Chapter 38

The woman turned to Spock the same moment McCoy could place where he saw that same shade of harvest gold blonde.

"He's missing" She said simply, "You have to help me find him".

"Who?"

Leonard swallowed thickly, knowing full well who this stranger now was.

"Jim" He replied quietly, "We have to find Jim".

Immediately, Spock went tense next to him.

"What happened?"

The Vulcan's voice was as harsh as ice, and Leonard could feel his own anger quickly bubbling to the surface.

Jim had only ever mentioned his mother once or twice before, after all, and never with any hint of love.

"We... We were talking" She began to explain, "And I said we needed to- to- to discuss what's happened over the last few years, and... and he left".

"What do you mean, he left?" Spock asked tightly, arms folding across his chest, and she swallowed nervously, "He... Jim left. He stormed out. I tried to stop him, but... he just vanished... I never knew he could do that".

"Well, maybe if you'd actually been around more, you would have!" McCoy snapped, before rubbing a hand over his face tiredly, "No, no, I shouldn't have... This isn't the time or place to argue with you, no matter how much you deserve it... How was he?"

"What do you mean how was-"

"His emotions!" He snapped, "Was he angry, upset, shocked? We can't find him if we don't know what he was feeling!"

"... Upset" She finally replied, her own tears overflowing, "He... I think he was crying".

McCoy swore, and Spock quickly shut the door behind them, "We need to tell Professor Pike. Upset narrows it down, but not by much. He won't be in the gym, at least".

Winona looked between them, confused, "How do you know-"

"Like I said" the doctor interrupted as they began quickly walking down the corridor, "Maybe if you'd stuck around, you would know".

Pike was just as worried as they were, and with good reason too.

The last time Jim had been this upset, after all, he'd burned his childhood house down and committed murder.

He wisely kept that remark to himself, however.

They gathered all senior staff and quickly explained the situation; a reckless, emotional, and very very powerful mutant was not something to be taken lightly after all, and then spread out to look, Bones and Spock searching specific places while the others did a more general search.

"How bad do you think it'll be?" McCoy asked quietly as they made their way down the hall of the dorms.

They had already woken up Sulu, Uhura, and Scotty asking if Jim was with them, but none of the mutants had seen the boy since the day before.

Spock slowly shook his head, "Honestly? I don't know Leonard. His mother suddenly showing up with no warning... dragging long-forgotten memories back to the surface... it won't have done Jim any good".

"... She seemed to genuinely care for him".

"Looks can be deceiving" came the non-committal answer in return.

Taking a deep breath, both men came to a stop outside their final destination, the plain wooden door and silence from behind doing nothing to calm them.

"Do you think he's in there?" Spock asked quietly, and Bones shrugged as he reached up to knock loudly, "Let's hope so..."

It was only seconds later when the unassuming door was flung open and a harried and worried looking Pavel Chekov stood there staring back at them, Starship pyjamas on and hair sticking up all over the place, but surprisingly not at all tired-looking.

"Oh cлава Богу! I am so glad you guys are here!" He rushed out, hurriedly rambling, "I didn't want to leave him but I knew I had to find you, despite zee late hour because he's not at all in zee right mind and I was wery worried but I couldn't leave him alone and he's not zalking and he keeps flinching back from my zouch and I don't know what's wrong so-"

"Chekov" McCoy interrupted insistently, "What are you talking about?!"

"It's Jim" He finally finished, breathless, "He's here!"

He had barely finished the sentence before they had shoved past him into the room beyond.

And immediately came to a stop at what they saw.

Jim, their Jim, was curled up on his side on the couch in the corner of the room, a blanket wrapped around his shoulders and a pillow clutched tightly to his chest, suit trousers haphazard and shirt missing, entire body trembling and tears streaming down his face.

He slowly looked up and gave a sob when he saw them.

They cautiously took a step forwards, hearts aching but knowing full well that it was up to Jim as to what to do next.

It took an agonizingly long minute, but suddenly, he dropped the pillow and reached out for them with both arms.

A split second later, they were next to him, Spock pulling the blonde into his lap where he held him in a tight embrace, McCoy lightly running his hands over the boy's bare skin, checking for any injuries.

Apart from the early signs of hypothermia, he was unharmed.

Bones quickly crouched down in front of Jim, carefully wiping away the tears that stained red cheeks, "Hey, hey, hush, you're alright darlin', you're okay, we've got you, you're safe now".

If anything, that only made him sob even harder.

Spock rocked him back and forth gently, muttering sweet nothings in his native tongue to try and calm him down, and thankfully, after a few minutes, he did.

"'m sorry" Jim mumbled, hiccupping, "I didn't want to wake you an'... an' I thought maybe... maybe I'd be alrigh' but then I wasn't an'- an' this room was the closest an'- an'- an'-"

"Hey, come on, calm down, you're okay" McCoy soothed once more, "I need you to take a deep breath for me, darlin', alright? Just take a deep breath, nice and easy".

The blonde quickly complied, and within seconds his breathing evened out somewhat, though the shivering remained.

Spock quickly pulled him even closer, his naturally high body temperature helping to warm the boy up, while the doctor frowned in concern, "Jim? How long were you walking about for? You're freezing!"

He sniffed, eyes red-rimmed and heavy, "I don' know... A while? I didn't- I didn't want to bother you an'-"

"You wouldn't have bothered us, kid" He interrupted, "You were upset! You still are, for that matter... It doesn't matter what time of day or night it is, if you're upset, you can come to us, okay? Always".

He slowly nodded, eyes beginning to droop, and McCoy sighed, looking up at Spock, "He's emotionally drained, we're not going to get any information out of him now... Think you can carry him back to our room?"

The Vulcan smoothly stood up as an answer, the blonde held carefully bridal-style in his arms, head resting on the older mutant's shoulder as he began to dose off.

"Go to sleep, slorkhaf-spol" He whispered to him, "We can talk in the morning".

Heading back to the door, McCoy quickly shook Chekov's hand in thanks.

"For taking him in" He explained, "If you hadn't... I honestly don't know what would've happened".

"It was нет problem" the teenager replied, smiling sadly, "He would have done zee same for me... Take care of him?"

"Of course" He replied, stepping back into the hall, "Sorry for disrupting your night, Chekov".

"Just tell me how he is in zee morning, da?"

Bones smiled and nodded, before joining Spock in the long walk back to their rooms, sending a quick message to Pike to tell him to tell him to call off the search, they'd found him.

Almost immediately, he got a response.

He is okay, isn't he? -P

The doctor sighed heavily, and turned to look at the sleeping blonde held carefully in the Vulcan's arms, Jim's hands gripping the older man's shirt tightly, as if scared they'd leave him even in his sleep.

Then McCoy glanced back down at the message, rereading it twice.

He didn't reply.