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The first sign that something was wrong was the silence.
Leonard McCoy’s comm never stayed silent for long.
Not when he was on duty.
Not when he was annoyed.
Not when Jim Kirk existed within a five-mile radius.
So when Jim tapped his badge for the fourth time and still got nothing but static, something cold settled beneath his ribs.
“Bones,” he snapped. “Answer me.”
Nothing.
Uhura looked up immediately from her station on the bridge, reading the tension in his voice before he even explained.
“No response from Dr. McCoy’s communicator,” she said quietly, already working. “Last signal came from Deck Seven.”
Jim was moving before she finished speaking.
“Spock, you have the bridge.”
“Captain—”
“Now.”
The turbolift doors barely closed before Jim was demanding updates through his comm.
“Security teams to Deck Seven. Full scan. I want every corridor checked.”
By the time he arrived, the medical storage corridor was empty except for an overturned crate and a hypospray lying on the floor.
Jim crouched instantly.
His pulse hammered.
The hypospray had blood on it.
Fresh.
“Captain.”
Jim looked up sharply as Chekov emerged from the side corridor with two security officers.
“We found this.”
A torn piece of blue medical uniform.
Leonard’s.
Jim’s stomach dropped.
“No signs of struggle?” he asked.
Chekov hesitated.
“Actually… many signs.”
The wall panel near the supply room had been scorched by phaser fire. Another dent looked like someone had been slammed into it hard enough to crack the metal.
Jim could picture it too easily:
Leonard fighting anyway.
Outnumbered.
Stubborn to the bitter end.
Jim touched the torn fabric with trembling fingers.
“Whoever took him,” he said softly, dangerously, “is going to regret it.”
⸻
Three hours later they found the ship.
A battered smuggler vessel hiding inside a dense asteroid field.
Scans revealed multiple life signs.
One matched Leonard McCoy.
Alive.
Jim exhaled shakily for the first time since the disappearance.
Then Uhura’s voice cut through the bridge.
“Captain… intercepting pirate transmissions.”
The rough voice crackled through the speakers.
“Doctor keeps patching everyone up. Bastard won’t stop working.”
Another laugh answered.
“Good. Boss lives, we get paid.”
Jim’s jaw clenched so hard it hurt.
Spock studied the readings. “The pirate captain appears critically injured. It is likely they abducted Doctor McCoy specifically for treatment.”
“And now they’re using him until he collapses,” Jim snapped.
Spock raised an eyebrow slightly.
“Yes.”
Jim stood abruptly.
“Prepare a boarding team.”
“Captain,” Spock warned carefully, “charging directly into an armed pirate vessel would be strategically unwise.”
Jim looked at the viewscreen with burning eyes.
“They took my doctor.”
The bridge went very quiet.
Even Spock paused.
Then:
“I will prepare the assault plan.”
⸻
Leonard McCoy was exhausted.
Utterly.
Completely.
Painfully exhausted.
His wrists burned from the restraints binding him to a chair between patients. His shoulders ached. His vision blurred every few seconds from lack of sleep.
He’d lost count of how many injuries he’d treated.
Gunshot wounds.
Radiation burns.
Broken bones.
One emergency surgery using equipment so filthy he’d nearly started a fistfight over sterilization.
And every single time he finished helping one prisoner or pirate, they shoved another toward him.
“Doctor,” one of the prisoners whispered weakly nearby, clutching a bandaged arm, “you should rest.”
McCoy laughed hoarsely.
“Tell that to the idiots with guns.”
The frightened young prisoner actually smiled a little.
Leonard’s chest tightened.
Most of the prisoners aboard this ship were civilians captured during raids. Terrified people. Injured people.
Kids.
And no matter how exhausted Leonard became, he couldn’t stop helping them.
That was the problem with being a doctor.
Even kidnapped and half-conscious, he couldn’t ignore suffering.
The pirate captain staggered into the room again, still pale from surgery.
A huge Orion with angry scars covering half his face.
“You,” he growled at Leonard. “Fix the burns in Cargo Hold Three.”
McCoy glared at him.
“You need to sit down before your stitches rip open.”
The pirate blinked.
Then barked out a surprised laugh.
“You’re either brave or stupid.”
“Both,” Leonard muttered.
One of the guards grabbed Leonard’s shoulder roughly and forced him upright.
The room tilted alarmingly.
He hadn’t slept in nearly thirty hours.
The pirate captain frowned.
“You’re useless if you collapse.”
“I’m a doctor, not a machine.”
Another dizzy sway.
The guard caught him before he hit the floor.
Someone shoved a canteen into Leonard’s hands.
“Drink.”
McCoy eyed them suspiciously but obeyed. His throat felt like sandpaper.
As he lowered the canteen, another alarm suddenly screamed through the ship.
Every pirate in the room froze.
Then came shouting over the comm system.
“INTRUDERS!”
Leonard’s heart slammed against his ribs.
No.
No, Jim would not—
The ship rocked violently.
Explosion.
Another explosion.
The pirate captain swore loudly.
Then came phaser fire.
Closer.
Much closer.
Leonard closed his eyes briefly.
“Dammit, Jim…”
The pirate captain rounded on him.
“That your people?”
McCoy gave a tired smile.
“You have no idea how stupidly heroic my captain can be.”
⸻
Jim Kirk looked terrifying when he was angry.
Phaser blasts lit the corridor blue as he charged through the pirate ship with security at his back.
“Clear left!”
“Two more ahead!”
Jim barely heard them.
He only heard Leonard’s silence.
Only imagined Bones hurt somewhere deeper inside the vessel.
One pirate lunged from a side corridor.
Jim slammed him into the wall hard enough to knock him unconscious instantly.
“Captain,” Spock warned through comms, “your aggression levels are becoming inefficient.”
Jim fired at another pirate.
“Not now, Spock.”
The ship shook again from internal explosions Scotty had thoughtfully arranged.
Smoke poured into the corridors.
Jim hit another set of doors—
Locked.
“Move.”
The security officer barely had time to step aside before Jim grabbed an emergency plasma cutter from the wall.
“Captain—”
Jim cut directly through the control panel.
Sparks exploded.
The doors still didn’t open.
Jim swore violently.
Then he did something incredibly stupid.
He grabbed the loose edge of the damaged door and forced it apart manually.
Metal screamed.
The entire frame buckled under the strain.
“Captain, that is structurally unsound,” Spock said dryly in his ear.
Jim roared with effort and literally tore the damaged section sideways.
The ruined door crashed inward with a deafening bang.
Everyone inside froze.
Pirates.
Prisoners.
And Leonard McCoy.
Jim’s world narrowed instantly.
Bones sat slumped against the wall, wrists bound behind him, a blue gag tied tightly across his mouth. His hair was damp with sweat, exhaustion carved deep beneath his eyes.
And despite that—
He was still trying to bandage a terrified prisoner beside him.
Even restrained.
Even barely conscious.
Still helping people.
Jim’s chest physically hurt at the sight.
“Bones—”
Leonard blinked at him in disbelief.
Then, incredibly, he started laughing.
Weak, breathless laughter behind the gag.
Jim stared.
Leonard looked utterly exhausted…and deeply amused.
Jim crossed the room in seconds, dropping to his knees beside him.
“Oh my God.”
His hands shook as he untied the gag carefully.
The second it loosened, Leonard rasped:
“You absolute maniac…”
Jim touched his face gently.
“You okay?”
“No,” Leonard croaked. “You came through the damn wall.”
“You were kidnapped.”
“That’s your defense?”
Jim cut the restraints quickly.
The moment Leonard’s hands came free, they trembled violently from exhaustion.
Jim’s expression darkened immediately.
“How long?”
“Lost count.”
“Bones…”
Before Leonard could answer, the pirate captain staggered into the room with a weapon raised.
“Everybody move and—”
Jim shot him without hesitation.
The Orion collapsed instantly.
Silence.
Leonard blinked slowly.
“Remind me never to get kidnapped again.”
Jim helped him carefully to his feet.
“You’re never leaving the ship again.”
“Oh, that’s healthy.”
Leonard nearly collapsed after two steps.
Jim caught him immediately, wrapping an arm tightly around his waist.
And Leonard—too exhausted to argue—leaned into him.
That scared Jim more than anything else.
Bones never leaned.
⸻
The Enterprise transporter room had never felt so welcoming.
The surviving prisoners were rushed toward medical assistance the second they arrived.
Leonard immediately tried to follow them.
Jim caught the back of his uniform.
“Oh no you don’t.”
“Jim—”
“You can barely stand.”
“There are injured people—”
“And there are other doctors.”
Leonard opened his mouth to argue.
Then swayed hard enough that Jim had to steady him again.
“…dammit.”
“That’s what I thought.”
Christine Chapel met them outside medbay with crossed arms already prepared for battle.
“What did he do this time?”
Jim answered instantly.
“Got kidnapped by pirates.”
Leonard pointed weakly.
“In my defense, I was trying to get coffee.”
Chapel sighed deeply.
“Of course you were.”
⸻
Several hours later, Leonard finally woke in his own quarters.
Dim lighting.
Warm blankets.
No restraints.
No screaming alarms.
No pirates demanding surgery.
For a long moment he just breathed.
Then he noticed Jim asleep in the chair beside the bed.
Still in his torn uniform.
Still clutching a phaser loosely in one hand.
Leonard stared softly.
“Idiot,” he whispered.
Jim woke instantly.
“Bones?”
“I’m alive.”
Jim exhaled sharply, relief flooding his face so openly it made Leonard’s chest ache.
“You scared the hell out of me.”
Leonard looked down quietly.
“Sorry.”
Jim leaned forward, elbows on his knees.
“You were gone for thirty-six hours.”
Leonard grimaced.
“Felt longer.”
Jim reached out carefully and took his hand.
“You don’t ever have to apologize for getting taken.”
Bones gave him a tired look.
“You punched through a wall.”
“You were kidnapped.”
“That is still not normal behavior.”
Jim smiled faintly.
“Worked, didn’t it?”
Leonard tried very hard not to smile back.
Failed.
The silence that followed felt softer now.
Closer.
Jim’s thumb brushed lightly across Leonard’s knuckles.
“You kept helping people,” he said quietly. “Even there.”
Leonard looked away.
“They needed a doctor.”
“You needed help too.”
That hit harder than expected.
Leonard swallowed carefully.
“I didn’t really think anybody was coming.”
Jim’s expression broke.
“Bones…”
Leonard immediately regretted saying it.
Because suddenly Jim looked furious again—not at Leonard.
At the universe.
At the pirates.
At anyone who’d ever made Leonard think he might be left behind.
Jim stood abruptly, pacing once before returning to the bedside.
“I crossed an asteroid field, started a ship-wide firefight, and tore through a wall for you.”
Leonard snorted weakly.
“Yes, I noticed.”
Jim leaned closer.
“You never have to wonder if I’m coming for you.”
Leonard’s breath caught.
The room went very still.
Jim was so close now Leonard could see the exhaustion in his eyes too.
“You hear me?” Jim asked softly.
Leonard nodded once.
Then quieter:
“Yeah.”
Jim’s hand slid gently to the side of his face.
Leonard should probably say something sarcastic.
Something deflecting.
Something safer.
Instead he whispered:
“Thank you.”
Jim kissed him before he could overthink it.
Soft.
Careful.
Warm enough to make Leonard forget every terrible moment aboard that ship.
Leonard kissed him back immediately.
Tired hands curled weakly into Jim’s uniform.
Jim made a quiet sound against his mouth like relief itself.
When they finally pulled apart, Leonard rested his forehead against Jim’s shoulder.
“…you really came through the wall.”
Jim laughed softly into his hair.
“You’re never letting that go, are you?”
“Absolutely not.” Leonard closed his eyes. “I’m telling everyone.”
“You’re evil.”
“I’m a doctor. Different thing.”
Jim pressed another gentle kiss to his forehead.
And for the first time since the kidnapping, Leonard finally felt safe enough to sleep.