The fact that Spock diverted his current assignment and left everyone else waiting out in the open at the transporter spot while he went back for Uhura just goes to show that where his friends are concerned, the needs of the few really do outweigh the needs of the many.
Sometimes I go in intending to just add a quick meta thought in the tags and then I get a little out of control and write a whole headcanon lol:
fUCK now i’m just imagining her casually hitting him with more and more suggestive conversation until finally she feels bad and is like okAY OKAY I’M FUCKING WITH YOU I KNOW YOU’RE GAY FOR THE CAPTAIN, GEEZ…. PS PLZ HELP ME FIGURE OUT WHAT CHAPEL LIKES I’M DYING OVER HERE….
And he’s like…. “Nurse… Chapel???“
Uhura: "Sigh, YESSSS don’t laugh, she’s so perfect i might die but i don’t know how to tALK TO HERRRR….
meanwhile Christine has been hopelessly trying to find ice breakers with Spock for MONTHS so he knows every hobby and interest the woman has from countless attempts on her part to get him to talk to her…
I’d like to submit for your consideration a weird headcanon about “Journey to Babel”: Bones knows. He knows ahead of time that the ambassador and his wife are Spock’s parents–because Spock comes to him in a panic about it before they pick up the Vulcan delegation.
This wouldn’t be even close to the only time Spock came to Bones with something he felt he couldn’t tell Kirk about, whether it’s about Kirk or not. We have so many Spock/Bones “I need your advice” “…Then I need a drink” moments throughout TOS. Bones’s control over physical and psychiatric care sometimes bleeds into giving personal advice–albeit more often for Kirk, but still.
Anyway, there’s no reason you have to agree with me, but I think Bones knows ahead of time and that he knows how important and stressful the first meeting in the shuttle bay is for Spock. That’s why he’s standing so close to him. That’s why he’s borderline joking with Spock and trying to do the Vulcan salute and clearly a little nervous and babbly when Sarek’s getting off the shuttle–this guy who literally 20 seconds ago was saying he doesn’t give a shit about pomp and circumstance and all these diplomats can go fuck themselves. And that’s why he looks like this when Spock salutes Sarek:
I don’t know, I read a kind of expectation and/or challenge there. And then when Sarek brushes him off–and when Spock reveals that they’re his parents, and Sarek doesn’t say anything? Kirk looks thrown for a loop. But we’ve seen surprised Bones before, and this doesn’t look like that to me. This looks like angry Bones:
And maybe Bones has a feeling or two about parents who aren’t there for their children.
So–all those conversations throughout the rest of the episode, e.g. when Bones is trying to get Amanda to tell embarrassing stories about Spock’s childhood? I think he’s working an elaborate Parent Trap. He’s reminding Spock, Amanda, and Sarek of the good times they’ve had and how much they can do for each other. He’s trying to do sneak-attack group therapy on the entire family in the middle of a medico-diplomatic crisis. And his face at the end–his “I finally got the last word” face?
It’s ‘cause he fucking nailed it.
And maybe Spock knew what Bones was doing the whole time, and maybe this is why he trusted him with his katra the next time something this important came up.
