Jim had been vomiting for hours, and was fast reaching his tolerance limit. He was maxed out on anti-nausea meds and was now practically pleading for Bones to sedate him – which Bones couldn't do due to the very real risk that Jim might aspirate. Bones was about to call it and get Jim to Medbay but Jim fell asleep and McCoy was reluctant to wake him, so he waited.

Bones was running on fumes himself while monitoring Jim closely, so as soon as Jim wakes up, he planned to be admitting him for IV fluids and the med staff could continue monitoring him while McCoy got some rest. Bones went to check Jim's vitals for about the 100th time but as he approached, he could see Jim shivering under his blanket. Jims temperature was climbing, he was burning a fever of 40.6*C (105*F). Bones pulled the blanket off Jim and ran to the bathroom to turn on the shower, stopping to load another fever suppressant into the hypo on his way back to Jim who was now shivering violently and curled tightly on himself but still completely out of it. Jim didn't even flinch as Bones pressed the hypo into him.
"Jim!?" Bones shook his foot – no response,
"Jim your burning up, I gotta cool you down. I doubt you can understand me right now but please just don't fight me" Bones was strong. He was often underestimated because he didn't flaunt his genius or strength like some other people did, but he used it to his advantage whenever he needed too, and now was one of those times as he picked up Jim like a child and carried him into the bathroom, carefully lowering him into the shower.
Jim started coming too as Bones was getting him stripped. Bones halted his movements, unsure how Kirk was going to respond – hoping like hell that he would be compliant and not combative.
"Jim? Ya with me darlin'?" Bones was careful with his tone, as he watched Jim scan the room before looking at him
"I wanna see my dad" he mumbled quickly as he looked at Bones.
Bones blood ran cold and he must've hesitated too long as Jim asked again "Where's my dad?" Jim was mumbling quickly so it took Bones a second to register that he had actually heard him correctly, then fear settled in his stomach as he was not at all prepared to ever hear Jim ask that question.
"James, its me, its Bones, your dads not here…" He deliberately used the name 'James' knowing that Pike was the only person he knew that called him that, and he called himself 'Bones' in hope that one of those two things would help Jim focus. He searched Kirks eyes for any sign of recognition and understanding but only found confusion.
"He's dead, Jim. He died when you were born…" the look of confusion was joined by disbelief as Kirk processed … "but Spock, he said I knew…I knew my father…" then reality hit him like a torpedo and Jim tried to turn away as he was overwhelmed by tears, but McCoy held onto him and let him cry as he sat under the stream of cool water.
Jim would never know that McCoy cried too. It didn't take long for Kirk to regain his composure, but the emotion and exhaustion were too much for him and he passed out. McCoy still had a solid hold of Kirk, so he felt the moment Kirk lost consciousness
"McCoy to Medbay"
"Medbay receiving"
"Medical emergency – captains quarters"

McCoy got Kirk onto a biobed and pushed IV fluids hoping they would cool Kirk down as they circulated through his system. There was real concern that he could have a seizure or overheat his brain if they couldn't get his fever under control. Kirks blood sugar level and electrolytes were also out of balance which could have caused the mental confusion – but McCoy was still going to be speaking to 'other Spock' about the lasting effects his unsolicited mind-meld has had.

Once Kirk was stabilized, McCoy took a moment to change his wet clothes for a dry set of scrubs and grab some food. His comm alerted him to an unread message, it was from Dr Foster

Attn: Dr McCoy,
How is your patient?
Our lab found the mutation to be Sebatian Influenza which as you know most humans are vaccinated for in their early teens so thankfully the majority of our patients were easily managed.
We had 94 patients present with mild gastrointestinal symptoms and low grade fevers. 2 adult and 7 pediatric patients presented with severe symptoms accompanied by high-grade fever. The two adults had underlying conditions that exasperated their illness. All are recovering well and we have initiated booster vaccinations for all humans on the base, and all arriving visitors. I recommend you provide a booster vacc to all crew members as precaution.

Regards,
Dr A. Foster

McCoy bought up Kirk's file and went over his vaccination history. Great. A virus they stopped routinely vaccinating against half a century ago because it was 'eradicated' had managed to mutate with a virus that Kirk hadn't been immunized against as a teenager because some edge-of-the-frontier 'doctor' had either neglected to do it, or just hadn't for whatever reason and McCoy had never picked up on it.

Kirk was in rough shape, but now McCoy knew what he was dealing with he was confident that Kirk would come through fine. In the meantime, McCoy stayed by his side and paid close attention to all the readouts so he could act quickly on anything that popped up. Much to Bones relief there wasn't much he needed to do, Kirk was still unconscious and fighting the virus, but his fever levelled out at 39.4*C (103*F) and the IV fluids corrected the previous imbalances.

After 8 hours of vomiting, and 23hrs of high-grade fever Kirk's body finally won over and his fever broke. McCoy felt himself relax as he monitored the readouts and double checked everything for himself – needing to physically confirm that Jim was through the worst. A few hours later Jim's temp was back down to 38*C (101*F) and he was starting to stir.

Jims hand twitched as McCoy held his wrist to feel his pulse. Jim was still lost between being asleep and awake but he twisted his wrist to grab hold of McCoy's hand, for a split-second McCoy thought Jim might accidently hurt him but instinct told him that Jim sub-consciously needed the support of physical connection as he came around. So Bones sat their holding Jims hand as he made his way back to consciousness.

Final chapter will be posted soon, I'm just fixing it up a bit :)

For those following me - I am still working on the follow-up to "Call Me", and on the next part of "Miracle", and I have a few others on the go too that just won't leave me alone, so you will no doubt hear from me again shortly. I just had to write this one because I felt like crap and it made me feel better.

Feel free to leave a review :)