CHAPTER 3

Leonard immediately pulled the blanket that was folded around Jim up higher over his head as he rematerialized on the transporter pad, partially to shield his eyes from the bright lights and the loud sounds but also to shield him from the view of those in the transporter room. He didn't want anyone to see the bruises scattered over his pale flesh and frighten Jim in the ensuing panic that might happen. He watched as Chapel came walking around the corner holding another tri-corder as well as one of his 'Jim specific' medkits.

"Chapel! Go ahead to medbay and get one of the more private biobeds set up, get me a fever reducer hypo as well as one to detox sedatives out of his body and set up a dermal regenerator, I'll be right behind ya." He barked out as he shifted Jim around so he could walk a bit faster. The faster he got to medbay and started figuring out how to turn Jim back the better. Chapel gaped at him in confusion for a second before turning around and jogging off to medbay. At least someone had the decency to follow his orders and not question every move he made.

He moved to follow her only to be stopped by a hand on his arm, "Leonard-" Uhura started as she pulled him to a stop before he could get out of the transporter room.

"I'll get the senior crew updated as soon as I get new information, Uhura. But right now this little guy needs my full attention and I need to get him to the medbay so I can start getting some answers on how to change him back. If I find anything, you guys will be the first ones to know." He stated shortly as he shrugged her hand off and started walking again.

Uhura stood there and watched him turn the corner before releasing an irritated sigh and moving to head back up to the bridge, "Oi, Lass! Why's the doctor so young lookin' and who's tha wee lad in 'is arms?" Scotty called out after her.

"That's the captain, Scotty." She called back without stopping determined to get to the bridge and get as far away from this planet as possible.

"It's alright Darlin' we're almost to sickbay and I'll be able to give you something to help with your bruises once we get there okay?" Leonard crooned softly to the squirming child in his arms.

Halfway through the walk to sickbay Jim's symptoms started getting worse, Leonard had removed the blanket once it was obvious that it was exacerbating his fever and what was once slightly labored pants had devolved into weak, barely noticeable wheezing breaths against his collar bones. He hadn't really had the chance down on the planet to look at anything other than the tox screen results on his tri-corder but judging by the horrible bruising and bumps under the skin where his ribs were it was entirely possible that Jim had broken ribs and possibly a punctured or deflated lung.

And that wasn't even taking into consideration that he might be having an allergic reaction to either the purity fruit or to the drugs that had been reintroduced to his body when it was reverted to a younger form. As he quicken his brisk walk to a slight jog he shifted Jim again so he could pull out his communicator. "McCoy to Chapel."

"This is Chapel, go ahead Doctor."

"I need you to add a child sized biomask and oxygen to the list of things to have prepared and near the bio-bed for when I get to sickbay and you might want to have an intubation kit ready as well, I won't be one hundred percent sure of everything we need until I can scan Jim again."

"Of course Doctor. Chapel out."

He glanced down as he heard a soft whimper and before he could offer another soft reassurance that they were almost to medbay he felt Jim's small body start wildly flailing in his arms. Instantly he tightened his grip on the convulsing body and took off running as fast as he could. Less than a minute later he went skidding through the doors into the medbay and yelled for Christine as he set Jim down on the table.

"He started seizing a few seconds ago, get me some Carbamazepine!" He yelled as he rolled Jim onto his side to keep him from aspirating on his own vomit. Leonard quickly lifted Jim's head up and rested it on his arm, it would have been better to put a pillow or something softer under his head but he didn't have time and he needed to keep Jim from slamming his head against the surface of the biobed.

He grabbed the hypo from Chapel and quickly slid it into Jim's neck, depressing the end and breathing heavily as Jim's body slowly but surely stopped convulsing. Once he was sure the seizure was over he reached across the bed and grabbed the biomask, making sure it was strapped tight enough that it didn't slip off but not so tight that it would hurt him.

A quick glance up showed that Christine was still standing next to him. "Chris I need you to hand me that tri-corder and while I scan him you can go ahead and give him the fever reducer and the detox hypo."

Leonard took a deep breath as he started up to tri-corder and brought it up to start scanning, he frowned as the scans brought up more and more injuries, besides the cuts and bruises, he was correct in his assumption that Jim had a few broken ribs and they were mostly on his right side. The broken ribs were painful but they didn't look to have punctured his lungs so that meant that the difficulty breathing was most likely part of an allergic reaction.

There was a hairline fracture on his sternum where the worst of the boot shaped bruises were and he had a fractured wrist and a partially crushed windpipe where the worst of the finger print shaped bruises were. A soft but pained whine tore his eyes away from the scanner and he moved to the head of the bed where Jim was coming back to consciousness after his seizure.

"Hey Jimmy, you back with us sweetheart?" He cooed softly as he ran a hand through the short locks of straw colored hair in an attempt to soothe Jim.

"Burns."

"What burns, sugar?"

Jim shifted clearly trying to get away from where Chapel was moving around finishing setting up the dermal regenerator. "M–my head and my tummy."

"Don't worry Jimmy, it'll feel better soon, Nurse Chapel is gonna give you something to help with the pain and then I'm gonna start healing those bruises." Leonard said giving Christine a pointed glance which sent her off to go get a hypo that he could give to Jim without worrying about him having an allergic reaction.

"I'm sorry." Jim sniffled.

"What are you sorry for kiddo?"

"Frank says I'm not supposed to bother people just because I'm hurt."

The words took a few seconds to register in Leonard's brain but when they did his vision went red for a second as rage coursed through his veins. "Jimmy, Darlin', you aren't bothering me by tellin' me you're hurtin', I want you to tell me so that I can help make you feel better."

Jimmy looked at him with a look that made his heart ache horribly in his chest, the disbelief blatant on his young face. "I'm serious Jimmy, don't ever worry about tellin' me you're hurt. I'm a doctor, helping people is what I do." But Jimmy just looked at him blankly.

"Leonard." Chapel called softly.

Leonard sighed and patted Jim on the head before taking the painkiller and gently administering it into his neck. "I have to go talk with Nurse Chapel but I'll be right back okay Jimmy?" He waited until Jim gave him a slow nod before he turned and walked to the far corner of the room with Christine, the last thing he wanted to do was talk about Jim and all the abuse that occurred directly in front of the kid.

"Len what's going on? Why the hell is The Captain a kid all of a sudden and you are a hell of a lot younger than when you left?" She asked quietly, they had turned to face away from Jim and towards the rest of sickbay so that Jim couldn't read their lips.

"Those goddamn Delvian's wanted us to perform some stupid purity ritual before they would agree to join the Federation and they had us eat some fruit that regresses people to back right before they lost their virginity. Obviously that wasn't a good fucking idea, hell we should have just told them to take their purity ritual and go fuck themsel – What the fuck!" Leonard yelled as he whirled around at the sudden loud blaring coming from the biobed that Jim was on.

He ran over and yanked back the privacy curtain only to find that Jim was no longer laying on the biobed, his biomask was half hanging off the side and the sheet that had been placed on him was haphazardly strewn across the floor.

"Where the fuck did he go!"