Bones Can't Fix This by AndromedaMarine

Author's Note: Thanks for the tons of reviews on the first chapter! This fic is getting longer as I think it out... So I'm planning for the asking of the question next chapter.

You're Not Making Sense

Jim blinks his eyes once, twice...(seven?) times, and feels a strange throb in the back of his left shoulder. He realizes his arm is hanging stiff over the bed, and he's flat on his back. He's not even with a woman. This is all Bones' fault. He blinks again. Where did that come from? This is Bones' fault? He tries a shrug, failing when he remembers he's still lying down. Jim tries to sit up, not expecting the pounding in his head. He groans.

"Bones..."

He can't even see straight, what with the cocktail of a hypospray-happy Leonard "Bones" McCoy gave him still pulsing through his system.

"Bones!"

The doctor appears in front of Jim with his trusty, good old-fashioned pen light, and shines it into Kirk's eyes. "Hmm."

Jim groans again. "That's all you're giving me? A damn grunt?"

He sighs. "You woke up too soon."

Jim presses a palm to his forehead. "What the hell does that mean?"

"It means you woke up too soon." Bones tries to push Jim back down. "You still need to sleep."

The captain shakes his head, trying to push his best friend out of the way. "No, I'm gonna go to the bridge, and you're not gonna touch me with another one of them evil sprays..."

Bones shines the light back in Jim's eyes. "Actually, if you don't start making sense, another one of 'them evil sprays' is exactly what you're gonna get. Lie down."

Jim opens one eye at McCoy. "What if I don't wanna lie down?"

He turns around on his heel, leaning forward. "Then I'll make you." He lifts a spray-ready injector.

"Fine, fine." The captain falls onto his back, and takes a deep breath of sick bay air. He blinks. He still needs to talk to Spock. "Bones," Jim calls out, using an elbow as leverage to scan the medical room. He sees the doctor by the far wall, probably mixing another cocktail. Jim shudders. "Bones, I can't stay here."

"Yes, you can." He doesn't even look over at his patient. "And you will."

"I need to talk to Spock," Jim insists. Bones faces the captain, another injector in hand. "Come on, Bones. I can't stay here. Cracking my head open was entirely different."

McCoy crosses his arms. "I'm your doctor, Jim. My orders precede yours."

"I don't care about your orders, Bones!" He tries to get off the bed again, this time much stronger on his feet. McCoy blocks the door.

The doctor feels bad about keeping the captain from the Vulcan. "I spoke with your first officer while you were sleeping. Enterprise is going nowhere but straight."

Jim groans. "McCoy..."

"Here, let's make a compromise: you sleep another four hours and then go about your work, and I won't bother you unless I'm really concerned." Bones doesn't move from his place in Kirk's way. His expression softens. "Come on, Jim."

Kirk stares at the doctor, trying to gauge why Bones won't let him leave. His shoulders sag. "Oh, fine," he says, giving in. "I'm sort of tired anyway." He says it like he doesn't want to admit it. "But – but I'm holding you to that compromise."

Bones stabs the sleep-hypospray against Jim's neck, supporting him as he slumps over. "I really am sorry, Jim. But you need it." And the doctor wises he didn't have to force his captain into the realm of unconsciousness, no matter how much Captain Kirk really needs it.

----

Although McCoy's sleep aid blocks the nightmares (like it's supposed to), when Jim wakes again four hours later he remembers the pain of the second hypospray on his neck, and he really wants to kill Bones. But he needs to talk to Spock. He hasn't formed his question in its entirety yet, but the general idea is there, floating around his head.

McCoy appears beside Jim. "Let me look you over again, and then you can go talk to the pointy eared bastard."

Jim waves a hand in McCoy's face. "He's not so bad anymore. Just too...logical." Jim's eyes glaze over, unfocused as he thinks to his future conversation with the Vulcan. As the doctor studies his face, he can't help but wonder, what happened to the presence of reckless, playboy Jim Kirk? The Jim Kirk he knows isn't in that face; that face is a different person, molded from the experience of commanding a Starfleet flagship to safely save Earth...and Spock.

Spock had been ready to die – ready to give himself up to the explosion of red matter and the resulting black hole.

Jim wondered... Could Earth's fate have been different?