Uhura looked around the Rec Hall; the party was in full swing. After the days of tension that had followed the departure from the planet T'karis, the crew was taking the opportunity to let loose. The turnout for Havarii and Musgrave's reception was much larger than it should have been as crew had taken the opportunity for an open invite as a chance for a party. The bride and groom didn't seem to mind .Uhura saw them off to her left dancing with each other both their faces glowing with delight. The rest of the crew was equally elated. Even the entire bridge crew had been given the day off, Kirk was busy flirting with several women from engineering, Scotty was becoming extremely inebriated and explaining the virtues of Scottish liquors to anybody who would listen and most of the other crew were generally engaged in behaviour that they would regret in the morning. The only crew absent besides the few more quiet souls who had decided to take the day off or were unlucky enough to have to work that day, were McCoy, and Spock.
McCoy had left shortly after the wedding grumbling that it made no sense for him to get a hangover himself when he would have to take care of everybody else's tomorrow. Spoke had left also shortly after the wedding claiming he had some data he wanted to analyze, she knew he just wanted to get away from her. She had been avoiding him. And she knew no matter how she tried to hide it he sensed that, his voice his hands, his touch, made her skin crawl. She didn't know how to explain to him what had happened on the planet; she didn't want to tell him because she wasn't even sure what had happened herself. So she did both the easiest and hardest thing: she pushed him away, allowing an icy exterior to envelope hiding her emotions and thoughts.
Uhura shook her head trying to clear her thoughts and looked out at the crowd of people trying to think of something else. She noticed a Ensign with bruises on his face , surrounded by people loudly talking and drunkenly gesticulating. And after a moment of searching her memory recognized Roth. As she stared at the blustery Lieutenant she realized that another bridge crew member was missing: Chekov.
Uhura moved over to ask Sulu whether he knew where Chekov was but Sulu said he hadn't seen him since in several hours. Sulu had faint bruises to his face and when Uhura questioned him about where Chekov might be the Helmsman's jaw tightened, almost imperceptibly. Then in a clipped way he tersely suggested a few places she might look and turned away from a bewildered Uhura and back to the woman he had been talking to ignoring Uhura.
She stared at Sulu's retreating figure and wondered briefly what was going on. The entire exchange had been most unlike Sulu. And the pointed terse way Sulu had politely but not entirely nicely suggested Uhura to leave the navigator alone said volumes. Usually the navigator and Helmsman were on good terms rarely if ever did they even have a large disagreement, but something in the two's friendship was obviously strained. But then ever since the planet almost everything had been strained.
She sighed remembering her conversation earlier with Spock and the expression on his face. Uhura bit her lip to keep the tears she felt threatening to come down at bay and walked over to another group of crew to enquire about Chekov. Somebody needed to care about the navigator, everybody was too wrapped up in their own thoughts and concerns to see that he was falling a apart.
Similar inquiries of other crew members revealed variations of what Sulu had said. Nobody had seen Chekov in hours. One lieutenant named Penali snickered when Uhura asked questioned him and said that the he hadn't him but ensign was probably in his quarters crying his eyes out.
Uhura turned away from the unhelpful Lieutenant and after a few questions Uhura realized something Chekov had never even come. Uhura had heard about his fight with Lieutenant Roth in the mess hall, pretty much the entire crew had. Though the general consensus was that Roth had got what he deserved, Chekov wasn't the only person Roth bullied, just because his father was high up in the Starfleet chain of command Roth thought that gave him credence to act like an a-. Still perhaps the Ensign didn't want to come to a celebration so soon after Ensign's Kelly death; in fact her memorial service had only been three days before. It was more than natural for him to be feeling angry at her death and Roth's words. The lieutenant had blamed him for her death; she knew how close he and Kelly had been and the circumstances of her death. He probably wanted to be alone.
As the music grew louder, people became more raucous. Uhura decided to leave the entire atmosphere was giving her a headache. She wove her way through dancing crew, and towards the door. Once she was safely outside ensconced in the peaceful quiet of the corridor, the cacophony drowned out as the door slid shut behind her; she breathed a sigh of relief. She started walking back towards her quarters but halfway there she decided to take a detour. Going to sleep or more likely lying awake for hours staring at the ceiling in her deserted cabin held no pleasure for her. She decided to stop by Chekov's quarters and see whether he was in.
She called up the computer and checked where he was. Chekov had seemed very depressed last time Uhura had seen him. Somebody needed to cheer the ensign up, maybe he wanted to talk or they could get a cup of coffee. Or maybe not the last one she amended as she remembered that the ensign hated the beverage. She waited until the computer identified Chekov as being in his quarters, then Uhura set off towards her destination. Even if she felt bad herself maybe she could help someone else and it would help take her mind off her own problems.
XXXX XXXX
Uhura pressed the buzzer again and called "Chekov, open up"
The door didn't move, and the ensign gave no answer.
Maybe he wasn't in his room; perhaps sometime during her walk over he had left
"Computer locate Ensign Chekov"
The computers mechanical voice replied immediately ensign Chekov, Pavel Andreivich is currently in his quarters
Then why wasn't he answering Uhura wondered, perhaps he was deep asleep, or with someone else. Though she highly doubted the latter or the former. The ensign like the entire crew was trained to wake up at the computer's mechanical voice and the various sounds that notified the personnel. And he was still to torn up over Ensign Kelly's death to even want to talk to anyone else.
She briefly wondered, if she should just go away and leave him alone maybe he didn't want to be bothered. Then she dismissed that idea. Something was wrong, she just didn't know what. She pressed the door buzzer again and called his name, no answer issued forth.
Something was off.
She pressed her comm badge opening a link to lieutenant Cavert in security.
"Lieutenant Cavert here"
"Lieutenant this is Uhura, I need a favour"
"Sure what is it" the lieutenant said through what sounded like a full mouth
"Can you override the lock to Ensign Chekov's quarters?"
"See, I could but technically that's illegal. Regulation-
Uhura cut him off irritated. "Cavert you owe me, so cut the crap or do you want me to tell the security chief that you were with lieutenant Kelsie from engineering making out in his office while you were supposed to be on duty?" (She had accidentally discovered them while running a sound check on the intercom)
"You wouldn't, you don't even have proof" he stammered sounding worried
"You sure about that" Uhura replied
"Fine, fine" he muttered then the door lock clicked open "but this makes us even and while I'm here can I ask you why you want-"
"No you can't" Uhura said clicking him off.
She keyed the ensign's door open and stepped inside his quarter allowing the doors to close behind her. The place stank like somebody had been very sick. She wrinkled her nose feeling queasy herself and looked around for the ensign. He was nowhere in sight. Flimsies and data pads were scattered across the floor. It looked like somebody had destroyed his room. Uhura wondered had somebody come with a grudge against Chekov and retaliated in lieu of Roth. She was about to call Security when something caught her eye. Uhura leaned downward and picked up some flimisies and skimmed over one that was discussing transporting at extreme velocities, at the bottom of the page were notes in Russian and crossed out equations. She glanced at the next sheet and found a paper on shuttle crashes, this sheet also was covered in Russian script that was untidy and rushed. Growing more confused, Uhura flipped to the final sheet, it was a partially torn old-fashioned picture of Ensign Kelly. Uhura let the papers flutter back to the floor.
She inspected the rest of the room, still wondering should she call security. One of the two beds in the room had the covers twisted and halfway on the floor like somebody had left it hastily and beside the bed she saw the source of the room's odour, a puddle of vomit. Skirting the puddle she moved further into the room as she passed the rumpled bed, Uhura smelled the stench of urine. Her feet crunched on something and she glanced down and saw glass littering the floor. An empty liquor bottle was lying on the ground seeping the last dregs of its contents onto the cold floor. Hesitantly she turned the bottle over with her toe and noted the label: Vodka.
Her mind searched for an explanation. Maybe Chekov had gotten drunk and in a fit of anger destroyed his room? She looked around, wondering had he passed out somewhere and something was very wrong. With a start Uhura noticed a dark stain on a piece of glass fragment and a sniffed confirmed it as blood. She straightened up and was about to call security when what sounded like a low groan filtered from somewhere near. Uhura turned around searching for the source of the noise and her eyes fell on the bathroom door; she moved toward it calling his name, and once again there was no reply.
"Chekov, I'm coming in" she said cautiously, not sure what she was going to find inside.
She pressed the door opening mechanism, and her senses were assaulted. She gasped at the sight laid out before her. Chekov was sprawled on the floor in a pool of vomit; by his side were another empty Vodka bottle. She rushed over to him. He didn't seem to be breathing; his face was deathly pale. Her fingers searched his neck for a pulse, and she waited for a moment before she felt a faint, thready, irregular beat beneath her fingers, a second later his chest slowly rose and fell as he gasped a shallow ragged breath. He was alive but just barely. His hands were cut and bleeding. She called Sickbay.
"Dr. McCoy here"
"Dr. McCoy there's an emergency in ensign Chekov's quarters" Uhura said in a rush, not bothering to state who she was or any other details.
"Ensign Chekov? Uhura, what?—"he asked recognizing her voice
"He's barely breathing, his pulse is faint. I think-" she began quickly, her words tumbling iver each other in her haste to explain.
Doctor McCoy didn't wait to hear anymore. "I'll be right there" he said hurriedly clicking off.
Chekov started to gasp and choke; his body spasming as he threw up again and his mouth and airway filled with vomit. He gasped and turned his head slightly coughing as alcohol-laced vomit spilled from his mouth in an untidy stream. Uhura quickly turned the ensign on his side and he groaned still unconscious and threw up more, making the smell of alcohol even stronger in the air. Uhura pulled back slightly to avoid the mess and her foot touched something sending it rolling across the floor. She glanced behind her to see what her foot had touched and saw an empty pill bottle and next to it were two photos.
XXXX XXXX
McCoy rushed around trying to stabilize the ensign. He didn't have to look at the monitors to know that the young Russian was perilously close to dying. In the background Uhura watched silently. There was only two nurses on duty, but he didn't bother to call others in. it would take to much time and any medical staff he did call in probably wouldn't be in a fit state for working.
He injected the ensign with another hypospray, but the boy's blood pressure continued to drop. As he worked on the ensign, he felt a pang of guilt. The analysis he had hastily run had indicated that Chekov's blood alcohol level was off the charts, but that alone wasn't what bothered him. In addition to alcohol, the testing indicated that the ensign had ingested an extremely large quantity of sleeping pills and McCoy knew that earlier today in a flustered moment he was the one who had given the ensign them.
"Damn it" he muttered as the monitors started beeping intensely now the ensign heart rate had dropped to the twenty's. "Give me 2 of veriz-"He shouted at the nurse for another hypospray, when the noise that all medical staff hated to hear sounded. The monitor abruptly stopped beeping and a continuous drone issued forth, McCoy spared a half a second to glance at the monitor, on the screen a flat line was present, the ensign's heart had stopped.
"Sh—" McCoy yelled, the two nurses rushed around already grabbing what Dr. McCoy needed. He yelled at them anyway. He was angry with himself. He was angry at the ensign. He was angry with the entire situation. He looked down at the Chekov and, made a silent promise to himself, that whatever he had to do, Chekov was not going to die, because when he woke up McCoy planned on giving him the worst lecture of his short lifetime and asking him what the hell he thought he was doing.
Twenty minutes later the ensign's heart was beating on its own again, albeit slowly and his blood pressure had stabilized. McCoy wearily walked away from where the two nurses were hooking the ensign up to various monitors and tubes toward Uhura. Uhura had stood there the entire time, watching silently, but McCoy could see that she was disturbed by what had happened. She had been very different ever since they had gotten back from T'karis. He didn't know exactly what had happened down there, when she had been debriefed she had been vague saying Silkar had interrogated her, but didn't tell any details. The brief medical exam she had gotten after debriefing had revealed more than she had said. McCoy had noted the way she flinched as the female nurse had gently examined her. He had noticed the marks around her neck, face and arms. He had seen the bruises on her body and the blankness in her eyes, and the small signs had spoken more to him than any words could.
Whatever had happened had changed her, she had already been through enough, she didn't need to see this. "Uhura, you can go now, we've got this under control" McCoy began quietly. He resisted the urge to put an arm around her trembling shoulders.
Uhura didn't answer him instead she looked at where the nurses were taking care of Chekov and said "will he live?"
McCoy looked at her and wished he had a better answer but he couldn't lie. "I think you might have found him in time, but the fact that his heart stopped and we don't really know how long he was in there like that—I don't know. " McCoy ran a tired hand over his face, and repeated "I really don't know."
McCoy and Uhura both stared at the ensign for several moments before Uhura whispered "I'll stay."
Next Update will be April 22nd with a two day margin of error. Thanks to all my favouriters, followers and reviewers. Question(s) for this chapter: What did you think of the chapter? Is doctor McCoy to blame in all this for not paying more attention and letting his personal life get in the way of his job? Only two chapters left! Feedback is appreciated!