"Cece! What happened?" He took in her appearance, he couldn't see any obvious injuries. She was grasping at her throat though and breathing heavily. His hands automatically went to the reddened skin, stroking his thumb up and down he held onto her shoulder with his other hand. Without answering him she took his hand, silently lifting herself from the floor. McCoy stood next to her, his grip tightened when he felt her whole body shaking. Archer was now flanked by the two security officers, Kirk was glaring at him and looking to McCoy and herself.

"Are you alright Carla?" Kirk asked her, catching his breath. She nodded but didn't take her eyes off Archer, he started to grin at her, taunting her.

"Well look who it is! You're just like the rest of them you know that don't you, if you hadn't been Starfleet none of this would have happened! Tell me, are you really that important? Because from what I can see you're nothing more than a cheap whore." Archer spat out at her, as McCoy listened to his words the pieces of the puzzle came together.

"Stop talking, now!" Kirk warned him.

"You sonofabitch!" McCoy spat out under his breath. Carla took hold of McCoy's hand and squeezed, knowing in that moment if left unchecked, McCoy would stride over and kill the man there and then.

"Oh and you!" Archer looked at McCoy. "Nice to see you again Mister…? What did you say your name was?" Archer was smirking at McCoy.

"Shut your fucking mouth!" McCoy stepped forward, his fists clenched.

"Bones." Kirk warned.

"Look at you! I've seen what you really are…pathetic." Archer spat out at Carla.

"I told you to shut your mouth!" Kirk shouted at him, Carla took a step towards him, she felt McCoy tighten his grip on her but she ignored him.

"I was kidnapped, drugged and assaulted and you sold me to the highest bidder." She replied calmly.

"Business is business." Archer replied defiantly.

"You're fucking scum you know that." Carla bit back, she felt McCoy pull her back and stand between her and Archer.

"Cece, come with me." He was pulling her towards his office. "Jim." She heard him speak to Kirk but without looking she didn't know what unspoken instruction passed between them. She allowed herself to be lead away, her hands shaking and legs feeling like they were about to go from under her at any second. McCoy's arm was round her and she closed her eyes as the tears began to blur her vision.

She heard the security officers begin to lead him away, craning her neck round she looked at Archer as he stood grinning. When he spotted that she was looking at him he blew her a kiss, her veins filled with ice. Twisting and releasing herself from McCoy's embrace she strode over to him and with all her strength, built from anger, hurt, guilt and pain she punched him in the face. He dropped like a rag doll, he was out cold.

"Shit!" Carla stood over him breathing heavily, her hand hurt like hell but she didn't care. The two security guards stared at her gobsmacked. Kirk acted like nothing had happened, instructing them to take Archer to the brig. He gave her a quick wink, sometimes the less the Captain said the more Carla felt he communicated.

"Looks like all those nights in the gym paid off." McCoy's voice snapped her back into reality and instantly her fist radiated in pain. Clutching her hand she sucked in a breath and looked to McCoy who had something akin to pride plastered on his face.

"Jesus Leonard, that hurt like hell!" Carla held her hand up to him and sucked at her teeth in pain.

"Let me take a look at that." He instructed, a small smile playing on his lips, again guiding her towards his office.

"My heart's racing." She commented as they walked across the bay.

"It's the adrenaline."

"I feel sick." McCoy pulled a pan out of nowhere and held it under her chin, how do Doctor's do that she thought to herself.

"Go ahead." He instructed matter of factly.

"I think I just need to sit down." As they walked into his office McCoy sat Carla down in his chair, telling her to put her head between her knees he rubbed her back as she took slow, deep breaths.

"You still feel sick?" He asked.

"No, just a sense of deja vu." She thought back to the last time she had hurt her hand and how he had looked after her.

"Alright, can I look at that hand?!" He asked carefully, she nodded and watched as he felt each joint. "How do you feel?" He asked her again, still concentrating on her hand, from the way he was stroking her fingers she knew nothing was broken, he was allowing her time to calm down and take in what had just happened.

"Like…like what are the fucking chances of us picking up his ship and me coming in here when he was. I feel…relieved, relieved that he's not out there. He can't hurt anybody else. I feel like he deserves much more than being knocked out by me." McCoy gave her a smile and kissed her lovingly.

"I'm going to get you a hot tea, stay there a minute." He gave her a wink before standing.

"Thank you Leonard."

"Don't mention it." He threw over his shoulder as he went to the replicator.

"No I mean thank you, thank you for looking after me, for fixing me. When I saw him I was so scared, I froze but then I realised he was just a scumbag and why the hell should he or anybody else for that matter make me scared to do anything! Fuck them!" McCoy laughed and brought the tea back over to her.

"You did that yourself Cece." He sat back Dow and took her hand.

"Take a compliment once in a while would you."

"Alright, fine. Your welcome." Carla took a sip of the tea and then placed the cup on his desk.

"Do you still have time for lunch?" She asked, straight faced, McCoy laughed again and kissed her passionately.

"Of course Darlin', always."

4 Months Later

Carla had given evidence in the trial against Jabe Hohnesee, the Auctioneer. She had been put on leave while the proceedings had occurred on Earth. Because the Enterprise was so far away from home Carla had given her evidence via the visual comms service, it had been nothing short of dreadful. The support she was provided was exemplary and the whole process was geared towards ensuring Carla felt like what she was saying was accepted as true, alongside McCoy's testimony, physical evidence and witness accounts it didn't take long for the panel of adjudicators to come to a decision.

When Carla had received notification of her reinstatement she let out a long, slow breath. Her shoulders lightened and she stretched out the knots that had been in her back since the whole nightmare had started. She had a quick, uncontrollable sob which turned into laughter. She sat still at her desk for a while and then danced around her quarters frantically. She felt tired and wanted to sleep for a week but then found she was full of energy, she finally found herself stood in front of her bathroom mirror.

She knew now, looking at her reflection, that she was a different woman to the one before the kidnapping. Parts of her were gone, good parts, happy parts. On the other hand she felt a new sense of calm, a level of confidence that comes with having everything stripped away and somehow coming out the other side. She thought back to the other night, she had been resting on McCoy's chest, allowing the rise and fall to regulate her own breathing rhythm. He had been curling a length of her hair round his fingers for the past fifteen minutes and neither of them had felt the need to fill the silence with inane chit chat.

"When do you leave?" McCoy asked, shifting slightly.

"In the morning." Carla replied back lazily.

"That's good." She couldn't help but smile.

"Is it?"

"Yeah, gives me time to tell you how much I'm going to miss you." McCoy hooked his hands under her shoulders and pulled her up so that she was lying on top of him. "And show you." He added.

"Show me?" Carla teased, brushing the hair from his forehead gently.

"You're going to be away for a week, I definitely will be showing you." McCoy's hands were beginning to roam and Carla couldn't help but laugh.

"I see."

"I don't think you do, but you will soon enough." McCoy pulled her into an embrace and kissed her softly.

"How will I cope?" Carla shook her head dramatically.

"I don't know cause I know I won't!" McCoy huffed.

"Give over Leonard, you'll be fine. It's a week." She started stroking his chest absentmindedly, it was driving him crazy.

"You have no idea Cece." McCoy answered desperately, they both laughed and carried on kissing. They were both in a silly mood it seemed because in between the kisses both tickled and nipped at the other. It felt great to laugh, to let off steam and goof around, for the both of them. "Do you give in?" McCoy asked when he had found Carla's weak spot as far as tickling was concerned.

"NEVER!" She shouted, squirming from his grasp, both of them finally stopped, exhausted and needing to catch their breath.

"Is that what's considered foreplay these days?" Carla asked jokingly.

"Oh yeah, works with all the ladies." McCoy replied.

"All the ladies?" Carla gave him a mock serious look.

"You're amazing you know that? I love you so much." McCoy whispered, suddenly serious. Carla smiled back at him adoringly.

"I love you too Leonard."

"I'm in your life forever Cece, you know that don't you? You're never going to get rid of me." McCoy stroked her face and gave her another kiss.

"I'm counting on it."

The End

Thank you for reading LAPP ;-) XOXO