A Star Trek Fiction

"The shattering of a heart when being broken is the loudest quiet ever."

Break but Shatter

if i bleed will you fix me?

Leonard can only wish that he'd shown up sooner to the scene. He can only imagine the ways he could have prevented these next couple of horribly long days ahead of him.

The Starfleet Doctor finally reaches the old household where Jim had grown up after a long day of shuttle rides and walking. Bones personally has never been here, Jim would never take him, but it didn't surprise him considering the fact that Jim himself would never come a thousand feet of this place.

With a sigh Leonard follows the dirt path to the door, holding his breath as he knocks, waiting for the familiar face to greet him, but he's met by a different one.

"Can I help you?" The older man growls, leaning against the doorway.

Bones' mouth hangs, "Yes, uhh is Kirk here?"

The man's eyes instantly narrow and Leonard feels chills climb his spine, "Why?"

"He's my friend-I came to check in on him." Bones stutters slightly as he sees the man edging to close the door, "You must be Frank I presume?" He adds, hoping to earn some mutual trust.

"Yes, I'm Frank. You must be that Doctor fella Jimmy talks about a lot." Frank replies rather plainly and Bones can't help but smile.

So Jim does care about him.

"May I see him?" Leonard chirps, trying to be genuinely kind, but the man before him is an abusive asshole.

Frank grunts, "Yeah, of course, lemme fetch him."

The man than leaves the door, heading further into the house to retrieve Jim. Leonard waits outside, longing to go inside to get his blond friend himself, but then again he doesn't want to get into any trouble with Frank.

After several long moments, Jim appears at the door. The blond's movements are slow as he shuts the door and steps beside Bones.

"Jim!" He gasps, taking in the horrific sight.

Jim is tattered up. His right arm hangs limply at his side, his left knee is quite swollen, and his lips are cut and bleeding.

"I'm fine Bones." Jim assures him pathetically, but wavers on his feet.

Leonard steadies him immediately, "The hell you are."

"It's just been a long couple of days. I'm just tired Bones." Jim mutters softly, his gaze becoming distant, as if seeing unimaginable horrors beyond Leonard's comprehension.

"Tired? You think tired covers this? Look at yourself Jim…" Bones sighs, keeping a firm grip on the blond's arm to keep him from toppling over off of the porch.

"I'm just really tired Bones." Jim repeats slowly, his head dropping.

Leonard looks into the bright blue eyes, wishing to see the normal spark of life within them, "Then why don't you come home Jim? Why don't you come home and I'll fix you up and we'll have a nice bottle of booze."

"I can't." Jim voice shakes uncharacteristically so.

"Jim you can't do this…" Bones trails off as the blond begins to cough, almost keeling over with pain.

"Woah I gotch'you." Leonard exclaims, wrapping his arms around Jim's waist before he crumbles to the floor.

Jim's chest heaves loudly in effort to suck in enough oxygen as Bones brings him upright, "Damn it Jim."

The blond chuckles lightly, bringing his hand to the edge of his mouth to wipe the blood from his lips. Bones just stares at him as Jim once again becomes stable upon his two feet.

There's a long pause, longer than it should have been, "Jim, what happened?"

"Not now Bones." The blond mumbles, gazing into Bones' eyes, trying frantically to hide the pain welling in his chest.

Leonard's breathing stops, Jim's eyes are filling with unshed tears, but the blond refuses to let them fall, "Jim, what's going on? What has he done to you?"

Jim's shaking now, his body almost disintegrating in Leonard's strong arms, "Bones-I can't." The blond gasps desperately, but Bones shakes his head.

"Jim is it-" Bones begins, but he's cut off.

"Jim, come inside. Now." Frank demands, obviously he had been eavesdropping on the conversation.

The blond, instantly becoming an eight year old boy, looks over at his step father and nods his head, not daring to look at Bones as Frank's eyes follow him.

Leonard watches Jim leave in dismay and glares at Frank once the blond is out of sight.

"Stay out of this McCoy. You wouldn't want to get Jim more hurt than he already is." Frank threatens and slams the door shut, leaving him to stand outside, alone.

Bones lets the tears fall down his cheeks.

Jim is once more at the hands of his abuser, and he, Leonard Horatio McCoy has let it happen.

Leonard steps away from the house, heading back down to the dirt path. He vows silently that he'll rescue Jim, that he'll catch him before he shatters into pieces that he'll never be able to collect.

But sadly, he's wrong, troubling so. Bones will fail Jim, because Jim was made to shatter.