Kirk paced back and forth in front of the closed entrance to Sickbay. He was waiting to get an injury report from Bones. Hopefully there would be no casualties. When the Enterprise had warped to a certain coordinate in the Milky Way galaxy, Kirk hadn't expected to encounter a surprise asteroid belt that had gone previously undetected by Starfleet. Kirk's worries on that issue were subdued due to the fact that Spock was working on any sort of answer to why the asteroid belt had suddenly appeared. Right now, Kirk's largest worry was the safety and health of his crew.

He stopped pacing and looked up when McCoy exited the medical ward, the door closing behind him. McCoy took off his blood-stained gloves and sighed heavily. Kirk looked at him in alarm.

"Don't tell me you lost him," Kirk said, knowing McCoy would know who he was referring to. "If you lost him, so help me, I will throw you off this ship right now." McCoy put up a hand to stop Kirk.

"He's alive," McCoy told the captain. Kirk breathed a sigh of relief. "He's unconscious though. He's alive for now, but I don't know what will happen overnight. He's in very critical condition, Jim. We just got him stable." Kirk let out another breath and ran both hands through his hair.

"How's she doing?" he asked. Again, McCoy would know who he was referring to.

"She's got an arm broken in two places, just her left arm though," McCoy said. Kirk gave him a look. "She's refused to leave the ward. She's just lying in the bed next to him and watching him, willing him to wake up and get better. I talked to Scotty and he told me to give her all the time she needs."

"She can't stay in there forever though," Kirk said. "She'll go crazy. Perhaps going back to work will take her mind off things."

"Give her a few days," Bones advised. "I'm a doctor, not a psychiatrist, but I do know that she's hurting a bit. If I have to give doctor's orders for her to stay there a few more days, I'll do it."

Kirk nodded. "Can I go in and see them?"

McCoy nodded and turned back to the door, opening it and entering before the captain. A few beds were occupied with crew members nursing various injuries, but none so severe as the person occupying the last bed in the ward. Kirk followed McCoy to the back of the ward and saw two beds pushed closer together. In one bed was Chekov, hooked up to various monitors and breathing through a ventilator with an intubation tube in his throat. Lying next to him on her side was Charlie. Her left arm was wrapped with bandages and a splint. Kirk looked to McCoy after glancing pointedly at her arm.

"That was all she let them do," McCoy whispered to Kirk. Kirk nodded and went to sit next to Charlie. She turned to look at him and Kirk felt his heart leap the sight of her. All the life seemed to have drained from her eyes.

"Hey," Kirk said quietly. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught McCoy sneaking away to check on other patients.

"Hi," Charlie said, her voice incredibly raspy. "I'm sorry that I'm not down in the engine room with Scotty."

"No," Kirk said. "That's fine. You should be here. How are you doing?" Charlie sat up a bit. Kirk noticed that she switched from holding Chekov's hand with her left hand to her right hand as she moved. She seemed intent on keeping some kind of physical contact with him.

"I'm fine," Charlie said. "Just a broken arm." She even lifted her left arm to show him. Kirk caught her left hand gently in between both of his hands.

"Charlie," Kirk said softly. "How are you?" Charlie glanced down at the bed and their hands before looking back up at him with a well of tears in her eyes.

"I'll be better when he wakes up," Charlie admitted. "Bones says he doesn't know when that's going to be though."

A tear dropped from one of her eyes and began to roll down her cheek. Kirk reached out with a hand and brushed it away with his thumb.

"Hey," he said softly, leaning forward and pressing his forehead to hers. "There's no need to cry. He'll be fine. He'll be sitting up and beating you at chess in no time. And then he'll be wanting to break open more vodka to celebrate his heroic return to the bridge. The two of you will be back in the mess hall laughing and joking in no time."

Charlie smiled a little.

"What am I supposed to do?" she asked Kirk. "What do I do when the person that is the closest to a best friend that I've ever had is lying in a medical ward attached to a machine that's helping him breathe?"

"You could start playing a game of chess," Kirk said. "Play for him. Maybe you'll win this time."

Charlie let out a little laugh and Kirk smiled at her.

"It'll be about the only chance I'll have," she replied. "Although he would say that was cheating because he was unconscious at the time."

"He still lets you count those two games," Kirk reminded her. Charlie nodded.

"Yeah, he does," she said. Kirk put a hand on her upper arm.

"Get some sleep," he told her. "You can stay here as long as necessary." Charlie nodded again and turned to lie back down as Kirk got off the bed. Kirk watched as she gently placed her left hand in Chekov's and started to drift to sleep. Kirk turned around and slowly walked out of the medical ward.

About three days later, Charlie was still sleeping when she felt a slight squeeze on her hand. As she was asleep she thought nothing of it and continued sleeping. It wasn't until she felt a bit of pain to go along with that squeeze that she opened her eyes. She looked around her and saw that Chekov's eyes were open and staring back at her.

"Pavel!" she said as she sat up and moved closer to him. "You're awake." He nodded, unable to speak due to the tube in his throat. "I'll go get McCoy."

Charlie jumped off the bed and half-jogged over to McCoy's quarters, conveniently located in the medical ward. Not caring about the pain it would cause her arm, she pounded on the door with both fists. When the door opened, McCoy glared at her with tussled hair and sleepy eyes. However, one look at Charlie's beaming face made him smile.

"Let's go see how he's doing," McCoy said as he followed her back to Chekov's bed. McCoy saw that Chekov was indeed awake and looking mighty uncomfortable as he tried to grab at his throat. Charlie went over to him and grabbed his hands in hers.

"Don't do that," she said. "Bones will help you out." Charlie looked at McCoy and he nodded. McCoy moved around to the head of Chekov's bed.

"Now, Chekov," he started. "This will be a bit uncomfortable, but you should be able to breathe on your own now. I'm going to pull out the ventilation tube and I want you to take a deep breath when I do so." Chekov nodded.

McCoy unhooked the ventilator and slowly pulled the tube out of Chekov's throat. Chekov sputtered a bit once the tube was removed but began to take his first few breaths on his own. He did so and sighed, looking at Charlie who still had a hand in his.

"Hi there," she said. McCoy busied himself with checking Chekov's vitals. "It will probably hurt to talk for a bit and to breathe. You've got a couple of broken ribs. I'm glad you're back." Chekov smiled weakly and nodded. Charlie leaned forward and kissed Chekov on the forehead.

"Quit that," McCoy said. "I need to keep his heart rate stable so don't do anything to raise it, okay?" Charlie looked at Chekov, who shrugged a little and blushed slightly. Charlie just grinned. "Charlie, update him on what's been going on and let me know if anything changes." Charlie nodded and settled into her bed. McCoy walked back to his quarters and returned to bed. Charlie lay on her side, facing Chekov. He looked at her arm.

"It's nothing," Charlie said. "It's just broken. I was thrown down a flight of stairs when we hit the asteroid belt. It only hurts just a little. Spock is still working on why the asteroid belt appeared there in the first place. Everyone's been working on repairing the damage to the ship. Kirk said I could stay here as long as necessary. Scotty's doing fine without me."

"What about the warp speed?" Chekov rasped.

"That's right," Charlie said. "It's near the end of the month. Scotty and I made a few adjustments, but I'm not sure what the best course of action is after all the damage done to the ship. We may have been thrown a bit backwards in our progress, but it's nothing we can't handle."

"You stayed here?" Chekov asked. Charlie nodded.

"For three days," she answered. "I haven't even left to shower."

"That's what that smell is," Chekov said with a smile.

"You're lucky you're in a lot of pain right now," Charlie said, grinning. "Otherwise there would be a smack on the arm for you."

"Well deserved though."

"I'm glad you're back," Charlie said. "I've missed you." Chekov squeezed her hand and smiled.

***

Kirk was surprised when he saw Charlie sitting in the officers' mess hall with Scotty and Sulu, laughing over lunch. He walked over to the table to join them and sat next to Sulu and across from Charlie. He was glad to see that the life that had been drained from Charlie's eyes was back in full force. Her smile never seemed brighter and her eyes were sparkling. Kirk smiled at her when he sat down.

"Well, Captain," Scotty said. "Charlie and I were going over the warp speed increase project and think we may be back to where we were before the accident by the end of next week."

"We just need to tweak a few things," Charlie said. "And luckily not much was damaged in the accident. We should be increasing the speed very soon."

"Sounds good," Kirk said. "When can I expect my Russian navigator back on the bridge?"

"It's been a few days since he woke up and McCoy says he's responding well to tests," Charlie informed Kirk. "I would say relatively soon, but you'd have to check with McCoy to be sure." Kirk nodded.

"That's good," Kirk said. "And he's still in full charge of his mental capabilities."

"Yes," Charlie answered. "He still beats me at chess." Sulu and Scotty laughed.

A couple of hours later, Charlie was lying on her back under the warp core reactors when she heard footsteps coming toward her. She turned her head but couldn't distinguish who was walking by. When the footsteps stopped by her she assumed that it was her boss.

"Hey, Scotty," Charlie said. "I'm almost done adjusting the core reactor. I think we can get back up to our normal warp speed a bit earlier than expected."

"It's not Scotty," Charlie heard in a distinct Russian accent. Charlie crawled out from under the reactor and saw Chekov standing there in his hospital scrubs and a pair of slippers. Charlie grinned at the fuzzy red slippers as she emerged from underneath the reactor.

"What are you doing down here?" Charlie asked. "Did you escape from Sickbay? You better get back before McCoy finds you here with me and yells at me for being an accomplice."

"He knows where I am," Chekov answered. "I just told him I was going for a walk. He told me to have fun talking to you."

"Scotty and I are going to be going over mechanical issues with the ship in the crew room in a couple of minutes," Charlie said. "It's boring, but you can come if you want." Chekov nodded and followed Charlie through the engine floors to find the engineering crew room. When they walked in Scotty was sitting at the table with a mug of coffee and a data pad, reading an online version of a car magazine. Scotty looked up when they entered and grinned.

"Charlie, you've got Chekov stuck to your shoe," Scotty said as she walked to the counter and the coffee machine.

"Ha, ha," Charlie mocked. "He's just getting out of Sickbay for a while." Chekov nodded in agreement.

"Maybe you can help us with the warp speed," Scotty suggested. "We could use a bit of those wunderkind maths skills."

"I'd be glad to help," Chekov said as he sat down at the table. Charlie turned to the table with a warm, steaming mug of coffee and sat down. "No coffee for me?"

"You know that you're not allowed to have any yet," Charlie told Chekov. "The caffeine would raise your heart rate and we don't need a repeat of the other day."

"Aye, Lieutenant," Chekov said, mock saluting Charlie.

"We still don't know why or how we warped into that asteroid belt," Scotty said. "Nothing was wrong with the warp cores or the reactor."

"No," Charlie said. "Nothing was wrong. We should have been just fine. But Spock is working on it. I just don't know if he's any closer to figuring anything out."

"Well, let's hope he gets close soon," Scotty said. "Now, Chekov, take a look at these equations and drafts of the engines and the core reactor." Scotty pushed the data pad to Chekov with the appropriate documents up and ready for Chekov to look at.

The three mathematicians sat together and talked over equations and physics for over an hour before McCoy came looking for Chekov to get him back up to Sickbay and back in bed. His dire need for rest was McCoy's main concern for his patient. Scotty and Charlie headed up to the mess hall after Chekov went back to the medical ward.

"I'm glad he's doing better," Scotty mentioned to Charlie as they gathered food for dinner on their trays in the mess hall. After gathering food and walking to the tables, they sat down with Uhura and Sulu.

"Me too," Charlie said to Scotty. "He seemed really excited to be helping out." Scotty nodded as he lifted a fork full of food into his mouth.

"How are you doing, Uhura?" Charlie asked. The communications officer smiled a bit before answering.

"I'm doing well," she said. "However, now that I'm eating for two, I feel like I can and would gladly eat an entire planet." Charlie looked at Uhura's plate and chuckled a little at the surprising amount of food on it.

"Do you know the sex yet?" Charlie asked. Uhura smiled.

"You were right," she said. "It's a boy." Charlie held her hand out to Scotty.

"Pay up," she said. Uhura laughed.

"You bet on the sex of my baby?" she asked. "Why am I not surprised?"

"He bet," Charlie said. "I just accepted the challenge." Scotty put a handful of bills in Charlie's hand that she immediately deposited into her pocket before turning back to her food.

"That is the last time I bet against you," Scotty said.

"That's not the first time you've said that," Charlie reminded him, causing Uhura and Sulu to laugh at the look on Scotty's face.

Kirk found Charlie sitting on the ledge of the observation window as the Enterprise cruised through the Milky Way galaxy. She was sitting with her knees to her chest and staring out part of the large window. Kirk leaned against the wall to watch her for a bit.

"What's bothering you?" he asked. She turned to look at him and sighed. Kirk walked over to her, sitting in front of her and facing her. He looked out the curved window for a second as she contemplated her answer.

"I had a nightmare a few days before the accident," Charlie answered. Kirk looked at her, remembering that day for entirely different reasons.

"I know," he said. Charlie's head snapped up to look at him.

"You do?" she asked. Kirk nodded.

"I ran into Chekov as he was leaving your room that morning," Kirk said. "He told me that you had had a nightmare but didn't tell me what it was about."

"It was about the accident," Charlie said. "The details were different from what actually happened, but it was very similar."

"What was the same?" Kirk asked.

"My broken arm," Charlie answered. "Chekov being in the medical ward. His heart flat-lined in the dream too."

"Did he die?" Kirk asked. "In the dream, I mean."

"I woke up," Charlie said. "I don't know if he would have or not. I didn't dream about it after that. What do you think that means?"

"The dream?" Kirk asked. Charlie nodded. "I'm not sure. I don't know if it means anything special. But I'm glad that it turned out better in the end."

"Me too," Charlie agreed.

"Me as well," Kirk and Charlie heard. They turned and saw Chekov standing in the entrance to the observation window room. He was still in his hospital scrubs, but had a jacket on over it. He walked over and sat next to Charlie.

"Thanks for not saying anything about the dream before," Charlie told Chekov. "No offense, Captain, but I wasn't really in the mood for someone to know that I had a little nightmare. Chekov only knew because he came to see if I was alright." Kirk nodded and stood.

"I'll give you some time to hang out together," he said. Charlie and Chekov watched him get up and walk away from them. Kirk almost made it to the doorway when he turned back and looked at Chekov put an arm around Charlie while she rested her head on his shoulder. Chekov took Charlie's left arm in his hands and stroked it as he talked to her. Kirk thought he was probably asking if her arm was feeling better. He watched Charlie lift her head off Chekov's shoulder to nod and smile at him.

Kirk watched as Chekov turned Charlie around to face the window. He drew himself closer to her and began to point out constellations and galaxies that they could see from the window. Kirk let out a large sigh and finally turned from the sight of the two young officers and walked away from the observation window.

On his way back to the mess hall, Kirk ran into Uhura. Uhura's brow furrowed at the look on the captain's face. After steering him into the mess hall, Uhura sat him down and put a piece of chocolate cake in front of him.

"What's going on?" she asked. Kirk picked at the cake with his fork before looking back up at the lieutenant.

"Are Charlie and Chekov dating?" Kirk asked Uhura. "I know that you and Charlie chat and hang out. I figured you would know."

"They're not," Uhura answered. "And even if they were, I wouldn't tell you if Charlie didn't want me to."

"And if I ordered you to as the captain?" Kirk asked.

"No," Uhura answered. "She's a friend and I wouldn't do that. She knew I was pregnant and didn't say anything to you about it. I would return the favor. Why are you asking about them?"

"I'm worried about the crew officers becoming involved with each other," Kirk said. "We are going to be out here for a while and I don't want any of my command staff not speaking if something goes wrong."

"Is that why you're really asking?"

"Is it wrong to be jealous of a kid?" Kirk asked. Uhura grinned.

"You're jealous of Chekov?" she asked.

"Actually, I'm jealous of Charlie," Kirk said. "There's nothing I wouldn't give to be with that Russian."

"Seriously, Kirk," Uhura said. "Are you jealous of him?"

"A bit."

"He's a good kid, though," Uhura told him. "You can't be hard on him because he's not doing this intentionally. We don't know how he feels or how she feels. And if I've learned anything in life, I've learned that you can't help feelings. Charlie can't help it if she likes Chekov and not you. It would be the same if she liked you and not Chekov. She can't help it."

"Like you can't help loving Spock."

"Exactly."

"Just know that she doesn't mean any harm. She probably doesn't even realize the situation that she's unwittingly in," Uhura explained. "She probably has no idea how you or Chekov feels. I don't even know how she feels about either of you. She could be in love with the head of security for all we know."

"Cupcake?" Kirk asked. Uhura laughed. "I seriously doubt that. I guess I can do a bit more to lay up on Chekov. It's not his fault and it's not hers either."

"And it's not yours," Uhura reminded him. "Just let things run their course. Besides I thought you went for the green girls."

Kirk grinned.

"I am rather partial to green."

"That's what we'll do then," Uhura planned. "We'll go find you a nice green girl." Kirk laughed.

"Sounds like a plan."

***

"Are you sure you are allowed to drink now?" Charlie heard Sulu ask as he looked up from the table they were sharing in the mess hall. Charlie turned to look at the door and saw Chekov walking toward them with his chessboard in one hand and a bottle of vodka in the other. Charlie was slightly startled by his appearance as he was dressed in civilian clothes rather than the standard officer's uniform or the hospital scrubs he had been wearing as of late. He sat down next to Charlie and put the board and bottle on the table.

"I talked to McCoy and he said that I should be fine," Chekov said. "I even asked if I was allowed to drink and he told me that I would be better not to but it wouldn't do much harm." Sulu laughed.

"You two have fun," Sulu said.

"You're going to leave?" Charlie asked. "Stick around."

"Yeah. Make sure Charlie doesn't cheat," Chekov said. Sulu sighed and relented.

"Sure," he said. "Switch seats with me, Chekov." Chekov nodded and he and Sulu switched seats.

While Sulu watched Charlie and Chekov play chess in the mess hall, Spock was occupying a nearly empty bridge. He listened to transmissions over and over from the day of the accident. He checked something on his data pad before listening to the transmission once more. He turned to Kirk, who was sitting in the captain's chair, staring at nothing.

"Captain," Spock said, standing up and walking toward Kirk.

"What?" Kirk asked absently.

"The accident was no accident," Spock said. "I've translated the transmission that was heard seconds before we impacted with the asteroid belt."

"And?" Kirk asked.

"It's in Klingon," Spock answered.

"What did the transmission say?" Kirk asked.

"They are trying to rid the ship from existence," Spock said.

"Any particular reason why?" Kirk asked. Spock shook his head.

"I've been unable to detect any reason in the transmission. All that was heard was the confirmation of our ship's location followed by the order to destroy it."

"And now that they failed?" Kirk asked.

"I don't know," Spock said. "Should we go back to the Academy? With the damage sustained from the accident, we are still not able to survive a fight with a Klingon war ship."

"We could do," Kirk said. "I need to talk to a navigator and an engineer."

"Try the mess hall," Spock said. Kirk nodded.

Down in the mess hall, Sulu was laughing at Charlie's latest defeat in chess as she took a swig from the vodka bottle. The trio looked up to see Kirk and Spock coming into the mess hall.

"Captain," Chekov greeted. "Have you come to watch me defeat Charlie in an epic chess battle?"

"No," Kirk answered. "I have a couple of questions for the both of you. It's about work." Charlie screwed the top of the vodka bottle back onto the bottle and turned to face Spock and Kirk as they pulled up chairs to the table.

"What can we do for you?" she asked.

"Spock just translated a transmission in Klingon about orders to attack the ship," Kirk explained. "That was what happened in the accident. It wasn't really an accident. I want to know if we can survive a fight with them."

"Now?" Charlie asked. "If we were to get into a fight with them now it would be detrimental to the ship and the crew. We can't survive anything soon."

"When could we?" Kirk asked.

"It depends," Charlie said. "There's still a lot of work to be done and we weren't aware of an impending attack on the ship before. We were taking our time getting things back together. We were going without parts that we thought we could get at a later date. We're going to need to get to a space station or go back to Starfleet if you want to give us ample time to prepare the ship for a fight."

"When could we?" Kirk repeated.

"If we don't get to a station or go back to Starfleet, we wouldn't be ready by the time the Klingons want to attack again," Charlie said. "If we get back to Starfleet, we only have to wait a couple of weeks, three at the most, to get back in the air."

"How quickly can we get back to Starfleet?" Kirk asked Chekov.

"After we contact Starfleet it would take three minutes to warp back there and then about another two hours to get back through the atmosphere and back to the command post," Chekov answered.

"What is the possibility of the Klingons knowing?" Kirk asked. Looks were exchanged around the table.

"Probably very likely," Charlie asked. "We could throw them off if we set up a trap. It would be quite dangerous and potentially deadly."

"How do we do that?" Kirk asked. "What does it entail?"

"We would need help from a renegade crew and some help from someone on the ground," Charlie answered. "I know just who to call."

Kirk looked at Spock and then back at Charlie. He nodded and watched as Charlie pulled out her communicator. She dialed coordinates and waited for the person to pick up the call.

"Mom," she said. "It's Charlotte. Is Dad there?"

Those around the table looked at Charlie after she said those words. She kept her eyes on the table.