Fic: "The Needs of the Few" (3/23)
Title: "The Needs of the Few"
Canon characters/Pairing(s): Kirk & McCoy, Pike, Finney
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 10,0057 for chapter 3.
Warnings: Foul language, political situations, military stuff.
Summary: As cadets on a summer internship, Kirk and McCoy are supposed to keep their eyes open and their mouths shut. As far as Bones is concerned, that’s just plain wrong on Jim Kirk, but Jim seems determined to follow orders and fall in line for a change. After all, they’ve both seen enough trouble in two years at the Academy, and this is the Peace Mission of Axanar. However, when a mystery starts to weave itself around the mission, and the senior officers don’t seem interested in investigating, how far can Kirk and McCoy let it go?
Notes: This fic is part of my Academy Series, and is the 4th story in this arc. While this story CAN stand on its own, a lot of things (particularly character development and history) will make a lot more sense if you read the whole thing. The other stories in the Academy Series can be found on my LJ, or more conveniently, at my AO3, HERE.
Previous chapters: One, Two
Chapter 3
“Doctor McCoy, welcome aboard.” A man in a science blue uniform and Commander’s stripes greeted him with a welcoming smile and an extended hand as Leonard stepped out of the shuttle. The shuttle bay was noisy and chaotic and Leonard hadn’t had nearly enough coffee; to Leonard’s perception, this man seemed like the calm in the eye of a storm. “I’m Doctor Tavin Brex. Looks like we’ll be working together for the next few weeks.”
Despite his trepidation for the start of the mission and his discomfort with the chaos of the noisy shuttle bay, Leonard relaxed a bit as he accepted the handshake. Doctor Brex was a man of slender build, with a gentle manner and... black eyes. Actual black irises, that despite their odd coloration, were warm and friendly. “Doctor Brex,” he returned the greeting. “Thanks for accepting my application. I didn’t know if any shipboard doctors would think it was an important enough project to use up the research slot.”
“I think it’s an excellent project, and I believe the Athena is privileged to have you working on it with us. Most often, when ships take on cadets, they get glorified medical students or residents. With you, we have a fully trained surgeon and brilliant scientist who just hasn’t earned his commission yet.”
“Uh... thank you, sir,” Leonard replied, slightly taken aback by the boldfaced compliment.
“Don’t thank me yet,” Brex said with a conspiratorial look. “I’m planning on putting you to work.”
Relaxing marginally, Leonard shrugged. “Great, and here I was hoping to get off easy by playing the fool for eight weeks.”
Brex smiled. “I think we’ll get along just fine.” With that, he tilted his head, indicating for Leonard to follow.
Leonard nodded as he hoisted his duffel bag strap higher on his shoulder, and they made their way through the thick knot of cadets, officers, and crewmen offloading from the shuttle and finding their respective points of contact around the shuttle bay. It was fairly organized mayhem, but it was more than enough at this ridiculous hour of the morning after only one canteen of coffee. There were two more shuttles of new personnel scheduled to arrive within the next hour, and Leonard had taken the early shuttle so he could beat the last-minute madness of a mission launch. He was more than happy to follow Brex out of the shuttle bay.
Although it would be nice to hide in his new quarters until he’d unscrambled his own brain from the shuttle ride, he figured they’d be going directly to medical bay. There was certainly a ton of work to be done with the impending mission launch. Still, maybe he could ask if they stop by his new quarters first... get a moment to unpack...
“We can go to medical bay first if you want, Doctor McCoy, but I’d already figured you might want to stop by your quarters first. Drop off your bag and get settled in.”
Leonard startled at the sudden sense that Doctor Brex had responded directly to his thoughts, then the facts seeped through his caffeine-deprived brain. The black irises made sense now. “I almost forgot. You’re Betazoid, right?”
Brex nodded. “Well, yes. I assumed you already knew.”
Leonard shrugged. “I knew, but I hadn’t much thought about it.” Then he frowned. Sure, he’d become more comfortable about working with other species than he had once been, but he’d never worked in close quarters with a telepath. “I’m sorry to ask... but... did you just read my mind?”
“Well, you were just about to ask where we were going, so the thought was pretty clear,” he said easily. “It would have been hard not to notice it.”
“So... you don’t go... uh... digging?” Instantly, he wondered if perhaps he’d asked something rude. He’d barely passed his Interspecies Relations class as it was, and he still wasn’t always easy with meeting new sentient races. He had no natural sense of how to interact, and this guy was going to be his direct supervisor for the next two months.
He was a bit relieved when Brex gave him a patient smile. “A lot of humans ask me about this if they’ve never worked with a Betazoid before. Some of you seem to have this idea that we can go sifting through a person’s memories like an open-access data file. That’s not exactly how it works. At least, not for most Betazoids. Every telepathic species is different, and even individual Betazoids are different. We’ll sense active thoughts the same way you automatically look at things that are right in front of you. I wouldn’t ask you to walk around with your eyes closed, would I?”
Leonard nodded slowly. Even though it felt like Brex could see right through him, his gut instinct upon meeting him was that he liked the guy, and that hadn’t changed. Sure, this was something new, but wasn’t that what Starfleet was all about? “No, I don’t think you would. I guess it makes sense.”
“I’m glad,” he said easily. “You know, it took me a while to learn that humans don’t always think what they mean to say. When I first started in Starfleet, it took me some time to stop answering questions that people didn’t actually want answered.”
Leonard could only imagine how that would go, and he couldn’t quite suppress his own smile. “I could see how that would be pretty funny.”
“It was, in retrospect, but at the time... I definitely learned not to address the question if a human wonders if they look fat. But I’ve been working with my current staff in sickbay for so long that they’re all used to it when I answer their questions before they ask them aloud.”
Leonard tried to imagine what that would be like. “That might be a bit... uh... unusual at first, but... I don’t think it would be so bad. Hell, it might be more efficient. I’ll bet that would have been helpful on some of the trauma surgeries I’ve worked.”
Brex tilted his head appraisingly. “It certainly can be. You know, I wouldn’t be surprised if you had a higher psi score than most humans.”
Not certain whether he should be reassured or not, Leonard shrugged. “Dunno. My mother always said I was a sensitive kid.”
“It makes you a good doctor.” He gave a sympathetic nod of his head. “And it’s probably where you learned to keep things so bottled up.” Then he laughed at what Leonard realized must have been his stunned expression. “I didn’t read your mind for that one. I read your psych profile summary that was sent with your application. Standard protocol.”
“Oh.” Now he just felt embarrassed for assuming.
“It’s okay, McCoy. Really.” He sighed. “Humans often say that Betazoids have no tact. Betazoids say that humans don’t know how to speak their minds.”
“Well, as far as humans speakin’ their minds... ain’t that the truth,” Leonard said as they walked into a turbolift.
“Deck eight,” Brex said, smiling subtly. “Really, though, we do value many of the same things. For example, there’s a reason I accepted your research proposal for this internship. Betazoids know that health involves mind and body. Human medical practice has come a long way in treating ailments of the mind, but it still doesn’t seem to get the focus it deserves.”
The turbolift stopped, and they stepped out as Brex continued to talk. “Starfleet doctors usually focus first on the bodies of our crew members, keeping the mechanics functioning, but we sometimes forget to treat the mind. Neither of our species make our natural home in the air above our planets, or in the vacuum of space. Even for the bravest of us, an instinctive fear of the black gets to people every so often. Your project will hopefully devise coping techniques and help improve the mental health of personnel on long space missions.” He smiled again. “What could be more important than that?”
Leonard smiled in return. “I don’t think there’s much more important than that.”
“Good to hear. And... here are your quarters.” They stopped in front of a door. “Because of your credentials, I managed to convince the captain to give you junior officer’s billeting instead of throwing you in with the rest of the cadets here on the internship rotation.”
“I appreciate that,” Leonard said, feeling a bit of tension release from his shoulders. Enlisted quarters were pretty crowded, and while Leonard had dealt with worse, bunking in with a bunch of cadets on opposite work shifts would probably make it a bit more difficult to rest or focus. “I might actually be able to get some work done this way.”
“That’s what I was thinking,” Brex replied. “I don’t know if they’ve assigned anyone else to your quarters yet, but better one bunkmate than five.” Brex tapped a code into the small panel on the wall, and the door slid open. “You can program your own access code once you’re inside. Take an hour or two to get yourself settled, and then meet me in the medical bay no later than 1000 hours, ship’s time. Your equipment arrived yesterday, so everything is ready for you to get started.”
“Thank you, Doctor Brex.”
“You’re quite welcome. It’s a pleasure to have you aboard.” With that, he turned and walked off down the hall.
Leonard watched him go, and decided he had done pretty well for himself in getting this assignment. In just a few minutes, he’d become certain that Brex was thoughtful, compassionate, and dedicated as a doctor. Plus, Leonard had read Brex’s professional and academic record, and the man was a skilled surgeon and talented pathologist. Hard not to respect a guy like that.
And maybe... he could get used to saying what was on his mind for a change.
Finally, Leonard nodded to himself, then walked through the doors of his quarters.
As they hissed shut, however, and Leonard looked around the sterile, unadorned features of his room, he was suddenly struck with the overwhelming sensation of being completely alone, with nothing familiar or reassuring. Of course, that’s what many Starfleet personnel had to contend with when they went on new assignments, and that’s part of what he was studying. He could research short-term fears of flying and space flight from Earth. The conditions aboard a starship were different, and those conditions were all contributing factors in the psychological status of the crew, including any issues of aviophobia. That’s why he was here.
At the moment, however, he was pretty damned cynical about his own psychological status, aviophobia be damned. As much as he liked to tell people, including himself, that he was a loner, that he liked his solitude, and that he didn’t need anyone, all it had taken was two weeks on a nearly deserted campus with its empty hallways and his empty dorm room to make him feel like part of himself had withered and died. In truth, he was a social animal, and he needed connections. Even when he was complaining about them, he needed his colleagues, classmates, and friends -- some more than others.
With a sigh, he dropped his duffel on the bed and looked around. The room was small, with two standard bunks against one wall, separated by a small partition. Each sleeping space had its own locker. A common seating area had two desks on opposite walls and a pair of armchairs with a coffee table between them. There was a drink slot in the room, which was handy. A small bathroom off the common area completed the room. Additionally, being a very junior and temporary member of the crew, he wasn’t privileged enough to have an exterior set of quarters with a viewport.
One of the few benefits of low rank, he thought sardonically.
Leonard also noted that it didn’t look like anyone else was living there yet. Even though he wasn’t too happy about being so isolated, he really didn’t feel like being tossed in with a random stranger right now. The room was utilitarian and basic, but for the moment, it was a bit of peace and privacy where he could get his work done. He always complained that he got interrupted from his work too often, and that there were too many people around when he needed to concentrate on his research. Really, though, when he had complained like that, he usually meant that Jim was underfoot, and he didn't actually want Jim to leave. That’s how their friendship worked. In fact, if Jim didn’t come around to his dorm frequently enough, the room felt too empty and unnaturally quiet.
Too empty and too quiet, like his new quarters. Dammit.
Pushing it out of his mind, Leonard set to work emptying his duffel into the drawers. Even though he took his time, unpacking took less than thirty minutes. After washing up a bit in the tiny bathroom, and drinking a cup of coffee from the drink slot that made him desperately wish he’d brought his own coffee maker with him, Leonard was more than ready to head down to the Medical Bay and get to work. A quick check of the ship’s layout on the computer terminal at his desk gave him simple directions to the Med Bay. Take a left out of his quarters, sixty-five meters to the turbolift, three decks up, and he should be right there. He tucked his PADD under his arm, took one last peek at himself in the mirror, and with a silent bullshit pep-talk, he left.
The corridors were fairly busy. With the Athena in spacedock, there was a flurry of activity aboard the ship. From what he’d overheard on his shuttle trip, the impulse engines had been upgraded, the dilithium chambers had been refueled and recalibrated, and a quarter of the crew had rotated out for new assignments. The last shuttle of new crew members had probably already arrived. As soon as they received clearance from spacedock, the ship would disembark.
While the regular crew would be continuing on for a two-year mission of exploration towards the outer reaches of Federation space, Leonard and any other cadet interns who happened to be aboard were only staying with the ship for eight weeks -- long enough to accompany them for their first major mission of out space dock -- before meeting a transport ship at Space Station 83 and catching a ride back to Earth in time for the next semester. Not a long time onboard a ship, all things considered, but long enough.
Their first stop would be the Axanar system to pick up two Axanar diplomats, plus several other Federation Ambassadors and delegates. While the USS Constitution would be playing primary host to the various prestigious delegates attending the actual Peace Conference on Axanar, the Athena would be transporting delegates from Axanar to the colony planet of Araxis III, and then participating in the talks on Araxis. It was a lesser mission, but part of the bigger picture of the Peace Conference.
If Leonard cared about politics, he would have been jealous about missing the actual Peace Conference. Ten years ago, a single Starfleet Captain, some guy named Garth, made the decision to violate orders and interfere with the conflict between the Axanar and the Zhitorans, a species that was slaughtering the Axanar for a compound in their blood. The Zhitoran attacks had escalated, and they were teetering on the brink of an all-out invasion. Garth's actions led to other Federation ships being called for backup, and a massive battle ensued, laying waste to the planet’s major cities, but the battle was credited with ultimately saving the planet.
It was a radical reinterpretation of the non-interference clause of the Prime Directive, and the planet of Axanar had spent a decade rebuilding to recover from the mess. Politics and power in the region had changed. Now, the groundwork had been laid for peace between the Axanar and the species that had once hunted them. The Federation was providing the chance for all the planets involved to have a better future.
Of course, the only things that interested Leonard less than politics were transporter physics and extravehicular space walks, so really, he didn’t give a damn. Besides, he wasn’t here for political intrigue. He was here to run a med-psych research study. He’d have plenty to do to distract himself from being trapped out in the middle of nowhere without his friends and family.
Suddenly feeling sharply homesick, Leonard shook his head and shut off that line of thought. It would just make him more worked up than he already was. He’d be home to see his baby girl soon enough.
For now, he had plenty of work to keep himself busy. He’d be starting the initial interviews with his first research subjects as early as tomorrow, if he could get his roster approved and finalized. Plus, the plants on Araxis reportedly had some exciting medicinal qualities. Maybe he’d get permission to take a break from his regular research project to visit the planet and meet with local medical personnel there.
Leonard was so lost in thought that he was walking through the doors of the medical bay before he realized he’d gotten there. Instantly, he felt his mood lift at the familiar sights and sounds. Whether it was a small hospital on Earth or a medical bay on a starship, in Leonard’s experience, the facilities designed for the caretaking of sentient life were always a source of comfort. The med bay wasn’t very large, but it was well-lit and active. Nurses were hurrying back and forth, checking supplies and equipment for pre-departure inspections. A couple of techs were carrying small crates to what must be a back storage room. And Doctor Brex -
“Ah, Doctor McCoy!” Brex emerged from behind a small partition wall and spotted him. “You’re here sooner than I expected.”
Leonard shrugged. “I didn’t have much unpacking to do, and I’m chompin’ at the bit here.”
Brex pursed his lips in confusion, obviously at the colloquial turn of phrase.
“Just an old saying, Doctor. Means I’m eager to get to work.”
“Ah, sounds great then! Actually, I could use a hand right over here.” He tilted his head back towards the partition, which Leonard realized must be an exam area. “I was trying to finalize crew rosters and transfers in the system before we depart, and get everyone scheduled for the mandatory baseline physicals, but then we got our first patient.”
Leonard raised an eyebrow. “Oh? Someone already managed to hurt themselves? Doing what? Unpacking?”
“Not quite. This one showed up on the final shuttle with some injuries from his last assignment, and they told him to report to medical as soon as he arrived here. Nothing critical, but his shoulder needs some work, he’s got a little bit of internal bruising, and there are some abrasions and contusions that should be treated.”
Leonard couldn’t help himself -- he rolled his eyes. “So the new crew is showing up already injured? If I were superstitious, I’d say that’s a bad sign. What the hell happened to the guy? And couldn’t the doctors on his last assignment do their jobs?”
Brex shrugged. “The young man is another cadet. He was on a field training assignment that just ended this morning. They only had a medic with them, not a doctor. He told me that if he’d gone to the campus infirmary before reporting for this assignment, he would have missed his shuttle here --” Brex froze mid-sentence.
At the same moment, something in Leonard’s chest squeezed for a second. It was gut instinct. A hunch. He felt his eyes widen just a fraction. It couldn’t be. “Wait... you’ve got to be kidding me... ”
Doctor Brex frowned at him, puzzled. “Do you know this cadet, Doctor? Either way, I don’t think that it would be a problem for you to treat him. Simple injuries. I really need to finish the roster checks, but if you --”
“I don’t have a problem with it... I’ll take care of it. No problem at all. I just need to see...” Turning away from a very surprised-looking Betazoid, Leonard hurried over to the partition and came to a clumsy halt at the foot of a biobed, on which sat a bruised, beaten, shirtless, but delighted-looking Jim Kirk.
“Bones!”
For a few seconds, Leonard stared at Jim’s smug grin, speechless. He opened his mouth a couple of times, sputtering, searching for words to describe the swirl of emotions - surprise, relief, irritation, happiness, belated worry, exasperation - and finally came up with something wholly inadequate. “This is what you weren’t telling me! You had this planned since the night after graduation, didn’t you?”
“Surprise!” he said slyly, still grinning so hard his eyes crinkled.
“Dammit, Jim!”
Jim snickered. “Good to see you, too. And this is where you say, ‘Jim, what a wonderful surprise! I missed ya, kid. How was your Survival and Tactics course?’”
Leonard forced his stunned expression into a critical frown. “I can see quite clearly how survival training was.” Snapping into doctor-mode to hide his absolute astonishment at the unexpected twist in his morning, he grabbed the nearest tricorder and began scanning.
“Come on, Bones,” Jim said with light dismay, the amusement on his face not waning. “Seriously?”
Leonard scowled. “Yes, seriously. You show up in the medical bay, beaten to a pulp, with me on duty, and you expect anything else? You’d better believe I’m serious,” he said, brandishing his tricorder.
“It’s just bumps and bruises,” Jim protested, still holding fast to his best winning smile. “I haven’t seen you in two weeks. Put down the tricorder and say hi first, would ya?”
Leonard grumbled and looked back down at the readout on the tricorder. “Not even counting the superficial abrasions, lacerations, and contusions, you’ve had four ribs cracked that were only given the most basic repair treatment, you bruised your left kidney --”
“Huh, maybe that’s why I was pissing red,” Jim said casually.
Leonard glared at him. “That’s not funny, kid. You separated your damned AC joint, and it wasn’t put back together correctly.” He cast a glance back up at the main biobed readout. “You’re malnourished and dehydrated, your electrolytes are completely out of whack, and you’ve even got a goddamned sunburn!”
Jim’s ludicrously sunny expression didn’t dim in the slightest. “Thanks for asking, Bones. I had a great time! We battled Klingons, did solo survival treks, ran patrols, and slept under the stars. I passed with flying colors, and that’s how I got my official promotion to Cadet First Class this morning so I could take the internship on the Athena.” He tilted his head to the side, looking unnervingly like a puppy wondering why he hadn’t gotten a treat yet. “And now, you say, ‘That’s great, Jim! I’m happy for ya.’”
“I’m happy that you still seem to have all your limbs still attached, even if just barely,” Leonard muttered irritably. The ribs needed a round of osteostim treatment, and his shoulder was going to need minor corrective surgery. Leave it to Jim to be less interested in the severity of his injuries and more focused on whether or not his little surprise had worked. “Didn’t they even take care of you while you were out on your training course? Hell, did they even feed you?”
“Sure, but there’s a reason they call it survival training. We carry field ration bars with us. They're supposed to be complete nutrition but... they're really gross. We get a field medic to patch up the basic stuff, but if we need to come back in from the field for treatment, we fail the course and have to re-take it. If I’d done that, I would have missed this.” He gestured around with his good arm. “The Axanar Peace Mission? This is big stuff!”
“We’re not going to Axanar, Jim. We’re going to Araxis.”
Jim shrugged, wincing at the motion, but he grinned anyway. “We’re stopping by Axanar first, and we’re still part of the peace mission. Besides...” His tone changed slightly, and his expression became more thoughtful, and almost plaintive. “I told you I wasn’t going to let you go up into the black without me.”
Leonard’s mouth fell open and he stared at Jim blankly for a moment, but then Jim’s smug expression came back full force.
“Anyway, Bones, I couldn’t let you have all the fun up here while I was stuck back on campus taking classes. I heard the summer courses are mind-numbing. And how was your week with Joanna?”
Leonard shook his head at Jim in disbelief before turning to the nearby supply cabinet. He was relieved to find that the drugs he was looking for were readily accessible, and grabbed them along with a hypospray.
“Come on, Bones, are you at least a little bit surprised to see me?”
“I am never, never going to be surprised by anything you ever do again, you goddamned menace,” Leonard said flatly as he snapped a fairly strong analgesic and moderate muscle relaxant into the hypospray. He’d bet anything that Jim was in a lot more pain than he’d ever admit.
“You keep saying that, Bones, and yet, I keep surprising you.”
“Shut up and hold still.” He deftly administered the dose, pleased that Jim didn’t protest, then turned to get the osteostim units. When he turned back to Jim, the kid was looking at him with an unreadable expression. “Jim?”
“You can’t tell me you’re not happy to see me.” The question was meant to sound careless, but it was tainted by the slightly wounded expression that almost nobody else would have noticed.
Putting the osteostim units down on the bedside table, Leonard sighed. “Of course I’m happy to see you, kid. You took me by surprise, but yeah, I’m really happy to see you.” He tried to smile, but he was sure it came out broken. “Actually... dammit, I... I’m relieved to see you. You could have done a dozen different things this summer. Maybe got yourself assigned to one of the ships actually going to Axanar. I figured I was going to spend the whole summer alone. I... I really wasn’t looking forward to being alone out here. So... thank you.”
Jim’s smile brightened again. “You’re welcome, Bones. I wanted to be here. So, the summer’s off to a great start. I got promoted, you get to put up with me, and you got to see your daughter.”
For some reason, looking at Jim's enthusiastic grin, Leonard just couldn't keep lying anymore. “I... uh... didn’t get to see Joanna.”
Jim’s eyes went wide. “Wait, what? I thought you had it all worked out. What did the old battle-axe do?”
“Actually, she didn't do anything. Not really.” Leonard wrapped his arms around his torso. “It was my fault. And it wasn’t all worked out. I just assumed I could... aw hell, we can talk about this later. Not in here, okay?”
Jim nodded. “That’s fine.” Then he blinked. “Whoa, what was in that hypospray?”
“Painkiller and a muscle relaxant.” He reached out and ran his fingers lightly along the deeply bruised areas around the ribs on Jim’s right side, frowning at Jim’s instinctive flinch. “The muscles around your ribs have been bunched up in knots all week, and I need the intercostals to relax so I can treat the fractures.” He withdrew his hand. “Hell, I’m surprised you can breathe.”
Jim shrugged stiffly, although to Leonard’s marginal satisfaction, he barely winced this time. Even so, those had been some damned strong painkillers, and he was still hurting. “It’s a little sore.”
“Masochist.”
“The finest.”
Leonard shook his head. “Unbelievable. You know I have to fix your shoulder surgically, too.”
Jim’s face fell. “What? It’s not that bad! I’ve been using it all week. It’s just achy. Can’t you just wave your magic wand and make it better?”
“Keep dreaming, kid. You’re a classic case for under-reporting symptoms, you know that? Oh, and while I’ve got you stuck here, you’re getting fluids and a dermagel treatment, too.”
“Sadist.”
“The finest. Here, lie down.” He helped ease Jim onto his back, and quickly placed the stim units, despite Jim’s token protests. “You sit tight there while I get some supplies, and we’ll finish patching you up in no time.”
“Fine,” Jim said, then he turned his head to the side. “Bones?”
“Yeah, kid?”
“Even if you are a sadistic bastard...” His expression softened into a fond smile. “I’m glad I managed to get this posting.”
Leonard returned the smile, then reached and and squeezed Jim’s good shoulder. “Me, too, kid. I’ll be right back.”
Doctor Brex was in his office, engrossed in his work, presumably ship rosters. He looked up immediately as Leonard entered, then offered an enigmatic smile. “How’s your patient?”
“Did you know that’s my best friend sitting there?” Leonard asked without preamble, ignoring the question.
Brex’s smile became a bit sly. “Only with certainty after you’d walked around the corner and saw him for yourself. You’ve got some... loud emotions regarding Cadet Kirk. Just like the first part of your verbal conversation.”
Leonard stiffened. “I... guess we were a bit too loud. Jim’s good at throwing people off guard.”
Brex waved him off with a grin. “Not to worry. I’m glad you’ll have someone on the ship for this mission who will make you feel more at home.” Then his expression sobered. “Are you okay treating a friend of yours? If not, I can pull Doctor Singh. She’s testing and calibrating the stasis fields for our live cell specimens in the lab, but it can wait.”
Leonard waved him off. “No, it’s fine. Trust me, it’s nothing I haven’t done before, and this is all small stuff. I’ve got his ribs under osteostim right now. His AC joint was fused incorrectly in the field, so I’ll need to detach it and realign it properly. His kidney is stable and healing on its own, but a few hours with the biobed’s regen field will help speed it along. While I’ve got him here, I’ll give him IV fluids to correct the electrolyte imbalance. A bit of regen on the lacerations, dermagel treatment on the sunburn, and he’ll be good to go.” It almost felt comforting to rattle off a patient treatment plan.
“What about you?”
Taken aback by the question, Leonard furrowed his eyebrows. “What about me?”
“Are you good to go?”
For a moment, Leonard wanted to protest the insinuation, but Doctor Brex was both a medical doctor and a telepath. Plus, he was a colleague and supervisor now. Leonard let his shoulders slump, just marginally. “Mostly. I just don’t much like seeing my friends hurt.”
“You’ve seen it too many times before?”
Leonard nodded. “Yes. And I'm sure it won't get any better after I graduate. But... I’m a doctor. At least I can fix him. I think that actually makes it easier.”
Doctor Brex studied him for a moment, and Leonard had to once again quell the uncomfortable feeling that the man could see right through him. Then Brex smiled. “Have Nurse Walsh assist you for the surgery. Treatment bay one is fully equipped for minor procedures like that. Report back to me when you’re done, and we’ll get you set up with your general duty roster and research protocol.”
“Thank you.” Leonard took his dismissal and left the office, stunned at how his morning had turned upside-down so quickly... and at how relieved he was that it had. Somehow, Jim managed to turn everything on its head, no matter what the situation. Usually, it was for the better. Leonard looked at the partition, hiding Jim from his view, and shook his head fondly before turning and looking towards the nurse’s station.
“Nurse Walsh?”
A petite nurse with a pale complexion and a shock of red hair stood up. “Yes, Doctor...?”
“McCoy. Leonard McCoy.” He extended a hand in greeting, which she shook in turn. “I’m here for two months for an internship - research project and general practice. Doctor Brex told me to have you assist for a minor surgery on the patient over in bay one. He’s a little bit stubborn, so he might need a firm hand. Are you good with that?”
She grinned deviously. “Is he a type-A personality who would insist that he’s only got a paper cut when he’s bleeding out?”
“That would be Jim.”
“That would be a large number of Starfleet personnel. I’ve got it covered. Stubborn patients are my specialty, Doctor. I’d guess that’s why Doctor Brex told me to help you. He’s... observant like that.”
Leonard raised an eyebrow. Maybe having a highly intuitive supervisor would be even better than he’d thought. With a nod to Nurse Walsh, he turned and led her towards the treatment bay.
*********
“I thought you said you’d have me patched up in no time.” Jim’s tone was a delicate balance of boredom and annoyance. “It’s almost eighteen hundred, it’s my first day on a starship, and I spent the entire day on a biobed.”
“You needed it, Jim. And I'll say you were far more exhausted from your training course than you thought you were, because you slept over four hours after the anesthetic wore off.”
“Should have woken me up,” Jim mumbled.
Leonard raised an eyebrow at him. “I don’t know, Jim... you’re a much more cooperative patient when you’re out cold. Besides, your kidney still had diminished function until twenty minutes ago, and the extra IV therapy was good for you.” In one deft motion, he pressed down on the back of Jim’s hand with a gauze pad and pulled out the IV catheter.
Jim hissed in irritation. “You need to stop sticking me with those things.”
“You need to stop needing them. You still haven't asked to use the bathroom yet, and don't think I haven't noticed.”
Jim scowled.
Leonard smirked and taped down the gauze. “Leave that there for a second.” He discarded the used supplies in the biohazard reprocessor, then grabbed a cup of water from the shelf and handed it to Jim, who dutifully began chugging the drink. Leonard gave a satisfied nod. “Besides, nobody needed the bed here for other patients, and your other option was being stuck in your quarters all day.”
Jim sputtered around the last bit of water. “Stuck in my quarters? No way. I’m sure I missed a half-dozen briefings today. First day out of space dock is bound to be really busy.” He put down the cup, peeked under the gauze, rubbed the back of his hand, then tested out the range of motion in his shoulder.
“Hey, go easy on that shoulder! I just put the damned thing back together. Don’t need ya messing up my handiwork. And no lifting for twenty-four hours.” Leonard shook his head as he handed Jim his uniform shirt. “Besides, hot-shot, we tagged your name on the ship’s duty roster as being medically restricted from duty. Don’t worry, your chain of command knew where you were.”
“Well, they knew I was coming up here anyway.” He pulled his uniform shirt roughly over his head, and he continued to talk, muffled through the fabric. “I met with Lieutenant Commander Shao and Lieutenant Finney when my shuttle docked. Shao is overseeing the cadet intern program, and Finney is my immediate section leader for the mission.” His head popped out through the neck hole. “Do you remember Lieutenant Finney?”
Leonard frowned. “Can’t say I do.”
Jim grinned. “He’s an assistant instructor at the Academy. Ran my first hand-to-hand class, and was a TA in Ship Operations. He’s a friend. Anyway, they sent me straight over here from the shuttle bay when I arrived, but I told them that I’d be back as soon as you guys released me.” Jim gave him a look that said he was extremely put-out by the situation.
“And seeing as you haven’t been released yet, you’ve kept your word.”
“But I told them it wouldn’t take long -”
“It takes as long as the doctor - which is me - says it takes.” He grabbed Jim’s pants off a chair next to the biobed and dropped them unceremoniously into Jim’s hands. “And no, you wouldn’t have been allowed back on duty today anyway. That was my call.”
“Wouldn’t have been allowed? Fffu... fine.” He slid off the biobed and inelegantly stepped into the pants, keeping a scowl fixed on Leonard’s face the whole time. “At least I showed up here, as ordered.”
“Will wonders never cease,” Leonard deadpanned. “Jim Kirk actually showed up to a medical facility of his own volition when injured and ordered to report.”
“Sure, Bones. Thanks for the vote of confidence.” He sighed in obvious resignation. “But either way, my duty day is over, and I’ve got nothing else on my agenda until tomorrow. Although I did manage to check in with Lieutenant Finney on the PADD I charmed from Nurse Walsh.”
“I told her to give it to you to get you to be quiet and keep your blood pressure down.”
Jim shot him a look. “Ruin all my fun, why don’t you? Anyway, I got my duty rotations for the next week, quarters assignment, and mission briefing material to review.” He stuck his feet into his boots and zipped them. “And what were you doing all day while I was being lazy?”
“Well, once you were snoring away, I got a lot done. Successful separation and microfusion surgery on an acromioclavicular joint for starters. Always fun cutting up my friends and putting them back together.”
“Bones...”
“Relax, Jim,” he said mildly, letting a note of affection seep into his voice. “I’m messing with you. It’s a common injury that was given piss-poor treatment in the field, which is not your fault and I don’t blame you for it. Okay? It’s fixed now. I’m just glad you made it through your course... and yeah, kid, I’m proud of you for passing.”
A bright smile lit Jim’s face. “Thanks, Bones.” Then his smile became more sheepish. “And... uh... thanks for fixing up the shoulder. Feels better now.”
Leonard let himself grin as a warm sense of pride swelled in his chest. “No problem, kid. But try not to make a habit of it.”
“Believe me, nothing would make me happier. So... your day?” Jim asked as he reached for his belt. “Regale me with your exciting tales of medical bay heroics.”
Leonard snorted. “Heroics. Right. You’d make a guy believe that this is more than tedium and routine. In addition to treating a couple of engineers for plasma burns, I finalized my research protocols with the members of the ship’s crew roster who will be participating in my study.” He let a self-satisfied grin twist his mouth. “If I get even a fraction of the results I’m expecting, I’ll have enough data to finish my thesis. I’ll have it submitted before midterms next semester.”
“That’s great! See? No heroics needed. Good things happen on starships. It’s not all silence and darkness and disease and danger out here, right?” He reached for his duffel, but Leonard grabbed it first.
“I don’t think so, kid. I told you - no lifting for twenty-four hours unless you want me to go poking around inside your shoulder again.” He looped the strap over his own shoulder, then sighed at the dejected annoyance on Jim’s face. “Listen, I’m off-duty now anyway, so I’ll help you carry this back to your quarters. Then maybe we can get a bite to eat down at the mess hall, and you can tell me all about your heroic escapades battling Starfleet security officers dressed up like Klingons.”
Jim gave him a look of exasperation. “You sure know how to take the wind out of a guy’s sails.”
Leonard grinned and clapped Jim lightly on the back of the neck, steering him towards the door out of the medical bay. “If you behave, I’ll even let you have a cookie.”
“How generous.”
“That’s me.”
Leonard caught a quick peek back into the room to see Doctor Brex standing at the door to his office, leaning lightly on the door jamb, smiling gently. It struck Leonard with an odd, indefinable, yet soft and reassuring emotion. Despite the fact that he was on a starship, racing through the vacuum of space away from Earth far faster than the speed of light... something just seemed good and right with the universe just then. He managed a smile back at Doctor Brex and a slight wave before his momentum took him out into the corridor and the door slid shut behind him.
Jim looked at him sideways. “It had better be chocolate chip.”
*********
The mess hall aboard the Athena was a fraction of the size of the mess hall back at the Academy, but the familiar clinking of cutlery and the light-hearted buzz of conversation instantly made Jim feel more comfortable. It didn’t matter if it was Murphy’s Pub packed with locals back in Riverside, a school cafeteria, or a mess hall on a starship hurtling through space at warp speed - the sound of a room full of people eating and talking was always the same.
Bones nudged his arm with an elbow. “It’s kinda packed. Wonder if there will be a place to sit.”
Jim scanned the room. Bones was right; it was pretty full. “I’m sure we can figure something... hey!” He caught sight of a familiar face and a wave near the back wall. “There’s Lieutenant Finney and some of the other cadets. They’ll save us a seat. Let’s grab some food.”
He didn’t have to check over his shoulder to know that Bones was following him.
They made their way through the crowd to the service line. It was only then that Jim realized that he was the only one in the room in cadet reds, and he stood out almost comically amongst the regular crew members. Even the other cadets in the room, however few there were, must have been down to the Quartermaster during the day and had been issued temporary duty uniforms - identical to the crew uniforms, only with a gray outer tunic instead of a branch color, and a non-branch insignia. Jim tried not to feel embarrassed at being out of uniform as he grabbed a chicken sandwich and fries from the line and quickly began weaving towards the back of the room.
“Jim, maybe I should find some of the medical staff to sit with,” Bones said from behind him.
“You’re going to spend every waking minute with them over the next few weeks,” Jim shot back over his shoulder. “What’s the problem?”
Bones shrugged. “Dunno... just figure I should get to know my own team, I guess. I don’t really interact with the other cadets on campus.”
Jim shook his head. “We’re not on campus, Bones. When we finally get stationed on a ship after graduation, you’ll need to meet other people from other specialties. Come on, meet the other cadets.”
Bones’ shoulders slumped marginally in defeat. “Fine. Lead the way.”
Lieutenant Finney waved to them as they got to the table, and raised his voice just a bit above the din of the room. “Cadet Kirk! So nice of you to join us, just in time for...” He made a show of looking at a nonexistent chrono on his wrist. “Dinner!” The words were teasing but the smile was welcoming.
Jim offered him a look of chagrin as he set his plate down. “Believe me, sir, I would have been much happier to have been on-duty all day, instead of being stuck in sickbay.”
“I know, Kirk. How’re you feeling?”
“Good as new,” Jim said easily, sitting in one of the two open seats at the table. “Hey guys.” He gave a nod of greeting to the five cadets at the table. Two of them he didn’t know, but he recognized Nadeau, Liu, and Wilcox. “Glad you made it, Wilcox.”
“Are you kidding me?” said the young woman with a dirty blond ponytail and broad shoulders. She had started in the general Command and Tactics track at the Academy, but had decided to specialize as a pilot in her second year. “I wouldn’t have missed this for the world. I passed my Class Two flight certification, so once we get to our specialized rotations, I’ll get to fly this bird. I turned in my thesis at 0400 hours this morning and still made it on the first shuttle.”
“At least you showed up ready to work,” Finney said to her. “Kirk here showed up looking like he’d just gone ten rounds with a Klingon, and then he spent the day napping in sickbay.”
“Thank you, sir, may I have another?” Jim deadpanned.
“There’s plenty more where that came from.” Finney leaned back in his seat and looked up at Bones, who still hadn’t made a move to sit down. “And you’re Cadet McCoy.”
Bones looked surprised, and a bit unnerved. “How do you -”
Finney waved a casual hand. “Just because your training is handled through Starfleet Medical Academy doesn’t mean you get to live in a bubble.” Then he grinned broadly. “Besides, anyone who knows Kirk knows who you are.”
Jim looked up in time to see Bones casting him an unreadable expression, but Finney kept on. “So come on, have a seat. I know you medical cadets keep to yourselves for most of your studies, but we’ll be working together a little bit, so you might as well get to know them. Just watch out for the security cadets,” he said with a wink.
“Gee, and I haven't even had a chance to scare him myself,” Cadet Liu said with mock-offense. Jim knew him from hand-to-hand training. Liu was a good fighter, and an all-round decent guy to have on your team.
Bones snorted and took a seat with obvious reluctance. “I’ll have to remember that one,” he said with a nod before grabbing his sandwich and taking a huge bite.
Finney laughed. ”I know you’ll be spending most of your time doing your research project, but there are certain aspects of shipboard operations that even doctors ought to know. Commander Shao and I already discussed cross-discipline training for all the cadets, and we talked to Doctor Brex about including you. You’ll attend some of our training modules later in the rotation. Technically, it’s not mandatory, but it would be really good for your record if you want a shipboard posting.”
Bones shrugged, looking oddly uncomfortable. “I’ll be pretty busy with my own research, but... yeah, I’m looking for a shipboard posting, so I guess it would be good to know how these flying tin cans work.”
A dark-skinned cadet Jim didn’t know well leaned forward on the table, folding her arms in front of her. “Do I get to say you work on meat sacks, Doctor?” she said lightly.
“I... what?”
She gave him a sarcastically demure smile. “Lovely to meet you, too, Doctor. I’m Cadet Buhari. Engineering. Or tin-can expert, whichever you prefer.”
“Oh... hi, then,” Bones said awkwardly. “Doctor McCoy. Meat-sack expert.”
Finney was laughing. “As long as you don’t call the ship a ‘tin can’ around the engineers, you’ll do just fine, Doc.” He turned back to Jim. “You missed all the orientation briefings today, Kirk, but I don’t think it’s anything that will set you back too much. Go over the data I sent to your PADD, ask me any questions you have, and that should cover it. Oh, and stop by the Quartermaster before duty tomorrow. There are three duty uniforms waiting for you, so you can get out of those reds. Once you leave the Academy, a red uniform is nothing but a target.”
Jim started to laugh, then frowned. He glanced sideways at Bones, who had paused with his sandwich halfway to his mouth. “Bones?”
“A target?” Bones asked hesitantly.
“Figure of speech,” the other cadet Jim didn’t know chimed in, “and a long-running joke out here in the black. Of course, the Ops guys hate it, but it’s true.” His tone was neutral, but his expression was a bit terse. “When something goes wrong, Ops guys are the first in the line of fire. Anyone with a red shirt, basically. Something blows up in Engineering, or a landing party gets attacked... my brother has seen a lot of it. He’s a security officer.” He gave a grin that looked just a bit off. “That’s why I went with the sciences. Biochemistry. It’s Hererra, by the way.”
Bones muttered a cordial, “Nice to meet you,” before shaking his head. “So there’s actually a job around here more dangerous than the crazy stuff the command folks do?”
Lieutenant Finney nodded. “Oh yeah. The unofficial thinking is that they picked red for Ops uniforms because it hides bloodstains better. At least, it does for folks with iron-based blood.”
Slowly, Bones put down his sandwich. “Great. Tell me why I wanted to work on a starship again?”
“Because of your incredible sense of adventure, Bones,” Jim said, elbowing him lightly.
Bones raised an eyebrow at him, but Jim only shrugged and stuffed a French fry in his mouth.
Finney laughed, then quickly downed the last bit of his drink before setting the cup on the table with a heavy clack. “Anyway, I’ve had a long day and I still have training plans for the week to review with Commander Shao.” He stood, and waved down the table of cadets as they instinctively moved to stand with him. “You’re free for the night. The recreation rooms and fitness facility are available, but don’t stay up too late. See you all tomorrow at 0800 on the secondary bridge.”
The cadets at the table waited until he was out of earshot before Nadeau leaned in. “I’ll fill you in on the unofficial parts of the briefings today, Kirk. We struck gold getting Finney for trainer. He’s planning on taking the whole bunch of us down to the surface of Araxis, and maybe even to Axanar if there’s time while the Captain plays diplomat with the Axanar leaders.”
Jim felt a jolt of excitement at the prospect of getting so much landing party time. “Yeah, Finney’s like that. Believes in first-hand experience.” He took a bite of his sandwich and talked around it. “You guys get a feel for Commander Shao? I don’t really know her.”
Cadet Liu shrugged. “Seems to go by the book, but not too stiff about it. I think she’ll give Finney a lot of freedom with us as long as it’s all technically within regs. Finney's really the one running things with us. We did pretty well with this assignment, I think.”
“Kind of a shame we’re not going to get to be on Axanar itself for the main negotiations,” Nadeau said, not hiding his disappointment. “That’s gonna be historic.”
“We’re still part of the big picture,” Jim said, churning through the assignment in his head. “Besides, we’ll be some of the first Federation representatives ever to step foot on Araxis. This will be the first time a Federation ship has been there. That’s pretty damned exciting.”
“Wait a second,” Bones said hesitantly, something in his tone catching Jim’s attention. “If we’re the first Starfleet ship going to Araxis... I mean... how much do they really know about the place? And don’t look so surprised, Jim. I read the report. If most of that is second-hand, how do we know it’s correct? Is the place secure? They’re sending cadets on a mission like that?”
Jim flashed Bones his most reassuring smarmy grin. “I’m impressed, Bones. You almost sound like a command officer, doing mission risk assessments. But it’s no different than a lot of assignments. We’re Starfleet, even if we’re cadets. Officer interns, actually. There’s always some element of risk. That’s why we signed up. But really, it’s a quiet little colony planet with a population eager to join the Federation. While the senior officers sit in negotiations, we’re going to stand around and look pretty. And don't worry - I’m pretty enough to cover for you, too.”
Everyone at the table groaned, and Wilcox punched Jim in the arm. To Jim’s satisfaction, Bones rolled his eyes and dug into his salad.
Conversation bounced between assignment speculation and next year’s courses for a few minutes before Nadeau pushed his chair back. “I’m gonna get going, guys. Unlike Kirk here, I didn’t get to sleep through half the day.” He offered a light-hearted smirk that said he was mostly kidding. “Kirk, you’re sharing quarters with me, Liu, and Hererra, so I’ll see you two later.”
“Actually, I’ll come along now,” Hererra said, standing as well, followed quickly by Liu.
“I’ve been up since 0300 this morning. I’m beat,” Liu said heavily as he pushed his chair back under the table.
“I guess I’m abandoning you, too,” Wilcox said, following suit. “We were almost done when you got here, and Buhari and I are going to hit the fitness facility before turning in.”
“Sure, guys. Leave me here by my lonesome.”
“Thanks, Jim,” Bones said.
Jim subtly nudged his knee against Bones’ leg under the table and gave him a look, then nodded back up at the other cadets. “See you down in our quarters. I won’t be too late.”
As soon as they’d all left the table, Jim turned towards Bones, and wasted no time. “So what happened with Joanna?”
In a heartbeat, Bones’ stiff posture sagged as he leaned heavily on his elbows and stabbed a cherry tomato with his fork as if it had personally offended him. “You’ve been waiting since this morning to drill me with that, weren’t you?”
“You know me.”
“Yeah, I do.” He sighed and popped the tomato into his mouth, obviously killing time as he chewed slowly. Jim waited in silence, and finally, Bones put down his fork and folded his arms on the table top. His voice was low, but Jim could hear every word. “The divorce wasn’t just her fault, Jim.”
“I know... you told me... your father...” He was cut off by Bones slowly shaking his head.
“Final straw, kid. That wasn’t really the start of it.” He closed his eyes and in that moment, Jim thought he’d never seen Bones quite so desolate. “I thought I was doing wonderful things for humanity, putting everyone else first. My patients, my research. I told myself that it wasn’t just about me getting ahead, becoming the youngest staff doctor ever at Atlanta Medical Center. It took all of my time, and I told myself that was okay. And then, when my father got sick, I started squeezing even more hours out of the day, trying to find a cure for him. And I’d just expected Jocelyn to be there, even though I was never there for her and our daughter. That her life would just naturally revolve around me doing all these wonderful things for humanity. Right?” He opened his eyes and looked at Jim, his expression pleading for something that Jim didn’t quite understand.
“Well, you were doing good things for humanity,” Jim said hesitantly.
“Sure... but in the process, I took Jocelyn for granted. I took Joanna for granted, and she was just a baby. I acted like they’d just be there when I had time. It’s no wonder Joce started to resent me. So... when I got a week with Joanna for the summer... I did it again.”
“Oh?” Jim asked, confused, but trying to sound neutral.
“I just assumed I could show up in Atlanta anytime, and Joanna would just be there, ready for me whenever I wanted.”
“Oh.” Jim was starting to understand. “So, where was she?”
“Mars,” Bones said, looking absolutely gutted. “Joce's sister lives on the Mars colony. They were visiting. I think Joce did it on purpose, because she knew when the Academy’s summer semester began, but fuck, I never actually communicated when I’d be available to see Joanna. This was my fault. Absolutely my fault. I did it again. I took my own kid for granted.” His eyes fell shut again, framed with tight lines of distress, lips pressed together miserably.
Jim really wasn’t sure what to say to that, so he went for the gut of it. “So you screwed up. I’ve fucked up plenty of times. Like you’ve told me... learn from it.”
“I fucked it up once before, and I obviously didn’t learn from it the first time.”
“So learn this time,” Jim said forcefully. “Send the old bag a subspace comm. Chew a little bit of humble pie, tell her when you’ll be back, and ask if you can see Joanna once we get back from this internship.”
Bones shrugged noncommittally. “I guess.”
For a moment, Jim studied his face. “Bones, what’s really eating you here?”
His back stiffened, but he didn’t meet Jim’s eyes. “What do you think? I haven’t seen my daughter in person for almost two goddamned years.”
“I know that, but Bones? There’s something else. Come on, I know you too well.”
He waited while Bones stubbornly remained silent, stuffing another bite of sandwich into his mouth, chewing more thoroughly than he needed to. Finally, he swallowed and let his shoulders slump. "I don't even know, Jim."
Jim frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means... it... dammit, Jim." He groaned and leaned his face into his hands for a moment before looking up again. "It means I'm a fuck-up of a father and a human being and... I'm probably a fuck-up of a friend and -"
"Whoa, slow down there! Bones, you made a mistake. You'll fix it. I know you. And you've always been a great friend." He ducked his head down, forcing Bones to make eye contact with him. "I'd be dead if it weren't for you. Friendship doesn't get much tighter than that."
Bones, however, went wide-eyed and shook his head, looking spooked by the whole line of discussion. “But it’s... it wasn’t...” He came to a stuttering halt, like he'd just run into a verbal brick wall, and Jim wished like hell he knew what was going through the guy's head at that moment. Then Bones heaved a sigh. “Did you know the coffee onboard this ship is the worst I’ve tasted since the swill in the Riverside diner?”
Jim stared at Bones incredulously, registering the complete shift in the conversation, then forced himself laugh. “That stuff back in Riverside was pretty nasty. That’s why I stuck with the beer.”
Bones’ expression finally morphed into something between a grateful smile and a broken plea. “Yeah.” He looked down at his half-eaten sandwich on his tray. “Maybe I should turn in early.”
Jim wanted to argue with him, ask him to come down to the rec room and socialize. But Bones looked tired, and Jim knew he needed to get down to the Quartermaster and settle into his own quarters. “Okay. But I'll catch you tomorrow, okay? Dinner after alpha shift?”
“It'll depend on my schedule,” Bones said, noncommittally. “I'll let you know.”
They cleared their plates from the table and parted ways at the turbolift when Bones got out on deck eight. As the 'lift door slid shut after Bones, Jim stared at it for a long moment, not moving. He'd followed Bones into space, and now, he was wondering if Bones was still parsecs away, back on Earth, trapped by his past.
“Please state your destination,” the computer chimed helpfully.
With a heavy sigh, Jim said, “Deck ten.”
*********
To Chapter 4
Canon characters/Pairing(s): Kirk & McCoy, Pike, Finney
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 10,0057 for chapter 3.
Warnings: Foul language, political situations, military stuff.
Summary: As cadets on a summer internship, Kirk and McCoy are supposed to keep their eyes open and their mouths shut. As far as Bones is concerned, that’s just plain wrong on Jim Kirk, but Jim seems determined to follow orders and fall in line for a change. After all, they’ve both seen enough trouble in two years at the Academy, and this is the Peace Mission of Axanar. However, when a mystery starts to weave itself around the mission, and the senior officers don’t seem interested in investigating, how far can Kirk and McCoy let it go?
Notes: This fic is part of my Academy Series, and is the 4th story in this arc. While this story CAN stand on its own, a lot of things (particularly character development and history) will make a lot more sense if you read the whole thing. The other stories in the Academy Series can be found on my LJ, or more conveniently, at my AO3, HERE.
Previous chapters: One, Two
Chapter 3
“Doctor McCoy, welcome aboard.” A man in a science blue uniform and Commander’s stripes greeted him with a welcoming smile and an extended hand as Leonard stepped out of the shuttle. The shuttle bay was noisy and chaotic and Leonard hadn’t had nearly enough coffee; to Leonard’s perception, this man seemed like the calm in the eye of a storm. “I’m Doctor Tavin Brex. Looks like we’ll be working together for the next few weeks.”
Despite his trepidation for the start of the mission and his discomfort with the chaos of the noisy shuttle bay, Leonard relaxed a bit as he accepted the handshake. Doctor Brex was a man of slender build, with a gentle manner and... black eyes. Actual black irises, that despite their odd coloration, were warm and friendly. “Doctor Brex,” he returned the greeting. “Thanks for accepting my application. I didn’t know if any shipboard doctors would think it was an important enough project to use up the research slot.”
“I think it’s an excellent project, and I believe the Athena is privileged to have you working on it with us. Most often, when ships take on cadets, they get glorified medical students or residents. With you, we have a fully trained surgeon and brilliant scientist who just hasn’t earned his commission yet.”
“Uh... thank you, sir,” Leonard replied, slightly taken aback by the boldfaced compliment.
“Don’t thank me yet,” Brex said with a conspiratorial look. “I’m planning on putting you to work.”
Relaxing marginally, Leonard shrugged. “Great, and here I was hoping to get off easy by playing the fool for eight weeks.”
Brex smiled. “I think we’ll get along just fine.” With that, he tilted his head, indicating for Leonard to follow.
Leonard nodded as he hoisted his duffel bag strap higher on his shoulder, and they made their way through the thick knot of cadets, officers, and crewmen offloading from the shuttle and finding their respective points of contact around the shuttle bay. It was fairly organized mayhem, but it was more than enough at this ridiculous hour of the morning after only one canteen of coffee. There were two more shuttles of new personnel scheduled to arrive within the next hour, and Leonard had taken the early shuttle so he could beat the last-minute madness of a mission launch. He was more than happy to follow Brex out of the shuttle bay.
Although it would be nice to hide in his new quarters until he’d unscrambled his own brain from the shuttle ride, he figured they’d be going directly to medical bay. There was certainly a ton of work to be done with the impending mission launch. Still, maybe he could ask if they stop by his new quarters first... get a moment to unpack...
“We can go to medical bay first if you want, Doctor McCoy, but I’d already figured you might want to stop by your quarters first. Drop off your bag and get settled in.”
Leonard startled at the sudden sense that Doctor Brex had responded directly to his thoughts, then the facts seeped through his caffeine-deprived brain. The black irises made sense now. “I almost forgot. You’re Betazoid, right?”
Brex nodded. “Well, yes. I assumed you already knew.”
Leonard shrugged. “I knew, but I hadn’t much thought about it.” Then he frowned. Sure, he’d become more comfortable about working with other species than he had once been, but he’d never worked in close quarters with a telepath. “I’m sorry to ask... but... did you just read my mind?”
“Well, you were just about to ask where we were going, so the thought was pretty clear,” he said easily. “It would have been hard not to notice it.”
“So... you don’t go... uh... digging?” Instantly, he wondered if perhaps he’d asked something rude. He’d barely passed his Interspecies Relations class as it was, and he still wasn’t always easy with meeting new sentient races. He had no natural sense of how to interact, and this guy was going to be his direct supervisor for the next two months.
He was a bit relieved when Brex gave him a patient smile. “A lot of humans ask me about this if they’ve never worked with a Betazoid before. Some of you seem to have this idea that we can go sifting through a person’s memories like an open-access data file. That’s not exactly how it works. At least, not for most Betazoids. Every telepathic species is different, and even individual Betazoids are different. We’ll sense active thoughts the same way you automatically look at things that are right in front of you. I wouldn’t ask you to walk around with your eyes closed, would I?”
Leonard nodded slowly. Even though it felt like Brex could see right through him, his gut instinct upon meeting him was that he liked the guy, and that hadn’t changed. Sure, this was something new, but wasn’t that what Starfleet was all about? “No, I don’t think you would. I guess it makes sense.”
“I’m glad,” he said easily. “You know, it took me a while to learn that humans don’t always think what they mean to say. When I first started in Starfleet, it took me some time to stop answering questions that people didn’t actually want answered.”
Leonard could only imagine how that would go, and he couldn’t quite suppress his own smile. “I could see how that would be pretty funny.”
“It was, in retrospect, but at the time... I definitely learned not to address the question if a human wonders if they look fat. But I’ve been working with my current staff in sickbay for so long that they’re all used to it when I answer their questions before they ask them aloud.”
Leonard tried to imagine what that would be like. “That might be a bit... uh... unusual at first, but... I don’t think it would be so bad. Hell, it might be more efficient. I’ll bet that would have been helpful on some of the trauma surgeries I’ve worked.”
Brex tilted his head appraisingly. “It certainly can be. You know, I wouldn’t be surprised if you had a higher psi score than most humans.”
Not certain whether he should be reassured or not, Leonard shrugged. “Dunno. My mother always said I was a sensitive kid.”
“It makes you a good doctor.” He gave a sympathetic nod of his head. “And it’s probably where you learned to keep things so bottled up.” Then he laughed at what Leonard realized must have been his stunned expression. “I didn’t read your mind for that one. I read your psych profile summary that was sent with your application. Standard protocol.”
“Oh.” Now he just felt embarrassed for assuming.
“It’s okay, McCoy. Really.” He sighed. “Humans often say that Betazoids have no tact. Betazoids say that humans don’t know how to speak their minds.”
“Well, as far as humans speakin’ their minds... ain’t that the truth,” Leonard said as they walked into a turbolift.
“Deck eight,” Brex said, smiling subtly. “Really, though, we do value many of the same things. For example, there’s a reason I accepted your research proposal for this internship. Betazoids know that health involves mind and body. Human medical practice has come a long way in treating ailments of the mind, but it still doesn’t seem to get the focus it deserves.”
The turbolift stopped, and they stepped out as Brex continued to talk. “Starfleet doctors usually focus first on the bodies of our crew members, keeping the mechanics functioning, but we sometimes forget to treat the mind. Neither of our species make our natural home in the air above our planets, or in the vacuum of space. Even for the bravest of us, an instinctive fear of the black gets to people every so often. Your project will hopefully devise coping techniques and help improve the mental health of personnel on long space missions.” He smiled again. “What could be more important than that?”
Leonard smiled in return. “I don’t think there’s much more important than that.”
“Good to hear. And... here are your quarters.” They stopped in front of a door. “Because of your credentials, I managed to convince the captain to give you junior officer’s billeting instead of throwing you in with the rest of the cadets here on the internship rotation.”
“I appreciate that,” Leonard said, feeling a bit of tension release from his shoulders. Enlisted quarters were pretty crowded, and while Leonard had dealt with worse, bunking in with a bunch of cadets on opposite work shifts would probably make it a bit more difficult to rest or focus. “I might actually be able to get some work done this way.”
“That’s what I was thinking,” Brex replied. “I don’t know if they’ve assigned anyone else to your quarters yet, but better one bunkmate than five.” Brex tapped a code into the small panel on the wall, and the door slid open. “You can program your own access code once you’re inside. Take an hour or two to get yourself settled, and then meet me in the medical bay no later than 1000 hours, ship’s time. Your equipment arrived yesterday, so everything is ready for you to get started.”
“Thank you, Doctor Brex.”
“You’re quite welcome. It’s a pleasure to have you aboard.” With that, he turned and walked off down the hall.
Leonard watched him go, and decided he had done pretty well for himself in getting this assignment. In just a few minutes, he’d become certain that Brex was thoughtful, compassionate, and dedicated as a doctor. Plus, Leonard had read Brex’s professional and academic record, and the man was a skilled surgeon and talented pathologist. Hard not to respect a guy like that.
And maybe... he could get used to saying what was on his mind for a change.
Finally, Leonard nodded to himself, then walked through the doors of his quarters.
As they hissed shut, however, and Leonard looked around the sterile, unadorned features of his room, he was suddenly struck with the overwhelming sensation of being completely alone, with nothing familiar or reassuring. Of course, that’s what many Starfleet personnel had to contend with when they went on new assignments, and that’s part of what he was studying. He could research short-term fears of flying and space flight from Earth. The conditions aboard a starship were different, and those conditions were all contributing factors in the psychological status of the crew, including any issues of aviophobia. That’s why he was here.
At the moment, however, he was pretty damned cynical about his own psychological status, aviophobia be damned. As much as he liked to tell people, including himself, that he was a loner, that he liked his solitude, and that he didn’t need anyone, all it had taken was two weeks on a nearly deserted campus with its empty hallways and his empty dorm room to make him feel like part of himself had withered and died. In truth, he was a social animal, and he needed connections. Even when he was complaining about them, he needed his colleagues, classmates, and friends -- some more than others.
With a sigh, he dropped his duffel on the bed and looked around. The room was small, with two standard bunks against one wall, separated by a small partition. Each sleeping space had its own locker. A common seating area had two desks on opposite walls and a pair of armchairs with a coffee table between them. There was a drink slot in the room, which was handy. A small bathroom off the common area completed the room. Additionally, being a very junior and temporary member of the crew, he wasn’t privileged enough to have an exterior set of quarters with a viewport.
One of the few benefits of low rank, he thought sardonically.
Leonard also noted that it didn’t look like anyone else was living there yet. Even though he wasn’t too happy about being so isolated, he really didn’t feel like being tossed in with a random stranger right now. The room was utilitarian and basic, but for the moment, it was a bit of peace and privacy where he could get his work done. He always complained that he got interrupted from his work too often, and that there were too many people around when he needed to concentrate on his research. Really, though, when he had complained like that, he usually meant that Jim was underfoot, and he didn't actually want Jim to leave. That’s how their friendship worked. In fact, if Jim didn’t come around to his dorm frequently enough, the room felt too empty and unnaturally quiet.
Too empty and too quiet, like his new quarters. Dammit.
Pushing it out of his mind, Leonard set to work emptying his duffel into the drawers. Even though he took his time, unpacking took less than thirty minutes. After washing up a bit in the tiny bathroom, and drinking a cup of coffee from the drink slot that made him desperately wish he’d brought his own coffee maker with him, Leonard was more than ready to head down to the Medical Bay and get to work. A quick check of the ship’s layout on the computer terminal at his desk gave him simple directions to the Med Bay. Take a left out of his quarters, sixty-five meters to the turbolift, three decks up, and he should be right there. He tucked his PADD under his arm, took one last peek at himself in the mirror, and with a silent bullshit pep-talk, he left.
The corridors were fairly busy. With the Athena in spacedock, there was a flurry of activity aboard the ship. From what he’d overheard on his shuttle trip, the impulse engines had been upgraded, the dilithium chambers had been refueled and recalibrated, and a quarter of the crew had rotated out for new assignments. The last shuttle of new crew members had probably already arrived. As soon as they received clearance from spacedock, the ship would disembark.
While the regular crew would be continuing on for a two-year mission of exploration towards the outer reaches of Federation space, Leonard and any other cadet interns who happened to be aboard were only staying with the ship for eight weeks -- long enough to accompany them for their first major mission of out space dock -- before meeting a transport ship at Space Station 83 and catching a ride back to Earth in time for the next semester. Not a long time onboard a ship, all things considered, but long enough.
Their first stop would be the Axanar system to pick up two Axanar diplomats, plus several other Federation Ambassadors and delegates. While the USS Constitution would be playing primary host to the various prestigious delegates attending the actual Peace Conference on Axanar, the Athena would be transporting delegates from Axanar to the colony planet of Araxis III, and then participating in the talks on Araxis. It was a lesser mission, but part of the bigger picture of the Peace Conference.
If Leonard cared about politics, he would have been jealous about missing the actual Peace Conference. Ten years ago, a single Starfleet Captain, some guy named Garth, made the decision to violate orders and interfere with the conflict between the Axanar and the Zhitorans, a species that was slaughtering the Axanar for a compound in their blood. The Zhitoran attacks had escalated, and they were teetering on the brink of an all-out invasion. Garth's actions led to other Federation ships being called for backup, and a massive battle ensued, laying waste to the planet’s major cities, but the battle was credited with ultimately saving the planet.
It was a radical reinterpretation of the non-interference clause of the Prime Directive, and the planet of Axanar had spent a decade rebuilding to recover from the mess. Politics and power in the region had changed. Now, the groundwork had been laid for peace between the Axanar and the species that had once hunted them. The Federation was providing the chance for all the planets involved to have a better future.
Of course, the only things that interested Leonard less than politics were transporter physics and extravehicular space walks, so really, he didn’t give a damn. Besides, he wasn’t here for political intrigue. He was here to run a med-psych research study. He’d have plenty to do to distract himself from being trapped out in the middle of nowhere without his friends and family.
Suddenly feeling sharply homesick, Leonard shook his head and shut off that line of thought. It would just make him more worked up than he already was. He’d be home to see his baby girl soon enough.
For now, he had plenty of work to keep himself busy. He’d be starting the initial interviews with his first research subjects as early as tomorrow, if he could get his roster approved and finalized. Plus, the plants on Araxis reportedly had some exciting medicinal qualities. Maybe he’d get permission to take a break from his regular research project to visit the planet and meet with local medical personnel there.
Leonard was so lost in thought that he was walking through the doors of the medical bay before he realized he’d gotten there. Instantly, he felt his mood lift at the familiar sights and sounds. Whether it was a small hospital on Earth or a medical bay on a starship, in Leonard’s experience, the facilities designed for the caretaking of sentient life were always a source of comfort. The med bay wasn’t very large, but it was well-lit and active. Nurses were hurrying back and forth, checking supplies and equipment for pre-departure inspections. A couple of techs were carrying small crates to what must be a back storage room. And Doctor Brex -
“Ah, Doctor McCoy!” Brex emerged from behind a small partition wall and spotted him. “You’re here sooner than I expected.”
Leonard shrugged. “I didn’t have much unpacking to do, and I’m chompin’ at the bit here.”
Brex pursed his lips in confusion, obviously at the colloquial turn of phrase.
“Just an old saying, Doctor. Means I’m eager to get to work.”
“Ah, sounds great then! Actually, I could use a hand right over here.” He tilted his head back towards the partition, which Leonard realized must be an exam area. “I was trying to finalize crew rosters and transfers in the system before we depart, and get everyone scheduled for the mandatory baseline physicals, but then we got our first patient.”
Leonard raised an eyebrow. “Oh? Someone already managed to hurt themselves? Doing what? Unpacking?”
“Not quite. This one showed up on the final shuttle with some injuries from his last assignment, and they told him to report to medical as soon as he arrived here. Nothing critical, but his shoulder needs some work, he’s got a little bit of internal bruising, and there are some abrasions and contusions that should be treated.”
Leonard couldn’t help himself -- he rolled his eyes. “So the new crew is showing up already injured? If I were superstitious, I’d say that’s a bad sign. What the hell happened to the guy? And couldn’t the doctors on his last assignment do their jobs?”
Brex shrugged. “The young man is another cadet. He was on a field training assignment that just ended this morning. They only had a medic with them, not a doctor. He told me that if he’d gone to the campus infirmary before reporting for this assignment, he would have missed his shuttle here --” Brex froze mid-sentence.
At the same moment, something in Leonard’s chest squeezed for a second. It was gut instinct. A hunch. He felt his eyes widen just a fraction. It couldn’t be. “Wait... you’ve got to be kidding me... ”
Doctor Brex frowned at him, puzzled. “Do you know this cadet, Doctor? Either way, I don’t think that it would be a problem for you to treat him. Simple injuries. I really need to finish the roster checks, but if you --”
“I don’t have a problem with it... I’ll take care of it. No problem at all. I just need to see...” Turning away from a very surprised-looking Betazoid, Leonard hurried over to the partition and came to a clumsy halt at the foot of a biobed, on which sat a bruised, beaten, shirtless, but delighted-looking Jim Kirk.
“Bones!”
For a few seconds, Leonard stared at Jim’s smug grin, speechless. He opened his mouth a couple of times, sputtering, searching for words to describe the swirl of emotions - surprise, relief, irritation, happiness, belated worry, exasperation - and finally came up with something wholly inadequate. “This is what you weren’t telling me! You had this planned since the night after graduation, didn’t you?”
“Surprise!” he said slyly, still grinning so hard his eyes crinkled.
“Dammit, Jim!”
Jim snickered. “Good to see you, too. And this is where you say, ‘Jim, what a wonderful surprise! I missed ya, kid. How was your Survival and Tactics course?’”
Leonard forced his stunned expression into a critical frown. “I can see quite clearly how survival training was.” Snapping into doctor-mode to hide his absolute astonishment at the unexpected twist in his morning, he grabbed the nearest tricorder and began scanning.
“Come on, Bones,” Jim said with light dismay, the amusement on his face not waning. “Seriously?”
Leonard scowled. “Yes, seriously. You show up in the medical bay, beaten to a pulp, with me on duty, and you expect anything else? You’d better believe I’m serious,” he said, brandishing his tricorder.
“It’s just bumps and bruises,” Jim protested, still holding fast to his best winning smile. “I haven’t seen you in two weeks. Put down the tricorder and say hi first, would ya?”
Leonard grumbled and looked back down at the readout on the tricorder. “Not even counting the superficial abrasions, lacerations, and contusions, you’ve had four ribs cracked that were only given the most basic repair treatment, you bruised your left kidney --”
“Huh, maybe that’s why I was pissing red,” Jim said casually.
Leonard glared at him. “That’s not funny, kid. You separated your damned AC joint, and it wasn’t put back together correctly.” He cast a glance back up at the main biobed readout. “You’re malnourished and dehydrated, your electrolytes are completely out of whack, and you’ve even got a goddamned sunburn!”
Jim’s ludicrously sunny expression didn’t dim in the slightest. “Thanks for asking, Bones. I had a great time! We battled Klingons, did solo survival treks, ran patrols, and slept under the stars. I passed with flying colors, and that’s how I got my official promotion to Cadet First Class this morning so I could take the internship on the Athena.” He tilted his head to the side, looking unnervingly like a puppy wondering why he hadn’t gotten a treat yet. “And now, you say, ‘That’s great, Jim! I’m happy for ya.’”
“I’m happy that you still seem to have all your limbs still attached, even if just barely,” Leonard muttered irritably. The ribs needed a round of osteostim treatment, and his shoulder was going to need minor corrective surgery. Leave it to Jim to be less interested in the severity of his injuries and more focused on whether or not his little surprise had worked. “Didn’t they even take care of you while you were out on your training course? Hell, did they even feed you?”
“Sure, but there’s a reason they call it survival training. We carry field ration bars with us. They're supposed to be complete nutrition but... they're really gross. We get a field medic to patch up the basic stuff, but if we need to come back in from the field for treatment, we fail the course and have to re-take it. If I’d done that, I would have missed this.” He gestured around with his good arm. “The Axanar Peace Mission? This is big stuff!”
“We’re not going to Axanar, Jim. We’re going to Araxis.”
Jim shrugged, wincing at the motion, but he grinned anyway. “We’re stopping by Axanar first, and we’re still part of the peace mission. Besides...” His tone changed slightly, and his expression became more thoughtful, and almost plaintive. “I told you I wasn’t going to let you go up into the black without me.”
Leonard’s mouth fell open and he stared at Jim blankly for a moment, but then Jim’s smug expression came back full force.
“Anyway, Bones, I couldn’t let you have all the fun up here while I was stuck back on campus taking classes. I heard the summer courses are mind-numbing. And how was your week with Joanna?”
Leonard shook his head at Jim in disbelief before turning to the nearby supply cabinet. He was relieved to find that the drugs he was looking for were readily accessible, and grabbed them along with a hypospray.
“Come on, Bones, are you at least a little bit surprised to see me?”
“I am never, never going to be surprised by anything you ever do again, you goddamned menace,” Leonard said flatly as he snapped a fairly strong analgesic and moderate muscle relaxant into the hypospray. He’d bet anything that Jim was in a lot more pain than he’d ever admit.
“You keep saying that, Bones, and yet, I keep surprising you.”
“Shut up and hold still.” He deftly administered the dose, pleased that Jim didn’t protest, then turned to get the osteostim units. When he turned back to Jim, the kid was looking at him with an unreadable expression. “Jim?”
“You can’t tell me you’re not happy to see me.” The question was meant to sound careless, but it was tainted by the slightly wounded expression that almost nobody else would have noticed.
Putting the osteostim units down on the bedside table, Leonard sighed. “Of course I’m happy to see you, kid. You took me by surprise, but yeah, I’m really happy to see you.” He tried to smile, but he was sure it came out broken. “Actually... dammit, I... I’m relieved to see you. You could have done a dozen different things this summer. Maybe got yourself assigned to one of the ships actually going to Axanar. I figured I was going to spend the whole summer alone. I... I really wasn’t looking forward to being alone out here. So... thank you.”
Jim’s smile brightened again. “You’re welcome, Bones. I wanted to be here. So, the summer’s off to a great start. I got promoted, you get to put up with me, and you got to see your daughter.”
For some reason, looking at Jim's enthusiastic grin, Leonard just couldn't keep lying anymore. “I... uh... didn’t get to see Joanna.”
Jim’s eyes went wide. “Wait, what? I thought you had it all worked out. What did the old battle-axe do?”
“Actually, she didn't do anything. Not really.” Leonard wrapped his arms around his torso. “It was my fault. And it wasn’t all worked out. I just assumed I could... aw hell, we can talk about this later. Not in here, okay?”
Jim nodded. “That’s fine.” Then he blinked. “Whoa, what was in that hypospray?”
“Painkiller and a muscle relaxant.” He reached out and ran his fingers lightly along the deeply bruised areas around the ribs on Jim’s right side, frowning at Jim’s instinctive flinch. “The muscles around your ribs have been bunched up in knots all week, and I need the intercostals to relax so I can treat the fractures.” He withdrew his hand. “Hell, I’m surprised you can breathe.”
Jim shrugged stiffly, although to Leonard’s marginal satisfaction, he barely winced this time. Even so, those had been some damned strong painkillers, and he was still hurting. “It’s a little sore.”
“Masochist.”
“The finest.”
Leonard shook his head. “Unbelievable. You know I have to fix your shoulder surgically, too.”
Jim’s face fell. “What? It’s not that bad! I’ve been using it all week. It’s just achy. Can’t you just wave your magic wand and make it better?”
“Keep dreaming, kid. You’re a classic case for under-reporting symptoms, you know that? Oh, and while I’ve got you stuck here, you’re getting fluids and a dermagel treatment, too.”
“Sadist.”
“The finest. Here, lie down.” He helped ease Jim onto his back, and quickly placed the stim units, despite Jim’s token protests. “You sit tight there while I get some supplies, and we’ll finish patching you up in no time.”
“Fine,” Jim said, then he turned his head to the side. “Bones?”
“Yeah, kid?”
“Even if you are a sadistic bastard...” His expression softened into a fond smile. “I’m glad I managed to get this posting.”
Leonard returned the smile, then reached and and squeezed Jim’s good shoulder. “Me, too, kid. I’ll be right back.”
Doctor Brex was in his office, engrossed in his work, presumably ship rosters. He looked up immediately as Leonard entered, then offered an enigmatic smile. “How’s your patient?”
“Did you know that’s my best friend sitting there?” Leonard asked without preamble, ignoring the question.
Brex’s smile became a bit sly. “Only with certainty after you’d walked around the corner and saw him for yourself. You’ve got some... loud emotions regarding Cadet Kirk. Just like the first part of your verbal conversation.”
Leonard stiffened. “I... guess we were a bit too loud. Jim’s good at throwing people off guard.”
Brex waved him off with a grin. “Not to worry. I’m glad you’ll have someone on the ship for this mission who will make you feel more at home.” Then his expression sobered. “Are you okay treating a friend of yours? If not, I can pull Doctor Singh. She’s testing and calibrating the stasis fields for our live cell specimens in the lab, but it can wait.”
Leonard waved him off. “No, it’s fine. Trust me, it’s nothing I haven’t done before, and this is all small stuff. I’ve got his ribs under osteostim right now. His AC joint was fused incorrectly in the field, so I’ll need to detach it and realign it properly. His kidney is stable and healing on its own, but a few hours with the biobed’s regen field will help speed it along. While I’ve got him here, I’ll give him IV fluids to correct the electrolyte imbalance. A bit of regen on the lacerations, dermagel treatment on the sunburn, and he’ll be good to go.” It almost felt comforting to rattle off a patient treatment plan.
“What about you?”
Taken aback by the question, Leonard furrowed his eyebrows. “What about me?”
“Are you good to go?”
For a moment, Leonard wanted to protest the insinuation, but Doctor Brex was both a medical doctor and a telepath. Plus, he was a colleague and supervisor now. Leonard let his shoulders slump, just marginally. “Mostly. I just don’t much like seeing my friends hurt.”
“You’ve seen it too many times before?”
Leonard nodded. “Yes. And I'm sure it won't get any better after I graduate. But... I’m a doctor. At least I can fix him. I think that actually makes it easier.”
Doctor Brex studied him for a moment, and Leonard had to once again quell the uncomfortable feeling that the man could see right through him. Then Brex smiled. “Have Nurse Walsh assist you for the surgery. Treatment bay one is fully equipped for minor procedures like that. Report back to me when you’re done, and we’ll get you set up with your general duty roster and research protocol.”
“Thank you.” Leonard took his dismissal and left the office, stunned at how his morning had turned upside-down so quickly... and at how relieved he was that it had. Somehow, Jim managed to turn everything on its head, no matter what the situation. Usually, it was for the better. Leonard looked at the partition, hiding Jim from his view, and shook his head fondly before turning and looking towards the nurse’s station.
“Nurse Walsh?”
A petite nurse with a pale complexion and a shock of red hair stood up. “Yes, Doctor...?”
“McCoy. Leonard McCoy.” He extended a hand in greeting, which she shook in turn. “I’m here for two months for an internship - research project and general practice. Doctor Brex told me to have you assist for a minor surgery on the patient over in bay one. He’s a little bit stubborn, so he might need a firm hand. Are you good with that?”
She grinned deviously. “Is he a type-A personality who would insist that he’s only got a paper cut when he’s bleeding out?”
“That would be Jim.”
“That would be a large number of Starfleet personnel. I’ve got it covered. Stubborn patients are my specialty, Doctor. I’d guess that’s why Doctor Brex told me to help you. He’s... observant like that.”
Leonard raised an eyebrow. Maybe having a highly intuitive supervisor would be even better than he’d thought. With a nod to Nurse Walsh, he turned and led her towards the treatment bay.
*********
“I thought you said you’d have me patched up in no time.” Jim’s tone was a delicate balance of boredom and annoyance. “It’s almost eighteen hundred, it’s my first day on a starship, and I spent the entire day on a biobed.”
“You needed it, Jim. And I'll say you were far more exhausted from your training course than you thought you were, because you slept over four hours after the anesthetic wore off.”
“Should have woken me up,” Jim mumbled.
Leonard raised an eyebrow at him. “I don’t know, Jim... you’re a much more cooperative patient when you’re out cold. Besides, your kidney still had diminished function until twenty minutes ago, and the extra IV therapy was good for you.” In one deft motion, he pressed down on the back of Jim’s hand with a gauze pad and pulled out the IV catheter.
Jim hissed in irritation. “You need to stop sticking me with those things.”
“You need to stop needing them. You still haven't asked to use the bathroom yet, and don't think I haven't noticed.”
Jim scowled.
Leonard smirked and taped down the gauze. “Leave that there for a second.” He discarded the used supplies in the biohazard reprocessor, then grabbed a cup of water from the shelf and handed it to Jim, who dutifully began chugging the drink. Leonard gave a satisfied nod. “Besides, nobody needed the bed here for other patients, and your other option was being stuck in your quarters all day.”
Jim sputtered around the last bit of water. “Stuck in my quarters? No way. I’m sure I missed a half-dozen briefings today. First day out of space dock is bound to be really busy.” He put down the cup, peeked under the gauze, rubbed the back of his hand, then tested out the range of motion in his shoulder.
“Hey, go easy on that shoulder! I just put the damned thing back together. Don’t need ya messing up my handiwork. And no lifting for twenty-four hours.” Leonard shook his head as he handed Jim his uniform shirt. “Besides, hot-shot, we tagged your name on the ship’s duty roster as being medically restricted from duty. Don’t worry, your chain of command knew where you were.”
“Well, they knew I was coming up here anyway.” He pulled his uniform shirt roughly over his head, and he continued to talk, muffled through the fabric. “I met with Lieutenant Commander Shao and Lieutenant Finney when my shuttle docked. Shao is overseeing the cadet intern program, and Finney is my immediate section leader for the mission.” His head popped out through the neck hole. “Do you remember Lieutenant Finney?”
Leonard frowned. “Can’t say I do.”
Jim grinned. “He’s an assistant instructor at the Academy. Ran my first hand-to-hand class, and was a TA in Ship Operations. He’s a friend. Anyway, they sent me straight over here from the shuttle bay when I arrived, but I told them that I’d be back as soon as you guys released me.” Jim gave him a look that said he was extremely put-out by the situation.
“And seeing as you haven’t been released yet, you’ve kept your word.”
“But I told them it wouldn’t take long -”
“It takes as long as the doctor - which is me - says it takes.” He grabbed Jim’s pants off a chair next to the biobed and dropped them unceremoniously into Jim’s hands. “And no, you wouldn’t have been allowed back on duty today anyway. That was my call.”
“Wouldn’t have been allowed? Fffu... fine.” He slid off the biobed and inelegantly stepped into the pants, keeping a scowl fixed on Leonard’s face the whole time. “At least I showed up here, as ordered.”
“Will wonders never cease,” Leonard deadpanned. “Jim Kirk actually showed up to a medical facility of his own volition when injured and ordered to report.”
“Sure, Bones. Thanks for the vote of confidence.” He sighed in obvious resignation. “But either way, my duty day is over, and I’ve got nothing else on my agenda until tomorrow. Although I did manage to check in with Lieutenant Finney on the PADD I charmed from Nurse Walsh.”
“I told her to give it to you to get you to be quiet and keep your blood pressure down.”
Jim shot him a look. “Ruin all my fun, why don’t you? Anyway, I got my duty rotations for the next week, quarters assignment, and mission briefing material to review.” He stuck his feet into his boots and zipped them. “And what were you doing all day while I was being lazy?”
“Well, once you were snoring away, I got a lot done. Successful separation and microfusion surgery on an acromioclavicular joint for starters. Always fun cutting up my friends and putting them back together.”
“Bones...”
“Relax, Jim,” he said mildly, letting a note of affection seep into his voice. “I’m messing with you. It’s a common injury that was given piss-poor treatment in the field, which is not your fault and I don’t blame you for it. Okay? It’s fixed now. I’m just glad you made it through your course... and yeah, kid, I’m proud of you for passing.”
A bright smile lit Jim’s face. “Thanks, Bones.” Then his smile became more sheepish. “And... uh... thanks for fixing up the shoulder. Feels better now.”
Leonard let himself grin as a warm sense of pride swelled in his chest. “No problem, kid. But try not to make a habit of it.”
“Believe me, nothing would make me happier. So... your day?” Jim asked as he reached for his belt. “Regale me with your exciting tales of medical bay heroics.”
Leonard snorted. “Heroics. Right. You’d make a guy believe that this is more than tedium and routine. In addition to treating a couple of engineers for plasma burns, I finalized my research protocols with the members of the ship’s crew roster who will be participating in my study.” He let a self-satisfied grin twist his mouth. “If I get even a fraction of the results I’m expecting, I’ll have enough data to finish my thesis. I’ll have it submitted before midterms next semester.”
“That’s great! See? No heroics needed. Good things happen on starships. It’s not all silence and darkness and disease and danger out here, right?” He reached for his duffel, but Leonard grabbed it first.
“I don’t think so, kid. I told you - no lifting for twenty-four hours unless you want me to go poking around inside your shoulder again.” He looped the strap over his own shoulder, then sighed at the dejected annoyance on Jim’s face. “Listen, I’m off-duty now anyway, so I’ll help you carry this back to your quarters. Then maybe we can get a bite to eat down at the mess hall, and you can tell me all about your heroic escapades battling Starfleet security officers dressed up like Klingons.”
Jim gave him a look of exasperation. “You sure know how to take the wind out of a guy’s sails.”
Leonard grinned and clapped Jim lightly on the back of the neck, steering him towards the door out of the medical bay. “If you behave, I’ll even let you have a cookie.”
“How generous.”
“That’s me.”
Leonard caught a quick peek back into the room to see Doctor Brex standing at the door to his office, leaning lightly on the door jamb, smiling gently. It struck Leonard with an odd, indefinable, yet soft and reassuring emotion. Despite the fact that he was on a starship, racing through the vacuum of space away from Earth far faster than the speed of light... something just seemed good and right with the universe just then. He managed a smile back at Doctor Brex and a slight wave before his momentum took him out into the corridor and the door slid shut behind him.
Jim looked at him sideways. “It had better be chocolate chip.”
*********
The mess hall aboard the Athena was a fraction of the size of the mess hall back at the Academy, but the familiar clinking of cutlery and the light-hearted buzz of conversation instantly made Jim feel more comfortable. It didn’t matter if it was Murphy’s Pub packed with locals back in Riverside, a school cafeteria, or a mess hall on a starship hurtling through space at warp speed - the sound of a room full of people eating and talking was always the same.
Bones nudged his arm with an elbow. “It’s kinda packed. Wonder if there will be a place to sit.”
Jim scanned the room. Bones was right; it was pretty full. “I’m sure we can figure something... hey!” He caught sight of a familiar face and a wave near the back wall. “There’s Lieutenant Finney and some of the other cadets. They’ll save us a seat. Let’s grab some food.”
He didn’t have to check over his shoulder to know that Bones was following him.
They made their way through the crowd to the service line. It was only then that Jim realized that he was the only one in the room in cadet reds, and he stood out almost comically amongst the regular crew members. Even the other cadets in the room, however few there were, must have been down to the Quartermaster during the day and had been issued temporary duty uniforms - identical to the crew uniforms, only with a gray outer tunic instead of a branch color, and a non-branch insignia. Jim tried not to feel embarrassed at being out of uniform as he grabbed a chicken sandwich and fries from the line and quickly began weaving towards the back of the room.
“Jim, maybe I should find some of the medical staff to sit with,” Bones said from behind him.
“You’re going to spend every waking minute with them over the next few weeks,” Jim shot back over his shoulder. “What’s the problem?”
Bones shrugged. “Dunno... just figure I should get to know my own team, I guess. I don’t really interact with the other cadets on campus.”
Jim shook his head. “We’re not on campus, Bones. When we finally get stationed on a ship after graduation, you’ll need to meet other people from other specialties. Come on, meet the other cadets.”
Bones’ shoulders slumped marginally in defeat. “Fine. Lead the way.”
Lieutenant Finney waved to them as they got to the table, and raised his voice just a bit above the din of the room. “Cadet Kirk! So nice of you to join us, just in time for...” He made a show of looking at a nonexistent chrono on his wrist. “Dinner!” The words were teasing but the smile was welcoming.
Jim offered him a look of chagrin as he set his plate down. “Believe me, sir, I would have been much happier to have been on-duty all day, instead of being stuck in sickbay.”
“I know, Kirk. How’re you feeling?”
“Good as new,” Jim said easily, sitting in one of the two open seats at the table. “Hey guys.” He gave a nod of greeting to the five cadets at the table. Two of them he didn’t know, but he recognized Nadeau, Liu, and Wilcox. “Glad you made it, Wilcox.”
“Are you kidding me?” said the young woman with a dirty blond ponytail and broad shoulders. She had started in the general Command and Tactics track at the Academy, but had decided to specialize as a pilot in her second year. “I wouldn’t have missed this for the world. I passed my Class Two flight certification, so once we get to our specialized rotations, I’ll get to fly this bird. I turned in my thesis at 0400 hours this morning and still made it on the first shuttle.”
“At least you showed up ready to work,” Finney said to her. “Kirk here showed up looking like he’d just gone ten rounds with a Klingon, and then he spent the day napping in sickbay.”
“Thank you, sir, may I have another?” Jim deadpanned.
“There’s plenty more where that came from.” Finney leaned back in his seat and looked up at Bones, who still hadn’t made a move to sit down. “And you’re Cadet McCoy.”
Bones looked surprised, and a bit unnerved. “How do you -”
Finney waved a casual hand. “Just because your training is handled through Starfleet Medical Academy doesn’t mean you get to live in a bubble.” Then he grinned broadly. “Besides, anyone who knows Kirk knows who you are.”
Jim looked up in time to see Bones casting him an unreadable expression, but Finney kept on. “So come on, have a seat. I know you medical cadets keep to yourselves for most of your studies, but we’ll be working together a little bit, so you might as well get to know them. Just watch out for the security cadets,” he said with a wink.
“Gee, and I haven't even had a chance to scare him myself,” Cadet Liu said with mock-offense. Jim knew him from hand-to-hand training. Liu was a good fighter, and an all-round decent guy to have on your team.
Bones snorted and took a seat with obvious reluctance. “I’ll have to remember that one,” he said with a nod before grabbing his sandwich and taking a huge bite.
Finney laughed. ”I know you’ll be spending most of your time doing your research project, but there are certain aspects of shipboard operations that even doctors ought to know. Commander Shao and I already discussed cross-discipline training for all the cadets, and we talked to Doctor Brex about including you. You’ll attend some of our training modules later in the rotation. Technically, it’s not mandatory, but it would be really good for your record if you want a shipboard posting.”
Bones shrugged, looking oddly uncomfortable. “I’ll be pretty busy with my own research, but... yeah, I’m looking for a shipboard posting, so I guess it would be good to know how these flying tin cans work.”
A dark-skinned cadet Jim didn’t know well leaned forward on the table, folding her arms in front of her. “Do I get to say you work on meat sacks, Doctor?” she said lightly.
“I... what?”
She gave him a sarcastically demure smile. “Lovely to meet you, too, Doctor. I’m Cadet Buhari. Engineering. Or tin-can expert, whichever you prefer.”
“Oh... hi, then,” Bones said awkwardly. “Doctor McCoy. Meat-sack expert.”
Finney was laughing. “As long as you don’t call the ship a ‘tin can’ around the engineers, you’ll do just fine, Doc.” He turned back to Jim. “You missed all the orientation briefings today, Kirk, but I don’t think it’s anything that will set you back too much. Go over the data I sent to your PADD, ask me any questions you have, and that should cover it. Oh, and stop by the Quartermaster before duty tomorrow. There are three duty uniforms waiting for you, so you can get out of those reds. Once you leave the Academy, a red uniform is nothing but a target.”
Jim started to laugh, then frowned. He glanced sideways at Bones, who had paused with his sandwich halfway to his mouth. “Bones?”
“A target?” Bones asked hesitantly.
“Figure of speech,” the other cadet Jim didn’t know chimed in, “and a long-running joke out here in the black. Of course, the Ops guys hate it, but it’s true.” His tone was neutral, but his expression was a bit terse. “When something goes wrong, Ops guys are the first in the line of fire. Anyone with a red shirt, basically. Something blows up in Engineering, or a landing party gets attacked... my brother has seen a lot of it. He’s a security officer.” He gave a grin that looked just a bit off. “That’s why I went with the sciences. Biochemistry. It’s Hererra, by the way.”
Bones muttered a cordial, “Nice to meet you,” before shaking his head. “So there’s actually a job around here more dangerous than the crazy stuff the command folks do?”
Lieutenant Finney nodded. “Oh yeah. The unofficial thinking is that they picked red for Ops uniforms because it hides bloodstains better. At least, it does for folks with iron-based blood.”
Slowly, Bones put down his sandwich. “Great. Tell me why I wanted to work on a starship again?”
“Because of your incredible sense of adventure, Bones,” Jim said, elbowing him lightly.
Bones raised an eyebrow at him, but Jim only shrugged and stuffed a French fry in his mouth.
Finney laughed, then quickly downed the last bit of his drink before setting the cup on the table with a heavy clack. “Anyway, I’ve had a long day and I still have training plans for the week to review with Commander Shao.” He stood, and waved down the table of cadets as they instinctively moved to stand with him. “You’re free for the night. The recreation rooms and fitness facility are available, but don’t stay up too late. See you all tomorrow at 0800 on the secondary bridge.”
The cadets at the table waited until he was out of earshot before Nadeau leaned in. “I’ll fill you in on the unofficial parts of the briefings today, Kirk. We struck gold getting Finney for trainer. He’s planning on taking the whole bunch of us down to the surface of Araxis, and maybe even to Axanar if there’s time while the Captain plays diplomat with the Axanar leaders.”
Jim felt a jolt of excitement at the prospect of getting so much landing party time. “Yeah, Finney’s like that. Believes in first-hand experience.” He took a bite of his sandwich and talked around it. “You guys get a feel for Commander Shao? I don’t really know her.”
Cadet Liu shrugged. “Seems to go by the book, but not too stiff about it. I think she’ll give Finney a lot of freedom with us as long as it’s all technically within regs. Finney's really the one running things with us. We did pretty well with this assignment, I think.”
“Kind of a shame we’re not going to get to be on Axanar itself for the main negotiations,” Nadeau said, not hiding his disappointment. “That’s gonna be historic.”
“We’re still part of the big picture,” Jim said, churning through the assignment in his head. “Besides, we’ll be some of the first Federation representatives ever to step foot on Araxis. This will be the first time a Federation ship has been there. That’s pretty damned exciting.”
“Wait a second,” Bones said hesitantly, something in his tone catching Jim’s attention. “If we’re the first Starfleet ship going to Araxis... I mean... how much do they really know about the place? And don’t look so surprised, Jim. I read the report. If most of that is second-hand, how do we know it’s correct? Is the place secure? They’re sending cadets on a mission like that?”
Jim flashed Bones his most reassuring smarmy grin. “I’m impressed, Bones. You almost sound like a command officer, doing mission risk assessments. But it’s no different than a lot of assignments. We’re Starfleet, even if we’re cadets. Officer interns, actually. There’s always some element of risk. That’s why we signed up. But really, it’s a quiet little colony planet with a population eager to join the Federation. While the senior officers sit in negotiations, we’re going to stand around and look pretty. And don't worry - I’m pretty enough to cover for you, too.”
Everyone at the table groaned, and Wilcox punched Jim in the arm. To Jim’s satisfaction, Bones rolled his eyes and dug into his salad.
Conversation bounced between assignment speculation and next year’s courses for a few minutes before Nadeau pushed his chair back. “I’m gonna get going, guys. Unlike Kirk here, I didn’t get to sleep through half the day.” He offered a light-hearted smirk that said he was mostly kidding. “Kirk, you’re sharing quarters with me, Liu, and Hererra, so I’ll see you two later.”
“Actually, I’ll come along now,” Hererra said, standing as well, followed quickly by Liu.
“I’ve been up since 0300 this morning. I’m beat,” Liu said heavily as he pushed his chair back under the table.
“I guess I’m abandoning you, too,” Wilcox said, following suit. “We were almost done when you got here, and Buhari and I are going to hit the fitness facility before turning in.”
“Sure, guys. Leave me here by my lonesome.”
“Thanks, Jim,” Bones said.
Jim subtly nudged his knee against Bones’ leg under the table and gave him a look, then nodded back up at the other cadets. “See you down in our quarters. I won’t be too late.”
As soon as they’d all left the table, Jim turned towards Bones, and wasted no time. “So what happened with Joanna?”
In a heartbeat, Bones’ stiff posture sagged as he leaned heavily on his elbows and stabbed a cherry tomato with his fork as if it had personally offended him. “You’ve been waiting since this morning to drill me with that, weren’t you?”
“You know me.”
“Yeah, I do.” He sighed and popped the tomato into his mouth, obviously killing time as he chewed slowly. Jim waited in silence, and finally, Bones put down his fork and folded his arms on the table top. His voice was low, but Jim could hear every word. “The divorce wasn’t just her fault, Jim.”
“I know... you told me... your father...” He was cut off by Bones slowly shaking his head.
“Final straw, kid. That wasn’t really the start of it.” He closed his eyes and in that moment, Jim thought he’d never seen Bones quite so desolate. “I thought I was doing wonderful things for humanity, putting everyone else first. My patients, my research. I told myself that it wasn’t just about me getting ahead, becoming the youngest staff doctor ever at Atlanta Medical Center. It took all of my time, and I told myself that was okay. And then, when my father got sick, I started squeezing even more hours out of the day, trying to find a cure for him. And I’d just expected Jocelyn to be there, even though I was never there for her and our daughter. That her life would just naturally revolve around me doing all these wonderful things for humanity. Right?” He opened his eyes and looked at Jim, his expression pleading for something that Jim didn’t quite understand.
“Well, you were doing good things for humanity,” Jim said hesitantly.
“Sure... but in the process, I took Jocelyn for granted. I took Joanna for granted, and she was just a baby. I acted like they’d just be there when I had time. It’s no wonder Joce started to resent me. So... when I got a week with Joanna for the summer... I did it again.”
“Oh?” Jim asked, confused, but trying to sound neutral.
“I just assumed I could show up in Atlanta anytime, and Joanna would just be there, ready for me whenever I wanted.”
“Oh.” Jim was starting to understand. “So, where was she?”
“Mars,” Bones said, looking absolutely gutted. “Joce's sister lives on the Mars colony. They were visiting. I think Joce did it on purpose, because she knew when the Academy’s summer semester began, but fuck, I never actually communicated when I’d be available to see Joanna. This was my fault. Absolutely my fault. I did it again. I took my own kid for granted.” His eyes fell shut again, framed with tight lines of distress, lips pressed together miserably.
Jim really wasn’t sure what to say to that, so he went for the gut of it. “So you screwed up. I’ve fucked up plenty of times. Like you’ve told me... learn from it.”
“I fucked it up once before, and I obviously didn’t learn from it the first time.”
“So learn this time,” Jim said forcefully. “Send the old bag a subspace comm. Chew a little bit of humble pie, tell her when you’ll be back, and ask if you can see Joanna once we get back from this internship.”
Bones shrugged noncommittally. “I guess.”
For a moment, Jim studied his face. “Bones, what’s really eating you here?”
His back stiffened, but he didn’t meet Jim’s eyes. “What do you think? I haven’t seen my daughter in person for almost two goddamned years.”
“I know that, but Bones? There’s something else. Come on, I know you too well.”
He waited while Bones stubbornly remained silent, stuffing another bite of sandwich into his mouth, chewing more thoroughly than he needed to. Finally, he swallowed and let his shoulders slump. "I don't even know, Jim."
Jim frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means... it... dammit, Jim." He groaned and leaned his face into his hands for a moment before looking up again. "It means I'm a fuck-up of a father and a human being and... I'm probably a fuck-up of a friend and -"
"Whoa, slow down there! Bones, you made a mistake. You'll fix it. I know you. And you've always been a great friend." He ducked his head down, forcing Bones to make eye contact with him. "I'd be dead if it weren't for you. Friendship doesn't get much tighter than that."
Bones, however, went wide-eyed and shook his head, looking spooked by the whole line of discussion. “But it’s... it wasn’t...” He came to a stuttering halt, like he'd just run into a verbal brick wall, and Jim wished like hell he knew what was going through the guy's head at that moment. Then Bones heaved a sigh. “Did you know the coffee onboard this ship is the worst I’ve tasted since the swill in the Riverside diner?”
Jim stared at Bones incredulously, registering the complete shift in the conversation, then forced himself laugh. “That stuff back in Riverside was pretty nasty. That’s why I stuck with the beer.”
Bones’ expression finally morphed into something between a grateful smile and a broken plea. “Yeah.” He looked down at his half-eaten sandwich on his tray. “Maybe I should turn in early.”
Jim wanted to argue with him, ask him to come down to the rec room and socialize. But Bones looked tired, and Jim knew he needed to get down to the Quartermaster and settle into his own quarters. “Okay. But I'll catch you tomorrow, okay? Dinner after alpha shift?”
“It'll depend on my schedule,” Bones said, noncommittally. “I'll let you know.”
They cleared their plates from the table and parted ways at the turbolift when Bones got out on deck eight. As the 'lift door slid shut after Bones, Jim stared at it for a long moment, not moving. He'd followed Bones into space, and now, he was wondering if Bones was still parsecs away, back on Earth, trapped by his past.
“Please state your destination,” the computer chimed helpfully.
With a heavy sigh, Jim said, “Deck ten.”
*********
To Chapter 4