Chapter 13- Comfort

The halls were unusually dim, I wondered if there was a power failure. There was a creepy, uneasy feeling in the air that usually didn't exist on the Enterprise. It was so real, the fear so palpable I thought I was going to die. Literally. I shook my head and told myself I was being illogical. Whatever problem there was, no doubt Jim knew about it and Scotty was working quickly to get it fixed. No need to worry, I always felt safe here. Still, I found myself half crouching while I walked and staying near the walls. When I turned a corner, I saw the wall smeared with blood. Was I on deck 5? If so, sickbay wasn't where it was supposed to be and that was odd.

A few more steps and I saw what looked like a rubber Halloween mask laying on the floor. I picked it up and thought it strange that it looked like Sulu. Who would want to dress up as him aside from maybe Chekov? I let it drop and continued down the hall and around another corner where I found a female security officer. I straightened and asked her if she knew what was going on, but she didn't respond. She seemed to be focused on something straight ahead.

I turned to see Spock with a grim look on his face. His eyes were unusually dark, in fact they were completely black. I opened my mouth to say something to him, but he acted as if she were the only one he could see. Slowly and deliberately he reached forward and curled his fingers under the woman's skin just under her hairline. In one deft move, he jerked down and peeled her entire face off, leaving nothing but her muscles and tendons exposed as she looked at me and screamed.

All of a sudden I was aware that I couldn't breathe. I thrashed and willed my limbs to move enough to support my weight and I sat up gasping for air and unable to scream although I desperately wanted to. My entire body was shaking and I couldn't get the image of that woman's face out of my head. It was only when McCoy sat up next to me in bed that I realized it was just a dream. He lightly placed his hand on my shoulder and whispered in hushed tones, "It's ok, it's over now, darlin'. It was just a dream. Shhh, it's ok now." He gently ran his hand across my shaking shoulders and looked intently at me. "Do you wanna tell me about it?"

My throat was so dry, my voice cracked when I spoke. "Spock. He was killing people."

He frowned. "Spock was?"

"Yeah." I swallowed. My breaths were finally becoming slower and I could feel my heart not pounding quite as hard. "His eyes were completely black and he was ripping people's faces off." I saw him raise his eyebrows and I read his expression by the dim light to say 'yeah, that would be pretty damn scary.'

"Well, it was just a dream. I think we both know that Spock wouldn't do that. It was probably caused by your fever." He said soothingly letting his hand drop in order to retrieve his scanner. "Temperature is down to 100.2, but your heart is still racing like you ran a marathon." He flipped the device shut and tossed it back on the dresser. "You should try to get some more sleep."

"I don't want to." I stated wide eyed. The last thing I wanted to do was to close my eyes and see what was left of that woman's face screaming at me again.

"Are you still scared?" He asked in a slightly guilty tone as though it was his fault I couldn't drop right back off.

"Yes." I admitted. "I know it is silly."

"Nah. Come here." He motioned for me to lay down close to him and I couldn't think of anything I wanted more in that moment.

"Are you sure? I don't want…." I began.

He gently grabbed my shoulders and pulled me down to his chest, snaking his arm around my back. "We have an agreement, right? I take care of you and you take care of me. Don't think anything more about it. Just relax and try to get some sleep." I settled into his shoulder and listened to his heart gently thump a steady rhythm and the light 'swoosh' sound of air as it filled his lungs with every breath. The heat from his body melted the tension and fear I was frozen with. I told myself it was ok, just this once. I might never admit it to him, but I was horribly frightened by that dream and it was comforting to be so close to him. But just this once, I promised myself. After this we will go back to the status quo.

When I woke up again, he was already awake but staring at the ceiling for lack of freedom of movement because at some point I had slung my leg over his and was now practically laying on him. "Hey," he greeted me when I stirred, "feeling better?"

Once I realized my predicament, I blushed. "I'm so sorry, McCoy. I shouldn't have…"

"Not another word, you hear?" He placed the back of his hand to my forehead and said, "Feels like your fever has gone down."

I wiped at my eyes lazily. "I just feel wiped out."

"Yeah, that's what happens when you use all your energy to crank up the heat like a convection oven to kill whatever you picked up. I hate to do this, but I have to get up." He sighed.

"Why?" I asked petulantly. "I am comfortable."

He chuckled and replied, "To get water for you to drink before you get dehydrated and for other more personal reasons. But I will be back and you can get comfy again if you like." I allowed him to get up and he brought a glass of water. "Now I want that all gone by the time I get back." He instructed. It was an awfully big glass and I wondered if he planned on returning the next day. He was back in a flash and I hadn't even got through one quarter of it even though I tried. He took it and placed it on the table and I realized he was just kidding and I felt a little cheated. He stretched and pulled up a chair to sit by the bed. "I hope you don't mind, but I am getting to old to lay in one spot like that."

"Yeah, those couple extra years must be devastating." I mocked with a smile.

He slumped in his chair and smirked. In his pajamas and stylishly messy hair he looked like a GQ model and I looked away. I really shouldn't think of him that way. I lay there staring at the ceiling until I noted, "It's raining."

He casually looked out the window and said, "Yep. It has been for a few hours and it doesn't look like it is going to let up for awhile."

I sighed in contentment. "I love the sound of rain and thunderstorms."

"Boy, for a city girl you sure do love nature." He observed with a squint. His southern accent slipped out a bit thicker than usual and it sounded strange.

"I haven't always lived in the city." I protested. "I probably have more in common with you than you think. My family is also from the South, but they were hillbillies and not the more gentrified Rhett Butler southerners like yours I am guessing."

He scowled. "Rhett Butler? I haven't heard that one in awhile. So then you probably enjoyed Jim's concert in the cells."

"My family was from the South, I was raised in the North. Don't get me wrong, I still love soup beans and cornbread as well as the next guy. When I used to visit, I loved to sit on the back porch of my relative's house in the Appalachian mountains and listen to the wildlife. If you got up early enough you could hear mountain lions, turkeys, wild pigs, hawks, and rarely you could hear bears. Early morning was wonderful because fog would hang low on the mountains like a blanket across the valleys. I used to go hiking and loved to sit by the rivers and just look around at all the beautiful things that nature had placed on the Earth. I kind of miss that."

"Me too." He agreed quietly in a somber tone. "My family did own a plantation style house funny enough outside of Atlanta, so I grew up with acres of fields, orchards, and streams. I could spend all day climbing trees, chasing bullfrogs and fishing. I wish I could go back, everything was so much simpler then." He paused to reflect on his memories. "What about you?"

"Go back?" I asked raising my eyebrows. "No."

He looked up at me and noted, "That was pretty emphatic. Why?"

I sighed and shook my head. "No, McCoy. You don't want to know. You don't like horror stories, remember?"

"I don't, but we all have to do things that we don't like from time to time." He said sitting forward in his chair and focusing his green eyes on me with laser precision. "If not me then who?"

"Nobody." I shrugged. "What's done is done and there is no need to rehash it. It's not important."

"Wow." He spat. "You would never let me get away with that bullshit if I tried. And people think I am a hypocrite." My eyes went wide. "That's right, I said it." He stated holding my gaze fiercely. "Why the double standard? What are you hiding?"

"You want to talk double standards, why is it you…"

"This isn't about me." He coolly retorted, "It's about you and your refusal to answer a point blank question. Now what happened that you want to forget your life so badly?"

I bit my lip in sheer frustration and anger. I didn't want to have this conversation ever with anyone. "Fine." I growled. "I will tell you only as much as you need to know as my doctor, but you also have to know what led up to that point."

"That is all I ask." He said softly, he features relaxing. "All I want is for you to trust me as much as you want me to trust you." Goddamn it, he had a point.