Chapter Twenty-Five
"Anything you don't understand, just ask me. We've got a busy afternoon and I need to fully understand what's happened to you." McCoy told Jim, passing him a PADD with all his medical logs and files on regarding Jim's recovery. "Remember – I thought you were dead. Don't take anything to heart, okay? Nurse Chapel will be here for your deep tissue massage soon. Try to look excited about it."
"I can't feel any of it. It's a waste of time." Jim sulked. It had been two days since he had woken up in the med bay with his memories returning more and more with every hour. He could easily recall most of his favourite ones and enjoyed retelling them as they became fresh in his mind. However he still couldn't feel his left side. McCoy had narrowed it down to his all his fingers, his hand, 90% of his arm, 75% of his leg, all of his foot and all his toes. As he could feel his torso and back they had come to the conclusion that the numbness would be temporary, but how temporary they didn't know. Jim had become awfully low about the situation and if it wasn't for the promise of Nurse Chapel performing the deep tissue massages, he probably wouldn't be so willing to work with McCoy on moving at all.
"It keeps the muscle from rotting away and gets the blood moving. The more you do, the sooner you should get your feeling back. Chin up kid." He grinned, slapping Jim on his left arm. Jim's sudden low mood frightened him. He knew if Jim wasn't up to scratch mentally and physically then they would take his captaincy away from him. Spock and Pike had been to visit every day and encouraged him to continue working hard with his movements but the positive state of Jim's mind soon faded as they left.
Pike never stayed longer than an hour as he was busy working on his evidence against Doctor Digby. The more he searched for the more he found. She really had it in for Jim, mostly because of some random incident that happened in the academy years involving Jim and a drunken accident. Doctor Digby was studying medicine at the time. A drunken Jim kept correcting her in front of her senior staff, meaning she failed her practical exams. It affected her badly and she ended up dropping out of the medical side of things and studied the mind. However Pike was sure there was more to this story than just that one incident, after all she was incredibly head strong. He put it down to the fact she was close with Admiral Francesco, who also had it in for Jim due to his incredibly high test scores, despite the fact he never tried hard. It all seemed pretty petty in Pike's eyes.
Jim let out a groan before he even started to read the notes. "Do I really have to go through with all this?"
"Do you want to be back on Enterprise?" McCoy asked, trying not to look concerned at Jim wanting to give up, it wasn't like him.
Jim thought about his answer carefully. He really wanted to be back on Enterprise, more than anything. He wanted to see his crew… the crew that thought he was dead. But most of all he wanted to explore again. "Fine. Let's do this." He said, nodding at Nurse Chapel who had joined them without speaking.
"That's the spirit." McCoy said, smiling at Jim.
Jim took his time reading McCoy's notes and personal medical log. He couldn't believe how much his loss had affected his crew. They obviously all cared very much for him… and they missed him. There were 78 different crewmen that came and asked McCoy about grief counselling. He struggled to believe that they couldn't mourn the loss of him and more importantly had struggled to adapt to the change in captaincy. He continued to read about how McCoy felt and struggled without him. How he wanted to be transferred off the ship but Spock didn't allow it. How he had to remain strong for the crew and care for them while trying to mourn himself.
It was hard to read.
He got to the final log, it just so happened to involve Digby and what she tried to do to him. His grip tightened on PADD as the rage built up inside him. How could someone he didn't even know try and do that to him? He didn't understand, but it made him more determined than ever to get back to his ship and prove them all wrong.
"Captain!" Nurse Chapel called out, snapping Jim out of his own thoughts. "Your fingers, they twitched!"
Jim looked down at his lifeless arm, "Are you sure you didn't trigger a nerve or something?"
"I wasn't touching you at the time, sir. I promise!" She beamed at him.
"So I moved? By myself?" Jim looked up at her and smiled back.
"You certainly did, I'll go and get McCoy right away!" she beamed.
"Wait! Nurse, please. I want to surprise him." Jim said, stopping her before she ran off. After reading McCoy's logs it looked like he needed some cheering up. Seeing him twitch his fingers was surely something to smile about. "I promise to keep practicing."
Nurse Chapel smiled at Jim. "Okay, but if he asks, I haven't seen." She said giving him a sly wink agreeing to go along with his plan.
"You don't have to do this. I can try and get them to rearrange the meeting." McCoy said looking at Jim. His last round of exercises had clearly tired him out and all they did was work on his leg. "If you're too tired –"
"Bones – stop fussing. I think we both know I do need to do this. I want my ship back." He said with his eyes glistening.
McCoy couldn't hide his smile. His notes may have been depressing and miserable since his disappearance but they had somehow had a positive influence on Jim. Suddenly he had a whole new positive energy and look on things and the timing couldn't have been better. "You ready to get in the chair?"
Jim gave a slight nod before looking around the med bay. Luckily it was empty. He couldn't think of anything more embarrassing than having to be lifted into a chair by a doctor. McCoy lifted Jim's numb arm and wrapped it around his shoulders. He tucked his arm around Jim's frail body and supported his weakened side. Jim managed to stand for a few seconds on his working leg, which was just enough time for McCoy to position him into the chair easier. He lifted his numb leg up and placed it on the footstall and relaxed his arm on the arm on the chair. "Comfy?" he asked as he looked over Jim's vitals quickly with his tricorder.
Jim didn't say anything and just smirked at the doctor.
McCoy looked up from his tricorder results and frowned. "What's the goofy face for?"
Jim looked down at his resting arm. He had managed to squeeze all his fingers together in a loose fist and just as McCoy lowered his eyes to see what Jim was looking at, he managed to raise his thumb slightly.
McCoy laughed. "A thumbs up! Jim, that's amazing!"
"Knew you'd be pleased." He said, quickly letting his hand rest.
"See if you can do that for Pike after this meeting, I know he will be pleased to see all his hard work was appreciated." McCoy said, moving to the back of the chair to push Jim to the conference room they had prepared. "Oh and kid…" he said, stopping the chair just before the doors. "Next time you feel like showing off, let me know as soon as it happens will ya?!"
"Spoil sport." Jim teased as he was pushed out the doors.
"We call to this meeting; Captain James T. Kirk." Archer said to the room. A video comm had been set up between them all on the Star base and Admiral Forrest at Starfleet. They were all squeezed into the same medium sized conference room as before. There was less space with Jim's hover chair but they made it work.
"In attendance will be myself, Admiral Johnathan Archer, Admiral Christopher Pike and Admiral Maxwell Forrest via video comm. Doctor Leonard McCoy is in attendance as an observer only and will not be permitted to speak during the conference."
McCoy raised an eyebrow, giving a confused look across the table to Pike.
Pike just shook his head and shrugged his shoulders, he didn't know why they weren't permitting him to speak but he was pleased he was able to witness the meeting, he was there if he needed him.
"Also in attendance is Doctor Abigail Harrison. Starfleet General's finest psychiatrist." Forrest also addressed the room, before Archer could finish.
Jim looked up at the video, he couldn't believe the similarities in the young girl he was seeing to Penny. He was surprised he could even remember her, but he did. Her brown locks came down to her shoulders and her beautiful big brown eyes sparkled at him through the video.
"It's good to finally meet you, Captain." She said, smiling at him.
"I can't believe it. What are the chances?" Jim whispered.
McCoy looked at Jim with a confused expression. He had no idea what the chances of anything were but he sure hoped Jim could pull himself together for his chat with her.
"Captain Kirk. Do you understand why you are here?" Forrest asked, breaking Jim's focus from Abigail for the first time since she introduced herself.
"I do." Jim answered.
"Then you understand why we must have this meeting?" Forrest continued.
"I do." He stated again.
"Could you please explain to us, in your own words what happened to you during your most recent away mission?" Forrest asked, checking his memory.
Jim managed to go into great detail into what happened to their visit on Zander VI and even managed to fill in some of the blanks that McCoy didn't know about. The memory was fresh in his mind and he had no problems with retelling it.
He told them all about Gateway and the Mind Sifter technology with ease and clearly impressed Archer and Pike who had no questions about anything when he had finished.
"You say your memory has returned. Then can you tell me about your eye?" Forrest queried for more detail.
Jim went into more detail about the hospital and how he had met Penny. He explained how the porters assumed his mental state was 'insane' and beat him for it, causing his fractured eye socket. Jim was glad he had flicked through his own medical notes or there was no way he would have known about that, he couldn't remember the last time he looked in a mirror.
"It has come to our attention that you sustained a significant brain injury during your treatment. Tell us Captain, how do you feel now?" Forrest asked, leaning forward in his chair.
Jim swallowed the quickly forming saliva in his mouth down his throat. "I feel fine." He managed to squeak.
"Oh, I see. Then would you mind placing your hands on the table?" Forrest could easily tell Jim was hiding something and he wanted to find out what.
Jim exchanged a worried look with McCoy before doing what he was ordered. He picked up his right hand using his left and placed in onto the table, showing his hands.
"Can you raise your arms together Captain?" Forrest asked, continuing to put pressure on Jim.
"No." Jim almost muttered.
"And whys that?" Forest continued to bully his way into finding out the information he wanted to know, making Jim feel very small.
Jim sighed, there was no point in lying to his seniors, and he knew they would find out everything sooner or later. "I had a bleed on my brain caused by one of the lasers. It was injected too far and this is the damage it's caused."
"And is it life changing?" Forrest pushed for more information.
"No. Doctor McCoy ensures me its only temporary." Jim said confidently.
"And how can you be sure of this?" Forrest almost laughed at the thought of McCoy thinking damage like that was temporary.
"Well I started off two days ago completely numb and now I can do this…" Jim squeezed his hand tightly and lifted his thumb, giving the admiral a thumbs up.
Pike almost fell off his seat at the improvements he had made in such small amount of time.
"That's incredible, Jim!" Nurse Harrison spoke out, receiving a disapproving look from Forrest.
"The only reason that happened was because Dr. Digby sabotaged the machine." Pike spoke out, before Forrest could take the attention away from Jim.
"And you have evidence for this?" Forrest grinned.
"I'm sending it over now." Pike said, as he rose to his feet and inserted his cartridge into the video console. "Transmitting."
It only took seconds for the Admiral to receive what Pike had spent so long building on. "I suggest a short recess while I go over this new evidence." Forrest started. "In which time I request that Doctor Harrison evaluates Captain Kirk's state of mind."
"I agree." Archer said, rising to his feet also. "We will continue at 1800 hours."
"I would like to speak to the Captain alone, if that's possible." Harrison said over the men who were getting ready to leave.
McCoy gave Jim a quick look but Jim nodded and waved his working hand at him, he wasn't as worried when it came to talking to Doctor Harrison. He felt strangely safe with her.
"I'll be right outside." McCoy whispered, tapping his shoulders as he left the room.
Admiral Forrest had already left and Doctor Harrison sat in the middle of the screen.
"I cannot believe I'm speaking to you, Jim. A tale of your name has been passed through our family for generations and finally – I get to meet you."
Authors Note:
So we are almost there! But first a few un-answered questions... such as, how did Penny get her message through her family if Spock made her forget?
Where is Spock? and most of all, will they let Jim return to Enterprise?
So two updates in one night! you lucky people.
if I've already described how Penny looks and I've got it drastically wrong could someone message me. I tried to re-read it all and find if I did, but I couldn't find it. Thank you.
Also - can you tell what Series I've been watching on Netflix? Star Trek - Enterprise may be the least liked of them all but I found myself getting into it much more than TNG!
More to come soon! (as in - tomorrow. I hope!)