Rose and Jim sat across from each other in the sitting room, the awkward silence filtering between the two. Rose sat in her undergarments, staring at the coffee table, while Jim stared at her. She had yet to cover herself up, which gave him the opportunity to see how thin she got over the recent months. Whatever curves she once possessed, were now bones jutting out like knives. She had dark circles under her eyes, and her cheekbones were hollow.

"Rose.. I came here to apologize," Jim said, watching as she shifted in her seat.

"Apologize?" she asked, laughing bitterly.

Jim looked down at his clasped hands, "I know it's been months.." he started.

Rose looked up at him, "Why are you even bothering?" she snapped.

"Because I can't stand to see you do this to yourself! Look at you!" he shouted, as he waved his hands at her.

Rolling her eyes, she quickly stood up from her seat. "Get out, Jim! I will not have you bloody lecture me about how I look! You have no right to even tell me what I should and should not do! You don't know me anymore!" she yelled, as she stormed over to the door.

Jim quickly got up and went after her, grabbing her by the arm and lightly pushing her against the wall. Rose tensed at his touch, and tried to push him away.

"Let go of me!" she hissed through clenched teeth.

"Rose, please! I can't just sit by and watch you disappear before my eyes," he said, as she tried to knee him in the groin.

"Yeah well.. you should've thought of that before snooping through my things!" she snapped.

Jim shifted his hips to avoid her knee, before pushing his leg between hers. He then pinned her against the wall, her arms at her sides.

"Listen Rose… you're no walk in the park. You're a spoiled little brat, but under all that.. you're the most amazing person that I've gotten the chance to meet. What I did was wrong and I've been living with that for almost a year now. I want to make things right again between us, Rose. I should've stayed and listened to your side of the story," he said, as she looked at him.

She blinked back tears as she looked at him, "Stop it.." she whispered.

"There's a fire in you that drew me in. You were so bright and consuming, that my darkness fell in. You changed me for the better, Rose. In all the years I've known you.. But now that fire is burning out. I can see it. Everyone can see it. You're slowly burning out and I'm afraid that you'll disappear before my eyes. That fire that I love about you… I can't turn my back without knowing that you'll be alright," he said, reaching up to cup her check.

Rose lowered her now free hand, and swallowed the lump in her throat. She let out a shaky breath, as the first set of tears rolled down her face.

"It's not up to you to save me, Jim. I can take care of myself.. it's not your job to worry about me all the time,"

Jim shook his head, "No, you're right. It's impossible to follow your every move, when I have an entire ship to worry about. But I can't help it, Rose. And I won't stop. Even if you wont accept my apology, I will always worry about you. 'Til the day I die, your well-being is my concern," he said.

Rose opened her mouth to speak, when the alarm went off. Both jumped at the blaring whistles and horns, as Spock's voice came over the Comm.

"Code Red. I repeat, Code red. Prepare for an attack. Everyone to his or her stations for duty. Captain Kirk, report to the bridge immediately"

Rose quickly looked at him, "Get dressed and report to sick-bay," Jim said, as he quickly grabbed his things from the couch.

She stood against the wall, trembling as he moved. "You stay there until further notice and prepare for the worst. We will finish this conversation later when this is done," he said, moving to the door.

She watched as he pressed the keys on the pad on the wall, "What about you?" she asked.

"What about me? I'm the Captain. I need to find out what the hells going on, and then figure out how to keep us from getting killed," he said, as the door swished open.

Rose nodded and Jim moved close to her, "I mean it, Rose. Do not leave McCoy's side and you stay safe," he said, before kissing her hard on the mouth.

Then he was gone, leaving her against the wall, shocked and overwhelmed with emotion. She stood there until Leonard's voice blared through her room, ordering her to bring her "skinny ass" down to sick-bay. Dressing quickly, Rose ran through the halls and took the lifts, which were packed with crewmembers. The floor to sick-bay was flooded with people, already injured. A blast shook the ship, which set forth screams and objects flying.

"CONRAD! GET IN HERE NOW!" Leonard shouted, as he worked on a man, bleeding profusely from a head wound.

Christine was juggling bandages and hyposprays, as more and more people came flooding in. Rose quickly moved from bio-bed to bio-bed, distinguishing who needed immediate attention and those that didn't make it. It seemed like hours had gone by, when in reality it was only minutes, as another shutter ripped through the ship.

"What the fucking hells going on?" Rose snapped, as she held onto the edge of a bio-bed.

"Klingon warbirds. Came out of warp and started firing upon is," Christine said, as she tended to a burn on a young woman's arm.

Rose administered a hypospray with morphine to one man, so she could attend to his injuries, without his crying. It was obvious that they were overwhelmed and understaffed for this attack, having a difficult time recruiting anyone willing to board a ship after the attack on Vulcan. As she worked her way through the flood of patients, the supplies ran low.

"I need you to get more bandages and alcohol swabs. In fact, grab anything and everything you possibly can. I don't know what's going on up there, but dammit , if we get anymore patients we're going to be housing them all over the damn place, "Leonard barked, as he attended to a broken arm.

Rose nodded and tossed a pile of bloody gauze pads and ripped uniforms into the garbage chute, before running out to the hallway. She pushed through crowds of engineers, being brought in with severe burns and various crewmembers- unconscious and covered in blood. Rose watched with wide eyes, as she moved, making her way to the end of the hall. She started typing in her key code, when she heard a scream.

"WATCH OUT!"

She felt a tug on her arm and a hot blast as someone threw her on the floor. The last thing she remembered was her head hitting something hard and the screams, that lulled her into darkness.

Bridge

"Is that the last of them?" Jim asked, as he stood from his chair.

Sulu and Chekov glanced at each other, exhausted but relieved, before turning in their seats to look at Jim.

"All war-birds are destroyed, Captain. Shall we send word to Starfleet and any other ships?" Sulu asked.

Jim nodded, "Yes. The Admirals and other ships need to be on alert. Lt. Uhura, please keep watch over the scans. If any transmissions come though that signals another attack, please report it to me and to other ships. Spock, you have the bridge. I need to see how bad it is down in sick-bay," he said, before stepping into the lifts.

"Captain!" Nyota shouted, as she ran towards the lift.

Jim paused the doors from closing, "What's wrong, Ny?" he asked, as she looked at him with worry.

She sighed, "Deck six was hit and severely damaged. Massive casualties are being reported by Chapel," she said.

He paled and cursed, "You get Bones on the goddamn Comm, and you tell him I'm coming down there," he said, as the doors closed between them.

The entire ride down to deck six felt like ages, as Jim leaned against the wall, praying to god that Rose was safe. He knew that Bones was fine, after a paged him during the final attack on the war-birds. Chapel was safe, Scotty was safe. Half the ship was safe.. but they'd lost so many in this ridiculous attack.

When the lift doors opened, he was taken back by the destruction. It was bad the first time Enterprise suffered an attack, but this time, it was worse. Bodies scattered the floor, as nurses or abled crewmembers went to work to check for survivors and remove the dead. Wires and pipes hung from the ceiling, sparking every so often. Water flooded the floor from the damaged bathroom, which was in the direct path of a torpedo, turning red from the blood. When he finally made it into sick-bay, he was overwhelmed.

Doctors and nurses moved like headless chickens, trying to treat the serious injuries and to figure out who had a chance and who didn't.

"Jim!"

He looked up to see Christine coming towards him, her uniform covered with blood and burns.

"Where is she?" he asked, as a shrills scream came from one side of the room.

Christine looked at him sadly, "She's in surgery. Leo sent her to get more supplies when a torpedo hit the floor.. JIM!" she shouted, as he quickly moved past her, running down the hall towards the surgery rooms.

He could hear Leonard shouting for more suction and light as he ran down the hall.

"Dammit! She's gonna need a blood transfusion! I need lots of O positive- and I need it fast," he yelled.

A nurse came flying out of the room and Jim quickly entered it, coming to a halt as he watched the scene before him. Rose was hooked up to a set of machines, as Leonard worked quickly on her.

"What happened?" he asked, watching as Leonard tried stop the bleeding.

"Dammit Jim! You can't be in here!" he shouted, keeping his eyes on Rose.

Jim stepped forward, "Bones! What the fuck happened to her?" he said, loudly this time.

Leonard looked up at a nurse, "Get him the hell out of here! He shouldn't be seein' this!" he said, as the nurse handed the gauze pads to another woman.

"Captain Kirk, it's best if you wait outside," she said, lightly placing her hands on his arm.

"No! NO! BONES!" he shouted, as the nurse pushed him out of the room.

As he stumbled out into the hallway, the nurse that fled the room just moments before ran past with packets of blood. As the door closed behind her, Jim could hear the awful beeping on the machines.

"Dammit! Hurry the hell up!" Leonard shouted, as the rustle of feet and panicking filled his ears.

Jim slid down the wall and shook his head, "Oh god.. oh god, no.." he breathed, burying his face into his hands.