[ST] When the World is Over (We'll Just Be Beginning)
Title: When the World is Over (We'll Just Be Beginning)
Author: castofone @ rushedwords
Fandom: Star Trek XI
Pairing/Characters: Kirk/McCoy, other ensemble characters as they happen
Word count: ~4700
Rating: PG-13
Summary: A shipment from Starbase 87 not only ruins date night, but changes the world as Jim and Bones know it.
Notes: For jim_and_bones Vampire Weekend Challenge. Shamelessly inspired by a Community episode. Now with a fun award banner by emiliglia. Roddenberry created it, I play in it because fair use is awesome.
He really shouldn't be surprised.
After four years on board Enterprise, Leonard McCoy knew how quickly things could go from normal to disaster. It had to be an unwritten law of the universe.
Still, there was a disaster, then there was this. And this was just so ridiculous, McCoy still couldn't believe it was happening to him.
God damn vampires.
And damn Starbase 87 while he was at it - meddling with things that weren't meant to be meddled in. This was exactly the sort of shit that happened when idiot scientists tried to make people better.
McCoy could feel his pulse racing through his body, too loud as he locked eyes with Jim.
"There is no way I'm leaving you here to be eaten."
Jim heart thumped too loudly along with his, calling the hungry crewman outside the door to them. He could hear them working to lever the door open. It wouldn't be long now.
"This isn't a discussion." McCoy pulled a cartridge out and loaded the vial that could stop and hopefully save the hundred some infected crew members running around the ship right now. "Only one of us is going to make it out of here and it has to be you."
McCoy pressed the cartridge into Jim's hands.
"But Bones." His voice sounded so broken and the only thing McCoy could do was lean forward and press a kiss to Jim's lips.
"I know, Jim, but there's no other way."
What he saw when he looked Jim in the eye nearly broke his heart just then. It was betrayal plain and simple. Everyone he loved left him, and now Bones was going to be counted among those.
Behind him he heard the door squeak open. "Jim, you have to go."
Swallowing hard, Jim leaned forward for one last kiss. The kiss was jumbled as McCoy pushed him back through the Jeffries Tube.
"Bones, I love you." It sounded like a goodbye and while McCoy didn't want to think of it that way, it very well could have been.
"Then don't let me die." He squeezed Jim's hand before letting Jim crawl down through the tube. If anyone could save them, it was going to be Jim Kirk. This was exactly the sort of miracle he could pull off.
As much as he wanted to lament his impending mortality, McCoy needed to replace the panel. He needed to buy Jim as much time as he could, he knew his time was up.
"Oh Doctor McCoy." He swallowed as the too cheery singsong voice of Nyota as she entered into the room. "You have been running a long time, and it's not nice for a doctor to avoid his patients for so long."
Nyota was already a good looking woman to begin with, but standing there, her teeth shiny bright and dangerously against her complexion in the flickering lights she was gorgeous.
At least if he was going to go, it would be at the hands of a beautiful woman with the knowledge that Jim still might make it out alive.
###
Two hours earlier...
Jim didn't stop by his quarters to change, didn't pause in the corridors to chat with the crew. After his shift Jim went directly to Bones's quarters. Tonight was date night and he simply couldn't be late. No, he was going to be early because after two weeks with Bones on Gamma, he wanted as much time with the other man as he could steal before they were both officially back on shift in thirty six hours.
Not that they were ever really off shift. It came with the titles that the job of a captain or a chef medical office was twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. They always had to be available to the crew if something came up.
All that meant was that they needed to schedule times, date nights as they were, where they could try to be Jim and Bones first everything else only in case of an emergency.
Jim entered silently into the CMO's quarters. While Jim's quarters were the more likely place to find them on any given day, it wasn't unheard of for them to be here too. Especially when Jim knew that Bones was probably still asleep.
He removed his shoes, placing them on the mat by the door and crossed the room to the sleeping area. Seeing Bones sprawled across the bed, lost in sleep, he couldn't help but pause to admire the view because it was something.
Quiet as he had been, his presence wasn't unnoticed by Bones who shifted in the bed. "Don't just stand there staring." Bones often claimed that he just knew when Jim was watching him - like a puppy whining for attention, he called it.
"I do have better plans in mind," said Jim. He took off his shirt throwing it in the general area of the laundry shoot along with his pants before joining Bones in bed.
Almost instantly he felt the man next to him relax as their bodies moved to find the way they fit just right.
Neither of them would admit it, but not being able to have this closeness and intimacy the past two weeks had taken it's toll. And really Jim could have happily laid here for the next twelves hours, except that he had better things in mind.
Once fully settled, the two men shared lazy kisses and caresses saying hellos, I've missed you and a handful of other things that words couldn't quite capture. Slowly, Jim raised the intensity in their motions, always needing more and Bones gave him everything.
This was how they worked, limbs tangled in sheets, exchanging stories in their movements and never having to vocalize it.
They were just about to hit their rubicon when the wall comm. unit chirped and Jim paused to hear who it was. Maybe it was just a personal call, that he could convince Bones to not worry about.
"Medical to McCoy"
With a dramatic sigh, Jim rolled over back onto his side of the bed to allow Bones to take the call. Disappointed as he was, he was just a little pleased to see that Bones was equally annoyed with the call.
He reached over to activate the audio channel. "McCoy here and this better be good, I'm just coming off an 18 hour shift."
The medical tech on the line swallowed audibly. "My apologies, sir. However, over the past half hour we've had a dozen instances of what appears to food poisoning. Only that it is isn't responding to normal treatment."
Bones scrubbed his face. He wasn’t quite awake enough to deal with something that didn't immediately feel like life or death. Surely, Geoff could handle food poisoning and if this was some kind of joke, his staff was never going to hear the end of it. But they knew better. "Send me what information you have and I'll get back to you."
"Transmitting data now, sir."
Jim handed Bones his PADD, hoping that whatever was happening in medical could be solved quickly. However, watching Bones read over the files, he knew that it wouldn't be quick.
"Date night is cancelled, isn't it?"
Bones was already out of bed, pulling on his uniform. "Postponed for now." He reached over to kiss Jim. "I'll be back as soon as I can."
Jim sighed, collapsing back into the bed. This was not how tonight was supposed to go. He had needs! And better yet, he knew that Bones had needs to! He lay there for a minute longer before deciding that if he was going to have sex tonight, he better get dressed and help figure out what was happening.
###
Walking through the corridors something felt different. It was just a feeling in the pit of stomach that McCoy couldn't quite name, didn't really have the time to consider. Right now he needed to focus on the inconclusive data that had to be machine malfunctioning so he could get back to his plans with Jim.
That feeling in his gut only got worse when he walked into sickbay to see a dozen crew members occupying his beds looking a bit too pale and malnourished.
At least he knew that it wasn't some ill-informed prank.
"M'Benga report!" McCoy was sure any of the other people mulling around could tell him what's happening, because he ran a good department. However, Geoff was the attending on duty right now and he wanted to hear from him, especially when the man didn't have the nerve to call him down here himself.
"Leonard! Just give me a second to finish up here, Keller lost a lot of blood." Geoff took a moment longer to assure that the blood transfusion was taking before walking over to McCoy. "I apologize for calling you down here, I'm just not sure what we have on our hands and was hoping you might know more than I do."
McCoy followed Geoff over to bed four where Nurse Janet Hadley was making note of patient read outs on the monitor. Rather than make sense of the monitor, McCoy immediately looked at Specialist Smith, hunched over the bed looking like he was about to be sick at any moment.
"Alright, Smith, what the hell did you eat?"
At that moment Smith leaned forward and dry heaved. Hadley attempted to get Smith to lay back down.
"That's just it, sit, Smith was on his way to the mess when he started presenting the symptoms." After a bit of work, Smith laid back on the biobed. "I ran a full work up on him and the only thing that looked out of sorts was this." The nurse indicated a pink bite mark that had torn right through his flesh.
"Is that from human teeth?"
"I believe so."
On the bed, Smith groaned and lolled his head, nostrils flaring and inching closer to Hadley's wrist. It happened so quickly McCoy wasn't even sure what had happened.
The next moment, Smith had clamped down on Hadley's wrist and her screams were tearing through sickbay. McCoy didn't even have to think about it. He just reached for a sedative from his emergency stash and jabbed it into the fleshiest part of the Smith he could get reach. Jim had called him paranoid for keeping sedatives hidden around the ship, he only ever saw it as prepared.
McCoy might have lived on a space ship, but this was something straight out of some bad science fiction novel.
Still, he wasn't going to say it. He was a scientist and he needed the facts.
"I want samples from all the patients brought in since this started." He was already in motion with Geoff at his side. "I need to figure out how this virus is spreading and I need you to prep everyone for quarantine. I can't have this spread. Is that understood?"
Date night was definitely cancelled now.
###
With the samples he needed, McCoy grabbed Nurse Epsen and headed down to the infectious disease lab. He wasn't taking any more risks with this.
Once he had set up the stations, following all of the correct protocols, he called the bridge to check in with Spock who was overseeing delta.
"Thank you for the update, Doctor McCoy. I will review our food shipment from Starbase 87 and get in contact with the Commodore to find out if any information has been withheld from us. Please keep me updated on your progress with the virus."
The virus was like nothing he had seen before. The only thing he could really be certain of was that while it had been engineered by humans, there was an strange organic part to it that was a bit too alien for his liking. It was smart too, mutating based on it's environs and McCoy knew right away they were lucky that so far only human members of the crew had been infected - who knew what it would do with a different immune system. For all he knew this was the tame reaction.
Not that he considered crew acting like god damn vampires tame.
Working as hard as they were, the pair lost track of time. Only pausing in their work when the power went out and the emergency lights kicked on. That was never a good sign.
"Epsen, see if you can contact the bridge." He didn't look up as he was in the middle of loading the next trial of the antidote. It was oddly poetic, here he was taking a shot in the dark at a way to neutralize this damn thing literally in the dark. "Find out what's happening."
"Comms appear to be down."
"Well, isn't that great."
He could have bitched about it for a few more minutes, but they were up against the clock. If the virus could adapt based on environment, it was bound to be able to mutate and mess havoc with a host and he would be okay not seeing the final phases of this virus take hold.
The door to the lab opened and McCoy immediately barked at the breach of protocol.
"No time for that, Bones. We gotta get out of here."
Jim's tone more than his words that forced him to pause. It was relief mixed in with a little bit of panic. Epsen might not have been able to hear the nuance, but McCoy heard it loud and clear.
"Jim, I need two minutes to alter this and I should have a working antidote."
"Bones, you really don't get it." Jim stayed by the door, looking ready to bolt at any second. "Spock is sealing off this section of the ship to contain the threat and if you do have a cure then we need you on the other side to disperse it."
Wisely, Epsen didn't say anything, she just kept doing as she had been instructed previously.
It was then McCoy looked up at Jim and really saw how bad things must be. He sighed, taking the long exhale to bite back any mean comment he had to say something productive. "Doesn't change the fact that I need two minutes if we want this to work."
"Fine." Jim crossed his arms over his chest. "Two minutes, starting twenty seconds ago."
If he hadn't heard from medical bay in over an hour, that probably meant that most of his staff was infected or incapacitated. Neither were particularly good scenarios that he wanted to consider.
Jim waited staring at them while they package the serum. "I have a cure, but not a delivery system."
"We'll figure it out as we go." Jim was trying to be confident. Epsen bought it, but Bones still had his reservations. However, if it was going to put his faith into someone Jim was the best bet.
"Alright, I'm ready to go."
Jim nodded. "Before we go, you wouldn't happen to have any of those secret sedatives hanging around?"
That made McCoy pause because there was no reality in which Jim would be looking for a hypospray. He must have been a bit too loud if the glare he earned from Jim was any indication.
"When we were checking for uninfected crew in medical, the two that made it out had used a low dose sedative to slow down their heart rate. Apparently, a fast pulse is like screaming hey vampires come eat me, I'm a tasty meal."
It took McCoy a minute to realize Jim had said anything else after the fact that only two of his staff had made it out of medical. What the hell had happened in the past hour? He shook his head, there would be time for questions later. If things really were this bad, the sector needed to be locked down as soon as possible.
"Yeah, I have a batch in the lab, let me grab them and we can be on our way."
###
If vampires running around Enterprise wasn't a sign of the forthcoming apocalypse, watching Jim dose himself with a low grade sedative certainly had to be.
The only explanation that made sense was that McCoy was still sleeping. This could easily be the product two weeks worth of exhaustion.
Except for the part where the part of his brain working overtime wouldn't let him live in that delusion.
Epsen and McCoy followed Jim to a meeting room just clear of the section of deck that was being sealed off. He entered in the Captain's override code and ushered them quickly into the room.
Already in the room were a handful of other junior crewmen along with Uhura who was busy playing with the wires on the comm. unit, looking as exhausted as he felt.
"Alright, we should be safe in here for a while," said Jim. "No luck on the comm?"
"Still down, Captain."
Jim nodded. "Let's keep working on it, I need to know what the status is."
McCoy looked over at Jim trying to piece together the full picture without Jim having to spell it out. Not that he would given the newer crew members in the room. If Jim didn't know what was happening on the bridge, it was likely the bridge had sealed itself off. Maybe Spock had even made contact with Starbase 87 and knew more about what was happening.
Of course that was all speculation. The only thing he could be sure of was that hey were all out of their depth on this one.
But they were the Enterprise crew - the finest crew in Starfleet and none of them had given up hope. The younger crew members were tinkering with devices, some had taken apart a tricorder, anything to be productive.
With that in mind, McCoy pulled up a seat next to Epsen and called up ship schematics along with some of the more recent reports from medical on the disease on his PADD trying to figure out the missing delivery system.
Across the room, Jim and Uhura were working some engineering magic on the comm. system.
The whole place was filled with desperate attempts at initiative and McCoy couldn't help but feel like he was floating through some dream. It was almost easier for his mind to cope with it that way.
"Good news, everyone." Jim pushed himself to his feet and came back over to the group. "Starbase 87 is sending a medical team prepped to assist and neutralize the virus. They should rendezvous with us in five hours."
For a moment everyone was relieved. However, all that came crashing down as McCoy slammed his hand into the table. "Damn it, Jim. Those people don't have five hours. The virus progresses much too quickly, slowing down the heart and in some unexplainable way causing the body to metabolize blood as energy. And that's not even accounting for the people who get drained before the virus can take hold."
The collective gasp in the room was probably a sign that what he had just yelled at Jim had been need to know information. Not that he gave a damn. However, Jim was the perfect facade of calm. "What are you suggesting, Doctor McCoy?"
It was amazing everything could be said in a name and the way that Jim said his, he knew that he needed to pause and collect himself before answering that question. While Jim was willing to bend the rules, he did need to maintain respect in the eyes of his crew and that meant that sometimes the CMO needed to yield to the Captain regardless of whatever else they were to each other.
"We have to do something. I have an antidote that should work or at least buy us more time. It just needs to be released into the air system." No, it wasn't the perfect delivery system and he wasn't even sure if it would work, but it was the best he could think of. Unfortunately, access to the air system was four decks down and he doubted the turbolifts were running.
One of the specialists who had been playing with the tricorder chose that moment to speak up. "With all due respect, sirs, those aren't our crewmates anymore, they are vampires. They can make us sick by biting us."
"It's true!" Added Epsen too helpfully. After McCoy, she was probably the most familiar with the nature of the virus. "Incubation only takes minutes, first you get a stomach ache, followed by dry heaves, a paling of the skin, chills, with sensitivity to light before..."
As she spoke, McCoy took the moment to look at her. To really look at her - and why hadn't he seen it before. "Katherine?" He said her name carefully. "You're infected, aren't you?"
She slumped in her chair, nodding weakly. The symptoms clearly starting to present themselves. Epsen held up a hand with a small scratch on it. She had been infected in the lab and McCoy wanted to rattle her for being so dense, not that it would do any good.
"I even dosed myself with one of the trials, I thought I'd be okay. I thought I was special, I mean the virus mutates based on biology and..."
From across the room came the sweet, but somewhat manic laughter of Uhura. "Special?" She pushed herself onto her feet, looking a lot more menacing than she did on any given day. "I hate to break it to you, but you're not special. You're just like a little snack before the main course."
This was new. Reaching for the tricorder on his belt he took a reading. What he saw didn't make sense. She came up positive for the virus, but wasn't presenting any of the expected symptoms. "What...what are you?" Had the virus already mutated beyond what he found the antidote for.
"I'm the future, Leonard." She was deliberate in all of her motions, possessing a grace that no human should have "The sooner you learn that, the better things are going to be for you."
McCoy found himself staring at her, unable to move like he was enchanted by her presence alone.
"Change of plans, Bones, we're getting out of here." Jim grabbed Bones by the arm and made a move to dart out of the room.
"Oh yes, please run, you'll taste so much better then!" She called after them. Once they were out of earshot, she turned to look at the ones left behind. "And you're going to help me."
###
They were out of sedatives, which meant they were on their own now. In the shadows around them, McCoy pictured vampires like in the holovids ready to pounce. And suddenly the steady beat of Jim's heart next to him wasn't much of a reassurance.
"C'mon there's an access point just around the corner."
Jim tugged McCoy along, hoping that whatever daze the older man was in wouldn't last long. If they were going to make it out of this, they both needed to have clear heads. Hearts going a mile a minute, they made it safely into the room with access to the Jeffries Tubes that could take them down to engineering. Only there was one minor problem.
"Shit. Bones, the door doesn't lock from the this side."
Things just kept going from bad to worse. Taking a breath in, Bones pulled out a cartridge and prepped the vial for delivery. "Alright, here's what we're going to do. You're going to crawl through the Jeffries tubes and make sure the package gets delivered. All you need to do is insert it into the air control system."
Jim had pulled the panel from the wall and froze staring at McCoy, his brain just catching up to what McCoy said. "What?"
"You get to be the big damn hero."
"No way. You're the doctor. This is your cure, you're more important than me."
"Jim, so far the virus has only hit normal human immune systems. It can adapt." He paused thinking of Nyota. It already was adapting. "Your immune system is anything but normal, I can't risk..." He shook his head, that argument wasn't going to win this one, "Look, for all I know the virus could hit your system and become a super virus. That's why it has to be you."
###
Jim tried not to think of what Bones's screams sounded like. He tried not to think about how quickly things had gone from bad to worse. Instead he just focused on counting lines to make sure he was headed in the right direction.
Eventually he reached the right engineering compartment and pulled open that hatch. A quick scan and the compartment appeared to be empty, but he knew that didn't mean a thing. Engineering was full of perfect hiding places.
Only he couldn't think about that. Thinking about that made him more anxious and that caused his pulse to go up and he needed to keep that as low as possible. Never an easy task when most time he relied on adrenaline to get him through.
He dropped carefully onto the catwalk and started down to the air control system.
"Bones!" He cried out seeing the back of the other man before he could think better of it. "You're okay!"
Only he knew that wasn't right. He heard Bones screaming. Swallowing, Bones turned around, a slow smirk falling across his face. He had a look about him - one that Jim didn't see outside of their bedroom and even then only under certain circumstances. It sure as hell didn't belong here.
Bones closed the distance between them, pressing his front to Jim's back, nose trailing up Jim's neck. "God Jim, you smell so good." His breath was heavy on Jim's flesh. "Do you even know what we could be? We could be unstoppable, Jim. You and me, forever. What do you say, kid?"
He pressed his hardening erection up against Jim, hands wrapping around him. "And you would taste so lovely going down."
Jim couldn't think right. His heart was thumping in his chest, every fiber of his being screaming 'yes, I'll take whatever you can give me.'
"Bones," his voice cracked betraying him, "you don't want to do this."
"I don't? Because I'm pretty sure I do, and I'm pretty sure you want me to." He ran his teeth over Jim's neck, not breaking the skin, but mapping his territory. "Don't you, Jim?"
He swallowed hard and tried to slip away from Bones, which was near impossible. "This isn't you, it's the virus. And it's killing you. Think about it, you're a doctor, you know this isn't right."
Whether it was the pleading in his voice or something else, Bones did pause weighing those words against some hazy set of morals in his head. "Jim," he said in a pained exhale. "I can't help myself, I can't even...I just want--"
"Don't!" Jim screamed, the panic jarring the doctor. "I can save you. Make it stop, you just have to let me."
Jim might not have been able to escape, but led them in a dance toward the system. The hesitation was just enough for him to inject the serum into the system. Just as he did, Bones bit into his neck.
The pain was exquisite, like a rush to the head as Bones drained him. He could want for nothing more. The world he knew went fuzzy around the edges, the ideas of right and wrong no longer so important. Not that they ever were.
Once he had took his fill, Bones pressed a kiss to the spot and waited. He could hear Jim's heart slowing down even as the antidote was being pushed out through the system.
It didn't matter. They would be together.
After what was too long, Jim looked up at Bones, wild look in his eyes.
"I told you not to do that."
"And what are you going to do about it?" At that Jim grinned real big. He didn't need to answer. McCoy could see the answer clear in his head and he couldn't say he was opposed either. "Well, what are you waiting for?"
"You're going to regret that."
"Somehow, I doubt that."
Author: castofone @ rushedwords
Fandom: Star Trek XI
Pairing/Characters: Kirk/McCoy, other ensemble characters as they happen
Word count: ~4700
Rating: PG-13
Summary: A shipment from Starbase 87 not only ruins date night, but changes the world as Jim and Bones know it.
Notes: For jim_and_bones Vampire Weekend Challenge. Shamelessly inspired by a Community episode. Now with a fun award banner by emiliglia. Roddenberry created it, I play in it because fair use is awesome.
He really shouldn't be surprised.
After four years on board Enterprise, Leonard McCoy knew how quickly things could go from normal to disaster. It had to be an unwritten law of the universe.
Still, there was a disaster, then there was this. And this was just so ridiculous, McCoy still couldn't believe it was happening to him.
God damn vampires.
And damn Starbase 87 while he was at it - meddling with things that weren't meant to be meddled in. This was exactly the sort of shit that happened when idiot scientists tried to make people better.
McCoy could feel his pulse racing through his body, too loud as he locked eyes with Jim.
"There is no way I'm leaving you here to be eaten."
Jim heart thumped too loudly along with his, calling the hungry crewman outside the door to them. He could hear them working to lever the door open. It wouldn't be long now.
"This isn't a discussion." McCoy pulled a cartridge out and loaded the vial that could stop and hopefully save the hundred some infected crew members running around the ship right now. "Only one of us is going to make it out of here and it has to be you."
McCoy pressed the cartridge into Jim's hands.
"But Bones." His voice sounded so broken and the only thing McCoy could do was lean forward and press a kiss to Jim's lips.
"I know, Jim, but there's no other way."
What he saw when he looked Jim in the eye nearly broke his heart just then. It was betrayal plain and simple. Everyone he loved left him, and now Bones was going to be counted among those.
Behind him he heard the door squeak open. "Jim, you have to go."
Swallowing hard, Jim leaned forward for one last kiss. The kiss was jumbled as McCoy pushed him back through the Jeffries Tube.
"Bones, I love you." It sounded like a goodbye and while McCoy didn't want to think of it that way, it very well could have been.
"Then don't let me die." He squeezed Jim's hand before letting Jim crawl down through the tube. If anyone could save them, it was going to be Jim Kirk. This was exactly the sort of miracle he could pull off.
As much as he wanted to lament his impending mortality, McCoy needed to replace the panel. He needed to buy Jim as much time as he could, he knew his time was up.
"Oh Doctor McCoy." He swallowed as the too cheery singsong voice of Nyota as she entered into the room. "You have been running a long time, and it's not nice for a doctor to avoid his patients for so long."
Nyota was already a good looking woman to begin with, but standing there, her teeth shiny bright and dangerously against her complexion in the flickering lights she was gorgeous.
At least if he was going to go, it would be at the hands of a beautiful woman with the knowledge that Jim still might make it out alive.
###
Two hours earlier...
Jim didn't stop by his quarters to change, didn't pause in the corridors to chat with the crew. After his shift Jim went directly to Bones's quarters. Tonight was date night and he simply couldn't be late. No, he was going to be early because after two weeks with Bones on Gamma, he wanted as much time with the other man as he could steal before they were both officially back on shift in thirty six hours.
Not that they were ever really off shift. It came with the titles that the job of a captain or a chef medical office was twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. They always had to be available to the crew if something came up.
All that meant was that they needed to schedule times, date nights as they were, where they could try to be Jim and Bones first everything else only in case of an emergency.
Jim entered silently into the CMO's quarters. While Jim's quarters were the more likely place to find them on any given day, it wasn't unheard of for them to be here too. Especially when Jim knew that Bones was probably still asleep.
He removed his shoes, placing them on the mat by the door and crossed the room to the sleeping area. Seeing Bones sprawled across the bed, lost in sleep, he couldn't help but pause to admire the view because it was something.
Quiet as he had been, his presence wasn't unnoticed by Bones who shifted in the bed. "Don't just stand there staring." Bones often claimed that he just knew when Jim was watching him - like a puppy whining for attention, he called it.
"I do have better plans in mind," said Jim. He took off his shirt throwing it in the general area of the laundry shoot along with his pants before joining Bones in bed.
Almost instantly he felt the man next to him relax as their bodies moved to find the way they fit just right.
Neither of them would admit it, but not being able to have this closeness and intimacy the past two weeks had taken it's toll. And really Jim could have happily laid here for the next twelves hours, except that he had better things in mind.
Once fully settled, the two men shared lazy kisses and caresses saying hellos, I've missed you and a handful of other things that words couldn't quite capture. Slowly, Jim raised the intensity in their motions, always needing more and Bones gave him everything.
This was how they worked, limbs tangled in sheets, exchanging stories in their movements and never having to vocalize it.
They were just about to hit their rubicon when the wall comm. unit chirped and Jim paused to hear who it was. Maybe it was just a personal call, that he could convince Bones to not worry about.
"Medical to McCoy"
With a dramatic sigh, Jim rolled over back onto his side of the bed to allow Bones to take the call. Disappointed as he was, he was just a little pleased to see that Bones was equally annoyed with the call.
He reached over to activate the audio channel. "McCoy here and this better be good, I'm just coming off an 18 hour shift."
The medical tech on the line swallowed audibly. "My apologies, sir. However, over the past half hour we've had a dozen instances of what appears to food poisoning. Only that it is isn't responding to normal treatment."
Bones scrubbed his face. He wasn’t quite awake enough to deal with something that didn't immediately feel like life or death. Surely, Geoff could handle food poisoning and if this was some kind of joke, his staff was never going to hear the end of it. But they knew better. "Send me what information you have and I'll get back to you."
"Transmitting data now, sir."
Jim handed Bones his PADD, hoping that whatever was happening in medical could be solved quickly. However, watching Bones read over the files, he knew that it wouldn't be quick.
"Date night is cancelled, isn't it?"
Bones was already out of bed, pulling on his uniform. "Postponed for now." He reached over to kiss Jim. "I'll be back as soon as I can."
Jim sighed, collapsing back into the bed. This was not how tonight was supposed to go. He had needs! And better yet, he knew that Bones had needs to! He lay there for a minute longer before deciding that if he was going to have sex tonight, he better get dressed and help figure out what was happening.
###
Walking through the corridors something felt different. It was just a feeling in the pit of stomach that McCoy couldn't quite name, didn't really have the time to consider. Right now he needed to focus on the inconclusive data that had to be machine malfunctioning so he could get back to his plans with Jim.
That feeling in his gut only got worse when he walked into sickbay to see a dozen crew members occupying his beds looking a bit too pale and malnourished.
At least he knew that it wasn't some ill-informed prank.
"M'Benga report!" McCoy was sure any of the other people mulling around could tell him what's happening, because he ran a good department. However, Geoff was the attending on duty right now and he wanted to hear from him, especially when the man didn't have the nerve to call him down here himself.
"Leonard! Just give me a second to finish up here, Keller lost a lot of blood." Geoff took a moment longer to assure that the blood transfusion was taking before walking over to McCoy. "I apologize for calling you down here, I'm just not sure what we have on our hands and was hoping you might know more than I do."
McCoy followed Geoff over to bed four where Nurse Janet Hadley was making note of patient read outs on the monitor. Rather than make sense of the monitor, McCoy immediately looked at Specialist Smith, hunched over the bed looking like he was about to be sick at any moment.
"Alright, Smith, what the hell did you eat?"
At that moment Smith leaned forward and dry heaved. Hadley attempted to get Smith to lay back down.
"That's just it, sit, Smith was on his way to the mess when he started presenting the symptoms." After a bit of work, Smith laid back on the biobed. "I ran a full work up on him and the only thing that looked out of sorts was this." The nurse indicated a pink bite mark that had torn right through his flesh.
"Is that from human teeth?"
"I believe so."
On the bed, Smith groaned and lolled his head, nostrils flaring and inching closer to Hadley's wrist. It happened so quickly McCoy wasn't even sure what had happened.
The next moment, Smith had clamped down on Hadley's wrist and her screams were tearing through sickbay. McCoy didn't even have to think about it. He just reached for a sedative from his emergency stash and jabbed it into the fleshiest part of the Smith he could get reach. Jim had called him paranoid for keeping sedatives hidden around the ship, he only ever saw it as prepared.
McCoy might have lived on a space ship, but this was something straight out of some bad science fiction novel.
Still, he wasn't going to say it. He was a scientist and he needed the facts.
"I want samples from all the patients brought in since this started." He was already in motion with Geoff at his side. "I need to figure out how this virus is spreading and I need you to prep everyone for quarantine. I can't have this spread. Is that understood?"
Date night was definitely cancelled now.
###
With the samples he needed, McCoy grabbed Nurse Epsen and headed down to the infectious disease lab. He wasn't taking any more risks with this.
Once he had set up the stations, following all of the correct protocols, he called the bridge to check in with Spock who was overseeing delta.
"Thank you for the update, Doctor McCoy. I will review our food shipment from Starbase 87 and get in contact with the Commodore to find out if any information has been withheld from us. Please keep me updated on your progress with the virus."
The virus was like nothing he had seen before. The only thing he could really be certain of was that while it had been engineered by humans, there was an strange organic part to it that was a bit too alien for his liking. It was smart too, mutating based on it's environs and McCoy knew right away they were lucky that so far only human members of the crew had been infected - who knew what it would do with a different immune system. For all he knew this was the tame reaction.
Not that he considered crew acting like god damn vampires tame.
Working as hard as they were, the pair lost track of time. Only pausing in their work when the power went out and the emergency lights kicked on. That was never a good sign.
"Epsen, see if you can contact the bridge." He didn't look up as he was in the middle of loading the next trial of the antidote. It was oddly poetic, here he was taking a shot in the dark at a way to neutralize this damn thing literally in the dark. "Find out what's happening."
"Comms appear to be down."
"Well, isn't that great."
He could have bitched about it for a few more minutes, but they were up against the clock. If the virus could adapt based on environment, it was bound to be able to mutate and mess havoc with a host and he would be okay not seeing the final phases of this virus take hold.
The door to the lab opened and McCoy immediately barked at the breach of protocol.
"No time for that, Bones. We gotta get out of here."
Jim's tone more than his words that forced him to pause. It was relief mixed in with a little bit of panic. Epsen might not have been able to hear the nuance, but McCoy heard it loud and clear.
"Jim, I need two minutes to alter this and I should have a working antidote."
"Bones, you really don't get it." Jim stayed by the door, looking ready to bolt at any second. "Spock is sealing off this section of the ship to contain the threat and if you do have a cure then we need you on the other side to disperse it."
Wisely, Epsen didn't say anything, she just kept doing as she had been instructed previously.
It was then McCoy looked up at Jim and really saw how bad things must be. He sighed, taking the long exhale to bite back any mean comment he had to say something productive. "Doesn't change the fact that I need two minutes if we want this to work."
"Fine." Jim crossed his arms over his chest. "Two minutes, starting twenty seconds ago."
If he hadn't heard from medical bay in over an hour, that probably meant that most of his staff was infected or incapacitated. Neither were particularly good scenarios that he wanted to consider.
Jim waited staring at them while they package the serum. "I have a cure, but not a delivery system."
"We'll figure it out as we go." Jim was trying to be confident. Epsen bought it, but Bones still had his reservations. However, if it was going to put his faith into someone Jim was the best bet.
"Alright, I'm ready to go."
Jim nodded. "Before we go, you wouldn't happen to have any of those secret sedatives hanging around?"
That made McCoy pause because there was no reality in which Jim would be looking for a hypospray. He must have been a bit too loud if the glare he earned from Jim was any indication.
"When we were checking for uninfected crew in medical, the two that made it out had used a low dose sedative to slow down their heart rate. Apparently, a fast pulse is like screaming hey vampires come eat me, I'm a tasty meal."
It took McCoy a minute to realize Jim had said anything else after the fact that only two of his staff had made it out of medical. What the hell had happened in the past hour? He shook his head, there would be time for questions later. If things really were this bad, the sector needed to be locked down as soon as possible.
"Yeah, I have a batch in the lab, let me grab them and we can be on our way."
###
If vampires running around Enterprise wasn't a sign of the forthcoming apocalypse, watching Jim dose himself with a low grade sedative certainly had to be.
The only explanation that made sense was that McCoy was still sleeping. This could easily be the product two weeks worth of exhaustion.
Except for the part where the part of his brain working overtime wouldn't let him live in that delusion.
Epsen and McCoy followed Jim to a meeting room just clear of the section of deck that was being sealed off. He entered in the Captain's override code and ushered them quickly into the room.
Already in the room were a handful of other junior crewmen along with Uhura who was busy playing with the wires on the comm. unit, looking as exhausted as he felt.
"Alright, we should be safe in here for a while," said Jim. "No luck on the comm?"
"Still down, Captain."
Jim nodded. "Let's keep working on it, I need to know what the status is."
McCoy looked over at Jim trying to piece together the full picture without Jim having to spell it out. Not that he would given the newer crew members in the room. If Jim didn't know what was happening on the bridge, it was likely the bridge had sealed itself off. Maybe Spock had even made contact with Starbase 87 and knew more about what was happening.
Of course that was all speculation. The only thing he could be sure of was that hey were all out of their depth on this one.
But they were the Enterprise crew - the finest crew in Starfleet and none of them had given up hope. The younger crew members were tinkering with devices, some had taken apart a tricorder, anything to be productive.
With that in mind, McCoy pulled up a seat next to Epsen and called up ship schematics along with some of the more recent reports from medical on the disease on his PADD trying to figure out the missing delivery system.
Across the room, Jim and Uhura were working some engineering magic on the comm. system.
The whole place was filled with desperate attempts at initiative and McCoy couldn't help but feel like he was floating through some dream. It was almost easier for his mind to cope with it that way.
"Good news, everyone." Jim pushed himself to his feet and came back over to the group. "Starbase 87 is sending a medical team prepped to assist and neutralize the virus. They should rendezvous with us in five hours."
For a moment everyone was relieved. However, all that came crashing down as McCoy slammed his hand into the table. "Damn it, Jim. Those people don't have five hours. The virus progresses much too quickly, slowing down the heart and in some unexplainable way causing the body to metabolize blood as energy. And that's not even accounting for the people who get drained before the virus can take hold."
The collective gasp in the room was probably a sign that what he had just yelled at Jim had been need to know information. Not that he gave a damn. However, Jim was the perfect facade of calm. "What are you suggesting, Doctor McCoy?"
It was amazing everything could be said in a name and the way that Jim said his, he knew that he needed to pause and collect himself before answering that question. While Jim was willing to bend the rules, he did need to maintain respect in the eyes of his crew and that meant that sometimes the CMO needed to yield to the Captain regardless of whatever else they were to each other.
"We have to do something. I have an antidote that should work or at least buy us more time. It just needs to be released into the air system." No, it wasn't the perfect delivery system and he wasn't even sure if it would work, but it was the best he could think of. Unfortunately, access to the air system was four decks down and he doubted the turbolifts were running.
One of the specialists who had been playing with the tricorder chose that moment to speak up. "With all due respect, sirs, those aren't our crewmates anymore, they are vampires. They can make us sick by biting us."
"It's true!" Added Epsen too helpfully. After McCoy, she was probably the most familiar with the nature of the virus. "Incubation only takes minutes, first you get a stomach ache, followed by dry heaves, a paling of the skin, chills, with sensitivity to light before..."
As she spoke, McCoy took the moment to look at her. To really look at her - and why hadn't he seen it before. "Katherine?" He said her name carefully. "You're infected, aren't you?"
She slumped in her chair, nodding weakly. The symptoms clearly starting to present themselves. Epsen held up a hand with a small scratch on it. She had been infected in the lab and McCoy wanted to rattle her for being so dense, not that it would do any good.
"I even dosed myself with one of the trials, I thought I'd be okay. I thought I was special, I mean the virus mutates based on biology and..."
From across the room came the sweet, but somewhat manic laughter of Uhura. "Special?" She pushed herself onto her feet, looking a lot more menacing than she did on any given day. "I hate to break it to you, but you're not special. You're just like a little snack before the main course."
This was new. Reaching for the tricorder on his belt he took a reading. What he saw didn't make sense. She came up positive for the virus, but wasn't presenting any of the expected symptoms. "What...what are you?" Had the virus already mutated beyond what he found the antidote for.
"I'm the future, Leonard." She was deliberate in all of her motions, possessing a grace that no human should have "The sooner you learn that, the better things are going to be for you."
McCoy found himself staring at her, unable to move like he was enchanted by her presence alone.
"Change of plans, Bones, we're getting out of here." Jim grabbed Bones by the arm and made a move to dart out of the room.
"Oh yes, please run, you'll taste so much better then!" She called after them. Once they were out of earshot, she turned to look at the ones left behind. "And you're going to help me."
###
They were out of sedatives, which meant they were on their own now. In the shadows around them, McCoy pictured vampires like in the holovids ready to pounce. And suddenly the steady beat of Jim's heart next to him wasn't much of a reassurance.
"C'mon there's an access point just around the corner."
Jim tugged McCoy along, hoping that whatever daze the older man was in wouldn't last long. If they were going to make it out of this, they both needed to have clear heads. Hearts going a mile a minute, they made it safely into the room with access to the Jeffries Tubes that could take them down to engineering. Only there was one minor problem.
"Shit. Bones, the door doesn't lock from the this side."
Things just kept going from bad to worse. Taking a breath in, Bones pulled out a cartridge and prepped the vial for delivery. "Alright, here's what we're going to do. You're going to crawl through the Jeffries tubes and make sure the package gets delivered. All you need to do is insert it into the air control system."
Jim had pulled the panel from the wall and froze staring at McCoy, his brain just catching up to what McCoy said. "What?"
"You get to be the big damn hero."
"No way. You're the doctor. This is your cure, you're more important than me."
"Jim, so far the virus has only hit normal human immune systems. It can adapt." He paused thinking of Nyota. It already was adapting. "Your immune system is anything but normal, I can't risk..." He shook his head, that argument wasn't going to win this one, "Look, for all I know the virus could hit your system and become a super virus. That's why it has to be you."
###
Jim tried not to think of what Bones's screams sounded like. He tried not to think about how quickly things had gone from bad to worse. Instead he just focused on counting lines to make sure he was headed in the right direction.
Eventually he reached the right engineering compartment and pulled open that hatch. A quick scan and the compartment appeared to be empty, but he knew that didn't mean a thing. Engineering was full of perfect hiding places.
Only he couldn't think about that. Thinking about that made him more anxious and that caused his pulse to go up and he needed to keep that as low as possible. Never an easy task when most time he relied on adrenaline to get him through.
He dropped carefully onto the catwalk and started down to the air control system.
"Bones!" He cried out seeing the back of the other man before he could think better of it. "You're okay!"
Only he knew that wasn't right. He heard Bones screaming. Swallowing, Bones turned around, a slow smirk falling across his face. He had a look about him - one that Jim didn't see outside of their bedroom and even then only under certain circumstances. It sure as hell didn't belong here.
Bones closed the distance between them, pressing his front to Jim's back, nose trailing up Jim's neck. "God Jim, you smell so good." His breath was heavy on Jim's flesh. "Do you even know what we could be? We could be unstoppable, Jim. You and me, forever. What do you say, kid?"
He pressed his hardening erection up against Jim, hands wrapping around him. "And you would taste so lovely going down."
Jim couldn't think right. His heart was thumping in his chest, every fiber of his being screaming 'yes, I'll take whatever you can give me.'
"Bones," his voice cracked betraying him, "you don't want to do this."
"I don't? Because I'm pretty sure I do, and I'm pretty sure you want me to." He ran his teeth over Jim's neck, not breaking the skin, but mapping his territory. "Don't you, Jim?"
He swallowed hard and tried to slip away from Bones, which was near impossible. "This isn't you, it's the virus. And it's killing you. Think about it, you're a doctor, you know this isn't right."
Whether it was the pleading in his voice or something else, Bones did pause weighing those words against some hazy set of morals in his head. "Jim," he said in a pained exhale. "I can't help myself, I can't even...I just want--"
"Don't!" Jim screamed, the panic jarring the doctor. "I can save you. Make it stop, you just have to let me."
Jim might not have been able to escape, but led them in a dance toward the system. The hesitation was just enough for him to inject the serum into the system. Just as he did, Bones bit into his neck.
The pain was exquisite, like a rush to the head as Bones drained him. He could want for nothing more. The world he knew went fuzzy around the edges, the ideas of right and wrong no longer so important. Not that they ever were.
Once he had took his fill, Bones pressed a kiss to the spot and waited. He could hear Jim's heart slowing down even as the antidote was being pushed out through the system.
It didn't matter. They would be together.
After what was too long, Jim looked up at Bones, wild look in his eyes.
"I told you not to do that."
"And what are you going to do about it?" At that Jim grinned real big. He didn't need to answer. McCoy could see the answer clear in his head and he couldn't say he was opposed either. "Well, what are you waiting for?"
"You're going to regret that."
"Somehow, I doubt that."