Author's Note: Hey everyone, here's chapter ten – oooh double digit chapter numbers – I'm all excited! LOL! Anyway, here's chapter ten. Please read and review because I won't keep writing if I feel like no one's reading. That would just be a waste of time. LOL! Anyway, on to chapter ten…Rock on!

-RadcliffePotter

Phlox, his orderlies, and the gurney flew down the hallways of Enterprise. Crewmen jumped out of the way as the medical team blazed past them. Captain Archer was flatlining again. "We've got V-Fib!" he yelled in frustration. Damn it! thought Phlox in frustration, This is just like before He felt a sense of dread flood his body as he remembered the last time this had happened: the sense of urgency, confidence in his own skills, then resignation, and finally sadness as he realized his good friend and Captain had passed on. After what seemed like a ridiculous amount of time, the medical team reached sickbay and headed straight to surgical suite. An orderly with a brown mop of hair cut off the top of Archer's uniform as Phlox prepared the paddles. "Hypoxia is setting in!" yelled the brown haired orderly over Archer's body. "Damn it!" Phlox muttered. Archer's body was running out of oxygen now that his heart had gone into ventricular fibrillation and a lack of oxygen for too long could lead to brain damage, which was perhaps irreversible. Phlox was not about to let that happen to his good friend, not as long as he was there and able to do something.

He placed the two paddles on Archer's chest, yelled, "Clear!" and the paddles zapped with electricity causing Archer's body to arch off the bed. Phlox paused, paddles hovering anxiously over Archer's chest as all of them watched the monitors for a sign of a heartbeat. After a tense second, the heart beat was back. "Steady rhythm!" yelled the brown haired orderly in relief. "Pulse is returning normal," Phlox let out a breath that he hadn't realized he had been holding. "Alright," he said, his voice still tense, "Let's move him into sickbay onto one of the biobeds. I want him to be kept on watch for more symptoms similar to those we just saw, and I want an IV of analgesic started straight away,"

As the orderlies cleaned up the surgical suite, Phlox and the brown haired orderly moved Captain Archer out into sickbay. As soon as he was placed upon the biobed, his vitals sprang up on the monitors above the bed. "Good...good…" Phlox muttered, and then paused. Archer's heart beat, respiration, and pain gauges were within good limits, but something just struck him as wrong. He slid the biobed into the scanner and performed several scans on Captain Archer's still unconscious body. Reading the scans eagerly, something struck Phlox as out of place. In the first few seconds after Archer's body had slid into the scanner, the brain waves had been erratic and inconsistent with the Captain's usual brain waves. However, a split second after this realization, the brain wave readings had stabilized and were back to normal.

As the biobed slid back out of the scanner, Phlox chalked up the abnormal brain wave readings to the stress and trauma of whatever the Captain's latest experiences had been. As long the Captain seemed better once he awoke, Phlox didn't see this fluke reading as anything to be alarmed at. As Phlox began filling out forms detailing the latest medical crisis to give to Malcolm to include in his "incident report", the brown haired orderly put in an IV line with analgesic and a catheter. Over the next few hours, Archer continued to stabilize. Phlox was pleased with the readings he was receiving and he felt confident that Archer should soon wake up.

Just as Phlox predicted, Archer woke up about an hour later. The biobed beeped to let Phlox know that Archer was waking up. Phlox approached the bed in time to see Archer's eyes flutter open. He glanced around unseeing, his vision hazy. Archer blinked several times and cleared his throat awkwardly before glancing next to his bed to see Phlox. "Where…" Archer began tentatively in a gravelly voice. He cleared his throat and tried again, "Where am I?" Phlox pulled up a stool next to the biobed and sat down, scrutinizing Archer very carefully. "What's the last thing you remember?"

Archer's head rolled restlessly to look at Phlox before he answered uncertainly, "Aliens, in the corridor…" Phlox nodded in agreement. "Correct Captain. What happened after that?" Archer stared about sickbay before turning his gaze back to Phlox. A look of recognition flashed across his features, "Phlox," he said softly. Phlox gave a gentle smile and nodded. "Welcome back Captain," he said. "Can you remember what happened once the aliens were in the hallway?" Archer struggled to remember what had happened. "Security…The Security team was in the hallway. The aliens had beamed in and the security team was fighting them off. Malcolm and I had gone down to help. Olivia was there – I saw her, and then the lizard thing was right behind us. It shot her, and then…" Archer looked helplessly at Phlox. "I can't remember any more."

Phlox patted Archer's shoulder reassuringly. "It's alright Captain. You have been through a very traumatic experience; just take it easy for a while." Rather than heeding Phlox's advice however, Archer got up off the biobed. "Captain," said Phlox warningly, familiar with Archer's stubbornness, "Captain," he repeated, "You really should get back into bed for awhile." Archer ignored him and rummaged in the closet for a clean uniform. "Phlox," Archer said with his familiar charming grin back in place, "I've been off my bridge for far too long and I feel fine. If you have any objections to me leaving now, please tell me,"

Phlox hesitated. His medical instincts were telling him to keep the Captain in sickbay, forcibly if he had to, yet the Captain did seem to be fine. He was acting normally and was even smiling his usual grin. "Doctor?" said Archer impatiently. "Well," said Phlox, "I really think it would be in your best interests to stay here, just for today. I can only assume that you have had a traumatic experience," Phlox was hesitant at the moment to mention the fact that last time he had seen Archer he had been thoroughly dead and in a casket. This might, obviously, be a rather startling thing to say, especially to someone who was now definitely alive. Phlox paused, pondering his next move. "Captain," he said quietly, "you remember that the alien in the hallway shot Olivia, but do you remember what happened after that?"

Archer screwed up his face, clearly thinking hard, "No, why?" he said finally. Phlox was torn about whether he should say what had really happened. He decided better to be truthful right now than have the Captain overhear gossip about him death. "Captain," Phlox said determinedly, "You were shot in the chest by the alien in the corridor. Olivia was shot three times trying to save you. Shortly after that, security was able to defeat the aliens in the corridor and Enterprise fought off their ship. You and Olivia were brought to sickbay. Olivia died in surgery; her wounds were too extensive for me to save her. You went into surgery after her…" he faltered now that he had to come to the part about Archer dying. "In the surgical suite, you were unstable and you flatlined five times. The fifth time – we couldn't bring you back. You were officially dead that day – and now you're here and you're alive. I don't know how to explain it, but it's true." Archer paled visibly at the mention of his own death and clutched at the counter for support.

"You're telling me," he said shakily, "that I – died a few days ago and now I'm alive again?" Phlox smiled a small grin. "Well, it's obvious to both of us that you are alive now, but how you got that way, I don't know,"

"What do you mean?" asked Archer, now looking thoroughly confused. "I woke up here and you tell me I was dead and yet you had nothing to do with me being alive now?"

"To be honest," said Phlox, "I can only give you limited information. You died, T'Pol was given control of the ship and she informed the crew of the demise of yourself and Olivia. We held a funeral service several days later. As the funeral was finishing, there was a bright flash of light and both of your bodies were gone," Phlox looked at Archer who, if possible, looked paler than before.

Phlox steered the clearly shocked Archer back to the biobed. As Archer laid back down on the biobed, he said, "What happened after that?" Phlox inspected the vital readings above the bed before answering. Archer was clearly agitated by the whole thing. Phlox walked over to the cabinet, retrieved a hypospray filled with a mild sedative, and injected it into Captain Archer's neck. "This should help you relax a little," he said with a kind glance before answering Archer's question, "After that, I don't know what happened. The ship was on red alert and things were tense. People were searching all over the ship and scanning space to try to find your bodies, but nothing was found. For a few days, things were strange and gossip was running high about what had happened to you two. Earlier today, we received an audio transmission from someone or something, saying that they were 'done' with you and you appeared on the bridge,"

Archer looked blankly at Phlox. "Really?" he said looking dazed. "Yes, you were…" Phlox trailed off searching for the right words, "incoherent and combatative. My orderlies and I rushed you to the surgical suite. You flatlined along the way but we were able to bring you back. Since then, your vitals have been improving. It doesn't seem that whoever had you did any permanent harm to you. I did get some abnormal brain readings briefly, but..."

"What?" Archer cut harshly across him, "What do you mean abnormal brain readings?" Phlox looked at him, surprised by his outburst, "Well, the brain waves deviated from your usual patterns that we have on record, but it was only for a second,"

"So it's nothing to worry about?" Archer said looking at Phlox carefully. "No. I shouldn't think so," said Phlox reassuringly, "If nothing else, I should think that being brought back from the dead would be a great stress to the body,"

"Since I'm fine," said Archer hopefully, "Does that mean I can leave sickbay yet?" Phlox gave a loud, short laugh at Archer's stubbornness as the sickbay doors flew open bringing with them someone Archer greatly wanted to see.

Okay, so there it is. I hope that you all enjoyed it. Sorry it took so long to get up, but it's only a half a week of classes and then gasp finals, so I'm really working on studying for my finals – especially my math final. So wish me luck on my math final, and I'll try to have the next chapter up as soon as possible given the circumstances. Let me know what you think of the chapter. Rock on!

-RadcliffePotter