Show Me How To Love You

What's An Ending?

It had been about a week since Leonard and Spock's encounter in Spock's quarters, and things were still quite normal between them. Which, again, suited Leonard quite well. Especially since he had to ward off all the talk about how he could be gay. Honestly, what was with people? Why couldn't they mind their own business? He was closer to being an Andorian than being a homosexual, honestly.

He sighed, rubbing his face with his tired hands. Treating an entire ship's worth of people and their many, many ailments could get to him sometimes. Especially when all of his nurses were nice young women who doted on him constantly. He enjoyed the attention sometimes, but nowadays all they would ever ask about was his love life because of all the rumors about him and Spock. Leonard sometimes felt like he should tape a sign to the front of his desk labeled "HETEROSEXUAL!"

Just as he was trying to justify that action to himself, Nurse Lanna appeared and handed him a PADD. He took it, scanning it over. "What's this?" He asked, even though he was already reading it. A patient wanted to undergo experimental treatment for Hanyo's Syndrome...

"Jack Leeson wants to have the experimental treatment done for his Hanyo's Syndrome." Nurse Lanna explained, smiling politely. Her auburn braid hung over her blue-dressed shoulder, and she toyed with it as she spoke. Leonard couldn't help but eye her, but she kept talking like normal. "As soon as we reach the Alpha Quadrant in a few days, there should be a Starbase along our course that could supply us with the materials." She finished, and Leonard nodded in agreement. There would be a Starbase along the way, and it would no doubt be supplied with the proper medications, considering that the experimental treatment was so popular. Leonard wasn't too fond of it himself, but he would do what his patient wanted in this case.

"Thank you, Nurse." Leonard said, and flashed her a smile as he finished signing. She smiled back, the hint of a blush coloring her cheeks, and took the PADD from him. She seemed hesitant about something, so Leonard rose his eyebrows at her.

"Doctor, if I may," Nurse Lanna said, lowering her voice a bit. "I don't mean to be insensitive. It's just... the talk around the sickbay is quite prevalent." She looked very embarrassed, and Leonard had the sneaking suspicion that he knew what was coming. "Are you... well, do you prefer the company of other men?" Upon hearing the question, Leonard sighed and leaned back in his chair.

"I do not. In all my life, I have only ever preferred the company of women." Leonard explained, becoming peeved. "Now, you can tell everyone to keep their false gossip to themselves, because I will have none of that in my sickbay? Understood?"

"Understood, Doctor!" Nurse Lanna said promptly. Surprisingly, she was hardly fazed by Leonard's stern response. In fact, she seemed kind of pleased by it. Leonard didn't know if he liked that or not. The nurse finally left, and he sighed to himself again. He was probably going to let his soul out, sighing all the time- if he still had a soul, anyway.

Leonard accidentally worked well past shift, trying to get some ensigns to sit still as he jabbed them with a horrendous amount of hyposprays. Evidently, when on an away team, it was common sense to start assaulting strange plants until they spray mildly venomous liquids on everything. Leonard's patients were groaning on and on about how their skin burned, even though there were no visible blemishes on them.

When he finished treating them, he left it up to M'Benga for the night. After he left the sickbay, he heard hurried footsteps behind him. He turned to see ever-happy Christine Chapel catching up to him. "Hey, Leonard." She smiled at him, and he gave her a half smile back.

"Hey there. How've you been? It's been a while since we really talked." Leonard said, crossing his arms and leaning against the wall comfortably.

"That's actually what I was wanting to ask about," Christine said quietly, as if someone would hear them. Leonard was suddenly teeming with curiosity. "It's been so long since we've really, y'know, talked, so... Would you like to accompany me to dinner tomorrow? I'd suggest tonight, but you've already worked so hard."

"Of course, tomorrow sounds great. It'll be great to finally get talking to you again." Leonard replied, still smiling a little. He valued Christine quite a lot, and it'd be nice to catch up with her. He wondered about how she was doing sometimes.

"Tomorrow at 20:00, in the Ten Forward?" Christine suggested, and Leonard nodded in approval. "Great! I'll see you then!"

"Alright, see you then." Leonard replied, and watched her walk off in a different direction. Her body moved gracefully, like a new spark of optimism had been struck inside her.

A few days later, Jim walked down the halls of his ship, quietly whistling to himself. He'd been wandering around for the past half-hour, trying to find something to do. But alas, there was nothing for him anywhere. Everyone was busy, trying to get everything finished before their shore leave in a week or so. Jim, being the busybody that he was, had gotten most of his work done already. He was pretty excited to get back to Earth, go smell the fresh, polluted air, and see some old buddies.

However for now, he had nothing to do. Nowhere to go. All of his friends were busy. Bones had been disappearing during the evenings- Jim initially thought that it was just the doctor having some sexy time with Spock, until the Vulcan himself asked Jim where Leonard was one night. It made him worry, for a while, but he knew that it was none of his business. No point in dwelling on it.

He slipped into a nearby rec room, the room falling silent as he walked in. He smiled at the four people sitting around, told them to carry on, and stepped back out. Jim didn't really know what he was looking for, but he knew that he didn't want to sit around and play cards or chess. Maybe he'd go to exercise...

When he got to the ship's gym, he saw Spock running on an incline treadmill. That made his decision, and he went into the locker room to change into some more suitable clothing. He grabbed a bottle of water, and got on a treadmill next to Spock. The Vulcan didn't acknowledge him, just kept facing forward. Jim could deal with that, though. He started running at a decent pace (nowhere near as fast as Spock), and looked around. There were a few people doing weights, some sparring, but most were also doing cardio.

Jim tried to clear his mind, and just kept running next to Spock.