WARNING: Some disturbing imagery.

Chapter 25

Khan doesn't even both to strap Meira onto the small cot in the pod. He hugs her tightly to his chest, mindful of her broken ribs. She whines softly as he places her head against his chest and wraps her up in his jacket to keep her warm. Her friend, Cas, watches him carefully but makes no move to attack him. Well, at least some progress was being made.

"Do you think you can pilot us out of here, Captain?" Khan asks as he wraps a protective arm around Meira.

"It won't be a problem. Everyone buckle up and hold onto something." Kirk winks and then they're rushing into the air.

…

The medical team swarms them the moment they arrive on the Enterprise. One of the nurses carefully takes Meira from Khan, and he fights back the urge to rip the man's throat out as he settles the weak girl onto a gurney and whisks her away.

Numbly, Khan follows after them and he feels a small hand grab his arm for balance. He glances over. Cassandra, Meira's friend. He tolerates her touch and then sits outside the doors of the medbay.

"Do you think she'll be okay?" She asks him as she sits down on the wall opposite to him.

"She'll be fine," Khan's voice holds more conviction than he feels.

"She's gotten inured before, but not like this. Not this bad." She rests her head on her knees and Khan can see tears streaming down her face and splashing onto the unforgiving metal deck.

"She'll be fine," he repeats firmly.

"Khan," McCoy explodes from the doors and Khan is on his feet in an instant. "Get your ass in here. I need a blood transfusion instantly. Do you mind?"

"No."

The procedure only last a matter of minutes. McCoy quickly inserts a thin needle into Khan's forearm and studiously extracts the precious, scarlet liquid. Behind a patrician in the other side of the room, Khan could hear the woman fighting for her life…but she sounded weaker. No wonder the good doctor had asked Khan for help the way he had.

At least this time, Khan wasn't strapped down and screaming in rage as they forcefully stole his blood. He wasn't bucking and writhing wildly on the bed in a desperate attempt to escape and kill every single person he could. Every cell of his body had radiated out rage as he roared and struggled. The good doctor had barely even given him a passing glance as he took enough blood to make Khan pass out. For days he had strapped to that infernal bed as they bled him dry to save their precious captain.

"Bringing back memories?" McCoy asks wryly and Khan felt the doctor watching him warily for any signs of anger. He doesn't wait for a response. Quickly, he retrieves his needle and flies back to the patrician like an avenging angel.

"Nurse!" Khan hears the doctor bark. "Set up the transfusion. You, put pressure on that wound. Someone bring me a dermal regenerator and bone laser!"

One of the nurses notices Khan standing in the middle of the room.

"Sorry, sir. You can't stay in here. You'll be notified if there is any change. Please. You must leave now. You're in the way, sir. You have to leave. I'm sorry but you must leave so that we can do our jobs properly…please don't hurt me. Just leave. Please." Khan allows himself to be escorted out.

"Any change?" Cas asks him without raising her head.

"No. No change yet, but soon." He hoped.

…

Despite his superior senses, he hadn't noticed it. He should have but it had failed to register. They were sitting, he and Cas, in the hallway when everything had shifted. Khan had been monitoring the medics' conversations as they worked on Meira when Cas begin to breath heavily, holding her swollen stomach. Khan thought nothing of it. Perhaps her unborn child had kicked too hard or maybe so heartburn. So, he shrugged it off.

Then her water broke.

The baby was coming.

And all available medics were working on Meira.

She whines and Khan looks at her helplessly. He was a warrior, not a midwife! But that didn't stop him from rushing to grab towels and the other materials that would be needed for the task.

"Just relax," He says in what he hopes to be a comforting tone.

"Have you done this before?" She asks.

"Yes." He says. "Once. On a cow farm." Both the mother and calf had died, but she need not know that.

…

"It's a girl," Khan wraps the mewling infant in a towel after cleaning it up and hands it to the new mother. "Seems to be healthy." It was healthy, right?

"Alright, well," Doctor McCoy walks outside into the hallway and his eyes go wide when he spots a no longer pregnant Cas. "Oh, hell!"

Then he's kneeling beside the both the woman and taking quick scans on his tricorder.

"So?" Cas asks and the doctor sighs with relief.

"All's well, but I'm keeping the both of you overnight just to be sure." And then a nurse whisks away both mother and child.

"Meira?" Khan asks calmly.

"Fine. She'll sleep for a while, but I think she'll make it. The pathogens are still in her system, but I've hooked her up with an IV and have already begun to synthesize some meds to help her fight everything off. So, you staying in the medbay or going back to your quarters?"

"Medbay." Khan squares his shoulders challenging.

"I figured. Grab a cot and stay out of the way. If I see you harassing anyone, I'll have Spock throw in the brig so fast your head will spin for a week."

"Understood."

The cot is uncomfortable and scratch, and for the life of him, he can't figure out why he was still there at all.

Meira was interesting, yes, but at the end of the day, she just another pesky parasite he graced with labeling as a 'human'. She was an acquaintance—an annoying acquaintance. So, why was he still there, holding her small hand in his and listening carefully for her breaths? The medical team was more than capable to take care of her, what was his role?

But he didn't leave. She was a human, but she was his human.

…

The man walks down the line, shooting random people. Bodies fall the ground and smack—hard—into the concrete.

BANG!

Another.

BANG!

And another.

"And what do we have here?" The gun presses into the side of my head in a mocking caress.

"Just another failed experiment." One of the men says casually as his eyes skim through the ranks.

"Should I kill it?" The man holding the gun to my head smiles at me coldly and my heartbeat slows down. Icy terror runs up my spine and my breaths come out in gasps.

"No." The other man looks at his watch and sighs. "But I think the chamber would do nicely. What do you think, girlie? Hm?"

I say nothing. My body is paralyzed with horror. No one who has ever been locked in the chamber ever comes out alive. They slam the door shut and then a gas fills the room. Those unfortunate to be inside found themselves buried in a hole mere minutes later.

But it didn't matter.

They didn't care.

Because they were dead.

Dead.

They grab my arms and drag me and about twenty others from the room. We scream and writhe but there's no escaping. Not this time. The door locks behind and before the gas is introduced, people are screaming with fear and clawing at the walls just like so many before us. And I watch as everyone begins to fall.

…

She sits up in the bed suddenly and begins to scream. Khan's arms crash around her and hug her tightly to his chest in a bear hug. Tears fall from her eyes like twin rivers determined to soak through his shirt. She trembles with fear and tries to fight to get away before excepting that she wasn't going anywhere and leaning into his touch.

"It's alright," his voice soothes without his permission and his deadly fingers smooth comforting circles into her back. McCoy runs into the room and pauses when he sees them. Too stunned to move, the doctor's caring brown eyes go wide before he snaps to his senses.

"Shhh," Khan holds her closer and drops his nose to the curve where her neck meets her shoulder.

"They're dead." She whines over and over again. "They're dead; they're dead." She trembles harder and Khan frowns. Who was dead? She hadn't seen him kill those men at the Section 31 facility…so who was she talking about?

McCoy jumps in and quickly injects her with a hypospray and she goes limp against his chest. Khan looks up at the doctor with piercing blue eyes and then helps the other man settle her back onto the bed. With tender fingers, Khan wipes the moisture from her cheeks as he gazes down at her slumbering form.

"What the hell was that all about?" McCoy demands quietly and a baby screams from the other side of the room.

"I don't know." Khan admits reluctantly.