Notes
A friend of mine had a notion based on Kirk skipping out on his medical exam the morning after Daystrom and refusing medical attention from McCoy during the trip to Qo'noS. I let that percolate for a while and came up with this.
It's meant to be compatible with the canon of the movies, but is AU to them in the sense of assuming that Qo'noS is not 90 seconds of warp time from Earth.
Additionally, since the Tarsus IV famine is hard to reconcile with the AOS notion of Way Fast Warp, I completely resurfaced it for my own purposes. We don't know if New!Kirk even got to experience that particular bit of history, nor how that would play out in the new timeline. I decided to riff off the groove suggested by Marcus' presented motivations in STID.
Since I am not a virologist nor a medical doctor by trade, please consider checking your disbelief at the door, though I did try to make it fun to read.
Neets, this is all your fault.
This is complete, so any updates will be edits to preserve my sanity.
He'd thought ordering McCoy to report to medbay would buy him some time, but the second he stepped out of the turbolift and made down the hall for his quarters he found McCoy walking side-by-side with him.
"Doctor." He tried to make his voice sound like a warning; as usual, McCoy ignored it.
"We need to do a full workup before we get there."
"No we don't."
"Are you really planning on going in to a combat situation without me having so much as a look at you?"
He started to reply, but a sharp twinge in his throat made him suck in a breath rather than speak. The sensation spread to his chest, and he coughed hard, coming to a sudden halt in the hallway.
"Jim?"
His throat wasn't working right; in fact it felt closed. He coughed again and managed to get some air into his lungs.
"Jim."
"Bones-" The ship lurched under him. No, he was doing the lurching, right into the wall. In an instant McCoy had his communicator in one hand and the other on Jim's arm, his grip firm. He began steering him back towards the turbolift.
"McCoy to medical, I need a full Sage-Karga series prepped right now."
"Doctor I'm not sure we-"
"We have it, it's in freezer K10, get it out and loaded."
"Absolutely Doctor."
Jim paused and doubled over, coughing so hard his bruised ribs protested. It was still a dry cough, but it was getting harder to breathe. Bad, bad, this is bad...
"Hang in there, you idiot," McCoy growled as he helped Jim straighten up. "The lift's right here." And thankfully, it wasn't occupied. Jim sagged against the wall and tried to concentrate on McCoy's voice. A piece of equipment chirped when McCoy ran it across Jim's forehead. The sharp pain in his lungs eased for a brief moment, and he panted.
McCoy scowled at the results on his tablet. "What was your count this morning?"
Jim coughed again. "Two-sixty."
"Two-sixty?" The lift doors opened to the med bay, and Dr. Bakunda rushed forward to help McCoy. To her credit, she only blinked when she saw who they were supporting to a bed, and betrayed no other reaction. The tray with its set of seven, color-coded vials sat ready to go; Jim was vaguely aware of McCoy grabbing his injector and loading the first one.
"You ready?"
He tried to steady his breathing. When he managed to get three breaths in a row without hacking, he nodded.
He'd only ever needed the shot series once-just after the Enterprise had been towed back from the middle of nowhere in the wake of defeating Nero-and it had hurt like hell. He steeled himself, and was glad he didn't make any noise throughout the ordeal. As the euphoria and disorientation of the medication washed over him, McCoy pushed him back on the bed. Jim wanted to stay sitting, yet found he lacked the ability to react to anything going on, and so settled for laying where he was. Through the gray haze clouding his thoughts he heard McCoy making a variety of requests of his staff.
"I need a full panel on him plus a CZV titer. I want another set of SKS prepped, but keep it in the freezer. Get out the SV-100 antiviral, it's in the red case at the back of G15."
Several minutes passed before his perception widened enough to include things outside his reaction to the medication. McCoy was working in one of the storage freezers; he shut it and came over to Jim when he sat up.
"This is why you didn't come in for your exam this morning, isn't it."
Jim huffed a breath in reply. Out of the corner of his eye he could see the blood test results decorating a wall data display. "What's it at."
"Three fifty-two."
Shit. Jim shut his eyes and steadied himself. "Can SN-20 get me back under three hundred?"
"It could." McCoy's tone made the response a threat.
"Quickly?"
"Only if we go with the maximum dose."
He ran a hand through his hair. "Alright. Do it."
"Jim, the virus is already in a progression stage, we need to start a course of SV-100 before-"
"SV-100 takes weeks," Jim said, with more force than he'd intended, and he regretted it on the instant. He lowered his voice and forced himself to calm down; this wasn't McCoy's fault, after all, and he needed to conserve his strength. "I don't have that kind of time. I need to be back on my feet before we get to Qo'noS."
"How long do you expect to be on your feet if all you do is run out and chase this Harrison guy while trying to dodge Klingons?"
"Long enough to catch him."
"SN-20 isn't-"
"Bones."
McCoy stared at him hard. Jim was vaguely aware that some of the staff were casting furtive looks at them, but he kept his eyes on McCoy.
Their staring contest didn't last long. McCoy cursed under his breath and stalked back to the cold storage panel, taking the single vial that had been sitting out with him. As he put that container back and pulled out a set of three, he said over his shoulder, "We might not be able to do a round of SV-100 after this."
Jim looked down at his lap. "Yeah."
McCoy sighed and shut the panel. He loaded the first vial into his injector. "You're a real bastard, you know that?"
"Sorry."
McCoy's laugh was bitter. "No you're not. If you were, you wouldn't be doing this to yourself."
"He killed Pike." Jim quashed another surge of anger. "I'm not letting him get away with that."
"So now he gets to kill you too?"
When he looked at McCoy, he was surprised to see regret and resignation instead of anger. That took some of the fight out of him. "Maybe he's making it happen sooner, but he's not the one killing me."
Jim saw McCoy hold something back. He rather thought he knew what it was, and hoped that when this was all over he'd remember to apologize for right then (and for the entire time they'd known one another).
With a shake of his head, McCoy started the shots. Unlike the symptom medication, the antivirals didn't have much of an immediate impact on Jim, and once they were done McCoy said, "Get some rest. It'll come down faster if you're not running around."
"Okay."
McCoy went to speak to his assistants; though he kept his voice low, Jim was sure he heard orders to keep everything they'd just overheard confidential.
Jim laid back on the bed and stared at ceiling, and thought of the hundreds of other hospitals and medbays he'd been in ever since Tarsus IV.