True love's kiss
[Disclaimer: The movies and its characters don't belong to me. They belong to their rightful owners and I'm just borrowing them for these one-shots.
A/N: Here we have a Scones one shot slightly inspired by "Sleeping Beauty" and somehow Barbie's "Diamond Castle" and... I don't know, okay? It's strange! But it'll make sense, believe me XD Please enjoy!
PS: Rating only because of Bones' language! ]
~ True love's kiss ~
"There ya go, buddy. Better be more careful next time you try to work on this console."
McCoy softly slapped the young ensign on the back before telling him to go rest at his quarters for a few hours. Why did this crewmen dressed in red always get caught in all kind of accidents? McCoy often thought of it as quite annoying but then again - it was his job to fix people. And without mentioned accidents his life aboard the ship would probably be very boring. And if he didn't had work to do, he'd be reminded of his fear of dying in space and then he'd go crazy and-
McCoy glanced at the door through which the ensign had left just now. Scotty was standing at the keypad which was used to open or close the door permanently. He hadn't recognized the engineer's presence up until now, had been busy with packing his medical equipment back into the bag. But why hadn't he recognized him? Usually the Scotsman was way too cheery during his shift, whistling and greeting other crew mates happily. This time though he hadn't said a single word and he still didn't when Bones got up from where he knelt and waved at the man.
"Hey there, Scotty. What are ya doing here?"
No reply. That was strange. McCoy tilted his head in a questioning way. Had he done something wrong? He couldn't remember about having an argument of some kind with the Scotsman. So why didn't he talk back?
A strange feeling started to spread in his guts when the door suddenly moved with a swoosh and Scotty turned around. Bones didn't know what was more of a shock for him. The fact that the door was apparently shut or the look on the engineer's face. He decided that it had to be the second one. Scotty's face looked like it was completely... blank. No expression. His empty eyes seemed to focus on no point in particular, maybe didn't even focus at all. His usual smile had been replaced by a thin line Bones had only seen on Spock's face up until now but never on Scotty's.
"What's wrong, man? Are you alright?"
McCoy softly put a hand on the Scotsman's shoulder as he passed him, but Scotty didn't even seem to feel the touch. He simply made his way over to the console and started typing something.
Now that was awkward! Was this some kind of joke? A prank that Scotty and Jim played on him? McCoy wanted to say something but he was interrupted by his communicator beeping at him.
"McCoy-", he started to answer the call but was quickly stopped by Kirk's voice coming out of the small device.
"Bones! Stop him! You've gotta stop Scotty!"
McCoy just rolled his eyes. So it was a joke after all. Oh my- why again was he surrounded by idiots and grown men acting like children?
"Oh, of course, Jim. And what else can I do for ya to stop me from doing the work I was assigned to?"
He couldn't believe it. He really couldn't. Was he the only adult on this ship? He had better things to do than-
"I'm serious, Bones! Stop him right now or we'll all die!"
Well now Jim was playing this prank too far.
"Oh, come on, Jim. Dying my ass! Don't you have work to do? Like - actual work?"
This time a different voice answered.
"Dr. McCoy, I can confirm that the Captain is not saying this for his own childish amusement but because we are all in great danger."
That green-blooded hobgoblin too?! How far had Jim taken this joke? If Spock was in this too... McCoy was still staring at Scotty who was standing in front of him when he finally got what was going on. Spock... joking?
"Oh my god, it's not a joke!"
Just when he had exclaimed this realization, a loud alert started alarming the ship's crew.
"Danger! Life-supporting systems failing! Danger! Temperature: 70%, dropping. Oxygen level: 75%, dropping. Danger!"
It continued talking in its strangely calm robotic voice, driving Bones nuts.
"Stop Scotty!", Jim's panicking voice reminded him and McCoy finally moved towards the engineer standing at the console, tackling him to the ground. He felt sorry for hurting the man, he really did, but Scotty seemed to be out of his mind for some reason.
Bones stared at the buttons in front of him. What should he do?! How should he stop the systems from failing?!
"Jim, I-", he stuttered but soon enough Spock's voice answered him once again.
"Enter the following code: 76547, doctor."
As fast as possible, McCoy's fingers pressed named digits. He was just about to enter the second 7 when he felt someone grabbing his leg, pulling him to the ground.
His body forcefully hit the floor, the back of his head colliding with the console. Damn it! That hurt!
Bones didn't have much time to think about the possible slight concussion caused by the fall, because Scotty was suddenly right in front of him, punching him in his face.
"Damn it, man! What's gotten into you?!"
Scotty was not going to answer him,
Bones knew that. He could see it in the Scotsman's still empty eyes. Whatever was controlling him, was strong enough to erase the man's free will completely.
It hurt McCoy to see him like that. He knew that Scotty would never do him any harm on purpose, just like he himself wouldn't cause harm to the Scot. But the voice of the alert, reminding him of the dropping oxygen level on board, made McCoy reconsider this decision. He slammed his body onto Scotty's and the two of them started fighting. Fists and kicks were flying through the air, neither of the men was ready to give up. But McCoy was not using all of his strength... he couldn't, damn it! He just couldn't hurt his opponent severely! It was Scotty after all! He'd known this man for years. Hell, he'd loved this man for years, even though he hadn't really told him about it yet.
But even though he wasn't able to use all his strength, Scotty apparently was. So when the Scotsman had placed himself on McCoy's stomach, putting his hands around the doctor's throat, he knew that the engineer was ready to strangle him until he was dead. McCoy grabbed Scotty's hands, trying to free his trachea from getting crushed, but it didn't work.
"Scotty-", he desperately whispered. He didn't want to die. Not yet. Not by the hands of the man he loved.
"You don't want this. You don't want this ship to go down. You're supposed to save her. Don't ya remember?"
McCoy was surprised by the amount of air he was still able to get. Had Scotty lessened the pressure on his throat or was it only his imagination?
"You're our miracle worker. You're my miracle worker, Scotty. You wouldn't give that up. I know ya wouldn't. And no matter what kind of parasite or power forces you to do this - ya have to fight it, damn it! Fight it for me!"
And for a short moment, merely a few seconds, he could see some kind of emotion washing over the engineer's face. A mixture of despair, fear and angst. But as fast as it had appeared, it was gone again. The expressionless face returned, all kind of feelings McCoy had believed to see vanished.
What had happened? His caring words were apparently able to reach the Scotsman, even if just for a small period of time. Could he do this again? Could his words bring back Scotty's true self?
"Fight it, man! Don't leave me hanging. Remember the time we all spend together. Remember the crew, the shore leaves, the-"
Once again his throat was being crushed by the tightening grip around it. He gasped for air.
Alright, so no more talking, hm? That was fine with him. Bones was completely okay with it. He was the grumpy, silent doctor after all, wasn't he? But then again he felt his hope sinking slowly. If his words about their life didn't reach the Scotsman anymore what else could?
He thought about his first words. What had he told him? That Scotty had to fight it. That he was their miracle worker. No, he'd even gotten more personal by calling him his own miracle worker. But that couldn't be it, right? Scotty couldn't have fought whatever was controlling him because of Bones, now could he?
Suddenly a different voice than the one of their computer echoed through the air.
"Let him go. He should suffocate slowly and painfully at the time like all of you. He's not special enough to die quickly by your hands."
The grip around his throat loosened slowly and Bones sucked in the air that was still left. The oxygen level was already at 30% and apparently this room didn't get too many percent of it.
His mind was racing as he tried to find a solution for their deadly problem.
'Scotty listens to that strange voice. I stopped the control for a short moment by revealing my feelings apparently. But talking doesn't work anymore. So what should I do?'
A thought suddenly crossed his mind. One crazy thought, if he was allowed to admit that. But he didn't have much of a choice, now did he? So McCoy did the only thing he could think of being strong enough to break this control, while rolling his eyes.
"Oh my- I can't believe I have to do this, ya damn idiot..."
He placed his hands in Scotty's neck and pulled him closer so that their faces were only inches away from one another. And then...
It was a strange feeling. He often had imagined his lips touching the engineer's ones, but he definitely hadn't thought of it playing out like this. In a life or death situation. Yet still, he was able to taste and enjoy what he'd been waiting for for so long. He let one hand slide into the other man's hair, when the Scotsman gave in to their lips touching and kissed him back.
Even though McCoy knew that he needed air, he let the kiss last longer and longer. He couldn't stop it. Not now. Not when Scotty was returning the movement.
Wait! Hold on a second!
Bones' eyes fluttered open when he realized what that had to mean. Scotty was retuning the kiss?!
McCoy moved his hands to the Scotsman's shoulders to softly push him away and look into his face. What greeted him, was the sight of a brightly smiling CEO, whose eyes were filled with so much life, McCoy had never seen before.
"You're back to normal?!", the doctor exclaimed and Scotty gave him a nod.
"Aye, I am, doc. Took ye long enough ta realize."
A voice interrupted their little talk.
"Danger! Life-supporting systems failing! Danger! Temperature: 40%, dropping. Oxygen level: 25%, dropping. Danger!"
McCoy quickly sat up, while staring at the other man in shock. The systems were still failing! They were going to suffocate!
"Then go fix this thing before we all die, ya moron!"
Scotty chuckled, lifted his hand and pressed the last digit without even looking. The alert stopped. The temperature and oxygen level rose back to their normal percentages immediately.
"Don't worry. There were about two minutes left anyway."
McCoy opened his mouth to reply something in annoyance, but he was stopped by the taste of the soft lips he had already felt only one minute ago. He closed his eyes, returned the kiss and they stayed like this for a while until Scotty seemed to have something to say.
"So... how'd ye know that kissin' meh would destroy that strange creature's control over my mind?"
McCoy shrugged. He wasn't too sure. Maybe it was because of that old fairytale he'd always told his daughter when she was just four or five years old.
"Sleeping beauty, I guess."
Scotty tilted his head in confusion, so Bones added: "True love's kiss? Never heard of it before?"
Scotty chuckled once again before they were interrupted by Jim's voice coming out of McCoy's communicator.
"Mr. Derakes passed out when the link to Scotty was broken. Security's taking him to the brig right now. We'll... keep him that way with hypos until Star Fleet tells us where to bring him. Bones, that was really a close call."
McCoy listened to him and an explanation started to form out in his mind. Mr. Derakes had been an ambassador from the planet they had visited one day ago. He had asked them to come along to the next planet. During his time aboard he had been quite interested in Scotty and his work, following him around.
"So... I take it that our passenger wasn't as friendly as we believed him to be?", Bones asked and it was Spock's voice that answered him.
"Affirmative, doctor. Apparently that creature took over Mr. Scott's mind with some sort of ritual to kill the crew and kidnap the ship for its own plans. Further interrogations will tell us more about its motives."
McCoy didn't really care about the motives. All he cared for was that Scotty was alright now and that he'd stay that way as long as the doctor was around him.
"Good. I sure hope he'll get his punishment for nearly killing the whole crew of a fleet's starship."
And for taking control of Scotty's mind of course, but he was not going to say that since Jim would realize something going on. His Captain was his best friend, but he didn't want him to know about his newly formed relationship with Scotty yet. At least... McCoy thought of it as relationship.
"Well, Bones, but somehow I think we owe him something and shouldn't be too harsh on judging him."
McCoy narrowed his eyes, confused by Kirk's words.
"And why would that be, Jim?"
A laughter escaped the captain's mouth, when he said: "He let us watch the best romantic movie ever! True love's kiss and all that stuff? Gotta admit... I didn't know the two of you could kiss like that."
Only now McCoy realized that the creature must have let the bridge crew witness what had been going on down in engineering. He felt his cheeks blush, out of embarrassement and anger.
"Oh, shut up, Jim!"
With that he closed his communicator and put it away. Oh, he was going to jam these hypos into the creature's neck personally!
"Ye know... he's right, somehow. Without Mr. Derakes ye wouldn't have done this."
And with these words Scotty pressed his lips onto McCoy's once more. The anger immediately left Bones' body and his shoulders slumped down in relief.
Well... probably it was worth it!