Five Times Bones and Kirk Have to Sleep Together [1/1]
Title: Five Times Bones and Kirk Have to Sleep Together and One Time Where They Don't Get Anywhere Near Sleeping
Author: vamplover82
Pairing: Kirk/McCoy
Rating: NC-17
Summary: The title says it all.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Star Trek, and this certainly isn’t true.
Author notes: Comments and con. crit. are much appreciated. Written as a comment fic for this prompt at st_xi_kink.
1.
When Kirk decides to go to the Academy, it's a split second decision with no thought to any of the logistics of any of it. It's no big deal to show up without any clothing since they supply him with uniforms, but he literally has no belongings whatsoever. Which actually turns out to be something of a blessing when they finally arrive and he finds that he has nowhere to stay because the dorms were filled up long before the term started.
Of course, they have to do something with him, but Jim thinks he probably could have managed better left to his own devices. He's sure he could charm his way into someone's bed if he actually had time to do anything beyond orientation and a battery of placement testing. By the end of the day, he's too worn out to think of going out, even when it turns out he's essentially living in a storage closet. With Leonard McCoy. And one bed.
McCoy is asleep and snoring softly when Jim finally trails in, and he frowns at the pile of blankets on the floor that he assumes is supposed to be his bed. Fuck. He arranges them as best he can and curls up, even though it's totally uncomfortable. He can handle this, really.
Three hours later, he decides that no, actually, he can't handle it. Jim stands up and stretches out his already-sore muscles, eyeing McCoy and the bed. There's enough room that he thinks he could probably fit. He stares for a good five minutes before deciding that it's worth a possible punch to the face not to have to sleep on the floor.
He slides onto the bed oh so carefully, and he's just folding his legs in when McCoy shifts and opens his eyes, giving Jim a wary look.
"Dude, the floor's shit. You don't mind, do you?" Jim tries out his best charming smile, but it slips as the silence stretches on.
"Don't hog the covers," McCoy finally mumbles, sliding back into sleep. Jim smirks faintly, settling in and closing his eyes.
When he wakes in the morning, Jim isn't sure where he is. It takes a minute to remember that he's in the storage closet and that he really shouldn't be humping the person sharing his bed because he and McCoy didn't actually have sex. He pulls away and rolls out of bed quickly, glad when McCoy doesn't stir. He adjusts his hard-on in his shorts before pulling on his jeans and heading down the hall to the bathroom.
He gets back and McCoy is awake, but there's no weird morning after like he's used to, just some grumbling about the cramped quarters and lack of coffee. And if he had to get stuck sharing a storage closet, he's glad it was with McCoy. Still, he manages to find a bed somewhere else every night for the month it takes for someone to drop out and a room to open up. He just doesn't want to impose on McCoy's sleeping space. Yeah, that's all.
2.
It's a few months into the semester when they have a mandatory wilderness survival test. All of the new cadets are paired up, and McCoy ends up with Kirk. He's glad that he'll be with his friend (because he's not sure he could tolerate an entire 24 hours with some idiot cadet who didn't even know how to take care of themselves in the dorm, let alone outdoors), but he's a little bit worried about the whole situation. He theoretically knows how to take care of himself in a situation like this, but he's never actually had to put it into practice before.
McCoy is displeased enough in the first place, but he's put in an even fouler mood when Jim proceeds to treat it all like some game. And damnit, they aren't allowed to take anything with them but the clothes on their backs, so he doesn't appreciate the flippant attitude.
He's surly as they spend the day scouting out the area around them, finding the nearest source of water and managing to find some wild fruit, enough to keep them fed until the day is over. By the time they set up camp in a cave, he's beginning to mellow out. Things haven't gone too badly so far, and Jim is taking it seriously enough that McCoy can't complain. Well, at least not until they discover that neither of them can light a fire.
They try for hours as the sun steadily descends, because they may be in California, but by this time of year it gets cold at night. Eventually, darkness falls and there's not much they can do. The air cools rapidly, and no matter how hard either of them rubs sticks or strikes rocks together, nothing works.
It's not long before they're both shivering, even with the jackets they're wearing. Jim's still knocking a couple of rocks together and swearing under his breath when McCoy decides it's a lost cause.
"Jim, just give it up. It's not going to happen, and it's late enough that we really need to get some sleep."
"Just a few more minutes, Bones. I know I can get it."
"If you couldn't in the past three hours, I don't know why you think a few more minutes would make a difference." McCoy still lets him go at it for a little while longer.
Finally, Jim drops the rocks, settles uncomfortably on the floor of the cave, and curls up. McCoy can see him shaking with the cold, although he isn't much better off, himself. McCoy shifts around for half an hour before he crawls over to Kirk and drops down behind him, spooning up against his back.
"Bones, what-?"
"Too damn cold. We'll both end up with hypothermia if we don't conserve body heat."
Jim shifts to mold his form to McCoy's. "Alright."
McCoy sighs as he drifts off. They really need to work on their survival skills.
3.
By the time their second semester at the Academy starts, Kirk and McCoy actually have a real room with two beds, but they're still sharing it. Jim appreciates his bed quite a lot, so much so that he takes every chance that he gets to sleep in it, which means that he also has quite a bit of sex in it.
And the thing is, the beds look simple, but they're actually kind of complicated. The computer somehow regulates its firmness and temperature, which pretty much everyone takes for granted. But then Jim has some particularly energetic sex in his bed one day, and they somehow manage to break it. The regulator is all over the place, so the bed is hard as a rock one minute and soft as a cloud the next, shifting between winter weather warm and summer cool.
It's still early in the day, so Jim puts in a request to maintenance, assuming that it'll be fixed by the time he's done with classes and studying. But when he returns to his room late that evening, the bed is still fluctuating wildly. He contacts maintenance again to see what the hold-up is, and he's informed that they won't be able to get to it until the next day because everyone is busy with some massive replicator malfunction that's affecting half the campus.
After that, Jim does his best to get a hold of any of his regular fucks, trying to find someone he can spend the night with. He has several, but all of them seem to be busy with other things or people and don't have time for him. And he's friendly with them, but not quite enough to ask any of them if he can sleep in their beds while they're not there.
McCoy gets back somewhere in the middle of his conversation with Gaila, who is apparently entertaining someone else that night. He's clearly amused as Jim keeps getting shot down, but he's trying not to show it. In fact, Jim would bet good money that he's the only one who would be able to see past the carefully blank expression to catch the twinkle of laughter in McCoy's eye.
He sighs as he realizes he's run through everyone he had in mind and now he's stuck with his malfunctioning bed. He changes into sleep pants and sits on the bed, wincing as it softens and he sinks a couple inches. Bones is getting ready for bed himself, sighing happily, which Jim knows is his way of rubbing it in, because Bones has never sounded particularly happy when going to bed.
"Hey, Bones?"
"Don't even think about it."
"What? Why not?"
"Because you do hog the covers, and you kick way too much."
"At least I don't snore," Jim mumbles.
McCoy rolls his eyes. "Yeah, that'll help change my mind."
"So you're saying your mind can be changed?" Jim smirks, and then puts on a completely innocent expression. "Oh, Leonard, if you'd just let me share your bed, I'm sure I could think of some way to repay you." He flutters his eyelashes, and smiles as sweetly as he knows how.
McCoy looks slightly taken aback by that, and he says nothing.
"Oh, come on, Bones. Look, how about this, I won't bring anyone back to the room for the next month. Seriously, there's no way I can sleep in that bed."
"Yeah, alright. Get over here." McCoy lifts the blanket in invitation, and Jim dives in, sprawling happily and dozing off almost immediately.
McCoy lies awake for a long time after that, unable to talk down the erection that had inexplicably popped up around the time when Jim had started fluttering his goddamn eyelashes.
4.
McCoy absolutely refuses to come down with the flu. He's a doctor, damn it, and he is supposed to be helping treat patients, not becoming one himself. It all starts when a mutated strain of the Rigellian flu sweeps through the campus, and all of the med students abruptly become severely overworked.
There is no cure for the mutated strain, and with everyone at the Academy living in such close quarters, people are coming down with it all over the place. Beds in every medical wing are full with flu patients, and McCoy finds himself pulling double shifts for several days straight.
He knows that he should be taking better care of himself than he is, sleeping and eating more often especially, but there just doesn't seem to be time for everything. So, it's with extreme displeasure, although not a lot of surprise, that he finds himself passing out in the middle of one of his shifts. When he comes around, he's lying on the floor with one of the nurses (damned if he remembers her name) hovering over him.
"Dr. McCoy? Are you alright?" she asks, although they both know that he isn't. Her hand is on his forehead, and she has to be able to feel that he's burning up.
"I'm fine, just need to sit for a minute," he says gruffly, still trying to deny his illness, even though he knows he shouldn't.
"Dr. McCoy, you're ill, and I really think you need to lie down. You won't do anyone any good if you keep trying to work in your condition." The nurse (Katie, maybe?) is unexpectedly stern, and she won't allow him to stand until she's found him a bed.
She comes back some ten minutes later, looking decidedly flustered. "I'm afraid there aren't any beds left."
McCoy wants to go back to his quarters, but although there isn't an official quarantine for flu patients, they're encouraged not to leave the medical buildings. He sighs heavily. "My best friend's two rooms down the hall. I'll share with him."
Katie helps him up, and she looks like she wants to follow him and make sure he gets where he's going, but he tells her to inform Dr. Sullivan of his illness and she hurries off. McCoy heads down the hall and finds Jim half-awake in his bed.
"Bones, you checking up on me?" Jim gives him a slightly delirious smile.
"I wish. I passed out while doing the rounds, and I've been sent to bed. No free ones, though."
He's glad that Jim doesn't make him ask, because he's really not in any kind of mood to deal with dicking around. Jim just slides over in silent invitation, and McCoy collapses, glad to finally be off his feet. Later, he'll blame it on the fever and cramped space, but he turns to face Jim and tangles their legs together before letting exhaustion take over.
5.
Kirk and Spock have finally returned to the Enterprise with Pike after defeating Nero, and ship repairs are already underway. Unfortunately, they're pretty much dead in the water for the moment, having sustained damage to the impulse engines in escaping the time rift.
Kirk is busy supervising repairs as soon as he's handed Pike into McCoy's capable hands, wanting to make sure that the ship will be up and running, and that he'll be able to get the crew safely home. It takes days to complete all the repairs necessary just to get them moving again, and although Kirk doesn't realize it, everyone has noticed that he hasn't slept at all that entire time.
Spock is particularly worried about Kirk's ability to function as captain when he can barely keep his eyes open. A quick discussion with Uhura assures him that he is not the only one and also informs him that the doctor has been doing the same as the captain, unwilling to sleep while Pike is in such a delicate state after the removal of the parasite.
They devise a simple plan that will allow both the captain and the doctor to get a good night's sleep. While Kirk is sitting in his chair on the bridge, valiantly trying to stay awake, Spock exerts the slightest amount of pressure to his shoulder, and Kirk passes out immediately.
His communicator beeps, and Nurse Chapel informs him that she has given the doctor a sedative and that he is asleep in the sickbay. Spock gathers up the captain and heads to the sickbay where two security guards are waiting for him. They pick McCoy up and follow Spock through the corridors until he comes to the one room he was able to determine was definitely unoccupied.
Spock enters and deposits Kirk on the bed, and the guards place McCoy next to him. Spock looks at the two of them lying in the small confines of the bed and regrets that he had not been able to find a room with two beds. Still, better that they get sleep in the same bed than that they keep running themselves ragged. He and the guards leave the room, each heading back to their duty stations.
***
Jim wakes up, for the first time in quite awhile, not knowing where he is. There is a body pressed up against his side and an arm over his waist, and a small turn of the head tells him that it's Bones. As Jim shifts around, trying to get free, he remembers that he's on the Enterprise as well as everything that's happened. He shoots up without thinking, and Bones opens his eyes, blinking blearily.
"Jim, what's going on?"
By that time, Kirk has also remembered that they're out of danger, fixing the ship up, and that Spock had done that stupid nerve pinch thing on him again. "Damn, son of a....I need to get back to the bridge."
McCoy is already up and straightening out his uniform, swearing as well, and Kirk figures that he'd probably been forcibly put to sleep, too. They look at each other for a moment, and Jim closes the distance between them, running a hand through McCoy's hair a few times. McCoy raises an eyebrow.
"You have total bed head." He grins and is pleased to get a small smile in return. Together, they head out the door, parting ways when they reach Sickbay.
1.
Jim has been the captain of the Enterprise for almost a year when McCoy goes on his first away mission. It's not supposed to be anything big or dangerous, just a few locals in need of some medical attention. So it's a complete surprise when McCoy is held hostage and it takes a rescue party five days to get him back.
When they beam back to the ship, Spock supporting McCoy's weight, Jim's heart leaps in his chest. McCoy looks absolutely terrible, like maybe he hasn't been fed in days. Jim takes over immediately, getting McCoy to Sickbay in far less time than should be possible. He leaves McCoy in their care, not because he wants to, but because he has a ship to run, and besides, he'd only be in the way if he lurked there.
Kirk manages to put it out of his mind while he's on duty, focusing on getting them out of that system as quickly they can manage. He breathes a sigh of relief as they hit warp speed.
As soon as his shift it over, though, Jim is in the sickbay, checking on McCoy, who looks a lot better now that he's been cleaned up and taken care of.
"Bones," he says, when he sees that McCoy is awake, and he doesn't like how full of emotion that one little word is.
Bones just smiles, though, and pats the hand Jim hadn't even realized he'd put on McCoy's shoulder. "It's good to be back, Jim."
***
The incident is largely forgotten once McCoy is back to full health; it's just another away mission gone awry, as so many of them are. But the thing is, Jim can't forget. He wants to, really he does, but he can't stop thinking about what it would be like if they hadn't gotten Bones back. He's perfectly used to putting himself in life and death situations, but it's a shock to his system to realize that Bones could have died.
Three weeks later, Jim is totally tied up in knots over it, and he's not sleeping well. He doesn't know why it's so bad this time; goodness knows there have been enough away missions where he actually has lost people, so this really shouldn't be such a big deal.
As he's trying to sleep that night, he's too restless, and his thoughts are circling around his mind too fast. Finally, he gets up and puts his uniform back on, making his way to McCoy's quarters.
McCoy lets him in immediately, which means that he probably hadn't been sleeping, either.
"What's wrong, Jim?" McCoy asks immediately, and Jim figures he must look pretty bad.
"Couldn't sleep," he says sheepishly, wondering why he came here in the first place.
McCoy runs a hand over his face and gestures for Jim to take a seat on the bed next to him. They sit in silence for a little while, and it's not uncomfortable, but there's something in the air that Jim isn't sure he wants to think too hard about.
"Look, I'm tired. If you want to stay, at least lie down with me." McCoy slumps back onto the bed, scooting up until his head's on the pillow. Jim does likewise and finds that they're mere inches away from each other.
And really, he knows the feeling that's between them right now. Maybe not exactly (because it's layered with far more emotion than he's used to), but it's still recognizable. He doesn't have to give in, doesn't think McCoy would do anything about it either, but he wants to. So he does.
Jim closes the space between them, pressing his lips lightly into Bones’ and relishing the way Bones seems to just melt into it. And then they're really kissing, hot and wet with their tongues twining together. Before he even knows it, Bones has his hands fisted in Jim's shirt, pulling it up and yanking it over his head when they separate for breath.
Jim is rather pleased that Bones sleeps sans shirt (not that he hadn’t known that, but it’s practical, now), as that means that there's less of a barrier. Their mouths meet again as hands go exploring, and Jim can't help but run his hands reverently over Bones' chest, delighting in the hair he finds there. He mouths his way down until he can just run his tongue all over and through it, and Bones groans when he lingers on a nipple.
He works his way down further, and his hands venture down Bones' pants as he slowly tongues Bones' navel. He gets the pants off fairly easily and goes to work on his own (damn uniform pants with so many buttons), kicking them off without too much trouble. Jim works his way back up, unable to keep his hands off Bones' cock as he captures Bones' mouth again in a fierce kiss.
Unsurprisingly, Bones is hard against him, and in no time, he's got their dicks lined up, so he moves his hand from between them. Before Bones can protest, he's pushing down, and the friction is so sweet he almost comes right then. He manages to hold on, though, and then it's just the sounds of them sliding together, punctuated by labored breathing between kisses. Jim really isn't able to last much longer, not when Bones gets a tight hold on his ass and pulls him down hard, pushing up and moaning as he comes between them.
Jim slides to the side so that his weight is resting on the bed rather than on Bones, but that's all the further away he's willing to move. They breathe into the silence, and there's no need to break it with words, not now anyway. Jim has to be up and on duty in an hour, but for now he just wants to bask in this. They'll talk later, he's sure, but Bones is his best friend, so he's sure it'll turn out alright.
Author: vamplover82
Pairing: Kirk/McCoy
Rating: NC-17
Summary: The title says it all.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Star Trek, and this certainly isn’t true.
Author notes: Comments and con. crit. are much appreciated. Written as a comment fic for this prompt at st_xi_kink.
1.
When Kirk decides to go to the Academy, it's a split second decision with no thought to any of the logistics of any of it. It's no big deal to show up without any clothing since they supply him with uniforms, but he literally has no belongings whatsoever. Which actually turns out to be something of a blessing when they finally arrive and he finds that he has nowhere to stay because the dorms were filled up long before the term started.
Of course, they have to do something with him, but Jim thinks he probably could have managed better left to his own devices. He's sure he could charm his way into someone's bed if he actually had time to do anything beyond orientation and a battery of placement testing. By the end of the day, he's too worn out to think of going out, even when it turns out he's essentially living in a storage closet. With Leonard McCoy. And one bed.
McCoy is asleep and snoring softly when Jim finally trails in, and he frowns at the pile of blankets on the floor that he assumes is supposed to be his bed. Fuck. He arranges them as best he can and curls up, even though it's totally uncomfortable. He can handle this, really.
Three hours later, he decides that no, actually, he can't handle it. Jim stands up and stretches out his already-sore muscles, eyeing McCoy and the bed. There's enough room that he thinks he could probably fit. He stares for a good five minutes before deciding that it's worth a possible punch to the face not to have to sleep on the floor.
He slides onto the bed oh so carefully, and he's just folding his legs in when McCoy shifts and opens his eyes, giving Jim a wary look.
"Dude, the floor's shit. You don't mind, do you?" Jim tries out his best charming smile, but it slips as the silence stretches on.
"Don't hog the covers," McCoy finally mumbles, sliding back into sleep. Jim smirks faintly, settling in and closing his eyes.
When he wakes in the morning, Jim isn't sure where he is. It takes a minute to remember that he's in the storage closet and that he really shouldn't be humping the person sharing his bed because he and McCoy didn't actually have sex. He pulls away and rolls out of bed quickly, glad when McCoy doesn't stir. He adjusts his hard-on in his shorts before pulling on his jeans and heading down the hall to the bathroom.
He gets back and McCoy is awake, but there's no weird morning after like he's used to, just some grumbling about the cramped quarters and lack of coffee. And if he had to get stuck sharing a storage closet, he's glad it was with McCoy. Still, he manages to find a bed somewhere else every night for the month it takes for someone to drop out and a room to open up. He just doesn't want to impose on McCoy's sleeping space. Yeah, that's all.
2.
It's a few months into the semester when they have a mandatory wilderness survival test. All of the new cadets are paired up, and McCoy ends up with Kirk. He's glad that he'll be with his friend (because he's not sure he could tolerate an entire 24 hours with some idiot cadet who didn't even know how to take care of themselves in the dorm, let alone outdoors), but he's a little bit worried about the whole situation. He theoretically knows how to take care of himself in a situation like this, but he's never actually had to put it into practice before.
McCoy is displeased enough in the first place, but he's put in an even fouler mood when Jim proceeds to treat it all like some game. And damnit, they aren't allowed to take anything with them but the clothes on their backs, so he doesn't appreciate the flippant attitude.
He's surly as they spend the day scouting out the area around them, finding the nearest source of water and managing to find some wild fruit, enough to keep them fed until the day is over. By the time they set up camp in a cave, he's beginning to mellow out. Things haven't gone too badly so far, and Jim is taking it seriously enough that McCoy can't complain. Well, at least not until they discover that neither of them can light a fire.
They try for hours as the sun steadily descends, because they may be in California, but by this time of year it gets cold at night. Eventually, darkness falls and there's not much they can do. The air cools rapidly, and no matter how hard either of them rubs sticks or strikes rocks together, nothing works.
It's not long before they're both shivering, even with the jackets they're wearing. Jim's still knocking a couple of rocks together and swearing under his breath when McCoy decides it's a lost cause.
"Jim, just give it up. It's not going to happen, and it's late enough that we really need to get some sleep."
"Just a few more minutes, Bones. I know I can get it."
"If you couldn't in the past three hours, I don't know why you think a few more minutes would make a difference." McCoy still lets him go at it for a little while longer.
Finally, Jim drops the rocks, settles uncomfortably on the floor of the cave, and curls up. McCoy can see him shaking with the cold, although he isn't much better off, himself. McCoy shifts around for half an hour before he crawls over to Kirk and drops down behind him, spooning up against his back.
"Bones, what-?"
"Too damn cold. We'll both end up with hypothermia if we don't conserve body heat."
Jim shifts to mold his form to McCoy's. "Alright."
McCoy sighs as he drifts off. They really need to work on their survival skills.
3.
By the time their second semester at the Academy starts, Kirk and McCoy actually have a real room with two beds, but they're still sharing it. Jim appreciates his bed quite a lot, so much so that he takes every chance that he gets to sleep in it, which means that he also has quite a bit of sex in it.
And the thing is, the beds look simple, but they're actually kind of complicated. The computer somehow regulates its firmness and temperature, which pretty much everyone takes for granted. But then Jim has some particularly energetic sex in his bed one day, and they somehow manage to break it. The regulator is all over the place, so the bed is hard as a rock one minute and soft as a cloud the next, shifting between winter weather warm and summer cool.
It's still early in the day, so Jim puts in a request to maintenance, assuming that it'll be fixed by the time he's done with classes and studying. But when he returns to his room late that evening, the bed is still fluctuating wildly. He contacts maintenance again to see what the hold-up is, and he's informed that they won't be able to get to it until the next day because everyone is busy with some massive replicator malfunction that's affecting half the campus.
After that, Jim does his best to get a hold of any of his regular fucks, trying to find someone he can spend the night with. He has several, but all of them seem to be busy with other things or people and don't have time for him. And he's friendly with them, but not quite enough to ask any of them if he can sleep in their beds while they're not there.
McCoy gets back somewhere in the middle of his conversation with Gaila, who is apparently entertaining someone else that night. He's clearly amused as Jim keeps getting shot down, but he's trying not to show it. In fact, Jim would bet good money that he's the only one who would be able to see past the carefully blank expression to catch the twinkle of laughter in McCoy's eye.
He sighs as he realizes he's run through everyone he had in mind and now he's stuck with his malfunctioning bed. He changes into sleep pants and sits on the bed, wincing as it softens and he sinks a couple inches. Bones is getting ready for bed himself, sighing happily, which Jim knows is his way of rubbing it in, because Bones has never sounded particularly happy when going to bed.
"Hey, Bones?"
"Don't even think about it."
"What? Why not?"
"Because you do hog the covers, and you kick way too much."
"At least I don't snore," Jim mumbles.
McCoy rolls his eyes. "Yeah, that'll help change my mind."
"So you're saying your mind can be changed?" Jim smirks, and then puts on a completely innocent expression. "Oh, Leonard, if you'd just let me share your bed, I'm sure I could think of some way to repay you." He flutters his eyelashes, and smiles as sweetly as he knows how.
McCoy looks slightly taken aback by that, and he says nothing.
"Oh, come on, Bones. Look, how about this, I won't bring anyone back to the room for the next month. Seriously, there's no way I can sleep in that bed."
"Yeah, alright. Get over here." McCoy lifts the blanket in invitation, and Jim dives in, sprawling happily and dozing off almost immediately.
McCoy lies awake for a long time after that, unable to talk down the erection that had inexplicably popped up around the time when Jim had started fluttering his goddamn eyelashes.
4.
McCoy absolutely refuses to come down with the flu. He's a doctor, damn it, and he is supposed to be helping treat patients, not becoming one himself. It all starts when a mutated strain of the Rigellian flu sweeps through the campus, and all of the med students abruptly become severely overworked.
There is no cure for the mutated strain, and with everyone at the Academy living in such close quarters, people are coming down with it all over the place. Beds in every medical wing are full with flu patients, and McCoy finds himself pulling double shifts for several days straight.
He knows that he should be taking better care of himself than he is, sleeping and eating more often especially, but there just doesn't seem to be time for everything. So, it's with extreme displeasure, although not a lot of surprise, that he finds himself passing out in the middle of one of his shifts. When he comes around, he's lying on the floor with one of the nurses (damned if he remembers her name) hovering over him.
"Dr. McCoy? Are you alright?" she asks, although they both know that he isn't. Her hand is on his forehead, and she has to be able to feel that he's burning up.
"I'm fine, just need to sit for a minute," he says gruffly, still trying to deny his illness, even though he knows he shouldn't.
"Dr. McCoy, you're ill, and I really think you need to lie down. You won't do anyone any good if you keep trying to work in your condition." The nurse (Katie, maybe?) is unexpectedly stern, and she won't allow him to stand until she's found him a bed.
She comes back some ten minutes later, looking decidedly flustered. "I'm afraid there aren't any beds left."
McCoy wants to go back to his quarters, but although there isn't an official quarantine for flu patients, they're encouraged not to leave the medical buildings. He sighs heavily. "My best friend's two rooms down the hall. I'll share with him."
Katie helps him up, and she looks like she wants to follow him and make sure he gets where he's going, but he tells her to inform Dr. Sullivan of his illness and she hurries off. McCoy heads down the hall and finds Jim half-awake in his bed.
"Bones, you checking up on me?" Jim gives him a slightly delirious smile.
"I wish. I passed out while doing the rounds, and I've been sent to bed. No free ones, though."
He's glad that Jim doesn't make him ask, because he's really not in any kind of mood to deal with dicking around. Jim just slides over in silent invitation, and McCoy collapses, glad to finally be off his feet. Later, he'll blame it on the fever and cramped space, but he turns to face Jim and tangles their legs together before letting exhaustion take over.
5.
Kirk and Spock have finally returned to the Enterprise with Pike after defeating Nero, and ship repairs are already underway. Unfortunately, they're pretty much dead in the water for the moment, having sustained damage to the impulse engines in escaping the time rift.
Kirk is busy supervising repairs as soon as he's handed Pike into McCoy's capable hands, wanting to make sure that the ship will be up and running, and that he'll be able to get the crew safely home. It takes days to complete all the repairs necessary just to get them moving again, and although Kirk doesn't realize it, everyone has noticed that he hasn't slept at all that entire time.
Spock is particularly worried about Kirk's ability to function as captain when he can barely keep his eyes open. A quick discussion with Uhura assures him that he is not the only one and also informs him that the doctor has been doing the same as the captain, unwilling to sleep while Pike is in such a delicate state after the removal of the parasite.
They devise a simple plan that will allow both the captain and the doctor to get a good night's sleep. While Kirk is sitting in his chair on the bridge, valiantly trying to stay awake, Spock exerts the slightest amount of pressure to his shoulder, and Kirk passes out immediately.
His communicator beeps, and Nurse Chapel informs him that she has given the doctor a sedative and that he is asleep in the sickbay. Spock gathers up the captain and heads to the sickbay where two security guards are waiting for him. They pick McCoy up and follow Spock through the corridors until he comes to the one room he was able to determine was definitely unoccupied.
Spock enters and deposits Kirk on the bed, and the guards place McCoy next to him. Spock looks at the two of them lying in the small confines of the bed and regrets that he had not been able to find a room with two beds. Still, better that they get sleep in the same bed than that they keep running themselves ragged. He and the guards leave the room, each heading back to their duty stations.
***
Jim wakes up, for the first time in quite awhile, not knowing where he is. There is a body pressed up against his side and an arm over his waist, and a small turn of the head tells him that it's Bones. As Jim shifts around, trying to get free, he remembers that he's on the Enterprise as well as everything that's happened. He shoots up without thinking, and Bones opens his eyes, blinking blearily.
"Jim, what's going on?"
By that time, Kirk has also remembered that they're out of danger, fixing the ship up, and that Spock had done that stupid nerve pinch thing on him again. "Damn, son of a....I need to get back to the bridge."
McCoy is already up and straightening out his uniform, swearing as well, and Kirk figures that he'd probably been forcibly put to sleep, too. They look at each other for a moment, and Jim closes the distance between them, running a hand through McCoy's hair a few times. McCoy raises an eyebrow.
"You have total bed head." He grins and is pleased to get a small smile in return. Together, they head out the door, parting ways when they reach Sickbay.
1.
Jim has been the captain of the Enterprise for almost a year when McCoy goes on his first away mission. It's not supposed to be anything big or dangerous, just a few locals in need of some medical attention. So it's a complete surprise when McCoy is held hostage and it takes a rescue party five days to get him back.
When they beam back to the ship, Spock supporting McCoy's weight, Jim's heart leaps in his chest. McCoy looks absolutely terrible, like maybe he hasn't been fed in days. Jim takes over immediately, getting McCoy to Sickbay in far less time than should be possible. He leaves McCoy in their care, not because he wants to, but because he has a ship to run, and besides, he'd only be in the way if he lurked there.
Kirk manages to put it out of his mind while he's on duty, focusing on getting them out of that system as quickly they can manage. He breathes a sigh of relief as they hit warp speed.
As soon as his shift it over, though, Jim is in the sickbay, checking on McCoy, who looks a lot better now that he's been cleaned up and taken care of.
"Bones," he says, when he sees that McCoy is awake, and he doesn't like how full of emotion that one little word is.
Bones just smiles, though, and pats the hand Jim hadn't even realized he'd put on McCoy's shoulder. "It's good to be back, Jim."
***
The incident is largely forgotten once McCoy is back to full health; it's just another away mission gone awry, as so many of them are. But the thing is, Jim can't forget. He wants to, really he does, but he can't stop thinking about what it would be like if they hadn't gotten Bones back. He's perfectly used to putting himself in life and death situations, but it's a shock to his system to realize that Bones could have died.
Three weeks later, Jim is totally tied up in knots over it, and he's not sleeping well. He doesn't know why it's so bad this time; goodness knows there have been enough away missions where he actually has lost people, so this really shouldn't be such a big deal.
As he's trying to sleep that night, he's too restless, and his thoughts are circling around his mind too fast. Finally, he gets up and puts his uniform back on, making his way to McCoy's quarters.
McCoy lets him in immediately, which means that he probably hadn't been sleeping, either.
"What's wrong, Jim?" McCoy asks immediately, and Jim figures he must look pretty bad.
"Couldn't sleep," he says sheepishly, wondering why he came here in the first place.
McCoy runs a hand over his face and gestures for Jim to take a seat on the bed next to him. They sit in silence for a little while, and it's not uncomfortable, but there's something in the air that Jim isn't sure he wants to think too hard about.
"Look, I'm tired. If you want to stay, at least lie down with me." McCoy slumps back onto the bed, scooting up until his head's on the pillow. Jim does likewise and finds that they're mere inches away from each other.
And really, he knows the feeling that's between them right now. Maybe not exactly (because it's layered with far more emotion than he's used to), but it's still recognizable. He doesn't have to give in, doesn't think McCoy would do anything about it either, but he wants to. So he does.
Jim closes the space between them, pressing his lips lightly into Bones’ and relishing the way Bones seems to just melt into it. And then they're really kissing, hot and wet with their tongues twining together. Before he even knows it, Bones has his hands fisted in Jim's shirt, pulling it up and yanking it over his head when they separate for breath.
Jim is rather pleased that Bones sleeps sans shirt (not that he hadn’t known that, but it’s practical, now), as that means that there's less of a barrier. Their mouths meet again as hands go exploring, and Jim can't help but run his hands reverently over Bones' chest, delighting in the hair he finds there. He mouths his way down until he can just run his tongue all over and through it, and Bones groans when he lingers on a nipple.
He works his way down further, and his hands venture down Bones' pants as he slowly tongues Bones' navel. He gets the pants off fairly easily and goes to work on his own (damn uniform pants with so many buttons), kicking them off without too much trouble. Jim works his way back up, unable to keep his hands off Bones' cock as he captures Bones' mouth again in a fierce kiss.
Unsurprisingly, Bones is hard against him, and in no time, he's got their dicks lined up, so he moves his hand from between them. Before Bones can protest, he's pushing down, and the friction is so sweet he almost comes right then. He manages to hold on, though, and then it's just the sounds of them sliding together, punctuated by labored breathing between kisses. Jim really isn't able to last much longer, not when Bones gets a tight hold on his ass and pulls him down hard, pushing up and moaning as he comes between them.
Jim slides to the side so that his weight is resting on the bed rather than on Bones, but that's all the further away he's willing to move. They breathe into the silence, and there's no need to break it with words, not now anyway. Jim has to be up and on duty in an hour, but for now he just wants to bask in this. They'll talk later, he's sure, but Bones is his best friend, so he's sure it'll turn out alright.