"Jim boy? You okay?"
Kirk looked up to see the familiar weather beaten face, and blue eyes, warm as July. The skin around them was dark, and tired.
And there was good reason for it. They were all exhausted from the day's efforts. This had not been a usual mission, with a usual purpose.
Not that it was technically a mission. Starfleet had not given Jim orders to interfere. The crew regarded Kirk as a law unto himself, they weren't inclined to question when he gave orders to break the boundaries of an "abandoned" space station.
Not when that space station was the center of an illegal slave ring.
Either way, they were all exhausted. And if Bones' face looked a little more hound-dogish than usual…at least he wasn't crying about it.
Blazes…he had to stop listening to those old earth recordings.
"Yes, I'm alright, Bones," He smiled as McCoy sat down beside him and folded the old, careworn hands in his lap. He rather hoped this was going to be a moment of companionable silence.
"Coz you don't look it."
Dang.
"No?"
"Nope," Bones shook his head like an emphatic six year old (an age he aspired too way too often). "You look like a man whose just spent 26 hours breaking up an illegal trade ring and then decided it was a good idea to kip out on the cold hard platform of his starship bridge."
"Well it is my starship."
"Yeah."
"And we're not in motion."
"Mhmm."
"And no one's gonna come up here and trip over me."
"That's sorta the problem, Jim."
Kirk sighed and curled a little further in, setting his elbows on his knees so he could rest his chin. McCoy could not help noticing that he had shot out the viewscreen beyond their parameters to view some sort of supernova—or whatever that was; all greens, blues and soft pinks.
"Do you really expect me to sleep after all that, Bones?"
"it's because of that I expect you to sleep," McCoy insisted gently. "Doesn't matter how much your head is reeling, Jim. You've gotta let it rest or it will just make things worse. Make your body well first and the mind will follow."
Kirk shrugged, looking out at the space beyond the nova…people always thought of it as just black. They never saw the dark jets of purple and blue, the soft wash of greys that were the neighboring galaxies…
"Do you think that will work for the people we rescued today?"
It was a sharp statement, and he regretted it as soon as Bones dropped his warm eyes. McCoy wasn't responsible for the universes' hard answers—but he just couldn't keep his mouth shut.
"I don't know…some of them."
"And the kids?"
McCoy froze, it was rare he heard that tone in Kirk's voice…especially in quiet moments.
Jim's eyes were still focused on the view screen, hard and blazing…cold as the space outside.
"Children…Bones. Little kids."
Bones nodded.
"Cages and cages of them…like frightened animals, Bones. Like Goddamn animals!"
"It's' over Jim. We stopped them."
Kirk sighed and hid his face for a moment, shuddering all over so that Bones put a heavy hand on the bowed, golden shoulders.
"We stopped them now…but they've been doing this for years. How many came before this?"
Bones shook his head. He didn't have any answers. He'd come as close to life and death as anyone, being the doctor of a starship wasn't easy…but damn it to hell. He didn't have any answers for this boy.
When Kirk looked up again, his eyes were soft, reflecting the delicate hues of the nova, as though seeking comfort from its silence, the inevitable cosmic dance of the dust of the universe.
"How many of them, Bones? Little frightened kids…"
McCoy put his arm entirely around his Captain, let the other man droop slowly into his embrace.
"No one should be able to hurt a little kid like that. "
But they did.
And that made men like James Tiberius Kirk weep on powerful starship bridges.
Provided they were empty.
Empty but for the good friend at his side, and the dark eyes that watched from an unnoticed seat in the corner.
Spock had not interrupted when the Captain trailed in, sensing that the man looked for refuge.
He did not interrupt now. But watched…