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Chapter Eleven

The Black Widow of Salt

Captain's log, Stardate 2259.45. Our position, orbiting planet M-113. On board the Enterprise, Mister Spock temporarily in command. On the planet the ruins of an ancient and long-dead civilisation. Chief Medical Officer McCoy and myself are now beaming down to the planet's surface. Our mission, routine medical examination of archaeologist Robert Crater and his wife Nancy. Routine but for the fact that Nancy Crater was Doctor McCoy's high school girlfriend before he met Jocelyn.


M-113, Stardate 2259.45

"Should we grab some flowers first Bones?" Rose teased her friend, gesturing at the tufts of plants scattered around the planet. "Us girls expect gifts, ya know."

McCoy scowled at her, a faint flush dusting his cheeks. "You say that like you're an actual girl, not a suicidal lunatic."

Rose simply laughed, amused at her friend. Bones never meant to be hurtful, especially not to her, he was simply a grumpy man in general. Now, if he ignored, as he'd done to Spock for the time between Nero and their mission, when she'd forced them to get along, that was his way of saying he didn't like you. She reached out to squeeze his hand as he gave an anxious look to the lone house on the hilltop that they were headed for.

"Seriously though," she said to him gently. "Are you absolutely okay with this?" She'd asked him already, and didn't feel anything other than a bit of nervousness, but he was her best friend and she didn't want to upset him.

He nodded giving her an affectionate look. "I'm good," he insisted. "And unlike you, I actually say when I'm not okay with something. Nancy was my first love, but we broke up on good terms and we've both moved on. We're just friends."

"Let's go then," Rose ordered and began walking. "The others'll be along in a bit, we've come down a few minutes early." Bones fell into step at her left side. Her right felt slightly exposed, without Spock pacing behind it.

A minute later, Crewman Darnell beamed down and ran to catch up with them.


M-113, Stardate 2259.45

They heard singing as a woman entered and promptly clapped, a beam on her face as she exclaimed "Leonard!"

"Nancy," McCoy answered affectionately, not noticing the hint of a frown that flashed over his captain's face as she studied the woman grimly.

"Hello," Nancy greeted him, giving him a swift hug before pulling away.

"It's good to see you," McCoy told her.

"Let me look at you," she replied with a smile.

"You haven't aged a day," McCoy claimed. "Oh, this is Captain Rose Kirk of the Enterprise."

Rose's smile didn't reach her eyes as shook Nancy's hand. "Mrs. Crater. I've heard a great deal about you."

"All good, I hope," was the cheerful response.

"And Crewman Darnell," McCoy finished.

Darnell's eyes were wide and his jaw loose as he stared at Nancy. "How do you do, ma'am?" He croaked. Rose gave him a sharp look, tinged with worry.

"Something wrong, Darnell?"

"Excuse me but, ma'am, if I didn't know better I would swear you were someone I left behind on Wrigley's Pleasure Planet. It's funny, you're exactly like a girl that-"

"A little less mouth, Darnell!" McCoy barked, looking embarrassed. Darnell flushed, looking down. Rose sighed and her eyes fluttered closed briefly.

"I'm sorry," Darnell apologized. "I didn't mean to. I mean, I know it's impossible, of course."

"Why don't you step outside, Darnell," Rose suggested, wanting to get her younger crewmember away and taking the excuse. Darnell flushed again and nodded.

"Yes, ma'am. Thank you, ma'am."

"Maybe I'll step outside, too," Rose murmured, wanting to comm the Spock and reveal that 'Nancy' was an active and strong telepath.

"What?" Nancy objected. "And let Plum examine me all alone?"

"Plum?" Rose blinked, glancing at Bones. He flushed in embarrassment.

"Plum," he repeated sheepishly.

"A nickname I gave Leonard when we were very young," Nancy explained shamelessly.

"I'll, er, I'll wait for the professor and I'll catch you both at once," Bones decided, changing the subject quickly.

Nancy sighed, heading for the door. Rose tensed, but seeing as it was opposite the one Darnell had exited through, she remained in place. "I'd better go get Bob. Every time he starts digging he forgets time, sleep, food, everything. Be back in a minute."


Captain's log, additional entry. Since our mission was routine, we had beamed down to the planet without suspicion. When we got there, it was too late by the time I recognized 'Nancy Crater' as an active telepath, and I could neither warn my crewmen in the landing party, or those on board the ship without alerting her. I take full responsibility for what happened next.


A man entered, an unhappy expression on his face. Rose stepped forward, reaching out her hand for a shake.

"Professor Crater, I'm Captain Kirk. This is-"

"The heroic Captain and the intrepid doctor cross interstellar space to preserve our health," Crater scoffed sarcastically. Rose withdrew her hand, lips pursing at the rude tone.

"Your sense of duty is overwhelming," he continued, oblivious to the captain's rising temper, which had considerably shortened since Cerberus. "Now will you please go back where you came from and tell whoever issues your orders to leave me and my wife alone. We need salt against the heat. Aside from that, we're doing very well, thank you."

"I'm pleased you're doing well but I'm required to confirm that fact," McCoy insisted stubbornly, a frown growing on his face.

"Doubtless the good surgeon will enjoy prodding and poking us with his arcane machinery," Crater sneered. "Go away, we don't want you."

"What you want is unimportant right now," McCoy informed him flatly. "What you will get is required by the book."

"Quote. All research personnel on alien planets are required to have their health certified by a starship surgeon at one-year intervals," Rose pipped in, now certain that something was very wrong on the planet. "Like it or not, Professor, as commander of the starship, I'm required-"

"To show your gold braid to everyone," Crater said deridingly. "You love it, don't you."

"He's all yours, Plum," Rose held her temper in check only because she could now sense that Crater was utterly terrified for their lives. Oh yes, something was definitely wrong with this planet. She gestured at Bones, continuing a mental control exercise. "Doctor McCoy."

"Sit down and breathe deeply, please," McCoy instructed Crater, unhooking his tricorder from his belt.

Curiosity flashed across Crater's face as he reluctantly sat. "Did I hear you call him Doctor McCoy?"

"You did," Bones confirmed.

"McCoy," Crater repeated thoughtfully. "I've heard Nancy speak of a man named Leonard McCoy."

"That's me. Didn't she mention I was here?"

Crater looked confused. "You've seen Nancy?"

Dread filled Rose's heart as she stepped forward, her thoughts going straight to her crewman, on his own outside with a telepath. "She went out to get you."

"You've seen her too?" Crater inquired, eyebrow wrinkling. "You were with the good Doctor?"

Rose's pupiless eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Yes. Why?"

Crater hastily shook his head, straightening his jacket. "Nothing. It's just that it gives me pleasure to know that she's gotten to see an old friend and has a chance for some company. It's different for me, I enjoy solitude. But my wife is more social. She likes company, and can get frustrated, on her own with just me for company and irregular familial contact. You understand, of course."

"Well, it certainly hasn't aged her. She looks exactly as I last saw her seven years ago. Amazing, Jim. Like a girl of twenty-five."

Rose's suspicion grew. Nancy hadn't looked twenty-five to her, she'd looked older than Bones in fact.

"Sorry!" Crater suddenly, and loudly interrupted. "I'm sorry, Captain, sit down. I seem to have forgotten my manners."

"Quite all right." Rose faked a smile as McCoy continued to insist Nancy looked twenty-five.

"I'm not joking, Rose. She hasn't aged a day. She doesn't have a grey hair on her head."

"She's got some grey, Bones," Rose corrected him. "Excuse me, Professor, she's a handsome woman, yes, but hardly twenty-five."

"You've seen my wife with the eyes of your past attachment, Doctor," Crater's nervousness was so obvious to Rose she was amazed that Bones hadn't picked up on it. "I'm sure when Nancy lets, when you see her again she'll be a believable age."

"Well at any rate she doesn't look a day over thirty," McCoy commented.

"Genuine affection. I'm glad you still feel it for her. She's a fine woman."

"Open your mouth," McCoy ordered while Rose watched with crossed arms, foot tapping slightly.

"Why, I thought the machine-" Crater began to object before Bones cut him off briskly, wielding his scanner dangerously.

"The machine is capable of almost anything but I'll still put my trust in a healthy set of tonsils. Now, open your mouth."

Just as Crater began to reluctantly obey, they heard a woman scream and dashed out, Rose drawing her phaser and taking the lead.

Outside, they found Nancy with a distraught expression, and Darnell lying on the ground, staring blankly towards the sky with a red plant-like substance covering his face. Rose's heart fell, recognizing the familiar sights of death even as she bent over him to check his pulse.

She sighed and shook her head, cursing herself for leaving him alone when she'd been suspicious of Nancy from the start. She straightened, turning to hook an eyebrow expectantly at her CMO while her best 'Captain in Control' mask covered her grief and guilt from her companions.

"Dead, Rose," he reported, knowing better than to try and comfort her in public. That would be saved for later, when the mission was over and she'd sent the alert to his family. "Strange. A red mottling all over his face."

"What happened?" Rose demanded, voice hard and cold. Her crew would have shuddered in fear.

"What do you suppose happened, Captain?" Crater sneered. "You beam down a crewman who doesn't know better than to eat an untested plant." He faltered at the captain's icy look. She turned to the woman, with Nancy still obviously upset.

"I've just lost a crewman, Mrs. Crater," she pressed, tone firm and unyielding. "I want to know what happened."

"Well, I, I," Nancy stammered. McCoy laid a comforting hand on her arm.

"Take it easy, Nancy," he urged her gently. "Just tell us what you know."

"I was just. I couldn't find Bob, and I was coming back. I crossed to your crewman. I wanted him to know I wasn't offended by the things he'd said back there," she explained. "You remember. Then I, I noticed he had a Borgia plant in his hand. Before I could say anything, he, he'd taken a bite from it. He fell, his face all twisted, and. Leonard, you're looking at me like you don't believe me."

"No, no, no, no," McCoy denied. "It's not that. It's something entirely different. Jim, I suppose we could complete these examinations later."

"We don't need an examination, you can see that," Crater objected immediately. "Perhaps you'd better take your man and-"

"We're well aware of our next duties, Professor," Rose snapped, her patience officially gone. "We'll complete your examinations tomorrow." She pulled out her comm, her jaw set tightly. "Transporter room."

"Transporter room, Captain," Leslie, today's transporter attendant, responded immediately, recognizing his captain's tightly leashed fury.

"Lock onto us," Rose barked. "Three beaming up."

"Locked onto you, Captain." They disappeared along with Darnell's body.

Just before they left, they heard Nancy speaking anxiously. "Salt. You did ask them about more salt tablets?"

Crater patted his wife's arm. "I'll take care of the provisioning, Nancy."


"I've a man dead, Bones," Rose snapped at her CMO. "I want an explanation to give his parents. Darnell was no cadet, he knew better than to simply eat an unknown plant on a foreign planet. I knew better at six." She wasn't about to mention her suspicions regarding Nancy to Bones without proof.

McCoy sighed, studying the sample he held. "She called it a Borgia plant."

"Something new to me," Rose commented, her arms crossed. "Although botany isn't my specialty."

She had a degree in both Terran and Xeno-Agriculture though, although Bones had no idea why other than she was a bored genius at the time of earning it.

The comm buzzed and Spock spoke form it. "Bridge to Dispensary."

Rose pressed the button, bringing up her First's face on the screen. "Go ahead, Mister Spock."

"Borgia plant listed in library record tapes as carbon group three vegetation similar to Earth nightshade family," Spock reported in his usual monotone, though Rose could read his concern for her mental state in his eyes. "Alkaloid poison. Chemical structure common to class M planets. About the strange mottling on his facial skin surface. There is no reference to this symptom."

"Hmm," McCoy mused. "Well then, this man wasn't poisoned."

"Stand by, Mister Spock," Rose instructed. She turned to look at Bones, hoping to plant the seeds of suspicion and put him on his guard. "She said she saw him eat the plant."

Bones shook his head. "She's mistaken. I know alkaloid poison, what to look for. There's not a trace of it in his body."

"There were bits of the plant in his mouth," Rose continued to play devil's advocate, though she had complete faith in her CMO.

Said CMO scowled at her in irritation. "Rose, don't tell me my business. He could not have swallowed any. My instruments would have picked up any trace of it whatsoever."

"Then what kills a healthy man?"

"I'll tell you something else," the doctor shook a finger at her sternly. "This man shouldn't be dead. I can't find anything wrong with him. According to all the tests he should just get up and walk away from here. I don't know. I'll have the tests double-checked. My eyes may be tricking me. I swear, Rose, when I first saw her she looked just as I'd known her ten years ago. Granted, for a moment I may have been looking at her through a romantic haze."

"How your lost love affects your vision, Doctor, doesn't interest me," Rose snapped impatiently at him, though she was truthfully very suspicious. "I've lost a man. I want to know what killed him."

McCoy's back straightened as he recognized that it was his CO speaking, not his friend. He snapped off a salute. "Yes, ma'am."


Captain's log, Stardate 2259.45: In orbit around planet M-113. Crewman Thomas Darnell, member of the landing party, dead by violence. Cause unknown, but we are certain the cause of death was not poison. I am suspicious of Nancy Crater, as I sensed her use of telepathy immediately upon meeting her.

While Doctor McCoy claims he first saw a twenty-five-year-old woman, same as he last saw her, Darnell said she looked like a woman he once met on a pleasure planet, and I saw a woman older than McCoy himself. Crater too, was blatantly nervousness, and I believe he feared for our lives.

It may be mild telepathy supposed to make her appear more attractive for vanity's sake, and Darnell's death was unrelated, but I am sceptical of believing it. It doesn't fit with the woman that I saw and our dealings with telepaths have rarely been smooth.


Rose drummed her fingers on the desk, looking expectantly at her XO. "Well?" She asked. He nodded at her, saluting as he stood to attention in front of her in the ready room.

"No mistake in our record tapes," he confirmed what she was already certain of. "Borgia plant. Its sole deadly property is alkaloid poison."

"And Professor and Mrs. Crater?"

"Check out perfectly. They arrived here nearly five years ago. Visited by various vessels, made fairly heavy shipments out, of artefacts and reports. However, there has been a marked drop in shipments during the last year."

Rose looked to the side, exhaling heavily as she did so. "Nancy Crater is a telepath," she revealed. "I felt her using it on all three of us. I haven't told Bones. I'm sure that he would have mentioned if he knew she was psi-positive."

Spock cocked his head to the side. "You suspect she murdered Crewman Darnell," he stated. She looked back at him with a nod.

"Wouldn't you?"

"It is the most logical explanation, given the facts," Spock agreed thoughtfully. "However the question remains as to why she would do such a thing."

The comm buzzed and Bones' voice came out. "Dispensary to Captain."

"Kirk here."

"We found something," the CMO reported.

"What is it?"

Bones hesitated before saying lowly. "I'd rather not put it on the speaker."

Rose and Spock's eyebrows raised in mutual worried surprise at that.


"Fascinating," Spock murmured, studying the screen.

"So improbable we almost didn't check it," Bones agreed, his frown deepening.

"What?" Rose huffed impatiently, tapping a foot on the ground as she waited for answers.

"Sodium chloride," Spock clarified. "Not a trace of it."

"This man has no salt in his body at all," Bones continued.

Rose shifted, moving closer to them in bewilderment. "Can you explain that, Doctor?"

He shook his head in answer. "I can't, except that what we normally carry in our bodies is gone from his."

"He would have died almost instantly," Spock commented.

"How? There isn't a mark on his body."

"Except the red rings on his face," McCoy huffed.

"You called that skin mottling," Rose pointed out, a hint of accusation in her voice. McCoy looked down at the ground.

"I thought it was, ma'am," he maintained the professional air between them. "Another error on my part."

Rose's stern expression softened as she reached out and patted his arm. "I'm not counting them, Bones. Are you in the mood for an apology?"

"Oh, forget it," he waved her off. "I probably was mooning over her. I should have been thinking about my job."

Rose took a deep breath, glancing briefly at Spock. "Perhaps you were. Both Nancy and Crater went out of their way to mention one item they needed."

"Salt tablets." McCoy's eyes widened in realization and Rose nodded crisply, stepping away and glancing at her quiet First Officer.

"Mister Spock, outfit a landing party. We're beaming down with some questions."


Half-an-hour later, Rose was officially fed up with both Crater and with McCoy's love-blinded and uncharacteristic ridiculousness. She hated to acknowledge it, but part of her was hurt by how Bones seemed to just forget all about her as soon as a past girlfriend came into the picture. As if there was nothing between them at all. Of course, Bones was psi-null, so he didn't know about the imzadi bond, but still. He must feel something right?

She shook her head, focusing back on the problem at hand, that being the missing Craters.

"We're getting a reading on one person only, probably the Professor," Spock reported from his station. "He's circling as if searching for something."

Rose's lips thinned and she drummed her fingers unhappily on her chair's arms. "Expand the search radius."

"Yes, ma'am."

"The simple fact is unless there's something seriously wrong with the ship's equipment, there's only one person within a one-hundred-mile circle," Spock stated matter-of-factly a little while later.

"All right," Rose nodded. "We'll triangulate on him. We'll let Professor Crater explain what happened to his wife." She turned to Lt. Palmer. "Remember my instructions, Lieutenant. Keep a tight fix on us. If we let out a yell I want an armed party down there before the echo dies."

Palmer nodded back firmly, a determined light in her eyes. "Yes, Captain."


Captain's log, Stardate 2259.46: I am now certain that the violent death of my crewmen was caused by some strange life-form.

Captain's log, additional. Armed and able-bodied crewmen are not attacked and slaughtered this easily. Apparently, the killer can immobilize them as it approaches perhaps with some hypnotic or paralysing power. The answer lies with Professor Crater.


They found Professor Crater in a stack of old ruins. Rose held up her hands, try to project feelings of safety but finding his mind too panicked to ease. "Professor Crater," she cooed to him gently. He cut her off, a wild look in his eyes as he waved his blaster at her desperately.

"Go away! We don't want you here."

"We?" Rose questioned him, trying to inch closer to the feral man. "Where's your wife, Professor? We're concerned about her."

"I'm armed," Crater declared. "Go away."

"Where's your wife, Professor?" Rose pressed him firmly, unafraid of the weapon pointed at her chest.

"She's no concern of yours!" Crater insisted.

"We're worried about her safety," was Rose's calm reply. "Aren't you? Professor, you're a reasonable man, let me-"The comm. Beeped, interrupting her. She kept her gaze fixed on Crater as she held it up. "Kirk here."

"Casualty, Captain," Sulu reported stonily. Rose's heart clenched as she suppressed the urge to yell in frustration at the newest loss. "Barnhart was found dead on deck nine. Same symptoms."

"Spock cutting in, Captain," Spock added. "Something here, through the arches to your left."

"Stand by, Mister Sulu," Rose instructed. "Spock has something."

"Green."

"He beamed up to the ship with us," Rose refuted, shaking her head in denial.

"Or something did." Was Spock's dark reply.

She tensed, yanking her comm back out hastily. "Enterprise from Kirk."

"Bridge. Sulu."

Rose didn't waste time. "You have an intruder aboard. Could be masquerading as Crewman Green. General quarters, security condition three."

"GQ security three, ma'am," Sulu agreed. They listened as he repeated the order to the ship. "General quarters three. Intruder alert. GQ three. Intruder alert. General quarters three. Intruder alert. GQ three. Intruder alert."

"Reporting GQ three secure, Captain," Palmer piped in. "Do you require assistance there?"

"Crater knows the creature," Spock mused thoughtfully. "If we could take him alive."

"Negative, Lieutenant," Rose denied. "But keep locked in on us. Kirk out. Let's get him." She and Spock abruptly took cover to avoid the phaser fire.

"We don't want you here!" Crater yelled wildly. "We're happy alone! I'll kill to stay alone. You hear that, Kirk? Or you'll have to kill me. I don't care either way."

"Obviously, taking him alive is going to be difficult," Spock commented.

"Set your phaser on one quarter," Rose instructed him. "I'll leave mine on stun."

"Why risk your life for his?" Spock asked, curiosity and disapproval leaking slightly through his shields.

"He's not trying to kill us, he's trying to frighten us, and he's doing a pretty good job." They surrounded and captured Crater, learning the truth of what happened to Nancy, and what the thing on her ship was. Rose was full of dread for her brave crew as she ordered their beam-up, Spock keeping firm hold of Crater.

"There's a huge difference, Crater," she told the man coldly. "Buffalos didn't go around killing my crew. Make no mistake, I'll see you stand trial for conspiracy to murder my men because of this."

The light enveloped them and they rematerialized on board the Enterprise.


Captain's log, continuing. The Enterprise has been invaded by a creature capable of assuming any form, and with the capacity to paralyse and draw the life from any one of us.


"Negative, Captain," Palmer sighed, raking a hand over her blonde plait. "I've checked every face on this vessel. It was not a crewman I saw."

Rose frowned, turning to her Chief Yeoman. "Yeoman Rand, how long was this Green with you?"

"As long as he, it thought it could get to the salt on my tray, ma'am," she replied promptly, biting her lip worriedly.

"Mister Spock?" Rose turned to her First expectantly.

"Supplies of salt have been set out as bait at all decks and engineering levels, Captain," he answered. "However, no one or nothing has approached them as yet."

"Doctor McCoy?"

McCoy looked up from where he had been frowning at the table silently. "Yes?"

"Medical department report, Doctor," she said impatiently.

"Oh," he blinked. "Well, we could offer it salt without tricks. There's no reason for it to attack us."

"Your attitude is laudable, Doctor, but your reasoning is reckless."

Crater spoke up, eyeing McCoy carefully. "The creature is not dangerous when fed."

"No," McCoy agreed. "It's simply trying to survive by using its natural ability to take other forms."

"The way the chameleon uses its protective colouring, an ability retained no doubt from its primitive state, the way we have retained our incisor teeth," Crater went on, the Enterprise crew listening intently. "They were once fangs. Certain of our muscles were designed for chase. It uses its ability the way we would use our muscles and teeth if necessary, to stay alive."

"And like us, it's an intelligent animal," McCoy pointed out. "There's no need to hunt it down."

"A very interesting hypothesis, Doctor," Spock said, turning to the comm. "Briefing room."

Sulu's face appeared on the screen. "All the halls sealed off," he reported without waiting for a signal. "All weapons accounted for and locked away. Security four in effect on every level. Still no lead on intruder."

"Thank you, Lieutenant," Rose smiled at him. "Continue the search. Crater, we don't know who or what we're looking for. We need your help, and now."

"I demanded, I even begged that you get off my planet."

"Can you recognise this thing when you see it?" Rose pressed. She sighed and pressed a hand to her temple in exhaustion. Oddly, Bones didn't give her his usual look of worry at the blatant sigh of stress.

"Professor, I'll agree to forego charges up to this point but this creature's aboard my ship and I'll have it, or I'll have your skin, or both. Now where is it?"

"I loved Nancy very much," Crater answered wistfully, looking pained at the memory of his wife. "Few women like my Nancy. She lives in my dreams. She walks and sings in them."

"And it becomes Nancy for you," Rose murmured.

"Not because of tricks. It doesn't trick me. It needs love as much as it needs salt. When it killed Nancy, I almost destroyed it but, it isn't just a beast. It is intelligent and the last of its kind."

"You bleed too much, Crater," Rose told him sharply. "You're too pure and noble. Are you saving the last of its kind or has this become Crater's private heaven, here on this planet? This thing becomes wife, lover, best friend, wise man, fool, idol, slave. It isn't a bad life to have everyone in the universe at your beck and call, and you win all the arguments."

"You don't understand," Crater claimed bitterly.

"Have you learned to see this thing in whatever form it becomes?" Rose repeated. Crater lifted his chin and stared at her stubbornly.

"Yes," he nodded.

"Are you going to help us find it?" She continued, knowing the answer from his emotions. She briefly wondered why she felt so off around Bones, but was too distracted to pay him much attention. He was probably just upset about Nancy, and she knew he didn't like her reading his emotions without permission.

"Sorry, I can't," Crater answered unapologetically. Rose's lips thinned to nothing and she sneered at him in utter contempt.

"Recommend we use truth serum, Captain," Spock inserted himself into the conversation. A flicker of nervousness flashed over Crater's face.

"Doctor?"

"Well, I resist using it, but in this case the professor will give us the truth," McCoy finally said.

"Take him."

Spock stood. "I'll accompany you, Doctor."

"Oh, yes," McCoy blinked, looking startled. "Of course."


Rose burst into McCoy's room, her phaser raised.

"What the hell, Rose?" He demanded, shoving the creature that was once again pretending to be Nancy behind his back. "What are you thinking, attacking an innocent woman like this? Or at all for that matter?"

"Bones, get out of the way," Rose maintained her composure easily now that the end to the stressful mission was in sight. "That's not Nancy, it's the creature."

He stared at her, shaking his head in denial. "No it's not, it's Nancy. You could be the creature for all I know," he accused, an uncertain edge to his tone.

She looked him steadily in the eye. "Bones," she urged him softly. "Please."

She felt his anguish as he slowly stepped to the side, their eyes still locked. The creature shrieked loudly in rage, but before it could do anything, Rose fired three times. Each blast hit it directly in the chest, and it collapsed, smoking, on the ground. As its' chest stilled, it turned back to its' proper form, and Bones' lip shook slightly as he stared down at it. She quickly commed Giotto, alerting him that the threat was neutralized before turning her attention to Bones, who was staring blankly at the creature that had been impersonating his former love.

"I loved her back then," he admitted lowly, as Rose wrapped an arm around him to pull him his bed to sit down. "I don't anymore, but I genuinely used to love her."

"I know," Rose murmured. She hesitated, as an old Terran expression floated across her mind. There's no time like the present. She leaned over, and pressed her lips to his softly for a moment before pulling away. He stared at her in shock and dawning hope as she smiled slightly at him.

"You've got me now."