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It shouldn’t have been happening – only it was. And Leonard and Jim were worried as hell.They were among the very few who knew how deeply Spock felt things. They were among the very few privileged to see his hard won smiles, the cleansing tears. The only two who felt his passion. And once in on it, even Leonard had conceded he shouldn’t needle Spock so much about his emotions, though it had been a fun game, once upon a time.But it showed a measure of his absolute trust, and of also his love, that Jim and Bones got to see sides of Spock that no one else ever had.Or maybe ever would.What the three of them had was truly special and it had been at once both easy to fall into and hard. Looking back on it, it was like they always had been just one step out of sync with each other. Sometimes meshing better with one or the other but not both, but then one day when unspoken jealousies had flared, things had clicked.They were stronger together. The bond they had… even not being Vulcan, both Jim and Leonard could feel it and they were in awe of it.But even with what Spock permitted them to see, what he felt comfortable sharing with his human mates, he’d never been like this.And it wasn’t like the Pon Farr. At Jim’s insistence (though he’d hardly needed it), Leonard had run his scans. Leonard was all too well acquainted with what Spock’s body chemistry was like when undergoing Pon Farr.But this wasn’t it.Oh, his chemistry was altered all right. The wrong hormones flaring up while others were being repressed. Something McCoy had never seen before, something unknown (and god, he hated the unknown) poking its way through Spock.“It had to have been something from the planet,” Leonard muttered, as he ran yet another test.“But it didn’t effect anybody else on the away team,” Jim protested, his hands wringing in worry before he yanked them apart and clasped them behind his back.“The rest of the team was human, Jim. He’s half Vulcan. It must be his Vulcan side that’s vulnerable to whatever this is.”Jim paced in front of Leonard’s work station, both of them occasionally looking up to see where Spock had been strapped down to a bio bed and sedated. Christine was close by, keeping an eye on his readouts and ready to alert both Leonard and Jim if there were any change.Even sedated, Spock twitched and cried out. It was filled with anguish and it tinged along the bond with a sour note. The rest of Sickbay was empty on Leonard’s orders.“I think his mental barriers have been stripped away. However he shields his mind from outside emotions… It doesn’t seem to be working. The stress of it…” Leonard didn’t have to finish the sentence.“Yeah,” Jim said quietly, “I feel it too.”It was no wonder that Spock had begun lashing out. At first, it hadn’t made sense – not simply because he was, but why. He’d stormed an Ensigns room to berate her for destroying his prized flora – only it wasn’t even Spocks. He’d demanded to know why Lieutenant Mavix was cheating on him, begging to prove himself to the lieutenant, and all parties had been confused, though it had started a discourse between the lieutenant and his girlfriend which had turned into a shouting match that had needed to be broken up.And that had only been the beginning.At least Uhura had caught him before he sent his subspace transmission to the Admiral in charge of their sector telling him to stick it where the sun didn’t shine – and why. “This little bugger here seems to be the culprit,” Leonard muttered.Jim perked up, his steps pausing as he looked at Leonard hopefully. “Good, that’s good. So you can fix this, right?”“I’m not a miracle worker, Jim. This thing’s multiplying at an alarming rate. I’m not sure I’ll have the time to.”“You can do this, Bones, I know you can,” Jim said. “Whatever you need, tell me. Dr. M’Benga? Something from the planet? I can send another away team.”“Mmmm… I don’t want too many people in here, for Spocks’ sake – at least he taught us rudimentary shielding – and we need someone who can respond to other emergencies while I’m busy in here… but Dr. M’Benga would be my choice of a second. There’s no one else here besides him and Chapel who know Spocks crazy physiology as well as I do.” Leonard paused to think it through. A moan from Spock, a spike of mottled emotions with fear and grief mixed in hit Leonard’s mind through bond and he didn’t hesitate any longer. “Get him.”Finally having something to do, Jim nodded firmly. “On it.”*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+Hours passed and neither Leonard nor M’Benga were any closer to a cure or even anything that could slow down what was happening to Spock in time than they had been earlier. Jim sat beside Spock, watching the Vulcans flushed and sweaty face.It was unnerving to see. At the usual temperatures kept aboard ship, Spock almost never perspired unless he was under great physical exertion. Jim bit his lip. He was afraid to touch his lover, afraid to add to the cacophony that was currently whirling through Spocks head, afraid he would be the straw that broke the camels’ back.Despite everything telling him not too, Jim couldn’t quite stop himself from reaching out to gently push Spocks bangs back into order. To gather some of the sweat on his fingers and off Spocks face. The soft touch sent a wave of cool relief through him and – even across the room – Bones froze.“What did you do?” he demanded.Jim yanked his hand back, hiding it behind himself like a child, mentally rolling his eyes at his own actions. “Nothing. I just… he looked so… “ Jim sighed and waved a hand vaguely at Spock.“Did you touch him?” Leonard asked. Jim looked up at him guiltily but there was no anger on Bones’s face, just curiosity.“I did.”Leonard nodded thoughtfully, fiddling with the dials on the monitor. “Again.”“Wait, you want me to touch him?” Jim asked, incredulously.“It goes against everything I would think would help – far be it from me to want to add to Spocks distress – but dammit, Jim… I’ve got a theory. Touch him.”Heart pounding, despite the permission, Jim stretched out his hand again. This time, instead of brushing Spocks hair, he trailed his hand down along Spocks long fingers. Spocks fingers twitched, then curled around Jim. The sounds from the bio bed monitors changed.“Well I’ll be damned.” Leonard said softly. “We’ve been going about this the wrong way.”“Bones?”“We’re his shields, Jim. We’re his stabilization, his grounding. We can take the brunt of this for him, if we take turns so neither of us burn out. I’d found something earlier but it wasn’t working fast enough. But it could… if we do this for him.”“So you want us to… to Mind Meld, without Spocks guidance?” Jim asked Leonard worriedly. His stomach twisted. Even with someone he trusted and loved as much as he did Spock, he found Mind Melds a difficult thing to deal with. He felt too bare, too vulnerable, at the mercy of someone else. The only reason he could bear it at all, was because it was Spock.“No, it’s not that at all. Neither you nor I can initiate a Mind Meld. We’re just taking advantage of the bond between us. We’re going to… to siphon off the excess until Spock can gain his equilibrium again. Give the medicine a fighting chance. Besides,” Leonard turned to the other doctor. “M’Benga is well versed enough in the subject of Mind Melds to keep an eye on us if things should go south.” Dr. M’Benga looked up from his console and nodded. “Of course. I did study on Vulcan before coming aboard here. I wouldn’t say I’m an expert but I’ll do what I can to help.”Hope bloomed behind Jim’s eyes and through the bond and Spocks muttering ceased as it washed over him as well. It drew both their eyes to the now still form on the biobed.“All right,” Jim said firmly. “I’ll go first, give the two of you more time to work.”“Actually…” Dr. M’Benga said slowly. “It might be better if both of you do this, your relationship is at it’s most stable when all three of you are involved so it stands to reason that if you’re grounding him, he would be better off with both of you doing so.”Jim looked at Leonard and shrugged. “Makes sense to me.”Leonard frowned but nodded. He didn’t like putting Spocks life into someone else’s hands but of all the people he could do that with, Dr. M’Benga was one of the good ones.*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+“Since we don’t know how long this will take, I suggest you boys make yourselves comfy,” Chapel said as she bustled about them. Leonard grunted as he and Jim pushed a second bio bed up on the left side of Spock’s, one already flush to the right side.“That should do it,” Jim said, brushing his hands against each other briefly after clapping them together with a sharp sound. “C’mon, Bones. You know what time it is?”“It’s 0300 hours, Jim,” Leonard snapped. He’d been at this for a while.“Nope. You’re wrong. Well, technically you’re right but no. Bones! It’s my favorite time of the day,” Jim said with a grin. It was a pale thing compared to the one he usually wore, dimmed for his worry over Spock that Leonard could still feel pulsing through the bond. “You remember what that is, right?”Leonard rolled his eyes. “Ah, yes. Cuddle time,” he drawled, slowly climbing up onto the biobed while Jim hopped easily into his.“You don’t get between a man and his cuddle time. We’ve been through this before. Now it’s time to show this stupid bug the same thing,” Jim smirked before quickly laying down and rolling to his side. He waited till Leonard was mirroring him across Spock and then said, “You ready?”“On three,” Leonard admonished, holding his hand above Spocks arm.“Three,” Jim breathed, his hand coming to rest lightly over Spocks wrist before sliding down to tangle with the Vulcans fingers. Jim blushed, even though to other humans the gesture meant nothing, but he knew what it meant to Vulcans, to Spock.“You infant,” Leonard grumbled, no actual irritation behind the words. He’d joined hands with Spock as well, and only blushed a fraction less than Jim had.The difference in Spock was almost instantaneous. The part of him railing about in his own mind was soothed like a trembling beast. Together, Jim and Leonard reached out for Spock without even moving an inch.It wasn’t a mind meld, Leonard had been right about that, but the intimate brush of their minds against each other drew them deeper than either of them had expected. Together, they walked across the strangely chaotic landscape in Spocks mind, approaching the crouched figure shaking in the center of it. Jagged lines appeared beneath it like an impact crater, extending outward.With each step closer that Jim and Leonard took along the fault line they were following to Spock, the less he shook.“Jim,” Leonard said, grabbing Jim’s arm and pointing behind them.In their wake they were leaving tranquility. They took a good look at each other and then Spock. Within seconds they had split, each taking a fault line and tracking it back to Spock. As each line healed and calmed, Spocks shaking grew less. They circled about him, drawing in close and then back away again and again till there were no faults left, just the crater Spock now lay perfectly still in.They finished their last legs, reaching him together, both kneeling beside him, pulling him up and into their arms, watching for any signs of distress.Spock melted into them, his breathing evening out, but his eyes never opened.That was all right. They could be there for him, no matter how long it took. They didn’t talk, somehow feeling like idle chatter would simply be an intrusion, especially now that they had managed to stabilize everything.*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+ Groaning, Jim blinked open his eyes and attempted to move, only to find he couldn’t.He blinked them again, blearily. His eyes stared into Spocks black undershirt, his cheek pressed against Spocks chest. From the little bit he could see, the three of them were wrapped around each other like a trio of octopuses. It should have made Jim overheat but he knew that Spock was likely leeching that heat from him. That thought only made him want to curl closer but first he wanted to see how Spock was doing.Jim tried to shift again and a hum was released above him.“I would appreciate it if you stopped moving, Jim. I am quite comfortable like this,” Spock said evenly. “And extremely exhausted.”“Comfortable? Speak for yourself. I’m pinned down,” Bones grumbled from his other side. “Why do I feel like shit?”“I would presume you feel less than one hundred percent, Leonard, because of the extraordinary risk you and the captain took to assist me in stabilizing my mind, a task that, might I remind you, only those trained in the Vulcan disciplines should ever attempt,” Spock explained.“Well how’s that for thanks?” Leonard grunted. “See if I ever do anything for you again.”“Do not mistake me. I simply have not the words to adequately convey my gratitude to you and Jim. What you attempted was, indeed, quite dangerous and I am also grateful that no harm has come to either of you.”Jim chuckled as his boyfriends bantered tiredly back and forth. Gratitude and love were flowing from Spock across the bond and Bones wasn’t nearly as irritated as he pretended to be. It was just his way, a way that both Jim and Spock were both well used to and could easily see through – bond or no bond.“Spock is right. What the three of you have been through has been an ordeal,” Dr. M’Benga said, his voice coming out of nowhere and causing Jim to startle. “But we succeeded in what we set out to do and I couldn’t have done it without your devotion to each other. Nurse Chapel will keep an eye on you three throughout the next shift cycle, but I’ve left word for you to remain undisturbed while you all rest.”“Thank you,” Jim said heartily.“My thanks,” Spock agreed.“I’ll write you up for a commendation later,” Leonard groused, waving a hand vaguely. “But first, I’d like to sleep for at least a week.”With his eyes closed, Jim heard the doctor leaving, the door wooshing open and closed again fairly rapidly. Now feeling less on the spot, he curled further into Spock, reaching a hand over Spocks stomach to touch Leonard too.“Night,” Jim slurred. “Love you both.”Leonard’s hand patted Jim’s then grabbed it and held on, squeezing it tight. Neither Spock nor Leonard answered, sleep pulling them back under very quickly and Jim, now reassured that everything was fine, happily let it pull him too.