A/N: Hello! I'm so sorry I made you all wait longer for this chapter than I'd originally intended. I had a lovely Thanksgiving holiday and in the meantime was focused on finishing Nanowrimo, which I won two days early!

I hope you enjoy this chapter! Feel free to leave feedback :)

Chapter 6 – You Have My Eyes Now

Khan held Madelyn tightly under his arm, carefully pulling her barely conscious body from the cab outside her flat. He checked her sluggish pulse again, and was only satisfied because it had steadied.

Kelly rushed out of the flat to meet him, stuttering through a string of worried thoughts, and followed him inside as he laid Madelyn in her bed. Annoyed at the girl's persistence, Khan asked her to retrieve a first aid kit and then he ushered her from the room, reassuring her that Madelyn was going to be fine.

And she was going to be fine, but for now Khan needed a blood sample. Whatever was running through Madelyn's veins had done a fine job of knocking her out. Too fine of a job for someone whose slender wrist hadn't cracked in his grip. The drug could have been a variant of a highly concentrated Flunitrazepam, but he would need to take a sample to a lab to have it tested. He needed to find out what had done this to her, and who had administered it, and once he had done that, he would confirm his suspicions about her lineage.

He sat on the bed beside her and rolled up her sweater sleeve to her elbow. Then he filled the syringe from her vein, carefully packed it away in an insulated tin and slipped it into his coat pocket. He rolled her sleeve down, then felt for her pulse again. It had stabilized and was not as faint as it had been before. She would most likely wake up in a few hours.

Upon seeing Madelyn stumble back into the restaurant after taking her call, Khan knew immediately that something was wrong. Anger had quickly overcome him as he hailed a cab to take her home, and he berated himself for not considering that there was still someone out there with potentially harmful intentions for Madelyn. He immediately ruled out the wine; he would have noticed the difference. There was the possibility that someone in Starfleet was trying to send him a message, or that Commander Gallagher had something to do with it due to his personal sentiment regarding Madelyn. Khan ruled him out as well when he considered that Owen would never intentionally harm her, nor would he have ever known to use such a strong dosage. One dose of an average date rape drug was far too small to knock someone like her out so completely; it could cause a slight headache maybe, but not total unconsciousness. No, whoever had done this knew who Madelyn really was, which meant they potentially knew who Khan was as well. They could also potentially be responsible for the murder of William McGivers.

Her grip on his coat in the cab had receded and he'd kept a gentle hand on her neck, feeling for her pulse, ready to act at the slightest waver in her vital signs. Instead, she'd mumbled something incoherent and drifted off to sleep with her head against his shoulder.

Someone had been watching him, and watching her, and they were one step ahead of him tonight. Khan never let anyone get a step ahead of him and this action, taken directly in his face, was an outrage.

The worst part was he could do nothing about it, because Admiral Marcus had him under surveillance ninety percent of the time. However, he was certain he could continue to keep Madelyn close to him without Marcus getting suspicious, but he would need to keep her even closer than she already was. After the incident tonight, he knew it wouldn't be hard to pursue her the way he wanted.

Despite his inability to tell her the truth, Khan knew this wouldn't be too difficult. She'd given him clear signs of being interested in him. He would treat their relationship as a casual affair for now; that was what John Harrison would do. Perhaps later, she could become something more useful. If she was genetically a part of his family, then she could contribute to it as well.

Regarding his plan to smuggle his crew to safety in the torpedoes he'd designed for Marcus, Khan was confident everything was falling seamlessly into place. In a few months time he would have his crew, a ship of his own design, and Madelyn.

When Madelyn opened her eyes to the darkness of her bedroom, she tried to sit up and was sacked with a throbbing headache. She groaned and lay back for a minute, pinching the bridge of her nose as though that would help. She felt like she had a hangover, but she couldn't recall having too much to drink.

As her headache ebbed, the events of the night before came rushing back to her in blurry bits and pieces. She'd gone out to meet John, they'd shared some wine, Owen had abruptly shown up and ruffled feathers, and then just as he'd stormed away without punching John in the face, Kelly had called because Madelyn had forgotten to turn off her communicator.

After that, things were hazier. She remembered walking out of the restaurant, talking to Kelly a bit about something unimportant, and then she'd begun to feel sick. She must have passed out at some point after that. She vaguely recalled John's face as she stumbled towards him, then suddenly realized he'd probably been the one to bring her home in this state.

Her face grew hot as she thought about what she must have looked like.

But damn. That had been the worst first date ever.

Feeling less like she'd been run over by a starship, Madelyn swung her feet around to the floor and carefully sat up, noticing the time on the clock by her bed read 7 am. She groaned again. Assuming she hadn't slept through the day, today was Tuesday and she had to teach in two hours.

She quickly dialed Naomi at the university and had her class canceled. It was the first time all semester she'd needed to do this, so she wasn't worried about her reputation. Besides, finals were coming up and she was sure her students would appreciate the break to study, or sleep.

When Naomi asked her if she was alright, Madelyn brushed it off, said she'd had a rough night, and that she'd be fine. She didn't want to go into the details when she wasn't half sure herself of what had happened.

She took a long shower and felt a little better after that. Her head still hurt though, so she lay back down with some hot tea. Kelly came in to check on her and Madelyn tried to brush her off too, but her roommate wasn't having it.

"Do you know who drugged you?"

Madelyn gave her a second look. "What makes you think I was drugged?"

"John. He brought you home last night, made sure you were alright. He said you'd been drugged. You should call him, Maddy. Maybe he knows who did it."

Madelyn glanced over at her communicator when it buzzed on the bed. "I may not have to," she said, half to herself. John's name flickered on the device's small screen. She ignored Kelly's knowing look and answered it.

"Hey."

"I would have stayed there with you, but Admiral Marcus needed me."

"Don't worry about it," she replied. "I only have a massive hangover."

"You were drugged, Madelyn."

She bit her tongue at his tone to keep from responding sarcastically again.

"There were traces of a highly concentrated substance in your blood I've never seen before."

"You took my blood while I was unconscious?"

"It was necessary. I needed to know who did this to you."

"Did you figure it out?"

There was a pause. "No."

She had a suspicion but she didn't want to admit it and she couldn't even believe she was considering this. "Well," she said after a moment. "Thanks for bringing me home."

"Madelyn, I know what you're thinking, but it wasn't Owen."

"Why would I be thinking that?" she lied. Damn, he was good at reading her, even without seeing her face.

"Given what he said to us both at the restaurant, I assumed you would suspect his involvement."

Madelyn rolled her lips together in thought. "I guess he wouldn't go that far. He doesn't want me to get hurt."

"I can assure you I will never hurt you."

She smiled a bit. "I know."

"When you're feeling better, I'd like to see you again. Today if that's possible. I'm leaving again for the Io Facility tomorrow and I don't know how long I'll be gone."

"Oh, well, sure." Madelyn forced herself to sit up to see how she was feeling, groaning faintly when her head throbbed. "What about lunch? I could meet you today—

"Perhaps it would be better if you stayed home. I'll stop by later."

"Oh, alright. I guess I'll see you later then."

"Yes. In the meantime, I want you to rest."

Madelyn lay back in the sheets. "Doing so now. Oh, John. Thank you."

"I'll see you later."

He ended the call and Madelyn pulled a blanket over herself and slowly drifted back to sleep.

When she woke a few hours later, Kelly was gone, and so was her headache. Madelyn forced herself out of bed, feeling slightly better than she had felt before she'd gone to sleep at seven in the morning. The sun was shining through the apartment's windows, and the floor was freezing cold. Feeling cold and weak, Madelyn slipped on a sweater over her tank top and socks over her leggings and went into the kitchen to grab something to eat.

There was a knock on the front door and she wondered why John would show up so early, but when she opened it she was taken by surprise.

"Owen."

He stood there sheepishly his hands in his jacket pockets. "Hey Maddy. Um, Kelly told me about what happened last night."

"Kelly told you." Madelyn leaned on the doorjamb, her tongue in her cheek. "Right. Well, come in." She turned away from the door and grabbed her plate of eggs from the counter, sitting down at the kitchen table. Owen stood there for a moment, glancing around the apartment, then joined her reluctantly.

"So, are you alright?" he asked.

She nodded wordlessly, spooning scrambled eggs into her mouth with a blank expression.

"I'm sorry about last night. I may have overreacted," he said.

Madelyn gave him a look.

"Look I'm just worried about you seeing him, alright?"
She frowned. "Why? I thought you said Kelly told you about last night."

"You don't think John was responsible?"

"Owen, he was inside the restaurant when I started feeling bad. He brought me home."

"You hardly know him."

"What do you have against him?"

He sighed. "It's complicated."

Madelyn worried on her lower lip, considering why he'd say something so vague. John hadn't given her a single reason to suspect he had negative intentions; in fact everything he had done for so far had been comforting in a way that made her want to be with him. Owen could still be jealous, and was just trying to compensate for his behavior last night. That would explain why he was still trying to convince her not to spend time with John.

She reached over and put a hand on his arm, gazing at him firmly. "You know I've said this before, but I'll say it again because you need to understand. You're my friend. I trust you, but lately you've been acting like I'm putting distance between us, and it's really making me wonder about you." She was tempted to include John's comment about his "instability," but decided it would be better to leave John out of this wherever possible. "I don't want to lose your friendship over this, Owen."

Owen looked down at her hand and smiled faintly, then he took it in his. "And I just want what's best for you. After William died, I felt like I needed to be responsible for you."

"I understand," she said, nodding. "But maybe what's best for us both is to move on. We're not kids anymore. You need to let me make my own choices when it comes to my relationships."

She saw his jaw clench and then he let her hand go. She felt as though a slight burden had been lifted off her shoulders, but she didn't see that in Owen's face. In fact, all she saw was tension.

"You know I'm not happy about this, Maddy. I care about you. If you want to spend your time with him, all I have to say is to be careful. He's not who you think he is."

"And who is he? You said yourself I barely know him." Funny, John had said the same thing, she thought.

"Like I said, it's complicated. Doesn't matter for now, I suppose. We're leaving for more work off-planet tomorrow. Maybe it's for the best." He stared down at the tabletop. "But Marcus is transferring me to San Francisco after we get back, maybe through the end of March."

"Oh. So this could be good for your career."

Owen nodded, drumming his fingers on the tabletop.

"I'm happy for you," she said.

"It's just a transfer. San Francisco is Starfleet headquarters. This isn't anything to be excited about."

Actually it is, because this means he won't be in London for a while. Madelyn kept her expression neutral despite the thoughts whirling through her head. "Come on, don't be such a downer on yourself."

He smiled again. "Can I be honest with you about something?"

She nodded.

"When I realized you were spending time with Commander Harrison, I got really jealous. It made me realize how I felt about you, Maddy. I found myself talking about you all the time when I was near him. I thought I could make him jealous that I knew so much about you, because we're friends."

Madelyn held his gaze, listening intently.

"I was jealous of how quickly you'd accepted him into your life, and I still can't say I'm going to support you. I don't like him. I've never liked him, actually, and I don't like who he is or what he claims he's doing. If I said anything more, I could be dishonorably discharged for revealing classified intelligence." He chuckled for a moment, then grew serious again. "I don't care what he's done for you or what he tells you. You can't trust him. Like I said before, you need to be careful."

Madelyn was shocked by his honesty, but a piece of her suspected he was catering to her sense of their relationship. Regardless of what he claimed, she knew there would always be a part of Owen that cared for her in another way.

"You obviously don't know the side of him that I know," she said. "But I guess that shouldn't surprise me, given some of the things he's said about you. Please don't take anything personally. I really appreciate your honesty. I just hope we're not leaving this on the wrong foot."

Owen nodded. She could see in his eyes that he was hurt, but there was nothing she could do about that. He'd done that to himself.

Madelyn stood up with him and walked him to the door, keeping a slight distance from him in case he tried something. Not that she expected he would.

"I'll be flying out tomorrow," he said. "You don't have to say goodbye, but just give me a call sometime, let me know how you're doing."

She offered him a shielded smile. "I will."

He nodded, appearing less sure of himself than ever as he left the apartment. He looked back at her twice before he disappeared down the corridor, but Madelyn was relieved he was gone and would be staying gone, hopefully for several months.

She went back inside and texted Kelly, berating her for blabbing to Owen about something Madelyn felt was a private matter. At least Owen had acted reasonably today. Last night, she wasn't sure what had gotten into him, and even after he'd explained himself, she still wasn't sure she believed him.

A few hours later, after grading some last minute assignments from a few students, Madelyn was feeling stronger and stronger. Her headache was completely gone and she no longer felt as weak as she had earlier. Of course it could have been her coffee.

She jumped when the door opened suddenly and John walked into the room.

"It was unlocked," he said, probably noticing her look of suprise.

She smiled faintly as he crossed the room slowly, his eyes dropping briefly to her work on the table. Why was it that every time she was with him she felt like he scrutinized her every action? It was as though he didn't want to miss anything.

"Owen came by this morning," she said, gathering up her PADDs. "He wanted to apologize for last night."

"Were you alright with him being here?" he asked.

She stood up with her mug of coffee and armful of PADDs and headed towards her bedroom. "It was fine. He was fine." She put the PADDs away and when she turned, John's expression was completely unreadable, as usual.

"You don't want to tell me the truth. I see. What did he say?"

Madelyn pursed her lips and headed past him, back into the kitchen and for the refrigerator. "Do you want anything?"

"No."

She sighed as she hid her face behind the fridge door, her fingers grazing idly among various containers of drinks. "He told me what I already knew. That he has feelings for me, that he cares about me. Don't get me wrong, he's still my friend, but I think I might have hurt him."

Her throat began to tighten. She hadn't realized it would affect her so personally.

"You did what needed to be done," he replied, his voice noticeably nearer than it had been.

Why was this so hard to do? She thought she'd accomplished something by subtly telling Owen to back off, giving him the hint in a nice way. Instead, knowing that she'd hurt him had only hurt her as well. She was still afraid she was going to lose him.

She shut the fridge and turned to see John standing far more closely to her than she was expecting. She hadn't even heard him walk over. She fingered her cold coffee mug and took a long sip, feeling his eyes on her every movement.

"He said a lot of things about you, but I didn't believe him," she said after a moment. "He's just playing a jealousy game."

"What did he say?" John repeated, softly, almost as though he was purring. Madelyn swallowed at his proximity. She had to tilt her chin up to look at him now. She suddenly didn't have the courage to say any of this out loud when she was just coming to grips with it herself.

"All the same things," she answered. "That you're dangerous, that I shouldn't trust you and all that. He's convinced and he won't tell me why. Maybe it's just his way of coping, I don't know…"

Madelyn trailed off, not wanting to talk about it anymore, her eyes landing on his lips more than once. He was so close to her she could feel the warmth emanating from him, in stark contrast to the cold fridge she found herself backed up against.

"But you know I trust you," she added quickly. She glanced down when John's hand wrapped around her mug, pulled it out of her grip and set it down on the counter beside her, subsequently taking her hand in his and gently holding it against the counter so that if she'd wanted to move, she couldn't. "Remind me why you wanted to come over today," she murmured.

"I'm leaving tomorrow for an undisclosed amount of time," he said quietly, sliding his fingers up her wrist, pushing away the sleeve of her sweater so his thumb could slide across her skin. "After last night, I thought you would want to see me again."

Madelyn looked back up at him, biting hard on the inside of her lip until she winced. "About last night, by the way. Thank you." Her voice was instinctively quieter because of his proximity. "If I'd been alone, who knows what could've happened…"

She saw his eyes flit away from hers for a second just long enough for her to make the decision that she wanted to do this.

"Let's not dwell on what might have been," John murmured.

His voice was so low she swallowed. She rolled her lips together to moisten them, then promptly rose up on her toes and pressed her lips to his. He responded to her immediately, tightening his fingers around her palm, sliding his other hand around her waist. Madelyn reached up and wrapped her free arm around his neck, pulling him down so she didn't have to strain to reach his mouth. His lips were soft and warm and gentle. It was the first time she'd kissed anyone like this since before her husband died, and it was fantastic.

John pressed her back against the fridge, his hand on her waist bunching up her sweater. She fought to breath and took his lips again, her heartbeat speeding up when he shifted, pressing her up against the fridge, his body preventing her from escaping if she'd wanted to. His hand released hers and skirted up her arm and over her shoulder, sliding around her neck, his fingers tangling in her hair, his thumb brushing her cheek. She was getting lost in the way his mouth fit against hers, the way his tongue slid between her lips and made her suck in a breath.

The sound of the front door being opened tore Madelyn back to reality. They broke apart, but John's hand still cupped her face. His eyes dipped to her lips even when Kelly passed by. The blonde paused to look at them, then hurried away wordlessly into the apartment.

Madelyn realized how hard she was breathing. She bit her bottom lip, frustrated with Kelly's untimely arrival, and because of the way John was still touching her despite the interruption.

Kissing him had kindled something inside her that she'd forgotten she had. She'd known she was attracted to him, but this… this was a whole new level of need. She swallowed as John's hand slid away from her cheek and down her neck, his thumb tracing the contours of her throat until it reached her collarbone, and then he hesitantly pulled away.

It probably wasn't a good idea. It would be too much too soon, and if she tried to start something now, there was no telling if either of them would be able to turn back. Plus Kelly was home, and that could get awkward.

Madelyn straightened and took a breath, running her fingers through her hair. "That was, um… that was good." She found herself smiling because she sounded like an idiot. "I haven't done that in a while," she said quietly. She realized his other hand was still around her waist, and fought the urge to pounce on him all over again. She wondered if she could slide away from between him and the fridge without making it seem awkward, and then his communicator went off.

She saw his jaw clench when he read the message, and then he took a step back, giving her some space. A wave of disappointment crashed over her.

"Marcus changed his plans on me again," he said quietly, looking back at her. "Stay in contact with me in case anything happens."

Madelyn nodded knowingly. She didn't want a repeat event of last night.

She hoped he would reach out and take her hand or give her another kiss. Instead he quietly and quickly exited the apartment, throwing her a look that made her even more frustrated.

The moment the door clicked shut, Kelly burst into the room. Madelyn didn't get but a second to breathe normally.

"You don't have to say anything, I could completely tell. You kissed!" The blonde was practically squealing. "Who kissed who first though? That's important, Maddy."

She didn't answer, recalling that she'd kissed him first, and couldn't think of why that was important.

"Are you going to keep seeing him? I mean, Owen told me some pretty nasty things the other day—"

Madelyn held up a hand in Kelly's face. "Don't believe a word that comes out of that man's mouth. He's got issues and he's not giving them up any time soon, that's all I know for sure."

Kelly was quiet and seemed a bit hurt. Madelyn sighed.

"I didn't mean that, I just…" she paused seeing Kelly's chiding expression. "Oh, nevermind.

"I'm happy for you," Kelly said with a smile. "He seems like a good guy."

Madelyn returned her look, biting her lip again as she played the kiss over in her mind. The first of many more to come, she hoped.

The taste of coffee lingered in Khan's mouth as he quickly left Madelyn's apartment. That had not been unexpected, but all the same, the fact that she had made the first move surprised him. He shouldn't have been surprised; he merely wasn't used to women being so forward in his presence.

If Madelyn knew who he really was, she probably never would have kissed him like that. Therein lay his advantage, but he knew in the future his deception would have consequences. A problem he would have to wait to address.

Marcus' timing was no less frustrating, but Khan had no choice other than to submit. After eight months of practical slavery, tolerated only for the sake of his crew, he'd grown accustomed to a lack of volition while pretending to respect Marcus. It was a necessary charade to mask his true intentions, the finalization of which was rapidly approaching.

His torpedoes were practically complete, ready to securely house his crew. Depending upon his location when the time approached, he could have them beamed directly onto the Vengeance, or to a safe location unknown to Starfleet, an abandoned underground bunker in the western United States originally constructed for use during the Eugenics Wars, and used by both sides. Once his crew was awake and had regained their strength, he would exact vengeance on Admiral Marcus and the rest of Starfleet for allowing these things to befall his people in the first place.

Those were the first necessary steps to be taken. After that, his plans would depend on the response received from Starfleet.

For now, he waited, he worked submissively for Marcus, and with mounting frustration, he attempted to uncover the identity of the person responsible for drugging Madelyn and killing her grandfather. Whoever they were, they'd done a remarkable job of covering their tracks.

If Madelyn worked for Starfleet, he could have found a way to bring her with him or get her reassigned to Section 31, anything to keep her within his reach. Instead, he'd settled with hiring one of 31's agents to trail her, a request easily kept under Marcus' radar. She would be fine while he was away.