Chapter 27
McCoy
The worn CMO sat slumped in his new office, his shoulders hung, his eyes bloodshot with their bags drooping heavily, he was exhausted. McCoy sat in grievance. A brandy sat in it's iced glass in front of him. Its cool burning alcoholic contents were a welcome commodity to his throat, he necked the 25ml in one; letting out a gasp after he swallowed. He had needed it after the procedure, he had lost. Puri had been a fighter, had. McCoy and his team had worked relentlessly over their former CMO, trying to bring him back, fix him up.
They had failed.
After the surgery to seal up his Femoral Artery Puri had gone into cardiac arrest. His heart failed. McCoy had used the defibrillator, it hadn't worked... "Give me 1,000 Volts! Its our last chance, if we do it again and we will lose him, feed it through NOW!" McCoy had pressed the two statically charged plates to the man's chest, knowing he had lost; this was his last hope. The man's chest rose as the bolts of electricity were shot through him, his eyes opened as his nerve endings reacted. The monitor flat-lined, Puri was gone.
McCoy had lost.
He poured himself another brandy. He raised his glass in toast. "Puri, you're the one who got me into the business, and I'm sure as hell not gonna let'ya down, I swear." On the brink of tears he necked his second glass bitterly. He stared into space for a moment, his eyes wandered the depths of the stars, 'Your with them now.' he thought and swallowed. He groaned and pushed himself up from his desk Spock needed to know.
He left his office which lead straight into the med-bay, to his surprise Spock was there already. Of course, Nyota. McCoy left him alone for a few minutes, the green blooded hobgoblin may look fine and dandy but hell, the pointy eared Vulcan had gone through some serious crap in the past week. McCoy knew the guy needed some time with his wife.
McCoy waited for fifteen minutes to pass before walking in on Spock and Uhura. He cleared his throat. "Spock" He felt awful that he had to ruin their moment but it had to be done. Spock broke off his kash-nohv and turned to see the doctor. "Sir, you might want to see this."
The Vulcan's jaw tightened and he saw Nyota gently squeeze his arm in reassurance. "I shall attend, Nyota." She nodded and Spock stepped away and left with the McCoy.
Spock stared at McCoy, McCoy answered his unasked query. "Its concerning both Puri and Pike." McCoy's face was washed out and the bags below his blue eyes were evidence of his hard work.
Spock said nothing.
"Sir, it's not good, damn it man I tried!" McCoy was verge of breaking."I tried so damn hard..." His voice trailed away. He shook his head in dismay.
Spock turned to face him fully, "McCoy, you must remind yourself. You have done all you can do, and if that was not enough then no one can blame you. The only blame can be placed on the corpse of Haji Budahba." McCoy swallowed hard and nodded.
His mood didn't lighten at Spock's somewhat consolidation, but it did make him regain his own confidence. "We lost him Spock. Puri went into cardiac arrest and didn't respond, we tried everything. Stimulants, compressions, mouth to mouth even the de-fib didn't work. He was transported to the morgue an hour ago."
Spock nodded in acknowledgement, not a trace of any emotion flickered, none at all. McCoy felt a pang of annoyance at the Vulcan's little reaction to the situation. Robot. He sneered in his head. He didn't hate Spock, but sometimes, just sometimes the man needed to at least allow his face to change maybe an eyebrow furrowed. But no, nothing. He stood there taking in the death of their CMO like someone had told him he most insignificant news in the galaxy. McCoy dropped his anger and moved on to the worrying subject of Pike.
They moved through the gleaming white med bay. Spock followed his lead by his side. The stoic Vulcan had drawn his hands behind him and posture perfect. McCoy smirked at how different the must have looked, his arms draped at his sides nonchalantly and his face dishevelled. They reached the quarantined area and stepped into the room that faced Pike. He had been contained in a sealed off room, his deformed being placed out of sight. Spock and McCoy watched from the other side of the transparent wall between them and him, if the quarantine had been placed anywhere but the med-bay you could have believed it was the brig. Pike was still medically incapacitated under strong sedatives and was to stay like that until they reached Earth.
McCoy turned to Spock. "Sir." He exhaled. " I believe that once Pike reaches Earth we will be faced by very few options. I've assessed him hourly, daily and I have been unable to see how Haji has altered Pike's mentality. I believe-it is only a belief, that he used C.A.T which is something noted in his record from when he was only 8. If so then Pike is incredibly lucky to be even in this mental state, however as we do not know this for certain we cannot know how to deal with him. Especially because all of the people who were subjected to Haji's wrath were locked in St Patrick's hospital for the mentally insane, and all have since died. No one in the medical field ever found a calming agent for the patients, let alone a cure. Mr Spock, even if we can fix Pike's physical appearance and return some of his biological functions back to normality, his mentality will still remain as it is currently, he will be incorrigible." Spock's eyebrows rose at McCoy's words, the doctor was admittedly shocked that he received a reaction from the Vulcan. "Sir, I think we will be forced to lock him away in St Patrick's." McCoy choked on his words slightly.
Spock
Spock was not looking at the doctor, he was staring at Pike, his former captain. His only friend. Spock inhaled sharply he managed to speak without his voice being affected by his emotions.
"Doctor, thank you. I am glad that I have received this preliminary information on the Captains status from you. I understand that you are an incredibly capable doctor and surgeon who has served before Starfleet, you may appear young, but you are rather experienced and I take your words gratefully." The doctor nodded. and Spock carried on. "I will be brief. Will Pike walk again?" His query had emerged from a conversation he had once had with Pike over a game of Chess...
"So... Spock, what's your worst fear?" Pike asked as he moved his pawn from E3 level 2 to E4 level 1, a smirk ladened his face.
Spock had just raised his left eyebrow in query and stated, "It is illogical to fear. Therefore I do not fear."
Pike had laughed, his face had reddened and then he spoke through his laughter, "Of course Spock."
When his bubbling face had calmed Pike spoke again. "But seriously Spock, not one single fear?" Spock had shake his head with the slightest of twitches and Pike had responded with a returning smirk, " I have lots of fears, my two main have got to be losing my crew and losing the ability to walk on the bridge of a starship, to feel the thrum of the warp core through my feet and into my bones."
... Spock's concentration faded from his memories as he heard McCoy's explanation on Pikes loss of his lower legs. "...the amputation was unsanitary and rough, he has lost most of his nerve endings and despite the fact he has been given 'prosthetics', they are made out of steel and extremely heavy. Our best option would be to probably put him in a restraining wheelchair, he will probably not be compatible with a brain wave chair because of the irreversible mental issues, so, I'm sorry Mr Spock. He most likely wont." McCoy looked at Spock with sympathetic eyes.
Spock still stared at Captain Pike, His friend Chris.
"Thankyou Dr McCoy. I must return to the bridge." He turned to the doctor and McCoy nodded with understanding.
o.O.o
"Sir we will reach Earth in 2.1 days" Sulu announced from the helm,
"Thankyou Mr Sulu. Can you please pass this information on to Lieutenant Axtriv as I relieve Alpha shift of their duties early, you have all worked incredibly hard this week and as a reward you can have an early break." The entire bridge crew stared in astonishment at Mr Spock's leniency, but no one complained. They all called for their beta shift officers and all left for their recreation time in haste. Spock stood and spoke to Mr Scott, "Mr Scott how is engineering?"
A gleeful scotsman replied, "purring like a kitten sir!"
"Good, would you occupy the bridge for a few hours?"
"Aye sir."
With that Spock left the bridge and Mr Scott stepped out of the turbolift and into the captains chair, "Righty then, laddi's, lassi's we've got a ship to drive, so get on with ya."
Spock stepped into the med bay and found Nyota laid on her med bed reading. "Hi Spock." She said as he stepped up to the foot of her bed.
"Hello Nyota." He did not sit, despite being her husband he would wait until asked to be seated,
She laughed, "You and your over exaggerated use of manners, sit down Spock aha, gosh I've missed you" She stretched out her arms and he fell into her embrace.
Inhaling her scent he spoke into her hair that was draped down her back, "I have missed you also." she laughed and pushed him back slightly,
"Nurse Caldin told me earlier that when you arrived you could take me back to quarters!" A smile beamed across her face and her glee flew through the bond, how he had yearned for her emotions to be his again. He smiled inwardly and she felt his lips tug through the bond.
He picked her up and carried her out of the med-bay, her head nestled in his chest, her hair draped around them and her mind against his. How he had missed the delicate push of her mind against his. She had the ability to push away his troubles, to console him more than any other, she was Nyota Uhura and she was his.
He made the way to their quarters and he lay her to rest, she was still weakened from the incident and needed comfort. He changed into his loose meditation trousers and sat by his asenoi, as his eye's rolled back into the oblivion of tranquillity he felt her tug of happiness and understanding of his meditation. "Spock." she spoke out, his eyes opened to stare back at her in confusion.
"Yes Nyota?"
"Meditate with me."
He had never heard such a request before from a human, in fact he had only ever meditated communally with his Father. He rose and sat with her on the bed,
"Nyota, I am not sure whether this may provide a positive outcome. I am currently...unstable, I and you have experienced an incredibly peculiar and terrible event I do not wish you harm by my thoughts."
She shook her head and leaned against him, "whatever happens, we can get through it together." he nodded and initiated the link.
"My mind to your mind, my thoughts to your thoughts..." They're minds slipped into unison and as Spock relived every moment of Haji's undefinable plot and every moment whilst he had lost Nyota. He felt his chest dampen as tears spilled from Nyota's eyes. He called through the bond, she replied ,whatever happens. His meditation lasted over an hour, it was short by his reckoning but he knew that Nyota would have received an overwhelming amount of emotion. Finally he addressed the situation of Pike. That was when Nyota had looked up at him, she watched as the small droplets of water dripped one by one from Spock's eyes. Then and only then did she kiss him, her lips meeting his for only a brief moment. It was not a kiss of romance, it was of pure love, of upset, of understanding and of reassurance. His deep brown eyes opened slowly, they were green and bloodshot. She wiped the few tears one by one from his face and he kissed her. His kiss was slow, long and graceful. He told her through that very kiss of how he was uncontrollably thankful of her presence, not only now, but in his life completely.
He broke the link and spoke, his voice was calm and composed "Thankyou Nyota, I believe that was a most useful meditation."
She smiled and spoke softly,
"You are welcome, now we need rest." She kissed his forehead, her soft lips pressed against his forehead and he slept with her safely locked in his arms.
Authors note:
Thankyou for reading your reviews are fab thankyou! I hope you enjoyed this chapter, the end is nigh! My friends I'm afraid to say, hope that you're all enjoying it and as always constructive criticism is always welcomed.
Keep reading you're all spocktastic!:PX
