((A/N hallo! here ya go, chapter eight c: i own nothing. but i own adie. and these random cardassians, i suppose, lmfao. enjoy! more reviewing, i love it c: thank you for reading!))

As soon as they landed, the Cardassian came back to the shuttle, and put a hood over both Spock and Adellia's heads. They were shoved out of the shuttle, and the alien held onto the Vulcans as they were processed past a checkpoint. After a while of walking, they were both stopped suddenly and asked in what department they worked in. Adellia answered swiftly and with no emotion, and was immediately separated from Spock, though she vaguely heard him saying that he worked in communications. A smirk crossed her lips. Good for him.

She was brought over about one hundred feet, and stopped suddenly. She assumed, based on the familiar voices, that she had been placed with her medical crew. She wondered if Bones had arrived yet, though there was no way to tell, since they'd managed to tie her hands together on the walk over towards the medical crew. She closed her eyes from behind the mask, taking in a deep breath, and sighing softly.

Adellia knew she had to stay calm and void of as much emotion as she could through this ordeal. However long it took, however bad the conditions were, they couldn't know how much it affected her. For the first time since she'd met Bones, she was purposely trying to act a part. It came easily to her, and that kind of scared her.

After what felt like years, she was finally moved. The Cardassian grabbing onto her arm was being a bit rough, especially after what she'd been through with the ship being attacked, but she showed no emotion on her face. She was proud of herself, on the inside, of being so diligent and stoic at the same time. She found the less emotional she acted, the less she noticed around her. She felt the body heat around her disappear as soon as they began to walk, letting her know she was somewhere in the back or front of the group.

After a little bit of walking, she felt a very familiar voice up ahead of her. "Damnit, get your lizard-looking hands off of—" Bones stopped, and she heard someone falling to the floor. Bones winced, standing up shakily after being shocked, looking angry from underneath his own mask. "A cattle prodder? Ooh, that's original…" he grumbled, and he continued to walk. He wished he could see. He wished he did not have to be led like a child. But above all, and most importantly, he wished he had a drink.

After he continued to walk, though, his mind focused back to Adellia. He remembered what had happened right before they were separated, and he was mentally kicking himself. He just couldn't stop making the wrong decision, it seemed. He knew she knew that she overreacted, however, to that little blip who kept getting onto her. He stumbled a little, and he was held up straight by an impatient Cardassian.

In an instant, it was hot, and he could feel the wind against his stubbly face. The wind, too, was hot…this planet felt like a desert, as if there was nothing around for miles. He grimaced as he continued forward, his eyes open from behind the mask on his head. After a few hundred feet of walking, stumbling over sidewalks and hearing their strange language dancing in his ear, he heard a heavy door opening. He looked around curiously before he was shoved into the room.

The room he was shoved into was even hotter than what it was like outside, and he couldn't help but think that this was probably where they would be staying, Sure enough, as soon as he had this mask taken off, he saw what looked curiously like a human's average dog kennel. Small cells lined a wall, with bars and everything.

"I'm assuming you don't get room service—" Bones began, when he was shoved into his own cell unceremoniously. He looked around at his staff before glaring back at the Cardassians, but since his door was now closed, there wasn't a lot else he could do to let them know how much he hated them. Not that they really seemed to care.

Adellia caught on quick. When she saw Bones for that brief moment, she knew what she had to do. She eased up in front of the line swiftly, and despite the Cardassian's confused, was given a cell directly next to him as a result. She stood up, and glanced over to the cell next to her. Adellia's grin could not have been wider when she saw him, and she went to put her hands on the bars, when she was shocked by the apparent electricity on the bars.

He glanced over when he heard her yip, and he couldn't hide his grin. "Hello there, pretty lady. Come here often?" he joked, but his grin soon faded into a hard expression, despite her smile. "I tried to get into your shuttle, but you already took off. Remind me to never fly without you again…I forgot how much I hated everything about it," he said with a small nod, and he sat down on the ground.

The cells would look nice, if someone took care of them. There was nothing but a floor, of course, and obviously the bars were electric. A small fan blew in the corner of their cell, but it reached only a one-foot by one-foot area, and she didn't want to stand over there anyway. Lights hung above each cell, which were presumably turned on during the evening, and probably in the mornings.

"I'm sorry. I was joined by Spock. I think they wanted to put us together, for some reason."

"It could be because you were both Vulcan."

"Possibly, but then why did they split us up by section afterwards?" she asked, and she looked over to him, longingly. It was obvious neither one of them cared why she was in that shuttle and Bones was stuck with the Russian—that mystery just did not need to be solved right now. He glanced up at Adellia's look, and he offered a nod in place of what she really wanted.

She just wanted a hug. Adellia would have traded the moon for a hug from him, because when she hugged him, she felt safe. She grimaced at the sheer injustice, and looked back down to her feet.

"I'm sorry I overreacted," she mumbled, her voice even more quiet than usual, now. "I was stressed, and worried, and everything I usually am on top of being upset. I did not mean to yell at you like I did," she mumbled, gazing up at him after a moment.

He just sort of nodded, and looked forward. "I know you didn't, don't worry."

The two of them stood there, and both of them wondered why—despite the fact they were in what felt like a POW camp—they managed to have an awkward moment. Bones finally glanced up. "You should get some shut eye, Adie. Who knows what they'll be having us doing by tomorrow." And with that, he leaned against a corner of the cell, as close to the fan as he could get, and closed his eyes.

----

The following morning, the Cardassians woke the doctors and nurses up about two hours after Adellia finally managed to get some sleep. She felt a harsh kick in her side, and she looked up, immediately putting on her stoic face as soon as she saw the lizard-man looking back down at her. She got up and lined up just as they wanted, and the bags came back onto their heads. She jumped as she felt a familiar hand holding hers for a moment, but enjoyed it for as long as she possibly could.

Adellia tried not to imagine what would be waiting for them after they left their holding cells. She knew what it probably would be, but…this can't have been the end. Besides, didn't they swear to uphold the Intergalactic Geneva Convention Code? She was sure that's what Kirk had said.

Bones winced as he felt the wind hit his face again. He began to walk on the uneven sidewalk. The Cardassians seemed to get a kick out him stumbling every few feet, which made him angry, but something about seeing Adellia's emotionless face before they left the cells gave him some strength. He didn't know if that sort of thing was genetic or if she had truly taught herself to remain in control, but he knew that if she could do it, then damnit, so could he.

They stopped after what seemed about a half of a mile. Bones looked around, trying to see through his mask, when suddenly it was taken off of his head. He honestly expected to see a guillotine or some other awful killing device, and was taken aback when he saw a large red cross on top of the building. A hospital? His shoulders relaxed a little bit, and he looked around. Adellia was standing right next to him, looking just as relieved as he felt for one split second.

The Cardassians led them into the hospital, and into a rickety old elevator that fit only half of them at once. Adellia took this opportunity to grab Bones' hand once more, but her face never moved from that concentrated look. He took a leaf from her book and frowned, concentrated, but his thumb caressed her hand for the briefest of moments.

When the grey doors shot open, they were brought to what would appear to be an intensive care center. It was a little abandoned looking, much like their cells, and no one else was there save for their little group. The beds were nothing like what they had on the Enterprise; Adellia thought she might have stepped into the twenty first century, by the way this room looked.

The Cardassians lined them up again. "Who is the Chief Medical Officer?" Bones stepped up bravely at that. "Your orders, until you leave this planet, will be to look after our Cardassian soldiers. We will begin by sending them in for physicals, and you will be required to go by our guidelines—not the Federation's." Bones nodded, tersely, and the other continued on. "Your medical supply closet is located to your right. You will go nowhere without asking for permission, and stating your reason. New orders will be given when you are finished with looking over the soldiers." In other words, they probably wouldn't be alive for new orders.

It was surprisingly similar to how they performed physicals on the Enterprise. They all lined up—and this time, Bones and Adellia chose to be next to each other—and were given a table and very limited medical supplies to use.

Soldier after soldier marched in, each one smelling different but just as rank as the last. The hospital room had absolutely no fans, and they'd had to watch two of their co-workers pass out from the heat and exhaustion. What happened to them, Bones and Adellia weren't sure, but they certainly did not come back.

They worked from day to night, and even a little bit more than that. Finally, however, as Adellia's eyes began to force themselves shut, they were ordered to return to their cells. They were lined up, masked, and marched back to the cells. She found that she actually began to miss the cells a little bit…at least she was able to sit down, and whisper to Bones.

As they waited to go into the cells, Adellia touched Bones' hand. In retrospect, doing this with a mask on was a stupid idea to begin with, because it would inevitably lead to somebody hurting them. She felt a blunt object on her temple, and was nearly knocked out onto the hot, unforgiving ground, but another Cardassian caught her. When her mask was taken off, she looked over to Bones, who winced. He could see the bruise already forming on the side of her head, and he hated that he could do anything about it.

----

For three days this process continued. On the third day, Adellia nearly collapsed in her cell when she came back after a day of working. They'd lost many nurses and a few doctors to heat or exhaustion—or both—because of how little they were fed and allowed to drink water. She leaned as closed to the bars as she could without touching it. The bruise on her temple was now a very dark and unfortunate-looking shade of green. The blue dress she wore was dirty, and her insignia had fallen off days ago. Her feet had blisters from the boots, and her hair hung by the side of her head, stringy.

Bones' pants wore torn on the bottom, and his shirt had been modified to allow his arms to breath. His own hair was constantly messed up, and he had a good three days of dark growth on his chin, up to his ears, and down his neck a little bit. Both of their faces were constantly sweaty, and their eyes were always begging to be closed.

He glanced over to her, through the bars. "I saw Jim today," he croaked out, nodding. "In the mess hall. He sent me a message with his potatoes saying most people were still all right, but they had killed a few. No news from Starfleet." He looked sadly to her. Would they ever get news from Starfleet? Did they not notice where they were, or how they never responded?

Adellia just sort of nodded at the news. She wasn't surprised, but at the same time, she was quite let-down by it. She thought maybe Kirk had heard good news, but…she doubted that he would ever heard good news. "At least most everybody is still okay," she mumbled, shivering a little bit throughout her body.

"When we get off this god-forsaken planet…well, first of all, I'm getting a drink. And hell, so are you. But second of all…" Bones sighed, preparing himself to say this, even if he did mean it from the bottom of his heart. He would always be uncomfortable. "Second of all, things will be different. I'm not going to act like a standoffish dick anymore. I'm doing it up right."

Adellia smiled to herself. "That would be most appreciated. I promise I won't be as sensitive as I have been lately, and I will try not to take things to my heart so much." His response was a grunt, but she knew he was listening, and that he appreciated it. "Bones," she said gently, her voice very shaky as she did.

"Yeah?" he asked, his voice quiet but strong, for her.

"I miss you."

"I miss you, too, darling."