Hello my lovelies! I hope you are all doing well and that everyone is doing okay. Cookies and blankets for you all - I'm not sure how emotional this chapter is going to be...
Disclaimer: I make really good chocolate chip cookies but that's about it, I'm afraid.
In late November, the blow hits.
"You can't do that," Scotty snaps at Dr. Eker, who, to be fair, looks understandably nervous about delivering the news to a furious Montgomery Scott and a frustrated Pavel Chekov. "You cannot just waltz into the room and tell us that you do not think Captain Sulu will-"
"Sir," the doctor says, "please lower your voice, there are sleeping patients here-"
"Yeah," Scotty says even louder, "and you know who else is a sleeping patient? Captain Hikaru Sulu, captain of the bloody Enterprise! Do you even give two damn-"
"Mr. Scott," Eker says, his pointed ears turning bright red, "please, I am begging you to lower your voice-"
"Not until you-"
"Scotty," Chekov intervenes, grabbing the furious engineer by the shoulders before he can lunge at the doctor. "Scotty, calm down - Scotty!" It takes all his strength to restrain the angry Scotsman from punching the lights out of Eker; he hasn't gotten any stronger in these last few months and Scotty is certainly bigger than he is. Chekov shakes Scotty for good measure. "Calm down," he repeats, his tone as level as it can be. "Go call En'Faiz and Cynthia, okay?"
Scotty shoots one last withering glare at the doctor before snatching Chekov's proffered communicator from his hand. "Damn right I will. You just bloody wait-" He stomps out the door.
Chekov sighs, feeling older than twenty-three years old. "Sorry, Dr. Eker. Mr. Scott gets a little hot under the collar sometimes. You understand…"
Eker busies himself with smoothing down his lab coat. "I do, Mr. Chekov. Sometimes it's hard for the patients to come to terms with the impending loss of a loved one."
Forget Scotty, I'm going to punch you myself, Chekov thinks, his fists clenching before he gets a hold of himself. "Well, you see," he says, his voice tight, "we don't think Hikaru is unresponsive to the treatment, so-"
"His brain patterns have showed little change in the time that he has been here," Eker says, consulting his notes. Chekov digs his nails into his palms to stop himself from smacking the clipboard out of the doctor's smooth, manicured hands. "The fact of the matter is, Mr. Chekov, Mr. Sulu is simply not going to make it on his own."
Chekov takes a deep, steadying breath, unwilling to accept that finality. "No, Dr. Eker. I disagree."
"With all due respect, Mr. Chekov, I am the medical expert in the-"
"You say that there's been little change in the brain patterns," Chekov blurts, grabbing at straws, anything to stop the doctor from implying that Sulu is going to die. "But there have been some changes, correct?"
"Yes, Mr. Chekov, but not enough to be statistically significant-"
"Screw significance," Chekov says a little more fiercely than he intends. He checks himself, forces himself to relax. If you're going to win this argument, you need to do it with logic. "There's been a change. That's a lot better than what was happening a month ago."
Eker shakes his head. "I'm sorry, Mr. Chekov. The point I am trying to make is that Mr. Sulu has little to no chance of making it on his own. The hospital has patients, some with much more dire need than Mr. Sulu's, and any extra bed is enough for them." He hesitates. "It might save a life," he adds.
"And what about Hikaru's life?" Chekov asks, still trying to keep his tone level. "Don't you think he deserves to be saved, too?"
"With all due respect, Mr. Chekov, Hikaru Sulu is hooked up to the machine. He is not showing any responses to you, or Mr. Scott, his sister, or me." Eker checks his notes. "You're fighting a losing battle."
He's slammed against the wall before he has any instinct to move, knocking over a hospital android carrying syringes and hyposprays on a metal tray. Chekov's eyes are alight with an angry fire, but his tone is still level and cool as he speaks. "Say that again, Eker."
"Mr. Chekov, get your hands off me-"
Chekov's face is a mask of grief and rage. "Let me tell you what a losing battle is, Dr. Eker. A losing battle is standing and watching as your family members get blown up and you can't - I'll tell you what –" He grabs Eker's shirt in a tight fistful and slams him against the wall for good measure. "I'll fight, alright, but it won't be a damn losing battle this time-"
"Mr. Chekov, get your hands off me right now or else-"
This is the last thing he remembers. Later on, Scotty tells him – with a little bit of pride in his tone – that Eker had taken a swing at him and that Chekov had taken him down easily with a few well-aimed punches. Cynthia adds, a little tartly, that it was a miracle the hospital was even going to let them back in on the premises. When Chekov sheepishly asks En'Faiz about it, the big man only smiles and says that the Federation has connections in the hospital.
(Really, En'Faiz confides in his secretary later, it was a damn good thing that Dr. Eker was one of the least liked physicians in the hospital. No one was sad to see him get a bit of roughing up.)
So in late November, it turns out that Chekov takes to spending all his time in Sulu's presence, watching the endless peaks and valleys of his friend's vitals and brain waves scroll across the screen. "What is the point of knowing what your blood pressure is if you're not even awake to see it?" he asks Sulu.
No response.
Chekov sighs. "Hikaru, if you can hear me, tap once."
Still no response.
"Yeah, I didn't think that was going to work." Chekov gets up and stretches out. "Sorry you're stuck with me tonight. Scotty said that he was going out with Cynthia. I guess it's their anniversary or something." He rolls his eyes. "Scotty. Anniversary. Never thought I'd hear those words in the same sentence."
He imagines Sulu laughing, and smiles briefly. "Sorry your sister couldn't be here, either," he says, shrugging even though Sulu can't see him. "But your mother – I guess she's sick. I'll call her the minute anything changes, though, so you know – give me something to call about."
The machine beeps, and Chekov chooses to believe that Sulu's talking to him through the machine. "Yeah, well. Life's crazy, Hikaru. I was supposed to start teaching about a month ago, but you went and got yourself into this mess, so I'm here taking care of you."
Oh, he knows what Sulu would say: You didn't have to.
"Shut up," he says. "You would have done the same. You did do the same, might I remind you."
I'm awesome.
"Sure. You just got yourself stuck with a bunch of hostile psychics. Bet you didn't see that one coming." Chekov laughs shortly. "I hope you didn't break out jokes like that while you were there, because it might explain the torture they inflicted. Tap once if you agree with me."
Something beeps in his bag, and Chekov pulls out Sulu's old screen, the one from what seemed like ages ago. "I still have this, you know," he says, waving it before remembering that Sulu couldn't possibly see. "Uh, by this I mean your screen. Remember? The one you threw at me when you left the first time?"
It's been a while.
"Yeah, it's been more than a year now." Chekov flicks the screen on and watches as the hologram pops up. "Strange how things have changed. Back then I was the one who needed help. Now it's you. Maybe next year we'll have to help Scotty. Won't that be fun? What do you think we'll have to help him with?"
Probably getting home from a bar when he's had too much to drink.
"Most likely," Chekov snorts. "Hey, let's watch those videos together. They cheered me up. Maybe they'll help you."
The video cycles through Uhura and Spock as Chekov leans back and takes in their smiling faces. "You know, it's funny, I think Doctor McCoy would have strongly disliked Eker," he comments. "Even Spock was a better physician. Agree or disagree?"
Finally, the video comes to rest on Sulu's face. "And then there's you," Chekov says. "You look so much better back then than you do now. Must be the scar." He smiles to himself. "Hey, I don't know if I ever told you this, but – thanks. You know, you've always been the one to understand what I needed."
What, love and care? Sulu scoffs in his head.
"Well – that, too. But you were my first friend, Hikaru. I hope you know that. I'm sorry I didn't tell you when we were together." Chekov sighs. "But if all things fail – if this is the end – I hope you know that you're like a brother to me."
He sees it before he hears it.
He thinks he's imagining the almost imperceptible lift of a finger from Sulu as it lifts a few inches off the sheets before coming back down, tired from its weak sojourn into consciousness. But then his attention is diverted by the sound of beeping machines as Sulu's brain waves suddenly shoot off the charts, jagged and leaping. Chekov leaps to his feet, unable to believe what is happening. "Hikaru?"
The door slams open and nurses pour in, shouting instructions. Chekov is yelling to be heard over the sound of the commotion as nurses gently but firmly push him out the door: "Hikaru? Hikaru, can you hear me?"
He's not imagining it. Right as the door slams in his face, he sees Sulu's head move towards the sound of his voice.
EKER. YOU FOOL.
But also, Suluuuuuu. :)
Much love,
ohlookrandom
