0Title: When Your Blues Have a Gold (#20, The Drabble Bin)
Author: klmeri
Fandom: Star Trek TOS
Characters: Kirk, Spock, McCoy
Summary: Fearing your doctor might be common sense to the crewmen of the Enterprise, but Jim is wily enough to overcome it.
Previous Drabbles: The Old Four | Those Neighborhood Hoodlums | Trapped | A Cage of His Own | Of Perky Starfleet Bottoms | An Hour Past | War of the Bots | The Best Substitute | Surprise Meeting | Little Help | Dreaming | The Tower | Brother | It’s Complicated | With Close Friends | Not As It Seems | Vulcans Can Be Grumpy Too | Upsetting the CMO | A Romantic Venture
A/N: Just a little something cutesy with the Triumvirate.
Having had no migraine for days, Kirk considers this positive proof of his return to good health and therefore believes he is validated in throwing off the blanket tucked too tightly around his legs.
A nurse appears in that moment, remarking simply, “No, Captain.”
Surprised, Kirk halts his escape.
As she continues to glide on by, her only—and very final—warning drifts back to the staring patient: “Dr. McCoy will come around shortly.”
Even for a foolish man, the threat is too pointed to dismiss. Jim wisely re-tucks the blanket in place and drops flat to his back, assuming the only position which all other ward patients have collectively come to accept as the best mode for survival. Perhaps some of them privately believe a fearless captain like Kirk ought to have the gumption to challenge the ship’s CMO; but frankly, any kind of authority never seems to make it past the Sickbay entrance these days. Captain or not, Jim isn’t one to waste energy on an ineffectual defense.
He breathes a slow sigh through his nose and challenges the ceiling over his predicament with his best daunting stare. Like the medical staff, the ceiling remains unmoved.
After a while, drumming his fingers distractedly against the bed, he thinks, There has to be a way. He muses on this until a plan pops into his head that just might work.
“What’re you smiling about?” comes the gruff, yet not unfriendly voice of the Enterprise’s infamous Dr. McCoy.
Jim shifts his head to transfer his smile to the doctor, making it more innocent and goodnatured. “Bones, would you say I’m recovering well?”
McCoy raises an eyebrow and drawls somewhat cautiously, “I’d say since you have followed most of my instructions, your recovery should be progressing timely.”
Kirk doesn’t particularly care for the nuances within that confirmation but he certainly won’t jeopardize the opportunity it grants him. Still smiling, he points out, polite as ever, “Then if I am better, a request for company should not be unreasonable to make.”
McCoy eyes him a moment. “I suppose not.”
In response, Jim lifts a hand toward the comm button built into the side of his bed.
The doctor narrows his eyes but offers no challenge.
Kirk activates the link to the ship’s system, gaze now alight. “Kirk to Bridge.”
“Spock here,” answers the very person Jim had in mind for his scheme.
And just like that, McCoy’s nostrils flare, no doubt feeling his suspicions about Kirk are about to come to bear.
An unrepentant Jim goes on, “Mr. Spock, how’s my ship?”
“Both ship and crew appear to be functioning optimally.”
McCoy begins to sputter, “Functioning optimally, my sainted aunt. People aren’t robots.”
There is a slight pause through the speaker until Spock’s voice returns, more strongly diffident: “Is there something you need, Captain?”
Oh, Jim is fully aware that Spock is not displeased with him. It’s McCoy who can ruffle the stalwart Vulcan like no other—which makes the plan a decidedly good one. “As a matter of fact, Spock, I need a favor.”
“Of course,” his second-in-command agrees immediately.
Kirk fixes his gaze on McCoy. “I’m allowed to have visitors.”
“Jim,” McCoy hisses, his mouth thinning with disapproval.
Undeterred, Jim continues on, “And therefore would highly appreciate it if you could join me in Sickbay.”
At first, despite Spock’s usual promptness, it seems like an answer might not arrive. McCoy rocks back on his heels, turning his glare to the comm unit as if in defense of his patient’s feelings.
But Jim has faith. These two might not yet realize it, but they both tend to put others before themselves. Kirk likes that about them.
“Very well” is the belated answer. “What time would be convenient?”
“Now,” Jim replies happily, quick to add a firm “See you soon, Commander” and end the call, his intuition cautioning him that Spock must already be thinking of some way to wiggle out of the invitation.
Afterwards, McCoy sighs long and loud, watching his captain sit up to plump his pillows to arrange himself more comfortably on the biobed. “Jim,” the man says, his agitation clear, “are you trying to make me toss you out?”
“You’d never do that to one of your patients, Bones,” Jim counters in a prim tone. “Even if that patient has an… exasperating… guest.” He winks.
McCoy makes a disbelieving noise, then, and shakes a tricorder at him. But the man doesn’t argue. No, in fact, McCoy cannot; for if he does, then it means Jim has done something very much worth warranting an acknowledgment of trouble.
And that would be playing into the enemy’s hands.
Jim grins at the doctor’s rapidly retreating back, making a bet with himself on just how long McCoy can hold out in Spock’s presence. At best, Leonard is able to tolerate Spock, vice versa, and Jim is entertained watching them try to cope with their differences; at worst, Spock—and, by extension, Jim—is finally, prematurely booted out of Sickbay to save the doctor’s sanity, not at all requiring an escape tactic that could earn Jim a scathing lecture.
Kirk applauds himself. Truly, he has created the perfect win-win scenario.
And one day, when the three of them are best friends, he will explain that their fateful friendship is clearly the result of his ingenious plotting.
-Fini
Related Posts:
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- An Ominous Setting (#28, The Drabble Bin) – from May 4, 2021
- Beyond the Call of Duty (#27, The Drabble Bin) – from September 24, 2020
- Have You Heard…? (#26, The Drabble Bin) – from September 20, 2019
- Who Wants to be a Doctor? (#25, The Drabble Bin) – from May 13, 2019
