Mouthing Thank you, Hikaru as she disengaged from the equipment, Uhura ran to the turbolift and literally punched Sickbay level into the controls. To gain seconds she manually stopped the 'lift, banging her elbow hard enough to bruise as she ran through doors not fully opened.

Banging the same elbow again on the doors to Sickbay, she frantically searched for McCoy or Grayson or Jim, unsure what had happened, who was sick or injured. Her eyes located Jim and McCoy standing next to a med-bed. That left Grayson as the sick or injured party.

"What's going on!?" she shrieked

"Uhura, relax. Grayson took a spill, that's all. He's fine!"

Moving Jim aside, despite his attempt to calm her, she reached the med-bed. Grayson sat cross-legged with a surgical drape encircling his body. The drape sagged with the weight of dried and drying green blood from the boy's injuries which included an assortment of scrapes, cuts, true lacerations and gouges. Opposite her position, McCoy carefully sutured gut stitches into the partially shaved head of her three-year old.

"Whoa! Don't touch him while Bones is using that needle." Jim exclaimed, wrapping Uhura in his arms to stop her forward progress towards Grayson. The buzz each felt became painful on their skin, a reminder to Uhura that she wanted distance between them ASAP. The buzz showed up whenever they got close physically, starting in a bar in Iowa.

"Let me go! You were supposed to be watching him!"

"I was watching him! He fell off his bike, that's all!"

"He doesn't have a bike!" she snarled at him, twisting to get free of his arms.

"Dammit, you two! Act like you have some sense or I'll put you BOTH out of here!" McCoy yelled at the two shocked adults.

"The only one here acting grown up is Grayson! Aren't you, son?"

"I'm sorry Len. You can let me go, Captain!" This last came with some heat directly into Kirk's ear. Releasing her, he rubbed his ear canal with a knuckle trying to stop the ringing.

Uhura moved closer to Grayson, gently laying a hand on his back and one on his bent knee.

"How are you sweetheart?"

"I'm alright. Mama, guess what!?"

"What, sweetheart?" Uhura asked, raising the closer of his two hands and kissing the back of it tenderly.

"I can ride a bike!"

"You did great, buddy. Couple of bumps and bruises is all." Jim encouraged him, full of pride at the day's accomplishments.

The heat of her anger pushed Jim a few steps away.

"So, Bones - he's okay, right?" Jim asked a bit more sheepishly.

McCoy shot a "Are You Really That Stupid?" look at Kirk before delivering his medical opinion.

"There are no internal injuries and no concussion. No broken bones. He's got about 29 scrapes, 16 cuts needed antiseptic and another 7 I had to bandage, 2 lacerations on his hand where he tried to catch himself that I put surgical adhesive on and a couple of bumps that will go down in a few days with ice packs. The big ouchie -"

Kirk's eyebrows shot up at McCoy's use of the word "ouchie". Grayson was the only child on the ship, although McCoy reported 19 pregnancies in his last medical update. McCoy was getting soft with all these babies coming, Kirk decided.

"- is this cut I stitched up. Looks like his helmet slid forward and left this small part of his head near his neck exposed. That's where the bike landed on him. Gut stitches will mend better than derma-sealer - he'll grow all his hair back. How are you doing, cowboy? Are you hurtin' anywhere?"

"My head hurts on the inside."

"I bet it does," McCoy soothed while he loaded a hypospray. More gently than he'd ever done for Jim, McCoy laid the boy down and turned on the safety rail around the bed.

"Alright, pardner. This will help that headache. It might make you sleepy, but don't worry about that. You go on to sleep and we'll be here when you wake up."

"All of you?" Grayson asked, sleep already beginning to overtake him.

McCoy looked at Jim who looked at Uhura.

"We'll all be here, sweetheart." she spoke gently into his ear where she laid a kiss on the soft pointy tip.

They heard "Okay" through a yawn as McCoy administered the spray and Grayson dozed. McCoy observed the two combatants on the other side of the bed while he waited for the hypospray to take effect.

The explosion arrived on schedule.