Chapter Twenty-Four: In which Bones has a "dad moment" and it's adorable, we encounter some rather frustrated Russians, there are phasers! Phasers everywhere! And in which bets are placed.

We're wrapping up! One more chapter after this, and then the epilogue. Thanks to all of you who have stuck with them thus far.

Also... (small voice) Please don't kill me.

I do not own Star Trek or any of its characters. I only own my OCs.

Jim, finally catching up to the girls, panting, called, "Hold on just one fraction of a second here, Karina!" Camille skidded to a stop and grabbed the sleeve of Karina's uniform, pulling her friend to a startling halt. Karina teetered on her feet, but Jim caught her before she fell completely off balance. She was almost in a frenzy, and struggled against his hold, trying to start running again.

"Jim, let me go!" she screamed, fighting like crazy. "They're – we – LET GO!"

"Calm the hell down, young lady!" came a voice from behind them, and all three whirled to see Bones standing there, a look that would frighten the most hardened of Starfleet admirals on his face. Karina did, indeed, calm the hell down at his harsh words, and fell perfectly still, eyeing him with a certain amount of terror.

"First of all, we get it! Your friend is in danger, and you want to do everything to get him out of it. But you can't just go rushing headlong into danger. None of us is going to allow it. Not even Camille, hypocritical as that may be."

"Excuse me?" Camille asked.

Jim put a hand on her shoulder. "Just let him roll, Cam. Kill him later."

Camille normally didn't do later, but she reluctantly saw his point.

"Not only will we not let you run into danger without a second thought," Bones continued, "but we also won't put ourselves there as well. If you'd paused for at least a second back there, you would have known we didn't have any weapons. We didn't have time to grab them before we came looking for you. Now at least let us get back and arm ourselves before we go all CIA on the KGB here. Got that?"

Karina's face fell. "They'll be long gone by then, Bones. There's no time."

He put both hands on her shoulders, steadying her. "I'm sorry, Kari. But that's the way it has to be this time."

She unexpectedly wrapped her arms around his waist and buried her face in his chest. Bones was caught off guard, but it stirred some fatherly instinct in him that he thought had lain long dormant. He put his arms around her and let her seek comfort from him, hoping he had the ability to give it.

"This isn't fair, Bones," she said. "I promised him I'd come back. I can't let this happen." A sob tore from her throat, and she cried, "He doesn't deserve this, Bones! Any of it!"

He wasn't quite sure what to say, and looked at Camille. She shook her head, gesturing that this was his moment. Exasperated, he turned to Jim, who shrugged. A great lot of help they would be. Then, as he stared at Cam some more, a part of him thought he understood what Karina was going through. The doctor in him got it all.

"You can't fix everything, kiddo," he said. She pulled back and looked up at him, and then her broken face steeled.

"All right," she said. "Let's go back."

Jim cleared his throat and raised his hand. "Um, guys? Just a thought."

The other three turned to him, and were remarkably surprised to find him looking slightly sheepish. "I may have a solution to this problem. It ends in us being armed, and getting to them in a timely manner as well."

He walked a bit further into the tunnel, then came back armed with four phasers. "This might be a bit easier to lug around than that rifle, right, Kar?"

Karina's jaw dropped, Camille gave a laugh of relief and awe, and Bones shouted, "When, exactly, were you planning to tell us you knew about this?"

"Didn't want to break up the moment," Jim muttered. "Dad Bones is kind of fun to watch. But also, I didn't see it until about thirty seconds ago." He led them down the tunnel about ten feet to find an open compartment in the wall with a neon orange sign on it, filled to the brim with phasers.

"What the heck is this?" Karina exclaimed, running her hands along the phasers in shock.

"These tunnels are supposed to be an escape route, Kari," Jim explained. "My guess is that the ones who manufactured them installed this so there would be a way to arm the escapees should they be pursued. No matter what you're using them for, this is a pretty handy little compartment, right? I wouldn't be surprised if there were a lot of them along here."

"How did we not know about this?" Camille demanded. "That might have come in handy for the pair of you a year ago!"

Then she shook her head, taking one of the phasers from Jim. "Never mind. Like Kari said, we have very little time. Lead the way, Kar."

Karina took off running. Though this lent hope to her, she also knew it was very likely the Chekovs and Vladimir had already vacated the tunnels, their imminent exposure lending their feet speed. She shuddered. Was she ever going to see Pavel again, or was he long gone by now?

"These blasted tunnels!" Andrei muttered, turning around in a circle, trying to get his bearings. "What were you thinking, losing that map, Vladimir?"

Vladimir shrugged, the one who was currently in charge of keeping an eye on Pavel to make sure he didn't bolt. "Well, at the moment, Andrei, I thought it was perfectly secure in my pocket. I was mostly focused on hauling your son down here, like you asked me to. Whose idea was it to kidnap the girl, rather than just getting out of the country as soon as possible?"

"She was interfering," Andrei muttered.

When it came to questioning his father, Chekov had never been the most bold of kids. But he was curious. "What would she have found so soon, Father, let me ask you that? Have you done anything more in this country…besides murder her parents?" The utter hatred he felt for the man manifested itself and shone through in that last sentence to its highest degree.

"Be quiet!" Andrei hissed, selecting a corridor. "This way."

"You're sure?" Vladimir asked.

"Of course I'm sure!" Andrei shouted. "Now, come on! We're going, and we're going now."

He surged toward the opening, but as soon as he reached the archway's threshold, found his path blocked by a tall, solid figure in a cadet uniform.

"Hello. My name is James Tiberius Kirk," the figure said. "You kidnapped my little sister. Prepare to die."

And he punched the completely stunned Andrei straight in the nose.

Once again, Andrei found himself knocked to the ground. Jim leveled his phaser at the weaponless Vladimir, who held his hands in the air, releasing Chekov. There was nothing on Vladimir's face but a look of "I told you so."

Chekov stared at the older cadet. "Karina doesn't have an older brother," he muttered.

Jim stared right back, not understanding a word of the Russian that had just come out of the kid's mouth. "No spreckensie Russian," he attempted lamely.

Camille appeared in the doorway behind him, Bones hot on her heels, and shook her head. "Right, Jim. Like that wasn't offensive at all."

The small sea of older cadets parted as a whir of motion darted through their midst, and Karina threw herself at him like a missile, shrieking, "Pavel!" She hit him with the usual amount of force, but Chekov was used to this by now. He'd already braced himself for impact, but said impact rather paled in comparison to the fact that she was currently squeezing the breath out of his lungs.

Not that he particularly cared. He returned the embrace, and she muttered, "Told you I'd come back, didn't I?"

Jim approached Vladimir. "I'm going to give you one chance to give me a good reason for letting you escape. But your friend here won't be so lucky, unfortunately. Bones, keep an eye on him."

Camille walked over to where Karina was still attached to Pavel like a tick on a dog, and said, "Good news, kid. This is over. You get to stay here." Then she paused, frowning. "Wait. Did you understand that?"

He rolled his eyes. "Da. I got zat."

Camille then crossed over to Andrei and poked at his limp foot with her own. Bones, crouching beside him, looked up at her. "You may want to keep your distance, Cam."

"Oh, please, Bones! Look at the man! He's obviously out like a light – "

But Bones, who had bent down to examine Andrei, could only respond with widening eyes as the man rose and, in one fluid movement mirroring the one his son had used on him earlier, kicked out, sweeping Camille's feet out from under her. She went down hard, the wind knocked out from under her.

Bones, his rage provoked, roared and launched himself at Andrei, but the man was too quick. He delivered a swift punch to Bones' jaw and grabbed the phaser from his hand, using it to knock Bones on the head. Bones fell to the ground, a groan emanating from deep in his gut.

"Bones!" Camille shrieked, grabbing from her own prostrate position at Andrei's feet, but he danced out of her way. Now nothing stood between him and Karina, not even Jim.

Jim took his eyes off Vladimir for an instant, crying, "Kari, look out!"

In that instant, Vladimir jumped at Jim, pinning him to the ground. "Whatever you're going to do," he grunted, "do it quickly, Andrei!"

Andrei fired the phaser, but there was one thing he did not account for: his son's reflexes, and innate instinct to protect.

Chekov had been able to foresee his father's plan from the instant the phaser hit his hands. He didn't think, he just acted, shoving Karina to the ground. He went down just a split second after her – but the split second was all that counted. The phaser beam missed Karina, catching Chekov squarely on the skull.

Jim kicked up, hitting Vladimir right in the proper spot to make him sing soprano for a week. Camille, meanwhile, recovered her phaser and dropped Andrei to the ground, the look of shock and horror on his face remaining even after knocked unconscious.

Karina, meanwhile, had figured out that her friend on top of her had gone rather still. Frantic, she rolled him off of her onto the cement floor. "No, no, no! NO!" Feeling as though the ground had dropped out from under her, the tears started flowing again freely. "You are not allowed to quit on me yet, okay? You just can't!"

Jim knelt down in front of her. "And he won't, Kari," he said, grabbing her by the shoulders to make sure she paid attention to him in her panicked state. "Look."

Handing her the phaser Andrei had dropped, he said, "It's only set to stun. Should we probably get the kid down to the clinic? Yeah. But will he live? Also yeah."

Karina blinked. How had she only ever stopped to consider that the phaser would be set to kill? Perhaps because it had been in the hands of a sadist, and that had blinded her to the fact that Bones had set it to stun earlier. And sure enough, as she glanced down at Chekov, the rise and fall of his chest told her he was still breathing.

She sighed in relief. "Good. Really good."

Vladimir, who had been doubled over in pain, managed to rise. Jim rounded on him, but he held his hands in the air, sliding his rifle over to Jim.

"You've won," he said. "If I give myself up to you now, will you at least let me get out of the country?"

Jim shook his head. "Believe me, I'd almost like to. You weren't exactly helpful, but you also didn't exactly hinder our progress. Up until the end there. Whose side are you on, anyway?"

"My own," Vladimir muttered. "Whichever works best at the moment."

"Um, Jim," Camille said, from her spot behind Karina. She'd come up, knelt by her friend, and squeezed her shoulders, knowing that though Kari may not admit it, she needed it in that moment. "We may not be able to get all three of these guys out of here. Bones is out cold, too. We'd need at least two of us for each of them, right?"

Bones stirred over in the corner he'd been laying in. "I'll be fine in a few minutes, woman," he muttered crankily. "I could probably use a bit of help, but I can walk."

She moved to sit by his side. "Help I'm willing to offer, cowboy."

Vladimir raised his hand, as though a schoolboy in class. "I can bring Andrei," he said. "That will leave the pair of you free to assist Pavel."

Jim frowned. "How do I know I can trust you?"

"You can," came a weak voice from in between him and Karina. Chekov was stirring slightly, his face screwed up in pain. In his current disabled state, he'd only been able to form the words in Russian, and Karina looked from him to Jim, nodding.

"Pavel says he's trustworthy, Jim," she said. "I believe him. Let him help."

Jim rose, reaching out a hand and assisting Vladimir to his feet, too. "Why are you so eager to help us?" he asked. "One minute, you're kidnapping the kids. The next, you're offering to help us get out of here with minimal difficulties?"

Vladimir shrugged. "Like I told you, I'm on my own side. Perhaps if I cooperate, things will go easier for me. Meanwhile, shouldn't you…?" His voice trailed off, and he gestured to Chekov, still lying on the ground.

Jim shook his head. "No," he said, training the phaser on Vladimir once again. "I won't take my eyes off you until you get your friend over there up on his feet and moving. You'll go in front of us, got that?"

Vladimir nodded, and moved to get Andrei, lifting an arm over his shoulder and pulling his friend to his feet. "Come on, Andrei," he said. "It would appear this venture of ours is finished."

Karina helped Pavel sit up. His eyes were still closed, and she could tell from his tense features that he was still experiencing a great deal of pain. "Bones?" she asked, not able to keep the overwhelming concern out of her voice. "Should he still be hurting this much?"

Bones, with an amount of pain himself, rubbed his back and said, "He took a phaser beam to the head, Karina. I honestly think that's to be expected, though I've personally never dealt with it."

Karina nodded and turned back to Pavel. Barely coherent, he was following the distant sound of her voice and turned toward her.

"It's over?" he asked, as though needing confirmation from her in spite of Camille's earlier reassurances.

She smiled and hugged him, careful to not cause him any more pain, but it soon became apparent that the only source of pain was from his head. "It's over. Your father won't be chasing you down any more."

Jim leaned down next to her, handing her his phaser. "I got him, Kari," he said, lifting Chekov off the ground. "Keep that thing on those two." He nodded toward Vladimir and Andrei in front of them.

Camille, meanwhile, put Bones' arm around her and looked after the two groups in front of them. "Not a bad ending," she said. "January just kind of isn't our month, is it, cowboy?"

Bones shrugged. "I really don't need that much help, Cam. I'm fine."

If anything, she pulled him tighter against her. "Oh, no, you don't. I won't deal with your pride here. You let someone else be the doctor when we get back there, and Bones…let me help you now. Please."

The pleading in her eyes was something he'd never seen before. The idea that someone would be so desperate to assist him awakened emotions in him that he'd long thought lay dormant, and he swallowed hard.

"Lead the way, boss."

Jim walked out of the room, shaking his head. Oh, how he loved to see Bones laid up for once. He frowned. No, it wasn't that he loved it. That was almost cruel. He just liked to see his friend, who was determined to take care of everyone as the doctor, subjected to letting someone else be his caretaker. Likely that would end up being Cam, but right now, she was with Karina in the Russian kid's room. He'd pass them on his way back.

Camille met him in the doorway, a small smile on her face. She inclined her head back into the room she'd come from. Jim peered in and saw that both kids were dead asleep, Karina in a chair by the bed, stretched out in what had to be an uncomfortable position so that her head was lying on the bed a few inches from the kid's arm.

He turned to Cam, whose smile had turned into a full-fledged grin. "I give it a year," she said, and Jim knew exactly what she was talking about.

"Is that a bet, Osbourne?"

"How much you willing to stake on it, Kirk?"

He considered the scene in front of him. "Give me a few hours. I'll get back to you."

She shook her head and went in to Bones. Jim walked up to Karina, smiling down at her. He'd called her his little sister back in the tunnels, and it truly was how he felt about her – or, how he imagined it would feel if he had a little sister. She'd given him a couple of good scares today, and he cringed each time he contemplated how it could have gone differently.

Bending down, he lifted her into his arms the exact same way he'd done with the kid on the bed earlier – he never could remember his name; it wasn't as though Karina talked about him a lot. In fact, if he hadn't seen what he had back there, when she'd been convinced he was dead, Jim might have thought Karina didn't care all that much about the kid. But there was a lot more to his little sister than what was on the surface, apparently, in spite of what she may want him to think.

As he made his way back to her room, he looked down at her, sleeping serenely, only frowning a bit as he'd lifted her, but then settling in against his chest, he smiled and shook his head. "A year?" he muttered to himself. "After that display back there in the tunnels, nah. More like two months."