Academy days – Training accident – Part 2

Leonard was anxiously waiting for the moment Kirk woke up.

Just that he didn't. The kid took his damn time.

It was getting dark in the single bed hospital room at Starfleet Medical.

After eight hours of what seemed very deep sleep the doctor became worried.

McCoy sat down next to Kirk's bed.

They had fixed the whole in his leg in no time. It hadn't been a dangerous wound to begin with. Kirk had of course lost some blood, but they had easily replaced it with IV fluids within half an hour.

While he was at it, he had given Kirk a once over and the results had left McCoy with worry.

It seemed his friend had suffered quite a few broken bones in his life. And although they had kind of been set, it hadn't been done properly.

The scans showed Kirk had suffered through an episode of severe malnutrition in his youth, which added to the problems. His bones were not as rugged as they should be.

Also, there were scars.

A lot of scars. The kind of scars that came from untreated wounds.

From what Leonard saw he suspected Jim had been physically abused in his youth.

Staring at his friend's slack face, he was wondered if this was what Jim hadn't wanted to talk about. And if the fact that he didn't want to go to medical was due to the fact that he feared McCoy would find out any of this and would start asking questions.

But the longer Leonard thought about it, the more he doubted that this was the only reason.

Kirk suffered from some odd allurement when it came to fistfights, having been beaten in his youth probably had to do with it, but it surely wasn't the reason Jim had freaked out as he had a few hours ago… and the reason for avoiding medical as if it was a pestilence.

McCoy had done a lot keep what had really happened on the training grounds from going into Jim's files. An entry like PTSD could ruin Kirk's career before it even had really begun and the kid deserved a chance.

Even panic attacks would not look good in his files, and him freaking out in distressing situations was overall quite a deal breaker.

On the other hand, they needed to get a grip on this, because Kirk freaking out in a dangerous situation was actually a no go, no matter if Starfleet knew about it or not.

To avoid that his friend would freak out the moment he woke up, Leonard had taken a few precautions.

He had removed all the medical cupboards that ran on rollers as well as all the medical machinery that wasn't necessary. He had fetched Kirk's bedspread from his room and instead of allowing the nurses to clad him in one of the patient's robes, he had supplied them with a pajama, explaining he was allergic to the detergent.

In order to keep Jim relaxed and docile during and after waking up he had given his friend an anxiolytic drugs.

The thing was he wasn't waking up.

Two hours ago, he had quite a discussion with a senior staff member, who thought that a doctor who was still in cadet training shouldn't be the one treating Kirk.

Not knowing how else to keep the issues under wraps he had called Captain Pike, who was noted as Kirk's emergency contact. One of the few entries the file contained at all.

Before Leonard hadn't even really started to explain what had happened, Pike had assured him he'd make sure McCoy was the only one to treat him and that all he deemed necessary would be taken care of.

The lack of surprise and instant understanding on Pike's side had hit Leonard like a brick wall the moment he realized it meant that Pike was well aware of the issues.

The doctor was a bit unsettled about that fact.

When the Captain had also told him he'd come by as soon as possible the doctor was very surprised, again. He had thought their relationship was quite superficial, but this sounded different.

For one ridiculous moment Leonard considered smuggling Kirk out of medical before he woke up. Technically, Kirk was healed and free to go, as soon as he woke up. Thing was they couldn't release him without him being conscious.

When he was honest with himself, he was afraid Kirk would wake up and make a scene, would foil Leonard hiding the incident skillfully from the files by completely freaking out.

Keeping the auto log of the hypospray to automatically update the file about which meds the patient had been given had been a bit of a challenge, not preventing the thing from happening, but to make it look like it was malfunctioning if anyone checked. He didn't want them to know he had given Kirk psychotropic drugs.

Whenever a nurse stepped in Leonard hoped Jim wouldn't wake up and freak out while she was in the room.

So he stiffened, when he heard the door open behind his back once more.

To his relief he noticed it was Pike. They had met before, but never talked.

"How is he doing? And cut the crap, I want to know all of it. I've read the file you updated and there must be things missing, that is not the Jim Kirk I know when it comes to medical treatments."

After a brief moment of speechlessness, Leonard started describing everything that had happened.

"So, he didn't tell you?"

"Tell me what?" McCoy's anger rose and he had to bite his tongue to keep his voice low.

"I can't tell you, son. If he didn't, I can't."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" the doctor hissed, now really frustrated.

"I suggest, you go to the nurses and inform them the patient has woken up and they need to prepare the paperwork for releasing him."

Leonard needed a moment to understand what Pike was suggesting.

"But, they'll come in and check on him… they have to, it's their duty."

"Then provide what they need to check, hand it over to them the moment you ask for the release papers. If they come in, I tell them he just fell asleep again," Pike gave him a keen look, the doctor hadn't expected from the man.

While McCoy just stood there for a moment, trying to sort out how to actually do this, Pike stepped over to Kirk's bed and smoothed down Jim's hair that was standing up in all directions.

"Son, you better wake up now," he said in a low and calming voice, resting his hand on top of Jim's head for a moment.

McCoy felt as if he was intruding something and suddenly realized how little he really knew about his friend. He felt like an outsider in other people's lives, no longer as if he was attending his best friend.

Whatever fiasco had happened in Kirk's life, it left Pike as worried as him.

Although reluctant to leave, he saw the necessity to have the paperwork ready because they might need to leave fast, so he headed to the nurse's station and handed over the patient's PADD with the request to prepare the discharge papers.

Five minutes later, he was back in Kirk's room, armed with another freshly refilled hypospray.

He found Pike leaning on the bed, talking to Jim in a low voice about his day.

When Pike noticed him, he stated, "I think he is slowly coming to."

The doctor watched the large screen that displayed Kirk's vitals and found they were indeed displaying graphs and numbers that indicated a return to consciousness.

Leonard's alarms started ringing, and then, a few moments later, Jim opened his eyes.

McCoy held his breath.

The doctor could basically see the understanding about where he was and what had happened hit Jim's awareness, hard.

His jaw tensed, as did the rest of his body.

The doctor had the hypospray ready.

But instead of freaking out, Jim briefly closed his eyes again, taking a deep stuttering breath.

Leonard anxiously watched the vital signs on the screen.

The blood pressure climbed up dangerously, as did the pulse. But other than the tense muscles and a controlled breathing nothing was visible on Kirk's outside. His face was a mask of forced neutrality.

"You know what happened?" Pike asked him.

Kirk's eyes narrowed and he eyed Leonard coolly, "Yes," he hissed.

"Good. Now get your butt out of bed, we need to get you home," Pike said, no nonsense.

"Home? I will not go to Iowa," Jim echoed.

"To your dorm room," Pike added. "Gee, you're not really awake, are you?"

"I feel odd," Kirk complained.

But there was no freaking out, and no visible panic, although McCoy saw from the readings that the anxiety was building. But his amazement, his friend was able to hide it like he had never seen anyone do it before.

"The nurse will be over with your discharge papers. Just so you know, you're signing out AMA, surrendering into my care," Leonard informed him, giving him a stern look.

Kirk sat up slowly, looking down on himself.

"Who dressed me?"

"A very cute blonde nurse and her trainee," McCoy tried to lighten the mood.

"How long…?"

Kirk was interrupted by the door opening, a petite blonde nurse stepping in.

"Nice to see you awake and well, Cadet Kirk. This is your paperwork," she handed over an envelope. "Hope you have an easy recovery, good night."

She was out again only seconds later.

"Oh, she is cute," Kirk agreed, but it didn't escape the doctor's medical eyes that his friend had tensed up even more the moment she stepped in, and his heartbeat was way too fast now. Discretely, Leonard switched off the monitors.

"Will you be able to make it to your room?" Pike asked, eyeing the beads of sweat that were forming on Jim's brow.

Kirk nodded, and spoke through clenched teeth, "Just get me out of here."

It was the middle of the night and the rooming house was luckily quite deserted by the time they got there.

Outside the door, Pike said his goodbyes and told Leonard to call him if they needed anything, which Jim was exasperated to hear. He staggered into the room, waving over his shoulder.

"He's totally spent. Don't take it personally," McCoy tried to ease the situation.

"I know. I mean it, whatever happens, if you need anything. Call. No matter what time of night… And doctor… he will be pissed, be prepared to ignore it."

"Alright," Leonard agreed, still a bit stunned about the downright protectiveness Pike displayed.

Half an hour later, Jim was still neither obviously pissed, nor angry… at least he took care to deliberately hide it if he was. He completely ignored his friend and the whole thing while he made himself a sandwich and switched on the news.

"Jim, for god's sake, you can't ignore this! We need to talk about this!"

"No."

"Man, at least yell at me for knocking you out?" Leonard bluntly threw everything he had into the conversation. The tensing he had been in all day was taking its toll.

Keeping it all under wraps was not healthy.

"I am not angry. I am disappointed you went against my wishes," Kirk said calmly.

That hit harder than obvious anger could have.

Leonard closed his eyes briefly, trying to keep his temper in control.

"But I understand why you decided to do it and that's it," Jim added tiredly.

"So, you think you can just sweep what happened today under the damn carpet?"

"There is nothing to talk about… and I need some sleep," Kirk shuffled towards his bedroom door.

Leonard decided to let things cool down a bit and address it again later. Kirk was a stubborn sonofabitch and pushing him would only result in him resisting even more.

Although Jim had slept all day, he did in fact look like shit and tired beyond words.

They went to bed without exchanging more words.

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Constructive criticism welcome.