Chapter Twenty Five
Pavel skips classes for a few days and it gets Scotty and Sulu both worried. They're scared his weight will drop again and he'll return to his stressed and unhappy state that he was in after the Romulan incident. Pavel doesn't do anything other than read and occasionally leave his room for the bathroom or for food but other than that Scotty barely sees him. He tries to get Pavel to come help with engineering again but he declines. McCoy sends him emails and messages but Pavel just ignores them all. Sulu even tries messaging him but Pavel doesn't even read the messages yet alone reply.
McCoy has mixed feelings when Sulu explains what happened. He's glad that Sulu cut things off but he feels like Sulu cut them off too late, that he should have made things clear from the start. McCoy watches Joanna play with a nurse's kit in the corner of the room and sighs.
"I don't know what to do honestly," the doctor says quietly. "He's pretty sick Sulu. It's not the kind of sick I can just fix. He's gonna need to work through this in his own time."
Joanna seems to be playing innocently in the background but she's listening. If her dad can't make someone sick better then what must be wrong with them? She looks up at the two men and back down at her nurses kit. She gathers it up and tugs on her dad's shoulder. "I'm going to the bathroom okay?" Bones nods and lets her leave as he's talking to Sulu. He really needs to think of something to do for the young Russian.
The receptionist loves Joanna and watches her as she heads towards the door.
"Joanna, does your dad know where you're going?"
"Yeah," she lies. "I'm going on a mission."
"Okay sweetie, just be back soon yeah?"
Joanna's already gone and the nurse shrugs, that girl's a funny kid.
Pavel groans when he hears a knock at the door. Scotty's not there so he has to answer it. He's suspecting Sulu or McCoy coming to talk to him, but when a nine-year-old girl is standing in front of him, he's pretty surprised.
"Are you Mister Chekov?" She asks.
"Yeah?" He says confused.
"I'm Jo. I'm a nurse. I'm gonna make you better."
Chekov's head cocks to the side. "Are you Doctor McCoy's daughter?"
"Yeah. He said you're sick. So I'm gonna make you better okay?"
Joanna doesn't wait for an answer. She just walks inside. Pavel looks at her confused and closes the door.
"Does your dad know you're here?" He asks, watching as she unpacks her nurse's kit onto the table.
"Um yeah. You should sit down."
"I'm not sick," Pavel says, sitting down at the table.
"Yeah, you are. My dad said so. He said he doesn't know how to help you, so I will."
"I'm not sick okay, it's not the same kind of sick you're thinking of."
Joanna pulls out her PADD and opens a blank note and starts writing on it. "Name?"
"You know my name you said it before…"
"Name?"
"Pavel Chekov. This really isn't necessary okay I can-"
"Age?"
"Seventeen."
"Date of birth?"
"Joanna this isn't necessary."
"Birthday isn't important. You're a boy yes?"
"This isn't really- wait, what? What's that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing. What are your symptoms?"
"I don't know what-"
"Symptoms means things that are wrong with you like a headache or vomiting."
"Joanna I know what symptoms are. I don't have any okay. I don't need your help, as much as I appreciate it but I really just want to be alone okay?"
"I'll put down irritability. What else?"
"I'm not irritable!" He says, irritated.
Joanna raises an eyebrow at him just like McCoy does. Pavel can definitely see the resemblance.
"I'm gonna check your temperature," she says adamantly. She pulls out a tricorder probe and starts waving it around his face and Pavel just gives in and lets her continue her examination. He can't be bothered arguing with a particularly stubborn nine-year-old.