Disclaimer: I don't own anything Star Trek it is all property of Gene Roddenberry, J.J. Abrams, Paramount, and whoever else owns rights to the franchise. I am not making any profits off of this so please don't sue me.

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Author's not- Please try listening to Peter Gabriel- Passion while reading this chapter.

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Chapter 9

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...Beep... Beep... Beep... Beep... Beep...

The soft rhythmic beeping noise from the monitor that was charged with keeping track of Captain Jim Kirk's vital signs filled Dr. Leonard McCoy's ears as he worked with painstaking care to repair the brutal damage that had been done to the inner walls of Jim's most intimate area. There were unfortunately several areas of worry that were causing the internal bleeding that threatened Jim Kirk's very life.

Dr. McCoy was using a long probe with a tissue regenerator at the very end of it. McCoy's eyes were focused on a small screen that was attached to an over head arm. On the screen was the image of Jim Kirk's well abused inner walls and the end of the long probing instrument McCoy was using to seal up the tears to the soft inner flesh.

As he worked McCoy had to keep up an ongoing battle with all of the strong emotions that were swirling around inside of him. There was anger of course, at the one who was responsible for literally tearing his friend apart. There was also deep guilt because he, along with everyone else had torn apart whatever Jim had had left in him. Now McCoy also felt deep and cold mortification swell up inside of him because though he was a doctor sworn to treat people with even the worst kind of injuries known to the galaxy, he never thought he every seen the day when his best friend and Captain would be suffering from injuries that were classified to that category.

But with a deep breath McCoy refocus his attentions solely on getting the tissue regenerator over every singly laceration and stopping the internal bleeding.

Jim for his part lay completely still, whiter than the whitest sheet, and drugged up to his eyeballs. Thankfully unconscious.

After a good twenty more minutes McCoy had just reached the the last deep laceration It'vek had left behind in his destructive wake when a voices were heard coming from outside the Sickbay doors. Dr. McCoy looked to one of the nurses who wasn't involved with Jim's surgery and spoke.

" Nurse, please go see what's happening out there in the hallway." He ordered before going back to work of getting this final deep cut regenerated.

The Nurse nodded and put down the PADD she had been filling out. She quickly made her way to the sickbay door that smoothly slid open for her once she came near.

Outside she was greeted by the sight of Commander Spock looking sternly at a red-haired woman who looked rather worse for ware.

" Commander, I can deal with this for a few more minutes more. Like you said, they don't need any further distraction in there." Said the Woman softly.

" Lt. Bansali, I have noticed that you are in a moderate amount of pain and your hands are in need of medical attention. I request that you go into sickbay immediately. Please do not resist this request any further or else, as a higher ranking officer I will order you to do so." Said Spock.

Knowing that it was indeed futile to go up against the Vulcan, Lt. Bansali nodded and then noticed the nurse standing there looking at her with slightly wide a small smile that looked more like a grimace the disheveled lieutenant made her way over to the nurse and spoke.

" Nurse, would you please be so kind as to help me?" She asked quietly, while all the while a soft flush graced her cheeks as she held up her scraped up hands that had thankfully stopped bleeding, but now had deep red caked all over them.

That seemed to snap the Nurse out of her gawking on the Lieutenant who seemed to have just returned from a war zone.

" Of course Ma'am, please come with me." Said the Nurse being all business upon seeing the state of Bansali's hands.

" Thank you." Said Lt. Bansali before she followed the Nurse into the sickbay with the doors sliding shut after the two women.

This left Spock, the rest of the Enterprise crew and Ambassador A'tal and his delegates still standing in the hallway anxiously awaiting news of Captain Kirk's state of health. Inside the sickbay Lt. Bansali paused in following the nurse when her eyes fell to the group of scrub-clad people standing around a well lit operating table. Bansali instantly knew who they were and who was being operated on. Feeling her insides grow cold for just a second Lt. Bansali quickly tore herself away from her staring and instead made her way over to the examining table where the Nurse was waiting.

Feeling exhaustion slowly beginning to creep in Lt. Bansali forced herself to climb onto the examining table, sitting over the edge and holding out her hands. The Nurse winced as she took in the many jagged lacerations, questions instantly forming.

" How did this all happen?" She asked.

Sad amber eyes met her inquiry.

" I doled out punishment to an evil being, he will live but he won't ever forget. And I did it all for that man who's lying over there on that operating table fighting for his life." Said Lt. Bansali.

" Captain Kirk? Now no one is telling me what happened, do you know what it is?" Asked the Nurse eagerly.

" I think it's best if you didn't know the full details. Just know that it was something pretty horrible regarding Captain Kirk, something I won't every forget. But with respect to the man's privacy I am not at liberty to say anything further." Was all Lt. Bansali said with a tone of finality.

Getting the hint and now wondering whether or not she really wanted to know, the nurse held up a small basin filled with a gentle antiseptic solution and indicated for the Lieutenant to dip her hands in. The Lieutenant hissed lightly as she sank her hands into the solution. It didn't sting very much and after a few minutes the pin dissipated to almost nonexistent. The solution itself turned a watery red as the dried blood was quickly dissolved from Bansali's skin.

Just minutes later Bansali's hands were dried and already being quickly regenerated with smooth efficiency by the nurse. Once the nurse was done the Lieutenant went about getting the rest of herself as clean as she could manage under the circumstances, mainly getting as much of the Antarian blood that had stained her off.

Where he stood, McCoy let out a small huff of relief as he ran the tissue regenerator over the last laceration a finally time leaving behind undamaged pink flesh.

" Allright, that should do it. How are his stats nurse?" Asked McCoy.

" Stats are improving slowly but surely Doctor." Said the Nurse.

The entire surgical team all seemed to instantly grow slightly relaxed. They had stopped the bleed and taken care of most of the Captain's injuries. Now there were simply a few small contusions here and there that could've been allowed to heal on there own. But McCoy vowed to run the dermal regenerator over every single mark that still remained on Jim's skin. He was going to do his damn well best to remove all traces of that Antarian son of a bitch It'vek.

Dr. McCoy looked up just as he had carefully pulled the probe free from Jim in time to see the red-haired woman standing just a few feet away. He instantly recognized her as the one who had stopped It'vek from killing Jim with the knife.

The woman was completely silent but her amber eyes spoke volumes. Dr. McCoy met these eyes and for the longest time they simply stared at each other. Then McCoy let his eyes soften and gave a simple nod.

A small, ghost if a smile graced the woman's lip while naked relief shined in her eyes. With a small nod of her own the woman gracefully turned away and walked out of the sickbay. With his eye lingering on where she had stood for a moment, Dr. McCoy turned his focus back to finishing up with Jim and making sure that there was nothing else wrong.

Spock and the others all looked to the door to see Lt. Bansali walk back out, her uniform was still a mess but her face, neck, and hands were all cleansed of the neon blue liquid. She also had a look of relief shining in her eyes. Spock was stoic as he stepped forward to greet the woman.

" Have your injuries been handled sufficiently?" He asked.

" Yes sir, I'm good as new." Answered Lt. Bansali.

Then all at once there was a crowd surrounding her and Spock.

" Did you see the Captain?" Asked Sulu eagerly.

" How iz he?" Asked Chekov.

" Please tell us if you saw anything." Urged Uhura.

" Aye, do tell us if ya kno' any'thin." Agreed Scotty.

As calmly as ever Lt. Bansali waited for all of the voiced to die down before she spoke.

" I couldn't see much but once my hands were taken care off I stopped by the door to see for myself. The Doctors are just about finished in there and it looks like the Captain pulled through without a hitch but, I'm sure their going to be coming out any second to tell us themselves." Said Lt. Bansali.

But then as she looked across all of the relieved and yet still guilty looking faces, Bansali remembered that it had been her own actions that had led to all of them fining out what had happened to their Captain. None of them had known for themselves, none of them had suspected of anything wrong even though things were clearly wrong. Feeling dread slowly starting to creep into her, Bansali opened her mouth to speak when the sound of feet approaching had everyone turning to see a very worried looking Commander Wilson quickly making his way over to them.

The crowd parted, respectfully giving way for the Commander of the Star base they were currently docked at.

" Commander Spock, how is he, how is Captain Kirk?" He asked instantly.

There was a small hiss as the sickbay door opened to reveal a scrub-clad, slightly tired and maybe even sad looking Dr. Leonard McCoy. He stepped forward with his eyes on the newly arrived Commander.

" I believe I am better equipped at answering that question Commander Wilson. Captain Kirk has pulled through emergency surgery. He is stable and heavily sedated at the moment and probably won't be regaining consciousness for a good long while." Said McCoy.

The instant his words registered everyone excluding Spock and Lt. Bansali who already saw for herself seemed to literally collapse with relief. All at once the crew of the Enterprise swarmed around the doctor, all asking the same thing.

When can we see him?

" In a little bit everyone, right now we have to let him rest." Said McCoy.

But from where she stood Lt. Bansali remember that something had been nagging her and she had been about to voice her concerns.

" Umm, excuse me everyone?" She said to get their attention.

All eyes instantly turned to the red-head.

" Yes Lieutenant?" Answered Spock.

" I don't mean to be rude or speak out of turn but I must ask, why did none of you realize what had happened to Captain Kirk. I mean, according to the security footage I found the incident took place just last night, surely Captain Kirk came to one of you for help right?" Asked Lt. Bansali.

She watched with growing dread as the happy, relieved faces morphed into expressions of shock, shame, and damning guilt and drained of all their colors. Several eyes went to the tall half-Vulcan officer among them.

" Commander Spock?" Asked Commander Wilson, feeling dread starting to grow inside his own gut as well.

For the longest time there was a tense and thick silence reigning over everyone. Then Spock finally spoke though not really meeting either Lt. Bansali or Cmdr. Wilson's eyes as he did so.

" Yes Captain Kirk came to me last night." He said simply, pausing a moment to see the unspoken question of " Then what?" written on Bansali and Wilson's faces.

" First I must reveal that the Captain and I are... were involved with each other for many months prior to this incident. When he came to our shared quarters last night I took in his appearance and made an incorrect assumption about the activities he had been involved in." Said Spock flatly, emotionlessly.

" An incorrect assumption... Wait a second... You two were involved with each other then... Oh my God." Said Lt. Bansali before with her eyes once again blazing she took a step forward towards Spock and with a deadly voice she spoke.

" You thought he had cheated on you?" She all but growled.

Spock's silence was answer enough.

Commander Wilson, who's expression had turned stormy with muted anger noticed the guilt-ridden faces of the other members of the Enterprise crew. He too took a step forward and pinned them all with a look as he spoke.

" What about the rest on you, didn't any of you see that something had been very wrong with your Captain? What did all of you do?" He asked though he had the sinking feeling that he wasn't going to like the answer if any that would come.

It was McCoy who finally spoke up.

" We all saw the way Spock had moved out of the quarters he shared with Jim. We all thought the same, like idiots we all thought he was guilty too." Said McCoy with his eyes becoming overly shiny with salt.

" Oh... Hell no... No way... NO!" Said Wilson steadily growing louder with each word as a shook his head and wrenched himself away, starting to pace back and forth.

Lt. Bansali's hands were clenched tightly into fist that trembled lightly at her sides as her eyes bore into the guilty faces before her until her eyes settled on Spock as she spoke.

" You mean to tell me that all of you treated your Captain, who had been viciously assaulted just last night like he was the one who had done something wrong? That it was all his fault?" Asked Bansali very slowly.

" This is who we call the best crew in all of Starfleet?" Asked Wilson in soft disbelief.

From where they stood, Ambassador A'tal and his fellow Antarians stood completely appalled by what had just been revealed, the sickening truth of the further injustice Jim Kirk had suffered through, this time at the hands of his very own crew.

Spock, McCoy, Sulu, Uhura, Scotty, and Chekov all bowed there heads in deserving shame. They had done this, they had all done this and more.

As she gazed at him. Lt. Bansali noticed something about Spock that had her heart cracking despite the deep anger she was feeling for the second time today. With her jaw clenched tight and her amber eyes growing bright with angry tears, Lt. Bansali closed the remaining feet that separated her from Spock. She stood at arms length from him and raised her hand. Everyone tensed, they had all seen the extensive combat skills this woman possessed and were no doubt, however illogical it was, thinking that she was going to attack the Vulcan like she had the vile It'vek.

But she proved them wrong yet again when instead she slowly reached out towards Spock's shoulder, where everyone including Spock himself finally noticed the small circular, dark red stain that graced the shoulder of the Vulcan Science officer's light blue dress uniform shirt. Spock did not move an inch as he felt the lieutenant's fingertips slowly, gently press into the dark, and disconcertingly still wet stain. Everyone instantly knew who's blood this was.

When Lt. Bansali drew her hand away, the tips of her index, middle, and ring finger were all painted a deep red. She held her bloodied hand up to eye level with Commander Spock. When the woman opened her mouth, the words that left her lips had everyone, including Commander Spock going numb inside.

" Has Captain James Tiberius Kirk bled enough for all of you to find him innocent now?"