Interstellar // Leonard McCoy✔️

twenty-seven

"Every now and then I get a little bit terrified, and then I see the look in your eyes."

Wake up. Pain meds. Regenerator. Eat. Pain meds. Sleep.

Alex's recovery days in the Starfleet Memorial hospital began to become routine. She saw Bones often, but only when he was on shift. He had made sure her and Jim were in rooms right next door to each other.

It had only been a week but she wanted to move around. She wouldn't be able to move either way because she of the clunky cast on her leg that prevented anything from shifting in between her 3 hours in the regenerator. There was a pair of crutches propped up on the desk next to her. She sat up slowly but she immediately realized that it was going to hurt too much to move.

"Goddamn." She swore. Alex decided to squint and stare out the window towards Alcatraz Island. Or what was left of it. The Vengeance had crashed down on to the island and skidded through town, knocking over a massive amount of buildings in its wake.

San Francisco looked awful.

"It looks like a war zone out there. It's sad." Bones shut the door behind him, startling Alex.

"Oh, its you." Alex sighed. Bones was in street clothes, dressed warmly to combat the chill outside.

"Are you off shift?" She turned her head to the other side of the pillow so she could look at Bones, who nodded.

"I feel like I haven't seen you all week." He pulled up a chair to sit beside her bed.

Alex frowned. "I feel like you haven't slept all week. What are you doing when you're not working?"

Bones tried to rub the exhaustion from his eyes. "It's hard to sleep. You're still healing, and Jim....He hasn't woken up yet."

Alex face turned downcast. "Will he?"

"We're hoping so. Everything else is looking fine."

Alex nodded. "How's everybody else?"

"Good I guess." Bones shrugged. "We've been encouraged to continue the jobs we had on the ship down here until it is fixed. No one's granted shore leave for anyone. Technically Spock could, but I think he's holding out for Jim."

"It's taken an entire week and he still hasn't woken up..." Alex muttered.

Bones ran a hand through his messy hair. "If there's anything we could do to help him wake up, we could. His cells might not recognize Khan's blood and attack it."

"Or it will just take over his body and completely revive him." Alex pursed her lips. "You know, you pulled a miracle out of your ass back up there. If it wasn't for you, we wouldn't have had a chance at saving him."

Bones shook his head. "I can't take all the credit. You, M'Benga, Marcus, Spock, all of y'all deserve the credit. You're the ones who-"

"Ah-" Alex cut him off. "Stop doing that. I know you want to be the selfless person that I already know you are, but you have to give yourself credit. That's your best friend that just died. That's my step brother that just died. And you helped save his life."

"I feel like I didn't do enough to help him, Alex. I feel like I never do enough. Every time I lose someone, or the ship loses someone, I feel like it's on me."

Alex's mouth dropped in sorrow. "It's not your fault, Leonard. If someone dies, it's their time to go. None of us can do anything about it."

"I can't help it!" His voice cracked. "Sometimes taking the pressure is too much to handle. I go up there to keep everyone healthy and to save lives but when they're lost..."

Bones hung his head and buried his face into his hands. There was no doctor's empathy anymore. It was Leonard McCoy, finally reaching his breaking point.

"I can't...." He mumbled. "I feel like I messed up everything."

Alex lifted his chin up so she could look at him, his eyes beginning to rim red. "The only time when you messed up is when you said those things to Carol on the deserted planet. Nothing else was your fault. And you apologized for that."

Alex gulped, trying to find better words to say to him. "You are the CMO of the Enterprise, the best damn ship in the fleet. You are the smartest, and the most caring doctor I know. I see you go out and do what you were meant to do every day, and I can't help but admire you for that. I see you develop strong relations with your staff, making sure they know they are cared for and know what they have to do every day out of the week tirelessly. And they love you for that. The crew loves you for that. I love you for that."

He didn't make eye contact with her as he wiped stray tears from his eyes.

Alex ran her thumb across his cheek. "You're overly exhausted. Take a break. Come lie down with me for a while."

Bones let out a shaky sigh and stood up, kicking off his boots. Alex scooted over in the bed and sat up as best as she could. He climbed into the hospital bed with her, burying his head into the crook of her neck and hugging her tightly. Alex laid back on the bed, holding Bones close to her, sinking back into her pillow.

"When all this is done, I think we should go somewhere. Take a true vacation. Just the two of us." Alex played with the ends of Bones' hair.

"That's a good idea." He mumbled. "Let's go back to Blowing Rock."

"We haven't actually been there, Len." Alex chuckled and began to trace circles onto his back.

He grumbled something incoherently into her neck and closed his eyes. She smiled softly and kissed his forehead lightly before dozing off herself.

Everyone reaches their breaking point at some point, this time it's Bones.

Have I also mentioned how much Karl Urban fucking turns me on???? Like???? How does one man look that good?????

Be sure to comment, vote, share, and follow me for more updates from this story!! Xoxox.

~AB~