"Ship's Log: Stardate 2263.177. Lieutenant Commander Scott in command. Captain Kirk and Commander Spock have been missing for almost five days. Search parties can find no trace of them or their shuttle. Doctor McCoy and I are continuing the search at a greater distance from the attack point."

The Enterprise was orbiting the planet Argo to figure out how it went from being a land world to being almost completely covered by water. All the Federation knew about the change was that it was caused by seismic activity. The mission was to study the effects of the quakes to use on another Federation world that was goin' through the same thing.

Jim, Spock, McCoy and Hendorff went down to the planet. They didn't even start their investigation when they were attacked by a massive creature. McCoy and Hendorff were beamed back to the ship but Jim and Spock's signals were lost before Kyle could get a lock on them. That was five days ago.

In two more days, the brass would name him the temporary commander of the Enterprise and force him to leave his wife and her first officer behind. Uhura rested a hand on Monty's shoulder. "We'll find 'em, Scotty. I don't care what the brass says; I'm not leaving here without them." Monty nodded; if anyone could understand what he was feeling, it was Uhura.

"We might not have much choice, lass," Monty muttered. McCoy stepped closer to the command chair, "We just gotta keep looking." He shook his head, "When she died, we bloody knew where she was. She was here with us, lad. This… not knowin'. I cannae… It's been five bloody days; no Jim, no Spock and I dinnae know what else we can do."

"You do what she would do, you do what she would want us to do; you take care of her crew. We will find them. That's not even a question, man. We don't give up on each other, especially the captain and Spock. They would never give up on us," Sulu told him. Chekov nodded his agreement, "Da. We just have to figure out what happened to them."

"All our scans have come up empty, laddie," Monty said to the young officer. Carol, who was filling in as Chief Science Officer, looked at him, "We need to widen the search. We're dealing with a water planet, they could be anywhere. I think we should take some teams to the surface. Use the shuttles, they're submersible."

Gaila, who was running Engineering while he was stuff on the bridge, nodded, "I'm with Marcus. If we stay too much longer the brass is gonna force us to call it's quits and leave. We all know that there isn't a member of this crew that's gonna leave with Jim and Spock down there. What we need to do is make sure that we've tried everything before we leave them down there." Monty nodded in agreement with his almost sister-in-law as an idea came to him.

"I'll take some teams down. Uhura, stall the brass when they check in, we know they will. If it's Pike, give him an update. There's no bloody way he'd order me to leave without Jim and Spock on the ship. McCoy, you're with me. Carol and Gaila, help us from up here. Sulu, you have the conn."

Monty, McCoy and Hendorff's team is the one that found Jim and Spock, both with a weird mutation. Whatever was done to them, they couldn't breathe air. Monty was thanking his lucky stars that the large tanks in the lab wasn't housing any experiments, they filled one with water and beamed the Enterprise's top two officers inside. As much as Monty wanted to stay with Jim, McCoy banned him and Uhura until the medical tests were completed.

After letting the brass know that Jim and Spock were back, the top two redshirts marched into the chief medical officer's office. "It's been two days, Leonard. We need to see them and you need to tell us what's wrong with them," Uhura growled. Monty was actually a little impressed, "What the lass said."

"Come on," the doctor picked up a PADD and led them down the corridor. McCoy sighed, "They don't remember what happened to them after they were attacked but my medical exams show an unidentified substance in their blood. It's affected their entire metabolism and changed them into water breathers. Their internal structure is completely transformed and even their eyes are covered with a transparent film, like the second eyelid of a fish. So far, everything I've tried to reverse it has failed."

"They're fish?" Monty asked incredulously. McCoy shrugged, "I don't know what they are. Not really. I'm stumped." Jim and Spock looked in their direction as the three officers stepped into the lab. Monty looked at his wife, swimming around in her command gold wetsuit. "You'll figure it out, Bonesy. If not, I'm gonna need someone to get me a bikini. Gaila… Gaila would get me a bikini. Or maybe we'll grow fins like mer... people. That would be cool."

"This is serious, Jim," McCoy told her. Jim nodded, "There is an inch of transparent polymer separating me from my husband. My wonderful best friend is drawing a blank on how to fix it. And I know you can't tell, but I'm crying in here and I just want a fucking hug. I'm making jokes because it's the only thing I got left at this point."

Spock pulled Jim into an awkward half-hug before he looked at the assembled officers. "Doctor, have you determined what is wrong with our blood?" the half-Vulcan asked. McCoy sighed, "Sorta. The hormone I found seems to be the major factor in your mutation but we just can't identify it." Jim glanced at Monty before she looked at McCoy, "Are you sure the mutation wasn't somehow accomplished naturally?"

"It's infused into your bodies at key structural points. It had to be done by injection," the doctor informed the pair of water-locked officers. Monty looked at McCoy, "Is there any way to duplicate it?" McCoy shrugged, "It's highly sophisticated and completely unknown to us." Spock looked at the doctor, "That implies there are intelligent lifeforms on Argo."

"The sensors don't indicate any lifeforms down there aside from fish," Uhura informed him. Spock looked at her and Monty's bloody heart almost broke at the look on the Vulcan's usually impassive face. "They could be incomplete. I mean, that's what we were doin' here in the first place. We just gotta find them and beg for their help," Jim said to everyone in the room. Monty knew what that meant, "Ye gotta go back and find the natives. Yer the only ones would survive underwater long enough to do any good."

Here he was again, waiting. After they fix this, he was locking Jim in their quarters, at least until doc cleared her. He couldn't do that. It was a good thought, wanting to hide her away, but Jim wasn't the kind of person that hides from danger and Monty would never ask her to be no matter how frustrated he was.

Jim, Spock, Monty and McCoy went back to the planet. Jim and Spock somehow found the Aquans. The group hates air breathers and their young were the only reason Jim and Spock were helped the first time. They agreed to perform surgery to return the two officers to normal, but when Monty dove down to warn of an impending quake, the locals became fearful and sentenced Jim and Spock to death.

One of the Aquans, Rila, offered to help. Jim and Spock helped get her to a buried ancient city in ruins whose archives contained the solution to their problem; reverse mutation could be induced by an infusion of antitoxin made from the venom of a deadly giant sur-snake, the creature that attacked them on the first day. Rila and a group of her friends helped them obtain the necessary medicine.

Of course, when they got back to the ship, McCoy gave Jim the vaccination and she had a bad reaction to it. Monty couldn't even stay in sickbay with her because he was the ranking officer and the Enterprise had a job to finish. From orbit, the Enterprise used its phasers to hit uninhabited sections of the planet in an attempt to move the quake's epicenter away from the Aquan city and new land masses are born.

He was on the bridge for three hours when McCoy told him that he could head down. Monty left the ship in Sulu's care and went straight to medical. He looked around for the doctor but McCoy must've been working on something. Jim was asleep on the biobed closest to McCoy's office. Monty sat in the chair and took her hand.

"My job sucks, doesn't it?" Jim mumbled from the biobed. He looked up into a pair of tired blue eyes. "It does. I prefer my part of the ship over yers, lass. How do ye feel?" She took a deep breath, "Human again. I can breathe. Bones said the mutation's gone but he has to keep an eye on me for a day. As much as I'd love to take my chair from you, you're still in the hot seat for now."

"That's okay. I dinnae like it but I can deal with it now that I know where ye are." He took a breath, "Ye never told me how hard it was to command a ship and worry about me. I always thought that might not be easy but I never thought it was that hard. How do ye do it? I mean every time I leave the ship or we get attacked... how do ye keep it together?"

"I've had more practice than you. My mom's been fleet since before I was born, I learned from her, a long time ago, how to function even when the people you love are in danger. It's not easy, not at all."

Monty stepped into his quarters and found Jim asleep on the couch with a stack of PADDs next to her. She was trying to catch up on all the paperwork she missed in the last nine days. Monty and Sulu did what they could but they had to leave the rest for Jim, which ended up being almost half of it. He took a moment to just watch her sleep and chuckled as he took in the words on her tank top; 'Some people only dream of meeting Batman. Well… I married him.'

"What's so funny?" Jim asked as she opened her eyes. He smiled, "Yer shirt. I'm Batman, huh?" She nodded, "Never seen you and him in the same room… just saying. Besides, you're the best hero I know." Monty smiled, "Batman doesn't have any powers." Jim smiled back, "He's brilliant, he has a good heart and he fights for the people he cares about. Sounds like the man I married."

"That how ye see me, lass?" he asked her. Jim nodded, "I already told you that I think you're amazing. Maybe one day you'll believe me. I got a bunch of these, by the way. Superman, Iron man, the Hulk. I even have one that says Scotty." He looked at his wife, "Ye do not." She nodded, "It's red with black and gray letters; matches your uniform."

"When do I get to see that one, lass?" Monty asked as he pressed a soft kiss to her lips. Jim smiled, "When Bones gives me the all clear for physical activity." He chuckled, "I cannae wait."