I stood in frustrated silence and looked on as Bones cleaned up the blood from Aria's face with a white cloth, watching intently as it turned various shades of pink and red in the process. My arms were crossed tightly across my chest as I alternated between slowly pacing back and forth in the now empty med bay and standing still, watching silently as Bones asked her routine medical questions as he checked out her hands, arms, and vital points on her body where internal organs might have gotten injured.
The brawl — and that was no exaggeration — may have been quick, but had been so shockingly intense and brutal that I couldn't help but replay bits and pieces of it over and over again in my mind as I paced. While I knew that Aria had been dealing with a heavy load of emotions over the past few months, I was entirely clueless as to why Spock had so readily engaged with her. She might've quite literally been asking for it, but my second in command had been impossible to crack in the past.
Coming back over to where Bones was wrapping up his exam of Aria, I stopped next to him and sighed deeply as I took in her appearance. Blood stained her Starfleet athletics tee shirt. Her hair was a wild mess, her once fairly tidy ponytail now consisted of stray strands falling and sticking out everywhere. And then there was her face. For the first time since we'd arrived in med bay about half an hour ago, my eyes met hers.
One of her cheeks was swollen, close enough to her eye that I imagined she might have some level of a black eye in the coming days. She'd gotten a small cut on her other cheek, along with a few scrapes and scuffs along her hairline and corner of her jaw. Her golden eyes were bright and alert as I took her in. Between the hellish hour she'd put me through and the added stress of having to deal with this unexpected barroom-style fight she'd instigated, I wasn't quite sure what to do with her. What I did know was that when I looked at her now, battered and bruised not only psychically but emotionally too, it was like looking into a mirror and seeing the version of myself from many, many years ago.
"You know out of anyone on this ship you could've picked a fight with, you could've easily picked someone who wasn't an officer, let alone my second in command."
She looked down as Bones used his fingertips to feel along her cheeks, making sure nothing was damaged underneath her scuffed up skin.
"I can admit that brawling with an officer just a few short weeks into my tenure on the ship was not a great decision. But for him to not be able to fight the urge to keep his mouth shut after he's been nothing but a complete, logical dickhead for weeks and weeks now … he's lucky I had enough self control to keep myself from obliterating his nose like I wanted to."
Bones let out a snort of laughter in agreement as he moved from examining her face to cleaning up the tray of supplies sitting next to her on the exam table.
"That man is lucky for a lot of reasons. He's lucky more people don't let him know how they really feel, and he's lucky that he hasn't pissed off the wrong person yet. You ruffled his feathers, and that'll be good for him."
I aimed an eye roll at the doctor's back before returning my focus to Aria.
"We all know that Spock has a special way of bringing out the worst in people's emotions. Why he felt compelled to lose a grip on reality tonight and make a series of bad decisions is beyond me at the moment. What I do know is that there is no way I can keep this from the board. Spock will make a painfully accurate report that mine will have to mirror. There's no way around that. What will come of them finding out about the transgression is a crapshoot. They might discipline you formally, they may decided to expel you from the ship and send you packing back to Yorktown."
Her face dropped, avoiding my gaze as I grounded the unfortunate event in reality. I sighed before continuing on as Bones walked to and fro cleaning up.
"I'll have to think about the best way to play it when Starfleet responds, and lucky for me that won't be for a few days yet — not until after my formal report is submitted. For now, let's focus on preventing any further infractions from occurring to keep your odds of staying out of serious trouble higher. And let's also avoid irritating Spock any more while we're at it. I'll get in a word with him and be sure that he and I are on the same page going forward."
Aria nodded silently as Bones came to stand beside me, matching my posture with his arms folded across his chest.
"Jim has faced the firing squad of the board enough times to know how to navigate it blindfolded. I can reasonably assure you that it'll be just fine. All Jim here has to do is bat those pretty blue eyes of his and maybe offer himself up as the sacrificial lamb."
A scoff escaped my lips as I turned to look at his grinning, smug face.
"I'd like to avoid having to stick my neck out any further, thank you very much. I think there's an easy enough way to explain it away. Hopefully we catch the board on a day where they don't feel like skewering me as I bat my pretty eyelashes at them."
It was then that Aria finally spoke again. Her voice was small, quiet in the large, empty room that now only contained the three of us. The sound was completely at odds with her usual fiery demeanor.
"I am so sorry to have put you into such a shitty position, Jim. Considering you've already staked your reputation on bringing me aboard to begin with, and now to have me trying to maul down your second in command … I'm sorry. I'll keep myself in check from now on, I promise. I don't want to cause you any more stress."
Her golden eyes landed on me with an intense look of seriousness, her tone matching it as she gripped the edge of the exam table with her hands. A smirk tugged at the corner of my lips reflexively.
"It'll be alright. Bones does have a point with the number of times I've faced the board with all the cocky jackassery I've pulled over the years. Everyone makes mistakes, and with any luck I'll be able to talk Spock off of any ledge that he might be standing on."
She offered me a small smirk of her own, still tinged with the air of defeat and sadness, before shifting her gaze back down to her feet.
"You done, Bones?"
"I am. Everything looks alright, minus a few deep bruises, minor cuts and some scrapes. If you start to feel worse or experience new pain, let me know and I can take a look. You just need some rest, and to avoid that logical prick for a few days."
I watched as she offered Bones a small smile and a thank you before looking back at her sneakers.
"Thank you, Bones. I'll see you in the morning on the bridge for status reports. Cadet, if you wouldn't mind coming with me to complete some documentation while everything is still fresh."
Her eyes shot up to me, an incredulous expression spreading across her features. Her voice had been so off when she spoke, too quiet and too meek compared to the clinic in badassery she'd just put on with me for an hour, and then spilling over into giving Spock a reality check of his own.
She gave me a quick nod and then proceeded to collect her gym bag before thanking Bones again with a tight-lipped smile.
Gathering up my own bag, I gave Bones my own nod of thanks before heading out of med bay and into the quiet corridors of the ship. One upside to being captain was having the ability to disperse a crowd by dismissing them to their quarters for the evening.
We walked in silence as I made my way through the winding hallways to my quarters. The tension radiating off of Aria was palpable as we reached my door and I punched in the code before placing my hand on the sensor for final verification. I walked in calmly, taking a few extra steps to place my duffle bag on the couch before turning around to do the same with Aria's bag. But as I walked, her voice split the silence, words tumbling from her mouth in an anxious, nervous jumble.
"Jim look, I am so sorry for what happened. I should've thought about how much headache it would create, especially for you. I'll help you document whatever you need to. I'll do anything to help. Whatever you need. I feel so stupid for doing something so completely idiotic, putting everything in jeopardy over that —"
The rest of her apologetic words were lost to my lips. After I tossed her bag on top of mine, I crossed the short distance back to where she stood by the door, taking in her face that was drawn with worry, her voice growing more and more upset as she spoke, and took her bruised and swollen face in my hands before giving her the long, deep, sensual kiss I'd been thinking about for hours now.
I felt the anxious tension radiating from her dissipate into the same kind of tension I'd been experiencing for weeks and weeks. And as I pulled away from the lips I had been thinking about obsessively on a daily basis, I gently moved my thumbs over her bruises, her cuts, and her scrapes before breathlessly looking into her honey gold eyes and telling her what exactly was, and had been, on my mind.