The Cure 

	Commander Spock found the data incomplete to the report he needed to turn in before 1800.  Pressing the intercom he announced, “Dr. Chapel, please report.”
	It would take a few minutes and the page would repeat until someone replied.  Finally the acknowledge signal came through, “Chapel here.”
	“Doctor, I need the final data on the experiment that was running in lab three.”
	“It’s not on that tape?” she asked the background noise filtering through.  She was in one of the recreation rooms.  
	“Obviously.”
	There was a pause, “I know where it is.  It’ll take a few minutes to get there, Chapel out,” and the connection was severed.  
	Spock went back to logging a different report while he waited.  True to her word, five minutes later Chapel appeared at the door.  She was dripping wet from the regulation bathing suit she had on and a hastily thrown on wrap that failed to cover the mile long legs.  The skirt floated somewhere just below the crotch.  Spock noted this, “I regret not giving you time to dress properly.”
	Christine handed him the data tape, “Considering the height of the previous uniforms I don’t imagine anyone will be shocked.”
	Spock placed the tape in the viewer, “It will only take a moment to transfer if you would wish to stay and take the tapes back with you.  Please sit.”
	He pointed toward a chair across the short span of his office and she took the towel from around her shoulders to drape in the seat so she wouldn’t get it sopping wet.  
	Spock found himself oddly preoccupied while the viewer downloaded the information.  He had a perfect view of her legs, long, slender, and in his mind he could picture them being wrapped around his waist as he made passionate love to her.  That was distressing.  He’d never had such a vision and was unsure what to do.  A deep sensation, like a throbbing, began to rush from head to toe and all points in between.  His heart began pounding like he’d run a marathon at breakneck pace.  The data transfer was complete and the machine beeped.  Pulling himself back to the present Spock found it almost impossible to speak.  Removing the tape he managed a normal sounding, “Thank you.”
	She smiled as she stood, “That’s okay.  My shift was over at the pool anyway.”
	Turning on her heel she left and Spock exhaled slowly.  How she could miss the fact that his hair was standing on end was beyond him but he was grateful he was sitting behind a large desk.  The arousal was unmistakable and undeniable.  Gaining some amount of composure he was able to get a drink of icy cold water and calm down.  
	Since his return to the Enterprise and the incident with V’Ger he had been challenged almost daily between his study of the Kolinahr and what V’Ger’s perfect logic had shown him.  This however was the first blatantly emotional attack from within and he found it disquieting.  If he reacted that way every time he saw a female form exposed it would prove disastrous.  Deciding it would not do to venture out among the crew unless he was tested again Spock called up a list he knew about but never visited.  Art bordering on the pornographic filled the screen and women dressed in little or nothing posed for the still camera.  One by one he looked at them, found they did nothing to him beyond a further appreciation for the female form.  He did not feel compelled to bedding them as he had Chapel.  Perhaps she had emoted something he had unknowingly picked up and that was what triggered the arousal.  To be certain he would have to meet with her again in a similar setting.  Spock did not normally frequent the pool and it may be weeks before she went back and even then he would not know unless he specifically asked.  She’d mentioned her shift was over at the pool…  Calling up the duty roster, he noted Chapel’s name down for lifeguard duty at the same time every day that week.  Cross checking, both he and the Captain were off duty at the time as well.  Perhaps a game of chess around the pool would be needed.  

	“Jim,” Spock said using the familiar name to indicate this was not about ship’s business, “I thought perhaps a game of chess would be relaxing before dinner.”
	Kirk considered, “Sure.  I promised McCoy we’d meet for a swim though at 1500.”
	“I have no objection to playing in the pool area,” Spock replied pleased he’d not have to request the location.  
	“Why don’t you suit up, a swim’d do you good,” Kirk advised.  Spock shook his head, “No, perhaps another time.”
	It would give Spock time to prepare in case the situation was repeated.  
	
	The Olympic sized pool was always bustling with activity.  Spock appreciated the heat from the various heat lamps and steam radiant appliances but the smell of the bacteria cleaning agents in the water usually made him ill.  Shift change had started the flow of people in and out.  Spock found a table with full view of the pool area but close to an exit in case he needed a hasty retreat.  Females lightly clad were lounging and swimming and every one of them excellent specimens of what had been referred to as the fairer sex.  But, no reaction could be felt as yet.  The main doors opened and Kirk and McCoy came in chatting with Christine Chapel, still in duty uniform.  The sensation of ants crawling under his skin began and Spock immediately seized control over every movement his body made right down to how fast his lungs processed air.  
	Kirk and McCoy were already in bathing suits.  Taking a look around, McCoy’s face lit up, “I think I’ll be enjoying the view for a while.” 
	Leaving the two to venture around the pool, McCoy soon found some junior crew to impress with his skinny physique.  
	Kirk sat down, saw he was set up to move first and pulled out a pawn.  Spock answered in kind and the play was fairly straight forward for a few minutes.  But Kirk noted Spock’s distraction as soon as the new wave of lifeguards entered.  Kirk glanced over, noted Spock’s eyes followed Christine Chapel as she headed over to the lifeguard tower and climbed up then his eyes were quickly averted back to the game.  He seemed flustered, accidentally tipping one of his men over trying to get to another.  
	“So, things have been pretty dull lately.  That usually doesn’t bode well,” Kirk said idly.
	“No, it does not,” Spock replied.  He was having an extremely difficult time concentrating on the game.  
	“Spock,” Kirk prompted for the Vulcan’s turn.
	Spock startled.  It was clear he would not be able to continue, “Forgive me, I realize I have forgotten something that cannot wait,” he lied clumsily and was out the door like a shot leaving Kirk to a half-played game of chess.  McCoy ambled back over with a glass of sweet tea from the dispenser, “Hey, where’s the elf?”
	“Forgot something,” Kirk said and started to put the pieces away but stopped, “Hey, finish the game for him.”
	“If he’s coming back…” McCoy said. 
	“No, I don’t think so.  Come on I want to ask you something.”  Leaning forward so they wouldn’t be overheard he asked, “Is Chapel and Spock, a thing?”
	“A thing… you mean like a couple?” McCoy asked like it was the most unheard of thing he’d heard.  “No, I’m pretty sure not.  As far as I know she gave up on him last time out.”
	“Well he acted awfully… odd.  She came in and you might as well say he forgot all about chess.  He kept watching her, not that I blame him,” Kirk said craning his head to catch a glimpse, “She’s got legs that’s for sure.”
	McCoy shrugged, “I dunno, maybe he’s going through his second pon farr…”
	The joking tone fell flat and the two looked at each other.  “But it’s not been 7 years yet,” Kirk reminded. 
	“Maybe he’s on a fast track?  Maybe space travel screws the process up.  Who knows, but if he is you’d better have a little father son talk with him.  No Vulcan to rescue him this time,” Bones pointed out. 
	“Yeah well, let’s have a strategy meeting and I’ll go talk to him,” Kirk decided wondering why he always got the sex talks with the Vulcan first officer.  

Spock tried very hard to come to grips with his findings.  Although not tested with every possibility he concluded that he was somehow sexually excited by Christine Chapel.  Even out of sight she was not out of mind and his engorged member threatened to burst the athletic cup he’d put on.  This was insane.  How could he possibly function in this thing when it threatened to castrate him?  And he had no desire to be a eunuch.  He was contemplating the ramifications when the door chime sounded.  Uttering a Vulcan expletive, he made certain he was behind the desk before he answered, “Come in.”
Jim Kirk stuck his head through the opening, “Everything okay?”
	“I do not understand,” Spock feigned.  
	“You left in such a hurry.  Thought you might be sick or something,” Kirk mentioned and came in to perch on the edge of the Vulcan’s desk.  The first officer was clearly uncomfortable.  
	Spock had to talk to someone.  Perhaps Kirk would be the best person to ask.  He cleared his throat, “I find myself having unusual sensations.”  
	Kirk frowned, “Unusual sensations?  You mean feelings?”
	“I would not characterize them as such.  They are more an involuntary response to a situation,” he answered and then grew silent.  
	Jim leaned forward a bit noting the odd way Spock held his hands in his lap.  Uh-huh.  “Let me try to guess.  You’re suddenly ‘aware’ of women.”
	Spock shook his head, “Only a particular woman.”
	“Chapel.”
	At the mention of the physician’s name Spock nodded reluctantly.  He had trouble meeting Kirk’s eyes, “You knew?”
	“Well, it wasn’t a complete leap of fantasy.  I mean you and Christine have been dancing around each other for years,” Kirk pointed out.  
	“I do not understand,” Spock replied obtusely.
	Kirk laughed, “You must be the only person on board who hasn’t figured it out, at least of the old crew.  Honestly you’ve never realized why time after time you’ve been drawn to her?”
	“I always considered it her need to be near me.”
	“Huh-uh.  Well, maybe some of it, but you treat her differently than you do any other female crew.  She always gets special commendations, or you make certain she has extra lab time for experiments, little things like that.  There’s always been something there you’ve just been either too blind or too Vulcan stubborn to admit it.  Hell even your mother noticed and she wasn’t on board that long,” Kirk revealed. 
	“My mother?” Spock questioned and then remembered something she’d said to him just before they left.  <<Tell Christine thank you.  I like her a great deal.>> At the time Spock thought it was because she had spent so much time with the nurse while both he and Sarek were in sickbay.  Now he understood what she meant.  She was speaking as if he had presented Christine as a potential mate. 
	“Whether I have these deep seated feelings toward Chapel or not, the point remains that I must work with her.  I cannot remain in this state.”  
	“So right now you’re just interested in how to uh… calm down,” Kirk said. 
	Spock nodded, “That would be preferable to this state.”
	“Well, uh…” Kirk said and could feel the heat start to rise to his cheeks.  Why did he always get the sex talks with Spock?  “Other than actually having intercourse or taking a cold shower there aren’t too many other ways.  How do you know it’s only Chapel?”
	“I viewed 5,432 separate intimate pictures of females.  I did not react in the same manner, however at the mere mention of Dr. Chapel’s name I was afflicted again,” the Vulcan sighed. 
	“Spock, it’s not a disease,” Kirk laughed at his friend’s choice of descriptive verbs.  
	“Perhaps to a Human it is not a disease.  To a Vulcan who is in constant control of all bodily functions down to the regulation of eye moisture, to have a rather visible part of the physique to begin reacting on its own without either command or control is a disease bordering on a disorder,” Spock replied sternly.  He was perfectly serious.  
	“All right, so you aren’t stimulated by other ladies or their pictures.  Do Vulcans practice uh, celibate measures,” Kirk tried to come up with some nice way to put it and then just blurted it out, “Manual masturbation?”
	“No,” Spock said.  At least he didn’t have to have that explained in more detail.  “However, it was discussed in a course I took on hygiene in extended space flight situations.  I did not take part in the discussion.”
	“But did you learn anything?” Kirk asked hopefully. 
	“If by that do you mean did I learn the purpose, yes, the techniques no.” 
	“Okay,” Kirk sighed in frustration.  “There are limits to what a starship captain should have to do and to what a friend would do for another friend and this is definitely it.”
	Twisting the monitor so he could see it, Kirk called up a series of videos for Spock to view.  “Here’s the best I can do for you, and not do it myself, which I’m not going to do no matter WHAT you say.”
	“And if this is not adequate for the problem at hand?” Spock inquired.  
	“Well, either you take a sitting job for the rest of your life, or you think seriously about hooking up with Chapel.  You could tell her it’s for a medical experiment on Vulcan longevity,” Jim advised with a wry smile.  
	Spock shook his head, “No.”
	“Well, I’d better get back to the pool. McCoy’ll be waiting.”
	Kirk left Spock alone to his devices.  The images Kirk had pulled up were not only distasteful to his Vulcan sensibilities, but Spock was certain it would not produce the effect he was wanting.  However, he did feel his arousal waning.  Perhaps viewing pornographic film could be useful even if it meant going blind from the images.  

	“So, what did Spock want?” McCoy asked as Jim made it back to the pool.  Chapel had gone off her lifeguard duty to sit with her fellow surgeon.  
	“Uh, he just had something in the lab he forgot about, that’s all,” Kirk lied poorly for a starship captain.  The hazel eyes kept darting back and forth between Chapel and the door.  She was busy talking to one of the newer crew and wasn’t paying attention to the conversation but she could still overhear as well as she ever did.  
	Bones narrowed his eyes and glanced over at Chapel and then back at the door and made a sign around his ears.  Kirk nodded.  The subject was dropped for the time, but Kirk knew McCoy didn’t forget anything especially if it had to do with Spock.  

	“You’re kidding me,” Bones said with one hand on the turbolift’s stop button.  
	“No, I’m not but if you say anything at all to him, I mean anything, you will pay,” Kirk threatened.  
	“Okay, but this is gonna be hard to pass up.  I mean, Spock gets a hard on and I gotta keep my mouth shut,” the physician grumbled. 
	“What I think we need to try to do is to see if Christine could somehow help him.”
	That was a negative.  “Jim, Christine is one of the most tenderhearted people I know and I treat her like a daughter because that’s the way I feel about her.  She’s spent years sappy over that green goon and since we’ve been out this time she’s really come a long way toward getting rid of him and finding her own niche.  To proposition her into giving Spock sexual favors just to make him calm again would not only be wrong it’d be dead wrong.  As much as I hate to admit this, and believe me, I hate it.  I think we’ll just have to leave Spock be on this one.  He’ll have to decide what to do.”  
	
	The pornography worked to a point.  As long as Spock didn’t begin letting his mind wander and putting Chapel’s face on the bodies of the various females in the videos he was beginning to calm down.  But that didn’t take long.  Finally he got to the point that he took the only other thing Kirk had suggested: a shower, fully clothed, and as cold as he could stand.  
	
	Christine hurried back from her stint at the pool.  She was going to be late for the dinner date she’d promised with Uhura, but first she’d drop by Spock’s quarters and deliver another duty log report tape she’d found.  His quarters were never locked and even if he wasn’t there she’d just drop it off and leave a note.  She was getting ready to write something down on the pad when she realized what was playing on the viewer.  Transfixed for a time at what was going on she was dumbstruck when Spock emerged from the bath dripping and in uniform.  “Mr. Spock?” she managed with a slight stutter.  
	He saw what had stopped her in her tracks and snapped the viewer off.  “Perhaps if you would remember that these are my private quarters.”
	“I… uh… I was just dropping this tape off on my way to supper.  I meant no intrusion on your private life,” she said feeling the color going from tip to toe.  But she couldn’t help but ask, “Why are you wet, and dressed?”
	“It is none of your affair,” he insisted but could feel a very strong reaction to her presence.  It was apparently apparent.  
	“Oh, cold showers usually do the trick,” she muttered and hoped she could get out of the room without sticking both feet into her mouth at the same time.  She’d need them to run with.  
	It was his only hope. He just had to give in, “Dr. Chapel, please, I must have your help.” 
	With the use of her official title she was reminded that she could not refuse him medical aid, but she was wary and put the desk between the two of them, “How can I help?”
	“I am having difficulties,” Spock began.  
	“Maybe if you changed into dry clothes it would help,” Christine suggested.  
	“If you insist,” Spock said and went back to change.  
	Christine wondered what she’d gotten herself into as he did so.  “Spock if you could explain it might help.”
	“I do not know if explanations can help,” he answered and took the seat behind his desk again.  
	“They definitely won’t if I don’t know what’s going on.  I am your physician of record after all.  Does this involve pon farr?” 
	His head jerked up, “No.”
	“Well it’s something sexual by the look of things.” 
	“I find myself… unduly aroused,” he admitted reluctantly, “and it does not go away.”
	“Okay, have you pinpointed when this began?”
	With his chin down close to his chest he muttered so low she misheard, “You ate eggs?”
	“Your bare legs,” he repeated louder as the tips of his ears boiled green.  
	Surprise, shock, dismay, and pride all played across her face within milliseconds.  He had no idea he flattered her beyond words, but Spock did not intend to flatter.  “And you do not wish to be aroused?”
	“No,” he replied hastily then amended, “At least not unless I have control over the situation.  I have none at this time.”
	“That’s perfectly understandable,” she answered then decided that lecture would probably be the best way to approach the matter, “While studying Vulcan physiology I realized something neither McCoy nor I ever thought of.  In Standard how old are you?”
	“Forty-two point nineteen,” he answered.  
	“And on Vulcan on average the first throes of pon farr do not begin till the mid-sixties give or take ten years.  Yours was at thirty-eight.  Biologically, chemically, and hormonally you are still pre-pubescent on Vulcan.  However, mentally and physically you are an adult as a Human, at least to us and the rest of the Universe.  I ‘assume’ you’ve been in sexual relations before and were able to perform?”
	Spock nodded, “So I’ve been told.”
	Chapel allowed a smile to flit across her features, “It’s really no different than cases of Human males, infants even, who have been aroused at very young ages without knowing why or what to do about it.”
	“I can accept your hypothesis doctor, however, it does not solve the problem at hand.”
	“Yeah,” she sighed, “You’ve tried cold showers, pornography, meditation?”
	“All without result,” he affirmed.  
	Christine tried to say this without sounding awful, “And coming to me?”
	“Was not an option I was willing to take,” Spock assured.  “Humans may have a casual attitude regarding sex but Vulcans do not consider one night stands morally correct.”
	Christine didn’t point out that she knew a little better, but let it slide, “So you’re saying it means something to you.”
	“Yes.”
	Realizing she wasn’t going to get anywhere with this line of reasoning she said, “Move over.”
	He looked like she was about to sit in his lap, “I need to access your computer.”
	Chapel logged in and began a search in the biochemical fields.  For all she knew it could be an allergic reaction to something he ate, but she doubted it.  Several known possible cures popped and they would start from there.  Lab 4 was the closest to his cabin, “Come on.”
	Once secreted in the lab the two worked for hours on the various compounds finding each one failing to provide results or relief.  Finally an ancient recipe for a compound that not only slowed the libido but was a key component in gunpowder came up.  It was simple to treat the sodium chloride with potassium nitrate and create saltpeter.  “This was used in the military branches and in prisons for hundreds of years to keep the men calm,” Chapel explained as she injected a large dose into the Vulcan’s arm.
	Spock had an immediate reaction and it was such a relief he nearly smiled.  Christine smirked, “I’ll take that as a thank you.   I don’t know how long it’ll last or how much to keep giving you so I’m going to give you the authorization to adjust the dosage and treat yourself.  I’m sure that will be less problematic than coming to me or McCoy every time.  I can also have it included as a supplement in your diet.”
	Spock nodded, felt he should say something more, “Dr. Chapel, Christine, I wish you to understand it is not that you are not desirable, but I believe that both of us seek something so fragile and precious that anything less would destroy it.  That is why I could not conceive of asking you to help in the more traditional manner that Jim suggested.”
	“The Captain knew about this?” Christine asked a little startled.  
	“He was the one who suggested the pornography,” Spock revealed.  
	“Oh, well, yeah,” she smiled at his version of a logical suggestion.  Beginning to put the various pieces of equipment they’d used in their experiments into the autoclave to be sanitized Chapel said a little wistfully, “Truthfully Mr. Spock I think you picked the right choice. Not that I wouldn’t have done what needed to be done, but it means something to me too.” 	

FIN