Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The Goldilocks Zone*

Chapter 1

“I am a mere street scavenger of science.

With hook in hand and basket on my back, 

I go about the streets of science collecting 

Wherever I go.”

Francois Magendie (1783-1855)

Leonard’s communicator buzzed inside the hidden pocket of his tunic. It was on silent to prevent the native population of the planet from seeing or hearing it. He and Uhura had observed there was only minimal advanced technology here: basic computers, holo screens and vids, electronic cash registers, wall communication devices, and basic internet, but there was no sign of hover transportation, personal communicators, or phaser technology. He looked around carefully; there was no one in sight. Still cautious, he walked to a sheltered spot behind a building and leaned against the wall. Looking around one more time, he pulled the comm out of his pocket. 

“McCoy here,” he said softly, and saw it was a voice only call. Jim was being extra cautious.

“Bones, Bones!” Jim’s voice sounded agitated, worried, a bit breathless. 

“Jim!”

“Please, Captain, let me.” To Leonard’s intense disappointment, Spock’s smooth baritone voice interrupted Jim. This was the first time Jim had spoken directly to him in almost three weeks. He had not looked at or spoken directly to Leonard except to give an order or ask him a question about a crew member being treated in the Med Bay. 

Leonard was completely bewildered by the change in Jim; he didn’t seem upset or angry, he just seemed distant, cool, and aloof. Since their Academy days, Leonard had always known when and why Jim was upset or annoyed with him, but this time he had no idea. Things had been fine between them until suddenly, they weren't. 

All of Leonard’s attempts to corner Jim to talk hadn’t worked. Jim would just look at him blankly, his blue eyes sliding away from Len’s with a muttered, “gotta go.”  He’d been avoiding Len like the proverbial plague. Jim no longer visited the Med Bay on a daily basis, instead he’d send Spock, Nyota, Pavel, or Sulu as his messenger. He also didn’t show up at the mess during Leonard’s meal shifts, and although Jim’s door had always been open to Leonard, it was now kept locked and he wouldn’t answer his cabin chime. Even though the locked door frustrated Leonard, he didn’t want to force the issue by using his CMO’s override code. Besides it being an abuse of his CMO powers since it wasn’t a medical emergency, it would have made Jim furious.

It seemed that from one day to the next, their easy rapport, close companionship, deeply affectionate friendship, their hanging out together on and off duty, had disappeared in a blink of an eye. Except when duty dictated, Jim had completely stopped interacting with him. Leonard had gone from being puzzled, to worried, to angry, and, finally, to feeling deeply hurt. Worse yet, Leonard had no idea what to do with himself. He and Jim had always hung out together, done everything together, and now besides feeling hurt, Len felt lonely and adrift. To say that he was bereft was an understatement. It was as if Jim had gone inside himself, locked the door, and Leonard didn’t have the key to open it.

Of course the Med Bay staff and the Command crew had noticed the change between the two best friends. They’d all noticed Leonard’s sad, hurt face, and Jim’s distraction and irritability on the bridge. The situation had become deeply worrisome, so each in their own way had tried to console the puzzled, worried doctor, and, to Leonard’s certain knowledge, Nyota, Spock, Sulu, Chekov, Geoffrey, and Christine had, in turn, tried to talk to Jim. Each of them, even Spock, had been rebuffed in no uncertain terms. Christine had reported that Jim had even told her to mind her own business.

And so things between Len and Jim had remained the same for almost three interminably long weeks. As well as being a renowned medical doctor, Leonard was also a certified psychologist, and during several sleepless nights staring blearily at the ceiling in the darkness of his cabin, he had carefully dissected his own and Jim’s behavior and had come up with...exactly nothing.

“What is it, Mr. Spock?” Leonard asked softly, ignoring his disappointment and clutching his comm tightly. A knot of foreboding was forming in his belly. There were very few things that made the hair on the back of his neck stand up, and nothing did it faster than the realization that some bad shit was about to go down. He was sure this comm was about to confirm his bad, bad feelings. They were supposed to have been beamed back to the ship by now, but beam out time had come and gone and he and Ny were still here. 

Uhura came to stand close so she could hear the conversation. She stood like a sentinel, a lookout, constantly looking behind, right, and left to make sure no one was coming who could overhear their conversation. 

“Spock? What’s gone wrong?” Nyota leaned in to be heard on Leonard’s comm.

“Doctor, Lieutenant Uhura. Mr. Scott reports that he will not be able to beam you back to the ship at the designated time, which as you know has now passed. Within the last hour an unknown type of spacial anomaly has suddenly appeared above the planet’s surface. It emanates bursts of quantum particles, a type of energy that has overloaded a number of the ship’s systems. Thankfully, it has not affected life support nor communications, but it has affected other ship’s systems including transporter capabilities, which makes beaming you back to the ship dangerously perilous and, as of now, impossible. Until we can remedy the situation, you must stay in the village. We have as yet not been able to determine how best to transport you safely back to the ship.”

Leonard shuddered. How he hated transporters! It wasn’t natural, scrambling your atoms like that...no good could come of it! 

“Damn it, Spock, we gotta’ leave! The inhabitants of this village haven’t been friendly. In fact, they’ve been down right hostile and suspicious.  Nyota and I have been as polite, subtle, and unobtrusive as possible while gathering the information Fleet wants, but it’s been real difficult. A couple of times we’ve been told in no uncertain terms to leave the premises, and for absolutely no reason that we could figure out, except maybe that we’re strangers. When we went into a restaurant for lunch we were told there weren’t any tables, and the place was completely empty. It’s clear we’re not welcomed here. We need to get outta’ here and get back to the ship before things get ugly.”

Leonard met Nyota’s eyes and saw agreement, “Anyway, we’re done here. We’ve finished gathering the medical and linguistic data that Fleet wants. I don’t think they’re gonna’ be happy with our report, with what we’ve found here. I took copious notes on the indigenous population’s behavior and Ny has lots of linguistic samples, but nothin’ looks promisin’ for a First Contact mission.”

“Later for that, Bones,” came Jim’s worried voice. “Where are you and Uhura right now?”

“We’re behind a building on the edge of town. Ny’s keeping watch. The hotel owner where we were staying told us we had to vacate our rooms immediately, that they need them for other guests. He was pretty hostile about it too. What he said wasn’t true, Jim, there’s plenty of empty rooms. He just don’t want us there, but we didn’t try to argue with him, we just left.”

“Damn it! That’s not good. Is there anywhere else you can stay, Bones? Another hotel or hostel?”

“I don’t think so, Captain,” Nyota leaned in again to speak. “Several people have made it quite clear that we should leave the village. The villagers have clammed up, no one is talking to us, and they’re presenting a united front of pretended ignorance so there’s no more data to be gathered.  No one knows a thing about anything. Word has spread about the two strangers in town and I don’t anticipate that any place will welcome us. Frankly, I suspect our reception might even become worse. A couple of times we’ve been followed by a few of the villagers. I thought pitchforks might be next! I think they wanted to make sure we were leaving the area.”

“Don’t chance it then,” Jim answered. “Is there any place you could find shelter for the night, stay out of sight until Scotty figures out this spacial anomaly thing? Spock and Chekov are helping him, so hopefully it won’t take long.”

Leonard sighed. “I’m not sure, Jim. Ny and I’ve been wanderin’ around collectin’ more data, as unobtrusively as we can, but it’s a real small town so they all recognize us now. But...when we sat down to rest a while ago, I noticed there’s a wooded area on the west side just outside the village. The area looks like old growth forest, the trees are tall and thick, and there’s a dense underbrush too. I spotted a small structure in there. Hard to tell from this distance, but it looked derelict. Guess we could go take a look, maybe it won’t be in too bad a shape, probably an abandoned shack or somethin’ like that.” He eyed Nyota who nodded. “Guess we’ll head over there and check it out before it gets dark.”

“Spock,” Nyota added. “Something is very wrong here. The people in the village are definitely unfriendly, angry even. They’ve eyed us with suspicion, sometimes even with overt hostility. No one’s been aggressive yet, but a couple of times we had to leave quickly. I have a bad feeling about us staying here much longer. Len is right, Fleet isn’t going to like our report. The natives here don’t seem to want or tolerate strangers. It’s hard to understand why because they have a hostel and a small hotel, so surely people from outside the village have come here. Earlier, we stopped to grab something to eat, and even though I speak the local language fluently and Leonard paid promptly, we were served very reluctantly. We didn’t linger, we took our food out with us. In fact I’m still carrying it.”

“Bones, did you check the food carefully?” Jim’s still worried voice asked. 

Leonard snorted. “Of course I did, Jim. It’s not been poisoned or tampered with. The native population here is humanoid, so I’m sure the food is safe to eat.” He paused. “Don’t think we’ll be able to buy more food though, just from the looks of things.” 

“Then it is fortuitous that our present transporter difficulty is restricted only to beaming up to the ship. Interestingly, the spatial  anomaly does not seem to disrupt ship to ground transporter molecular composition, only ground to ship. Another aspect of the anomaly we at present do not understand. Do not be concerned, Doctor. We will be able to beam down items to you if the need arises. If you cannot find shelter in the shack, you should go to a hidden area in the woods. There, away from possible detection, we will beam down two sleeping bags.”

“Damn it! That transporter’s just been waitin’ to scramble my atoms,” muttered Leonard, huffing irately. “Jim, how’s my Med Bay? Is it still standin’? Hate to think what’s been happenin’ in my absence.” He and Nyota had been on this fool planet for three days. No telling how things had fared in his absence, chaos probably, he thought darkly.

“Your Med Bay is fine, Bones. Geoffrey is doing a great job, and I’m sure that...uh...the nurses are missing you.” Jim’s usual warm voice was now cold and clipped. 

Leonard shook his head at the noticeable change in Jim’s tone. What the hell was going on in that fool head of his?  “I highly doubt any of them are missing me, Jim; you know how it is, while the cat’s away and all that shit,” Leonard grumbled. “They and y’all are probably thrilled to be rid of my grumpy ass for a while.”

“That’s is definitely not the case, Doctor,” Spock responded promptly. “Your Medical expertise as well as your daily pungent commentaries are missed by all of us, but most especially the Cap....”

“Stop fretting, Bones,” interjected Jim hurriedly. “Your Med Bay will survive. Geoff and Chapel and...uh...the rest of them will too. We’re analyzing the anomaly and we’ll get you two home as quickly as possible.” 

“Captain, the two suns are beginning to set,” Nyota interrupted. “Len and I better go look at that shack, see if we can use it. We don’t want to use our comm lights and call attention to ourselves walking over there. We’ll contact you when we get there.”

“Be very careful you two. You have your phasers?”

“Yes, Captain. Hidden in the inside pockets of our tunics along with our padds and comms. Uhura out.”

Leonard closed and hid his comm as they stepped out from behind the shadows of the building. He pulled his hood closer around his head and Uhura did also. As they walked, they kept to the extreme outside perimeter of the village commons, careful not to call attention to themselves.

The village was quite small, the buildings and homes modest in size, but well maintained, and, from what they’d seen, equipped with good, if, by Starfleet's standard, quite outdated tech. There were only four streets shooting outward from the village square which was obviously the most important part of the town. Flower beds had been laid out with care along the stretches of lush grass. Narrow, pebbled paths led outward from the square to the residential homes. All businesses were situated closest to the small square, with most of the homes built along the outer perimeters of the cobbled streets. Everything here was within walking distance. There were no transporter stations, hovers, or runabouts to be seen. Apparently everyone here walked to their destinations. How they traveled to other towns and cities had so far remained a mystery to Nyota and Leonard...and they hadn’t asked, careful not to reveal their ignorance to the locals.

The two small suns were still shining warmly in what passed for spring on this isolated planet. One hung high in the blue-green sky, giving off a mild heat, the other hung slightly lower. In the evening, as one sun followed the other one lowering in the horizon, the effect was beautiful, showy, rutilant light, bright reds and oranges, weaving in and out of each other in a sea-green sky, as dusk slowly turned the heavens into a deep lavender purple. 

They walked quickly for the light overhead was beginning to fade fast along with the double suns’ warmth. There was a cool breeze already blowing that would soon turn chilly as the last of the light waned into the horizon. The dark green leaves of the tall over arching trees in the square were beginning to droop with the coming of night. They could see some lights in the houses starting to come on as Leonard led the way to where he remembered seeing the wooden structure. He sighed as they walked. This was exactly why he detested away missions. Even though Jim and Spock were meticulous about preparations, something always seemed to go wrong. At least Jim was out of it this time, safe and sound on board ship for which Leonard was profoundly grateful. The only reason neither Spock nor Jim had come with them, was because this was supposed to be a simple preliminary planetary in and out mission.

After due deliberation, the ship’s Xenobiology and Anthropology departments had picked this small village rather than a larger town to survey. They concurred that a small town would give them a better picture of the level of sophistication of the planet’s society as well as their psychological readiness for First Contact. There were proscribed questions that had to be answered by the survey: Was the indigenous population ready for a visit from the Federation? Did they even know they were not alone in the cosmos? Would they welcome visitors from other worlds? Was there any overt or covert evidence of xenophobia? Were there religious beliefs that would prevent acceptance of a First Contact? Would they, with the Federation’s help, accept the concept of warp travel to venture to other planets? Answers to these and other important questions were what Nyota and Leonard had been sent to discover.

After the Admiralty orders had come in, the Xeno and Anthro departments immediately went to work. Through the computer’s universal translator they learned that the name of the planet was Solaris, and that although it was still a pre-warp society, their historical data described how they had sent ships out to explore their own solar system. Several generations ago, their astronauts had surveyed the other planets around them, but since they had found no other humanoid life, and not having ships with warp capability, they had not ventured out again to go beyond their neighboring planets. Apparently, after that, space exploration had entirely stopped.

If preliminary analysis of the medical, psychological, sociological, and linguistic survey declared the society was not yet ready for First Contact, no further attempt would be made by the Federation for another 50 years. Nyota and Len, having the most medical and linguistic experience on the ship, had been chosen for the reconnaissance mission. When he found out, Leonard, despising all away missions, had protested vehemently, but, Spock had sternly told him that he had to go.

After making sure that her darker skin wouldn’t attract undue attention, Nyota was ordered to accompany Leonard. She would investigate the inhabitants’ primary language, looking for words and phrases that would indicate the people of Solaris knew about, speculated, or discussed traveling to other worlds as well as the possibility of meeting other life forms. Leonard would investigate the inhabitants’ general health and life span, and also their medical, sociological, and psychological readiness for First Contact.

The Xenobiology and Anthropology departments had, by using the ship’s long range sensors, thoroughly studied the indigenous population and the planet’s environment. The Computer department had easily accessed the planet’s records, studying its history, languages, attire, housing, food, currency, and library materials. It was SOP to begin a First Contact assessment in that way. Initial First Contact missions were fraught with possible difficulties, therefore intense preliminary preparation was vital. 

The two departments then held long study sessions late into ship’s night with Nyota and Leonard. The two memorized everything about the customs, clothing, food, history, commerce, and the planet’s society in general...enough for them to get by at least. They were repeatedly cautioned to talk little and listen much. The quartermaster’s department replicated local money, appropriate clothing, accessories, and shoes for the mission, and finally Leonard implanted the tiny universal translators in his and Uhura’s arms. In order to remain undetected, the ship was placed in a high orbit and Jim made the decision that three days would be sufficient for the initial survey.

As Nyota and Leonard prepared themselves, the Prime Directive was first and foremost on all their minds. If the planet’s indigenous inhabitants were not ready for First Contact, this away mission would tell them so.

So here they were, Leonard thought irately, in this precarious situation, with the evening turning cold, and nothing but negative answers to the Federation survey questions. Since the prior two nights had found them in their hotel rooms, the chilly weather had not been an issue. Now Leonard, Georgia born and bred, found himself shivering as the temperature dropped. The light weight long sleeved tunic, hood, and loose trousers were definitely not warm enough. “This day just keeps getting better and better,” Leonard muttered darkly. 

Nyota looked at Len with concern as they walked to the shack. Her clothing was much warmer; a long sleeved woolen shift down to her feet, and over this, a sleeveless, hooded, thick tunic secured at the shoulder by wide straps. Around her waist was a belt from which hung a cloth carry-all where she’d placed their missed lunch. She also had a shawl thrown over her shoulders. Both sets of clothing were dark hued, brown for Leonard, navy blue for Nytota, which under present circumstances, was good, because they were less likely to be seen as they made their way to the shack.                                                           

                                                                        ————————————————-

*The “Goldilocks zone” is a metaphor used to refer to the Circumstellar Habitable Zone (CHZ),which is a region in space where a planet is at a distance from its star such that its surface is not too cold or too hot and water can exist in liquid form. 

Chapter Text

The Goldilocks Zone

Chapter 2

“O, that the gods
Would set me free from this unhallow'd place.”

William Shakespeare
“Pericles”

On the ship

Jim paced restlessly in his briefing room. He stopped abruptly and turned worried blue eyes to Spock. “I don’t like this at all, don’t like any of it, Spock. What if those natives turn hostile? Bones and Ny are down there alone with no idea why they’re encountering hostility, and with no back up at all.”

“I too, am concerned for their well being, Captain, and I agree these developments are troubling. The planetary spatial anomaly was an unforeseen occurrence, and the villagers’ hostility is certainly not something we anticipated from the First Contact Committee’s briefing. One has to wonder if the anomaly is a completely random occurrence or a recurring natural phenomenon of the planet.”

Jim gave him a sharp glance, he’d wondered that himself. “This isn’t the first time, the Admiralty has omitted or held back important information,” Jim responded angrily. “And let me tell you this, Spock, when Bones and Ny are safely back on board, I’m having words with someone very high up about the incomplete briefing we’ve received.” He was angry and frustrated, and felt like he wanted to punch somebody, preferably the First Contact Committee’s Admiral who’d ordered this mission.

“It also makes one wonder what is on the planet that made the Committee decide to act so precipitously about this First Contact mission. Dr. McCoy has been uneasy about undertaking this mission from the beginning. He confided to me that he had a bad feeling about it, and that was in addition to his usual loud and vocal “bad feeling” when using the transporter.” Spock, his face particularly impassive, looked side eyed at Jim. “I believe the good doctor missed your calming presence in the transporter room, Captain.”

“I know he did, Spock. I really screwed up. You don’t have to tell me,” Jim added bitterly.

Spock’s eyebrow rose and his mouth pinched slightly in a silent, I would not dream of wasting my breath doing so.

Jim flushed and went on hurriedly. “Yes, I’ve been wondering about the Committee’s haste too,” he added. “Spock, you go on to Engineering and help Scotty and Chekov. Sulu can stay at the con while I wait here in case Bones and Nyota need something sent down. I’ll join you as soon as I can.”

After Spock left, Jim’s Captain façade vanished. He slumped down in his chair and put his head in his hands. It was true, he should have been in the transporter room to see Bones off. Even knowing Bones’ fear and hatred for the transporter process, Jim hadn’t gone to reassure and calm him down like he usually did. Instead, he’d let Spock see them off. And now Bones was down there with only Uhura to help if things went south. True, Uhura was awesome. She was fearless, a dead shot with a phaser, great at diplomacy and, thanks to Spock, excellent at hand to hand combat. But Bones, by nature of his rank as a Lieutenant Commander, was her superior officer and his fiercely protective nature would never let anyone or anything harm a hair on Nyota’s head.

Jim groaned at this certainty. If need be, Bones would throw himself in front of phaser fire to protect Nyota, sacrifice himself to save her. It was his nature to protect, to heal, to save. Jim shivered at the thought and pulled hard at his sandy hair. If anything happened to Bones, he’d never forgive himself. What would he do without the grumbling, growly, marshmallow hearted Bones by his side? A life without Bones, was unthinkable. There’d be no more warnings to be careful, to stay safe, to eat a salad once in a while, to take care of himself. There’d be no Bones in the Med Bay when he woke up after an injury, a Bones whose healing hands were always gentle as he examined Jim. There’d be no one to ruffle his hair affectionally, to steady him with a warm firm hand on his neck, to share drinks with, to remind him to comm his mom, to tell him that in spite of all the nay sayers Jim was a good Captain. Bones had always cared deeply about Jim, the only person who fully understood him, understood his loneliness, his insecurities, his obsessive drive to prove himself.

Jim had gotten Bones as his CMO by stubbornly refusing to consider anyone else the Admiralty paraded in front of him. His crew had gone to hell and back on that fateful mission with Nero and saved the planet along the way. He was not about to split up his crew. He used his new found popularity, innate charm, and new status as the hero of the Federation and had, in fact, thrown several respectful, polite, but definite fits (which Bones knew nothing about) until he got the CMO he wanted: Bones.

And in spite of all that, Jim had let him go down to that planet knowing Bones was at a loss; hurt and bewildered by Jim’s recent behavior. He’d been ignoring Bones for the last three weeks and generally behaving like an ass. And all because he was a petty, jealous bastard. Jim groaned. He was an awful person, selfish, an ungrateful asshole of a Captain. He didn’t deserve Bones, didn’t deserve his friendship, much less the something more he craved.

All through their Academy years, and afterward on the ship, Jim had spent an inordinate amount of time and effort lying to himself about Bones, ignoring his growing feelings for his best friend. But on that fateful day when Jim realized he was in love with Leonard McCoy, his carefullly constructed house of card had come crashing down around him with a loud thump! Jim had been in the Med Bay and Bones had once again patched him up after a skirmish with some cranky aliens on an ill conceived away mission. Jim had woken up on the bio bed and he’d looked up at Bones’ worried face, at the hazel eyes looking down at him, eyes that looked hurt and deeply worried, yet were filled with a fierce protective devotion that manifested itself in the usual growly rant.

“Jim, you idiot! You had another close call. At this rate, if you don’t stop doing shit like this, I’m not going to live to be forty.”

And with those words and that look, Jim’s entire world view shifted. In that instant he realized he was done for! Jim moaned softly and closed his eyes again. It was at that very moment he knew he’d made the same fateful mistake his mother had. He’d fallen in love, irrevocably, completely, and forever; and with his best friend no less, his partner-in-crime, the guy who meant so much to him he couldn’t risk driving him away by telling him.

So what did he do? Jim did exactly what he’d always done, embraced his long time companion: denial. He ignored his realization, hid his feelings, tried his best to act like the same ole’ best friend he’d always been. He was affectionate but not too affectionate, tactile, but not too touchy feely, hung out with Bones, but not more than their usual. In other words he walked a fine line, desperate not to arouse Bones’ suspicions, knowing that if he told Bones how he felt, things would change forever, that their friendship would flounder or maybe even worse, it would end if Bones didn’t feel the same. And Captain James T. Kirk, courageous, fearless in all aspects of his life, was, in this instance, too much of a coward to find out exactly how Bones really felt about him.

Denial and not acting on his feelings had worked fine until three weeks ago, the morning when Jim walked in, as he usually did, unannounced into Bones’ office and stopped cold at the door. Tonia Barrows, one of Bones’ new nurses, had Bones’ arms wrapped tightly around her. Barrow’s dark head was tucked against his chest, and Bones was murmuring softly in her ear. Jim stood at the door, stunned and silent, the two of them so engrossed they were completely unaware of him. She raised her head to look at Bones and he’d tenderly cupped her face and kissed her on her forehead. Jim saw no more, he turned around, heart thudding in his chest; hot, burning jealousy choking him as he strode out of the Med Bay at a rapid pace. Because he wanted; he wanted Bones with all his heart, his body, his very soul! But he’d waited too long, waited and waited, too damn scared to tell Bones how he felt...and now it was too late! And that’s when things went to hell in a hand basket, with Jim freaking the hell out, panicking, completely unable to cope with this new realization.

And so began his “I will avoid Bones at all costs” strategy. He knew he was hurting Bones terribly by his behavior. Hell the entire Command crew made sure he knew just how hurt Bones was, but Jim stubbornly continued being an ass. There’s such a thing as protecting your broken heart from completely shattering, acting in sheer self preservation, and Jim couldn’t and wouldn’t subject himself to hearing a single word from Bones about his love affair with Tonia Barrows.

And now, Jim thought bitterly, hurrying to Engineering with worry and guilt burning a hole in his gut, Bones was out of his reach. He and Nyota were probably in danger, alone with possibly hostile natives, with no way of getting home and worse of all, with no one to help them if there was trouble.

On the planet                                                      

Leonard and Nyota made it to the shack before the two suns set completely. Close by his side, Uhura give a faint sigh of relief, she really didn’t want to use the comm light for fear it would attract attention. The door of the shack stood wide open. It looked intact, but was leaning drunkenly out of true, hanging by a single hinge. They stopped at the door and peered cautiously inside. Leonard’s hand fumbled in his hidden pocket for his phaser before he noticed Nyota had already gotten hers out. An animal could be inside the abandoned shack so they moved forward slowly, stopping just inside the sagging door letting their eyes adjust to the dimness inside. They would have to tread carefully, because it looked like the wooden floor was rotten in places and had holes in it. Thankfully, there was absolutely nothing in the shack, not even signs that animals had been in there.

“You think we can chance a light, Ny?” Leonard whispered aware the last of the suns’ light was going fast,

“Not yet.”

Nyota stepped carefully across the rotten floor of the small room to the only window. The glass or whatever passed for glass here, was partially broken, pieces of it gone, but there was an attached open shutter which looked intact. She moved it gently and it creaked loudly; she stopped instantly.

“Damn it, it’s too loud! The hinge is rusty. Len, do you think you can close the door?” She asked softly. “It’ll muffle any sound and it’ll be warmer. If we can get this shutter closed no one out there will hear us or see our comm light, and it’ll keep some of the cold out.”

“Yeah, I think I can, just have to be real careful so it doesn’t fall right off the hinge.” Leonard looked at the listing door critically. It looked solid enough, and closing it would definitely hide them better, offer more protection from the night’s chill and deter any animals that might be roaming out there. He grabbed the edge of the door at the top and mid point, his biceps bunching with effort as he lifted it slightly off the ground pulling it in very slowly and carefully. The top hinge held as he closed it all the way with a satisfying thud. Now the shack was almost in complete darkness, although Leonard could still see Nyota through the faint light coming through the broken window.

“Just a second, Len. I’m going to try to close the shutter.” She removed her outer tunic, folded it and placed it over the shutter hinges to muffle the sound. Slowly, very slowly, she moved the shutter, then gave a soft hum of triumph when it closed completely.

“Okay,” She whispered. “I think we can chance a light now, just keep it pointed down below the window.”

Leonard grunted his assent, turning his comm light on and pointing it down to search the rotten floor. “Nothing’s here, Ny, looks like maybe it was some sort of storage shed...’pears it hasn’t been used in a long time.”

Nyota nodded. “Better for us, less chance someone coming this way. Let’s sit down and eat, Len. I’m starving. We didn’t eat lunch, and it’s been a long time since breakfast.” Careful of the rotten floor, they sat down under the window with their backs against the rough wall. Nyota pulled out the large packet of food from her carry all and unwrapped the two packages. Inside were two thick sandwiches made from the local bread filled with some types of vegetables and what looked like cheese. There was also two pieces of fruit and a couple of bags of crisps. Two bottles of the local beverage, a fruit tea of some sort, had also been included.

Len set his comm on the floor and Nyota handed him his sandwich, the crisps, a piece of fruit and the drink. They tucked in hungrily, sharing a comfortable silence, huddled in close together against the increasing chilly temperature.

“Foods pretty good,” Nyota said. “In spite of the surly, hostile service, we got good value for the amount you paid, Len.” She sighed contently, her hunger and thirst satisfied.

Leonard grunted his agreement. “Ny, I think we might have to sleep sitting up and we’ll need to keep watch too, so we’ll take turns. We also need to comm the ship, but later, when everyone in the village is asleep.” He shivered. “Maybe they can send a blanket down, it’s getting damn cold.”

“Jim will have Scotty send down whatever we need, you know how he is. He’s worried sick about us being stranded here.” She munched on her crisps thinking. “Len, if the transporter issue isn’t fixed by morning, we’ll have to come up with a plan for staying here, plus we’ll need more food and water.”

Leonard peeked down at his comm. It was almost 8 pm ship’s time. Well into Beta shift, so Jim was off duty. Leonard would bet credits he was still in the briefing room waiting by the comm for them to contact him. He shifted restlessly, shivering again. He was definitely getting chilled, losing body heat fast. Not good. He was a doctor, damn it, and he knew hypothermia was a very real danger. His thin clothes offered little protection against the creeping chilly cold.

Nyota noticed. “Len, let me drape my tunic over both of us. It feels like it’s wool and it’s warm, if we squeeze in together we can also conserve body heat.”

“Good idea, Ny. My clothes are real thin, not like yours,” he said, turning on the comm light and shoving over. Now sitting shoulder to shoulder, Nyota took off and then spread out her long over tunic over them, pulling it up to their shoulders. It covered their entire upper bodies and, with their knees pulled up, it covered them too.

Leonard sighed blissfully at the feel of the sudden warmth. “Much better, thanks, darlin’. My bones were getting chilled.”

Nyota giggled softly. “Speaking of Bones,” she asked, “what’s going on with you and Jim? We’ve all noticed something isn’t right with the two of you. A couple of us even tried asking the Captain, but we didn’t get anywhere. Did you two have a fight?” In the dim light of the comm, Leonard saw the curiosity and speculation in her dark eyes. Starships were hotbeds of gossip, and he had no doubt the present situation between him and Jim had been thoroughly dissected and discussed.

“No, we did not,” he growled. “Jim and I never fight, so I don’t know what the hell is going on with him. I’ve tried talkin’ to him, but he’s been avoiding me like the plague. Even tried to corner him a couple of times, but it’s like he has a sixth sense or somethin’ and runs the other way. I’m at my wits end with that boy, Nyota. Have no idea where his sunny disposition’s up and gone. At first I was puzzled, then mad, now I’m just real hurt, but I still just wanna’ fix whatever it is that’s wrong in that fool head of his.” He shook his head despairingly. “Sometimes Jim acts like nothing more than an overgrown child, sulkin’ instead of talkin’ things out like an adult, but that idiot is everything to me, Ny.” It was true. Long ago, back at the Academy, Leonard had realized he’d fallen in love with Jim, that he loved the infant with a vast, steadfast, unwavering devotion.

“You’re everything to him too, Len. He misses you, misses you a lot. He’s been irritable on the bridge, and he even snapped at Chekov.” At this Leonard’s eye brow rose in surprise. Chekov was the baby of the crew, and Jim was usually very gentle, careful, and protective of him. “And,” Uhura went on, “you know that’s not like him at all. He looks like he’s not sleeping well either. He’s got dark circles under his eyes and he’s lost weight. Every time the lift door opens he swivels his chair to see if it’s you. He looks so disappointed when it isn’t.” She sighed. “For us it’s like being caught inside a black hole, all the fun has been sucked out of the bridge. You need to fix it, Len, before he drives us all crazy.” Nyota huffed in irritation. The Command crew was deathly sick of the whole mess. Two of the smartest and most talented officers in Starfleet and two of the most emotionally stunted; well, at least Jim was, Len seemed willing, even eager to fix whatever was wrong between them.

“I miss him too, Ny. Miss him a lot. When we get back on board I’m gonna’ find out what’s gotten into him if it’s the last thing I do! Hog tie him to a biobed if I have to.” Truth be told Leonard had practically been pining away every night, alone in his quarters, missing terribly the closeness they’d always shared. He wondered if Jim was feeling his absence as much as he was. Still, bringing something up like that wasn’t going to be easy what with Jim acting like a child and going out of his way to shun him.

The comm buzzed. Leonard looked at the ID. “It’s Jim.” He whispered, looking wide eyed at Nyota, not answering yet.

”Well...answer it, Len!”

Chapter Text

The Goldilocks Zone

Chapter 3

“You can keep as quiet as you like,
but one of these days somebody is going to find you.”
Haruki Murakami

“Len,” Nyota whispered. “Wait a minute! You need to turn off the comm light so I can peek out the window. Maybe the villagers are bedding down for the night.” She uncovered herself and stood waiting until the comm light went off, then moved the shutter a tiny bit to peek out. “Looks like people may have left their shops, some lights are off. Just keep your voice down, and it should be okay.” She pushed the shutter closed, sat down and pulled the tunic over herself again. Leonard turned on the comm light again and scooted closer beside her.

“McCoy here,” he answered softly.

“Bones, Bones,” Jim’s voice sounded tense, agitated. “What’s happening? You weren’t answering! Why haven’t you commed me? I’ve...we’ve been worried. Is everything all right? Are you and Uhura okay?”

Leonard cleared his throat. He hated it when he worried Jim in any way. The man had enough responsibility on his shoulders  without worrying about him.

“Couldn’t comm you before, Jim, too risky, we were afraid we’d be overheard. We found the shack, looks like it’s been abandoned a long time; it’s pretty dilapidated, dirty, and freezin’ cold. The door was about to fall off, but we were able to close it. The window is broken, but there’s a shutter and it’s keepin’ some of the cold out ‘cause Ny managed to close it. We sat down to eat and we’ve just finished. We’re not that far from the village, so we gotta’ keep our voices down. How’s it goin’ with the transporter, Jim? We really need to get the hell outta’ here before somethin’ bad happens. Not sure what’s going on with the natives, but friendly and welcoming they’re not. We seemed to have sparked some sort of paranoia and distrust in them, even downright anger.”

“I’m sorry, Bones. I’ve got Scotty, Spock, and Pavel working on the problem round the clock. I’ll be joining them soon, see if I can help, we’ll fix things even if it takes us working through the night.”

“Jim, Spock did say the transporter’s working good enough so you can beam stuff down, right? Do you think you could send down a blanket, or some thermal underwear I can slip on under these pants? Apparently the temperature around here drops considerably when the two suns go down. We hadn’t noticed it before because the other two days we’ve been here we were already inside the hotel by nightfall. I’m damned cold, chilled even. I think my core temperature is dropping, and you know that’s not a good sign. Ny is sharing her wool tunic with me while we’re sittin’ on the floor, but she needs it and you know how my Georgia bones don’t do well in the cold and these clothes I got on just don’t cut it for cold weather.”

“I do know about those Georgia bones of yours and that you’re just a thin-skinned Georgia Peach,” Jim teased, voice soft, “and yes, the spatial anomaly doesn’t seem to disrupt our beaming anything down from the ship, only beaming something back up. I’ll send down a blanket and some thermals right away. It’ll take me a few minutes to get them, so hold on while I go to your cabin and deliver them to the transporter room.”

“Jim, have you thought about what Ny and I are gonna’ do tomorrow if you guys cain’t solve the spatial anomaly problem?”

Jim and Leonard’s voices were soft, but Nyota got up again to peek outside and check on the village. Now that it was later and darker, she chanced opening the shutter a little more. The comm light was low on the floor, but she still moved to block its dim glow. Through the trees she could see the lights, which she presumed were from the business area, had now been completely turned off. She closed the shutter and sat down again. Leonard raised an inquiring eyebrow and she gave him a silent thumbs up. He nodded and continued his conversation with Jim.

“I’m hoping that doesn’t happen, Bones, but if it’s necessary, we can send down some food and water, but you guys need to keep as low a profile as possible. Maybe just stay in the shack, especially since we don’t know why the villagers are hostile. I don’t get that. You two look completely non-threatening in appearance, speak the language fluently, and you have local credits to buy what you need. All they’ve got against you is that you’re strangers. Surely there’s been other strangers in the village before, just passing through or visiting friends and family. There was nothing in the briefing about any possible hostility from the native population, but believe you me, I’m going to have words with the Admiralty about their incomplete briefing.”

Len could hear Jim breathing faster as he walked quickly to Len’s cabin.

There was a sudden silence on the comm, Jim had suddenly stopped talking. He was thinking, Leonard knew. Those wide, cerulean eyes of his were shifting and changing like quick silver, as his genius brain thought of all the things that could go wrong; possible scenarios that could put Leonard and Nyota in harm’s way, thinking how to mitigate the situation until they found a way to get them home.

“Bones, I’m thinking we should beam down rations and water tonight. Beaming something down after the suns rise in the morning might attract unwanted attention. What do you and Nyota think? I can send down food and water for tomorrow, and a blanket along with your thermals for tonight.”

“Good idea, Jim. Also send down sanitizing wipes, we’re gonna’ need those. They’re in my cabin in the bathroom, and a blanket big enough for the two of us to cuddle under,” he added, chuckling softly.

“Better not let Spock hear you say that, Bones McCoy.” Leonard heard his cabin door hiss open. “Okay, I’m here in your quarters.” Leonard heard drawers opening and closing. “Got your thermals, the wipes, and I’m grabbing your big blanket and heading for the transporter room. I’ll send these things down to you right away, then head to the mess to pack up food for you guys.”

“Thanks, Jim. We’ll be waiting. McCoy out.”

The two sat silent, huddled close together under Nyota’s tunic until a soft jingle signaled the beam in. Jim was right; doing this during daylight hours might attract unwanted attention. Inside the duffle were the neatly folded blanket, the packet of sanitizing wipes, and Leonard’s long johns.

Leonard grabbed the thermal underwear and stood up. “Just close your eyes for a minute, Ny, while I slip these on real quick.”

Nyota giggled softly. “There’s no need to be shy, Len. There’s nothing you’ve got under those pants I haven’t seen before.”

“Maybe so, but...you haven’t seen anything of mine, and we’re gonna’ keep it that way so Spock doesn’t kill me. Now close those eyes.”

Nyota smirked and closed her eyes while Leonard pulled off his loose pants and shirt, pulled on his thermals, and quickly put his clothes back on. “You can open your eyes now, Ny, and put your tunic on, darlin’. Don’t want you gettin’ chilled.”

Nyota obediently slipped the tunic back over her head while Leonard unfolded the blanket and draped it over them. He leaned back against the wall his eyes closing in bliss as he felt his body begin to warm up.

 On the ship                                                                      

Jim rested his head on the bulkhead as he took the lift to the Mess. When he’d entered Bones’ cabin, the first thing he’d seen was the picture of the two of them in their Academy reds. They had their arms around each other’s shoulders, both men looking happy, smiling, and content. It was Bones’ favorite picture of them and the holo always sat on his bed side table.

The voice in Jim’s head was filled with self recriminations. Why had he let Bones go down to Solaris with only Nyota as backup? A dumb, stupid ass decision! So damn stupid! He’d let Bones go without talking to him, without putting things right between them. And all because he was jealous; jealous, angry, and frustrated. Bones had tried, tried several times to talk with him. But Jim had avoided him, avoided the whole damn mess, avoided confessing his pettiness, his jealousy, his fear of losing Bones.

Bones had done absolutely nothing wrong. Their friendship had never been contingent on who they dated or hooked up with! Hadn’t Jim indiscriminately chased after, gone out with, and hooked up with many beings at the Academy? Not once had Bones chastised him, judged him, or been jealous, and, because of that, Jim had come to take Bones’ forbearance for granted.

The problem, Jim mused forlornly, as he grabbed the wipes, thermals, and blanket, was that Bones had never shown interest in or dated anyone on the ship, not once. Soooo, Jim had reacted stupidly and impulsively seeing him with Tonia Barrows. If anything happened to Bones on that planet, or to Ny, he’d never forgive himself. Bones had to be fine, he just had to be! And once Bones was safely back on board, he’d make things right between them, and right away too! With that decision made, Jim suddenly felt a sense of peace and relief flood through him.

In the mess, Jim hurriedly grabbed some breakfast bars, muffins, a couple of apples, borrowed four insulated mugs from the kitchen, filled them with hot chocolate and coffee then hurried to the transporter room with the food and drinks.

In the transporter room he handed Lt. De Salle, Scotty’s second in Command, the bulging duffle and opened his comm to buzz Bones again, this time with voice and vid. “Bones,” he said, feasting his eyes on the doctor’s face. “I’m sending down some breakfast bars, muffins, fruit, and coffee for in the morning. I’m also sending you some hot chocolate for tonight, it’ll warm you guys up.”

“Thanks, Jim, that’ll sure hit the spot, just hope we won’t need it for tomorrow morning though,” Leonard whispered, clutching the comm on his knees so Nyota could see and hear.

“Me too, Bones. I...”

Whatever Jim was going to say was interrupted by the all call. “Captain Kirk, please report to Engineering. Captain Kirk, report to Engineering.”

“Gotta’ go, Bones, I’m being paged. Maybe it’s good news. I’ll comm you as soon as I know something. Kirk out. Lieutenant,” he said sternly to De Salle going out the door, “don’t take your eyes off those comm bio signals.”

“Aye, Sir,” De Salle called out to the gold retreating back.

Leonard closed his comm and turned to Nyota. “Guess we wait.”

She nodded. “Guess we’re stuck here until further notice.”

“Why don’t you get some sleep now, Ny. I’ll take first watch.” He leaned back against the wall. It felt like sharp rocks were pressing on his back. “God help me, this damned wall is rough, hope I don’t get splinters,” he grumbled, shifting around to try to get comfortable. He snuggled farther down into the blanket. At least he felt warm now under the weight of the thick blanket.

“Wake me in two hours for my turn at watch, you’re tired too, Len.” Nyota looked at him sternly. “Two hours no more, promise me!”

“I promise. Now close your eyes.” He patted his shoulder. “This is your pillow for your two hour nap, okay? Lean in and go to sleep.”

Nyota satisfied, smiled sweetly. She put her head on his broad shoulder, closed her eyes and was instantly asleep.

Leonard leaned his head back, keeping his body still so as not to disturb Nyota. He hefted his phaser, put it on stun, then placed it on the floor close beside him. Leonard knew that because he was a medical professional, the ship’s CMO, people tended to forget that he was also a fully trained Starfleet officer. He kept up with his mandated physical fitness routines (Spock made sure of that), practiced hand to hand combat with Jim, Sulu, or Pavel, and, thanks to his granddaddy McCoy who taught him to shoot at a young age, he was also a dead shot with a phaser. His fighting skills may be underestimated by the crew, but he took pride in keeping his fitness levels and preparedness above par.

As a doctor, his creed was to do no harm, to heal, to never hurt any living being, and, to the best of his ability, he tried to live his professional and personal life by that creed. His Hippocratic Oath was sacred to him, but for those under his care, those he loved, those who served under him, he would do whatever was necessary to protect them.

Huddled under the blanket, he thought about how much he detested away missions. Something always happened; angry alien races trying to kill them, or someone (usually Jim) catching some new deadly virus, or some kid ending up dead. He thought about the indigenous people they’d encountered in the village, of the way they’d reacted to their presence. Psychologically, there had been no reason for their suspicious, angry reactions. He and Nyota had spoken and conducted themselves like all the other natives. Their behavior had been completely non-threatening, they hadn’t stood out in any way except for the fact they were strangers in the village.

As a psychologist, Leonard was deeply puzzled about their hostility and suspicion. Nothing in the briefings about the natives had indicated possible xenophobic issues. He wondered if Xeno and Anthro had somehow dropped the ball in their investigations, or if there was missing intel from the initial reports the Admiralty had sent Jim about the planet. The former, being under the supervision of Spock, was highly unlikely, it was much more likely to be the latter, that the intel from the Admiralty was missing some vital information.

If knew his Jim, and he did, right now Jim was furiously fuming about their present situation. Once he got them back on board, Leonard knew he wasn’t going to let this go. He wouldn’t rest until he got answers about the piss poor intel he’d received. Leonard sighed and shifted slightly, bringing his arm around Nyota pulling her closer to keep her warm. The girl was slim as a rail, with no body fat to insulate her at all, and hypothermia was a real concern.

His thoughts shifted to Engineering, to how well things were going with the spatial anomaly difficulties. Not well, probably since they were still here. There wasn’t anyone better than Scotty, Spock, and Pavel at figuring out shit like that, Leonard mused tiredly. Add Jim’s genius brain to the mix, and he hoped that would be enough brain power to figure out the answer and get them home by morning. If not, he and Nyota would have to think of ways and means. Staying in the shack in broad daylight was not really a viable option. If they were found hiding in the shack, things would most certainly go south and might even turn ugly. Leonard was sure questions would be asked, and not nicely. Worse, the Prime Directive would certainly be broken if comms, phasers, SF logo embossed mugs and blanket were found. According to Spock, nothing could be beamed back to the ship, so at dawn it would be best to hide or destroy the things Jim had sent just in case they were stuck here.

Leonard sighed, his mind wandering back to Jim’s behavior. It was weird and hurtful, but he knew there must be a reason behind it. He’d spent many sleepless nights these last three weeks trying to find one, but had come up with nothing. But...Jim’s weird shit just had to stop. Things couldn’t continue the way they were. One way or the other, Jim was going to tell him what was going on. He wondered if Jim missed him as much as he missed Jim. He loved the idiot, he thought drowsily, wondering what he was doing right now.

                                                                          ————~~~~~—————

What Jim was doing was listening to Spock, Scotty, and Pavel who were in deep conversation, rattling equations, discussing possible scenarios, and transporter quantum physics theories a mile a minute. Jim reined in his frustration and listened carefully. These three were the most brilliant minds on his ship and if they couldn’t figure it out yet, he knew they would eventually. Scotty had pulled rabbits out of hats innumerable times, and Spock and Chekov were not far behind.

“Gentlemen? Any progress on solving the problem?” He interrupted when there was a lull in the conversation.

“Unfortunately not, Captain. The spatial anomaly’s ion particles below the planet’s atmosphere shift continuously, so once the transporter pin points Lieutenant Uhura and Dr. McCoy’s location, the transporter algorithms automatically shift to compensate for the ion particles movement. And because the transporter’s safety protocols cannot be over ridden, it will interrupt the beam up process immediately and automatically. Thus, we can transport down without an issue since there are no ion particles present on the ship to interrupt the process. However, the same cannot be said for beaming anything or anyone up to the ship. We cannot lock on to anyone or anything for more than two seconds, thus it is impossible to transport anyone safely. Their atoms would disperse in many directions. We need a ten second window for one person, and a 15 second window for two. Thus far, the three of us have not found a way around this dilemma and our equations have proven useless.”

Spock’s usually smooth forehead was creased with a slight frown, which Jim translated to mean he was deeply frustrated. “At this time, we cannot safely attempt a beam up, Captain.”

Jim shuddered. Thinking about Bones’ fear of transporters and his reaction if Jim told him about the possible consequences of an attempted beam up made his heart hurt. “Absolutely not, Mr. Spock, that’s a definite hard pass until we can beam them back with complete safety.”

Scotty sighed. “Aye, Captain. We cannae’ do naught else. Too risky.” He looked keenly at Jim’s worried face. “We’ll keep working on it, lad. Dinnae’ fear, we’ll bring them home soon as we can, that we will.”

“I know you will, Scotty. You three are doing your very best to make that happen, but sometimes quantum physics doesn’t want to bend to our will. I’ll have to comm Bones and Ny to tell them it’s a no go at least for tonight.”

“The Doctor will be most unhappy, but there is no alternative at the present time. Captain, I am concerned with what tomorrow morning will bring. They cannot stay in that shack. If they are found hiding after being told to leave the area, I do not believe it would go well. It is very unlike Nyota to be, as you would put it, “spooked” by what transpired in their interactions with the native population. She is a most pragmatic, calm, individual, not one to give in to nerves or prone to hunches or premonitions. Therefore I took her statement that something is wrong at face value. There is something definitely amiss within the village, therefore it would be prudent for Leonard and Nyota to find another hiding place.”

Jim nodded, his forehead furrowed in concern. “I agree Spock. Let me go break the news to Bones, then I’ll come back to help you guys.”

Chapter Text

The Goldilocks Zone

Chapter 4

“The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.”

John Muir

Jim made his way back to the bridge, exiting the lift and giving an absent nod to his Gamma shift crew who looked surprised to see him.

“Captain,” Lt. Hannity, who had the con, rose from the Captain’s chair. “May I help you, Sir?”

“No, no, Lieutenant. Carry on. Just need to use the main comm in my briefing room.” Jim waved her back down to the chair.

“Yes, Sir. Everything has been quiet, not a peep from the planet.  Captain, are Dr. McCoy and Lt. Uhura still down there?”

“I’m afraid so, Lieutenant. Still no way to transport them back safely tonight. Just have to let them know.” Jim turned away and went into his briefing room.

Hannity, eyes wide with sympathy, followed the tall gold shirted figure. She knew, they all knew, how the Captain felt about the doctor, how worried he was about his two crewmen stranded down below. They also knew he would move heaven and earth to bring them safely home.

On the planet

Leonard was about to wake Nyota for her turn at watch. He was very sleepy, the warmth under the blanket, his worry about Jim, and the stress of this mission all coming together to make him feel old and very tired. If he had to, he usually had no problem staying awake all night. Years of bed-side vigils with his patients had trained his body to go without sleep when it was necessary. However tonight was proving to not be one of those nights.

“Ny,” he whispered gently in her ear. “It’s been two hours, it’s your turn at watch, darlin’. Wake up.”

Nyota raised her head from Leonard’s shoulder. She sat up straight, stretching her neck, arms, and back. “I’m awake, Len,” she said, yawning widely.

Leonard’s comm beeped. “It’s Jim, Ny. McCoy here,” he answered softly.

On the comm screen, Jim’s face looked regretful, stressed, and frustrated. “Bones. I’m sorry. I’m afraid it’s not good news. The spatial anomaly issue hasn’t been solved.  Spock, Scotty, and Pavel are working as fast and hard as they can, but no joy yet. We’ve talked it over and Spock and I think you need to vacate the shack and find another place to hide, and before daylight. It’s too risky for you to stay there. You said the shack is very close to the village, and who knows how they’d react if they found the two of you hiding in there!”

Uhura, wide awake now, leaned over to speak softly into Leonard’s comm. “The villagers wouldn’t like it, Captain. I believe their hostility could escalate into violence.” She paused thinking. “The only other place for us to hide is to go deep into the woods. I doubt there’s anywhere else we can go.”

“Jim,” Leonard interjected, “if we stay out in the woods at night, that’s when the temperature here drops a lot. Nyota and I would be at risk for hypothermia so I think we’re going to need some kind of shelter,” he added hesitantly.

“Bones! Of course! We’ll give you any and all back up you need from up here. I promise.” Jim saw how worried and alarmed Bones was by these new developments.  Although he was trying his best to hide it, Bones’ eyes always gave him away. Jim knew all his tells. When he was spooked his pupils would dilate and the hazel-green of his eyes would darken leaving only a ring of jade. “We’ll monitor your status constantly, and hopefully we’ll have some answers about the transporter by morning,” Jim offered consolingly.

A soft scrabbling noise at the door made Leonard whisper “Shhh,” into the comm. “Jim,” he whispered, “there’s something or someone outside the door. Talk later.” He heard a heartfelt “shit,” before he disconnected. He looked at Uhura who already had her phaser in hand. Leonard picked up his and they listened intently. The scratching was louder, harder now. The door was solidly built, but it was only hanging by a single hinge and a strong push from the outside would make it fall in. Leonard got to his feet quickly, silently made his way to the door, and put one broad shoulder up against it. If whatever or whoever was outside the door and tried to push it open they would be met with heavy resistance.

Uhura came to stand next to him and put her ear to the door. She could hear snuffling, panting, and scratching sounds. “I think it’s an animal,” she mouthed to Leonard.

He nodded. They stood silent, immovable, listening. There was a low, angry growl, and then a thud, as if something was hitting and pushing at the door trying to open it. Leonard’s eyes widened in alarm as he felt the small movement when the door gave slightly. He turned quickly, putting his back to the door pushing against it with all his weight to keep it closed. Uhura leaned her weight against it too. They moved slightly apart to disperse their weight against the rough planks. There was another growl, another thud, a whine, and more scratching and pushing. The sniffing, scratching, and growling continued and then they heard a second panting whine.

“Another one,” mouthed Leonard.

Uhura’s eyes widened as she pressed her ear to the rough wood. The whining stopped and they heard nothing more until there was a growl at the window. Nyota leaped toward the window and pressed her back against the shutter. It had no lock and was only closed flush with the edge of the window. She heard a crack as the glass broke, then a yip and nothing more. Her eyes, now accustomed to the gloom, met Leonard’s across the small room. She raised her index and middle fingers to her eyes then pointed her fingers to the window.

Leonard shook his head vehemently, mouthing NO!

She ignored him, quickly removing her outer tunic and bunching it around the window hinges. Very carefully, very slowly, phaser in hand, she cracked opened the shutter a tiny bit and stood absolutely still. There was no movement outside the window that she could hear. She looked out through the crack and her eyes widened. By the pale golden light of the moon, she could see two large canine-like animals lying next to each other, large yellow eyes intent on the window. They were taller, heavier and broader at the shoulders and haunches than Terran dogs, yet completely unlike either Earth wolves or coyotes. These animals had broad shaped heads like Terran bears, large, pointed ears, long snouts, thick manes, and glistening, long, straight, overhanging upper canines. Their big heads rested on their paws as they looked unblinking at the shack. Suddenly, as if aware it was being watched, one of the creatures raised its head and looked straight in Nyota’s direction. She pulled back quickly and carefully closed the cracked shutter leaning heavily against it. Her breath came fast, her heart pounded in her ears. Had the creature seen her? She clutched the phaser tightly in her hand, checked the heavy stun setting and listened carefully, but could hear nothing.

She and Leonard stood immobile at their respective posts, waiting. Neither made a move, fearful if the creatures heard a sound they’d come back to the door or window. Leonard checked the time, 11:25 pm ships time. Not so late, although it felt like they’d been in this shack forever. The darkness and silence felt almost suffocating, although the shack was cold and getting colder. Even with his thermal underwear Leonard could feel himself getting chilled. He wondered if he could chance leaving the door for a few seconds to grab the blanket. Nyota, too, was getting cold. She shivered, and carefully, quietly, removed her woolen tunic from the window hinges and pulled it over her head one handed. Standing still for so long made her feel stiff and much colder.

Time crawled by; 30 minutes, 45 minutes, nothing stirred or moved outside the window. She eyed the blanket discarded on the floor. She knew Leonard wanted it, but she was hesitant to leave the window. It had been almost an hour since the animals had shown up. Maybe she would chance one more peek outside the window. Once more she removed her tunic and put it over the squeaky hinges. She took a deep breath and moved the shutter a half inch. Nothing stirred, the night was deathly silent. Another half inch and she could look out to where the beasts had been lying. They weren’t there! Nyota knew she needed a wider view of the outside to see if the animals had moved away, but that would entail opening the shutter wider. Raising her phaser window level, she opened the shutter another inch to look out. There was no sign of the creatures, they were gone from this side of the shack. She closed the shutter and walked over to Leonard, grabbing the blanket from the floor.

“Len,” she whispered in his ear, handing him the blanket. “They’ve left the window side of the shack. Maybe they’re gone. We have to check the front.”

Leonard nodded. He beckoned to Nyota to move closer and he draped the blanket around them.

“I’ll open the door a crack, Ny, you keep the phaser ready,” he whispered.

Nyota’s fingers dug deeply into Leonard’s arm through his light tunic and her breathing quickened. Her strong fingers were going to leave a bruise—no, make that five bruises, Leonard thought idly. The usually unflappable Nyota was nervous about opening the door, and, truth be told, so was he.

He removed Nyota’s vice like fingers gently from his arm, and gripped the edge of the door at the top and middle just as he’d done to close it. Opening it would be easier since the door opened to the inside, and it would rest on the floorboards. Leonard lifted it a bit so it wouldn’t scrape the floor, opening it a couple of inches, just enough for Nyota to peer outside. While Leonard held the door steady, Nyota, phaser still in hand, peered out through the crack.

“What do you see, Ny, what’s out there?” Leonard whispered.

“I can’t see the beasts or hear them, Len. Can you open it a little more?”

Leonard grunted his assent and moved the door inward a couple of more inches. Her phaser clutched tightly, Nyota could see the front of the shack. The moon shone brightly, casting its silvery gleam; she saw the dense trees and thick leaves carpeting the ground, but no animals. Suddenly the door shook violently as one of the beasts, growling and snarling, lunged furiously at her! Only Leonard’s death grip on the door kept it from being flung open, and only the size of the broad, wide head of the creature prevented the enormous canines from snapping Nyota’s hand off! She fired her phaser at the beast’s head and it dropped like a stone. Immediately, the second beast attacked and she fired again. The second animal fell on top of the first one.

“Got them both, Len,” she reported shakily. “I’m tempted to kill them...who knows how long they’ll be out. Would that be against the Prime Directive?”

Leonard drew in a deep breath, thoroughly shaken by her close call. “I don’t know all the rules about the Prime Directive, but I hate to kill them.” His brow furrowed. “Do you think there’s more of them out there?”

“We have no way of knowing, Len, but they’re vicious. If I kill them there’d be two less for us to worry about, right?”

“Better to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission is what you’re sayin’.” Leonard murmured in resignation. “Alright, Ny, I agree. As your commanding officer I order you to dispatch those two beasts to perdition.”

“Len, I know you’re protecting me by making it an order, but we’re in this together, so if you take the fall about the Prime Directive I’m going to be right there with you.”

 Leonard sighed. He knew that once Nyota made up her mind, there wasn’t a chance in hell of her changing it. “Go on then, darlin’.”

She quickly and efficiently changed the phaser setting to kill, knelt, and through the cracked door, fired at the two inert bodies. The two beasts briefly glowed orange, then blue, and then they were gone. Not even ash was left.

Leonard closed the door completely. Nyota’s posture was ramrod straight, her face impassive, but she shivered in reaction. “Hope no one saw the phaser light,” she muttered shakily.

Leonard noticed her distress and drew her close. “You did great sweetheart, just great,” he murmured into her hair.

For a moment she hid her face on his chest, then she drew back, once more the consummate Starfleet professional. “It was close.”

“Just hope they’re nocturnal, Ny, ‘cause we’re going to have to get out of here at dawn. We also have to take all this stuff and dispose of it...they don’t have anythin’ like these things in the village; it’s a dead giveaway that we’re not who they think we are.”

“We’ll phaser them too, Len, but not the blanket and not until after we eat and drink what Jim sent.”

Leonard nodded. “Speakin’ of Jim, I better comm him back, I’m sure he’s sweatin’ bullets by now. Hell, I hate to tell him. He’s worried enough as it is.” They sat down again, but this time with their backs against the door...just in case. Leonard took out his communicator, “McCoy to Enterprise,” he said softly. “Come in Enterprise.”

“Bones! Oh my God, Bones! Are you okay, are you and Ny all right? I’ve been worried sick and so has Spock.” On the comm screen Jim’s eyes were wide and frantic, burning blue, and Leonard could see the stress and panic on his face.

Leonard snorted faintly. “Spock worried? How can you even tell? Did his eyebrow climb up to his bangs a millimeter higher than usual?” He felt Nyota’s iron fingers pinch his bicep hard and went on hurriedly. “And yeah, we’re okay, we’re fine now, Jim.”

“I heard that, Dr. McCoy. I have indeed been just as concerned as the Captain. Nyota, are you well?” The calm placid countenance on the screen beside Jim showed no signs of concern.

“I’m fine, Spock. We’re both fine, but there’s been a development. That’s why we couldn’t comm you. I’ll let Len report.”

“What’s happened, Bones?”

“It wasn’t pretty, Jimmy, and I don’t know what Ny and I are gonna’ do now. Are you and Spock alone?”

“Yeah, I sent Scotty and Pavel to get something to eat and take a nap. They’ve been working non stop since early this morning. Pasha didn’t want to go, wanted to keep on working. He looked at me with those eyes, you know how he does, but I was firm. Got best friend Sulu to intervene or Pavel wouldn’t go rest or eat.”

Bones snorted. “Yeah, well, I know a lot about stubborn best friends…and puppy dog eyes,” he added, and felt a little surge of satisfaction when Jim’s pale, creased face was suffused with pink color. “You too, Jim. I know you haven’t eaten or slept either, your eyes are bloodshot and I bet your blood sugar is low, so promise me that you’ll eat somethin’ and get some rest. Spock, please see to it, okay?”

Jim scowled. “Bones...”

“I will, Doctor.” Spock assured him, and Leonard relaxed a little. Jim would work himself into the grave, not eating, not sleeping, if left to himself. At least in the care, feeding, and preservation of their Captain, he and Spock were in complete accord.

”Bones, you’re stalling,” Jim said impatiently. “Report, Lt. Commander!” 

“Okay, okay. It got real scary down here, guys.” He proceeded to tell Jim about their confrontation with the animals and Ny’s close call. “Jim, I hated to, but I gave Nyota the order to kill them. It’s on me if it went against the Prime Directive.”

“Bones, don’t worry about that! I don’t think it’s ever come up in our discussions about the Prime Directive regarding predatory animals trying to eat you. As far as I’m concerned, you did the right thing to save your lives, you did what you thought was right, did what you had to do, and thanks to Nyota there’s no evidence to prove otherwise. Right, Spock?”

“That is correct, Captain. Nyota, are you certain the beast did not touch you?”

“Positive. I’m fine, Ashayam.”

Through the sensitive communicator, Nyota could hear the very faint sigh of relief from Spock, although his face gave no sign of his feelings.

“After we eat in the mornin’, we’re gonna’ destroy everything you sent down except the blanket, Jim. We cain’t stay here during the day. The shack is too close to the edge of the village. Hate to think of their reaction if they found us here, especially since they ordered us to leave. But now Ny and I are concerned about there being more predators in this forest. Don’t know where we could shelter until night fall when we might be able to come back to this shack. Unless you guys fix the anomaly problem, then it’ll be a moot point, but we gotta’ have a plan in case you don’t. Shit Jim, I don’t wanna’ be here, I don’t want Ny to be here either. I knew this mission was a bad idea! I had a real bad feelin’ ‘bout it from the beginin’. I hate away missions, Jim! I almost stepped off that transporter pad, and it wasn’t just because I detest transporters.”

Jim swallowed hard. “I know, Bones. I know you do...and I’m so sorry I wasn’t there to see you off.” Jim breathed heavily, his chest rising and falling, a sure sign of his distress.

Leonard saw the rampant remorse in the blue eyes. “S’all right, Jimmy. Just try and get us out of here as soon as possible.”

There was silence. Jim and Spock shared a look as they thought of the predicament the two officers were in, of the possibility of danger from man or beast...or both.

“I think you’ll have to hide somewhere in the woods, Bones. Just how dense is that forest? Would you be hard to spot?”

“It’s pretty dense, real tall mature trees with big canopies, smaller ones too, lots of undergrowth and bushes, and the leaves are thick on the ground. There could be all sorts of wild animals lurking in there, wildlife we don’t know a thing about. Those things we saw? They weren’t like any animal we have on Earth. They looked like a cross between a small bear and a lion. There’ll be more of them out there or some other kind of predators. We’ve got our phasers, sure, but we can’t be killing local wildlife willie nilly, Jim.”

“No, of course you can’t, Bones. Once is understandable in a life and death situation, more than that not so much.” His eyes softened as he looked at the doctor. “You look really tired, Bones.”

“Yeah, I am tired, haven’t gotten any sleep yet, and those creatures were damned scary. I’ll be fine when I get a nap. Jim, while we’ve been talking I’ve been thinking. Thought of somethin’ that might work to hide Ny and me, even though my idea might sound ridiculous at first. Would you be able to send down a couple of those harnesses Scotty uses when they have to work high up in the scaffolding in Engineering?”

“Yes, of course, Bones. We can send down almost anything, it’s bringing things up that’s the problem. Tell me what you’re thinking? And at this point, no idea is ridiculous.”

Chapter Text

The Goldilocks Zone

Chapter 5

“And see the peaceful trees extend
their myriad leaves in leisured dance—
they bear the weight of sky and cloud
upon the fountain of their veins.”

Kathleen Raine

“I don’t know how Ny’ll feel about it, but I’m thinkin’ of us finding a tall, strong tree with lots of thick branches and us holdin’ up there, harnessed to the tree for safety in case we fall asleep.  I was a damn good tree climber back in the day, most Georgia kids are. Lots of protected large forests with mature trees all over Georgia, and there was one close to my grandparents farm house. My cousins and me, we’d spend a good amount of time all summer climbing those trees. I think we’d be pretty safe up in a high tree harnessed to a couple of thick branches. ‘Course I don’t know if those kinds of creatures can climb trees, and there’s probably others out there, but we’d have an advantage looking down at them and we have our phasers.” He looked the question at Nyota who emphatically nodded her agreement.

“Nyota says she’s okay with the idea. What do you guys think? If the transporter situation isn’t fixed soon, I don’t like the thought of us wanderin’ around in the woods all day tomorrow, or worse yet camped out on the ground at night not knowing what’s out there.”

“I don’t like it either, Bones, and I think you’ve come up with a good plan, and it’s not ridiculous at all. Actually, it’s ingenious.” There was relieved smile on Jim’s face. “I’ll send two harnesses down right away. After that try to get some sleep, take a nap before you have to move out.”

“I will. Ny will keep watch now. Jim, you get some sleep too.”

“Night, Bones...,” Jim breathed, “I....”

“Goodnight, Jimmy,” Leonard said firmly. Whatever Jim was wanting to say, now was not the time to say it. They needed time and privacy.

Jim sighed, assured Len once again that his idea was sound, and closed the comm. While Nyota kept watch, Leonard relaxed his vigilance and slept deeply for two hours. When she woke him it was 3 am ship’s time. They decided that they would each get another hour of sleep before eating breakfast, disposing of their Starfleet things, then, at first light, they’d head out into the woods. They had to walk through the dense trees and underbrush, so some daylight was absolutely necessary, but the most important thing was they had to leave the shack before the village businesses began to open and people left their homes for work.

Promptly at 5 am ship’s time, they ate their protein bars, drank the strong coffee, still piping hot in the insulated mugs, and got ready to go.

“Len, I need to go outside for a few minutes,” Nyota told him, a bit embarrassed.

Leonard looked at her and understood instantly. Wordless, he handed her the sanitizing wipes. “Keep your phaser out and go under the window, Ny. I’ll open the shutter and keep watch from there. Then I’ll go.”

Afterward, both feeling more comfortable, Leonard folded the blanket as tightly as possible and Uhura mashed it into her carry all. They picked up the harnesses Jim had sent and hung them over their shoulders, and Leonard quickly disposed of the mugs and the SF food bags with his phaser.

He opened his comm. “McCoy to Enterprise. Come in Enterprise.”

“Dr. McCoy, Spock here.” Although Leonard was sure Spock hadn’t gotten a bit of sleep, he still looked fresh as a daisy on the comm screen. His uniform was immaculate, he was clean shaven, and there was not a hair out of place in his bowl cut.

Nyota leaned into the comm smiling. “Good morning, Spock. I missed you last night.”

A faint tinge of green appeared on the tips of Spock’s ears, but he answered composedly. “I, too, missed your company, Nyota.”

Leonard rolled his eyes. “Spock. Sorry to interrupt your couple mushiness, but we’re ready to head out into the woods. Where’s Jim? Did you finally convince him to get some sleep?”

“Affirmative, Doctor. Although I expect him any minute now.”

And speak of the devil, Jim came striding into the briefing room firing on all thrusters, his face flushed, looking thunderous, his blue eyes flashing fire. “Spock, you were supposed to wake me before Bones and Ny were ready to head out!”

“There was no need, Captain. Dr. McCoy only contacted the ship 41 seconds ago.”

Jim, face still thunderous, turned to face the comm. “Is that true, Bones? You just now contacted us? And good morning to you,” he added, face softening at seeing Bones.

“Vulcans do not lie, Captain,” Spock told him, sounding mildly affronted.

Leonard nodded. “It’s true, Jimmy, so don’t get cranky with Spock. And besides you needed the sleep, you know you did,” he said, looking sternly at Jim. “And yes, we’re ready to head out. Just waiting for a little more light. Still pretty dark out there. We got rid of everythin’ incriminatin’, we’re just takin’ the blanket and harnesses. We’re leavin’ the shack exactly as we found it just in case anyone comes in here. Any progress on the anomaly situation?” He asked hopefully.

“Nothing yet, Bones.” Jim answered, then looked a question over to Spock. Maybe while he slept?

Spock shook his head. “Negative, Doctor.”

Leonard sighed. “Figured as much. Okay, as soon as we find a tree or somewhere else to hide and we’re situated, we’ll comm you. Wish us luck.”

“Vulcans do not believe in luck, Doctor,” Spock intoned.

“It’s just a human expression, Spock, asking others to think positive thoughts in the hope that everything will turn out well,” Uhura explained gently.

“I see, well then, I wish you luck, Doctor.”

“Well, thank you, Spock. I’m sure we’re gonna’ need it.”

“Bones, we’re going right back to work on the transporters with a fresh outlook to the problem now that we’ve all gotten some rest, well except for Spock. We’ll have an answer soon and bring you two home.”

“I hope so, Jim.”

“Leonard, it’s time to go,” Uhura told him. “The suns are rising,” she announced to the two on the comm.

“Gotta’ go, Jim.”

“Bones...be careful. Stay alert, who knows what’s lurking in those woods. Lieutenant, keep your phaser out. You too, Bones,” Jim ordered softly, knowing how Bones hated the thought of using one. Worried blue eyes looked at him from across the miles, but Jim said nothing more.

“Aye, Captain. Stop your worrying, we’ll be careful, Jimbo. Y’all just try your best to get us back to the ship. McCoy out.”

Uhura checked the shutter making sure it was exactly as they’d found it, and Leonard carefully pushed the door out and left it ajar just like it had been, listing to its side in the dirt. It was light enough so they could see where they were walking, but not light enough that the village was awake yet. Leonard marked the shack coordinates in his comm so they could find their way back if they had to and Uhura did too. Starfleet was all about redundancy.

After looking carefully around, and not knowing which direction to take, they just started walking away from the shack. They had to move far enough away from the village that they wouldn’t be spotted. There were no paths where they walked, no sign of feet wandering through the dense trees. This appeared to be a completely virgin forest. It looked as if no trees had ever been logged or cut down for firewood. The forest was so pristine it seemed to have never been thinned out or harvested. Leonard wondered if it had some religious or spiritual significance for the villagers.

Uhura walked beside him, keeping up with Leonard’s long stride, hyper aware and vigilant, her dark eyes scanning left, right, back, and front, her phaser firmly in hand. Leonard was preoccupied both with looking down at the forest floor, and looking up at the trees, searching for a good one to climb. It had to meet his criteria: a thick trunked old growth tree, tall with broad, sturdy branches that weren’t spread too far apart, some of the branches low enough to the ground so they could get up the tree, and others high enough to offer coverage and protection, and also wide enough to sit with their safety harnesses secured to the branches.

They walked briskly for almost an hour. Leonard, rural Georgia boy born and bred, looked down at the spongy leafy ground and saw what looked like wild Terran Anemones, Primroses, and Bluebells. He’d been taught to identify hot house and wild flowers at his mother’s knee, she being an avid, knowledgeable, and enthusiastic gardener. These wildflowers were analogues to what he’d grown up with on Earth, similar but not exact duplicates. It was, after all, Leonard thought, Spring on this planet.

He stopped abruptly and held up his hand for quiet. He’d heard something, still far away, but he was sure of the sound. It wasn’t just Nyota who had superior aural sensitivity, Leonard had excellent hearing too, his auditory skills honed through his years as a doctor. He could detect the softest whimper, a soft moan of discomfort, silent tears, gasps of fear or pain, all indicative of a patient in distress. And there it was...the sound again, to the left and still far away. Definitly a growl, soft, but immediately recognizable as the that of an animal on the prowl. Nyota looked at him wide eyed, her ears, as sensitive if not more so then Leonard’s, had heard it too.

“We gotta climb, Ny, we gotta’ climb right now! Something is definitely out there, and not friendly either from that growl. We sure don’t wanna’ start out by shooting maybe killing whatever it is.” He looked around quickly. “There, Ny,” he said pointing to a tree six meters in front of them. “That one looks good enough.”

Nyota looked up at the huge tree. It closely resembled a large Terran Oak, an old mature tree, with a broad large trunk, sprawling thick branches which began close to the ground and then went up, up, up, as high as the eye could see into its thick canopy. Its leaves were green and verdant and would provide good cover if they climbed up high enough. The morning light was getting brighter. Nocturnal animals were probably already asleep, but the diurnal ones were awake now and ready to hunt. Definitely time to climb.

Leonard took a good look at the lower branches. “Just how proficient are you at climbing trees, Ny?” He asked very softly.

“Probably not as good as you, Len, but my siblings and I climbed a few back in the Kenyan countryside,” she answered just as softly, remembering the intrepid little girl who just had to keep up with her older brothers.

“Okay, lets do it and quickly. If I hoist you up to that lower branch do you think you can climb higher up from there?”

“Yes, I’m sure I can. The branches are pretty close together.”

“All right, then. I’m uneasy being down here not knowing a thing about the wildlife and something is definitely prowling out there, and we don’t want to be down here when it catches our scent. Hand me your carry all. I’ll throw it up to you once you’re up. Hang the harness over your shoulder. Hurry now.” He got up close behind her, put his large, broad hands around her slim hips, and hoisted her up as high as he could. Nyota grabbed a bottom branch and shimmied up over it than straddled it like a horse. Leonard looked up and nodded approvingly. “Do you feel secure enough, Ny?”

“I’m fine, Len. Throw up the carry all and get on up here,” she ordered softly.

“I’m going for that branch next to yours. Then we’ll climb higher and tether ourselves to avoid falling. Let’s hope that animal can’t climb,” he added. He hefted the carry all, once, twice, then lobbed it up to her. She caught it easily and hung it around her other shoulder.

Quickly Leonard took off his soft boots, tied the laces together and hung them around his neck. Much taller than Nyota, he jumped high, grabbed a branch and hoisted himself on it, also straddling it. Nyota looked on in relief. She’d heard another growl, and it was definitly getting closer.

“You have hidden talents, Dr. McCoy,” she whispered admiringly. “Who knew,” she added looking down, her eyes roaming the area to see if the animal was anywhere close.

“I ain’t just a pretty face, you know,” huffed Leonard. He sat back on the fork of the branch and looked up. “I think it’ll be easier for you to climb barefooted, tree bark can be slippery, as I found out in my youth.” In spite of the danger he laughed softly remembering the broken wrist from one of his falls from a tree. He’d been too lazy to take off his shoes and his mother had been furious when he’d run home crying in pain. His father had fixed his wrist, but he’d learned his lesson. Henceforth, tree climbing was best done with bare feet. Nyota did as he suggested and stuffed her soft boots in her carryall.

“All right, Ny, stand up carefully and begin to climb up, one branch at time. I’ll be right behind you. It’s always the same, first one hand goes up, grip tightly with it, then the other hand goes up just above the first hand, grip, and pull yourself up with your dominant foot, then the other foot goes up. Push inward and upward with your foot, don’t push down or you’ll slip. It’ll all come back to you. Just hold on real tight with your hands.”

Nyota nodded and followed directions, tentatively at first then with more confidence. She climbed up steadily with Leonard following close behind her in case she slipped. Even the light weight harness over her shoulders and the carryall didn’t hinder her as she climbed slowly.

“Stop, Ny. We’re high enough. Now find a thick branch you can lean against or sit on and turn around very carefully.”

Once she was situated and secure on a nearby branch, Leonard climbed up next to her. “We’re in good shape. Heavy sturdy branches that we can sit on or lean against,” he assured her. “Are you doin’ okay? You did great climbing. Height not bothering you?”

Nyota grinned. “No, heights don’t bother me. I enjoyed it, and you were right, Len, it all came back to me right away, even though it’s been many years since I climbed a tree chasing after my brothers.”

“Good. Let’s harness ourselves to the branch now. Cain’t be too careful. It’s a long way down if one of us falls, and I don’t even have my med kit with me. I’ll hold on to you while you harness yourself. Easy does it, don’t rush puttin’ on the harness or you’ll lose your balance.”

Nyota nodded, not wasting words. She pulled off the harness from her shoulder, untangled it and put it back on like a vest, buckling it securely across her chest.

“This long skirt is cumbersome,” she admitted, “but I’ll take it off.” Sitting, she slowly and carefully took off her long skirt and tunic, handed them to Leonard and, unselfconsciously clad only in her knickers and vest, connected and tightened the leg straps around her thighs. She fastened the leg buckles securely, then made sure her chest strap was not too loose. When she finished she strapped herself to the tree branch, then pulled the skirt and tunic over her head and harness, and Leonard released his tight precautionary hold of her knickers.

“Your turn, Len,” she said. “I’ll hold on to you now.” They didn’t even stop to think about how small, slender, Nyota would be unable to hold on to the 185 pound Leonard if he should slip.

When Leonard was harnessed and strapped on to the same thick branch they both drew a sigh of relief. They leaned back to rest and waited.

The planet’s two suns were warming up the forest and the suns’ rays were streaming through the trees shining dappled light on everything. They looked down and saw an animal coming out of the trees followed by three smaller ones. The beast was cat-like in appearance, about the size of a Terran Panther, full fleshed and well nourished, an obviously good hunter then. Her fur was dark sable, thick and beautiful, and powerful muscles rippled under her fur as she walked. Her eyes were green and large, her ears small and sharply peaked. She had three kits following behind her. The young kits had tiny pointed ears and long furry tails the same color as their mother. To Leonard’s practiced eye it was obvious she was the mother, her teats were hanging low, engorged with milk, and the kits were mewling with hunger.

Leonard and Nyota, silent and frozen in place, looked down watching her. She circled the tree and laid down on her side, meowing at the kits who scampered over to her and immediately began nursing. Leonard knew he and Nyota would have to be perfectly still while the kits nursed in order not to call attention to themselves. If the cat-like creature could climb, they’d have to use a heavy stun to disable her, or kill it, and he certainly didn’t want to do that to a nursing mother.

Suddenly he thought of their comms. They were on silent, but even a slight buzz might be heard by a feline’s sharp ears. He tapped Nyota, mimicked speaking on the comm, and then drew a finger across his throat. Kill it! Nyota nodded, reaching into her tunic to turn it off, and Leonard did the same.

They watched immobile as the kits nursed until the mama gently swatted them away. She stood up, shook herself, stretched long and lean, and growled at the kits. Immediately the babies came to stand beside her and they moved away from the tree, padded feet silent on the carpet of leaves. Leonard and Nyota watched until they were hidden from view. They waited a few more minutes and Leonard sighed. He looked around from his high perch at the airy deciduous trees laced with undergrowth below, and teeming, no doubt, with wild life. This was a primitive Eden, untouched by the people of the village, and he wondered again if it held some sort of religious or spiritual significance for them.

“That was close,” he whispered. “Didn’t want to harm that mama.”

“She was beautiful,” Nyota said. “Wish the Zoology Department could have seen her. Almost but not quite like a Terran panther.”

Leonard nodded. “We better turn our comms back on, before Jim has a hissy fit.”

“Len, what are we going to do about food and water? I’m thirsty already, and it won’t be long before we’re hungry. The ship can’t beam anything to us while we’re up here, it’s too difficult even for Scotty. There’s not nearly enough room.”

“Yeah, even Scotty’s not that good. I’ll climb down when we’re ready for them to beam in something for us and bring it back up.” He got out his comm and turned it on. “Enterprise, come in Enterprise. McCoy to Enterprise!”

“Bones!” Jim looked and sounded frantic! “Are you all right? Why didn’t you comm when you got situated, and why weren’t you answering your comms!” He huffed a deep breath. “Damn it, Bones, I was worried! I...I...thought something bad had happened to you,” he said, shivering slightly.

“I’m sorry, Jim. Didn’t mean to worry you, but we couldn’t risk using the comm. We’re fine. Luckily we found a big tree, and we’re securely harnessed, but a big panther like animal came out of the trees with three baby kits and decided to nurse them right below us. Nyota and I didn’t know if she could climb, and we didn’t want to shoot her if she could. We were afraid she’d hear or smell us, so we turned off the comms worried you might call.” He looked up through the thick canopy and didn’t voice to the already worried Jim another concern. Airborne creatures. Just because they hadn’t seen any, didn’t mean there weren’t any. 

Jim was silent digesting the information. He sighed and drew his hand down his face wearily. “Yeah, all right, Bones. But please don’t do that again. We need to know what’s going on all the time with the two of you. It’s hard up here not knowing if you’re alright.”

Leonard huffed a deep breath. “I know, Jim. It’s hard down here too,” he muttered. 

Chapter Text

The Goldilocks Zone 

Chapter 6 

“We never know how high we are

  Till we are called to rise;

And then, if we are true to plan?

  Our statures touch the skies—”

Emily Dickinson 

“We’ll try not to, Jim,” Leonard went on, “but cain’t make any promises. How’s it goin’ up there, any progress?”

Jim looked tired. There were dark circles under his eyes, lines etched around his mouth and eyes and across his forehead, all from worrying about them, Leonard knew.

Jim nodded at Spock to respond. “Doctor, Nyota, we have moved forward since last we spoke. The Captain, Mr. Scott, Ensign Chekov and I have made some progress using some slightly and little known controversial and irregular equations once proposed by an Andorian mathematician who discovered how to make a....let us say.... a hole in a spatial construct. This equation was first proposed as a way to transport through Andor’s solid sheet of ice. However it was soon discarded as being too dangerous and problematical to use for transporting living beings through the planet’s thick covering of ice. Mr. Scott believes  the equation holds promise as a way of making a “hole” in the spatial anomaly which could then be expanded by enough seconds; that is, made large enough to transport you and Lt. Uhura safely.” He paused. “It is difficult to explain quantum mechanics equations in laymen’s terms.”

Leonard felt actual horror seeping into every cell in his body as Spock described the process. He looked at Jim who looked unhappy.

“Jim? Are you okay with that?” He asked wide eyed.

“I know it sounds bad, Bones,” Jim told him, “but it’s the only thing we’ve come up with so far.”

“I ain’t doin’ it, Jim,” Leonard told him flatly. “Y’all can just leave me down here to rot for all I care. Leave orbit, leave me behind. I’ll manage somehow, but I’m not beamin’ up through some Andorian homemade hole in that anomaly. No way in hell!” A chill ran down Leonard’s body just thinking about it. It was bad enough that every time you transported, your atoms, even your sense of self, was destroyed sub atomically and then reassembled somewhere else. But then to think of your disassembled self going through some sort of artificial quantum “hole” horrified him even more! It didn’t bear thinking about!

“Bones!” Jim cried. “Don’t say that, don’t even think that! As if I...could...as if...I couldn’t...we would never leave you behind! That’s never going to happen! Never! You need to calm down and stop freaking out! We won’t use the transporter until we’re absolutely sure it’s completely safe.” Jim looked into Bones’ panicked eyes. “I promise you we won’t do that! Bones, do you trust me?” Jim waited for Bones to answer, the dead air between their comms charged with tension.

Terrified hazel eyes looked into the calm, steadfast blue ones. “Of course I do, Jim! I trust you with my life. Haven’t I always?” Leonard asked softly.

“Yeah,” Jim murmured, “you have. Always. And I you, Bones. How many times have you saved me? Too many times to count. I always trust you to save me, to have my back. Now you have to trust me to do the same for you. We won’t do a damn thing until you’re ready, okay? Until we and you are absolutely sure it’s perfectly safe. So you just calm the hell down and stop worrying about the transporter.” Through the comm, Jim looked steadily at Bones, willing him to believe. 

Never taking his eyes off Jim, Bones nodded slowly, breathing deeply, in and out, in and out, until his panic subsided. “Okay, Jim. I’ll try, I will.”

“Good, Bones, that’s good.” Jim sighed in silent relief as he saw Bones calming down. Shit, he thought, Bones’ aviaphobia and his fear of transporters were rearing their ugly heads again. Most of the time Bones kept his fears well under control, but when he was very stressed or worried, his insecurities would flare up. He glanced at Spock and saw the same concern for Bones reflected in the austere face.

Uhura saw the glance and cleared her throat, breaking the tension. “Captain, Spock. Len and I are going to need some provisions. Water to start with. I’m already very thirsty, and we’ll need food too. I think we’re going to have to stay up here all day.”

“You are correct, Nyota. I do not foresee that the transporter issue will be resolved quickly,” Spock told them. “Mr. Scott, Mr. Chekov, and I are working diligently, but I must admit the solution to our problem remains illusive.” 

“We’ll beam down whatever you need,” Jim assured them quickly. “I’m not quite sure how we’re going to do it though,” he said, walking closer to the screen and peering at their perch. Not even Scotty could beam something directly on to a tree branch.

“It’s fine, Jim. You just beam everythin’ down close to the base of the tree and I’ll climb down to get them. It’ll be a quick down and right back up. Just send everything inside a carry-all so my hands will be free to climb back up.”

Jim frowned realizing Bones would have to get back on the ground, but there was no other way to do it with any accuracy.

“Yeah, I guess there’s no other way. I’ll send water and provisions down in a few minutes...maybe something more substantial then protein bars; sandwiches okay?”

“That sounds real good, Jim. Ny and I didn’t get much of a breakfast. Do you think you could also beam down my Field Med kit? I feel naked without it,” Leonard admitted ruefully. Never before had he been on an away mission without it.

Jim smiled knowingly. “Sure, I’ll put it in the carryall. I’ll also feel better if you have it with you.”

“Are the two of you returning to the shack tonight if you have to stay on the planet for another night?” Spock asked.

“I’ve been thinkin’ about that, Spock. Ny and I will talk it over and decide for sure. At first I thought yes, but now that we’ve seen two different types of predators roamin’ around, I don’t relish walking back to the shack after dark. Who knows how many more of those animals are out there prowling’ and huntin’.”

“It does seem risky, Doctor. Also, someone from the village may see you going into the shack,” Spock said. 

“Would you be able to sleep in the tree, Bones, Ny?” Jim looked dubiously at their harnessed positions. They didn’t look anywhere near comfortable enough for sleeping.

“There are some wider branches just above us, Jim, branches where we could sit and recline against the main trunk. I reckon we could climb up a little higher to those wider branches for tonight. We’ll let you know what we decide to do. The shack wasn’t any too comfortable either, and it was damned cold,” Leonard added.

“Excuse me, Captain. I must return to the transporter room. Mr. Scott and Ensign Chekov should be there by now. We will endeavor to speed up our work. Nyota, Dr.McCoy, please take care.”

“I will, Spock,” Nyota leaned in to look at him. “We both will.”

“Spock, I’ll join you after I go to the Med Bay and the mess to get the food and water. Bones, I’ll comm you as soon as I’m ready to send down the provisions and your Med Kit. Stay put until then. Kirk out.”

“We might as well get comfortable.” Nyota squirmed to get her backside in a comfortable position on the branch. “As comfortable as we can perched on a tree branch.”

“We’ll climb higher after I go down for our stuff, Ny. No use us climbing higher right now, I’ll just have to climb down further.”

“You’re right, Len.” She grimaced at herself. “I’m sorry I don’t mean to complain. I hate whiners.”

Leonard laughed softly. “S’all right, sweetheart. There’s not too many people I’d tolerate hanging out with on a tree branch, but you’re at the top of that very short list.”

Nyota grinned back. “Feeling is mutual, Dr. McCoy.” She raised her head. A drop of water hit her in the eye. “Damn, I just felt a rain drop ...no make that two drops. Len! I think it’s starting to rain,” she said, her face filled with dismay.

“No, no, no,” Leonard groaned. “That’s all we need, to get rained on.” Sure enough, the first few drops were now turning into many drops and they were icy cold. Nyota hurriedly pulled the blanket out of her carry all and opened it up. 

Then to Nyota’s alarm, Leonard began to unhook his harness.  “Len, what are you doing? Stop it! You might fall!”

“I won’t fall. I’m just gonna’ come sit right next to you. We can share the blanket better and it’ll be a lot warmer. The branch will hold both of us.” He unhooked himself, carefully scooted over on his branch, pulled one leg over Nyota’s branch, then the other leg. He quickly hooked his harness on to Nyota’s branch and settled in right beside her. 

Nyota gave a sigh of relief when he was firmly harnessed in place. “Here, cover yourself up, Len, the rain’s really coming down now.”

Leonard grabbed one end of the blanket, Nyota the other end, and they draped it over themselves. It was large enough to cover their heads, shoulders, and upper torsos. The rain was starting to come down in earnest now, soaking the tree leaves, making the verdant green glisten. 

“At least Starfleet blankets are big and water proof,” Leonard muttered.

His comm pinged and he carefully pulled it out of his tunic “McCoy here.”

“Bones, I’m here with Chef. She’s asking what kind of sandwiches you and Ny want? She said you might as well get what you like, and she’s preparing enough food for a couple of meals. It’ll save you from climbing up and down a second time.”

“That’s a good idea, thank her for Ny and me, and tell her whatever she wants to send is fine with us, but Jim, you better wait for the beam down. It’s rainin’ hard right now. Ny and I are huddled under the blanket because the rain here is damn cold. I really don’t wanna’ chance climbing down the tree in the rain, the bark will be slippery...way too easy to slip and fall, and being cold and wet is definitely a bigger risk for hypothermia.”

“God no! Don’t even think about climbing down! I’ll wait. Are you two warm enough?” Jim asked worriedly.

Nyota nodded in answer to Jim’s question. “Yeah, I’ve still got my thermals on, and Ny says yes, so we’re not too bad off.”

Through the comm screen Jim stared hard at him, trying to decide if it was the truth. He knew how much Bones hated being cold. “I’m sorry, Bones. I know things haven’t gone too well on this mission and now you’re stuck up in a tree, cold, wet, and uncomfortable.“

To Leonard’s practiced eye, Jim looked tired, dispirited, and worn out. “Jim, this isn’t your fault, okay? Who knew there’d be a spatial anomaly anyway. There’s just some things no one has any control over, spatial anomalies being one of them.”

“I know that in my head, Bones, but it seems this mission has been problematical from the start. Our briefings from the Admiralty were incomplete, maybe even deliberately misleading. I should never have sent you and Ny down there. I’m starting to believe we were sent here under false pretenses, to what end I don’t know yet, but now you and Ny are paying the price,” he added angrily.

“Yeah, we are, but we’re okay, Jimmy. We’ll stay up on this here tree safe and sound, even if it is a little damp, until you can get us back on the ship.” 

Jim gave him a tired, affectionate smile. “That’s the spirit, Bones. Glad you’ve got the blanket at least. I’ll send down a second one with the food and Med kit. You’ll need it if you have to spend the night up there,” he added. 

“That’ll be great, thanks, Jim.”

“Captain, sorry to interrupt,” Nyota broke in. “The rain has almost stopped for now, just a few sprinkles. I don’t know how much of a break we’re going to get, but it’s probably a good time to beam down everything now that there’s a lull.”

“I’ll stop for another blanket on my way to the transporter room. I’ll be quick and comm you once I’m there so you can start down.”

They waited until Jim said, “I’m in the transporter room. As soon as you’re down we’ll pin point your coordinates for beam down.”

“On my way down, Jim.” Leonard unharnessed himself, removed his soft boots again, handed them to Nyota, and made his way slowly down the tree. The bark and leaves were wet and shiny, so he was careful with hand and footholds. He jumped down to solid ground from the last branch. “I’m down, Jim. Go ahead.” 

Immediately the silvery whine of the transporter signaled incoming, and the large bulging duffle appeared. Leonard threw it over his shoulder, then turned sharply as he heard a loud growl in the trees close by.

“Shit!” 

He wasted no time in jumping up to the first low branch he could reach. Straddling it, he began climbing as fast as he could on the slippery bark just as a large, black feline burst out of the under growth, growling and snarling, its large canines flashing white against its black fur. Being raised in rural Georgia where hunting was a common pastime, Leonard knew his scent meant prey to the hungry beast.  

“Len!” Nyota screamed down at him. “Watch out, it’s coming behind you! Hurry!”

Leonard chanced a glance below him, and indeed the large beast was climbing...slowly, clumsily, but climbing. It was directly below and behind him. Leonard climbed faster, his shoulder muscles bunching with his efforts; the duffle strapped around his shoulder hindering his speed. Above him, Nyota pulled out her phaser and put it on stun. She leaned as far as her harness allowed and fired directly at the huge creature’s face. The animal roared as the stun hit him, paused, shook its massive head, but continued climbing. Nyota fired again, but it didn’t seem to phase the huge feline.

Leonard could hear the animal panting and growling in fury from just under him. He didn’t waste time glancing back again, he just kept going; up, up, up, until at last he was level with Nyota! “Stun setting doesn’t stop him, Len, we’re going to have to kill it,” Nyota gritted out, not taking her eyes off the huge beast getting closer to them.

Leonard pulled out his own phaser. “Not yet, Ny.” Leonard straddled the branch to steady himself. “Let’s both hit him at the same time.” She nodded and they aimed both phasers. “Now!” 

The force of the stun beams fired by the two phasers at the same time and at close range worked. The huge beast fell like a stone from the tree. Nyota and Leonard peered down and saw it lying completely still on its side. 

“Do you think we killed it?” Nyota whispered.

“God, I hope not. Three dead indigenous life forms in one day would be hard to explain.”

“I won’t tell if you won’t,” Nyota told him, never taking her eyes off the unconscious beast. “He’s enormous.” She shuddered. “You scared me to death, Leonard McCoy. I thought he was going to eat you. Jim’s going to have a fit!”

“Not if we don’t tell him...…”

“I am going to tell him, Len. We have to document everything about this planet. Huge, dangerous carnivores are part of the final notes for our “this is not a good planet for First Contact” report.”

“Yeah, guess you’re right, but Jim’s not gonna’ be happy.” He stared down at the beast, still apparently unconscious. 

Nyota’s comm buzzed. “It’s Spock,” she said handing Leonard his boots. “Maybe with some good news. Uhura here.” She gave him a faint smile of greeting.

“Lieutenant,” Spock, spoke formally and nodded, but his eyes gleamed at her. “The Captain asked me to ascertain if you received the things he sent you in good condition. He is presently going over some new and promising transporter equations with Mr. Scott and Ensign Chekov.”

“Yes, we got the duffle fine, Spock, but we haven’t opened it yet. Leonard climbed down the tree and had a close call with one of the wild animals here, a large feline predator attacked and climbed after him.”

“Explain.” Spock’s forehead now had a faint frown on it.

Nyota told him all that had transpired with the huge feline, and Spock’s frown deepened. “Are you certain that Leonard was not bitten nor scratched?”

Leonard leaned in to the comm view. “I’m fine, Spock, the beast didn’t touch me, but it was close there for a minute. Now I definitely feel we need to stay up here this evening. I think it was pure luck we didn’t run into any wild animals this morning when we left the shack, like this big cat, or those bear like creatures from last night. These woods seems to have a lot of wild animals roaming around. Don’t understand why they don’t go into the village.”

“A good question, among many other questions about this mission. I agree with you, Doctor, that under the circumstances, it would be much safer for you and Nyota to stay where you are. I will inform the Captain of this latest development. Spock out,”  he said, signing off.

Leonard removed the duffle from his shoulder and opened it. He saw his med kit in its vintage leather case, a gift from Jim, and patted it affectionately, then handed Nyota her sandwich and the water. “He’s running to tell Jim what happened isn’t he?”

Nyota nodded, drinking thirstily and swallowing a big bite of the sandwich. “Of course he is, Len. Jim would be furious if he didn’t.” She handed Leonard her comm. “Here. The next comm is going to be for you,” she smirked knowingly.

“Jim’s gonna’ to be real upset.” He sighed taking the comm, and took a bite of his sandwich. “Wait for it...wait for it....” The comm pinged. “Now!”

“Bones! Bones! Are you all right?” Jim’s frantic face appeared on Uhura’s comm.

“And there he is,” he murmured to Nyota, then louder.  “Jim, Jim, I’m all right! I’m just fine,” his lips curled in a small, lopsided, reassuring smile, his dimples flashing. 

Jim’s heart stuttered a little at the sight of the smile and those dimples. When Bones’ dimples came out it meant he was okay.

 “The beast is down below us, stunned senseless by two direct phaser hits.” Leonard turned the comm upside down so the camera could pick up the feline’s body. “See? He’s still out.”

“Kill it, Bones! It’s dangerous! It might come after you again! Spock said the beast can climb.”

“Jim, we’re not going to kill it,” Leonard told him firmly. “It was only doing what big cats do, hunt for food. It wasn’t personal, it’s their nature to hunt. Ny and I we’ll keep a close eye on it, but I bet it won’t try climbing this tree again once it wakes up. How’s the transporter issue comin’ along?” he asked, hoping to distract Jim.

Jim eyed him, not fooled by Bones’ chance of topic. “I know what you’re doing, Bones McCoy. Don’t try to change the subject. That animal is dangerous, and so were the ones from last night.”

“Fine,” huffed Leonard. “But we’re not killing another animal unless we have no other choice.”

“Len, Captain,”  Nyota interrupted. “It’s waking up, look.”

Sure enough. The feline was staggering to its feet. It wobbled on its four legs, shook its massive head obviously still shaken from the stun, then tottered shakily off into the dense trees.

“It’s gone, Jim. Told you. Poor thing didn’t know what hit him. Doubt if its gonna’ try to come up here for more.”

“Yeah, maybe this one’s gone,” Jim answered, “but you know there are others out there, so you two stay alert.” 

“We’ll keep good watch, Jim. Good thing you sent the other blanket and extra food and water, save me from climbing down again.”

”No more climbing down for a while, please, Bones, my nerves can’t take it, it’s just too dangerous!”

Chapter Text

The Goldilocks Zone

Chapter 7

“The rain to the wind said,
You push and I'll pelt.'
They so smote the garden bed
That the flowers actually knelt,
And lay lodged--though not dead.
I know how the flowers.

Robert Frost

“Captain,” Nyota interjected firmly into the comm, “has there been any progress? We didn’t get a chance to ask Spock.”

“Yes, Lieutenant, there’s been some progress. Scotty and Pavel are running some sims with the new equations, the transporter time for beam ups has increased by a couple of seconds. I have to get back, Spock has taken the con so I can go to Engineering.”

“Jim, do you mean we could get back to the ship today, tonight, tomorrow?”

“I don’t know, Bones. I wish I could be more specific about the time. I want you back on the ship safe and sound as much as you want to be here.” Jim’s face looked pinched and pale, and there was a sad look in his eyes that went straight through Leonard’s heart and broke it a little.

“Jim, Ny and I are goin’ to stay up here tonight,” he said, trying to soothe Jim at least a little. “We think it’s too risky walking back to the shack. What if we make noise, or have to use our phasers again? It’s so close to the village we’d be spotted in no time. It’s safer just to stay up here...we have another blanket, the med kit, and the extra food you sent. Much easier to keep watch from up here too, we’ll take turns like we did last night.”

“I think you’re right, it is safer for you to stay there.” Jim looked sadly at him. “Oh, Bones.” he whispered, his forehead furrowed as if in pain, his eyes bluer than blue. “It’s hell not having you here on the ship. You gotta’ do everything you can to stay safe, Bones. Promise me. What would I do if something happened to you?”

Leonard cleared his suddenly constricted throat conscious of Nyota sitting right beside him, keeping him from saying what he really wanted to say to Jim.

“It’s hell for us too, Jim, but hopefully it won’t be for much longer. Now you stop fretting about Ny and me, we’ll be okay up here. You go help Scotty, Spock, and Chekov increase those seconds and we’ll talk a little bit later, okay?” He gave Jim a fleeting, comforting smile. “McCoy out.”

He put away his comm and glanced over to Nyota. Her eyes were soft with compassion, with understanding. “He loves you, Len. He loves you and misses you.”

“What?” He looked at Nayota, utterly shocked. “What are you talkin’ about, Ny?”

“Jim loves you, Len. I think he’s always loved you. Even back at the Academy I suspected it. His face would light up when he’d see you, and wherever you were he was there too. When you’d go home to Georgia, he’d have this sad lost look to him while you were gone and he’d get almost giddy when he knew you were coming back.”

Leonard shook his head. “If Jim loved me he would’ve come after me, Ny. Jim always goes after who he wants...always gets them too,” he added, a touch bitterly. “He’s never shown any interest in me romantically, never.”

“Len! You’re both idiots! Have you ever shown any romantic interest in him? No, you have not! You love each other! You’re always together, you eat most meals together, you’re always touching each other, you take care of him, he watches you like a hawk, you look at each other constantly, he pines when you’re gone, and you worry incessantly when he’s on a mission. If that isn’t love I don’t know what it is. Honestly, the command crew just wants to lock you two up in a room until you admit your feelings, confess that you love each other! We’re all sick of it; even Spock is sick of it! And that’s saying something! Sometimes after shift we get together for a drink, just because we’re so frustrated with both of you. Christine and Geoffrey are too. When we get back on board you’ve got to fix this, Len, fix it before you drive us all crazy! None of us in the Command crew can stand it anymore,” she added bitterly. It was true, since the McCoy-Kirk debacle they were all irritable and snippy with each other. They’d never been that way before, but Jim’s constant black mood was contagious!

“God almighty, is it that obvious?” Leonard asked, dumbfounded at Nyota’s vehemence.

“OMG, yes!”

“But...but...then why’s Jim been acting like I’m poison? Ny, I gotta tell you, his behavior has been mighty hurtful. He’s hardly looked or talked to me in three weeks.”

“I don’t know! Nobody knows! But thats what you’re going to have to find out.”

“I’ve been tryin’ damn it! Jim just avoids me or runs away! I don’t understand any of it, makes no sense. It all came out of the blue and believe me I’ve been wracking my brains trying to figure it out.”

“I know you have, Len, but this has got to end. I don’t care if we have to tie him to a chair, I don’t care if it’s insubordination, or mutiny, or whatever. None of us care! We can’t take it any more!” To Leonard’s astonishment the always calm, completely unruffled Uhura was whisper yelling at him.

The sudden roll of thunder interrupted Leonard’s response. He looked up through the tree canopy. “Well hell! It looks like more rain is coming. We better climb up to those bigger branches above us before it starts pourin’. We’ll be more comfortable  sittin’ on one of the wider branches and we can spread ourselves out a little more with the blankets over us.” He hefted the carry-all over his shoulder. “You go up first, Ny. I’ll follow right behind you.” He unhooked his harness, then hers, but he held on tightly to Nyota’s harness, letting its length play out so she could climb. She stood up carefully on her branch, balanced herself on the wide trunk, then tucked her skirt up and out of the way one handed. She nodded at him. “I’m ready, Len.”

“Keep a tight grip on your hand holds and be very careful you don’t slip. Aim for those three wide branches directly above us. Go, Ny.”

Nyota climbed slowly but steadily, her grip sure and confident. Leonard followed directly behind her, her harness lead wound tightly around his wrist until she reached their goal. She scrambled on to one of the wide branches and sat on it, leaning against the thick main trunk of the tree. Leonard was right, this branch was wide enough to sit comfortably without straddling it. Len looked up at her, reached up and handed Ny the harness lead. She immediately clipped it around her wide branch, then he reached the same branch, pulling himself on to it to sit right beside her. He settled in just as the thunder rolled again, this time sounding much louder. The rain was beginning to come down harder now, pelting them with icy cold drops. He hurriedly clipped his own harness lead around the branch, opened the duffle and pulled out the second blanket. Nyota already had hers out. They draped both blankets over their heads and around themselves just in time as the cold downpour started in earnest.

Leonard gritted his teeth as the icy drops hit his knees and lower legs, his thin linen pants and thermals offering little protection. He hastily drew his legs up to his chest so the blanket could cover him as much as possible. He glanced at Nyota and saw she had done the same. He hunched over and drew the blanket tighter around him as the rain came down harder and colder and the sound of thunder got closer and louder.

Leonard turned his face to look at Nyota. She, too, was hunched over, her lithe body curled into a ball. She turned to face him, careful not to dislodge her blanket.

“Are you all right, Ny? Not too cold?” Leonard raised his voice to be heard over the rolling thunder.

She smiled. “I’m fine, Len. I’ve always loved the rain. It makes me happy. That feeling must go back to the long ago days of my early ancestors when rain meant life was coming back to the African desert. How about you? Are you warm enough?”

Leonard snorted. “Well, if wishes were fishes, we’d both be warm and snug back on the ship, but I’m tolerably warm under this blanket.”

“Scoot in a little closer if you can, then we can use one blanket to cover our heads and shoulders and the other one to cover our bodies. I think we’ll be a lot warmer that way.”

Leonard scooted over as close to Nyota as possible and she raised her blanket to cover his head, chest, and shoulders. At the same time, he pulled his blanket down and spread it over both their lower bodies, tucking it carefully around Nyota and himself. Now they could uncurl their bodies from their uncomfortable hunched position and let their legs down without their getting soaked which was much more comfortable as well as warmer. They both felt the welcomed extra warmth now that they were wrapped up with both blankets; cocooned, warmer, and dry under them.

The rain was coming down in torrents now. “Is our food staying dry, Len,” Nyota asked anxiously. If their provisions got wet and ruined, there was no climbing down in this downpour to get more. It would be too dangerous, the tree bark slippery, much too difficult for hands and feet to grip tightly.

“I’ve got the carryall under both blankets.” Leonard patted the hidden bundle. “It’ll stay dry, don’t you worry.” He wondered what time it was, not wanting to chance pulling out his own comm in this downpour. “Ny, can you see the time on your comm without getting it wet? Don’t want to chance gettin’ mine outta‘ my pocket.”

One handed, Nyota reached into her carryall kept dry underneath the blanket, opened her communicator inside it and peered at the readout. “It’s 4:30 ships time. Still Alpha shift.”

Leonard sighed. “Wonder if they’ve gotten anywhere with those algorithms they’re working on? Jim is probably goin’ without sleepin’ and eatin’ unless Spock forces him, and even then he won’t eat when he’s stressed and he sure don’t sleep when he’s worried.”

“It’s because he’s so worried and because he loves you...and you love him,” Nyota repeated stubbornly.

“Nyota Uhura! Even if that was all true, that’s strictly between Jim and me! You told me how you guys talk about us, but I don’t want any of you buttin’ into our business. Jim is skittish enough as it is, and I’m workin’ blind here, cause I don’t have any idea why...”

Leonard’s rant was suddenly interrupted by loud growls at the bottom of the tree. They looked down. In spite of the pouring rain two of the bear like creatures like those at the shack last night were circling the tree looking up at them, their large yellow eyes gleaming brightly. Even through the heavy rain they could see their white, long, lethal canines as they snarled, plainly visible even from as high up as they were. The two beasts kept circling the tree, but made no move to climb. There was no doubt that Nyota and Leonard were being stalked as prey.

“Len...,” Nyota whispered.

“Shhh, stay perfectly still, don’t move a muscle.” He whispered back, and under the blanket, Leonard’s hand closed tightly around hers.

The beasts continued their snarling, growling, and constant circling, looking up at them, baring their teeth, until finally after what seemed like an eternity, they gave up. The two watched them disappear into the undergrowth. Nyota sighed in relief and Leonard finally let go of his tight grip on her hand.

“For some reason those animals scare me more than the big felines,” Nyota shivered, flexing her hand and patting her phaser tucked safely into her carry all.

Leonard nodded. “Me too, Ny, but at least we know now they cain’t climb. Seems to me that all the wildlife we’ve run into here so far, is big, vicious, hungry, and damned scary. Need to add that to our final report. I wonder if it was just our bad luck that Xeno-Anthropology chose this area, or if it’s this hostile, both animals and people, all over the planet.” He sighed in frustration. Hostile villagers, very little tech, vicious wildlife, icy cold rain, and who knew what else. He couldn’t wait to leave this miserable planet.

“I wonder that myself, Len. Maybe a bigger more sophisticated town would have been better.”

There was another roll of thunder but it sounded farther away and it felt as if the rain was lessening.

“Sounds like the storm is passing,” Nyota commented, “about time too.”

As if on cue Leonard’s comm buzzed. “Hey, Jim,” he answered wearily, carefully pulling the comm out from his hidden pocket but keeping it dry under the blanket.

Jim sat at his large briefing room comm and looked at Bones on his screen. His dark hair was flopping damply over his forehead, the set of his eyebrows was low over his eyes, and his mouth was pinched.

“Bones, what’s happened? Are you and Nyota all right?” Jim’s blue eyes were worriedly intent on him. He was nervously wringing his hands on the table as he waited for Bones’ answer.

“Yeah, Jim. We’re all right, but we’ve been sittin’ on a hard tree branch all afternoon, been rained on incessantly for a couple of hours, and on top of that we were stalked by two more of those ugly bear like animals from last night. Ny and me? We just want to get home, Jim,” Leonard added miserably, and saw the little flash of hurt in the wide blue eyes looking at him. Jim’s broad shoulders lifted then slumped as he drew in a deep shaky breath.

“I know you do, Bones, and I want you home just as badly.” It was true. Jim needed Bones back on the ship safe and sound, it was an empty shell of a place without him. Truth was he just didn’t do well without Bones, never had, and even when he’d been avoiding him, he knew Bones was still close by somewhere, safe on the ship. “We’re trying as hard as we can to get you two home and there’s been progress. We’re close to an answer, Spock said the 2 second window has increased to six seconds, and you know he’s not one to give false hopes,” Jim added. “We’ll get to that ten second window very soon, I know it.”

The rain had stopped so they lowered the blankets from their heads. Leonard felt himself soften as he heard Jim trying his best to offer hope and comfort. Jim looked so wrecked, so thoroughly tired and worn, that Leonard offered him a small version of his usual snort. “Very true about the hobgoblin, no false comforts ever comin’ from that one.” Under the cover of the blanket he gave Nyota a squeeze of the hand so she’d know he didn’t really mean it. “From your mouth to God’s ears, Jim, ‘cause Ny and me we’re gonna’ have to climb down sooner than later. Mother Nature calls and, if it’s gettin’ uncomfortable for me, I’m sure it is for Ny too.” He looked over and saw her nodding a bit frantically.

“Um...” Jim seemed at a loss. “Oh, yeah,” he said, the light dawning. He frowned worriedly. “Will it be safe to go down, Bones?”

“Probably not, but I cain’t see anything else for us to do,” Leonard answered. “I’ll turn my back on Ny and guard her, and then she’ll do the same for me. Hopefully there won’t be another predator roaming close by.”

“Put your phasers on kill, Bones, you too, Nyota. And that’s an order. I don’t think the Prime Directive applies to carnivorous wild life trying to eat you, and you shoot to kill if you have to. Is that clear?”

“As bells,” Nyota responded, looking hard at the reluctant Leonard.

“Bones? Is that clear?”

“Yeah...Jim. It’s clear,” he answered grudgingly.

“Good! Bones,” Jim looked imploringly at him. “I know how you hated killing those animals last night, and that you might have to do the same again, but you have to stay safe until we can get you home, okay? You stay safe no matter what it takes. You have to, please, Bones,” he pleaded.

Leonard looked at Jim’s tense, worried face, his rigid shoulders. Shit, he thought, Jim was worried enough about them without Leonard adding more to his plate. Leonard’s mouth curved upward just a little in a tiny smile, but it was enough so that when Jim saw it and his shoulders relaxed a little.

“I’ll put my phaser on kill, Jim. I promise. Now stop your frettin’ about me, about us.”

“Not possible.” Jim smiled too, but his smile was strained. “Hopefully I’ll have good news for you before morning,” he added. “We’ll talk again after Alpha shift. Kirk out.

Leonard met Nyota’s knowing gaze and squirmed silently. “You see? I hope you believe me now, Leonard McCoy. Jim is lost without you; he loves you.”

Leonard sputtered. “Does not,” he muttered childishly.

Nyota rolled her eyes. “Does too.” Then she grinned at him. “I’d be hard pressed to find two other people who’ve struggled so hard against the truth. Be happy, Len. Jim loves you, and you love him, even a blind man can see it. Now all you have to do is figure out why he’s being such as ass.”

“I aim to, darlin’, as soon as we’re back on the ship that it’ll be my first priority. Now let’s get down to the ground before it starts raining again. My bladder is none too happy.”

“Mine either.” Nyota unclipped her harness and took off her blanket, carry all, and tunic, folding them neatly and tucking them in the crook of the branch. She tucked her skirt up into the waistband out of the way. “It’ll be cold, but less clothes to worry about down there,” she said.

Leonard did the same with his blanket and food bag. They left their phasers and communicators in their hidden pocket, and the med bag he slipped over his shoulder, no way was he going down without it. He handed Ny a couple of sanitizing wipes and started down the tree first. “Try to step where I’m stepping, Ny, and keep a tight grasp on the tree bark. It’s wet and a lot more slippery than when we first climbed up here.”

“Right behind you, Len.”

They made their way down slowly, carefully, until Leonard stopped about three fourths of the way down with Nyota right above him. He looked around carefully. No sign of the feline or the bear like beasts. “You stay safe right there, Ny, while I take care of my business. As soon as I’m done, You come down and I’ll watch.”

“No, Len,” protested Nyota. “I can’t get to my phaser like this!”

“I’ll keep mine out, don’t you worry.” He chuckled grimly. “Men only need one hand to take care of business anyway. Okay, here I go.” He shimmied quickly the rest of the way down, pulled out his phaser, and stood with his back against the tree trunk, hazel eyes darting back and forth. He gave a sigh of relief as he emptied his bladder. He wiped his hands with a wipe and beckoned to Nyota. “Come on down, Ny. I’ll keep watch.”

Nyota climbed down quickly, looking around. “Everything’s too quiet,” she whispered.

Leonard nodded. “I’ll be right here,” he said turning his back to her, phaser in hand. Nyota quickly pulled down her knickers and squatted. She had just finished using the sanitizing wipe and was pulling up her knickers, when they heard a loud snarl close by in the underbrush!

Chapter Text

Please note the additional tag added for this chapter.

The Goldilocks Zone

Chapter 8

“That which does not kill us makes us stronger.”
Friedrich Nietzsche

“Up, up, Nyota, hurry!” Leonard grabbed her by her slim waist and almost flung her up the tree to the first branch, then jumped up after her! She scrambled up to grab the first branch, and turned her head to look down. A large black feline was coming out of the underbrush!

“Len! It’s coming! Climb up! Hurry, Len! Hurry!” She straddled the branch and pulled out her phaser setting it on kill mode.

The feline spotted Leonard as he scrambled up the tree and with a horrifying growl jumped to grab its prey! Its rapier sharp claws scraped down one leg and the beast’s massive curved canines caught Leonard’s ankle closing around it. With an audible sound the bone snapped! Leonard howled in anguish, the horrific pain lancing through his leg like a knife!

Uhura screamed at the top of her lungs! The new sound momentarily distracted the beast long enough to let go of Leonard’s ankle and look up at her. She fired directly into the feline’s face, and the animal’s head disintegrated before her eyes.

“Len, Len!” She cried, scrambling down quickly to just above him. Leonard’s arms were wound tight around the tree trunk, his head pressed against it, his eyes tightly closed. His face was white as a sheet, and he was panting in excruciating pain. He could feel himself going into shock. Don’t pass out, don’t pass out, he thought in panic. Nyota cannot carry you up the tree. If you fall she cain’t carry you up the tree!”

“Len, Len! Tell me what to do, tell me how to help you!” Nyota begged frantically, looking down at his mangled leg and ankle. There was blood flowing freely from his leg, a lot of blood, and Leonard’s white face was contorted in pain.

“Med bag,” Leonard gritted out, eyes still tightly shut. “Red cartridge...hypo for pain. Then green hypo, anticoagulant. Quickly, Ny. Gonna’ go into shock...!”

Nyota leaned over, her body almost upside down, oblivious to the danger of falling, grabbed at the med bag and opened it. “Stay calm, stay calm,” was the mantra she muttered to herself. “Len needs you, stay calm.” She pulled the hypo out, pressed the red cartridge into it and jabbed into Len’s neck. She threw the red one away. “Green one next,” she told him, pressing the second med into his neck.

Almost instantly the strong pain killer took effect and some slight color crept back into Leonard’s face. The blood dripping from his leg also began to slow.

“Better,” Leonard murmured dazedly, opening his eyes. “Pain is almost gone, powerful stuff that. Thought I was gonna pass out there for a minute.” Icy cold sweat was now trickling down the back of his neck, but his awareness was back to almost normal. He looked down at his leg. It had stopped gushing blood. “You did good, Ny, darlin’, real good.”

Nyota sighed in relief, lowering herself to his level. “You scared me to death, Len! I thought that beast was going to kill and eat you. It was horrible!” She shuddered, reaction setting in.

“I know! I know it must have been horrible for you to see that. I thought he’d gotten me, and he would have if you hadn’t killed him. That’s why we gotta’ climb higher. There may be more of those animals out there. Big cats sometimes hunt in pairs. My ankle bone,” he grimaced. “I heard it snap in two, Ny. Gonna’ have to put a temporary splint on it, or I won’t be able to climb. Also will need Cordrazine, it’s the blue cartridge. Its a powerful stimulant. I’m gonna’ need all my strength to climb up to our branch.” Leonard’s head was clearing with the effects of the good drugs as he quickly thought things through.

“Okay, here’s what we’re gonna’ do. There’s a small container in the med bag that holds an emergency temporary splint. It’ll look like it’s all wrapped up just like one of those old fashioned wrap bandage, but it’s clear. You pull it out and wrap it loosely around my ankle then push the little red tab at the top and it’ll harden to form a temporary splint around a broken limb. It’s not the best thing in the world, but it’ll give some support to the ankle. Once we’re up higher and sittin’ down, I’ll clean the wounds and use the small portable osteo-regenerator for the ankle bone and dermal regenerator on my calf and ankle. They don’t do a great job like my big Med Bay ones do and they burn out quick if used too long, but they’ll help heal the calf and ankle some, at least good enough till we get back to the ship.”

Nyota nodded, pushing her panic away. She had to stay calm and strong for Len. They needed to go up higher as soon as possible, but first things first. Get the temporary splint on Len’s ankle and then inject him with the Cordrazine.

“I’ma gonna’ sit on this here branch by you, and we’ll put the temporary splint on. It’ll stabilize the ankle and help keep the swellin’ down,” he told her, his southern accent becoming more and more pronounced with his pain, fright, and stress. He straightened up bracing himself, then using only the strength of his upper body, lifted his body, leveraging himself to sit on the branch. Nyota watched him anxiously keeping a tight death grip on the back of his pants.

“Okay, Ny,” Leonard panted softly. The effort of getting on the branch had exhausted him. His body had received a severe trauma and he was feeling the after effects. “Let’s work on that stabilizing splint.”

Nyota pocketed the hypo to keep it safe. She saw that Len was still pale, but not the frightening chalk white he’d been before. This branch she stood on swayed dangerously when she stepped on it to face him. She stood very still holding on tightly to the main trunk until the branch stopped swaying, then she gingerly distributed her weight by spreading her legs apart, one behind the other. Leonard wrapped one hand tightly around her belt to stabilize her, and handed her the splint packet.

He winced as he carefully raised his wounded leg up over his knee, still holding on tightly to Nyota with one hand. “It’s here, Ny,” he told her pulling up the shredded pants leg and thermal underwear. He could see under the punctured thin skin of the ankle that the bone was cleanly broken. “At least it isn’t a compound fracture,” he said, silently thanking all the deities in the universe that the bone hadn’t pierced the skin. “Break open the sterile cover, then wrap it gently just there.” He pointed to the break with his index finger. “Touch that little red button, and it’ll expand, and that’s it.”

Nyota did as he instructed and the wrapped splint slowly molded itself around the ankle. Leonard sighed in relief as it closed over the broken bone. “Good, that’s good, Ny. Now inject the Cordrazine. It’s a powerful drug so the cartridge is an emergency minimal dose, but it’ll help me.” He handed it to her and she slipped it into the hypo. Leonard held out his arm and in went the life saving drug. It would stimulate Leonard’s own production of the naturally occurring epinephrine and norepinephrine in his system and give him the strength and stamina necessary to climb to the higher branch.

Leonard leaned his head against the tree trunk waiting for the drug to take effect. Nyota straddled his branch and sat beside him. She picked up his lax hand and held it tightly.

“I’m all right. You were amazin’ helpin’ me, Ny. Even Spock or Jim couldn’t’ve even done better. You saved my life, and I’ll never never be able to repay you for that,” he told her softly.

Nyota felt the sting of hot tears at Leonard’s praise. She cleared her throat. “I just followed your expert instructions, Len,” she responded, still feeling a little shaky. “Good thing you thought to have Jim send down your med bag,” she added.

Leonard snorted weakly. “I try to never be without it. I’ve learned the hard way, serving with our illustrious “leap before you look Captain”. I hated to leave it on the ship when we came down here.” He gave the precious bag an affectionate pat before saying, “it’s time, Ny. I feel much stronger and we gotta’ get back up to our branch away from those predators and I’m also worried it’s gonna’ start rainin’ again.”

“I’m ready. You go first, Len, and I’ll be right behind you. Go up slowly, don’t take any chances. If we get rained on we get rained on.”

Leonard nodded. He stood up on the branch, his splinted ankle holding him without acute pain. The Cordrazine was also starting to do it’s job. All in all he felt much better. His heart was beating strongly and the danger of shock had passed.

The climb up to their branch was hideously slow, with Nyota directly behind him, hyper vigilant for any animal sounds below. She clung tightly to Leonard’s waist as he climbed pushing him gently from the back with one hand when he lagged a little. By the time they got up to their wide branch, Leonard was dripping with sweat and feeling lightheaded and nauseous from the Cordrazine.

Nyota watched him like a hawk as they climbed, staying tightly pressed against him, watching every quick, shallow breath he took. Finally they were there and he sat down hard on their wide branch. Black edged at his vision. He felt completely spent and closed his eyes tightly waiting until the nausea and lightheadedness passed and full alertness and awareness returned.

The Cordrazine drug was well in his system now, and it heightened his senses. He could smell the blood on his leg, the scent of the wet leaves of the tree, the earthiness of the tree bark, he could hear the drip of water drops falling on the leaves, the wind rushing through the forest trees, and, he could even smell Nyota’s hair, sandalwood shampoo; smells real nice he thought idly. Now he turned his thoughts to himself. Clinically, objectively, deep in doctor mode now, he evaluated his condition. The temporary splint was working well and so were the meds running through his system. He had been able to put weight on the ankle, enough so that they could get back up to relative safety, and although he still had some pain, it was more an ache then anything else. He knew the pain would come back, but he had three more doses of pain medication in the Med Bag.

He opened his eyes to see Nyota’s worried face and patted her hand softly. “I’m okay, Ny. Just had to rest for a minute.”

When she was satisfied he looked better, she clipped the harness around him, got into her own, and opened the provision bag to pull out the water. “Drink, Len,” she ordered. “Drink, and then we’ll take care of your wound.”

Leonard nodded tiredly and drank, gulping the water down fast. Strong pain medication was usually accompanied by a raging thirst and so was Cordrazine. After drinking his fill, he poured a bit into his cupped hand and drew it down his sweaty face and around his neck. The coolness of the water felt good on his flushed face and he felt some of the heat subside.

“Better?”

“Better. Thanks, Ny’.” He pulled the med bag off his shoulder and handed it to her. “Hold tight to it. Time to take a look at the damage.” Gently, using both hands, he lifted the right injured leg up and over to rest on his left knee. He pulled up the shredded loose pants, then, very slowly and gingerly, he pulled at the blood soaked thermal material sticking to his wounds. He winced at the pull on his lacerated flesh. The blood was drying and the synth material was tacky and stiff with it. Both of them looked in dismay at the pulpy mess the feline’s canines had made of his calf.

“Len, that looks terrible,” Nyota whispered, her face paling, horrified at what she was seeing; the bloody, ripped, and deeply lacerated flesh with the calf muscle clearly visible under the shredded pieces of skin.

“Flesh wounds usually do, Ny," Leonard said. It did look horrible. The skin had been ripped and torn by the feline’s sharp claws. Blood, animal saliva, and pieces of torn linen and thermal material were visible in the deep gauges, and there was also two deep puncture wounds on his ankle that could be seen clearly through the transparent splint. “I’ll have to clean up the calf and ankle, but what I’m more worried about right now is an infection. No telling what kind of alien bacteria was breeding on those huge canines and filthy claws. So first things first. There’s a general antimicrobial cartridge in the bag. It’ll help some in warding off a massive infection. Hopefully it will do until we can get back on the ship.” He put out his hand, which was still steady as a rock Nyota noted, as she dug in her pocket for the hypo. She handed it over carefully. Leonard opened the med bag and put the white capped antimicrobial into the hypo and injected it into his neck. “I’ll give myself another dose in four hours, Ny. There’s only three doses, so that’s all we’ve got unless Geoffrey can send down somethin’ and that would entail climbin’ down again, and that ain’t gonna’ happen.”

“If necessary, I’ll go down to get anything you need, Len.”

“No, Ny! It’s too dangerous, this place is teeming with vicious wild animals.”

“If you need it, I will go down to get it,” she repeated calmly.

He looked at her determined, implacable face and gave it up. He didn’t have the strength to argue with her. “Okay, Ny,” he sighed. “Now I have to clean the two wounds. If you’re squeamish this would be a good time to look away.”

“I’m not squeamish, Leonard, and I’m determined to help you in any way you need me to.”

Leonard nodded, he had expected that response fro her. “I’ll clean the claw wounds of the calf first, then use the dermal regenerator on them.” He grimaced. “Sometimes a doctor must still do things the old fashioned way, with the hands. It’s only a portable regenerator, much smaller then the Med Bay ones we use, so we’ll have to be careful not to burn it out. We’ll work in sections, start with the deepest wounds, then move to the next section. Same with the osteo-regenerator. I’ll have to remove the splint to clean and disinfect the puncture wounds, then use the osteo to start knittin’ the two bones, but we’ll do that last. Again, it’s a half power portable one, so it’ll take a while, and, for sure we don’t want to burn it out.

Now, Ny, darlin’, there’s some medical tweezers and small scissors in the small top pocket of the bag. Please get them out and unseal them. First I’m gonna cut off what’s left of my pants and thermals, then as I pull the debris out of the abrasions, you’ll clean after me with one of the antiseptic wipes. Okay, let’s sterilize your hands first with the wipes. Unfortunately I only have one set of gloves in the Med bag...there’s only so much room in there.”

Nyota nodded. She would do what had to be done. She was thankful she hadn’t eaten anything before going down that tree.

And so the slow, laborious, stomach churning process began. A couple of times Nyota winced in sympathy as Len bit his lip in pain. Even with the strong pain killer in his system, it was still painful to pull at the dangling, shredded skin and the sensitive exposed muscle to get all the debris out, then immediately have Nyota wipe the cleaned tortured flesh. At last, after what seemed like hours, they finished, Nyota, sickly pale, exhausted, and wrung out, Leonard limp and wet with sweat.

“That’s it, we’re done.” Leonard looked up at her and gave her a small pained smile. “Gonna’ tell Chapel I have someone to take her place if she ever decides to leave the Med Bay.” He patted her small delicate hand, now stained red with blood. “You did great, sweetheart. I know that was real hard on you.” He smiled at her painfully.

Nyota swallowed the lump in her throat. “Hardest thing I’ve ever done, Len, and that includes facing down Klingons. But don’t you dare say that to Christine. She tear me a new one if you even hint of anyone taking her place in that Med Bay.”

Leonard grunted in amusement. “She would at that, so it’ll be our little secret.” He took a deep breath looking at the ruined mess that was his calf muscle. “It’s time to strap on the dermal regenerator, Ny. Not sure how much regeneration it’ll provide, the muscle is pretty torn up, and the regenerator is small and portable, but we’ll give it a try,” he added dispassionately. “While it’s working I’ll take off the splint and we’ll clean out the puncture wounds and see where we are with the break.” He strapped the small device right above the calf, and it started its work with its soft hum and low level tingle as it began to work.

“How’s your pain level?” Nyota asked, looking at his tight jaw. She handed him a wipe and used one herself on her bloody hands. The cleaning of the wounds had been brutal...for both of them, psychologically for Nyota, physically for Leonard. The morphine derivative hypo had helped, but breakthrough pain had been inevitable with the severity of the claw wounds.

“It’s bearable, can’t take another dose for a couple of more hours anyway.” Leonard answered, looking resigned, knowing he had to wait.

“Let’s take a break then, please, Len. I need a few minutes to get my stomach under control,” Nyota confessed ruefully. “I don’t know how you and Christine do it, taking care of all of us through small and some horrific injuries.” She looked at him admiration plain in her eyes. “When did you know you wanted to be a doctor, Len?”

“I’ma Doctor, Ny, it’s what I do, Christine too. She’s got a lot of experience in trauma medicine. But to answer you question, guess I always knew I wanted to help people, ‘cause makin’ people feel better made me feel better. I watched my daddy do that my whole life, until he got sick.” He looked at her face, pale under her usual healthy brown hue. “We’ll take a break and let the regenerator works on the calf muscle for a while.”

“Len, Jim or Spock are going to comm soon.”

“I know, Ny, and this is goin’ to be real hard on Jim. He’ll hate that I’m hurt and he cain’t help me.” He leaned his head back on the tree trunk thinking. “I need a consult with Geoffrey, need to debrief him with the description of my injuries so he and Christine are prepared when we get back. Maybe he’ll have some somethin’ to add to what I’ve done.”

As if on cue the comm buzzed in Leonard’s pocket. He pulled it out and took a deep breath. “It’s Jim.” His eyebrows knit together thinking how best to tell Jim what had happened, but his brain refused to deal with one more difficult thing, so he handed his comm to Nyota.

She looked at him with panicky eyes.

“I can’t,” Leonard told her simply.

The comm buzzed again insistently and Nyota gave in to the stark plea in the hazel eyes and flipped it open. “Uhura here,” she answered calmly.

Jim stared at her for a minute, his blue eyes blinking in surprise before he asked. “Where’s Bones, Lieutenant?”

It was not quite an order in his Command tone, but close enough.

“Captain...,” Nyota stopped, took a deep breath, and went on. “Um...we went down the tree for bodily necessities like Len told you, but...something happened. Something bad, Captain.”

Chapter Text

The Goldilocks Zone

Chapter 9

“Let me help.”

TOS episode
“The City on the Edge Of Forever.”

“What’s happened, Uhura?” Jim’s stomach lurched, dread pooling in his gut. He was gripping his hand comm so tightly his knuckles showed white. A burning pressure of foreboding, of dread, was building up in him. “What happened to Bones?”

“Captain...Jim....One of the large felines suddenly came out of the trees. We heard it coming and Len flung me up to the nearest tree branch and I kept climbing. He climbed up right behind me as fast as he could, but the animal jumped up for him, mauled his calf, and bit him his ankle. I killed the beast,” she added simply.

“Bones...Bones...!” Jim gasped out. “Where is he? Where’s Bones, Uhura?”

Nyota, being of the firm opinion that realty was always better than whatever worst case scenario one’s imagination could conjure up, turned the comm camera to Leonard’s leg so Jim could see. She ignored Leonard’s startled, loud protest.

Jim made a wounded noise in his throat, utterly shocked and horrified at the sight of Leonard’s mangled, bloody calf muscle and the punctured broken ankle. His legs abruptly failed him and he slowly slid down on his butt to the carpeted briefing room floor. Don’t throw up. Don’t throw up, he told himself fiercely. You’re the Captain, you need to stay strong!

“Captain, Captain! Are you all right?” Nyota heard Spock voice, but he was not in comm view and she looked over to Len in alarm.

With a furious glare at Nyota, Leonard grabbed the comm from her. “Damn it! Jim, Jim! it’s okay! I’m okay, Jim. I know it looks real bad, but Ny and I are handling it. Jim! Talk to me!”

“Bones..., Bones...,” Jim gasped, trying to suck air into his lungs. His hand on the comm trembled. He tucked his head down between his knees and focused on breathing. Distantly he heard Bones’ frantic voice on the comm, and Spock’s calm one right next to him. Here it was, it had happened! His deepest fear made manifest. Bones was badly injured, and Jim was helpless to help him.

“Jim, listen to me. Breathe, Jim! Come on, breathe for me. Slowly now, just like I taught you, like we used to do it back at school, remember, darlin’? In and out, in and out, count it out for me.”

“Captain, please; follow Doctor McCoy’s instructions....breathe...in and out, in and out.” Spock was now sitting beside Jim on the floor, his soft soothing baritone continuing the in and out mantra until Jim, his head still between his knees, nodded. He counted in his head just like Bones had taught him when he’d have a panic attack back at the Academy. One, two, three, four, breathe in, one, two three, four, breathe out; he counted it out over and over, breath by breath. When his breathing finally slowed he slowly raised his head and looked down at the comm still clutched tightly in his hand. Bones’ brow was furrowed with worry, but when he saw that Jim’s blue eyes were now open, that his breathing was returning to normal, he sighed in relief.

“Good! That’s it. You’re all right, Jimmy, and I’m all right. I know it looks real bad, but the regenerator is workin’ on it, slowly but it’s workin’.” Leonard knew how he must look to Jim; pale, disheveled, wide-eyed, sweat dripping from his forehead, with blood stains all over his hands and clothes.

Jim visibly pulled himself together. God, what was wrong with him! He hadn’t had a panic attack in years! He stood slowly, his legs still a bit wobbly. In his peripheral vision he saw Spock stand also, keeping close by his side. His stomach still felt a bit queasy, but he swallowed hard, breathed in deeply, and the nausea receded.

“Feelin’ better?” Bones asked him softly.

Jim flushed. Here was Bones worried about him, when he was the one who was mauled, in pain and in danger. Suck it up, James! Focus on Bones, he needs you, he needs you to be strong. He’s worrying about you when he’s the one injured, in pain.

He gave Bones a feeble smile. “Sorry. I’m so sorry, Bones. Stupid of me, I’m fine now, it was just the shock of seeing your leg like that. It...it...it looks awful,” he stammered. His blue eyes looking haunted as he stared at the mangled leg.

“I’m the one who should be sorry, Captain. I should have warned you. It does look bad,” Uhura said, remorseful and contrite.

“It would have been more prudent, Lieutenant, to have forewarned both of us.” Spock offered her the rebuke in his Command tone.

“You’re absolutely right, Commander. I apologize, Captain, Mr. Spock. I’m terribly sorry.”

“Leave her alone, Pointy,” Leonard growled. “She saved my life by killing the beast, and she helped me clean my wounds, and let me tell you that was one hell of a shitty job. She deserves a commendation, not a scolding’.”

“Bones,” Jim interrupted the two men before an argument ensued. “How are you, really?”

To Leonard practiced eyes, Jim still looked pale and shaken, but he knew it was important for him to hear the truth about their present circumstances. “Could be better, Jimbo. Done about all we can for my calf under the circumstances.” He described the medical steps he’d taken on his injuries with Nyota’s help. “I need a consult with Geoff, Jim. What I’m most worried about is an infection. Who knows what kind of alien bacteria was on those teeth and claws and I only have a general antimicrobial. I know my stuff, but Geoff is our resident expert on wound care, it’s one of his specialties, and I wanna’ hear what, if anything else, he can suggest. After we’re done talkin’ I’ll clean the puncture wounds and start the osteo-regenerator on the ankle bone, but maybe he can think of somethin’ else I can do until we get back to the ship. And Jim, I’m letting you know right now, I’m never going on an away mission ever again!”

“You’re never going anywhere again without me, Bones, I can promise you that! Spock, please ask Dr. M’ Benga to report to the briefing room. We’ll use the large screen unit in the briefing room so he can see Bones’ leg better. What else do you need, Bones? How can we help you?” Jim clenched his hands in frustration. Bones needed him and here he was on the ship unable to get to him.

“We need to get home, Jim. How is that comin’ along?” He looked into the blue eyes that looked so terribly worried and wished with all his heart he was there by Jim’s side.

“Things are proceeding well, Doctor,” Spock interjected, as he and Jim made their way from Engineering to the briefing room. “Our window is now up to 8 seconds. Mr. Scott believes that by sometime tomorrow we’ll have our ten second window and we will be able to transport both of you back to the ship.”

“Good.That’s mighty good news, Spock. I’ve got some meds for at least that long, and we’re okay on food and water, at least I think we are.” He looked a question at Nyota who looked dubious.

“Captain, I’ve already told Len that I will climb down to get whatever is necessary for us. We’re low on water, and we only have enough food for one more meal. Len needs water to drink, to clean his wounds, and we need to wash our hands. Also the sanitizing wipes are dwindling, we’ve used quite a few on his calf, and we both need some additional food. There is only one sandwich left. Additionally, Dr. M’Benga may recommend different meds for Len. As I told Leonard, I will climb down to get anything we need. It just needs to be soon, before dark and before we get any more rain,” she looked up anxiously through the tree branches.

“No, Nyota, it is too dangerous.” Spock spoke vehemently. “The forest there seems to be teeming with dangerous wildlife. Twice now you have been attacked.”

“If it’s necessary, Spock, I will do it. Leonard can’t climb, and I can. I’ll be careful. I’ll have my phaser with me, and it’ll be set to kill. I can climb down and up pretty fast. I’ll shimmy up to that first branch like Len showed me. Isn’t that right, Len?”

Leonard opened his mouth to protest, but closed it again and nodded reluctantly. If Nyota was determined she would do it no matter how much he protested.

Jim waved down the on duty crew as they came into the bridge. “Bones, we’ll send down extra water and more food. Geoffrey will send down whatever medical supplies you need.”

The auxiliary lift door opened and Geoffrey M’Benga walked in behind them into the briefing room. “Captain, you wanted to see me?” He glanced at the large comm and his handsome genial face broke into a wide smile. “Leonard, good to see you, how are things going on the planet? I hear you’ll both be coming home soon.” He did a double take as he saw how pale and disheveled Leonard looked, Spock’s grave face, and Jim’s obvious worry and paleness. “What’s wrong?” He asked in alarm.

“Geoff,” Leonard answered hoarsely, cleared his throat and tried again. “Geoff, I’ve been injured, got mauled by one of the big cats that roam these woods. The wound in my calf is pretty bad, that’s where the beast’s claws got me, and it also bit and snapped my ankle bone. As our resident wound specialist, I’d like your opinion on the medical steps I’ve taken so far and any other suggestions you might have for additional treatment. Looks like we’re stuck here until tomorrow.”

“Let me see the calf, Len.” Dr. M’Benga ordered.

Leonard nodded and Nyota brought the comm camera closer to the calf.  Their comm cameras were state of the art, the best that Fleet could acquire for the crews who depended on them, so Geoffrey’s view of the mangled calf was clear and crisp.

M'Benga sagged back against the desk in dismay. “Christ, Len, that wound looks bad, very bad.” He shook off his shock at the sight of Leonard’s mangled leg and put on his professional mask. “Tell me what you’ve done so far.”

Leonard described the dosages he’d taken of the pain med, the anticoagulant, the Cordrazine, and the antimicrobial, then explained how he and Nyota had cleaned the calf. “I haven’t touched the broken ankle yet, except to put on the temporary splint for support so I could climb up to safety. My puncture wounds haven’t been cleaned out yet, Geoff. I really don’t have anything in my med bag that can clean a wound that deep. The cat had real long fangs.”

Jim sagged against the table, feeling sick at hearing all that Bones had gone through. Keep your shit together, James, it’s ten times worse for Bones, keep it together.

“Can you suggest anything more I can do, Geoff?”

Geoffrey was silent for a long moment, then turned to Jim. “The lacerations look pretty deep, Captain. Ordinarily, we’d auto suture a severe wound of this type under general anesthesia. We’d suture the deeper layers and then close the epidermis with the regenerator, but since that’s not possible Dr. McCoy has to make do with just the regenerator.”

At Jim’s nod of understanding he turned back to Leonard. “Len, how is the dermal regenerator working? I realize it’s pretty slow compared to the ones we use in the Med Bay, but depending on how long you’ve had it on, it should have started healing the underlying tissues.”

“Haven’t had it on long, Geoff. Took a long while to clean the wound, even with Nyota’s help. I had to dig deep inside the tissue because there was debris in it, dirt from the claws, and threads from my pants and thermals, and some of the scratches are pretty deep.” He peered down at the calf. “I do see a little improvement with the deeper scratches.”

“Good, that’s good, Len. Right now, though, I’m most concerned about an infection. The general antimicrobial isn’t specific enough for this type of tissue destruction. Also, the puncture wound is untreated so it’s probably already teeming with bacteria, foreign substances, and the beginning signs of infection. Any fever?”

“Haven’t had time to check yet.”

“Check it now, Len.”

Leonard fumbled into his med bag and brought out the medical tricorder. He ran it over his face and read the numbers. It’s 37.778.”

Dr. M’Benga nodded and through the comm exchanged a long glance with Leonard.

“What does that mean, Bones?” Jim looked from M’Benga to Leonard, his brow furrowed in worry again.

“It could mean that I’m starting an infection, or it could mean that my body is reactin’ to the trauma I experienced. It’s not uncommon for normal temperatures to be elevated after the body experiences a severe injury or trauma, it’s happened to you too, Jim.”

“Leonard is correct, Captain, but I’m more concerned that the general antimicrobial may not be enough, particularly with the puncture wound going untreated. How long has it been, Leonard?”

Leonard looked at Nyota in a question. Since his encounter with the big feline, time had ceased to have any meaning for him.

She looked at her comm. “It’s been almost an hour and a half,” she answered Geoffrey.

“I can’t give you a targeted antibacterial since there isn’t any way of testing for the specific bacteria in your wounds. My first recommendation is to clean the puncture wounds immediately. That’s the most important thing right now.”

“Geoff,” Leonard protested, “the splint is providing a lot of support for the ankle while the oseteo works and what will I even use to clean the punctures with?”

“Can’t be helped, Len. You know the drill. You have to clean out those puncture wounds.” He looked sternly at Leonard.

“Yeah, alright,” Leonard muttered mutinously. “I’ll do it.”

“Captain, am I correct in my understanding that we can beam down items to Leonard and Lt. Uhura?” Geoffrey asked. “Chef told me you were able to send down food to them.”

Jim nodded. “I did. Why do you ask? Do you have something in mind to help Bones?”

Geoffrey nodded. “Yes, Sir, I do. Len, I’m thinking we can provide additional antibiotics to your leg the old fashioned way, directly to the tissues, and not by hypo. I hate to wait on treating those deep wounds.

Captain, Leonard knows what could happen to his leg. I can manufacture a strong derivative of a sulfonamide powder to put in the wound and then he can pack the wound and bandage it. I know it’s a treatment option seldom used anymore, but in my wound studies I’ve read that it was a tried and true method used for generations, and it’s still used in less sophisticated medical settings like in the frontier planets. That will deliver a strong antimicrobial directly to the wounds. I’ll also have to send something down that Leonard can use to probe the puncture wounds to clean them. What do you think, Len?”

Leonard nodded reluctantly. “It’s a good idea, Geoff, and a sound treatment option, but it would entail Nyota climbing down to retrieve the meds and it’s just too dangerous. This place is teeming with vicious, huge wildlife. I don’t want her goin’ down.”

“Dr. M’Benga, Captain,” Nyota interrupted. “I have already assured Len that I will do whatever is necessary to help him. That includes my climbing down this tree to get additional medication or anything else he needs. The only thing I ask is that you do it before dark. After what’s happened, I don’t relish being down on the ground at night.”

“Nyota, no! It’s too dangerous.” Spock interjected forcefully.

“I agree with Spock, Ny, there’s no need to put yourself at risk on my account, I’ll be fine until tomorrow when Scotty will have the transporter fixed.”

Geoffrey looked unhappy. “Len....”

Jim noticed immediately and interrupted. “You don’t think he’ll be fine, do you, Doctor?”

Geoffrey threw an apologetic glance at Leonard. “No, I don’t, Captain. That calf wound looks very serious. If Len was in the Med Bay I’d have him in surgery cleaning and repairing that wound immediately. With muscle destruction like that, permanent tissue damage is possible at the best of times. The regenerator can only do so much. And the fact that he has those puncture wounds that haven’t been cleaned worries me. The neosulfonamide powder will go a long way to prevent a serious infection that could destroy that calf muscle. If that happened we’d have a mess on our hands trying to rebuild the muscle...a long recovery and intense rehab after.”

Jim’s gut clenched, but all he said was, “Lieutenant Uhura, I will not order you to leave the safety of the tree. The decision is entirely yours, you may refuse to go down without prejudice,” he assured her.

“Nyota! No! As your commanding officer I forbid it!” Leonard growled.

Nyota tossed her head. “The Captain’s decision trumps your order, Len. He’s left it up to me. I’m going down to get you what you need. Dr. M’Benga, how long before you have the drug and other stuff ready?”

“I’ll have everything ready in half an hour. I just have to have the medical replicator reconfigure our regular sulfonamide capsules into a stronger powder form, and I’m also sending enough sterile cotton gauze for packing the puncture wound and the calf. I’ll send down an additional splint too, and more sanitizing wipes. Len, after you clean the puncture wounds you can re-splint the ankle for additional support after the portable osteo finishes.”

Jim nodded, his Captain’s facade firmly back in place. Not for worlds would he show his relief that Nyota was willing to go down to get the meds. “We’ll meet you in the transporter room, Geoff,” he said, dismissing the doctor.

“Geoff, I need more gloves,” Leonard called after him.

Geoffrey waved a hand to indicate he’d heard and hurried out.

“Spock, please have Chef prepare more food and plenty of water, also advice Scotty what we’re going to do. Have him double check the tree coordinates. See if he can get beam down coordinates closer to the tree; we don’t want Nyota to have to step farther away from the tree than is absolutely necessary.”

“A good suggestion, Captain. Nyota, please take all possible precautions with your safety. Will you be able to carry everything?” Spock asked her.

“As long as everything is in carry alls with straps long enough to go around my shoulders, no problem.”

Spock nodded. “I will make certain of that,” he said, and left with a long backward glance at Nyota.

“Captain, I’m going to climb down to a lower branch to wait for the beam in. It will take me less time that way. I’ve got my comm with me and my phaser is in my pocket.” She handed back Len’s comm, ignored his worried frown, unhooked her harness, pulled her skirt and tunic off, and, in her bloomers, began the climb down.

“Be careful!” Jim and Leonard said at the same time. And suddenly there they were, alone, across the vast distance, facing each other.

Jim sighed, and Leonard saw that his blue eyes looked sad, ashamed, and remorseful. “Bones, I’m so sorry. I’ve been such a an unmitigated ass to you these last three weeks. I’ve been miserable, cranky, and irritable with the crew and I wouldn’t be surprised if they hate me now. I’ve missed you so much. Can you ever forgive me?”

“I missed you too, Jim. It was so bad I didn't even know what to do with myself. I didn’t understand why the hell you were mad, or upset, or whatever the hell you were. I still don’t. And yeah, damn it, you have been acting like a horses ass to me! What did I do to piss you off like that? Avoiding me, ignoring me, not wanting to talk to me about what was wrong.” Leonard looked at him, expressions of anger, hurt, and bewilderment flitting across his face. “First I was mad at you, then confused, then I was just plain hurt and worried that whatever I did was gonna’ end us.”

“Bones, no! You didn’t do anything! Not a thing! This is all on me. I’m the damn idiot here! I’m so sorry. More sorry than I can say!”

“Thought you didn’t wanna’ be friends anymore, Jim,” Leonard went on as if Jim hadn’t spoken. “Thought you were through with me, that I’d lost my best friend, and I couldn’t figure out why? I wanted to fix it so bad, whatever it was. I wracked my brains thinkin’ and thinkin’ about it. Had a lot of sleepless nights over it.” Jim saw the deep hurt and sadness lurking in the hazel depths of Bones’ eyes.

Jim heart clenched, shame and guilt coursing through him. He’d caused this, caused Bones’ deep hurt and doubt about their friendship. Hurt him deeply with his jealousy, immaturity, and selfishness.

“I’m so sorry, Bones. I know it doesn’t make sense to you, but I promise you, I promise you, we’ll talk about everything as soon as you’re back. I’ll tell you everything, tell you why I behaved like an idiot, and I’ll make it up to you, Bones, I will. I promise.”

“All right, Jim.” Leonard agreed, he could never help himself when Jim looked like that. “I wanna’ hear what the hell was goin’ on in that fool head of yours, what was so bad you couldn’t talk to me about it.” 

Chapter Text

The Goldilocks Zone
Chapter 10

“love is a place
& through this place of
love move
(with brightness of peace)
all places...”

e.e. cummings

Their conversation was interrupted by the beep of the hand communicator strapped to Jim’s belt. It was Engineering. “Just a minute, Bones, it’s Spock.”

“Captain, Dr. M’Benga is here in the transporter room with me. Chef is sending the food and water momentarily. Mr. Scott has recalibrated the coordinates to the base of the tree so the beam down will be closer to the tree trunk. Everything will be beamed down in two bags, a medical bag with the necessary medications, and a mess insulated bag with the food and water, and now also with the addition of chocolate from Nurse Chapel. Both bags have straps.”

“Very good, Mr. Spock. Let me tell Bones and Lt. Uhura. You and Doctor M’Benga come to my Ready Room.”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Bones, we’ll talk about all this as soon as you come home. Right now just know that I miss you terribly and can’t wait to have you home to explain everything.”

“Yeah, all right, Jim. I really wanna’ understand what happened.”

Jim opened his hand com again. “Kirk to Uhura.”

“Uhura here, Captain.”

“Scotty says we’re almost ready. There will be two bags, the med bag and mess bag, both with straps. Are you ready, Lieutenant?” He gave her a tight smile. “Also, Christine sent you guys some chocolate.”

“Bless her!” Nyota answered softly.”Yes, Captain, I’m ready. I’ve been watching the trees and underbrush carefully. So far so good. Nothing appears to be moving, I’ve heard no growls, no snarls. As soon as Scotty beams in the bags I’ll climb down immediately.”

M’Benga and Spock hurriedly walked in to Jim’s Ready Room. Geoffrey immediately came to stand eye to eye with Leonard in front of the wall screen. “Len, there’s everything you’ll need in the med bag.”

Leonard shook his head. “I don’t want to do this, Geoff. I’m real tired, didn’t sleep much last night, then the animal attack, and on top of that the strong meds I took; just don’t feel strong or steady enough to attempt it.”

Jim looked at Geoffrey in alarm. That didn’t sound like Bones at all. Bones could work straight through two, even three shifts if he was needed. The man could be on his feet in surgery for hours; his physical stamina was legendary, his hands steady as a rock through anything thrown at him in the Med Bay.

Geoffrey didn’t bat an eye. He put a calming hand on Jim’s sleeve. “I understand you’re very tired, Len. Remember that the lack of sleep and trauma to your body is what’s causing your unusual fatigue, but most of your tiredness comes from the pain meds and the anticoagulant. You’re very familiar with those side effects. In my opinion, it’s time for us to use a little Triox to help your energy level. I know you always carry some in your field med bag, so go ahead and use it now.”

Leonard’s eyes opened wide in surprise, then he nodded. He quickly found the Triox cartridge and plunged it into his arm. The effect was almost instantaneous, clearly evident to the two men watching him. The tiredness lifted from his face, his shoulders straightened, and a new energy was immediately evident in his body.

“That’s it, Boss. You’re already feeling better, right?”

“Much better. Should’ve thought of that myself, Geoff. SOP for this kind of fatigue when it’s caused by trauma meds. Guess my brain’s a bit mushy,” Leonard added ruefully.

“Don’t worry about it,” Geoff’s told him. “You’ve had a strong dose of meds and you have a few other things on your mind.”

“Captain, we’re ready here,” came Scotty’s voice.

“Bones, are you and Uhura ready?”

Leonard leaned way over on the tree limb and looked down a question at Nyota who looked up and gave him a thumbs up. “Yeah, she’s ready. Go ahead, Jim.”

“Energize, Scotty.”

With the usual faint jingle, the two bags appeared at the base of the tree. Nyota looked around quickly and began her climb down. Above her Leonard had pulled out his phaser, set it on kill, and aimed his comm camera down so those in the Ready and Transporter rooms could follow her progress.

Jim, Spock, and Geoffrey’s eyes were riveted on her as she climbed down. Her slender body went down fast, seemingly without effort, as she moved from branch to branch. When she reached the lowest branch, she stopped. She cocked her head to listen and her eyes carefully scanned the surrounding trees and under brush. There was no sound except for the rustling of leaves in the soft breeze; nothing moved. Satisfied she jumped down, landed lightly, grabbed the two bags, swung them over her shoulders, then quickly shimmied up the tree trunk to the lowest branch. It was all done in the blink of an eye. She began to climb up, both bags slowing her down slightly, but the worst of the danger was over.

The watchers on the ship and Leonard breathed a sigh of relief as she started going up limb by limb. Now if a predator came out of the trees to hunt, Leonard could shoot it easily if it tried to climb up toward her.

Uhura looked up as she climbed steadily. She could see Leonard’s white knuckled hand holding the phaser tightly and she flashed him a reassuring grin. “Almost there, Len,” she called out softly.

“Be careful, Ny, don’t rush, I just felt a rain drop.” Damn it, Leonard thought, if it rains again, how am I gonna’ pack my calf and clean the puncture wounds?

Nyota reached her branch and Leonard grasped her arms tightly in relief. She sat and harnessed herself in first thing, then pulled her skirt and tunic down over her head. The rain drops were coming down harder, so up went the blankets over their heads again.

Leonard opened his comm. “All right everybody, y’all can stop fretting. Ny’s all secure, but it’s raining again. I’m feeling better, but I’ll have to wait to do somethin’ about my wounds. Hopefully the rain won’t last long.”

“I see the rain, Leonard,” Geoffrey said into Jim’s view screen. He looked unhappy. “I don’t want you to wait too long, you know how fast infections can take hold and get out of control especially with an open wound like that. But right now let’s check your temperature again.”

Jim looked at the time on his wall chronometer; wouldn’t be long until dark. Their second night alone on the planet, he thought bitterly, and now Bones was seriously hurt. He felt helpless frustration and impatience surging through him.

Leonard ran the tricorder over himself. “It’s 38.27. Temp’s gone up, Geoff.”

“As I thought, Len.”

Jim looked back and forth at the two doctors. “What does that mean, Bones?”

Leonard sighed. “It means I have an infection blooming, Jim.”

“He needs to start with that antibacterial powder you sent down right away, doesn’t he?” Jim asked Geoffrey.

“Yes, Captain. It’s imperative Leonard begins treatment immediately. Clean and pack the deepest part of the calf muscle then clean the two puncture wounds and pack those too. He can’t really afford the wait.”

Jim turned his blue gaze on Bones. “You heard Geoffrey, Bones. Get started. Rain or no rain. That’s an order, Doctor McCoy. You need to do this before nightfall. Also leave your camera on. I want Geoffrey to see everything, he’ll be on hand if you need him.

“Yeah, okay, Jim. It’s just gonna be real hard in this rain.” Leonard complained.

“I’ll hold the blanket over you, Len. That will leave your hands free to work.”

“How’s your pain level, Len?”

“The Morphenolog is wearing off, Geoff. Breakthrough pain...6 outta’ 10, it’s tolerable, but not if I’m digging around inside the wounds with the laser scalpel.”

“How long since your first pain dose?”

“Three hours tops. Not long enough for my next dose.”

“Thought that would happen so I sent you some Hydrocortilene for your breakthrough pain. You can top off the Morphenolog with it before you begin. It’ll help a lot.”

After a long, confused moment pondering this suggestion, Leonard agreed. “Yeah, it will. Thanks, Geoff. Should’ve known you’d think of doin’ that.” He turned to Nyota. “All right, Ny. You’re gonna’ have to scoot closer again to hold the blanket over me and over you too. Don’t want to get rain water on my wounds ‘cause I have no idea how clean the rainfall is here.”

Unhooking her harness, Nyota carefully scooted over right next to him. As soon as she was secure and harnessed again, Leonard handed the med bag back to her. “Put the strap over your shoulder, Ny, I don’t want it to fall by accident. Wrap the other blanket around you, this rain is damn cold, don’t want you getting chilled.” Leonard also handed his comm to Nyota who placed it securely on her lab, aimed the camera at his calf and they settled in to begin.

“First things first, the pain med.” Leonard muttered, pulling out the Hydrocortilene cartridge. “Good drug, works real fast,” he explained to Nyota. “I’ve used it on Jim.” He injected it directly into his carotid artery and felt the instant rush as the drug did its work. He unstrapped the dermal regenerator from the calf, handed it to Nyota to put in the med bag, and took a good, long, clinical look at the muscle. There was some improvement, but not much, and it looked red and inflamed. “Now I’m gonna’ sterilize my hands and put on the gloves.” He used the small portable sterilite unit Geoff had sent and ran it over his hands, wrists, and fingers. When the button showed green his hands were sterile. Next he tore open the surgical gloves packet and pulled them on. In case a glove tore, his hands would be sterile in this bacteria ridden environment. 

Leonard took a deep steadying breath. “Okay, here we go.”

What followed next wasn’t pretty. This was a procedure that should have been done in a surgical setting under general anesthesia. Even with the extra pain medication, digging into the muscle fibers, separating the deep tissue in order to sprinkle the sulfonamide, was delicate, exacting work that required all of Leonard’s concentration, his legendary steady hands, and Nyota’s strong stomach. He had to dig deep into the tibialis anterior and soleus muscles and even lower into his Achilles tendon. There were several moments when even the double dose of pain medication didn’t do the trick. Leonard would draw the scalpel back, bite his lip hard, scrunch his eyes tightly, his face twisted in agony, and breathe deeply for a minute. Nyota, clutching the blanket tightly over him with one hand, would wipe his brow with the other hand, blink back her tears, and bite her own lip in shared agony.

Finally, Leonard drew in a deep shaky breath and put down the scalpel. “I’m finished, Geoff. Don’t think I could’ve done it much longer.” Nyota handed him the sterile bandage to wrap the calf with and breathed a sigh of relief; it was done.

Leonard looked at his hands in disgust and tore off his bloody gloves.

“Good, Len, you did great,” Geoffrey encouraged.  “Start on the ankle now. Don’t stop. It’ll be dark soon, and you have to finish. You know it has to be done to prevent permanent nerve damage to the ankle where those canines went in.”

Leonard nodded and leaned his head back against the tree. “I know, Geoff. I’ll start in a minute.” He was exhausted, but Geoff was right. He wouldn’t be able to work in the dark with just the comm light to see. He used the sterilite again, put on a fresh pair of gloves, and prepared himself to work on the ankle.

“Do you need to top off the Triox, Len?”

Leonard nodded. “Yeah, I’m damned exhausted.” He looked at the stoic Nyota. “Are you all right, Ny? Will you be able to go on helpin’ me?”

Uhura nodded, her face pale, but resolute. “I will. I’m ready when you are, Len.” She vowed to herself she wouldn’t let him down or have him worry about her. If Len needed her she would be here for him no matter how it hurt her to see him suffer so much.

The rain had been falling steadily on their covered heads and shoulders throughout the procedure, making the situation worse, but it had stopped. Neither Nyota nor Leonard noticed until Jim, pale as death, his fists clenched tightly, and keeping his composure by sheer strength of will, finally murmured softly, “Bones, the rain has stopped.”

Both Leonard and Nyota looked up in surprise. Leonard had already discarded the temporary splint and given himself an additional small dose of Triox. The med wouldn’t last long, so he had to work quickly.

Nyota removed the blankets and Len picked up the laser scalpel again. This would be less invasive; the puncture wounds were deep, but not lacerated. He worked quickly, only wincing once when the scalpel rubbed against the ankle bone. He finished cleaning the two puncture wounds and poured in the sulfonamide powder. Geoffrey, watching intently, gave him soft murmurs of encouragement until Leonard finally put down the scalpel. He was almost finished. All that remained was to wrap the ankle and replace the old splint with the new temporary one Geoff had sent him.

When the old splint was replaced, Leonard leaned back against the tree trunk and closed his eyes. He was deathly pale, utterly spent.

Geoff checked the time. “Len, you can give yourself another dose of Morphenolog now. It’s time and I know that was rough.”

“Don’t think I can manage the hypo, I’m so damn tired, Geoff,” Leonard murmured.

“I’ll do it, Len. I know which cartridge it is,” Nyota said, careful not to spill anything out of the med bag.

“Thanks, Ny, darlin’. He opened his eyes and patted her small hand softly. “Just want you to know I sure couldn’t have done this without you.”

“You’re welcome. I’m just happy I was here to help,” she said, blinking rapidly, willing away the rush of sudden tears. She put the hypo against his neck and pressed. Blessed pain relief swept through him almost instantly.

Nyota dug in their food bag and brought out the water. Len drank, chugging it down thirstily. She also brought out one of the chocolate bars Chris had sent and gave it to Leonard. “Eat,” she told him sternly, “it’ll do you a world of good.”

Leonard bit off a big chunk, closing his eyes in bliss as the chocolate endorphins hit him. “Bless Christine Chapel,” he murmured fervently.

Jim closed his eyes too, but not from endorphins. He felt like throwing up again, but this time in relief. Bones was finished with what had seemed to him sheer unmitigated torture on his poor leg. Seeing Bones’ suffering on the large comm screen, with every detail visible, had been so disturbing that his brain had simply shied away from it, detaching him so the procedure seemed a dim reality. To see Bones in agony had been a form of torture he never wanted to endure again. He would have taken that pain unto himself a million times over rather than have Bones go through it.

He came back to himself when Spock unobtrusively pulled at his jacket to hear Geoffrey giving Leonard additional orders. “Len, it’s definitely getting dark. I want you to drink more water, eat what Chef sent you, and take your temperature in two hours. If you have breakthrough pain then you can have another dose of Hydrocortilene. No trying to tough it out, Dr. McCoy. Your body has suffered enough trauma. More pain will only add to that, and that’s not a good outcome as you well know. I don’t want Lt. Uhura to give me a negative report, so have I made myself clear, Leonard?”

“Yeah, yeah, you’ve made yourself perfectly clear. Damn it, Geoff! Who knew you’d turn into such a bossy tyrant while I was gone.” Leonard scowled at him.

“Learned from the absolute best,” Geoff answered, smiling serenely.

Uhura giggled as Leonard snorted.

“I want you to get some rest now. Take a nap after you eat. I’ll get back with you after your temperature check. I want to keep on top of any rise in temperature. Hopefully the sulfonamide will mitigate any further growth of bacteria.”

“Thanks, Geoff. Appreciate all you’ve done, couldn’t have done it without your help and Ny here,” Leonard told him. “And thank Christine for that chocolate, sure hit the spot. Made me feel real good.”

“That’s what I’m here for, and Christine will be pleased to hear that. Captain, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be in the Med Bay. I’ll sleep in my office. I have a cot there so don’t hesitate to call me if you need me. Leonard, that goes for you too. Lt. Uhura, please keep a close eye on this stubborn man.” Geoffrey smiled at her.

 She nodded. “I will, Dr. M’Benga.”

“Doctor, thank you for your help,” Jim clasped him on the shoulder. “You get some rest too.”

Spock stepped closer to the screen. “Nyota,” he swallowed hard. “You are well, Ashayam?”

Uhura stretched her cramped body. “I’m all right, Spock. Just tired, hungry and thirsty. Len and I are going to eat and drink what Chef sent us, have some more chocolate, and take a nap. Hopefully it won’t start raining again.”

“Jim, you and Spock take a break too. You look beat. Go eat supper, both of you, and make sure Pavel and Scotty do too. Ny and I are okay for now, and hopefully we’ll be back on the ship tomorrow.” Leonard yawned widely. “I’m gonna eat now before I go to sleep without food, and bring down the terrible wrath of Geoffrey M’Benga on my head.”

Jim chuckled at that. A sweeter, kinder, gentler, more even tempered being than Geoffrey M’Benga would be hard to find. Jim doubted he’d ever raised his voice in anger to a living soul.

“Spock and I’ll go eat and check in with Scotty. Talk to you in a couple of hours, Bones.” He looked keenly at them sitting close together on the branch. “Both of you harnessed?”

“Yes, Captain. And if it rains again, I’ll make sure Len is well covered. I’ll also make sure he eats well and takes his extra med if he needs it.”

“A wise, well thought out plan, Nyota.”

“Thank you, Uhura.”

“Hey,” protested Leonard, “I’m right here, people, and I ain’t deaf neither. I can take care of myself.”

“Of course you can, Bones,” Jim soothed him gently, “but isn’t it nice to have Ny there to help you?”

“‘Course it is,” Leonard said, a little shamefaced. He looked gratefully at Nyota. “She’s been awesome. Couldn’t have done it without her.” He hugged her affectionately. “Thank you, darlin’, you’ve been an amazin’ help through all this.”

“You’re welcome, Len. I’m happy I was here to help. Now let’s eat, and get some rest. I think we both need it.”

“See you in a while. Bones, you do what Nyota tells you,” Jim called out, as he left the room.

“Oh, he will, Captain, don’t you worry, he definitely will.”

Nyota pulled out the two large empanadas that chef had prepared specially for them. They were were still warm, filled with ground meat and crunchy veggies, and they smelled delicious. She’d also sent chips, bananas, sweet tea, and pie for dessert.

“Woman’s a saint,” mumbled Leonard, mouth full.

After they finished eating, they spread out their blankets. Dusk was upon them. The two suns were almost completely down on the horizon, setting with their usual kaleidoscope of colors, the lights bouncing off the tree leaves, and it was getting cold again. Once more they sat side by side to share the blankets, leaning back against the wide tree trunk. Half of Leonard’s pant leg had been cut away as had the thermal underwear, so Nyota made sure to tuck her blanket carefully around both their torsos. The other blanket went around their shoulders ready in case it rained again.

“Put your head on my shoulder, Ny. You’ll be more comfortable and so will I.”

“Are you having any pain, Len?”

“Nope, not yet, now stop your worryin’, I’ll dose myself in two hours.” He sighed softly, leaned his head back, and was instantly asleep.

Nyota looked down at the base of the tree. In the deepening darkness she could only see shadows. It was a long way down, and she hoped they were too far up for any predator to attempt a climb. She adjusted the two bags on her shoulders, pulled out her phaser and using one of the ties of her skirt to keep it secure, put it on her lap. She set her comm to wake her in two hours, put her head on Leonard’s broad shoulder, closed her eyes, and slept.

Chapter Text

The Goldilocks Zone

Chapter 11

“There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends.
I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not my nature.”
Jane Austen

The comm on Uhura’s lap buzzed insistently and she opened her eyes slowly to... darkness. She blinked rapidly to clear her vision. Her eyes felt a little gummy, probably from her frequent attempts to blink back tears at seeing Leonard in so much pain. Lifting her head from his shoulder woke him up too; he stretched and winced as his leg moved.

“Time is it?” He slurred, shifting slightly to ease his throbbing leg.

“It’s almost twenty hundred hours, Len. We slept two hours. Dr. M’Benga and Jim will be contacting us pretty soon. How do you feel?”

“Ugh. Like a shuttle truck ran over me, and I’m real thirsty,” he croaked, leaning his head back against the tree trunk, eyes closed.

He did look looked exhausted, thoroughly worn out, Nyota thought worriedly.

“Stop worryin’, Ny.” He opened his eyes. “Both things are due to the strong pain meds, a slight drug hangover. And...I’m trying to figure out how I’m gonna’, as Joanna would put it, “use the potty” from up here.”

Nyota relaxed, nodding in sympathy and handing him some water from the mess bag. “I think you’re just going to have to unbutton your pants, open your legs wide, aim down and pee. You can’t really move your leg to do anything else, Len. I’d do it now if I were you, before Jim comms. “Here.” She handed him the wipes. “I’ll turn my back and try to figure out how I’m going to do the same thing. I really don’t want to go down again.”

“Hell no, Ny! It’s too dark and way too dangerous. You cain’t see a thing down there, some animal could creep up on you before you knew it.” He sighed, resigned to what he had to do. There was no other way. “Okay, you turn around now, Nyota, I’ll tell you when you can turn back around.”

Obediently Nyota turned her body enough so that her back was to Leonard. She refused to feel embarrassed, needs must after all. She waited patiently thinking of her own dilemma and what to do about it. She heard him undo his pants, shuffle forward a bit on the branch and then his soft sigh of relief as he emptied his full bladder. 

“You can turn around now, Ny,” he said, cleaning his hands with a wipe and handing her the package. “Did you figure out how you’re gonna’ do it?”

“Yes, although it’s a bit more complicated for me than it was for you. I’m sorry, Len, but you’ll have to keep your eyes closed for a while, because, cold though it is, I’m going to have to take off my skirt, tunic, and bloomers. I’ll scoot myself over to the farthest part of our branch...right about there,” she pointed, “then, as women have done since time immemorial, I’ll take off my bloomers, squat, try to keep my balance and go. It’s the only way,” she added, as Leonard made a sound of protest. She looked away from him. Now that it was her turn, she did feel embarrassed. “And I’d better hurry up.”

Leonard noticed her embarrassment. “Ny, remember that I’m a doctor, there’s absolutely nothin’ to be embarrassed about. Being stuck up here we have no choice and we’re being as considerate of each other’s privacy as we can be,” he said soothingly. “Just be real careful moving along on the branch and whatever you do, don’t lose your balance. Keep your harness on and play out the lead as far as it’ll go. Here,” he took her hand and pressed it to the harness strap across her shoulder, “this is the retraction button. Just keep it pushed in as you go and it’ll lengthen the lead. Let it go when you stop and it’ll lock it. On your way back push it twice and it’ll retract. Okay, I’m gonna’ close my eyes. Go on now and be real careful, Ny.”

Nyota quickly pulled off her over-tunic and skirt, and thrust them into Len’s lap. He grabbed at them blindly keeping his eyes closed. She began to scoot slowly along the branch toward its widest part, straddling the branch, using her hands as leverage to push herself forward, letting her harness lead play out as she moved. Only the thin fabric of her bloomers protected the sensitive skin of her inner thighs from the rough tree bark. She went as far as the harness lead would let her. It wasn’t the widest part of the branch yet, but it would have to do. She couldn’t move any further without removing the harness and that was NOT going to happen.

Hurriedly, she wiggled out of her bloomers wrapping them around her neck and shoulders for safety. Now completely naked from the waist down, two things became clear very quickly. The tree bark was very rough on her bare bottom, and it was beastly cold. Damn it, Jim Kirk, she thought a little hysterically, why the hell do weird things always happen under your command. Wait ‘til I tell Christine about this! Cautiously, slowly, she drew one leg up under her, then the other, keeping her knees tight against her body, then she slowly leveraged herself up into a squat position pushing up with her hands. It would be easy to lose her precarious balance, so she held on tightly to the rough bark as she emptied her bladder wrinkling her nose at the ridiculousness of her situation. When she finished, and in spite of the cold, she decided she might as well give herself a quick wash with one of the wipes before putting her bloomers back on. At least she would feel a little cleaner and fresher, but, by God, she missed her nice warm sonic.

Finished with her “bath” she carefully pulled her bloomers back on; she felt warmer and cleaner. She cautiously, slowly, scooted herself back to Leonard, retracting the harness as she went. Back close to him again, she grabbed Leonard’s arm tightly. “I’m here, Len, you can open your eyes now.”

“Everythin’ alright?” Leonard looked at her in relief, carefully checking her over as he handed back her skirt and tunic.

“Yes,” Nyota replied shortly. “It was to say the least, rough, cold, uncomfortable, and drafty.”

Leonard’s lips twitched, but he didn’t say a word.

Nyota shivered as she hurriedly pulled the skirt and tunic over her head and draped the blanket over herself to warm up. Just in time too, because Leonard’s comm began to buzz.

“McCoy here.”

“Bones! Bones! Are you alright? How are things? How are you feeling?” Jim’s fretful eyes roamed over him. There wasn’t anything that he was going to overlook this time.

“Just woke up a minute ago, Jim. Not quite awake yet.” Leonard noticed the purplish circles under Jim’s eyes and the lines of stress on his forehead and around his mouth. He opened his mouth to grouse at Jim for not resting when he was interrupted.

Out of the corner of his eye, Jim saw Geoffrey enter the briefing room and beckoned him over to the comm screen.

“Len,” Geoffrey appeared beside Jim. “I’m relieved to see that you’re looking better. It’s time for your temperature check and after that your next dose of the antimicrobial and pain med.”

“Hello to you too, Geoff. And no, I haven’t had a chance to do any of that yet, was just goin’ to.” He pulled out the tricorder and ran it over himself. He grunted and met Geoff’s eyes through the screen. “Looks like it’s gone down a bit, Geoff. Temp is 38.00,” he reported.

“That’s good, right, Geoff?” Jim glanced at him, still concerned, the set of his jaw tense.

“Yes, Captain. That is good. It means the combination of the two antimicrobials are working to slow down the infection. I don’t believe they’ll eradicate it; neither antimicrobial is specific enough for the alien bacteria in those wounds, but I feel more positive about containing Leonard’s infection until we can get him into surgery once he’s back on board.”

Leonard scowled at the mention of surgery.

Geoffrey looked unperturbed. “You know you’ll need surgery, Len. If I don’t repair the damage to your calf it will always be weak, tire easily, and be unstable when stressed,” he stared meaningfully at Leonard, “like during a long surgery or if you have to run during an away mission. And you know you’re going to need rehab too.”

“Yeah, okay, okay, Geoff. I am a surgeon, I know my calf’s pretty well destroyed and will need repairing. But I’m feelin’ better, so stop your worrying, Jim,” he told the obviously distressed Captain. “The meds seem to be working out well.”

“For right now, Len,” Geoff cautioned. “Let’s not get ahead of our selves. But now you need to take your meds so we can keep ahead of the infection and your pain level. After you take care of that, the Captain has some news for you about the transporter.”

“Okay, Mom, I’m gettin’ to it.” Leonard drawled, rolling his eyes. Uhura put a calming hand on his bicep and handed him the hypo and cartridges. Jim and Geoffrey watched the comm screen intently, silently, as Leonard dosed himself with both meds.

“Len, do you need any more Triox? How’s your fatigue level? Your respiration rate?” Geoffrey asked.

“I’m not tired, Geoff, but I just woke up from a two hour nap. If I need more Triox a little later I’ll give myself an additional small dose.”

Geoffrey looked side eyed at the Captain who nodded. Jim would cede this small decision to Leonard, give him back a bit of control because for the moment he was satisfied with Bones’ status and happy to have some good news to tell Bones and Nyota.

Jim stepped closer to the screen. “Bones, Nyota, we have some positive news about the beam in status. Scotty thinks we’ll be able to bring you home by tomorrow afternoon, at the latest.”

“Really Jim? Captain!” Both exclaimed, looking relieved and delighted.

“Yes, really. We’ve all worked hard to enlarge the transporter’s “hole” time by several seconds. Spock made the decision that ten seconds wasn’t enough, and Scotty, Pavel, and I concurred,” Jim smiled tightly. “It was for your sake, Bones. We all know how much you hate using the transporters. Anyway, the window we’re going for is 15 seconds, more than enough time to beam both of you up together. Spock and I agree it wouldn’t be good for the person left behind to wait down there for a second beam out. We’re being extra cautious. What if the “hole’s” quantum dynamics changes during the delay, or the anomaly’s behavior becomes more erratic?” Jim was pitching his voice soft and low in that way he did when he was trying to be casual about upcoming possible dire scenarios.

Leonard shuddered. “Jim. I know protocol says I’d be the one beamed out first due to my injury, but just so y’all know, I ain’t leaving Ny here alone on this damn tree.”

Jim’s eyes softened. “We all knew you’d say that, Bones, so that’s why the small change of plans. The question is can you hold on until tomorrow afternoon, medically, I mean?”

Leonard and Geoffrey looked at each other. To Jim’s eyes Geoffrey looked unhappy, and Bones looked resigned.

“I’m not happy about waiting that long before getting Leonard into surgery to repair the calf, or get him on properly targeted antimicrobials, but I also know the futility of the situation. Leonard won’t come without Lieutenant Uhura.”

“You can bet the farm on that one, Geoff. I ain’t leavin’ her behind.”

Uhura spoke for the first time, interrupting the back and forth. “Captain, if Len gets worse, I’m fine with waiting for a second beam up. I’m perfectly safe up here and I have my phaser.”

“No! Absolutely not!” Leonard exclaimed loudly! He raked both hands through his hair. Then more gently. “Ny, sweetheart, you saved my life! Ain’t no way I’m gettin’ off this godforsaken tree without you and that’s that! You got that, Jim?”

“I know, Bones! So does Spock, so does Scotty, and Pavel! We all know, you stubborn bastard,” Jim said, exasperated. “We’re getting you both off that tree together, so calm down. I don’t think it’s good for you to get excited.” He glanced a question at Geoffrey.

“The Captain’s right, Len. If you raise your blood pressure you might start bleeding again, and your temperature will go up. And damn it, I can’t treat you from here, so you just settle down right now, Leonard McCoy!” The usually gentle, soft spoken, always calm, Geoffrey M’Benga sounded angry and fierce. They all looked at him in shock.”

Leonard made a surprised noise and stared at Geoffrey. “Huh. Well, okay then, Geoff. Jim and everyone knows exactly how I feel ‘bout it, so nothin’ more needs to be said.”

“Good,” Geoffrey said, serene once more now that he’d been listened to. “How’s the food and water situation? Are you okay until the morning?”

Nyota nodded. “Chef sent plenty, thanks, Geoff. We’ll be fine.”

“I’ll be in the Med Bay if you need me, Len. So will Christine. Don’t hesitate to comm if you need anything. We’re on duty until you come home, both of you.”

“Thanks, Geoff. Go get some rest. You too, Jim. Get your ass in bed and go to sleep, both of you look like you need it. Geoff will give you something if you think you can’t sleep. We’ll comm if we need anything.”

“Comm me if you need a sleep aid, Captain, and don’t forget your meds, Leonard,” Geoffrey told him sternly as Jim dismissed him with a nod.

“Are you sure you’ll be okay, Bones? Spock and I can take turns at watch. Keep you guys company.” Jim looked pleadingly at Leonard, loath to have him out of his sight.

“Ny and I are going right back to sleep, Jimmy. I’ll set my comm alarm for my meds, but I want you to get some rest, okay? You look ready to drop. You can ask Spock to take watch if it’ll make you feel better, Vulcans need much less sleep after all, and I’m sure the hobgoblin wouldn’t mind sittin’ here just spending quiet time with Ny.”

“He wouldn’t mind at all,” Nyota smiled sweetly.

“Yeah, okay. That’ll work then.” With that decision made, Jim’s obvious distress softened into something more manageable as he huffed a small relieved sigh. “I’ll sleep a hell of a lot better if someone’s keeping watch over you two. I’ll let Spock know, he’ll be here in a few minutes. Scott and Pavel can handle the transporter’s last minute details. Good night, Ny. Night, Bones,” he looked longingly at Bones.

He had so much to say to Bones. He knew it was going to be hard confessing everything, his jealousy, his long time feelings of love for him, his idiotic behavior, but he’d made up his mind. He’d tell Bones as soon as he could, because it would only get more difficult the longer he waited. He’d had enough of being a chicken shit coward about his feelings. Bones being down planet badly injured, away from Jim... it had been absolute hell! Jim had carried the burden of his feelings for far too long, and because of his jealousy, his stupidity, he’d almost destroyed the one relationship he valued above all others in this god damned universe. Tomorrow he’d fix it, and tomorrow he’d have his Bones back here, safe on the ship with him.

Chapter Text

The Goldilocks Zone

Chapter 12

“Is it possible for home to be a person and not a place?”
Stephanie Perkins

With their usual colorful exuberance, Solaris’ two suns rose on the horizon, and Leonard opened his eyes to bright sunlight.

“Morning, Len,” Nyota smiled sweetly. “You had a good sleep, just what you needed.”

Leonard groaned softly, straightening his cramped body and pushing the blanket off him. Surprisingly he’d slept pretty well, no doubt the pain meds had helped. “Nyota Uhura, you didn’t wake me for my turn at watch!” He scolded, eyeing her accusingly.

“You needed the rest, Len, and you weren’t due for another dose of meds until this morning. Besides Spock kept me company.” She showed him her comm, and yes, Spock was sitting serenely on one of the briefing room chairs.

“Good morning, Spock. Time is it?” Leonard yawned.

“It is 0600, Doctor. How are you feeling?”

“Could use a cup of coffee, but since that ain’t gonna’ happen, guess I’ll make do with my meds.”

He pulled out the hypo and injected the antimicrobial and pain med. “How’s it going with the transporter, Spock? Are we any closer to gettin’ home?”

“All is well, Doctor. Mr. Scott assured the Captain that you and Nyota will be back on the ship by noon today. He and Mr. Chekov are taking a short rest period. The Captain insisted. They worked all afternoon and evening, then through the night until 0400 this morning. They will be back on duty at 0900 to finish some last minute details and run additional sims. Mr. Scott is nothing if not meticulous about his work.”

“That’s good to hear, cain’t ever be too careful with those damned transporters. What about you, Spock? Did you sleep at all?”

“Vulcans do not require the amount of sleep that humans do, Doctor McCoy. I will rest after you and Nyota are back on the ship.”

The briefing room door whooshed open and Jim came striding in with Geoffrey beside him. He went directly to his large comm screen, not even stopping to greet Spock. “Bones, how are you? Did you get some sleep?”

Leonard tried to shrug, but he winced as his back protested. The rough bark of the tree hadn’t done his spine any good.

"I’m doin’ okay, Jim.”

Geoffrey raised one dark skeptical eyebrow at him. "Of course you are, Len, but if you don’t mind I'll make my own assessment and form my own medical opinion."

Leonard rolled his eyes. In his considered opinion, Dr. Geoffrey M’Benga was getting a mite too big for his britches while Len was away from his Med Bay! 

Geoffrey turned towards Jim, a twinkle in his eyes. “When he rolls his eyes like that, Christine and I know he’s feeling pretty good.”

Jim flashed his sunny smile, and Leonard blinked. He looked so beautiful this morning, his blue eyes bright, the usual healthy color back in his face. Leonard knew it was going to break his heart into a million pieces if Jim’s explanation of his behavior meant he didn’t want him as a friend any more.

“All right, Dr. McCoy, you know the drill, lets check your temperature.”

Leonard sighed but did as he was told. “37.2, Geoff.”

Geoffrey looked pleased. “Good. That’s a good sign. Looks like the combination of the two antimicrobials are keeping the infection at bay. Did you take your pain med too?”

“Yeah, mom, I did.” Leonard looked and sounded exasperated.

Jim frowned at him. “Bones, don’t get testy with Geoff. It’s thanks to him that you’re doing so much better.”

“I’m real sorry, Geoff. Jim’s right,” Len said shamefaced.

Geoff nodded. “It’s alright, Len. I know you’re feeling frustrated being stuck in that tree, but we’ll have you home soon.”

Jim, his eyes gleaming with excitement, broke in. “Bones, Nyota, I have good news! Scotty said it’s a go by noon. We’ve sent him and Chekov off duty to eat, and get a few hours of sleep. I want them rested before they go back to the transporter room to beam you back.”

“Jim! Thats great news! Ny and I cain’t wait to leave this damn planet and get off this blasted tree. Can we, sweetheart?”

Nyota’s smile was dazzling. “We’re ready, Captain, but I hope all of you realize there’s no way Len can get down from this tree and I’m not leaving him. We’ll have to be beamed up from here.”

“It’s not a problem, Lieutenant. You’re both being beamed straight to the Med Bay. Bones will go straight into surgery for Geoff to repair his calf and ankle. We’ve already talked about it. Med Bay will be ready to receive you, Bones. So you two just hang on for a couple of more hours and you’ll be back on the ship before you know it.”

“Guess there’s no getting out of that surgery, is there?”

“Nope. Geoff says it’s necessary, so just accept it gracefully, Bones,” Jim answered cheerfully. “To surgery you shall go. Okay, everyone, let’s get back to our stations. See you in a few hours, guys.”

It was almost noon when Leonard’s communicator buzzed. Scotty’s cheerful face appeared on the screen. “Ready to come home? McCoy, lassie, ‘tis time!”

“Hell yes, Scotty! Nyota and I are more than ready.” Leonard huffed a thankful breath, not even his fear of the transporter could dampen his desire to leave this place. “Let us take our harnesses off, Scotty, then we can go.” They pulled off their harnesses and Leonard nodded to Scotty. “Ready.” 

“Straight to the Med Bay ye shall go, then. Captain’s orders. Dr. M’Benga and Nurse Chapel are there waiting for ye. Here we go then. You and the lass together.”

Leonard shifted on the tree branch, clutched his Med Bay bag, looked at Nyota, and then heard the familiar chime of the transporter. They materialized in the Med Bay exactly the way they’d been sitting on the tree branch.

There was loud applause, whoops, and cheers from the Med Bay staff, bridge crew, and Pavel. Even Spock looked pleased.

Jim stood a little apart from everyone. “Bones!" Their eyes met. Jim, in his command gold shirt, looking a little rumpled, but with his eyes shining in painful, profound, overwhelming relief and happiness. “Bones, Jesus Christ—.“

Before Leonard could open his mouth, Geoffrey strode forward. “Excuse me, Captain. All right guys,” he said to the two burly male orderlies. “Put Dr. McCoy on that hover bed and take him straight to surgical room 1. Nurse Chapel, please prep him for immediate surgery.”

“Yes, Doctor.”

The protesting, sputtering Leonard was summarily picked up, gently placed on the hover bed and with Christine following, he was gone. Jim’s blue eyes followed him until the door closed.

“Two hours, more or less,” M’Benga answered Jim’s unasked question. “He’ll be in room A, the private room for recovery. You can wait there is you’d like to, Sir.”

Jim turned to Spock who was standing very close to Uhura. “You have the con, Mr. Spock. Nyota, welcome back. Thank you for everything you did for Bones. You saved his life, Ny, and for that I will be forever grateful to you.”

Nyota nodded, her hand slipping into Spock’s. “He would’ve done the same and more for me.” She gave Jim a fierce look. “Make it count, Jim. Make it count.”

Jim nodded sharply, turned on his heel, and headed for room A.

“Come, Nyota,” Spock told her gently. “Nurse Barrows will check you over, and afterward, you will rest in your quarters until the surgery is over. I will notify you as soon as Dr. McCoy is in recovery.”

Nyota, holding his hand tightly, followed Nurse Barrows to an examination room. As Barrows examined her she finally allowed herself to relax. After the surgery, Len’s leg would be fine, she would go have a real water shower in Spock’s quarters, and take a long restful nap. And that’s as much planning she was going to do today.

Two hours later, Leonard woke to the sight of Jim dozing in a chair pulled as close to the bio bed as possible. He squirmed uncomfortably. What every patient in the Med Bay had complained about was true. The bio beds were hard as rocks, the mattress just about as unyielding as that damned tree bark, he thought irritably.

“Jim,” Leonard rasped, his throat sand dry. He cleared his throat and tried again. “Hey...Jim.”

A startled Jim opened his eyes, and stared at him for a second. “Bones,” Jim choked out. He opened his mouth to say something more, but nothing came out. He gave a hiccuping sob, lunged at Leonard and held him tight. The surprised Leonard could feel him trembling. He patted Jim gently, soothingly, until Jim sighed, let go and sat back in his chair. Leonard eyed the pale face and the pinched expression that always meant Jim had something he had to get off his chest.

“Jim, “ Leonard whispered. “Hand me that water over there, please.”

Jim frowned at him. ”Okay, but just a little, Bones. Geoff said to drink just a little bit.” He handed Leonard a glass with a straw in it.

“I know the drill, Jim.” Leonard sipped slowly, the blessed wet coolness caressing his dry throat. He looked over at Jim, one eyebrow raised. “Guess you’re not mad at me anymore, or whatever the hell you were,” Leonard voice was stronger now with a bitter bite to it.

Jim’s startled eyes lifted to his. He sighed. “I wasn’t ever mad, Bones.”

“Sure could’ve fooled me, Jim. From where I sat, it looked like you were pretty damn mad at me.” Leonard pushed the button to lift the head of the bio bed. He wondered where Geoff or Christine were...there was supposed to be a post-op check of a patient immediately after they woke up from surgery. It was SOP.

The door opened and Geoff walked in. “Len,” he said cheerfully, looking at the bio bed readings. “Happy to report that your calf and ankle are as good as new. I cleaned everything up, repaired the nerve damage and regenerated the bone and dermis. A couple of weeks of PT and the calf muscle and ankle will be as strong as ever. For now, no standing too long, no running, or even fast walking until you’ve completed your PT. I’m keeping you here over night just as a precaution. You need to rest; general anesthesia makes you tired as you know, but you can go back to your quarters in the morning. You can eat a light dinner this evening.”

Leonard nodded. “That’s good to hear, Geoff. Thanks for everythin’ you’ve done for me, things would’ve been much worse without your help.”

“You’re welcome, Len. And before you ask, Nyota is back in her quarters and she’s perfectly fine. She’s off duty until Alpha tomorrow.” He glanced at Jim. “I’ll leave you two alone now. Your updated chart will be your padd. I know you won’t rest until you see it, so someone will bring it in with your dinner later on. I want you to rest, Leonard.” He looked keenly at the tired face of his boss, shot a warning glance at Jim, nodded at both men and gently closed the door behind him.

Christine walked in with Leonard’s meds. “Drink up, boss. Prophylactic antimicrobial and pain meds for this afternoon and there’s another dose for you tonight, our very best happy juice,” she smiled. Her face turned serious. “Happy you’re back where you belong, Len. We were all worried sick about you and Ny.”

“Thanks, Christine. And thanks for the chocolate. It hit the spot.”

“You’re welcome.” She tucked the blanket around him, checked the biobed readings, nodded to Jim, and closed the door softly behind her.

“Bones...,” Jim began brokenly.

“No, Jim. Don’t say a word. Now that you’re talking to me, let me say my piece first. I need to get this off my chest.”

Jim nodded. It was only fair. Bones had tried to talk to him so many times and he’d run away.

Leonard cleared his throat, and took another sip of water. He put the glass down, plucked at the blanket, then looked at Jim.

“After all we’ve been to each other, all our history together, suddenly, just out of the blue, you didn’t seem to give a shit about me anymore, Jim.” Jim opened his mouth to protest, but Leonard held out his hand. “No, let me finish! I’ve been waiting three weeks.” His mouth tightened. “When I tried to find out what was wrong, tried to talk to you, you ignored me, you ran away, wouldn’t even look at me. I didn’t know what I’d done wrong, what had happened between us, why you were actin’ like that.”

There was hurt and sorrow in the hazel eyes looking at Jim. "Four years of being best friends, of doin’ everythin’ together, of being there for each other through think and thin, and suddenly you acted like I was nothin’ to you; less than nothin’. You kinda broke my heart, Jimmy, and I’m not some angst driven teenager who’s feelings get hurt over every little thing, but that hurt me.” McCoy's throat closed up as he remembered his bewildered hurt. He cleared it hard, his voice a thin thread of pain. “I deserved better than that from you, Jim. I deserved an explanation, not being ignored like you did. I kept tryin’, though, tryin’ real hard to find out what I’d done, but you still kept on ignorin’ and avoidin’ me.

Your silence and the way you were ignorin’ me was botherin’ me so much that I started gettin’ distracted at work. Christine and Geoff noticed and brought it to my attention. My work is real important to me, Jim, and it was starting to suffer because of what you were doin’. Being a doctor is who I am, it’s my callin’; our crew depends on me, on my doing my best for them and I was failin’ in my duty to them, to my staff, and to myself. I couldn’t allow that. Since you wouldn’t talk to me, I thought and thought about what to do. It came to me that I’d ask Dr. Boyce to let me go back to Earth. At least there I’d be able to see my JoJo and do some good work at SFM.”

Jim’s heart clenched as he realized what his jealousy, cowardliness, and stupidity had cost Bones, how much he’d been hurt. There was still pain in the hazel eyes looking at him, a deep hurt that was more than mere physical pain. Jim felt the sudden sting of hot remorseful tears; Bones’ obvious hurt was an open wound to his heart.

Jim pressed his thumb and index finger tight against his eyes to gain control of himself. “I’m so sorry, Bones,” he rasped, flushing deeply in shame and guilt. “I’m more sorry than I can say. I don't deserve your friendship, I don't, Bones. I have no excuse for my behavior except that I was jealous, completely, stupidly jealous and I reacted like a damn idiot.”

Leonard looked at him unbelievingly. “Jealous? You jealous? Of what, of whom? You’re not making any sense, Jim Kirk! What the hell are you talkin’ about?”

Jim fidgeted nervously in his chair. It was confession time, time for the bitter truth to come out. “Jealous of your nurse...of... Tonia Barrows,” he whispered.

Leonard’s mouth hung open in shock. “What? You cain’t be serious! Jim! Are you tellin’ me you were jealous of Tonia, that sweet young girl who’s my new nurse? Why in the name of all that’s holy would you be jealous of her?”

“I saw you kissing her,” Jim mumbled. He rocked his chair back and forth in his distress.

“Jim! What the hell are you talkin’ about? Are you plumb crazy? I have never in my life kissed Tonia Barrows! She’s just a baby, 21 if she’s a day! There’s been no kissin’ goin’ on, and certainly not with that young girl!”

“I saw you, Bones! I saw you kissing her in your office and I freaked out, okay?” Jim almost shouted then hung his head, flushing a vivid red in humiliation and embarrassment. “I saw you,” he repeated to the floor.

There was a thoughtful, prolonged silence from Bones as he examined the bent sandy head. “Jim.” There was no response. Leonard sighed heavily. The floor seemed to be holding a deep fascination for Jim right now.

“Jim Kirk, look at me! You look at me right now!”

Jim shook his head, stubbornly keeping his head down, muttering something unintelligible.

Leonard sighed again at Jim’s childishness, then put out a gentle hand to lift Jim’s head so their eyes met. Jim’s blue eyes were blurry with misery and guilt. “Whatever you think you saw, I’m sure it wasn’t what you thought. Come on, Jimmy, tell me exactly what you saw.”

Caught, and seeing no way out of it, Jim, now pale, shoulders hunched with humiliation, told Bones what he’d seen, his freak out, his jealousy, his bitter despair that he was too late, too late to tell Bones that he loved him, had loved him for years.

Leonard listened to the halting, rambling tale, his eyes growing wider and wider, until Jim trailed off miserably. Then to Jim’s utter shock, Bones started laughing. He laughed hard, holding his stomach, laughed that deep belly laugh that Jim usually loved to hear because it came so rarely.

“Bones,” Jim cried, bewildered and hurt. He’d bared his heart and soul to Bones, told him he loved him, and Bones responded by laughing at him? Jim moved to get up to leave, his humiliation, hurt, and anger making his heart stutter painfully.

“No, no, darlin!” Leonard reached for him, trying to bring him closer. With surprising strength, he pulled the resisting Jim right off the chair to the edge of the bed.

“You’re an idiot,” he said, dimples flashing, his hazel eyes glowing. “That kiss was nothing more than a fatherly kiss. I didn’t even remember doin’ it until just now when you described it. Tonia had been worried about her little brother, he’d been exhibitin’ some troublesome symptoms and the whole family was worried sick. I gave her the name of a great pediatrician at SFM and he identified the child’s problem right away. The little guy’s golden now. She’d just heard from her mamma and was hugging me to thank me. I gave her a little fatherly peck on the forehead. That was all it was. You came in at just the wrong time.” He shook his head, ruefully. “And for that you put me through hell, made us both miserable, and all because you wouldn’t talk to me.”

“I was stupid, Bones,” Jim whispered. “Stupid with misery and grief. I thought I’d lost you before I even had you.” Jim moved closer “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I love you. I’m sorry. Can you ever forgive me? Will you forgive me? Say you don’t hate me, Bones.”

“Jim, Jim. I could never hate you, darlin’, and of course I forgive you, but only if you promise to never act like such a damn idiotic fool ever again!”

Leonard stroked his thumb over Jim's cheek bone. He shifted in the bed until he could cradle the back of Jim's head to pull him in closer. Jim carefully put his arms around Bones, hugging him gently. He turned his head to press his face into Bones’ neck, taking shelter in his solid, living presence. The shaky sound of relief he let out made Leonard pull him in even closer, hold him tighter. They lay there wrapped together, allowing themselves the first real quiet moment they’d had since the ill fated mission began, giving and receiving the comfort they both sorely needed. 

“I promise,” Jim said into the silence. “Missed you, Bones,” Jim whispered. “Missed you so damn much.”

Safe in Bones’ embrace, Jim clutched him, fingers digging into Leonard's back. Leonard held him just as tightly. “I couldn’t take it, Bones. You being with anyone but me. It hit me like a sledge hammer seeing you with Tonia. You're my Bones,” Jim whispered, leaning heavily against Leonard's chest. “You're my cranky, grumpy, Bones, and I love you.” Jim raised his head. “I’ve loved you for years. Don’t leave me, Bones. Please don’t ever leave me.”

Leonard stared at him. Jim had never before spoken about anything with such open emotion. His eyes were pools of crystalline blue as he looked back at Leonard, his face devoid of the usual devil may care, happy go lucky mask he habitually wore. His usual facade was completely stripped away, Jim’s profound feelings in full display for Leonard to see.

Len breathed in shakily. Here, manifest, was the fulfillment of his heart’s desire, his most secret dream come true. Jim’s fingers gripped Leonard's hospital gown and the doctor held him tightly, pressing his face to Jim's hair. “I could never leave you,” Leonard told him. “Never. I followed you out here into the black, Jim, and here I stay. You're never gonna’ be rid of me.”

Jim drew back to look deeply into Leonard’s eyes as if assessing the truth of his words; then he kissed him. This, their first soft tentative kiss lingered for a long moment and Leonard sighed softly against his lips. Jim sat back and brushed the hair back from the doctor’s forehead and just let himself breathe his relief that Bones was safe here with him like he was meant to be.

Leonard swept a tender thumb over Jim's mouth, his other hand pulling Jim close again. In Bones’ embrace Jim could sense that he was forgiven, even if he didn’t deserve that forgiveness, and a shuddering breath escaped him. Leonard held him tighter against whatever it was that Jim seemed to be struggling with. “What is it, darlin’? Tell me, no more secrets between us, my Jim.”

Jim shivered at the loving possessiveness of Bones’ words.

“I’ve...I’ve...been thinking about how I came so close to destroying us, destroying our friendship, destroying the most important relationship I’ve ever had in my life.” He lifted his head to look at Bones. “And all because I couldn’t talk to you, couldn’t tell you how I felt, how much I love you, how scared and jealous I was. I made us both miserable, Bones, caused you a lot of pain.” Jim sighed wearily. “I don’t want to be like that anymore, Bones, my brain tied up in knots, my mouth unable to talk about my feelings. It’s an old, bad habit,” he muttered thickly, throat tight, his head filled with dark memories, “ingrained in me when I lived with Frank, and afterward when...when...I was on....”  He ducked his head again, “well you know.”

“I know, darlin’.” Leonard ran a soft hand against Jim’s back, soothingly.

“I learned to bury and hide my feelings, never showing or telling anyone how much I hurt!”

“To protect yourself,” Leonard added softly.

His chest heaving, Jim nodded, sitting up, but keeping a tight grip on Bones pajamas. “I’m a grown ass man, Bones, a Starship Captain. All that shit happened to me a long, long, time ago. Why can’t I leave it behind? Why do I sabotage myself? I love you more than my life, and I almost destroyed us. I could see it happening, but I couldn’t seem to stop myself from doing it. Why, Bones?” Jim’s voice was weary, hollow with sadness. With anguish, he thought of his world without a Bones in it. That would be the cruelest sort of punishment, yet one he deserved for the pain he’d caused Bones, caused them both. And all because he had been too afraid to express his deepest feelings; afraid to tell Bones of his profound love, of his deep fear of losing him.

“Jim...Jim, darlin’. Stop.” Leonard soothed him, running gentle fingers through the thick sandy hair. “The kind of trauma you suffered as a child with Frank, and...later on, can linger for years, even for a lifetime, and up to now there’s been no one you trusted enough to help you.”

Leonard had always known that there was a dichotomy present in this man. Jim Kirk was fearless, strong, armed with a fierce warrior strength he’d cobbled together through those turbulent harsh years of his early life. But Jim was also fragile. Afraid of being vulnerable, deeply fearful of trusting others with his heart. There were hair line cracks, fissures, in that formidably strength of his. Since the day they met, since they’d become friends, it had been Leonard who kept those hairline cracks from breaking apart, and he would continue to do so until it was no longer necessary.

“I trust you, Bones.” Jim’s blue eyes were luminous and steady as they looked back at Bones.

Bones’ eyes were fluttering, blinking rapidly. He was very tired, the meds pulling at him to sleep, but his voice was firm, steady and sure. “It’ll be hard work, darlin’, real hard. Sometimes it’ll come easy, but other times it won’t....it’ll be real hard and confusin’, but you’ll need to push through it, just like you do during a difficult mission. It’s going take time, but it’s going to be okay. I promise you, Jim, you’ll be okay. We’ll go real slow, take baby steps, and we’ll do whatever needs to be done to help you; we’ll do it together, yeah?”

“Yeah, I think I could do it with you beside me, helping me through the worst parts,” Jim whispered, cradling Bones’ face in his two warm palms, first giving him slow, gentle kisses, then hotly passionate ones. Jim poured all the love and trust he had in this man into those kisses, sealing their lips in a promise of a shared commitment to ensure their future together.

Chapter Text

The Goldilocks Zone

Chapter 13

“Like gravity, the influence of two bodies on each other”

Edward T. Hall

Jim huffed an exhausted breath as he keyed in his code to Leonard’s cabin. It had been a very long 16 hour day, most of it spent on comm conference calls.

Bones had been released from the Med Bay to his quarters this morning, but Jim had been on conference comms off and on all day and into early evening, speaking with Admirals Pike, Burnett, and Boyce.

Yesterday evening after he’d left Bones’ asleep, Jim had asked for a priority comm to Star Fleet Command. He’d given the Admirals an earful about their incomplete briefings on Solaris and the consequences to the First Contact team from that lack of information: the overt hostility from the villagers, the team being forced to leave the village, the urgent need to find adequate shelter, the attack from the wild beasts, and Bones’ severe injuries. An angry Jim made absolutely no effort to sugar coat Bones and Uhura’s final assessment: Solaris was in no way ready for a First Contact mission.

The three Admirals had been, to say the least, shocked and dismayed about what had transpired on Solaris. Pike and Burnet told Jim they’d been completely unaware of the Solaris mission. Pike, especially, had been furious because he was Jim’s immediate supervisor, and, as Jim’s Commander, he was the one who ordered all of Enterprise’s missions.

Apparently Admiral Pike had deliberately been kept in the dark about Enterprise’s Solaris mission. But, the three angry Admirals assured Jim, they’d get to the bottom of the subterfuge, why there had been so much haste to establish contact with a far flung isolated planet, and why Jim’s First Contact mission briefing had been incomplete.

Dr. Boyce had been far more concerned about Bones, his injuries, his prognosis, his recovery. Back at the Academy, Dr. Boyce had been Bones’ mentor at Star Fleet Medical, and considered him a friend as well as a colleague.

Admiral Boyce glared at Jim. “We were lucky, Captain. All in all, Dr. McCoy and Lt. Uhura got off relatively lightly. Things could have gone a lot worse if it hadn’t been for some luck, excellent shooting, and Dr. M’Benga’s good doctoring.”

“You’re right, Admiral Boyce,” Jim said, after repeatedly assuring him that Bones was doing well and that with two weeks of rehab his calf and ankle would recover completely.

Pike had then adjourned that first conference comm, telling Jim that he and Burnet would do some digging. The grimness on his face promised that he knew just where to go to find some answers. They’d update Jim in the morning.

And so it had been. Today Pike had commed Jim several times during his duty shift to answer more question, so he’d not been able to see Bones all day. Spock reported to Jim that he’d ordered Nyota off shift all of today to rest and sleep and that the two of them were having dinner together after Spock finished his shift. Lt. Hannity would have the con at Beta shift, Spock reported to Jim, so the Captain was free to spend this evening with the doctor.

Last evening in the Med Bay had been good, Jim thought. Good for both men. Dinner had been brought in to them, because Jim had been unwilling to leave Bones. Their evening had been quiet and relaxed. Christine had come in with Leonard’s evening meds, stayed to chat for a few minutes, and Geoffrey had also come by to check Bones’ calf and ankle one more time before going off shift. He left, cautioning Jim to leave early enough for Leonard to get a full night’s sleep.

The two men, finally left alone, had talked quietly, kissed, talked some more, and kissed some more. Jim had been careful not to exhaust Bones, so there was no talk about Solaris, but both men needed this time to reconnect, to heal, to savor being together again, each of them profoundly grateful that their deepest, most secret desires to be together had been fulfilled at last. Jim had left Bones to sleep with one last soft kiss and Jim himself had his first good night’s sleep in three long weeks.

But now, this evening he finally had time to be with Bones after a grueling day speaking off and on with the two Admirals. He felt a deep sense of relief that his long shift with a dozen comm calls was finally over.

Jim keyed in the code to the CMO’s quarters and stepped quietly into Bones’ bedroom in case he was asleep. Leonard looked up from his padd and smiled when Jim came into the bedroom. He frowned when his reading light fell on Jim’s face. “You look real tired, darlin’. Tough day, looks like,” he said quietly. “Admirals giving you a hard time?”

Jim sighed as he sat on the edge of the bed. He leaned in to graze Bones’ lips lightly and Len wrapped one long arm around Jim’s shoulders. “Very long day,” he responded. “Can I use a couple of your water credits? Promise I’ll repay the favor with my water credits,” he added, “aaannd, I’ll tell you everything that’s happened after a hot shower.”

“‘Course, Jim, my shower is your shower,” Leonard smiled into the blue eyes. “Grab some sleep pants and a t-shirt from the drawer.”

The hot shower revived Jim, easing some of the aches and twinges of his tired muscles. He came out of the bathroom drying his wet hair and Leonard feasted his eyes on Jim’s long lean body and rippling arm muscles as he dried his sandy hair. Jim smirked when he caught Bones ogling him.

Leonard eyed him, frowning...the beautiful bastard looked so damned tired.

“Did you eat dinner, Jim?” Leonard assessed him clinically, cataloging the dark circles under Jim’s eyes and the slump of his tired shoulders.

Jim shook his head. “Don’t think I even got lunch,” he answered, looking surprised when his stomach rumbled.

Leonard frowned. “Sit down, darlin’. Let me fix you something to eat.”

“Bones, no, you don’t have to. I’ll do it.”

“I want to Jim, it’s no trouble. I’m fine, really. I need to walk a bit and you need to eat something. Just relax. You look plumb wore out.”

As Bones left the bed, Jim looked after him, noting that he only had a very slight limp as he walked to the tiny kitchen area. He settled in the bed smiling softly to himself, thinking how often he’d longed to be here in this very spot, in bed with Bones. Bones who was the answer to all the wrongs that had ever happened in Jim’s life. He could hear Bones rummaging in the kitchen cabinet and then he was back with a small tray which held a glass of milk, some slices of cheese with crackers, and an apple.

“Here, eat up, Jimmy.”

Jim sighed happily. “Thanks, Bones,” he said. He ate quickly. “Guess I was hungrier than I thought.”

Leonard smiled and wiped his thumb across Jim’s upper lip. “Milk mustache,” he said, leaning in to kiss Jim’s tempting upper lip tenderly. “Now tell me about the Admirals.”

“Well.” Jim returned the tender kiss, settled back, and sighed contently. “First, after I told Pike and Burnett what happened to you and Ny, they were completely flabbergasted, then furious. It seems the Enterprise’s orders to survey Solaris for a possible First Contact completely bypassed them, they had never even heard of Solaris or seen the orders. You can imagine their reaction since they’re both senior members of the Federation’s First Contact committee.”

Bones gave a soft whistle of surprise.

Jim nodded. “Exactly! So after that, those two were like blood hounds on a scent,” Jim reported gleefully. “It took most of the day, but they found out what was so interesting about a planet in the middle of nowhere that no one had ever heard of and wasn’t in any way ready for First Contact. And, by the way, first thing this morning I forwarded your and Uhura’s official preliminary report emphasizing that very thing.”

Jim paused dramatically.

“Jim! So what happened?” Leonard prodded irately.

Jim grinned. “Soooo...it seems that a mining scouting ship with engine trouble landed in one of the desert areas of the planet. As is their custom, not knowing anything about the planet or the inhabitants of Solaris, the miners kept themselves hidden while repairs to their ship were underway. Being miners, of course they thoroughly scanned the area while they waited. Turns out there’s an unbelievably huge source of dilithium crystals under the surface, it’s worth trillions of credits. The scout ship reported their findings to their employers, a mining Conglomerate, who then passed the information on to one of the Admirals in Fleet, a Tellerite, name of Tartov Balam, who very conveniently serves on the First Contact subcommittee that assesses possible planetary candidates. He, in turn, passed it along to one of the retired Fleet Admirals who serves on the Conglomerate’s board of directors. Together, seeing a financial opportunity falling into their laps, the two formulated the Solaris’ dilithium plan and it took off from there. Of course the two were very handsomely compensated by the mining Conglomerate for their “remarkable and far seeing vision”.

Those two Admirals then did a lot of talking, lobbying, and convincing a select number of the First Contact sub committee members, convinced them that Solaris was ready for First Contact and that due to its isolated location, would be of strategic use to the Federation, a planet where the Federation could keep an eye on Romulan activity without arousing their suspicion. There was no mention of the dilithium crystals, of course. They emphasized that the Federation would greatly benefit from getting Solaris to join. Apparently, according to Pike, large amounts of credits were spent talking, wining, and dining the rabid anti-Romulan members to push their plan to the rest of the sub committee members.

Pike and Burnett being moderate senior members were left completely in the dark...and that’s how our ship got the orders to survey the planet directly from the Tellerite Admiral. And,” Jim continued, “according to Pike, your negative report about Solaris’ xenophobia and hostility toward strangers, and their roaming vicious wild life, would have completely bypassed Pike and Burnet, and even the C in C herself, since she always monitors and approves initial First Contact visits.”

Jim stretched his tired back. “All First Contact survey reports are scrutinized very carefully, but ours was going to be routed and sent directly to the Tellerite Admiral and he in turn would share it with the Anti-Romulan faction. I didn’t think too much of it, the fact that our orders didn’t come from Admiral Pike, because different Admirals and Rear Admirals chair important committees and sub committees. But, if your initial survey results were unfavorable for First Contact with Solaris, they would have been edited out before presenting the full report to the Council for a vote.” Jim sighed. “Heads are gonna’ roll, Bones. The C in C, Pike, Burnet, Boyce and the Federation Council President, are all furious.”

“Unbelievable!” Leonard shook his head. “Wait just a damn minute! Jim, isn’t it Spock’s daddy who’s the Federation Council President?” Leonard was absolutely riveted by Jim’s tale. No wonder he’d had a bad feeling about the mission. It had all stunk to high heaven!

“Yep, and according to Pike, you ain’t seen nothing yet until you see a coldly furious Vulcan, and an equally furious Commander in Chief. Also remember that Sarek thinks the world of Uhura, and she was down on that planet in as much danger as you from the natives and those wild animals”

“Holy shit, Jim! Does Spock know all this? And did anyone figure out why those animals don’t ever attack the village?”

“Yeah, he knows. Spock talked to his father and filled him in on all that happened down there. And no, Bones, we didn’t stick around in orbit long enough to find out more about the planet than what’s in your report. There are a hell of a lot of questions about Solaris, but there’ll be no answers for at least another fifty years. All I have to say is I’m happy it’s completely out of our hands and that you and Ny are safely back with us. Pike said the shit’s going to hit the fan now that the C in C and Sarek are both involved. Court Martial and prison, are being considered.”

Jim set the tray down on the floor and turned to Bones. “And now, lets not talk about crooked Admirals, flawed missions or pissed off bosses any more. I think you and I have some unfinished business, Dr. McCoy.” Jim’s eyes, wide and blue, carefully examined Leonard’s face. “Seriously, Bones, how are you feeling? How does your leg feel, are you in any pain?” He shimmied closer to Bones, a frisson of joy running through him. Now he didn’t have to monitor himself. He didn’t have to rein in that insatiable greed, that hunger, he’d always hidden to touch Bones’ perfect tanned skin, his silky dark hair.

“I feel fine, Jim, no pain at all. Geoff did a great job. He made sure I took my antimicrobial doses, checked on me just a while ago before you got here, and I haven’t needed pain medication since this morning. He’s already signed me up to start rehab tomorrow. Showed me my chart too. Light duty only, I can do reports and such in my office, routine exams and scans, but no standing too long on my leg.” He glowered at Jim, hazel eyes flashing. “Seems like in my absence, Geoff’s turned into a despotic tyrannical monster of an acting CMO, Jimmy. He’s givin’ me directives right and left. Christine too.” He looked expectantly at Jim, clearly waiting for him to give orders and remedy the dreadful situation immediately.

Jim laughed softly at the thought of gentle, calm, quiet Geoffrey M’Benga suddenly turning into a despotic Acting CMO. He looked at Bones outraged face. “Sorry, Bonesy, but I totally agree with Geoff, so you just settle down. It’s for your own good and well you know it. Just follow Geoff’s orders and, before you know it, you’ll be back giving your own orders in the Med Bay and terrorizing Scotty’s Engineers. Understood?” He looked sternly at the wrathful Bones.

After a minute of silence, Leonard nodded sullenly. When Jim looked like that, there was no use fighting the inevitable. Damn it....they were all against him. He might as well give in, if not gracefully, at least quietly. Yes, he thought gleefully. He’d give in with dignity; he’d be polite, cooperative, docile, smile a lot, and act properly grateful for all the attention and care. Yep, he’d scare them all! The whole bunch of them wouldn’t know what hit them!

“Yeah, understood,” he answered grudgingly.

“Good.” Jim picked up one of Leonard’s hands and raised it to his mouth to press a warm kiss to his palm.

Jim could feel Bones’ shiver at the warm press of Jim’s mouth. Then Jim took the soft, fine, surgeon’s hand in his, and leaned in for a real kiss. Bones’ mouth was soft and pliant under his, passive at first, but Jim felt a raging impatience. He wanted more! Goddamn it, he wanted Bones’ skin under his hands, Bones’ mouth on his. He’d waited so long for this and Geoff said Bones was fine! He deepened the kiss, and kissed him, kissed him, and kissed him. Bones kissed him back hungrily, his fingers grasping Jim's shoulders tightly. It was literally breathtaking. Jim gasped, trying to breathe. He felt a little lightheaded, but kissing Bones was way more important than breathing.

“Bones, Bones,” Jim murmured a little frantically, as the passion between them flared wild and hot, instantly. He pulled at Bones’ sleep pants, hands clumsy with desire and haste. This is what he wanted, he thought, as Bones kissed his mouth and tugged him toward him. Bones, Bones Bones, always Bones.

They broke apart just long enough to get out of their sleep pants and t-shirts, and Jim, fumbling in his haste, grabbed the lube in the drawer of the bedside table. He trailed kisses along Bones’ jaw and neck, reveling at the feel and scent of the soft skin under his lips, the clean shower scent of Bones’ body. They were pressed together from shoulder to knee, and Jim could feel Bones’ hard length against his own.

Jim felt dazed, almost mindless with pleasure at the feel of Bones’ pliant naked body against his. The reality of their coming together was a thousand times better than what he’d conjured up in his imagination. Jim wrapped his arms around Bones, feeling the ripple of muscles as Bones shifted beneath Jim’s hands, and, at the same time, loving the feel of his beautiful surgeon’s hands finally, finally, caressing Jim’s skin. He shuddered as Bones ran a hand down his back.

He’d wanted this so much, had wanted it for a long, long time. Finally, Bones was in his arms, heart against heart, and skin against skin, their breaths mingling. Jim felt the faux wood headboard of the bed against his back and leaned against it, letting his legs fall open. Jim wrapped his arms tighter around Bones and pulled him closer so their bodies were flush against each other. Jim was already painfully aroused, greedy with desire for this man. Unable to control his body, he rolled his hips up, sliding their cocks together which elicited a moan from Bones.

Jim ran his fingers through the dark silky strands of Bones’ hair, then shifted his hips until they were perfectly aligned. Bones tipped his head back, his evening stubble rasping softly against Jim’s lips as he sucked at Bones’ neck gently, peppering him with kisses, nibbles, and bites, then laving them with his tongue. He kissed Bones’ cheeks, his forehead, his nose, then continued to kiss his lips. Bones’ eyelids fluttered shut with pleasure and Jim reveled at how undone his doctor was under his hands.

With Bones here with him, Jim could finally shut down all his worry, guilt, and sorrow about the last three weeks and the ill fated mission on Solaris. Bones was safe in his arms, gloriously naked, gorgeous, brave and brilliant, with his beautiful hazel eyes, soft drawl, sharp tongue, and gentle hands.

Both men were gasping and moaning, their mutual passion rising, the two of them rock hard, sweat pouring from their bodies. Jim held Bones still for a moment, pouring lube into his hand before he rolled his hips upward and Bones rolled his down, establishing a rhythm that made Jim crazy. He could feel Bones, hard, wet, and slippery against him, and it was perfect.

Bones’ eyes were closed and he shivered under Jim’s hands. “Jim, Jim,” he whispered, his drawl honey thick. “Love you like this, love you so much, darlin.” His rough breathless voice sounded wrecked and Jim’s heart swelled at the words. So many emotions surged through him; love, possession, protection, passion, tenderness, all the feelings Jim had kept bottled up for years!

Jim moaned, gathering both of their lengths in his hand. When his fist closed around them both, Bones’ head dropped to Jim’s shoulder, and a small, strangled sound escaped him.

“You feel so good, sweetheart, so good. Can’t live without you, Bones.” Jim whispered into his ear. The friction was so wonderful, Jim felt like he was going to break apart. He almost came right then, but Jim’s self control had always been formidable and somehow he managed to hold on. And then it was just the sounds of labored breathing between frantic kisses. Then Jim pulled Bones down hard against him while he pushed up. Bones moaned, a deep hoarse sound from deep in his chest, and spurted between them. At the feel of Bones hot cum on his chest and stomach, Jim couldn’t hold on any longer. His orgasm followed immediately. He saw shooting stars behind his closed eyelids and it seemed to last forever, until Bones collapsed onto Jim. Lying there, he rested his head on Jim’s shoulder.

For a moment Jim felt dazed and dizzy with the overwhelming depth of emotion he felt. Still panting, he pushed Bones gently over to the side so that they could be face to face. Jim was unwilling to move any farther away than that; Bones felt so good, so perfect. It was here and now, at this moment, that Jim knew he was going to spend the rest of his life with Bones. They would always be inseparable. Bones, his doctor, his best friend, his closest confidante, and now his lover. It seemed Jim had loved him forever, but now, he thought joyfully, there was no need to hide his feelings ever again!

The two men were silent while they caught their breaths. Words seemed inadequate for what had finally happened between them. It was possible, Jim thought, to say nothing, but yet to say everything in the silence between them. He’d learned early enough to distrust loud words, empty promises, glib compliments. After a few moments, Jim propped himself on his elbow and looked at the sight of a blissful Bones lying beside him. His eyes were closed and a soft smile of happiness was on his face.

“Bones?” Jim asked softly, entranced by the sight of his beautiful, happy Bones.

“Hmm.” Bones’ eyes remained closed with that soft smile still on his face.

“Just so you know, Dr. McCoy,” Jim paused and stared lovingly at him for a moment, “New rule on this ship—you’re not allowed to go on any Away Mission without me glued to your side. This new rule is gonna’ be called “Captain Kirk’s Priority Rule One.”

Leonard opened one hazel eye and gazed up at the shining blue ones. Jim’s eyes were crystalline, dazzling, full of love and happiness. He studied the wide blue eyes looking at him with so much love. He huffed contently and closed his eye again. “I’m strangely okay with that rule, Captain, darlin’.” Then he opened both kaleidoscope eyes to look up at his heart’s desire, the love of his life. “Love you, Jimmy...love you so much. I’m happy, darlin’, so happy. I’ve loved you for years.” His cheeks pinked slightly at the halting admission of his happiness and long time secret love for Jim.

Jim went absolutely still...his heart skipping a delighted beat at the words! He was suddenly awash with joy and gratitude. Bones loved him! Had loved him for a long time! He sighed deeply, euphoria sweeping through him. God! He couldn’t remember ever being so rapturously happy in his life, not even when he got command of the Enterprise!  “Love you more, Bonsey; always love you more,” Jim whispered against his mouth. He gave Bones a passionate ecstatic kiss. It was a kiss to end all kisses, a kiss to seal their deal: it would be JimandBones forever!

Fin