For the prompt: Jim's soul gets taken (and his body is basically in a coma) and it's Bones to the rescue!
I could continue this one if anyone would like <3
Len stared down at the motionless body in front of him with his heart in his throat. It was too close to just a few short years ago, when the same body had been carried into his medbay, unmoving, breathless, cold.
Now though, Len could see the steady rise and fall of Jim’s chest with each breath. There was a healthy color to his cheeks and his heartbeat thrummed steadily on the monitors. Jim was very much alive, but for all that the doctor could reach him, that didn’t mean much. Carefully, Len stroked his hand over Jim’s forehead, brushing back the shaggy blond hair. He had been trying to get the kid to get a hair cut for weeks…
“Doctor McCoy.” Spock moved into Len’s line of vision, he had obviously been trying to gain the doctor’s attention for a while. “Is the captain still unresponsive?”
Len closed his eyes and nodded slowly. Whatever the Gorsee had done to Jim, it wasn’t letting up. It wasn’t even suppose to be Jim. An over excited science officer had stepped past the clearly marked bounds of the Goresee holy grounds. Jim, being the noble fool that he was, had insisted on taking the punishment. Bound and determined to protect his crew at any cost. Even if the cost was his own life.
“What did the high priest say exactly?” Len forced himself to look at Spock. He had brought Jim back from the dead, he would fix this. “What exactly is the punishment?”
Spock glanced at the captain. “The Goresee believe that the holy grounds are the consciousness of their planet. Lieutenant Marks trespassed on the consciousness and in turn his punishment was to have his consciousness imprisoned, a punishment that was taken on by the captain.”
“How do they do it?” Len scowled at the PADD in his hands. Everything that should have made Jim, well, Jim, was there. There was no reason for him to be in a coma, and yet here he was, completely unresponsive. Spock shifted nervously, doing little to set Len at ease.
“I do not know. From what Lieutenant Uhura managed to translate, it seems that the Goresee have somehow removed–for lack of a better term–the captain’s soul. They did speak of a trial to have his consciousness retrieved, however I only know that it is a trial that can only be done by his most trusted of companions.” Spock leveled Len with a meaningful look. “After some thought, I feel that you would be the best candidate to complete the trial.”
“Are you out of your mind?!” Len nearly dropped his PADD. “I’m a doctor not some kind of white knight! Jim trusts you better than anyone, why aren’t you doing it?”
“I am overseeing the ship, Doctor.” Spock paused. After a few moments he started to speak again, his voice lower and tinged with the slightest hint of pleading. “I also do not believe that I am Jim’s most trusted companion. He doest trust me, we share a bond of friendship that will never compare to any I have had before or will have after. However, when it comes to his most personal matters–not just ones of morals, logic, or life and death, but also matters of the heart, home, and person–he goes to you. It is my firm belief that for all Jim and I share, your bond is...different, and in its way, more profound.”
Len scoffed and rubbed his face. “You’re full of it, Spock.”
The vulcan simply shook his head. “There are very few people who would risk trying to bring a man back from the dead, Doctor. I could not count myself among them.”
Daring one more glance at Jim’s still form, Len took a deep breath and nodded slowly.
“Alright. What do I have to do?”