Author's Note:

Hello everyone and here is yet another chapter for you all. It has a discovery of an interesting skill of McCoy which was unexpected by the rest of the crew. Thank you all for your continued support of this story and I hope you like the chapter.

As always and forever, I don't own Star Trek.

Intriguing Ability

Things had been exceptionally chaotic on the Enterprise and they had finally come to a well deserved quiet period.

The bridge was calm as everyone attended their duties in companionable silence and Jim sat in the Command Chair just enjoying the peace and quiet. He looked round as he heard the bridge doors open, seeing Bones enter the room and he gave his friend a smile in greeting. Bones returned the greeting in a nod and walked over to take his usual place at Jim's left, Jim guessed that he'd finally finished all the paperwork that had been needed due to the last few days and had been able to leave the Medbay for the first time in days.

They remained in silence for a few minutes until Jim finally addressed his friend, "Bones, is everything going ok in…" He stopped in mid-sentence when he saw that the doctor wasn't paying him any attention at all and he stared at McCoy in confused amazement not quite believing what he was seeing.

Bones was standing as he usually did with his arms crossed over in front of his chest but his head was down and his eyes were closed. The rest of the bridge had also turned to look at Jim's sudden stop in the middle of a sentence and watched as their Captain got out of his chair and waved his hand front of the CMO's face. When that had no response he tried a different tactic, "Bones."

No response.

"Doctor McCoy."

Still nothing.

"Leonard."

Jim still got nothing but the man's even breathing and he was starting to get very worried about his friend. Spock had come over to them during Jim's attempts to get a response from Bones and tilted his head in interest, "Fascinating."

"Spock, do you know what's happened to him?" There was a slight edge of worry in Jim's voice.

Spock looked away from his scrutiny of the CMO, "It appears that Doctor McCoy has fallen asleep while standing and has managed to maintain his balance perfectly, a most intriguing ability."

"Wait!" Hikaru blurted in disbelief, "Your saying he's managed to fall asleep and stay standing!?"

"Indeed Mr Sulu, an unusual phenomenon but not unheard of in humans and other species."

Jim looked back at his still sleeping friend, "So…do we wake him up?"

"He appears to be sleeping deeply Captain so waking him is possible but would take more effort than normal. I would however advise against it."

"Why?"

"It is highly unlikely that Doctor McCoy has had much opportunity for suitable rest these last few days, as such it is most likely that this is the first proper sleep he has had in a while. Therefore I believe it best to allow him to rest."

"We can't just leave him standing there snoozing."

"No Captain we cannot, so, with your permission, I shall take Doctor McCoy to his quarters."

Jim was initially going to say no, he knew Bones wouldn't forgive him for a long time if he let Spock put the doctor to bed, but then he realised that there wasn't really anyone else present who could actually carry McCoy's full weight on their own comfortably. As such he simply nodded at Spock who proceeded to carefully pick the CMO up and carry him off the bridge. It was a testament to how tired Bones was when he didn't even stir as he was lifted and carried away.

When they had gone Jim addressed the bridge, "Crewman, I would strongly suggest that you don't speak to Doctor McCoy about what happened today. If you do you may not like the outcome."

Though the crew heeded Jim's warning and didn't mention what happened to McCoy they talked about it in private and marvelled at the doctor's ability to sleep while standing.