The abrupt question startled all thoughts of Shakespeare out of Elle's head and she blinked at Kirk. "Gamma Hydra Four?"

"Yes. It's a scientific outpost. We're making Star Fleet's yearly check on the outpost."

Elle frowned at the copy of Romeo and Juliet in her hands. "Why are you asking me?" she asked. "What's wrong?"

"I spoke to the head scientist, Dr. Johnson, and he sounded, strange," Kirk said.

"What kind of strange?" Elle asked, getting a vague inkling.

"He sounded like my grandpa used to," Kirk replied, frowning lightly. "Couldn't stick to one topic. Kept calling me sonny."

Elle dropped her PADD. "The Deadly Years," she gasped.

"The what?"

Elle picked up the PADD. "It's some sort of disease, aging everybody there. And then you guys get it, and, it's not good."

Kirk nodded grimly. "What can we do about it?"

Elle bit her lip and screwed up her face, trying to remember what they'd done. "I don't know," Elle said helplessly. "Doctor McCoy figured it out, and I know there was a shot, but, I don't remember. Sorry."

"It's all right," Kirk said, patting her hand. "With your warning, we'll be fine."

"But you can't go down there," Elle added urgently, "you can't get contaminated."

Kirk nodded. "Understood. If you remember anything else, let me know immediately, all right?"

Elle nodded.

She got an alert on her PADD the next day, halfway through engineering class with Lt. Riley. "Unknown biohazard lockdown alert - all nonessential personnel to remain stationary till further notice." She showed it to Kevin.

"I guess you're staying here then," he said with a shrug.

Elle really hoped that didn't mean they'd done something stupid like let the disease loose.

The comm whistled a moment later. "Sickbay to Elle." It was Nurse Chapel.

"Elle here."

"Where are you, Elle?"

"In Engineering with Lt. Riley."

"Good. Stay there."

"I got the alert," Elle confirmed. "What's happening?"

"Dr. McCoy is aging beyond the normal rate," Chapel said. "And the scientists on the planet are all," she paused.

"Dead of old age?" Elle asked.

"Yes."

Elle bit her lip.

"Anything you remember, Elle, would be really useful right now," Chapel said. She sounded nervous.

Elle couldn't blame her. McCoy was already kinda, you know, older than most people on board, and if he was aging rapidly... "I'll try," Elle said.

"Thank you, Elle. Sickbay out."

Elle put her PADD down and curled into a ball pressing the heels of her hands to her eyes. "Think think think think," she muttered, feeling like Winnie the Pooh. "Think think think..."

Riley watched her in quiet sympathy.

Elle squished her eyes closed, trying to bring forward some scrap, any scrap, of information about this episode. But this was an episode she didn't like, so it's not like she watched it more than a couple of times... "I've got nothing," she said helplessly, dropping her head to the desk with a 'thump'. "I'm useless."

"Now," Riley reproved, "none of that. It'll come to you eventually."

"That may be too late," Elle retorted. "Ughhhh I need to rewatch the episode or something, I don't know, I just," She head-desked again. "Ugh. I need... I need-" The answer came to her, like it would to any Trekkie. Just ask Spock to help her find the memory in her head. It was easy. But, he was a real person, and Elle was a real person, and this was not a fanfiction, and, was that even moral? To use someone else's abilities to go digging around in her own head? What if he saw the future?

"Elle?" Riley asked, when she didn't lift her head from the desk.

"I think I know how to do it but I don't wanna ask cuz it's dumb," she groaned, her voice muffled in her elbow.

"There are no dumb questions," Riley said.

Elle sighed. "Yeah, okay. I need to talk to Spock, then. Face to face. Not on comms."

So Riley called Mr. Spock and Elle tried to think of a way to ask without sounding weird about it.

Spock came down to Engineering in record time. "You have remembered something?" he asked.

Elle bit her lip. "Well, no, but, I mean, it's in here, cuz I've watched it" - she tapped her temple - "And I know, I mean, I just wanted to ask, is there a way to get it out? Like, can you help me find the memory?"

Spock raised an eyebrow. "I might be able to guide you to the appropriate memory... it would not be a full mind-meld, but a light mind touch to assist in focusing your thoughts."

"Can you do it?" Elle asked. "You wouldn't get like, my knowledge of the future and stuff?"

"Not unless your train of thought deviated in that direction, however I do not believe it will." He fixed her with a serious look. "Are you positive you wish to do this, Elle?"

She nodded. "If it saves Bones, of course."

"Very well."

Even in a rush though, mind stuff was serious business. The captain needed to be informed of the situation. Riley confirmed it was Elle's idea and not Spock's. Dr. M'Benga was applied to for reassurance that performing a shallow mind-touch on a young human brain was medically safe. Elle needed to confirm her agreement for the record. And finally, Kirk gave his permission to go ahead.

Spock, Elle, and the captain himself for moral support, went to a small, little-used rec room. They sat on the carpeted floor, Elle and Spock across from each other, and Kirk off to the side.

"We shall begin with regular meditation to order your thoughts," Spock decided.

Elle took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Slowly she sank to a calm state, aware of the ship humming beneath her and the captain's soft breathing.

"I will now initiate the mind link," Spock said quietly. "Try not to resist as it may cause you pain."

"Okay." She barely jumped when cold fingers touched her face, gently settling over her psi points at her temples. Elle felt a presence, alien, different, not-her, step into her awareness and almost instinctively started to raise a wall - but stopped. Spock?

Yes. "Yes." She heard it both in her own head and aloud. It was dizzying.

Elle relaxed and 'invited' him forward. "How-" she asked, echoing her mental question aloud.

"Start by finding the memory of the episode itself," Spock ordered. "When did you watch it?"

Her mental landscape whirled and changed, providing her with the answer. Eleven years old, watching 'The Deadly Years' on VHS at her grandma's house.

Spock caught the memory and held it. "Your awareness is there," he encouraged. "Now go forward, into the episode, let it play."

With Spock's help, Elle pulled the entire episode from her memory. She'd watched it twice, and it came back to her in bits and pieces. They carefully reassembled the events of the episode and shared a white-hot flash of indignation at the disease that took away Kirk's command of his beautiful ship. Finally Elle/Spock found the missing piece.

"Adrenaline," she breathed, fixing on Chekov's readouts. "It's adrenaline."

Spock (and no that wasn't pure relief flooding their shared mental desktop, of course not) carefully disengaged from the not-meld, and lifted his fingers.

Elle waved a silent 'bye' after his retreating consciousness and opened her eyes. "Adrenaline," she repeated.

"Yes." Spock watched her carefully. "Are you well?"

She nodded and rubbed at her eyes. They felt dry. "I'm okay, I'm good," she said. She looked at Kirk and paused.

He smiled at them fondly and helped Elle to her feet. "Thank you, Elle," he said, slinging an arm around her shoulders.

"Let's see if it works," Elle said uneasily.

It did. Before she knew it, Dr. McCoy was back to his proper age. By the time Elle was cleared to come see him, he was already writing up his report and starting his thesis for another publication. "Shouldn't you take a nap or something?" Elle asked, concerned.

"Can't," he said shortly, typing another sentence. "The adrenaline left me high." He stood up and crossed the room. "Thank you, Elle. We wouldn't have found it without you."

Elle shrugged shyly. "You would've found it sooner or later."

McCoy shook his head. "We wouldn't have. I was the only one infected, remember?"

A cold chill ran through Elle's spine. "Oh," she said faintly.

He frowned at her and grabbed her arm gently. "Sit down before you fall down, kiddo, you've gone ghost white. You okay? Can you hear me?" He sat her on the sofa and knelt in front of her, checking her pulse.

Elle stared at him, the blood pounding in her ears as she realized that she'd changed the timeline and if she hadn't given them the answer Bones might've actually died... She closed her eyes and pressed her fist to her mouth. "You could've actually died," she said out loud.

He touched her knee. "Elle, look at me?"

She met his eyes.

"I didn't," he said firmly. "Okay? We're all fine."

"Yeah," she said shakily, giving him a smile. "Yeah. You're fine." She grabbed him in a hug. "I'm really glad you're okay."

"Thanks to you," he affirmed, squeezing her tightly. He smoothed her hair. "Whew. Now that's over, I think you're right, it's time for a nap." He grinned at her. "Don't tell anyone I'm recommending this, but I think you need the biggest chocolate sundae the replicators can spit out."

"That sounds like the best medicine ever," Elle decided, giggling. "All right."