A/N: Soooo...my excuse this week is that my best friend just bought a house with her boyfriend and the house needs A LOT of work (for example: he accidentally put a hole in a plaster wall only to find that there's no insulation in the house, so the walls came down and insulation is on it's way in. And we tore up the god-awful floor), so I've been helping them whenever they need it (I like demolition and re-build, anyway).
And I've been job hunting...since I still lack one of those...

But anyway. Here's the next chapter. Enjoy!

Tiny recap: Lash gazed into his eyes for a moment longer before she leaned in and kissed him, thoroughly. Her arms slid around his shoulders to his neck, where she sank her fingers into his hair. His arm tightened around her back, pulling her closer to him as his other hand flexed around her hip.

This was how Kirk found them when he re-entered the med. bay. He gave the couple another moment before marching over. "Tell me everything about that ship." He demanded as he approached, ending their kiss.

Lash pulled away from Khan's lips and let her arms slowly fall from him; she dragged her hands down his chest and arm, touching him as much as she could before releasing him completely. She noticed earlier that Kirk wasn't too comfortable around them when they shared an intimate moment, so she stepped out from between Khan's legs to shift over to his right. Khan kept his arm around her waist, but released her hip, letting his left hand rest on his thigh.

They both watched Kirk stroll towards them and stop directly in front of Khan, staring him down.

He definitely did a better job of it than Carol Marcus. Khan stared impassively right back.

"Dreadnought-class. Two times the size, three times the speed. Advanced weaponry. Modified for a minimal crew. Unlike most Federation vessels, it's built solely for combat." Khan explained, never blinking.

"I will do everything I can to make you answer for what you did." Kirk spat, keeping his eyes on Khan.

He paused long enough that Lash wanted him to continue, curious to what he was going to add. "But." She prompted.

Kirk glanced at her quickly before looking back at Khan, almost in defeat. "But right now, I need your help."

"In exchange for what?" Khan was quick to respond.

"You said you'd do anything for your crew. For Lash. I can guarantee their safety." Kirk bribed.

"Captain," Khan breathed, "You can't even guarantee the safety of your own crew."

Kirk looked like he was ready to assault Khan. Lash took a tiny step closer to her husband in a weak attempt to help him, should he need it...not that he would. Kirk was clearly at a loss, so he turned to Doctor McCoy to stall.

"Bones, what are you doing with that tribble?" He asked the doctor.

Lash looked over to McCoy, curious to what a tribble looked liked. She'd only read about the creatures when she was first woken up.

"The tribble's dead. I'm injecting Khan and Lash's platelets into the deceased tissue of the necrotic host." McCoy described. "Their cells regenerate like nothing I've ever seen and I wanna know why."

Kirk looked back at Khan, bringing Lash's attention back as well. "Are you coming with me or not?" He asked.

Khan turned his head to look at Lash, silently asking her what she thought. "Go. I'll be fine." She said before looking up at Kirk. "With the Captain's permission, I might be able to help Doctor McCoy and his tribble."

"Are you medically trained?" McCoy asked over his shoulder, hearing their conversation.

"No, but I can give you some insight. Help you speed up your thought process." She replied.

"When he leaves," Kirk nodded towards Khan, "you give Bones some notes, then head to the brig. I can't have my crew babysitting you."

Lash scoffed at his turn of phrase. "I don't need to be babysat, Captain." She said with a frown, then hesitated. "But I'll accept."

"Good." Kirk looked back at Khan, waiting for his answer...which he received in a small nod. "Let's go." He started towards the exit hoping Khan would follow.

Khan slid from the edge of the table gracefully and took Lash's hand, pulling her gently behind him.

Kirk turned to look back (to make sure Khan was actually following) and saw Lash coming as well. "She—"

"Is staying with me until we depart." Khan cut him off.

Before Kirk was able to negate Khan, Lash cut in. "We've been apart two hundred and sixty-three years, Captain." She said softly. "And you've only given us twenty minutes together. A few more won't hurt."

Kirk took a deep breath before agreeing, reluctantly, and walked out of the med. bay. Lash glanced up at Khan as they followed the Captain out, several of the security Officers trailing behind.

As they walked, Kirk pulled out his communicator to contact Mr. Scott, who had somehow landed himself on the other ship. Kirk explained that after the Enterprise aligned itself next to the Vengeance, he and Khan were going to be dumped out of a garbage hatch in the Enterprise and zip through space over to the Vengeance. Mr. Scott was told to find an airlock and override the system so he would be able to access its functions.

Lash couldn't help but grin at some of Mr. Scott's replies. She probably would have liked the man if she ever got to meet him. Unlikely at this point. She thought as she continued to walk beside Khan, feeling his voice reverberate through his body as he spoke; it was comforting to her.

The company eventually walked into a long, narrow passage. On the floor were large, circular holes that led to the garbage shoots. An Officer approached Khan and Kirk and handed them rubbery, black jumpsuits with tanks attached to the back. Another Officer carried helmets.

Lash watched as Khan stepped into the suit and pulled it up over his hips. She then stepped behind him to help slip his arms through the sleeves and stretched the material up and over his broad shoulders. He zipped up the front as he turned to face her. He tested the palm controls of the suit at the same time Lash turned to the Officer holding the helmets. She held her hand out and he handed one to her. With both hands, she handed the helmet to Khan, who took it with his left hand, while his right came up to cup Lash's cheek. The two stared at each other for a few moments until Kirk was suited up. Khan then shifted his hand to the back of Lash's neck and pulled her into a brief, yet passionate, kiss. When he moved his lips away, he mouthed 'soon' to her before releasing Lash altogether. He slid the helmet on his head and allowed Lash to snap it into place. After slipping thick gloves over his hands, Khan turned to Kirk and nodded.

"Alright. Get her back to the med. bay and as soon as she's done with Bones, take her to the brig." Kirk instructed.

"Yes, sir." All of the Officers answered together.

Lash rose an eyebrow as she watched the selected garbage shoot. Since she had to wait for the Officers, she observed as Kirk, then Khan climbed down the ladder into the shoot. Once the cover was put back in place, the security team turned towards her. One of them stepped closer and put a hand on her shoulder to guide her through the hallways back to med. bay post six.

When she arrived, she was told to sit in a chair next to the desk with the dead tribble while she waited for McCoy to come back from wherever he went. When he did come back, he sat at the desk, so he could analyze and speak at the same time. He barely glanced at her as he got back to work.

"Alright, so why do you have super blood?" He eventually asked, leaning over a PADD.

"It's not just our blood, Doctor." Lash explained. "Like you said, our cells regenerate...oddly, for lack of a better term, and quickly but it goes for the rest of our body as well." She reached up to move her hair away from where she hit her head earlier, revealing the tiny scar. "I got this scar about an hour ago. Two hours before it was a scar, it was a cut I received when the Enterprise fell out of warp."

McCoy looked at her scar clinically before turning his gaze back to the desk. "How'd you become genetically altered?"

"We were experiments." She sighed. "We were part of a program designed for genetic altering and selective breeding based on eugenic philosophy. I don't know the philosophy; I never asked about it because I was rebellious in my younger days and didn't give a shit." Lash grinned. She saw McCoy make a few notes on the PADD. "I don't really know who created us or what their initial reasons for doing so were. I do know that about one hundred years ago, a man named Arik Soong tried to recreate what Khan and I are. He was a geneticist who tried to breed out the more aggressive of our qualities. I read that he was imprisoned for his experiments."

The doctor hummed. "Yeah, I read about him a while ago." He muttered. "Anything else?"

"What specifically are you looking for, Doctor?" Lash countered.

"I'm not sure." He grudgingly admitted.

Lash gave him a small smirk. "Than I think we're done here." She rose from the chair and took a few steps towards the guards before turning back to McCoy. "Oh, is Nurse Davies available for a minute or two?" She asked.

"Possibly. Why?"

"She's holding a bag of clothes for me. I'd like to change my shirt before I'm sent off to the brig." Lash annotated.

"How do you know Davies?" McCoy asked, looking like he was planning to call security to find the nurse and lock her up with Lash.

"Marcus." Lash replied, simply. "She was working under him, but he didn't have his claws into her nearly as deep as Khan and I. She was just my nurse."

The doctor stared at her for a moment longer before turning back to his desk and hitting a few buttons, calling for the nurse and to bring down Lash's bag.

"Thank you." Lash said with a slight bow of her head.

A few moments had passed when Nurse Davies walked into the med. bay. She handed the bag to Lash, who thanked her. The nurse asked McCoy if there was anything else he needed. He said no and Davies left the bay with one last look at Lash. Once the nurse departed, Lash swung back to McCoy.

"May I have some privacy somewhere? I'm not about to change out in front of all of you." She said, glancing meaningfully around her.

"Back over to the table. Pull the curtain around." McCoy instructed. "Be quick."

With an obedient nod, Lash sauntered back to the metal exam table and set her bag on it. She noticed Khan's indented handprint on the metal as she swung the curtain around, concealing her from everyone's view. Wanting to change quickly, Lash unzipped her bag and pulled out another black, long-sleeved, crew-necked Starfleet shirt. She shucked the dirty shirt and threw on the clean one. She immediately felt better; she didn't smell like engineering anymore. She shoved the old shirt into her bag, not needing to take care with it, then dug around a bit attempting to locate the PADD of her own design.

If it wasn't in there, the nurse was going to pay.

Lash finally found the device wrapped up in the blue science shirt she had brought along just in case. Sighing, she lifted up the back of her shirt and tucked the PADD into the waistband of her trousers, hoping security wouldn't be smart enough to search her when she stepped out. After she secured the PADD, Lash zipped up the bag and pulled the curtain back around, exposing herself once again. She walked over to McCoy and held up her bag.

"I don't know what to do with this." She explained to his raised eyebrow.

He nodded resignedly and took it, tossing it underneath the desk he was working at. He then, non-verbally, told the guards to take her away.

So they did.

Security marched her right back to the brig, where she was placed in the same oblong cell Khan (and her) had occupied previously. Lash held her hands behind her back and kept her eyes on the security Officers as they exited. One of them stayed behind to relieve the Officer on duty in the brig.

While they were changing, Lash subtly lifted her shirt and slid her PADD out, holding it behind her. She backed up and stepped up the step, keeping her back away from any possible prying eyes as she walked towards the cot. Right before the Officer sat down to check on Lash and the screens, she turned swiftly, still keeping the PADD out of sight. She then sat on the cot (faced towards the back of the cell) and pulled her knees up to hide and cradle the PADD in her lap. Stealthily shifting her arms, she let her fingers fly over the screen, bringing up a schematic of the Vengeance. It took her moments to hack into Marcus' files and find what she was searching for.

It took her a few moments more before she had most of the ship's layout memorized. It took her a few more seconds as she used a heat-seeking tracer to locate and follow Khan, Kirk, and Mr. Scott's path from the airlock to the bridge. By the time she found them, on the bridge, everyone was standing still. A few more forms were there, but their heat signatures were rapidly declining. She assumed one to be Marcus, but the others she had no way to find out who they were. Since they were standing still, she wondered if there was a communication line opened between the Enterprise and the Vengeance. Hacking a little more, Lash was able to have the communiqué transcribed. It appeared it was towards the end of the conversation.

Khan: Now, shall we begin?

Spock: Lower shields.

Khan: A wise choice, Mr. Spock.

There was a long pause.

Khan: I see your seventy-one torpedoes are still in their tubes and Lash is in the brig. If those torpedoes are not ours, Commander, I will know it.

Spock: Vulcans do not lie. The torpedoes, and Lash, are yours.

Khan: Thank you, Mr. Spock.

It was then Lash noticed golden wisps circling her body. She'd never been transported before and the feeling was not one she would like to repeat; having every cell in your body disintegrate then regenerate in another place was not the best feeling in the world.

When Lash regenerated, she was sitting on the floor in a dark corridor. Her arms flew out to keep her balance, but she ended up tipping to the side. Hard. She knocked the wind out of herself and her PADD went flying, but she was unharmed.

"Lash? Are you alright?" She heard Khan through the ship's systems.

"Yes. I'm on my way to you. Give me a moment to figure out where I am." She replied, scrambling over to her PADD.

When she picked it up, she saw the screen was cracked the whole way through. With a growl, she tossed it down; it was no use now.

"Hurry, love." She heard Khan again.

Turning around, she searched for a ship computer. Locating one glowing at the end of the corridor, she ran over to it and started typing to figure out where she was located in relation to the bridge. She found she was only one level and a few corridors over. She ran, sprinted, down the corridors and found a turbo lift. Getting in, she felt the ship shake violently. Crouching down, she waited for the shaking to stop before standing and hitting the button for the next floor up.

When she arrived, she sprinted out and burst onto the bridge at the end of the corridor.

"What the hell was that?" She shouted.

Khan swung his head towards her, his expression was beyond angry; it was down-right menacing. "They detonated the torpedoes." He growled viciously.

"What?" Lash breathed, stumbling over to Khan. She flopped down into the Captain's chair, not caring about rank (then again, the two of them were equal in rank).

Lash remained in the chair, trying to think of how things escalated so quickly. She stayed out of Khan's way as he frantically attempted to get the ship in working order again. She managed to look around her and saw the bodies of Marcus' crew scattered around...then caught sight of Marcus himself, skull smashed in, propped up in a corner.

"Son of a bitch." She whispered, emotionlessly, to herself. "Got to him before I could."

A/N: You know, I had a rough time with this part...I couldn't decide on where Lash should be when Kirk and Khan are zipping over to the Vengeance. I first had her taken to the bridge so she could watch their progress, but then I thought 'first of all, why would she be allowed on the bridge?' then thought 'that's not very original and I'd just be retelling the movie'. So I had her help Khan, then be shoved back into holding. And I hope that didn't seem rushed, but I kinda think it was...

Stay tuned for the next chapter! It's gonna be fun!

And, of course, thank you to all who have read, reviewed, alerted, and favored! I get giddy when I get those e-mails. :-P