Unbeknownst Chapter 3
Author: Mousling1014
Story: Unbeknownst
Chapter 3 of ?
Rated: T
Pairing: AOS Spock/Uhura
Warnings: Mind-control, sexy times (rating will change to R for that)
Synopsis: What happens when you thought you were in control, but you're not....
Disclaimer: I don't own them - Paramount does and I'm making nothing from this.
Chapter 3
Starfleet Academy - San Francisco - Present Day
It had been ten days since the ‘Episode’, Spock’s meditation regimen had returned to normal by the evening of that day, the afternoon of which he and Cadet Uhura had spent in his office grading student papers. There had been a certain reticence between them and Uhura had apologized to him not only for touching him, she had remembered after she had run out of the classroom that Vulcans did not like to be touched, but also the informal use of his name while in the classroom, citing that her worry had gotten the better of her and that it wouldn’t happen again.
Spock had accepted Uhura’s apology but had stated that the gesture had been an unnecessary one, he had taken no offence at either the touch or the informality reminding her that when alone they had agreed to be on a ‘first name’ basis. Uhura’s response to Spock’s statement had puzzled him; she had lowered her eyes from his and had blushed. From that point on they worked in silence and Uhura’s good-night to him had been very stiff and formal. This had been the quickest that she had ever left his office, he noted, not even engaging him in what he knew humans referred to as small talk.
By their next encounter Uhura was back to chatting amicably with him, including making small talk, though now whenever she was in Spock’s office she took to sitting in the chair instead of her usual spot on the two-seater next to him. Spock experienced an unfamiliar sense of disappointment in this new arrangement. He felt it was logical for her to sit next him, it made their interactions on reviewing and grading papers flow more smoothly and he missed the closeness, the way she expressed herself when discussing a paper or a particular point, Uhura was one of the few individuals that didn’t try to act any more or less human while with him and accepted him for who he was.
The following morning’s meditation had again proved uneventful for Spock, the serene balance flowing through him as he made his way to the Computer Sciences block. It was an early Thursday morning and the cool San Franciscan breeze tickled his nostrils bringing with it the subtle scent of jasmine perfume. He knew instinctively whose perfume it was, and he turned to look around spotting her just ahead and to his left coming out of the gymnasium, she was wearing civilian clothes and appeared to be freshly showered, judging by her lack of cosmetics and the fact that her hair appeared to be damp. He made his way towards her.
“Good morning Cadet Uhura.” His voice was low and modulated.
“Good morning Commander.” Uhura smiled up at him. “I take it that you’re on your way to the computer lab this morning.”
“I am. I find that the lab is usually empty at this early hour and the quiet more conducive to my work.”
“I know, I was making my way there myself. I have no classes today and a certain professor isn’t making me work my fingers to the bone as his teacher’s aide until tomorrow, so I decided to work on my communications thesis and earn some extra lab credits.” Uhura looked at him again and grinned self consciously. “I figured a jaunt to the gym wouldn’t hurt either, I’m spending way too much time sitting on my butt. And in the words of one of my previous room-mates, I’m starting to feel schlumpy. Of course I didn’t expect to see anyone at this hour either, hence the lack of face paint.”
“Ahh. While I have never heard of feeling schlumpy, if I understand the term correctly, your body is feeling the effects of the lack of regular exercise. And there were times when my mother too did not feel the need to apply her face paint either, I always believed that her natural appearance to be more pleasing than her cosmetically induced one, though I would never voice this to her. I would say that your own appearance is in no way diminished by the lack of cosmetics.”
Spock was gazing now fully into Uhura’s face, she stared back at him, her cheeks flushing rosily under the warm toffee color of her skin, her dark eyes huge. She was worrying her bottom lip with her teeth and clearly trying to decide how to respond. Finally she spoke. “Commander that was a very sweet thing to say, thank you.”
Spock inclined his head in acknowledgement and they entered the Sciences block together. After securing a lab room Spock turned to Uhura. “Cadet Uhura, Nyota, this room is large enough to accommodate both of us without our interfering in the other’s work, would you care to join me?”
“If you don’t mind Spock, I’d like that.” Uhura said. “I’ll take the station over there by the window; I only need the one console to work on.”
Spock nodded and began to set up his own station. They worked side by side for most of the morning in relative but friendly silence until Spock heard Uhura giggle. He furrowed his brow and lifted an eyebrow in silent inquiry. Uhura giggled again as a gurgling sound echoed in the room.
“Spock, I’m going to have to call it quits for a while, I need to recharge and get some food in my belly.”
“Of course Nyota.”
“Would you like to join me?” Uhura looked at Spock expectantly. “I mean if you think that it may be perceived as an impropriety, then we could always order something in, the cafeteria delivers. Or we could eat off campus, but I’d like to have lunch with you, if that’s ok?”
“That is acceptable Nyota, off campus would be fine.”
“Great, let me shut down the console and we’ll be off, I know this place that I think you would enjoy and it’s not too far, but if it’s ok with you we’ll take the shuttle, I’m too hungry to really put one foot in front of the other and I don’t want to go all hypoglycemic on you.” Uhura deftly turned the station console off and gathered her bag, she smiled at Spock. “Let’s go before my belly starts speaking to my backbone!” Uhura couldn’t help but let out a chuckle, the expression on Spock’s face in regards to her last statement was priceless!
The shuttle took them about 20 minutes west of the campus and dropped them off outside of a small shopping center. Uhura led Spock into a small eatery decorated to appear like an old diner, with booths in red upholstery and a breakfast counter. They picked one of the booths and sat down, menus already on the table.
“The food’s really good here, the menu is very eclectic. You can have breakfast any time of the day and they have a really good vegetarian selection.” Spock looked at Uhura in surprise. “They even deliver on campus and they’re open twenty four hours too. You should take their information down, it’ll give you more food options when you’re working late and the cafeteria salads just aren’t doing it for you.”
“Indeed, thank you Nyota I believe that I will.”
Water glasses were brought to them and they both took to studying the menu before settling on their selections.
A waitress appeared and recognized Uhura as a semi-regular and grinned from ear to ear asking Uhura if she and her boyfriend needed more time or were ready to order. If Uhura had been drinking she probably would have choked. She didn’t dare look at Spock right now to see what his reaction to the waitress’ statement was, but she knew full well he probably would have a comment on it. She wasn’t wrong.
“The waitress clearly knows you from the amount of time you’ve spent at this establishment, but is it not uncommon for people to dine together without the benefit of a more intimate relationship? Her comment is puzzling.”
“Of course Spock, I’m not sure why she thinks we’re together.” Then Uhura made a big mistake, forgetting that her flippant remark would be taken literally by the man sitting next to her. “Why don’t you just ask her?”
The waitress returned a few minutes later with their order; Spock stopped her before she left their booth. “Excuse me, but you indicated that the young lady and I are in more than a platonic relationship, I am curious as to know how you came by this hypothesis.”
The waitress chuckled and looked over at Uhura, and winked. “Listen kids, I’ve been married to my Arthur for almost fifty years and if there’s one thing I’ve learned is that you just know when two people are together, sometimes even before they do. That’s what age and experience do for you, oh and add extra tires to your middle. Now holler if you need anything more, it’s Gladys by the way!”
Uhura just sat there, her cheeks were flaming, her body felt hot. She barely registered that Spock was speaking; she was too busy thinking of what the waitress had said. She focused on Spock’s lips and synched the movement with the sound of his voice.
“Nyota, I am still puzzled by her….”
Uhura interrupted him. “Spock, if I don’t get some food down me fast I’m going to keel over and having me swoon is just going to add fuel to her fire, so let’s drop it!”
She grabbed her fork and took a big bite of pancake. After tilting his head and raising his eyebrow Spock clearly decided the best course of action was to indeed drop it and he proceeded to eat his meal as well.
Afterwards, Uhura could barely remember leaving the eatery, let alone disagreeing with Spock about who was paying, she thought they ended up going Dutch, she couldn’t be sure. She just kept thinking about what Gladys had said. Uhura knew that her feelings towards Spock went beyond the platonic, they had for a while now, but if other people were starting to notice it, that might not bode well. Spock may start to notice too, though here was hoping that the human condition he found so puzzling would work in her favor on that score.
Once the shuttle had safely deposited them back on campus grounds Uhura had come up with a plan, she would keep everything professional, above board and stop fantasizing about her professor. She thanked Spock for going to lunch with her, informed him that she would see him the next afternoon in his office and turned to head back to her dorm. She looked back once and saw that Spock continued to stand still, continued to gaze at her, his face impassive as usual. Uhura waved to him and walked on to the dorm. Spock stared at her back noticing how graceful she was, her rhythm of walk and the way she kept her head held high, he continued his perusal until she disappeared through the dorm doorways, only then did he turn and again make his way back to the Computer Science Block.
Friday morning came all too quickly. Uhura groggily lifted her head from her pillow and slurred a command at her alarm that was beeping shrilly and flashing 4:30 AM in red neon. The grunts and groans and the sound of a pillow being thumped came from the other bed in the room clearly letting Uhura know that her Orion room-mate Gaila did not appreciate the disturbance of her sleep and more specifically the lusty dream she was having. An elegant green arm poked out from her cover and Uhura narrowly missed the furry slipper that had been thrown at her head.
“Ny! I could damn well murder you right now. I was just getting to the good part!” Gaila sighed grumpily and sat up, letting the cover fall down around her body to pool at her waist, as usual she was naked and glaring at Uhura. “Seriously girl, you need as you humans put it, to get laid. It’s just not healthy to keep all that sexual tension repressed. Sex is great for keeping the body toned and I’m sorry but I’d much rather be riding some good looking stud than a stationary bike any day.” Gaila shook her head and her red ringlets bounced and settled about her lovely face.
Uhura glowered at her, why oh why couldn’t Orions even get bed-head. She found her Starfleet sweats and quickly donned them, she pulled a brush quickly through her hair and this time braided it down her back. Next came socks and sneakers. The alarm read 4:58 AM. She quickly went to the bathroom ignoring Gaila’s dramatic sighs as her room-mate tried to get back into a comfortable position and back to dreamland. Uhura brushed her teeth, checked out her appearance in the mirror and then walked back out, past her bed, picking up her book-bag as she went and out through the door with a quick ‘see you later’ to Gaila who merely grumbled a reply and on down the hallway and out of the dorm doors into the morning air.
Uhura had almost made it to the gymnasium when she heard her name, very faint, raspy even. She looked around, not seeing anyone but more alert. She took a step and heard it again..her name and it was coming from the side of the gymnasium, this part of the building faced a wooded copse and she slowly walked towards it every nerve and sense heightened. She could see a figure slumped over on hands and knees and as she moved closer she realized it was Spock. She ran the rest of the way and knelt quickly down beside him.
He was dressed in standard issue Starfleet dress downs, black cotton and his feet were bare, there were wet patches on the knees of his pants where he knelt and Uhura could see that one of his fingers on his right hand was missing a nail and oozing emerald green blood, there were also small plasma burns on the palm and he was shivering violently, his skin a very strange yellow-green hue. His eyes were closed but Uhura could hear his teeth chattering. She quickly pulled her sweat-top off and tried to wrap it as best she could around his shoulders.
“Spock! Oh God! What happened?” Uhura placed her arms around him and began to rub his back in strong sweeping motions. “Just give me a sec ok? I’m going to call for help.” She searched through her book-bag and found her communicator, hailed emergency services and spoke quickly. When she finished she returned to Spock and hugged him close again trying to infuse him with as much warmth as her body could give him. She asked him again. “Spock, can you tell me what happened? Were you attacked?”
Spock stopped shaking enough to gaze up into Uhura’s face, his eyes met hers and she saw in their depths confusion, fear and terror. In a quavering voice that didn’t sound like Spock at all, he replied “Nyota, I do not know!”
TBC