McCoy remembered the session he had with T'Pau. He remembered the Vulcan quite fondly. She was the one who had helped certain Star Fleet captains, including Captain Tucker and his bondmate T'Pol. These days, the couple were a elderly pair that were short and were in sync with another when they walked. They had gone wrinkly and gray. McCoy had met Phlox during a mission previously to his first assignment on a starship. The man was quite interesting. And quirky himself using little, small aliens to save his patients. This man had helped pioneered star fleet before him. The man was quite legendary. McCoy had a sneaking suspicion that Phlox had been the admiral who assigned him to the Enterprise. It was all too convenient to be assigned to the USS Enterprise in the year 2266. Unlike Spock, he saw the five year mission through while under the command of Captain Sulu.

T'Pau took her hand back from the side of the man's face.

"Thee's link has evolved." T'Pau said.

McCoy looked at her, rather confused.

"What link?" McCoy asked.

T'Pau raised an eyebrow.

"The bond." T'Pau said.

McCoy looked at her in bewilderment, then wonderment, realization, and horror.

"The--the--the---the bond?" McCoy asked.

"Affirmative, doctor." T'Pau said, looking at McCoy rather oddly.

"With whom?" McCoy said.

"You do not know." T'Pau said.

"No, but under no mistake am I determined on not knowing." McCoy said.

"S'Chn T'Gai Spock of Vulcan." T'Pau said. "The bond has been keeping Mister Spock alive. It is a miracle that it has not broken down into a death bond due to the loss of his T'hy'la." She straightened her head. "How long have you been an item with him?" McCoy was staring back at her, horrified, as though he finally understood something with wide eyes. "Doctor?"

McCoy shook his head.

"Sorry," McCoy said. "He thinks Jim is alive. . . I saw him in a Vulcan hospital." He cleared his throat. "I understand why now." He was trembling. He thought back to when Jim asked for his help when Spock's Pon Far remerged with a vengeance. Doctor M'Benga was on duty for the next three days. "Could a full fledged marriage bond be consummated in the process of Pon Farr?"

"Affirmative." T'Pau said.

"So. . . The only reason why he came here is because of my feelin's regarding Jim's death." McCoy felt a tear come down. Spock had been under the emotions of two individuals. His own and McCoy's. McCoy was well aware of the bond because of Jim being his drinking buddy and talking about how empty the bond felt when Spock briefly did not exist. Jim characterized it as a living, organic plant like entity. Message could be sent to parts of the tree, emotions could be felt from both, and pain could be experienced on both ends. The tree itself connected the two's minds together.

Jim, during the five year mission, wrote a historical alternate universe epic in his spare time.

Jim was a man who paid attention to the details.

"That is not possible." T'Pau said. McCoy experienced guilt.

"I was somewhere else for a while." McCoy said. "I came here drunk. You remember that, surely."

"Of course, you were not well." T'Pau said. "Your mental injuries were more severe than they were now."

"I was a mess. And I have to fix--" McCoy stopped, looking at her,as his eyes brightened up and a smile grew on his face. His tears had stopped. "I can fix it." He recomposed himself in front of the healer. "About your advice regardin' goin' to the source of my misery and fixin' it with them . . . What kind of chances can you give me that I will come back sane?"