Chapter 51

"Yes, Ze'eva." McCoy sighs. "You two are definitely related." He puts a sympathetic hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry. I have a counselor on speed dial, if you want to talk to someone." She rolls her eyes and moves away so that his hand falls back to his side. Khan briefly contemplates his options.

What he wants to do is punch the doctor hard enough that he flies into the wall and then Khan wants to hear the satisfying crunch as he brutaly snaps the bone in his arm right in two and the melody of his anguished screams that will follow. But doing so will drop him to the ground as electricity knives painfully into his nervous system and causes him to scream until his throat goes hoarse and unconsciousness takes him hostage. To attack or not to attack: that is the question plaguing every Augment, ever.

"I'm sure I'll find a way to cope without your friend, mind you." She stands to leave. "So, when am I finally getting you 'space explorers' out of my air space? I mean, you're great and all, but you're stealing both my oxygen and my food. So…"

Khan feels a small puff of joy go through him at her words; she was like him in a way. He typically wounds with physical blows whereas she lunges in mercilessly with razor sharp words—far more effective. Better to wound the heart than the body, the damage lasts longer and is more permanent. He, of all people, should know that.

He is impressed with her; she doesn't care.

"Well, the Enterprise was sabotaged while you, your friend, and Khan decided to go camping." McCoy grumbles sarcastically, "So, it may be a while. The explosives ripped holes where there shouldn't be any. And a tin can designed to venture into the cold, lifeless vacuum of space shouldn't have holes in it." He rolls his eyes and mutters under his breath about being a doctor and not an engineer.

"Whatever. Here, I'll tell you what: get your captain to see me later, I just might be able to help—and you can tell that to your shrink."

McCoy gives her a crooked smile and rolls his eyes. "Get out of here," he swats at her with a rolled up newspaper.

"It's my medbay! You can't kick me out!" She complains and Khan chuckles quietly.

"I don't seem to be able to speak your language," McCoy says as he shuts the door on them.

Ze'eva looks at Khan and shrugs, "I guess he finally cracked. Do you think it was his lack of people skills or the fact that he's in Star Fleet that did him in?" She jokes.

He smirks back at her, "Could be that he had a three minute conversation with you. That seems to be the undoing of most."

"You know what? You suck."

"So, why don't you like the idea of me being your father?"

"I'm not a people person nor do I have good experiences with parents."

"How so?"

"My mother was a violent alcoholic but I can't really say I blamed her."

"You mother?" He had thought the woman to be a lot of things but a drunkard certainly wasn't one of them.

"Yeah, crazy right? She was poor and owed a lot of debts so, she donated some eggs for money. We weren't ever supposed to have developed. We were to be nothing more than clumps of cells and they'd study us for research. Then, one day, the scientist wanted her back and offered more cash. They proposed that she act as a birth mother for the eggs she donated and she agreed under the assumption that she'd never have to know anything about us, let alone raise us. She was still poor and starving, so…she agreed."

"But she did know you."

"She did." Ze'eva agrees, "They kept for months after each of us were born and she didn't know the date of our birth. When they let her out, they made her take me with her. And then the next one and the next. For years, nothing happened. They ran simple tests and stuff but nothing invasive or cruel," She shrugged. "Like normal doctor's appointments, I guess."

"And then what happened?"

"Kids started dying. More and more of them and she just sort of figured it out…and there was no where to run. A couple tried to. They grabbed their kids and tried to leave this place and go somewhere else—they were shot down and tortured at great length. It was so bad, no one else has ever attempted it again. She started drinking soon after."

"And…your father?" Khan asks hesitantly. In truth, he almost didn't want to know. But he had too.

"And my father was a machine who popped up every once in a while before disappearing to his real family. He was told of our existence when I was ten. Funny thing is, my mom didn't know who he was—it was a double blind procedure. He just popped up one day and started helping out with food and stuff. He'd get violent every now and then, but, turns out, that was part of their minds games to see how we would react to negative stimuli.

She continues quietly, "Why would I ask for another parent when the ones I already had were so…fantastic? Besides, I'm not a kid anymore, and I'm supposedly in charge of your health and whatnot—not the other way around," She shrugs, "So…would that make me your parent? I cook your food, make sure you clean your room, make sure you place nice with the other adults and not commit mass homicide…you know, normal parent things…" She trails off.

"So, it's not me." He states.

"Oh, no. It's definitely you." She puts a hand on his shoulder. "I just didn't want to hurt your feelings. Want to talk about it? That McCoy guy has a councilor's number on speed dial…I'm sure he/she might care enough to listen to you before hanging up and then getting themselves mentally evaluated and subsequently getting locked into a loony bin after hearing your tales." She shudders. "But I wouldn't worry too much about it."

"That was cold." Cassie says as she passes them in the hallway. "So, where you heading?"

"To blow stuff up."

"Terrorist." Cassie laughs.

"You have no idea." Ze'eva replies and Cassie's eyes go wide. Her face makes to classic WTF expression and she gives Ze'eva a wider birth while eyeballing her backpack.

"What?! You're a what now?" Cassie exclaims and Khan finds himself analyzing Ze'eva carefully. No…this wasn't right.

"That was sarcasm, Cassie. You missed it—SO, how's the baby? Um…Lucky, was it?"

"His name is Luke."

"Right…is he doing…good?"

"Yeah, he's over in NICU and they're doing some observation…Alieth is heading everything, and I'm pretty sure he's in good hands. Dr. McCoy checks in on him too."

"Sounds…fun." Ze'eva stammers.

"I'm sure he'll be fine." Khan reassures her. "He just inhaled a little too much smoke. Give him about a week and he'll be back to normal." He shoots Ze'eva a look and she squirms uncomfortably under his glacial gaze.

"Why did you reassure her?" Ze'eva questions. "You don't know that. You don't know that he'll be okay."

"Sometimes some hope is better than no hope."

"But false hope is worse than no hope. Then you build up expectations only to watch them fall apart and break your heart into a bunch of sharp little pieces."

"Is that what's wrong with you?" He inquires.

"Nah, I related to you remember? If I don't sulk in the shadows or threaten people, then I'm even more of a genetic abnormality then the White Coats originally thought."

"Very funny." Khan says emotionlessly.

"I've offended you." She says after a moment.

"I'm not offended." He denies quickly. In truth, her found her funny. Her cluelessness was humorous.

"And I hurt your feelings. Well, sucks to be you." She walks away and he stares after her.

He could see the resemblance. She was definitely his daughter.

"Uncle Khan!" Eliana runs in and grabs Khan's leg in a hug and she laughs and the other two run after her. Truk follows after them wearily and yawns widely.

"Have you seen…?"

"Down in the labs," Khan answers as he works on extracting the girl from his leg.

"Blowing stuff again?"

"And torturing cats." Khan says tonelessly expecting Truk to freak out and say something about the horrors of animal abuse and morality…

"That's my girl."

Khan grins.

"Mommy!" Aaron leaps at me and she pulls him into her arms.

"You're okay!" I shout as I pull him closer and buried my face in his curly brown hair. "I've got you. It's all right. Everything is alright. We're okay…" I murmur. "Everything is okay."

The twins run in and we group hug. Khan watches from the sidelines but I don't care. My family is safe. Meditech didn't touch them. I feel Truk wrap me in an embrace and we all stay like that for a few minutes.

And then a bomb goes off.

The fireworks shoot upwards—a flash of blue—and a cat yowls indignantly at the noise. We break into laughter as it bristles and spits and Flame lights off another one—this time red.