His eyes seemed fixated on just a few parts of the message, seeming to imprint them into his mind. "Prolonged exposure to excessively high levels. Evidence of systemic saturation. Point of contact from mid-scapula region to under clavicle on both sides." "There is every possibility of the patient being unaware of ingestion as tasteless." "The patient would not have been aware of the gradual changes constant inhalation cause. The patient would exhibit and experience false sense of being in control despite what others tell them." He might not have known but Fallet would have. "Puppet." That was what he had become and Fallet had pulled the strings. All the other times he had been under the influence of substances he had known: the spores, the tears; every time he had known but not this time. Not once had he suspected anything, he had thought it was just him being in the role. He had not been fully aware of how his actions were effecting the crew, not even when he had… Damn him! If Spock died there would be no, absolutely no stopping him from killing Fallet. As it was he wanted to pummel him to a pulp.

"You come in now. Alone."

As he stood up he was aware of the others all watching him. Kirk knew that they could not seen the screen but that over they years they had watched him, in a way studied him, and could read his body language better than anything written. Uhura lightly touched his arm and said, "We will go check on the progress of the repairs and come back shortly. I'll bring you something to eat and some coffee."

It was a small steam-filled room not unlike one on the Enterprise. A very pungent smell and a small but deep bathtub like structure in the middle with Spock in it in a brownish liquid that, when Kirk cautiously reached out and dipped a finger in it to experience a sample of what Spock was enduring, was very sticky and had a caused a slight tingling, almost stinging, sensation It clearly was the source of the bitterly spicy aroma of the room. Actually it was more of a stench than an aroma. One of the young men handed Kirk a small mask and large cylinder, "You are to wear this as it is normal air for the attendee. When more is added to the bath you will get a new cylinder. Sit on the stool and ensure the flotation devise keeps his head out of the liquid. You are to hold his hand so he knows you are with him. You may talk to him. He may be greatly confused as the gainine is still trying to claim him."

Kirk nodded his thanks as he took the items the young man held out and, after adjusting it and taking some deep breaths of air, sat on the small stool by the bath. For a moment he sat just looking at his friend trying not to think of what he had said and what he had just read. All that mattered now was to keep Spock alive. All the rest he would deal with later. Carefully he checked that the flotation device they had under Spock's chin was keeping his head well clear of the liquid and he could easily breathe. Only then did he take Spock's hand. "It's Jim, Spock. I'm right here. The others have gone to make sure what you, Uhura and McCoy started gets done. From all I have heard you three got a lot done in a short time."

"Uhura, communication. McCoy, medical."

"You just rest. We will talk later."

"My report?"

A moment of shock seized Kirk as it was not like Spock not to remember things about his reports but then he sighed as this would be the confusion the youth had told him about and a fear then threatened to take hold as he remembered how the youth had said it was a sign that the gainine was still trying to claim him

"Janet found your pad and retrieved the report. Uhura has sent it."

"Janet and Uhura, good team."

"Don't talk. Just rest. I'll be right here." For a moment his was quiet then he carefully reached out to quickly and lightly brush Spock's fringe back into place, "That was not an order, Spock. I am asking you to just rest and know I am right here. We can talk later."

Briefly the eyes opened and Kirk saw the echoes of the conflict and confusion that he had seen before, "You'll stay."

Quickly Kirk placed his other hand on top of Spock's hand already being held, encircling it, and gave a reassuring squeeze not sure if Spock had made a statement of asked a question. "I'm staying right here with you all the time, Spock. I will only leave you if you want me to or that woman says I have to."

There was a slight nod before the eyes closed and yet Kirk was still unsure if Spock fully understood or, if he did, if he believed him. Kirk did not want to think of a life not just without Spock but, if Spock lived, a life without what they had had for so long. Spock had seen him under the influences of outside forces before, there was no denying that, and none of those occasions had effected that special connection they have, had. Had. This time the influence was different. This time he had not been aware of being under any influence, he had believed he was just experience what it was like for Fallet, he was not willing to acknowledge he had not been under control. "A false sense of being in control despite what others tell them" came back to him along with what he had said to Spock and how he had said it.

Time seemed to lose all meaning as he sat watching Spock's chest rise and fall, hearing how each breath was an effort. All of this was his fault. He should have stopped Fallet's actions, should have been the first one to start rectifying what had been done. Humans were more immune to gainine and vaccination worked for them but not Vulcans.

A hand rested briefly on his shoulder and he looked up into the face of the old woman who was clearly studying him, "You are the one he cares much about and you care much about him. Now you will need that understanding as he will not want to drink this." she set a covered container on the floor, "but he must. This is a litre but he must drink six hundred mils. Humans have a drink that is not as strong but Vulcans have different blood so some Vulcan herbs have been added. He will not want to drink but you must make him. He will remember your angry words to him and fight verbally as he is too weak, even by Human standards, to fight physically though he will try, and you must let him without retaliation as it is not him fighting you but the gainine. The gainine is still trying to claim his mind so he will be confused. The drink stops it in body and mind. Change air containers now."

Once the woman had gone curiosity got the better of Kirk when he took the lid of the canister so he dipped his index finger into the hot liquid and tasted the few drops. Almost immediately he regretted the action as his mouth felt on fire and he knew he could not have swallowed any of it.

Gently he shook Spock's shoulder and held the container to his lips when Spock opened his eyes, "Spock, you have to drink this. It combats the gainine. It does not taste nice but you have to drink it."

Spock took one mouthful, a second, and after the third he vomited. Kirk glanced at the level on the container then set it down and held Spock as his body heaved trying to clear his stomach of the fluid. "I know it tastes bad but you have to drink it, all of it."

Spock looked at him in silence for a moment, some of the regurgitated liquid still on his chin. "Is that an order, Captain?"

It was more than just the question and Kirk knew it. He knew the Vulcan as well as he knew himself and he knew that Spock was also asking so much more. The woman had said he would fight verbally and would remember his last angry words. Kirk also knew that this was not the time to confront all of that.

"No, no it is not an order, Spock. I won't make it an order. I need you to drink all of this to combat the gainine. I need my friend and my First Officer with me and for that to happen you must drink this." He saw the dark eyes looking up at him and knew they were looking into him, "I need you and you need this. You have more to drink every day for five days."

"And then?"

"Then we go back to the ship. Here, take some more." Spock drank some more and again vomited part of it, but Kirk noticed he was retaining more.

"Vulcan herb extracts. Bitter."

"A little bit more and that's all for now." Kirk did not know if Spock was drinking because he had to for his own sake, because he was following an order, or because his friend had asked him. It was enough for now that Spock drank what he had to. As the old woman had said, he did vomit a great deal but he easily drank six hundred mils.

Dark eyes looked at him, "Tired. You staying?"

Kirk carefully wiped the last traces of vomit from his friend's face, picked up his hand, and gave it a squeeze as he said, "I told you I was staying right here."

"The ship. Who?"

"You just rest. The ship has a good crew. We will go back in five days. You rest."

"You'll stay?" There was still the conflict and confusion about Spock's eyes but there was also a strange certainty yet pleading. "The gainine is still trying to claim his mind"

Kirk moved closer to the bath and kept looking into his friend's eyes, "I'm not leaving you, Spock. I'm staying right here."

"Drink soporific. You stay I sleep."

"I'll be right here, Spock. You sleep." As he watched his friend's breathing change into the deep relaxed state that indicated he was sleeping Kirk hoped that through their contact his friend could not detect what he wanted to do to Fallet. He hoped this friend could not detect his fear of losing him to gainine, to Fallet. As Kirk looked at his friend he only hoped somehow this precious being knew what he meant to him. But he knew it was all over to Spock now.

Memories came to him in flashes. Disjointed. Kaleidoscopic with not sequence. Working on his report. Explosion. The Enterprise. Hazel eyes with a feverish fury. "Stay the hell out of my life." Bannet Base. Gainine. McCoy and Uhura in danger. Pipe only way to them. Feet hurt. Something in him. Cellular collapse an unusual sensation. Something clouding his mind. "That cussed Vulcan side of you should want to show the human side which is stronger." His feet and legs warm. A slowing of cellular collapse. A familiar hand grasping his. Familiar fingers touching his face but not trying to enter his mind. Something about Jim saying goodbye. Jim. The Captain. The eyes. The eyes were wrong. Horrible taste. McCoy's treatment? The Captain making him drink the vile liquid. Not an order. Concern in the same voice that had told him to stay out of his life. He had stayed. He held his hand. No. To him just another officer. Not even that. What? "You are nothing to me but an insubordinate subordinate officer." His report. Janet found it. Uhura sent it. Ordered to drink that bitter liquid. Held as vomited. Wiped face. Holding hand. The hazel eyes were not right before. Before. On the ship. Eyes were wrong. Not Jim's eyes. Not Jim. Logic dictates sleep. Gainine fatal to Vulcans yet his human half. Human half and that liquid. Jim had said he had to drink it. Jim there then all were there. All had come. McCoy had said they would. Fallet? No, McCoy had not said his name. Just them. Jim and them. He would sleep. They were there. Jim, Jim held his hand. Would watch over him. His eyes were his now. Strange eyes then. Now eyes to watch over him. He could sleep.

The second container of the pungent liquid he had to make Spock drink was as eventful as the first but Spock as not as violently sick as before and said nothing but did briefly grip his hand tighter before going back to sleep.

When Kirk looked at the old woman as he handed her back the container she nodded slightly, "It had more Vulcan herbs but next one will have none. The next one he will not want and you may have to force him to swallow it. Two of my apprentices will be there to hold him for you while you make him swallow. It is the most potent as it makes him force out the poison which is why he will be swaddled for twelve hours afterwards. The drink will almost immediately also purge his systems. This helps it start to get the poison totally out of his body. The drink will also move the poison to where the herbs in the swaddling can draw it out. He will be delirious as it is not a Vulcan way but it then starts drawing the gainine from his body. Again the words may not make sense but it is not him it is the gainine. By the third day he will be more lucid and by the fifth he will be as he was only lacking the physical strength the gainine has taken from him."

For a moment she just looked at him and Kirk knew she was seeing something others did not, "You doubting yourself is something he would not like. His confusion is because of the gainine. He will know your angry words were just that, words. He being here with him proves they were just words with no substance. Your hand holding his is substance. He will know that."

After the woman left Kirk just sat holding Spock's hand and reflected on what she had said and felt relieved. Bones had often told him of the wisdom of these old fashioned healers, had often told him how rare they were and how so much of the medicine used on starships came from such humble beginnings.

When the woman went back into the room the rest of the crew were waiting in five pairs of concerned eyes looked at him and one pair of indifferent eyes. She looked at the man who seemed so removed from what was going on. "Should the Vulcan die I do not think anything I can do will keep you alive."

Fallet started, "I am," then went quiet when the woman simply raised an index finger.

"You are not welcome in my house. It is bad enough you are on this base. Till they leave you will stay in that room," she pointed to a door, "you will find ablution facilities and a bed. Meals will be brought to you. My apprentices will help you get there if need be. Move."

For a moment Fallet hesitated till he saw the build of the male apprentices and the set look on their faces and then he went meekly into the room. The woman then looked at the five others, "There are beds in that room there for you," she pointed to another door, "and meals will be brought to you shortly." she looked at Uhura, "My apprentices have made meals in accordance with not only what we have but with what you told Janet you eat. There is a different meal for the one sitting in there. He will need it as the hardest time is yet to come for him. Many cannot bear to be with the other at such times but it is important for the one who is ill. During the time of the first swaddling they are as newborns only with adult nightmares. This is when real emotions and feelings are exposed as they relive the angry words."

"That would not change what either of them feel about one another. They are like one." Uhura had maintained eye contact with the old woman.

There was silence as the two women looked at one another and the old woman nodded, "They will need to be for the one who came will see what the other is really going through, what they have gone through, with gainine. I have seen many just walk away from the other after this stage."

"You won't see that with them."

The old woman nodded, "Many have said that but they do walk one who is Vulcan has, as his people, deep emotions they do not speak of and it is the sudden release of these that make the others leave. But enough of this. Go eat for the one who came will need all of you after the third drink. He will need all of you while my apprentices swaddle the infected one."

Even the aroma of the third drink was different. It caught in Kirk's throat and he wondered how he would get Spock to swallow any of it. The two apprentices he had been told about stood nearby. The old woman looked at him, "Do it now. He must drink all of this while it is still hot."

At first Spock had willingly taken about three mouthfuls and then closed his mouth and shook his head. He had looked at Kirk accusingly and said, "No. No more. No more. Not my friend. No." Kirk later could not remember much of what happened apart from the two apprentices coming forward and holding Spock still, tilting his head back so Kirk could pour the liquid into his mouth and one of them taking his hand and making him stoke Spock's his throat to make him swallow. It had been a mixture of fury and gratitude when that apprentice had taken his hand as he knew he could not have done it on his own. Not with Spock looking at him as he was. Not even knowing that gainine was still in his friend's systems and clouding his reality. Almost as soon as Spock had swallowed the last of it and had regurgitated a small amount Kirk saw his body start to contort and watched as the two apprentices held him as his body twisted and writhed in obvious pain, and they struggled to keep his head above the churning sludge till his body went limp.