Quake

Spock had warned him about the planet's unstable tectonic vibrations.

Kirk, coughed, trying to rid his lungs of the particle debris and dust from the rocks that had fallen around him. He was covered in similar substances, grey dust covering him from head to toe. He looked around the immediate area. His portion of the landing party was scrambling to get up and check for any casualties of the quake. For now, he could see none.

"Jim!" McCoy ran over to him, concerned. Kirk supposed he must look like a wreck, on the ground and coughing. The doctor kneeled down by him. "Are you alright?"

The captain opened his mouth to answer but a cough escaped instead, sending him reeling. McCoy, holding him still, immediately ran his tricorder on him. As Kirk's coughing subsided, he checked him over.

"Well, you've got some bruises but I think you'll be alright." McCoy confirmed, looking relieved.

Kirk just nodded.

McCoy helped the captain up. Kirk was unstable for a few seconds before gaining his balance. He turned back to McCoy. "Are you alright, Bones?" McCoy was the sort of person that would put the others before himself. Thankfully, the doctor nodded. "What about the others?"

McCoy squared his shoulders. "No major injuries, just a twisted ankle and a sprained arm along with a few concussions."

"Good."

"Just be thankful that we weren't any closer to those rocks." McCoy agreed.

A horrible thought seemed to explode into Kirk's immediate consciousness. He froze, breathing in a short gasp. This was not good.

Immediately at his side and looking him over, McCoy asked, concerned. "What is it?"

The thought was too terrible to admit. He turned fully to look at McCoy, his hazel eyes revealing the extent of the possibly disastrous realization. "Spock took Barnes and Jacobs to look at the plant life in that area."

Suddenly sharing in the weight of Kirk's thoughts, McCoy's eyes widened. "But…"

Kirk sighed and turned to join the landing party. "Alright!" He called, gaining their full attention. He paced in front of them, seemingly radiating apprehension. "All of the landing party except three is accounted for." He started strongly but still staring at the ground. "All of those, uninjured, will join the search for Mr. Barnes, Mr. Jacobs and Mr. Spock." He said the last name clearly, and the members of the party, including Scotty and Uhura, immediately tensed up. "They were looking at the plant life over by the rocks over there." He pointed.

"Scotty," He started, turning to the chief engineer. "Take five men and search the northern section." Scotty gave him a knowing stare, biting his lip, concern element. Kirk just patted his shoulder in an attempt to be reassuring.

The captain moved again to face Uhura. "Take another five and search the eastern section." Uhura nodded, her brown eyes showing her fear.

"Yes sir."

Kirk moved to the center and spoke to the group as a whole again. "Doctor McCoy and I will search the western side. If anyone should find them, contact me. Dismissed." The group quickly hurried off to start the search.

He put his hand to his head, rubbing his forehead in an attempt to get the anxiety out. A hand was on his shoulder, he turned to look at the kind face of McCoy.

"We'll find him."

"Yes." Kirk sighed, nodding wearily. "I suppose we will."

"Spock?!" Kirk called for probably the hundredth time into his communicator. He adjusted the settings and tried again. "Spock, report!" He continued to change the settings.

"Jim," McCoy said, irritably. Kirk paid no heed to him, continuing to walk and fiddle with the device. "Jim!" He called again, this time Kirk turned. "He's not going to answer. You've been working on that thing for an hour now."

"Bones we need to find him!" Kirk seemed desperate.

McCoy sighed, empathy written all over his features. "Jim, there are so many reasons why he's not answering his communicator. There could be interference from the debris, he could have lost it in the quake, he could be unconscious and even, god forbid—"

"Bones!"

McCoy smiled smally and apologetically. "All I'm saying is that, in any case, there is no point in slaving over the communicator, hoping for an answer."

Kirk sighed. "You're right of course, Bones." He put the item back into his pocket.

They continued to walk, eyes sweeping over every inch of rock and dirt, hoping for the sight of an unharmed Vulcan.

Kirk's mind reeled. He was deeply terrified for his friend. He had taken Spock on as his science officer since he had gotten command of the Enterprise. The Vulcan had been distant to him at first, used to the luxury of extreme privacy that Captain Pike had given him out of disinterest. Kirk had set a goal to change that. He subtly started showing up in Spock's personal life more and more often, playing chess and sometimes just talking.

The process of Kirk's plan had changed completely when Gary died. Gary had been his first officer and his best friend. Spock had known this and was, for a Vulcan, compassionate towards him for his loss. Kirk had clung onto that, using it as a way to get Spock to open up. Over a short period of time, they had become fairly inseparable. Soon after Gary's death, Kirk had forced Spock to take the title of first officer and a promotion to commander.

And McCoy… McCoy had fit into the picture well. Kirk had known him since the academy, being immediate friends. When Pike's old CMO had decided to retire, Kirk had sought out the best doctor that he could think of. McCoy had been a little irritable at the time when he had found out that, to his dismay, he was being transferred to a starship. After all, he was originally going to the moons of Havi Alpha, a calm, peaceful place where a southern doctor could thrive. But, Kirk's presence on the ship had made it bearable.

Kirk remembered the first time he had introduced his latest friend to McCoy. The doctor had, innocently put out his hand for the Vulcan to shake. Spock had just cocked his head to stare at it, as it was considered extremely rude to shake hands with a Vulcan. McCoy, ignorant, had assumed that Spock was being rude himself and had started an argument. Spock retaliated in his own, unemotional way, gaining the upper hand and causing McCoy to be ever frustrated with him, much to Kirk's amusement. Spock had left the room and McCoy had just asked him, "What is it you see in that… Vulcan?"

He found it hard to explain.

He had heard Spock say once that he'd had virtually no friends on Vulcan. This irritated Kirk slightly as he knew the perils that Spock had had on his home world with the fact that he was a human-Vulcan halfbreed. Despite the lack of emotions, Vulcans always assumed Spock to be emotional and dim-witted. When Kirk had asked about his small amount of years on Earth, in the academy, Spock had replied simply that the humans thought that he was strange, being the only Vulcan in Starfleet. This had frustrated Kirk even more than Spock's trouble on Vulcan. Humans were always the ones to suggest racial equality but was that really what they were giving out?

Kirk knew several people that, on hearing the word "Vulcan" would describe a pompous, cold, computeristic race that considered themselves superior beyond any boundary. He had actually used to think that way too, before meeting Spock. Now, being a friend to him after years, he had found that Vulcans could be the most expressive races in the galaxy. Not by any facial expression, but their eyes betrayed all of their secrets.

But they were secrets and few were allowed to share in them. Kirk considered himself lucky. Somehow, a member of the extremely private, unemotional, logical race had declared him a friend. He wondered what Spock thought of that. Kirk had gone through all his life having friends, being a popular guy. But Spock hadn't. How hard must it have been to give friendship for the first time to a human? Was he even aware of this? Had he considered the possibilities or had he innocently followed Kirk's lead, though genuine, even though it could end in disaster? Spock had complete faith in Kirk, almost never questioning him. Did he, James T. Kirk, deserve that?

Probably not.

"JIM!" McCoy's panicked voice broke him out of his revere. The doctor was running towards a specific rock, ahead and to the left of them. Kirk, picking up on the urgency quickly followed.

Two men in red shirts lay on the ground.

The doctor threw himself down next to them. He quickly scanned them before shaking his head gravely. "They're dead, Jim. Multiple head injuries."

This was not a good sign. "Spock…?"

McCoy looked around quickly before shaking his head again. "I don't see him. We don't know what his condition could be."

Kirk nodded. "We need to keep looking." He pulled out his communicator. "Kirk to Scott."

"Scott here." The Scottish accent sounded troubled.

"We found Barnes and Jacobs." He hesitated before continuing. "They're dead. We need your party to come over here. It is more than likely that Spock is also in this area."

"Aye sir."

"Kirk out." He closed the communicator and looked to see what McCoy was up to.

The doctor was staring up the hill at something, wide-eyed. He quickly started, running, scrambling up the rocks. "Jim!" He cried, obviously distressed by something. For the second time in five minutes, Kirk quickly followed.

McCoy was digging at a large pile of rocks that was in front of a large boulder. Kirk tried to figure out what the good doctor was seeing when a small piece of blue caught his attention.

Spock.

Quickly, he started to join McCoy in digging. The small piece of blue uniform was revealed to be Spock's arm, and was quickly dug out by Kirk and McCoy, removing the rocks.

Grabbing the Vulcan's wrist, McCoy checked it for a pulse. Kirk waited tensely for a few seconds before the doctor smiled in relief. "Alive." He confirmed. "But we need to get his head out."

They continued to dig, trying to get to Spock before he ran out of air. Slowly, the Vulcan's upper body was more or less visible. Kirk quickly undug Spock's head, finding him to be completely unconscious. A small trail of green blood was visible, coming from a cut on his head.

McCoy jumped immediately to inspect Spock, putting his head to the Vulcan's chest and listening to his breathing. "Jim," he told Kirk, who was waiting anxiously. "Try to wake him up."

Kirk started patting Spock's head lightly. "Spock? Spock!" There wasn't any response. He sighed heavily, starting to wipe the rubble out of Spock's normally unruffled hair. "Oh, Spock…" He muttered, looking away.

"Jim?" The sound was weak but Kirk instantly jumped on it.

"Spock?" The Vulcan had one eye open, as if the sun was hurting his eyes, and was wearily looking up at the captain. "Are you alright?" Spock's eyebrows went up and Kirk realized how dense a question that truly was. A man who'd been buried under a pile of rocks was definitely not alright.

"Out of the way!" McCoy kindly pushed Kirk away so that he could get a better look at Spock's head. He pressed a wipe to the cut and Spock moaned quietly. "Spock, what happened?" McCoy asked gently, using the voice that he would normally as a doctor to an injured patient.

Spock, for a wounded man buried under a pile of rocks with a head injury, had not lost his luster. He started to explain, abet weakly. "We were examining the native fauna in this area when the disturbance occurred." Kirk almost smiled at Spock's natural choice of wording. "I was down the ledge while Barnes and Jacobs were farther up it. I naturally went to retrieve them--" He stopped here, interrupted by his own coughing.

But Kirk didn't need to hear the end of the testimony to know what had happened. "You pushed them out of the way…"

"Affirmative, Captain."

McCoy's facial expression softened even more. "Spock…" He started, wavering at giving the unfortunate news. "You did get them clear of the big rocks but they died of head trauma trying to get down."

Spock nodded, obviously lament over his failure. "That is…" He tried for the right word. "Regrettable." The Vulcan started coughing again, McCoy instantly on the alert, and giving him something via hypospray.

Kirk rounded on the doctor. "How is he, Bones?"

The doctor spared a glance to Spock, who had gotten his breath back, before answering Kirk. "From what I can tell, he's got a concussion, a broken rib, two cracked ones and possibly another bruised one along with all the usual cuts and bruises of being buried in an avalanche." He stared fully at the captain. "Jim, we need to get him out of here."

"Agreed, Doctor." The captain went to face Spock, who had his eyes closed tightly. "Spock, we're going to dig the rest of you out."

"I believe you might face some difficulty in that area, Captain."

"Why?" Asked McCoy, almost abrasively.

Spock sighed and indicated a large item nearby with his head. The boulder, Kirk realized. The boulder is on top of his legs… He saw McCoy's jaw drop a little. "We need to get it off of him." Kirk spoke the universal thought aloud. "Bones, maybe if you and I--"

"Captain!" A Scottish accent caught Kirk's attention. He turned around to see the familiar and reassuring red-shirted form of his chief engineer at the bottom of the hill.

Standing up and cupping his mouth for more volume Kirk yelled back. "Over here, Mr. Scott! Have your men deal with Jacobs and Barnes but we need you up here!"

"Aye cap'n!" Kirk watched as Scotty instructed the group of redshirts before starting to climb the hill.

While Kirk was focused on that, McCoy was trying to gain some information from Spock. "How much pain are you in, Spock?"

"Substantial, but I assure you, Doctor…" McCoy interrupted what he considered to be the Vulcan form of stubbornness by getting him again with the hypospray, this time with a large dose of painkillers.

Snorting at Spock's usual attitude when injured, McCoy simply stated. "'Substantial', my ass. There is no way that you could block out the pain of being hit with a ton of rocks."

"I am a Vulcan, Doctor."

McCoy stopped what he was doing for a second before nodding. "That you are, Mr. Spock." He looked at the Vulcan and sighed. No matter what Spock said, he was not without pain. The weakened state of his voice proved that. Spock was speaking in a lower volume than normal and was pausing for breaths. Damn those damaged ribs! McCoy thought. The concussion wasn't helping either. Spock's normally focused eyes were a bit off and glazed.

He pressed the pad more firmly to Spock's head, helping the clotting process. McCoy was always bitter when it came to Spock. Ever sense they'd first met the Vulcan's logic and coldness and unnerved him. It was completely opposite from the culture that he doctor was used to, being from a southern, friendly town where everybody knew everybody else.

He had wondered for a long time what Jim saw in Spock. The realization had been gradual. He found that Spock generally put others above himself, saving the doctor's and Jim's life while risking his own. McCoy had found some admiration in that. But was Spock just acting what he would consider "logical", saving the ship's captain and medical officer? He had pondered this for a while, wondering if Spock felt anything for Jim in return. He had seen glimpses of the possibility, but nothing seemed to convince him. Except the time in 1930s New York, Spock grabbing Kirk before he could save his love, and then defending Kirk's actions at stopping McCoy. As he watched Jim's heartbroken expression, McCoy could almost feel the Vulcan's distress. Not at seeing the emotion, but at feeling bad for the captain's own distress.

Despite the constant bickering that Spock and McCoy seemed to enjoy starting, the doctor found that he did have a great fondness for the man. Almost like a younger, annoying brother. Spock seemed to have a similar attitude from the beginning. He thought of Kirk like a brother. Kirk thought of him and McCoy like a brother. So in Spock's mind, completely trusting in Kirk, McCoy had to be thought of as a brother as well. What's mine is yours, McCoy remembered the old saying. Despite the grievances the two gave each other, there was no way that McCoy would ever betray Spock.

Looking at the Vulcan now, he figured that Spock wouldn't betray him either.

Kirk helped Scotty up the rest of the hill to where Spock and McCoy were situated. The engineer's face became both relieved and worried at the sight of Spock. He leaned over the Vulcan. "Oh my! Are ye alright Mr. Spock?"

The Vulcan cocked an eyebrow.

Smirking at this, Kirk turned to Scotty. "We need to get that boulder off his legs."

Scotty stared at the item, obviously not enjoying the idea. "Aye," He agreed. "But is it safe?"

The captain turned to McCoy, who nodded. "Well, it's better than just leaving it on him."

Kirk clapped his hands together. "Alright." He and Scotty took their positions by the large rock, McCoy staying near Spock in case of any mishaps. "Push on my signal," Kirk told Scotty. "Alright… now!" They started pushing.

As the rock moved a few inches, McCoy heard Spock gasp painfully. "Stop!" He called to Kirk and Scotty. They quickly halted what they were doing. The doctor leaned more towards Spock. "Are you alright?"

When Spock just looked up at him with a pained expression, McCoy's resolve set in. He looked at the two men waiting near the boulder. "I'm going to hold him this time."

Spock immediately started protesting. "Doctor, I don't--"

McCoy interrupted him, sliding Spock's head into his lap and putting the rest of his body into an embrace. "Yeah, you do." Spock, knowing that now was not the right time to argue, gave in.

Kirk quickly glanced at the other three people. "Ready?" Scotty nodded next to him, bracing himself against the rock, and both Spock and McCoy nodded, McCoy seemingly holding on to Spock tighter. "Now!"

Both the captain and the engineer put all of their efforts into moving the rock, pushing it forward. It moved slowly, but it was moving, much to their relief. They continued to strain against it.

On the ground, McCoy was holding Spock firmly. The Vulcan wasn't making any sound like he had before, but he was extremely tense and shuddering. The doctor knew that Spock was in more pain than he was letting on.

After a few moments, Kirk and Scotty had moved the boulder to a distance away from Spock's legs. They stopped pushing, a sigh of relief escaping them. This didn't last long before they started digging Spock's legs out of the pile of debris again.

McCoy ignored this, quickly injecting something into the now semi-conscious Vulcan. Spock had survived that ordeal but it definitely wasn't good for him. Next to him, Spock breathed in an uneven breath.

Once Spock's legs were completely free from the rocks, McCoy made to check them over. Kirk and Scotty quickly got out of his way, Kirk immediately moving to his friend. Spock's expression as he stared at his injured legs reminded Kirk of the time that that boy, Charlie, had apparently broken them. Spock seemed a little… lost.

Never the less, he smiled. "Are you alright?"

Spock nodded shortly, looking directly into the captain's eyes. Kirk kindly took his hand and the Vulcan did not resist. The friends simply stared at each other for a few moments, reassured and relieved to be safely in each other's presence, before McCoy's astonished voice interrupted them.

"I don't know how he does it!" The doctor exclaimed, shocked. At the other three's confused stares, he explained. "The rocks that covered Spock before the boulder got him must have cushioned the impact."

"What are you saying, Doctor?" Kirk asked, seriously wondering where McCoy was going with this. He shared a glance with Spock.

"His legs aren't broken." McCoy explained further. "I mean, sure, they're injured and he won't be walking around for a few weeks but they're not broken." McCoy was smiling.

Upon hearing that news, Kirk outright beamed at Spock.

Scotty was smiling fondly at the three. They really were like brothers and he thought of them as his truly close nephews. "What should we do now, cap'n?" He asked.

"Well, I need to get Spock to sickbay." McCoy said.

Kirk nodded, he spoke to Scotty. "We'll beam up. You and your men take care of Jacobs and Barnes. Oh, and contact Uhura about what is going on."

"Aye sir." Scotty started walking towards the group of redshirts.

Kirk flipped his communicator open. "Kirk to Enterprise."

"Enterprise here."

"Three to beam up." He shared a look with McCoy and Spock, all thinking the same thing. That there would always be three to beam up.

And the three fizzled out of existence to reappear in the safety of home.

Disclaimer: I don't own Star Trek. I only own the names of the redshirts I killed…

A/N: This was written as a friendship piece for the Big Three and even a little bit of Scotty. I always thought that if the Big Three extended to four, Scotty would be the forth. A bit of Spock whump too, if you like that kind of thing… Please review but no harsh flames please!