Chapter 30: The Possibility Of Anyone

When McCoy entered Kirk's office he could tell that the Captain wasn't feeling well, which was probably due in a large part to what McCoy knew he had told Marlena. Apparently, the woman had eventually found Kirk, or Kirk had let himself be found, and now was in dire straights having been hit in the place he valued above all else: his own life.

"Give it to me straight, Sawbones," Kirk said, looking green, "I knew when I woke up today that something wasn't quite right! I just had that feeling, you know? Look at these hands. So much power! I have nations at my feet, the Empire dependent on me and it all means nothing. Absolutely wasted! All wasted since I haven't had the time to master immortality!"

Kirk had always been a bit theatrical in McCoy's opinion.

"Calm down," McCoy soothed. "You're not dying yet."

Kirk looked incredulous. "Really?"

"I needed to see you. It was urgent."

Kirk's expression went from one of relief to one of outrage. "Well why the blasted did you need to get me worried for? I'll have you hanged for this McCoy!"

"They don't hang people anymore," McCoy informed the Captain.

"You're right. You deserve far worse."

McCoy rolled his eyes and took a deep breath. "I found him, Jim. I found Spock."

For an instant the Captain looked as if he had never heard the name before when realization suddenly flashed across his face. "Oh yes. Was he still missing?"

"Yes," the Doctor said.

"That explains why I have had all that extra work of late," the other man said coolly and settled back in his chair, the crisis to his health now forgotten. "Tell him to get back on the bridge. It's his job, after all."

"I can't," McCoy sighed.

"Well why the bloody hell not?"

"Spock's… well he's not well," In McCoy's mind, as he had been racing to the Bridge and to the privacy of the Captain's office, this had been the task he had looked least forward to. The anger of the Captain after the truth that he had been lied to was nothing to McCoy. He could face the wrath of James T. Kirk. It was betraying Spock that worried the Doctor. Though, he was confessing to one man, that man was the most dangerous on board the Enterprise and the fact that he would have the truth, a potentially humiliating one to Spock considering it concerned the whole Vulcan race. It was clear that Spock had his own demons. They had come into existence from the childhood he had spent on Vulcan, born from the simple fact that his mother was human. For Spock to bring disgrace on his people would be worse than death: it would be exile and further proof that he had never been accepted or wanted.

Still, McCoy, with all the human failings he possessed in the eyes of Spock, did not want to lose his friend, and in the Doctor's eyes if the First Officer died he would soon follow.

"We have to take Spock to Vulcan."

Kirk waited for a moment, expecting some further elaboration and seeing that the Doctor was clearly reluctant to go on further. "And why must we do a thing like that?"

McCoy was visibly squirming. "Because if we don't he will die."

Kirk still looked as confused and reluctant as before. "Well wouldn't he be just as apt to die there as to die here? I need a little more to go on Sawbone, and not to hurt your feelings, not that I particularly care, you are losing my patience."

McCoy sat down in the chair opposite the Captain, his head retreating to the shelter of his hands, as if by not seeing the other man it meant he could lessen his guilt. "We have to find a suitable mate for Spock or else he will die."

The silence that met the Doctor lured him away from the safety the darkness of his two hands offered. Kirk's shoulders were rising and falling. He appeared to be laughing.

"What's so damn funny?" McCoy asked.

"Well I've heard some excuses in the past but that one just about takes the cake!" Kirk blasted the words out along with a humongous laugh. "Can I use that one? It could help explain some of my infidelities throughout the years."

"Listen, Jim," McCoy snapped. "This isn't a game. Spock's biology... It's all messed up. He's a Vulcan remember."

"So he needs to get laid? That's what you're telling me?"

McCoy nodded somberly.

"Boy I wish I was born Vulcan!"

"Well you'd have to wait every 7 years," the Doctor snapped.

Kirk grimaced. "I retract that last wish. I don't see what is so important and why we need to go all the way to Vulcan. Where is he now, may I ask?"

"I have him in that blasted room you built. He's showing extremely high levels of adrenaline. He's also becoming very irrational and dangerous. Luckily he was lucid when I put him in there. We're losing him though."

"Well let him just sit there and sweat it out."

McCoy lowered his head. "Captain. I don't think you understand... If we don't help him he will die."

"Do I look like I care one way or the other?" Kirk replied.

When McCoy raised his head he could see the lack of concern that had been in every word the Captain had spoken, mirrored on the man's face. He knew the answer was no and would remain so if he didn't find another tactic.

"Well if he dies do you honestly think the Empire won't send someone your way with an eye on a more loftier position? And do you honestly think that I wouldn't help him after you had let Spock die?"

The Doctor knew even before he had finished the sentence that he had garnered lightly more of the other man's attention. However, he had not reached him as he potentially would have in the past, he understood, before Kirk had discovered a reliable method to make his rivals suddenly vanish.

Kirk eyed the Doctor carefully. "Well there is no way in Hell I am going to Vulcan. That is not even an option my dear and very old friend."

"Okay," McCoy muttered. He was not sure how important the actual planet of Vulcan was to the ritual of Pon Farr. He had not asked Spock nor could he be sure. He was confident, as a Doctor, that there was no difference he could discern. It was probably due more to the importance of his birthplace in Spock's own mind. "I will need to find him a Vulcan female than to..."

"There are no other Vulcans on board," Kirk hissed. "Find him a girl on board and stop wasting time. There are plenty to choose from. Any bitch will do for our man in heat."

"I don't know if a normal female will be strong enough to live through that..."

"Who said anything about living for the Empire's sake!" Kirk said with a smile on his face. "We have enough casualties left right and center, don't we? Some caused by your own illequipped hands."

"I try my best to..."

"Whatever helps you sleep at night, my good Doctor," the other man smirked. "If not a girl, find a boy but do it quick, won't you? I find this whole problem very irritating. There are enough men and women willing to climb the social ladder. Tell them Spock will promote them, if they can help him. Maybe to head slut huh?"

The idea almost made Leonard McCoy ill. He did not know who would be strong enough to be with the Vulcan, in his violent mood, willingly and survive the experience. He also did not believe the person who did it would not be just as dangerous to the First Officer. Blackmail... threats... Even the whole situation was a source of shame to the Vulcan race. Would the man be able to take the knowledge that someone else, besides Kirk, had witnessed his shame?

And to McCoy, beneath all this, was an unexpected wave of jealousy that the Vulcan should be with someone else, who's motives would be on rank alone.

"What are you waiting for?" James T. Kirk said shaking the Doctor out of his contemplation. "Now go find some fresh and willing meat! Well it doesn't need to be fresh does it? It could be as stale as even you, my dear McCoy. As long as our Mr. Spock knew what he wanted and how to get it he'd be fine."

McCoy raised his head and met the Captain's eyes. There was such a strange look in the older man's eyes, that for a moment, the hair on the back of Kirk's neck stood up. It was one of dawning realization, finality and resolve. There was power in that look, so much that the Captain was left with a uncomfortable notion. "In the right situation," Kirk thought. "I could be afraid of this man."

"Goodbe Kirk," Leonard McCoy said but it held no love or hint of warm emotion.

Kirk raised his hand and flicked it aside, returning to the speech he would give to the next planet that was conquered and the night he would spend with Marlena and one of her friends if she would allow it.

Note: A brief apology for any spelling mistakes etc... I was in a mad rush to get this chapter posted and my computer is being a pain. I will make any corrections that need to be made soon. I hope it was enjoyed despite these failings from a fallible writer.