Title: Five Plus One is Six
Author: klmeri
Fandom: Star Trek AOS
Pairing: pre-Kirk/Spock/McCoy
Summary: Six snapshots in time of the trio’s lives.
A/N: This was going to be a five-plus-one fic (my first!) with this synopsis: Five times it was evident Kirk, Spock, and McCoy cared about one another and one time it wasn’t. But then it became five random ideas klmeri wrote and one she tried to but failed. Oops.

1.

“I don’t have time for this.”

“Stop your whining, kid.”

Jim bats away the hypospray and slides off the side of a makeshift examination table. “I’m serious, Bones. The ship—”

“Can wait,” Leonard McCoy insists. He sighs. “It’s not going to help any of us if you keel over on the Bridge.”

Jim rubs the side of his neck, experiencing the phantom sensation of a needle prick. “Is it really vitamins you’re giving me?”

The doctor gives Kirk a strange look. “What else would it be?”

Jim shrugs and doesn’t answer. He collects his shirt and tugs it over his head. As soon as his head clears the fabric, he is saying, “I’m not the only one running on fumes by now. You look terrible.”

“Every personnel with some kind of medical training has three times a normal patient load,” Leonard responds gruffly. “We lost a lot of the staff.”

Jim lays a hand on his friend’s arm. “I know. And, Bones? You’re doing a great job so far.”

McCoy’s shoulders slump slightly. “This isn’t how I wanted a promotion, Jim.”

Jim drops his hand to his side. “Me either.” Their eyes meet, filled with the same emotions. They are both haunted, exhausted, and yet determined to forge onward.

Jim straightens. “I need to return to the Bridge.”

“Get some rest, kid.”

“I will when I can,” Kirk promises.

2.

“If I thought this was working, I’d keep my mouth shut,” Leonard says darkly.

“What is your point, Dr. McCoy?”

“You damn hobgoblin, I’m saying we’re not helping him!” Frustrated, McCoy pushes away the work report in front of him and props his elbow on the cleared space of the table in order to pinch the bridge of his nose. “Jim has to learn on his own.” He almost sounds pleading when he says, “Command won’t let him keep his rank if he doesn’t prove himself.”

Something flashes too quickly through Spock’s eyes for McCoy to pinpoint what it is. “Captain Kirk has proven himself,” the Vulcan replies, voice falling into icy tones.

“I know that,” Leonard counters with feeling. “Believe me, there’s no one I trust more.” Pausing, he continues on to admit, “After Nero, I don’t think I would have stayed in Starfleet if it wasn’t for Jim. Certainly I wouldn’t have agreed to get back on one of these ships.”

Silence stretches between him and the First Officer until Leonard caves. He holds out his hand tiredly. “Hand me another one of those. Might as well finish what I started.”

But Spock doesn’t, though he stares at one of the many padds scattered around them on the table.

“Spock?” the doctor calls gently, concerned by the lack of response.

Spock lifts the padd with careful fingers and places it away from them both. There is resignation in his eyes when he looks at McCoy. “I apologize, Doctor. You are correct in your concern. The Captain must learn this skill if he is to be considered suitable to fulfill his duties.” The momentary pause might be a hesitation on Spock’s part. “I only wish…”

Leonard nods in understanding. “I want to take some of the burdens off of him too, Spock, even if it means spending hours doing this damn paperwork on his behalf. I just worry, that’s all.”

“I suppose there is a lesson in this for us as well.”

Some of Leonard’s good humor returns. “Yeah. It’s called good parenting,” he quips dryly.

Spock’s expression takes on a tinge of dismay as he looks at all of the work they’ve done. “I do not need a child.”

“Especially not one like Jim Kirk,” Leonard adds, standing up and rolling his stiff shoulders. “C’mon, let’s take a walk, stretch our legs. Then we’ll find the Captain and give him the bad news.”

The Vulcan First Officer rises from his seat as well and in silent agreement follows McCoy from the room.

3.

A gasp. “No, don’t die!”

To the side of the spectacle, the CMO looks heavenward. Uhura appears unimpressed. Scotty and Chekov are pretending to communicate telepathically with the ceiling as they try not to laugh. Sulu is laughing. Spock is the only one who seems displeased.

That’s understandable since he’s the one Jim is weeping over.

“Don’t die, Spock!” Jim repeats, thumping a fist against his chest in a show of grief. A tear tracks along his cheek.

McCoy leans in to stage-whisper to Nyota, “He can cry on command.”

Jim looks up at that, eyes bright with many, many unshed tears. His voice is remarkably steady as he says, “You’re just jealous of my talent, Bones.”

A woman in an elaborate dress rises from her throne, calling out to the kneeling Kirk, “No, please, you must continue! I must know if this creature dies!”

On the ground beside Jim, a prone Spock opens his eyes and his irritation is like a palpable wave. “May I stand up now, Captain?”

“Shh, Spock,” Jim hushes the Vulcan quickly. “Talking ruins the effect.”

“But I am not dead, nor intend to expire soon.”

“We’re acting.”

“I do not see the point in—”

“Oh for god’s sake, you two!” Leonard butts in, striding over to Kirk and Spock and dropping to one knee. “Move aside.” He gives Jim an impatient shove. “Spock,” Leonard says, his voice suddenly husky, “I can’t do this alone.” He takes Spock’s hand in his.

Spock’s eyes widen a little.

“If you die—” McCoy bows his head as he chokes up. “You can’t die,” he says emotionally. “I never told you how much you meant to me.”

Chekov turns his face into Sulu’s shoulder, body shaking. Sulu clutches at his fellow officer and friend to muffle his own laughter.

“I never told you I love you!” Leonard drags the stiff Vulcan into his arms and hugs him.

Wild clapping ensues. McCoy lets go of Spock and stands up. Looking smug, he makes his bow to his audience.

“That was wonderful!” the Queen says happily. “Well done, truly! I am almost loathe to lose your little acting troupe! “

“But you did promise to let us go,” Jim reminds her as he too stands, his smile charming enough to be considered dangerous.

“Oh… oh, I suppose.” She looks disheartened. “Your device will work now.”

Spock flips open his communicator before Jim can even touch the one tucked in his belt. “Spock to Transporter Room,” the Vulcan says with a severe tone.

“Sir!” a relieved voice comes through. “We were worried—”

“Seven to beam aboard, Lieutenant. Quickly.”

Jim looks to Leonard, grinning. Leonard grins back.

4.

“Have you seen Dr. McCoy?”

“No,” Jim says, face turned away, “and you shouldn’t look for him.”

Spock steps forward, his shadow fading as he nears the edge of the observation deck and the clear paneling that depicts the stars beyond their ship. “Jim?” The unspoken question settles between them.

Unconsciously, Jim shifts to the side to make room for the Vulcan. His fingers close partially into a fist as he braces his arm against the seal of the window. “I don’t know if he would want me to tell you, Spock.” Then he glances at his friend and seems to think better of what he said. “The passengers headed to Starbase 12—one of them was sick.”

“Affirmative.”

Jim stays silent for a few seconds before saying, “Bones’ father had the same illness. It killed him.”

Spock tilts his head as he looks at Kirk. The starlight hides half of his face. “There is a treatment for the disease.”

“It’s Bones’ research that led to the discovery of the cure, but it wasn’t found in time to save his father.”

“I see,” the Vulcan says quietly. “I did not know this.” It’s his tone that tells Kirk Spock wishes that he had known.

Jim reaches out and lightly touches a place on Spock’s arm just below the shoulder. “Give him a little time… though I think you could help him. You can empathize.”

Spock looks away. “Yes. I was not able to save my own parent though the effort was made.”

Jim’s hand runs the length of Spock’s arm. “You know her death was not your fault, Spock.”

“I have always known it. I simply could not accept it for many years.” Spock steps back from the window and Jim. “As you aided me in finding my acceptance, Captain, I shall shall strive to do the same for McCoy. Thank you for telling me.”

Jim nods, the look in his eyes at once fierce and soft. He says nothing because there is nothing else he needs to say. Jim knows Spock does this because his affection for McCoy runs as deep as his. That is what will ensure Spock succeeds.

5.

“If I didn’t know better, I would think you care more for Spock than you do for me,” Jim’s longtime friend says.

Jim is busy, too busy in fact to pay attention to what he is saying. “Of course I do, Bones.” His brain registers that statement a second too late, whereupon he drops the heavy tool in his hand on his foot. “I—owww, shit—Bones, no—fuck, that hurts!—I didn’t mean—”

But Leonard’s stern face melts into amusement as Jim looks at him with pleading, watering eyes.

“See, kid? Even the gods of the universe aren’t on your side.” Chuckling, Leonard retrieves the tool and turns it over in his hands. “Clearly this is punishment for thinking such a thing! Spock over me… Pfft.”

Jim snatches the tool back. “Don’t make fun of my pain, Bones. And why can’t I like Spock better?”

Leonard’s eyebrows shoot up. “Excuse me?”

“I said why can’t I like him better?” Jim asks stubbornly.

“Well, for starters… it’s illogical.”

Jim tosses the tool aside with three or four other discarded engineering tools and devices, no doubt angry at it for attacking him in a moment of weakness. “Spock is a quick thinker.”

Leonard narrows his eyes.

Jim goes on to say, “So he’s much better at anticipating when tools will drop on his Captain’s feet.”

“How about on the Captain’s head? Like an anvil? Because I’m imagining this big ol’ ACME anvil falling out of the sky and—”

“Watch it,” Jim warns. “To continue is treason!”

“Only if you’re a king, Jim, which you damn well ain’t!”

“Oooh… are we gonna fighting?”

“We might, unless you take back what you said. Them’s fightin’ words.”

Jim laughs. “Over Spock? Bones, we can just share.”

Leonard’s expression turns strange. After a short silence, the man clears his throat and claims, “Uh, I’ve got somewhere to be.” He doesn’t give Jim a chance to ask where that somewhere is before he is hurrying out of Kirk’s quarters.

Jim scratches his head absently at the strange reaction of his Chief Medical Officer and returns to sorting through his pile of pilfered tools. In another hour, he figures, his lighting system will be able to produce psychedelic colors and shapes and rotate them around his room at a simple given command. His genius knows no bounds!

+1.

They broke up.

They tried to make it work but it didn’t and so they broke up. That is what some people will think.

The truth is the relationship worked too well. It worked so well, and so quietly, that the three men were not really aware they were involved with one another. They simply seemed to fit into each other’s lives like puzzle pieces. It was natural. Unquestioned.

Things that are not questioned or noted with significant feeling can be easy to break. This is what really happened to Kirk, Spock, and McCoy.

For a full decade—two five-year missions—they had been together; then that time came to its end. Jim was given an admiralty. Spock, not desiring to captain a starship, settled into a Vulcan colony to begin the work he had left behind in order to join the crew of the Enterprise. Leonard left space without a second’s thought and retired to a homestead in Georgia to pursue independent research. Maybe these were happy events in their own right.

The aftermath is not happy. In the dark dawn of a November morning, Leonard McCoy’s personal computer receives a message.

Bones, it reads. I need you.

Leonard is not awake to see the message. When he does wake up, it will be to blurry vision and blood-stained sheets from where he had bled overnight. He will clean himself up and bypass the computer altogether on his way to the Atlanta hospital. The news is dire: xenopolycythemia, incurable. It won’t matter then what Jim wants from him. He won’t have the heart to give it.

Later that year, Jim Kirk is told his former First Officer married a Vulcan named T’Pring. Sarek apologizes on his son’s behalf. Spock had not wished to hold a public ceremony; none of his friends were invited to the private one. When, three months later, Jim and Spock receive the news of Leonard McCoy’s death they won’t say anything to one another at the service. Grief and regret and time keeps their mouths shut.

From there, the point is moot. Without one, a trio there cannot be; and two are never so strong and balanced when they are meant to be three.

-Fini

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