A/N: Well, this is the last chapter. It's been a heck of a ride, and thanks everyone for all the reviews!
JUST A DREAM
"No, no, please...go away, please..."
"Malcolm, wake up, we're here, don't worry..."
A cool hand touched his forehead, smoothing the hair back from his temples and dabbing away the beaded sweat collecting on his skin.
"Hoshi?"
"For the moment, yes."
He did not understand; he tried to open his eyes and found that the world shivered and blurred around him. Hoshi's face swam before his eyes and then trembled before finally settling into stability. For a moment he choked as his lungs drew in too much air.
"I know, I know," she said soothingly. "I woke up about an hour ago. I think I'd feel better if I'd gotten hit by a shuttlepod."
"What did you tell them?" said Malcolm, his voice catching and rasping in his throat.
"I haven't told them anything yet," Hoshi replied. "Especially about who came back with us."
He met her eyes and still did not understand. "What?" he said, and began to cough harshly. Days of life-support did not agree with him, apparently. "Who came back? From the void or from Between?" Hoshi handed him a glass of water, and watched him for a few seconds as he drank deeply, savoring the liquid on his parched tongue.
"I came back," Hoshi said. In amazement Malcolm reached out a hand to her face, seeking explanation for the sudden shift in expression and inflection.
"Who...who are you?" he asked. What was Hoshi and yet not leaned into his touch, and lightly he ran his fingertips over her cheek.
"You're right," said Hoshi's voice, sounding so like her but still completely different. "You're right, Malcolm Reed, watching this hardly compares to truly being here."
"But you always knew that, Pyrrih," said Malcolm softly, recognizing the voice at last. "What are you doing in her body?"
"Oh, don't worry, Malcolm Reed. I'm not staying," said the Betweener quietly. "There is only one thing that I need her body for, besides a few last experiences before I commit myself to the great Unknown."
Malcolm's eyebrows furrowed as he gazed at the young ensign. He could not think what the Betweener would need to do, since after all he had the chance to live even if only for a little while. Where was the doctor, he suddenly wondered, and why was it only Hoshi here with him?
How long had he been asleep?
"I need your help, Malcolm Reed," said Pyrrih gravely, taking the now-empty cup of water from Malcolm's hands and setting it by the side of the biobed. "Come with me."
"What are you doing?" said Malcolm, sitting up and letting out an involuntary groan as he discovered just how very stiff his back had gotten.
"I assure you it is nothing to harm you, Hoshi Sato, or any of your crewmates. But I do need your help." Hoshi's hand reached out for him and gave him a lift out of the bed, and carefully steadied him as his legs threatened to give way beneath him.
"Where is Doctor Phlox?" Malcolm asked, looking around. His head had begun to pound alarmingly, but he gritted his teeth and did his best to ignore it.
"Come with me," said Pyrrih, leading him away from the bed and towards the Sickbay doors. Feeling as if he were dreaming, Malcolm followed, his legs shivering beneath him and his head swimming with a sudden weakness.
They met not a single soul as they strode through the ship's corridors. Only the soft pad of their bare feet on the metal decking and the faint hum of the warp engine marred the silence. Malcolm did not dare ask what was happening; he merely followed, willing himself to stay awake and upright as he trod onward in Pyrrih's footsteps.
He doubted now that Hoshi had let Pyrrih take control, and with that thought he wished fervently for a phase pistol. Whatever this Betweener was doing, he did not like it. Where was everyone else? Didn't they know the danger of this mental power that inhabited Hoshi's brain?
Ah, but no. She hadn't told them, had she? No one knew that Pyrrih was lurking in her head, ready to bring the ship down and everyone on it. No. How long had he been asleep? He had to set off the security alert, get everyone's attention on them, so they could kill and revive Hoshi to get that thing out of her...
And blindly, belatedly, he realized that his fingers were working the controls in the armory, the controls that launched the torpedoes, and he could not stop himself as his index finger raced towards the button to fire.
"What did you do?" cried Malcolm, wresting control back from Pyrrih and jumping back from the console as if it had suddenly burst into flame. With horror he read the diagnostic panels, frantic to discover what enemy of the Betweeners had now been unwittingly destroyed. He tripped, legs still unsteady, and slammed his shoulder painfully into the door of the open weapons locker.
"What did you do?" Malcolm shouted again as his fingers fumbled through the locker. Hoshi's figure came towards him, solemn and graceful, and he found what he was looking for--a phase pistol, set to kill.
She crumpled to the deck, dark eyes still open, and for an instant that lasted a lifetime Malcolm stared at the forlorn body on the deck.
He nearly died of shock himself when Phlox, two of the medical staff, the captain, T'Pol, and Trip all burst through the doors of the armory, all talking at once and so quickly that Malcolm's stunned brain could not make sense of anything.
He saw Phlox attaching electrodes, saw him inject something, into Hoshi's body, and let the phase pistol fall from his fingers. "What was he shooting at?" he asked, and none of them heard him, so he looked again at the monitors. The target had been reached; only a pile of smoking rock remained and he did not understand for a long moment.
Somewhere near him he felt Hoshi, felt her mental signature brush against his, and he knelt down next to her, touching her face with a gentle hand. He did not see the captain and Trip exchange confused glances, and he would not have cared if he had. She felt confused, this feeling that was Hoshi herself, so he told her where to go.
"I brought you back this time," said Malcolm softly as she blinked and began to gasp as air flooded back into her lungs. Her dark eyes met his blue ones, and when he took her hand, she did not let go until they were both back in Sickbay and confined to bed by the understandably irate doctor.
***************
"Why did he do it, do you think?" asked Hoshi much later, after long sleeps and several lectures by the doctor, the captain, and Trip. Both of them lay sprawled over the biobeds, lounging in sickbay blues and trying to get their bodies accustomed to being inhabited again.
"He didn't want anyone else's life being stolen," said Malcolm. He leaned back against the pillow, enjoying the way it felt against his sore back, and stretched languorously. Every sensation welcomed him back, letting him know that the universe indeed acknowledged this small life that dwelled within it. "I think he knew that what they were doing was wrong."
"It's unfair to all of them still in there," said Hoshi mournfully. "They're just stuck there forever."
"I suppose," Malcolm said, and truly did feel sympathy for them, though he could not forget the terrible void. He'd already woken up once, gasping and panicking, because he had been trapped in that horrible emptiness again.
"I don't think the captain really believes what happened," said Hoshi thoughtfully. "I'm not sure if he wants to. I think he thinks that I know all his secrets now that I've been inside his head."
"What, you mean you didn't go poking around?" said Malcolm in mock horror. "I know things about Trip now that will give me blackmail material for years!" They both laughed, relishing the sound on the air. Malcolm knew perfectly well that the doctor was just in the next room (he'd hardly left them since Pyrrih had put him to sleep the day before to keep him from stopping his plan) but he didn't care. If Phlox could hear them, well, it simply reassured him that he did indeed exist.
"He hasn't asked what happened yet," said Hoshi. "I don't know if he really wants to believe that his entire crew can be so vulnerable to such intangible power. It's not something that he can prevent or shoot or anything. All those crewmen down on the planet, and us inside his and Trip's head, and then all those crewmen yesterday that Pyrrih planted suggestions in..."
Malcolm shook his head. "Everyone suddenly just had to try a piece of Chef's latest pie. Bloody hell."
"But he needn't worry," said Hoshi softly. "Because now, if they threaten again, we'll know, and we'll pull them out. We did it once. We can do it again."
She reached over and took his hand. "You did it twice already," said Malcolm, whispering because he suddenly did not want Phlox to hear them. "You brought me back from oblivion. You let me know that I wasn't just a figment of my own imagination... I am real and I know you are real, too...You ended the nightmare."
She squeezed his hand tightly and looked back at him, staring deep into his eyes with a slight smile on her face. "So let the good dreams begin," she said.
"I really, really hope this isn't a dream," said Malcolm, not letting go of her hand. In the next room, a crash broke the silence as Phlox leapt up from his chair, startled by the peals of laughter echoing through his sickbay.
******************
FIN
Okay, so I lied. There was a little shippiness. I couldn't resist. I hope you enjoyed it. I certainly enjoyed writing it. Thanks for reading, everyone!
