A/N - WARNING - There are some pretty dark themes covered during this chapter, such as suicide and thoughts of suicide.
GUNSHOT WOUND - SERIOUS LOSS OF BLOOD AND INTERNAL DAMAGE
Captain Pike felt as though he were floating, or he was doing something close to that description. 'Floating' was just the most fitting word his mind could conjure for whatever his consciousness seemed to be doing. Each time he tried to focus on a thought or memory they slipped out of his grasp; it was like everything around him was being unearthed and dragged away by a raging storm.
Suddenly a sharp pain shot up his side, penetrating through to his dream state and letting him know that his physical body required attention. He drifted upwards and out of the fog, the pain turning from a dull throb to a searing stabbing as he did.
The stench in the air hit him first; it reeked of disinfectant, blood and oddly - gunpowder.
Chris couldn't help but let a moan slip past his lips, his blue eyes fluttering open to investigate the source of his misery. He didn't have to look hard, the searing pain was radiating out from his side and increased with each laboured breath. He glanced down at the source and saw a growing red stain, a hole through his uniform jacket and far too much blood pooling around him.
He hadn't been dreaming. He'd passed out from the pain, not to mention the blood loss...
His training was the first thing he remembered. Pike instinctively covered his hand back over the wound, pressing hard enough to form white spots in his vision. He let his head thud back against a surface and took deep breaths, trying to get a handle on the agony so that he could work out just where the hell he was and why there was a hole in him.
Pike's first clue came from the rattling above his head, he blearily opened his eyes and noticed that one of his wrists was trapped in a pair of handcuffs fixed to a rail above him. He gave the restraints a tug but sure enough, they were locked tight. His next reminder came when he took in his surroundings. He had been propped upright against a wall in what was clearly a medical room of some description, that much was clear from the equipment and the fact that there seemed to be a sleeping patient on the other side of the room.
His gaze drifted past the patient and found another figure, one which was facing away from him and speaking to somebody through a glass partition. The man was humanoid and dressed in a white uniform, something about him was screaming 'Doctor' which was extremely odd given the fact that Pike was bleeding out all over the floor. Another odd occurrence was the person he was talking to was Pike's first officer, Number One.
Her gaze swung to him, perhaps sensing his awakening, and her eyes widened at seeing his state. Pike tried to focus on Number One, his brain desperately trying to solve this mystery whilst simultaneously fighting the encroaching darkness.
Number One's staring caused the Doctor to turn. Pike assessed the man again, noticing that the medic was gripping something in his hand. Chris thought he was imagining it at first but the longer he stared, the clearer the item got.
The Doctor was holding a gun.
Just like that, all the memories of the last hour came flooding back, the shock and the pain he'd felt since coming here, why Number One was witness to this and the importance of the patient in the room.
He'd been shot by a Doctor.
How the hell could he have forgotten that?
It had all started with a message, just a simple message and one which Pike had trusted far too easily. The message informed him that his first officer had suffered a mild injury and that she needed someone to come and sign her out of the local medicare centre. She didn't want to interrupt anyone else's shore leave so had given his name as her emergency contact.
Chris cut his stroll short and headed for the nearest transport link, finding it strange that he couldn't contact Number One through her communicator. He gave up after the second attempt, he figured it must be a hospital policy or something to that description. The nagging thought remained though. His first officer wasn't usually uncontactable, then again she wasn't usually injury-prone either.
Pike got directions to the room from the front desk and so he was a little confused when he walked into a room that didn't contain Number One. The only people there were a patient unconscious in bed and a Doctor hovering over her. Chris glanced around the space and frowned, after double-checking the room number he stepped inside.
"Excuse me." The doctor turned as soon as Pike started. "I was told a friend of mine was being treated here..."
What followed was a strange series of events.
The Doctor was startled by Pike's arrival at first but that quickly transformed into an easy smile. He greeted Chris, calling him by name and said that Chris was in the right place. Pike watched bemused as the Doctor headed to the door and typed something into the door control.
A blaring alarm suddenly filled the air, metal shutters flew down over the windows, the door slammed shut and an eerie red light bathed the walls. Chris took in the changes to his surroundings in a micro-second, going to a state of alert immediately. He sought the Doctor for some kind of answer, feeling a little concerned when a voice informed him the floor was in lockdown.
A Doctor was supposed to be a calming presence, somebody you turn to in need of help. Not this Doctor though. This Doctor had a steady grip on a crude gun and had the weapon pointed directly at Pike's mid-section.
The words on Chris' lips died in his throat and his mouth quickly went dry. He stared at the weapon in disbelief, expecting the item to morph into medical equipment any second, but it didn't. It remained a lethal weapon, even if it was a little outdated compared to Earth's standards, and it remained pointed at him.
"What?"
His question was barely comprehensible, nor did it cover what he actually needed to know but it was all he could manage. He'd been caught with his guard down and these slow reactions were the consequence of that.
The Doctor ignored his question, he gestured with the gun to the communicator at Pike's waist. "Throw me that."
Chris didn't react to the command, he stayed rooted to the spot and dimly realised he was dangerously close to succumbing to shock. It was no matter though, the Doctor helped him along by firing a shot right next to his feet.
Pike flinched away from the shot, his ears already ringing from the explosive sound. He stared from the smoking hole in the floor to the man holding the weapon at him, his mind finally catching up with the severity of the situation. He quickly nodded and grabbed the communicator off his belt before tossing it towards the gunmen.
"Whatever you say." He managed, still a little shaken from the escalation to shooting.
Chris watched the gunman warily and kept well back when he moved forward to pick up the device. He wasn't sure what he was expecting but he hadn't expected to see the Doctor open the device, hail any Starfleet personnel in the area and demand a federation representative. With that done, the Doctor flipped the communicator closed and ignored any form of communication thenceforth, from Chris, his colleagues at the glass and the device.
The pair of them stayed like that for quite some time, Pike would try and glean some information about the man or why they were here, but in return, he was treated to a hard stare and only silence. It wasn't until Number One showed up that the guy actually said something.
The Doctor turned to the glass partition separating the outside world and he spotted Number One standing by the door. Chris managed to catch her eye and indicate he was unharmed, despite the not so sane man holding a weapon in his general direction.
"Are you the federation representative?" The Doctor called out to Number One.
She tore her eyes away from her Captain, tamped down on a sarcastic reaction and nodded. "I am. Now if you want to tell me what this is all about..."
Her words were wasted as the Doctor's attention had already returned to his captive. "You serve together, you know each other well?"
Pike frowned and replied in a cautious tone. "We do..." What was this guy's game?
The Doctor muttered unheard words to himself, glanced back to Number One before steeling himself for something. Pike stiffened at the change in atmosphere. He watched the man's finger tighten on the trigger and he breathed in sharply, the sound of which was completely drowned out by the explosive round.
At first it was like nothing had happened. Una stood watching the scene, looking more confused by the turn of events than ever, the Doctor stood with his gun arm still outstretched and Chris stood opposite him in the line of fire. For one moment everything was still, and it was like nothing had changed when in reality, everything had.
The pain hit Chris like a bulldozer, slamming into him out of nowhere and stealing his breath in one fell swoop. He gasped at the shock of it, his hand coming to cradle the wound automatically. Blood dripped between his fingers, seeping out against the pressure he was trying to put on his gut.
Pike glanced downwards and blanched when he saw red dripping through his fingers, already pooling at his feet. He had never felt so disassociated from something before, even now with the evidence literally at his fingertips this didn't feel real. At that moment it honestly felt like he was in a dream state, that he would awaken from this nightmare and laugh at his own imagination. But of course, that didn't happen. He remained shot.
"Captain?"
The tentative voice had him look up to the glass, into the worried eyes of his first officer. He was about to quip that it looked worse than it felt when his body suddenly registered the fact that he'd been shot. His legs gave way around the time that his vision became untrustworthy. The ground came up to meet him in no time at all but funnily enough he hardly felt the impact, nor did he feel pain from his limbs crumpling into such odd angles. The only thing he could feel was a dull throbbing radiating out from his mid-section, that and a searing pain every time he clawed in a breath. He squeezed his eyes shut and fumbled blindly for the wound at his side, remembering the dangers of blood loss almost too late.
"Chris!"
Number One's desperate shout roused him, he hadn't even realised he'd been slipping into the darkness which was incredibly dangerous. He wanted to open his eyes, he wanted to give her some kind of sign that he was still fighting but no sound came out of his throat and his muscles refused to act.
The only thing he could do was force each laboured breath into his lungs, that and be a captive audience. The primitive resort to dark humour wasn't lost on him.
Another voice started talking, it took Pike a few seconds longer than usual to identify that the Doctor was the one speaking. "Now you can see what it feels like to be helpless to save someone you care about."
What the hell? Was that directed at Una?
Chris didn't have a chance to voice his questions, even if he could have. He sensed a presence near him and then a warm grip grabbed his hand. That hand was pulled backwards mercilessly until he felt his whole body begin to follow the movement. The sudden fire that raced along his nerves was almost too much to comprehend, the only thing he could do was yell.
The torture seemed to go on forever as his body was dragged along the hospital floor, even though in reality it couldn't have been more than a few seconds. He could feel more blood trickle through his fingers and it felt like his wound was going to split in two. He didn't stop yelling until his head hit the back wall, in fact his screaming intensified when he was pulled up into a sitting position, with no mind to his wound whatsoever.
When he thought it was all over, that this could maybe be the end of all the dragging and scorching misery, he felt something snap against his wrist before the limb was yanked high above his head. Pike swore profusely and let his head thunk back against the wall behind him, he gasped as the limb stretched out his body and pulled his wound wide open. Eventually he heard another click and felt a resistance against his wrist even when the warmth of the other body retreated.
After a few moments of quiet, of nothing more than the juddering sounds of his breathing, he tried opening his eyes. What greeted him was not a pretty sight. He could see a large red stain from where he had been dragged along the floor, and when he looked down he could see that his uniform was already caked in blood.
Chris forced his head up and saw that both the Doctor and Number One were staring down at him, their expressions completely at odds with the other. Una was pale and looked about half a second away from exploding, reminding him of a carefully contained chemical reaction. The Doctor, in contrast looked oddly calm; he had a look about him which didn't bode well for Chris. He didn't look like a man out of his depth, he looked determined.
The Doctor turned to Number One, his handcuffed gunshot victim somewhat forgotten. "You want to save him? You'll have to save my wife."
Chris didn't catch any response Number One might have made so he came up with one of his own, one which neatly summed up this entire cluster-fuck of a situation.
"What?" By the time he had summoned the strength to speak it was far too late. His last words before blacking out went unheard, not that he would have been able to comprehend any answer anyway...
Chris jumped back into the present with a start, groaning at the sudden press against his side. He opened his eyes and blearily looked at the intrusion, spotting a bundle of fabric being pressed over the hole in his gut. Pike's eyes swept upwards to meet the Doctor's gaze, the man was crouched beside him still holding the weapon in Pike's vague direction.
He evidently noticed Pike's distasteful look at the weapon because it was soon put out of sight. The Doctor pushed the bundled up cloth against Pike's wound tightly and clasped his hand over the lot, leaving Chris' other handcuffed and immobile.
"You need to keep pressure on it."
Chris couldn't help but frown at the instruction. "Why do you care?"
The Doctor blinked and recoiled a little, his eyes averting guiltily. First he was a shooter and now he wanted to play Doctor again? This guy was a walking contradiction.
The hardened stare soon returned and the Doctor stood and took a few steps backwards. "If you die too soon, I lose my leverage." He cast a glance over his shoulder to the patient on the bed. "And then no one will help me."
This was the most that this guy had revealed since they had met so even though Pike felt like death warmed up, he knew that this was his one chance to understand why he was "leverage".
Chris clenched the new material against his wound and used the pain to focus his thoughts. Taking shallow breaths, he levered himself up against the wall until the pressure was reduced on his restrained wrist.
"Who is she to you?"
The Doctor swallowed, gaze downcast. "My wife."
That certainly explained the longing looks. It occurred to Pike that the mystery patient played a bigger part in this, otherwise why involve her? Why risk her safety like this?
"What help are you hoping to get?"
The Doctor glared at Pike, his lip curled upwards into a half sneer. "Enough questions." He snapped.
He stepped away from Pike suddenly, his strained body language making it clear that the discussion was over. The gun came back into view with the Doctor's finger coming to rest on the trigger guard.
Nice one Pike.
Chris would usually pride himself on his ability to control and lead a conversation, to keep things calm and diplomatic even in high-pressure situations. He hadn't managed even close to that here. Personally he blamed the huge hole through him for his total lack of social cues.
With the gunman still on edge, Chris looked to the fortified partition hoping to see a friendly face. He swept his eyes along the glass but Number One was nowhere to be found, the only people he could see looked armed to the teeth. Pike had hoped for some reassurance but seeing strangers surrounding the pair of them dented his spirits. Surely he hadn't imagined seeing Una earlier?
The Doctor noticed his searching gaze, he followed his line of sight to the glass. He answered the unspoken question. "She's relaying my needs to the Federation."
Pike licked his lips, finding it harder and harder to concentrate the fuzzier the room got. He risked a one-word question, hoping he was assessing the man's body language correctly. "Needs?"
The Doctor glanced from Pike to his wife, seeming to deliberate something for a moment. Chris patiently waited to see if he had been correct to push his luck.
Eventually the Doctor answered, although his mood darkened as he spoke. "They have the resources I need, resources they won't give up." He looked at Pike pointedly.
Ahh... That was where he came in. "So that would be the leverage part of this..." Chris clarified.
The Doctor nodded. "It's not how I wanted to do it, but I'm out of options."
His next words were muttered directly to his wife, even though Pike still heard them. "I can't let her die. No matter the cost." What should have been an endearing promise from a caregiver was the complete opposite, the threat from a shooter sent a chill down Pike's spine.
Pike realised he must have been drifting in and out of it when he spotted the Doctor deep in work, looking at readouts and adjusting the medication for his wife. Chris silently watched the man at work, seeing a whole new side to the man who until now had only caused pain and suffering. This was the Doctor, ministering care with gentle hands. It struck him that the difference was so stark, between this and what the man's hands had done to him.
Chris pushed the thoughts of his own situation aside, dwelling on the blood trickling out of his body really was already distracting enough. Trapped as he was, he needed to take his mind off the pain.
He coughed his voice back into action and called out to his companion. "What happened to her?"
The Doctor looked away from the charts he was reading, startled out of his concentration by his captive's unexpected reawakening. He frowned and glanced back towards the bed, clearly deliberating whether to answer or not.
Chris wasn't too hopeful that he would get the other man to open up after past results, but the Doctor surprised him.
"She got caught up in an accident." He began, eyes trailing back over the still body. "Trying to help others."
"I'm sorry."
Pike meant it, he hated seeing anyone suffer, stranger or not. Besides what else can one say to such news?
It turned out it wasn't the right thing to say, he'd clearly heard the same platitude enough that it had become entirely unhelpful. The Doctor shook his head mockingly and glared at Pike. "I don't need more apologies, I need somebody to start helping her."
The Doctor clearly didn't respond well to sympathy so Pike didn't show any. He steered the conversation towards the pragmatics, and hopefully towards finding a solution which had him walk out of this room alive. It was all a matter of what was and was not possible, a battle between what someone wanted and what they actually needed.
"If the hospital could have helped then they would have done, as a Doctor you know that."
His captor lit up at the challenge before him, his chest puffed out as he turned his full attention to Pike. "As a Doctor I know there are other treatments, experimental drugs, ways to skip waiting lists."
There was something mocking in the way he listed all the possible solutions, as though he were speaking slowly on purpose for Pike's benefit. The ease of the argument proved just how many times he had debated this beforehand.
"But as we all know these options are only for the people with connections." He let out a bitter laugh, head shaking at the faceless people outside the room before looking down at Pike. "My wife isn't important enough for that treatment, they won't bend the rules for her."
The idea of people bending the rules to jump ahead of others didn't sit right with Chris, health should be universal and fair as standard. This wasn't the time for such ethical dilemmas though, not when there were the practicalities of this case to work out.
"But you want the Federation too?"
Bending the rules for the woman lying in the bed would make him no better than the rich and powerful who caused this problem in the first place. What if by skipping the queue somebody else was kicked off? Why didn't they deserve to live?
"Even if it means taking that option from another?"
The Doctor didn't even blink at the implication, he gestured fiercely at his wife. "For her? I would do anything. Wouldn't you?"
Pike felt his gut clench painfully and his eyes swept downwards. A memory of the past flashed before his eyes, blonde hair running through his fingertips...
The Doctor noticed his reticence. He stepped towards Pike, calculating eyes studying his captive's face. "You don't have a partner do you Captain?"
Chris didn't look up, he still felt the agony in his heart as though it were yesterday. "If you're asking if I've ever loved someone then the answer is yes." Vina
The Doctor nodded vigorously. "If the person you loved needed you, wouldn't you move heaven and earth to save them? The federation be damned."
Pike had already made that choice, he'd been put in that seemingly impossible position and walked away. He'd had a responsibility to his ship, his crew. He'd sworn an oath, that always had to come before his personal feelings. It had to.
"No." His voice cracked as he answered.
The Doctor frowned in disbelief. He peered at the man before him like one would a riddle that they could not solve. He was quiet as he stared until finally, he decided that Pike was being truthful.
"Well, you're a better man than I am, Captain."
With the quiet words spoken the Doctor headed back over to his wife's bedside, taking her hand in his own. Chris stared at the image and couldn't help but feel his heartache. He could have had that, he had denied Vina that. Chris thought back to her expression when he'd left her there alone.
"Am I?" He muttered unheard.
Time passed slowly after their conversation. Una was still nowhere to be seen, the Doctor finished attending his wife whilst Pike focussed on regulating his breathing. It helped reduce the amount of blood slipping through his fingers but it wasn't enough. He was feeling weaker as the time passed on, felt himself slipping away with each breath.
He didn't know how much longer he could hold on for, even the pain was beginning to feel distant.
A thought suddenly struck him, a thought which had him smile involuntarily.
"Damn crystal..." He muttered.
To think he'd taken T'navik's warnings seriously, but now he was lying in a pool of his own blood, dying in a whole different time.
"What was that?"
Pike glanced upwards to meet the Doctor's gaze. The man had taken up residence in a chair, watching over Pike and his wife in equal measures. His gun was now permanently out and laid across his lap, now more wary of the increasing activity outside the ward.
"It's nothing, just a memory." Pike croaked, still not able to shift the amused expression off of his face.
Chris knew that this wasn't exactly the time for humour but he couldn't help it. The harder he tried to reign in his smile the wider it grew until he was chuckling at the universe's cruel joke. He'd had countless sleepless nights since Boreth, worrying about a future that may never come to pass. In his eyes this fate was better; the tragic thing was that bleeding out on an alien world was better.
"It doesn't sound like nothing."
Chris sighed when he noted the tension in his captor's frame, not to mention the suspicious stare. He wasn't going to let this go.
"It's just..." How did he go about explaining Boreth? "...I didn't expect to die here, now."
The tension dropped from his captor's shoulders and he leaned forward curiosity, his confusion showing in his frown. After a moment of silence the man took the bait, intrigue winning out over common sense.
"Why?"
"Because I was shown another ending."
He felt torn about such a thing, knowing he shouldn't really be happy about facing his end now but he couldn't help the conflict within him. Pike didn't necessarily want to leave the Enterprise, but he damn well didn't want more pain.
"Shown?"
Pike met the man's gaze, hearing the disbelief in his voice. Perhaps the Doctor thought he had succumbed to blood loss?
"It's a long story."
The Doctor chewed over the words for a while before nodding, accepting the holes in his understanding. His frown remained though, one thing was still bugging him.
"You don't sound unhappy that it's now." The statement was phrased more like a question.
Pike held his Doctor's probing stare and answered truthfully. "I'm not."
The two men sat in the silence as that revealing truth sunk in. What kind of man wished for death? The simple answer was somebody in terrible pain.
Eventually, the Doctor shook himself out of the moment and made several negative noises. "There should be no reason for you to die if the federation do their jobs."
Pike scoffed without really thinking, gesturing to the amount of blood on the floor with his chained hand. "Not sure about you Doc, but that looks like an awful lot of blood." He removed his hand from the material at his wound. "And it hasn't slowed."
The Doctor's eyes widened when he saw the flow from underneath Pike's hand.
"Why didn't you say anything?!"
"Because he's an idiot."
A welcome voice answered the Doctor's question, although the anger dripping from the words was not.
Pike and the Doctor both swung their attention to the partition and sure enough Una was back, pressed up against the glass staring down at the pool of blood with venom. Chris knew her well enough to see through the angry front and underneath to the anxiety, from the slight tremor in her voice to the unwavering stare headed his way. It wasn't something she let herself feel often. He just felt bad that whenever the weakness arrived it always seemed to be because she was worried about him.
The Doctor got over the shock of the interruption and got to his feet, gun coming up as he went. He strode towards Number One. Pike replaced the cloth over his wound when he caught his first officer's warning glare; he just about managed to stifle a groan.
"Have you got me what I need?"
Una turned her attention ton the gunmen. "I'm working on it, but right now I need you to help him."
The gunman shook his head. "That wasn't our deal."
Chris realised he had started to drift off when his XO's shrill command cut through the air, startling him awake.
"Hey! Our deal was where nobody dies, I'm doing my part out here but I need more time." She gestured animatedly to her Captain. "He needs medical intervention and lucky for us you're a Doctor."
Chris felt the corner of his lips twitch upwards despite himself, he did enjoy Una's unique way with people. Unsurprisingly the Doctor did not. He recoiled from the glass, reacting to Number One's fierce sarcasm.
Una demonstrated her famous impatience when she slammed her fist against the glass. "Look, if he dies this all stops. I won't help your wife, and I'll make sure you're locked away for her final days."
Chris winced on behalf of his captor. Number One was a force to be reckoned with and sometimes she trod a very fine line. He licked some life back into his lips and managed to make his voice carry across the room.
"Una..."
Number One interrupted him before he could go any further. "No Chris, this isn't your call. You're not the one out here being forced to watch this."
After a moment she took a calming breath and threw him a lopsided smile, some of her heat dissipating. "Besides you'd be dead, so you couldn't exactly stop me."
Well, she had him there.
Chris inclined his head and zipped his mouth shut, he would defer to his XO on this one, although it wasn't like he had a choice...
The Doctor clearly felt boxed in too because after half a minute he broke the stalemate. "What's his blood type?"
Chris shifted against the floor in an attempt to find a more comfortable position, creating a clinking sound from his handcuffed limb. He was limited movement-wise so quickly gave up on his dream to stretch, having to settle for a slightly new angle for his legs. Whilst the Doctor had agreed to give him some limited medical attention, he hadn't gone so far as freeing his captive.
Pike was effectively restrained from both sides now, seeing as an IV and bloodline was now attached to his right arm.
The blood and meds had served to perk him up a little and he no longer felt on the brink of death, but he knew he was a long way off from being healthy. The Doc only gave him enough treatment to keep him going whilst Una worked, he could still die from these wounds and even if he didn't the Doctor still had a loaded firearm.
Number One had bartered for every little thing and had even managed to secure him some mild pain relief, not much but Chris was grateful for it all the same. Frankly, anything would be better than the state he had been in before.
The phrase 'death warmed up' had never felt so suitable.
The only downside of this new-found vitality was the return of pain before his body had become almost numb but now with blood flow restored he could feel every stretch of the muscle. The burning in his side had returned with a vengeance.
Chris wanted something to distract himself from the agony and what better way than trying to be useful? Una had finally started a negotiation with their gunman, perhaps he could continue her luck.
He followed the sounds of footsteps to where the Doctor was walking around his wife's bedside, he was adjusting equipment here and there but was mostly content just to look.
She was his weakness.
"How did you two meet?" Chris muttered, amazed at how weak he sounded.
The gunman started, his startled expression informing Pike that he had been in a world of his own. He ran a hand over his face, pinching his lips with his fingers.
"I was in an accident years ago, it was touch and go for a while and I ended up spending a month in a recovery ward here."
The Doctor's eyes brightened as he recalled the memory. "She was my Doctor. After my treatment ended I asked for her number, she surprised me by obliging."
"How long ago was that?"
The Doctor looked at his wife, that gentle smile still in place. "14 years. We've been married for 12 of those."
Pike studied the man, guessing the reason behind his career choice. "You became a Doctor because of her."
"I did." He confirmed quietly, his shoulders hunching. "I wanted to give something back."
Pike's extensive diplomacy career had made him very good at reading emotions. This man was feeling the weight of guilt and the thought of his wife's disappointment. It was clear that deep down he didn't like what he was doing, that he was breaking his oath to healing and sullying the reason he had gotten into medicine. This was that weak spot.
"Would she do this, if the roles were reversed?" Pike probed.
The Doctor scoffed, amused by the thought. "No, she couldn't hurt a soul." He paused and turned to his captive, shaking his head. "I know what you're trying to do Captain, let me save you the trouble, it won't work."
Chris feigned ignorance. "What won't?"
"Your guilt trip." He answered, humouring Pike. There was a dangerous edge to his tone. "My wife is my world. There is nothing..." He paused to take a breath, the emotion gripping his tongue. "...nothing I would not do for her."
Chris could see that conviction in the man's eyes. He knew then that this avenue was already a losing battle. "Not even if she wouldn't want you too?"
The Doctor lowered his shoulders and crossed his arms, holding onto his shoulders for comfort. "Not even then." He whispered.
He knew his wife wouldn't want this but he'd already thought along these lines, and he had still gone ahead with all this. Pike knew then and there that there was nothing he could say that would change this man's mind. He'd already decided which oath was more important to him. For once in Chris' life, talking wasn't going to solve anything.
Pike was getting tired of waking up chained to the wall, he opened his eyes again and groaned at his own pun. At least he still had his humour, that was probably the only thing that hadn't been dulled by the bullet through his side. He carried out his re-assessment: still handcuffed to the wall, the blood and IV bags were gone, his body still hurt all over and the headache from hell had returned.
To top it all off, Pike realised his hand was shaking. He was far too hot and had started to run a fever. His body was reacting badly to the hole inside of him and the shock was starting to take its toll. He'd lost too much blood and the top-up wasn't going to keep him alive for much longer. This was something which Una had picked up on, which was why she was arguing with the man holding a gun.
"He needs treatment!"
"That's not going to happen, Commander, nothing buys nothing."
Number One slammed her hand against the glass, sending a clang around the sterile room. "Nothing?! What do you think I've been doing out here?"
The Doctor shook his head and paced in front of the door. "It's not enough, I need-"
"He needs help before it's too late!" Una interrupted fiercely, looking like she was about a second away from breaking through the barricade. "So help me god, If you let him die I will come in there and-"
Una was interrupted when alarms blared throughout the room, drowning out her demands. Chris jumped at the sound and glanced up at the ceiling, automatically concluding that the alarms were something to do with a breach of the room but he was wrong. The cause became clear when the Doctor turned his back on Number One and sprinted over to his wife's bedside, his shoes slipping and sliding on the floor as he ran.
"Hey!" Una banged the door separating them with enough force to set off another alarm, "what's going on in there?"
That was a very good question, the only one who seemed to know anything was the Doctor-turned gunman.
The man scurried around his patient's bedside, muttering a tirade of swear words whilst beads of sweat formed over his face. Chris wasn't sure how bad this was, not until the Doctor yelled a sound like a wounded animal and ripped the machines from their units. The blaring alarm turned into something else entirely, something which was universal for everyone present: a flat-line.
Pike sat up as far as he could to try and get a better view of the other side of the room, he managed to catch a glimpse of the patient's lifeless eyes before the Doctor started racing around the bed, connecting equipment to his wife's chest as he went.
Chris tore his eyes away from the macabre scene and swallowed nervously at Una. She met his gaze, the same anxiety he felt mirrored in her expression. If this ended this way then who knew what the gunman would do? He'd already made it clear that his wife was his life, so what would he do without that lifeline?
Pike had a nasty feeling that they were about to find out. Una gave him one last fleeting look before she disappeared from the door, there was nothing a negotiator could solve now. If this place's security was anything like other worlds' then it wouldn't be long before they breached, in a highly charged situation they could no longer rely on the gunman thinking rationally. Who would after the love of their life died before their eyes?
Chris waited silently against the wall, his own pain forgotten as he felt the Doctor's anguish permeate the room. The man was breathing heavily and applying some kind of resuscitative method, the bed rattled beneath his forceful movements and the sickening sounds of lifeless flesh being pumped added to the grim scene.
No matter how many times he tried to shock some life back into his wife, the flat-line remained. She was gone.
Pike wasn't sure how long the Doctor kept up the life-saving procedure, but he could see more activity outside of the room now that the gun was down.
Chris bowed his head and closed his eyes, remembering a quick prayer for the woman who had just lost her life. From what little Pike knew of her, this world had lost a good medic and a loving wife.
When he opened his eyes he could see that the Doctor was still desperately trying to coax her back into the land of the living, his irate nature revealing the fact that he also knew this was a lost cause. He swore at the machines which continued to beep at him, and he pressed against his wife's ribs so hard that Pike heard the crack of bones from where he was shackled.
Chris sympathised with the need to keep trying but this wouldn't do either of them any good.
"Hey." He called out, his voice getting lost amongst all the noise.
Chris cleared his throat and yelled to be beard above the alarms. "She's gone Doc!"
The Doctor turned to Chris, his hands were frozen in place above his wife's chest, midway through delivering another set of compressions. His face was drenched with sweat and his eyes had a wild look about them, frenzied and dangerous.
He looked back to the still body of his wife, his limbs shaking with adrenaline and emotion. At first, he just started but when the flat-line continued he lost it. The equipment connected to his wife's corpse was flipped over in a particularly violent outburst, equipment scattered all over the floor and sparks flew from shattered electrics.
"No!" The Doctor yelled over and over again like a mantra.
Chris remained silent throughout the emotional outburst, he could feel the man's pain and empathises. Losing people you love was never easy, and the pain never truly went away.
After destroying everything within reach, the Doctor collapsed over his wife's body, gripping her hand in his own. "We were so close..." He muttered against her chest.
A sudden noise outside reminded Pike of the imminent danger, there was most likely a team ready to storm into this place and add to the body count. He'd be damned if he let that happen.
Chris attempted to cajole the wounded man back into the situation, however hard that might be. "Doc?"
The man responded after the second call. He sat up straight and turned to look at Chris, recognition dawning when he remembered what they were both doing in the room. He too heard a clang and his gaze shot to the barrier in front of the door, looking like an animal about to bolt.
Then he did the one thing that Chris was praying he wouldn't do, he picked up the gun.
Pike's heart started to race as the man fingered the weapon. There was nothing more dangerous than a man with nothing left to lose.
"Wait..." He croaked desperately.
The Doctor looked straight at him and then he did something very strange, he smiled. Pike frowned until his mind caught up to the signs, that and the fact that the pistol was already in motion.
"Nooo!" He cried out but it was already too late.
In one deadly movement, the Doctor brought up the gun put the barrel in his mouth and pulled the trigger.
The bang was louder than anything Pike could imagine, it drowned out the alarms, his own shouting and the entry attempt from the security teams. At that moment it was just the gunshot, over in a split second but stealing far more than that in its wake.
Blood and brain matter splattered over the wall, the Doctor's body collapsed in on itself until it ended up in a grotesque pile of blood and gore on the floor. The man's eyes were still open, everything about him looked the same apart from the bloody big hole in his face.
Chris fell quiet and slumped back against his prison, helpless to do anything. He was a forced witness to this whole macabre affair.
He felt his hand shaking and realised just how angry he was, he hated him. He hated him for making him watch this, for putting him through all of this agony just to watch someone else check out?
Hadn't he seen enough of this for a lifetime? Couldn't death just leave him out of it for once?
His side started to burn again and it was only then he realised that there were people surrounding him, the room was busy and somebody was tugging at the cloth over his wound.
Chris sensed that the hands belonged to Una but he didn't have the energy speak, he didn't even have it in him to turn his head. He was stuck, transfixed on the body. The stench of gunpowder and death hit him all at once, enough to recoil anybody but apparently not him. He watched distantly when the tactical team rolled the Doctor over, letting Pike see more of the horror.
His eyes tracked the blood trickle as it made its way towards him. He gasped when the burning in his side increased but didn't take any other action towards it. Pike was sure Una was talking to him but he couldn't bring himself to be there.
His mind was stuck on one thought.
Was it really that easy? Pull a trigger and then nothing. Wouldn't it be nice to be at peace?