Disclaimer: I do not own Doom or Star Trek

Chapter One:

Leonard 'Bones' McCoy stood on the bridge, gripping the hand rail for hard his knuckles had turned white and the metal was beginning to strain under the pressure of his grip. The Captain of the USS Enterprise, better known as Jim and his best friend, had beamed down to the surface of the planet they were currently in orbit of, alongside First Officer Spock and a small team from security.

Bones had been more than annoyed at Jim when he had first told him of his plans to beam down to the planet. Jim was good at keeping secrets, but why did he have to keep details of the mission secret? Why did he have to go? Why couldn't he send someone else in his place? He was the Captain of the Enterprise door crying out loud, if he died on some fool mission, the crew would be without a Captain.

And Bones would be without a best friend.

A best friend who had been his saving grace. Because Bones had spent his entire life being haunted by the shadow of Mars and all that had taken place there. His life as John 'Reaper' Grimm wasn't something he could forget and it wasn't something he had ever been able to escape… Until he had meet Jim.

Jim had been like a burning ball of light, as bright as the sun, which had pushed and chased all the shadows away. And just like the sun, Reaper had come to find his life revolved around Jim and the light and warmth he gave off. Jim was like gravity, of you got to close you pulled in and couldn't escape.

Not that Reaper had ever complained.

And slowly John had found himself changing. He no longer thought of himself as John 'Reaper' Grimm, but Jim's best friend: Leonard 'Bones' McCoy. And with Jim came an entire family. If it hadn't been for Jim, Bones doubted, he'd be able to call the Enterprise's senior crew his family. If it hadn't been for Jim dragging him to the mess hall and being forced to interact with them outside of his work, he knew he wouldn't be as close to them as was.

Because around Jim, he could forgot he was an immortal who'd out live them all.

And so after Jim, Spock and the security team had beamed down, Bones had made his way up to the bridge. For the first few moments everything had been fine and then it had gone to hell in a handbasket. They had been attacked by something, but it had happened so quickly, no one had been able to give an accurate description of what it was.

But it had killed three red shirts and injured Jim.

And before Bones could even demand how badly Jim had been hurt, communications had been lost. All those on the bridge could do was watch as one by one the life signs of the away team began to go out. Sulu who had been left in command whilst Jim and Spock had been away bad demanded Scotty beam them up, but Scotty had been unable to get a lock on, as they were moving to quickly and there was too much interference from the planet's atmosphere.

Jim, Spock and one member from scrutiny were the only members of the away team still alive and even as Bones watched one life sign faded away. The metal under his hands buckled slightly as his grip tightened.

The life sign had been Jim's.

)o(

Jim laughed as he sat down on the bio-bed, either not seeing the glare Bones was sending him or choosing to ignore it. How could he be so happy? Did he have any idea what he had put him through? When Jim's life signs had faded away, Bones' heart had stopped. It was like the whole world had come crashing down around him on that bridge.

It was like Khan all over again… Only this time he had no way to save Jim.

It was like when Sam had died and he had been unable to save, been too far away and by the time he had heard the news, she had already been dead.

It was times like that when Bones wished he had never used Khan's blood to save Jim, but rather his own C-24 enhanced blood, because then he would have had the reassurance that nothing in the known universe could kill him. Because Bones was sick and tired of the constant fear that Jim wouldn't be coming back alive.

The fear that he wouldn't be quick enough to save his best friend.

Even Spock seemed unfazed by what had occurred down on the planet, sprouting all kinds of nonsense about how the fear of death was illogical and that worrying about events you have no control over is pointless. If Bones had been do preoccupied by trying to fix Jim up he would have snapped the damn Vulcan's neck to shut him up.

Couldn't they see how much it had affected him? Couldn't they see how there near deaths had affected all of the crew? And yet here the two of them were, acting as if it was no big deal. Jim was even laughing about it!

And in Bones anger his didn't notice the slightly hysterical edge to Jim laugh or the slight tremor in Spock's hands, before he clasped them behind his back as he was checked over by Nurse Chapel, who could quite clearly see Jim was beginning to go into shock… Whatever had happened down on that planet must have been truly terrifying.

Nurse Chapel had only ever seen two types of people when it came to paintings suffering from shock. Type one, they chatted endless about everything that came to mind, or type two, who sat in complete silence and started at nothing. Jim fitted type one perfectly as he chatted on almost hysterically so and then there was Spock who had been completely silent since his small rant about fear of death being illogical, but it was hard to tell whether he was in shock, as sitting in silence was perfectly normal for him.

Finally Nurse Chapel nodded to Spock.

"You're injuries aren't too serious, but I would advise you go easy on that hand for a while," Nurse Chapel informs him. "I have also taken you off duty until midday tomorrow. If you feel even the slightest bit ill, return immediately, Commander."

Spock inclined his head slightly and turned his attention back to Jim, who was sitting chatting endless, but his body had begun to shake slightly, as Nurse Chapel hurried away with a substance she had collected from Spock's clothing for analyses.

"Jim!" Bones suddenly snapped. "Shut up!"

Jim jaw snapped shut and he stared at Bones wide-eyed.

"Do you even care?!" Bones demanded, glaring at Jim. "Do you even think about what your actions do to everyone else?! Do you have an idea what you put me through?! What you put the crew through?! Every time you risk you damn neck?!"

"Bones-" Jim goes to answer.

"No," Bones snapped. "You don't… You have no idea how hard it is to watch as you nearly get yourself killed time and time again!"

"Bones…" Jim muttered.

"There are times when I wish I had never been born! Because then I would never have met you! Either of you, for that matter!" As Spock takes a step closer to Jim at Bones' outburst.

Jim's jaw drops open at all he can do is watch as Bones stormed out of the med-bay and if Bones had looked back, he would have seen the look of dejection that passed over Jim's face.

)o(

Hey, for anyone who is following C-24: The Truth about Mars or The Reaper and His Angel, I will be return to those stories as soon as I've finished the uncompleted stories I'm currently trying to get done. Until next time,

Blessed be,

TreeOfLife1997.