FIC: Star Trek 2009: Trouble Comes in Twos (R) - 1/1
Title: Trouble Comes In Twos
Author: andhopeto (Kris)
Pairings: Mostly McCoy/Kirk with Uhura/Spock, but: ( skip) the story is really Spock/Uhura/Bones/Kirk
Rating: R
Word Count: ~3,200
Warnings: A woman giving birth. Also: ( skip) Kirk almost dies, but this *isn't* deathfic. Also, this is an OT4 fic, not *just* McCoy/Kirk and Uhura/Spock
Summary: Sometimes when one window closes, another opens. And sometimes life doesn't quite work that way.
Notes: Technically written for this prompt at st_xi_kink, but it ran away from me, and now it doesn't really fill it. A different story demanded to be told instead.
Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to any of these characters. I simply dabble in this toybox.
"I am never doing this again!" The scream reverberated in the small shuttle craft.
"I believe I must remind you that you said precisely the same thing the first time you gave birth."
"Last time I had an anesthetic!" This scream was a bit more shrill, and far more furious than the last.
"Get out of my way, you pointy-eared idiot," Doctor McCoy grumbled testily while pushing Spock out of his way. It was bad enough to be delivering a baby in a shuttle without the proper amenities, but to be delivering a baby without any anesthetic and a Vulcan hovering around was going to be so much worse. The fact that they were being routinely fired upon was just icing on the cake.
Uhura's face was pinched and pained, and Spock kept trying to look at the actual birthing process, rather than stand beside her and let himself be berated in the long-standing tradition of fathers-to-be.
There was a frightful sound coming from outside and McCoy turned to stare fretfully at the door a moment before settling himself and getting back to the proceedings.
"Are you sure you can't do something to get back in contact with the ship?" he asked Spock again, voice tight. The baby was going to be premature by a solid three and a half weeks, and the thought of an even more complicated birth was worrying.
"I am sure, Doctor," Spock replied in what passed for 'distracted' for a Vulcan. "I was sure fifteen minutes ago, and I will be sure in the future. It is unnecessary to ask me again."
"Then why don't you actually make yourself useful?" McCoy snarled, and Spock looked about as surprised as he ever did. Which is to say, not very.
"Spock!" Uhura gritted out, waving her hand at him. Her voice was strained and her skin was covered in sweat from the strain upon her body. She reached for him, and the moment he was close enough, she had a vice-like grip around one of his hands. Were he entirely human, she surely would have broken a bone or two.
The shuttle rocked violently for a moment, upsetting some of the few medical supplies the doctor had managed to scrounge up.
"Get this baby out of me," Uhura commanded, her teeth clenched tight. She hadn't had an easy labor the first time she had done this, and that was with a fully trained staff of medical professionals and all the appropriate medications and tools at his disposal. And without angry locals firing upon their vessel.
He was fairly certain that she'd rather just cut the baby out of her belly by now, just to be done with it all at once.
"I need to push, you bastard, I need to push!" she screamed, her voice starting to go raw from all of the exertion and yelling.
"Not yet," McCoy commanded, looking at her progress. "You aren't fully dilated yet, and-"
"And I don't care! I want this baby out of me. Now!" Uhura was normally a good patient, and she was certainly a wonderful mother, but there was something about the act of childbirth she was just plainly ill-suited for.
The door of the craft opened suddenly, and Spock's free hand immediately reached for his phaser, but it was just the captain, running inside and slamming the door behind him. He was filthy and panting, holding his side as he began punching buttons and pulling levers to bolt the door behind him entirely.
"Jim?" Dr. McCoy asked tentatively. The captain had left with a party of two besides himself, but he obviously wasn't anticipating anyone else returning to the small transport ship.
"There are at least thirty armed Fellarans out there, all looking for our blood," he declared. His knees suddenly went weak and he dropped to the floor slowly, back pressed tight against a wall.
"Damnit," Bones swore, giving Uhura's birthing canal another look. "Spock, I need you to keep an eye on her. Tell me when she's fully dilated. And Nyota, don't push," he said firmly, peeling off his gloves as he spoke and replacing them with a fresh pair.
Gloves were the one thing they had plenty of.
"Is he okay?" Uhura asked worriedly. Her emotions were running wild with all of the pain and stress of the situation, and the sight of Jim all but collapsing was only adding to that.
"I'm sure he's just fine," McCoy lied, kneeling beside him and carefully removing the torn shirt from Kirk's body.
There was a wound in his side, wonderful, but aside from the bleeding and worry of infection, it didn't look like it was deep enough or close enough to any of his organs to have ruptured anything.
"Jim, I need you to hold this." McCoy pressed a sterile bandage against the wound, praying he wouldn't bleed out before they could get back aboard the Enterprise. "Come on, press down. You know what to do," he said gently. Jim blinked at him owlishly, trying to do as instructed.
"Was I too late? Is the baby here already? Can I hold him?" he asked dumbly, gasping in pain as he tried to keep the pressure against the wound.
"No, you moron," McCoy said affectionately, gently maneuvering Kirk to lie flat without agitating the gaping hole in his side. "And you're not holding anything but that bandage, goddamnit," he swore fretfully, "until I say so."
"S'not fair, Bones," he said with a smile. He was obviously in shock, and McCoy felt entirely helpless. He had a baby on the way and Jim was bleeding out, and the damn shuttle craft was being fired upon while the goddamn Enterprise was completely silent to them for who-knows-what reason.
"Oh, yeah?" he asked lightly, grateful for his gloves as the blood seeped through the bandage. "Why's that?"
"Spock got, got to, Spock got to hold-" he repeated himself, unable to finish the thought. They didn't even have any goddamn sutures aboard, let alone a single dermal regenerator.
"It's fucking coming!" Uhura screamed.
"I believe she is correct this time," Spock said. He was looking more green than usual, which was likely due to blushing, rather than any ill feelings. He was Vulcan. Green blood.
"Of course I'm correct," she groaned. "I can tell when I'm having a baby. Now get it out of me!"
"Jim. Jim!" McCoy said nervously, trying to get Kirk's attention. "Damnit. Spock, you're going to have to deliver that baby yourself."
"Doctor, I do not believe that-"
"Either you deliver the baby yourself, or by the time the baby is born we have a dead lover on the floor. He's bleeding out too fast."
"Jim?" Uhura called out from her position up on the counter, trying to sit up to see him.
"Nyota, I must insist you remain lying supine at the moment," Spock said at once, leaning forward to gently press her back down. Neither he, nor McCoy, wanted her to see just how bad off Jim was doing and panic. It normally wouldn't have been a concern, but her emotions were all over the place at the moment.
"Is he okay?" she asked frantically, doing as requested, but not happy about it.
"I am unsure at this moment. However, he is in capable hands," Spock said firmly, his eyes showing his concern even if the rest of him could not- would not convey it. "Now, Nyota, you need to push with your contractions."
"What do you think I'm doing?" she screamed. She was doing a lot of that. Uhura couldn't wait until she had her son in her arms, and out of her body. And up on the Enterprise, for added measure.
"Nyota's pretty loud, Bones," Kirk slurred on the floor, blinking rapidly to try to clear his blurry vision. He choked out a painful laugh. "Think I'm dyin'."
"You're not dying, you idiot." This was more of a command from McCoy than a truth. "You are not dying and you're not leaving us. Do you hear me?"
"But if I, if I do. Bones, Bones, you gotta," he said, licking his lips and swallowing down the pain. "You gotta tell my mom. All three o' you. 'Bout 'Manda. She, she doesn't know-" he begged in a whisper.
McCoy was just glad that Uhura couldn't hear this.
"You can tell her yourself. You're not going to let your mom hear she's a grandmother from Spock, are you?" McCoy teased. He regretted saying it as Kirk choked on a laugh at his words.
"'S'been five years 'n' you're still, still," he said, coughing again, wincing at the pain and the shrill sound of Uhura's screams in the background.
"Yeah, I still am," McCoy agreed, pressing harder against the wound, praying to every deity he could think of, Earth-based or not, that the Enterprise would arrive, that they would all make it out of this alive. All five of them.
The shuttle rocked again, and then all went silent, went so still, for just a second.
McCoy thought for a wild moment that Kirk had died beneath his hands.
But then a shrill cry rang out- and this time not from Uhura. Kirk opened his eyes at the sound.
"'Nother newborn, Bones. 'S'gonna be fun."
"Says you," McCoy laughed softly. There were tears pricking his eyes, but he refused to shed them.
"Take him," he heard Uhura say tiredly in the background, but McCoy had no idea what she was talking about until Spock carefully knelt beside him, holding a barely cleaned-off baby in his arms, wrapped in own shirt. Spock lowered the baby down almost to the floor, letting Kirk see him in all his newly born glory.
"He's beautiful," Kirk whispered, smiling a little. There were tears in his eyes, too, and McCoy hoped they were from the pain, because pain would be good. Pain would mean he still had a fighting chance.
But he had a feeling they were because if something didn't drastically change in the next minute or two, Kirk wasn't going to live to get to know that beautiful baby boy.
"Y'know," Kirk whispered. "'S'means you're gonna have to stop usin' his dad's ears as an insult." He leaned over just a little and pressed a gentle kiss to that tiny head, right beside one of the gently pointed ears.
"I'm going to need you around to remind me about that," McCoy said, unable to tear his eyes away from Kirk even to look at the new addition to their family, "for a long time."
"Nyota?" McCoy asked Spock without breaking his gaze.
"I believe she is asleep," came the soft-spoken reply.
"'Course she'd sleep through me dying," Kirk smiled. "'N' even if I don't, don't die, she's gonna hang this over my hea-"
But he couldn't continue talking any longer.
"Jim, wake up, damnit. I'm just a doctor. I need you to fight right now until I can get to doctorin'," McCoy pleaded.
"Fzzt!-- Fzzt!--"
Spock and McCoy looked up sharply at the same moment, and then stared at each other to confirm that both of them heard it.
"Fzzt!-- This is Fzzt!-- -ip Enterpri- Fzzt!-- Do you read? I repeat, this is-"
Bones ripped his gloves off hastily and reached the comm in record time.
"Enterprise, this is Dr. McCoy. We need an emergency transport. And Medical alerted and ready for immediate surgery, and two gurneys readied. Now, damnit," he barked.
"Yes, sir," came the reply, sounding relieved, rather than cowed. McCoy swiftly moved over to Nyota to check her pulse and to guage if there had been any tearing during the birthing process, and just as he was pulling her uniform back down, all five of them were beamed up to the ship.
Spock was still kneeling beside Kirk's deathly still side and carefully cradling the child in his arms when McCoy looked back at them.
Eight hours later, Sickbay was looking somber.
The nurses were all uncharacteristically quiet as they worked, and the other doctors were staying well away from Doctor McCoy.
"How are you? Physically, I mean," McCoy asked Uhura from her bedside. She gave him a half-hearted smile and lifted her son a little.
"Tired. But, we have a son," she said wearily, trying to offer him the sleeping newborn.
"I don't think-" he began to speak, but Spock was beside him suddenly and lifting the baby from Uhura's arms to carefully place him into McCoy's.
"You have not held him yet," Spock said, not taking McCoy's refusal as an answer.
"He's...." He trailed off, finding himself unable to speak.
"He's our son," Spock finished for him, gently bringing up two fingers to caress McCoy's cheek.
"You guys having a party without me?"
Uhura sat up sharply at those words, suddenly wide awake. Spock's eyes widened fractionally.
Were McCoy almost any other man, he would have dropped the child in his elated shock as he stared at the form lying on the bed only a few feet away.
Within seconds, he was forcing himself past the shock and placing the boy back into Uhura's arms so that he could march over to Kirk's bed, hastily scanning his vitals and standing beside his bed.
"Yes, you idiot," he said scathingly. "We decided to have a party to celebrate how quiet it was around here for once."
"That's not fair," Kirk said with a stupid smile. He was on some damn good painkillers at the moment. McCoy wasn't sure if he could even tell that he was being sarcastic.
"I swear, he gets dumber every day," Uhura said to her son, pressing a kiss to his head and holding him close to her chest and not moving him.
"I heard that, Nyota," Kirk replied to that cheerfully, drawing out her name in a tipsy, drowsy sort of way that demonstrated how much he enjoyed saying her name.
As he had said hours before, it had been five years. Yet, being allowed to say her name was still a treat to him.
"Glad to see you're not dead," she said in her usual caustic tone, but it was obvious to anyone who was not heavily medicated that she had tears in her eyes, and if she held her baby any more tightly, he would wake up crying.
"Captain," Kirk immediately tacked on to her sentence. "Captain. I'm a captain," he said quietly, sounding pleased with himself for knowing such a fact.
"Indeed you are, Captain. However, perhaps it would be best for the captain of the ship to rest, rather than antagonize Nyota any further." Spock was torn between Uhura and Kirk, unsure whom he should be standing beside at the moment. But rather than betray his inner state, he stood still between both of them, deeming it the only logical choice.
"'M not tired," Kirk mumbled, eyes drooping already.
"You're a damned liar is what you are," McCoy whispered, reaching down to run his fingers through the soft blonde hair on Kirk's head.
"Love you, too, Bones." With that, Kirk breathed in another breath or two, before falling back to sleep. The relief in the room was almost palpable, and McCoy was quickly coming to realize that there was a number of spectators standing around the family.
"What are you all staring at? Do I not give you enough work to do?" he asked hastily, causing them all to scatter almost at once. Quiet laughter came from Uhura's bed.
"Look at your Pop, being mean to his staff," he heard her whispering to the child as he came back over.
"I'm not being mean," he grumped, slowly allowing a small smile to crop up on his lips.
"Is it likely that the captain will make a full recovery?" Spock asked him, now stroking the side of Uhura's face. She had a serene smile on her face. Her family all seemed to be doing well. Even idiot captains who end up almost dying while she's giving birth.
"Yeah," McCoy nodded, "the fact that he just woke up on his own is a good sign. A very good sign. Can't make any promises, but the prognosis is looking good."
"Then perhaps you should get some rest. It has been a most taxing day, and-"
"All right, all right. Since you're twistin' my arm," McCoy muttered with a playful frown. Spock remained impassive. When he opened his mouth to respond, McCoy just pressed a couple of fingers over his lips.
"Don't want to hear it," McCoy said plainly.
"Of course." Spock's expression could only be described as expressionless by those who did not know him well. Those who could read him as well as Uhura and McCoy, however, could easily tell that he was amused by the exchange. And happy that his son was well. And relieved that Kirk was going to survive the ordeal.
It was a lot in one non-expression, but it was there nonetheless.
"Who has Amanda?" McCoy asked the two of them suddenly, stifling a yawn into his sleeve.
"Chekov got stuck with babysitting duty this time," Uhura told him, eyeing him carefully.
"What?" he asked, prompting her to tell him what was on her mind. Not that she ever did any differently.
"When can we get out of here?" Uhura asked without any preamble.
"You and the baby? Well," McCoy frowned slightly. "I don't see any reason why the two of you can't leave now. I'd prefer it in a chair, though. And I want you both back in here first thing in the morning," he decided.
"You're coming with us, Leonard." She wore a wry smile and shook her head, as though she couldn't believe that she had to say it.
"What? No I'm not. No, I'm staying with-"
"I will stay with him," Spock said quietly.
"But-"
"No 'but's about it. Come on. Get me a wheelchair and we'll go rescue Chekov from our three-year-old. Spock will stay with Jim and be here when he wakes up. You need your rest, and so do I."
"The Lady has spoken," McCoy grumbled. He complied with her demands anyway. As long as Kirk had someone with him when he awakened, it would be fine. The way it tugged at his heart not to be him, however, would just have to be ignored.
As Uhura settled in the chair, Spock settling the babe back in her arms, a thought struck McCoy.
"So, what are we calling him, anyway?"
Uhura smiled secretively.
"Spock and I decided on a name weeks ago. We were just waiting for the whole family to be here to give it to him. He can wait a few more hours, Leonard, and you can too."
"Is that so?"
"It is," she replied as he got behind her to push the chair.
"I guess I've been told," he said to Spock, and nodded his farewell for the night.
"Good night, Spock," he said.
"Yes, good night, Spock," Uhura echoed, looking back at him for a moment, before sitting straight once again.
Once Uhura and McCoy cleared the room, and Spock was left alone with Kirk, who was sleeping restfully, he spoke.
"Good night, Leonard. Good night, Nyota." He touched Kirk's face with tender care. "Good night, Jim."
(In my defense, I don't know hardly anything about pregnancy or labor. Or almost dying from blood loss. I did a little research, but, honestly, I just hope I didn't seriously fuck this up. Feel free to correct me on any details!
Also, this ended up Spock/Uhura/Bones/Jim because the story all but demanded that be the "pairing". I was just innocently minding my own business, writing a Spock/Uhura ficlet around 300 words or so, and suddenly the story decided that no, it had to be more than 3,000 words long, and also be an OT4.
Also, Jim Kirk demanded he be the star, or he'd go on strike. Sorry? I realized while writing this that apparently I can't write a fic where James T. Kirk isn't an attention hog and stealing the show.
OH MY GOD. ST:XI has, apparently, taken over my entire life.)
ETA: This story now has a small prequel/companion piece here.
ETA the 2nd: You can now find any stories in this series by click the "series: trouble-'verse" tag.
Author: andhopeto (Kris)
Pairings: Mostly McCoy/Kirk with Uhura/Spock, but: ( skip) the story is really Spock/Uhura/Bones/Kirk
Rating: R
Word Count: ~3,200
Warnings: A woman giving birth. Also: ( skip) Kirk almost dies, but this *isn't* deathfic. Also, this is an OT4 fic, not *just* McCoy/Kirk and Uhura/Spock
Summary: Sometimes when one window closes, another opens. And sometimes life doesn't quite work that way.
Notes: Technically written for this prompt at st_xi_kink, but it ran away from me, and now it doesn't really fill it. A different story demanded to be told instead.
Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to any of these characters. I simply dabble in this toybox.
"I am never doing this again!" The scream reverberated in the small shuttle craft.
"I believe I must remind you that you said precisely the same thing the first time you gave birth."
"Last time I had an anesthetic!" This scream was a bit more shrill, and far more furious than the last.
"Get out of my way, you pointy-eared idiot," Doctor McCoy grumbled testily while pushing Spock out of his way. It was bad enough to be delivering a baby in a shuttle without the proper amenities, but to be delivering a baby without any anesthetic and a Vulcan hovering around was going to be so much worse. The fact that they were being routinely fired upon was just icing on the cake.
Uhura's face was pinched and pained, and Spock kept trying to look at the actual birthing process, rather than stand beside her and let himself be berated in the long-standing tradition of fathers-to-be.
There was a frightful sound coming from outside and McCoy turned to stare fretfully at the door a moment before settling himself and getting back to the proceedings.
"Are you sure you can't do something to get back in contact with the ship?" he asked Spock again, voice tight. The baby was going to be premature by a solid three and a half weeks, and the thought of an even more complicated birth was worrying.
"I am sure, Doctor," Spock replied in what passed for 'distracted' for a Vulcan. "I was sure fifteen minutes ago, and I will be sure in the future. It is unnecessary to ask me again."
"Then why don't you actually make yourself useful?" McCoy snarled, and Spock looked about as surprised as he ever did. Which is to say, not very.
"Spock!" Uhura gritted out, waving her hand at him. Her voice was strained and her skin was covered in sweat from the strain upon her body. She reached for him, and the moment he was close enough, she had a vice-like grip around one of his hands. Were he entirely human, she surely would have broken a bone or two.
The shuttle rocked violently for a moment, upsetting some of the few medical supplies the doctor had managed to scrounge up.
"Get this baby out of me," Uhura commanded, her teeth clenched tight. She hadn't had an easy labor the first time she had done this, and that was with a fully trained staff of medical professionals and all the appropriate medications and tools at his disposal. And without angry locals firing upon their vessel.
He was fairly certain that she'd rather just cut the baby out of her belly by now, just to be done with it all at once.
"I need to push, you bastard, I need to push!" she screamed, her voice starting to go raw from all of the exertion and yelling.
"Not yet," McCoy commanded, looking at her progress. "You aren't fully dilated yet, and-"
"And I don't care! I want this baby out of me. Now!" Uhura was normally a good patient, and she was certainly a wonderful mother, but there was something about the act of childbirth she was just plainly ill-suited for.
The door of the craft opened suddenly, and Spock's free hand immediately reached for his phaser, but it was just the captain, running inside and slamming the door behind him. He was filthy and panting, holding his side as he began punching buttons and pulling levers to bolt the door behind him entirely.
"Jim?" Dr. McCoy asked tentatively. The captain had left with a party of two besides himself, but he obviously wasn't anticipating anyone else returning to the small transport ship.
"There are at least thirty armed Fellarans out there, all looking for our blood," he declared. His knees suddenly went weak and he dropped to the floor slowly, back pressed tight against a wall.
"Damnit," Bones swore, giving Uhura's birthing canal another look. "Spock, I need you to keep an eye on her. Tell me when she's fully dilated. And Nyota, don't push," he said firmly, peeling off his gloves as he spoke and replacing them with a fresh pair.
Gloves were the one thing they had plenty of.
"Is he okay?" Uhura asked worriedly. Her emotions were running wild with all of the pain and stress of the situation, and the sight of Jim all but collapsing was only adding to that.
"I'm sure he's just fine," McCoy lied, kneeling beside him and carefully removing the torn shirt from Kirk's body.
There was a wound in his side, wonderful, but aside from the bleeding and worry of infection, it didn't look like it was deep enough or close enough to any of his organs to have ruptured anything.
"Jim, I need you to hold this." McCoy pressed a sterile bandage against the wound, praying he wouldn't bleed out before they could get back aboard the Enterprise. "Come on, press down. You know what to do," he said gently. Jim blinked at him owlishly, trying to do as instructed.
"Was I too late? Is the baby here already? Can I hold him?" he asked dumbly, gasping in pain as he tried to keep the pressure against the wound.
"No, you moron," McCoy said affectionately, gently maneuvering Kirk to lie flat without agitating the gaping hole in his side. "And you're not holding anything but that bandage, goddamnit," he swore fretfully, "until I say so."
"S'not fair, Bones," he said with a smile. He was obviously in shock, and McCoy felt entirely helpless. He had a baby on the way and Jim was bleeding out, and the damn shuttle craft was being fired upon while the goddamn Enterprise was completely silent to them for who-knows-what reason.
"Oh, yeah?" he asked lightly, grateful for his gloves as the blood seeped through the bandage. "Why's that?"
"Spock got, got to, Spock got to hold-" he repeated himself, unable to finish the thought. They didn't even have any goddamn sutures aboard, let alone a single dermal regenerator.
"It's fucking coming!" Uhura screamed.
"I believe she is correct this time," Spock said. He was looking more green than usual, which was likely due to blushing, rather than any ill feelings. He was Vulcan. Green blood.
"Of course I'm correct," she groaned. "I can tell when I'm having a baby. Now get it out of me!"
"Jim. Jim!" McCoy said nervously, trying to get Kirk's attention. "Damnit. Spock, you're going to have to deliver that baby yourself."
"Doctor, I do not believe that-"
"Either you deliver the baby yourself, or by the time the baby is born we have a dead lover on the floor. He's bleeding out too fast."
"Jim?" Uhura called out from her position up on the counter, trying to sit up to see him.
"Nyota, I must insist you remain lying supine at the moment," Spock said at once, leaning forward to gently press her back down. Neither he, nor McCoy, wanted her to see just how bad off Jim was doing and panic. It normally wouldn't have been a concern, but her emotions were all over the place at the moment.
"Is he okay?" she asked frantically, doing as requested, but not happy about it.
"I am unsure at this moment. However, he is in capable hands," Spock said firmly, his eyes showing his concern even if the rest of him could not- would not convey it. "Now, Nyota, you need to push with your contractions."
"What do you think I'm doing?" she screamed. She was doing a lot of that. Uhura couldn't wait until she had her son in her arms, and out of her body. And up on the Enterprise, for added measure.
"Nyota's pretty loud, Bones," Kirk slurred on the floor, blinking rapidly to try to clear his blurry vision. He choked out a painful laugh. "Think I'm dyin'."
"You're not dying, you idiot." This was more of a command from McCoy than a truth. "You are not dying and you're not leaving us. Do you hear me?"
"But if I, if I do. Bones, Bones, you gotta," he said, licking his lips and swallowing down the pain. "You gotta tell my mom. All three o' you. 'Bout 'Manda. She, she doesn't know-" he begged in a whisper.
McCoy was just glad that Uhura couldn't hear this.
"You can tell her yourself. You're not going to let your mom hear she's a grandmother from Spock, are you?" McCoy teased. He regretted saying it as Kirk choked on a laugh at his words.
"'S'been five years 'n' you're still, still," he said, coughing again, wincing at the pain and the shrill sound of Uhura's screams in the background.
"Yeah, I still am," McCoy agreed, pressing harder against the wound, praying to every deity he could think of, Earth-based or not, that the Enterprise would arrive, that they would all make it out of this alive. All five of them.
The shuttle rocked again, and then all went silent, went so still, for just a second.
McCoy thought for a wild moment that Kirk had died beneath his hands.
But then a shrill cry rang out- and this time not from Uhura. Kirk opened his eyes at the sound.
"'Nother newborn, Bones. 'S'gonna be fun."
"Says you," McCoy laughed softly. There were tears pricking his eyes, but he refused to shed them.
"Take him," he heard Uhura say tiredly in the background, but McCoy had no idea what she was talking about until Spock carefully knelt beside him, holding a barely cleaned-off baby in his arms, wrapped in own shirt. Spock lowered the baby down almost to the floor, letting Kirk see him in all his newly born glory.
"He's beautiful," Kirk whispered, smiling a little. There were tears in his eyes, too, and McCoy hoped they were from the pain, because pain would be good. Pain would mean he still had a fighting chance.
But he had a feeling they were because if something didn't drastically change in the next minute or two, Kirk wasn't going to live to get to know that beautiful baby boy.
"Y'know," Kirk whispered. "'S'means you're gonna have to stop usin' his dad's ears as an insult." He leaned over just a little and pressed a gentle kiss to that tiny head, right beside one of the gently pointed ears.
"I'm going to need you around to remind me about that," McCoy said, unable to tear his eyes away from Kirk even to look at the new addition to their family, "for a long time."
"Nyota?" McCoy asked Spock without breaking his gaze.
"I believe she is asleep," came the soft-spoken reply.
"'Course she'd sleep through me dying," Kirk smiled. "'N' even if I don't, don't die, she's gonna hang this over my hea-"
But he couldn't continue talking any longer.
"Jim, wake up, damnit. I'm just a doctor. I need you to fight right now until I can get to doctorin'," McCoy pleaded.
"Fzzt!-- Fzzt!--"
Spock and McCoy looked up sharply at the same moment, and then stared at each other to confirm that both of them heard it.
"Fzzt!-- This is Fzzt!-- -ip Enterpri- Fzzt!-- Do you read? I repeat, this is-"
Bones ripped his gloves off hastily and reached the comm in record time.
"Enterprise, this is Dr. McCoy. We need an emergency transport. And Medical alerted and ready for immediate surgery, and two gurneys readied. Now, damnit," he barked.
"Yes, sir," came the reply, sounding relieved, rather than cowed. McCoy swiftly moved over to Nyota to check her pulse and to guage if there had been any tearing during the birthing process, and just as he was pulling her uniform back down, all five of them were beamed up to the ship.
Spock was still kneeling beside Kirk's deathly still side and carefully cradling the child in his arms when McCoy looked back at them.
Eight hours later, Sickbay was looking somber.
The nurses were all uncharacteristically quiet as they worked, and the other doctors were staying well away from Doctor McCoy.
"How are you? Physically, I mean," McCoy asked Uhura from her bedside. She gave him a half-hearted smile and lifted her son a little.
"Tired. But, we have a son," she said wearily, trying to offer him the sleeping newborn.
"I don't think-" he began to speak, but Spock was beside him suddenly and lifting the baby from Uhura's arms to carefully place him into McCoy's.
"You have not held him yet," Spock said, not taking McCoy's refusal as an answer.
"He's...." He trailed off, finding himself unable to speak.
"He's our son," Spock finished for him, gently bringing up two fingers to caress McCoy's cheek.
"You guys having a party without me?"
Uhura sat up sharply at those words, suddenly wide awake. Spock's eyes widened fractionally.
Were McCoy almost any other man, he would have dropped the child in his elated shock as he stared at the form lying on the bed only a few feet away.
Within seconds, he was forcing himself past the shock and placing the boy back into Uhura's arms so that he could march over to Kirk's bed, hastily scanning his vitals and standing beside his bed.
"Yes, you idiot," he said scathingly. "We decided to have a party to celebrate how quiet it was around here for once."
"That's not fair," Kirk said with a stupid smile. He was on some damn good painkillers at the moment. McCoy wasn't sure if he could even tell that he was being sarcastic.
"I swear, he gets dumber every day," Uhura said to her son, pressing a kiss to his head and holding him close to her chest and not moving him.
"I heard that, Nyota," Kirk replied to that cheerfully, drawing out her name in a tipsy, drowsy sort of way that demonstrated how much he enjoyed saying her name.
As he had said hours before, it had been five years. Yet, being allowed to say her name was still a treat to him.
"Glad to see you're not dead," she said in her usual caustic tone, but it was obvious to anyone who was not heavily medicated that she had tears in her eyes, and if she held her baby any more tightly, he would wake up crying.
"Captain," Kirk immediately tacked on to her sentence. "Captain. I'm a captain," he said quietly, sounding pleased with himself for knowing such a fact.
"Indeed you are, Captain. However, perhaps it would be best for the captain of the ship to rest, rather than antagonize Nyota any further." Spock was torn between Uhura and Kirk, unsure whom he should be standing beside at the moment. But rather than betray his inner state, he stood still between both of them, deeming it the only logical choice.
"'M not tired," Kirk mumbled, eyes drooping already.
"You're a damned liar is what you are," McCoy whispered, reaching down to run his fingers through the soft blonde hair on Kirk's head.
"Love you, too, Bones." With that, Kirk breathed in another breath or two, before falling back to sleep. The relief in the room was almost palpable, and McCoy was quickly coming to realize that there was a number of spectators standing around the family.
"What are you all staring at? Do I not give you enough work to do?" he asked hastily, causing them all to scatter almost at once. Quiet laughter came from Uhura's bed.
"Look at your Pop, being mean to his staff," he heard her whispering to the child as he came back over.
"I'm not being mean," he grumped, slowly allowing a small smile to crop up on his lips.
"Is it likely that the captain will make a full recovery?" Spock asked him, now stroking the side of Uhura's face. She had a serene smile on her face. Her family all seemed to be doing well. Even idiot captains who end up almost dying while she's giving birth.
"Yeah," McCoy nodded, "the fact that he just woke up on his own is a good sign. A very good sign. Can't make any promises, but the prognosis is looking good."
"Then perhaps you should get some rest. It has been a most taxing day, and-"
"All right, all right. Since you're twistin' my arm," McCoy muttered with a playful frown. Spock remained impassive. When he opened his mouth to respond, McCoy just pressed a couple of fingers over his lips.
"Don't want to hear it," McCoy said plainly.
"Of course." Spock's expression could only be described as expressionless by those who did not know him well. Those who could read him as well as Uhura and McCoy, however, could easily tell that he was amused by the exchange. And happy that his son was well. And relieved that Kirk was going to survive the ordeal.
It was a lot in one non-expression, but it was there nonetheless.
"Who has Amanda?" McCoy asked the two of them suddenly, stifling a yawn into his sleeve.
"Chekov got stuck with babysitting duty this time," Uhura told him, eyeing him carefully.
"What?" he asked, prompting her to tell him what was on her mind. Not that she ever did any differently.
"When can we get out of here?" Uhura asked without any preamble.
"You and the baby? Well," McCoy frowned slightly. "I don't see any reason why the two of you can't leave now. I'd prefer it in a chair, though. And I want you both back in here first thing in the morning," he decided.
"You're coming with us, Leonard." She wore a wry smile and shook her head, as though she couldn't believe that she had to say it.
"What? No I'm not. No, I'm staying with-"
"I will stay with him," Spock said quietly.
"But-"
"No 'but's about it. Come on. Get me a wheelchair and we'll go rescue Chekov from our three-year-old. Spock will stay with Jim and be here when he wakes up. You need your rest, and so do I."
"The Lady has spoken," McCoy grumbled. He complied with her demands anyway. As long as Kirk had someone with him when he awakened, it would be fine. The way it tugged at his heart not to be him, however, would just have to be ignored.
As Uhura settled in the chair, Spock settling the babe back in her arms, a thought struck McCoy.
"So, what are we calling him, anyway?"
Uhura smiled secretively.
"Spock and I decided on a name weeks ago. We were just waiting for the whole family to be here to give it to him. He can wait a few more hours, Leonard, and you can too."
"Is that so?"
"It is," she replied as he got behind her to push the chair.
"I guess I've been told," he said to Spock, and nodded his farewell for the night.
"Good night, Spock," he said.
"Yes, good night, Spock," Uhura echoed, looking back at him for a moment, before sitting straight once again.
Once Uhura and McCoy cleared the room, and Spock was left alone with Kirk, who was sleeping restfully, he spoke.
"Good night, Leonard. Good night, Nyota." He touched Kirk's face with tender care. "Good night, Jim."
(In my defense, I don't know hardly anything about pregnancy or labor. Or almost dying from blood loss. I did a little research, but, honestly, I just hope I didn't seriously fuck this up. Feel free to correct me on any details!
Also, this ended up Spock/Uhura/Bones/Jim because the story all but demanded that be the "pairing". I was just innocently minding my own business, writing a Spock/Uhura ficlet around 300 words or so, and suddenly the story decided that no, it had to be more than 3,000 words long, and also be an OT4.
Also, Jim Kirk demanded he be the star, or he'd go on strike. Sorry? I realized while writing this that apparently I can't write a fic where James T. Kirk isn't an attention hog and stealing the show.
OH MY GOD. ST:XI has, apparently, taken over my entire life.)
ETA: This story now has a small prequel/companion piece here.
ETA the 2nd: You can now find any stories in this series by click the "series: trouble-'verse" tag.