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Chapter 10

"Wait!" McCoy squinted into the harsh sunlight as he stepped through the doorway of the shuttle. He stood at the top of the ramp leaning heavily against its side, right hand in the ready position at the trigger on the rifle but not yet aiming it at anyone. The others stood at the bottom of the ramp, unwilling to go any further. McCoy presumed this was to guard the shuttle and by doing that guard himself and Sulu.

Beyond his crew, he could see that the pirate captain and what was left of his crew stood ahead of them. There were more pirates now, another pirate ship had clearly brought back up. The motley mix of humanoids stood heavily armed and bristling with the need to draw blood. In another day, although it felt like in another lifetime, McCoy would have been terrified, now he found he couldn't care. Next to Rydan, the captain, was the Romulan commander and half a dozen of her soldiers. They were all dressed in their military uniforms and brandishing disruptor rifles much like McCoy's own. Behind the group were two of the pirate vessels and a shuttle from the Romulan warbird, situated not too far from each other on the dusty expanse of scrubland.

As he got to the doorway, Kirk glanced round and mouthed 'stall them' at him. McCoy wished he'd been filled in on the plan, he had no idea what was happening, all he knew was he had to do anything to keep his crew safe. "Don't shoot. I'm here." He offered, his voice gruff and cold, "You can have me as long as you don't hurt my crew. But you harm a hair on any of them and I'll open fire. We'll see just how many of you I can take down before you can stop me."

The pirate, Rydan laughed. "You've got some big fucking balls asshole. Come out here!"

"Not really." McCoy countered, concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other so that he didn't collapse as he walked as nonchalantly as he could towards them. "I just figure you want to get paid. And if you cause me to raise this weapon the first people I am taking out are you and the bitch who is willing to pay you." He reached the bottom of the shuttle ramp and Kirk and Spock stepped aside to let him pass. "You see, my crew is all I care about now. You can threaten my life, but it's not worth a damn, I'm already as good as dead. So, you have to wonder to yourself, am I prepared to go down fighting? And I think you know the answer to that."

McCoy came to a halt a few metres in front of the pirate captain, just out of the man's fighting arc but close enough to show he wasn't afraid. He was an inch or two taller than the pirate and locked his eyes with him, staring the pirate down as though he was just daring the man to make a move.

The pirate seemed to falter under the steely gaze for just a fraction of a second but then he got his composure back and that terrible grin crossed his features. He stepped forward and swung a punch. Miraculously, the synthetic adrenaline was still working and McCoy reacted faster than he would've thought his tortured body would have allowed. A split second before Rydan's closed fist connected with his jaw, he pulled the trigger.

The feeling of the bony fist catching at his chin and the sound of the disruptor rifle discharge seemed to happen simultaneously. McCoy staggered back under the impact, his failing body unable to stand firm against the force, his knees giving out he fell heavily to the dust. But the shot had met it's mark too, causing Rydan to let out a howl of pain and rage as the blast hit him point blank in the right thigh, causing him to crumple to the ground at the Romulan's feet. She looked down at him with disgust but turned her attention back to McCoy who was sat on the ground, legs splayed in front of him where he'd fallen on his backside. He grinned, feeling his blood run down his chin from a split lip and relishing the picture he was sure it was painting.

"Consider that a warning," he spat at the pirate who was crumpled on the floor and clutching at his leg as he tried to stop the heavy blood flow. McCoy didn't trust himself to stand again so he sat where he was but kept the weapon trained, not on Rydan but on the Romulan Commander.

She glanced down at him and sneered, although lowered her own weapon slightly. "Enough of this ridiculous posturing!" She snarled.

It was then that McCoy heard a rumbling sound, deep enough to shake the ground beneath them. He peered passed the throng of soldiers and mercenaries to watch as a formation of small fighter ships appeared on the horizon, aiming straight for them at speed. It turned everyone's heads and collectively they watched as the vessels rained explosives down on the enemy vessels, causing all three to become engulfed in flames and smoke, hot enough for the group to be blasted with the heat of it.

There was a shout from Kirk, McCoy barely heard it over the ringing in his ears but he didn't need to be told what to do. He opened fire, spraying disruptor fire wildly into the crowd of thugs. He was only partially aware that the rest of his crew had done likewise, he could see the shots fire over his head. The fighter ships swooped overhead raining short range fire down on the group of pirates and Romulans, some coming too close for comfort. The pirates had opened fire back on them and he felt a blast scorch his shoulder. He registered the feeling of it, but not the pain, almost as though he was disconnected to his body in some way. But then McCoy felt a pair of hands on each side of him, grabbing him under his arms and dragging him towards the shuttle. McCoy let them do it, continuing to fire his rifle wildly. He sought out the pirate captain, who was struggling to his feet in vain, and their eyes met. McCoy allowed himself a smile as he trained the weapon on the man and fired, watching him crumple to the dirt just as the doctor's rescuers got him to the safety of the shuttle.

He awoke to a steady beeping and the nose tingling smell of antiseptic. His chest felt tight, with a bone deep ache that radiated out to his entire body. He took a moment to acknowledge this and the relief it gave him, before opening his eyes to the familiar surroundings of a private room in the Med Bay ICU. He looked down at himself, sheets and a blanket pulled up high to his chest, an IV sticking out of his left wrist and a pale hand holding his even paler right one. He smiled softly at the captain it belonged to, who'd fallen asleep in a chair beside his bed, head back, snoring softly. McCoy gave the hand a gentle squeeze and Kirk bolted awake.

"Hey," Kirk uttered quietly once he'd cleared his sleep addled mind enough to realise what had woken him. "God it's good to see you back with us. You scared me Bones." The captain's voice was unsteady. McCoy noted the usually flippant captain was visibly shaken, his lip quivered and his eyes were quickly filling with unshed tears. McCoy gave his hand a firmer squeeze.

"Sorry." He mumbled, his throat raw and mouth dry.

Kirk wiped his eyes hastily with the back of his free hand and smiled. The other one refused to give up his grip on his friend. "Don't be sorry." He said, grabbing a plastic cup of water from the bedside table and helping McCoy take a sip. "I just hope I never have to go through that again. How are you feeling?"

"Like I was shot. Repeatedly." McCoy said quietly. "What happened?"

"On our way down to the planet, Giotto put me in touch with the colony leaders. Looks like they've been having their own troubles with pirates for some time. I promised them that if their lent us some firepower then the Federation would assist them in tackling their pirate problem. Once we escaped the exchange then it was easy to prepare a squadron and take back the Enterprise from the remaining pirates. They'd taken off with it but we were able to track the rolling distress call you put out and get it back before they took it too far. Scotty's fixed the power source and shields and we are headed to the nearest Starbase for some shore leave."

McCoy nodded and took a deep, pained breath, glad his distress call had worked, even if it hadn't resulted in Starfleet coming to their rescue. "How long have I been out?" He asked, realising that an awful lot had seemed to have happened since his last memories of being dragged out of the firefight.

"Almost three weeks." Kirk looked about ready to tear up again. "When Spock and I dragged you back into the shuttle we thought we were losing you. When the last of that adrenaline shot wore off you had a heart attack. Spock performed CPR on you the whole way while Sulu flew us to the settlement. They managed to stabilise your heart but didn't have the resources to repair the damage, they put you in an induced coma to keep you going while we got the Enterprise back. We transferred you back here a week ago and started growing you a new lung and skin grafts right away. You had surgery yesterday and M'Benga is happy with how it went. He repaired some of your ribs but others had great big holes blasted out of them so your bottom three on the left are now titanium. I'm hoping they'll make you a little more phaser proof next time." He joked halfheartedly.

"Shit." McCoy exclaimed softly. He'd known really that's that what it would take, but listening to it reeled out like that was still hard to process.

"Bones, I don't know how you got through all that but I'm glad you did. You saved us all. And I don't know where I'd be without you."

"Stuck in a Romulan torture room?" Bones interjected.

"Well yeah, but…"

"Or in some dingy cell having to listen to Spock drone on about how it was illogical to torture someone who never paid any attention to Starfleets briefings anyway?" He smiled.

"Bones," Kirk admonished, "I'm trying to declare my heartfelt gratitude and undying love here and you're ruining it!"

McCoy laughed momentarily but stopped when he realised how much it hurt.

Something caught Kirk's eye through the window into the hall and he waved. "I think someone else is here to see you." He smiled. "I'm going to check on the bridge and I'll be back later." He slipped his hand from McCoy's and stood, as he left the room he held the door open and let Chekov through.

Chekov stood hesitantly in the doorway, his whole body appearing tense and awkward.

"Hey kid." McCoy smiled, "You doin' okay?"

"I vanted to see how you vere. And vanted to say thank you." He said rapidly, approaching the bed with a nervous energy, "I am so sorry you almost died because of me and I don't know how I can repay you."

"Hey," McCoy said gently, reaching out and clasping Chekov's arm. "I'm okay. We're all alive and we made it home." He said, thinking fondly of the ship for the first time in years. "I can't ask for more than that. You did a really good job too, flew that shuttle out of there against all the odds, if you hadn't been able to outrun them we'd all be in a Romulan torture chamber right now." He pointed out.

"But you vhy did you push me out of the vay? You must have known you vould get hurt."

McCoy made sure the young Ensign was looking him in the eye before he spoke, "Because we're a family. And I'd do anything to keep my family safe."

Chekov dropped his gaze to stare down at his feet, overcome with emotion.

"I'd do it again too. Even knowing how it would turn out, even if I knew that I'd die doing it. You mean a lot to all the people here Pavel, we care about you, I hope you can see that."

The young Ensign nodded, when he looked up again McCoy saw the salt tracks down his cheeks. "I can."

"Good," McCoy said, trying to bring back some semblance of his usual gruffness. "Now off you go and let an old man get some sleep. And tell Jim if he wants to come back later he'd better sneak me in some Saurian brandy."

Chekov left and McCoy settled down in his bed. He closed his eyes and listened to the steady beeping of the heart monitor, the underlying hum of the spacecraft at warp speed and wondered, perhaps for the millionth time, how a simple country doctor from Georgia could end up finding the family he'd always wanted in the far reaches of space.