elliewood | Fic: Companion, Chapter 29: Bones (8)

Nyota's apartment had that sterile feel of a home that's been set up for a while but not really lived in. Kind of like a doctor's home in some ways. The decor was tasteful, exquisite without being trashy, but also slightly impersonal, as if the person who chose the furniture and the art had selected it for someone else's use.

I looked around as she hung up her coat in the hall closet. Two bedrooms, one of which was occupied; the other, not.

She nodded at my unspoken thought. "I reserved this apartment over a year ago, when I heard the owner was planning on selling. It was for Gaila and me to share when we graduated."

I don't often think of that day, when Nero showed up and stole their youth, and it occurred to me that she must think about it all the time, with such a glaring prompt to remind her. I slid an arm around her and pulled her to me.

She let her face bury itself in my chest for a few moments before pulling away. "Leonard, I want to you have the other room. It only makes sense. You living in that hotel is ridiculous, you can't keep it up." She picked up a key chip from a small table in the entryway and pressed it into my hand. "Here. Take it."

I turned the chip over in my hand, thinking. "If you let me use this to check on you over the next couple of days, we can talk about something more long-term later. Right now I'm just going from one day to the next."

Her voice was urgent. "You have to think about yourself. You can't keep living for other people."

"I'm not," I smiled. She wasn't convinced.

"Come back for dinner, before your shift. I'm not cooking, but I'll get you better take-out than the hospital cafeteria can offer. And you can have a real shower here instead of using the staff rest room."

I wondered how she knew about the shitty hospital staff showers as I slid the key chip into the pocket of my scrub pants. "I'll be back in twelve hours. Sooner if you let me sleep in your spare bed."

She opened the front door and stood aside to let me pass. "Deal."

***

I couldn't believe the sight that met my eyes when I walked into Jim's room half an hour later.

"Blast it, man, I turn my back on you for what, an hour? What the hell happened?"

Jim grinned at me, his face looking like he'd just gone ten rounds with a drunk Klingon. "Had a little accident. Nothing major."

Spock was less amused. "Doctor, the captain attempted to walk unaided, with the thoroughly predictable results you see before you."

I swear my eyes rolled to the back of my head. "Goddamnit, Jim. Have a care for all the effort we've put into keeping you alive, will you, before you decide to do something that could kill you." I backed the wheelchair up to his bed and held it steady as he slid himself into it. "Now let's go practice walking the sensible way."

It turned out that "sensible" and Jim didn't get along too well. The physical therapist was delighted at first to have someone of Jim's charm and reputation as her patient, and the first fifteen minutes were actually pretty harmonious as Jim demonstrated his near-normal upper extremity strength and coordination, although his fine motor skills still needed work. But his spirit of cooperation vanished the moment she brought out the walker.

"I'm not a hundred years old, Bones, I'm not using that fucking thing."

I shook my head, heavy and buzzing with fatigue, at his orneriness. "If you end up leaving this place in a wheelchair instead of walking out under your own steam, you may as well be a hundred years old, and I'll get you a crocheted lap rug to prove it. Now listed to Patrice and get on that damn walker!"

By the time the hourlong PT appointment was up, he had made two and a half circuits around the room on the hated walker, muttering curses the whole way. I saw his arms shaking as he sank back into the wheelchair and closed his eyes, his face sweaty and pale.

The therapist was encouraging. "Captain, that's very good, excellent really. I'm sure Dr. Boyce will be thrilled with your progress."

"Boyce can suck my dick," he mumbled through his swollen lip. I smiled at her and shrugged -- What are you gonna do? -- as I wheeled him out of PT and toward the lift. By the time the lift doors closed behind us, he was asleep, his head lolling back against my hand.

***

Phil was waiting for us when we got back to the room, almost as if Jim's profanity had conjured him up. And he'd brought someone with him.

"Carol!"

I wondered for a split second how she'd managed to violate Boyce's No Visitors order until I remembered that he and Alex Marcus went way back; he'd probably changed Carol's diapers. Hard to imagine that now as I watched him study the chart, his tanned face frowning above the white contrast collar of his shirt.

Spock took the wheelchair and pushed it to the other side of the biobed while Carol and I embraced. "It's wonderful to see you," I said. "Look how good he's doing."

We pulled apart to look at Jim, who wasn't actually looking his best at that moment -- mouth hanging open in sleep, face all beat to hell, cradled in Spock's arms like an overgrown baby as he transferred him from the wheelchair to the bed. From the brilliance of her smile, it was plain she didn't care.

Phil made it clear that he cared. "What happened here, Leonard? I thought I'd left our young man in good hands, but now I see you let him take quite the tumble."

Spock interrupted before I could speak. "Dr. Boyce, the fault was mine. Dr. McCoy was still on shift, and I foolishly left the room for 10.71 minutes to attend to my own hygiene. When I returned, I found the captain on the floor, having sustained the injuries you see."

Damn Vulcan sticking up for me again. I cut him a dirty look -- I can fight my own battles, if they're worth fighting, and this one wasn't.

He didn't see my look, occupied as he was with straightening out Jim's legs on the bed, pulling the sheet up to his waist and tucking it in, then laying Nyota's blanket on top. His hands were gentle as he lifted each arm in turn to place them on top of the bedsheets.

His face was a mask when he turned to face me, but I'd already seen it. Goddamn. It had been right in front of me, all this time.

If Carol saw it, she gave no sign as she moved to the other side of the bed. She laid one hand on Jim's upper arm and the other on his hair, combing through it lightly with her fingers until he groggily opened his eyes.

"I brought you a visitor, Captain," said Phil from across the room. "Least you can do is wake up and say hello."

He struggled to focus on her face. "Hey."

Her million-watt smile brightened even more. "Hey yourself."

"You gonna be here for a while?"

She nodded. "Go ahead and sleep. When you wake up we'll have lunch and I'll show you the gifts I brought you from the crew."

His eyelids dropped to close before he managed to nod in return.

She turned back to me, and I could see her eyes brimming with tears. "He does look good. Wonderful. I can't believe it, truly."

"He's been getting the best possible care since he's been here." Just like Phil to put in a plug for good old Starfleet Medical whenever possible.

"I'm sure that's true, Uncle Phil, thank you so very much." She smiled at him but moved to hug me again, tightly. She'd been there when we brought him back, she knew, and that was enough for me.

"And Mr. Spock, I can see you've had more than a little to do yourself as well, these past few weeks. Nyota must be missing you quite badly."

Maybe she had seen something, after all. I kept my expression neutral.

"Indeed."

Sometimes it's amazing how bitchy Spock can be.

Phil made a few more notes before hanging the PADD back on the wall. "Well, it looks like PT went well today. Just a little grumpy about the walker, were we?"

I nodded. "He'll do better next time. We're on again for 0930 tomorrow morning."

"Wonderful. Gentlemen, Carol, I'll see you this afternoon."

She closed the door behind him and turned to face us, her smile disappearing like the sun behind storm clouds.

"You have got to get him out of here. Now."

Spock was a statue. "Why, Dr. Marcus?"

"I overheard Uncle Phil comming another MD, ordering a blood draw. They want to study him, to find out how he was able to recover so quickly."

I closed my eyes and nodded. The order for a blood sample was news to me; it wasn't on the chart, which means Phil kept it a secret on purpose. And I figured it wouldn't stop with just one blood draw.

'I'd take some heat for it but I can order his release. No way I can get that pushed through before tomorrow but we can hold Boyce off on the draw as long as someone stays with Jim at all times." I didn't want to discharge him until he was stronger on his legs and had demonstrated normal bowel function, but those could be handled with outpatient therapy and self-reporting. As long as someone stayed with him and brought him in for his PT appointments, he'd probably do okay.

I looked at Spock, but I didn't have to ask, and we both knew it.

"Doctor, we will need a place to stay once you release him. I am not aware of his having any living quarters other than those on the Enterprise and at the Academy, neither of which is sufficient for his needs at the present time."

I pulled my hotel key chip out of my pocket and handed it to Spock. "Room 5042. It's only got one bed but there's a pull-out bed in the sofa."

"What about you, Doctor?"

I smiled as he pocketed the key chip before I answered. "I've got another place to stay."

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