Standard disclaimer - I don't own any part of this franchise; I do not intend to profit from using its characters
Spock walked into Jim's room ready to take up his nightly watch by his friend's bedside. Dr. McCoy was just finishing the last set of readings for the evening.
"Doctor?" With his back to the Vulcan, McCoy smiled to himself. After the past thirteen days, McCoy knew exactly what the questions were without their being said.
"Jim's body seems to have completely recovered from the radiation exposure thanks to the serum. His EEG continues to improve. He is almost back to normal baseline patterns. Of course, there is no way to know until he wakes up if he will be the Jim we remember."
"So you have mentioned during each of my visits."
"It bears repeating." McCoy huffed.
"I assure you, Doctor, your words of caution have been duly noted." He also noted that the doctor had changed his wording from 'if' Jim woke up to 'until' he does. It was a small, but significant change.
"Good. I will be..." Leonard broke off his reminder as he observed Spock's eyebrow start to climb toward his bangs. "Right. And you'll…" Again Leonard stopped talking as he watched Spock's head begin to tilt ever so slightly. "Of course you will. Good night, Spock." McCoy paused just short of the sliding doors to the captain's room and looked over his shoulder. "You should follow your own advice and get some sleep. Meditation only helps to a point." He continued out the door not waiting for Spock to comment.
Spock nodded to himself. He had to concede the logic of Dr. McCoy's statement. He knew compromising his own health benefited no one and yet he remained unable to sleep. The best he'd been able to manage was a deep meditative state, but only while in Jim's room. He had given up trying to replicate the same results in his own quarters.
Spock settled into the seat next to Jim's bed. He glanced at the readings being displayed and noted the changes McCoy had mentioned. It was gratifying to note that his captain was once again poised to defy the odds.
McCoy was heavily in favor of stimulating Kirk's brain. A random selection of Jim's favorite music played when no one was in the room. Uhura herself had been known to sing to Jim during her visits, always stopping when other crewmembers arrived. His superior hearing had allowed him to enjoy her performance on two occasions. Mr. Scott had taken to conversing with Jim about the repairs and upgrades that were being proposed for the Enterprise. He planned to ask Dr. McCoy if Mr. Scott needed a psychiatric consult as had he witnessed the man responding as if Jim had put forward an idea or concern.
When the doctor first put forth the idea of his reading to Jim, he was reluctant to comply. McCoy evidently anticipating this was fully armed with case studies throughout the last several hundred years with some being as recent as 4 years ago supporting the practice. His initial thought was to obtain a recording, but again showing remarkable insight, McCoy emphasized that the comatose patients with the most marked improvement were those whose family and friends had supplied the stimulus.
He removed the PADD from his coat pocket. He noticed two new non-critical status update messages which he put aside in favor of opening a data file containing a classic Earth novel that Jim had been reading prior to the Khan incident. Jim had already been a third of the way through the work of fiction and now after his last three nights of reading aloud they were just short the half way mark. Spock wondered what had drawn Jim to "The Count of Monte Cristo". While being familiar with the author and basic plot, Spock had never read the story prior to this occasion.
The room's chronometer indicated that it was midnight Earth standard, the beginning of new day. Spock set aside the PADD, adjusted the glass walls from transparent to opaque and dimmed the light settings to twenty-five percent of normal. He removed the thin meditation mat from the storage cupboard, unrolled it and placed it against the far wall. He walked over to Jim's bedside. He looked down at the man who had become so important to him. Jim's position was unchanged. While scans showed the physical damage from the warp core reactor was healed, there had yet to be unconscious movement of the extremities.
Taking one final look at his captain's face, he muttered a quiet, "Good night, Jim." Spock thought he noticed a slight hesitation in the movement of Jim's eyes under his closed lids and change in his breathing. The science officer immediately glanced at the various readouts on the biobed. There was no indication of significant change. He silently watched his friend for several minutes with no repeat of what he thought he'd observed. Spock nearly disregarded his self-imposed restriction against touching Jim. Not knowing how Khan's blood was stimulating the repair of Jim's neurologic processes, Spock felt it too much of a risk to add impressions from his own consciousness.
He crossed to the mat and seated himself in the center of it. For the first time since he had awoken in Sickbay after Dr. McCoy's treatment of his injuries, Spock made a conscious decision not to sleep. The one of the benefits of remaining in a meditative state was that he would remain aware of his surroundings. He was convinced he'd noticed a slight change in Jim's respiration and eye movement. If something more pronounced happened, he wanted to be able to react to it. He closed his eyes and began the breathing techniques that would calm his mind and take him into a resting state.
XXXXX
Three hours and forty-nine minutes later Spock found himself fully conscious. He had heard a slight rustle. There was no one else in the room and as he had not moved there was only one possible source for that sound. He smoothly rose from his position on the floor and swiftly moved to his captain's side. It was undeniable. Jim's leg was now in a different position.
Spock immediately reached for his communicator as his eyes scanned Jim's still unconscious form for any other signs of change.
"Lights to fifty percent." Immediately the computer increased the brightness of the room. Spock entered the doctor's number and waited.
On the second ring, a tired yet completely alert voice answered, "What's happened?"
"The Captain has moved his leg and I am noticing increased eye movement."
"Get the charge nurse in there. I'm on my way."
"ETA?"
Was he serious, McCoy thought to himself. "Less than a minute. I'm in the on call room two floors up." Leonard ended the call and reached for his shoes.
Spock pocketed the device and moved out to the hall. Jim's room was directly across from the nurse's station, but there was no one in sight. It was entirely possible there had been an emergency with another patient. Not wishing to leave Jim unattended to ascertain if his hypothesis was correct, he returned the setting on the glass to transparent and waited for McCoy.
Once again in his customary position at Jim's side, he put logic aside and went with his gut as Jim would say. Some instinct told him to reach out to his friend. He called upon his years of training to erect as strong a mental shield as possible as he placed his hand on Jim's forearm. Instantly, Spock became aware Jim's presence. He did his best to project safety and wellbeing. Incredibly, he "heard" a single word quite clearly, "Khan?"
More startled than he would ever admit to, Spock allowed Jim to see Khan as Spock had last glimpsed him back in his cryotube. "Secure," was the word he responded. He blocked Jim from seeing what had transpired prior to Khan's return to stasis. The destruction of San Francisco and his battle with the enhanced human would be information for a later time.
He released Jim's arm and placed his hands behind his back as the doctor barreled into the room. Spock's mind raced to find an explanation. He hadn't initiated a meld. How was it that Jim was able to reach out so clearly?
McCoy was already interpreting the readouts as he made his way to the bed.
"Hot damn." The doctor reached out and changed settings and nodded at the new data he was seeing. He looked down at his young friend and then returned his focus to the readouts.
"Hey Jimmy Boy, how about you open them baby blues of yours?" Leonard asked in his best southern drawl.
"I bet you'll enjoy your sponge bath a whole lot more if you're conscious." He prompted his eyes glued to the panel above the bed.
Spock only reaction to the doctor's odd behavior was his characteristic quirk of an eyebrow.
McCoy smiled at the Vulcan and said, "It's only a matter of hours maybe minutes even until he wakes up. There was a spike when I said his name. It's a very good sign. Talk to him. Don't read, actually talk to him, Spock. I'll be back in a few minutes." The doctor headed back out the door, muttering something to the effect of having to do everything himself.
Spock reached out again this time placing his hand upon Jim's psi points. The mental connection he rationalized was necessary. It would be a more accurate assessment of the effect his conversation was producing.
"Jim." he said aloud.
Immediately he was overwhelmed with a series of impressions, glimpses of memory of the last four years beginning with their first meeting before the Academy's review board and ending with their last conversation.
"Spock!" The Vulcan felt the rush of emotions that accompanied the images. He had deliberately lowered his usual barriers. The onslaught was more intense than he expected, but he bore the harsher initial feelings hoping that what was to come would outweigh them.
And then the moment arrived - relief, loneliness, fear, and regret. The later directed toward him. For the loss of a relationship that would never develop. Regret for what might have been.
Hope flowed from Spock to Kirk. He refused to allow himself to project more as this link had been formed without Jim's consent. He settled for encouragement.
"You are safe. We are waiting for you." The words seemed loud to his ears, but they would have registered at just more than a whisper to a human.
He gently ended the meld and stepped back to wait. He knew with absolute certainty that his Jim had survived. All of his friend's memories and his unique personality remarkably seemed intact.
As dawn broke, Jim opened his eyes for the first time in 13 days, 11 hours and 37 minutes. Spock watched from across the room as Jim's gazed focused on Leonard McCoy standing at his side.
"How long?" McCoy was startled by Jim's hoarse question. He'd been looking at the readouts rather than Jim.
"Just shy of two weeks. You were only barely dead for a small part of it, so no melodramatics." McCoy turned away to give himself a moment to contain the tears that threatened to fall. Jim's gaze followed him as he moved. Spock knew the moment Jim saw him. The beginnings of a smile appeared.
"Now tell me, since we had to use Khan's blood to bring you back, are you feeling at all homicidal or despotic?"
"No more than usual." Jim quipped never breaking eye contact with Spock.
"Good to see that your sarcasm is still intact. I'll have you know you continued to be a pain in my ass even while comatose. Coding twice - three times if you count the anaphylactic shock from a medication you weren't previously allergic to."
"Sorry, Bones."
"Damn right, you should be." All present knew that McCoy's bluster was nothing more than the long overdue release of the fear over nearly losing his best friend.
"Don't you have somewhere to be?" McCoy inquired rounding on Spock.
The question caught him off guard. The doctor had been so focused on Jim he thought the older man had forgotten about him. "I am expected at my duty station in just over an hour."
"Best get a move on. He'll be here when your shift is over." Spock opened then closed his mouth. He was at an uncharacteristic loss of words.
"Best follow the doctor's advice. And like he said, I'll be waiting." Jim's hint of a smile was back. Spock knew that Jim was aware he had basically quoted Spock's words.
He took it for what it was - a promise. One that Spock had every intention of holding him to.