AN: Finally! There has been so much going on that I haven't been writing as much as I used to, otherwise this would've been posted a while ago. As usual, I don't own 'em.

1. The Paperwork

Leonard groaned as Yeoman Tom'an handed him yet another PADD full of reports to sign. He thought that Spock had been messing with him when the first officer rattled off the slightly intimidating list of things that required the acting CO's signature, he really should've known better. And not just about the reports.

It was going to kill him to admit it to her, but he was somewhat aware that Jim did more work than he gave her credit for. He'd only had the conn for an hour and he was beyond ready to relinquish command back to its rightful owner. Unfortunately for Leonard, he opened his big mouth right before an away mission, which Jim decided at the last minute to go on. For now, he was stuck with the chair, something he trained for but never, ever wanted.

"What is this?" he asked no one in particular as he looked over the document. Other than a few words and some numbers, he might as well have been reading Andorian for all the sense it made.

Leaning over his shoulder, Uhura sighed. "It's the Dilithium Consumption Report."

"That's a thing? A real thing?" Leonard asked his friend.

"It's a thing. And the brass is very particular about it too. If Scotty signed it already, you can just sign and send it. If he hasn't signed it, you have to check with him to find out why before either of you signs it."

"You're shitting me," he muttered.

"Nope," Sulu said, shaking his head. "Dems the rules. And Pike's not around to cover for us if we break them, not that Jim ever breaks that one. She's actually really good about her paperwork."

"Do you have to do this?" the doctor asked.

"When I have the conn, sure. I try to do as much as I can if, for no other reason, so the captain doesn't have to do it. I have no idea how she gets through all those reports every day."

"That's easy," Chekov said, "she doesn't sleep."

"Yes, she does," Uhura told them with a chuckle. "She just doesn't sleep as much as the rest of us."

"How many reports are there?" Leonard asked carefully. Sulu and Uhura shared a look. "That many, huh?"

"Let's just say, you should've kept your mouth shut," Sulu told him.

The Southerner regarded his friend for a long moment. "You know. Mister Sulu, I think you might be right."

2. The Brass

"Doctor McCoy? Where is Kirk?" Admiral Paris asked as soon as her hologram materialized in front of him.

"Leading the landing party on Epsilon Doradus Five. I'm the acting CO," he told her. The 'for better or worse' went unsaid. Pulling up the command training that Pike drummed into him at the academy, Leonard stood a little straighter. "While she didn't give me a full briefing on this call, ma'am, I assure you that I'm prepared to assist in any way possible."

"I sincerely doubt that. Your clearance isn't high enough. Acting captain or not," the Admiral told him.

"I'm the chief medical officer of the flagship. I don't have clearance to have a conversation with you, Admiral?"

"Not this conversation, Doctor. There are a great many things that Kirk can't tell any of you, some things, such as this, that we can't even tell her without a secure connection. Were you not made aware of this during your bridge officer training?"

Leonard thought about it for a moment. "I probably was. I mean, I'm sure I was."

"Admittedly, it's a very small portion of a chapter in the current curriculum. Kirk's proposal to change it is going before the academy review board in three weeks. By all accounts, the odds are in her favor."

"Jim's proposal, ma'am?"

"Yes. Since her promotion to captain, Kirk had petitioned for changes to regulations, curriculum and even uniforms. Some have never made it to the review board, others have been integrated into the fleet. You didn't know?"

"I'm starting to find out that there's a lot I don't know about what Jim does," he admitted.

"It's daunting."

"Tell me about it."

"I meant on her. She won't admit it, just as I refused to when I was a captain, but it is a heavy burden," Paris said.

"But she wanted to be the captain. And she is one," Leonard pointed out.

Admiral Paris smiled. "You're a doctor, as you wanted to be. Is it always easy?"

"No."

He didn't have enough fingers to count all the things about his job that he didn't like but Leonard did it because it needed to be done. He did it because without the paperwork and the inventory and everything else, he wouldn't get to do the parts that he loved.

For the first time in a while, he was truly beginning to understand his friend. While they were in the academy, it was easy; they were so alike it was hard not to understand each other. But with their promotions came additional and distinctly different responsibilities.

From where Leonard sat before all this, it looked like Jim didn't have to do much but sign a form or two, hang out on the bridge and go on an away mission or two while looking cool as hell. He was beginning to understand that there was much more going on around here then he realized.

"Thank you, Admiral. You, uh, you gave me something to think about," he said.

"I'm glad that I could be of assistance. You should consider yourself lucky that I'm the admiral who called you. Komack, in particular, is not overly fond of your captain and would no doubt see this as an opportunity question her ability to command," she told him.

"And you don't see it that way?"

"No. I suppose I see it as training." Paris smiled. "Kirk really does take after Pike. Have her contact me when she returns to the ship."

"Yes, ma'am."

3. The Questions

As if her reports weren't bad enough, every few minutes a new message popped up in the separate account that Jim uses for semi-official and not necessarily personal messages. While most of it was status updates from various parts of the ship, there were a fair amount of questions that Jim seemed to be inundated with.

Some of the questions were simple things like leave dates or clarification on orders but there were also some doozies in there about topics ranging from crazy missions to shore leave shenanigans. There were even a few about him.

"No, you cannot skip your physical," Leonard said, his PADD turning the words into text as he looked over the next message. "What the hell is multitronics?"

"It's a commuter system still in development at Fleet R&D. Some of our officers have been trying to get their hands on it to test it out. I assume that, given the message to Jim, she's involved at this point. Probably wants to see it herself," Scotty said as he walked onto the conference room that Jim often uses for an office. "I thought she'd go easier on ye. I cannae believe she gave ye access to her messenger."

"To be honest, this is better than the reports. At least some of these are funny," the doctor said. "There's just a lot of them."

"There are over a thousand people on this ship, lad. Each with different personalities, different priorities, duties, fears, concerns and questions. All the captain's responsibility."

"She told you what happened."

The engineer nodded. "Aye, she did."

"How mad was she?" the southerner asked.

"She wasn't mad." Scotty took an unnecessary breath. "She was hurt. She dinnae say it, ye know, with her being Jim Kirk and all but I could see it in her eyes. Yer her best friend and, I think, that yer opinion is more important to her than ye realize."

"I have no idea why," Leonard grumbled.

"Oh, laddie, ye donnae believe that," Scotty said with a chuckle. "Ye may not be blood but ye and her, ye're family. Reminds me of my relationship with my sister."

"Yea, I guess you're right."

"I have my moments, Acting Captain," the engineer said as he handed him a PADD.

"Not you too." Leonard sighed.

"Nothing earth-shattering, I assure ye. These are our usual Medbay repair reports."

"Oh, thank god. For a second, I thought everyone was just adding stuff to my to-do list on purpose."

"I thought about it," Scotty admitted. "If we didn't have to monitor an away mission, I'm sure a few departments could've drummed up some unnecessary work. How are they doing, by the way?"

"Who, Jim? I have no idea."

"Ye mean, they haven't checked in yet? That's not like the captain."

While Jim was no stranger to flouting regulations but there were some she didn't mess with; checking in on schedule was one such rule.

"No, it's not." Leonard pulled up the log from the comm system. "She's almost two hours overdue."

4. The Worry

It wasn't that Leonard never worried about Jim. As a matter of fact, he worried about her all the time, though it was usually from inside his office while she was safely in medical, on the bridge or in her quarters. This kind of worry was a whole different animal. It's been two days and he didn't know where she was.

As hard as it was, trying to figure out what happened to the landing party, he also had the job of reassuring the crew that everything was going to be okay. He didn't know how true that was, but all he had to do was make sure everyone else believed it.

"Anything?" he asked, glancing back at Uhura.

"No, sir. I can't raise the captain, Hendorff or Riley. No matter what I do, the transmission seems to drop off, almost like their communicators are in a void," the communications expert told him. "Or being actively blocked."

"And their bio-signs?" Leonard looked at Spock, then Chekov. Usually, one of them had the answer.

"The sensors register multiple biometric signatures," Spock said. "However, we are unable to determine if any of those signatures match those of the away team."

"So, we got nothing." He ran a hand through his hair. "What about these dignitaries we were meeting, the Doradian Elders?"

"We are unable to locate them as well," the first officer answered.

"Shocker." Leonard let out a breath before muttering, "Don't do this to me, kid."

"She cannot hear you," Spock said, earning a look from everyone on the bridge.

"I know."

How does she do this all the time? Jim goes on a lot of away missions, but she doesn't go on all of them. How does she send the crew places and not spend every second of those missions terrified? How does she walk around unfazed?

"She doesn't," Chekov replied from his station. "You said that out loud. The captain worries about all of us all the time. She is probably worried about us right now."

"I was thinking rhetorically."

Jim put on a good front for most people, but he could always see right through her. The bright smile and devil-may-care attitude were weapons that Jim used to stop people from looking too closely. In reality, she was scared of a great many things. She'd never admit it, of course, but that was part of her charm.

"Anyone got any ideas about how we should find our people?" Leonard asked, looking around the bridge. If they were going to find her and the others, he was going to need some help.

"Sir," an ensign at one of the science stations said. "I think I know a way for us to get the captain back. It's a little unorthodox."

Leonard chuckled. "You must be new around here. Unorthodox is how we roll."

5. The Show

"Bonesy," Jim said with a smile, even though it probably hurt. What the hell did they do to her?

"Jim," he breathed before cupping her bruised face in his hands and pulling her into a deep kiss. It was awkward, to say the least, but it was necessary. Pulling away just enough, he whispered against her lips, "Wife."

"You're here, my love," she replied, pressing her forehead against his neck. Thank the maker she was quick on the uptake, this whole thing hinged on her playing along. "I knew you'd come for me."

"Every time, darlin'," Leonard told her before looking up at the away team's captors while maintaining the hold he had on Jim. "Who dared to touch that which is mine?"

"No disrespect was intended," one of the Doradian Elders said in broken Standard.

"I don't care what your intent was. You told me that she was unharmed, which is obviously untrue."

One of the Elders stood. "Honored guests…"

"Spare me the false courtesy. You hurt my mate. By your own laws, I demand compensation."

"What do you seek? We have already returned your mate to you."

"After you lured us here under false pretenses and stole her. Return my officers to me and I will leave here peace. Refuse and I will lay waste to your entire planet," he told them. There was a Starfleet regulation for that, he was sure, though he really hoped that he didn't have to use it.

"You should do as he asks," Jim told them quietly, lifting her head but not stepping out of his embrace. "I've seen what happens when people don't do what he wants. It's not pretty." Leonard glanced at Jim, stifling a laugh at the reference she made to herself.

While the Elders took a moment to talk amongst themselves, Leonard took a second to get a better idea of his best friend's injuries. He could tell that she was leaning against him more to keep herself up than anything else.

"You okay?" he whispered as he forced her to sit down on one of the stairs in front of them.

"Sprained my knee. Pretty sure I have a broken rib," Jim muttered. "Might have a concussion too. And I need a drink, Scotty totally owes me booze."

Leonard rolled his eyes. "One thing at a time, kid."

"Yea, yea. No medkit?"

"I meant to grab it," he said as he checked her knee, which was swollen all to hell. "Don't know why I didn't."

"Adrenaline. Happens to me all the time but I have you to keep me from getting ahead of myself." Jim ran her hand along his jaw, keeping up their ruse. "Sorry I couldn't return the favor. Maybe next time."

"I really hope not. Your paperwork is a pain in the ass."

"I won't say 'I told you so,' I'll just look at you in that way Spock always looks at me when he warned me about something and I ignore him." She smiled. "How'd you find me, anyway?"

"One of the new kids poured over info about Doradian culture and found an in."

Among the things that the Enterprise crew learned about their hosts, the Doradians place the highest value on marital bonds. As a Starfleet officer, he couldn't get any answers about his best friend's whereabouts, but the second Leonard claimed to be Jim's husband, the whole situation shifted in their favor.

"Ensign Rojas. Glad I poached her from the Eaton. Even more glad that you listened to her," she said with wink.

"Us blue shirts gotta stick together," Leonard told her just as the Elders ended their own whispered conversation.

"You may have that which you seek," the first elder told Leonard, motioning to a door on the far side of the room. Hendorff didn't look too bad but Riley was going to have to spend a few nights in medical. "Go now."

"With pleasure," Leonard said. He opened his communicator. "Scotty, four to beam up."

+1. Understanding

"Permission to come on the bridge," Jim asked with a cheeky smirk.

"Please, like you need my permission to come onto your own bridge," he told her from the captain's chair. Hopefully, he can be done with this whole thing now that M'Benga cleared her to go back on duty.

Jim walked over with that determined stride of hers before leaning against the back of the chair. "Oh, come on, Captain Bones. You can admit that you actually got a kick outta being me. I mean, all you had to do was sit around and look pretty. Easy."

"You're never gonna let me live it down, are you? I already admitted I was wrong. What more do you want from me, woman?" Leonard rose from the chair and looked at her. "Stop torturing me."

"You still don't get it, do you?" she asked with a smile. "Do you honestly think I just let people have the conn because they hurt my feelings?"

"Now that you mention it," he teased.

"If I didn't think you could handle it, I wouldn't have left you in charge, Bones. And you, my cantankerous friend, kept the ship in one piece, saved my ass and overall just rocked command. I knew you would."

"Oh, really?"

"Of course. It's my job to know everything that goes on around here and to know just what my officers are capable of. But I assume you figured that part out by now," Jim said.

"I guess I did. I'm sorry I yelled at you," Leonard said.

She chuckled. "No, you're not. You had a valid argument, I was just being stubborn. So, how 'bout this? After lunch, me, you and the rest of the senior staff can hammer out some guidelines that'll take the pressure off your team. Because you're right, we've all been a little complacent with our health and safety. Sound good?"

"Yea, that sounds good," he told her with a nod. Truthfully, that was all he wanted, anyway. "Can I get back to medical now? I probably have three days worth of paperwork waiting for me."

"Oh, yea. That. You're lucky I love ya, I was tempted to leave you hanging for a little while longer. I mean, you're doing a really good job. Might even have to put you on the duty officer roster. Maybe submit your name for command of a hospital vessel. Or…"

"Jim."

She smiled. "Acting Captain McCoy, you're relieved of command."

"Thank you," he said, stepping aside so that she could finally take back her chair. "You know, you're a good captain, kid." Jim looked up at him. "It might not seem like it, but a lot of people are proud of you. Especially me."

"Well, you are the best best friend that anyone could ever ask for. I know it might not seem like it, but a lot of people value your opinion. Especially me."

He smiled. "I'll remember you said that the next time someone carries you into sickbay."

"You wouldn't be you if you didn't."