A/N I have just returned from a truly amazing week-end. One of my dearest friends was given an memorable retirement party. I will not tell you the year we met, but we were both in third grade.

I have returned to writing with a fresh sense of the value of friendship, fellowship, worthwhile purposes and goals and based on that fact I have decided to lengthen this story just a little bit. Bear with me, as we explore another unsung hero.

Botsey

A Taste of Honey

Chapter Six

One evening when Spock returned home from work his sons were playing soccer in the front yard and when he opened the gate they ran toward him…

"Father, Father…"

Spock's shields were up and he knelt before them and touched each one of their faces.

"You have had a productive day?"

McCoy replied, "Yes Father and Mother made oatmeal cookies today."

Kov interjected, "With raisins."

Spock said,

"That is most acceptable."

Just then Spock heard a rustle in the bushes on the far side of the property. His acute hearing was able to pinpoint the exact location of the sound and he saw a male whose hair was gray, and his body slightly stooped. He appeared to be quite elderly. Spock instructed his sons,

"Continue in whatever activity you were engaged in prior to my arrival."

He strode purposefully toward the location in question and the male said,

"I am so sorry, I did not mean to disturb your family. I used to live in this neighborhood, I thought I would look around."

Spock's rebuttal was,

"Your words are true Dr. McCoy."

The doctor ran his hands through his grey hair.

"Those ears of yours are special in more than one way, Spock."

"Indeed."

"I am not here to make trouble for you and Nyota. I visited the Academy Administrative Building and saw her name…change. I wanted to see her, to know all was well. Spock you did a good thing.

"When I was captured, I was as good as dead, tortured, enslaved and finally rescued. The experience has prematurely aged me. Spock there is no way I could be anyone's husband now, and certainly not Nyota's.

"I have taken legal measure to make my death a matter of record. With the help of Star Fleet, I am now a completely different person-Doctor Richard Blake. Besides yourself, the only other ones who knows my secret is of course, Star Fleet and M'Binga. He and I will work together. I will be settling on one of the Vulcan controlled settlement planets."

Spock spoke,

"Doctor Mc….Blake, I would like you to meet someone.

I returned to the boys and singled McCoy out.

"Please, with me."

Spock and McCoy covered the ground to the waiting doctor. Spock placed his hands on his son's shoulders and said,

McCoy, please meet Dr. Blake. He is a famous doctor who is familiar with your father's work."

"But you are my true father, Father."

The good doctor responded,

"Although your physical appearance probably would indicate to some, that statement might not be true, you speak the truth McCoy. You appear to be a very bright young man. I wish you the best in your goals in life."

"I think I will become a doctor. My father says that it is hard work. He and mother have always encouraged me to do my best. Maybe one day we will meet at a medical convention or something like that."

The visitor responded, "I would like that McCoy; I would like that very much."

The youth bowed his head and said, "It was a pleasure meeting you. Father, may I return to my brothers?"

"Yes McCoy. Get ready to return to the house for dinner in a few moments. I will return to you and we will go in together."

Nyota came to the door and McCoy got a chance to see that her beauty had not waned and that she was pregnant,

Her voice called out, "I will give you all a few more minutes. Last meal is not quite ready."

I noticed the doctor's eyes had rested on Nyota and I said,

"We are going to have a daughter."

His response was simply,

"That is good Spock, very good. I must ask you one question, Why did you come back from Vulcan?"

I put down my head and formulated these words,

"Before I left, she touched me and I could not forget her. She drew me back."

McCoy nodded.

"I understand thoroughly. She is an unforgettable woman and I guess, in reference to her, you came to the same conclusion I have, 'A taste of honey is worse than none at all.'"

Spock nodded and then said,

"Doctor McCoy…Leonard, I promise you this. When you have reached your destination, please contact me at the Academy so that I will have a way to keep in touch with you. That way every milestone that your son reaches, every award, graduation, celebration along with holovids will be forwarded to you. When he graduates upper level, I will bring him to you and allow you to tell him what you wish."

"Thank you Spock, you are indeed a decent man…a decent male. I look forward to our collaboration on this one condition, Nyota must not know of my existence."

"I have never acted in a deceptive way with my wife, but I will agree to this so that her past life does not come back and rob her of any joy."

McCoy nodded.

My eyes followed my old friend as he slowly and painfully made his way to a flitter parked on the street. In parting I said, dif-tor heh smusmas.(Live Long And Proper) Surprisingly McCoy responded, Sochya eh dif. (Peace And Long Life) turned and waved.

As a man of his word, Spock forwarded memento of every momentous event in McCoy life and as McCoy, the younger had predicted, the two McCoys met at a medical convention. It was there that Doctor McCoy/Blake had the opportunity to award his son a full scholarship with monetary benefits to the very medical college he had attended. The name of the scholarship, "The Leonard McCoy Memorial Scholarship," which was awarded to the most promising up and coming medical student that had graduated upper education that year.

Spock sat in the front and applauded the two males, his shared son and his friend from long ago.

Later that evening Spock received a message,

"I have basked in the success of our son only because of your integrity. His greatness, I attribute to you and his mother. How could I muddy those waters with an irrelevant bit of information about DNA. I wish us to still keep in contact. I will monitor McCoy's progress as he attends medical school and you can keep me apprised of your other children's progress and of course, Nyota continued health and happiness.

Upon McCoy's graduation, cum laude, he decided to study off-planet species physiology and went to intern with a Dr. Blake at his specialized clinic. Drs. 'Blake, M'Binga and S'chin T'gai McCoy worked together. It was from their collaboration that so much good was produced. One outstanding achievement was not the elimination of Pon Farr but the lessening of its madness and brutality. Alsp because of the clinic's research several virus from various species were completely eliminated as a danger to citizens of The Federation.

McCoy eventually married a fellow doctor, a Vulcan/human by the name of T'Prie who was his sister, T'Ama's best friend. To say she was beautiful was an understatement.

McCoy was still off-planet, working at the clinic, when he became a father. Dr. Blake was uncharacteristically involved and overjoyed. Besides the biological father, now a grandfather, the other grandparents, two great-grandfather and one great-grandmother and a great-great grandfather were all present for the birth of S'chn T'gai, Blake son of McCoy, son of Spock, son of Sarek, son of Skon, son of Solkar of the house of Surek.

So, despite the fact that blood relationship was never revealed, it was not a necessary component for fulfilling lives. It was Dr. S'chn T'gai McCoy who was there when 'Dr. Blake' spoke his final words,

"McCoy, you have fulfilled every wish I would have had for a son. You have given me more than just a sterile satisfaction that comes from rewarding work, but a life with the warmth of a family. Then you have given me 'a 'grandson,' because you have been a son to me and your wife, my daughter.

"Please convey these words to your father, 'Thank You.'"

McCoy closed his eyes and wept. With his head resting on his mentor's chest he said,

"Dr. Blake, you have been like another father to me. I must thank you."

His 'mentor' sighed, reached a feeble hand up to touch McCoy's face, smiled and closed his eyes and died in his son's arms, fulfilled and satisfied.

`0`0`0`0`0`0`0`

With the death of Dr. Blake, McCoy was granted leadership at the multi-species research clinic. Dr. M'Binga, now well past eighty years did not feel cheated, but rejoiced in the young doctor's appointment. In McCoy, he also found the semblance of a son. Just as was the case with McCoy/Blake, he was regularly at S'chn T'gai McCoy's home. Blake called him Uncle Binga.

Unlike his friend and co-worker, Dr. McCoy/Blake, Dr. M'binga had never married. Even at his advanced age, his carriage was still ram-rod straight, his strength undiminished, his mind clear and all his parts worked perfectly, these did not reflect in any way his age. He reasoned that his many years away from earth's environs probably contributed to the slowing down of the aging process.

The good doctor felt content, fulfilled and necessary.

Until…