(10) Long years gone
'We should have listened to Spock and Dr. McCoy. Now Matthews is going to die, because Sulu just had to come up with the idea of eating fugu tonight,' Uhura blurted out as the small group entered the ER of Starfleet Medical.
Jim let out an irritated growl and turned to the communication officer. 'Uhura, calm down. Everything's going to be fine,' he said, glancing over at the woman for a second before fishing out his cell phone from his pocket. He'd been trying to reach Bones ever since they had left the restaurant, but the doctor hadn't responded yet.
'The captain is right,' Sulu spoke up. 'Doctors can remove the poison. Plus you're only stressing Matthews with this.'
Suddenly, they heard a loud squeal from the other end of the room that was immediately followed by a cheerful female voice. 'Oh my God, I thought Janice was kidding this morning, but you really are back a day earlier!' Izzy shouted as she ran over to them in her blue scrubs, and gave her step-brother a quick, but tight hug. 'Why didn't you call me?'
'We went to a Japanese restaurant to celebrate our return, and say goodbye to each other before going home for a while. So the thing is that we ordered fugu,' he stated as a short explanation for the situation. Izzy didn't respond, only raised an eyebrow. 'You know, just to eat something special, and it turned out the place isn't as good as we thought.'
The doctor stretched her arms and slowly nodded. 'I see. Who's the patient then?'
'Ensign Matthews,' Uhura replied quickly, while they all stepped aside, revealing the sick looking woman.
'Alright. Do you have numb legs?' she asked, taking a step towards her. The ensign nodded, so Izzy quickly reached out to stop a passing nurse. 'Janet, please call Dr. Keys from Neurology and tell him to get ready for a TTX removal procedure. Then make sure Ensign Matthews gets to the operating room.'
The nurse nodded. 'Got it, Dr. Krause,' she said before rushing to the nurses' station.
Izzy then turned to Chekov and Sulu, who were still helping the woman standing on her own feet. 'Guys, please help her over there,' she said, pointing at an empty bed at the other side of the room.
The small group walked away, leaving the two of them alone. Izzy looked up at the captain with a questioning look on her face. 'Where's Bones?' she asked quietly.
'That's a funny story,' Jim started, flashing a mischievous smile at her. 'When Sulu came up with the idea of fugu, Bones, for the very first time in his life, agreed with Spock that this is plain stupid, so after giving us an "if you would like to commit suicide just go ahead" speech, he left and went somewhere else.'
'Typical Bones,' the doctor said with a wave of her hand. 'Anyway, I have to go now, but I need blood sample from all of you, so we can make sure you're all okay. Stay here and I'll send someone.'
Jim nodded. After his step-sister disappeared from his sight, he joined the members of his crew and informed them about the blood sample thing. The ensign was a bit calmer than before, probably the fact they were at a hospital helped her a lot. Soon, the nurse came back, taking the woman with her.
Two hours later Chekov, Sulu and Uhura was long gone, and after a short conversation with Izzy, Jim found himself at the maternity ward. He hadn't believed her when she told him who was there, but when he got to the waiting room, he knew she wasn't lying. Admiral Pike himself was sitting on one of the plastic chairs, nervously rubbing his palms together. He looked worried and confused, like soon-to-be fathers usually did.
After clearing his throat, Jim spoke up with a friendly smile on his face. 'I thought Izzy was joking, but wow. You're going to be a father,' he said. 'Congratulations.'
'Jim,' the admiral greeted him with a faint smile. 'The Enterprise was supposed to be back tomorrow, wasn't it?'
'Yes, but what can I say? We were all homesick,' he replied, and sat next to him. 'How are you?'
Pike let out a dry laugh as he rubbed his temple. 'I'm confused, I'm panicking, and I'm also worried, because she doesn't want me to be there with her.' The young captain questioningly raised an eyebrow beside him. 'I think I've been talking too much about how afraid I was from fainting in there.'
Jim had to bite his lower lip not to laugh out loud.
'That's not funny, Kirk. You will see what I'm talking about when you are about to become a father, trust me.'
'Is it a boy or a girl?'
The admiral shrugged. 'I don't know yet. She wanted it to be a surprise.'
Before Kirk had the chance to ask him who the woman was, he heard a loud, grumping voice getting closer to them. It was McCoy, he knew before he noticed his tired face and heard his usual smartass comment. 'I told you it's suicide, right? And what did you do? Went there and ate that thing. I hope you learned the lesson, Jim, because I'm a doctor, not a babysitter,' he said.
'Dr. McCoy, it's nice to see you again.' the admiral looked up at him. 'Good to see you haven't changed that much.'
'Admiral,' he nodded, finally noticing him as well. 'What are you doing here?'
'I think it's quite obvious, but that's it, I'll give getting in that room a try,' he said, standing up from the chair. 'It was nice to see you both again. Goodnight.'
Jim leaned back in his own chair, looking up at the doctor with a smirk. 'I was about to find out who's his girlfriend or wife when you arrived. Thanks, now I'll have to wait until someone tells me.'
'I can't believe it, Jim! That's your biggest problem now?' Bones asked in a surprised tone. 'Ensign Matthews almost died because of your stupidity. Where's Izzy? I heard she was the one who helped you.'
'I don't know. She said there was something she was supposed to do tonight, but she promised she would come back for me,' he replied, pulling out his phone from his pocket. 'No, she won't,' he corrected himself immediately. 'She wrote a message half an hour ago that she's tired and doesn't feel well. In this case: do you have any plans for tonight, Bones? We should go and have a drink somewhere.'
The doctor, while shaking his head, replied with a wave of his hand. 'See you tomorrow?'
'Yeah, sure,' Jim said. He had invited Bones to Iowa to meet his family and, even though he hadn't talked to him about that one, to spend some time with Izzy. 'We'll leave around noon, so don't be late.'
A/N: Hi! It's been a while, huh? The thing is I'll start my internship tomorrow, so I'm super excited, and I rewatched the movie last week, which means I came up with a couple of ideas. (And, of course, I found notes for this story on my netbook.) It's a short chapter, but I think I'll finish the story, writing relatively short ones in the future.
How did you like this one? Are you angry at me because of the long break?
Oh, by the way. I hope you don't mind that part with Pike. I wrote another chapter to my PikexOC story, and for some reason I wanted him to be happy here, too. The only question is: who should the mother of his child be? Denise or someone else?
Sweet Executioner
