Chapter 20
It's a Friday when Uhura feels herself waking up. Her mind is foggy and her senses are dulled and her body feels like it's been crushed underneath an asteroid for the past fortnight. She gasps for air, is aware of the sound of machines and a voice, blurry and feminine beside her. She sighs, shifts a little and tries to wake up.
"I think she's waking up," says someone.
I am, Uhura thinks. I'm trying to.
Her brain is tired and she wants to go back to sleep so badly, but someone is touching her, taking hold of her hand and squeezing it. Slowly, she opens her eyes.
The light is blinding. She closes her eyes again.
She must still be on the Feratta, she thinks, still be out in the deep end of space with limited COMM. She remembers back to the shuttle, to the sound of klaxons blaring throughout the cabin. How the sound made her brain rattle and hands shake. Then blood smeared against the pilot's console and the crackling of space static through the COMM. She doesn't want to wake up, she realises.
"Nyota."
She opens her eyes again and they begin to adjust to the white light. It's painful and she wants to close them again. Someone squeezes her hand.
She looks to the side and blinks.
"Spock?"
"Gaila," laughs the Orion. "Sorry I'm not Spock."
As soon as her vision clears and she sees her, still a little blurry but so very there, she begins to cry and the nurse tells her to take it easy and not rush, but she sits up and pulls Gaila to her, crying into his shoulder.
"You had me so worried you stupid idiot," Gaila cries. "I told you not to go on that stupid internship."
Gaila tries to get Uhura to lay back and when she does and begins to calm down she kisses her forehead as the nurse enters the room and grabs the chart.
"Where am I?" she hiccups. "I'm not on the Feratta?"
"You were involved in an accident on the Feratta. A shuttle malfunctioned and a cargo crate became loose. You're back on Earth, at Starfleet."
Uhura sniffs and frowns when a nurse begins checking her vitals.
"Are you in pain, Miss Uhura?" she asks.
"Yeah," she nods, feeling the substantial ache settle on top of her body. "It feels like someone is sitting on my legs and they won't get up."
"I'll give you a little more morphine. It'll make you sleepy again, okay, so feel free to rest whenever you need," says the nurse, coding the dosage into the stasis unit.
Uhura looks to Gaila, "Where is Spock?"
"Off planet. Looking after the Enterprise. He doesn't know when he'll get back."
"Yeah," she frowns. "Yeah I remember him telling me about that. I- I'm so sorry Gaila."
"It's okay," she says and then ushers to the room which is now full of flowers. "These are all for you, Nyota." She points to the large tropical display. "These are mine." And then to the sunflowers and daisies. "Those are from the Ambassador Sarek and his wife-,"
"It's the other way around," the nurse hums. "She switched the cards."
"Hey!" Gaila cries. "We swore a pact not to tell her."
"These ones are from the dean," says the nurse. "They've got chocolates in them too. This one is from Captain Pike. This is from Professor Sprig."
Uhura can't help but realise, though it is foolish, that there are none from Spock.
Gaila notices her friend and smiles, patting her hand. "You look like you could use some more rest, Nyota."
"Spock didn't send flowers?" she asked. "Or send a message or anything?"
Gaila smiles, "He's trying his hardest to finish work on the Enterprise."
"We'll let you rest, Nyota," the nurse says and Gaila gets up, bringing Uhura's hand to her lips and kissing it.
"I'll be back soon okay, and maybe you can help me with my homework."
Uhura smiles sleepily. "That sounds good, Gaila." And then her eyes close and Gaila places her hand back on the bed.
Uhura does not dream between Friday afternoon and Saturday noon when she wakes once again. This time Gaila is not beside her but Doctor McCoy is making notes on her stasis unit.
"Leonard…," she mumbles, turning her head towards him.
"Well hey there, little darling," he says, putting down his notebook. "You sure gave everyone a bit of a scare - I bet even those Vulcans were worried."
She frowns, "Where's Gaila?"
"She's just gone out for a while," he replies. "That girl has been here 24-7 since you arrived."
Uhura swallows. Her throat is dry and sore and McCoy passes her a small glass of water.
"Drink slowly - you've been living off liquid nutrients for the last two weeks."
Uhura drinks, if only to wet her mouth and throat. "I've been asleep for two weeks?"
"Two and a half," he corrects. "The Vulcans put you into a stabilising coma for the transportation back to Starfleet. You sustained some serious injuries. Your left ankle was shattered, your foot was broken in several places and you had snapped your tibia clean in half. You bruised your hipbone and your right leg. It'll be slow, but you'll make a full recovery," he says, sitting down beside her. "It won't affect your readiness for the job, you'll just have to be patient with it though and," he pokes her in the shoulder when she smiles. "Listen. To. What. I. Say," he punctuates with each jab. "Got it, young lady?"
"Understood, sir," she replies with a small grin.
"That's more like it," he says. "Let's get you something to eat, hey? They have chocolate pudding cups."
"That sounds amazing," she admits.
"At least they did, I think your friend Gaila may have eaten them all." He disappears for a moment and comes back with a chocolate pudding cup and a plastic spoon. "Second last one, you were lucky. You can have a sandwich in four hours after this.
"So generous, doctor," she laughs and opens the cup. Her first bite is everything she's been missing - chocolate and sweet and smooth and creamy. Andorians don't believe in dessert. Andorians like proteins and complex carbohydrates and fiber.
"All right, let me take you on a tour of your room here," he says and points to a red button on the side of your bed. "Hit this if you start feeling sick. This one controls your bed, you can move it up and down and all around if you want. This one controls your television - there are some great game shows on right now, or cooking shows." She smiles. McCoy has fantastic bedside manner she realises and is thankful for some sort of normalcy in her life. "Okay, I gotta do rounds. I'll be back with your sandwich later. Chicken or beef?"
"Chicken," she says. "Leonard… do you know what happened to the Andorians I was on the shuttle with. Are they okay?"
"Yeah," he nods. "They were patched up and send back to the Feratta by the Vulcans. Don't be surprised if Captain Pike comes to pay you a visit, apparently he was very impressed with your actions the word is around the campus."
"Really?" she says. "Also, when can I shower?"
McCoy laughs. "I'll have Nurse Chapel come around and help you with that when she clocks on at 1400. Until then you have to rest. Watch some television or read the news on your COMM or something."
Uhura watches television for an hour before Nurse Chapel knocks on her door. Nurse Chapel is a bouncy young woman, not too much older than herself, Uhura thinks. She has blonde hair tied back into a bun and gives Uhura a fresh shot of morphine before they attempt to go into the bathroom.
Uhura sits on a wheelchair and is bathed and thinks that this cannot be any more humiliating. The nurse smiles to her and says, "it's okay, sweetie. I understand how you must feel. Let me know if the pain is too much okay."
Gaila, bless her soul, has bought Uhura a fresh pair of clothes - fresh underwear she manages to get on despite the cast, a pyjama shirt, a fresh bra and a pair of shorts. It's all clean and nice and Nurse Chapel even attempts the unruly thick mess that is Uhura's ebony hair and washes it out with some shampoo she stole from the nurses' locker room.
Chapel dries her hair with the end of the towel as Uhura settles herself back in bed.
"The morphine will wear off in a few hours so your legs might ache for a while. If it gets too much just let us know, okay?"
Uhura nods and Nurse Chapel hands her the brush to comb out the knots in her hair.
"All right," she says. "Do you need anything else, Miss Uhura?"
"Nyota is fine," she says. "And no, I think I'm fine. Thank you."
Nurse Chapel looks around the room. "So this is where all the flowers got to. You certainly are a well-loved young lady."
"It's a little over the top, I know," she laughs.
Nurse Chapel adjusts a sunflower and smiles. "From the Ambassador and his wife?"
"It's actually from my roommate, Gaila."
"Ah, the Orion," she laughs. "She's been quite a hit around here recently."
"Yeah, she switched the cards. The big one in the corner is from them."
Nurse Chapel laughs before she gathers her COMMs. "I better start my rounds then. See you later."
"Bye. Thanks."
Uhura looks down to where a video is loaded to begin to play as Nurse Chapel leaves.
"Oh sorry, I didn't see you there," she says suddenly, laughs to herself and then presses herself against the door to squeeze past the stranger. "Visitor? Sure, she's all yours."
Uhura looks up to the door frame. And she smiles.
"Spock."
"Nyota," he almost sighs out, but Vulcans do not sigh so it's kind of more like a whisper of a breath. His hands clutch a bouquet of beautiful, velvety tulips in a purple colour. He takes the few steps to her bedside.
"You're back."
"I completed my work last night," he explains, "but I could not get a shuttle until-,"
"It's okay," she says and points to the seat Gaila has been occupying. "Sit, please."
"These are for you, I am told it is a custom to bring flowers when someone is ill or otherwise injured," he says. "I can see that I am not the only person to have demonstrated such custom."
She laughs and takes the flowers from him, rubbing the velvety petals between her thumb and finger. "No, but this is my favourite out of them all."
"Surely the most ostentatious one would be so - the one with the balloon behind you with the bountiful harvest of tropical flora."
She shakes her head. "No. Really. Tulips are my favourite flowers. They're so beautiful. You have to look after them quite a lot and they never grew in my hometown because of the heat in the winter."
"I see," says Spock. "Then it was a correct choice."
Uhura smudges away a tear and hopes Spock does not notice as she arranges the flowers in a small jam jar vase by her bedside. The tears escape her eyes, however, and Spock catches one with his thumb, cradling her cheek and smearing it across the skin.
"I know, it's silly, I know," she sniffs and then smiles wetly. "I am probably making you uncomfortable, I-,"
He leans forward without a hesitation and captures Uhura's lips with his. She kisses back but in a moment, all too quickly, his lips leave hers and she is left with a longing.
"I missed you," she says.
"Our distance also wearied my tolerance," he replied. "Are you in pain?"
Spock studies the stasis unit as it shows Uhura's heart rate clime and she blushes slightly as it beats above normal. If he notices this, he does not point it out.
"No, I um, was given some morphine. It works really well," she says. He presses some buttons on the unit and she is about to tell him to stop messing with the machine connected to her but realises he is studying her x-rays.
"The damage to your left leg is substantial," he says. "I did not know the extent of your injuries."
"Is that supposed to make me feel better?" She jokes. "Doctor McCoy says as long as I follow all his advice, go to rehabilitation for the next six months and work on it, then I won't have much lasting damage. I'll still be fit enough to work for Starfleet."
He sits again.
"There are many flowers in here."
"I know. They're kinda suffocating," she laughs.
She kisses him again then, grasping the neck of his black shirt and tugging him a little roughly. He is happy to oblige and kisses her slowly, sweetly and she smiles against his lips as he takes up her hand.
Breaking, she smiles as he pulls away, brushing his thumb over her knuckles.
"I love you, Spock," she blurts. "A lot."
For a moment, he does not say anything. And then, he mutters, "You are heavily medicated, Nyota."
She is about rebut when she hears, "Okay, they ran out of chicken, so I have either turkey or beef, Uhura," as McCoy strides into the room. He stops dead in his tracks when he sees the Commander in a chair nestled up to the side of the bed and his hand grasping hers.
"Um…," Uhura looks to Spock awkwardly. "Turkey is great."
"You two?" McCoy ushers to the two of them with the sandwich.
Spock does not miss a beat, however, "I would appreciate your patient confidentiality with this matter."
McCoy closes the door and draws the curtain.
"Sure, but you have to come and see me for clearance before you know," he gives a vague gesture.
Uhura nods, "Um, you don't have to worry, Leonard, we won't."
"Good," he says. "As for the confidentiality, consider it done."
He opens the curtains again and tosses Uhura the turkey sandwhich before looking over her stats on the unit.
"All looks good," he says. "And the nurse came by?"
"Yeah, thanks. She was wonderful."
"Yeah, she's one of our best," McCoy says. "All right. Visiting hours are for another hour, and then you gotta get some rest, Uhura. Doctor's orders."
She nods and McCoy excuses himself from the room. Uhura sighs and squeezes Spock's hands. He squeezes back and she smiles, pointing to the large tropical flowers behind her. "You know those are from your parents?"
Both of his eyebrows rise at this statement.
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