Pavel makes is back to the dorm after having to stop and sit down every few minutes. Sulu looks up when he comes into the room and instantly frowns. Pavel looks terrible, red-eyed and pale. Pavel collapses as he starts walking inside and Sulu runs over to him, helping him up onto the couch. He goes to ring McCoy and Pavel stops him, telling him he just came from there. Pavel goes into the bathroom to be sick again and McCoy rings Sulu, asking him if he's there at the dorm. Sulu tells him what's happened even though he knows Pavel will hate him for it.
Pavel's on the couch with a blanket around his shoulders and a wet cloth on his head when McCoy walks in. He looks across at Sulu with a look of absolute betrayal and disappointment and Sulu's heart sinks. He's done the right thing but it feels so wrong.
"Pavel, I'm sorry I didn't that you're causing problems. I care about you Pavel, I don't like seeing you upset or unwell or anything. Believe it or not it's why I'm a doctor."
Pavel doesn't say anything and silently hates them both. McCoy for making him feel like such a huge burden and Sulu making him come over. McCoy comes and sits down next to Pavel, waving a tricorder sensor probe around his head. He follows the probe with his eyes and doesn't say anything.
"I can't give you any medicine to counter-act any of your symptoms because it will only make it worse…"
"Wait so he's just going to have to suffer like this for the next… How long was it?"
The doctor nods at Sulu and mutters 'a week' quietly. Pavel feels like he might be sick again and gets up shakily, going back into the bathroom. McCoy keeps an eye on him as he throws up again. The doctor shuts the door and tells him to have a shallow bath or sit down in the shower and yell out if he feels unwell again. Pavel takes his gross clothes off and climbs into the bottom of the shower. He turns the water on and sits there for a while, just letting the water fall over him. He doesn't want to fall back into this mental state again, he'd only just gotten out of it.
He's in the shower for ages and he still feels dizzy and has a headache but at least his nausea is gone. He eventually turns the water off and wraps a towel around him, drying himself slowly. He doesn't have any clothes with him and he doesn't really want to put his dirty clothes back on so he wraps the towel around him tightly. When he comes out of the bathroom both Sulu and the doctor are looking at him and he just looks away weirdly and goes into his room. He puts some loose clothes on and goes back out, sitting down.
"Better?" McCoy asks.
Pavel nods and lies down on the couch, starting to feel too dizzy to keep sitting up. Sulu places his hand on the Russian's forehead.
"He's pretty warm Leonard… Surely you can give him something for the pain?"
Sulu's gentle tone surprises both of them. Pavel smiles a little and McCoy shrugs. "I'll have to do some reading up on the drug itself but it is one of the most powerful ones made. I probably shouldn't have let him have it and he's right, I should have made it more obvious how dangerous it was. I'm really sorry Pavel." McCoy places his hand gently on Pavel's shoulder and frowns. "I'm really sorry kid."
McCoy stays up with Sulu trying to figure out some kind of remedy they can give to Pavel. He drifts in and out of sleep (or more so consciousness) and only picks up broken fragments of conversation. He wakes up and starts shaking sometimes and he starts questioning how a medication could have such a strong effect on him. He feels like he's going to be sick again and Sulu helps him get into the bathroom. He sits there dizzy for a long time and only ends up throwing up water. McCoy makes him some kind of electrolyte solution which he drinks reluctantly and throws it up quite shortly after. The doctors suggests taking him to medbay and Pavel really doesn't want to go but after trying to stand and falling back down, he agrees.
Throughout the whole night Pavel tosses and turns uncomfortably and shakes badly. Sulu dabs a cloth on his head every so often. He just feels like crying because he's in so much pain and he hates being babied by Hikaru and McCoy.
Early in the morning Spock comes in to check on him and offer McCoy some help with finding a solution. Pavel basically begs Spock to Vulcan neck pinch him, knocking him out for a few hours so his body can rest and he doesn't have to suffer through the headaches and terrible dizziness. After a long consultation with a few doctors they agree and Pavel falls into a long long sleep.
Pavel's eye flutter open and he can hear a buzz from the machines and nothing else. He wipes his eyes, they're cloudy and his vision is blurred. "Hey you're awake." Sulu's voice is soft and calm. He sends a message to McCoy and helps Pavel sit up. "How you feeling."
"Still dizzy," Pavel answers truthfully. "But not sick and my headache is gone. How long was I asleep?"
Hikaru shrugs. "Two days give or take. That pinch lasted a long time on you, we were scared you weren't going to wake up."
"I'm really sorry. I don't mean to worry anyone… Have you been waiting here this whole time?"
"Not really," he mutters, shoving some of his books from Pavel's side table into his bag. "I've been taking shifts with McCoy and Spock. Scotty came in at one stage too."
"Spock?" He swears under his breath in Russian. "I feel terrible for troubling you all. Spock and I aren't even friends, I can't believe he'd waste his time here with me…"
"He's not wasting his time," Sulu says adamantly. "And nor were we."
Pavel can't help but smile. McCoy comes in and starts scanning him and asking all kinds of questions, some about how he's feeling some about what he remembers. The doctor gets him to solve a maths problem to test his cognitive ability and concludes he is fine. Pavel excuses himself and walks to the bathroom, barely being able to use his legs after two days. McCoy lets him shower under the condition that Sulu stays in the room. Out of courtesy he faces the other way and Pavel draws the curtains just out of embarrassment. He doesn't really know whether he should talk to Sulu or not. He worries it'll make things too awkward.
They end up chatting quietly and Sulu describes the last two days and everything that's happened on the news and around the campus. There was a robbery at the grocery store he buys his Asian groceries from and James Kirk mentioned the possibility of a five year mission into space. Pavel's glad Sulu can't see the look of sheer terror on his face. He knows Scotty will probably want him to join him on the mission and that McCoy, Sulu, Kirk and maybe even Spock will try and make him join as well. He doesn't think after the last mission he can handle anything near that long.
The only symptom Pavel has by the end of the day is dizziness, and it remains the reason why McCoy makes him stay in medbay. Sulu leaves for class and Scotty comes visit for half an hour or so, which is quite a significant chunk of the busy engineer's time when he thinks about it. Spock visits in the night time and Pavel awkwardly thanks him for visiting him. They talk about the conclusions the Vulcan and the doctor have made with the medication. Pavel's body weight has dropped nearly seven kilos to what his medical form says, which apparently has a lot to do with the dosage.
Pavel gets better slowly but his dizziness is the one symptom he just can't seem to shake. Spock tries to get him to meditate but his mind is much too busy for it to really work. They try sitting on the floor together but Pavel tips over every few minutes. Hikaru helps him study for a while even though Pavel starts to question if he's even going to be able to graduate with the way he's going. He has missed nearly all of his classes and he rarely studies any more. He made an appointment to see the person in charge of students and studies with McCoy but now he's missing another solid week of classes he really doesn't think he will graduate. He hopes he can just do a few exams and that's it but he mightn't be that lucky.
There are only one or two more occasions where Pavel ends up falling over but other than that he's fine. Hikaru still watches over and babies him even after his sleep is back on a reasonably normal track. He has a tendency to still wake up at 0400 hours now and again but nowadays he can seem to get back to sleep easier. McCoy writes a not so passive aggressive letter to the board director of studies about how Pavel heroically saved the captain and the Vulcan high council, and how as a result he feels a personal guilt over the death of Spock's mother. The doctor gets and email back asking to arrange a meeting with Pavel so they can 'discuss options.'