Title: Gravitation
Author: Evenstar656
Summary: McCoy's hands fumbled at the control screen at his suit's wrist. Jim confirmed the start up was good before he lowered the helmet onto the locking ring and sealed the doctor inside.
Spoilers: General AOS, Post Beyond
Disclaimer: The Star Trek franchise and its characters are property of Paramount.
Author's Notes: Just a bit of shameless h/c. As always, although I am a doctor I'm not that kind so I happily practice with my fictional degree.
Warnings: McKirk. Language.
I apologize for any mistakes, this was un-beta'd
###
"Bones, we need to get out of here!"
"What part of that is outer space outside do you not understand?" McCoy would've sworn he could hear his thundering heartbeat over the sound of the klaxons in the shuttle.
"The part where we die if we stay in here," Jim shoved his feet into the emergency EV suit.
"Jim," his panic was off the charts and it was hard to breathe.
"Bones," Jim put his hands around the doctor's face. "Put your EV suit on."
A new alert screamed from the flickering console and he moved his head to look, but Jim held it steady.
"We're gonna be okay, but you need to get your suit on."
McCoy's hands shook as he drew down the long zipper in the back.
"That's it, feet first," Jim shoved his arms into his own suit.
It was hard to focus with all of the noise and emergency lighting but McCoy managed to thread his feet through the legs of the suit after several attempts.
"Okay, now stand," Jim pulled the doctor upright and held the neck of the suit in front of him.
McCoy felt like a child being dressed by a parent. Jim was quick but gentle getting his arms into the suit and lifting the locking ring over his head.
"Grab this and pull up," McCoy was handed the long cord to the zipper.
His chest tightened when the fabric closed as the zipper was pulled closed.
"Let me see," Jim spun the shaking man around and adjusted the buckles on the 'one size only' suit. "Looks good. Can you get your gloves on by yourself?"
McCoy thought he nodded but he must not have because Jim held up a glove for him. The interior fabric immediately soaked up the sweat from his palms. Jim locked his gloves in place before donning his own.
"You need to turn on your suit now," Jim held the helmet ready.
McCoy's hands fumbled at the control screen at his suit's wrist. Jim confirmed the start up was good before he lowered the helmet onto the locking ring and sealed the doctor inside.
"You have air?" Jim locked his own helmet to his suit.
McCoy tried to take a breath but couldn't and he began to panic.
Jim looked down at the suit's control screen, "Bones, you have to breathe. The air is working."
McCoy continued to struggle to breathe; he was scared shitless and he couldn't keep his eyes from ping ponging around the dying shuttle.
"Hey! Right here," Jim grabbed the front of his suit. "Breathe."
The panicked doctor took a shaky breath and realized Jim had been right, the suit oxygen was working.
"See?" Jim exaggerated his own breathing. "You have to calm down. It won't do you any good to use up all your O2 before we even leave."
Oh fuck, we have to leave.
Jim double-checked their suits before he tapped the screen to depressurize the cabin. A light next to the hatch lit up and the door opened. There was nothing out there except complete darkness.
Oh my god that's space.
There was a reassuring grip around his bicep that pushed him closer to the nothingness. He instinctively put his hands at the edge of the hatch and refused to go any further.
"Bones," Jim's voice was altered by the internal comms.
McCoy's brain told him he needed to get as far away from the shuttle but his body was frozen. He'd only ever done this once before at the academy and he had nearly vomited in his helmet during that training exercise.
"Bones, it's not like on Earth. You won't fall."
He felt Jim mess with the harness around his waist before a gentle shove, and then there was nothing under his feet. The loss of the inertial dampeners hit him hard. His legs fought for purchase but there was nothing, the shuttle was already several meters behind them. He could feel the contents in his stomach rise with the loss of gravity keeping them down. His heart rate skyrocketed.
"Bones, you're okay," Jim sounded like he was right next to him.
McCoy twisted towards the voice but kept spinning from the momentum shift. The shuttle began to whip around in his field of vision. There was a tug at his back and a solid mass hit him.
"I'm right here," Jim reached his arms around the panicked man.
"Jim," it came out more as a whimper.
"I know, hang on. Let me null our spin."
McCoy could hear puffs of tiny suit jets fire and the roll slowed until it stopped completely. There was a gentle tug and suddenly he was face to face with Jim. The man's eyes were electric in the helmet's harsh lighting.
"See, we're okay."
"Yeah," he did not sound like he believed it.
"You need to slow your breathing down," Jim put a gloved hand to the doctor's chest. "Feel that?"
McCoy nodded and tried to breathe in, hold, and exhale slowly like he had learned in his orbital ops training.
"Good," Jim flashed a smile. "Hold on to me, I'm going to switch our tether to your front."
McCoy had no issue keeping a death grip on a strap on Jim's suit while the man reached around to move the tether's connection to his front. Now they were tethered face to face to each other and from this angle McCoy couldn't see the shuttle grow smaller.
"You okay?"
"Do I fucking look okay?" McCoy finally got words to form.
Jim patted a large pouch on the front of his suit, "Yeah I know. I brought the beacon with us. Spock will come pick us up."
"W-w-what happened?"
Jim looked over his shoulder, "Some sort of energy pulse from the planet's surface hit our engine. I managed to bleed off a lot of the overload while we got out of there, but there was too much for the shuttle's systems."
McCoy heard the words but he was too focused on breathing.
"I'm going to get us a little further away," was all the warning Jim gave before he spun them around and fired his suit jets.
Now McCoy had the view of watching the shuttle disappear. There was a flash and then the object was nothing more than a constellation of glittering metal pieces. He knew there wasn't going to be a big explosion in the oxygen-deprived vacuum of space but he still flinched.
"It blew?" Jim watched the reflection in the transparent aluminum of McCoy's helmet.
"Yeah," McCoy forced through gritted teeth.
"Aren't you glad we weren't inside?"
"That's not funny."
"I know, I know. Just try and stay calm."
"No one in the history of 'stay calm' has ever stayed calm."
"Hey, I got more than three words out of you," Jim flashed a smile.
"Jim—"
"We just gotta hold out a few hours. We were due to rendezvous in a few more hours anyways."
"This was not what I had in mind when I said I wanted time with just the two of us."
McCoy watched Jim's eyes track something behind him, "What is it?"
"Nothing you need to worry about," Jim returned his gaze.
"Jim," his special talent was seeing through that man's bullshit.
"Just some bits of debris floating by," Jim pulled McCoy in closer to him.
"What?"
"Hey, calm down, Bones. Where do you think all of that stuff goes when it explodes? It's not like in the holos."
"That's not reassuring at all."
"Next time I'm leaving you in the shuttle as it turns into confetti," Jim rolled his eyes.
McCoy's helmet was fogging up and he instinctively brought up a hand to wipe it away. It wasn't until his hand hit the face shield did he realize how stupid that was.
"Just breathe slowly, the fogging should dissipate without you blowing all that hot air on it."
Jim was doing his best not to watch the glittering metal that had sped past them. They were right in the debris' path and he'd hoped he had spun them around to take the brunt of anything for the doctor.
"Can we get away from this shit?" McCoy saw more flickering pieces of shuttle headed their way.
"Not really, it spreads out in every direction and it's going a lot faster than we are. Once it's all past us we should be in the clear."
"So we just sit here and wait for it not to hit us?" McCoy could feel his pulse quicken.
"Bones, slow breaths. You need to have enough O2 until the ship gets here. And yes, space is pretty massive. There's a good chance everything will just zip right past us."
McCoy nodded and tried to regain control over his anxiety.
"What did you enjoy most about the shore leave?"
"What? Jim, now's not the time—"
Jim grabbed onto the two straps on McCoy's harness and brought them closer together, "Bones, what part did you like the best?"
Jim was so close that McCoy could only see him anyways, "Uh, I guess the hot springs? What I wouldn't give to be back in those, it's colder than a witch's tit in these suits."
"Oh man, weren't those amazing? That water was stunning. What else did you like?"
"Jim," McCoy whined.
"Just focus on me, Bones. What else did you like?"
"I uh, I liked that shaved ice stand."
Jim chuckled, "Yeah, you're gonna have to hit the gym hard after all those sno-balls. Do you want to know what part I liked?"
"Sure, Jim," McCoy was focused on Jim's lips.
"I loved that bathtub in the suite. I wish we could have tubs on the ship."
"I'm sure Scotty could help with that."
"Maybe we'll ask him to rig us up one when we get back?"
"Sure, Jim."
"Feeling any better?"
"No," McCoy was quick to answer while trying to keep his teeth from chattering.
"Okay," Jim soothed. "Do you want me to keep talking?"
"Whatever."
Jim's expression was pained but resumed his running commentary about anything and everything that popped into his mind. McCoy was nearly lulled into a passable calm when a grunt interrupted the verbal stream.
"Jim?" McCoy saw an alert pop up on Jim's helmet display. "What's it say?"
"Suit puncture," Jim said calmly.
"What?"
"Shhh, stay calm, Bones."
"Jim!"
"I need you to get the patch kit out of the pocket over my left thigh."
McCoy was frozen with fear.
"Bones, now!" Jim yelled.
"What? Right," McCoy was snapped out of his panic and let go of his death grip on Jim's suit.
McCoy shimmied down the man and grabbed hold of the zipper on the bulky pocket on Jim's leg. He reluctantly let go of his other hand to loosen the stuck zipper. The pouch inside nearly floated away from him but he managed to grab it before it got too far away.
"I have it."
"Good, the HUD is saying the puncture's in the back. You're going to have to spin me around and move the tether back there."
"Okay," McCoy unclipped their link on the front of Jim's suit and barely touched him to spin him around to reach his back.
As soon as Jim was in position he clipped the tether into the suit's attachment point, "You attached?"
"Yeah. Now what?"
"Find the breach and seal it," Jim thought that part was obvious.
"I don't see it," McCoy scanned quickly.
"Turn your suit lights on and check my lower right back."
McCoy tapped at the control screen on his wrist to power up the bright lights on the shoulders of his suit. He cast his eyes to the area and saw a darker looking patch on the dark fabric of the suit, "Jim, you're hit!"
"Yeah I know, but if you don't mind sealing up my suit before I vent out all of my O2 that will be the least of my problems."
"Shit, you're right," McCoy touched the area gingerly. "I don't see anything sticking out. I think it's still in you."
"Bones, seal it now. Dig whatever it is out later in sickbay," Jim's eyes flicked to the dropping O2 level on his display.
"Did you feel it hit you?" McCoy opened the pouch, careful not to lose its precious contents.
"What will make you feel better?"
"You asshole," McCoy was too focused on Jim's problem to think about his own discomfort.
"Any day now, Bones."
"I'm working on it. It looks like blood kept it somewhat sealed. That's probably why you didn't decompress immediately," McCoy pulled a frozen shard of blood away from the fabric and Jim hissed.
McCoy's stomach lurched; it was a sobering thought that Jim could've just died on him in mere seconds with absolutely no warning. He had to shake that from his head as he used the sealant gun to put down a layer of adhesive against the opening in the fabric and pinch it closed. McCoy followed up with more adhesive around the area and placed a patch over the whole area.
"Anything?" McCoy pressed the patch firmly around the edges to set.
"That worked," Jim watched the O2 level stabilize.
The doctor wasn't satisfied, "Jim, whatever is inside you probably tore something internally."
"Bones, there's no need to worry about something you can't do anything about," Jim pulled the man to face him and re-clipped the tether so that they were held face to face again.
"How much O2 did you lose?" McCoy wasn't sure he wanted to know.
Jim looked down at the HUD, "Twenty-five percent."
"Fuck," McCoy swore after he did the mental math to figure out how much time Jim had left.
"Just relax. Spock's in charge; the ship will be on time," Jim tried his hardest not to let his worry affect his voice.
"Can we connect the suits?"
Jim would never take any of McCoy's air willingly, "There's no need to worry about it now. There should be plenty of air with time to spare."
The doctor knew Jim was bullshitting for his own benefit and decided not to call him out on it, there was no sense fighting in the middle of the vacuum of space.
"Does anything hurt?"
"Booooones."
"Okay, I get it," McCoy backed off.
The silence between them lasted thirty seconds before the aviophobe broke.
"Talk about something, Jim."
Jim had been content just to drift off in the silence, "What do you want to talk about?"
"I don't care, the silence out here gives me the creeps."
Jim tried to wrack his brain for small talk, "We can play 'I Spy'."
McCoy was less than amused, "Gee, I spy something black."
"Bones," Jim rolled his eyes hard. "Just relax. You're never going to feel this little stress on your joints again for a while."
"How can you relax? It's fucking cold in these suits."
"I need to conserve oxygen and I'm from Iowa. Has it ever snowed in Georgia?"
"Not in the last two hundred ye—."
Jim pulled up the control screen on his wrist and lowered the volume of the doctor's incoming comms. He relished the silence as McCoy's mouth kept up its tirade but no sound echoed in his helmet. Jim nodded periodically and that seemed to placate the man. Truth be told, his back did hurt and there was a deep chill in his suit despite the environmental controls. He glanced down at the decreasing concentration of oxygen in his suit's canisters, and he really did need to conserve his oxygen.
The captain had begun to doze lightly when McCoy shook him awake.
"What?" Jim irritated, turned the volume back up.
"I have to take a piss," McCoy's hazel eyes were desperate.
"Seriously, Bones?"
"Jim, I mean it."
"Well if you happen find a bathroom out here then by all means go there, otherwise just go in your suit," it was clear the man had never done the extended EVA training courses.
"Dammit man, I'm a grown ass adult, not a toddler who pisses on themselves."
"Bones, either go in the suit or hold it."
This answer did not please McCoy.
"Here, I'll even turn around if your bladder is being bashful," Jim tapped McCoy's arms to spin and fired his jets to hold the position.
From this angle he had an unobstructed view of the blue and green planet they had come from. It wasn't much different then Terra but it was still stunning nonetheless.
"Jim, your back!"
Jim felt the doctor's hands around his wound and he couldn't contain the hiss.
"That hurt?"
"No it tickled. Did you piss yet?" he tried to get the man's mind elsewhere.
"Pull up your bio screen," McCoy spun his captain back around to face him.
Jim knew he wasn't going to win and tapped at the screen on his wrist. The sensors were crude but it gave the doctor enough information to know that not all was well.
"It's still bleeding isn't it?"
"I think so," Jim resigned.
"Feeling dizzy?"
"A little but you realize we're in zero-g right?"
"Dammit, Jim."
Jim grabbed McCoy's gloved hand and squeezed, "It's alright, Bones. You can patch me up when we get back."
"It probably hit your kidney."
Jim had enough, "I'm gonna mute you again if you don't stop it."
"Can you turn your suit temperature up? Hypothermia can make bleeding worse."
Jim made extreme gestures to raise his suit's temperature, "Happy now?"
McCoy swallowed his worry and nodded, he certainly couldn't do anything about it here in the middle of space.
"Here, come up beside me," Jim angled themselves so they were shoulder to shoulder facing the planet. "Try to enjoy the view."
McCoy grumbled for a few minutes before Jim felt the tension in the man next to him release. He relaxed himself and felt himself on the edge of dozing off from blood loss or his decreasing oxygen level after he had dialed back the concentration to stretch out his supply when he changed the temperature.
"Jim!"
"You're on your own if you have to shit now," Jim said without opening his eyes.
"Can it, you infant. I found a hose here. I think we connect the suits so we can share O2."
Jim opened his eyes to see the doctor had managed to find the emergency air supply line on his suit. He had hoped McCoy wouldn't have found it because he knew the man would give up the thing keeping himself alive without any second guessing just like he'd already done by not telling him it existed.
"Is there one on your suit?" McCoy spun the captain around looking for a place to attach the line.
"Yeah," Jim said quietly.
McCoy immediately knew what that tone meant and he halted his movements, "You asshole, you knew about this the whole time didn't you?"
Jim opened his mouth to respond but was cut off with a flash of deep rooted anger he rarely saw in those hazel eyes.
"Don't even reply to that, you are a self-sacrificing moron."
Jim was too tired to fight back, "Plug it in here and then take mine and plug in to yours so the air will circulate through both of the scrubbers."
The looks he was getting from McCoy as he, none too gently, connected the lines would've struck him dead if looks could kill. Jim saw the O2 level on his HUD increase. He would've been relieved if he didn't have to be tied face to face with the irate doctor.
"Did you plan on havin' your ghost come back and eventually tellin' me?" McCoy tasted a metallic tang in the air flowing into his suit.
"There was a better chance of at least one of us making it if you kept your supply to yourself."
"Jim—"
"Can we please not fight now? We really do need to stretch the O2. It's going to be tight enough if the Enterprise is on time. Can you drop your concentration?"
"Fine."
###
McCoy was ashamed that he had felt grateful when Jim finally lost consciousness. He had grabbed onto the man's wrist to keep his eye on the bio monitor, and while it wasn't good it could have been worse. Unconscious, Jim was consuming less oxygen and would help buy them a few precious moments more if needed as the O2 alert on both of their HUDs had been flashing for the past ten minutes.
He tried to hold out hope that Jim was correct and the ship would be on time but a cold weight had settled in his stomach. Everything he had been afraid of, being in outer space and the possibility of losing Jim, boiled down to this exact moment. They had only recently slipped into that comfortable part of a relationship where they knew exactly what the other wanted and needed.
Half of him wanted to try and wake Jim up so they could make their final peace but then the other half wanted it to be peaceful for them if this indeed was the end of the line. The doctor in him knew the intimate details of the death they were facing and it wasn't a bad way to go all things considered. It was simply best to let them both drift off into sleep.
He remembered closing his eyes to rest for a second and when he opened them a gleaming mosaic of an armored plated hull dwarfed them. There wasn't any time, or extra oxygen in his brain, to process the sight before he felt the familiar tingle of his molecules being dematerialized.
"Got 'em!"
The lights inside the transporter room were impossibly bright after the extended time in the darkness of space, and he fell to the deck plating at the familiar pull of gravity on his body. He raised an arm to shield his eyes but someone pulled his hands away from his helmet. There was fumbling at his neck before an onslaught of crisp Enterprise air flooded his airway. The sudden increase of fresh air and pull of gravity was too much for his system and he couldn't help but begin to choke.
"Deep breaths, boss."
McCoy tried to open his eyes but they watered in the brightness.
"Lay him down."
Firm hands pulled the hoses connecting his air supply to Jim and pushed the doctor to his back.
"Do your eyes hurt?"
"Jim," he tried to cough out.
"Don't worry, we have him too," a heavy cloth was placed over his eyes. "Better?"
McCoy could only nod as he struggled to regain control over his lungs. A mask was shoved over his mouth and nose after a sharp bite at his neck. He tried to slap whatever away but someone was pulling the gloves off his frozen hands.
"Hey, we've got a penetrating trauma over here."
Those words filtered through the fog in McCoy's brain and he tried to push up to see Jim. A gentle hand easily kept him pinned to the deck.
"Jim," McCoy heaved into the mask.
"Geoff's on it. Let's worry about your breathing first."
"Patch…"
"You patched his suit?"
Nodding sparked a wave of nausea deep in his gut. His inner ear was all screwed up and firing the wrong signals to his brain. Whoever was over him was a pro and immediately pulled the mask free and shoved him to his side as his stomach lost the fight against his equilibrium system. The cloth fell from his eyes and he could see a wobbly image of the mass next to him pulled from the deck.
"Ain't goin' from zero-g to normal a bitch?" a thick brogue sounded in the distance.
Someone wiped at his mouth, "Done."
He was rolled onto his back. A gurney had been shoved behind him while he was on his side and he suddenly felt himself lifted from the deck.
"Right behind you, Geoff," his stomach lurched as the gurney moved forward.
They were somewhere in the corridor when his stomach took another rebellious turn and he had to heave himself over the side of the gurney.
"Can you run ahead and get a basin?"
McCoy was too busy puking his guts out to care at the spectacle he must've made. His inner ear had no idea which way was which at the moment and he had no idea if he was puking on the walls or ceiling.
"Here, boss," rigid plastic was shoved into his hands.
The man lay back down panting.
"Think you can make it the rest of the way?"
The groan he let out was interpreted as a yes and he was lurched forward. He gripped the basin as more dry heaves rolled up his esophagus. It was obvious when they reached sickbay with the sudden increase in noise.
"Adaptation syndrome?"
"Yeah, made for an interesting ride down the hall."
McCoy felt the gurney jolt to a stop.
"Okay, boss. Time to move you. Let us do all the work."
His vestibular system was not happy with the manhandling to deposit him onto a biobed and he was quickly doubled over the basin again.
"Oh boy, why did you choose to work in space again?"
"I hate you," McCoy wasn't done dry heaving.
Someone unzipped the back of his suit and it was like rubber bands around his chest finally breaking.
"Do you want us to cut you out or shimmy you out?"
McCoy cracked his eyes open and squinted to reduce the signals entering his retinas. He was on his side facing Jim who was laid out with a mask sealed over his face as M'Benga and a nurse, with her back to him, worked to free the captain from his suit with the special scissors they had for going through the tough EV suits. McCoy watched as Jim was efficiently freed from all of his clothes and wrapped up in several layers of blankets before he was returned to his back.
"Cut," McCoy didn't have the energy to wrestle out of the suit.
"Good answer," was the only warning before he was surrounded by equally equipped personnel and bundled into warmed blankets before he had a chance to process the indignity of his coworkers stripping him naked.
His nostrils flared as he tried to breathe through the dizziness after the head of the biobed was raised a few degrees so he wasn't completely flat. A sharp sting in the back of his hand quickly replaced that particular discomfort.
McCoy eyed Chapel as she connected IV tubing to the line she just started, "Gee, a warning next time?"
"Please, you barely felt that. I'm not so heavy handed like you and Hayes," Chapel rolled her eyes.
"What are you giving me?"
"Compazine and warmed fluids. We'll see what else Geoff wants in a few minutes. Still dizzy?"
McCoy barely nodded. Chapel could easily handle his needs and it was Jim, as usual, who needed more attention. He rolled his head on the mattress to watch the flurry around the captain. Jim's body was pliant as Geoff and the staff rolled him to his side to get a look at his injured back. The surgeon held a steadying hand on the captain's side while he bent down to inspect the wound.
"How's it look?" McCoy's voice cracked.
Chapel unobtrusively held a straw at his lips and he greedily sucked down water before she could pull it away. He was parched between the lack of drinkable water in the EV suits and the puking.
"Easy before you start vomiting again," Chapel scoffed and pulled the cup away.
"Geoff?"
M'Benga's head rose up from behind Jim's exposed flank.
"Actually not as bad as the bleeding suggested. I'm only seeing a minor laceration to the kidney. The vascular damage was more the issue here."
"Urine output?" McCoy strained to pull his head off the bed.
"Could be better," Nurse Hayes turned around and held up a bag with a few milliliters of a red tinted liquid.
M'Benga stood up and peeled his soiled gloves off and stepped next to McCoy's side.
"Let me get a quick look at you first before we take him to the back to repair the damage."
"Geoff—" McCoy gritted his teeth, he was more than capable of taking care of himself while Jim was seen too.
"Just humor me for a few minutes. Besides, Starfleet will never let me become a CMO if you died on me while I was in the OR with the captain," M'Benga's eyes flicked up to the screen above the biobed.
McCoy grumbled but M'Benga ignored it.
"Is the compazine working?" M'Benga had been handed a tricorder.
"Yeah, my inner ear is still going haywire but my stomach is settling down finally"
The surgeon only nodded as he continued to scan his boss. A pair of orderlies came and detached Jim's biobed from the base while Hayes grabbed the IV bags off of the bedside stand.
"I'm almost done here," M'Benga tossed to the team guiding the biobed to the OR.
McCoy craned his head to watch Jim disappear behind opaque doors.
"Alright, Leonard. Everything looks to be what I expected with the adaptation trouble. No real issues to be concerned about. We'll get you warmed up and rehydrated while I work on the captain. Shouldn't take too long in there."
McCoy nodded, not wanting to keep the man from Jim any longer, "Thanks, Geoff."
McCoy watched M'Benga stop to talk to Chapel before disappearing into the OR.
Chapel approached with a syringe in her hand and suddenly McCoy knew exactly why Jim hated sickbay, "Okay, boss. Anything you need before lights out?"
McCoy wanted to fight and whine but he was honestly spent, mentally and physically, from the whole ordeal. This was probably the best thing they could do for him after that emotional rollercoaster and sedation had the added benefit of giving his vestibular system time to reboot itself.
"Yeah, get me some pajamas and let me make a head call before you knock me out."
Chapel nodded as she retrieved a pair of sickbay pajamas and closed the privacy curtain.
The man was grateful she sent one of the male orderlies to help him dress and stumble to the bathroom. He could feel the tips of his ears flush when Chapel tucked him under the warming blankets like a small child.
"Get some rest, boss," she injected the contents of the syringe into an IV port.
McCoy was grateful for the drugs because the room finally seemed to spin a little slower.
"I want an update when Jim is done."
Chapel nodded dismissively and dimmed the overhead lights above his biobed.
###
The distinct feeling of having overslept invaded his brain and pulled him from the deep rest he had been enjoying. He could feel a wet spot under his cheek on the pillow and when he closed his mouth he could taste the staleness of a long sleep.
"Any day now, Bones."
McCoy was awake immediately. He was on his side but he could tell he was in one of the more private rooms in sickbay.
"What time is it?" McCoy tried to clear the fog by rolling over to face the owner of the voice. He was pleasantly surprised to find that the room made no unexpected lurches and his inner ear was sending the proper signals to his brain again.
"The better question is 'what day is it'. Which it's tomorrow, by the way."
Jim, in a sweat jacket and loose pants, was seated in a high back recliner next to his biobed with a pillow wedged behind him on his right side. A data pad was propped on the armrest as Jim listed to his side to take pressure off the injured area.
"Jim!" McCoy noted that despite a single IV line with a nearly empty bag of blood products and fluids running under the sleeve of his jacket, the man looked normal albeit tired.
"You kept sleeping so long they moved you out of the main bay. I think it was scaring them."
"Give me your data pad," McCoy sat up in the bed.
Jim huffed and handed the device over, he knew this battle wasn't worth getting worked up over and the man needed to assure himself that Jim was fine. McCoy saved Jim's progress in the novel he had been reading and opened the sickbay files. The vascular repair had gone well and the kidney injury was responding well to the drug protocols. Jim had been taking his pain relievers without complaint, showed no signs of infection, and would have normal blood chemistry by the end of the day. M'Benga's notes showed him wanting Jim to stay another two nights but McCoy knew it would end up being only one knowing how the captain whined.
"They said you're free to leave once you woke up and you weren't upchucking all over the place."
McCoy nodded and handed back the device, "Not sure why I slept so long."
"Probably because you puked your way down the length of the primary hull."
"They told you?" McCoy was embarrassed, he could handle the most gruesome injury but several hours in zero-G was enough to make him puke like a kid at his first kegger.
"Well, Scotty was more upset at the mess you made on his transporter pad than the loss of a shuttle, and Spock may have expressed his displeasure at the state of the hallways. Uhura, Sulu, and Chekov were last seen putting barf bags in the shuttles."
McCoy groaned and ran a hand through his disheveled hair.
"I feel fine by the way. I woke up yesterday not long after M'Benga finished on my back," Jim smirked.
"You say it like you get some kind of prize," McCoy clearly woke up on the wrong side of the biobed.
Jim's grin deflated, "Do we need to run a scan to see that stick stuck up your ass?"
"You really weren't gonna tell me about those emergency sharing lines were you?"
Jim winced as he shifted nervously in the chair; there was nothing he could say that McCoy would accept.
"Uh huh," McCoy groused.
Jim let out a long sigh, "What do you want to hear, Bones? You know I will choose the crew's survival every time. I will choose your survival every time."
"Jim, that's supposed to be our choice," McCoy swung his legs over the edge of the biobed.
The captain pushed off the chair gingerly and rolled the IV stand closer to the biobed before he sat down next to the doctor. McCoy tried not to let his face react when the warm mass settled shoulder to shoulder with him. Instinctively he grabbed the underside of the younger man's wrist.
"I couldn't have just done that if I didn't have a pulse."
"Habit," McCoy moved to pull his hand away but Jim slid his hand to grab it before it got away.
"Bones, I'm sorry I didn't tell you about the hoses."
McCoy hated how Jim's rich voice could wipe away all of the wrongs he was angry at him for.
"Jim, I meant it when I said that I couldn't watch you slip through my fingers again."
"I know, but that goes both ways," Jim leaned into McCoy's shoulder.
"For what it's worth, you're both idiots," Chapel announced from the doorway.
The two men were embarrassed and confused.
"Next time turn the biobed off," Chapel pointed to the display screen having a fit registering two conflicting sets of vitals.
McCoy spun around and grumbled loudly when he saw the biobed's sensors must've alerted her to a problem at her desk. He reached up and turned the system off and Chapel left before she saw more than she wanted.
"Rookie mistake," Jim settled back against his shoulder.
"Yeah yeah, I didn't see you think of it either."
Neither of them was particularly affectionate but both of them were content just to lean into one another.
"We'll be fine, Bones."
McCoy squeezed Jim's hand, "I'm sure we will, kid."
A grumbling from Jim's stomach ruined the peaceful silence of the room. McCoy rolled his eyes because he knew what was coming next.
"Hey, Bones…"
McCoy was already pushing himself off the biobed, "Let me go find real clothes first."
"You know I like the red kind," Jim called out to McCoy's back as head left for the doorway.
"You better be in your own bed when I get back," echoed down the short hallway