Part Four :: Chapter Four

In the end, they made the approach beautifully and Jim joined Spock on the Narada. Before they beamed over to the Romulan mining ship, Bones brought Delta to the transporter room to say goodbye. Jim hugged Delta close as she threw her good arm around his waist, then pushed her back and dropped to his knees.

"Delta, I have to go now. I'll come back, I promise, but you have to be good and listen to Doctor McCoy while I'm gone. He'll take care of you for me, okay?" He smiled and swiped her damp cheek with two fingers, "Hey, no tears. I'm gonna come back. You gotta be strong, Delta, for me. I'm doin' this for you, sweetheart, to make you safe. Be good for me, okay?" Delta nodded and put her arm around his neck, burying her face in his shoulder.

"Be careful, Jim! Please come back! You're all I have!"

"I know that, sweetie, I know." God did he know that. He pulled Delta into his arms and buried his face in her hair. Then it was time to go. He nudged her off the platform, "Go on, stay with Doctor McCoy."

"I'll take care of her, kid." Bones promised as he put one hand on Delta's shoulder to keep her from following them.

"Thanks, Bones. Alright, Scotty."

"Okay. You'll be touching down in the cargo bay, there shouldn't be a soul in sight. Good luck." Montgomery Scott didn't look all that certain of himself as they dissolved in the transporter. As long as they landed on the Narada and not in the vaccum of space he didn't care where they ended up. They landed in the cargo bay, just like Scotty had said, but it wasn't empty. Oh well, one firefight was no different from any other, and he had a bone to pick with Nero anyway. His pansies were no problem, it was the man himself Jim wanted to see. Once they had the location of the science ship and Captain Pike, he split up with Spock and headed off to find Nero first.

"Jim." Spock called him back as he left the cockpit of the Vulcan ship, "Be careful."

"Hey, we've both got people waiting for us back on the Enterprise, Commander. Mine's waist-high, but I'm all she's got. I can't fail Delta."

"I don't think you will, Captain." There it was again, that formality, but he could have sworn Spock smirked at him, "I've watched you interact with the girl and I know you care for her very deeply."

"Hey, a guy's gotta do what a guy's gotta do. You take care of yourself, I don't think Uhura would thank me if you got popped trying to save the Federation." He brushed off his tunic and set off with two goals in mind. Jim found Nero first and the Romulan almost killed him, but remembering what Nero had done to Delta, who waited for him on the Enterprise because he'd promised to come back, gave him a surge of adrenaline and surprising strength.

"You've fucked with the wrong officer, Nero!" he snarled, closing both hands around the thick wrist belonging to the hand wrapped around his throat, "That's the last mistake you'll ever make!"

"Not if I kill you first!"

"I'm not dying today, you sick fuck." Jim lashed out with both feet, caught Nero squarely in the solar plexus, and sent him flying backwards. He lay stunned on the deck while Jim grappled with Ayel, taking him down in under five minutes with a round-house kick that sent Ayel spinning. But the younger Romulan recovered quickly and Jim was pulled down. This had to end now, and he kicked Ayel off. Jim had lived his life being beat up by thugs like Ayel and Nero, but he'd never really been able to fight back like this.

That's because you've never had something worth fighting for the other times you were getting your ass whipped. His inner voice snarled as he broke Ayel's neck with his feet. Getting to his feet, Jim picked up Ayel's disruptor and advanced on Nero, who still lay stunned on the catwalk. He looked down on the man who had caused him so much grief, starting on the day of his birth, and felt nothing but disgust.

"You sick, mother-fucking bastard." He snarled, spitting on the winded Romulan, "I don't know what you did to Captain Pike, it's what you did to Delta Picard that's gonna send you to Hell to burn." He saw a flicker of light in the dark eyes and leveled the disruptor.

"Delta…Picard?"

"The nine-year-old girl your band of merry murderers kidnapped six months ago back in 2387 and brought here when you followed Spock and the Jellyfish. You remember her, don't you?"

"The pretty blonde girl."

"Speak that way of her again, Nero, I dare you." He snarled. Nero lashed out and sent Jim sprawling, but he was still running on adrenaline fueled by sheer, unadulterated fury and scrambled to his feet with ease.

"Stubborn Human!"

"Thanks, that's the nicest thing anyone like you ever said about me." He flashed Nero one of his infuriating grins, the kind that got his opponent to strike back first. They grappled, Jim lost his footing and fell off the catwalk, but broke his fall by grabbing hold of Nero's boot and pulling him off-balance. He climbed the Romulan and staggered to his feet. Nero forced him to his knees, but Jim grabbed the disruptor behind him and whipped it up, opening fire at close range. Nero fired at the same time, his shot going wide as he reeled back, but not wide enough. Jim dropped the disruptor and reached for his shoulder, knowing Bones would love this. Shoving past the pain, he staggered to his feet and went to find Pike. He had to jump from the catwalk to a lower level, and when the Narada's catwalks suddenly vanished in a transporter, Jim didn't know if he was supposed to be angry or not. Surprise took over for anger when he landed on the deck of the Jellyfish. He gasped and sank to his knees, vision blurred. He raised his head weakly, "S-Spock?"

"Not exactly, old friend. A moment." That wasn't his Spock's voice. Jim groaned and doubled over in agony. A moment later, the familiar hum of transporters was heard and he looked up again just in time to see his Spock materialize with Captain Pike in tow.

"Spock!" he gasped, bizarrely relieved to see the Vulcan again. Spock lowered Pike to the deck and dropped to his knees beside Jim.

"Ambassador, fire the canisters and get us out of range. Has the Enterprise gone to warp yet?"

"She did a moment before I beamed Captain Kirk aboard."

"Spock, what…"

"You shouldn't speak, Jim, you've been hurt." Spock looked strangely compassionate as he probed the wound with long, deceptively gentle fingers.

"Ngh! Spock…!"

"Peace, Captain." Spock soothed, applying the gentlest of pressure to Jim's unhurt shoulder and giving him to blissful, sweet oblivion.

"D-Delta."

"Is safe on the Enterprise. Now hush." Spock whispered and Jim's world faded to black.

As soon as Jim Kirk was unconscious, a blessing in his state, Spock got to his feet and went to the cockpit displays, leaning over the back of the chair.

"Are the canisters away?"

"Yes, all of them." the elderly Vulcan manning the controls looked up at him and smiled, "Give the word."

"Fire." It wasn't even a thought. A spread of missiles streaked towards the Narada and before any of them made contact, the Jellyfish was out of range. They watched on the view-screen as the red matter was ignited by the photon torpedoes and consumed the Narada in a black hole that consumed itself when there was no more matter.

"Set course for the rendezvous with the Enterprise, Captain Pike requires Doctor McCoy's special assistance." Spock turned from the controls and went back to the two unconscious Enterprise captains. The past thirty minutes seemed so bizarre, and it was still happening. After checking on Kirk, he went back further and scrounged up a medical kit. It was designed for Vulcans and Humans, whoever had designed the ship had obviously anticipated either race taking the helm. He tossed the bloodied, torn tunic and undershirt into the small recycler, knowing he could get them back in time for the rendezvous, and carefully tended his captain's hurts. The bone-setter and the dermal regenerator were both friends to him on the short warp-flight to the rendezvous. Spock also took the opportunity to familiarize himself with the body of his captain, memorizing planes and scars by touch. What troubled him were three diagonal scars, each a different length, on the underside of Kirk's left wrist. One scar wrapped around his forearm in length, a raised white reminder of something horrible. Flashes came to him, memories. Running water, a white porcelain sink, a mirror, reflecting the face of Kirk, bruised and stained with tears. An old-fashioned razor of steel, the sharpened blade dragging across pale, soft skin and cutting deep. Not deep enough. Not nearly deep enough. Blood flowing freely from the open wounds, and nothing. Spock surfaced from the memory with a frightened gasp, horrified by what he'd seen.

"Spock?"

"Suicide!" he whispered hoarsely, "He…didn't cut deep enough and failed!" Spock traced the long scar in a weird sort of trance. Thank god Kirk had failed! He thought, or they would all be dead now. His elder came to him with a fresh tunic and undershirt for Kirk, his eyes full of nothing but sadness and understanding. He took the clothes with numb fingers.

"Thank you."

"Do you understand now, Spock?"
"Yes. His bravado is a mask."
"Jim Kirk is a tormented soul whose only redemption lies in the pure soul of a girl named Delta Picard and the love of his First Officer. When the world turns its back on him, you'll be the only one to stand up for him." A shake of the gray head, "You lie for him, to him on occasion, you fight to the death with him and loose something you never miss because the important person didn't die at all."

"I do not know if T'Pring survived the destruction of our homeworld, and if she has, I will spare her the trials and release her of my own accord. I do not see her as often as I should, I have no desire to see her." His elder adopted a pained expression and Spock knew he understood that pain all too well.

"Wake Jim, we're upon the Enterprise. Doctor McCoy would have my head if I delivered Jim to him in this state."

'Ha, la-Kuramano.' Spock bowed his head in obedience and reached out, finding the pressure-point to revive Kirk.

Jim had no idea how long he'd been unconscious, but the sight to greet him when he woke up was kind of nice. Spock, his brown eyes holding all of the sadness he couldn't show to the world, calling to him.

"Jim, wake up. Wake up, we must go." Spock helped him sit up and handed him a clean undershirt and tunic, watching him. Spock had obviously gotten hold of a medical kit, Jim was stiff but all he had to remember the disruptor burn was an angry red scar under a bandage and the memory. He pulled the undershirt over his head with some difficulty, it hurt to move his right arm. Spock, without hesitation, reached out and helped him pull the black material over his head. The gold tunic followed, an even slower process. Jim groaned, coughed in pain.

"Tension aggravates the wound. Just relax, Jim." Spock whispered, taking him by the hand. He bit his tongue and wondered why he didn't feel more humiliated that he needed help getting dressed. Once he was dressed, Spock pulled Jim to his feet and brushed a few stray wrinkles out of the fabric of his tunic. They got Captain Pike up and Jim reached for his communicator. He looked out the view-screen to the Enterprise, which hovered nearby, and flipped open his communicator.

"Kirk, Enterprise. Three to beam out. Notify Doctor McCoy and have a medical team meet us in transporters. Kirk out." He closed his communicator and looked side-long at Spock Prime, unable to help the smirk that plastered itself across his face, "Oh, by the way? Coming back and changing history? That's cheating." Spock Prime just smiled.

"It's something an old friend once taught me. Be well, Jim."

"See ya round, old man." Jim just looked over at Spock, who wore a passably straight face. They were beamed off the Jellyfish, Jim's ears ringing with Spock Prime's laughter, and rematerialized a heartbeat later on the Enterprise, where they were greeted by quite the welcoming committee. Bones came roaring in, barking orders left and right, threatening to get his hands on the two of them once he had Pike taken care of. Sarek, Uhura, and Delta were hard on the heels of the medical team. Jim wasn't under the impression Sarek had encountered his son's elder counterpart just yet, and wondered where on the Enterprise Spock Prime had been hiding all this time. Probably down in Engineering, if he had to hazard a guess. Delta was a complete basket-case, he couldn't get a word in edgewise. When he got to his knees, a painful process itself, she threw herself at him and jarred healing ribs with enough force to take his breath away.

"Ow!" he gasped, "Easy there, sweetheart. Not so hard." Delta just sobbed. She wanted to be held, but the very idea of getting to his feet while holding her made Jim hurt something fierce. As it was, Spock had to help him stand up while his hands were empty. Jim's knees threatened to buckle just when he was upright, but Spock caught him by the elbow and supported him.

"I don't know if I can carry you, Delta. I can barely carry myself." He groaned. After four days, he was exhausted and fairly certain his body was just one massive, ugly bruise. Sarek lifted Delta into his arms and smoothed one hand over her hair.

"Take her, Captain. She has asked for you several times, she needs to know you're alright."

"I'm not alright." He held out his arms for Delta, who practically jumped into them. The small, warm body pressed against his was actually very soothing, and she sang a French lullaby in his ear as she stroked the back of his neck. Adjusting his hold on Delta, Jim headed for Sickbay with Spock in tow. Uhura tagged along to be with Spock and Sarek left them to their own devices. When they actually got there, Jim was barely conscious, most of his weight borne by Spock while Uhura led Delta by the hand behind them. Spock got him onto an empty bed and Jim caught his First Officer by the hand, not missing the startled jump it spawned.

"Spock…"

"Yes, Jim?"

"Please." He wondered if he looked as frantic and disoriented as he felt. Spock knew what he wanted, and nodded solemnly. When that darkness came back to Jim, it was the most beautiful thing to his tortured senses.

"Th'i-oxalra, Spock." He murmured faintly, squeezing Spock's shoulder with his last bit of strength. He wasn't sure where that particular Vulcan phrase came from, or even if it meant what he was trying to say.

When Leonard McCoy finally got around to seeing Spock and Jim Kirk, First Officer and Acting Captain of the Enterprise, he was surprised to find Jim out stone-cold. He shot Spock a suspicious look as he took stock of what he was up against.

"What'd you do to him?"

"He asked it of me, Doctor."

"Sure." Whether or not Jim had the guts to ask for that swift oblivion was up for debate. But having Jim unconscious sure made his job easier. Removing the tunic and undershirt, and still wondering what madness had possessed him to take it out of store-rooms for Jim, he catalogued any variety of bruises and fractures. Two floating ribs showed signs of recent healing, and a bandage on Jim's shoulder hid an angry red scar.

"What's this from?"

"Romulan disruptor at close range, the shot went wide of it's mark."

"No kidding! What, were the bastards going for execution style or something?" Well, Spock may not be a medical officer, but he sure knew his way around a dermal regenerator and bone-setter. Spock didn't stay long, he had to be on the bridge to get them underway. Leonard still didn't know where those orders had come from, and he was really beginning to wonder what kind of shit Jim had gotten himself into while he wasn't watching. Once he had Jim stabilized and on the way to full recovery, he turned to his most critical patient and spent six hours saving Christopher Pike from a weird neural parasite that had wrapped itself around the base of Pike's spine after eating through his upper tract.

The Jellyfish and the Enterprise motored home at impulse speed not because they were stripped of warp capacity, simply because they had no desire to get home that much faster. It took them almost a week to reach Earth, most of which Jim Kirk spent sleeping.