His mistake
Disclaimer: The movies and its characters don't belong to me. They belong to their rightful owners and I'm just borrowing them for this story.
A/N: So... I always wanted to write a story about Jim's and Scotty's friendship after watching 'Into Darkness'. And it can't be a story of mine if it wouldn't turn out dramatic and sad... (I apologize for that). Also I apologize for possible grammar mistakes as I'm not a native speaker and for Scotty's accent (Well... I guess this is what you can expect from someone who is not even of English mother tongue, hence Scottish is even harder for me to write). Still I hope that you can enjoy this little one shot of mine!
Rated 'M' due to language and some graphic description of violence.
/His mistake/
"Scotty!"
Kirk's scream echoed through the wrecked spaceship. He ran across the hallway, felt his pulse racing, heard his heart pounding in his head.
"Mr. Scott!"
Why? Why wasn't the man answering?! A silent whisper in the back of his head told Kirk that he already knew the truth. But he tried not to listen to it.
'He's not dead. He's not dead. He's not dead.'
Jim repeated the thought like a mantra, trying to calm himself. The chief of engineering had to be alright. There was no way something had happened to him like it had to the others...
Images he had seen a few moments ago flashed through his mind.
The landing party. Dead. Their motionless bodies lay on the bridge's floor, covered in blood.
Kirk still felt nauseous at the memory. The iron-like smell of blood filled his nose and for a moment he wasn't sure whether it was just an olfactory sensation or if the scent lay right in front of him...
There. Behind the partly destroyed door leading down to engineering. The room his chief engineer had inspected when Kirk had chosen to explore the rest of the ship wreck.
He regretted it. He regretted so badly that he had asked Scotty to join him on the trip. But the twinkle in the Scot's eyes when Jim had told him about the ship wreck the landing party had found on that abandoned planet which Kirk would love to explore... The expression reflected in Scotty's eyes had felt overwhelmingly gratifying. Kirk had simply been happy that he was able to make the chief engineer feel absolutely delighted.
'Maybe the last delight he ever experienced.'
Once again the captain shook his head while bursting into engineering, his eyes searching the room in panic.
"Scotty!"
Jim hurried over to the place he had last seen the man. He was nowhere to be found. But there was something else... something that let Kirk's blood turn cold.
A red sticky fluid had gathered on the floor, building a puddle.
The captain swallowed hard. No... this couldn't be true. This blood. It couldn't belong to Scotty. It could belong to anyone but him.
"Captain?"
Jim turned around, startled by a sudden touch on his arm.
"Scotty."
Relief washed over Kirk's body and he grabbed the engineer by his shoulders, eying him from head to toe.
"Are you alright?"
His gaze fell upon the Scot's left forearm and his question was answered by looking at a deep cut. Scotty tried to cover it with his other hand but blood was still streaming out of his flesh, apparently unable to be stopped.
"It's nae tha' bad, captain. A wee cut from tha' piece of metal sticking out righ' there. Ah just tried tah find somethin' to cover it, so tha'-", Scotty tried to explain and even though Jim saw that it wasn't just a 'wee cut' as the Scot called it he ignored that fact for a moment.
"We have to get out of here! As fast as possible."
Scotty narrowed his eyes in confusion, tilting his head to the side. He didn't seem to realize where the sudden hurry came from.
"What? Why? Ah've just made an interestin' discovery-"
Kirk shook his head, interrupted the man once again.
"No, no. You don't get it... we have to get away right now. I... the landing party. I found them at the bridge."
He swallowed hard, his glance wandering down to the floor. The images appeared again.
"They are all dead. Killed."
Jim looked back at Scotty's face which lost all color at the moment. Shocked, he just stared at his captain, mouth open to reply something but his voice got stuck in his throat.
"I've already tried to contact Spock and the others but I can't reach them. We seem to be unable to get a signal to the Enterprise."
Scotty nodded slowly, trying to comprehend what Jim had said just now.
"Then... let's get outta 'ere", he mumbled, more to himself than to Kirk.
Jim nodded, putting his hand on the engineer's back, leading him towards the exit. Scotty didn't seem to be fully aware of their surroundings. Maybe it was the shock about the message that no member of the landing party had survived - two of them had worked down in engineering with Scotty -, maybe it was the loss of blood or maybe the combination of both.
No matter what it was, Kirk suddenly had other things to worry about when he realized that he couldn't find the door through which they had entered the spaceship. Why? Where was it?! It should have been right here!
Jim ran along the hallway, hectically pulling Scotty with him. His eyes were wandering the wall in panic.
"Captain?"
Scotty gave him a questioning look but Jim kept his focus on the search.
„The door... I... it should be here, but... it's... not", he muttered beneath his breath, trying to get a clear thought. What was going on around here?
"Maybe t'was in another hallway..."
He shook his head in disbelief. No... he knew that it had been here. But now... it wasn't anymore. It was gone. Jim sighed and stopped walking. He looked at the pale Scot next to him who was giving him a worried glance. Probably he thought that his captain was losing his mind. So Jim closed his eyes and forced a comforting smile on his lips.
"Yeah... maybe you're right. L... let's check the hallway over there."
He turned around, pointing in the direction he was talking about... and his eyes widened in shock.
"Wha-"
Scotty followed his gaze and his body seemed to freeze just like Kirk's had a second before.
The hallway... was gone. Just like the exit. Instead there was a door Kirk remembered leading to the bridge. He could see blood on the floor, slowly streaming towards them.
"Jim?"
He heard Scotty's frightened hoarse voice calling his name when the door opened, revealing a strange fog. It was starting to fill the air around them and Jim had to narrow his eyes so that he was able to see the outlines of a human-like figure stepping out of the room. No... not stepping. It seemed to be... crawling. Though the upper part of the body was resembling that of a human being, the rest of it looked much more like that of a spider or something similar.
It was moving. Towards the two men.
"Run..."
Jim meant for it to be a loud command but it was not more than a mere whisper. He swallowed and tried again, already taking a few steps backwards.
"Run!"
He pulled Scotty along, started running as fast as he could. He didn't know where they were going. Not just because of the fog which was still following them but because the ship itself seemed to change every step that they took. This was impossible! It couldn't be happening!
A wall appeared right in front of them and when Jim quickly turned to the right Scotty nearly bumped into him. He could hear the Scot panting heavily and he knew that he needed a pause to breathe but Jim wasn't ready to stop. He glanced over his shoulder. The creature was still there. It was following them. And it would catch them if they didn't run faster.
And then... the ship's appearance changed once again. Jim could see the exit! It was right there! Only a few feet away from them. He ran. He could feel Scotty's grip around his arm loosen so he tightened his own grip even more. He wasn't going to leave his friend behind.
"The exit is right there! We can do it, Scotty! Come on!"
Jim stretched out his free arm to press the button which should open the door. But it was too late. He missed their goal by inches... and closed his eyes, cursing. When he opened them again they were back in engineering.
Scotty was standing next to him, trying to catch his breath. He looked deadly pale, blood streaming uncontrollably out of the cut. Jim looked around. The creature that had been chasing them seemed to be gone. So he focused on his crew member, helping him to sit down next to a boiler.
"Wha' in the name of god is happenin' 'ere, Jim?"
The chief of engineering stared at him with huge fearful eyes, grabbing his sleeve once again.
"I... I have no idea, Scotty. But I'll find out. It's gonna be okay."
To be honest, Jim really didn't feel that convinced. And he couldn't deny that he felt equally confused and scared to death. But he tried to force his voice to be steady. He had to stay strong now. He was the captain after all.
He kneeled down beside Scotty and took a quick glance at the injured arm. It looked horrible. He couldn't tell where flesh and blood ended and the red uniform's fabric began. It was horrible to look at and Jim once again felt nausea overcome him. He searched for something they could use to bandage the cut but there was nothing around. The only thing to help them, it occurred to him, was the fabric of his own uniform. So he took off the golden shirt, leaving him in his black undershirt, and started wrapping the cloth around Scotty's arm.
The engineer watched him and chuckled awkwardly at the sight.
"Guess Ah should feel honored tha' the Enterprise's captain uses his shirt as bandage for meh."
Jim too could only smile at the Scot's words.
"Damn right you should, Mr. Scott. I wouldn't do that for everyone. But since I can't afford to lose Star Fleet's best chief of engineering..."
Scotty softly slapped his arm.
"Come on, Jim. Ah cannae take you being tha' toady."
Kirk carefully slapped back, of course hitting the man's unharmed shoulder.
"Hey! Mind your language there, will you?"
Once more Scotty chuckled softly and Jim felt his heart sink. This situation right here seemed so... normal. It seemed like that kind of conversation they could have any other day. But this wasn't a normal day. It was a bad one. Terrifying, with an unknown, possibly unfortunate end awaiting them.
"Aye, captain."
Scotty closed his eyes, apparently trying to breathe away the pain and Jim watched him closely. His skin was even paler than before. Dark rings were forming beneath his eyes. He looked terrible.
And Kirk didn't know how he could help him.
They were trapped in an ever changing spaceship, some deadly spider-like creature who probably had killed their crew mates searching for them. No signal getting out. No way to contact their friends. Their situation seemed hopeless.
But Jim wasn't ready to give up. Not when he had to save Scotty. After all it was his fault that the man had been injured because he had asked the Scot to come with him. Now he couldn't just let him die here for his own damn mistake.
"Where is tha' creepy thing?", Scotty asked, his accent getting heavier than before. He seemed to be sleepy, the words were slurred. He opened his eyes slowly, looking around.
Jim shrugged.
"I don't know. But I actually don't really care as long as it's not here."
They stayed quiet for a while, just listening to each other's calm breaths, until Scotty finally broke the silence.
"Ye know what's strange?"
Jim glanced at him.
"Hm?"
"The room. It has nae changed durin' the last few minutes, has it?"
Jim thought about it and let his eyes wander across the room. Scotty was right. It all looked like when they had arrived down in engineering after being chased. Why? Why wasn't it changing anymore?
"You're right. I wonder why it's still like that", Jim murmured absently but Scotty standing up next to him, pulled him back into the present.
"What are you doing?", he asked, fear for his friend's health returning slowly.
"Captain! Stop!"
Kirk got up to his feet, grabbing Scotty's arm softly, trying to get him to sit down again.
"Scotty-", he started talking but the Scot put a finger against his lips, making a hushing sound.
"Ye see tha' over there?"
Jim looked at the direction Scotty's finger was pointing at and he saw it too. A strange light was floating around in the air.
"What the heck?", Kirk exclaimed, the slight feeling of fear coming back when he saw blood dripping out of it.
"Calm down, will ye?", Scotty said and Jim could only stare at him in disbelief about the engineer's own calmness.
He glanced back at the strange light and saw that it had apparently grown bigger, floating towards them.
"Just try an' be calm", Scotty repeated his words and Jim tried to focus on the soft voice. He couldn't believe what happened next. The light grew smaller... and smaller.
"Fear...", Scotty muttered and Jim finally understood.
"You mean that the whole changing of the ship is caused by our feeling of fear?"
Scotty nodded slowly.
"Aye, sir. Ah do believe so. Ah cannae explain how or why... but it seems to work like tha'."
Okay... Jim let out a small sigh of relief. So they knew how this ship worked. That was good, wasn't it?
"So all we have to do... is stay calm and find the exit in this ship's version, right?"
Another nod from the Scot and Jim smiled.
"Well then... let's go and get you to a Doctor."
Though Bones probably wouldn't be happy to see the poorly bandage Kirk had made and would scowl him for missing the last first aid course the thought of seeing his friend again at all was lifting his spirits right away.
"Aye, captain", Scotty agreed with a small nod.
They walked through the apparently abandoned hallways of the ship, searching for the exit door. This time Kirk was way calmer. Not just because he knew that it would provide the ship from changing but because he knew that it was normal for the door not being where he expected it to be. He wasn't going crazy. It was okay.
And there it was. The exit. It was right at the end of the long hallway.
"Yes! We did it!", he exclaimed happily, grinning at Scotty whose face mirrored the cheerful expression.
Kirk started to hurry, pulling Scotty with him. Just a few more steps and they would get out. He could already smell the fresh air, could see the Enterprise waiting for them. Yes... they would reach it.
But suddenly there was that strange fog again and he heard a yelp escaping Scotty's mouth. He turned around to see the creature at the end of the hallway, shooting a sort of web at them. It tangled around the chief engineer's leg, trying to pull him away from Kirk.
"No!"
Jim held onto Scotty's hand, the button to open the door once again in his other arm's length.
"Jim! Jim, help me!"
"I won't let you go!"
It was a promise. He wouldn't let go of the other man's hand. Never! He wouldn't let him die. There was no way he would-
It all happened way too fast.
The creature was suddenly right there. It was right behind Scotty. And Jim could only watch in horror when one of its claws was stabbed through the engineer's chest.
Jim stumbled backwards, his arm hitting the button which opened the door and he fell onto the cold ground outside. He couldn't move. All he could do was stare at the door slowly closing.
The last image he saw would be burnt inside his mind for all eternity.
Scotty's frightened face. His huge blue eyes filled with fear and tears. His open mouth, blood still dripping out of it. And the silent last plea for help his lips slowly formed.
"No..."
Jim shook his head, tried to stand up, but his legs were giving up on him.
"Scotty..."
Tears filled his eyes as he remembered the Scot's face when he had asked him to join him on this exploration. His smile, the glimmer in his eyes. How... happy he had looked.
He would never see that face again.
Because he had made a mistake. A mistake that one of his best friends had to pay the price for.
"Scotty!"