Author's Note:

Hello everyone. So this is the last chapter and it shows a little of the aftermath. Thank you all for your continued support of this story and I hope you all enjoyed it. I should hopefully have another chapter up for 'Dysfunctional Family' soon so keep watch for that and enjoy the last chapter of this story.

I do not own Star Trek.

Rest and Comfort

It was a while before Jim, Scotty and Pavel were left in peace.

Bones had them taken away to the Medbay pretty much as soon as they'd escaped the collapsing station to be checked out. Scotty and Jim were in good shape with only a few minor bruises and bumps from their ordeal, Pavel was in worse shape from all the various beatings he'd received and his wrists and arms were rubbed raw from the straps used to bind him. Fortunately all of their various injuries were easily dealt with and McCoy also went over where Pavel's bones had been broken and repaired on the station with a bone regenerator darkly muttering about 'damn cold-blooded thugs who'd beat up a kid for no good reason' the whole time. Pavel was quiet throughout the whole procedure which was unusual since he'd normally at least sulk and complain when he had to have any sort of medical examination, occasionally he'd throw a full tantrum though when it happened he would be seriously injured or ill which most likely had a bit of an effect on his judgement.

With everything finished McCoy ordered Scotty to return to his quarters and rest and then escorted him to ensure that he actually got there without detouring to somewhere like Engineering or the bridge. This left Jim and Pavel alone in the Medbay since the nurses had also mysteriously vanished and Jim recognised this as his friend giving him and Pavel some privacy.

Jim got up from where he'd been sitting and softly made his way over to Pavel and sitting gently beside him. The boy was staring down at his feet as he perched on the side of a bed; Jim placed an arm around Pavel's shoulders and the teen leaned closer into him. There were no words spoken between them but sensing what the boy needed Jim pulled Pavel into a hug and he felt the teen relax taking the comfort his surrogate father could give. They still didn't say anything but at that moment it was enough.

It was a couple of hours later and Jim and Pavel had been ordered to rest by McCoy. He had failed to specify how and where they should rest however so they both went to the rec room to play chess and it wasn't long before Scotty, Hikaru and Nyota joined them. They were on their third game when Admiral Archer came into the room closely followed by McCoy.

Jim made to stand but Archer quickly waved him down, "No need to be professional Kirk this is a social visit."

Jim relaxed and sat back down, "You can play the winner of this game if you want sir."

"I might just do that."

As Archer was speaking Pavel moved one of his pieces and then grinned, "Checkmate Keptain."

"Again!?" Jim stared at the board in shock, "I can't believe you've just beaten me for a third time."

Scotty grinned as Pavel giggled, "Ah'm sorry Captain but the laddie has just beaten ye again."

Jim gave Pavel a mock glare, "Sorry Admiral but you're going to have to wait until I've won before you get your game. I refuse to be outplayed by a teenager."

Archer grinned, "Well I'd better get comfortable as it looks like I'm in for a long wait."

Jim's reply was halted by a sudden comm. from Spock who'd been commanding the bridge, "Captain I believe I should inform you that you are about to receive an unexpected visitor."

Before Jim could ask Spock who the visitor was the rec room door opened and a loud voice was heard, "Jimmy!"

He had just enough time to register that the visitor was his mother before she was across the room and tightly hugging him, sending Archer flying to the side in the process. Jim found it difficult to draw breath in Winona's bone crushing embrace and he finally managed to gasp out, "Mom I can't breathe."

She relinquished her hold on him and he took the chance to get some air into his lungs, she noticed Pavel and this time Hikaru was the one knocked aside as she treated Pavel to the same hug she gave her son.

Spock entered the room while this was going on and seeing that Jim, Pavel and Winona were otherwise occupied Archer decided to question him once McCoy had helped him up from the floor, "Spock how is Winona here?"

"Shortly before the Enterprise left the spacedock after being rebuilt Winona Kirk insisted that if anything happened to the Captain or Ensign Chekov I was to inform her as soon as it was suitable. As such I contacted her when it was clear that they were both safe and then related to her what had happened. She was then adamant that since the ship she was working on was fairly near to our position she should be brought aboard to see them immediately. As we did not have any pressing missions and her own captain was in agreement I granted her request."

The three of them looked back towards the others and saw that Winona had finished her ferocious mother henning of Jim and Pavel and had moved on to Scotty. McCoy turned back to Spock, "Admit it Spock, you were scared to refuse because it would have made her angry."

Spock didn't even twitch as he replied, "Fear is an illogical emotion expressed by humans Doctor. If I had refused Mrs Kirk then she would have no doubt been most opposed to my decision and as such would have caused potentially dangerous problems. So my decision to agree to her request was most logical."

"Sure Spock."

It was several hours later and well into the artificial night, Winona had been given quarters to stay in and the Enterprise was on her way back to Earth to give a report on what happened and to return Admiral Archer. Jim was lying awake in bed when he heard the door to his quarters slide open. He looked towards it to see Pavel standing there as he expected and he smiled at him reassuringly. The boy quickly entered and curled up at Jim's side as he'd done before several times after Khan. They didn't speak and Jim's thoughts wandered as Pavel's breath evened out.

Like him Pavel was good at pretending that he was completely fine and that he could bounce back seemingly unaffected by what had happened but Jim knew from experience that you just can't experience what Pavel had without it affecting you. In public and while on duty they both changed, Jim kept up his confident, bordering on arrogant, mischievous, occasionally immature and outgoing appearance and Pavel was his happy, eager, seemingly innocent and adorably genius self. In some ways they weren't even putting on a mask, they way they acted and felt when in front of many others was genuinely how they felt at the time with all their pain and worries shoved safely out of sight and mind. However there were times when those same pains and worries had to come forward and those were the times that they needed someone to just be there to understand and comfort. When Jim hit those times he went to Leonard, when Pavel hit those times he came to Jim and they coped with whatever came next Jim smiled fondly as Pavel muttered and snuggled closer in his sleep, they were going to have a long talk about what happened on the station but right now Jim was happy to just let boy sleep peacefully. Jim laid his own head down and let himself drift off, they were through this patch of darkness and they were certainly going to be ready for the next one.

PS-So there we go it is finished and thank you all again for your support of this story. Ideas for another story would be welcome and please let me know what you thought of this ending.