Wow that seems unanimous that folks would like to see this story continued so I'll see what I can do. As I've mentioned before I have zero medical knowledge so I hopefully won't make any glaringly obvious mistakes and if I do just consider it creative licensing. Hopefully I can write this next bit well enough for you guys to enjoy. As usual I love to read what you guys are thinking about my stories so do please review. Thank you so much to those who already have and for the kind messages I have received.

I is for Incarceration pt 3

McCoy leaned against the doorway to his office looking out into the Medbay at the bio bed his friend was currently sat on. Kirk had been back on board for an hour now and was waiting for the Doctor from the federation colony to set up his equipment to start the procedure to purge the engrams from Kirks mind.

Kirk still hadn't spoken, his blue eyes stared off to space like his brain just didn't want to acknowledge the trauma it had been experiencing. Shortly after arriving onboard the memories had triggered again on their hourly cycle and McCoy had been forced to sit and watch as his friend cried out at the agony of the experience, he wasn't sure if this was from the pain the episode physically caused or from the emotions of seeing a memory that wasn't his in all its gory glory. Not that it mattered right now, the outcome was the same and once the episode had finished Kirk had returned to his catatonic state which McCoy surmised was his friends way of trying to deal with it. Everyone knew Kirk had genius level intelligence and with the agonies he had already experienced in his short life he had learnt to shield himself mentally, and Doctor McCoy hoped that this was the explanation for his friends current condition.

A voice called out from the surgical bay advising him that the Doctor was ready to begin and McCoy pushed himself away from the door frame and towards Kirk.

"Hey Jim, how are you doing?" McCoy studied Kirks face looking for something, anything that would show that Kirk had acknowledged his presence but there was none. He just sat there, his legs hanging over the side of the bed, his hands clasped loosely in his lap. "Jim, we're ready to begin. Time to get those bastard pictures out of your head ok"

McCoy sighed, he couldn't stand this. Part of him wanted to grab Kirk by the arms and shake him into responding to him. This was breaking his heart seeing the usually strong Captain like this but he knew it would do no good. Signalling to one of his nurses to help they walked Kirk across the Medbay and settled him on the surgical bio bed.

As the colony Doctor positioned Kirks head between two pieces of what looked like plastic, attached to a monitor at the head end of the bed McCoy felt his gut twist in anxiety.

"Doctor Vee, you better be right that you can rid these engrams from the Captains brain or a swear to God you won't know what's hit you once I'm done with you, and don't even get me started on what the rest of the crew will do to you"

Doctor Vee at least had the decency to look ashamed, he hadn't been oblivious to the visits from Captain Kirks friends and crew. None of them had directly spoken to their Captain but they had all been in to see how he was getting on and all looked shocked to see what had become of him. Nervously adjusting the controls on the monitor Doctor Vee set it ready to start "Doctor McCoy, I assure you we can remove them. However no one before has ever had them ingrained like this for such a length of time, most people confess days before..."

The growl that came from across the bio bed made Doctor Vee Jump "Are you telling me doctor, that this may not work? Because if you are about to tell me that then I would suggest you shut your mouth and find a way to make it work"

"No no, not at all. It will work, it will. I just don't know how easy the procedure will be. Usually it is just a case of grasping the engrams and transferring them into the collection point. But Captain Kirk has them buried deep within his memories now so the removal will need to be more...invasive"

"Well then, I suggest you get on with it. You'd best let me administer the sedative Doctor Vee, the Captain has complex allergies"

McCoy reached for the hypo spray he had in his pocket, he stomach was still flip flopping with nerves and he just wanted this whole episode over with. He almost missed seeing Jim trying to scuttle away from the hypospray, that man was such a big baby when it came to them and most of the time it infuriated McCoy to have Kirk behave that way but right now he felt like he would give anything to see some kind of reaction.

"I'm sorry Doctor, but a sedative will not be possible. The patient has to be awake to allow the scanner to accurately locate the engrams within the Captains conciousness. But if you could monitor his vitals whilst the procedure is done I would be most grateful"

McCoy couldn't hide his concern that this would be undergone without sedation but hey, what did he know about this kind of thing. This was technology he was still struggling to comprehend. Turning his attention to the bio beds screen he checked all the vitals trying to ignore the bile that rose in his throat as he heard Doctor Vee's equipment whir to life. Instead he tried to concentrate on Jim, and he grasped his left hand in his own and looked into those blue eyes and prayed again for a miracle.

That was until he was interrupted from his reverie by the hand being wrenched out of his hold and a scream erupting from the bed. "Doctor Vee, what is happening!?" He yelled as he passed his eyes over the bio bed monitor and saw that Kirks heart rate had spiked and his blood pressure was climbing

"I don't know..." Seeing McCoy fire daggers at him Vee decided to amend his answer "I mean, it must be because of how deep the engrams have been buried"

...&...

Kirk screamed and screamed, his head felt like it was exploding. He couldn't stand it, something was burying through his skull and he needed to get away. He tried to move his head but it was stuck, he couldn't get away. He bucked and pushed with his legs, he had to get away. He had to get away from the pain, it was too much.

Kirk could feel the weight of someone pinning him down, one hand on his left arm and the other over the top of his body trying to grasp his other hand. They were trying to use their weight to subdue him, but he had to get away. He fought harder and this time he felt more hands on his legs, more people trying to pin him down. But why, why did they want to keep him in this tortuous hell, he knew if he could just get up and away the drill in his skull would go.

And so he continued fighting...

...&...

McCoy was trying to hold his friend down, damn even in this state he was a strong son of a bitch. One of his nurses had hold of Kirks legs and another was trying to activate the restraining field to no avail.

"Doctor McCoy, it's not working" The nurse yelled "The alien equipment must be interfering with the emitters"

"Doctor McCoy you need to keep the Captain still" Doctor Vee yelled over the sounds of his patient screaming "or we risk damaging the Captains brain beyond repair. "

McCoy would have rolled his eyes if he wasn't so busy trying to keep a damned bucking bronco from leaping off the bed "How much longer Doctor?" He yelled

"Not long, we nearly have them all. Please you have to find a way to keep him still but whatever you do DONT sedate him"

"Great help, thanks" McCoy yelled. He could think of only one path of action he could take that would subdue tKirk quickly and efficiently without sedating him "Nurse get me 2mg of Succinylcholine"

As the nurse arrived with his requested medication McCoy instructed her to inject it into Kirks jugular as he daren't risk letting go of his friends bucking body to administer it himself. Within seconds Kirk had stopped moving everything except his eyes, they were still rolling around underneath his eye lids, his face screwed up showing the discomfort he was feeling.

"Very good Doctor" Doctor Vee called in relief at seeing his patient quieten down "what was that you gave him, it was quite effective"

But McCoy felt sick at what he had been forced to do "It was a paralytic, effective from the neck down. I suggest Doctor you hurry this up before we torture the Captain further" At that moment Kirks eyes sprung open and they were searching the room finally falling on McCoys face and again McCoy felt the bile rising in his throat from the panic displayed in those eyes. He couldn't imagine how Kirk was feeling right now, conscious paralysis was most people's idea of a nightmare. But he had a job to do and he was going to do it as best he could "Nurse respirator" he barked

...&...

Kirk forced his eyes to open. He couldn't work out what was happening, until his eyes found the concerned face of his best friend Bones. The pain in his head was agonising, he tried to move away, to grasp hold of his friend to help him but he couldn't move. Oh god, he couldn't move. He was telling his arms to push himself up, his legs to roll him off this damn bed but he couldn't. Why couldn't he move? Panic began to set in, even as the pain in his head began to lessen, breathing he felt like his chest wouldn't work. He then watched as a mask was placed over his face and he felt the air being forced down his throat, he didn't like the feeling one bit. It made his throat feel cold and sore, he tried to lift his hand up to remove it, to tell Bones that it was uncomfortable but he couldn't. This was it, the great and powerful Captain of the Federation Flagship was stuck and there wasn't a damned thing he could do about it.

...&...

As McCoy placed the mask on Kirks face he tried to tell Kirk that he was ok, that he would soon be better but he couldn't get his mouth to form the words. He watched as defeat settled in to his best friends eyes and a silent tear rolled down Jim's cheek. And all McCoy could feel was guilt. Guilt that he hadn't been able to get to Kirk before this whole debacle happened, guilt that he couldn't get him out of his incarceration before this damage had been done and guilt that he was forced to put Jim in this position.

Finally Doctor Vee advised McCoy that the procedure was over and a complete success, all engrams had been removed. He pulled the plastic brace away from Kirks head and proceeding to begin packing it away.

McCoy bent over his friend whose eyes still scanned his face, unspeaking but telling a thousand words.

"Jim, it's over. You're going to be ok, I'm so sorry we had to do this. I'm going to sedate you now whilst we wait for your vitals to return to normal. Just relax" and with that McCoy couldn't help but feel relief as he put his friend to sleep.

...&...

The Enterprise was on its way to Starbase 53 for routine maintenance, but McCoy didn't care right now his world didn't exist outside of the medbay. He had kept Kirk sedated for 2 days to give his body time to recover. During this period he had hooked Kirk up to IV's to rehydrate him and a feeding tube had been inserted into his stomach to provide the much needed sustenance. But still McCoy couldn't find it in himself to be happy that his beloved friend was on the mend because whenever he closed his eyes all he could see was those bright blue eyes looking back at him in panic at not being able to move, because McCoy had been forced to paralyse his friend; a procedure which is only ever used on comatose patients or ones ready to undergo surgery.

McCoy hadn't showered in days, he had barely eaten (and even then only because Uhura had bought the food to him in the Medbay and stood over him whilst he ate, she really could be quite forceful) and he had been napping intermittently on his office couch when the nightmares would allow.

But now it was the day to wake Kirk up, he was stable. McCoy watched as his nurses removed the feeding tube and administered the necessary drug to bring Kirk out of his induced coma. He stood at the foot of the bed as he saw Kirks body fight its was back to conciousness.

"Hey Jim, how do you feel?" McCoy asked upon seeing the Captain open his eyes and lock them on his own.

Kirk smiled "I'm good thanks, you?" Truth be told he felt like crap. He had a headache, his mouth felt like cotton wool, and could remember every single thing that had happened to him (the downside to having an eidetic memory).

McCoy found himself spluttering a bit, "Me? I'm fine Jim, but I didn't just have my brains fiddled around with by an alien machine". He walked round to the side of the bed to get a better view of the vitals display screen, Kirks eyes followed him around "Jim, I'm so sorry I had to do that to you. I know it must have been awful and I didn't want to but..."

Kirk raised a hand to stop his friend from continuing to admonish himself "Bones, it's fine really. You did what you had to do, I get that; and hey if I hadn't been throwing myself around like a thing possessed you wouldn't have had to. It's cool Bones, I swear"

McCoy nodded, relived that Kirk seemed to be ok with what had happened.

"So, can I go?"

"You're kidding me right, you just woke up!"

"Yeah and who knows how much fun I've missed whilst I've been snoring away in here...I didn't actually snore did I?" Kirk laughed at the famous McCoy eyebrow as it raised in what Kirk decided was of course amusement "I've got a ship to run after all"

"Yeah, well right now Spock has it all under control and you will stay here until I'm sure there are no side effects from your ordeal, and even then you will be released to bed rest in your quarters"

Kirk sighed "Bed rest, seriously. I've just spent, errrrrrm...how long have I been unconscious? Anyway I don't need more bed rest, well not unless I can find a nice woman to rest in it with me" Kirk winked at the exasperated expression on his friends features, teasing Bones was one of his favourite hobbies.

"Unbelievable" McCoy muttered. "Bed rest here first, where I can keep an eye on you and then bed rest in your quarters and I warn you I will be sending people in to check you are resting!"

"Aye Aye Captain" Kirk teased, raising his hand in mock salute and grinning widely. McCoy walked away shaking his head muttering to himself, and as soon as he was safely in the distance Kirk let the smile fall from his face and lay his head back against the pillows.

He shouldn't be able to remember, the memories were meant to be gone. But as he stared at his hands his mind flashed back to the image of them covered in blood. "I didn't do it" Kirk whispered to himself "I didn't do it"

...&...

Right there we are guys, hope that was ok. Poor McCoy, I hope I did justice to the guilt he must have felt. I love that big guy and his love for Kirk!