For author's note and disclaimer, see chapter 1

Chapter 5

After Scott had left with the last of the engineers McCoy sent nurse Chapel off to the gally to get herself something hot to drink while he armed himself with a blanket and got ready to head to the lab. If it was cold in the sickbay he knew it would be even worse in the lab. There might be an atmosphere, but there was not really any active life support so the air was stale, the oxygen content low and he could swear there was ice on the walls. Normally he would have sent a nurse or an assistant for something so routine as more of the vitamin solution. All they needed to do was to key in what they wanted and the amount of it in the computer and wait as the machine synthesized it and popped out the little vials for the hypo spray.

Whoever was there would basically sit on a chair and take the vials as they appeared, placing them in the case before carrying it back down. With no heating at all in the lab though he could not in good conscious send anyone else to do it. Bad enough he was stuck there, he was the CMO, it was his job to be cold and miserable for the good of the crew.

Muttering to himself as he tried to key in the commands with fingers frozen stiff he sat on the chair and wrapped the blanket around himself as he waited. If he wasn't done in an hour, he'd go down, warm up, and then go back up again. An hour was all the time he was willing to spend in the lab.

The cold aside he figured the air in there wasn't good for much longer. With no circulation there was no fresh oxygen pumped in to replenish what he used up, and if he had to go back up there was every chance he would have to bring oxygen with him. Half an hour into the process and he was already starting to feel a little light headed. Shivering so bad he thought his joints would pop and his teeth chattering.

Another forty minutes later when the last vial appeared he almost did not realize it. As he stood to place it in the case with fingers that barely complied he felt the room spin dizzily and made a mental if slightly disoriented note that no one was to go to the labs without oxygen masks.

Taking the case and going into the corridor there was at least enough oxygen left in the air he knew he wasn't going to faint, but it was still just as cold. He couldn't feel his toes in his boots or the floor under his feet as he made his way to the turbolift, the sudden rush of oxygen rich air hitting him as he excited it enough to make him dizzy again and he had to lean against the wall.

Getting back to the sickbay and the meagre warmth there was a relief, especially when nurse Chapel took the case from his stiff hands and motioned to the bio bed. "Sit down, boots off and feet up, I got a blanket warmed and I'll get you a cup of coffee in a minute." As he sat to comply she took his hands, checking his fingers and was apparently satisfied.

"No frostbite," he assured her. "Just too damn cold."

"I can tell," the smile she offered him was amused as he struggled to get his boots off. Stepping in and pulling them off for him. Ignoring his protest as she took his socks as well. "Humour me, I'm a nurse." Apparently satisfied he was right that there was no frostbite she gave him his socks back.

"Once I've thawed out a bit, I think we should have a discussion about just why a doctor outranks a nurse," he muttered though with no bite in it. He was much too cold to feel quarelous and he knew very well that it was her duty in a way to make sure. Oh yes, as a doctor he outranked her, but he also trusted her. She knew what she was doing, and in their position the lines sometimes got blurred to where he would ask her to perform duties not normally left to a nurse. He trusted her more than he would trust a to him unknown earth doctor. They tended to get too soft and complacent in their hospitals and their private practices. They didn't know what it was like to have to treat men with blaster wounds, plasma burns and radiation sickness. They did not know what it was like to greet someone in the mess one day, and ease the sheet over their face the next.

Nurse Chapel knew, and he would never begrudge her the comfort of making sure for herself what he always insisted on making sure himself for others. He would never have taken Jim at his word, or Spock, so why should she take him on his?

"Once you're warmed up I might even listen to you," she smiled now. "Now sit there and behave yourself while I get you that coffee."

"You won't hear a word of complaint out of me, my dear," he stated softly as he wrapped the blanket tighter around his shoulders.

Once she returned with the coffee his hands and feet were positively throbbing with the pain of returning warmth as his blood vessels suddenly discovered there was a surprising amount of digits that they had completely forgot existed before and were now trying to make up for it. Not pleasant at all, but reassuring just the same that everything was indeed working as it should.

"Here you go doctor," she smiled as she handed him the steaming mug and he took a grateful gulp of the hot beverage.

"Thank you," draining half the mug before he could face setting it down long enough to move to the intercom he reluctantly abandoned the blanket in favor of the rest of the coffee as he pressed the button. "McCoy to bridge."

"Bridge here," Jim responded instantly. "How are you doing there?"

"Icicles from the ceiling or just about," he replied dryly. "Look, I was just up at the lab, and the air is no good up there anymore. No one's to go into the cut off sections without any form of breathing apparatus from now on. Preferably also always make it in pairs. It's gonna get tricky from now on, and I don't want anyone suffocating just cause they're too dang foolish to think."

"Alright, I'll issue the order," Kirk confirmed.

"Make sure you do, McCoy out," it wasn't like he 'had' to stress it with Jim. He just had to stress his point for the sake of his own wellbeing. Anyone who ventured into those sections without the proper equipment would find themselves slowly suffocating and they might not even realize it before it was too late. They would grow slow and addled long before they passed out, not caring as they slipped away and therein lay the danger.

At least when he headed for his friends quarters at the end of his shift he noted it was a little warmer up there. With more of them closer together the people generated some meager warmth in themselves, and with more of them actually using the space there was some heat directed there from life support. Jim and Spock were both already there when he entered, suppressing a shiver and striding in.

"Here, warm you up," Jim offered a friendly smile as he held out a glass and took the brandy bottle that had been standing next to the chess board.

"Just as I was beginning to lose hope," Bones reached for the glass eagerly. "By golly it's getting chilly down there. I left orders for the next shift to make sure they don't stay down there for too long, but we are having people coming every now and again. If I didn't need the equipment I'd be tempted to shut it down and set up shop elsewhere."

"If we have to, we'll work something out," Jim decided as Bones emptied the glass. Refilling it he laid his own hands over his on the glass and noted he was still cold. The bridge was more or less comfortable if not as usual. With all the working and welding and general chaos of people trying to get all the systems working properly again it was more chaotic than cold up there. Obviously sickbay had it worse.

"We'll manage," the doctor shrugged. "Just as long as everyone does what I told them they'll be fine."

"I'm glad to hear it," Jim noted as Bones took a seat on the spare chair, drinking the brandy much more slowly now, enjoying it rather than downing it for the shock. At least they had got through another day.

TBC

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