Jim in Sickbay

by Starsinger

Suggested by 1nvisible, Jim gets sick, and when Jim gets sick, which doesn't happen very often, he REALLY gets sick. Don't own any of them.

Spock turned as he heard an explosive sneeze sound from the other side of Sickbay. The man was clearly suffering, and there wasn't really anything anybody could do about it, "How is he, Doctor?"

"How do dink I ab, Spock?" Jim asked, trying to sound sarcastic. He fell way short eliciting a laugh from the nurses.

"Well, Spock, he has the flu," McCoy said.

"I thought he was inoculated against it," Spock replied.

"So was everyone else on board, Spock. Unfortunately, what he was inoculated for and what he got are two different thing. They winced as another sneeze reverberated through the room. McCoy sighed, "I've put up and isolation field so that no one else is infected. I hate viruses, I don't care how advanced our medicine is, they're difficult to get rid of." They watched sympathetically as Kirk rolled over onto his side and tried to get some sleep. "I'm getting him his own room as soon as M'Benga comes out of surgery. He can't get well if he can't sleep, and he can't sleep with it as bright as it is in here."

"What about the rest of the crew?" Spock asked.

McCoy sighed, "Jim came in as soon as he started coughing and running a fever. Smartest thing I can remember him doing in a while." A loud sniffle could be heard. "Just post a warning, especially to the human members of the crew, if someone suffers so much as a sneeze, they need to come see me." Spock watched as M'Benga soon exited surgery with a crewmember who had suffered a bout of appendicitis, and they conferred. Afterwards, they convinced Jim to stand up and helped guide him to his own room. Spock soon left.

Spock found himself in the Officer's Mess talking to Christopher Pike. "How is he?"

"Very sick, McCoy is worried, and Jim sounds like he has a speech impediment, which is probably due to his stuffy nose." Spock rose an eyebrow as a short burst of laughter issued forth from the admiral, "This is not a laughing matter."

"He'll be better in about a week. That's usually how long it takes to get over the flu," Pike said with a cheerful smile. "That means you're in command, Spock. How does it feel?" Spock really didn't know how to answer that. "As Kirk's first officer, the chain-of-command did fall to him, but Pike was technically higher ranking. "No, Spock, I won't take command unless there's no one else to do it. It's time others took the Captain's chair for some shifts. M'Benga's command qualified." Spock raised an eyebrow, he was not aware of the Doctor's qualifications, "He took the Bridge Officer's Test a few years ago. I gave it to him, that's how I know. Put him on the roster and just let McCoy know."

McCoy blinked at the notice on his PADD, "Geoff," M'Benga's head popped out of Kirk's room, "you've been put on bridge duty, Beta Shift today." M'Benga nodded his head before looking at the clock. "I didn't know you're command rated."

M'Benga grinned, "I took the Bridge Officer's Test three years ago. Made my hair stand on end, but Pike passed me. It'll be good to take command again. If only for eight hours." McCoy blinked, he had never even heard of the Bridge Officer's Test.

"What is this test?" McCoy asked.

"It's a test given to those who weren't command track officers in the Academy. It gives real life scenarios, none of them no-win scenarios, I might add. They don't actually want to scare people away from taking the test." M'Benga grinned as he walked to his desk to write his notes up for the various patients currently in Sickbay.

McCoy walked into Jim's room, the lights were dim, but he could hear Jim sigh, "Whad is id, Bodes?" Kirk asked. McCoy winced, Jim really did sound awful.

"Geoff, how is it he's command rated?" McCoy asked irritably.

"He dook the sdeps to do id," Kirk responded. "He asked Pike, and Pike gabe him de desd."

"I'll be back to check on you later," McCoy responded. He left Jim to sleep as he pondered why one of his doctors could do this thing and he wouldn't

Well, this tale is being told in "Bridge Officer's Test", so I'm not going to go back over it. I'm breaking this up so people can put their feedback here (insert reviews here)! lol