Interlude (Kirk/McCoy PG)
Title: Interlude
Rating: PG
Pairing: Kirk/McCoy
Word Count: 2,152
Warnings: ST:XI spoilers, unbetaed
Summary: How could six billion lives be lost and he not even know?
+++
Examining the members of the crew who had been injured when the Enterprise dropped out of warp and then during the subsequent attack didn't keep Leonard from having his PADD set to monitor Captain Pike and the team that would be attempting to stop the Romulan drill. A team that, of course, Jim had to be a part of, but Leonard had been there when Pike had told Jim that he'd be doing the jump. Leonard knew Jim hadn't volunteered, but he also knew Jim would've if given the chance.
He was debriding the third degree burns that covered forty percent of Ensign Russell's right side from an electrical explosion when the monitor sounded an alarm, the display flashing "terminated" in red capital letters, Leonard punching at the screen with his fingers as not Jim, please not Jim ran through his mind. Jim's vitals were still displayed on the side of the screen, his heart rate and respiration elevated, but there. Leonard turned on the audio in time to hear Jim announce that he was on the platform.
Leonard went back to work in the silence resulting from Jim's unactivated comm, removing shrapnel and repairing nerve damage before finishing up with the dermal regenerator. Leonard adjusted the sedative, grabbing his PADD and listening when Jim contacted the ship about something being launched into Vulcan's core, then asking to get beamed back to the ship, and Leonard barely contained his sigh of relief, but then Jim was yelling and Sulu was falling and Jim was falling after him.
Leaving the privacy screen around Russell, eyes never leaving his PADD as he made his way to the office he'd designated as his own, hearing when the chute failed and they continued to fall as Leonard tried not to think about the acceleration of gravity and how far up the platform had been. He didn't need to do the math to know that there was no way to survive such a fall. Leonard put the PADD on his desk, sitting behind it with his head in his hands, waiting for the crunch of bone and static with the alarm that had followed Olson's death. He frowned in confusion, eyebrows drawing together, when instead he heard Spock's voice and then Jim yelling at him. Leonard looked at the screen, seeing that Jim and Sulu were back on the Enterprise.
He changed screens to check on Pike, getting a message that he was out of range. That Romulan ship must have gone to warp, and Leonard found a morbid hope that they would keep Pike alive since they hadn't killed him the moment he got on board.
There was a chime at the door and Leonard turned off the PADD while grunting, "Enter."
"Doctor." It was Nurse Chapel. Leonard liked her - she didn't seem phased by his attitude and didn't need direction on what needed to be done unlike some of the other nurses who Leonard knew were just young and inexperienced and scared but, damn it, they all were. "Lieutenant Mauer came in earlier complaining about loss of peripheral vision."
Leonard looked up, remembering the engineer who had hit the back of his head on the railing of a catwalk in the engine room when the Enterprise had hit the wreckage of another ship. There was no apparent damage other than the concussion, but since the lieutenant was old enough to have a kid of his own serving in Starfleet, Leonard had him stay in medical for observation. "Is he asking to leave?"
"His vision's gone completely."
That had Leonard on his feet, taking the tricorder from Chapel and studying the readouts. There was nothing about neurological damage or a skull fracture or edema. "Did you do a blood scan?"
Chapel shook her head. "You think it's microbial?"
"Nutritional," Leonard replied, queueing up a screen for a new scan to check blood fluids as he stepped out of the office. He saw a cluster of elderly Vulcans crowded in one corner of the room, Spock watching them from near the door, and as Leonard walked closer to where Mauer was sitting upright with an unfocused gaze, Leonard saw Jim, sitting with his back to Leonard, getting his hand wrapped by a nurse.
"Lieutenant, it's Doctor McCoy," he said softly, not wanting to startle the man when he spoke. The tricorder confirmed his suspicions. "I'm going to give you a hypo of dextrose and vitamins in saline. Your electrolyte levels are low, which was aggravated by stress and then the concussion." Leonard put a hand on Mauer's shoulder. "You get some rest, give your body time to replenish, and your vision will be back in a few hours. Now I'll be right back."
Leonard glanced up to see that Jim was gone as he crossed the room to a cabinet to put together the cocktail he needed to give to Mauer. Spock was also gone, but the other Vulcans were still there. Chapel was helping the lieutenant lie down when he returned, the nurse drawing the privacy screen around the biobed as Leonard applied the hypospray to which, as an afterthought, he'd added a mild sedative to so anxiety wouldn't keep Mauer from getting the rest he needed.
"I'm going to comm the bridge and find out what happened. Interrupt if you need me."
"Yes, sir," Chapel replied with a wry smile.
Leonard returned to the office only to stop short at the sight of Jim Kirk sitting in the chair across the desk from his own. They stared at each other silently, Leonard taking in not only the hand that he'd already seen getting wrapped but the cuts and bruises on Jim's face, especially under his left eye.
"I could…" Leonard began, but Jim interrupted him.
"I'm fine. I don't need to take up the time or the supplies when there are more serious injuries to be taken care of." Jim's gaze looked faraway, haunted.
"What the hell happened down there?"
"Vulcan's gone, Bones."
Leonard almost laughed, like this was Jim's idea of a joke, but his tone and the look on his face revealed that it was anything but. As advanced as that ship was, there was no way it could've destroyed an entire planet. Leonard swallowed heavily - Vulcan had a population of six billion. How could six billion lives be lost and he not even know? No one in medical had said anything, but Leonard thought of the Vulcan elders, standing together like they didn't know where else to go, and how Spock had been watching them but apart, hovering between his people and his crew.
"Nero somehow made a singularity in the core of the planet. Vulcan swallowed up on itself without so much as an asteroid left behind, like it hadn't even existed." Leonard sat heavily on the desk as Jim spoke, gripping the edge of it like it was keeping him from falling through to the floor. Jim rolled the chair so that Leonard's legs were between both of his, resting his hands just above Leonard's knees, rubbing small circles with his thumbs. "There were two Romulans on the platform. I've been in fights before, but never with anyone who was trying to kill me."
Grabbing Jim's wrists to feel his pulse thrumming beneath his fingertips, Leonard slid off the desk and to his knees on the floor, now a little lower than eye level with Jim instead of sitting so high above him. His breath caught in his throat at how many times he could've lost Jim just during that space jump. A leak in his helmet, a crack in the suit, opening the chute too late, getting killed by one Romulan or the other, not getting beamed up in time as he fell, or being stuck on Vulcan as it crumpled upon itself then vanished.
"Bones!" Jim said sharply, jarring him. "None of that happened."
Leonard hadn't realized he'd been listing everything that could've gone wrong out loud. There was one thing he knew for certain. "We're still alive because of you, Jim."
"Good thing you smuggled me onto the ship, isn't it?" Jim said with a smile, but it didn't reach his eyes. "This mean I don't owe you one anymore?"
Any response he might have given Leonard immediately forgot when Jim leaned forward, surprising Leonard with a rough kiss that bumped their noses and had their teeth hitting each other as they tried to push forward or pull away, fighting it and wanting it at the same time. Leonard rose higher on his knees as he felt Jim's hands in his hair, Jim laughing against his mouth as Leonard's weight pushed the chair across the floor before Jim braced his feet to stop its movements. The laughter became a moan when Leonard licked his way between Jim's lips, and while Leonard wasn't exactly sure where this sudden desire for his best friend was coming from, he wasn't exactly complaining.
The wall comm chirped, Jim pulling away with a gasp and all Leonard could focus on was Jim's flushed face and swollen lips. Leonard leaned forward a little, noticing the way Jim moved towards him in turn, but the comm sounded again, this time followed by the navigator's voice. "Doctor, the captain is requesting you and Lieutenant Kirk to come to the bridge."
Leonard watched Jim stand, activating the comm to respond with, "We'll be right up, Chekov." His eyes were still on Leonard kneeling on the floor, though, and Leonard noted how they looked less distant than they had earlier, but it had been replaced by a wariness. Leonard stood slowly, not wanting to scare Jim away even though Jim had been the one who had initiated the kiss to begin with. Jim ran a hand through his hair, shifting his weight uncomfortably. "So I guess those Psych of Space Travel courses weren't kidding."
Raising an eyebrow, Leonard was wondering if Jim was trying to pass it off as some life affirming gesture. "Jim…"
"I don't know what happened, it must be stress or the comedown from the adrenaline high or something, Bones, but I'm really sorry and we should get to the bridge before…"
"Jim!" Leonard interrupted the rambling, stepping into his friend's personal space. "Just shut up." Resting his hands on Jim's hips, Leonard kissed him again, pressing Jim against the wall and feeling Jim push back against him, but not like he was trying to shove Leonard away. Leonard tried to convey with his mouth and his body that he didn't care that it happened and certainly wouldn't mind if it kept happening. He pulled back, following through with a sudden urge to kiss the cut under Jim's eye. "Okay?"
Jim visibly relaxed, getting all of Leonard's meaning behind that one word. "Okay," he replied. He slid out from between Leonard and the wall, opening the door. "We need to get to the bridge."
"I'll be right there," Leonard replied. He waited for Jim to leave, using his fingers to brush his hair into some semblance of order.
He checked on Russell, noting that she was stable, and then Mauer, who was staying asleep naturally now that the sedative had worn off. "I've been called to the bridge," Leonard said when his path crossed Chapel's. She didn't say anything, just nodded in understanding before going back to work, and Leonard found himself hoping that, even if his promotion to CMO was temporary, that Chapel would remain part of the Enterprise's nursing staff.
And, while he was hoping, Captain Pike would be returned safely, Jim would be taken off academic suspension, and his actions in bringing Jim aboard wouldn't result in too strict a reprimand, then he and Jim…
Leonard paused at the entrance to the turbolift. Then he and Jim would what? Before they'd been hoping for a posting together. He stepped fully into the 'lift, the doors shutting, but Leonard paused, pinching the bridge of his nose, leaning against the wall, before hitting the control panel to be carried to the level he wanted.
Trust Jim to take an already complicated situation and make it even more so.
Or maybe it wasn't that complicated at all.
The door opened, Leonard catching sight of Jim giving him a cocky smirk from the captain's chair like it was where he belonged as Spock paced in front of him. "Good of you to join us, Doctor," Spock said, and Leonard thought he could hear a hint of mockery in the Vulcan's tone, but he bit his tongue. He'd just lost his planet, but Leonard doubted he would be able to restrain himself for long if Spock were to bait him again. Leonard moved to stand near Jim, the pull to his friend like gravity.
To say that he had incorrectly anticipated what would happen today was a gross understatement, and it wasn't over yet.
Rating: PG
Pairing: Kirk/McCoy
Word Count: 2,152
Warnings: ST:XI spoilers, unbetaed
Summary: How could six billion lives be lost and he not even know?
+++
Examining the members of the crew who had been injured when the Enterprise dropped out of warp and then during the subsequent attack didn't keep Leonard from having his PADD set to monitor Captain Pike and the team that would be attempting to stop the Romulan drill. A team that, of course, Jim had to be a part of, but Leonard had been there when Pike had told Jim that he'd be doing the jump. Leonard knew Jim hadn't volunteered, but he also knew Jim would've if given the chance.
He was debriding the third degree burns that covered forty percent of Ensign Russell's right side from an electrical explosion when the monitor sounded an alarm, the display flashing "terminated" in red capital letters, Leonard punching at the screen with his fingers as not Jim, please not Jim ran through his mind. Jim's vitals were still displayed on the side of the screen, his heart rate and respiration elevated, but there. Leonard turned on the audio in time to hear Jim announce that he was on the platform.
Leonard went back to work in the silence resulting from Jim's unactivated comm, removing shrapnel and repairing nerve damage before finishing up with the dermal regenerator. Leonard adjusted the sedative, grabbing his PADD and listening when Jim contacted the ship about something being launched into Vulcan's core, then asking to get beamed back to the ship, and Leonard barely contained his sigh of relief, but then Jim was yelling and Sulu was falling and Jim was falling after him.
Leaving the privacy screen around Russell, eyes never leaving his PADD as he made his way to the office he'd designated as his own, hearing when the chute failed and they continued to fall as Leonard tried not to think about the acceleration of gravity and how far up the platform had been. He didn't need to do the math to know that there was no way to survive such a fall. Leonard put the PADD on his desk, sitting behind it with his head in his hands, waiting for the crunch of bone and static with the alarm that had followed Olson's death. He frowned in confusion, eyebrows drawing together, when instead he heard Spock's voice and then Jim yelling at him. Leonard looked at the screen, seeing that Jim and Sulu were back on the Enterprise.
He changed screens to check on Pike, getting a message that he was out of range. That Romulan ship must have gone to warp, and Leonard found a morbid hope that they would keep Pike alive since they hadn't killed him the moment he got on board.
There was a chime at the door and Leonard turned off the PADD while grunting, "Enter."
"Doctor." It was Nurse Chapel. Leonard liked her - she didn't seem phased by his attitude and didn't need direction on what needed to be done unlike some of the other nurses who Leonard knew were just young and inexperienced and scared but, damn it, they all were. "Lieutenant Mauer came in earlier complaining about loss of peripheral vision."
Leonard looked up, remembering the engineer who had hit the back of his head on the railing of a catwalk in the engine room when the Enterprise had hit the wreckage of another ship. There was no apparent damage other than the concussion, but since the lieutenant was old enough to have a kid of his own serving in Starfleet, Leonard had him stay in medical for observation. "Is he asking to leave?"
"His vision's gone completely."
That had Leonard on his feet, taking the tricorder from Chapel and studying the readouts. There was nothing about neurological damage or a skull fracture or edema. "Did you do a blood scan?"
Chapel shook her head. "You think it's microbial?"
"Nutritional," Leonard replied, queueing up a screen for a new scan to check blood fluids as he stepped out of the office. He saw a cluster of elderly Vulcans crowded in one corner of the room, Spock watching them from near the door, and as Leonard walked closer to where Mauer was sitting upright with an unfocused gaze, Leonard saw Jim, sitting with his back to Leonard, getting his hand wrapped by a nurse.
"Lieutenant, it's Doctor McCoy," he said softly, not wanting to startle the man when he spoke. The tricorder confirmed his suspicions. "I'm going to give you a hypo of dextrose and vitamins in saline. Your electrolyte levels are low, which was aggravated by stress and then the concussion." Leonard put a hand on Mauer's shoulder. "You get some rest, give your body time to replenish, and your vision will be back in a few hours. Now I'll be right back."
Leonard glanced up to see that Jim was gone as he crossed the room to a cabinet to put together the cocktail he needed to give to Mauer. Spock was also gone, but the other Vulcans were still there. Chapel was helping the lieutenant lie down when he returned, the nurse drawing the privacy screen around the biobed as Leonard applied the hypospray to which, as an afterthought, he'd added a mild sedative to so anxiety wouldn't keep Mauer from getting the rest he needed.
"I'm going to comm the bridge and find out what happened. Interrupt if you need me."
"Yes, sir," Chapel replied with a wry smile.
Leonard returned to the office only to stop short at the sight of Jim Kirk sitting in the chair across the desk from his own. They stared at each other silently, Leonard taking in not only the hand that he'd already seen getting wrapped but the cuts and bruises on Jim's face, especially under his left eye.
"I could…" Leonard began, but Jim interrupted him.
"I'm fine. I don't need to take up the time or the supplies when there are more serious injuries to be taken care of." Jim's gaze looked faraway, haunted.
"What the hell happened down there?"
"Vulcan's gone, Bones."
Leonard almost laughed, like this was Jim's idea of a joke, but his tone and the look on his face revealed that it was anything but. As advanced as that ship was, there was no way it could've destroyed an entire planet. Leonard swallowed heavily - Vulcan had a population of six billion. How could six billion lives be lost and he not even know? No one in medical had said anything, but Leonard thought of the Vulcan elders, standing together like they didn't know where else to go, and how Spock had been watching them but apart, hovering between his people and his crew.
"Nero somehow made a singularity in the core of the planet. Vulcan swallowed up on itself without so much as an asteroid left behind, like it hadn't even existed." Leonard sat heavily on the desk as Jim spoke, gripping the edge of it like it was keeping him from falling through to the floor. Jim rolled the chair so that Leonard's legs were between both of his, resting his hands just above Leonard's knees, rubbing small circles with his thumbs. "There were two Romulans on the platform. I've been in fights before, but never with anyone who was trying to kill me."
Grabbing Jim's wrists to feel his pulse thrumming beneath his fingertips, Leonard slid off the desk and to his knees on the floor, now a little lower than eye level with Jim instead of sitting so high above him. His breath caught in his throat at how many times he could've lost Jim just during that space jump. A leak in his helmet, a crack in the suit, opening the chute too late, getting killed by one Romulan or the other, not getting beamed up in time as he fell, or being stuck on Vulcan as it crumpled upon itself then vanished.
"Bones!" Jim said sharply, jarring him. "None of that happened."
Leonard hadn't realized he'd been listing everything that could've gone wrong out loud. There was one thing he knew for certain. "We're still alive because of you, Jim."
"Good thing you smuggled me onto the ship, isn't it?" Jim said with a smile, but it didn't reach his eyes. "This mean I don't owe you one anymore?"
Any response he might have given Leonard immediately forgot when Jim leaned forward, surprising Leonard with a rough kiss that bumped their noses and had their teeth hitting each other as they tried to push forward or pull away, fighting it and wanting it at the same time. Leonard rose higher on his knees as he felt Jim's hands in his hair, Jim laughing against his mouth as Leonard's weight pushed the chair across the floor before Jim braced his feet to stop its movements. The laughter became a moan when Leonard licked his way between Jim's lips, and while Leonard wasn't exactly sure where this sudden desire for his best friend was coming from, he wasn't exactly complaining.
The wall comm chirped, Jim pulling away with a gasp and all Leonard could focus on was Jim's flushed face and swollen lips. Leonard leaned forward a little, noticing the way Jim moved towards him in turn, but the comm sounded again, this time followed by the navigator's voice. "Doctor, the captain is requesting you and Lieutenant Kirk to come to the bridge."
Leonard watched Jim stand, activating the comm to respond with, "We'll be right up, Chekov." His eyes were still on Leonard kneeling on the floor, though, and Leonard noted how they looked less distant than they had earlier, but it had been replaced by a wariness. Leonard stood slowly, not wanting to scare Jim away even though Jim had been the one who had initiated the kiss to begin with. Jim ran a hand through his hair, shifting his weight uncomfortably. "So I guess those Psych of Space Travel courses weren't kidding."
Raising an eyebrow, Leonard was wondering if Jim was trying to pass it off as some life affirming gesture. "Jim…"
"I don't know what happened, it must be stress or the comedown from the adrenaline high or something, Bones, but I'm really sorry and we should get to the bridge before…"
"Jim!" Leonard interrupted the rambling, stepping into his friend's personal space. "Just shut up." Resting his hands on Jim's hips, Leonard kissed him again, pressing Jim against the wall and feeling Jim push back against him, but not like he was trying to shove Leonard away. Leonard tried to convey with his mouth and his body that he didn't care that it happened and certainly wouldn't mind if it kept happening. He pulled back, following through with a sudden urge to kiss the cut under Jim's eye. "Okay?"
Jim visibly relaxed, getting all of Leonard's meaning behind that one word. "Okay," he replied. He slid out from between Leonard and the wall, opening the door. "We need to get to the bridge."
"I'll be right there," Leonard replied. He waited for Jim to leave, using his fingers to brush his hair into some semblance of order.
He checked on Russell, noting that she was stable, and then Mauer, who was staying asleep naturally now that the sedative had worn off. "I've been called to the bridge," Leonard said when his path crossed Chapel's. She didn't say anything, just nodded in understanding before going back to work, and Leonard found himself hoping that, even if his promotion to CMO was temporary, that Chapel would remain part of the Enterprise's nursing staff.
And, while he was hoping, Captain Pike would be returned safely, Jim would be taken off academic suspension, and his actions in bringing Jim aboard wouldn't result in too strict a reprimand, then he and Jim…
Leonard paused at the entrance to the turbolift. Then he and Jim would what? Before they'd been hoping for a posting together. He stepped fully into the 'lift, the doors shutting, but Leonard paused, pinching the bridge of his nose, leaning against the wall, before hitting the control panel to be carried to the level he wanted.
Trust Jim to take an already complicated situation and make it even more so.
Or maybe it wasn't that complicated at all.
The door opened, Leonard catching sight of Jim giving him a cocky smirk from the captain's chair like it was where he belonged as Spock paced in front of him. "Good of you to join us, Doctor," Spock said, and Leonard thought he could hear a hint of mockery in the Vulcan's tone, but he bit his tongue. He'd just lost his planet, but Leonard doubted he would be able to restrain himself for long if Spock were to bait him again. Leonard moved to stand near Jim, the pull to his friend like gravity.
To say that he had incorrectly anticipated what would happen today was a gross understatement, and it wasn't over yet.