Title: Asclepius Revisited
Author: Still Waters
Fandom: Star Trek TOS
Disclaimer: Not mine. Just playing, with love and respect to those who brought these characters to life.
Summary: 76 McCoy episodes. 76 McCoy-centric reflections, codas, and missing scenes.
Notes: "The Menagerie, Part 2." As noted in the previous chapter, McCoy does not actually appear in this episode, but as he is credited, I tackled it anyway. It turned out to be a nice opportunity to expand on something I noticed in the first part of the arc. In "The Menagerie, Part 1", when Kirk suggests to McCoy that Spock may have lied to get them to Starbase 11 to see Pike, I was always struck by how passionately McCoy defends Spock as a Vulcan. With all the teasing those three do regarding each other's natures, especially how McCoy often comments on Spock and his human side, I found this intriguing…..and it's Kirk, not McCoy, at the end of Part 2, that teases Spock about his "emotionalism." I wanted to explore those moments further. I could see Kirk going to McCoy for a drink and conversation after speaking privately with Spock, and so that became the springboard for McCoy's inner dialogue regarding his relationship with Spock, and for his final musing on Pike's choice, as related to the previous chapter of this story. Thank you for your continued support, and thank you to the reviewers I am unable to personally respond to via private message. I truly appreciate you reading!
McCoy: "Jim, forgetting how well we both know Spock, the simple fact that he's a Vulcan means he's incapable of telling a lie."
Kirk: "He's also half-human."
McCoy: That half is completely submerged! To be caught acting like us or even thinking like us would completely embarrass him."
McCoy: "Me, yes. I could run off half-cocked given a good reason. So could you. But not Spock." ~ The Menagerie, Part 1
10.
"I'm telling you Bones, when Chris blinked 'yes' to the Talosians' offer, it was like…. his whole body relaxed, and I saw him again. Saw what Spock never forgot," Kirk sobered briefly with that thought, staring down into his glass, swirling the amber liquid momentarily before reanimating. "I wish you could have seen it," he sighed, eyes lighting in remembrance. "He looked like he had never left Talos IV. Strong, whole, and with a pretty woman." Kirk grinned. "He's a lucky man."
McCoy nodded. "Yes, he is," he agreed, thoughts touching regretfully on patients long past.
"All thanks to one stubborn Vulcan and his not-so-submerged human side," Kirk raised a pointed eyebrow at McCoy, a half-smirk on his face. He took another swallow of bourbon. "You know, he still insists this whole thing had nothing to do with emotion - that it was the only logical course of action after Chris's accident." He looked expectantly at McCoy.
"I don't know, Jim," McCoy admitted, a hint of sheepishness in the otherwise clinical expression. "I mean, as much as I'd normally love to tease him 'bout something like this, Spock's got a point. Sure, there's no denyin' there's something else there – whether you call it human devotion or Vulcan loyalty doesn't make much difference - but this whole thing he came up with?" McCoy waved his hand in a wide arc. "It's hard to come up with something that perfectly detailed in the throes of human emotion," McCoy chuckled softly. "I mean, he had everything covered – I know I couldn't be that thorough," his eyes darkened briefly in memory.
Kirk's eyes widened. "Bones, are you saying…." He gasped in teasing surprise.
McCoy sighed, throwing him a look. "That I agree with Spock? That what he did really was the logical thing to do in this case? Yeah, I guess so," he said honestly.
Kirk was half mocked shock and half childish grin.
McCoy rolled his eyes. "Oh, don't look so surprised, Jim. Spock and I do agree on occasion – usually when you're bein' a damn fool."
Kirk opened his mouth to argue, but shut it promptly, realizing he really didn't have an argument.
McCoy grinned briefly before narrowing his eyes into his 'sickbay glare.' "But since this isn't about you this time…..if you bring this up to Spock, I'll cite the alcohol and your poor hearing. Probably have to insist on another physical."
Kirk almost choked on his drink. "Bones," he raised an eyebrow inquiringly, "was that a threat?"
"Nonsense," McCoy swirled his glass. "I'm a doctor. Doctors don't make threats."
"Then what do you call the last time I was in here and you….."
"Creative education," McCoy interrupted firmly around another swallow of bourbon.
Kirk sputtered a laugh, then glanced at the chronometer with a sigh. He leaned forward and held up his glass. "To Chris Pike. May we all find our way as pleasant."
"I'll drink to that," McCoy smiled softly, touching glasses and draining the last of the liquid with Kirk.
Kirk stood with a groan. "Thanks for the drink, Bones. And the conversation," he amended with a grin.
"You're welcome. Now, get – some of us have work to do," McCoy motioned toward sickbay's main room where Christine Chapel was leading a crewman to a diagnostic bed.
McCoy warmed at Kirk's easy chuckle as the younger man headed out the door, stopping by the biobed to check on the crewman, where he offered a smile and shoulder pat before heading for the Bridge. The monitors were chiming within normal limits, Christine was calmly moving about her routine, and there were no shouts for crash carts. Satisfied that he wasn't immediately needed, McCoy leaned back in his chair with a sigh.
It had been a stressful stretch. As much as McCoy had just joked with Jim to cheer him up, it wasn't his primary rationale. McCoy may have argued earlier that Spock, by virtue of being Vulcan, was incapable of telling a lie, but McCoy was no Vulcan. And it wasn't so much a lie, as it was a doctor's conscious decision to make himself look bad in order to fulfill a commitment to a patient. To a friend.
McCoy, admittedly, enjoyed teasing Spock about his human side, just as Spock, not so admittedly, enjoyed the banter. However, there was a time and a place. McCoy knew how important Spock's Vulcan heritage and intellectual commitment was, and he refused to shake Spock's very identity in cases where it truly mattered.
Like on Starbase 11. Where this all began.
Jim had several valid points when he questioned Spock's story early on after seeing Pike, but McCoy persisted in his vehement support of Spock's Vulcan nature, of his deep embarrassment regarding his humanity, of the impossibility of considering Spock would or could depart from the identity he strove so hard to project and maintain. McCoy knew damn well it was pure human devotion and emotion that drove Spock to do this for Pike. He could cite a dozen supporting moments: the hint of regret mixed with sadness and overwhelming trust as Spock looked at McCoy in sickbay after playing Jim's fake message about taking care of Pike; the raised eyebrows and, blast him, amused expression on Spock's face after he presented himself for arrest - even in the seriousness of the moment, still enjoying McCoy's obvious discomfort in commanding security; the pure anguish on Spock's face as McCoy wheeled Pike out of the court martial proceedings and Spock was left alone with a silent Kirk, waves of emotion rolling off the stiff posture at the pull between devotion to Pike and his plan and devotion to Kirk and the threat of losing Jim's friendship and respect; the quiet admission that he thought something might be wrong with Pike after the Talosians stopped the transmission due to his fatigue, and the combination of distress and gratitude in his eyes when McCoy diagnosed severe hypotension and began treating Pike accordingly.
The truth was, Spock ran off half-cocked, as McCoy, Jim, or any human could, given a good reason. Because he had a good reason. The life of his former commander and friend. It was a brilliantly logical plan forged in the heat of humanity.
Spock insisted it was pure Vulcan logic. And McCoy wasn't going to call him out on it, because the end result would still be the same and that was what mattered. He was a physician, an advocate, and while he might not agree with Spock's self-assessment, he wasn't about to tear down a man's identity if there wasn't a damn good clinical reason. So he ate a little crow today and let Spock keep his logic.
McCoy poured a little more into the empty glass and raised it in a final, silent toast. To Spock. He took one swallow for the Vulcan he would defend and the last for the human he would overlook, even in his gratitude.
The human who ran off half-cocked and gave Chris Pike something modern medicine couldn't.
A choice.
Where 'yes' brought life.