Drabble Challenge Ficlets

by weepingnaiad

Summary:

These are a bunch of drabbles from various challenges originally posted over at Jim_and_Bones on Livejournal. I'll also be adding ficlets I wrote that were originally posted at Bridge2Sickbay. All of these are short, written to prompts which are in italics before each blurb.

Notes:

Tags will change as drabbles are added.

Chapter 1

Ascend

Bones watches in horror, his arms pulled taut behind him by the alien goons, all fight gone. He can’t take his eyes off the scene, not even as he hears a muffled sob to his left. It had to be Uhura, or maybe Chekov.

He can do nothing as Jim ascends the steps of the altar. Jim’s last, brave act.

He stares as Jim turns, silently accepting his fate to save the crew. To save Bones.

“No!” he cries out as Jim is enveloped in searing white light. “I love you, damnit, Jim!” but his desperate words are too late.

~~*~~

Jury

McCoy thrust once more, the feeling of Jim tightening around him sending him over the edge. He moaned quietly, burying his face in Jim’s neck, holding his lover as the aftereffects rocketed through him and they shivered on the cold stone table.

He heard angry chirps and whistles from the crowd. The translator clipped to his pants repeated, “Again!”

Groaning he shook his head and looked down at Jim, concern lighting his eyes. “I think the jury’s still out, kid.”

“Fuck me raw,” Jim whimpered.

“I think that’s their intent,” McCoy grumbled even as he felt himself respond once again.

Chapter 2

Summary:

These drabbles are all tied together to create a sort of coherent story which ends on a cliffhanger. Sorry.

Beam, ward

Jim hears Bones’ shout and lifts his hands to ward off the beam, but it’s too late. His world, and Bones, is gone.

Jim wakes and somehow he’s back on the Enterprise, on the bridge. He stands shakily, but no one notices him. Spock is in his chair, looking more stiff than usual, an air of expectancy surrounding him.

The turbolift doors open and Bones steps out, looking far worse than Jim believed possible.

“Are you satisfied, Doctor?

“No, I’m not, you emotionless hobgoblin. Just get us the hell out of here,” he says in a voice, broken and ragged.

*~*

inverse, brown, substituted

Bones gasps softly, his brown eyes wide as he stares at Jim and begins backing away toward Spock.

“Doctor?”

Bones startles and turns, swallowing thickly. “It felt like… I thought… Jim…” He shakes his head, barely holding it together, as a shudder runs through his body.

Spock’s brows knit together as he looks forward. “Take us out of orbit, Mister Sulu.”

“Aye, Sir.”

Jim moves quickly. He knows one thing. They cannot break orbit. He moves to the engineering console and uses a substituted inverse antimatter equation to shut down the warp core, locking the routine with his access code.

*~*

apart, wed, kidding

“You’ve got to be kidding!” Bones shouts.

“Doctor, I do not ‘kid’.”

“How the hell did this happen?”

Spock straightens and coolly replies, “That is what we are trying to ascertain.”

Scotty stands apart, his face wild. “I’ve checked it over three times, Mister Spock. The command was entered from that console.”

Bones looks at the two of them, his eyebrows wed together in utter disbelief. “Someone shut down the engines with the Captain’s personal code and we’re stuck here?” he chokes out. “How long do we have?”

Jim answers. “It’ll be okay, Bones. I won’t keep the engines off.”

*~*

surrounded, reputation, stole

“Now don’t you worry, Doctor. I’ll stake my reputation on having the engines up and running before it’s a problem.”

Bones sagged heavily against the captain’s chair. “I’m not an idiot, Scotty. You can’t fix it, can you?”

Scotty stole a glance at Spock before answering. “I’ve got the computer working to crack the Captain’s code. Once we have it, then I can restart the engines.”

“We’re surrounded by death,” Bones mumbled. “How long?” he demanded.

“We have two point three four hours until our orbit begins to decay, Doctor.”

Bones ran a shaky hand through already mussed hair. “Shit.”

*~*

dividing, double, worm

Scotty’s worm is cranking away and everything is hushed, expectant, on the ship.

Bones feels wrong in his skin, dividing his attention between Scotty and Spock. He’s no help to them and the past days without sleep have him twitchy and seeing double. He leaves the bridge without a word and Jim abandons his communication efforts and slips into the turbolift with Bones.

Standing close, Jim can feel Bones’ heat, can smell him, but Bones is unaware of him. He stops the lift and slides down the wall, overcome. “Jim! Goddamnit! What the hell am I going to do now?”

*~*

disturbing, treaty, choose *grumbles* 'treaty' took things in a weirder direction...

Jim wants to hold Bones, to tell him he’s not dead, he’s right here, but before he can, something disturbing happens and his worlds twists, sways, and shifts, making him nauseous and his falls to his knees. He’s no longer on board the Enterprise. He’s back on the planet kneeling on the altar, a crescendo of voices echoing around him, “Choose!”

He tries to stand, but a force holds him, pinning him down. “Choose what?” he cries to the disembodied voices.

“You wanted a treaty with us. Do you still?”

“Yes! Of course.”

“Then you must stay here with us.”

*~*

optimistic, establishment, bodies

“Stay here?” Jim echoes, “Is there another choice?”

“Always…”

Jim takes an optimistic breath and stands. The lights shift down; he can see the Dalmia, their crowded bodies staring up at him. He has to fix the Enterprise and very soon. “I will do whatever you need, but please let me contact my ship first. They are in grave danger.”

Hushed murmuring ripples through the crowd and a tall Dalmia steps forward nodding. “Very well.”

He’s suddenly holding his communicator and hailing them. The establishment of the link takes too long and he’s praying as he waits. “Kirk to Enterprise.”

*~*

tied, basket, partition

“Captain?”

“No time to explain, Uhura. Patch my comm directly into the engine partition. Now!”

Scotty immediately jumps into action.

*

Leonard knows he should stand down. He’s a basket case from grinding desolation and smothering regret, but he can’t bear the thought, being tied to Sickbay, to routine, has kept him mostly sane. Mostly being the operative word. He keeps hallucinating Jim’s face and touch. He hasn’t slept in days and he is no good to anyone in this state, so he presses the hypo to his neck and curls up on Jim’s bed, Jim’s t-shirt pressed into his face.

*~*

provoked, warehouse, story

The barely audible shouts Jim hears through the communicator, cries of fear, worry, and outrage, provoked an intense reaction, hope and relief surging through him. His ship, his crew, and Bones are safe. But before he can tell his story, to make sure they understand why, his comm. is taken and he is shackled, then half-pushed, half-dragged to a large building.

It looks like a warehouse, and it is, of a sort. It’s a storage facility, laboratory, and his prison. The Dalmian’ price? Him. He agrees. Anything for his crew and ship.

Bones sleeps, never knowing that Jim is alive.

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 1 of Drabble Challenge(s)