a_mused | +1 smol Vulcan

+1 smol Vulcan

The heat on the planet's surface curled around his neck and threatened to choke him. He'd stripped his uniform top off hours ago, wrapping it around his head to shade his eyes even as his skin started frying in the heat of dual suns. They'd been here two days now. Two days of creating lists and doling out vaccinations and hydration in the hottest part of the planets year.

Two days of wondering how many more people they will find alive.

Handing command to Spock had been both the easiest and hardest choice he'd made since resuming their five year mission, and he can't think about it right now as he comes across another group huddled in a medical tent receiving treatment. He taps on his PADD to load the list of survivors they'd been cultivating and quietly begins asking the adults for names.

He doesn't notice the small boy whose dark eyes followed him around the tent at first. But it was hard to ignore when he began passing out pouches of electrolytes and came to him last, alone and quiet. Jim hands a pouch to the child and crouches in front of him, eying the green flush and glassy dark eyes. Pointy ears. Why was a Vulcan in a human colony?

"Has anyone come and checked you out yet?" he asked gently.

"Negative. I was told to wait."

Bones was clear across the tent holding his tricorder above the head of an elderly woman and scowling, which, could honestly mean anything, until he saw the quick flash of the vaccination hypo hit the ladies neck and Bones' brow furrowed.

"Let's change that." Jim unwinds his makeshift turbin and shakes out his shirt before slipping it back on to hide the burns. Sunburns were the last problem on this planet. "Follow me."

He doesn't take the kids hand, doesn't even touch him on the back to get him moving, just trusts that the boy will move when he does and stay close enough to not misplace him. He saunters over to the cluster of beds McCoy was checking on.

"Bones!"

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Bones looks up as Jim as he gives another vaccine, and sends a young man in the early stages to the quarantine tent, where M'Benga is separating by stage, they have to keep any more people from getting sick. The start getting the sick ones well. He'd break down when they are back on the ship.

He vaccinated the last person in line and looks as Jim calls him, and sees the young boy following next to Jim eyeing him. He moves over and looks at the boy and his body language changes he forces himself to relax. His eyes move over the boy quickly and diagnostically. "Hey Kiddo, what's your name? Mind if I help you up here so I can take a look at you?" He sets the tricorder on the table and waits for the boy to give a nod before putting his hands under the boy's arms and putting him on the table.

"I am Savel." He nods and sits perfectly still on the table. Jim stands close by, lingering just out of Bones line of sight. The high flush on the kid's cheeks is worrying him. Vulcans can handle the heat, even Spock and his dual anatomy let him handle some of the worse temperatures, but this kid looks five seconds from sweating.

Or falling apart.

His tiny slanty brows were pulled downward, but if pressed, Jim wouldn't be able to tell what he was thinking.

"He was hanging out by himself near the others waiting to be seen," Jim adds. "No one was with him."

"Savel, bud do you have a sir name, last name?" He asks hoping with the kid's age, his parents where ever they are got that far, he gets the answer and types it into the data padd pulling up the medical file.

A frown flickers across his face, and he sets the padd aside, and runs the tricorder over the boy but also puts the back of his wrist to the boy's forehead.

He looks at the vitals and the readouts and lets out a slow breath. He picks up a hypo with the vaccine and presses it into the side of the boys neck. "When was the last time, someone gave you a full meal, and some water?" He asks easily.

"I am not hungry." Savel clasps his hands in front of him and gazes up at McCoy with a tightly held neutral expression. Even Jim isn't fooled by that and he doesn't need a tricorder to confirm what both men are thinking.

"That's not an answer," Jim points out, half-hating himself for pressing. "I just gave him a hydration pouch. Let's see if I can't find a protein ration."

Maybe the kid will open up if only one of them is looking. Jim disappears a few seconds after he says that.

"That's an answer Jim, just not to the question I asked." Bones says easily making sure there are no more people in the tent. "You know not eating and drinking properly can impede rational thought?" He says digging around in his bag and pulling out and orange and starts to peel it, kids are weird about food, no matter if they are human, vulcan, or something else.

He offers the kid a section of it. "Also in some life forms it can make their bodies go a little out of wack, that's not the medical term, but it works."

"I do not want to be rational. My mother was rational. My mother was-"

That green flush is back with a vengeance. Savel stares down at the floor. Hard.

"I'm sorry kiddo." He says voice low pushing up and sitting next to him on the exam table. "But this sickness, has nothing to do with rational, and I don't think your mother or father would want you starving yourself." He says offering the orange slice again. "Vulcan's and half Vulcan's have feelings, and it's okay to miss them and bed sad for along as you need to be sad." He says easily, "It's how your mind heals, a cut hurts because your brain is letting the other parts of your system know there is healing to do." He says easily.

"Then they shouldn't have left me." A slight tremor runs through his small frame and while he accepts the orange slice, he doesn't eat it.

He puts his hand on Savel's back. "Sometimes people don't have a choice, and it sucks for a little bit for the people who get left behind. But they are still part of you, their Katra? I think that's what my friend calls it, not sure if I'm sayin' it right, it might be hard right now, but it will get better."

Savel stiffens at the touch, body taught and clenched. "Th-I-I...-"

A small choked sob escapes him, then, for a moment, there is silence, when suddenly he is hunched over, orange spilling the ground and screaming past his tears. Savel grapples for the man beside him, half hitting and half clinging and he cannot-

he cannot-

Bones quickly sets the fruit aside and wraps his arms around the boy, almost hiding him from everything around them pressing his face into the top of kids head. "It's gonna be alright eventually kiddo." Bones says softly just letting the kid scream and cling. "Just let it out alright... gonna take care of you." He says as the toddler screams in his arms.

"It is not. It is not. It is not!" He wants his mother. He wants his mother. He wants his mother. The place in his mind where hers used to be hurts like a knife to the chest and he cannot breathe, he cannot take a proper breath and tears and mucus are clogging his nose and mouth and it makes him want to scream even more but he cannot catch enough air to do it.

Bones stands and holds the boy close rubbing his back firmly walking back and forth. "I promise you, you're gonna be okay, and it's gonna be okay kiddo. I always keep my promises, it's okay to cry, just gotta slow down and breath a little for me."

Savel gasps, raw and wet and hurt and his fingers claw at the back of the doctors blue medical uniform and he sounds like his father. His father with his soft voice and gentle hands and so many feelings and all of it's gone.

He takes another breath and his head is heavy, dizzy and tired and he cannot remember when he last slept if it was before or when-

When-

Savel collapses against the very human man with his very human emotions and tries very hard not to project because mother would-

She-

He whines high in the back of his throat.

"Shhh there we go." He murmurs rubbing the boys back, "Just get it out." He murmurs picking up a vague feeling, he thinks of something and puts his hand on the back of the boy's neck to his skin, and tries to think soothing, and protective thoughts. Not even sure if it will work.

He starts to walk again, now that the boy is past wailing and on to just sobs, and whines. "Why don't we find someplace quiet to lay down for awhile?"

It's like being wrapped in a dozen woolen blankets. Warmth and safety and concern so deep and vast, Savel nearly gets lost in it but it does upend his spiraling thoughts so abruptly it's like someone had cut strings and he slumped, unconscious and feverish against McCoys chest.

Jim comes back to this a moment after it happens, alarm writ clearly across his face.

"I could hear him clear across the tent." He hasn't heard that kind of grief since-

"Did you sedate him or did he fall asleep?"

"Fell asleep, I didn't want to dope him up, kid's gotta get it out." He says still rubbing the back of the boy's neck. He moves over to the little table and looks to Christine whose come in as well with the latest round of lab results. "Give him the fever reducer, hands are full." He says giving his head nurse a sad smile, still rubbing the back of Savel's neck.

The nurse shakes her head but gives Leonard a warm look she picks up a hypo and adjusts the dosage looking at the boy's chart. He's still rubbing the back of Savel's neck as Christine gives the boy the fever reducer.

"Can you handle things for a bit?" He asks easily, she nods. "We're pretty much done seeing people in this sector, just continued treatment until tomorrow"

He moves back over to Jim and lets out a breath. "He'll be okay, he needs sleep and food, and well people to look out for him." He frowns a little, "He's a little dehydrated too." He leans in and kisses Jim's cheek, "Gotta get some aloe on you." He says giving Jim a once over.

Jim nods and doesn't voice the thank you that Savel will never utter, and Jim will never say. Thank you for not taking that from him even if he medically needed it, thank you for letting him rage and rage until there was nothing else to give. Thank you for not trying to take away his grief like it wasn't valid or in need of recognition or-

"Shit." Jim can see the burn from where his shirt was tugged and winces because, yeah, ok, ow. All right. "Yeah. I-It's been a long day."

At least they'd finally made it through the whole settlement. Took care of the healthy, marked doors where there were-

The number of healthy to sick wasn't a great ratio to think about and the number of dead-

Jim swallows and settles in a chair, stripping off his shirt to show the true extent of how long he'd been out in the sun without caring for himself. They were still taking names, making lists of family members known, taking information to inform any family off-planet about the seriousness and-

He slams his eyes shut and grits his teeth, never more grateful for Spock simply nodding in acceptance when he'd handed over command days ago because if someone came to him now, he wasn't sure what kind of response he would be able to give.

When they get back to their tent, Bones carefully lays Savel down on his and Jim's cot the boy clings for a minute before sinking into the pad on the cot. He moves over to his medical kit and pulls out the bottle of aloe, and comes over to Jim giving him a soft kiss.

"You gotta wear a shirt tomorrow... do you want skin cancer?" He mumbles, starting to cover Jim's back in the green jelly. "Are you holding up okay?" He asks working on Jim's shoulders before closing the bottle and put it on the table. He digs around the box and pulls out a couple of cold packs, popping them and putting them on Jim's shoulders, and then goes and puts one on Savel's forehead to help cool the little Vulcan down.

"Can I even get skin cancer?" he asks, only half-serious. They haven't exactly tested the longevity of superhuman blood, and Bones would refuse on the grounds of 'are you fucking kidding me right now' but Jim does sometimes wonder in the dead hours of night what exactly is swimming in his veins. He scratches at a patch of flaking skin on his arm and settles his tired gaze on the boy and leaving it there as Bones moves his hands over his back and chest, dragging a shiver out of him.

"No," he admits. He drags a hand over his face and finally swings his gaze around to Bones. "Gonna ground me?"

Bones comes back to Jim and looks him over, "Do I have too? Or can you what's best for the crew and more importantly yourself." He says pushing his fingers through Jim's blond locks. He gently moves Jim's hand away from picking at the flaking skin. "We'll get you and oatmeal bath, it will help with the pealing." He says cupping Jim's face for a moment and giving him a soft kiss. "I'm here for you darlin'." He says easily before looking over at the boy.

"He needs a bath, it will help get his temp back to normal, like to give him IV fluids but we might have to settle for getting him to slowly eat and drink." He says, "Let him sleep a bit more though." He rambles a little, fingers still working through Jim's hair.

Jim hums, listening but not fully processing the list, the words. There is so much hidden in that so small list, including time, time he wasn't sure he knew they had. He closes his eyes, savoring the touch, the pull of fingers through his hair and nails on his scalp, for a minute or two before gently grabbing Bones' wrist, stilling his hand.

"What about you? What do you need?"

Bones gives him a look he hates that question, he's a doctor he's supposed to handle this stuff... but this was a lot, and anyone would admit that. In fact Star Fleet Command is having them come back to earth when they finish here, a slow trip, for 'refits' to the ship, but he knows the doctor in him knows that it's to let the crew physiologically recalibrate after such a distressing mission for non-medical staff, hell even for medical staff.

"A break, and..." he pauses and huffs, "maybe a hug and some time at home." He says looking at the boy again, "He... he doesn't have anyone, Jim, Christine and I checked. Mother's family was lost on Vulcan, father was an only child..." He scrubs his hand over his face, the thoughts had started in his brain while the boy was crying in his arms. Spock would make fun of him, but he believed in fate.

"Consider this a break." Jim tugs on that arm he hadn't quite let go of. Jim is a big believer in hugs. Maybe that hadn't always been the case, but damn, he could use one right now too. He's not ignoring the kid, far from it, he's more aware of that kid than he had been when he'd first found him trying hard to remain unseen but not exactly hiding and he's not dumb, Bones. He's really not, he can connect the dots from point A to point adopt a Vulcan but neither of them are in the right state of mind to handle that right now.

And the kid deserves more from both of them.

Jim winds his free arm around Bones waist and tugs again. Get down here for your hug.

Bones flops down next to Jim and leans on him a little letting out a slow breath. "Breaks are good, and command only has us doing a couple of milk runs on the way back to earth." He licks his lips a little. "Could go to Georgia for a bit once we are back earthside."

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+1 smol Vulcan

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