Lexxi kept her breath small and her heartbeat faint.  As long as she could keep herself unconscious, she could hide in the thick, comforting blackness of nothing.  Her plan was falling apart, piece-by-piece, and she was the problem.  Why did she have to care so much?  Why did they?  She heard voices.  Exasperated voices.  No explanation for her unconsciousness.  They were becoming suspicious.  She allowed her eyes to flutter open, not yet ready, but having to face the world once more.

"Well, that was stupid."  Lexxi heard the good doctor's voice before she was able to make out his face.  She lay on her front, arms folded neatly beneath her head.

"You again?" she asked s she attempted to push herself up.  Pain assaulted her like daggers of fire and her arms shook and gave out.  McCoy hear her sharp intake of breath and reached out to cradle her head in his hands before it hit the table.  He regretted the fact that he could give her nothing for the pain.

"You'll be seeing an awful lot of me if you keep trying to kill yourself," he shot back.

"I'm sorry," Lexxi said meekly, looking up at the doctor and then past him.  "Mr. Spock?"

"Back on duty hours ago after a change of clothes.  Listen, there's nothing more…"

"How is she, Bones?"  Kirk walked briskly through the sickbay door, interrupting McCoy in mid-sentence.

"Well, as I was just informing Lieutenant Montgomery, here, there's nothing more I can do for her.  Would you like to escort her back to her cabin?  Perhaps she'll stay there and rest for awhile."

"Sure, Bones, my pleasure."  Kirk walked over to Lexxi and gently helped her to sit up.  She recoiled at his touch as the fought dizziness and nausea and gingerly stood, keeping a poker face.  "Feeling better?" he asked her, placing a steadying hand on her arm.

Lexxi nodded, swallowing hard.

"I'll be right back, doctor," Kirk called over his shoulder as he and Lexxi left sickbay.  It was silent for several minutes.  Finally, Kirk spoke.  "I was sitting on the bridge pondering just what I was doing to do first on my shore leave when I got this call from the good doctor telling me that my first officer, my Vulcan fist officer, had gone for a swim in your shower."

"I'm sorry, Captain," Lexxi replied, keeping her eyes down and taking her arm from his hand, "it was all my fault."

"Don't worry about it."  Kirk sighed and then chuckled, "Probably did him good."

"Good?" Lexxi asked, startled, looking up into his eyes.  They stopped walking.  How many times was she going to walk this hall?

Kirk turned to face Lexxi, taking her hands in his.  "You worry too much, you know that?"

Lexxi quickly shut her eyes and pulled away.  "Dr. McCoy said we arrive at Starbase 28 for shore leave in the morning."

"That's right."

Silence settled around them once more.  Awkward silences bothered Kirk and he spoke once again.  "We'll be there two weeks.  Perhaps you can come down for a while.  I'm sure there are things you need after…"

"I'm sure…perhaps," Lexxi echoes.  They'd reached her cabin.  "Thank you," she smiled.

"No problem," Kirk replied, "get some rest."

"I will," Lexxi assure him before disappearing into the dark, icy room.

Kirk sighed before turning and heading back to sickbay.  He had goose bumps and wondered why.  The rush of cold air from Lieutenant Montgomery's room must have chilled him.  This worried him.  A lot of things worried him.  Kirk decided that he worried too much as he rubbed his arms and walked in on the good doctor, who was watching the screen on his desk.  "Is there something I need to knew?"

McCoy looked up and asked very innocently, "About what?"

"Come on, Bones, what do you think?  Nobody tells me anything anymore.  What did Spock and Lexxi talk about for so long?  Why does Admiral Connell want her back so bad?  Why is her room so damned cold?"

"Jim, calm down," McCoy interrupted Kirk's ranting.  "I was joking."  He motioned to the screen.  "Look at this." 
Kirk's eyes moved to the screen as he walked around the desk to stand behind the doctor.  "What is that?"

McCoy leaned back in his chair as if proud of himself.  "I had Lieutenant Montgomery's cabin rigged so that I can monitor the room temperature, her body temperature, heart rate, and neurotransmitters.  She was the climate in her cabin cold and humid for the same reason Spock has his hot and dry.  Her body temperature is hovering around 82.8, which, I am assuming, is average, her heart rate is terribly sluggish, and her neurotransmitters are all over the map."

"But that's normal for her," Kirk concluded.

"I certainly hope so," McCoy agreed.

"What's that for?" Kirk asked, pointing to a flat line at the bottom of the screen.

"Shower temp.  Don't want a repeat of this morning's incident."

Suddenly, all of the measurements on the screen jumped to clean, straight lines.  "What the…!" the doctor exclaimed.

"What's happening?" Kirk asked.

The readings read normal for a human.

"Well I'll be damned," McCoy chuckled.