A/N: Thanks so much for the reviews so far! After receiving several requests, I felt confident with my original pairing so I'm happy! I hope you guys will be too :) If you requested something else I'm deeply sorry, but I will let you know that even thought it might not be considered a pairing, conflicts will arise to keep the drama fresh (something that's very important, lol). I'm definitely not going to ignore the rest of the characters, but balance quite a few and create a few plot lines to run parallel with the main one. All relevant of course. You will be seeing the rest of your precious bridge crew, no worries!
This is my longest chapter yet, and I put loads of research and effort into this (writing star trek fics requires so much research it's crazy, but I've enjoyed writing this so it's not biggie) ALSO, when I write these in Word I format my story a little differently. I include indentations and spacings that make it easier for the eye to follow, but when I upload them FF gets rid of all that and I'm not sure how to fix it. If you have any tips please let me know!
That wasn't short and sweet. I apologize. haha enjoy what I've written so far!
I ONLY OWN THE PLOT. THE CHARACTERS, IDEAS, TERMINOLOGY, LAYOUT OF THE ENTERPRISE, ETC BELONG TO THE BRILLIANT CREATORS OF STAR TREK, FROM GENE RODDENBERRY TO J.J. ABRAMS. THIS APPLIES TO THIS CHAPTER AND ALL THE CHAPTERS THAT FOLLOW IN MY FIC. I THANK THEM FOR THEIR BRILLIANCE AND INSPIRATION.
3. Dim the Lights
His eyes opened to meet a pair of light blue ones staring back. It was all Kirk was able to make out through his blurred vision, a pair of blue eyes, and a bright light.
"Doctor McCoy, he's waking up." he heard a familiar voice say softly, but no matter how hard he tried to put a name to the voice, he was unsuccessful. The eyes looked away, and a face that seemed to be easier to make out took their place.
"Bones…?" Kirk mumbled, squinting. The primarily white colour scheme of the sickbay was blinding him. He heard a sigh of relief.
"Jim you had me scared shitless." McCoy scolded. "I couldn't imagine having to take orders from Captain Hobgoblin again."
He tried to laugh at his friend's sarcastic remark, but found that it took too much effort as a searing headache split his skull. Kirk pulled at his hair and winced. Bones took note and said something to the other person in the room.
"Yeah, I'm sure my brain would be seeking revenge too if I deprived it of oxygen for 10 minutes." he heard Bones say, while waving a tricorder around his head. "Well, that and possibly because of the awful hangover you must be experiencing."
"The worst I've ever had." he confirmed. "What do you mean no oxygen for ten minutes?"
"You stopped breathing, Jim. It was ten minutes before we got you to the sickbay and were able to give you any oxygen."
"Shit…" Kirk gaped.
"Shit is right!" Bones said as he aggressively injected a generic supplement hypospray into Kirk's neck, causing him to wince again. "That was one hell of a panic attack you had, and one hell of a scare you gave us." he hissed as he found himself without a valid medical excuse to bother his friend any longer, and simply jabbed Kirk's arm with his thumb. Kirk jumped.
"Ow! What the-"
"Quiet, Jim. Do you remember what exactly triggered the attack?" Bones asked.
Kirk furrowed his eyebrows in thought. He remembered the feeling, but why? Was it simply because he had realized that he hadn't been with a woman in a year, or was it because he simply had no idea as to why this was the case?
Actually, he had a hunch that the why was his problem, and once that ambiguity was resolved, everything would be back to normal, right? He hoped so. Obviously, he couldn't continue like this, and his ego suffered tremendous injuries last night after he realized that it had been just over a year. A whole year…
"Jim!" Bones shouted, snapping Kirk back into attention. "Anything come to mind?"
"No Bones, I'm sorry. I don't seem to know what the problem is." he said with an airy edge to his voice. He knew this would lead to many sleepless nights if he didn't solve it soon. "I'll do my best to figure it all out though." Kirk added as McCoy patted his shoulder.
"Well I hope you do. Don't do that to me again, all right?" he said in that tone of voice that mothers use to scold a child that had disappeared from their vision; harsh yet caring. "It's one thing to have to worry myself over some battle wound, but a damn panic attack, Jim…" he heard his friends voice trail off as he turned to face the other company that was in the room with them. Kirk liked it when his friend showed such strong emotions. He knew that McCoy was no Vulcan, but sometimes it seemed that he could only express bitterness through his seemingly permanent scowl and sarcastic insults. He tuned back into his surroundings.
"…so if you could monitor him for a bit, Spock has called me to the bridge. Damn Vulcan won't let me sit still for a moment."
"Of course, Doctor. Anything else?"
"Get him some water. He needs to hydrate, seeing as all he's had in his system for the past 10 hours is whiskey."
Kirk heard Bones head out of the sickbay, and then the cool sound of running water. Only then did he notice how dry his mouth was. The water shut off and the footsteps approached him. He tried opening his eyes again, but the whiteness of the room was still too much for his headache to handle.
"I'm sorry Captain, do you think it would be ok if I sat you up? I'd keep you lying flat but you'd get water all over yourself." the voice said. He nodded, hoping that after drinking some water, perhaps he could open his eyes. The Captain knew he had heard that gentle voice before. Perhaps not on a daily basis, but enough so that it was familiar to him. No names came to mind.
The bed slowly tilted up, and Kirk put his hand to his forehead, which throbbed as the blood rushed out of it, downwards. A hand took his, small and soft, and guided his fingers around the glass.
"Thank you." he said as he brought the glass to his lips. He drank slowly, allowing the cool water to run down his dry throat and refresh him. After he felt hydrated enough, he held the glass out to the room, and waited for the hands to take it once again. Once he was relieved, he decided it was time to ask questions. Eyes still closed, he turned to face where he thought his caretaker was sitting.
"Are we st-"
"Over here, Captain." the voice interrupted. He turned a little more to his left.
"Better?"
"Yes."
"Ok…" Kirk started again, trying to make sure his head was still. "Are we still at warp, or have we arrived at our destination?" Kirk heard a giggle.
"We're still at warp, Captain, with about 25 hours to go before we arrive. Don't worry, you haven't missed much."
He frowned, embarrassed over his next question, but found it necessary to ask.
"I know I should know this, but it seems to have slipped my mind. Where is it that we are headed and why?" he sighed.
"We're en route to an unnamed planet within the alpha quadrant. From what I've heard, the reason we're paying it a visit is because there is evidence that the planet sustains life, possibly even intelligent life-forms to an extent, and Spock in particular wanted to investigate it. I wouldn't trust me, though. I'm just a nurse. Usually I'm not told about our missions to the fullest extent beforehand. I just learn about them from the patients I always have to take care of afterwards."
Even once he knew her position on board his ship, Kirk didn't know who he was with. This flustered him immensely, along with the fact that he was alone with a woman and hadn't made (or wanted to make, for that matter) any advances, even though he couldn't open his eyes. The fact that he couldn't see a woman usually didn't stop him as long as everything else seemed right. Being out of character made him feel like a fish out of water, and he didn't handle that feeling too well. He heard the nurse clear her throat.
"Are you feeling well, Captain?" she asked. His expression of frustration must have come across as discomfort to her. Kirk shook his head.
"No, sorry, I'm fine… call me Jim." he said.
"Ok… Jim. Are you sure?"
He didn't want to elaborate any further. All that he currently wanted to do was figure out who it was that he was speaking to. Who had Bones left him with? The Captain decided that he would have to talk to him later about leaving him with someone without telling him who it was. That damn voice was so familiar…
"May I have your name? I'm sorry but I'm not able to open my eyes to find out who you are." he said a bit too apologetically for his taste, but he figured it would have to do.
"You really need to get to know your crew better." she scoffed. "I'm nurse Chapel, but I guess Christine will do if I'm calling you Jim."
Goddamn. Kirk thought. Why the hell do I know her voice so well if I don't know who the hell she is?
He racked his brain for her name, but he had never heard it before. Not on his ship. This was driving him crazy. Who was she? Kirk decided to try to open his eyes; he couldn't stand the frustration any longer. He opened them slightly, but was only able to make out a figure in blue. After five seconds he had to shut them again. It was too damn bright and the pain in his head increased significantly within that short period of time.
He groaned, not so much out of pain as out of sheer annoyance, but Christine couldn't sense the latter. He heard her get up and move around.
"There." he heard her say from across the room. "Try now. Is that better?"
He opened his eyes slightly to find that the room was darker. He assumed that she had dimmed the lights some. The good old Kirk he knew would have characteristically grinned in this situation, but currently, no sexual feelings came to mind.
"Let your eyes adjust and it will hurt less." she said. "Once you think you're ready, I can turn up the lights again and see how you feel."
He obeyed, lying back against the headrest, keeping his eyes on her blurred figure. He watched in fuzzy shades of grey as she busied herself with some medical equipment at the foot of his bed. As the minutes passed they were both quiet, and his vision became sharper and his headache more bearable by the second. He wouldn't go so far as to say that the pain was gone, simply that he was becoming accustomed to it. This would have to do. He could see everything in the room clearly now, but they were all dark shapes, including Christine.
"I think I'm ready for the lights." Kirk said to her. He saw the shadow nod, then move to the opposite end of the room. She increased the brightness very, very slowly, for which Kirk was grateful as he watched colour invade her shadowed figure. All he needed her to do was to turn around, seeing as she was facing the panel, away from him.
The brightness continued to rise, and soon the sickbay was back to its immaculately white gleam. His headache was coincidently back at full force, but he ignored the pain as he eyed the nurse impatiently.
"How are you feeling?" she asked once the lights were fully restored, and turned to face him.
The Captain was ready to answer, until his eyes met her clear blue ones for the second time today, and the feeling of suffocation overwhelmed him again. He opened his mouth in an attempt, but no sound came out.
A/N: So I originally wanted to post chapters 3 and 4 at the same time, but I figured that this one was long enough and I had left you in suspense last time... and have left you in suspense again. haha my sincerest apologies, it's not like I enjoy torturing you... *evil grin*. I just realized that so far the story could still go any number of ways, so who knows? I do :p You will just have to wait and imagine up the possibilities until my next post.
I am halfway through chapter 4, and I guess I can tease you with the title: "Hit and Run". (I just spent 10 minutes coming up with the title for you guys) I will try to post it ASAP, but I have another essay I should be writing, and so far I'm missing a couple of thousand words on that one and have surpassed what the word limit would be in this fic... ah I adore my lack of sense of priority.
Please keep the reviews coming!!! They make me extremely happy and motivate me to get the chapters done and done well! Thanks for the support so far :)