Part II - Georgia

He'd only been in Georgia for an hour, but it didn't take Pike long to lose patience with the county's sheriff.

"I'm telling you, mister, you can't go back to the holding cells. I don't care who you are or where you're from."

Pike fixed the man with an intense, cold stare and the man finally stammered into silence. Pike allowed the silence to hang for a minute or two before he began speaking.

"Really? Then you are willfully disobeying the direct orders of the Emperor? You hadn't struck me as the suicidal type, sheriff. You do know that interfering with an Imperial Starfleet recruiter performing their duties is an offense punishable by death?"

"You're an official recruiter?"

Pike pulled out his papers and brandished them under the man's nose. The sheriff paled and moved aside immediately. Pike continue to fix him with his stare for another long minute before sneering and moving past him to enter the holding cell area.

It didn't take him long to spot the man he was after, though if he hadn't known the man was a doctor, he'd never have guessed it. After he gave it a bit of thought, he didn't suppose he'd be looking any better if he'd been incarcerated under the same conditions.

The cell was sparsely furnished, to say the least. Only a cot, a sink and a toilet and the way McCoy was being held meant he couldn't use any of the items very well. His left wrist was handcuffed to a ring embedded in the wall with actual old-fashioned handcuffs. That meant he could sit on the cot, but not even attempt to lie down on it. He could reach the sink with one hand if he stretched and the toilet couldn't be much easier for him to get to. There was an untouched tray of food in the room that had been left well out of McCoy's reach. From that, Pike guessed that since whenever he'd been arrested, the man hadn't eaten.

Despite that, the gaze that the man turned on Pike wasn't that of a broken man. Defeated for now, perhaps, but not broken. After studying Pike for a minute, he spoke in a rough voice.

"If you're another lawyer, you might as well just head back on out. Nothing left to squeeze out of this turnip unless you've come for what I'm wearing."

Rather than answer that, Pike picked up the tray of food and carried it over, sitting it beside McCoy. There was obvious suspicion, but hunger and thirst overrode that. He took a long drink first and then began to eat. Still, McCoy never took his eyes off of Pike and the wheels turning in his head could almost be heard.

Pike was already beginning to see what Puri liked about the man. He decided to see how he'd react to a blunt statement.

"You're being railroaded on false charges."

McCoy almost choked on what he was swallowing, but he managed to get it down before laughing.

"Hell, Slim - tell me something I don't already know. I keep looking for relief, but the house hasn't landed on the Wicked Witch of the Southeast yet."

Chuckling himself, Pike made use of the sink to lean against.

"Do you have any idea who I am?"

McCoy took another drink, re-studying Pike as he did.

"Starfleet Captain, obviously. But past that? Not a clue."

"Captain Christopher Pike. I'm a close friend of Doctor Rajinder Puri. Do you remember him?"

"Of course I do. One of the few speakers we got in that it wasn't a waste of time listening to."

"You made an impression on him as well. Which is why I'm here."

An eyebrow quirked upward and McCoy seemed amused.

"I doubt he wants my autograph or my recipe for peach cobbler - though it is a dandy. One of the few things I managed to keep from the Witch."

"No to both of those, though he might rethink the peach cobbler. I'm here as a recruiter, McCoy."

All traces of amusement immediately left the doctor's face. For a moment, Pike was even concerned that McCoy was going to start hyperventilating.

"I'll have to give you points for the most original reaction to that statement. Surely you don't prefer staying in this hole to enlisting in Starfleet?"

Swallowing hard, McCoy seemed to have a problem getting his vocal chords to work for a minute.

"I know you won't understand, Captain, but it's a mighty close call."

To McCoy's surprise, Pike pulled his PADD forward and consulted it.

"I should have read this closer. Aviophobia, hmm? I can see where Starfleet wouldn't have been your first career option."

Putting his PADD back away, Pike moved over to the cot and sat near McCoy, ignoring that it was plain they hadn't allowed the man to clean up or change his clothing in quite awhile. He started his pitch while McCoy was still trying to figure out how much information on him that Pike had on that PADD.

"On a Starship, you'll never even know you're in the black unless you deliberately go to a viewport - which there aren't that many of. Be just like working in a covered city, McCoy. And think about what all you'll be able to do once you're free again. Once you become a commissioned officer. Think it will eat at the Witch to know that you're far beyond the reach of her petty little clan?"

A slow smile began to form again on McCoy's face.

"Like acid. You know, I don't generally get on a shuttle unless I'm drunk enough to forget that I'm on one."

"I'll buy."

There was only a slight additional hesitation, then McCoy nodded.

"Fine then. You got yourself a doctor."

As Pike's smile began to remind him a little too much of a shark, McCoy repressed a shudder.

"Well then, Leonard my boy, let's get this show on the road. With any luck, she'll be mortified by sundown."

Pike went to the front of the cell and called out.

"I need the keys in here now."

The sheriff started to stammer again about how he couldn't release the prisoner. He started to stammer worse when he found Pike's phaser aimed slightly below his belt-line.

"You seem to be under the mistaken impression that I was giving you a choice. Doctor McCoy is leaving with me. Your only option is whether you will still be breathing when we walk out the door."

The sheriff's hands were shaking so badly that Pike finally took the keys from him and handed them to McCoy so that he could release himself. He was out of the cuff in less than a minute and on his feet.

"Come on, Leonard. Let's go pick up your things and get out of here."

McCoy shrugged.

"Other that the stuff out of my pockets that the sheriff took, all I have left is what I'm wearing. I wasn't kidding earlier when I thought you were a lawyer. She took everything. Don't know what the hell she did with my clothes. Knowing her, probably burnt them for spite."

Pike didn't bother asking the sheriff. He went straight to the main desk and rummaged until he found what appeared to be McCoy's things. He chuckled to himself when he noticed one of the items was a hip flask.

Laying out the items, he gestured over them.

"This look like everything, Leonard?"

Eyeing the small collection, McCoy gave a rueful nod.

"Afraid so. All my worldly goods that remain. Hell, I guess croaking in a shuttle crash will beat starving to death on the side of the road."

Smirking as he watched McCoy gather up what was on the desk, Pike clapped a hand on his shoulder once he was done.

"We'll have to work on that fatalistic streak of yours, Leonard. Now, I believe I owe you a drink."

"More than one if you were sincere about me being drunk enough to ignore the shuttle trip."

"Let's get to it then. I'll even spring for having your flask refilled."