You just can't win around here.

Leonard folded his arms over his chest and tried to appear asleep. It wouldn't have mattered; Jim was far too busy feigning interest in the pale yellow atmospheric clouds out the window to notice. His mouth was pressed shut in a tight line, and his left shoulder was digging into the window frame, trying to lean as far away from McCoy as possible. He was clearly uncomfortable, but made no move to occupy the half of his seat closest to Leonard.

McCoy gave up the pretense and leaned closer. He let out a quiet breath. "Jim."

"I don't want to talk about it now." The captain's tone left no room for argument. His frown etched deeper lines in his forehead. Keep doing that and you'll look like a raisin before you're forty. McCoy tapped the arm of his chair idly, glancing down at the burns on his left hand. He'd have to see to them later; he didn't have his medkit on him at the moment. He wasn't even sure where it was. When the shuttlecraft had lowered close to the ground, he'd just launched himself headfirst towards the door. He'd felt a vice grip squeeze his upper arm and yank him towards a seat near the front before shoving him downwards into it. Certain that Jim was going to stalk to the back and sulk alone, he'd been surprised when the captain stuffed himself into the windowside seat across from his. What do you think I'm going to do? Jump out the window the minute your back's turned?

He tried again, easing himself into the middle seat. Kirk flinched and tried to stand, but McCoy put an arm in front of his chest, blocking him. "No. You're not getting away with it this easily. If you've got something to say to me, you can say it here. No home court advantage."

Kirk's eyes widened briefly in surprise. Good. It didn't last long. The captain put his hands on his knees, readying himself for attack. He leaned forward. "Do you have any idea how much of a hypocrite you are?" His eyes flashed fire.

"What?" McCoy drew back. He hadn't expected this. "How do you figure, Jim?" he asked casually. Maybe it would be a better idea to let Kirk chew him out in his office; at least there, he'd have witnesses.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about! Whenever I put my life on the line for something that I believe is important, who's the first one to tell me I'm all kinds of idiot?" McCoy opened his mouth to respond, but Kirk cut him off. "You, Bones. Well, imagine my surprise when Nurse Martin told me you didn't show up for your shift this morning. I thought, maybe he slept in, maybe he's grabbing a coffee and lost track of time. Heaven knows you probably needed a whole pot after being up all last night with those toxin patients. And then," Kirk leaned back, crossing his arms over his chest, looking upwards at the ceiling, "just on a hunch, mind you, I checked the transporter logs. And what do you think I found?"

McCoy sighed. "I think I could hazard a guess."

"Somebody activated a fire alarm nearby, which of course resulted in the transporter crewman on duty leaving the room. Only for about a minute, but that was enough." Kirk drew in a ragged breath. "Just long enough for somebody to sneak into the room and activate the transporter for an unauthorized trip back down to the surface of Tynkusis."

Gee, I wonder who that could've been. He cocked his head to one side. "You know I hate transporters, Jim."

"Yes, we're all aware of your beamophobia. And yet for some reason you beamed down anyway. What I want to know is why?" Kirk stabbed McCoy's chest with his index finger.

"I had to." He closed his eyes and thought back to two days ago.

Tynkusis had seemed like a peaceful planet. The indigenous race, resembling green-striped shrimp with human faces, was friendly and intelligent, and had welcomed the science team with open arms. There was no shortage of flora to sample. Even Spock had seemed to have an extra spring in his step. Like a kid in a candy store. The Vulcan had barely examined a pink vine resplendent with pale green flowers when a blue moss growth on the bark of an upside down tree caught his attention.

McCoy hadn't stayed long himself; as of late, he'd slacked off some on his official reports. Some? He'd chuckled to himself. Got a stack as high as the leaning tower of Pisa, I reckon. He also had the material for at least 11 medical journal articles to review. Heck, I could write a book by now. So, begging off, he'd flown back in the shuttle with Sulu that day, looking forward to clearing his to do list.

He didn't even make it back to the shuttlebay before his comm began to chirp. The sound of Science Technician Murphy's hacking cough echoed into his ear in the background as a frantic Ensign Jalle struggled to be heard above the noise. "He just started choking on nothing, Doctor. I don't know what he's been expo-" Jalle sucked in a breath, making a gurgling noise in the back of her throat before falling to the ground with a loud thump.

"Jalle? Come in!" He'd pressed the button hard with his thumb, but there was no answer. He switched to another channel, only to hear heavy raspy breathing on the other end. Jumping up from his seat, he'd called the Enterprise. "McCoy to transporter room. I need emergency beam out of the away team now. Something's gotten to them. And you'd better send me directly to sickbay, too."

Instantly, he'd begun dematerializing where he stood, reappearing in his element. The away team members also appeared one by one on biobeds. Medical staff scrambled towards the patients, checking their vital signs and shouting orders for tests and medicine back and forth.

McCoy had approached the side of Jalle's bed. The last time he'd seen the raven-haired science officer, she'd been inquisitively observing a golden butterfly. Now, blue lips provided the only color on her otherwise pale features. She sucked in several shallow breaths in rapid succession. He placed a gentle hand on the young woman's arm as a nurse attempted to stabilize her. "Paula, can you tell me what happened?"

Jalle turned frightened eyes towards him. "It just-I couldn't breathe." She coughed several times, the sound harsh and dry. "Murphy – tried to help him. But-" Jalle's gaze flicked across the room, trying to make eye contact with the ill technician. Murphy was doubled over on his side, wheezing as two medical attendants tried to ease his breathing.

McCoy stepped in front of her line of vision as he scanned her torso with a medical probe. No internal bleeding...wonder what tox scan'll tell us? "Did you touch anything, or taste anything? Try to remember."

Her eyes softened. "He- he showed me a white flower he'd found. Picked it."

And put it in your hair. McCoy saw a white petal in her bangs and reached for a piece of gauze, grabbing the offending flower particle with it. He dropped it on the tray and reached for an oxygen mask, placing it over her nose and mouth. "You just relax now. We'll get everything straightened out." He turned to a tall man in a white tunic. "Nurse, get me some dresderatine, about 20 ccs." The man nodded and headed towards a glass cupboard across the room.

His gaze moved across the room, taking in the many ill. Even Spock was pale and shaking as he leaned forward on the edge of his bed, though he seemed stronger than the others. McCoy frowned. Definitely some kind of poison. We're looking at lung damage, maybe liver, too. The nurse returned and handed him a hypospray. Without missing a beat, he injected Jalle with it...

After the crewmen had been stabilized, he'd analyzed the flower petal in the laboratory. What he found had chilled him. Not only did the blossom contain a powerful toxin, but it was clearly not natural; several bio-enhancement markers were present. Somebody altered this thing...

He'd brought the evidence to Kirk, who had confronted the Tynkusians with their findings. The Tynkusian representative had tried to dodge his questions, but his tail was his tell; it twitched nervously as he denied the accusations. Finally, he had admitted that the flower was part of a program to develop a biological defensive weapon against invaders. It wasn't supposed to grow outside of the government laboratory unless deployed in the event of an emergency, but two weeks ago some samples had gone missing. They'd kept it all hush-hush, expecting that they would be found in some stasis cooler.

When McCoy had heard that, he'd wanted to pound something. Accident, my foot. More like a field test. No wonder they were so eager to let us touch the plant life. Better us than them. Kirk had obviously not been pleased with their answers, either, for he had signed off without the usual niceties and immediately announced that no further teams would be going planetside.

McCoy had frowned at him. "You didn't even ask if he had an antidote."

Kirk had sighed and rubbed his forehead. "Right now, I wouldn't trust anything those guys would have to say. Would you?"

"Of course not! But I've got 13 people up in sickbay who'd consider it worth a shot. I've never seen a toxin that sophisticated. You think it's out of your system and then it reorganizes its proteins and attacks you again. We're talking an army in a vial here. I've got everyone on dialysis, but it's only a matter of time before their organs begin to deteriorate."

Kirk leaned on his elbow. "You can't synthesize something?"

"Oh, sure. In a couple of weeks, maybe I could. Meanwhile, thirteen good people are gasping for breath, racked with pain. They're suffering, Jim, and if there's a chance that we could alleviate their condition, I think we should take it."

Kirk had looked him in the eye. "I trust you, Bones. You and your staff. We're not out here to start a war, much as the Tynkusians might try to start one. I expect you to obey my orders. Every minute you spend arguing with me is one less minute to find a solution on your own. Now go; I don't want to hear any more about this."

So McCoy had exited the captain's office, prepared to do just that. Much as it ate at him, he knew that Kirk wouldn't change his mind on this one. The Tynkusians were clearly capable of waging war on the Federation if they so chose, judging by this one weapon alone.

He'd stepped into the turbolift and sunk into the wall with a loud sigh. "Sickbay." So what am I supposed to do? I know they have it, I know they won't give it to us if we begged, and I know Jim wouldn't dare beg. Heck, he'd probably just take it. If he knew where it was.

McCoy could hazard a guess. Barely stayed down there long enough to get my passport stamped. There was only one building he had seen that even remotely resembled a military installation. It was on a slight incline overlooking the woods where the science team had encountered the toxic flowers. At least he thought it was military; maybe they decorated their mountain cabins in Early Maximum Security.

Yep, Jim would go in with guns blazing and snatch it out of the lab in no time.

Then McCoy had an odd thought; I could do that.

It nagged him all the way back to sickbay, but he managed to put it out of his mind. Until Ensign Jalle had seized right in front of him, almost throwing herself out of the bed with the violence of it. They'd managed to get her stabilized again, and McCoy had ordered a comprehensive battery of tests. All the scans had pointed to the same thing.

"It's attacking her brain now. No telling what she'll be like if she wakes." Medical Technician Lounak's grim voice played over and over in his head like a broken record for the next hour. McCoy had locked himself in his office, pacing back and forth, wearing out the carpet. His fists balled at his sides as he vacillated between positions. I can't. But I have to. But I can't. But I have to.

He waited until 0400 hours to make his move. An hour previous, he had finally headed to his quarters, claiming fatigue from the day's events. In reality, he had ordered himself a strong coffee from the replicator and mentally psyched himself for the upcoming mission. No backup, no second chances...it's all you, Leonard. This thought alone made his mind reel; were it not for his mental picture of a seizing Jalle, he might've lost his nerve altogether. After making sure he had plenty of ammo in his phaser rifle, he slipped out of his quarters, tricorder holstered..

The transporter officer had been easy to distract; McCoy was glad he didn't have to clunk him on the head this time. Adjusting the controls, he'd stepped onto the pad, the rifle strapped to his back. He prayed he wouldn't have to use it as the transporter energized.

Dressed all in black, he'd appeared on the planet's surface at the base of a craggy mountain. He'd made good use of his Starfleet stealth training then; sneaking behind rocks and trees and crouching low in the clearings to avoid visual identification. There was a high stone wall surrounding the building. He'd watched the guards patrol for two hours before approaching it and pulling himself up the side of the fortification, bit by bit.

He'd almost panicked when a loose stone had shifted under his feet halfway up, sending chips of rock and dust to the ground below; he was certain that the patrolmen could hear his heart thudding in his chest. He held his breath for ten agonizing minutes before continuing slowly and carefully up the side. His arms shook and his hands were tingling from squeezing the bricks so hard, but with a mighty heave he boosted himself over the edge, swinging first one leg and then the next across the top of the wall.

He nearly lost his nerve when he realized that it was at least a 10 foot drop to the bottom. Think Jim. Think Jim. He squinted his eyes shut and leapt, landing in the courtyard with a soft thump. Phew. Now to get inside. He waited until one of the patrolmen entered the building and slipped in silently after him, hiding behind a large twisted support pillar in the lobby.

Come on, don't you people ever go home? As if on cue, a Tynkusian scientist entered the lobby from the other direction, nodding at the guard as he made his way toward the entrance. McCoy had jumped out of the shadows and grabbed him in a chokehold, rendering the man unconscious. He'd searched the man's uniform for an ID badge. Once he found what he was looking for, he'd checked the building map and used the borrowed ID to access the bio labs.

Everything was labelled with pictograms, so when he came to a fridge marked with a cross, he'd crossed his fingers. Sure enough, a tiny vial of blue serum labelled with an image of the white flowers on it was nestled right next to a large bottle of clear liquid. A quick tricorder scan confirmed that its contents were consistent with an antitoxin. He'd grabbed it and closed the fridge, dashing for the exit.

And running smack into a Tynkusian guard.

The man barked something at him, his limp lips flapping, his tail stiff. He'd grabbed McCoy by the neck and squeezed hard, but McCoy was quicker. He'd thrust his foot into the man's sensitive stomach, cracking him over the head with his tricorder when he bent over. Another guard appeared behind him and raised his wide-barreled weapon. McCoy ducked just in time, pumping two phaser rifle stun shots into his chest. The man flopped over, but not before his webbed appendage set off the security alarm.

Crud. Gotta go. He barrelled down the hallway, legs pumping, the precious serum in his pocket. He could hear the thump of the security patrol chasing him, the whine of their weapon fire flying past his head. He hesitated once in the hallway, trying to remember which corridor led outside. A streak of green fire singed his hand. "Ahh!" No time to be wrong. Go, go, go!

He skidded past the scientist he'd felled earlier and out the door, not stopping to look back. The guards that had now taken up positions near the doorway joined the chase. McCoy shot the lock off the front gate and tore down the driveway at lightning speed. He'd reached for his comm out of habit, only to stiffen when he realized that it wasn't there. Though I packed it! And nobody knows where I am. I'll be dead before anybody realizes I'm missing. Oh no. Oh no...

A bright light descending from the dark night sky stopped him in his tracks. He shielded his eyes with his hand, dread making the pit of his stomach grow cold. Now they're coming on all sides! I'm sunk! It was only after the troop of Tynkusian guards burst through the clearing that he noticed the open door of the shuttlecraft lowering in front of him. You're kidding me...

McCoy pulled the vial in question out of his pocket and held it up in front of Kirk's face. "Some things are worth the risk, Jim. I thought you'd have realized that by now." He dropped it in the captain's palm and leaned back against his seat.

Kirk studied it for a second, relaxing with a sigh. "Breaking into a secure military facility, stealing a top-secret antidote? You realize you've probably started a war, Bones." He waggled the vial from side to side, arching an eyebrow at the doctor.

"I wouldn't be too sure about that, Jim." McCoy looked away, staring at his fingernails instead.

"How do you figure?"

McCoy smiled. "If one man was able to get past all that high security, outrun an entire guard troop, and seize a classified cure, do you really think they'd be itching to brag about it?" He paused as Kirk considered this. "Come on, you know I'm right."

A slow grin spread across Kirk's face. He began to laugh. "You might have a point, Doctor." The captain put a hand on McCoy's shoulder. "Besides, you don't exactly look like the black ops type, anyway."

McCoy sighed with relief. "I should be insulted by that, Jim. But in the interest of intergalactic peace, I'll just say we're even." He leaned in the direction of the cockpit and cupped his hands around his mouth. "Hurry it up, Sulu. I've got an antidote to administer."