A/N: I don't know if it's a trigger warning, but trigger warning for references to puking your guts out.

"If I snag those chips from Ensign Mohan will he be mad?"

"Elle, you just ate."

"I know but I'm still hungry."

"I think it's something to do with our accelerated speed," Kirk said. "We've been eating every couple of hours."

Elle nodded slowly. "We're gonna run out of food if we have to stay here any longer."

"There are stored rations," he assured her.

Elle made the appropriate face of displeasure.

"I know, but hopefully-"

Spock appeared around the corner. "Captain!" he said, his shoulders dropping. "Elle! I am relieved to see you unharmed."

"Spock!" Elle barely managed to stop herself from hugging him. "You're here! Does that mean you figured out how to get us back to normal?"

"It does," Spock said, and turned to the captain. "The Scalosians?"

"Back on their planet," Kirk replied.

"I deduced as such when the extraneous device disappeared from life support. You and Elle repaired the system glitches?"

"Yes."

"It took us a whole day," Elle said. "We've been here for three days already."

Spock raised an eyebrow. "Fascinating. That would account for the extremely detailed Rube Goldberg machine spanning the length of the hull? And the disappearance of both food and beverages throughout the ship?"

Elle grinned. "Yeah."

"Did you bring the antidote?" Kirk asked.

Spock waved a hand. "Dr. McCoy wishes for you to take it in sickbay, in case of adverse reactions. This antidote was only tested in the lab, not a human being, but we were opposed to waiting any longer."

"Understood."

They went to sickbay, where Bones was waiting, arms crossed and scowling at an empty biobed.

Kirk sat on the empty biobed and Spock handed him a vial of clear liquid. Kirk knocked it back, grimaced at the taste, and lay down on the biobed. "I don't feel anything," he said. "Is it supposed toooooo-"

Elle watched in fascination as the captain's mouth slowly stilled and he froze, unmoving, upon the biobed. "Whoa. That worked."

"Let us take a tour of the ship and review the last of the system glitches," Spock said, ushering Elle away. "By the time we come back, Dr. McCoy will be able to tell us if it is safe for you to take the antidote."

"Okay."

An exhaustive tour of ship's systems and engineering consoles later, they returned to sickbay.

There was a note written on the wall in erasable marker. "Both clear to come back."

Elle sat on the biobed next to a motionless Nurse Chapel and Spock handed her another vial. "See you in a minute," she said, grinning at Spock.

"Indeed," he said, amused.

She swallowed the antidote and made a face. "Ewwwww, fake strawberry." She lay down on the bed. "Wait, my caaaaa-" She felt like she was falling through a tunnel, the lights on the ceiling flickering, and Spock slowly disappeared from her vision.

"-mera," she said, and stared at Nurse Chapel as the nurse startled.

"Elle! Doctor, she's back."

Elle stared up at the nurse, Chapel's voice sounded too slow, the vowels too round. "S'mthin's wrong with m'ears," she said, and her own voice sounded like a slo-mo.

"Elle, can you hear me?" Chapel asked.

"Feel sick," Elle groaned, as her stomach rebelled.

Chapel held up a well-timed basin. "Can I get an anti-emetic, Lia, thanks," she said calmly, and rubbed Elle's back.

Elle barely noticed, too busy trying to puke up the last week and a half's worth of food and bile.

"You're okay," Chapel said soothingly. "You're okay."

Elle coughed and spit up again. "Lies," she wheezed.

A hypospray hissed against her neck. Ah, and the captain was also hurling his guts out. Lovely.

The anti-nausea meds kicked in and Elle stopped heaving. Chapel handed her a cup of water and made her rinse her mouth. "Mint," Chapel said, encouraging her to eat the hard candy on the side table.

Elle sucked on the peppermint candy and closed her eyes against the brightness of the lights and the strangeness of people's voices. She curled up under the thin sheet, feeling hot and cold and miserable.

"Elle, can you open your eyes," Chapel said gently.

"No," Elle forced her eyes open and glared at Chapel. "Light hurts," she bit out.

Someone lowered the lights, but the beeping from the biobed didn't stop. It increased the pounding in Elle's head. She shivered and curled up under the blanket. "M'cold."

"She's going into shock," someone said. Lia?

"I don't dare give her a stimulant," Chapel said.

Somewhere in all that, to the background sounds of Spock arguing with Dr. M'Benga about 'shock levels inapplicable to Vulcans', Elle fell asleep.

-/\-

Elle woke up with the violent urge to puke her bones out. Another well-placed basin saved her from mkaing a mess.

An alert started to beep.

"Shoulda taken, the brainwashing," Elle moaned, spitting the bad taste out of her mouth.

"Brainwashing?" Nurse Lia asked, swapping her for a disposa-wipe and water.

"Ughh." Elle rinsed her mouth, took a sip of the water, and made a face as it threatened to come up.

"Can you drink more of that?" Nurse Lia asked.

"Nuh-uh." She shoved it back at the nurse, unable to even look at the sloshing water.

"We're gonna have to put you on a drip, honey, you need fluids."

"Everything hurts," Elle complained. At least the hearing distortion had stopped. Their voices sounded normal, now.

"I know, but you're still dehydrated. Do you think juice'll stay down better?"

"Don't know," Elle said, and closed her eyes as a muscle spasm ran through her whole body. "What went wrong?" she asked, and groaned as a migraine burst into life.

"Nothing," Nurse Lia said.

Elle gave her a stink eye and covered her head with her pillow.

"Our bodies don't like going a hundred miles per hour and then stopping," Lia said, rubbing Elle's back. "This is your body trying to normalize itself. Sorry."

"Shoulda taken the gnat-life," Elle mumbled.

"If I give you a migraine pill will you drink some juice?"

"Maybe."

That was a solid, or rather a liquid, hard no. Lia resorted to a hypospray and an IV drip.

Elle went back to sleep, exhausted.

-/\-

"I am never throwing up, ever again," Elle decided, on the third day of The Worst Case of Stomach Devil Flu Due To Aliens.

"Agreed," the captain said, from his bed across the room.

McCoy had stuck them both in there. "Y'all can keep each other entertained, and I can have all my trouble-patients in one spot."

"I'm not a trouble-patient," Elle protested.

"True," McCoy conceded. "You're actually good. If the captain tries to run, holler."

"Yes, sir," Elle said.

"Traitor," Kirk said, voice hoarse.

"I know who holds the painkillers," Elle told him.

"Good point."

-/\-

"Okay, okay, but if he had just asked-"

"He couldn't ask without sounding suspicious-"

"I know, but if he had just asked-"

"That's why it's called dramatic tension-"

"-they could've worked together much sooner!"

Spock and Bones came into the room. "What are you two hollerin' about?" Bones demanded.

Elle and Kirk gave them matching guilty grins. "We're discussing the Scarlet Pimpernel," Kirk said.

"Can you discuss it without raising your blood pressure?" McCoy asked dryly.

"Nope," Elle said.

McCoy gave her a cup of soup. "Then drink your soup and be quiet."

Elle pouted.