.