He glanced at Luke, still trying to work on toning down the emotions he was feeling. It wasn't easy, and it wasn't something he'd practiced much at all, but he was trying. They didn't have any especially empathic people on the ship, so he'd sort of let the training go stale . . . "No, I know you can't read my mind. I mean, I assumed you meant you were an empath, which is emotions. Telepathy is thoughts. But I've heard sometimes contact makes things stronger . . ."

McCoy reached for the kid again, slow enough that Luke could stop him by moving or just saying something, "Luke I'm sorry. I'm so sorry you've had such a hard life. And I'm sorry I'm influencing you. Not used to tryin to blunt my emotions." He wanted to give the kid a hug. As curmudgeonly and bitchy as he often was, McCoy cared. He cared so much he had to hide just how deeply he felt things.