Chapter 3

Jim woke up feeling heavy and tired but more alive than he had in the last two days. It was still hot and muggy around him but his bed was cold beneath him. Jim opened his dry stuck together eyes and looked around hazily. His throat burned and he swallowed difficultly. He pulled his arms beneath him and pushed his aching body shakily to a sitting position. He nearly fell back from dizziness and nausea but a pair of hands stopped his descent.

"Easy, Captain," Chapel's white sweet smile charmed Jim's leaking attention. He grinned sluggishly.

"Hi, Chapel," He slurred. She smirked and helped him lie against the brick like pillow.

"Hi yourself," Chapel checked a few readings. "So, how'd you manage to have a fever of 105 and take down 5 guys without getting a scratch on you? Because honestly… That is just too much skill for you, Captain," She winked at him. "Oh and you rescued the bridge crew from being held hostage. Leonard hasn't stopped grumbling about how much he hates you for it."

"The ship was what?!" Jim sat up, his eyes wide open and wild.

"Calm down, Jim. Everything is fine now," Chapel admonished him with a glare and her tone. It had the same affect McCoy's threats of a hypo to his neck. She eased him back to the bed. "I don't feel like getting Leonard to take care of you right now. You know how he feels about being woken up and I am not going to be on the end of his wrath. If you don't know that by now, I take back the comment about how much skill you have."

"I'm already awake, Chapel," McCoy growled. Jim stilled when he saw him. McCoy was holding a cup of coffee and his tricorder.

"Hi Bones," Jim smiled tiredly, hoping to convince his friend he wasn't as sick as he felt.

"Hi Jim," McCoy smiled tightly, barely controlling his anger. "How's the idiot captain doing?"

"Fi-"

"Better answer than fine," McCoy snapped, losing his smile.

"Good enough to get out of here?" Jim asked hopefully.

"Really?" McCoy shone a light in Jim's eyes. Jim's eyes screwed up his face, his mouth twisting closed and his eyes glaring forward trying to drill a hole in the wall. Chapel winced as Jim threw up into the kidney dish McCoy had held out for him. The doctor looked rather disgusted at Jim's retching but a slight quirk to his scowl spoke of the sympathy the he had for his friend's condition. "I'm trying to decide if I feel bad for you."

Chapel rolled her eyes, her head rolling on her neck as she looked somewhere else not to laugh at McCoy's deadpan statement. Jim glared at McCoy intent on saying something when he brought up more of what was in his stomach. The nurse and doctor leaned him back to the bed, both ignoring their 'hidden' emotion. "I've decided I don't feel bad for you."

"Saved your life," Jim quipped.

"I don't care because I just evened the score… Again," McCoy rolled his eyes. "You're lucky Jim. We finally managed to get your fever down and if you stay in bed for at least 36 hours, I'll let you back on light duty."

"Really?" Jim looked up hopefully.

"Only if you sleep and I mean sleep," McCoy annunciated, drawing his fingers through the air. "As in, closing your eyes and relaxing until you are so out of it, I have to use a hypo to wake you up."

Jim yawned, the remnants of his cold making him more lethargic then he normally was during McCoy's lectures. He was already half asleep. Chapel chalked up the lack of fight in the wayward captain to his recovering body's want to curl into a tight ball until it felt better. "'kay, B'nes,"

McCoy rolled his eyes and pulled a blanket up and over Jim's body as he fell asleep. "Night, idiot hero."

663

A/N: And thus ends this little fic that could. Let me know what you think. I still think it's rather terrible but the reviews seem to say otherwise. Thank you all for reading! Tell me what you think of it.

Iluvwind