Warning: Adult content


Chapter 52

Beth could feel the warmth of him on her back, even through her heavy coat. She could hear him breathing, slow and steady except for the occasional catch as he fought to control the pain of the bullet in his right shoulder. If the person who'd shot him had been anyone else they would already be dead, but it had been her mother, and Beth stared down the barrel of the shotgun at the woman and hoped she wouldn't have to pull the trigger.

Her mother looked from Beth to Khan. "He's been hunting you like an animal for weeks."

"Get out," Beth said. There were no words she wanted to hear.

"Beth, please listen to me."

"Not until you listen to me. I'm sorry for whatever happened to you, and maybe one day I'll understand, but I am not you, and this is not your life, and Khan is not like other men."

"All men are the same in the end," her mother said, her eyes losing focus for a moment as she took a step forward. "Even those who have the most reason to be different."

"Get out," Beth repeated, her hands shaking as she pulled the safety back on the shotgun. She was not going to lose Khan again.

"Beth, don't." His deep voice was so close to her ear, she instinctively turned her face towards him. He ran his left hand slowly over her shoulder and down her arm, all the way to her hand that gripped the gun's fore-end. Gently, he pried her fingers loose and took it from her.

Keeping the gun pointed at the ground he stepped around Beth, drawing her mother's aim to the side.

"Mrs. Walker," he said. "I know why you think I am going to hurt your daughter. She has an effect on men, just as you do. Trust me, I feel it when I touch her, I feel it in the air around her."

Khan reached out his left hand, offering the shotgun back to Beth's mother. She looked at it suspiciously, like he'd wired it with explosives. When she didn't take it, he replaced the safety and threw it onto the couch by the fire.

"Khan," Beth gasped. He was defenseless, and even he couldn't escape a bullet at point blank range. She glanced down at his right hand, still hanging limp by his side.

"But it is just a chemical reaction," he continued, his voice soothing and calm. "Beth can't control it, just as you can't control it."

"What do you know?" her mother asked, laughing dryly.

"I know that I can control my reaction to it," Khan told her. "Just as I can control my reaction to pain."

Using his left hand he pushed his coat back to expose the bullet wound in his right shoulder, just under his clavicle bone. Beth went to help him and removed the coat completely, taking extra care with his right side. A frightening amount of blood had spread down the gray thermal shirt he wore underneath. Khan pulled down on the shirt's high collar, ripping it and exposing the wound.

"For example," he continued. "This bullet has damaged my brachial plexus. Do you know what that is?"

Beth's mother shook her head.

"It is a bundle of nerve fibers running from my spine to my arm. Just having the bullet touch them is excruciatingly painful."

"What do you want, an apology?"

"On the contrary, Mrs. Walker, if I had a daughter and I thought a man was going to hurt her, he would already be dead. I am merely trying to explain that I am in extreme pain."

"You don't seem to be in that much pain."

"Which is precisely my point." As he talked, Khan raised his left hand to the large bullet wound and slowly pressed a finger inside. "I feel the pain, but I can control my reaction to it. I can think clearly, knowing that while it hurts even more - exponentially more - to remove the bullet than just leave it in place," He grimaced and curled his finger forwards, pushing his thumb in to meet it. "It is necessary to prevent further damage to the nerves and my subclavian artery. Do you know…"

"I know what an artery is," Beth's mother snapped, but she stared in fascination at Khan's performance.

"And even though it would hurt me far more than this," Khan said, producing the bullet between his thumb and forefinger, "I would remove myself from Beth if I ever thought I was endangering her."

He dropped the bullet on the floor at the same time Beth's mother lowered the pistol to her side. She stared at the bullet for a moment and then looked at Khan and Beth.

"Mom," Beth began, but her mother shook her head.

"I can't watch this," she said, putting the pistol back in her coat pocket. She turned and pulled up the hood of her coat and left the room. Beth watched her go, realizing that for the second time her mother was leaving without saying goodbye.

She turned back to Khan, looking up at his face, full of concern for her despite his pain and the torrent of emotions that must have been swelling inside him. "Go after her," he said.

Beth shook her head, reaching a hand up to his face. He took it with his left hand and raised it to his lips to kiss her palm. He leaned his cheek into it for a moment, closing his eyes, then released it. "I'm not going anywhere."

Pulling her coat tightly around her, Beth stepped out into the cold, looking for her mother in the moonlight. It was beginning to snow again – light, soft flakes landing on her bangs and eyelashes. She saw the dark figure moving quickly down the hill.

"Mom!" she shouted, running after her. "Mom, wait!"

Her mother stopped but didn't turn around.

Beth hesitated about twenty yards from her. "Where are you going to go?"

Her mother's voice was cold and distant. "I know a place. I'd rather not say where."

It hurt, but Beth had to accept it. Her mother had been in hiding most of her life and Beth was as much a stranger now as anyone else. "Will you come back tomorrow?"

Her mother turned her head to the side, listening.

"I'm sorry," Beth said and she wasn't sure what she was apologizing for: pointing the gun at her or leaving her to go to Starfleet Academy all those years ago, or if she was just sorry for her mother's sad life.

"So am I, Beth." And her mother turned away to continue walking down the hill toward the trees. Beth watched her go until she couldn't see her anymore in the gently-swirling snow.


Khan stood by the window, watching Beth walk back to the house. It had frightened him to let her out of his sight, even for a moment. After two months of thinking she was dead and then another month tracking her from the planet of Golana all the way to this small stone house in the middle of the Northern Wilderness, he was not going to let her slip through his fingers again.

But then the front door opened. He felt the draft and smelled the pine it carried into the front room, and then he heard the bolt on the door, followed by her footsteps on the wooden floor. Suddenly she was across the room, looking at him.

She smiled as she walked towards him, looking nervous and beautiful, her hair and shoulders dusted with fresh snow. Khan wanted to return her smile but his emotions were beyond happy, beyond anything he had felt before and his face did not know how to translate them.

"You left without me," he said abruptly, without meaning to. It sounded like an accusation but it was a declaration, a statement of his pain.

It made Beth hesitate and when she reached out a hand to touch his face it was more soothing than yearning. "Khan, I thought you were dead and I felt trapped. I was so afraid. I'm sorry."

He nodded, covering her hand with his. "You did the right thing," he said. "Your safety will always be the most important thing to me. I love you, Beth."

She smiled, seeming to relax. "I love you, too."

And then she was leaning into him, her arms around his waist, and it felt like part of his body had been reattached. Khan breathed out, in relief and disbelief, and wrapped his uninjured arm around her, pulling her closer, off her feet so her heart was pressed against his. He held her tight against him for a long time, his eyes squeezed shut, letting her fill the empty hole that had been expanding inside him for months... no, years.

When he finally put her back on the floor Khan stared at her face. He wanted to kiss her but he was nervous. He looked at her mouth, remembering how soft her lips were. After so long it felt more like a dream than a memory. But then she closed her eyes and tilted her head and he felt her breath on his face, her hand on his neck and it was suddenly the most natural thing in the world to lean down and press his lips against hers.

She sighed into his mouth as he kissed her and leaned even closer, her breasts pushing against his chest, her stomach pressing against him.

Khan pulled out of the kiss, feeling dizzy, ignoring Beth's moan of protest. He took a step back, looking down her body. "Take your coat off," he said, knowing it sounded like an order. "Please."

She nodded and opened her coat, sliding it off her shoulders. She wore brown corduroy leggings and a cream knitted sweater that stretched tight across her belly. Khan put both hands on the bump, ignoring the spike of pain in his right shoulder. It was real. They were real. His children were inside her, growing and developing and one day they would be born and he would be able to look at them and hold them.

"Khan, you're bleeding," Beth said, her voice worried.

He looked at his wound and saw fresh blood trickling down his chest. "It's okay," he assured her. "I just need to keep my arm still for a while."

She backed him into a deep armchair by the fire. "Then sit down. I'll get my medical kit." As she left the room Khan carefully pulled his shirt over his head. He balled it up, pressing it against the wound.

"I can tape it," Beth said when she returned. "Or I can sew it up with needle and thread. Arma told me how to do that." She looked down into her kit. "Did Arma...?"

"She survived," Khan told her, using his left arm to scoop her into his lap. "Apart from Ram and one other, they all survived."

"Good." Beth smiled, leaning into him, pulling out a roll of medical tape. "I should disinfect it first."

"Augments don't get infections," Khan said, rubbing his hand up and down Beth's back as she put mesh tape over his wound and smoothed it down. He breathed her in deeply as she reached across him. He could feel every part of his body relax... well, every part except one.

Beth laughed as she noticed his growing arousal. "I see, first you take your shirt off, then I'm sitting in your lap. Is this going somewhere?" She looked up and kissed him slowly, parting her lips. Khan ran his tongue over her teeth, searching for hers, wishing he could use both hands to pick her up, lay her on the floor and trail his tongue all over her body. With his left arm supporting her back he couldn't even run a hand down her chest and or pull off her sweater.

"Beth, I want to see you," he said in between her gentle, luxurious kisses.

She pulled back, her smile soft, her eyes blinking slowly. "Hmm?"

"I want to see you naked."

"But your arm."

"It wants to see you naked as well."

She smiled, biting her bottom lip.

"Please, Beth," Khan said, rubbing his left hand up and down her back, leaning forward to nuzzle her neck. "Please," he whispered.

She stood and slowly turned to face him, looking as shy as she'd been their first time together. She started with her boots, loosening the laces and then sliding them off. Khan watched her movements, clumsy and self-conscious on the surface, but there was an elegant rhythm and sensuality to everything she did. The arch of her back as she peeled off her sweater was one of the most erotic things Khan had ever seen. The way she rolled her leggings down over her hips, the way she leaned to the side as she stepped out of them, her hair falling in front of one eye and spilling over her shoulder… these were precise movements of seduction wrapped up in her complete oblivion to how sexy she was.

When she was just in her underwear she seemed to hesitate.

"Keep going," Khan said, his throat dry. He licked his lips as she unclasped her bra in the front and then peeled it off her breasts and let it fall to the floor. She stood with her hands at her sides, her cheeks flushing, her nipples tightening as he stared at her full, round breasts. They had grown since the last time he'd seen them. In fact her whole body had filled out and softened with pleasant curves at the shoulders and hips where there used to be sharp bones and angles.

"Keep going," he repeated, his breath coming faster as she hooked her thumbs over the waist of her pale blue panties. She pulled them down, bending over to untangle them from her feet. As she stood up, revealing her full nakedness, Khan groaned, shifting in his seat.

"Are you okay?" she asked, her eyes flickering to his shoulder.

"Come here," he ordered.

Beth complied, her hips undulating as she walked.

"Slower," he said. He could watch her forever, loved the nervous anticipation emanating from her, so vulnerable and exposed in front of him.

He spread his knees so she could stand between them. He could smell her arousal as he reached out his left hand, running it lightly down her right breast. She shivered at his touch and his fingers trailed over her stomach. He found it incredible erotic that it was so swollen with his seed, and he spent a long time running his hand across it as Beth swayed hypnotically, her eyes closed, a dreamy expression on her face.

Then without warning Khan dropped his hand and brought it up between her thighs. Beth gasped and her eyes opened wide as his fingers pressed against the soft hair of her sex, pushing between the swollen lips and sinking into her spreading wetness.

"Oh, Khan," she said weakly, her knees trembling as he stroked her softly. Her back arched, her hands ran up over her breasts. "I want you inside me."


Beth dropped to her knees and didn't wait for his help unfastening his pants. She pulled them off him, yanking them roughly over his boots in her desperation.

When he was naked she clambered over him, breathing hard, straddling his thighs as she leaned in to kiss him deeply, and reached down for his cock. She moaned as her fingers wrapped around it, guiding it to her entrance. He was so hard, so hot. She didn't give him time to brace himself. She sunk down on him, taking his manhood deep within her and then wriggled on his lap to get him deeper still. "Oh, God, I missed you," she breathed, feeling him rise up to meet her, twitching inside her. He felt so big, so familiar.

Khan gasped at the sensation of her wet warmth wrapped so tightly around him. "Hold still," he said, already overwhelmed by her closeness and urgency. She stayed where she was but kissed his neck desperately, biting it, her fingers pulling on his hair, turning his face towards her.

She kissed from his neck to his mouth and couldn't hold back any longer. She had been needing him as badly as he'd been needing her. Beth put her hands on his shoulders and pushed herself up, sliding herself halfway up his shaft and then sinking back down. Her strokes were short, but fast and deep. His cock burned inside her. Khan leaned back in the chair, a look of undiluted pleasure on his face as her moans washed over him. He looked down to watch his cock move in and out of her. He put his fingers between her legs, holding them against her swollen clitoris, giving her something to rub against. Beth did so, gasping with mounting excitement. He always knew exactly how to touch her.

"Oh, God," she cried, going even faster, angling her pelvis to increase her stimulation, and his. "Oh, Khan, oh, God!"

Her exclamations turned into nonsensical noises as she charged towards orgasm. The muscles tensed in her thighs and all through her body, her breathing was out of control. She grabbed him roughly by his shoulders, just missing his bullet wound, her fingernails digging into his skin as she came hard, her whole body trembling and contracting as she cried out. Her pussy seemed to milk Khan's cock, fluttering around it, desperate for him to cum.

"Please," she begged, and Khan knew what she meant. He grabbed her hips with both hands, grimacing as the pain in his shoulder mixed with his pleasure and he moved her up and down, thrusting into her, groaning and rasping as everything fell away except the feel of her around him, the sound of their ragged breaths. Khan held her down hard against his hips as he came deep inside her. "Oh, Beth," he whispered against her ear, and it was all he needed to say.

They stayed like that afterwards, locked together, Beth straddling him, his member still buried inside her. When she wanted to get up to put another log on the fire Khan didn't let her move. "I'll keep you warm," he said, taking the quilt from the back of the armchair and draping it across her back, tucking it around them like a cocoon. He didn't want to let her go, he wanted to stay inside her as long as possible, and at some point she fell asleep, leaning against his chest, his chin resting on top of her head. Khan closed his eyes, listening to her rhythmic breathing, feeling her love and the life inside her, and knew that he was home, finally at peace.


Ah, happy endings :) Hope this was satisfying as Khan finds peace, Beth takes the first step towards reconciliation with her Mom, and manages to rough Khan up a bit during reunion sex ;)

There will be an epilogue (probably including a bit more hottness) before I mark this story as complete. I have lots of inspiration for future adventures (some have been suggested already) but they will be in separate stories if they come to be.

Thanks again to everyone for reading, and to all who took the time to review. Feel free to ask questions if you need resolution on anything - either in reviews or PM me.

xo