"What the hell was that?" Leonard asked her angrily. "The way that guy was looking at you was…"

"Unsettling," she finished for him. "He was analyzing us, Leonard. All of us. Now that he's done that, he'll know all of our weaknesses and how best to manipulate them. That's why his face resembled a predator. Let's work on the blood." She didn't want to talk about Harrison. Even the mention of his name would send an uncomfortable shiver up her spine. He was like a dangerous animal that you couldn't help but be fascinated by – perhaps because it was so dangerous.

She and Leonard were silent with each other as they prepped the samples for analysis. Leonard had gathered by now that Charlie was shaken in some way or another by her encounter with the man who was now their prisoner but what he didn't know was why. Sure, the guy was clearly mentally deranged, a situation that nothing new to them. He couldn't for the life of him conjure any reason why this maniac should be any different than some of the other ones they had encountered.

By now the machines were doing most the work so they headed to the bridge, still not saying a word to each other.

"Are you out of your corn-fed mind?" Leonard cried. "You aren't actually considering believing this guy are you?"

"I agree with the doctor," Spock added.

"Don't agree with me, Spock, it makes me very uncomfortable."

"Perhaps you too should learn to govern your emotions, Doctor."

Beyond that, Charlie began to tune them out, considering the situation for herself. She knew that Harrison was manipulating them; it was so glaringly obvious. But the fact that he was manipulating them didn't necessarily mean they shouldn't investigate. Besides, it was weird that Scotty had not been allowed to know the contents of the seventy-two torpedoes – seventy-two being a very specifically important number for Harrison. Her own curiosity regarding his obsession with the torpedoes got the better of her. "I think we should check it out, Captain," she interjected quietly.

Kirk nodded in affirmation. "We're going to open a torpedo: the question is how.

"Nobody here is qualified to open up a four ton stick of dynamite." As usual, when Leonard got flustered his southern accent came through loud and clear.

"The admiral's daughter showed some interest in the torpedoes and she is a weapons specialist," Spock suggested.

"What admiral's daughter?" Kirk's signature stupid look spread through his face. (Charlie had become all too familiar with that face from the academy.)

"Carol Marcus. Your new science officer concealed her identity to get aboard the ship." Did she detect a hint of smugness on his face? Charlie had never thought that vulcans were capable of jealousy but perhaps Spock's human side was bleeding through.

Carol Marcus quickly explained to them that she could open a torpedo on a nearby planetoid but she would need some help. Charlie had understood that 'help' meant another science officer accompanying Marcus but Charlie hadn't assumed that the science officer accompanying Marcus would be Leonard. He himself had said that there was no one on board who was qualified to open up a four ton stick of dynamite.

Charlie had intended to stay on the bridge for every minute he was near that damn torpedo, but Leonard reminded her of something. "We need another blood sample and I want to get on that as soon as I get back on the ship. Could you get the sample and start prepping the lab?" Of all times he had been on an away team, this had to be the one where Charlie couldn't have almost instantaneous updates. "And try not to be around that asshole any longer than you have to."

"Fine." She knew that her own personal feelings should not be getting in the way of her ability to do her job but it was difficult when Leonard was trying to take apart a torpedo. (She could be wrong, but she was pretty sure that they had never attended a torpedo training course in their medical classes at the academy.

Kirk looked at her sympathetically. "Here," he said, handing her a small listening device to put in her ear. "You'll be able to hear everything that's going on with Bones with this thing."

Charlie felt enormously grateful to Kirk as she made her way to the brig where Harrison stood patiently waiting. "Ah, it's nice to see you again, Dr. Jacobs."

"I need another blood sample," she replied curtly.

While she was taking the sample, she heard Kirk making a quip about Leonard helping with the torpedo. "When I imagined myself stranded on a planet with a pretty woman, it didn't involve any torpedoes," Leonard grumbled.

"Bones, I'll remind you that you're not there to flirt."

"How can these legendary hands help you Dr. Marcus?"

"Bones, you do realize that Charlie can hear everything we're saying, right? You might want to shut up."

"Shit."

Charlie rolled her eyes a little bit at Leonard's attempts to charm Marcus; she wasn't mad, she just thought that it was ridiculous he would be doing it at a time like this. Harrison had been watching her every move so of course he noticed to reaction to Leonard. "Dr. McCoy has a very lively personality, though he can be very easy to manipulate. Tell me, Dr. Jacobs, did your staring earlier upset him? He had to have noticed that your eyes were completely trained on me. Is he always so incompetent while he works?" Charlie ignored him as she inserted the needle into his arm and it quickly began to fill with his enigmatic blood. He saw that he was getting nowhere with that, so he continued. "Were you staring because you find me attractive, Dr. Jacobs?"

This, at least, elicited a small response. She raised her eyebrows dubiously before saying "No, Mr. Harrison, that is not the case at all. You're a scientific anomaly to be studied and nothing more."

"Do you really believe that? I certainly don't. I think that you are mesmerized by me; I could see it in your eyes on Kronos and I can see it in your eyes now."

Before Harrison could continue, Charlie heard a commotion going on with the torpedo. The device had armed itself, due to detonate in thirty seconds, with Leonard's arm locked inside. Her heart stopped and she dropped the needle on the floor. (Thankfully it was shatterproof.) Not Leonard. She was leaning against a wall for support when the crisis was averted and stayed there for a few moments afterwards to collect herself. But the damage had been done: Harrison had been studying her the entire time and now knew her weaknesses just as well as he knew everyone else's.

"So happy that Dr. McCoy made it," he smirked. Of course with his superior hearing he had been able to pick up on every word coming from the device inside her ear. "Perhaps he is not the only one who lets his personal feelings interfere with his duties as a medical officer."

She picked the needle up off the ground, as composed as she had been before the torpedo incident. "I don't know what you're talking about." Before she left, she stared at the blood in the needle with curiosity.

"I can see now, though, that you were telling the truth when you said your fascination with me was purely scientific. You should know that if your friends don't do as I say, we will all die on this ship."

"I can assure you that's not going to happen."

Charlie was so incredibly irritated with herself as she prepped the lab, having removed the communication device from her ear. Before she could properly prepare for the tests they needed to run, she was hailed by Kirk. "Dr. Jacobs, I need you to stop whatever you're doing right now and prepare med bay for something…weird."

Weird? What the hell did he mean by weird? Of course, her answer came in the form of a torpedo that held a person inside of it. Just when she thought her day could not get any weirder. Charlie, Leonard and Marcus began buzzing around the torpedo trying to read the life signs of the person inside.

"Could we try to revive him?" Kirk asked.

"I wouldn't risk it," Charlie answered. "This cryotube would require a special sequence to open it."

"To make matters worse it's three hundred years old so we can't figure the damn thing out. I'm a doctor, not a historic technologies expert."

"We may have to go to Harrison for answers, as loathe as I am to admit we need his help." And Charlie did hate to ask for his help but she was beginning to suspect more and more that Khan was a far less significant threat to the Enterprise and its crew than Admiral Marcus was.

Kirk went with Spock to investigate Harrison while Charlie and Leonard continued to study both the human Popsicle torpedo and the blood of the 'superman'.

"What happened when you were talking to him?" Leonard asked.

"Nothing."

"Bullshit. Something happened so I'm asking what he said to you."

"He tried to manipulate me, study me, and scare me. I'm irritated with him and nothing more; you have nothing to worry about. Why are you so agitated?" Harrison had said that Leonard was upset because she had been staring at him. Could that be true? Leonard hated the bastard but did he actually believe that Charlie could be attracted to the man who had attacked Starfleet?

"I don't like that guy," he growled.

"Neither do I but for the time being we're forced to work with him. I don't trust him, but so far he's been more honest with us than Admiral Marcus and that has to count for something. I'm curious as to his explanation for the torpedoes. I still can't fathom why the hell there are people in them."

Before their conversation could continue any further, Harrison was being transported into med bay with an escort of security officers. This, of course, did nothing to ease Charlie's nervousness around Harrison or Leonard's jealousy. "It's so nice to see you again, Dr. Jacobs."

"Shut up, Harrison," she groaned.

"It's Khan, actually. I have just informed your captain about my true identity and Admiral Marcus' true intentions."

Admiral Marcus had always given Charlie the creeps – almost as much as Khan did. If the Admiral was doing something less than scrupulous, she wouldn't be at all surprised. With Leonard watching her every move, she wasn't about to show any interest in Khan's history with the Admiral, but that interest was there nevertheless.

The med bay rocked only slightly, indicating that they had gone into warp. "At least we're moving again," Leonard sighed. The sooner they got home, the sooner this Khan bastard would be out of his life.

"If you think you're safe at warp, you're wrong." Khan's demeanor was no longer the mocking one that he had shown with Charlie only moments earlier. Now he was utterly serious, as if awaiting his own death. His comment appeared to distress Dr. Marcus and she ran from the med bay, presumably heading towards the bridge.

Charlie and Leonard looking at each other, both forgetting the stress that Khan had exerted on them that day. The ship began to quake violently, as if for the sole purpose of proving Khan to be correct.

"Are we being attacked at warp?" Charlie asked Khan. His look told her all he needed to know. Within moments, the injured began to flood into med bay: it was time for the Jacobs/McCoy team to work its magic. Judging by the condition of the people entering the med bay, Charlie and Leonard gathered that the Enterprise was taking substantial damage from Admiral Marcus' ship.

What came as a surprise was when Kirk entered, making a beeline for Khan. Charlie and Leonard had returned their attentions to studying Khan's cells after the initial chaos of being hit by the Admiral. After Khan had left, Leonard let out a sigh of relief. "I am not going to miss that asshole."

"You know that you never had anything to worry about, right? He was only every a scientific interest, Leonard, and the only person on this ship I have a romantic interest in is currently injecting Khan's blood into a dead tribble."

"I know it was stupid," he grumbled. "I've just never seen you look at someone like that before and I assumed…"

"It was an intense curiosity," she admitted. "I've never seen anyone like Khan before; after all, weren't you the one who just told Kirk that Khan's cells regenerate like nothing you've ever seen? He also happened to be a very important piece to this entire confusing puzzle."

Before they could finish their research on the tribble, they were hailed by Spock. "What do you want, Spock?" Leonard asked. "We're a little busy right now."

"Captain Kirk seems to believe that having you and Dr. Jacobs on the bridge makes for a more effective bridge dynamic and aides him in his decision-making process. I am not yet sure whether or not I ascribe to that belief but as I have confidence in Jim's abilities as a Captain, I am willing to try one or two of his methods."

"Thanks, Spock, we'll be right there," Charlie answered, turning the monitor off. "Right now it's just a waiting game, anyway."

Once they made it to the bridge, Spock did something very unexpected: he called the 'other Spock'. It was about the weirdest thing that Charlie had ever experienced. One Spock was confusing enough; two would probably be absolutely mystifying. However, it made perfect sense to her when 'other Spock' said that Khan was one of the most dangerous men that he had ever encountered. Charlie ascertained that the moment he saw him nearly single-handedly take down an entire team of Klingons.

"Lt. Uhura, I need you to send all senior medical staff to the weapons bay." What the hell was Spock's plan?

"Dr. McCoy, you inadvertently activated a torpedo: can you replicate the process?"

"Why the hell would I want to do that?"

"Can you replicate it?"

"Dammit, man, I'm a doctor not a torpedo technician."

"The fact that you're a doctor is precisely the reason I need you to listen very carefully."

Now Charlie and Leonard were making their way towards the weapons bay. "Aren't you the one who's always saying that Spock is a heartless bastard? I can't believe you actually approve of one of his ideas."

"I've never said he was a heartless bastard," Leonard protested. "I've only ever said that his heart is pumped full of green ice-water and is in an entirely wrong location. Knowing this, I've only ever suggested that Spock's heart was in the wrong place; I meant it literally."

"Whatever." She rolled her eyes, happy that she and Leonard had at least resolved on of their problems since Khan had boarded the Enterprise.

A/N: A short chapter, I know, but this was the best possible way to stop – especially for what I have planned for the next chapter. One question: how am I writing Khan? I don't want him to be OOC.