Star Trek XI Multi-Chapter Fic: Been through the Desert [Part 1/?]
Been through the Desert [Part 1/?]
Characters: Leonard McCoy, Christopher Pike
Pairing: Pike/McCoy
Summary: Christopher Pike is a Captain without a ship and stuck earth bound. He picks up a stranger in the middle of the desert.
Rating: E for Everyone for this installment
Warnings: None
Spoilers: TOS The Cage, Star Trek XI
Disclaimer: Paramount owns them, I'm only using them for my own kinky amusement.
AN: Unbeta'd so all mistakes are my own.
PART 1 PART 2
Been through the Desert [Part 1/?]
It had been four months since Captain Christopher Pike had been grounded. Four long, long, months. The Talosian incident had been a difficult mission to say the least and while he’d gotten away with crew and ship intact it had still ended with him stuck earth side pacing concrete and academy halls instead of ship corridors.
Chris snorted to himself as he stood looking out the window of his apartment toward San Francisco bay and remembered the briefing. Admiral Barnett had commended his ‘quick and cool use of action’ but it ultimately came down to the fact that having a Captain on a star ship that’d recently been a prisoner of an unknown, highly advanced alien race with powerful and all encompassing telepathic abilities made them a bit nervous. “Extended R and R leave” is what they were calling it. Crew and ship were intact, but they just weren’t sure about the captain. In a bar far from fleet headquarters after the meeting he had sat talking to the bar tender explaining how even when he’d done everything right, passed the right medical evaluations and the debriefing it had still ended with four months of desks and administrative Padds. What was a captain without a ship and the stars? The bar tender replied with a new bottle and a clean glass.
Four months later after many nights in that same bar lost in the latter half of what ever cheap whiskey was waiting for him, Chris found himself standing here looking at the Gate bridge with the newest Padd in his hand and an order to report to the Iowa Ship Yard. The relief that flooded through him was quickly stamped down when he read further. It wasn’t a new assignment, not a real one anyways. He was to pilot a shuttle of new recruits, but it was better than the months of safety reports he’d gone comatose over so he jumped at the chance.
However, the report date was still two weeks off. Two weeks that felt oddly longer than the four months behind him. He had time to kill. Tired of seeing the inside of his quarters instead of the stars he did the only logical thing. Captain Christopher Pike hopped in his car and decided to hit the road and drive to the yard instead of waiting for the next transport shuttle. It’s a two day straight drive, but he’d do his best and spread it out into at least a week. It would be its own type of adventure, but even that excitement didn’t last once he hit the desert.
Deserts were a funny thing the exact opposite of space in their brightness yet not at the same time; its vastness seemed just as endless. He was born just on the edge of this same desert but he left the minute he was old enough and it offered none of the nostalgia he’d expected. It was dead rocks and sand with mountains that taunted him in the distance. The glare even through the tinted windshield was relentless. A stark contrast to the dark abyss he missed so much.
Hours passed slowly as he drove. At some point, something appeared on the horizon that was definitely new and not part of the taunting mountains. It would disappear for some minutes only to appear again. When it was visible the speck was distorted by the heat rising from the ground though and he truly thought his eyes were playing tricks on him. Blinking a few times and taking a drink, thinking it was just a combination of glare and dehydration, the waving dark speck was still there. Eventually, as he got closer, it stayed in sight. Then for the longest time, Christopher was sure it was a sign post or some rock formation, but the closer he got he became aware that it was moving. It took almost an hour for him to overtake it, and when he did the wavering speck solidified into the form of a man.
He slowed down some before nearing him completely. The wanderer was stripped of a shirt which he’d tied around his slim waist and in a sweat stained undershirt which may have been white at some point but was now covered in dust and sweat. As he pulled up beside him, Christopher could see a beard with at least a few days growth on it.
“Looks like you need a ride.”
“Need one, but don’t wan’one.” The stranger replied in a southern accent and kept walking. This man was far from home.
Pike kept on driving slowly beside the haggard man slightly concerned that it might not be the smartest move as the man might be, probably was, crazy. He’d have to be wandering this wasteland. He’d only been driving for six hours and even Christopher felt a little crazy. Continuing beside the stranger trying to figure out how to get him out of the blazing sun he noticed the shirt tied around him: there was a barely discernible red cross emblazoned on the back. He wasn’t going to leave the stranger out here in the middle of the desert now. Not a doctor.
“It’s a long walk to get to anywhere around here doctor.”
“I ain’t a doctor, and I got weeks. Go away.” Still not even a glance or pause.
Pike was never good at taking orders even when he was still an ensign. He kept following until he watched the man stumble slightly, and that was his cue.
“Get in the car.”
The stranger finally stopped and dropped his bag to his feet and Chris stopped completely in response.
“What do ya’want?”
“For you to get in the car, you’ll cook out here.”
“And what if I want to?”
Chris didn’t have a response to the truth that seemed to reside in those words, so he tried a different tactic.
“Then I’ll just follow you until you pass out and then drag your ass into the car and out of the heat.”
With a grumble to himself the stranger picked up his ruck sack and opened the door tossing it in before him.
Pike held out bottle of water the as the man slid into the car, and though he glare at it, and Chris momentarily, he took it greedily but was careful to drink it slowly. Definitely a doctor the captain thought to himself.
“Christopher Pike.”
“Leonard McCoy.”
“Heading anywhere particular Doctor McCoy?”
“I told you, I ain’t a doctor.”
“Leonard then?” The stranger replied with a gesture as if to say, ‘what ever suits you’. “Where are you headed.”
A hip flask appeared from within the sack and the man took a swig. Pike thought he may have made a serious mistake in picking the man up, but there was obviously a story here, one that made this man seem like he needed any help he could get.
“Riverside ship yard.” He said with a hint of disdain.
“Problem with Star Fleet?”
“Problem with space.”
“Then why…”
“Got no where else to go.” Leonard said flatly effectually stopping any more questions.
***
End of Part 1
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