Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek. I own nothing interesting. All I've got is my bones, must be why I like McCoy so much.

AN: McCoy's in Med Bay, Pike's on the Bridge, and what is Lady Winona up to?

Content Warning: The forecast ahead is dark folks. Those readers who find rape or threats of rape triggering or bothersome would do well to avoid the interrogation bit and skip down to the section where McCoy and Kirk have some fluffy happy times.

Through A Mirror Darkly

Teris Xenite

ISS Enterprise

Interrogation 1730

Pike smiled as Cupcake brought him a small box, and pulled up an instrument table so that he could begin his work. If he knew Uhura half as well as he thought he did, he'd need to play this up, because he most certainly had an audience by this point. "Now Janice, let's make something clear from the get go. You tried to kill McCoy. You know that and I know that. I don't particularly care why, and I know that you're not working alone. Because as good as you are, you couldn't have gotten poisoned bourbon into the Captain's quarters without some help."

He pointed to a set of platforms which Cupcake moved into position as he'd been instructed before the girl had even been brought into the room. Her legs were now chained far apart enough that she was bowlegged as one would expect of someone riding a horse, and they were secured so that she couldn't kick at her tormenters. "My problem in all this is that you're not going to tell me the truth, and if I torture you enough you'll start randomly accusing people just so that the pain will stop. That doesn't help me. So here's how things are going to go."

He ran the tip of his knife up along the sensitive skin of her inner thigh causing her to shiver, and when he reached the juncture of her thighs he slapped her mons with the flat of his blade, making her flinch. "I am going to have our Vulcan friend rip from your mind the information that I need. Then I am going to play with you until you wish you were dead. And after you wish for it for a very long time, and scream and beg for me enough, then I might let you die."

He traced his fingers up the same path that the knife had just taken, and instead of slapping her he slid two of his fingers inside of her, noting that she winced at the rough intrusion, and her face colored with indignation. "Tighter than I'd have expected of a whore like you, seems you were willing to kill to take McCoy's place, but weren't willing to part these pretty thighs for anyone in quite some time." He tisked as he reached up and stroked her cheek, then slapped her hard enough to leave a mark. "Such a pity, would have made some of what I've planned for you a lot easier if you'd been more of a slut."

He brushed his thumb over her clit a few times causing it to swell, then he pricked the hardened flesh much as he had her nipples earlier. He stepped back and surveyed his handy work, before he opened the box and removed a writhing creature with a pair of tweezers. He held it up to her face, and noted the widening of her eyes and the quickening of her breath.

"I bet you've never seen one of these before. This little fellow is a Sarurailian leech. It loves the taste of human blood, but it causes an odd reaction in its prey. The area surrounding where the leech attaches is oversensitized. That part is fairly normal, after all no one expects blood being forcibly extracted from small bite wounds to be comfortable, now do they?" He paused and watched with satisfaction the slight widening of her eyes and the hitch in her breathing as the creature writhed seeking the sustenance that it could so easily smell.

"The unusual aspect of this particular creature is that its saliva causes a strange reaction. Insatiable sexual appetite, in the case of a female like yourself, it basically puts you into a stage of heat. But the beauty of this little bug, it also inhibits the pleasure centers of your brain. So the things that it causes you to crave, those things that normally feel so very, very good, instead are insanely frustrating. You will accept anything any one offers you. You will beg and scream and cry for it, your world will be reduced to the quest for satisfaction of your most primal urges. And unless I stop you, you will literally fuck yourself to death, seeking a climax that will never come."

He reached up and pinched her nipple and flicked the wound he'd caused earlier with his fingernail causing the forming scab to fall away, and the blood to once again flow. "This little fellow looks hungry, and I'm in the mood to see how you fair against the whims of the crew of this ship. I know for a fact that Scotty and Cupcake here have a bet going as to which one of them will make you scream louder while they fuck that tight little ass of yours."

He set the leech on her breast and watched as it crawled towards her nipple and the ready supply of blood. He repeated this process for the other nipple, and for her clit. Then he stepped back and waited for the toxins to begin making their way through her body. Before they had taken full effect he held her chin between his fingers and whispered in her ear. "And you know the best part Janice? You're going to remember the shame of all the things that you'll do, the pain, the degradation, the guilt you'll feel at begging like a cheap whore. All of those will stay with you long after the drug wears off. And I intend to make certain that you live to feel the shame of it for a very, very long time."

With that Pike stepped back, and with a sharp nod to Spock stepped back. He watched as Janice tried futilely to fight off the violent intrusions in her mind, and smirked when in mere minutes Spock stepped away and wiped his fingers off on the pants of his uniform. "I take it you have the information we require Mr. Spock."

Spock gave a nod. "Yes sir. She enlisted the help of one of the security officers that McCoy had reprimanded in the past for excessive brutality in interrogations. He helped her gain access to McCoy's bourbon before it ever reached the Captain's quarters."

"Well then, I'll leave it to you to see to the apprehension of the others involved."

Spock turned to go, but then paused and turned back to Pike. "Sir, if I may pose a query?" Pike nodded. While questions that were ill thought out annoyed him, those raised by Kirk's first officer were always articulate and understandable needs for clarification. "This woman attempted to kill McCoy, not to take his place, as she has already had a liaison with the Captain. Instead she sought only to cause the Captain pain. It is illogical to risk one's life when there is so little to gain."

Pike shook his head and chuckled. "So much time spent among humans Mr. Spock, and still you have not learned that we are illogical? When we hate intensely enough, we will undertake enormous risks to ourselves, for the momentary satisfaction of seeing our opponent in pain. Moreover it is highly unlikely that she believed that she'd be caught is it not?"

"She believed that she would be able to escape via the crew transfer we have scheduled at Station Epsilon Seven."

"And another of humanity's sins rears its head, hubris. She believed the risk of capture to be small, and the harm to that which she hated to be profound. Therefore, she was doomed almost before she had begun." Spock continued looking at the Admiral as Janice began screaming as the drug took effect. He saw a minute smile cross the man's face, and realized that there were other illogical emotions at play aside from those that Pike had mentioned. But given that he found the outcome of the Admiral's affection for his Captain amenable, he did not dwell on the illogical nature of the emotion extensively.

Captain's Quarters 1000

When McCoy next awoke it was amidst the feel of gentle caresses and the warmth of Kirk's breath, hands, and mouth. When he stirred, he was met with a kiss, in which Kirk explored his mouth with a pleasant lassitude. Before this kiss could grow too heated Kirk pulled away and cupped McCoy's cheek gently, smiling softly as his free hand continued to stroke and caress. "Good morning. How are you feeling?"

McCoy took a moment to consider, knowing that if he snapped off an answer of 'fine, now let me go back to my damn Medbay and stop mollycoddling me' Kirk would be less than pleased. And it was too early to deal with pissed off Kirk. He needed coffee first at the very least. "I'm much better. I told you a good night's rest and I'd be fine."

"Mh, and I told you that you're not going back to work for at least three days. If you're good I'll let you have some physical therapy later. For the moment, the game plan is meds, food, and a shower. But I'll be nice and let you pick the order."

"Well aren't you accommodating this morning?" McCoy asked dryly.

"What can I say, I'm always willing to acquiesce to any reasonable request that my consort happens to make." The timber of Kirk's voice deepened as the word reasonable rolled off his lips and McCoy resisted the urge to shiver as it sent a tingle down his spine. The raised eyebrow left McCoy with no doubt as to what could be considered reasonable requests, all of them of a distinctly adult nature. "So what do you want to do first?"

"If I smell anywhere near as grungy as I feel, I'm surprised that you're giving me a choice."

"Shower it is then." Kirk rolled to his feet fluidly and extended an arm to McCoy and easily pulled him to his feet. With his arm around McCoy's waist he helped guide him to the bathroom and leaving McCoy leaning against the counter and grabbed their toiletries and towels. Then he opened the shower door and guided McCoy under the spray.

McCoy noticed that Kirk's hands didn't wander as they normally did while they stood under the water, instead they were gentle and lingered over his sore spots. Kirk's gaze was sharp and assessed McCoy's reaction to every touch. His fingers traced over McCoy's ribs and McCoy found himself almost disturbed by the lack of sexuality in Kirk's caresses. Lust he could understand, possession he could process, but these seemed be an indication of something much deeper and it unnerved him.

Kirk made quick work of washing McCoy, seeing as he was foregoing the typically lengthy teasing and explorations McCoy was so accustomed to whenever Kirk joined him in the shower. McCoy was grateful for the surprising lack of extracurricular exploration when he noticed that his eyes were already starting to get heavy as Kirk's fingers massaged his scalp as he rinsed the shampoo from his hair. He allowed himself to lean into Kirk as he gently toweled him off and led him back to the bed. As he was laid back on the bed McCoy pondered how Kirk had gotten the sheets changed in the short time that they had been gone.

As Kirk stepped away McCoy drifted and had almost fallen back to sleep when he felt the bed sink beneath Kirk's weight. "Sorry Rip Van Winkle, you'll have to wait a bit for your nap. Food and meds first, then you can sleep the rest of the day if you need to." He helped McCoy lean on the pillow stacked headboard, and walked over to the replicator and returned with a breakfast tray.

Off to the side of the tray were a handful of pills that McCoy looked at askance. "What are those?"

"The meds M'Benga prescribed."

"More specifically what are they?" McCoy listened carefully while Kirk listed off a handful of drugs and shook his head as Kirk listed the last one. "Leave off that last one. The first three make sense, they'll help counter the organ damage, and reregulate endocrine systems. The last one will only prolong the weakness and the fatigue."

McCoy noted that Kirk's jaw began to twitch as his hands tightened on the tray that he was holding. "Might there be any medically valid reason that M'Benga would have given you that?"

McCoy thought about it for a moment, then shook his head. "Aside from the fact that it'd give him a few more days in charge of Med Bay, not really. On the flip side, it's a mild sedative. In that particular combination of drugs and in treatment for poisoning it wouldn't cause any harm either."

"So all it would do is make you sleepy? No possibilities for adverse side effects?" Kirk raised his eyebrows.

"No, it's perfectly safe. I've prescribed it hundreds of times. He wasn't trying to hurt me, just keep me out of Med Bay for another couple of days because he knows it's the only way that he'll ever be in charge."

"Doesn't change the fact that I'll be having a conversation expressing my displeasure once you're back on your feet." Kirk's eyes had gone frigid and McCoy resisted the urge to speak in smaller sentences to break through the wall of testosterone.

"You don't need to do that. He's only doing what a Starfleet officer is supposed to do when they see an exploitable weakness in their superior officer."

Kirk looked at him incredulously, trying to reconcile McCoy's casual dismissal with his own reaction, which was to go down to Med Bay and rip M'Benga's spine out. "How precisely can you be so calm about someone drugging you?"

"Because if he'd wanted to kill me or injure me badly enough to be useless as your CMO he had plenty of opportunities. Instead he slips me a relatively harmless drug, so that he can enjoy the thrill of being in charge a few more days. I'll handle it when I walk into Med Bay in three days instead of a week. He's a passable doctor, and I've no one to replace him with should you kill him or render him useless."

"So I won't kill him. And I won't do any lasting harm. Can I at least scare the hell out of him? Or am I not allowed to terrorize my own crew members now?" Kirk raised an eyebrow and looked at him pointedly.

"Terrorize yes. But killing one of the only other doctors on ship without a replacement at the ready would be detrimental to the orders that you gave me that I not work insane hours. I'll let you know if he needs to be removed alright. He's a crewman under my command. I can handle his punishment for what is a minor infraction. Or did I lose that particular part of my duties when I took up residence in your bed?"

Kirk looked at him coolly for a moment and then he sighed. "Alright, but so help me if you need me to handle it and don't tell me, I'll make the last punishment that I gave you look like a walk on the park on a pleasant spring day. Do I make myself clear?"

"Crystal. Now since you won't let me sleep, how about handing over the good meds and something to wash them down with?"

"Coffee? Or are you going to be sickeningly healthy again and insist on juice?"

McCoy barely resisted rolling his eyes as Kirk reawakened an argument that the two had been having since they started the academy. Truthfully when he thought about it, he was surprised that Kirk had taken his grousing over his diet as well as he had. Given that the man was damn near as alpha male as a man could get without going feral, he would have expected a more violent reaction to his repeated critiques on his diet. "As I eat my fruits and vegetables unlike some people I could name, coffee's fine, thank you."

Kirk poured two cups of coffee, leaving McCoy's black and mixing his with sugar and milk. He brought the cups back over, handed McCoy his cup and pills, and then sat on the bed beside him again. He watched McCoy over the rim of his coffee cup, and after the pills were swallowed he picked up a napkin and put it around McCoy's neck. "Hungry?"

McCoy shrugged as his appetite hadn't quite returned. "Well we'll have to see if I can't tempt you then, because like it or not you have to eat." Kirk pulled off the cover of the breakfast tray. McCoy despite having been ambivalent, found his mouth watering at the smell of homemade French toast. Kirk grabbed a fork and speared a bite of the toast and dunked it in syrup. "Open up." At the raised eyebrow and clear expectation that he would obey, McCoy complied allowing Kirk to feed him.

He had to admit that Kirk had a point. Between the coffee, the food and the discontinuation of the drugs that made him weaker than he should have been, he was feeling much more alert and less like a walking zombie. Kirk allowed him to eat his fill and refilled his coffee for him, and surprised him by downing a glass of orange juice, which he raised to McCoy with a nod. "Nice to see I'm not talking to a brick wall."

Kirk shrugged. "What can I say Bones, I intend on living a long healthy life, if for no other reason than to annoy my enemies."

"Then why pray tell, do you give me such a damned hard time when I suggest that you needed to take better care of yourself?" The comment was out of McCoy's mouth before he could think to censor it, and for the moment they were simply doctor and patient without the fucked up power dynamic that McCoy so often found himself in these days.

Kirk smiled and shrugged. "It's fun hearing you bitch at me. Used to be that half the time annoying the hell out of you was the only way to get you to talk to me at all." He looked McCoy up and down with a satisfied expression. "Of course now I have better ways to get your attention." He trailed his fingers down McCoy's sides lightly tickling him. "Shame though. You're hot when you're pissed off." Kirk looked almost a little wistful about the fact that he'd given up his secret, and couldn't use it to needle McCoy anymore.

"Not quite what I was going for I assure you." McCoy scowled.

"Seriously, your accent gets thicker, you come up with the most fascinating insults, and I end up wanting to back you into a wall and fuck you till you can't walk straight." Kirk smiled, obviously enjoying the mental images that the memory of McCoy's legendary tirades invoked.

"You're aware that's all manner of fucked up right?"

Kirk merely shrugged at the accusation, as if to say and this surprises you in what way? "Lucky for your blood pressure I like that little gasping sound you make right before you come even better than the growling one I get when I piss you off."

McCoy flushed, and glowered darkly. "I do not growl."

"Well I could piss you off at the moment to prove it, but you're still recovering. So I think we're gonna have to wait on the fighting and make up sex. But I think we should be ok for a round of I'm happy that the psycho bitch that tried to kill you failed sex. Along with some if you ever do something stupid like that again you won't sit down comfortably for a week foreplay. Sound ok in your medical opinion?"

"Mh, not so sure about the not sitting comfortably for a week part, but the sex shouldn't pose a problem." McCoy couldn't believe that he'd just given Kirk medical permission to fuck him. He could have lied and Kirk wouldn't have pushed it, given that he trusted McCoy's medical opinions explicitly, and that he was in a bizarrely tentative mood. The caresses and touches that Kirk had graced him with since he'd woken had been either clinical or uncertain.

Perhaps he'd underestimated Kirk's attachment to him after all. Because Kirk certainly seemed to be reassuring himself that McCoy was unscathed at every possible turn. Partially due to that fact, and that as much as he hated himself for it sex with Kirk felt damn good, McCoy had just cleared himself for sex with the captain. Ah, well at least Kirk would be less likely to put half of the crew in the agonizer booth due to sexual frustration.

Kirk smiled and caressed McCoy's face gently before trailing his fingers down to lightly pluck McCoy's nipples making him gasp. "I swear McCoy, if I end up sitting at your bedside in Med Bay again, because of something like this I'm going to put you on a fucking leash." McCoy shuddered at the idea of being led around the ship on a leash and whimpered involuntarily as Kirk pinched his nipples and sucked a deep mark onto his neck. "I can't let you out of my sight now can I? I mean for the love of god who gets poisoned in their own quarters?"

McCoy found himself hardening despite the harsh words Kirk was speaking and felt his hips trying to rise up to seek contact with Kirk's hands. "I mean really what more do I need to do to prove that your mine to the idiots on this ship?" He allowed his hand to circle McCoy's cock, and allowed him to thrust up into Kirk's grasp. "Do you have any question who you belong to? I mean is it in anyway unclear?"

McCoy's breath hitched and he gasped as Kirk's fingers stroked the head of his cock, letting his fingers trail through the drops of fluid that had collected there. "No, no question." Kirk's lips quirked at the gasped exclamation, and he tilted McCoy's chin upwards and covered his mouth swallowing the gasps and moans and enjoying the sweet heat of his consorts mouth. He pulled away when McCoy was trembling from the sensations Kirk was causing, and panting for breath.

"Who do you belong to McCoy?" Kirk growled as he continued manipulating McCoy's cock.

"Yours, I'm yours." McCoy panted and Kirk pinched his consort's tender nipples and increased the speed with which he fisted McCoy's cock. Kirk smiled at McCoy's groans and gasps and trailed kisses up McCoy's jaw and up to his ear. His tongue traced the shell of McCoy's ear, and his warm breath made McCoy keen.

"Feel good sweetheart?"

McCoy grasped his lip in his teeth and threw his head back, arching up into Kirk's touch. "Uh huh."

"And you want to come for me don't you? I can tell you do. Come for me McCoy. Come for me right now." McCoy shuddered and then collapsed to the bed panting, watching limply as Kirk took the come that had coated his hand and started rubbing into McCoy's ass using it as a lubricant as he inserted his fingers stretching McCoy.

Tisking when McCoy's come was depleted before the man was loosened enough for his entrance to be comfortable for both of them, he reached over and grabbed some lubricant from the bedside table. He then drizzled the liquid over his fingers as they thrust into McCoy, then he flexed his fingers in the tight confines making McCoy gasp and groan in restored pleasure as Kirk's fingers brushed against his prostate.

Kirk reached down stroked his own cock, bringing it to its maximum length and firmness. Then he removed his fingers and readied himself at McCoy entrance. "Open your eyes for me." McCoy opened his eyes still cloudy from the pleasure that Kirk had just given him, but he met and held Kirk's eyes as ordered. "That's it, keep your eyes open for me." And Kirk held McCoy's eyes as he slowly entered him, enjoying the uncloaked emotions in McCoy's gaze.

He brought his hand up and tangled his fingers with McCoy's while the other hand pulled the man in close for a kiss. Never breaking eye contact with McCoy he set a slow, steady rhythm, which would have frustrated McCoy had he not just had an explosive release of his own. Since he had, however, he was able to enjoy the feel of Kirk's leisurely possession. He even allowed his free hand to wander along Kirk's back and grasp his hips as he approached his climax.

Kirk who had previously been loquacious as always during sex, had quieted and was exhibiting an intensity that McCoy typically only saw in a crisis or when he had been challenged for command. The laser sharp focus of the arctic blue eyes, and the strongly set jaw made McCoy's heart beat a little faster along with the staccato thrusts as Kirk reached his release. Kirk's free hand came up to caress his cheek, and he panted while resting his forehead on McCoy's. "Never again. Never, do you understand me?"

McCoy allowed his fingers to tangle in Kirk's hair, which he'd noticed had a calming effect on Kirk in most situations. "I'm alright. I'll be more careful, and I'm sure that after you and Pike are done with the poor bastard that was stupid enough to try this that no one else will dare to so much as sneeze in my vicinity."

Kirk chuckled and shook his head. "Particularly on Tuesdays."

"Did Pike really kill someone for sneezing on a Tuesday?"

Kirk raised an eyebrow. "He seems to like you well enough, and my mother would have his guts for garters if he laid a hand on you. Why don't you ask him?"

McCoy snorted. "Great, just what I need family bonding time with a murdering sociopath."

"Now that's a little harsh. He can be very good to the people cares about. Like I said he likes you, and beyond that he needs you. For the moment however, we're the only two people who are going to be bonding, if we don't get cleaned up before this mess dries." Kirk pressed a quick kiss to McCoy's forehead before gently pulling out and heading towards the bathroom.

By the time that he returned McCoy had already begun to drift into sleep. He felt gentle hands rubbing a damp cloth across his chest and stomach clearing away the rapidly cooling evidence of their encounter. Then the cloth fell to the side of the bed with a moist plop and he felt warmth at his back, and Kirk's strong arm pulling him back against his chest. Kirk pulled the covers up around them and allowed himself a deep inhale of McCoy's scent. Then placing a kiss on McCoy's neck, he found reassurance in the steady beat of McCoy's heart under his lips.

AN: Sorry it took so long for the update ya'll. When I said things were crazy at work, I meant 95 hour work week crazy. Additionally the content of this chapter was challenging to write. I abhor to the deepest level of my being the use of rape as an interrogation technique or punishment. But that is what would realistically happen in the Mirrorverese, as it is devastatingly effective. So as nasty as it was to write, the story won out.

Kudos to all of those who guessed the identity of the mystery murderess. You can find her in the last episode of season three of classic trek, Turnabout Intruder. It may be found in its entirety on everyone's favorite free video site, You Tube.

I do hope that I didn't traumatize anyone too badly. Let me know what you thought, and I'll do my best to get the next chapter out a lot faster.

Next Chapter: McCoy finds out just how Kirk and Gaila came to know each other. Kirk finds out what exactly is happening to Janice in interrogation. Winona finds out exactly what lengths Pike will go to in order to protect her family.