For Author's Note and Disclaimer, see chapter 1

Chapter 24

Jim had meant to get down to sickbay a lot faster than he managed. He thought he would have the golden opportunity when Scotty chased them all out of the bridge so he could rewire most of the science console. Taking one small section at a time seemed to be what worked best, because as Scotty pointed out. Doing a quick fix that blew out and had to be fixed again served no man. With the bulkhead open, the console gutted and sparks flying there was not much for them to do at the moment and leaving it in Scotty's capable hands seemed like a better option.

A perfect opportunity to go down and see how their resident physician was doing and possibly bring a picnic lunch. If not for the fact that he had to step in as Yeoman Rand had an argument with her enforced roommates. Nerves frayed as the close quarters grated on each other and nothing serious but still something that had to be addressed and he tried to smooth things over between them quickly. Sending a quiet thanks that so far he had been spared any of the same frustration.

It was funny, because as much as Spock and Bones always argued and baited each other, the way most of the crew seemed to think they could not be made to get along for five minutes they were really easy to get along with. They argued because they liked it, and neither one of them would ever admit it easily, but they liked arguing because they were friends who challenged each other in ways no one else quite could.

He wasn't entirely sure of why Rand and her friends had argued, as the accusations ran wild, so he figured it was probably just generally short tempers and nothing in particular. Sulu was in something of a state of fright over his botany lab, which as far as he could tell was partially why he kept arguing with Chekov. The Russian did not quite share his feelings for the plants and kept referring to Russian climates and foliage.

By the time he finally got down to sickbay he only had about five minutes before he had to be back on the bridge again.

"Captain," nurse Chapel looked up from where she was tending to an ensign with a black eye and a bloody cloth in his hand in the outer office.

"Just stopping by," he mused, fixing the ensign with a firm look. It would be wrong to jump to conclusions, but it sure looked as if the man had been in a fight. Already he was feeling the chill in the air biting at his arms through his tunic. How the Georgian was able to bear it at all was impressive since he knew Bones had a strong aversion to the cold. "How are you doing here?" the man kept his eyes on the floor, another sign that whatever he was in sickbay for was not a mere unfortunate injury.

"Busy," she picked up a metal instrument, checking the setting before gently tapping the skin under the patient's eye and Kirk watched as the swelling slowly started to recede. "Doctor McCoy is in there," she nodded to the door. "We had to separate them for treatment." She nodded to the desk where a bottle was toppled and some data discs were scattered in a manner McCoy would normally never let them be.

"I see," he clasped his hands behind his back. "Care to tell my why, ensign?"

"We, uh, had a bit of an argument sir," the man mumbled to the floor.

"Ensign, look at me when answering," he kept his voice calm, but allowed it to grow hard and cold. Shouting and yelling wasn't always what did the trick. Letting them know they were in trouble and letting them know just how displeased you were with them usually worked better. Everyone knew McCoy was prone to snapping, they expected it from him, but it was when he was quiet that he really put the fear of God in them. If you just yelled at them right away they always figured that was the worst of it, but letting them know you were going to take the time to figure out just what it was they had done, and then figure out how to punish them for it. Letting them sweat about it instead of just shouting at them. He had found it worked much better even if he knew there were some officers who never got past the yelling.

"Yes sir," the man steeled himself to raise his eyes, sweating, paler now than he had been as Chapel was tending to him. "I'm sorry sir, I, I don't know why we got to arguing like we did. We just did, and then it got out of hand. I honestly don't know why, we're mates, we've never got into it like that before…"

"The ship is in a crisis ensign, it can't be helped, but when something like this happens we need every man to band together, if we take to arguing amongst ourselves, we're only making ourselves weaker," he stated, hard, firm, but not without some understanding.

"Yes sir," the man nodded, swallowing. "I'm sorry sir, I'll, uh, I'll take any punishment you see fit sir, I deserve it, I'm sure I do."

"When nurse Chapel is done with you, and you have thanked her properly for tending you, you will report to first officer Spock, you will inform him of the events and he will handle the situation as he sees fit," Kirk decided. It was best to continue letting Spock deal with it. For one thing he was very objective when he set the punishments which helped to ensure they were fair.

"Yes sir, I will be sure to do that sir," there was something in the way the man acted, how nervous he was that made Jim feel like there was a possibility that he still did not have all the information. Certainly it would be nervous to be chastised by the captain, but the man acted like he was in fear for his life and he was pretty sure he did not have the reputation to put annoying ensigns out the airlock.

Well, if there was something more going on he was sure he would find out soon enough. The door between the different sections of the sick bay was closed, but it opened as he approached it. The ensign with Chapel had been calm as such and might have looked scared out of his mind at the sight of the captain. The situation in the main sick bay looked less calm. At first glance he could not tell who was scowling the worst, the doctor or the patient but it was clear neither one of them was happy.

"Now keep still blast it!" McCoy snapped in a manner that Jim was not used to hearing from him when dealing with a patient. He could grouse and grouch, but he very rarely showed any real anger. The hiss of the hypospray was followed by a fairly loud curse from the patient as he jerked his arm back. Jim recognized the ensign as one of their newer crew members and one he had not got much feel for yet. He seemed to get along well enough with the crew in that there had been no complaints about him. He was however a fairly large man which tended to intimidate some regardless of his manner. It did therefor not surprise the captain that his chief CMO would have taken that patient upon himself and let his nurse deal with the more meek and mild one. Bones was fiercely protective of any of the female staff, ever the southern gentleman he would always put them first.

Having heard the door hiss he threw a glance over his shoulder and gave a grunt as Jim entered the room fully. "Is there a problem here?" he folded his arms across his chest as he took in the scene in front of him. Instantly stepping full into the role as Captain of the ship. The ensign displayed some discoloration on his temple, bruised knuckles and a fierce glare as he jerked his arm free of the doctor violently.

"A minor disagreement about the treatment," Bones stated, turning his head to face him and Jim cursed inwardly. "And those two idiots decided to have a second go at each other in there," Bones nodded to the other room. "Couldn't treat either one of them before we got them apart."

"I see," he did see, he saw the bruise forming on Bones' cheekbone. Without doubt it was from when the two combatants had gone for each other again, because Bones would always step in into a situation like that. Especially if someone was fool enough to try and fight in his sickbay, especially if it might in any way put his nurse at risk.

"Ensign, have you anything to say for yourself?"

"No sir," the man stated through gritted teeth as Bones spread some salve over his knuckles, wrapping a layer of gauze over them.

"No excuse for your behaviour?" he pushed. Striking an officer would earn a harsh punishment, but it would be harder to determine when the officer simply was breaking up a fight. It was fully possible that no one had intentionally dealt the blow.

"No sir," the man stated. "I do not make excuses."

"Alright, but you will be explaining yourself," he stated. "When you leave here, report to first officer Spock, you will answer his questions about the altercation and you will accept any punishment he sees fit, am I clear?"

"Yes sir," the man scowled, turning his eyes to the doctor.

"Then get out of here, I'm done with ya," McCoy waved a hand towards the door, scowling as the accent slipped for a brief second. Jim doubted the ensign noticed it, or knew what it meant even if he did. The man slipped off the table, nodded to the Captain and hurried out the door. Bones leaned against the table as soon as he had gone, running a hand over his face with a wince.

"Took a couple swings at each other on their shift, then after their superior dropped them off down here they went at it again," he noted.

"I can tell," Jim nodded. "Which one of them did that?" he touched his cheek gently and Bones pulled away sharply.

"Take your pick, I haven't a clue," he shrugged. "They were going for each other's throats in there, there wasn't much choice. Had to get them off each other before they tore the place down."

"Well, I doubt Spock will go easy on them," he mused. He sure hoped one of them would have the honesty to relay that part to the first officer. "You okay? Nurse Chapel?"

"I'm fine," Bones waved his concern away. "And she was smart enough to keep out of it, but I'm getting sick of those idiots going after each other. Is it too much to ask for some common sense? It's not like anyone is any better of than anyone else. We're all in the same mess here, no one is having it easy."

"Some handle it better than others though," he mused. That was sure true. There were those who really stepped up to the challenge and he was immensely proud of them. He did not wish to judge anyone, but there were certainly those who stood themselves apart.

"Only natural," Bones gave a shrug as he started clearing up the material used. "Can't expect the same from everyone. Neither one of those two have really caused a problem anywhere before that I know of, but I guess they both just wore down a little quicker than some of the others."

"That's true I suppose," he nodded, watching how Bones quickly had everything neat and tidy again. "Did you manage to grab something to eat before?"

"I'm good until lunch," Bones shrugged as he fetched a case from the cabinet and fixed a vile to the hypospray.

"Not exactly what I asked, was it?" Jim mused. He really needed to head back to the bridge, but with running into the combatants it had taken longer and he would be damned if he still didn't take five minutes with his friend.

"Only answer you'll get though," Bones gave him something of a grin. "And if you don't get out of here now I might not even make that, the engineers are coming down here any minute now, and the way they're all whining and complaining it's gonna take a while. Scotty tries to keep them in line, I'll give them that, but they sure whine about it."

"Alright, just one thing," he started. "Are you gonna get more of that stuff today?" he nodded to the vials.

"No, already took care of it," Bones gave him a suspicious look.

"I should've known," he sighed. "Well, whenever you do, don't go up alone, I'll make it an order if I have to Bones. It's too cold up there, don't forget I know just how bad it is now, and I don't want anyone there alone. You need some backup, and I don't care who. If you don't want to take Chapel I won't say anything about it, but take someone with you, okay?"

"Alright," heaving a sigh Bones gave in. "Fine, have it your way, but I can tell ya no one's gonna be happy about it."

"I won't mind," he mused. "I'd much rather than knowing you're there by yourself."

"Then you can just suffer for it," Bones declared with a half scowl. The kind he gave more out of worry than anything else. Because he would worry about inflicting that same thing he was constantly subjecting himself to upon anyone else. It was illogical as Spock would put it, but it was also very typical of Bones. "I'll let you know next time."

"Thank you," Jim dropped a hand on his shoulder for a moment, frowning as Bones stiffened at the touch before he relaxed. The situation was getting to all of them, and he was starting to wonder how long they could last.

Spock, Bones and Scotty were his pillars, the ones he leaned and counted on. Without them he wasn't sure what he could do, he needed them to be strong. Without them the whole ship would start to collapse and he knew it.

As far as he knew Scotty was doing fine, but he had a good working relationship with his men and seemed to be doing fine in engineering. He had his wiring, his tools and his gadgets and he was happy enough under the circumstances.

Spock was Vulcan, immovable and stoic. Dealing with everything that needed to be dealt with without showing if it bothered him or not. He carried on with a straight back and his face never slipped if he found it bothersome in some ways.

McCoy though was wearing down, Bones was wearing down. He was cold and he was stuck in one of the worst positions on the ship so it was no wonder. He worked as hard as anyone else, harder than many, and half of them did not have the sense to show gratitude. Even Spock had shown concern so he knew it was not his imagination, the man was doing an admirable job of keeping things together but how long could he keep going?

The best he could do was to speak to Spock about his concern and hope that between them they could keep an eye on him. Bones was one of his pillars, one he counted on, but even a pillar sometimes needed a little support.

TBC

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