Wow...I really love writing this. I have never enjoyed writing really long stories like this, but I can't help bu really liking this!

~Yuki-Chan

10. Drowning

McCoy still found it odd that Jim liked to swim in the middle of winter. So that's how he found himself sitting, clothes still on, at the edge of the Gym pool while Jim did laps.

McCoy watched the young cadet bounce back and forth the lane in the pool, and felt a shiver crawl up his spine. He hated water. He hated getting into big dark pools. He hated the thought of all that water filling lungs, stealing his breath....

A dripping form was standing in front of him made him start.

"C'mon Bones, you must have better things to do on your winter break than sit and watch me work out....." Jim was standing, wet and shiny, in front of him, the water simmered off his toned body.

"Not really...are you done? You said you would go shopping with me...." McCoy looked at the pool again, even from a good eight feet away it made him shiver, he knew he must have been pale, because Jim gave him the same look he always did when he didn't understand something that was going through the doctor's head.

"Yeah, I'm done...let me rinse off, kay?" He wanted to pat McCoy's shoulder, but he was dripping chlorine water all over the floor and decided not to get his friend all wet.

After Jim joined him, dressed and dry. They started out over the frozen ground of StarFleet academy. Most of the Cadets were gone. They had left to visit family elsewhere, and McCoy and Jim didn't have to fight their way through any mobs near the bullet shuttle to get a ride into the city.

"So why don't you like swimming?" Jim asked as they stood in the almost empty car. The thing would drop them off in about two minutes, not long enough to sit down.

"I don't like water." McCoy stated plainly. Hoping that would end the conversation. Jim had asked him this before.

"Now, there has to be more to it than that." Jim replied in his firm tone. He wasn't giving in this time. This irritated McCoy. He didn't really like discussing this with Jim in public, or at all as a matter of fact.

"C'mon, if you tell me why, maybe I can help..." Jim sounded hopeful.

"No...I...I have a phobia of water." McCoy stumbled out against his will. He was really thinking about punching Jim in the arm to shut him up.

"You have tons of phobia's as far as I have learned...that and an acute airsickness that made you all but throw up on me when we flew here. Let me help..." The last part of his sentence was thick with sincerity that made McCoy cave.

"I...I really hate water Jim, I don't like to talk about it. I...I almost drowned when I was younger. I never got over it. I seriously...." McCoy blocked all the mental images trying to tear their way up in his mind," I almost didn't reach the age of ten." He shuddered involuntarily.

"Alright." Jim said, putting a warm hand on McCoy's shoulder. The doctor looked at his friend in confusion.

"Alright?" McCoy cocked an eyebrow.

"Alright. I won't drag you to the beach over the summer then." Jim said thoughtfully. McCoy simply stared at him.