"So she can speak Klingon, knows xenobiology and math," Jim summed up.
"Fascinating," Spock said.
"Dangerous," Jim said.
McCoy said nothing.
They were in the Captain's ready room where they were discussing McCoy's last report. Jim showed a substantial amount of apprehension towards their guest, and it was pretty unsettling, mainly because Jim was following his intuition and his intuition was damn good at predicting things.
"And we can't even drop her at the nearest port," the Captain groaned, "Shit, she hasn't done anything yet, but already become a photon torpedo pointed at us. Do you like the metaphor, Bones?"
"I'm still better at it."
"Someday I'll outshine you."
"Dream about it, kid."
"This can indeed be considered remarkable creativity in designing the experiment," Spock observed, ignoring their bickering, "Miss Lee's mathematical model, though simple, is based on the deep understanding of statistical and analytical Mathematics. If I may assume, she is a talented mathematician."
McCoy huffed.
"Based on what? A single mathematical model?"
Jim nodded.
"Exactly. You can always tell that a person is good at drawing when you look at just one of their works. You see what they are capable of, and you make this conclusion. And our case is pretty much the same thing. I bet she is a decent 3D chess player too."
McCoy only scowled in response. The more they knew her, the more disturbing her talents became.
"And did you pay attention to the songs she sang?" Jim continued his reasoning, "How many languages did she use?"
"Many," the doctor admitted, "It was Standard, English, Spanish, and some other I didn't recognize. But those are all Earth languages."
"Yes, but she speaks Klingon too. Someone doesn't simply speak Klingon without a particular reason to learn it. And I think there are more languages that she knows. A talented tongue, you're lucky, Bones," a grin appeared on Jim's face, but vanished almost immediately.
Well, his friend was definitely wary of her. And maybe a little impressed, as the girl resembled some of Jim's characteristics, like mathematical and linguistic talents, along with a long list of medical anomalies.
"We can ask Lieutenant Uhura to talk to miss Lee," Spock suggested.
"Good idea," Jim agreed, "Your girlfriend can help us to find out more. Is she still your girlfriend?"
Spock pursed his lips and replied, "My relationships with Lieutenant Uhura has no relevance to our current discussion."
McCoy sneered and Jim smirked.
"Right, okay," the Captain said and turned to McCoy, "Do you mind if I send Spock's girlfriend to talk to our guest?"
"Not at all. But I don't think the girl would say anything."
"And I don't need her to say anything important. Okay, my comm officer will come to you guys in three or four hours. Make sure your patient's awake."
"I won't wake her up just to talk, Jim. She is still not well."
"So don't let her sleep."
McCoy sighed. He probably should start to count how many times he thought about the unknown shit he'd got himself into.
Uhura entered sickbay three hours later and greeted everybody with a bright smile. Lee responded in kind, but McCoy saw a slight tension in her posture. The girl pulled away a little when the comm officer came to her side, though the movement was so small that the Doctor wouldn't notice it if he didn't watch the girl intently. Lee definitely didn't like people around her.
"Hi! Nice to see you healing well," Uhura said, "Do you remember me?"
"Yes, Lieutenant, I remember you. You were in the bar that night," Lee answered politely.
She was always like that with other people, McCoy thought. She was nice and friendly until pushed too hard. Then she stopped being nice and revealed her true color.
He was standing near them, sorting out the PADDs with the previous check-up and didn't eavesdrop. Not at all.
Meanwhile, the conversation continued.
"It was a great night," Uhura was saying, earning herself a broad grin from the girl.
"It really was," Lee's voice was full of amusement, and McCoy suddenly decided that the air in the room was too hot for his liking.
"You might be wondering why I am here, interrupting your rest, but Doctor McCoy mentioned that your healing progress is good and the Captain said you sang some Icelandic songs, so I came here to ask - maybe you agree to talk with me in Icelandic. I rarely have an opportunity to practice it with all this xenolinguistics."
Lee said something in what was apparently Icelandic language, and the women started talking in a language McCoy didn't understand. So he finished with the PADDs and stalked away.
Uhura stayed in sickbay for almost two hours. She approached McCoy when the women finished their chat and informed him about Jim's request to come with her to discuss the results of her findings. McCoy glanced at the girl who closed her eyes, looking extremely tired, and with a sigh followed the head of the communication department.
Jim waited in the ready room, Spock with him, as usual.
"So, Lieutenant?" the Captain asked.
"Well," Uhura started her report, "she's obviously a polyglot. She can speak English, French, German, Russian, Spanish, Italian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Irish, Swahili, and Chinese, if we talk about the Earth languages. But there are also Orion, Andorian, all dialects of Xindi and Vulcan, Cardassian, Bajoran, Romulan, and Klingon. Those are what she told me about, but I guess there are more. I also think I know where she came from."
"And that would be?.." Jim prompted.
"I think she is Irish. She speaks English perfectly, but the slightest accent is still there. And you probably need to know another thing. As you know, if a language is not our native, we would speak it with an accent. It is inevitable, so it is always possible to see whether someone belongs to a certain race or nation, or not. Lee's case is different."
Who'd ever doubted that, McCoy thought. The girl was a walking anomaly, what else could it be?
"She has more than one language that she speaks like she was born to do it. And you won't like one of them," Uhura continued.
Spock raised an eyebrow, Jim leaned forward, and McCoy frowned. The conclusions had to be very disturbing as Uhura spent so much time on preparing them for the news.
"These are English, Irish, and Icelandic, so my guess is that one of her parents is from Ireland and another - from Iceland. English is widely spoken in Ireland, so she probably lived there, not in Iceland. But there is the fourth language that she speaks perfectly. And this is Klingon."
The room fell silent.
"What are the odds that she lived among them?" Jim finally asked.
"Quite high. And she had to speak it a lot with the Klingons directly. Only then she'd be able to pronounce some of the vowels. She had to live with them for years, Captain."
"So she is a Klingon spy. Lovely," McCoy stated half-seriously, but it was clear the others considered this possibility too.
Jim rubbed his forehead.
"I'll order additional security near sickbay and all over the ship. I want all unusual things to be reported immediately. And do not let her out of your sight, Bones."
McCoy rolled his eyes.
"Like I could. Every time I leave my department she invents something crazy and disastrous. I'm watching her closely, don't you worry."
"Good," Jim replied, "And that's all, I guess. You can go now."
The officers stood and headed for the entrance. McCoy followed Uhura and Spock, but Jim stopped him, waited until the other two left the room and then turned to McCoy with a worried look on his face.
"Bones," Jim quietly said, "I know that you like her and that you probably omitted quite a lot in your report... But please, be careful. For the sake of us all."
McCoy didn't meet his friend's eyes. He just nodded and left without another word.
She was calm, peaceful and so damn young in her sleep. Was she really a spy? And in this case, was all of her behavior an act? He couldn't think about all her smiles and gentle touches being a fake. But if their assumptions were true... No, he'd rather not think about it at all.
The girl shifted and he could tell that the dream she was having changed. Lee was frowning now, all peace and tranquility gone. He stopped himself from waking her up. She never had nightmares, he thought, at least he didn't know about them. She never screamed in her sleep, which was strange given the fact that she'd endured severe torture just recently. But sleep was good for her, and he didn't know for sure that she was dreaming about something bad. Maybe her dream was simply about her not getting what she wants.
The next second she flinched, opened her eyes, and McCoy recognized the same panic and horror that he witnessed when she woke up here for the first time. And then she saw him.
He could practically feel all insecurity and fear vanishing, bliss and happiness replacing them. She smiled, and he shivered. That damn smile. It would be that smile, not her sexy body or feverish kisses, that would take him to hell. That smile and those sparkling grass-green eyes that were shining on him now. Yeah, those would certainly be the death of him.
"Hey," she huskily murmured and he decided that all that spy stuff was bullshit. It is possible to fake affection, passion or even joy, but it like hell wasn't possible to fake the light that her eyes were emitting. She did feel happy with him, he could bet his life on it. And if she didn't... Well, he'd know how to talk to the Devil once he'd get to hell. He had experience.
"How was your sleep?" he asked, looking at the biobed's screens. Her heart rate was a little bit off the charts, but everything else was okay, "Did Uhura exhaust you?"
"I slept fine, thank you. And no, she didn't exhaust me. It was actually pretty nice to talk to someone who doesn't threaten you with hypos or stare at you like you're some sort of a prize."
"And who stares at you like you're a prize?"
"Josef."
Oh, that damn ensign. McCoy grimaced at the memory of the girl's laugh and smiles given to the kid.
"Was he here?"
"Yeah, when you'd gone, he came to see me. We talked a little, but I fell asleep. I don't remember how he left."
Damnit. They all wearied her, and that would probably delay her recovery even more.
"So you are a prize now, huh?" he remarked, trying to look casual, but feeling something that under no circumstances should have been called jealousy.
"Apparently so," she snorted, rolling her eyes.
"I'll forbid him to come here and make you pass out."
She laughed.
"What is it, Leo? Is it jealousy?"
"Common sense, girl, and the doctor's authority."
"Have I ever told you that authoritative you are an extremely attractive man?" she asked with a grin.
And there she was turning him into a teenager again.
"In other words, but yes," he replied, fighting back a blush.
She smirked and looked around.
"Where is my PADD, by the way? I have stuff to read."
"Of course you do," he handed her the PADD, "Try not to pass out again."
"Will do my best."
He gave her a smile that she, of course, returned, and got to work. Today was a busy day as the ship's chemists spilled something in the labs and now suffered a severe reaction to this something. It was almost 2300 when everything finally settled down and McCoy got an opportunity to enjoy some peace and quiet in his office.
After staring blankly at the opposite wall for quite a lot of time, he made himself move. The day hadn't finished yet. He had some reports to sign, some papers to read and some notes to make. But first, he checked Lee's vitals. When he last paid attention to her, she was sound asleep, looking as beautiful as ever. Now, though, she was obviously awake, her heart rate not very normal again. McCoy frowned. He had to see how she was doing and maybe try to find out why her heart sometimes beat too fast without any particular reason.
The door slid open, and he saw the inhabitant of his thoughts in the doorway. She approached him with the confidence of a person who owns the place they are entering and dropped her PADD in front of him.
"I've got something for you," she announced.
"It's better to be good ten-hours sleep," he grumbled but reached for the PADD.
She narrowed her eyes.
"If you're tired, you shouldn't work, then," she made an effort to take the PADD away from him, but he'd already taken a look at what she'd brought and was slightly shocked.
"Girl, what is that?"
"The translation of the article I've told you about."
He gaped at her. The paper consisted of sixty pages of the topic that she supposedly had just read about. And this was a fucking translation from fucking Klingon. How, for christsake, had she managed to do it in one single day?
"You need to close your mouth or you'll catch some of that chemical stuff," she suggested with a wide grin.
He followed her advice, still not quite believing in what she'd done.
"That's a hell of a lot of work," he finally replied.
"Yes, it is. So are you going to read it or what?"
"Okay, I mean yes, I'm gonna have a look. Thanks, I guess."
"Okay," the girl said, then looked away and shifted from one foot to another.
He sighed and wondered if he would ever be able to refuse her anything.
"You can stay here if you want," he offered.
Her face immediately lit up. She practically ran to him and took the place she'd occupied the previous night. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders again and she didn't hesitate to lay her hand and her head on his chest. It felt nice. It felt right. They fit each other in just the way to make their position perfectly comfortable and natural. The thought of the other ways in what their bodies might fit together nicely sent a shiver down his spine.
Don't even think about it.
McCoy forced himself to focus on the PADD, not on the girl, and started reading. The more he went on, the more he understood what Lee was talking about. The paper was a breakthrough, a new insight into the familiar concepts, and the results the author had got put so many ideas into his head that McCoy was almost ready to storm to the labs right away.
"Do you like it?" Lee murmured into his neck and he shuddered. Yes, he definitely liked how her lips were an inch apart from his skin. But the question was probably not about his reaction to her.
"Yes, the paper is good," he replied in a slightly hoarse voice, "I see now why you wanted me to read it."
He felt her smile next to his skin.
"I know, right? It's not directly related to your research but it reminds you of some useful ideas. You already know them, so it's not stealing."
"Yeah," he agreed, and the red alerts inside him came to life.
This was an article in the language she had no right to be so familiar with. Even Uhura would have to take more time to translate an academic paper on such a specific topic. From Klingon, damnit.
"Who are you, girl?" the words left his mouth before he registered it.
Lee, who started the circular motions that had driven him crazy back in the bar, froze. It seemed she even held her breath like the question stunned her. Then she broke out of his arms and stood, that goddamn mask on her face again. Neutral, emotionless and so in contrast with everything she was usually showing him.
"Goodnight, Leonard," she said and exited the office without further ado.
He restrained himself from throwing the PADD at the next wall.