Author's Note: I don't know where this came from. It just popped into my head and I had to write it.

Warnings at the end.

The Accident

Kirk doesn't remember much about the crash. One minute he's wrestling with controls gone suddenly unresponsive, the next he's waking up to find that the they're on the ground with the shuttle heavily dented and warped around them.

Instinctively, he looks to the side, to see Spock slumped in his seat, unconscious. There's a cut on his forehead, and Kirk guesses that some of the debris around them must have hit him in the head.

Slowly, Kirk undoes his seatbelt and climbs out of his seat. His left ankle screams with pain when he moves it, but he doesn't think it's actually broken. Other than that, and a few cuts and bruises, he seems to have made it out okay.

He hesitates over Spock for a moment, then decides to scope out the situation before attempting to move him.

The door to the shuttle is jammed, but Kirk manages to get the manual control working and looks out.

They've landed on what looks like a beach – the kind with rocks, not sand. The front part of the shuttle is in water, and Kirk frowns. Assuming the tide is coming in, not going out, it won't be soon until they're washed away.

He glances from the beach to Spock and back, and makes a decision. It might aggravate Spock's injuries, but there's no alternative. They're going to have to move.

He makes his way back into the front of the shuttle and unfastens Spock's seatbelt. "Spock?" he says. "I need you to wake up now." He grasps Spock's shoulder and shakes it a little. "Spock."

There is no response, and Kirk sighs heavily. "Looks like we'll have to do this the hard way."

Carefully, he puts one arm behind Spock's back and the other under his knees and lifts him. "Come on, then."

Kirk's ankle really does not appreciate the extra weight, and makes him very strongly aware of this as he carries Spock out of the shuttle. By the time he's walked far enough to feel safe putting Spock down, he is gasping with pain and effort.

Spock's head lolls to the side as Kirk sets him down, and Kirk quickly strips off his shirt to make a pillow. "You just stay there," he says. "I'll be back."

He makes his way painfully back to the shuttle and goes about scavenging it of anything that might be useful. Blankets, ration packs, water bottles, a communicator (broken, but maybe Spock will be able to fix it when he comes to), a medical kit, two phasers.

When he emerges from the shuttle this time, the water is up to the doorway. He was right, the tide is coming in.

As quickly as he can on his injured ankle, he hurries up the beach to where he left Spock. The Vulcan hasn't moved, and Kirk feels a prickle of frustration. This would all be much easier if Spock could help him.

Still, he's never believed in no win scenarios, and he isn't about to start now. He glances back at the water and frowns. The first thing to do is to get to higher ground.

The beach ends in a near-vertical rock face, but there's something that can generously be called a path around twenty metres away. Kirk glances back nervously at the water, which has by now surrounded the shuttle, then hurries over to the path. He'll stash the supplies, and then come back for Spock.

As luck would have it, he's made it about a third of a way to the top when he turns a corner and encounters an opening in the rock. It's only small, perhaps one metre by two, but it's definitely a cave. He sticks his head in and finds that it widens up a little inside. It's only a few metres deep, but it's enough for his purposes.

He pulls his head back out and looks down carefully over the edge of the path. He's pretty high up, but he has no idea how high the tides can get. He glances up the path, then back at the cave, and decides he'll just have to hope for the best.

The tide is coming in in earnest now, and Kirk quickly dumps the supplies in the cave before hurrying back down the path, trying to ignore the complaints from his ankle.

Spock still hasn't moved from where Kirk left him, and the water is by now only a few metres away. Kirk quickly retrieves his shirt and pulls it on before gently slinging Spock over his shoulder in a fireman's carry.

Returning back up the path with Spock is considerably more difficult than climbing it the first time, and Kirk has to set him down several times to rest. By the time he reaches the cave his ankle is in agony and virtually every other part of him is complaining.

He sets Spock down outside the cave and goes about making the inside into as pleasant a place as he can for them. He lays out a blanket on the floor, then rolls up another one for a pillow. That leaves him two more to use as coverings. He piles the rest of the supplies in a corner, then goes to get Spock.

Finally Spock is settled onto their makeshift bed, and Kirk can sit down. For a moment he just sits there, adjusting to not having weight on his ankle, then he grabs the medical kit to begin treating Spock.

Kirk isn't a doctor, so there's not much he can do, but he does his best. He patches up the cut on Spock's head, which luckily doesn't seem to be bleeding much, then checks him for any other injuries.

It turns out Spock wasn't as lucky as he was. His right leg and arm are both broken, and there's heavy bruising along his right side. Kirk wonders briefly if he caused Spock more injury by moving him, but shoves the thought away. It isn't as though he could have left him where he was.

Still, Spock's injuries give an explanation for his lack of response. He must have gone into a healing trance to repair the damage.

Examination over, Kirk covers Spock with the blankets and goes about treating his injured ankle. Trying to remove his boot makes him gasp aloud, and he doses himself with painkillers before taking another shot at it. When he finally gets his boot and sock off, he finds his ankle is badly bruised and swollen, a situation likely not helped by all his clambering around. He digs in the medical kit for bandages and wraps it carefully, then removes his shirt and puts it underneath his ankle to elevate it.

That done, there's nothing much left to do but rest.

Careful not to jar his ankle, Kirk shifts until he is under the blankets, then pulls Spock close and wraps his arms around him. He frowns at the contact – Spock is oddly stiff, and he feels colder than usual, his skin almost cool to the touch. Kirk assumes it's a side effect of the trance, and shifts closer. He'll just have to keep Spock warm himself.

He means to stay awake, to check on the tide, but with everything that's happened, he's exhausted, and it isn't long before he falls asleep.

x x x

Kirk feels a little better when he wakes up, though his ankle still protests any movement. A glance at the water shows that the tide is going out again, and the shuttle is nowhere to be seen. Not for the first time, Kirk is glad that they got out when they had the chance.

Spock doesn't seem any different. He's very pale in addition to being cold, and for a moment Kirk wonders if something is wrong. But almost immediately he dismisses the thought. This is Spock, he'll be fine. He always is.

He dines unenthusiastically on a ration pack as he contemplates what to do. He doesn't know much about healing trances. Spock could be like this for days, possibly weeks. Without the shuttle they have no way of getting out of here, and their only communicator is broken.

Still, at least they're in a relatively safe place. They have enough ration packs for a week or so, especially since Spock presumably won't be eating, and enough water for four or five days. Hopefully by the time it starts getting low his ankle will be better and he can go search for more. Assuming, of course, that the Enterprise hasn't found them by then.

Finishing his rations, Kirk takes a few careful sips of water – better to ration it – before picking up the communicator. He's no Spock, but maybe he can do something.

x x x

Time passes slowly. Kirk fixes the communicator to the best of his ability, but he's not at all sure that it's actually fixed. He certainly doesn't pick up anything on it, not even static, but he leaves it open just in case.

He tries to take care of Spock, but he isn't sure what to do. He keeps the blankets wrapped around Spock, but they don't seem to help. He's still cold. Kirk spends a lot of time lying with him, trying to keep him warm. Once he wonders if Spock might be thirsty and tries trickling water into his mouth, but it doesn't seem to do any good, so he stops. Mostly he just talks to Spock, telling him that he's here and everything will be okay. He remembers M'Benga saying that Vulcans in a healing trance can hear everything around them, and he wants Spock to remember what he's fighting for.

So he talks. He tells Spock about how the crew are looking for them and will rescue them any day now. About how relieved everybody will be and how McCoy will yell at them, and how the first thing he's going to do when they get back is get Scotty to go over every single centimetre of their remaining shuttles so that something like this doesn't happen again. And sometimes, late at night in the dark, he talks about how much Spock means to him, and how he has to get better because Kirk doesn't know what to do without him.

x x x

On the third day, Kirk is telling Spock about how he's been practicing against the computer and is totally going to beat him at their next chess game when he hears a noise from outside. He's up in a flash, grabbing one of the phasers and setting it to stun before stepping out of the cave. If there's going to be a fight, he doesn't want it to happen around Spock.

The familiar sight of Doctor McCoy, Lieutenant Sulu and two security men is nearly enough to make him drop the phaser. He recovers quickly, however, and gives them a warm smile.

"Captain," Sulu greets.

"Lieutenant," Kirk returns. "How did you find us?"

"Shuttle beacon. We found it floating in the ocean, and modelling currents led us here. We're very glad to see you, sir."

"The feeling is more than mutual," Kirk replies, then turns to McCoy. "Bones, I need you to check on Spock. He's in a healing trance, but he's not doing so well."

McCoy is already pulling out his tricorder. "I'm on it." He steps past Kirk into the cave, then stops suddenly, looking from his tricorder to the blankets and back.

"Uh, Jim?" he asks, in a voice Kirk has never heard before. "How long has Spock been in this… trance?"

"Since we landed," Kirk says. "He was pretty badly injured, so I guess he-" The expression on McCoy's face makes him break off. "What?"

The look on McCoy's face is one of sadness mixed with pity. "Jim, Spock's dead."

Kirk stares at him, feeling as though he's been punched in the chest. "But… I only left him for a minute."

There's a noise from the cave entrance and Kirk looks over to see one of the security men covering his mouth. His eyes are fixed on Spock.

"Jim," McCoy says quietly, drawing Kirk's attention back to him. "Look at him. He's been dead for days. Probably never even survived the crash." He glances down at his tricorder. "Severe head trauma. He would've died instantly."

"But… but I…" Kirk shakes his head. "No. You're wrong." He doesn't know what kind of joke McCoy is trying to play, but it's not funny. Spock is alive, and he's going to get treatment and recover, and everything's going to be fine.

"Look," McCoy says, very softly, and steps aside.

Kirk looks. And for the first time he registers the greyness of Spock's skin, the stillness of his chest, the bandage over a wound that never bled. He was so cold…

Reality snaps into place, and Kirk's mind shatters.

Warning: Major character death.