Title: The Routine of Dreams
Author: klmeri
Fandom: Star Trek AOS
Pairing: Kirk/Spock/McCoy
Disclaimer: I own my imagination but not the characters with which it plays.
Summary: Short one-shot about our favorite OT3. It’s easy to have a dream that you to want to be real.

The day starts like any other. Leonard wakes up and sorts out the tangled mess of limbs resulting from Jim attaching to him like an octopus during the night. Now either one of two scenarios happens thereafter: Jim snorts awake and rolls into Leonard’s half-vacated spot, forcing the man to climb out of bed and start the day; or Kirk is aware enough to want to keep his cuddly lump of flesh and tries to kiss said-lump (a grouchy, not-a-morning-person lump named McCoy), but instead disgusts Mr. Lump with morning breath.

Today Leonard deters the partially awake amorous advances of his lover by way of deception. Leonard is already scooting off the bed when Jim’s brain cottons on to the fact that Jim is making out with a pillow and not a warm body.

Jim is left to sort through his confusion while Leonard manages to stumble across the room. Leonard proceeds to trip over carelessly discarded boots (McCoy’s, actually) and then tangle his feet in a pair of uniform pants. Now more aware than before, with his knee throbbing, Leonard then bumps into a certain Vulcan exiting the bathroom.

Spock claims that the repeated morning event is due to Leonard’s subconscious mind; it has learned and adapted to Spock’s schedule. Leonard thinks that this explanation is bullshit and tells Spock the real truth: the Vulcan waits until Leonard is almost awake before running into the bathroom, simply to prevent the human from being first. (It most certainly has nothing to do with a Vulcan’s internal alarm clock.) The immediate response is as follows: Vulcans do not engage in such highly illogical—and immature—behavior. Leonard will argue that Spock having two human companions is enough to make a Vulcan elder forget basic mathematics.

Leonard likes it when Spock is torn between amusement and offense at Leonard’s colorful metaphors.

This morning McCoy does just that, smacking into Spock, and Spock easily redirects Leonard towards the toilet. Spock also pivots gracefully to avoid an encounter with a vengeful elbow.

McCoy grunts his thanks.

By the time Leonard has taken care of his needs—and brushed his teeth—Jim wants in the bathroom and Spock is dressed for duty. The human scratches his belly, clearly in vacillation between taking a shower (sonic showers suck) or watching Spock watch him and Jim fight over a misplaced boot. Then his nose catches the scent of something delicious. (Replicated coffee sucks too, but what can a man do?)

Leonard follows his nose directly to Spock’s outstretched hand bearing the most beautiful sight—a steaming cup of black coffee.

He grunts his thanks again and takes a sip.

Jim comes out of the bathroom, naked, and leans against McCoy’s shoulder. Leonard sighs and hands him the coffee. Then Jim returns the now-empty mug to Spock who greets them both with “This morning is well.”

“It’s ‘good morning'” Leonard corrects.

The Vulcan repeats, “Good morning.” Spock tilts his head and smiles.

Wait… what?

Leonard is glad that the mug is no longer in his possession because he would have dropped it. “Spock?”

Jim edges around McCoy to stand beside Spock. Then Kirk smiles too.

They both say to Leonard, “Are you ready for the day, Len?”

And Leonard wakes up.

He sits upright and blinks sleepily for some minutes. The dream is already fading. Once McCoy is finally, fully awake, he decides to ignore any lingering confusion. The shift change is soon, and Doctor Leonard H. McCoy has a long list of crewmen to evaluate.

During his lunch hour, Leonard sees Spock in the mess hall, stops and stares until the Vulcan raises an eyebrow in his direction. He glares, then, and orders a meal. A strange feeling has to be shaken off before he can focus on eating. Later, when the Captain calls down to Sickbay, McCoy hesitates just briefly before he answers the comm. Again, that strange feeling will niggle at him; it proceeds to give him pause throughout Gamma shift. The sensation is akin to a light irritation against his forearms, except that his uniform has short sleeves.

The nurses will humor his repeated question “Do y’all feel that? Is the ship in an ion storm?”

Eventually, the mystery becomes more mysterious when he enters the Bridge and the strange feeling intensifies. McCoy frowns as he steps out of the turbolift and surveys the Bridge crew.

“Jim.”

The Captain swivels in his chair, head propped up by a fist. His facial expression bleeds boredom. “Hey, Bones.”

Leonard comes to stand by the Captain’s chair. He inspects Kirk’s slumped position for just a minute before crossing his arms, saying nothing, and purposefully striding over to Spock’s station. The Vulcan is seated and has turned to face the doctor.

McCoy glances down at the control panel of the science station. The blips and beeps mean little to him. Leonard gestures widely at the whole thing and says (in what he hopes is a mildly curious voice), “Anything of interest today, Mr. Spock?”

The Vulcan must find McCoy’s query of interest because he raises an eyebrow as he replies, “Do you wish to inquire of an anomaly in particular, Doctor McCoy?”

“Nevermind, you blasted hobgoblin!” snaps the irritated man.

“Bones?” Jim is at his shoulder, paying close attention to his CMO. “What’s going on?”

Leonard shrugs. “Not a thing, Jim. Not a damn thing.”

Jim nods knowingly. He offers, “Come by Rec Room Four after shift, Bones.”

“And watch you and Spock run circles around each other in 3-D chess? No thanks, kid.”

“C’mon, Bones!” Jim grins at him. “I’ll beat Spock just for you.”

Spock’s reply is instantaneous. “Captain, in our one hundred and fifty-three matches, you have not—as you say—’beaten me’ yet.”

“That’s because Bones wasn’t rooting for me.”

Leonard says, “I’m a doctor, not a cheerleader.”

He doesn’t like the way Jim eyes his regulation ‘Fleet Medical outfit, so he rolls his eyes and goes back to the turbolift.

“Bones!”

McCoy pauses, one foot in the turbolift and one foot on the deck of the Bridge.

Jim is back in his Captain’s chair, body relaxed and smug. “See you after shift.”

“Don’t bet on it” is the mumbled answer. There’s no point in saying it aloud because Leonard knows that Jim will get his way. The kid always does.

After shift, Leonard is sighing over cup of something dark, strong and satisfying while Jim and Spock play the most agonizingly slow game in the galaxy. At some point Jim remarks off-handedly “It’s better when you’re here, Bones” and Leonard hides his smile by taking a long sip of his drink.

That night he will have a happy dream (a dream that seems right) but one that he won’t remember upon waking. And even though this dream shall occur frequently, many nights of the week, Leonard won’t feel afraid or bothered by it. It will become a comfort when he is stressed and a promise of a good night’s rest.

In truth, it will lead him to say one late evening to Jim and Spock, “Life’s only good in our dreams.”

Jim will close the distance between their hands and ask, “Why can’t a dream become reality?”

Leonard looks to Spock, the third corner of their oddly positioned triangle of chairs. The Vulcan is as calm as Leonard is uncertain. Leonard wants to know, “What does Vulcan logic say, Spock?”

Spock answers, “An ideal is worth achievement, Leonard, when it is pursued with equal and identical purpose by all parties.”

The Vulcan sounds like he knows a little too much of Leonard’s dreaming, despite that McCoy cannot figure out how that would be possible.

When Jim squeezes his hand and says, “What do you dream about, Bones?” Leonard takes a deep breath.

Now it is only a matter of the courage to speak. He finds that courage in Jim’s touch, in Spock’s gaze, and somewhere, somehow, deep inside himself. He does not tell them the details of the dream simply because he never remembers them; but Leonard does tell them, somewhat abashedly, of what he imagines that dream to be.

How it makes him feel.

For Jim and Spock—and Leonard—a hint of maybe is enough for what will be.

-Fini

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