~A/N~

Wow! Thank you all for the reviews, follows, faves, everything! I'm kind of overwhelmed seeing as the first chapter was basically just the scene from the movie with one line added to twist the story in my direction. That was deliberate and it was just to recap the scene... there won't be anymore transcribed scenes from the movie, this is when the plot becomes mine. Usual disclaimers apply, I don't own Star Trek, Kirk, Spock, Bones, Khan... anyone or anything. I mean really, if I did, do you think I'd be here writing this? ;)

The only thing I own is the plot and my twisted imagination. Anyway, without further ado, please enjoy the first ACTUAL chapter! :D

Chapter One - Revival

"What is it?" rang out the voice. It was a voice Jim had never heard, but felt he knew.

"It's a boy," said his mother.

"A boy?! Tell me about him."

"He's beautiful. George you should be here," she whispered.

"What are we going to call him?" the male voice asked hurriedly.

"We could name him after your father?"

"Tiberius?! You kiddin' me? No! That's the worst. Let's name him after your dad, let's call him Jim."

"Jim. OK. Jim it is."

"Jim? Jim can you hear me?"

Jim gasped, panting for breath like a goldfish out of water. His eyes opened and he blinked in the bright light, coughing violently.

"Get me some water for him!" said McCoy urgently.

Jim felt his head being tilted up gently by a strong pair of hands and a glass of water brought to his lips. He drank from it eagerly, before starting to cough again and vomiting all over McCoy.

"Damn it man, you were barely dead and you use it as an excuse to puke all over me!" he protested.

"Drama queen," he grumbled, pulling off his doctor's coat and throwing it into a hamper at the side of the room, leaving him wearing his white undershirt and pale blue scrub pants that Jim always enjoyed making fun of. He carefully cleaned his friends face with a cloth and sighed.

"Bones?" rasped Jim, eyes finally focusing on the room. Someone was still supporting his head with their hands and helping him sit up slightly, but it wasn't Bones.

"I'm here buddy, can you see me ok?" he asked, holding up a small scanning device to Jim's head.

"Mhm," he said weakly, closing his eyes again. Jim felt as though he had been hit by a truck, then dropped off a bridge into a river and drowned, before falling over the edge of a waterfall.

"Hurts," he mumbled, wincing at the burning pain through his whole body.

"Where does it hurt buddy?" Bones asked his friend, an unusual softness to his normally gruff voice.

"C-can't," he stammered, unable to speak enough to explain to Bones that he would rather be dead than feeling this level of pain.

The strong, warm hands supporting his head slowly lowered it back onto the soft pillows

"Captain, if you would permit, I could join with your mind and relay information verbally to Dr McCoy, this would allow you to conserve your energy by not speaking." The identity of the third person in the room was revealed.

Spock.

Jim nodded slightly, having no objection to Spock being able to talk to McCoy on his behalf; he didn't feel much like talking when his body felt like it was on fire.

Barely even aware of Spock's hand on his face, Jim felt a cooling sensation run through his body as Spock's mind joined to his own.

"The Captain is in considerable pain, I would suggest increasing his medication significantly," said Spock, wincing slightly as a small amount of Jim's pain passed into him through the meld.

"Oh is that your medical opinion?" said McCoy sarcastically.

Shut it Bones, he's only trying to help. And my name is Jim.

"The Ca- …Jim advises you that I am only trying to help, and that you should 'shut it'," relayed Spock, the corners of his lips turning up slightly in a small smirk.

Bones laughed.

"You're gonna love me for this Jim," he said, administering a hypo to his neck.

The effect was instantaneous, a comfortable numbness spreading through the young Captains body. Spock broke the mind-meld and Jim slowly opened his eyes. He looked up carefully at the two men standing at his bedside.

Bones looked very concerned, Spock looked very concerned. Why is everyone so concerned? What even happened? What was that weird dream all about?

"How much do you remember?" asked Bones quietly.

"Ship was blown half to hell, no systems, no gravity. We were crashing. That's it, then blank until now. Spock do you have stubble?" asked Jim, finally looking carefully enough at his First Officer to notice the dark shadow on his face.

"I could tell you what happened, but seeing as you are more concerned with Mr Spock's face, then I guess the main story can wait," sighed McCoy, lowering himself into one of the chairs and kicking his feet up onto Jim's bed.

Spock lightly touched his own face.

"It appears I have been preoccupied with my concern for your condition and have not paid close enough attention to my personal grooming," he responded in his normal matter-of-fact way. He also had dark circles under his eyes, something Jim had never noticed him have before. He looked conflicted.

Jim nodded, not wanting to question him in front of Bones.

"Tell me. Where am I? How am I here? What happened exactly?" he asked, looking at the other two men expectantly. He glanced around the whole room and could tell that he definitely wasn't aboard the Enterprise. On a small table in the corner was a substantial pile of cards, gifts and flowers. It all served to confuse Jim even further.

"Jim, you crawled inside the warp core of the Enterprise… and well, you died," said Bones briefly.

"What Dr McCoy is failing to mention is the fact that your actions saved the crew, the ship, and it was a completely logical decision undertaken-"

"Oh! So it was logical for Jim to fry himself from the inside out in the warp core was it?! Fuckin' insensitive, pointy eared son of a-"

"I was simply suggesting that-"

"Stop! Both of you. You can bicker later. Please someone explain," sighed Jim. He tried to sit up slightly and reach for his glass of water but found his body did not respond to him.

He looked down and bit his lip.

"How long have I been laying here?" he whispered.

"Just over five weeks," said McCoy.

Jim's body had wasted away. Gone were his toned muscles, replaced with a skinny shadow of his former self. At first guess Jim assumed he had lost maybe forty pounds through muscle wastage.

Bones gripped Jim's shoulder and helped him to sit upright before propping the pillows behind his back and handing him the glass of water.

Just bringing the glass to his mouth required an enormous amount of effort.

"During the Enterprise's confrontation with the U.S.S. Vengeance, the warp core was misaligned, resulting in the loss of all power and systems to the ship. We became trapped in the gravitational pull of the Earth and the ship was beginning to burn up as we did not have shields to protect the hull. Everyone aboard the ship would have perished if it were not for your actions," explained Spock.

"I… went into the reactor? And died?" Jim questioned, taking another sip of his water but then setting it down as he began to feel sick again. The hypo Bones had given him that made him so comfortably numb was fading already.

"The radiation killed you Jim. You managed to get out to the compartment door, and seal the inner door so Scotty could vent the radiation. We, or well, Scotty and I, pulled you out. Spock beamed down to the planet to get that bastard Khan so we could use his magical regenerating blood to bring you back to life. I almost couldn't use any of his blood because Mr Spock here brought me Khan as something of a mangled mess," said Bones, shooting Spock a meaningful look.

"You killed Khan?" Jim asked, astounded that Spock would have done that.

"No, I did not kill him. In order to subdue him adequately, I had to ensure he was injured to a degree where-"

"Spock the guy was pulp!" protested Bones. "And so were you!" he continued "Three broken ribs, 9 separate broken or fractured bones in your hands from punching his head, not to mention your skull fracture!"

"Skull fracture?" asked Jim, concerned for his First Officer.

"All of which have healed perfectly," said Spock shortly.

"OK OK OK before this turns into a bitch-fest again… you used Khan's blood to bring me back from the dead?" said Jim incredulously.

"I was able to isolate the particular component which allowed him to regenerate and formulate a serum which I then introduced to your body via IV. We then kept you in an induced coma and kept you under close watch until your cells had regenerated enough to wake you up. The process is still ongoing and may be for a little while, every single cell in your body has had to regenerate itself," Bones explained.

Jim sighed, staring at the ceiling. His body was beginning to ache all over and he could feel tiredness creeping up on him. He stifled a yawn but Spock noticed it.

"Captain, I will leave so that you may get some rest. I am… pleased to see you awake and recovering, I was… concerned," said the half Vulcan, he then touched Jim's shoulder momentarily before standing up and heading to the door of the room.

"Spock."

"Yes Captain?" he turned back to the man in the bed.

"Stop calling me 'Captain' you're driving me crazy," he mumbled sleepily, his eyes slipping closed.

"Very well, I will return to check on your progress later," he said before leaving the room.

"Damn confusing pointy-eared bastard," muttered McCoy, running his small scanner over Jim's body again.

"How long has he been here?" asked Jim, forcing his eyes open.

"He basically hasn't left you the whole time. He's sat in that chair maybe twenty hours a day, for the entire time you've been here. I've never seen anything like it. I've even seen him actually touch you, and not just today. That's pretty unusual for a Vulcan, with the emotional transference and things," said McCoy, shaking his head slightly.

Jim was silent, trying to remember any of the incident in the reactor, but his mind was blank.

"Him and Uhura broke up, a couple weeks back," added Bones, his scanner now paying particular attention to Jim's head again.

"You're not feeling any homicidal or power-mad urges are you?" He asked.

"No more than usual," Jim smiled slightly before becoming serious again. "They broke up? Shit. Who dumped who?"

"I couldn't tell you, it's all been kept on the down low. Uhura has been here to see you too, and Sulu, Chekov, Scotty… even Dr Marcus dropped by once or twice. Everyone thought you were gone for good Jim, even I did. It's very strange to see you talking and moving like a real living human again," said Bones, putting his scanner down on the table.

"I know you're gonna bitch at me for this, but I want you to stay in the hospital at least a few more days. I need to give you a complete physical to see how you're doing, and get a full body scan, but you're so weak I don't think it'd be responsible of me as either your doctor or your friend to let you go home like this. I'm also gonna recommend a minimum calorie intake of 4,000 a day, and as much exercise as you feel comfortable with. You've lost 38 pounds, and we need you back on top form for when the Enterprise is ready for us to ship back out."

"How long until we leave?" asked Jim, pushing himself up into a full sitting position and untangling himself from the blankets.

"A while. They think the repairs could take up to twelve more weeks, so you have plenty of time to get back into top physical condi- whoa! Where are you going?" Bones demanded as Jim lowered his feet onto the floor and stood up shakily.

"For a piss, Bones, is that OK? I'm not making a wild break for freedom or anything," he laughed, scratching the back of his head. He needed a haircut. And a shower.

"Don't fall over, I'll wait right outside the door in case you need me," said the doctor. He knew with Jim's determination now that he was awake there would be no stopping him from doing everything he wanted to do, he just needed to help keep his pain levels under control and help him put back on some weight.

"OK Mom thanks, but I'm a big boy and I'm sure I can take a leak all by myself," said Jim sarcastically, closing the bathroom door in Bones' face.

Jim knew if he had told Bones honestly that he was going to take a shower he wouldn't have let him.

He turned on the shower in the small bathroom and Bones knocked on the door.

"Calm down, I'll only be a minute, I just want a real shower," whined Jim, pulling off his plain white t-shirt and throwing it onto the bathroom floor.

He threw his hospital pyjama bottoms and white boxers to join the shirt and stepped under the flow of warm water, letting out a sigh as it ran down his aching body.

"You alright in there?" called Bones.

"I'm fine," Jim replied, putting his head under the flow of water and standing still for a moment, letting all his thoughts gather, trying to make sense of everything.

He grabbed the small bottle of shower gel on the shelf and popped the top off it, lathering some in his hands and starting to wash his body.

Damn he thought, looking down at the thin frame he barely recognised as his own. His ribs were showing, his six-pack was gone, his legs were like twigs and he was pale, almost as pale as Spock.

A wave of discomfort washed over him and he felt sick for a few seconds, as well as noticing his legs were shaking from supporting his weight for so long. He quickly washed his hair and rinsed off, stepping out of the shower and shutting off the water.

Jim grabbed a towel off the rack and dried off quickly with it before tying it around his waist and walking slowly and carefully out of the bathroom.

"You don't look so good," said Bones, grabbing Jim by the arm and helping him walk to the bed.

"I don't feel so good," Jim mumbled, falling asleep the second his head hit the pillow.