Darker Wet
Characters: Khan, Spock, OC's (Beth, Khan's Augment crew, some new faces)
Setting: Begins 8 months after end of The Anomaly
Warning: M-rating - not appropriate for minors. At all. Also contains spoilers for Star Trek Into Darkness and The Anomaly fanfic
Disclaimer: I don't own Star Trek and am writing this purely for fun - I hope it's also fun for other Star Trek fans :)
This is a sequel to the fanfic The Anomaly. I do recommend you read that first, but if you're keen to dive into "Darker Wet", just know that there is some pretty dramatic history between Spock, Khan and Khan's wife, Beth.
At the end of The Anomaly, Spock and Starfleet believed Khan was dead, killed along with his entire crew on the planet Centula. They actually survived, but Khan parted ways with the Augments because their war was long over and Khan was not a leader for peacetime.
But more about them later. Khan has been living in Alaska with Beth and their two children. That is where this story begins...
Chapter 1
Beth was flat on her back before she knew what happened.
"Ah!" she cried, clutching the left side of her face as it erupted in pain. She lay there in shock, her eyes squeezed shut, cradling her jaw and trying to breathe.
"Get up," Khan said, his voice cool and detached as he stood over her.
She felt tears running down the sides of her face. Her hands were shaking. "I can't."
"At least open your eyes."
She did manage that, slowly, and squinted up at him through her honey-colored bangs.
Her husband towered over her, his bare chest like sculpted marble, his face an expressionless mask. He held up his right hand, still clenched in a powerful fist. "I should have done this months ago."
Beth moaned and rolled over to push herself off the floor. Khan grabbed her roughly by her ponytail and then his arm was around her neck, pulling her to her feet. "Why would you turn your back on me?"
He sounded disappointed. Beth yanked on his arm, feeling it constrict around her throat.
"I can't breathe," she croaked.
"You're lucky I didn't break your spine." He gave her whole body a shake, raising her a few inches off the floor. "What are you going to do about it?"
She banged her fists on his arm. "Wait, please."
His arm tightened. "Do you think a security officer would wait? Do you think a bounty hunter would let you catch your breath? You wanted to learn how to fight; in a real fight you'll have less than a second to react. What are you going…"
Beth drove her right arm backwards, elbowing Khan in the ribs. He loosened his grip a fraction and she sucked in a deep breath. "Follow through," he ordered. "And use your left arm to counterbalance. Do it again."
She did, feeling the difference as she hit him even harder, her blow forcing air out of his lungs. "Better," he said. "What else?" She stomped her foot down, driving her heel into his toes, but he just raised her off the ground, cutting off her air again. "Good, but always aim for the arch. What else?"
She kicked wildly, trying to twist herself free.
"Focus, Beth. You're burning energy. What did I teach you?"
But she couldn't remember. Her lungs were struggling for oxygen and panic replaced every cognizant thought in her head.
"Stay calm," he told her evenly. "Attack the joints, the nose, the eyes, the hands, the throat. Throw your head back, try to break my nose."
Beth imagined doing it, imagined the blood, the pain it could cause him. "I can't," she finally said, going limp.
Khan sighed, his grip on her neck relaxing as he lowered her to the ground.
"I'm sorry," she said, taking deep breaths, now holding his arm for support.
"I know it's hard." He wrapped his other arm around her waist and kissed the back of her head. "I don't like it either - why do you think I put this off for so long? But I may not always be around to protect you, and it's useless if it doesn't feel real. You'll only freeze when someone actually hurts you. Now, let me see your face."
Beth turned around, hiding her jaw with her left hand. It already felt swollen and she didn't want to show him. He pulled her hand away gently and couldn't suppress his flinch.
"I told you not to hold back," she reminded him, trying to sound blasé.
Khan laughed bitterly. "If I wasn't holding back you'd have a broken neck. I hit you half as hard as any average human male. It looks bad now but I don't think it will leave a mark."
"Oh." She touched the painful bump again, wondering how it could hurt so much and not even earn her a bruise.
"Why didn't you cover your face?" he asked. "Protect it with your fists and your torso with your arms." He showed her. "Didn't Starfleet give you any kind of defensive training? No wonder your security officers are so easy to disarm."
Beth frowned. What did he expect? She'd spent most of her time at the Academy trying to avoid close-quarter contact with the opposite sex; she certainly hadn't elected to take combat tutorials from one of the male instructors.
"Ready to go again?"
He barely gave her enough time to brace herself before throwing the next punch. She managed to knock it aside, but the action spun her into his arms. Khan shoved her up against the nearest wall, crushing his body against her back. Her swollen jaw pressed painfully against the wall.
"Concentrate!" he barked, but her struggles were futile.
She could barely breathe let alone fight, and she could feel Khan's penis growing hard as she tried to push him off her. "How am I supposed to concentrate with that thing in my back?"
He eased up so she could turn to face him, but did not let her go. "You know I can't control it," he said, unashamed. "And neither could a real attacker."
Beth looked away and Khan put his fingers under her chin to bring her back to him. His hands could be astonishingly gentle when he let them. "You know that's the reality of your anomaly."
She nodded. "I know."
"And Beth, if anything like that ever happened; if you were raped, or worse…"
"Khan." She didn't want to think about what could possibly be worse than rape.
"Listen to me," he insisted, waiting until he had her full attention. "All you have to do is survive. I don't care how, I don't care what you have to do. I will still love you. I will still want you. You will still be my wife. Do you understand?"
She nodded, leaning into him. "I understand."
He held her to his chest, enveloping her in his warmth and strength. Beth let her legs go limp, just to feel him catch her.
Today the Federation Security Council confirmed the existence of a new military intelligence agency, the Department of Extreme Threats, or DET.
In an official statement, the head of the DET, Commissioner Graves, explained that his department only targets enemies of the Federation deemed too extreme and dangerous to be countered by normal Security forces.
He gave two examples of such threats: Klingon forces attacking Federation outposts in the Beta Quadrant and the genetically modified terrorists responsible for the attacks on Starfleet in 2259.
While detractors accuse the DET of unethical practices, Commissioner Graves…
Khan stopped reading and put his PADD down. He had known about the existence of DET for some time. For months he'd watched them trawl information networks and tap into surveillance systems, so clumsy and disorganized they could barely track their own activity let alone his or anyone else's.
But lately they had been getting more efficient, and Khan knew it was due to this Commissioner Graves. He was an aggressive and competent man, and if he ws no longer content to operate in the shadows, he was ambitious as well. Going public could only be bad for Khan and both his families.
"What's the matter?" Beth asked him, her gentle voice full of love and worry. Khan looked over the kitchen table at her, where she was helping their eleven month old twins eat breakfast. She looked back at him, frowning, and he tried to smile.
"Nothing," he said. Her concern was for him, but not for herself and not for her children. He wanted to keep it that way for as long as possible.
Her smile was doubtful, she knew him so well, but she said nothing and turned back to Taren, who seemed determined to see how far she could fling her scrambled eggs. Considering she had inherited her father's Augment strength, it was usually well into the next room.
Khan tried not to encourage her by laughing, and he watched Beth pretend a spoonful of eggs was a freight ship.
"Requesting permission to land," she said, waving the spoon hypnotically. "Open your cargo bay doors."
This elicited peals of laughter that bounced the toddler's strawberry blonde curls as she opened her mouth.
Allister watched their morning ritual as he gnawed on a slice of apple with his two bottom teeth. He had inherited Khan's dark hair, superior intelligence and low threshold for nonsense. The expression on his face made it clear he thought his mother and sister were either mentally deficient or insane.
"I need to go away," Khan said suddenly, and the look Beth flashed him was almost afraid. "Just a week," he added quickly. "To Golana. I should leave as soon as possible, I'll go tomorrow morning."
Beth tried to press Khan for details of his trip, but he refused, saying it was for her own protection. It was something he'd been saying a lot lately, to explain away almost anything she didn't like. She got the impression that Khan's version of protecting her meant protecting her from the truth.
She finally gave up. "We're going down to the river," she told him, lifting the children out of their high chairs and setting them on a rug beside the table. "If you get any time for your family."
"Swim, swim!" Taren cheered happily, and bounded over to her brother. He was not so enthusiastic, but let her pull on his arm, helping him stand. Allister was less confident on his feet than Taren, who was more like an Augment in almost every physical way. He had a tendency to lean on his sister for balance, which she didn't mind at all.
Beth tried not to think about her husband leaving for a whole week, especially to Golana. She couldn't imagine why he'd ever want to go back to that planet. The last time they were there he had almost died and she had been sold into slavery. If the seedy hell hole was hit by a giant meteorite that afternoon it wouldn't be soon enough for Beth.
"I'll be back on Sunday," Khan said carefully, probably sensing her coolness. He went to her, putting as arm around her shoulder and kissing her on the cheek. "Why don't you come and meet me when I arrive? Your mother can mind the children. I'll land in St. Petersburg. There's a place I'd like to take you for dinner."
"Maybe," Beth said, shrugging out of his embrace. "If I don't get a better offer."
He had no reply for that, and after a while she turned back to look at him. He was watching her fixedly, his expression unreadable.
"It was a joke," she said, but no one was laughing, not even Taren who had been subdued by the sudden tension between her parents. "I'd like to have dinner with you."
Beth needed to get out of the house, to clear her head. The temperature was supposed to go over seventy-five degrees for the first time all year - she loaded up an old green wagon with the twins and towels and a picnic lunch.
As they started the trek to the river she called to the two Akbash guard dogs Khan had given Allister and Taren the previous Christmas. The dogs were brothers from the same litter, only nine months old but already a hundred pounds each. They came bounding after the family down the hill, their bright white coats shining in the mid-morning sun.
The weather was perfectly warm, but when they reached the river, they discovered the water was still freezing cold. Only Taren wanted to stay in longer than five seconds, and Beth sat on the shore and watched the little girl splash playfully with her dog, Mash, whom she'd named after her favorite food, mashed potato.
Allister had named his dog Ghost, because his white fur had made him almost invisible in the snow on Christmas morning. Together, boy and dog napped on a towel, Allister leaning back against Ghost's thick, soft fur as the dog protectively wrapped his neck and body around him.
Suddenly, Ghost raised his head, his eyes narrowing as he bared his teeth. Mash also gave a low growl from the water's edge and Beth turned to see the bushes behind her rustle violently.
Fearing it was a black bear, she scrambled towards the green wagon where she'd left her phaser. Before she could reach it a massive gray Kangal dog exploded out of the bushes and hurtled towards her at an incredible rate. Beth jumped to her feet, preferring to face the monster head on. Not that it would make any difference; she knew this dog and he could not be intimidated.
"Duman, no!" she shouted, trying to sound forceful. "No!"
When the dog raised up on his hind legs he was more than a foot taller than Beth. He put his heavy paws on her shoulders and completely flattened her to the ground.
"Duman!" she shouted again, trying to roll the dog off her, but he had at least forty pounds on her and wasn't going to be moved. As he settled, pinning her down, she heard Allister and Taren laughing.
"That's enough, Duman," Khan's voice ordered calmly.
The dog immediately pushed himself up and circled around to stand beside his master. Khan put his hand on the dog's large head, which came up past his waist, not exactly petting him, but not reprimanding him either. "Stay."
Khan approached Beth where she was still lying on the ground, and held out a hand. "Sorry, he got away from me."
She wasn't so sure and stood without his help. "I swear you've trained him to do that."
"Of course," he told her. "But only on command, and not to you. He likes to dominate you because you're so nervous of him, but you're one of his charges, he would never hurt you."
She stepped close to him and whispered, so the children wouldn't hear. "It's humiliating."
"Now, don't overreact," Khan said dismissively, fixing the loose strap of her swimsuit, which had fallen down her arm. His fingers lingered on her shoulder, maybe enjoying the kiss of the sun on her skin.
Without looking down Beth hooked her left foot behind Khan's knee and pulled it forward, pushing his chest back at the same time. If he hadn't been distracted it wouldn't have worked, but he fell on the sand with a satisfying grunt.
The children screamed with laughter and the dogs barked excitedly. Beth looked down at Khan, her hands on her hips. "Now, don't overreact," she mimicked.
She could see him considering his options. There were probably a dozen ways he could retaliate and put her back in her place. Instead, he laughed and stood and kissed her on the cheek. He went over to his son and swept Allister up in the air. The little boy squealed and looked down at his father with adoration.
"Did you like that?" Khan asked. "I think your mother's been holding out on us."
Beth laughed as well, feeling herself relax. She didn't want to fight with Khan. She didn't want the last day before his trip to be full of anger and resentment. Khan held Allister close, kissing the top of his head, burying his face in the toddler's thick dark hair. He was rewarded with a wet kiss on the chin before handing him to his mother.
Kicking his shoes off, Khan began to undress, giving Beth a quick wink as he unzipped his pants. She blushed and watched her husband's nakedness revealed to her one item of clothing at a time. He was an awesome sight - elegant and lean and strong - she wanted to touch him, to run her hand over his chest and stomach, and had to remind herself that she was holding one of their children.
"Do you want to eat?" she asked him, hearing the heat in her own voice.
Khan heard it as well and the corner of his mouth twitched as he looked over at her. "Always," he said meaningfully. "But I'll swim with Taren first."
He strode over to where his daughter was still playing with Mash in the shallows. He picked up the little girl, pulling her against his torso as he dove under the water. They disappeared for almost a minute, and just as Beth felt her heart begin to race, their two heads – one dark and one fair – bobbed to the surface in the middle of the river.
Mash barked hysterically as they swam back to shore, Taren doing a kind of doggie paddle as Khan pulled alongside her with a lazy sidestroke.
After a lunch of roasted chicken, home-baked bread and the latest harvest from Beth's vegetable garden, they all lay down to nap under a tree while the dogs stood guard. Khan and the twins were all nude, and completely relaxed in their skin. Beth looked at them and fidgeted with the straps of her swimsuit. It was too loose on her – the last time she'd worn it was the previous summer when she'd been eight months pregnant.
"No one else will see you," Khan told her, opening one eye, perhaps reading her mind.
She nodded and sat up to take the swimsuit off, blushing again as he rolled onto his stomach to watch her.
When she lay down he held out a hand across the towel and she took it, knowing how dreamy her smile must have been. She felt unbelievably happy. "I still wish you weren't leaving, but I can't think of anything that could make this moment any better," she said softly, looking down at Allister and Taren, still fast asleep, facing each other, their foreheads touching.
"I can," Khan said, also watching their children. He looked back up at Beth. "I want another one."
"Me too," she told him, squeezing his hand and closing her eyes. She already knew he wanted as many children as she could give him; it was one of the reasons she'd stopped breast feeding the twins. Her menstrual cycle had returned to normal and her old doctor in McGrath had told her there was no reason she could not conceive again. "I think it's almost time."
It was just after midnight when Beth found Khan in his study, staring out the window. The sun was finally going down behind the hills in the north-west, casting a pink and orange blush over the land and the winding Innoko River.
"Coming to bed?" she asked, standing beside him and tucking her arm around his. She was wearing a white bath robe and Khan was just in thin cotton pajama bottoms, dark blue, with bare feet. It was their last night together before his trip and she wanted to be with him.
"I'm watching the sunset," he told her. "Stay with me." He pulled her to stand in front of him so he could wrap both arms around her. He bent his head forward to kiss against her ear. "You look so beautiful in this light."
Beth turned to face him over her shoulder so he could kiss her lips. His hand slipped inside her robe and when he discovered her naked breast his breath caught in his throat, his fingers grazing lightly over her nipple.
Three hours later they were together in bed, laying on their sides, their bodies covered in a sheen of sweat that glowed golden in the pre-dawn light. Beth buried her face in a pillow, unable to control her cries of pleasure in any other way as another orgasm washed over her. Khan smiled as he pulled her trembling body back against him, holding her even closer, his mouth on her shoulder, his hand between her legs, thrusting deep and slow inside his wife as the sun rose over the mountains.
Welcome back to everyone who already read The Anomaly and/or Extras - The Anomaly, and hello to any new readers! I hope you liked this and it wasn't too much or too little. I wanted to set the scene in Alaska while giving the plot (and the smut!) a lazy start. Let me know what you think, and please forgive the fluff – I think I ovulated while writing this chapter ;)