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It´s been a damn long day, patients over patients coming in and Bones was very exhausted. He just had wrapped up another unscheduled operation – the third one today – and was more stumbling then walking out of his office way past the official end of his shift, looking around to see if there was still another patient which might need his help, when Christine, his head nurse and leader of beta shift, appeared in front of him, grabbing his arm and looking at him with equal amounts of sternness and worry.
“Len,” she said, “you can hardly keep yourself upright, not to speak of the fact that I know for sure that you haven´t eaten in the last few hours. For the sake of us all, end your shift and go! We have everything under control now and we need you well rested tomorrow!”
Bones tried to peek around her, to see if really everything was as under control as she said, but she mirrored his movements, restricting his view, and kept looking at him sternly until he relented with a sigh. To be honest, he WAS very much in need for some well-deserved rest and his belly had stopped grumbling, sure that he wouldn´t get anything anytime soon, hours ago.
“A´right, A´right, I´ll go. But promise you´ll call me if I´m needed!” he grumbled tiredly, his accent showing through.
“We will call you if we have no other choice, but for now, we can manage well enough alone! Now go! Even you need a break now and then!” she stressed, walking around him and giving him a gently little push towards the exit.
Bones, knowing when it was wiser to listen to her, relented and stumbled out of his medbay, turning left in the direction of his quarters, which were close by for practical reasons. And, to be completely honest, he wouldn´t have hold out working much longer anyway.
Just as he arrived in front of his quarters and was opening them per hand scan, finally allowing himself to relax a little, his communicator went off: “Kirk to McCoy,”
Perfect timing, he thought sarcastically, sighed and spoke into the little instrument:
“McCoy here, what´s the matter, Jim? Can it wait?”
“I´m afraid not, Bones. A... situation has come up and we have to find a solution quickly. I need your input, join us in meeting room 1 at once. I mean it Bones, hurry up!” the captain ordered seriously, ending the communication before he could do so much as protest.
Grumbling at his luck, Bones locked his quarters again before even having entered and shuffled toward the lifts in his average speed (doctors always walked quickly), because he was too damn tired to break into a jog.
“B-Deck,” he slurred exhaustedly, once he was inside the little chamber and the lift doors had closed behind him. The lift went up and he slumped against the wall, closing his eyes for the duration of the ride. It was over just a few seconds later, though, and Bones forced his tired eyes open again and dragged his poor, exhausted body up and into motion. He really felt every extra minute staying awake draining his already low reserves.
It was always easier when he had something important, practical to do, like helping patients. When he could simply focus on what was needed from him, he didn´t feel his own exhaustion so much, but now, it really caught up with him and he hoped that the meeting wouldn´t last long or otherwise, he feared he would fall asleep, painting a bad picture of himself.
Also, Jim hated it when people fell asleep on his meetings and gathering from how he had sounded earlier, the situation was critical and warranted everyone´s full concentration.
Arriving in the meeting room, Scotty, Spock, Chekov, Uhura and Jim himself were already assembled, impatiently waiting for him.
“Finally, took you long enough,” Jim huffed out when Bones took his seat, just rolling his eyes in response, and the meeting began.
“A Klingon ship has approached us, claiming they come in peace and need urgent help repairing their main engine or they would be unable to leave this sector, but I´m afraid it might be a trap. I want to put together an away team and you are my first choice, but, of course, I won´t force anyone to walk into a possible dead trap, so if you have any objections, please call them at once. Otherwise, I want to hear your input on how to minimize our risk,” he said, his voice sounding more serious then usual, showing how much he didn´t liked the current situation.
Bones inwardly groaned, an away mission really was the last thing he needed, especially on a Klingon ship! With how tired he was, he would hinder the mission more then he would help it, but Jim still wouldn´t be happy to hear him reject, even saying it was voluntary. No one ever had rejected being in an away team if asked by him, not even himself. Oh, he had grumbled frequently, voicing his doubts and concerns, but never had he outright refused to go. That would be fun...
When Jim looked around expectantly, people nodding all around him, Bones took a deep breath and, knowing there was no way around it, said: “I won´t go, Jim, you´ll have to choose someone else from medical.”
Promptly, everyone looked at him in various degrees of surprise and disbelieve. Jim looked especially wounded, of course.
“Bones!” he said in an almost hurt sounding voice, “I really could use you. Please?!”
Damn, the kid really could be something. And even Spock was now looking at him in a manner that was, for a Vulcan at least, screaming of disapproval.
“I´m too tired Jim, I would only endanger the mission,” he tried to argue, but Jim cut him off, frowning at him and switching to his official name, indicating his anger.
“Too tired, McCoy? You do know that you´re not the only one having to do long shifts if it´s needed, right? All of us do, frequently. Really, this is really important, can´t your sleep wait for a bit?”
Bones rolled his eyes (his favourite move right now cause it didn´t need much energy), which only served to anger Jim more. Normally, the captain had his emotions more under check, but clearly, his own tiredness in combination with the high at stake situation was getting at him and Bones tried to keep that in mind as he answered, but he also didn´t wanted this to go on any longer than necessary.
“Dammit Jim, my sleep has already waited long enough! You don´t want anyone fainting from fatigue during your mission, do you?”
“...Fine. I´ll ask M’Benga then. Uhura, call him, explain the situation and ask him to join us in the transporter room in 20 minutes if he agrees to be on the team,” he ordered his communication officer, stretching the “he”, before turning towards Bones again, his voice turning slightly sour, while Nyota silently slipped outside the room to be able to call M’Benga without too much noise in the background.
“You might not join the team, but you´ll stay here during the rest of the briefing, in case anything happens and we need a reserve doctor,” he decided, his blue eyes narrowed at Bones.
Now that was just mean and unfair, Bones thought, but for the sake of peace and quietness, just nodded anyway, too tired to stand up and argue. At least he could sit and lean back that way.
Jim looked at him somewhat surprised, obviously having expected to hear some more grumbling but after a moment and a little glimmer of insecurity flashing up in his eyes, continued his meeting as if nothing happened and Bones breathed out, glad that he was out of the mission, even if Jim was disappointed and angry with him.
They discussed the best strategy (well, mostly Jim and Spock, with some input from Chekov) and Bones slowly slumped further down in his seat, his arms resting on the table in front of him, supporting his head now and then until Jim looked at him disapprovingly – then he would make a half-hearted attempt to sit more at attention and comment a word or two, just to make Jim happy enough so he (hopefully) wouldn´t make another scene, or, God forbid, held him back afterwards and ask him what was wrong with him, stealing even more precious minutes of his remaining sleep.
“...and maybe we could use se time to sneak into seir computer zystem and learn some Klingon tricks if we have to hide?” Chekov responded excitedly to something Uhura had just said (who must´ve come back into the office without Bones even noticing, huh).
“That sounds wise,” he agreed, his voice slightly slurred from tiredness, vowels dragged longer then usually, just to show that he was still awake (not very much so, but, well, he WAS there against his will...).
“That would not only mean performing a blatant crime of stealing knowledge, but also the Klingons would be sure to react extremely violently as soon as they discovered it,” Spock was obviously not amused, looking at them sternly.
Bones exchanged a look with Chekov, who looked disappointed, before resting his head on his arms again, ignoring the rest of Spock’s argumentation and whatever whoever suggested to do instead in the cause of whatever.
At some point, the constant hum of voices quieted down after some announcement of sorts which Jim made, making Bones open his eyes and blink against the unkind harsh lighting of the room. Then, chairs started scraped against the ground, undoubtedly indicating the end of the meeting.
Finally, Bones thought with relieve and shot out of his chair, wanting nothing more than to climb into bed and sleep for like, a hundred years.
Sadly, he had underestimated the sudden drop in blood pressure as a result of changing body position too quickly after sitting for some while, which was all the worse, since his body was already weak from hunger and exhaustion and literally couldn´t deal with any more amount of stress.
He saw stars for a split second, before his vision turned black altogether, and with a sick feeling, causing him to suck in a strangled sounding breath, all strength was leaving his exhausted body, which helplessly crashed to the ground.
Maybe he hit his head on the ground, too, but he was out even before he hit the floor, so he wouldn´t know.
Next thing he did know, two persons were holding him and he felt a sense of air passing by. The position he felt himself in was feeling like a two-person extremity carry, which was in medical circles often used when two rescuers were moving an unconscious person and had no stretcher or chair at hand (or one was a strong Vulcan and they wanted to save the trouble of having to relocate the chair later again or simply did not think about the possibility of using a chair as helpful equipment).
Guessing where he was moved to, he blinked open his eyes to check who was carrying him: He was looking at the back of Jim, who was supporting his legs with his hands under his knees, leading them along a corridor. Behind him, he felt his upper torso and head leaning on someone who felt uncomfortably warm, hot, almost: undoubtedly Spock, judging by the high body temperature. Not surprisingly, since the rescuer at the back had to carry the brunt of the weight. Also, Spock was holding Bones´ arms crossed in front of his body, to have a good grip on him, meaning that he had very limited mobility left.
Dammit, he had long since wanted to make a point in showing Jim that he shouldn´t quite take Bones readiness to help people and go where ever Jim wanted him to go for granted, but not like that. And he hated being treated like an invalid, especially when the only thing that was wrong with him was that he was a little tired.
He carefully looked around and saw that the corridor they were in was in close proximity and leading towards medbay.
“Are you alright, doctor?” Spock, who must´ve noticed that he was awake now, asked, alerting Jim, who slowed down and looked behind, just in time to see Bones making an even grumpier than usual face.
“I would be, if you had brought me to my quarters where I could be sleeping right now peacefully in my bed and not to sickbay, dammit, I just left there! They don´t wanna see me and it´s not necessary – I´m just tired, like I said mentioned before,” he added pointedly. Spock and Jim changed a look over his head and went on.
“Now, let me down, will ya?” he added when they didn´t made any attempt to change course and began to wiggle around, hating to be carried around when he wasn´t even unconscious anymore.
Sadly, Jim and Spock only strengthened their grip and continued their journey, the medbay now looming directly ahead and coming steadily closer.
“We´re nearly there anyway Bones, you wouldn´t want our efforts to be wasted,” Jim sing-sang, deliberately good-humouredly.
Bones huffed in frustration and struggled further against their hold. Spock´s was relentless, of course, but Jim at least had some difficulties maintaining his grip. Sadly, that wasn´t quite enough to break him free and Jim responded by fastening his pace and strengthening his hold even more, making it borderline painful. Apparently, they really didn´t wanted to let him go.
“Dammit, don´t you have an away team to lead? You don´t wanna keep them waiting, the situation is critical after all,” he tried arguing, quoting Jim´s earlier words.
“It is not time-critical, merely critical in how we respond, doctor,” Spock was the one to answer, and damn his logic.
“What Spock just said, plus, we´re already here now anyway,” Jim said, rushing through the medbay entrance and startling the nurses with their strange trio. Talk about humiliation... His nurses surely wouldn´t forget that sight anytime soon, he thought with a frustrated groan.
They didn´t let him down back on his feet then. No, they had the nerve to dump him directly onto a biobed, well, slowly lowering him down on it of course, but dumping him there all the same.
He glared moodily up at them, lifting his upper body up on his arms with what little strength he had left to make more impression, but then Christine appeared at his side out of nowhere and pushed him down again, gentle but firmly.
“I thought I said in no uncertain terms that you should rest,” she complained, looking critically down at him and producing a medical scanner out of her pocket. “I´m sure of it, in fact, so what the hell did you think, going to meetings and collapsing,” she added, before starting to scan him.
Huffing against the unfairness of it all, he glared back at her and was about to gather an appropriately angry response, when Jim interfered, looking guilty when he answered.
“I´m afraid that´s my fault,” he said abashedly, “I told him to come to that meeting, although he said he needed to sleep. And when he refused to join my away-team, saying he was too tired for it, I wasn´t too friendly and ordered him to stay until the rest of the meeting. I was stupid, I should´ve realised he really meant it...” he ended, sounding unusually small.
Then he directly looked at him, looking contrite. “I´m sorry, Bones, I really am!”
Bones sighted, “it´s alright, you were thinking about what´s best for the mission, that´s all,” he mumbled tiredly, while Christine continued scanning, frowning at the results.
“I´m sorry too, doctor, I noticed that you were 12% paler then normally and showed signs of fatigue, but still did do nothing during the meeting, thinking that it would be enough to ask for your well-being afterwards and make sure that you looked better tomorrow,” Spock said, sounding almost bitter.
“It´s ok Spock, you didn´t knew it was that bad. And anyway, I wouldn´t have collapsed if I hadn´t made the mistake of standing up so damn quickly...” he added, angry at himself for being so stupid.
He just wanted them to stop apologizing already, so that he could finally get out of here, crawl into his bed and sleep. It was feeling like an achievement to just keep open his eyes right now, but he guessed laying horizontal did all the trick.
“I´m not so sure about that, Len,” Christine said sternly, drawing their attention.
“What do you mean?” Jim asked in alarm, while Bones frowned and Spock lifted an eyebrow a little.
“I mean that your readings indicate a severe exhaustion of your body, your vitamin levels are shit, you have a concussion from the fall and don´t get me started on your shockingly low blood sugar level,” she shook her head sadly at her boss. “Really Len, when have you last eaten? The day before yesterday?” she joked half amused, half worried.
Bones looked at her a little sheepishly, okay, it had been a while since he had eaten, somehow, he had been so caught up in his work the whole day that he didn´t even think about eating... Still, he thought that she was over dramatizing things a little.
“Fine, I´ll do better and I´ll sleep at least 8 hours nonstop and have a hearty breakfast tomorrow, can I go now?” he pleaded, sighing. He had to at least look like he was chastised, or she wouldn´t let him outa here anytime soon, she was like that!
She seemed to think about that very hard, while Jim placed his hand over his wrist protectively, as to keep him from jumping right off the bed (or roll, more like). It sent a little sparkle of something pleasant rushing down his arm and he set his face to a light scowl to not show cast his feelings too much. He wasn´t in any way prepared to open THAT box right now...
“Not until you´ve AT LEAST gotten an IV with fluids, nutrition and vitamins to bring your levels up to normal, which will take a while, but you will sleep during that time,” she decided, making Bones huff.
“And I´ll give you a hypo against the dizziness, but as you very well know, that doesn´t nullify your concussion, just lessen the symptoms. I can´t, in good conscience, let you go for the night without someone checking in on you every three hours. Head injuries are the most critical, after all...” she added, more for the sake of Jim and Spock then for him.
Bones nearly said “alright, then I´ll just sleep over at Jim´s, matter settled,” but bit his lip instead, suddenly feeling shy to basically invite himself into his long-time best friend´s and ex-roommate´s quarters for the night, who surely would be occupied with the mission in the next hours.
Also, what if Jim didn´t wanted him around, preferring to play a game of chess with Spock later or going to train at the gym after how that darn meeting went earlier and then go straight to sleep without the additional burden of having to look over someone, or what if he would just say yes out of bad conscience, making Bones feel guilty for practically forcing himself on him? It was ridiculous, but he wanted to hear Jim invite him out of his own incentive.
Luckily, the stars shone brightly upon him in this moment:
“Bones can sleep in my quarters tonight, no prop! I can pick him up right after the mess with the Klingons is settled and check on him every three hours,” Jim offered graciously and without hesitation.
Bones felt relieved against his will and even smiled at Jim a little (not too much of course, people might talk). “Thanks, Jim, that´s much appreciated,” he mumbled, upon with the captain beamed back at him happily.
With that matter being settled, Chapel waved towards one of the nurses, who hurried at her side with an eager: “yes, Nurse Chapel?”
“Prepare a nutrition IV type B for Dr. McCoy,” she ordered and the nurse hurried away to gather what equipment and IV bags were needed, before Bones could protest.
“And you,” she told Bones sternly, “Do us all a favour and sleep already! It´s of no help for anyone if you force yourself to stay awake for any longer. Given your readings I´m astonished that you managed it even for this long...” she shook her head again. “Oh, and I think it goes without saying that you won´t take alpha shift tomorrow,” she added, Jim nodding along with it. Bones only sighed.
“You better leave now, or he won´t sleep,” she finally turned towards Jim and Spock, who still watched their CMO worryingly and looking sheepishly guilty to varying degrees, the Captain much more noticeably so than the Vulcan.
“Alright Bones, sweet dreams, I´ll fetch you later,” Jim said, smiling at him, while Spock nodded at him with a brisk “rest well, doctor”. Bones just grumbled, too tired to think about what to say (and what in hell to answer to “sweet dreams”), and then the captain and Spock left him alone for the time being.
Hopefully, that Klingon mess wouldn´t end in a disaster, or he would not only have to see them injured and feel use- and helpless, knowing he wasn´t allowed to treat them, being a freaking patient himself, but also Jim wouldn´t be able to take him to his quarters if he was stuck in sickbay...
To be honest, it was worrying him a little, just how emotionally dependent on Jim he had become... But that was a thought for another day. He couldn´t keep awake any longer and drifted off into sleep, echoes of Jim arriving in sickbay, blood on his clothes and pooling out of open wounds dragging him into a nightmare which would only end when the actual Jim came back, healthy and very much alive, and would wake him up.