I am outside the door with my own phaser in my hand before there is time for a second shot to go off. Bones stands there- surrounded by her golden glow- shaking like a leaf in a storm with his weapon pointed at a young leutenant and his shoulder bleeding pretty copiously. The sparks disaapper as I arrive, and Bones sort of slumps, as if he was going off an energy not necessarily his own. He hits the wall, leaving a streak of blood on her pale silver, and as he does, the man across from him raises his own weapon and it's only my own shot that saves Bones. My phaser is set to stun, not to kill, but I almost-almost- wish that wasn't the case. It flings the form backwards and when he slams into the wall, he ripples the way she had, as if not quiet able to hold his form.

"Bones, move!" I bark, advancing with my phaser held level. "Get Spock down from the bridge!"

He looks up at me, dazed, confusion strong, looking a little shell-shocked and in pain. "Doctor," I snarl, "get Mr. Spock from the bridge."

He snaps to, just as before, and staggers from the form that is shaking it's head and trying to rise now. He is a tall, slender form, easily with a couple inches on Spock, with shaggy blonde hair and dark skin. He's dressed in blue with no stripes on his cuff. When I get close enough, his head snaps up, and his cat-slit silver white pupils glint at me. He smirks.

"She's gone," he hisses, "you set her free with a kiss. How romantic."

I don't answer him. He doesn't deserve an answer. I tip up his chin with the butt of my phaser. "Where is her body?" I'm surprised at how I growl the words. My voice doesn't sound like me. It's broken, raspy, like I haven't spoken in days.

"I got rid of it." He replies, coldly, and I feel sick when I realize he's grinning. "She loved the stars so much, I figured I'd let her play among them."

It's a thought so strikingly harsh that it takes a moment for the implication to hit me. But with that grin, and the insanity in his eyes-

"You transported her into space?" My hand is shaking. My voice is shaking. How did this get on my ship? How did I miss this?

"Only after I was done with her." He shrugs, nonchalant, and smirks. "Oh, Captian, don't look so shocked. She was almost dead, anyway. Promise. She didn't last more then a minute."

He spaced her alive. Hurt, dying, but still alive.

I'm not even aware I've dropped the phaser and moved towards him until Spock grabs my elbow and spins me around so violently I loose my balance.

"Captian!" He barks, hands on my shoulders now. He has four security gaurds with him, and Bones is no where in sight. He is gripping me hard, and drags me back, away from the man I'm so very close to teaching just what not being able to breathe is like to. "Perhaps you should ensure doctor McCoy makes it to sickbay."

"Bones?…."

"Was injured." His voice is gentle, prodding. He pushes me in the appropriate direction. "We shall escort the prisoner to the brig."

I shake myself, take a breath and pull my captain persona around myself like a protective shield. I can't hurt right now. I can't be angry right now.

Bones. Bones is hurt. Focuse on that. On him.

I turn and move quickly down the halls of my Enterprise, towards the turbo lift and sickbay. When I get there, Bones is sitting on one of the sickbay beds, helping Nurse Chapel wrap his shoulder. Numbly, I make my way over, reaching out to hold one end of the bandage for her. She startles and offers me a gentle smile.

"Are you alright, Captian?"

"Unhurt." I tell her gently. "Will you give Doctor McCoy and I a moment, please, nurse?"

She blinks, nods slightly. "I'll go see if Ms. Monroe is doing better."

She leaves, and McCoy lifts his gaze to me, eyes too-blue in his pale face. "Jim, where is she?" he doesn't have to say who.

"I don't know," I reply, honestly, thinking about how our man had said she's gone, you set her free. "What happened?"

"Lilisa came to my cabin paniced," He begins, touching his shoulder lightly. "Wouldn't calm down, and by the time I got her to tell me what was he matter that kid," He jerks his hand disgustedly at the doors of sickbay. "had already got there. Waving that damn phaser around and ramblin' on. He'd totally lost his mind, Jim." He runs his good hand through his hair and takes a breath to steady himself. "And I'm not exaggerating. He'd lost his mind. A few nurses and I tried to sedate him but he was grabbing Lilisa and out the door before we could even alert anyone. I was going to call you out, but when I didn't follow immediately-"

He stops, and his eyes close, and suddenly my Bones looks his age. It scares me, for a minute. Bones doesn't ever look old. I know he's got a few years on me, but he never looks, never acts like it. Now, though, he does, and I reach out to put a hand on his shoulder. Partly to comfort him, and maybe partly to ground myself, too, to reassure myself that he is Bones and real and alive and here, and he will be alright. He opens his eyes at my touch, and his lips tip up into a smile. He covers my hand with his own.

"She was here, Jim. Not as such, I didn't see her, but I heard Joanna's voice again, cryin' and callin' me, tellin' me to hurry, something-pushin' at me." He clears his throat, and when he speaks again his accent has gotten less thick. He's calmed down somewhat. "Those-golden sparks came out of the walls, out of the ceiling, and they herded me, Jim. Pushed me right on down the hall."

"She." I correct softly, and relax a little, closing my eyes and trying to stay calm. "She pushed you, Bones, you know it was her."

"I guess I do at that." He looks up at me. "The boy took a pot-shot off at me near your room. I think he was after you-"

"He was." I shake my head. "It's a long story, but here's the gist…." And I give him the shortest version of things I can. He listens, then groans softly.

"S' one big mess." He mutters. "And that poor little girl got killed over it. Don't you dare ever tell him I said this, but sometimes Spock has a point. Without passion, there'd be considerably less of this to clean up."

"You must be hurt, if you're throwing the round to Spock." I tease gently, trying to lift the mood a bit. Trying to do something. But his eyes are dark and hurt. He's even more disturbed by this then I am- the healer in him snarling and pacing the halls at the thought of what had been done to that girl. Bones has armor to put an armadillo to shame and enough quills to make a porcupine jealous, but under all that he's compassionate and gentle. He only wears it to protect himself- he's been hurt more then once and he's scared of being hurt again. The funniest thing is that the people who matter- Spock, and me, the crew, his little girl- we've all gotten under those quills a long time ago. And he know it, and I think…..I think it scares him pretty badly sometimes.

"So he was after you." He says after a minute. "Because she was after you, or would be if she wasn't-pretty much a sex slave-"

"She chose to stay with him, Bones." I say. I know how pathetic it sounds even before his head snaps up and his eyes flare hotly. His entire body tenses, jaw tight, and his head and chin come up.

"Chains are not always physical, Jim, and you know that." He snaps. "She wanted to be loved. It was the only way he'd love her. She gave him-"

"Everything." I finish softly, pressing my hands against a desk. "He isn't even anyone I know, Bones. Just some-ensign. He wasn't stupid- he took on the apperance of someone who'd just….be overlooked, for the most part."

"What I want to know I how the hell he got on this ship." McCoy looks up at me. "I should have-Jim-"

"Bones, it's not your fault." I say. "Starfleet didn't catch anything off about this guy, no one could expect you to."

I know instantly I stuck my foot in my mouth. His eyes flare again, but with cold this time, not heat, and his hand fists on the sheets.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"It means you have a lot on your plate." I sooth, wincing slightly as one of those quills finds it's way to my skin anyway, drawing blood. Leonard McCoy, the only porcipine able to invert his spines to get at anyone a little closer to flesh. "And over four hundered people to worry about, the same as me."

He softens a little, his offended bristling slowly fading away.

"What did Spock do with our attacker?"

"He's interrogating him in the brig." I say. "Spock and four security guards."

"You should get down there."

I can't right now. I don't want to say it, to admit it, but I can't go down there now. "She kept you going," I say instead, "when you got shot."

He nods. "It's all I can imagine that-that glitter was." And it was glitter, there's no other real word for it. "She was…..supporting me, until you came. I don't know where she….went?"

I take a breath. "She's gone." Is all I say, and this time, I know it's true.

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