"Headache, confusion, dizziness?"
"Doctor," Saavik asked with thin patience, "must I answer the same questions every hour?"
"Yes."
She took a breath, standing in front of the sofa in the sitting room. "I have none of those symptoms. Nor do I have those warning of internal bleeding in my chest or abdomen. I will inform you if it changes."
"Definitely no change in personality." McCoy watched Saavik diligently go through data on a padd. "And no apathy. Is that the list of ships in orbit?"
She gave a small nod. "Specifically, it is those T'Mes reports as safe based on her experience with them. It is a shorter list, so I am seeing if I can corroborate her choices. From there, I will verify the other lists."
"What I wouldn't give to see Sulu or Chekov pulling into the system."
Saavik suddenly stopped. "Interesting."
"What ship?"
"Captain Vaasi and the USS Sentry."
He looked over her shoulder. "Vaasi. Is that Vulcan?"
"Yes. I do not know him. I met the first officer, however."
"Good! Mark them down then."
"I met him. I am unaware if he knows I am half-Romulan or his thoughts on it."
McCoy gave it serious thought, even though he started this as small talk to segue into what he really wanted to talk about. But who to trust with Saavik's life wasn't something he would wave off lightly. And if he did, Spock would break him in half if he found out.
"I'd trust T'Mes and the captain. Vaasi would have vetted his first officer and anyone else high up in his crew."
"Logical," she replied and marked the Sentry.
"Just don't rub that in later on," he joked, back to small talk. She didn't bother to comment, so he decided to bring up what he wanted. Delicately. First, he took her wrist. If he made the conversation appear secondary rather than what he was going for, she might answer. "Taking your pulse," he explained. "Got to do these things manually." It was nice and steady. "Saavik, when I first got here and came into the room, I got the feeling I interrupted something."
She didn't look up. "We heard you coming."
"Sooo, does that mean I did?"
She glanced at him. "As I stated, we heard you approaching. Therefore, nothing was happening when you arrived."
Hello! "Meaning if you hadn't heard me, I would have interrupted?"
Saavik dropped her hands in front of her. "Doctor, do you believe you are being subtle?"
He snatched her wrist back with an order to behave. "Since you put it like that, I'll just ask you straight out. I interrupted something. Something private?" She merely lifted her brows. "Something about your relationship with Spock? You two finally talked about… things?"
Her eyes lowered from his, but only to grow soft and warm in thinking about it and zoom! went her heart rate.
Yes! Hallelujah, at last! Jim, you and Amanda can rest in peace now! They finally did it!
With a huge smile, McCoy nearly grabbed her in a hug. "Saavik, I can't tell you how thrilled I am! How thrilled everyone's going to be when they hear this! This has been a long time in coming and we couldn't be happier!"
Saavik leaned her head to the side. "Doctor, what do you think I meant?"
"You and Spock. You told him he's the one you want. That he has been for a long time. And he said-"
Her eyes couldn't get wider. "I did no such thing."
A headache started deep behind his eyes. "You said the two of you – what the hell did you mean?"
"Not that it is your business," she said in a firm tone, "but we discussed the pon farr I experienced. You must have seen it on my record."
"I did. And?"
She drew in another breath and McCoy knew he was really pushing his limits with her and her incredibly large sense of privacy. "We have promised we would be there for each other."
His mouth started saying three different things before he got something out. "You're going to… be with one another any time one of you goes into pon farr?"
"It is what I said." Something in his expression made her narrow her eyes. "Do not diminish what this means, Doctor."
McCoy was quick to agree. "Never. I understand what it means. Completely." He hesitated, then plunged ahead. "It means you're making a commitment to each other that you'd never make to anyone else, because you're important to each other and how and why you're important to each other." He gave it another beat. "You didn't deny what I said earlier."
Saavik buried herself in the padd to avoid looking at him. But she hadn't snapped at him to leave her alone, so he kept going.
"Why didn't you tell him that? You already opened up, why stop?" No response. "Let me guess. You think he doesn't feel the same way. You think-"
She frowned. "You are projecting your beliefs on Spock."
"Noticed you still haven't said I'm wrong about you. And you're forgetting who you're talking to. Projecting… in a pig's eye. Okay, let's do it this way. Let's say, hypothetically, that Spock tells you that you're the one he wants, the only one. No one else comes close. Now, would you say no?"
He couldn't believe it. Instead of telling him to blow off, everything about her grew soft. "I would refuse him nothing."
He became equally gentle and as careful as when he operated. "Just to be clear, you're saying yes because it's what you want."
His answer was how she looked into a future that gave her a radiance and it made his breath catch. He thought of how he was going to tell Spock that what he wanted for years was his at last, but the image of Saavik held McCoy transfixed.
She became aware of him again and after eyeing him, wondering, maybe even trying to decide how she should feel about revealing what she had, her forehead furrowed and he knew she was working out what to do.
She spoke. "Did you finish recording my pulse?"
"What?" His own brain screeched to a halt and had to switch tracks. "Ah, no. Hold on." He felt for it again and did a little dance inside that it was still elevated. She focused on it, though, and calmed it.
As McCoy did that, Saavik said, "No headache, no nausea, or the remaining symptoms you said to watch for."
"All right, good to know." He started pointing out what her expression and pulse told him, but she preempted him.
"Yes, it is. It is good to know," and she dealt the winning strike, "that what is said during the course of conversation with my doctor is confidential."
"WHAT!" He stumbled to catch up. "We weren't talking medically!"
"Far from it, the discussion began with symptoms of my medical condition and continued with my vital signs. At its conclusion, all were repeated. At no time did either of us say the medical portion ended."
"Saavik! Tell Spock how you feel! He-!"
"Feel?"
"Don't pull that! It's bull! Amanda was right! How did I get cursed with Vulcans! Look," he exhaled noisily, "I'll go tell him to tell you."
As forceful as him, she replied, "Doctor, all of this conversation is confidential. You cannot violate it by telling Spock any part of it."
He made an extreme aggravated noise. Sorry, Jim, forget the rest bit. Can you and Amanda come kick these two? Hard!
Soluk stepped inside the doorway. "Stron and his team have left in search of the Romulan device. Sarek wishes to convene, after he has spoken with Saavik."
Both she and the doctor acknowledged it and waited for the Subcommander to leave.
McCoy glared at Saavik. "I hate you."
. . . .
Sarek indicated Stron's map on the wall where he had added more diagrams. He used items from the kitchen as inks. "Commander Saavik and I worked together to devise a strategy for three contingencies. One, Stron's team discovers and shuts down the dampening field. In this scenario, we take these positions."
He pointed out three places in the sitting room, two in the kitchen near the rear, and with himself at the front entrance. Saavik and McCoy were marked for the sitting room as well, but from where they hopefully would escape.
Saavik said to their small audience, "Once I transport out, I should draw my attackers away from here."
"We are accommodating for it," Sarek agreed. "Two, the team cannot shut down the field in time and Saavik must leave here with an escort to go outside its reach."
He pointed out her route out the supply door with McCoy and Soluk while he attempted distracting Myers and the others into believing she was leaving through the rear.
S'lenick, the Vulcan Starfleet officer who had brought in Kettiman, spoke up. "You said three, Ambassador."
Sarek turned around. "Three, the team is able to bring down the dampening field, but cannot return here in time before Saavik's attackers strike again. Indeed, we must utilize these positions in the interim while we wait to see which of the remaining scenarios happens."
Now only Soluk showed in the diagram with the doctor and Saavik in the sitting room.
McCoy leaned against Stron's hobbled together table. Ambassador Rayfh was next to him, coming in out of curiosity during a break in their strategizing for the Romulans.
The doctor muttered, "He could run Starfleet."
One side of Rayfh's mouth lifted. "He could run the universe. He probably is in some parallel place. I never understood why he didn't run for President."
Sarek undoubtedly heard them but said nothing about it. "Take your positions."