= XII =
A Month Later
Mira felt herself be shaken awake but grumbled to stay asleep. It was the first time in a long while she was able to sleep that soundly, exhaustion finally pushing her dreams to the side. "Miracle." she heard her name spoken softly but she let out a grumble and a sound 'fuck off' before turning over, finding a delectable heat source, wrapping her arms around it securely and snuggling up tight to it. "It seems you are not a morning person" The voice let out a chuckle and Mira shook her head and let out a crumble and complain. "Miracle, if you don't get up I'll set Puffins on fire" and instantly Mira bolted up right, sitting on the back of her legs as she began looking around in a panic for her Puffins before realization came back into her fogged brain. Slowly, Mira turned and glared at Khan who was sitting on the couch next to her, clearly amused by what she was doing.
"You are such an ass." Mira mumbled out and then began to really look around and finally noticed she was on the couch in their quarters, furrowing her eyebrows as she tried to think back on how she ended up asleep out here. Khan, seeing her confusion, decided to step in and explain. "I was working out here last night; you were being kind and stayed out here to keep me company. You fell asleep though. I attempted to move you but you would wake long enough to say you were fine and then a moment later and you were back asleep." Khan explained to her and Mira nodded her head, laughing to herself.
She knew about that problem, if one would label it like that. Whenever anyone touched her or attempted to move her when she was asleep she would wake up long enough to tell them its fine or something less pleasant and then fall back asleep.
"Why are you on the couch?" Mira said through as yawn, stretching as she did. "Hmm… stretch stretch stretch stretch stretch." Mira mumbled under her breath before putting her hands back into her lap and looking at Khan, who was just simply starring at her oddly. Mira could see the laughter dancing behind his eyes and she was amazed he just didn't out right laugh at her.
"It's what I do…, yes I'm a freak. Why are you on the couch?" Mira mumbled, looking away but then pushed it to the side and asked her question again. Khan shrugged at her "I attempted to move you again after an hour, thinking it would be fine. You woke up again but you grabbed onto my hand, you have a surprisingly strong grip." He told her and so in that moment Mira decided to give him a once over and a blush instantly spread across her cheeks. His hair tousled, much like the first time she had seen him awakened from his sleep. Shirtless, shoes and socks gone but thankfully he still had his pants on and then Mira's mind went to the warm blanket she had been snuggling to earlier and cringed inwardly.
"You like your partners' awake and responsive right?" Mira asked, wanting to make sure nothing happened while she had been sleeping, not because she didn't trust him but because she apparently had a habit of moving in her sleep at least according to her ex boyfriends. "Yes Miracle, I do. I slept beside you that's all that happened" he told her truthfully and Mira nodded with a smile, letting out a sigh of relief. After a few moments Khan smirked at her though. "I'll admit though I did not peg you as the snuggling type. No, not with you constantly telling me to stop invading your personal bubble." Khan laughed as he lightly mocked her, another blush spread across her face as he did. Mira was flustered for a moment before she just glared at him "Well you should stop doing that so I wouldn't have to tell you all the time" Mira mumbled out looking away from him, she was about to say something else but stopped when she felt Khan's hand on her thigh and the other on her shoulder.
In a second she was on her back, Khan now hovering over her only a mere two inches away. Mira moved her arms so they were between her chest and Khan's to keep the distance that was there. Mira looked up to him, eyes wide with a mixture of excitement and fear; she wasn't sure which emotion to take hold of. Her brain told her to be scared, to run away but her body seemed to have different ideas.
Mira felt Khan's hand on her thigh, lightly brushing circles there as he rested on his forearm that lay beside her head. Mira looked down between them and then back up to Khan's face, her eyes locking with his. She had never been happier about her choice to change into her pajamas, that consisted of pajama pants and a tight fitted tank top, then right now since Khan had nestled himself between her legs. Khan leaned down slowly and Mira flinched away, closing her eyes as she turned her head to the side.
Khan sighed loudly as he rested his forehead against her temple and shook his head "You need to stop flinching; it's why I enter your 'personal bubble' as you say. To get you accustomed to my presence, my touch. I do not know what started this problem but please tell me so I can fix it." Khan asked her and Mira shrugged, she knew exactly what had started her flinching but she didn't want to tell him. "I'm sorry. I'll work on it." she promised him, she didn't want to talk about it because she was scared of what he may do. Mira knew exactly when it had started to happen. The day after she had given him his books, that's when her emotions decided that they were done pretending, when she had actually started to feel something real or at least accept it.
Mira had very little doubt it was a long time coming but the realization came that day and how at times she had wished it hadn't. After that day, she had tried to detach herself, trying to interact with him less but it seemed to only make Khan interact with her more. To seek her out when she didn't want to be found. She hadn't said anything when he had asked her what was wrong. Instead she had tried to over compensate. She thought if she spent more time with him, was kinder, did more for him that that would be enough, he wouldn't need to get near her; to touch her, but it seemed either way she was screwed. So Mira let out a sigh and turned her head slightly and kissed Khan on the cheek and let a small smile spread across her lips.
"Miracle, if you aren't comfortable with this anymore, you do not have to." Khan told her, concern written on his features and Mira shook her head at him. "I'm fine." she told him with a nod. "You need this, I can do it." she reassured him and Khan nodded his head before pushing himself up and off of her. "If you're sure." He said before standing up "I was called to the comm room, I will be back shortly." he spoke going to his room for few minutes and then coming out in perfect shape, hair slicked back, new shirt and pants and his usual boots on. "I'll get a shower when I return, try not to use up all the hot water." he jested to her and then left her alone.
Mira laughed at that but stopped once he was out of the room and let out a sigh. 'What's wrong with me?' Mira questioned to herself as she covered her eyes with her arm. 'Ever since the explosion I've been odd, God! And my emotions! I feel like everything is on over drive!' Mira screamed mentally as a few tears escaped her eyes and slid down her temple. Mira sat up and took a deep breath in to calm herself and then stood. 'Check up time' Mira thought as she went to her room and changed, figuring she'd get a shower after Khan.
Khan's blank face turned into a smug smirk when he was out of their quarters. 'Such easy prey.' Khan laughed internally 'Clearly, a novice Agent.' Khan insulted her mentally. He had expected more from her, her kindness was far too obvious, the looks of longing, the too bright smiles, it was her flinching that told him he was on the right track though. Clearly a nervous tick, her mind telling her to back away, that she'd become too close and now her constant distancing. Khan had her exactly where he wanted her and with that he only needed to take two small steps before she was completely under his control.
Khan frowned slightly when he remembered the books in his room though; it had thrown him off kilter. She had managed to get under his skin for once and, for only a minute, he let his guard down. He knew the gesture was faked. That she had searched long and hard and had actually found his books and simply lied about it, pretending she didn't know. He knew all this but he was just happy… he had something back from his old life, even if it was an attempt to get closer, to get more control over him. Khan had simply been too happy to care. Khan stopped once he was outside the comm room and took a breath, wiping the look off his face and going for a neutral expression that barely hid his distaste of being summoned by Marcus.
Khan quickly entered the room and pressed the button to start the call, Marcus's face instantly appearing on the screen before him. "Khan" Marcus greeted and Khan simply gave him a nod, waiting for him to start talking. "Well where to start?" Marcus wondered out loud before a smirk formed on his face and Khan had to hold in his sigh, maybe he should have started this conversation. "How's Mira?" Khan held in his annoyance, he may be manipulating her and using her to help himself and this is the sort of reaction he wanted from Marcus but he did have his limits.
"She is well." He said in a clipped tone, still playing his part well. "So long she's making you happy suppose that's all that matters." Marcus said his smirk never disappearing from his face and Khan instantly got his double meaning to the word, Khan wanted to ask how a Leader could throw away his subordinate so easily but thought better of it and instead said. "I do not wish to talk about her." in surprisingly the politest tone he's used thus far with Marcus. At his words Marcus just laughed, "Fine, let's get to why I called then. I'm sending you some schematics for some torpedoes I want designed but those can wait until you get this new phaser design done." Marcus told him, sending them to his PADD and showing them on the screen to his right. Khan stepped closer to the screen as he looked it over more closely and then frowned.
"I have already designed a weapon for this type of energy shielding." He reminded Marcus who just sighed. "Yeah, take a closer look at this" he told Khan as another image loaded onto the screen not a second later. It was for a higher shield, it seemed to be emanated from a small device that could cover an entire body. "I'll need something that can take down the shield and either kill or stun the target in one go" Marcus told him before putting a hand behind his head and scratching his neck. A sign Khan had noticed that meant he was not going to share all of the information at his disposal.
"The Klingons have taken a ships shields and are now able to walk around with it on their bodies, making all of your weapons useless" Marcus told him, Khan ignored the lie for now and focused on the documents before him. "I'll have it done in two weeks" he told him quickly. "I'll need to make a new module, which means I'll need new materials. I'll have the Doctor send you what I require." Khan told him and then was brought out of his mind, pushing to the side his excitement to make something new, though he wouldn't let Marcus know about that. Instead he frowned and took a step back to look at the middle screen "Speaking of the Doctor, why did you not send this information to her?" he inquired and Marcus just shrugged, his smug smirk annoying Khan.
"She's been very clip with her reports, hardly tells me anything. Suppose she's still embarrassed about before and well she isn't the sharpest tool in the box. Probably would have fucked up the delivery" Marcus insults growing more with each passing second as he continued on, Khan knew it was to get a reaction from him, Khan sighed annoyed that he had to do this but it was needed.
"Could you re-frame from insulting her" Khan told him, asked in a sort of way. He hated he couldn't be outwardly rude to him, not wanting to deal with the threats he would make towards his crew. "Ah I see I touched a nerve. Sorry" Marcus lied, "I will be visiting in two weeks to test out that gun… actually on second thought, I'll test out all of them. Should make for a fun day." Marcus amended and then without a good bye he hung up the call, both screens going black and Khan let out a sigh. This play he was performing was becoming most tiresome and he couldn't wait for it to be over.
It hadn't taken Mira long to arrive at sickbay after she fixed herself up, when she had gotten there she had walked in on something odd. Nothing horrible but apparently a test run of a new device or something. It instantly drawing Mira's attention, it was absolutely beautiful "What is that?" she inquired of the Doctor standing before the screen with a PADD in his hands. "New tech I came up with; finally finished the prototype. It's basically like a ships scanner or a biobed scanner.
Nothing new there but this one looks for specific things and has a larger range." He told her and Mira nodded standing next to him "What other things?" she asked as she continued to stare at the screen before her "Well say if there's a breakout and so many people are infected, these infected people will read differently on the scanner and with it you can search for subject 0. Basically bio-metric waves and such. Of course right now I can only scan people around me but I'm hoping that when it's done I'll be able to look world wide" he told her and instantly an idea popped into Mira's brain and she smiled. "Can I look at that?" she asked him politely and he seemed all too happy to pass his PADD to her. Mira smiled again as she took a scan of the Nurse that was just passing by, both Doctors looking at the screen as it slowly appeared.
"You've made modifications to a normal PADD?" she inquired and the Doctor simply nodded his head. "Simple really, a first year med student could do it" he told her and Mira smirked, making sure he was solely looking at the screen in front of them as she sent all the data on his PADD to hers and the quickly deleted the message off it so he wouldn't know better. "Here you go, thank you for letting me test that" Mira said politely as she handed the device back to him, he just smiled and nodded her way before she went over to a biobed and began what she had come there to do in the first place. Of course pulling the curtain to hide herself behind, she didn't want anyone seeing the scanner results.
Mira sighed as she waited for it to finish and then sat up and turned to the console to see if there was anything wrong with her. Mira raised a brow as she saw her vitals were only a smidge higher than normal, her body temperature was higher, her heart was beating faster and her regeneration was better as well. Mira then looked at the scan of her brain but saw nothing wrong with it, everything was functioning normally, nothing was damaged and despite the higher results she was in perfect health. "Doctor Sullivan" a nurse asked behind the curtain bringing Mira out of her mind and quickly she cleared the results before answering "Yes".
"Admiral Marcus is on the comm for you, room 6" the nurse told her. Mira sighed before saying her thanks and left sickbay. It hadn't taken her long to arrive at the room, taking a big breath in Mira walked into the room and pressed the button and as soon as Marcus's face appeared Mira nodded her head "Sir" she said her greeting him with a small smile on her face. "Mira, glad to see you're in perfect health" Marcus said smiling at her which caused Mira to raise a brow.
"I have you on red alert, at least when someone does a medical scan of you" Marcus told her and Mira forced herself not to sneer at him and nodded her head again. "Well thank you. Is that what you wanted to talk to me about?" Mira asked him politely and Marcus didn't say anything for a long while, seeming to be studying something off to the side. "Yes, I'm a little disappointed" he told her and then Mira frowned. "I don't understand" she told him honestly and Marcus sighed, looking back at the screen, at her and leaned back in his chair. "Well I was hoping there would have been a difference but sadly it didn't really seem to affect you all that much. Shame" Marcus rambled on, confusing Mira even more.
"Sir I don't..." she didn't continue as Marcus interrupted her. "Yes yes, I got it. You don't understand." He spoke annoyed, Marcus let out a sigh and waited for a minute, looking like he was thinking over his words carefully. "Did Khan tell you how you survived that explosion?" Mira shook her head no at his question and this seemed to cause him some happiness as he smiled.
"Augments were made to be superior but you can't be superior if you can get hurt like a normal human being. So they made them with better healing and regeneration as humans, ten times faster I believe." Marcus rambled on and then stopped and stared at Mira, letting the information sink in. Mira stared at Marcus wide eyed, Khan had used his blood to heal her… she of course had heard rumors but had simply waved them off, she didn't want to speculate and it had completely slipped her mind to even ask Khan about it, why she hadn't thought of it before was beyond her.
"Ah you're there, good. I was hoping that his blood would have affect you on some level; sadly, all it did was improve your health. Like I said before; disappointed." Marcus shrugged, a frown set on his lips. Mira continued to stare wide eyed. "You did set the explosion… you wanted me dead?" Mira asked in horror, Khan had of course told her as much but on some level deep down she didn't allow herself to believe it. That Marcus would play god with someone else's life, her life but it appears that her hopes had been sorely misplaced. "Of course not, I knew it wouldn't kill you for a couple of hours at least. You could have come up with a solution easily. What I wanted was for Khan to use his blood to heal you. You weren't in any danger Mira" Marcus told her, shrugging off the responsibility that she could very well have died. "I wanted to make you better then you currently were and are" Marcus said after a moment.
Mira stared at him, boiling rage dancing behind her eyes and all she could do was nod, he was using that as his excuse, as if that reason alone could nullify what he had done. "Thank you" Mira bit out, not trusting herself to say anything more than that. Marcus smiled and said goodbye, hanging up and leaving Mira in the dark. Mira continued to stand there for a long while, trying to regain her composer. She wanted to hurt something, to hurt Marcus and that thought seemed to calm her down some. 'There was clearly an effect… I just don't know the extent of it' Mira looked down, hair hanging to shield as a way to herself from the outside world for a while and then she looked up, rage still there but then something else and she smiled. 'I'll enjoy pulling your ass from that chair' Mira thought as plans ran rampant around her mind.
