A/N: This is the final chapter for this, as I've started writing another fic and this is getting pretty milked now. And you know me, I like to finish all my fics so I don't leave you hanging! This was one of my favorite fics to write and I really hope you enjoy this last chapter. My next fic is...you guessed it, more hurt/tortured Jim, pretty similar to this actually. Enjoy!

Bones' body collapsed onto the floor with a thump.

"You actually thought that would work? You thought that hasn't been tried before?" Cadel roared.

"Everyone in that other room tried the same thing," the scientist then added, "Give me the Captain."

When neither man moved, Cadel rolled his eyes.

"Suit yourselves—" and lunged at the Captain.

"NO!"

"BONES—"

For Jim, everything suddenly fell black.

Jim recalled the events prior to his passing out very quickly.

Before opening his eyes, he had assumed he would've been a lab rat back on that table yet again.

Instead, two pairs of hands had him under the armpits and appeared to be dragging him across the floor, the heel of his boots bouncing against the ground.

He hadn't been unconscious for very long, as he was still being dragged along the same room he was in before he passed out.

Either that or the abductor was taking a detour.

He blinked slowly, his mind trying to catch up with his thoughts, watching the room disappear as he was hauled away.

"Fuck…Jim…"

His attention was brought back to the blue figure on the floor, which took Jim 0.3 seconds to realise it was Bones.

And suddenly everything kicked into place.

The cogs in his mind rapidly turning, Jim squeezed his eyes shut and began recoiling weakly, grunting and trying to escape from his captor's embrace.

Bones was hurt, and he had to get to him.

There was an annoyed grunt from above him, growling, "Keep still you little rat."

Bones managed to glance up from the ground at the sound of Cadel's voice, "Damn it man, you're a scientist, not a murderer," he strained, struggling back onto his knees, "Jus' let him go, and tell us what you need."

Jim heard Cadel snort quietly under his breath; so quiet that Bones probably couldn't even hear it.

"What I need, is James. With the implant gone I have nothing of the humans left to experiment on, and I will not fail."

Jim winced as Bones continued to react, "What, you've never failed before? Can't take failure?"

The grip around Jim's armpits suddenly clenched harder, he bit back a whimper as his skin was torn.

"I've never failed. Not like this." Cadel stated bluntly, "I have lost people, but that was always after I finished the experiment. James will not be the first incomplete experiment."

Jim snorted, "Well that's nice of you man, but I've got places to be—"

The grip tightened once more, and Jim screeched.

"Quiet!"

Jim bit his tongue.

"Look," Bones was talking from the floor again, still not having moved from kneeling, "We have a team of scientists, we'll fix ya damn implant and you guys can get lost, yeah?"

Jim groaned; that wasn't a good idea.

"Bones…"

Cadel was quiet however, so perhaps the man might actually be considering the idea.

"It's a tempting offer, but nothing would be more satisfying than having James on my table to experiment with."

Bones tried to stand up but fell back to his knees, "He's not yours to experiment with, damn it! He's a living person! Would ya like us to do the same damn thing to you?"

Cadel snarled, "Is that a threat, little blue man?"

Jim shifted, preparing himself to defend his friend, but was held back with a moan when Cadel anticipated him and tore into his skin again.

"It's not a threat," Bones was eying him, trying desperately to get Cadel to drop Jim, "Look, I'm not givin' ya this offer again. Do you wanna take it or not?"

Jim wanted to shout at him; no, don't give him what he wants, but at this point he jaw was so clenched he couldn't even part his lips.

There was a beat of silence.

Judging by the look on his friend's face, it didn't look like Cadel was actually going to go through with it.

"The implant will be fully intact and functioning?"

Jim tensed.

"Yeah," Bones agreed, "It's not that hard to fix a small broken piece of equipment. It's not a damned warp core."

"It is by no means a simple device," Cadel declared, offended, "But if you can fix it, I will give you James back."

Jim's shoulders sagged in relief, a smirk spreading across his face that he tried to hide when Bones spared a quick glance to him.

"However," the captor continued, "If the implant is non-functional in any way, I will kill your James."

Bones nodded instantly, "Yeah, alright," he agreed, knowing that the Enterprise would have captured Cadel by then anyway, "Now let him go."

Jim felt his blood run cold when Cadel's icy face suddenly shot down a glare at him, before he was shoved face first into Bones, who immediately grabbed him and held him close.

"Pathetic," Cadel muttered, before pulling out his phaser and leaving the room, "I will return tomorrow for the functioning implant."

Jim didn't see him leave, his face still planted into Bones' soft shirt, his fingers clenching onto his sleeves like a lifeline.

When he heard the doors hiss open and shut, he let out a whimper and sagged into his friend's embrace.

"It's alright," he heard Bones mumble, a hesitant hand on his back as if unsure of how to comfort him, "My god, Jim, I won't let that happen again."

Jim wanted so desperately to speak, to say something that will convince his friend that he was still a stubborn little shit and was only ploughing his face into his shirt because it smelt nice—but his trembling lips stopped him, in fear of breaking into tears.

"We're gonna get that bastard off the ship—punished for what he did to you. Alright?" Bones pulled Jim away and faced him sternly, "He ain't getting away with any of this."

Jim curled his fists, taking a stuttering deep breath and a shaky sigh, wanting to voice the truth that had just came to his realisation.

"He killed my crew," the words were only a harsh whisper. He wanted to cry.

Bones' face dropped, and he slowly shook his head, clenching his jaw and bringing Jim close again.

"I'll see what I can do for them," he muttered into Jim's ear.

Jim's fingers clawed at Bones' back, "They're dead."

He heard Bones sigh heavily, his breath blowing on his hair, "They were in sickbay, Chapel was likely with them. There's a chance some of them could have been dumped onto biobeds immediately and saved," he paused, "But I can't promise anything, Jim."

Jim nodded into his friend's shirt, too stunned to say anything else.

His friend was a doctor. And he was his doctor.

He could fix them. He could fix them...

A few long minutes had passed, and Jim was still pressed into Bones' shirt, unable to gather the energy to move away. His friend allowed him to mope, tears forming wetness on blue sleeves.

"Why didn't security get here?" Jim croaked, the corner of his eyes burning from unshed tears, head still shoved into a patch of wet shirt.

Bones heavily sighed; it took him a while to think of a response. Why the hell didn't they get here? They had a responsibility to protect their captain, damn it!

"Don't think they knew, Jim," he muttered, running a hand through Jim's hair in a last-ditch attempt to get him to stop shaking, "they didn't have time to tell anyone."

Both men looked ridiculous, kneeling on the floor together, Jim having practically attached himself to Bones.

It looked completely unprofessional; something that was running through the back of Jim's mind.

"Listen, Jim," Bones finally spoke up, his hand sliding away from Jim's head and brushing onto his shoulder, "I need to check on medbay, they're bound to have an emergency and all hell will break loose without me," he grinned, gently pushing Jim away from him and trying to look his friend in the eyes.

Still kinda shaking…damn.

"Yeah…yeah, I know," Jim muttered, releasing his grip from Bones and slouching back, "Go." He forced a smile.

Can't leave him in here like this.

McCoy got to his feet, giving Jim a hand to help him up and glanced towards the door.

A horrible gut instinct told him that Cadel would be in medbay, waiting for them to walk through.

But it would make sense for him to hide away while McCoy fixed the implant, then make his escape once he got what he wanted, which by then was hopefully not going to be the young captain.

Jim began to wander back to his bed, eyes glazed and arms still slightly trembling.

The doctor sighed.

"Jim, with me, c'mon," he beckoned, gesturing towards the door with a raised eyebrow.

To his surprise, Jim didn't argue, only offering a heart-hearted shrug and following Bones out the door.

At least in medbay I can keep an eye on him.

In medbay, McCoy was surprised to see that Cadel was nowhere to be found. What he didn't like to see however was the fact there was at least 12 members of crew laying on biobeds, one monitor was flashing red and surrounded by his staff, meaning that this patient was probably the most in danger.

McCoy pointed at an empty biobed and stared at Jim, "Sit down and I'll come see you in a minute," he ordered, immediately darting off to the red shirt in danger.

M'Benga suddenly appeared out the corner of his eye and began barking a report, "Jacobson is dead and Sampson is critical," he followed McCoy to the biobed with flashing alarms,

"Rogers is in surgery with Boyce, and Sampson was shot in the leg. Wasn't critical at first but now he's losing too much blood," he informed his CMO, McCoy's attention drawn to the paddings all over the poor red-shirt's legs.

"If a bullet was dislodged and nicked his artery, we need to do surgery now," McCoy demanded, looking around for any assistance. Everyone else seemed to be busy with the other patients.

"How is the Captain?" M'Benga's abrupt question jolted McCoy's focus.

"He's uh…he's on a spare biobed, he's not injured as far as I know, but he's a little shaken up," he listed off, administering a hypo into the man's neck and waiting for him to pass out, "Damn bastard Cadel wants me to fix his implant."

M'Benga looked up from under his eyebrows, "You gonna do it?"

He didn't exactly have a choice. "I have to. He'd be after Jim if I didn't."

How did one scientist manage to overpower an entire ship of over 400 trained officers? It just wasn't feasible.

"Spock called down while Cadel was in there with you," M'Benga continued, unclamping the biobed from the wall and effectively turning it into a hoverbed, "Starfleet are going to take the guy by force, they're forming a strategy or something,"

McCoy nodded, pulling the hoverbed out from the cubicle and guiding it across the room, "'Bout time they tried to do something. Jim's more shaken than an animal dumped in bath water," he grumbled, stopping outside the second OR.

He moved aside, allowing M'Benga to lead the hoverbed through the room himself. His friend was a good surgeon, but he couldn't help but find himself drawn to protect Jim.

Besides, he had to move things along quickly with the implant instead of submitting to his duties…as tempting as it was. Perhaps Jim's careless behaviour was starting to rub off on him.

"Doctor,"

McCoy turned to the voice of Chapel, who was quickly storming up to him.

"Kirk wants to leave, he's desperate to see Cadel."

God damn it, kid. Don't you know what's good for you?

No, obviously not.

He sighed, "I'll handle it nurse," and immediately headed for Jim.

Told him I'd deal with him soon anyway.

Of course, as was expected, Jim was sliding off the biobed while another one of his nurses was berating him and demanding he get back on. Clearly, she didn't know him very well.

"Jim, get back on the damn bed, you're not going anywhere," he ordered with a flick of his wrist, stomping to his side and practically slamming his chest down to the mattress.

Jim scowled. "There's nothing wrong with me. That's why you let me out my room."

"No, I let you out so I could keep an eye on you while in here. So, stay here or I'll make you stay here."

He retrieved a hypospray and waved it above Jim's head to prove his point.

Jim folded his arms and sagged back onto the biobed.

"You're horrible."

"Damn right."

McCoy sat in front of his desk, tensing and releasing a fist every few seconds.

The implant had finished repairs, apparently completely fixed. He was just waiting for the engineer to come out with the damn thing.

Footsteps quickly echoed through medbay until the door opened to his office.

"Here," a man said, McCoy turning around to find an engineer waltzing in, "I—uh, sorry, I was supposed to knock—"

"Just come in and show me," he snapped, standing up from his seat and stepping over to the bewildered man, "Does it work?"

He shrugged, "There's no way to tell without it being tested. Give it back to the madman, he should be able to test it."

Yeah, probably while hurting someone.

"When the hell are Starfleet gonna get here," he grumbled, taking the implant and analysing it, "Forming a strategy my ass."

The man cleared his throat. "He's dangerous, sir, I think they want to make sure no-one else gets killed."

He scoffed, "By a damn scientist?" this guy wasn't like anyone he'd ever known.

Throughout the 5-year suicide mission in space, there have been Klingons murdering people for fun, Romulans trying to start a war, species getting offended and trying to murder the human race over an offensive joke and a superhuman relic from the past destroying the whole of San Francisco just to get his own crew back.

And yet Starfleet appeared to be struggling to get this one scientist under control, who's only mission was to kill Jim.

"A scientist is dangerous when provoked," the man offered, bringing McCoy's attention back to him, "Imagine if you went mad on a mission to kill someone. You'd be dangerous too."

"Yeah, but I don't have tactical training," he rolled his eyes, grasping the implant in his hand and wondering how he was going to approach Cadel with it, "You'd be able to shoot me on sight."

The other man shrugged, offered a light-hearted smile and walked out the room, leaving McCoy alone to stare at the device in his hands.

"I must admit, McCoy, I didn't think you'd actually do it."

The doctor huffed. Can you get off the damn ship now?

"I'm a doctor, not an engineer. I didn't do it, engineering did."

"Still," Cadel twiddled the device with his thumbs, "I don't know if it works or not. Could be a fake."

The hell would I give you a fake for? We know you're a damn scientist!

"I'll have to test it of course."

McCoy rolled his eyes, "Of course you do."

"Anyone of your crew willing to be a subject?" Cadel gave him a dark smile, the implant in his hands suddenly more threatening than a small piece of metal.

"You're not experimentin' on another crew member ever again," McCoy hissed, taking a step closer, "We fixed ya damned implant, now get off the ship."

"Are you offering yourself up for it?" Cadel sneered, pressing his forehead threatening against McCoy's.

"If you'll get off the damn ship, then you can bet ya bastard ass I will," McCoy hissed, discreetly sliding his hands down his uniform in search for the pockets.

"Even if it kills you?"

He closed his fist around something, "Even if it kills me."

The prisoner grinned, "A brave man. I like that."

McCoy grit his teeth, "Yeah?" he took in a sharp breath and yanked out the hypospray from his pocket, "Hope you like this—"

—WHAM.

The hypo depressed into Cadel's arm.

"Fuck!" the device was knocked out of McCoy's hand, the seething man now driving him across the room with a hand to his neck, "You son of a bitch!"

"Well," the doctor managed to stutter through the chokehold, "I told you, I'm a doctor—all I have is a hypospray."

Seconds after that, the light in Cadel's eyes faded and he collapsed—just like that. Onto the floor, like he was nothing.

Taking a deep breath, McCoy pursed his lips against the nagging doctoring thoughts to check on the guy that had just tried to kill him. And Jim. And everyone on the ship.

God damn it.

"McCoy to security team, I'm in the cargo-bay with Cadel. He's unconscious…uh…I'm pretty sure you can detain him."

At least he could just stand here and watch him with a hypo ready in hand.

As a flood of red bodies and yelling voices surrounded him, he could only think of one thing.

It's over.

It's finally over.

"Attention crew of the Enterprise. The prisoner Cadel has been captured and detained. Stand down from red alert and resume normal duties. Spock out."

Jim let out a breath he didn't realise he was holding and finally allowed his body to slump against the biobed.

His mind revelled in the fact they're safe, everyone is finally safe, but he couldn't help but think…

I'm safe. I'm finally safe.

"Jim?"

His head shot up at the voice, breaking into a grin when he saw none other than Bones striding towards him.

"Bones," he sighed in relief, sitting up on his knees, "Your staff have been keeping me prisoner on this bed for hours. Can I go now?"

His friend raised an eyebrow and leaned against the biobed, "You didn't try to escape?"

"Not even once."

The eloquent voice of Chapel piped up, "He did try to escape once!" she shouted from across the room.

Jim rolled his eyes while Bones just smirked at him.

"Just once is a record knowing you. How you feelin'?"

Jim took a moment to analyse himself. It felt like a huge weight was lifted from his shoulders now that Cadel had been detained.

He sighed.

"I feel okay," he muttered honestly, "Who got him?"

Bones dragged up a stool and sat beside Jim, "Ya mean Cadel? I did. Well, knocked 'im out at least," he waved a hypospray to demonstrate his weapon of choice.

Jim's body automatically began to defend itself and he shuffled back, his arms tensing up until Bones realised and tucked the device away.

"See, it's from jabbing you that I've become so damn good at using it."

Jim nodded, forcing himself to relax. He was always going to be nervous around hyposprays, and it wasn't actually Bones' fault. His friend just so happened to frequently need to use the device that ailed him.

"Security dragged the bastard out and detained 'im though. Starfleet have him now."

Jim once again feebly nodded.

Bones noticed the apprehension in his friend's body language, "You're alright, Jim, he's not comin' back now. They'll have 'im under lock and key," he lowered his voice and grinned, "He might be dangerous as a scientist but he's no ninja."

Jim fidgeted a little, picking at his shirt, "It's just…" he sighed, "A lot has happened, y'know? He stuck that implant in my head, and now he has all these images of us. He has my memories. Stuff I don't want him to know."

Bones shuffled closer to Jim, looking around to make sure no-one was looking and leaned in close, "Then let the bastard have your memories," he whispered, "It's not worth going back there and destroying it. Besides, it was Cadel that was corrupt, not the entire colony," he explained, then sighed when Jim's eyes just dropped to his knees.

"Cadel represented them though. As did Ruri. And look what they did."

A hand fell on Jim's shoulder, "One person can't represent the entire race, Jim," Bones reminded him, grabbing Jim's chin and forcing him to look him in the eye, "Ruri didn't know, she refused to do anything when she found out. Cadel was mad with power. The others will use it to help them evolve. And he can't go anywhere near it now."

Jim still avoided eye-contact, despite Bones forcing them to look at each other.

"He saw Tarsus," Jim said simply, as if that explained everything, "He saw Frank."

Bones lowered his voice, "And he also saw what you are now. A Captain in command of Starfleet's flagship."

Jim pondered on this for a moment, before finally looking Bones in the eye. "When did your bedside manner improve this much?"

Bones snorted, releasing his grip on Jim's chin and shaking his head, "Since you had me wrapped around your finger, you little shit."

Jim grinned, despite himself, and lay back on the biobed.

"You can go now, y'know," Bones added, gesturing to the door, "Your vital records for the past two days are stable and there doesn't seem to be any lasting effects on his…procedures."

Jim glared at the ceiling and mumbled under his breath, "He had that going for me at least."

There was a moment of silence between them.

"He was a doctor, too, Jim."

He still refused to look away from the ceiling.

"Yeah he was a bastard and he broke every code he stood for, but he didn't want to kill you. Using you for his experiments was as far as he allowed himself to go, as shitty as he was."

Jim shrugged.

"I can sign you off for a few days, if you want. Y'know, if you need to recover, take time to yourself n' stuff."

Jim rolled his neck towards Bones.

"You still went through a pretty big ordeal, Jim."

It was true. He had been kidnapped twice, experimented on twice, and tortured once. Hell, only a week ago his innards had been ripped open while he was awake and screaming.

"I'm fine, Bones," he lied, sitting up as if that simple action would prove his point.

Bones scoffed under his breath, "Of course you are. Well, if you wanna get back to work, it's light duties only for a week. Alright?"

Jim nodded, and for once, didn't argue.

He knew himself that the events of this month would eventually catch up to him while he was sitting on the bridge in passive silence, and he couldn't do much there when the feelings and thoughts would drown him.

And Bones knew it.

"I'll take that," Jim agreed, swinging his legs around the bed and forcing a smile to his friend.

"You'll recover, Jim, you know that, right?" Bones encouraged, needlessly trying to help Jim stand up, "It'll pass, and you'll get back to ya daily routine of pissin' me off again."

Jim smirked, looking Bones in the eye for a second too long before turning to leave medbay.

He stopped, strolled back over to his friend and placed a hand on his shoulder. Bones whizzed back around with a comically shocked looked on his face.

"The hell are you—"

"Bones."

"…Yeah?"

"Thanks. For…everything you did for me. And are doing. And have done. And will do. And well—"

"Jim," Bones placed his own hands on Jim's shoulders as well, "You gettin' soft on me?"

Jim smirked.

"And you're welcome, kid."

Jim revelled in the warm fuzzy feeling swamping his stomach. It was a rarity, and he'd take it any day.

"Now go piss off someone else!"

Jim playfully smacked him on the shoulder and snorted, "Will do, Bones!"

He very vaguely heard his friend mutter one of his favourite insults under his breath, "Damn infant."

FIN.