4. Salt
"Bones…Bones, hey!"
McCoy jumped slightly as Jim grabbed his shoulders, and jerked his eyes from the corpse on the floor. The doctor felt like he was swimming through a thick fog and his friend's voice sounded muffled. The events of the last few minutes were blurry and he—
"Jim!" Bones wrenched himself from his stupor and looked his friend over with concerned eyes. "We need to get you down to the med bay…"
"Bones, I'm fine. I think you need to sit down. Come on."
Leading the shaken doctor to a chair, Jim shot his first officer a look and the Vulcan nodded in confirmation. A team would be there shortly to clean up and they could focus on their friend. Jim watched McCoy's face carefully. "How do you feel?"
"I'm fine. Why wouldn't-"
Spock spoke up from his position nearby. "You have never ended a life before today. This must be difficult."
McCoy thought about it. Yes, he'd hoped to never need to take a life but he'd known that it was a good possibility when he joined up with Starfleet. So yes, this was hard. Very hard. But that thing was not Nancy and had killed her no doubt. It was odd how he didn't feel much of anything at the moment. It was…was he in shock?
"Bones…hey, it's okay…" Jim was hugging him and that was when he realized that he was crying. Everything began to crash in on him and the doctor clung to his friend and tried to calm himself. He let all of his negative emotions poor out as Jim rocked him and muttered apologies and comforting words in a barely audible voice. McCoy felt his pain begin to subside and began to calm his own breathing as he looked over Jim's shoulder at Spock. The Vulcan stood impassive as ever but he was there in the face of the doctor's emotional display and that said a lot.
Then he felt Jim's grip on him weaken slightly and snapped back into MO mode. He pulled away and glared at his friend. "Med bay. Now. Don't make me knock you out. You too Mr. Spock, you hit the wall pretty hard. Move both of you!"
He'd be alright. He had to be, these idiots needed him.