Never written for Star Trek before so here goes nothing!

*for all of you confused people out there who are seeing déjà vu with this story or are questioning as to why this was deleated then reposted please go to the bottom of this page. Thank you.


The Things Left Unsaid

Chapter 1: The Enemy Within

Maybe there was no other way. Maybe there's a time and a place to quit, to end, to throw his hands up to space and say, "I can't do this. You win. You win..." He didn't believe in a no win scenario but maybe it was time that he started to. He couldn't win this time, he couldn't fight this fight. There was no one to fight. Well, there was but no one he could win against. No one he could pound his fist into over and over again until his arm shook covered in blood both his and theirs. There wasn't anyone who he could shoot three times in the chest and once in the face like the instructors at the Academy had joked once about doing - to ensure the enemy was dead beyond a shadow of a doubt. He couldn't do that. He couldn't lash out with his fists or pull his phaser from his belt and shoot because there was no enemy.

There was no enemy to fight. No one to move aside, to push. There was no one to talk down. But there was a gun. A fully loaded, totally accurate, completely antique and incredibly barbaric twentieth century pistol cocked and ready to shoot and kill with blood splattering and screaming.

Jim hated guns. He hated phasers almost as much but guns, guns held a special place of hatred deep in his heart.

It was a gun that got him in trouble when he was five and had found it in his Daddy's box of old things that was stuffed away in the back of the attic behind Sammy's toys that he never played with anymore. He'd found it buried under a pile of old bound paper books that he'd never seen before and shirts that smelled musty with a hint of spice from Daddy's cologne that Mommy had used to wear when she got sad sometimes. Little Jimmy had grabbed the shiny metal whatever it was and brought it to his mother, all smiles and awestruck at how glinty it was, how small it was but heavy and solid in his tiny hands.

"Where the hell did you get that?!" Was screamed at him so loudly, so fast he'd dropped the shiny metal revolver and skidded away from it as fast as he could. His mommy, all crazed blonde hair and face reddened in anger had grabbed it with clawed hands and hid it away out of his sight. He'd never seen it again and from the three days when Mommy hadn't spoken to him he'd learned never to touch Daddy's old box again.

It was guns that Kodos' men had used to usher and move the masses of people into the down square. Guns that were held up and out with fingers on triggers when the slightly balding man with a clean shaven face and red robe tied around his thick torso had given his speech.

"The revolution is successful. But survival depends on drastic measures. Your continued existence represents a threat to the well-being of society. Your lives mean slow death to the more valued members of the colony..."

The sound of gun fire popping was the first sound after Kodos' strange speech. Jim had hit the ground fast already recognizing the sound. People screamed. The woman to his right - Karren's mother Kardeth who he'd met the first day of school - looked around wildly before ducking and falling to her knees, blood gushing from her side. She fell to the side her brown air spilling in all directions and eyes still open, dirt and blood splattering the whites. It was chaos, complete with screams of surrender and the begs of forgiveness. Beside him three more people fell face first on the ground smashing into the pavement hard enough to break bone. The citizens of Tarsus scrambled and ran stepping on the bodies of the dead to get out, get away from the bullets. Someone kicked Jim in the face, another stepped on his knee. Jim yelled in agony hearing something crack and seeing stars burst in his eyes. He couldn't get up to move or escape so he stayed still. He grabbed at Karren's mom's body then at the other bodies around himself and pulled as hard as he could. With the sounds of guns peppering and people screaming he covered himself in bodies and slowed his breathing trying to play dead.

It felt like hours later when bodies littered the ground like a second pavement and blood ran in rivers from the dead. Guards walked over the dead with their guns out and hands still on triggers shooting the ones who twitched or moved at all, making sure the dead were truly dead. One guard came close to where Jim was hidden and stopping looking around. Jim held his breath and closed his eyes forcing his face to go lax. That was the day Jim learned that playing dead killed a piece of your soul.

It was a bullet that had been shot into his shoulder when he was eighteen working at a mechanic shop and believing himself to be invincible. The mugger thought he could lift all the money in the little shop that Al Jensen - old man with grey hair and missing teeth even though it was the twenty third century and no one lost their teeth anymore - owned. The mugger dressed in black and picked the absolute wrong guy to mess with as Jim got done finishing up a beautiful 2245 lime green Mustang. He was covered in grime, tired, annoyed as all get out and pissed as hell.

"Give me all you got and maybe I won't have to shoot ya."

Jim. Eighteen. Survivor of Tarsus. Living on his own. Making his own way in life. Invincible. Had scoffed at the man.

"Try it."

And the gun went off and Jim went down and the mugger ran out just as surprised at the gun discharging as Jim was. When the ambulance had showed up minutes later after Jim had commed them they'd looked at his wound with fascination not having seen a gun shot wound in such a long time.

Now it was a gun that pointed not at him but at his best friend. It was digging into the soft flesh of his temple. There was only two people in the Captains Quarters at this time of night when the rest of the ship was either sleeping or on skeleton shift. One person in the Captains Quarters was shaking in fear and anger with a hint of confusion sloshing around - that was Jim. And the other one was calm, cool, collected and had a gun to his head - that was Bones.

"Bones put the gun down. Please." Jim had his hands out slightly hunched and voice soft, pleading.

A smile formed around Bones's mouth and when he spoke it wasn't his gruff southern twang that urged him to wake up when he was injured or called for him during the Academy days or grouched at him saying, "Dammit Jim!" It was a different voice entirely. Shrill, too high. Evil in every sense of the word.

"Bones isn't hear right now, Jimmy," Bones mouth spat out his name like a curse making him flinch.

"Okay..." He tried to put the pieces together in his head as quickly as his brain could comprehend.

It was a successful mission on a non hostile planet full of blue and purple skinned humanoids who used more sign language than actual spoken word. Then it was treaty to join the federation signed and back on the ship he went. They'd taken no casualties at all which was always the markings of a good mission.

Jim had gotten back in his chair and finished off the rest of his shift before venturing back to his rooms, showering and changing and walking to Observation Deck 7 for some poker with the command team. Bones had been there sipping his glass of bourbon while everyone else - save Chekov who had a bottle of grape KneeHigh - had enjoyed a glass of Scotty's own brew from his still that Jim had never seen deep in engineering that Jim didn't know about. After seven hands Uhura had folded claiming stiff fingers and sore wrists after having to communicate with the people planet side all day for the last three days. She'd grabbed Spock on her way out. Sulu went next saying he wanted to catch up on his reading in his room then Bones left remembering he had to call Joanna tonight. Jim had made it one more finger of whiskey and three more hands before he finally had to call it a night and walked back to his quarters. When he'd entered he was surprised to see darkness as he always kept some light on. He'd flipped the switch and almost shit himself when Bones appeared in his room sitting at his desk shadowed in the corner.

"Jesus Christ Bones, you scared the shit out of me." When Bones hadn't moved, hadn't laughed, hadn't talked Jim knew something was wrong.

"Bones...?"

That's when the gun came out and that's when his best friend had spoken in a voice not his own.

"You do what I say or I kill your best friend."

So that's it. No explanation. No reasoning. Just Bones going fucking nuts in his room. Jim's face hardened into a scowl. "What do you want?"

Again Bones's face lit in a smirk that the real Bones rarely used. It was chilling to see eyes dead but face smiling. His eyes were all pupil, no green-speckled-brown irises. It was so strange, unnatural.

"Simple, really." The not-Bones said digging the barrel of the gun even deeper into his friend's skin until his head was practically at a tilted angle still smiling. "You permanently resign your captaincy from Starfleet, go back to Iowa and never step foot on another ship again and maybe I won't kill Leonard Horatio McCoy."

Jim didn't even have to think. Maybe this wasn't a no win scenario and maybe, just maybe if he thought hard enough and long enough he could maybe, possibly think up one of his brilliant plans he was so famous for. Maybe he could get the gun from Bones's hand and knock the good doctor out before whoever had taken control of him could lash out. Maybe he wouldn't have to give up... But he couldn't think. Not now. When a gun is being held to your best friends head you don't have time to think.

"Fine. You win."


So funny story/not funny story. A few afternoons ago I was hanging out with my friends, nothing too unusual. When all of the sudden I get an email from the site saying "Your story was deleted." Thats it. Deleted. Gone. You can probably imagine my absolute horror upon receiving a simple email saying that all my hard work is just... Gone. Because I accedently put the wrong rating on the story and instead of the person who decided to report this story (shout out to you by the way) PMing me to inform me of my mistake they reported and now I am very sad. Anyways, I have rectified the mistake, the rating has been changed and I apologize to anyone following this story/reviewed/favorited and it just disappeared. So. Here we go again... Round 2