"How is he, Bones?"
The question caught the doctor off-guard, being that Jim was so quiet on his approach. Bones spun around, facing Jim with a look of concern. "He's….stable."
"Well that's good, no?" Jim said, looking back at the broken Vulcan. "Any idea when he'll wake up?"
McCoy shook his head. "It's hard to say; there is a lot of damage."
Jim followed him over to their comrades' bedside, moving closer as the doctor accessed the chart. "There was internal bleeding, skin beyond damaged, and not to mention the infection raging in his body. We had to sedate him before we could even get near him."
Jim stared at him, confused. "He…wouldn't let you near him?"
"He was delirious Jim. He lapsed back into thinking he was back on that ship and thought we were trying to experiment on him." He paused, closing the chart. "It's hard to say how long it will take to get him back to normal."
"But…how come he didn't heal himself? Isn't that a Vulcan thing?"
"It is, Jim, but it seems as if something happened to hinder him doing this."
There was a crash from the other room, panicked yelling taking over the silence. Jim looked at Bones with a look that could not be explained before bolting to the door.
"Spock!" He yelled.
The Vulcan couldn't hear him, flipping over another tray of expensive utensils in the need for answers. The others had cleared out of the room, leaving the man in distress in a place he couldn't recognize. He coughed, a hand weakly gripping his side as his face contorted in pain. The taste of blood only increased the feeling of panic.
Jim had hit the floor faster than it took him to realize that he had ran to Spock. Blue eyes focused in on the shaking man over him, unsure of what to do next. Spock shook his head as if something had hit him before staggering back and collapsing to his knees. Jim forced himself to sit up, slowly moving towards Spock.
"Jim! I—" Bones started past the door but stopped when he was waved off.
Spock stayed still as the gap between them closed, Jim unsure if he was going to get thrown like the tables had been. There was a moment where all that happened was Kirk staring at the broken form of his first officer, hair out of place and face hidden in a way so human it was unsettling.
Then he reached out and placed a hand lightly on the shoulder before him.