Carol looked over the settings as the serum flowed into the port. "Len, we can hook all of the bags to the stasis tube. See, we can put them here and here. The port can take up to eight lines. I can program the times for infusion and it will move it over so each one will automatically begin on time."

"That can be done? That would be perfect. I have the times written on each bag. The time corresponds with the time we started the first one." Len stepped back as Carol took the bags and hung them with the first one. She put their lines in separate small holes that led to the hole the first bag's line was running through to the infuser. The lines attached to the infuser at two points on either side of the first line. She punched in the rate of infusion and start time for the second bag, then quickly added the information for the last bag.

"There you go doctor. That will make it easier."

"After the second bag, I want to start to slowly bring him out of stasis. Can you help with that?"

"That won't be a problem. But look here. You can do it. Here is the level he's at. You can put the rate for removing him here. See how it works. I would have the life support here in case you need it."

"Thanks Carol, it seems pretty straight forward. I'll call you if I run into any problems. Chris, can you get all of that together?"

Christine smiled as she left the room. Len knew he could trust her to take care of things. Seri had stepped back to sit in the corner chair. She would be there for Len, but she wanted to stay out of the way. "Daddy, do you think you could come here in four hours? They are going to start bringing him out of stasis in three."

"I'll be there. If we don't get any results we can keep trying. It may take time before we can reach him, especially if he was in deep stasis. I don't know, this hasn't been tried before as far as I know."

"Thanks Dad. I'm glad you're here."

"I love you too baby."

Carol was done all of her settings. "Len, I'll be back in a couple of hours."

"Go get some rest. Mama will send food. Trust me you won't starve."

"I know, she has been sending food. I like your mom."

"She is something. She'll want you and Chris to come back to the farm. Don't feel pressured if you don't want to."

"I don't have any other family. I would love to come. Len, you should ask Chris. She seems lost."

"I've got it. Go get rest."

Carol left. It wasn't long before Christine came back with all of the equipment Len would need to put Jim on life support. "I'll put it all over here."

Len came up behind the nurse. He put his hands on her shoulders. "I know this isn't easy. When this is over would you like to come to the farm?" He felt her relax under his touch.

"Thank you. My apartment here is gone. I don't have anything left. I don't know if you knew, but my mom died last year. My sister is working on New Vulcan and my brother is on the Bradbury."

"I didn't know. Feel free to come to the farm with your other family." He kissed her on the top of the head before going back to the tube. Chris wiped a few tears from her cheeks as she left the room. Len was always a good boss, but he was an even better friend.

"Imzadi, what are you thinking? You have done a good job of blocking me."

"I forgot to open up. Sorry." With that he opened the doors to his mind. "Better?" He smiled at her.

"Much. Just for tonight. It will be easier for you while you try to juggle everything. I'm the one thing you won't have to worry about."

"I always worry about you." His smile didn't reach his eyes.

"I know. But don't, at least for tonight. How are the readings?" She wanted him to focus on things he could work on, if not actually control.

"They look good. I'm not sure about what will happen when he's completely out of stasis. Chris thought of everything." He was looking over all of the equipment. "I guess she doesn't' want him dead after all."

"She's grown up a lot these past couple of years." He looked confused. "We kept in touch."

They heard the door open. Both watched as Cal walked through the door. Len could see the pain and fear on his baby sister's face as she tentatively walked toward the tube; stopping before she reached it. "Hey you."

"Hi." Her voice was almost a whisper.

Seri got up, kissed the other woman on the cheek and left the room. Cal needed to be alone with her big brother. Len walked over to her. "I just started the infusions. Do you want to see?"

"Len, I…" Without touching her, he could feel her shaking.

"Come here baby." He walked her over to the tube. Nothing had changed, but she didn't know that. "See, nothing has changed." Cal's fingers shakily traced the cold glass over Jim's forehead. Len wasn't happy with how she was taking this. "Callie, you need to talk to me. Right now, it's just us. Door lock McCoy2566alpha." He turned her by the shoulders until she faced him.

Cal's eyes fixated on the floor. "I'm still scared. I don't know why, but I am." Deep green eyes found her brother's.

"Are you afraid of him dying?"

"Yes, partially, but that isn't it. Every time I come in here, I'm afraid of what I'll find. I know it's my imagination running wild." She was rubbing her hands together.

"Cal, have you ever seen someone die?" His sister hadn't lived the life he had. That could be why her imagination was getting the best of her.

"No. I haven't. Not until I saw people die these past couple of days."

Len led her to the chair Seri had vacated. He took the other chair over to Cal; then sat across from her, close enough to hold her hands in his. "What you've seen, all that you have seen these past couple of days, is not what this is. You have seen trauma. That is different."

"Lenny they were screaming. I saw a mother holding her child as the skin was falling off both of them." Len knew the fear had more to do with what she had seen than what Jim looked like.

"Where were you when the ship came down?" Now he was getting to the heart of things. He was watching her body language. It was classic flight or fight. Len wasn't letting her cross her arms or rub them as a way of self-soothing. He wanted her to feel, not to block.

She was rubbing her thumbs over the tops of his hands as he held hers. "I was at the grocery. You know, the bodega two doors down from the coffee shop. There was thunder; no not thunder, an explosion. We came running out. The ship, it missed where we were completely, but it crashed into the skyscrapers on the other side of medical. It just took everything. People were running, but it was pointless. Building crumbled before it came to rest over there." She tossed her head behind her motioning the direction of the ship. "I hear it took out Alcatraz and most of the wharf as it came in. There were screams everywhere. I wanted to help; you know be more like my brother." She smiled at him; it was a smile of resignation. "But I'm not you. I pulled a couple of people from the rubble. They seemed alright, but I'm not a real doctor. The closer I got to the crash area…Len there were people walking around with pieces of metal sticking out of them. There weren't as many people as I thought there would be, but there were enough."

Len didn't have the heart to tell her the reason here weren't as many people as she thought there should be. "You are a different kind of doctor. What else was there?"

"I told you about the mother and child. I got them to a medic that was there, but there wasn't much he could do for either of them. I can still hear the mother's screams when he told her, her daughter was dead. I know she died soon after. I saw her body with her daughter's, on the quad. There was a guy with glass sticking into most of his exposed skin. I didn't know blood smelled like that, almost like metal. I sat with him. There was so much blood. I couldn't find anyone to help. I kept waving to the medics but they ignored me. I couldn't leave him, I couldn't. I held him. He told me I had beautiful eyes. His name was Ethan. He started to shake as he lay with his head in my lap. He kept saying he was cold. I tried to warm him. His shaking got worse. I told him someone would be there soon. He just kept shaking, until he stopped. He stopped. I sat there until someone came and said they were collecting the deceased. The man asked if I knew who he was. All I knew was his name was Ethan. They said they would take care of finding his family. Did you know that people pee when they die? Oh, of course you do."

"Sometimes they do." He wanted her to keep talking. He wasn't a psychologist like she was, but he knew talking through it with someone she trusted would help.

"I didn't know that. One day you need to educate me. Len they were they only ones I've seen. Is it always like that?"

"Like what?"

"Shaking, I saw people convulsing, some were constricting. Is that what death is like?" She needed the truth from him. She trusted Len not to sugar coat the answer.

"Sometimes, but not usually. Usually it's calm, like they went to sleep. What you saw was trauma at its worst. Are you afraid that is what could happen to Jim?" She nodded as tears fell down her cheeks. "That won't happen to him. If he doesn't make it, he will just stop breathing." Len gently wiped her tears away before taking her hand again.

"I don't want to remember him like those people. I know it's selfish, don't tell me it isn't, but I don't want to see that. I'm weak, I know."

"And yet you have been here every day. Several times a day if I know you. You aren't weak." He wanted her to see what he saw.

"I can't leave him. If he dies, I want to be with him. As much as I don't want to see him like I saw those others, I don't want him to die without me there."

"I know. I'm proud of you. I know how scared you are, but you are there for the man you love. I'm extremely proud of the woman you have become Caroline McCoy." She took her hands from his. In a second her arms were around his neck and her face was buried in its crook. Len hugged her, as he rocked her gently the way he did when they were kids. "This is your first experience with death. I wish I could have spared you. God you're only twenty-seven. You shouldn't have to deal with this."

"I turn twenty-eight soon. And you were younger than me the first time you dealt with this." She wasn't relaxing her grip on him.

"I was, but baby, I'm a trauma surgeon. It's my job." He could feel her giggle.

Finally, she let go. "Can I stay here while you bring him out of stasis?"

"Yes. I think it would be best if you did. You can sit here while we work on things. We will most likely have to put him on life support. That will give his body time to heal. It will take a little while before he can come off of that."

"If he can come off of that."

"Alright, if he can. Cal, I need you here, he needs you here." He kissed her cheek before getting up. "Why don't you bring the chair over there for now. You can sit close until we are ready to remove him from stasis."

Call drug the chair over. She could just see Jim's face as she sat closer to the glass. She couldn't lose him. After everything they had shared, she wasn't ready to lose her best friend.

There was a loud beep as the first bag finished. Len hadn't realized an hour had passed. It would be another hour before the next bag started. So far everything looked good. He thought about what he had said, that he would start to back him off from stasis after the second bag. As he looked at the readings, he realized that needed to change. It would be safer if it was done more gradually. Carefully he punched in the command. Stasis would begin to lessen steadily, but slowly over the next four hours. By then the serum infusion would be complete and they could move to the next phase of recovery. He reached out to Seri to tell her what he was doing. She contacted her father who came over as quickly as possible.

Seri met Jaz in the hall outside of Len's office. "Hi Dad."

"He started?"

"Yes."

Jaz grabbed a chair from the corridor before following his daughter to Jim's room. Now it would start. Now they would work to see if Jim Kirk still existed.