Chapter 1

Two hundred years. It had been two hundred years since Olduvai. Only thirty since he had finally been able to stop running. Stop hiding. Stop keeping his distance, his heart locked away. People had come and gone through his life, true enough. He had had relationships of varying levels, one night stands, a week or two; he had even been married recently until she had noticed her age marks were not mirrored by his own. She kicked him out and only kept their daughter under her roof because he had told her that Jo would age like her mother. But even then in John 'Reaper' Grimm's, now Doctor Leonard 'Bones' McCoy's, long life had he been so close to losing everything.

There was blood, lots of it. Green and red mixing in a sick form of art made from the life forces of the only two beings in the universe that the soldier had the courage to care for. They lay there in his arms slipping away from him, his Captain and First Officer, friends and lovers, people whom without, his long existence would be just that: an existence.

Bones felt a stab of sheer pain rip through him as Jim's heart stuttered and he felt how cold Spock was against him, the Vulcan's usual blazing heat pooling around them. A bolt of terrifying inspiration -- he could save them, he could fix that.

Twelve hours earlier:

Spock woke that mourning in a rather compromising position, namely butt naked and somewhere in the pile of flesh that was himself, Captain James T. Kirk and Dr. Leonard 'Bones' McCoy, a place he knew most of the ship wanted to be. A place where he was warm, relaxed, and he felt comfortable enough to let his barriers down and just feel.

He glanced at the chronometer and, though he would never admit it, growled at it. They only had a few hours before they were expected to beam down to the planet to be a third, neutral party in a negotiation between two warring cultures, hell bent on either destroying each other or themselves and yet wanting to join the Federation.

Spock sighed inwardly and tried to remove himself from the tangle of limbs so that he could shower and maybe catch an hour or two of meditation before they really had to start the day, only to have Jim reach up around his waist and pull him back against the man's well defined chest.

"And where do you think you're going, mister?" Jim growled in his ear, cool breath ghosting over his sensitive pointed ear.

"You better not be heading for the shower without us, you green blooded hobgoblin," Bones grumbled from where his face was nuzzled up against Spock's chest and pressed further into him.

"I was going to attempt to briefly meditate, before rousing the pair of you to join me in the shower." Spock revised his plan mentally contemplating the images of the three of them in the shower. It would be a tight squeeze, he knew this from experience, but they could all fit.

"Time?" Bones grunted.

"It is yet to turn 0300 hours." Both Jim and Bones groaned and snuggled, yes, snuggled, closer to Spock, effectively pinning him. Well, had he been human they would have pinned him. As it was, he was half Vulcan and just stood up. "I need to meditate and you both know this."

"…S'pose, as much as I loved what happened last time." Jim's grin could only be described as 'shit eating' and Bones chuckled with him, shuffling into the vacant spot left by Spock.

"Ha, that was fun."

After Spock had gotten up, the bed became infinitely colder due to the lack of a very warm Vulcan body and Bones hated it when Spock got up before him, but after curling in closer to Jim he managed to go back to sleep for a bit.

The second time he was woken up was a much more pleasant experience. Jim was always horny in the morning. Bones was woken with Jim splayed out on top of him, practically eating his neck and Jim's hard on grinding into his own rapidly hardening cock.

Not that Bones was complaining, but seriously, the guy had issues. Every morning James T. Kirk would wake up and demand sex from either himself, that gorgeous ass of a Vulcan, or both. Sometimes Bones or Spock would sit out and just watch their lovers go at it until either they jerked themselves off or joined in, today Spock had obviously decided he wanted to watch, because Bones could have sworn he heard a quiet moan from somewhere across the room.

On their way out of the Captain's quarters, a shrill whistle was heard over the comm., then, "Bridge to the Captain."

Kirk walked over to the comm. panel and pressed a button on its surface, "Kirk here."

"Captain, the Ambassadors are awaiting your presence to begin their talks." Uhura's smooth voice informed them.

"Thank you, Lieutenant. Commander Spock, Dr. McCoy, and myself will beam down now; tell Sulu he has the Conn while we are down on the planet."

"Aye, Sir." The comm. cut off.

"Jim I need to grab my away kit, I'll meet you two in the transporter room," and with that Bones headed to his quarters down the hall.

When he entered his quarters Bones quickly grabbed the away med kit he had left slung over the back of his desk chair, then reached in between his mattress and bed frame and pulled out the admittedly against regs item that he never left the safety of Enterprise without. Slipping it into a self made pocket on the inside of the back of his pants, Bones left his room and headed to meet up with the others.

The three of them were really only there to stop the negotiations for a cease fire from coming to blows, and boy did they have their work cut out for them. Eventually they had to call a recess before they themselves started hitting the convening ambassadors.

Apparently some people didn't want the war to end and to join the Federation.

Bones was walking down one of the expansive halls with Spock and Jim, quietly chatting about the ambassadors and how frustrating they were.

"I swear Jim, if I have to sit through one more minute of those bloody gas bags, with their holier-than-thou attitude while screaming at each other, I'm going to hit someone," Bones growled.

"I must agree with the doctor, Captain, they are quite… frustrating."

"I know, I mean c'mon...." Jim was interrupted by a loud explosion that rocked the building, then the sound of relatively primitive weapons fire.

Jerking around, the three Starfleet personnel ran towards the commotion, slowing as they neared the battle; Spock and the Captain pulled out their phasers. And not for the first time on an away mission did Bones wish he had gotten combat training in this life.

Spock glanced around the corner they were pressed against for cover to see what they were up against. "It would appear that a small rebel group has penetrated the negotiations, using explosives and weapons based on the propulsion of small samples of metal through the ignition of an easily combustible compound, not dissimilar to Earth weapons predating the creation of the phaser."

"So, just to confirm: Bad guys, explosives and big guns?" Jim asked.

"Indeed."

"Oh, brilliant." Bones grumbled from beside Jim, the furthest from the corner.

The three of them retreated to a small room down the hall from them filled with large wooden storage crates to discuss a plan of attack. Unfortunately they didn't get very far in their planning before the room became a battle ground.

The door was thrown open and a smoke grenade was set off, and Jim, Spock, and Bones dived for cover. It was loud and brutal, the rattle of fully- alien gun-fire echoing off the walls, small fires started in the crates and boxes they were using for cover, and the screams of the men storming them when they were hit by either Spock or the Captain.

Goddamn it, it's times like these that make me wish I joined Starfleet as the soldier I used be, hell—the soldier I still am.

Someone cried out in pain, someone whose voice signalled to the doctor half of the good things in life and love. The cry froze his blood. Jim. Then another cry. Spock.

And Bones snapped. The centuries of control over the memories broke like a dam, flooding him with the loss, guilt, pain and now the anger at the people, animals who had just shot the only people who had brought some meaning to his existence.

Reaper emerged from his cage, and all hell was let loose.