Needless to say that Scotty felt terrible the next day, even more so when Lexie didn't show up for her shift. Had he really upset her so much that she didn't want to come to work? Scotty wanted to go and find her but knew that might not be the best thing to do, she needed some time alone to understand what was happening, Scotty was so deep in thought that he wasn't concentrating on what he was doing, he was handling a set of wires which suddenly sparked. Scotty snapped his hands away and shook them around, swearing as he went. "That hurt like mad…" He muttered while glancing down to inspect the damage, not to his hands but to the wiring. It all looked alright so he finally turned his attention on his own hands, they were slightly burned and there were a few cuts which thankfully weren't bleeding, not yet anyway. Then Scotty felt someone tug on his sleeve, he looked over to see Keenser staring at him. "Where did you come from lad?" The Scotsman asked, "Core." The alien replied. Keenser then pointed to Scotty's hands while grunting sadly, "McCoy."
"I don't need to go and see the Doc laddie, I'm fine." But Keenser wasn't taking no for an answer. Once again he tugged on Scotty's sleeve, who simply rolled his eyes. "Fine, I'm going! You wee beggar!" Scotty got up quickly and walked away, he knew Keenser wouldn't leave him alone if he didn't go. It didn't take long for him to get to sick bay and needless to see McCoy was surprised to see him, "What did you do?" "Burnt my hands a little." McCoy rolled his eyes as he pointed to a biobed. "Sit." Scotty just obeyed, he sat on the bed while McCoy wrapped and sorted his hands out. "Is Lexie standing in the hallway after marching you down here?" Joked McCoy, Scotty's face saddened quickly. "The lass ain't out there, she didn't even turn up for her shift today." The Scotsman's reply shocked McCoy, so much in fact that he pulled the bandage he was wrapping too tightly causing Scotty to swear. "Sorry Scotty, is Lexie alright? It's not like her to not turn up for work." "To be honest Leonard I don't know, I think I maybe the reason she hasn't come to her shift."
McCoy just blinked, had he heard Scotty right? "How would you have upset her? Please tell me this wasn't due to the whole dad thing?" Scotty shook his head quickly, "No it wasn't that, she told me she's been seeing things since New year." "I knew she was hallucinating, but she didn't tell me it had been going on that long." Scotty snatched his hand away. "What do you mean you knew? You didn't bother to tell me! When did she tell you?" McCoy glared at him, "She's an adult Scotty, if she wanted to tell you then that was up to her. She told me about these hallucinations when she was here getting her eye looked at the first time. Besides, she never told me what she had been seeing." As McCoy spoke he pulled Scotty's hand back gently, so he could continue to wrap it. "Well she told me…" Scotty replied sadly, "What has the kid been seeing then? Must be something bad." "She's been seeing Kyle." Once again McCoy tugged a little too hard on the bandage, causing Scotty to whimper in pain. "Ouch!" "Sorry Scotty." McCoy quickly apologised, he didn't mean to hurt the CEO he was just shocked to hear what he just said, but had he heard him right? "What?!" So Scotty repeated himself, McCoy couldn't believe it, well he could to a degree. Just like Scotty, McCoy knew about the nightmares that haunted Lexie, not only about her uncle, but her family too.
"Poor kid, her mind really likes to mess with her." McCoy said as he finished up wrapping the Scotsman's hand, "That's the thing Leonard, the lass doesn't think it's her mind. She thinks he's really here, on the Enterprise." McCoy had turned his back on Scotty to put the roll of bandages away, but dropped them when he heard what his friend had said. "Lexie thinks Kyle's here! That's impossible, he's dead." "Try telling Lexie that, I did and I upset her." McCoy picked up the roll of bandages off the floor and placed them on the table next to him. He then sat himself down next to the Scotsman and placed an arm around his shoulders, "I don't think she's really mad at you Scotty, she most likely needs some time to process what's going on. I mean, I don't know how I would feel about seeing my abusive uncles ghost." Scotty just nodded. "I hope you're right Leonard, I really hope you're right." McCoy patted Scotty on the back, "You're not the only one Scotty, now you best get back down to Engineering before something major breaks." Scotty nodded, but before sending him on his way McCoy gave him a shot for the pain, but he couldn't help feel slightly sorry for Lexie and for Scotty. He didn't want the two of them to fall out, that would be tragic.
Turns out that Lexie had turned up to her shift, given it was about an hour late but she still turned up. She needed to occupy her mind, since all she could think about was Kyle. She had gone the best part of four months without thinking about him, mainly since she had other things to think about. Not only that, but she had also not suffered from any nightmares. But why would she suddenly start now, it made no sense. Then there's the fact of if he really was here, why was he only appearing now? Lexie was dragged from her thoughts by someone familiar grunting at her, she turned to see Keenser standing beside her. "Hi Keenser." She muttered as she looked back to the open panel she was working on, but it was hard to concentrate when Keenser was watching. "Can I help you with something?" Lexie asked sternly hoping not to come across as rude, "No." Answered the alien. "Then why are you standing there staring at me?" Instead if using words, Keenser just grunted. Lexie rolled her eyes, she really didn't mind him watching over her shoulder, but after what was going on she just wanted to be alone. But Lexie didn't want to upset Keenser by asking him to leave, she had already upset Delta who she hadn't seen all morning. So she didn't want to add the little alien to the list of 'people she had upset' having three people on there was enough, but it seemed she wouldn't have to tell Keenser to go since he quickly ran off, Lexie knew he was going to tell Scotty she was finally in Engineering.
She guessed that her Chief had sent the little guy to find her. Sure enough about fifteen minutes later someone was stood beside her, they were clearly not Keenser. "I was wondering whether or not you would be coming down for your shift lass." The person said, clearly trying not to sound too upset. "My apologies, I didn't sleep well last night. Got a lot on my mind, but of course you know all about that don't you?" Lexie replied, not looking away from her work. Scotty felt his heart sink, he hated seeing her like this. Scotty knelt next to her and heard her sigh quietly, "I thought you fixed this panel the other day?" "I did, but it broke almost instantly." Once again Lexie sighed as she grasped a handful of wires. Scotty lent over and placed a hand on hers, "I'll do that for ya lass…" He was cut off by Lexie shoving his hand off. "I can do this myself Scotty! Haven't you got a list of jobs to do?!" Scotty instantly backed away, he didn't say anything. Instead he just walked away, Lexie felt terrible. She then saw tears drip down past her working hands, "Well done Lex, you've just upset the one person on this dam ship you really consider family." She muttered to herself as more tears fell from her chin.
Scotty had wandered over to the warp core, to find Keenser standing in front of the console. He grunted sadly as the Scotsman approached him, "She'll be alright lad, just give her some time." Scotty said as he patted him on the shoulder. Just then he heard someone snivel behind him, Scotty span round hoping it was Lexie, he really wanted it to be Lexie only to find Delta hovering there. "Scotty?" The little robot muttered, Scotty wanted to smile but he couldn't. "Laddie, what's the matter?" Delta flew over to Scotty at lightning speed and clung to him, "I'm worried about Lexie, she got angry with me and Pavel yesterday. She never gets mad at me, ever." Scotty couldn't believe it, Lexie hadn't told Delta about any of this and she told him everything, he was the first person to hear about everything, no matter what it was about. "Lexie will be fine lad, she just has a lot going on at the moment. I'm sure she didn't mean to get angry with you or Pavel." Scotty said as he hugged the robot back, he still found it incredible how much emotion Delta could show. "That doesn't stop me worrying Scotty." "I know it doesn't lad, I'm worried too but Lexie will be fine." Scotty could clearly hear Delta sobbing, so he just hugged him tighter. Despite what many people believed, he was much more than an AI program or a robot. Delta was part of the family and Scotty wouldn't have it any other way.
It was a few minutes before Delta finally let go of Scotty, who in turn let go of him. "Thanks Scotty, I needed that." "You're welcome lad, I've got a lot of work to do but if you need me, don't hesitate to come back alright?" Delta nodded as he wiped away the none-existent tear under his eye, "I will Scotty, thanks again." Before flying off, Delta went over to Keenser and gave the little alien a hug. Which Keenser was more than happy to return, when the two friends separated Delta flew off. "Right then, enough standing around, there's work to be done. If ya need me laddie, I'll be in the computer room." Scotty said, Keenser handed him a PADD before watching the Scotsman walk off. Scotty was still thinking about Lexie, What if she was right? What if Kyle was alive and on the Enterprise? But he couldn't bring himself to believe that, there was no way any of that could happen. In the words of Spock 'That is completely illogical' which it really was, Scotty soon entered into the room where the main computer for the entire ship was located. But when he walked in, Scotty shivered since the room was freezing. "I think I need to check the environmental controls again." He muttered to himself as he walked over to one of the wall panels, suddenly Scotty saw a shadow get cast over him, but before he had a chance to see who or what it was, he was struck in the back of the head and collapse to the ground.
Lexie had just finished up with the panel she had been working on, she was just fixing the metal cover back into place when her communicator bleeped. Just like before, she was tempted to ignore it but didn't. She knew whoever was calling would get more than a little ticked off, so Lexie grabbed her communicator from beside her and flicked it open. "Smith here." Lexie was expecting Scotty's voice to answer back, but it wasn't the Scotsman's voice which she heard. "Hello Lexie…" A cold voice called, Lexie's hands began to tremble. Could it be? Was the person on the other end really… him? "What do you want?" She muttered, trying her best not to sound scared. "It's not what I want, it's what I have that you want." Lexie had no clue what he was talking about, "Stop talking in riddles and just tell me." It was then when she heard something which made her heart beat faster. "Lassie…" Only one person had ever called her that, "Scotty?" "I'll make this simple for you, come to the computer room and I'll give you back your precious little Scotsman." The call then cut out. Lexie sat for a few seconds, before jumping to her feet and rushing across Engineering. She really hoped this was a dream, that for some reason she had fallen asleep while working and this was all going on in her head. It didn't take her long to get to where she needed to be, Lexie burst into the room and instantly gasped in horror at what greeted her. Scotty was laying face first on the floor, blood dripping from the back of his head. Not only that, but he looked like he had been kicked a few times. Lexie hurried over, tears swelling in her eyes.
"Scotty! Are you OK? Say something, anything!" She cried while she gently shook him, trying to wake him up. "Lassie…" "Yes Scotty, it's me." Slowly Scotty turned his head to look at her, "Lexie… Run… He's here…. Kyle's here." Suddenly there was a loud bang as the door was slammed shut, Lexie went to speak but someone grabbed from behind and yanked her to her feet. She tried to struggled out of the persons grip, but to no avail. Then someone whispered into her ear, which caused a shiver to run down Lexie's spine, "I'm back." Lexie felt tears stream down her face, even though she didn't want to show she was scared she just couldn't help it. Her entire body was trembling, "Why couldn't you just stay dead?" Lexie managed to stutter. "Who said I was ever dead my dear. But we'll have plenty of time to catch up, when were off the Enterprise." Kyle said smugly, Lexie's eyes widened. This couldn't be happening again? "No, let me go! Let me go!" Once again Lexie tried to break free of Kyle's grip, but he simply just tightened his hold of her. "I suggest you behave, otherwise your life will be even shorter." He said smugly as he raised a knife up to her throat, just as the pair of them were surrounded by swirls of light. Lexie stared at Scotty who was trying to get up off the floor, but he just didn't have the strength to. "Scotty…" She muttered, Scotty looked over and held out a shaking hand. He had tears in his eyes as he watched on helplessly as Lexie was taken right in front of his eyes, "Lexie… I'm sorry…" That was all Scotty managed to say before he blacked out.