Chapter 35- The 411
The first time I tried to sit up, I feared I had undone everything McCoy had worked on. Admittedly, I had stopped taking the pain meds because I absolutely hated the disembodied feeling that came with it, and I didn't really ask if I could move yet. It had only been about a day and a half since Pavel had rescued me, but it seemed like ages ago with all the drifting in and out of consciousness and whatnot. Drugs have a way of screwing up a person's perception of time; not that mine was really ever any good to begin with. I think I was the only person on the ship that wore a watch. How everyone else just seemed to know what time it was remained a complete mystery to me.
"Are you ok, Doctor?" Pavel asked looking up from his PADD. He was already sitting up and I was a little disappointed that he beat me to it.
"Never been better." I gasped struggling to prop myself up on my elbows. It was a small achievement, but to me it felt like climbing Everest. "How are you?" I asked once I caught my breath.
He smiled a little and replied, "I vas hoping to be released today, but the nurse said Dr. McCoy vas busy."
I gave a dry chuckle. "Which means he is asleep in his office."
It had apparently never occurred to him that the nurse was speaking in code, but at least he found it somewhat humorous. It wasn't like he was going to leave sickbay and go to work on the bridge anyway; he knew as well as I that he would be discharged with a medical leave so there was no point in being in a hurry. He turned his attention back to his PADD and began tapping buttons furiously with a determined look on his face. After a few minutes, he tossed it with a defeated sigh.
By this time I had managed to fully extend my arms behind my back. I felt like the tortoise racing a hare, but slow and steady would win the day and something told me I shouldn't go too fast. To be honest, something told me I shouldn't be attempting at all, but not all voices in one's head were worth listening to. "What are you doing?" I asked nodding toward his discarded PADD.
"Doom 7. Sulu brought it for me so I could pass the time. Stupid game cheats." He sulked glaring at it with loathing. I tried to laugh, but it hurt too much. "Maybe you should lie down. If Dr. McCoy sees you he vill be wery angry." He suggested tentatively.
"Well, I am kind of committed here." I smiled trying to pull myself backwards enough to reach the controls for the bed so I could sit up. "And he will get over it." Pavel's eyes went wide as he looked just over my shoulder. My heart sank deeply in my chest. "He's standing back there, isn't he?" It really wasn't so much a question as it was a foregone conclusion. Pavel gave a small nod and I sighed in defeat.
The sound of slow and deliberate footsteps approached, dragging out the anticipation of the wrath that I knew was going to be aimed at me. He came to a stop between our beds, arms folded tightly and a wearing a particularly deep scowl. "What the hell do you think you are doing?" He asked in a measured, low voice. I closed my eyes and started chuckling. What else could I do? I had been caught like a kid with her hand in the cookie jar and there was no plausible excuse to be made for the awkward position I was contorted in. "So this is the thanks I get for letting you wake up. The minute I turn my back you are trying to crawl away. I swear you are as bad as Jim." He scolded. "Am I going to have to put you in restraints?"
My smile faded and a small shock of fear set in. Admittedly I had little experience with being put into restraints, but the times I had were anything but positive and the thought of enduring it again induced a little panic and dread. Truthfully, I didn't know if he was joking or not and that made it worse. I knew he had done it before to Jim and others. I silently begged him not to with pleading eyes. He took a deep breath, not immediately realizing his mistake. He slowly unfolded his arms and swallowed hard. 'I'm sorry, I didn't mean it' he seemed to say. I was relieved that it was just a careless remark and forgave him with a small nod. The whole time, Pavel looked back and forth between the two of us as though he knew something was going on, but couldn't quite figure out what.
McCoy furrowed his brow and quickly turned his attention to Pavel. He examined his midsection, left thigh, and right arm before nodding solemnly. "Alright, kid. You can go, but take it easy for a few more days and don't go swashbuckling with Sulu until I say so. Got it?" Pavel nodded eagerly as he sat up and swung his legs over the side of the table with such apparent ease it made me envious. If he was in any pain he was hiding it well, but I doubted it because McCoy seemed to have a sixth sense for things like that and he could often catch even the best of them red handed. If he tilted his head slightly and squinted at you during an exam it meant he was on to you and he had a very sensitive radar. It also meant you had just earned yourself a lecture of indeterminate length and that was often worse than whatever you were attempting to hide, so it was best to just be honest with him. At least that was the conclusion I had long ago come to; Jim, however, still found sport in trying.
"Thank you wery much, Sir." Pavel said quietly gathering his things. "I feel much better."
McCoy frowned and busied himself with pretending to organize items on a nearby cart. "Yeah, yeah. Get out of my sickbay, kid." He mumbled uncomfortably.
Pavel looked at the older man in slight amusement. Even he seemed to know that in his own gruff way what he really meant was 'you're welcome.' He turned his blue eyes to me and added, "I hope you feel better soon, Dr. Morgan." I thought it funny how he could never quite just call me by my first name when he was off duty ever since that night we sat on the grass at the dorms of the Academy so long ago.
"Thank you, Pavel." I responded with a smile. "Thanks for coming for me and getting me off that ship even though you got hurt in the process." McCoy's eyes flicked toward us momentarily, but he quickly refocused on his task with renewed intensity as though he felt he shouldn't be listening. Or he felt guilty.
Pavel's eyes softened as he casually shrugged. "Pa zhall oosta. It vas the right thing to do. Ve help each other and that is the vay it is." Out of the corner of my eye I saw McCoy nod slightly in affirmation. "You helped me vhen my brother died and I help you vhen you need it. It is nothing, really."
"Pavel!" Sulu's voice exclaimed from the doorway. "I was just coming to see you. Are you leaving?"
"I'm trying to kick him out." McCoy grumbled. "The kid doesn't have sense enough to go. If he hangs around much longer I have some new medications I am dying to try out on some poor bastard."
Sulu smiled warmly at his friend and gave him a light slap on the shoulder before turning to me. "Hey, Morgan. Glad to see you are finally awake. Every time I came, you were out. How are you feeling?" He appeared to be genuinely interested and not just asking out of social custom. Sulu didn't really do pointless politeness, he generally meant every word he said.
"Better than before." I smiled. "Thanks to you guys." I decided to tell him about his specific contribution later in private; I didn't want to embarrass him. "Seeing your faces on the other side was a huge relief even though it was a little frightening being shot at."
Sulu laughed and said, "I can imagine! But we were going soft on them until Pavel could get in and out. We couldn't go full power with you on board."
His comments reminded me of the bizarre placement of the crew. "Yeah, mind filling me in on the details of the plan? Why was Uhura in Pavel's seat and why did you look like you were trying to figure out your console like it was the first time you had ever seen it?" McCoy stopped fiddling with the items on the cart and turned toward us with interest; he probably hadn't heard the whole story either.
Pavel and Sulu looked at each other and laughed loudly. "It was his fault!" Sulu accused pointing at Pavel. "Ok. So once Dr. McCoy told us what happened and that you were on the Romulan ship, we had to throw something together quick. We decided that Pavel was probably the best person to go because I had to pilot the ship and Saren already knew the Captain and Spock and would know that something was up if he didn't see them. Scotty had to stay to run the transporters and also in case we needed a miracle from engineering."
"And I was busy with the crew of the Raven." McCoy added folding his arms.
"Right, but the Captain vas already dead set against you going back anyway." Pavel replied. "But he also thought that Saren might remember that there vere two people at the front of the bridge and no one really pays attention to the back of the room because Uhura's station is not so obvious. So I gave my yellow shirt to Uhura and she sat in my chair and Spock took her earpiece so it looked like he vas also the communications officer. If Saren never saw me, he vouldn't know I vas missing." Pavel explained.
Sulu began laughing again and interjected, "And this is where I almost lost it." He struggled to subdue his reaction a little. "I mean, I know it wasn't funny with you being strapped to the table and seeing what they did to you." He frowned slightly, but slowly began cracking up again. "But it kind of was because while we were watching you on the monitor, Pavel was crawling against the wall under the screen on his hands and knees to the lift making these hilarious faces when Saren talked. I had to look hard at my station to keep from laughing my ass off."
Pavel blushed slightly at his own antics while he chuckled. I wasn't angry at him, I could appreciate the need for gallows humor in such a tense situation. "So I vent to the transporter room and vaited. The Captain told Scotty to ratchet the power to the photon banks down so he could fire at the Romulans and not destroy them. He had to damage the wessel enough to disable the sensors so they vouldn't know that I had boarded and buy time for me to find you."
"So that was why he stopped firing back even though the Romulans were throwing everything they had at the ship." I stated. "You were already on board and he didn't want to risk blowing us up with another shot."
"It was bad enough we accidently caused a hull breach with one of the shots." Sulu lamented. "We didn't know how much time we had before the life support systems failed and the two of you would be up the creek, so we waited it out until we heard from Pavel. It was a little hairy on our side because the shields began failing and we were taking hits. Spock was in the process of rerouting power from non-essential systems to the shields when we got word from Scotty that you were back and then he called for medical."
"We already knew!" McCoy defended as though his department's competency was just called into question. "My God, man! I have eyes the same as you, I saw what they did. But the lifts were on that hobgoblin's list of 'non-essential' systems and we had to climb like rats through a maze down the Jefferies tubes with all our equipment. Damn it! They cut us off at the knees and still expect us to be Johnny on the Spot!"
Sulu put his hands up in mock surrender and smiled to placate the cranky doctor, he didn't want any trouble. "And you still pulled it off, as always." He said in a conciliatory tone. McCoy narrowed his eyes at him; he didn't like being patronized in the slightest. Sulu moved on thinking that it was time for evasive maneuvers. "Anyway, as soon as we got the message, I held the launch button down on the Captain's orders until the ship was destroyed."
I looked at him with a mixture of relief and regret. "So Saren is dead. He is no more." Sulu nodded solemnly and I continued, "There is no possibility that he could still be out there and come back someday?"
A smile quickly flashed across his face because I probably sounded like a frightened child asking about the boogeyman under the bed, but he knew that I just needed reassurance after all that he had done. I had to know from the man who had personally unleashed hell on him that I would never see his menacing tattooed face again. "I don't see how it would be possible." He replied softly. "I guess you could say he is still out there, albeit in molecular terms, but we will never see him again." He shifted his weight uneasily and added, "I have proof if you don't believe me. I knew Pavel would want to see it, so I recorded it on an info chip." McCoy shot him a fierce warning glare and I wondered if he broke protocol by doing so.
"If you say so, then I believe you." I stated. "I know you wouldn't lie to me." The fact was I did trust him. He had always been nothing short of forthcoming with me before and there was no reason he would pull punches now. Not with something like this, even if McCoy was staring him down and that took a lot of courage.
"Alright, visiting hours are over." McCoy growled. "Now get out before I personally kick your asses out the door."
Sulu and Pavel both nodded at him and his eyes trailed them all the way out the door just to be sure they didn't get distracted along the way. He relaxed with a heavy sigh and turned back to his cart, although it seemed he had lost the heart to finish what he had started. That was unusual for him. "What's on your mind?" I asked quietly while I tried to readjust myself. My arms were going numb from supporting my weight. He helped me sit up perhaps because he knew that arguing would get him nowhere. We were both getting better about choosing our battles, and I knew when he made no attempt to answer that I was also looking at a lost cause if I continued to push him. He would eventually tell me at another time, or in another setting but any further attempts would be met with stony silence, so I tried a different line of questioning. "When do I finally get to go?"
He snorted and removed a scanner from the cart. "In a hurry to run out of here, aren't you?"
"Sickbay is the kind of place that is nice to visit, but you don't want to live here." I smiled. "Not that this isn't a nice little place you have here, but I like sleeping in my own bed."
He read the results on the scanner with a neutral expression. "There is still more inflammation than I would like," he mused, "according to this, you should be hurting like hell."
I casually shrugged. "It's not so bad if you don't think about it." I silently cursed myself when I realized I had tripped his BS radar. I had to admit, it wasn't that good of a lie to begin with so I shouldn't have been surprised it didn't work.
He sat on the side of the bed and quietly reminded, "There are alternatives, you know." That was what his mouth said, but his concerned expression added, 'I can't stand watching you suffer.' It was touching and I couldn't deny him, not after all he had done to get me where I was.
"Ok." I reluctantly agreed. "But only if you can tell me that what you give me won't make me feel strange and you agree to let me go to my room."
His lips pulled into a frown while he carefully considered my proposal. "Yes to the first, and I make no promises on the second, but we will see how you are doing at the end of the shift. Good enough?" He was at least willing to meet me halfway and that was quite an accomplishment in and of itself. At least it wasn't a flat refusal and I recognized that he was just trying to look out for my best interest over his own preferences. He was playing by the rules because he was on the clock and it was just business; that was our new deal.
