A/N: Sorry for the delay. I ran out of time yesterday for edits, so I saved the new chapter for today! Thanks to everyone still reading! Hope you enjoy!
After every member of the crew in the mess hall had been checked, McCoy sat down in a chair next to Raylene's unconscious body. He dismissed Uhura and she walked directly to Spock and hugged him. McCoy tried not to feel jealous at their happiness, but he couldn't help it. He wanted more than anything to be holding Raylene right now.
He reached out to take her hand and rubbed his thumb across it. "If I apologize now, does it still count?" He said, jokingly. She showed no sign of acknowledging him. He sighed heavily.
"I want you to know that I love you." He kissed her hand. "I love you so much, and I can't wait for you to wake up and tell me how awful I was, or yell at me for being a jackass."
When she didn't move, he put his head down next to her hip on the table. His hand continued to hold hers as he waited for her to wake up.
The time ticked by slowly until McCoy was nearly asleep on the table. Time had never moved slower for McCoy. He was used to waiting for patients to wake up from surgery or comas, but nothing compared to the dragging of time as he waited for Raylene to wake up.
A hand brushed his head and he looked up to snap at the person bothering him while he was clearly in a bad mood. He half expected Kirk to be standing over him, but when he looked up and his eyes focused he saw it wasn't Kirk. The hand belonged to Raylene.
McCoy stood quickly and hurried to check her vitals. "You're awake! Does anything hurt? How's your breathing? Do you feel nauseous?"
Raylene smiled slightly and squeezed his hand. "Calm down, Dr. McCoy. I'm okay."
"Are you sure? No dizziness or excessive sweating?" McCoy looked quickly up and down her body, wishing he was in med bay to scan her properly.
"Leonard," she said gently, "I'm alright."
"Good." He took a breath to calm himself. "I'm so sorry, Raylene. I—"
"Stop." She shook her head. "It's okay. Spock helped me realize I was being crazy."
"He did?" McCoy asked, raising an eyebrow at Spock's willingness to help him.
"Yes, so be nice to him for a while." She smiled and squeezed his hand.
McCoy glanced at Spock, silently thanking him for helping their relationship. He returned his attention to Raylene. "You had me worried. I thought I was gonna have to kill Jim for letting you get shot." He teased.
"It wasn't his fault. I pushed him out of the way. I got caught up being a doctor and forgot about my own safety." She admitted.
He brought her hand to his lips and kissed it again. "I can't lose you, Raylene. You're too important to me."
"It's okay, Leonard. I'm fine. We made it back to each other, that's all that matters." Raylene said. "Will you help me sit up?"
McCoy nodded and raised her into a sitting position. She swung her legs around until they hung off the edge of the table between her and McCoy.
He tucked a piece of hair behind her ear and held her head in his hand. "I love you."
"I love you, too, Leonard McCoy." She watched him lean in until she felt his lips brush hers. They stayed like that for a long time, then someone cleared their throat behind them.
McCoy growled as he pulled away from her lips, making Raylene giggle. He turned around to face Kirk.
"What the hell do you want?" He questioned, his anger obvious.
Raylene grabbed McCoy by the arm and pulled him toward her. "Easy, doctor. He's still your superior."
"Yeah, a superior dumbass." He grumbled.
"I get it. I deserve the name calling and the snarky comments, but can we save that until after we get our ship back?" Kirk replied.
"As long as your next plan doesn't involve suicide missions or impossible stunts, I'm all in." McCoy said.
"Come on, Bones." Kirk clapped a hand on his shoulder. "It's like you don't even know me."
Kirk turned and walked back to Spock, leaving McCoy groaning and rolling his eyes.
"At least if we die, we'll die together." Raylene joked.
McCoy faced her. "I seriously hate your positivity sometimes."
"Pessimism looks worse on you." She kissed his cheek before scooting off the table to stand. "Let's go get our ship back."
"It's about time." McCoy put his arm around her shoulders as she put an arm around his waist. Together they walked over to the group of commanding officers to formulate another plan to take control of the ship.
They were the last one's to join the group consisting of Spock, Uhura, Sulu, Chekov, Scotty, and Kirk. Sulu sat in a chair, his chest freshly bandaged, and he nodded at Raylene.
"Good to see you, Dr. Hobbs." He said.
"You as well, Mr. Sulu." She replied.
"Now that everyone has joined us, what's the plan?" Kirk asked.
"You're asking for help?" McCoy questioned.
"You already shot down my ideas, so I'm opening the floor to new ones," said Kirk.
"Mr. Scott explained to me that he sent a distress signal to Starfleet," said Spock.
"How long until they reply?" Kirk asked.
"It could be a few hours depending on how close the next vessel is to our location." Scotty reported.
"The good news is the anchor was successfully removed, so if we could get control of the ship we could leave them in the dust." Kirk said.
"Except they shot us out of warp before, so what is keeping them from doing it again?" Raylene asked.
Kirk started to answer then stopped, realizing he didn't know.
"She has a point." McCoy acknowledged.
"It appears most of their crew is aboard the Enterprise. If we capture their crew and put them in the brig, we can guarantee our escape." Spock said.
"So, we capture their crew here and on their ship, reclaim the bridge, and meet up with Starfleet to put them in prison." Kirk laid out the plan.
The group nodded in agreement, all except McCoy, who was hesitant to try a forceful take over.
"Then we need two main groups. One to go to their ship and one to take the bridge here." Kirk said, looking at each member of the team. "Spock, Uhura, Scotty and Chekov, take a few others with you to the transporter room, beam over to their ship, and capture their crew. Sulu, Raylene, Bones, and I will take back the bridge, while the others capture the crew on board. Scotty tell your engineers to have the Enterprise ready to run."
"Aye, captain." Scotty said.
"Spock, return the crew members on the other ship to the brig here and we'll let you know when we have the bridge secured." Kirk glanced around. "Remember this is our ship and no one messes with us. Good luck."
Spock nodded his head at Kirk before leading his group to select a few other crew members to go with them. Kirk turned to Bones and Raylene.
"Are you two okay to work together this time?" He asked.
Raylene looked up at McCoy and smiled. "I think we can make it work."
"I'm not letting you out of my sight." McCoy hugged her to him and faced Kirk.
Kirk rolled his eyes. "You guys make me sick."
Raylene laughed at his disgust as he walked toward the group of red shirts to gather volunteers.
McCoy turned Raylene to face him, his face holding a serious expression. "Are you sure you're okay to do this?"
"Leonard, I'm fine. I'm a little sore, but a lot pissed off at Cady. We have to end this."
"Alright, spitfire." McCoy smiled at her. "Just know that when this is over, we're requesting a few days off and spending them locked in our room." He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her in.
"Sounds wonderful," said Raylene, before pressing a kiss to his lips.
