Title: The Elder and the Young (5/?)
Author: klmeri
Fandom: Star Trek AOS
Characters: Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Spock!Prime
Summary: Final part of a trilogy; follows The Boy and the Sea Dragon and The Man and the Memory. Jim’s soul is caged, McCoy is dying without a cure, and Spock has hijacked the Enterprise in an attempt to save them both.
Previous Part: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

Part Five

Leonard crosses his arms. “I was looking for you,” he states flatly.

The creature smiles, idly perched on the examination table as if they really are doctor and patient.

“Your thoughts of me are powerful, McCoy, and easy to understand.”

“Really.” He raises an eyebrow. “Can you tell what I’m thinking about you right now?”

It tilts its head. “You project ill intentions, yet we both know you would not harm me, could you avoid doing so.”

This monster doesn’t realize how very close Leonard is to revising his code of honor to incorporate an exception for bastards that eat the souls of his friends in order to steal their destinies. A huge fucking exception.

“We’ve danced around the shit long enough. You know what I want. The question is—can you give it to me?”

“Why?” it asks as if honestly curious.

McCoy repeats incredulously, “Why!” His laugh is bitter. “Are you saying that I won’t be tastier if my mind is intact?”

“It matters not.”

His brows come down. “You don’t need my memories at all? How are you supposed to pass for Leonard McCoy if you don’t know anything about my life?”

Its silence is surprising.

Leonard stops to consider what he knows, and a realization occurs to him. “You can’t, can you?”

It remains silent, peering at him through eyes now much too dark in the human face that it wears like a mask.

He clarifies, giving weight to the idea, “You can’t… digest the memories of your prey.” Think of who this the creature has been, how people talked about the Captain’s strange behavior before he went missing. “Or personality—nothing that defines a person.”

No wonder it doesn’t give a crap about whether or not Leonard has holes in his memory.

“Well, it’s safe to say that this conversation is done.” He reaches for the door as he talks. “You’d better get the Hell out of here before I do give you an examination—a very invasive, permanently damaging one.”

“I can help,” it says solicitously as it slides off of the table and closer to McCoy. “McCoy will not enjoy his memories long, but if McCoy wishes for them… I will help.”

“So now you want to make me happy.” That idea is akin to trying to swallowing something disgusting and sour. “Do you realize how damn ridiculous you sound?”

“Does McCoy not want to remember?” is the croon.

He flinches back instinctively when the creature reaches for him, hand splayed and seeking to touch.

Shit, he thinks. I do. I want to remember. I want me back.

It is his mouth that says “Yes” rather desperately.

It is the sea dragon which replies, “Here is a gift, then.”

The moment that their skin makes contact, a strangled sound is pulled from deep within McCoy. Then his eyes roll back in his head and he knows nothing but darkness.

“Leonard? Len!”

His face stings and his vision is blurry. “Chris?”

Christine sounds relieved. “How many fingers am I holding up?”

“Uh. None?”

“Great!” An arm helps McCoy sit up. “How do you feel? Nauseous? Disoriented?”

Oh yes, that’s definitely his head nurse. Leonard blinks until he can see straight. Then he completes an internal checklist. No numbness, pain in the back of his head, probably from his faint… Wait.

Leonard asks, “Damn, did I faint? What happened?”

Chapel is already muttering over tricorder readings. “It’s possible your blood pressure dropped. Do you remember what you were doing in here?”

Here happens to be one of the medical bay’s small examination rooms. He groans and stands up, wobbling on his legs for a moment before feeling steady. “Was I seeing a patient?” Why doesn’t he know? Leonard frowns and looks in all the obvious places for a discarded or dropped PADD.

“Christine, I swear my mind must be—” He stops.

“Leonard?”

McCoy spins around to stare at her. “Ask me something!” he says rather breathlessly.

The look Chapel gives him can only be mildly described as strange. “Something,” she says with a hint of are you insane?

“No,” he half-grins as his excitement grows. “Ask me about that time Pavel tried Scotty’s homemade moonshine!”

“Why would I ask you what you already—” She gasps. “Oh Len!” Then, “Stay right here, I mean it—don’t move!”

Leonard plops down onto the vacant examination table. “Well, I’ll be,” he remarks more in astonishment that anything else. After cautiously examining the back of his head for injury, and upon finding none, his elation grows tenfold. His mind is already speeding ahead, checking facts and recalling details.

He’s on the starship Enterprise, has been for more than a couple of years; he knows with satisfaction what he is doing here—trying to keep this accident-prone, trouble-attracting crew in one piece. Especially a certain toddler-like, rambunctious—

Jim.

With the thought of Captain and friend immediately follows the thought of a First Officer named Spock. Hobgoblin and more. A nosy, logic-wielding, surprisingly generous soul with whom McCoy has not bantered in almost—

He presses the heel of his head to his forehead.

And the rest of his memories rear to the forefront of his mind.

Spock is Acting Captain because—

The memories are almost tangible, almost glowing.

“How do we find the cure for xenopolycythemia?” Jim, frighteningly intent on forcing the creature to talk.

Him trying to warn Kirk and Spock to “Stay there! STAY THERE!” A climb down a rock face that halts tremulously with “What are you going to do?” and ends with his near death.

But McCoy is very much alive. Here, with Spock.

“I shall endeavor to assist you, Leonard.”

The Vulcan has tried repeatedly to do just that. So has—Selek.

Leonard drops his head into his hands.

Both Vulcans, both Spocks, are doing their damnedest to help McCoy. Yet there is one thing that weighs against them all. Leonard realizes, now with a pile of history to back up his feelings, that he knows exactly what is wrong with everything they’ve thought or attempted or planned for.

Jim is gone.

Having all the connections in place now is almost painful; that absence is keen in way that McCoy couldn’t comprehend with memory loss, despite knowing all about James Kirk. The emotion, the attachment, had been missing.

The doctor sags, and this is how Nurse Chapel and Doctor M’Benga find him. Geoff runs tests, quizzes his memory, and finally says, “I can’t explain how or why is happened now, Leonard, but we both know that the mind has been always been a mystery and a marvel.” Then Geoff really looks at him, in the way that Christine is as she stands to the side and bites her bottom lip. He asks, “Are you alright?”

“Would you be—” replies McCoy, “—if you finally remembered how badly you’ve screwed up, in fucking technicolor?“

“I never understand most of your idioms, but I can guess that you are find some of your memories to be… regretful?”

He makes a sound between a snort and a brave attempt to hide the shakiness of his voice. “That’s the understatement of the century, Geoff.”

“What can we do to help?” asks Christine.

“Find a way to bring Jim back—all of him.”

They don’t quite understand what he is saying.

Christine glances at M’Benga. “Do we know where the Captain is?” Geoff looks uncertain.

“You may not—but I do,” answers Leonard. “And I think it’s about time I broke my silence, for all our sakes as well as Jim’s.”

He is stopped with a light hand on his forearm. Christine wants to know, “If you knew, why didn’t you tell us before?”

“I’m not sure” is his honest reply. “Maybe I… didn’t know how, or why I should.” At the look on her face, he adds, “But that was a man I never want to be again.”

Doctor Leonard McCoy orders, “Call together a primary team you trust to handle the damn toughest case we’ve ever had in our bay. Then bring ’em to the Briefing Room in an hour.”

“Where are you going?” Geoff calls.

“To round up some pointy-eared hobgoblins and Jim’s best and brightest bridge crew.”

Spock is not expecting Leonard to simply show up on the Bridge and start disclosing their carefully constructed, secretive plans. Although, McCoy has never been one to fall inside the lines of Spock’s guide for predicable behavior.

That, Leonard decides, is why Spock underestimates the good Doctor McCoy.

The moment he steps onto the Bridge, Spock blinks from the Captain’s chair and begins to remark, “Doctor McCoy, I deduce that you have received—”

Leonard ignores him. “Listen up, y’all!” he bellows.

Sulu almost falls out of his chair, and Chekov’s eyes grow round. Uhura takes out her earpiece to listen. The other people on the Bridge either gape, stare, or both.

“Here are the facts: Jim’s knee-deep in trouble—”

“Doctor.” Spock stands.

“—and we can’t save him until we get to where we’re heading—” Leonard talks faster because the Vulcan looks fit enough to nerve-pinch him into silence.

He gestures at the screen of stars, causing the others to glance at it stupidly. “Out there is—Spock, damn it, stay away, I’m done keeping my mouth shut!—Out there’s a ship with a cure for xenopolycythemia. We need it to save Jim.”

“The Keptin is ill?” asks Chekov, horrified.

McCoy hastily edges around Sulu’s console. Spock looks aggravated in a stoic sort of way.

“Nope. Cure’s for me. Once I’m cured, I can save Jimmy.”

When Spock says, with ferocity, “Doctor McCoy, you will keep your silence!” Leonard scuttles back to the lift, yelling as he goes. “All those who want to save Captain Kirk, briefing in thirty minutes!” Then he pauses at the open lift door and tells Spock succinctly, “You’re an idiot of a Vulcan if you think we don’t need all the help we can get.”

Leonard is rather satisfied at the startled look in Spock’s eyes just before the lift takes him down into the ship.

One last stop. McCoy buzzes for entrance at a door.

Selek answers and greets him face-to-face. “Leonard. Have you spoken with my counterpart?”

Leonard rocks back on his heels. “I mighta missed that memo. Give it to me in as few words as possible. Then I’ve got something to tell you.”

“We know the location of the asteroid ship Yonada.”

He stares. “How?”

“It matters not,” replies Selek.

Leonard opens his mouth, then closes it again in uncertainty. He shakes off a feeling of déjà-vu. Must be the memory circuits reorienting themselves after a long hiatus.

“Well that’s good news. ‘Cause I need you to join me in the Briefing Room to discuss a plan of attack with everybody.”

Selek’s eyebrows rise. “Indeed. Might I inquire if you intend to divulge the particulars of our mission?”

“You’re damned straight, I will!” Leonard adds, “And just so you know, Spock isn’t a happy camper. I expect him to try and shut the meeting down before I can say ‘hell no.'”

Selek (Old Spock Leonard wants to call him but finds it rather disrespectful to say to such a wrinkled wise face) looks at McCoy for some seconds. Then he comments, “Spock may surprise you.”

I hope so, he prays.

Leonard re-enters the corridor with Selek beside him. One Vulcan on his side and one to go.

Now there’s the small matter of explaining his wild plan. They can’t defeat the creature as ordinary prey, not even with two strong Vulcan telepaths, but there is chance that they can, simply put, feed it until it pops. For that, of course, McCoy is going to need some volunteers.

Jim, you are one lucky son of a bitch.

Leonard walks into the Briefing Room, Selek on his heels, to find it noisy with conversations and filled with intent, hard and hopeful faces.

We need you as much as you need us.

Spock steps to the front of the gathering to confront McCoy.

“Spock?” Leonard searches that face for a hint of what the Vulcan may be thinking.

The First Officer says, “You may proceed, Doctor” and moves aside to allow McCoy room to speak.

Next Part

Related Posts:

• The Elder and the Young (12/12) – from February 24, 2011
• The Elder and the Young (11/12) – from February 23, 2011
• The Elder and the Young (10/11) – from February 21, 2011
• The Elder and the Young (9/11) – from February 11, 2011
• The Elder and the Young (8/?) – from February 7, 2011