Daphne ran down the empty corridor towards the shuttle bay entrance and arrived there just as her brother was coming out. She took advantage of the fact that no one else was around and grasped him gratefully by the forearms. She looked into his face and saw exhaustion, dirt smudges and grime. His hair was stiff and spiky with dried sweat. The skin on his cheeks, nose and tops of his ears was red, burned from the merciless Vulcan sun in spite of precautions. Her heart, which had been knotted hard and painfully with real fear, began to beat again.
"Gods on high," she whispered, gripping him tightly, "Are you all right?"
His smile was all Kirk, charming, reassuring, boyish. Hazel eyes looked straight into hers without hesitation. "Not even a scratch."
Her eyes narrowed with suspicion. She knew him well enough to know that his voice could be surprisingly mild when the going was the toughest. It soothed the crew and made strong men willing to follow his every command. But at the moment it wasn't fooling her.
He relented, seeing the interrogation in her expression, "All right, maybe a few bruises; and a desperate need for a shower, preferably cold and also I'd like to lower the temperature in my cabin about twenty degrees for a few hours. Other than that I'm fine."
That made her relax a bit and smile slightly. She'd grown up on Vulcan. She knew all about the heat. But then she looked past him into the shuttle bay, her eyes searching for Spock. She froze again as she watched a medical team help him walk out of the shuttle and collapse onto a medical gurney. She tried to run, to get to him and Jim stopped her.
"He's all right. He'll sleep now, heal, probably for days," his voice was low, soothing, gentle.
She shot him a look filled with gold fire. "He's not all right. Spock would never willing get onto a medical gurney if he was all right."
Kirk took a deep breath of blessed cool air and let it out slowly. He could bluff with the best, and often did, but ultimately his crew followed him because he gave them the respect of a straight answer.
"He will be. McCoy has him, and M'Benga. I could have brought him back in pieces and McCoy wouldn't rest until they were put back together. He's pushed himself, Daphne, and pushed hard. We both know that. But we'll all make him heal now. He'll retreat from us for a while, back behind the Great Wall of Vulcan, but he needs to."
Daphne nodded. She understood the healing trance was more than just a physical healing. It was also a mental restoration and a chance to once again bank the fires of his ancient Vulcan blood.
"When he wakes up, you have to hit him fairly hard to bring him out of it fully," she told him.
Kirk's face broke into a genuine grin. "McCoy and I are going to take turns. You want in on that action?"
Daphne almost laughed. They all loved Spock, but he drove them to the end of their patience at times.
"It's over, Daphne," Jim said, with certainty.
She was about to ask him how he knew it was over when the Romulan Commander was brought out of the shuttle in the custody of three red shirted security guards. Daphne gasped and took an involuntary step closer to her brother.
"Not again. She's on board again? Our prisoner?"
" 'Fraid so," Jim said, his expression rueful, "I doubt she likes it any better than you do."
Daphne's throat ached suddenly and she leaned against Jim for a moment, as she had been standing too long in the gale of a storm. Her eyes when they met his were fathomless. She became very still, even her pulse seemed to pause.
"Then it isn't over," she said, softly, "That woman wants you dead. She wants Spock tortured, killed and revived so she can do it again. As long as she lives, it isn't over."
Then the large group of people gathered in the shuttle began to make their way towards the door and Daphne lost the luxury of privacy. She stepped away from her brother, putting professional distance between them.
Her odd stillness lasted as long as the procession of people took to leave the shuttle bay. She watched Spock as he was pushed past on his way to sickbay, trying to keep her heart out of her eyes. He had closed his eyes and seemed to almost be in a healing trance already. Along the slender, still fragile mental bond between them she felt nothing. Spock's cousin Stephen was also on his way to sickbay. He appeared fine, if tired and sweat-stained and a bit shocked.
Then she made herself look at the Romulan Commander as she was marched down the corridor behind Spock. The Commander's head was up and her back was stiff and proud, a warrior arrogant even in defeat. Wisely, Daphne shielded the emotions flowing from the Romulan as best she could.
She looked at her brother again when the procession was past. He looked weary but solid.
"The gates of hell, Daphne," Jim said, sounding as if he was reciting a quote he knew by heart, "shall not prevail against them.'
She tilted her head, curious and confused. Taking advantage of their regained privacy, Kirk put his arm around her shoulders and began guiding her down the corridor.
"Something Spock keeps reminding me," he said, cryptically.