Disclaimer: Yeah, The Original Series still doesn't belong to me *pout*

The small vessel cruised through space, intent on reaching its destination as soon as possible. The minimalistic crew onboard went about their tasks, full of nervous excitement, unsure of where they were going, but willing to trust and follow their captain anywhere.

This said captain was sitting on the bridge among the ship's officers, staring intently at something unseen on the view screen. The whole bridge was cloaked in stifling silence, none present feeling a need or want to break the quiet.

Abruptly, the captain's thoughts snapped back to reality, head turning towards the officer standing next to the command chair.

"You know what you need to do?"

"Yes."

"Everything is prepared and there are no problems?"

"Yes, Captain. The technology is lacking and they are no threat. They will not know what has happened until it is too late."

The captain turned back to the screen with a smirk, pleased with both the crew and the prospect of future events.

The vessel soon dropped out of warp, reaching its goal. Ahead of them, a structure came into focus, ships of all types maintained different orbits around it or attached directly to the hull. Flashes of light caught the officers' attentions and the captain's smile grew with unhidden glee.

"Well, this makes things easier. Use the distraction and hide us from their sensors before we are noticed. Bring us closer."

Everyone worked to carry out the orders as the captain focused on the screen and the activity being displayed.

"Be prepared to begin the moment a chance is given."

Kirk, Spock, and McCoy ran through the promenade, fighting against the panicked flow of people running in the opposite direction. Thick smoke drifted through the air as the cries of the injured and the scared permeated the area.

As Kirk ran, he pulled out and flipped open his communicator, contacting the Enterprise.

"Kirk to Enterprise, come in."

There was the crackle of static before the link cleared, allowing the strained voice of his chief engineer to be heard through the din.

"Enterprise, Scott here."

"Scotty, what's going on up there?"

"Well Capt'n, it seems that a group of Andorians and Tellarites decided to deal with some kinda personal argument outside the station. Sir...I believe they're a wee bit drunk as well."

Kirk scowled with anger. Just what they needed. As if handling the two races together wasn't difficult enough, now they had to be drunk.

Thankfully, the crowd they had pushed through had finally cleared out, allowing them to reach the scene of the explosion and take in the damage. What greeted their sight was a large, torn apart opening in the bulkhead of the station, bodies and torn apart sections of the station littering the ground in the dim lighting provided by the few remaining lights that were working in the area. Kirk noted distractedly that the flickering of a shield could be seen through the gaping hole in the wall.

"What happened to the station?"

Scotty sighed wearily over the line.

"We tried to get 'em to calm down, sir, and they started firing phasers at each other! A shot went wide and hit the station before it could raise its shields."

"Scotty, I don't care what you have to do, stop them. Take out their engines or weapons or both if they won't see reason. I don't want another shot fired. Understood?"

"Aye, Capt'n. We'll stop 'em."

"We're going to need response teams down here as soon as possible to deal with the damage and injured as well. Kirk out."

Kirk practically slammed his communicator shut in frustration. There wasn't anything he could do stuck on the station.

Turning around to his companions, he was met with two pairs of stoic and calm faces. Kirk was a bit unnerved at how much McCoy's expression mimicked that of Spock's. In fact, he was surprised that Bones was even still standing there.

"Bones, these people need your help."

McCoy slowly surveyed the area with calm detachment. Other than that, the doctor didn't move from his spot beside Spock.

"I'll wait."

What?

Kirk and Spock stared at McCoy, who simply stared back at them. Kirk's mouth opened as if he was going to say something, but he quickly shut it again, stunned by McCoy's words. A wave of irritation came over him and he snapped at the man standing before him.

"What do you mean 'you'll wait?' We don't have time for you to wait, these people need you now!"

"That may be, but it's too dangerous to go in now. Safer to wait for things to die down first."

"Dangerous? Bones, you've charged into more dangerous situations than this. You're a doctor, those are your patients. Go treat them."

"With what, Captain? I haven't got a medkit."

"That's never stopped you before, Bones, and you know it. You're always talking about old fashioned medicine. Stop making excuses. Why won't you help these people?"

"Why should I?"

Kirk was shocked. McCoy couldn't seriously be asking him why he should help people could he?

"You're a doctor! You treat people who are hurt. What happened to the oath of 'do no harm'?"

"I'm not doing them any harm."

"Bones, some of them could be dying. You can't just stand here and let that happen when you could do something."

"Are you ordering me to go in there and help those people?"

"If I have to then yes!"

With that McCoy walked away from him and Spock, towards one of the injured, and proceeded to kneel down and check him over. Kirk noticed that it was someone who was farther from the initial damage than anyone else. He grinded his teeth in frustration and whipped open his communicator again without looking at Spock, keeping his eyes on McCoy.

"Kirk to Enterprise. How's everything up there?"

"Everything's quiet again, sir. We ended up have'n to take out both systems as they wouldn't stop going at each other's throats. Their ships won't be going nowhere fast that's for sure. We were just about ready to beam down the first medical team to your position. I assume you still need help down there?"

"Yes, Scotty, and the quicker they can get down here the better. Good work and I'll see you when I get back onboard."

"Aye, Capt'n. Enterprise out."

Kirk and Spock turned around as the whine of the transporter sounded, the light fading to reveal a group of medical personnel, all loaded down with medical gear. Upon appearing, McCoy got up from one of the other victims he was looking over and walked over. He quickly addressed the group, telling them what some of the injured suffered from and possible injuries to others that he had found that they would need to check for. After talking with them for a few minutes, McCoy moved away, letting them rush in and get to work, while he walked over to rejoin Kirk and Spock.

Kirk didn't give McCoy the chance to say anything, still angry about his earlier behavior.

"Bones, how could you act like that? I've never seen you display such callous behavior with a life before."

"Captain, I didn't see the reason in risking my own life when the medical response team would arrive any minute. They can provide better care than I could, even if they were not here immediately. If I were injured, I would just increase the people that they would have to deal with, possibly slow'n 'em down."

Kirk had to admit that McCoy had a point. Still, he just couldn't forgive the blatant disregard for life that McCoy had shown a short while ago. It bothered him to see his friend acting so unlike himself. Whatever was wrong with Bones, it was obviously a lot deeper than Kirk had originally figured.

"You know what I think, Bones? I think you don't care about your patients or anyone who could be hurt and in need of help. You clearly didn't care about the people here."

Kirk knew that if he had said that to the normal Doctor McCoy the man would have been hurt and angry to hear that Kirk would even suggest that he didn't care about his patients. As it was, the McCoy standing in front of him simply continued to watch him, not even batting an eye at Kirk's words.

"That's about right, Captain."

At this statement, Spock decided to step in and finally break whatever vow of silence he had put himself under. He reached out and grabbed Kirk's arm, taking the captain by surprise and stopping the words on his tongue. Spock looked at McCoy, a calculating look in his eye as he scrutinized the doctor.

"What do you mean, Doctor?"

"Simple, Mister Spock. I don't care for my patients. I don't feel anything for anyone. It's like the captain said."

"Does this mean you are not experiencing any emotions at all?"

"Yes, sir."

"Fascinating."

Kirk had to cut in at this point because, while Spock seemed to understand something, he was still hopelessly lost.

"Wait, are we talking about no emotions like with a Vulcan?"

"No, Captain. I believe, unlike Vulcans who have emotions, but choose to suppress them, the doctor has no emotions present at all."

"But that can't be true, Spock. Just a moment ago he called us his friends. That has to mean he has some feelings about us.

McCoy look at him blandly and Kirk felt like he was about to get a lecture like those he received back at the Academy.

"Captain, I did say you were my friends, but that doesn't mean I actually have any feelings for either of you. I said you were my friends based on the fact that you have proven to be so in the past. I figured that, even though I no longer have the emotional attachment to both of you, you would still remain my friends until one or both of you proved otherwise."

Kirk sighed. This was a lot in such a short time. As much as he wanted to continue this conversation, he had other matters to tend to first. The other medics were starting to try and listen in on their conversation. They needed to go somewhere private for this.

"Alright, enough for now. We'll figure this out later. For now, I have two ships of drunken Andorians and Tellarites to deal with. Spock, come with me to the Enterprise. Bones...stay here for now and help with the other doctors and nurses, then beam back to the Enterprise. All of us can meet in my quarters once we're done."

Spock nodded his head in agreement while McCoy just turned around and headed towards the response team. Kirk watched him go and then lined himself up with Spock. Pulling out his communicator, he contacted the Enterprise and had the two of them beamed up.

It turned out that it took longer for Kirk to clean up the Andorians' and Tellarites' dispute than he had originally thought it would. It went from the throwing of simple insults, although not so simple in the Tellarites' case, to one accusing the other of thievery, which was proven false in the end. The drunken state of both parties was so great that Kirk was surprised they could even hold their ships in orbit, although he was somewhat grateful that only one of the missed shots had struck the station and not all of them. After the whole thing finished and they were able to tow both ships closer to the station for repairs, it was so late in the evening that Kirk decided it would be best for everyone to just get some rest and meet up the next day.

So that's how Kirk found both Spock and McCoy in his quarters early that next morning. He still felt tired and yet, both of them looked fresh and ready for whatever was to come. It was almost enough to tick him off. Almost.

As Spock and McCoy took the seats in front of his desk, with him sitting behind it, Kirk decided to start them all off.

"Alright, Bones, how did Sickbay do with the injured from yesterday's...accident."

"Only a few were transported to the Enterprise for emergency care. We had two deaths total, four seriously injured, and ten with minor wounds that were treated here or down on the station when we got to them."

"Could have been worse."

"It always could have been worse, Captain."

Kirk blinked. That was an almost Bonesish statement that the doctor had made, except for the toneless way in which it was spoken. He was really starting to miss the way McCoy had been, before whatever it is that caused him to be like this.

"How did...you do in Sickbay, Bones?"

He'd never had to question his CMO before, but after the way he acted on the station, he just wasn't sure how this new McCoy would react to anything. Especially in Sickbay where patients had to be cared for.

"I worked on all of the seriously injured, performing surgeries on two while the others only needed the standard treatments to their injuries. They all pulled through, though we lost one before we could get him on the Enterprise in time."

Kirk nodded his head slowly. He had reviewed the report Nurse Chapel had sent in. In it she had said that Doctor McCoy went about his duties normally. The only difference she stated was that when McCoy finished healing a massive injury in somebody, he would ensure that that person would live before quickly moving on to the next patient, leaving the rest of the injuries to other nurses and staff to fix. He would also not return to check up on a patient after everything was done. He had left for his quarters once none of the patients were in critical condition any longer. None of the normal, sociable doctor was seen. Kirk inwardly sighed, knowing that the present McCoy lacked the spirit that made Bones who he was. He would treat patients if he had to, but that was it.

Spock, as if sensing the mood that Kirk was sinking into, changed the topic of the conversation.

"Captain, I believe I know what has happened to Doctor McCoy."

Kirk looked up at Spock in shock. This was definitely news to him. McCoy just leaned back in his chair, a detached focus settling in his eyes as he listened to Spock and Kirk speak.

"What, Spock? What did this to McCoy?"

"I'm afraid I cannot give you details yet, Captain. There is still one thing I would like to do first, to make sure my assessment is correct."

"What do you need?"

With this Spock looked over at McCoy.

"I wish to initiate a mind-meld with the doctor."