Title: Drink One For Me (7/7)
Author: klmeri
Fandom: Star Trek TOS
Pairing: Kirk/Spock/McCoy
Summary: In the past, Leonard has been more than willing to attend a Spring Fling or two as his captain’s wing man. But when Spock starts tagging along, Leonard realizes he may have been assuming some things he shouldn’t have.
Previous Parts: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6
Or read at AO3

IMPORTANT – Part Five and Epilogue posted together. Please be certain you have read the previous part.

Epilogue

“Dr. McCoy,” the Governor of Aurelis muses in her mildest voice yet, “did I not warn you that I will not tolerate insult?”

“Then shut me up,” challenges the doctor, “because I don’t have any intention of staying silent.”

She places a stalling hand on her husband’s arm when the Aurelian reaches for his weapon. “Go on.”

Jim and Spock approach Leonard and pause casually at his side.

His focus and fury remains on the Aurelians. “I didn’t think Aurelis was so criminalist that it had no laws.” He has no difficulty making his disgust known. “But given that you’re as cold as they come, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised no one cares about the murder of his neighbor. Well, we’re not that heartless in the Federation. Life matters. Life is valued—even life as scummy as yours. You’ve destroyed people without provocation and for senseless reasons. You’re intelligent enough to know that no one has die to unify your marriage, and yet you chose to do it anyway. I don’t have respect for you, Governor. I can’t because you’re the antithesis of everything I believe in.” He draws a breath and concludes, “So kill me if you want but know that when you do, you’ve only proven my point.”

The silence in the hallway is deafening.

Leonard’s body still vibrates with anger and his heart may hurt for the loss of life but he also feels a sense of peace because he hasn’t let his fear silence him.

The Governor releases her husband’s arm, showing no inkling of rage, embarrassment, or anything other reaction to the verbal lashing.

And then she steps towards Leonard and extends her hand.

He stares at the slender fingers, the bony knuckles. Surely she doesn’t expect him to shake her hand, not after what he just said!

Spock says, “It is a custom of the Aurelians to offer a hand when they wish to show respect.”

“I’m not interested in your respect,” Leonard informs the Governor, unnerved. He crosses his arms and for good measure tucks his hands into his armpits to make them inaccessible.

The Aurelian lowers her hand. “It has been a long time, Doctor, since I have been reprimanded so candidly. Not since the time of my predecessor.”

Oh, great, he thinks. Now she’s comparing him to her mother.

The Consort turns to his wife. “Lovely One, the human has insulted you. By law, I must avenge your honor.”

“You will do nothing to this human, Husband. I stand accused of murder. I will address the charge. ” The Governor motions for the men to follow her. “Come.”

Leonard looks to Jim but Kirk gives him a slight push ahead, saying, “Your lead, Bones.”

All of a sudden he is not certain of what he has done but no one seems upset with him other than the Consort. How ironic, he thinks, that in such a short period of time he has gone from the dirt beneath the Aurelian’s shoe to their most respected off-worlder.

It just convinces him further that the Aurelians are quacks.

“Are we going to the gardens? I think we’re going to the gardens. Lord, please don’t let it be the maze again,” Leonard says, keeping up a stream of one-sided conversation.

Despite the pinched skin around his eyes, Jim doesn’t bother to hide how amused he is. “Enjoying yourself, Bones?”

He indicates the Aurelian couple not far ahead of them on the path. “The scenery leaves something to be desired but the elbow room is better.”

“I’ll keep that in mind for the future.”

Leonard harrumphs and switches his attention to Spock. “Cat got your tongue, Mr. Spock?”

“Your running commentary is hardly conducive to outsider participation.”

“Yeah, well, your silence spooks me. Does he do this to you when you’re in charge, Jim?”

“No, Spock talks to me.”

“Forget it. You’re both too insubordinate to appreciate my leadership skills.”

The Vulcan parries, “When did you become skilled?”

Jim gives Leonard’s back an encouraging little push when the doctor brakes along the stone path to glare at Spock. “No time for that,” the captain murmurs. “We’ll lose sight of them.”

Leonard realizes Jim is right and, cursing, takes off at a quicker speed. Now he knows why he doesn’t want to be in the lead. It’s too damn cumbersome for arguing!

They pass a low wall of an empty courtyard and turn the corner of the mansion to reveal a wide-open view of the grounds. This time Leonard brings his heels down and so do the others.

“What in blazes?” he says, spying where the Aurelians have gone.

The atmosphere turns ominous. Kirk starts across the grassy lawn like a descending thundercloud, his entire body tense with anger.

Leonard throws his common sense to the solar winds and hurries after Jim.

“Now, now,” appeals Kirk’s target, throwing up his hands, “Captain, let’s act reasonably!”

“Mudd,” snarls Kirk.

Leonard ducks around his friend just in time to place himself between the men. Spock arrives on the scene at a sedater pace, appearing to care little that his captain is about to pummel a civilian in plain view of many of the galaxy’s elite.

The Governor greets them with a serene nod. “Captain, Doctor, Commander… may I introduce you to Mr. Harcourt Fenton Mudd? Mr. Mudd was gracious enough to supply our stock of crystal for the Gala at an extreme discount.”

Harry chuckles nervously, tugging one end of his moustache through his fingers.

“We know who he is,” Jim replies too sharply. “What remains unclear is why he is here.”

Mudd laughs nervously. “I came back for you?”

Leonard snorts.

Of the Aurelians, Spock inquires, “How long has Mr. Mudd acted as your informant?”

The Governor strokes the hilt of her saber. “Since I hired him to work with my wine trader.”

Leonard sucks in a breath. “You mean Mudd is the one who has been spying on the Romulans for you?”

“It’s called a double-cross, boys,” Harry informs them. “Of course, I was apprehensive at first at the thought of betraying my business partner. Connors was an excellent salesman.”

“He was a Romulan spy,” Leonard contests.

“Yes, yes, I was quite shocked to learn of his true identity. That, Dr. McCoy, is why I am ever-so-grateful to this lovely Aurelian lady here. I had no idea I was involved with Romulans! To think, I could have been killed at any moment by those nefarious creatures!”

“Get to the point, Mudd,” Kirk says in warning.

“My point is that I am a loyal Federationalist.”

“That’s not a word,” Leonard mutters to Spock.

“Affirmative.”

“I had to stop the invasion of the Empire, you see.” The deeper Mudd delves into his tale, the more puffed up with pride he becomes. “I became an agent! My mission, to spy. Very top secret, Kirk, very dangerous.”

“Very profitable,” surmises the captain.

Mudd nods and says before he can catch himself, “Yes, yes—I mean, no. Credits were hardly a concern, merely a token compensation in comparison to the honor I felt in restoring the order of my galaxy.”

Kirk releases a long sigh through his nose and closes his eyes, visibly holding himself in check from reacting.

Mudd clears his throat. “To make a long story short, good sirs, I reported to the Governor on the activities of my partner and any suspicious characters he contacted.”

Jim opens his eyes, the look in them as hard as his voice. “You also ratted out my men.”

Harry’s gaze darts back and forth. “That, uh, was an unfortunate side-effect of my mission, Captain Kirk. Honestly, I am ashamed to have abandoned my brothers-in-arms.”

Reaching the limit of his patience, Leonard rounds on the Aurelians. “Why did you bring us here? What does this have to do with anything?”

The Governor pins him with her silver eyes. “You accused me of having no regard for life, Doctor.”

“The word is murderer.”

“And so I am.”

Leonard presses his mouth into a thin line.

“But,” the Aurelian continues, “I am not insensitive to the plight of the weak. What I decide, whom I kill, ultimately will protect my people and preserve our culture. Not all that is done is for the sake of a game. Aurelians are not that irresponsible, as you seem to believe.” She indicates Mudd. “Here is a life that was saved.” Her open palm turns to encompass her estate. “Here is a place which has been protected by my actions.”

“At what price?” Leonard counters.

“Three lives.” She drops her hand. “Three lives in exchange for thousands. Some—healers such as yourself—have the duty to save one life at a time. Others must think more broadly. Ask your captain. This is something he would know well.”

“I may understand your position,” Kirk allows, “but I can condemn it at the same time. You missed McCoy’s point, Governor. Men did not have to die tonight. If a path exists which can preserve all life, it is your moral obligation to take it.”

“Even to preserve an enemy?” she questions.

“Even then,” Jim agrees.

“I admit that is a foreign concept to my teaching, and it seems valueless when you say it. Perhaps we have discovered why Aurelis is not a match for the Federation.”

“What is incomprehensible to a child may be easily understood by an adult,” Spock says. “I would suggest that there is wisdom your people have yet to achieve, and it is unfortunate that it cannot be quickly learned. Captain, we have our answer to one of the questions that has been troubling us since the beginning.”

“Not quite yet, Mr. Spock.” Jim faces the Aurelians. “There are only two things I require of you right now: I need an official statement from you on your involvement in the events tonight and—depending on what you choose to say—I need either your commitment to align with the Federation or your assurance that Aurelis will no longer involve itself in our intergalactic politics.”

“Quite the ultimatum, Captain.”

Mudd lifts a finger. “Can I go now?”

Mudd is ignored.

“We’re both at fault, Governor. The Federation let you act as you pleased while assuming you had the maturity to play by the rules, and you abused the trust you were given. In this case, I don’t believe we would gain anything by giving you a second chance but I am required to offer it to you. You can have some time to think on what you want. The Enterprise will remain in orbit until we have your response.”

It is a subtle threat, and one that Leonard approves of greatly.

The Governor shifts to drum her fingertips against her hip, staring at them as though they actually interest her for the first time. “What if I declare Aurelis as an enemy of the Federation?”

Kirk clearly has no more tolerance for fools. “Then we’ll deal with you accordingly.”

“I admire a man with backbone, Captain Kirk. If in the beginning the Federation had sent you to Aurelis to negotiate terms, we might have come to an accord.”

“You would find that I am not very diplomatic.”

“No, of course,” she agrees. “You’re a soldier.”

“Only when I have to be,” he argues. “Thank you. You have addressed a large part of my concern. Once we receive your statement, we will be on our way.” He flips open his communicator. “Kirk to Enterprise.”

“Enterprise here. Lt. Uhura speaking, Captain. We can read you clearly.“

Kirk’s eyes meet Mudd’s. “Prepare to receive us by shuttle.”

“Aye aye, sir.”

Mudd sidles backwards but it is Spock who comes up behind the man and renders him unconscious by a nerve-pinch.

“Feeling mean, Spock?” Leonard teases.

“He is not necessary to the operation of the shuttle when there will be three trained officers aboard.”

“Good call,” praises their captain, snapping his communicator closed.

Leonard slides in close to Jim, feeling better that they are finally—all three of them—going back to the ship. And he isn’t sorry to leave the Aurelians behind, especially as he watches the Consort shift beside the Governor and whisper something in her ear.

Her mouth curves in a wicked smile.

Leonard knows it will be a cold day in hell before they ever change.

“Let’s get off this moon,” Jim says.

Certainly neither Leonard nor Spock are going to protest that order.

The shuttlecraft is no better or worse than it was before.

“Now I know you’re feeling mean,” Leonard remarks to Jim as he steps around Mudd’s legs. “You didn’t have to hog-tie the sad son of a gun.”

“Better safe than sorry,” Jim answers in a grim tone.

“Or tape his mouth shut.”

“Do you want to listen to him for the duration of the trip?”

Leonard thinks on that and sighs. “Got a point there, Jim-boy.” But he does slide a blanket under the unconscious trader’s head as Jim climbs to the nose of the vessel.

Spock is flipping console switches from the pilot’s seat. Jim takes the co-pilot’s seat and Leonard picks a crate low enough to sit on and maneuvers it into the middle.

“The flight routes are outdated,” Spock tells them, “but the auto-pilot is functional. I have connected our transmitter sequence with the Enterprise for navigational guidance.”

“So we just sit back and relax.” Leonard looks down at his crate and decides he can grip it tight enough in lieu of a seatbelt if the ride gets rocky.

Kirk glances back at him. “Bones, that’s not safe.”

“Not my fault there’re only two seats in this sardine can. I had to cradle Chekov like a baby the entire way. Damnedest, most uncomfortable shuttle ride I’ve ever had.”

Jim looks at Leonard a moment longer before patting his lap in a silent invitation.

Leonard stares at him. “You’ve got to be joking.”

“Safety comes first, Bones.”

The doctor feels a flush start at the base of his neck and spread out from there. “Jim, no. I’m fine right where I am. This thing’s sturdy!” The crate gives an ominous creak as Leonard leans his weight to one side.

The captain won’t be budged. “You’ve got two choices: my lap or Spock’s.”

Spock jerks his head around, his “Sir” sounding shocked.

Leonard thinks there might be some merit to sitting on Spock because Spock would turn green and Leonard could threaten to touch his ears all the way back. On the other hand, Spock would then refuse to speak to him outside of ship’s business for at least a month afterwards.

“All right,” he says with a sigh, “but don’t complain later.”

Jim unclips his seatbelt, waits until Leonard is settled sideways across his lap, and then clips the belt back into place. The result is that the belt squashes Leonard into Kirk’s chest.

“Comfortable?” he drawls sarcastically.

Kirk locks his arms around the doctor’s waist. “Absolutely.”

“Shut up, Jim.”

Spock interrupts them with “Commencing liftoff in ten seconds.” He begins the countdown.

Leonard tightens his grip on Jim’s gold tunic when the shuttle thrusters engage. “What’re the odds that we crash before making it out of the Dome?”

Spock opens his mouth.

Jim cuts in, “That was a rhetorical question, Spock.”

Spock glances at them, eyebrow lifted. “It did not seem rhetorical.”

Leonard groans. “He was really going to tell us our chances of dying, wasn’t he?”

One of Kirk’s thumbs rubs a circle against Leonard’s back. “It’s all right. We regularly beat the odds.”

Leonard grows silent, thinking about all the times they nearly haven’t—and thinking about how close they came this time to dying because of a race that felt no remorse for causalities.

“Let it go,” Jim advises him.

For once, McCoy listens.

Home, sweet home, they say. Leonard McCoy is not one for histrionics but he thinks there would be some merit in kissing the bay floor. Standing near the top of the rickety ramp on the docking platform of the Enterprise’s shuttle bay, he runs his hands over his face and mutters, “I’m never leaving this ship again.”

“Can I have you sign something to that effect?”

“You’re not funny,” he tells Kirk.

Jim squeezes his shoulder as he passes by.

Spock joins Leonard and together they cross the platform. “I am surprised you did not applaud our landing, Doctor.”

“Always. But I suppose I cannot fault such sentiment. It is nice to be back.”

“Because we’re home, you mean.”

Spock slants an enigmatic look at him. “Perhaps.”

At the far end of the bay, a set of doors slide open and a streak of red barrels across the docking area.

Leonard is fairly certain he has never seen Scotty flat-out run like that.

The engineer pulls up just shy of the platform, looking torn between laughing and crying. “Capt’n.” Once Jim comes down the steps, Scotty clasps him by the shoulders. “Glad to see you alive, sir.”

“Thank you, Scotty. We brought you a parting gift from the Gala. Have Security escort him to the brig.”

“It’d be my pleasure.”

Leonard nudges Spock, then calls out with a twinkle in his eyes, “Welcome to the fold, Mr. Scott!”

Scotty turns to look at him and does a double-take. “Dr. McCoy?”

“It’s the beard,” Leonard explains to Spock. “Guess it has to go. Thankfully I’m good-lookin’ enough without it.”

“How unfortunate that an aesthetic improvement to one’s appearance does not correlate to an improvement in personality.”

Jim snorts. Leonard sputters.

Scotty sighs. “…Everyone’s fine. I need a nap.”

Leonard drags the Vulcan down the platform steps with a low growl. “Where’s the med team? Mr. Spock is due in Sickbay.”

Jim tries to scoot unnoticed past Scotty but Leonard’s arm snakes out and latches onto the back of the man’s tunic.

“The Captain will accompany Mr. Spock,” he declares.

Kirk grimaces. “Bones.”

“You know the protocol for returning hostages, Captain.” Leonard shifts his grip from Spock’s arm to his wrist and accordingly transfers his other grip to Kirk’s wrist as well. “You know what? Don’t worry about that med team, Scotty. I’ll escort these two goobers to Sickbay myself.”

The engineer in question just shakes his head and turns away, walking back out the bay.

Leonard manhandles his charges toward an emergency turbolift.

One of them complains, “I do not require assistance to walk.” The other one drags his feet like a stubborn puppy.

Leonard corrals them into the lift with a grin on his face.

It will be a tale for later that a scraggly bearded pirate came aboard the Enterprise and stole the Captain and First Officer away. No one in the know will bother to contest that. After all, those who work on the Enterprise learn quickly that their starship is run not by one, not by two, but by three command officers. A triumvirate, they have been called.

And a triumvirate Kirk, Spock, and McCoy shall always be.

The End

Related Posts:

• Drink One For Me (6/7) – from May 22, 2015
• Drink One For Me (5/6) – from April 29, 2015
• Drink One For Me (4/6) – from April 23, 2015
• Drink One For Me (3/5) – from April 10, 2015
• Drink One For Me (2/4) – from April 6, 2015