For author's note and disclaimer, see chapter 1

Chapter 4

When he went down to sickbay Jim found everything much like he had expected. Scotty had marched up everyone from engineering as their shift ended and a new one came on, and they were all standing in line out of the door and into the corridor while McCoy worked through them. It was definitely colder in sickbay than it had been up on the bridge, but then that section was closed off except for sickbay and the corridor that led there. The chill from the surrounding sections was creeping in and Jim felt goosebumps on his arm from the bite in the air. Instead of the regulation uniform she should have worn, nurse Chapel had on full uniform trousers that fit her surprisingly well given that Jim would be willing to bet the garment would be belonging to McCoy. Well, Bones was and always would be the southern gentleman who would never put his own comfort above that of a lady. Offering a spare pair of trousers he would do in an instant, and had it come to that he would have gone in his undershorts if it was the only way to let the nurse be warm.

Luckily it did not seem like it had got as bad as that yet though she had a warm and thick looking sweater on over her uniform tunic. The dark blue sweater was open necked enough he could see she had the standard issued uniform dress on underneath. Awkward and certainly not according to regulations but it would have to do for the moment. There might be some captain that would have insisted that they followed regulations in spite of the cold, but he was not going to put them through that, he wouldn't even try.

McCoy had pulled on the short sleeved scrubs over his uniform tunic which looked just about as awkward and made Jim wonder if he did not have anything warmer. He had a shivering engineer with a red shirt up on the examination table, the doctor rubbing his hands together for a moment before he grabbed the hypo.

"I'm giving everyone a booster with vitamins and nutrients," he stated after a quick glance at Jim. "So far no ones too bad off, but it won't do them any harm and let them handle it all better."

"Alright doctor," he nodded as the man jumped at the hiss of the hypo spray.

"Oh for pity's sake," Bones gave the man a scowl. "You'd think I was using a pitchfork for all the whining I'm getting."

"Sorry doctor, but that stings," the man stated carefully.

"No it doesn't," Bones fixed him with a firm look.

"Uh, no sir, it doesn't I guess, uh, am I done now?" the middle aged man asked worriedly and Bones waved his hand.

"Yes, have the next one come in," as the man slid off the table and hurried to leave the room with more haste than dignity McCoy unlocked the empty vial from his hypo spray and reached for a full one. "I'll need more of this before soon, and if it's cold as the blue blazes here, it's going to be even worse in that blasted lab."

"Let me guess, polar bears in the test tubes?" Jim asked given the fact McCoy had referred to the large arctic animals twice now.

"We should be so lucky," McCoy snorted. "Believe you me, there ain't gonna be no critter up there ain't froze all to death already."

"Will you be able to make any then?" Kirk asked worriedly.

"It's not sensitive to the temperature," McCoy shrugged. "I'll be able to go in and start synthesizing it, and it won't take any harm from the cold, but I'm not going to be sticking around any longer than I have to and you can bet on that." He nodded as Mr. Scott was the next one to enter the room. "Alright Scotty, on the table."

"Ah thought ye said ye weren't gonna scare my men off, doctor," the older man gave a sad look as he complained. "All of them lads were white as sheets as they came out of here so they were." He gave a yelp and jumped as McCoy gripped his arm. "Lord almighty, but that's cold…"

"Well, it's cold as ice in here, so what do you expect?" McCoy half growled at him. "And I haven't got the time to coddle them, so they'll just have to man up, and so do you," he fixed him with a firm look as he checked the scanner above the examination table. Frowning and grabbing the hand held scanner, running it over him. "Well, you're no worse off than the others, and no better either. Tell them men of yours to eat their blasted rations or they'll be coming up here every day instead of every other." He injected him with a dose from the hypo and Scott jumped again from the touch of the cold metal.

"Lord almighty," Scott shook his head. "That's cold enough to freeze the devil's heart."

"If the devil has anything to say, he can come here and say it to me," McCoy scowled. "You're good to go Scotty, but you mind me. I don't care what you think of the rations, you eat them or I'll have you all here twice a day if I have to."

"I'll make sure they eat them, yes sir," the Scott nodded. "If nothing else, tha'd do the trick so it will. Donnea have to worry no more about us doctor, we'll be behaving ourselves so we will."

"That'd be the day," McCoy muttered as the older engineer slid off the table and headed back out. While they waited for the next one Jim reached out his hands and laid them over McCoy's.

"He's right though," he mused. McCoy's fingers were ice cold. "You are cold. If it gets too bad in here you'll have to let me know."

"If it gets too bad in here, you'll hear about it, don't have to worry about that," McCoy snorted as the next unwilling patient entered the room. "Now clear out of here and let me do my job. Soon as I'm done I'm gonna have to go to the lab, and once I'm done there, I intend on going up to the mess where it's warm and I'll be damned if I don't stay there long enough to thaw."

"You do that," Jim nodded as he started back for the bridge. Once things got back to normal he would have to make a note of the sacrifices the crew had been forced to make, make sure they either all got some shoreleave or at least some other form of compensation. He wasn't sure what he would be able to manage, but he would certainly try.

TBC

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