[ he keeps his eyes on spock, but he knows jim well enough that the one moment that their eyes are no longer looking at him, he will retreat behind his walls, carefully built. he keeps his hands on jim even as the man pushes himself back, lets his hand fall on jim's pair, fingertips brushing against his skin, thumb playing around his fingers. a reminder, a comfort, something to hold on to. anything that jim needs, he's there.

and then there's spock, who wants his goddamn logic and rules and practicality, and bones gives it to him, anyway, because conflict is not what he needs. they stand united, even through their differences. ]

Khan's blood. [ his eyes flick downward briefly before meeting spock's again. ] His genetically-engineered body also enhanced the regenerative properties in his blood. I tested the sample I took during his captivity on the dead Tribble in my office. Since it was kept in a frozen state, its brain function was still technically operational, so when it received the blood, it healed and lived again.

When I realized that, I did the same to Jim. I put him in one of the cryotubes and preserved him, and I temporarily placed the original human body in a medically-induced coma. You and Uhura brought Khan back to the Enterprise at my demand.

[ there are a lot of things that he doesn't say, for jim's sake, but he knows that spock will understand them well enough. he's just as intelligent as jim, if not more. he doesn't say that he knows what spock has done to have blood in his hands, that he knows that spock probably will not stop until he hears uhura's voice telling him that jim can be saved by bones, that khan needs to be alive. that it will take another person to make him stop, as well as the promise of jim's life, because he will see nothing but red. ]

As your concern for our temporal anomaly, Jim can tell you about that. [ look at him now, spock. he's alive. ]