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"Would you say you feel traumatised, Mr Kirk?"

Jim shifted in the seat. His wrists were strapped to the arms of the chair, and the young StarFleet therapist did not flinch when he tried to move. She merely looked at him, steadily, her dark eyes betraying nothing. He looked at her. Only a matter of weeks ago this prim, serious looking woman would have been a prime target in a bar - now she was looking at him with the dispassionate glance of a laboratory technician examining a new specimen.

"I don't." He shook his head. His face was a mask, but inside his emotions were a turbulent sea of boiling rage. On the journey back to Earth, he'd been kept in isolation, with only visits from Bones - still lamenting his seeming inability to gain any weight - and Uhura. Spock, he'd felt with a stab of anger, had been nowhere to be seen. Until they had arrived at HeadQuarters.

Then, the arrival. The crew had been dispatched first. Then, clad in the white tunic and pants of a SickBay resident, his wrists cuffed in front of him, Kirk had been marched off the Enterprise, flanked by Bones and Spock, he had felt a crushing wave of humiliation. Two days passed in a daze of being surveyed by stern faced senior officers, kept in isolated quarters, and therapy.

"You don't?"

"No." He shook his head again. The minutes on the clock were moving agonisingly slowly. He looked at her, attempting a bold, ingratiating smile. "I really don't feel traumatised."

"What about what happened to Dr Marcus?"

"I - don't remember." He slumped in his seat. He didn't - he didn't even realise what he'd done, except for when he'd been told.

"Mr Kirk." She leaned forward, her light grey uniform crisply impeccable. "Its important you begin to open up to me-"

"What if I don't have anything to say?"

"How is your therapy going?"

Jim grimaced as Bones entered his new quarters. As he looked round the stripped down room, he surmised it was little more than a holding cell. Bones seated himself on the chair opposite the bunk. Jim sighed. "Its going."

"Really?"

"Bones...don't analyse me. Please."

"I doubt there's anything to analyse," the CMO retorted. "Still - good news. Another few days and you'll be back on the Enterprise."

"What?" Jim raised an eyebrow. "How-"

"Carol Marcus pleaded for you," Bones said, drily. "She claimed that you were clearly under the effects of a virus, hallucinating, and unable to really think through what you were doing."

Kirk had fallen silent. Bones continued.

"As a result, it has been decided that charges will not be brought - and to assist with your recovery, the best place is to have you back on board the Enterprise."

"What?"

"Yes. You're coming back on board...although Spock is going to be Acting Captain for a little while. Need to get you re-acclimatised. Healthy."

"I see."

"Jim. Come on. Stop stewing. It will be all right."

"OK."

"I mean it. Only three days to go until we're back on board."

Spock looked up as Bones entered his quarters. "Is he ready?"

"Yes." Bones nodded. "Under sedation and sleeping peacefully." He gestured towards the biobed, containing a sleeping Kirk. "I'll get him to SickBay."

"Good." Spock nodded. "Khan is currently in the loading bay."

Bones looked at the Vulcan. "Jim has been in isolation for five days. Do we let him go back to the Bridge?"

"Yes, as Acting First Officer." Spock swallowed. "We then let him meet Khan. Whilst he is in Cryosleep."

"And then?"

Spock seemingly refused to meet Bones' eyes. The CMO persisted. "What then?"

"Whatever the Captain decides."

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