Author's Note: So updates will only be once a week until May since I have finals and I'm in the middle of transferring schools and such. That aside! If anyone has any McCoy (and Kirk) scenes/situations that you want me to write, just tell me! I will write them if they help further the point of my story, or I might have already written it! Thanks to my wonderful three reviewers who took time out of their schedules to write me a quick review, your feedback and general enthusiasm for my story is very welcome and appreciated!

Awesome Link!: There's a link on my profile to a youtube video that happens to be a wonderful McCoy tribute. So please support Star Trek and watch this vid!

Chapter 2: Friends don't let Other Friends Drink Alone

Leonard sends his fifth message to Jim. Stupid kid probably wouldn't answer this one either. It wasn't that he was dying to see Jim anytime soon; it was just that he had left the bathroom in a state of disaster. The doctor decided to stay away, convinced that some of the liquids oozing down the sink are alien. When Kirk had sent him a message that he needed a place to clean up, McCoy didn't think twice about the consequences and he left the door unlocked. Hadn't even heard the kid come in or anything. He was woken by an outraged roommate. McCoy didn't understand anything he was screaming about, but he was constantly motioning towards the bathroom and then he left.

Sometimes he really wants to kill that kid.

McCoy starts messaging his temples as he's winding his way to the mess hall. He grimaces at his replicated lunch; it just wasn't the same as good ol' Georgia food. Making his way to an empty table in the corner of the room, he tries to steer clear of all the energetic youngin's, he wasn't here to make friends after all. He takes generous bites as he reviews a medical journal that the teacher had wanted the class to read by next session. It was utterly boring and completely useless. A big pile of cow dung.

A message appears on his PADD, and for a second McCoy thinks its Jim, but sees that it's from Starfleet Administrative:

Students, remember to visit the Kelvin Memorial to pay your respects on this very black day in Starfleet history. –Starfleet Administrative

Leonard sets his food down, a brow rising. What was today? Quickly he deletes the current message and brings up his calendar. Oh. Ohhhhh. The doctor rubs a hand across his face. It was that day. No wonder Jim wasn't answering any of his messages. Now McCoy feels like a jerk, and he hates that feeling, well, at least when it wasn't intentional. Maybe he should get something for Kirk. He snorts. Right, because they are the best of friends. Leonard gets up and puts his food in the disposal. If he was honest with himself, getting gifts for anybody was not something he did. Just ask his ex-wife.

Maybe he could just do something for him. No, Jim probably doesn't want that. He probably wants to be left alone. Besides, McCoy thought, it's not like they were friends. McCoy was just some random guy that happens to patch up and occasionally talk to this other random guy. Right. Dammit. He needs to track down that kid.

He mutters to himself as he searches down Jim's new conquest, "I'm a doctor dammit, not a bloodhound."

He stops in front of Jasmine's door. At least he thinks it's her door. Jim had talked on and on and on about this girl. Things he didn't really want to know, but Jim obviously felt the need to impart to him. He presses the comm, waiting for Jasmine (Jasmine, really? Pretty sure that's not her real name) to let him in. The door opens to reveal a human girl. Leonard is actually pretty surprised, Jim seemed to be in an alien fetish for the longest time. The girl looks at him questioningly.

"Oh, right, uh," Wow, dazzle her with words, Leonard, "Uh hi, I'm looking for my friend, Jim Kirk. I thought you might know where he might be today."

The girl pouts and twirls her red hair, "I know Jimmy, we're together, but he didn't want to do anything today, I don't know why." Her whining was starting a fuse that the doctor knew was going to become a headache. "He said that he needed time to himself today, something about visiting the dead or something. He said he didn't even feel up to having sex tonight." The girl was close to tears.

McCoy's right eyebrow shot up, he needs to talk to Jim about his choice in women. He walks away from her, her whining still ringing down the halls; she probably hasn't noticed that he wasn't there anymore. She did say something that caught his attention, though. Visiting the dead, hm, he wonders if George Kirk was buried in San Francisco. Well, no time like the present to find out. He heads for the administration building.

The kid at the front desk was giving him a look. It was kind of creeping him out actually. After a minute the boy continues to type. He would give a hmm, and an ahhh, and then look at McCoy some more. For his part, Leonard, was trying to avoid all eye contact, while tapping his finger on the desk impatiently.

"Hmmm,"

The doctor's eye twitches, "Can you answer my question or are you just blowing sunshine up my ass? Are the victims of the Kelvin buried in San Francisco or not? I don't have all damn day, kid."

More typing, "Hmm, well it seems that there is a memorial for the deceased, it's in Victory Court Yard."

A vein in McCoy forehead was bulging, "You mean the Kelvin Memorial?"

"Umm, yup!"

He was out the door in a flash. What a complete waste of time! He had been traipsing across campus for nothing! Skipping out of his classes just to find out that he should've gone to the most obvious of places in the first place. It really pisses him off.

He enters the court yard and looks around. Jim probably wouldn't be out in the open. If I was James T. Kirk where would I hide to grieve? Looking around he realizes everything was pretty open. Well, damn. Looking away from the memorial Leonard saw the grass sloping down until dropping into the bay. A couple of trees dot the landscape. Well, Jim might be somewhere over there.

Leonard scowls slightly, the grass was damp: awesome. He searches every tree until he comes upon a lump. The lump looks suspiciously Kirk-like. He nudges it slightly with his muddy boot. It groans and looks up at him with a glare. Yeah, it was Jim.

McCoy grabs a hold of the kid's arm and lifts him up, "There's a bench under that tree, let's go there."

Jim only gives him a puzzled look, but follows along quietly. He slumps like a sack of potatoes and Leonard gives him a quick once over, nothing seems to be wrong, except for the fact that Jim was obviously drunk. McCoy sits there, not exactly sure what he's supposed to do now that he's actually found his target.

He clears his throat, "You shouldn't be alone."

Something flashes in Kirk's eyes, "Why?"

"Well, it's just not mentally healthy to be in solitude on a day that tragic events transpired," Leonard shakes his head mentally, now he's going to start rambling, "One, it cements in the person's mind the negativity of the day, and secondly the body is more likely to release a chemical that will-"

"No," Jim's piercing blue eyes are looking at him closely, "why do you care?"

McCoy would've seen it as a slander to his profession if he didn't understand where Jim was coming from. The doctor sighs and runs a hand down the back of his neck. Honestly he has no idea why he cares. All he knows is that Jim shouldn't be alone, and that no one was going to help him had Leonard not been here. But he couldn't very well tell Jim that, he was trying to uplift the kid, not remind him that he's alone.

"Because," Leonard takes a deep breath, "I'm your friend, Jim. And friends don't let their friends be depressed on their birthdays."

Jim's whole countenance changes, it was brighter. A sinking feeling formes in his stomach, McCoy feels like he might have just signed his own death warrant. Well, no going back now. Jim was looking at the doctor like he was just barely seeing him in a new light.

"Are you serious?"

What the hell kind of question was that? Of course he was serious, did Jim just think he said these kinds of things for kicks and giggles?

"Look, Jim, you wake me up almost every night, if I was like my roommate I would've shot you by now," I still might, "I try and help your body heal from the crap you put it through. If tolerating that doesn't make me your friend, as well as a saint, I don't know what does. Don't you agree?"

Jim rubs the back of his head; McCoy's words are probably still trying to register in his inebriated mind. "Well, yeah. I suppose."

McCoy claps the young man's shoulder, "Then as your friend, and as your unauthorized doctor, I prescribe going to get something to eat, and then getting shit-faced in a bar."

Jim jumps up and nods, already walking off. McCoy groans, what has he gotten himself into? Trying to be a southern gentleman really might have put him in the grave this time.

"Come on, Bones! I'm starving!"

Leonard groans again as he pushes himself off the bench. Well, it was time for this old man to face the music. He prays fervently that he won't regret the decision that caused him to run frantically around campus, enduring stupid people and slightly creepy people, to end up pronouncing friendship to the man that so far, had made his school experience extremely difficult. Oh yeah, he could definitely feel a headache coming on.

"So Jim, about my bathroom . . ."

There you have it! See you all next week!