Title: Confessions of a Southern Gentleman (2/4)
Author: klmeri
Fandom: Star Trek AOS
Pairing: Kirk/Spock/McCoy
Summary: Leonard is determined to help his friend out in the matters of love, only he does not realize he might be part of that matter in some way.
Previous Part: 1

Spock had surprised Leonard more than once by the end of their short conversation and given him plenty to think about. The problem is Leonard doesn’t know which part to consider first. He settles for turning his attention to Jim in order to figure out how much of what the Vulcan claimed could be true.

Only Jim is more of a conundrum than ever, doing or saying nothing which is out of the ordinary to Leonard. He even seems to have forgotten about inquiring after Leonard’s interest in Spock. It’s as though the conversation and its awkward aftermath never happened. And worse yet, Jim is remarkably reserved whenever Leonard sees him in the company of Spock.

Leonard is left wondering who is the fool: him, for apparently being blind to things under his nose; Spock, for imagining what’s not there; or Jim, for pretending he never liked anyone at all.

Leonard’s introspection turns inward, then, and he finds himself being more honest with himself than he has been in the past.

There is a fear, he admits, and a hope that Jim could feel a semblance of what he does with regard to their relationship, despite that Leonard cannot imagine his best friend longing for him—not in the way it’s clear Jim needs Spock.

It’s something stronger than a chance meeting and a shared responsibility binding those two together. Leonard isn’t one to speak of destiny or fate, but there doesn’t seem like another description for what he has seen happen. Jim and Spock had a rough time in the beginning, as if they were two puzzle pieces which should have fit but had been broken in ways that made their encounters more jarring than harmonious. One pushed and one pulled—but that’s changed somehow. Time has helped Jim and Spock figure out what they have in common, and it has proven to everyone else that they are complementary enough to be a highly effective and enviable team. Where there is one name, there is always the other in conjunction.

Perhaps he should feel jealous of such a destined partnership but Leonard knows he and Jim have never had or would have the same kind of dynamic.

In a way, as Jim continues to grow into his potential, the man needs him less. It makes sense to Leonard because he has always considered his presence as somewhat of a crutch for Jim. That Jim is finally finding stability within himself (and from his friendship with Spock) is not something Leonard can fault him for. In fact, at times he is very proud.

So what is it that Spock was talking about?

Leonard muses over it and decides if Jim is really interested in him beyond platonic friendship, this may be a way for them to connect again. The only downside is that it might ruin what they already have.

Leonard knows he fears that loss most of all.

Some days, Leonard doesn’t have time to think, let alone contemplate the nuances of a potential love triangle between three senior officers. This is one of those days.

“JIMMM! I HATE THIS!”

“Shout that a little louder, Bones! I don’t think the guys trying to kill us heard you!” Jim fires back, clearly not seeing the need for this kind of conversation while fleeing for his life.

Leonard, who is also in the process of fleeing for his life alongside his idiot Captain and said Captain’s idiot Vulcan, speeds up with the intention of getting close enough to strangle Jim from behind. They’re going to die anyway so he would rather have the satisfaction of killing Kirk himself.

Because Leonard’s life is one big disaster made up of tiny little disasters, there is a root under a pile of leaves he cannot see and it’s his fate to trip over it. He does so with a squawk to rival the birds in the trees and pitches face first towards the dirt. His nose is an inch from impact when he’s unceremoniously yanked up and away by the back of his blue tunic.

“Oh, hey, thanks—”

“Doctor,” Spock interrupts, short and terse, “do not thank me. Run.”

The pointed shove, Leonard thinks, is entirely unnecessary. Up ahead, Jim has already slowed down, sensing they aren’t directly on his heels. Much to Leonard’s aggravation, the captain snaps out, “Spock! Carry him if you have to!”

Leonard bares his teeth in a snarl, both to indicate what he thinks of this idea and what will happen if Spock tries to pick him up.

Wisely, the Vulcan only tugs the doctor back into a sprint—which in a matter of seconds returns to a flat-footed run as a volley of arrows bury themselves into the tree trunks on their left and right.

“I hate this,” Leonard goes back to emphasizing between wheezing breaths. “I’m a doctor, not a marathon runner!”

Spock’s hand never leaves Leonard’s arm.

The cave is dark, dank, and small—basically a glorified hole in Leonard’s opinion. When Spock steers him towards the far wall and finally lets go of him, Leonard collapses into a heap, exhausted and sweaty and feeling very, very irritable.

“I don’t think they followed us beyond the ridge,” he hears Jim saying. “We should be okay here until sunrise.”

“Wait, what?” Leonard voices his disbelief. “You want us to stay here for the night?“

Jim gives him a tired look. “Our shuttle sank in a swamp, and the ship’s out of range for the next two solar days. We don’t have much choice, Bones.”

“Yeah, well, whose fault is it that the shuttle landed in the swamp?”

Jim’s right hand flexes. “Crash-landing on solid ground could have killed us.”

“But now we don’t have a ship, Jim! Spock said these people were primitive enough that they’d consider outsiders as hostiles, but you had to come down anyway!”

“Gentlemen,” Spock tries to intervene.

They ignore him.

“I made a decision in keeping with our mission, McCoy: to seek, to explore.”

“Our mission,” Leonard nearly yells, “is not to get killed in the backend of space if we can help it! You don’t jump into a fire just because you’ve never tried it, kid!”

“Don’t call me kid.”

“Then don’t act like one!”

Jim closes his mouth, eyes burning, and puts his back to Spock and McCoy. His silence covers an obvious effort to control an angry reaction.

Leonard inhales sharply and holds the breath, forcing himself to count down from ten. He hadn’t meant to slap back at Jim in that way, which he will admit is over the line when they’re in this kind of situation. He doesn’t need to glance in Spock’s direction to know the Vulcan disapproves of how he’s letting his emotion control his mouth.

He adjusts the strap of his medkit and scoots back against the wall, catching Spock’s attention and motioning for him to sit down. “Let me take a look at that arm.”

Spock looks back to Jim, who moves out of the cave’s mouth cautiously to observe their surroundings.

“Spock,” Leonard says.

Spock comes, then, folding neatly into a cross-legged position. Leonard opens the medkit and removes his tricorder, which has miraculously survived the turbulence of their adventure thus far. It tells him the slice through the epidermis isn’t deep, has in fact begun to clot, and there are no unidentified micro-organisms on the skin which would resist a standard antibacterial cleaning.

“Next time, don’t just jump in front of an arrow to save someone, Spock. Get yourself out of the way too. Where would we be if it had done more than graze you?”

“You would be capable enough to handle the situation.”

“Would I?” Leonard asks sharply, looking up from the gauze he is pressing against the wound to encourage the clotting. “These aren’t ideal conditions. A surgery in the field could as easily kill you as it could save you.”

“I believe you are trained for both.”

“Yes,” he agreed, “but if there’s a choice, I want the comfort of knowing I have more than my own two hands and blind luck to keep you alive.”

“That is understandable,” Spock replies, lowering his voice ever-so-slightly. “I imagine the Captain would feel as you do if placed in a similar position.”

Leonard stares, the message of the Vulcan starkly clear.

Well, damn, he thinks, and aloud asks Spock to hold the gauze in place. Spock obliges him.

While winding an old-fashioned bandage around the Vulcan’s arm, Leonard acknowledges, “I know he would, Spock—and I know that he did the best he could with what he was given.” He sighs through his nose. “I shouldn’t have lost my temper like that. Think he’ll forgive me?”

“I know he would,” a voice that isn’t Spock’s replies.

Leonard looks past Spock’s shoulder to Jim, who is lingering at the threshold of the cave. Their eyes meet, and silent apologies are made.

Leonard secures the bandage and pats Spock on the back of his hand. To Jim, he says, “Maybe you shoulda hired him on as a psychologist instead of a scientist.”

“Imagine that, Bones,” Jim says, moving farther into the small cave. “Spock addressing all our human woes.”

Leonard grins. “He’d be trying to scrape his brain clean within a week.”

“Yeah, with a plastic spoon.”

Leonard laughs, very tickled by the image in his head. He remembers his hand is still on Spock’s only when the Vulcan jerks it back, for a moment looking greatly disturbed.

Eyes twinkling, Leonard asks him, “Why, Mr. Spock, see something frightenin’?”

Spock’s face clears. He quips, “Only your mind, Doctor.”

“Touché!” Jim declares, his cheerfulness having returned full force.

Leonard rolls his eyes. “Y’all realize we’re in serious trouble, right?”

“When are we not, Bones?”

Leonard looks to Spock for another dry quip and, unexpectedly, has a moment of clarity: Spock’s penchant for saying nothing is in fact whole-hearted agreement.

Lord preserve me, he concludes of the whole situation, Vulcans are starting to make sense!

Jim doesn’t want them out in the open until closer to dusk when their pursuers are more likely to have given up their search. With nothing to do after patching Spock’s arm and scrubbing at the dirt on Jim’s face, Leonard leans his head back against the cave wall and closes his eyes. He has no intention of falling asleep. However knowing that his body, dropping low at the end of its adrenaline rush, might disagree, he warns Spock not to let him doze more than a few minutes at a time.

Spock says, “Of course, Dr. McCoy,” never once ceasing to fiddle with the communicator in his hands.

More than two hours later when Leonard blinks bleary eyes at the sight of the sun barely hovering above the horizon, his first thought is to rid the galaxy of a lying Vulcan. His second thought is that his head is very comfortable against Spock’s shoulder.

His eyes fly open, and he snaps up into a sitting position.

Catty-corner to them is Jim with his back to another wall, one knee drawn in towards his chest. At Leonard’s knee-jerk reaction, Jim transfers his gaze from the pale pink sky to Leonard’s startled face. For a long moment Jim’s expression stays empty; then his trademark smirk touches half of his mouth, faint at first, but growing. “Hello, Sleeping Beauty. Looks like you didn’t need a kiss after all.”

Leonard clambers to his feet (and far away from Spock, yes, very far away) with the accusation, “You should’ve woken me! There’s hardly any daylight left!”

“Calm down, Bones.” Jim tilts his head in a very Vulcan-like manner. “Are you that anxious to get out of this cave?”

“Knowing I’m going be stuck in here with you two goobers all night, what do you think?” Leonard goes to the entrance, Jim climbing to his feet to follow him.

When Spock starts to rise as well, they both turn as one and order, “Stay!”

Spock sits down instantly. A second later he looks like he cannot believe that he so easily obeyed.

Leonard cuts off the argument before it can begin. “You’re the injured party. You have to rest. Doctor’s orders.” He looks to Jim.

Jim nods, then tells Spock, “Captain’s orders, too.” When Spock’s eyebrows draw together, Jim adds, “We’ll be fine. We’re not going far and we won’t be long.”

“Captain…”

“You have my word, Spock.”

Spock closes his mouth. Jim steps in front of Leonard and motions for Leonard to follow him out. For a minute or so, Leonard trails after the man dumbly, watching Jim circle around several trees and begin to collect small twigs.

“Jim,” Leonard hisses finally, having had enough of the silence.

Jim stops to look at him.

Leonard glances behind them to check that the distance to the cave is sufficient before focusing on Kirk again. “Are you mad, man? Why the hell did you let me fall asleep on Spock?”

There’s an amused glint to Jim’s otherwise composed stare. He bends down to retrieve a stick to add to his bundle, then straightens. “You looked comfortable. Why would I have bothered you?”

Leonard has several comebacks for that, most of which are extremely insulting, but they all try to come out at once and he ends up sputtering.

“It’s okay if you’re embarrassed, Bones. I’m sure Spock thought it was logical that you needed his shoulder to drool on.”

Since speech has failed him, Leonard does the next best thing: he socks the man in the arm, hard.

“Hey, ow!” cries his captain, dancing back a few steps.

“Now you listen to me, you cotton-brained lunatic! If word of this gets out to anyone—anyone—I will stick you with so many hypos you’ll think you’re a porcupine! ….And I did not drool!” he adds hotly before spinning on his heel to stalk off in a direction very far away from the person he wants to strangle with his bare hands.

“Bones,” Jim calls after him, “use your tricorder to see if you can find something edible!”

There is a moment in which Leonard really doesn’t try too hard to restrain himself from making a rude gesture.

And, ah crap, now Jim will probably tattle on him to Spock for being undignified. Leonard flushes, realizing he couldn’t be more embarrassed.

Damn Jim for being right!

“Where is Dr. McCoy?”

Taking his ire out on an unsuspecting planet. It’s best not to say that to Spock, ever the champion of all walks of life, so Jim just smiles and shrugs. “I think he had to answer a call from nature.”

Spock doesn’t question the matter further, which thankfully means that is one human idiom Jim will not have to explain.

“I brought us firewood,” he tells the Vulcan, moving forward to drop his bundle by the entrance to their cave.

Spock considers the twigs with something akin to skepticism. “We can use a phaser to warm a small group of rocks.”

“I have some skill at this, Spock. I won’t start a brush fire.” Jim squats down and starts stacking the dry wood into a small teepee shape, adding some undergrowth he had also gathered as kindling in the hollow underneath. “I used to camp all the time as a kid.”

“Under the supervision of an adult, I presume.”

Jim lifts one corner of his mouth but doesn’t look up. “Sometimes.” He feels Spock studying the back of his head.

“We are not camping, Captain.”

“Nope.”

Spock is silent for no more than three seconds. “Is there a reason you are showing no concern for our situation?”

“Why should I be concerned?” Jim asks, standing up. “I’m with you.”

As he expects, the Vulcan blinks stoically at him.

“And Bones,” adds Jim, watching for a different reaction.

Spock steps from the overhang around the cave’s mouth into the fading sunlight. “This is unfamiliar terrain. The Doctor may become lost.”

Jim nods. “Then retrieve him, Mr. Spock.”

Spock accepts the formality with “Yes, Captain” and walks away.

Jim doesn’t watch him go. He stares into the emptiness where Spock had been, arms loose at his sides. Then, having made a decision, he knocks the makings of the fire over with his boot and enters the cave alone.

He might have seen this clump of trees before in a very similar clearing, and that pisses Leonard off.

“This is your fault,” he snarls at a bush with purple-tipped leaves and sweet-smelling flowers. “Why are you confusing me! I swear to god I didn’t sign up for this! I’m a doctor, not a boy scout trooper!”

If Jim could see him now…

Leonard’s eye twitches at the thought of Kirk. “That kid is gonna be the death of me. Can you believe he just, just…?” Leonard couldn’t get the words out. He kicks at the ground in frustration. “I’ll hog-tie him! I’ll hog-tie him and throw him on top of Spock, and THEN we’ll see who thinks it’s funny! Stupid kid with his stupid hair and his stupid blue eyes and his stupid ‘Bones’ this and ‘Bones’ that—”

A branch snaps too loudly, as if it had been intentionally trod upon. Leonard stops ranting and spins around to find Spock behind him, at the edge of the clearing.

“How’d you find me?”

“It was not difficult, Dr. McCoy,” Spock replies, moving towards him. “I merely followed the sounds of dramatic dialogue.” He looks to Leonard’s left. “I assume the shrubbery has not been a very adept conversationalist. May I inquire why you were yelling at it?”

Oh, the smart-mouthed bastard.

“No,” Leonard replies, the single word clipped, and stomps past the Vulcan.

Spock clasps his hands behind his back and pivots around, tracking Leonard with his dark eyes.

“Well,” demands the doctor once he realizes his companion is not following him, “aren’t you coming?”

“Why are you out here alone?”

Pressing his mouth flat, Leonard vacillates over his answer. “Who wants to know?”

Spock raises an eyebrow.

“I mean, who’s asking?” he clarifies. “The First Officer or the…” Hell, what was Spock to him? “…or just you?” he finishes somewhat lamely.

Damn.

“Never mind,” he blurts out before Spock can reply and turns away. “I’m out here because Jim was teasing me about the wrong thing, and my options were to rant at a bush or punch him in the face.”

“The assault of a fellow officer is not condoned by Starfleet.”

Leonard drops his head forward. “I know.”

“However,” Spock then remarks, standing much closer to Leonard’s back than he had been a moment ago, “I can say I understand the sentiment all too well.”

Leonard’s mouth twitches at a memory. “Yeah. Remind me never to piss you off that badly.”

“…Leonard.”

He turns his head and meets Spock’s gaze, finding an openness there he is not accustomed to seeing.

“It is not the First Officer who is concerned.”

Leonard’s temper dissipates. “It wasn’t much of a fight,” he tells Spock honestly. “I was just… embarrassed.”

Spock nods and fixes his stare at the line of trees in front of them, saying, “What is there to feel embarrassed about.”

It takes Leonard a couple of seconds to realize that isn’t a question.

Spock starts to head back the way he came with the clear expectation that Leonard will follow him. Leonard does, catching up to match the Vulcan’s stride so that they are walking side by side.

Well, I’m no good with ending this here. There will be two more parts.

Next Part

Related Posts:

• Confessions of a Southern Gentleman (4/4) – from April 23, 2014
• Confessions of a Southern Gentleman (3/4) – from April 21, 2014
• Confessions of a Southern Gentleman (1/4) – from April 10, 2014