John hated the fact that he knew very little about the layout of the Enterprise. With his speed he could get to Sherlock within a minute if he wanted to, but he had no idea which way engineering was. He had no choice but to follow Doctor McCoy at a ridiculously slow run. Lestrade stayed back with Anderson to yell at him some more and wake Molly, Mycroft and Irene.

They were about to reach the main engineering room when John slammed into something, knocking him to the ground. The something, turned out to be Kirk, who was also sprawled on the ground and quite winded after hitting John.

Normally John would have said something but right now his thoughts were with Sherlock.

"Main engineering's just through here-"

McCoy may have said something else after that but John didn't catch it, he was running toward the glass door where Donovan was standing, watching numbers on a screen and ignoring the person slumped on the door frame.

"Sherlock!"

Before he knew it he was down on his knees, pressing against the glass, trying to get passed the thing keeping him from the best friend he'd ever had. He was vaguely aware that Kirk was kneeling jus behind him but he ignored the man, his doctor's mind was taking in Sherlock's injuries and trying to figure out if he'd live.

His eyes were glazed and badly bloodshot, his skin was blistered and burnt at various points, he could tell some of his black curls had been singed clean off.

"Open it." Kirk ordered.

"The decontamination is not complete you'd float the whole area." Donovan replied, at least she had the decency to sound regretful.

"Sherlock?" John called gently, relieved when Sherlock raised his head a little, he wasn't dead yet.

"It worked then." He rasped.

"You saved us." John smiled, flicking his eyes to Kirk for a moment, "All of us. You Sherlock, you saved an entire ship of Starfleet officers. I never thought I'd see the day."

"Thank you." Kirk added.

"You'd have done it yourself, had you been here. Either of you." Sherlock replied, trying to sit up properly but failing.

"You'll be fine." John implored, trying to make himself believe it at the same time.

Sherlock tried to smile but coughed and blood spattered across his lips, John wished he could do something. He'd never felt so useless.

"I may have...underestimated just how strong the radiation would be." Sherlock continued weakly.

"Your cells will regenerate." John argued, "You'll rest, regenerate, I promise."

"Always so sentimental..."

John let out a breath that was half laugh half sob. He wouldn't let Sherlock die like this, he just wouldn't.

"How much longer until we can open the door?" Kirk demanded.

"A few more seconds..." Donovan muttered, watching the numbers and charts on the screen begin to level.

John pressed his palms against the glass even harder, trying to will it away. Weakly, Sherlock pressed his own hand against the glass where John's was resting, almost like he was trying to do the same thing.

"I'm glad you're here, John." Sherlock whispered, before his hand went lax and slid down onto the ground.

"Sherlock? Sherlock!"

-oOo-

Kirk felt guilt radiate off him when Sherlock went still, John was practically clawing at the door trying to open it. Finally, the woman gave the all clear and it slid open. The medic scrambled, lifting Sherlock gently outside the frame and gathering him up before checking his pulse.

"He's still alive." John breathed, blinking back tears he'd later deny the existence of.

"For how long?" McCoy added darkly, John glared at him.

"His cells are working overtime to heal him, but I can help." John said, getting to his feet with Sherlock's arm thrown hastily around his shoulder.

They had only taken a few steps before the ship shook and almost sent them all onto the ground once more.

'What's going on?" McCoy bellowed, "That felt like a missile!"

Another shake.

"It must be Moriarty!" John growled through his teeth, "You're going to have to deal with this one Kirk."

"But how could he follow us at warp?" McCoy asked, looping Sherlock's other arm around his own shoulder to help carry him to med bay.

"Sherlock designed that ship and Moriarty modified it, it could be capable of anything!"

"Captain, there are two members of Sherlock's crew on the bridge demanding they take over our stations." Spock's voice came through the con.

"That'll be Mycroft and Irene, they're annoying as hell but if anybody could out wit Moriarty it'd be those two." John grinned, "Go, I'll take care of Sherlock."

-oOo-

A ship that could follow them at warp, it was unheard of. The tremors that echoed about the ship every few seconds proved it though, they were being fired upon.

He stumbled out onto the bridge as yet another hit landed. Spock was giving out orders calmly as usual, not seeming the least bit phased by the blasts. Two strangers, who he took to be Irene and Mycroft stood by him arguing different tactics.

"Captain." Spock greeted, if he didn't know any better Kirk would have thought he heard relief in the Vulcan's voice.

"We need to exit warp." A tall man, heavily built with thinning hair told him.

"Mycroft I take it?" Kirk guessed, "Why?"

"Moriarty is behind us, if we stop he may over shoot and give us time to fire upon him." The beautiful woman with the black hair explained.

"Halt warp!" Kirk ordered without question, for a few seconds he marveled at his trust in Sherlock's crew. Only a few hours ago he didn't trust Sherlock himself, now he was following the advice of his friends without hesitation.

The ship came to a halt so suddenly Sulu was almost thrown over the edge of his console, but as predicted the large black ship shot off into the distance.

"We'll only have a few minutes until he comes back." Kirk told them, "We need to cripple his ship somehow, but the Enterprise doesn't have anything close to the weapons necessary."

"I'm the Head Tactician from the S.S Botany Bay." Mycroft introduced, "Give me a run down of all the weapons and their capacity on this ship, I will figure something out."

-oOo-

McCoy was surprised at how light Sherlock was considering the amount of muscle the warrior had on him. It was easy for he and John to get him back to the med bay, where a young woman with mousy hair was waiting for them looking very nervous.

"Molly." John greeted, "Words cannot express how happy I am to see you."

"What happened to Sherlock?" Molly gasped, taking in the burnt skin and hair.

"Radiation poisoning, let's get his vitals measured." McCoy supplied, "His skin isn't as bad as it was before, that's a good sign yes? Those super cells of his are working."

John bit his lip.

"Let's hope, the skin always heals first, to prevent infection, but it's his organs I'm worried about."

Molly proved an extraordinary asset in the Med Bay, despite her medical knowledge being several centuries out of date she was able to understand how almost everything worked. She poured over the history of radiation sickness and treatment on a data pad so fast that to McCoy the words were just blurs on the screen.

Meanwhile he and John hooked Sherlock up to a ventilator and took in his readings which were fluctuating wildly. With Sherlock's ever changing cells the machinery simply couldn't make heads or tails or the illness, one minute there was a cut in the skin the next it was healing then gone.

"His breathings weak." John muttered, "Add more oxygen to the mask. Twice normal."

"Do you do everything by double standards?" McCoy grumbled, John gave him a wry look.

"You should have seen the first time we decided to try alcohol, turns out we can really hold our drink."

"John, Sherlock's vitals are dropping!" Molly exclaimed.

Sherlock began to rasp and struggle for breath, despite the breathing mask. Joh turned white and McCoy quickly searched the computer for more treatments, Sherlock must have breathed in hot air filled with radiation when the core re-aligned.

"Come on, Sherlock." John begged quietly, holding his friends hand, "We didn't do all this just for you to give up now."


Hey! Sorry about my slow uploads, but Im back at school now and doing 6 hours of study a day, plus classes and hanging out with my friends so writing is getting hard! I will try to update at least once a week or 10 days though.