Chapter Six:

That night Pavel went home. After a wonderful dinner prepared by both himself and his aunt Natalya, he sat down at his desk. He had finished his homework during his free time at school and thus had nothing else to do but get to work on writing that song. The pride of the band depended on this song-off, as Len had called it.

But, again, nothing was happening. Nothing in his brain clicked. He went through his lyric notebook, but he hadn't written anything new that he could put to music. Everything had either been recorded that very day, or would be recorded soon enough. Pavel sighed, wishing he had more than two days to write it. He turned on his keyboard and warmed himself up with his lullaby, and then the chords to one of his favorites of the Brothers Grimm's old songs, but nothing came to his mind from that, either.

So he just played the songs his mother taught him: Brahm's Lullaby, Vivaldi's Four Seasons (the Winter sections, at least), and, because he still was getting nothing, he played 'Heart and Soul' a couple times, starting off with the bass part, and then switching to the melody.

After a few run-throughs of 'Heart and Soul,' his aunt came up to tell him she was going to bed, so Pavel turned off his keyboard and went back to his lyric book. Finally, he shook his head, changed into his pajamas, and went to sleep.

"You have got to be joking," Len said.

Pavel had just told the group that he didn't have anything ready. No lyrics to at least read through, at least. Spock sighed, "Now, now, Len. It's nothing to get nasty over," he warned.

"It's everything to get nasty over!" Len shouted, "The kid's seventeen. He's too young to be working for a big-name band like us. He should be… I don't know, flipping burgers with his flake of a girlfriend!"

Pavel's head fell and he quietly excused himself from the room. Hikaru, Jim, and Scotty all turned to Len and glared. Spock looked out the window and saw that Pavel had just slipped in to the farthest practice room and was shutting the door softly, as oppose to slamming it, as any one of the members would have done.

"Now look what you've done, Bones," Jim said. "That kid isn't fit to work at a burger joint."

"He and Nyota both are too smart to work somewhere like that. Nyota seems to have compensated, but Mr. Chekov has found a passion and has run with it," Spock said, no anger in his voice, but it wasn't completely monotone.

"What are you talking about? All kids are unique, but he's seventeen," Len reiterated.

"Mr. Chekov took two university classes this summer, and now has gone back to the seven class high school curriculum, has college applications, SATs, ACTs in math and science, as well as this job. He has taken upon himself to take up weekly piano lessons on Saturday mornings, and has added a music theory class from the university just recently to help him with this job," Spock told the group. "Sure, he is young, but he willing to work hard for himself, as well as this band."

"Jesus," Len said, "That kid really cares about this group…"

Hikaru sighed, "Not that it matters. He's probably gone and won't ever come back."

Spock shook his head, "That is not the case. I think he just left for a while to get his head together so he didn't feel he was to anger us anymore," he replied.

Scotty glanced at Spock, and Spock's lips twisted into a very unrecognizable smile as he glanced to the door he had seen Pavel slip into. Scotty followed his eyes. "Len, you're a bastard," Scotty said, moving to leave the room, "Think about what you did," he added absentmindedly as he opened the door and slipped out to the hall.

This time Scotty didn't wait to knock on the door. He didn't hear any music this time around, and hoped the boy hadn't done anything rash. "C-Come in," a small voice answered.

Scotty opened the door quietly and saw the curly-haired teenager's back as he curled up on the piano bench, hugging his knees with his lyric book open and the pencil seemingly thrown to the floor.

Scotty silently picked up the pencil: a small yellow mechanical pencil. It was still warm from Pavel's hand clutching it. "Art usually needs a lot of time to perfect."

Pavel wiped one eye and looked behind him, straightening his body slightly. Scotty joined him on the end of the bench. "Len was right. Why didn't I just take a simple job like Nyota?"

"Because you had a dream and ran. Nyota… I don't know Nyota very well, but… I think she just compensated. But you… you answered a calling," Scotty replied, faltering with his words. He hadn't really had to comfort someone before this.

Pavel thought for a while. "I… I don't know about that…" he said nervously. He chewed his bottom lip as he looked at his lyric-book, embarrassed to be alone with the Scotsman.

"Your mother taught you the piano?" Scotty asked, looking at the keys and putting his hands on them. He began playing the chords of 'Pasha's Lullaby.' Then he added his melody, which was pretty much a steady inversion of the actual melody Kirk had gotten. He hummed the lyrics carefully.

"Da… she did…" Pavel replied, watching Scotty's hands. The tips were calloused, but they looked soft and were of a medium size… like his mother's. "She… She was playing a little melody when I was about four, and I walked in from my nap. I had had a nightmare. She… took me up in her lap and played for me. Then she taught me 'Twinkle, Twinkle,' and… I just loved it. The feeling of the keys…" here Pavel started with Kirk's part of the song, so that the two were playing the three guitar parts. "My mother's voice as she hummed along… the songs she taught me over the years…"

Then something clicked as the two ended the song. Pavel smiled as he looked at Scotty. Scotty crooked his head to the side, "What's up, lad?" he asked.

"I think I have something," Pavel replied, taking up the pencil Scotty had set on the piano's music holding ledge. He began scribbling something down and then he remembered Scotty was still sitting next to him. "Thanks, Scotty…" he said.

"You're welcome. I guess… I guess I'll leave you to it, eh?" the Scotsman asked, getting up.

"Yes, please. Close the door on your way out," Pavel replied absently.

Scotty chuckled as he closed the door behind him. Spock was waiting for him outside the normal practice room. "Well?"

"He's got something. I bet it's about his mother," Scotty replied, smiling. "Woman's really a constant in that kid's life…"

Spock's face fell a little, "Well… not so constant anymore," he replied.

"What?" Scotty asked, confused.

"Ah, nothing…" Spock replied, the serious face holding for about a minute before he smiled slightly at the Scotsman, "He'll tell us when he's ready. Good work, Scotty…"

And as Spock left the building, Scotty could only give a confused look at the direction Pavel was in, and then follow the elf-eared man out the door to the parking lot.