Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek or its characters.

Bones felt hazy. As his tired body tried to orient itself to his surroundings, he could find no easy explanation for his current state. This sort of tired – it was too deep to be natural. He wasn't hungover either (he could identify that feeling in a flash). No, this was something different…

"He appears to be regaining consciousness."

Spurred on by the familiar voice, Bones willed his eyes to open, and was greeted with Spock's alert face mere inches from his own.

"Jesus, Spock, is that how Vulcans say good morning?"

"Oh thank god," a female voice said. Bones was about to crane his neck toward the voice, but Nyota Uhura had already entered his field of vision. "You've been out for hours – we were worried." She knelt down next to McCoy and gently helped him to a seated position.

Bones took a moment to look around, get his bearings. Wherever they were, it appeared very… sterile. "Where the hell are we?" he asked as he took in the white walls and floor.

"It appears to be a medical facility which has been repurposed by our captors as a holding cell," Spock explained.

"Our captors?" Bones replied.

Nyota peered at him quizzically. "How much do you remember?"

Bones rubbed his face in frustration. "Give me a minute," he said. "I'm still all fuzzy." After pausing for a moment, he tentatively began to speak. "Okay, we were on the Enterprise and there was a distress call from a small ship. They were speaking some crazy language, saying they needed a doctor. Clearly, I needed you with me if I was going to make heads or tails of what was going on. Those lying bastards."

"Go on," Nyota urged.

"I remember Jim and Spock insisting on beaming aboard with us. But then… dammit I can't remember."

"Upon beaming aboard the unidentified craft, a noxious gas filled the sealed transporter room, rendering us unconscious," Spock supplied. "I came to first, given my physiology, and woke up in this room seven hours and eleven minutes ago."

"I've probably been up about half an hour," said Nyota.

"And Jim?" Bones asked. "I should take a look at him."

"Doctor McCoy," Spock said quietly, "the Captain is not here."

Tedium began to set in by day three. Bones was probably the worst off, constantly pacing the room, occasionally yelling at their unseen captors. After one particularly vitriolic tirade, Spock addressed McCoy.

"There is no need to raise your voice, Doctor. I find it highly probable that we are under constant surveillance, complete with audio capabilities."

"Surveillance, my ass. I hope they can hear me."

Spock turned to Nyota and said something in an unfamiliar tongue. They had been doing this since Bones had woken up, and he supposed it was a means of keeping at least some information confidential from their captors.

"Don't you think it's odd that we're just being kept here? No one's asked us questions, they give us food and water." Bones shook his head. "I'd almost feel better if I was being beaten up."

Nyota nodded. "While I'd rather things didn't turn violent, I know what you mean. The whole situation is baffling. And I'm worried about Jim."

Bones leaned against the wall. "You and me both." He glanced over toward the opposite corner of the room where Spock was meditating. "Can't really speak for him."

"He can hear you, you know," Nyota hissed. Bones rolled his eyes.

Suddenly, there was a whooshing sound and a tray of food was shoved through a small opening in the door. Bones eyed the plate. At first, he had refused to eat anything their captors had provided. As time went on, however, he became hungrier, and the selections became uncannily more appetizing. Today it was fried chicken. Potato salad. Red velvet cake. For Spock, there was plomeek soup and salads, and Nyota received a shrimp curry dish.

"How are they doing this?" Bones wondered aloud.

Nyota shook her head in disbelief. "This is one of my favorite meals."

Spock wordlessly rose from his meditation and began quietly sipping the broth of his soup. "We all require calories. I suggest we all eat something immediately." He raised an eyebrow at Bones' meal. "Clearly, some of the meals provided are more nutritious than others… Doctor."

Bones rewarded Spock with an exaggerated shrug. "It's not my fault this is how we cook in the South." Bones tucked into a fried chicken leg. "This is pretty damn good," he said. "Not perfect, but serviceable." With a twinge of guilt, Bones sampled the potato salad. Was it possible that their captors did not mean them harm? Maybe they were being quarantined for some unknown reason. Maybe whoever was holding them in the cell did not know how to communicate with them?

"Spock? Doctor?"

Bones put down his plate and faced Nyota. She was leaning against the wall. "Nyota?"

"I, I don't feel well…" she said. "I can't stand, and I feel so sleepy."

Bones and Spock raced to her side. Bones noted the dilated pupils. "Dammit" he exclaimed. "It must be the food. It's drugged."

"Are you certain?" Spock asked, gently picking up Uhura, who had passed out. He set her down on a cot.

"It… it has to be drugs. And… dammit… it's happening to me too." McCoy tried to reach his cot before he collapsed, but was unsuccessful. Spock could feel his own strength ebbing, but knew he had some time before the effects hit him as strongly as they had the humans. Spock wrapped a strong arm around the Doctor and effortlessly lifted him into his cot. Seeing no logical reason to lose consciousness on the cold floor, Spock made his way to his own cot and waited for the inevitable to occur.

Eyes glued to the video screen, the woman watched as the Vulcan's eyes finally closed and his body relaxed. Allowing herself a small measure of relief, she turned to the large man standing next to her. "Well done. That was easy and painless for everyone." She grinned. "I had no idea you were such a clever chef." The large man blushed slightly and nodded his thanks. "How much time do we have to move them to the interrogation rooms?"

"Three hours," the man replied.

The woman smiled. "Plenty of time. Get them all ready in separate rooms."

"Who do you want to interrogate first? The female?"

The woman shook her head. "Lieutenant Uhura? No… she'll be tougher to break. I'm still trying to figure out what angle to take with her. And I don't know if I'll even bother with the Vulcan." She cocked her head as she studied the video screen. "The Doctor, though… he'll be easy. Let's start with him."

It took Bones a moment to readjust to the relative brightness of the room. He noticed that he was waking up in a new room, with his arms strapped tightly to a chair. So this was it, huh? He'd been wondering when they'd get to this stage of the game. He cursed himself for tearing into the fried chicken. If only he'd resisted; if only he hadn't gotten comfortable. He wondered if Spock, Nyota, and – he paused – Jim were in similar positions.

"Ah, the famous Dr. McCoy." McCoy jerked his head up to meet the gaze of… a shockingly lovely woman. Young, blonde and curvaceous, she looked out of place in the bare room.

"If you'd wanted to tie me up, sweetheart, all you had to do was ask," McCoy drawled, trying to mask his surprise.

The woman arched an eyebrow flirtatiously. "Why Doctor, I heard you were a gentleman."

He looked her up and down. "Only when I'm dealing with ladies."

The woman placed her hands on her hips. "Are you suggesting I'm not a woman, Doctor?" McCoy swallowed uncomfortably. "I would think that, as a medical professional, you would be intimately aware of the many physiological differences between human men and women."

"I didn't say you weren't a woman, I said you weren't a lady. There's a big difference, one I wouldn't expect you to know."

The woman smiled again. "I just want to talk."

"Well I don't." McCoy glared at the woman. "Let's cut the bullshit. Where's Jim?"

The woman looked at McCoy with an odd fondness. "Your Captain certainly inspires loyalty in his crew… perhaps in no one more than you." She reached out gently toward McCoy's face. To his embarrassment, he flinched from her touch. "I'm not going to hurt you," she whispered. "I just want to understand."

"Understand what?"

The woman withdrew her touch. "I want to understand how you can be so close to a man who reveals so little of himself." Bones was silent. "You seem to share a lot of yourself with him, is what I'm saying. The divorce. The child."

McCoy exhaled. "Hate to break it to you, honey, but everybody knows about that shit."

The woman looked at the ceiling. "Ahhh, that's right. You lost it didn't you? Pretty publicly, a few months back. It was Joanna's fifth birthday, wasn't it?" McCoy stilled at the mention of his daughter's name. "Messy day, really. After your holo conference kept getting delayed, and your ex chewed you out with your daughter watching, you decided to get drunk. On bourbon. In sickbay."

The color drained from McCoy's face. "Jim… he told you this?"

The woman nodded. "He's singing like a bird, Doctor."

"Dammit," Bones muttered.

"For years now, you've shared everything with Jim, haven't you?"

"Not everything," Leonard corrected her.

She came close to Leonard again, running her hand along the line of his shoulders. He tried to shrug off her touch. "I make you uncomfortable, Doctor."

"No shit," he said.

"According to Jim, all women make you uncomfortable." She leaned into Bones and whispered in his ear. He could feel her breasts pressing against the back of his neck. "I found the way you greeted me today to be… amusing." She ran her hands from his shoulders down his arms, to his restrained wrists. "The whole business about being tied up… you know, I might consider it in another time and place." Bones was feeling supremely uncomfortable. A large part of him hated this woman, but a less controlled part of him was responding to her actions and words. "You're an attractive man, Doctor. It's sad, really."

"What is?" Bones managed to get out.

"Your crippling self-doubt, when it comes to women. Jocelyn certainly did a number on you." Bones bit the inside of his mouth in anger and embarrassment. "You haven't been with a woman in over three years."

Bones tried to catch the woman's eye. "Jim… Jim is the only one that knows that."

The woman shrugged. "Jim was the only one, until he told me."

The Doctor's eyes narrowed. "You slept with him, didn't you?" He rolled his eyes. "Jim could never keep his goddamn mouth shut around a pretty girl – in more ways than one. Shit."

"Jim tried so hard to get you to go out," the woman continued. "You were at Starfleet, Doctor, surrounded by gorgeous young cadets. You came close a few times, like with that exotic-looking Peruvian engineer – "

"Stop it!" McCoy hissed. "Just fucking stop it, okay? Jesus."

The woman withdrew her touch, smiling ear to ear. Bones couldn't stand the fact that she was still somehow attractive as she gloated over him. "I was just making my point, Doctor. You've shared a lot of your darkest, nastiest stuff with Jim, and it bothers you that he doesn't return the favor. "

"Jim and I are friends," McCoy said blandly, wishing this hellish conversation was over.

"Best friends," the woman added, "so he says." She eyed Leonard. "And you're his doctor, for heaven's sake. Yet you've always wondered, haven't you?" Bones tried to look at anything but the woman. "There were so many old, unexplained injuries; so many strange habits and allergies. How much has Jim told you about this childhood?"

"Listen, lady, I'm not biting."

The woman scoffed. "Oh yes you are. You want to figure out James Kirk more than I do." She looked pityingly at McCoy. "He hasn't made it easy for you. Frankly, I'm surprised Starfleet let a man with such an unstable past enter the command track. Between the abuse, the starvation, and the incarceration, it's no wonder people started saying he slept with Pike to gain admission to the Academy."

Bones' head was spinning. "Abuse? Starvation? What the hell are you talking about?"

The woman clapped a hand over her mouth in faux-surprise. "Oh that's right, you're not supposed to know about that!" She directed a sly smile at McCoy. "I think we've said enough for today."

Before Bones could reply, he heard the familiar hiss of a hypo entering his neck.

I hope you are enjoying the story so far! There is more to come. Thanks for reading! - AE