Fear

by Starsinger

As usual, Jim isn't reacting very well to Khan's blood, and McCoy decides to leave his side on a quest, with Carol at his side. Don't own them.

Leonard and Spock stood looking at their friend. Leonard swallowed, hard. Last night M'Benga had put Jim on a ventilator, his lungs trying to fill up with fluid. Penny and Peter were pressed up against his side almost willing their uncle to come back to them. Jim looked pale and fragile as Frank looked on from the bedside chair. The man he'd come to see as a son fighting for his life. "What were his last words, Spock?" Leonard asked. "What did he say to you?"

Spock had been in the command chair. Uhura was down in the bowels of the ship making sure nothing else happened. She survived. Scotty pulled out the miracle of stabilizing the ship after the power came back on and everyone breathed a sigh of relief. "Engineering to Bridge," came the call.

"Mr. Chekov," Spock replied.

"Mr. Spock, you'd better get down here, better hurry," Chekov came back.

Spock tore out of the bridge passing Uhura without ever noticing her. When he found Chekov, the man couldn't even meet him in the eye before shaking his head. Sulu was off to one side, looking stunned. He hurried over to the warp core room and closed his eyes briefly before looking at Chekov, "Open it!"

"I can't, Spock. If I do the whole compartment vill fill vith radiation. He did not do this to sacrifice all of our liwes."

Spock dropped to a crouch and watched as Jim settled into a reasonably comfortable position before pulling a lever to close the outer hatch. His breathing was obviously labored and movements becoming harder and harder as the hand dropped to the floor. Jim finally opened his eyes, squinting at the Vulcan, "How's the ship?"

"Out of danger, you saved the crew," Spock replied.

"And what you did, that was a nice move," Jim said admiringly.

"It is what you would have done," Spock said.

"And this…this is what you would've done. It's only logical. I…" Jim started coughing, fluid filling his lungs. "Spock, please, I need you to understand. You are my friend. You are no longer alone, you have friends on this ship." He coughed again, "To quote your older self: I have been, and always shall be, your friend." Spock's throat felt as if it were closing as he fought back the tears he didn't realize were coursing down his cheeks. "Tell Bones not to blame himself, I chose this. Tell Penny and Peter that I love them, that I will always be with them." With that, Jim pushed the last of his strength into his arm as he planted his hand against the door. Spock did the same with his forming the Vulcan salute. Jim emulated it before looking back at the Vulcan. Then, he was gone. Spock watched as the light faded from his eyes and they turned away from him, his hand falling from the door.

"Next thing I remember I was on a garbage scow above San Francisco beating Khan to a pulp and Uhura screaming at me that he might be able to save Kirk."

Frank got up and came up to them, "Thank you, both of you. I don't know how much longer this can last." The man choked up with tears.

"Maybe he needs an incentive to live, maybe there's something eluding us that would bring him back," Hannah's voice sounded behind them.

Spock shook his head. McCoy looked at his mother, "Can you take care of Jo for a while. I'm going off-planet." They all looked at him confused as he hurried away.

McCoy found himself with Dr. Marcus at his side sitting across from the Federation President, Marlene Fitzwilliams, explaining himself. "His wife died on Deneva, but confirmed reports state that she gave birth to a daughter before she died."

"No one knows what happened to that daughter," Marlene replied. "You want to go to Deneva and see if you can find this little girl."

McCoy breathed, "Yes, I have the DNA profile of both Jim and Ekaterina registered when they got their marriage certificate."

The President flipped them some keys, "Old fashioned, I know, but these are to my personal yacht. I'd rather pin a medal on a living man's chest than bury a dead hero. I expect to have pictures sent to me when you find her!" she shouted after the retreating Starfleet officers.

Uhura and Scotty came along once they heard where they were headed. Chapel met them as they took off, wishing them the best of luck. The trip to Deneva took three days. The yacht was built for luxury cruising, not fast trips around Alpha Quadrant. Bones distributed the DNA profiles among them, "Okay, the child is a girl, between four and five Earth years old. The name given to her by her mother was Marina. There are thirty-seven orphanages on Deneva, so this may take a while. We'll report back here at the end of every day."

Thirty three orphanages and six days in and McCoy thought he was going to go mad. Each director was more than happy to help, and pointed out children of the right age. One overbearing director even tried to convince him that one child was the girl they were looking for, even though she wasn't even the right species.

It was the thirty-fourth orphanage that they got a hit. It was everyone's luck that it was McCoy who found the blonde haired, blue eyed, cherub faced four year old who displayed, even this early, the renowned temper of her father. McCoy's head snapped around when he heard an attendant scold, "Now, Marina, you know you don't want to hurt Edward."

"I don't want to live here!" the young voice screamed. "I want a Mommy and Daddy!" The tirade went on for minutes before McCoy approached them. The little girl hadn't thrown herself down on the floor and beat her hands and feet against it, no, she had simply folded her arms across her tiny chest and was turning an interesting shade of purple.

"Well, you're not going to get it acting like that," the attendant told her.

"Excuse me," McCoy interrupted her. "Did you say her name is Marina?"

"Well, yes," the attendant told him.

"I'm sorry, Captain Leonard McCoy, USS Enterprise. I'm looking for a little girl about her age. Her mother died here on Deneva, but her father hadn't made it here yet. No one was sure what happened to the little girl, but I'm here to reunite her with her father."

"Okay, see if she's the one you're looking for," the attendant replied gesturing to the defiant little girl.

Leonard knelt down in front of her with a tricorder, "Hi, I'm Leonard. I have a little girl who's just a bit older than you." He kept the running dialogue as the tricorder pinged, it was a match. He then spent the next two hours arguing with the director about taking the girl. It had finally gotten to the point where the President of the Federation and the Governor of Deneva had to intervene, but they were soon all back aboard the President's yacht, headed back to Earth.

"Where am I going?" Marina asked.

"To meet your father," Leonard replied as they raced back to Earth, hoping to give Jim an incentive to stay alive.