92.) Fragile
As they limped their way back to Earth, almost four days had passed before McCoy had enough time to actually think about anything other than his next surgery. Which was why, instead of crawling into his bed like he wanted to, he was hunting down his Acting Captain. Of course, something Jim made more difficult by being everywhere else but the bridge, where Spock had been left in charge while Jim was supposed to be off-duty for some much needed rest.
Two hours later, he finally tracked the kid down in Engineering, helping to make repairs to the minor problems. Meeting Jim's eyes, Bones decided he would allow his friend to walk with him instead of simply dragging the younger man to his room where he could treat him and then promptly knock him out with a hypo if necessary. He would use a hypo if the kid tried to escape.
Leading the way back to his room, Bones used the walk to fill Jim in on the current health of his patients, starting with Pike. To those that they passed, it looked like CMO and
Acting Captain were discussing treatments that could be done with the supplies that they had. It was the image of a strong and calm Captain who would stay in control during a crisis.
Having heard more than one lecture from Jim about the importance of a Captain maintaining a collected image even under crisis, Bones did nothing to change that. It was something the crew needed, and he wasn't about to take that away by revealing just how fragile their Captain really was. As both Jim's friend and doctor, he would always know just how fragile the man really was, regardless of the image that he portrayed to the rest of the world. He would also always patch the kid up so he could maintain that image, but he would never let Jim forget that he was fragile no matter how invincible felt.
Written: 10-30-2011
Word Count: 329