They were working against the clock, trying to remove every single body from the torpedoes in the very short amount of time that they were allotted. "Just like old times," Charlie commented with a smirk.

"Not exactly," Leonard muttered as empty torpedoes were hauled away to the weapons bay.

It seemed no sooner had they removed all the people from the torpedoes then they were being fired on by Khan's ship. "I sure as hell hope Spock knows what he's doing."

"Have a little confidence," she chided as they prepared for more patients to enter the med bay, one of whom was Marcus.

"It's good to see you, Jim," McCoy greeted Kirk pleasantly.

"You helped Spock detonate those torpedoes," Jim replied with a smile.

"Damn right I did. Well, me and Charlie."

"What about his crew?"

"You don't think I'd actually let Spock go through with something that cold, do you?" Charlie asked, feigning offense. "I'm hurt and I'm sure Spock would be horrified you would even consider such a thing."

"What Charlie is trying to say is that we removed the crew from the torpedoes. Seventy-two human popsicles safe and sound inside their cryo-tubes."

"Son of a bitch." Kirk was impressed, earning mirror smirks from Leonard and Charlie. "You two don't need to look so damn smug about it, though." This only made the two more delighted. (It was only on very rare occasions that they got to be the ones annoying Jim and not the other way around.

"A doctor is needed on D deck," Uhura informed the med bay over the comm.

"I'm on it," Charlie replied, gathering a medical kit to check on the situation.

Shortly after she left, it became clear their respite would be a very short one, as power began to fade throughout the ship and Enterprise was pulled in by Earth's gravity.

"Emergency lockdown!" McCoy announced as he secured Marcus. "I hope you don't get sea sick."

"Do you?"

"Yeah," he admitted. There had been many times during her year on Enterprise that Charlie had been forced to give Leonard injections so he could continue working despite his 'sea sickness'. Then he remembered that Charlie had left sick bay. Oh, God.

The doctor in question was sliding all over Enterprise and even slid past Jim and Scotty – both of whom had managed to grab onto something. She hadn't been as lucky. The ship's descent was flinging her around like a rag doll as she continually ran into walls, feeling a few bones crunch in the process. Charlie was falling deeper and deeper into the ship.

Eventually, she felt herself hit a hard surface, though wherever she was it was pitch black. Her body was in bad shape. She had difficulty breathing, she had countless broken bones and cuts. Though she couldn't be sure, she also thought she might have internal bleeding. It was hard to think so maybe she had a concussion. At least the ship wasn't shaking anymore.

Bones had only just heard that Jim had died and he felt himself tearing up. To make matters worse, he had no idea where Charlie was or whether or not she was okay. He sat down to pull himself together when he heard the familiar purring of a tribble. Khan's blood. It could revive dead tissue. "Get me a cryo-tube now!"

The superman blood didn't only have to be used on Jim, though. It could be used on any of the crew members that couldn't be saved otherwise. That meant that Charlie could actually stand a chance, even if she had been seriously injured. "Bridge, I can't reach Spock. Tell him we need Khan alive. You bring that son of a bitch back on board, you hear me? He's our only chance of saving Jim."

Before too long, McCoy's plan had been carried out and Jim had been injected with some of Khan's blood. His vital signs began to improve almost immediately at astonishing rates. It was good for Leonard to know that all the tests he and Charlie ran had been worth something. "Don't move Khan very far," he ordered. "We're going to need him."

Leonard had volunteered to work temporarily at the hospital where all the injured crew who could still be counted among the living were taken. He not only did this because they were short-staffed but also because he needed the distraction. Whenever he took a break for any period of time, he would pull out his padd and go over the list of the crew who had been found dead, the crew who were injured and crew that were still missing. Charlie's name was on the final list, though every time Leonard checked, he was hoping to see her on the second list. It would take a long time for them to search the entire ship for survivors and Charlie could be anywhere. He just hoped they weren't too late.

That night, Leonard got an unexpected and somewhat unpleasant surprise: Charlie's parents. He was approached by a woman he didn't recognize and she asked "Are you Leonard McCoy?"

"Yes," he replied stiffly, wanting to know who the hell these people were.

"Where is our daughter?" she demanded. "She was on that ship with you wasn't she?" Now he was beginning to make educated guesses as to who was addressing him.

"She was on Enterprise," he said quietly, unsure how to proceed. "She's missing."

"Missing?"

"They're currently searching the ship for survivors, ma'am." Leonard was becoming increasingly nervous, bringing his southern twang in with a vengeance.

"What is going on? One day some man attacks Starfleet and the next a starship comes crashing into San Francisco. Is the man Charlene was talking about responsible for that?"

It took Leonard a moment to realize that she was talking about Charlie. Mrs. Jacobs was the only person he had ever heard use Charlie's full name. "I'm afraid I can't answer any questions right now. We haven't been debriefed and until I know what my orders are regarding this information, I can't say anything."

Mrs. Jacobs looked like she was about to protest before Mr. Jacobs stepped in. "Thank you. Will we be informed…when they find her?"

He nodded. "Of course. It could be a while, though."

"How can you be so calm?" Mrs. Jacobs asked accusingly.

"I'm anything but calm. But I have a job to do and until I know what's happened to her, I need to continue doing that job to the best of my abilities." Seeing Charlie's parents had only made things worse for him. She looked almost exactly like her mother, except her mother had the straight, smooth hair that Charlie had always claimed she wanted to have.

"Then we won't be a distraction any longer," Mr. Jacobs assured him. "I just hope that we hear good news when you contact us." He led his wife away, leaving Leonard standing alone with other doctors and nurses buzzing around him. So much for a first impression with her parents. He suspected her mother blamed him for what happened, whether he deserved that blame or not. Leonard had to remind himself that guilt would get him nowhere, though, so he went to check on Jim's vital signs.

Leonard was still buzzing around the hospital like a mad man looking for something – anything! – to do for a distraction. Thankfully, the entire place was too chaotic for anyone to notice how long he had been working and order to him to rest.

He should have been sleeping, but he knew that sleep would evade him until he knew whether or not she had survived. Remembering how upset he had been when she requested a transfer to the U.S.S. Archer, he now wished that Charlie hadn't been assigned to this mission. Yes, she would have worried about him but she would have known by now that he had come out of the ordeal no worse for wear. He had no such luxury.

It was now two in the morning and a fresh batch of survivors was being brought in by paramedics, briefing the doctors on the conditions of the various patients. Then Leonard saw someone with extremely frizzy hair lying unconscious on the gurney. He rushed over and demanded to know the details from the paramedic. "Her condition?"

"Not good. She's had extensive internal bleeding and I've never seen someone with this many broken bones still alive. I honestly don't think she'll last the night."

Under normal circumstances, given her injuries, Leonard believed he could have kept her alive for another week at most when she would have died too doped up on pain medications to say or understand a word. But he had Khan's blood and it was about to work its magic.

Charlie was rushed to a room as Leonard practically sprinted to where Khan was being kept unconscious. If Khan hadn't been a superman, he may have actually been affected by the amount of blood he had lost to the patients from Enterprise but Leonard doubted he would have noticed the difference even if he had been awake. With needle in hand, he injected her with the blood.

Vitals began to come back but he had to set all of the broken bones to make sure that they healed properly, as well as address the internal bleeding which could inhibit the effects of the blood. It took him hours but once they had done all they could, he collapsed into a chair with relief. She would be okay.

"Nurse," he ordered. "Make sure that Dr. Jacobs' parents are informed that she is here and she's going to be fine." He probably should have been the one to contact them but he wasn't going to turn his attention away from Charlie for one second. So, he pulled a chair up beside here, monitoring her vitals very closely on the screen.

When Mr. and Mrs. Jacobs were directed to Charlie's room, they saw that Leonard was asleep in a chair, updates on her condition glowing on the pad in his hand. "You see?" he asked his wife. "I don't think he would be sitting there if he didn't care." Mrs. Jacobs shrugged haughtily. "You're determined not to like him."

"I liked Ryan," she said defensively. "I just don't see why Charlene had to break up with a man from such a good family. He is such an upstanding young man."

"Apparently not," he replied with a shrug. "We should at least give him a chance. Besides, we still have dinner plans with them and I intend to attend. I liked Ryan, too, but that doesn't mean we won't like this kid."

"It's not just him! I don't want her to have anything to do with Starfleet. It nearly got her killed! I want grandchildren."

"I have a feeling you'll be waiting a while," he muttered. From what he had gathered, children were not on Charlie's agenda anywhere in the near future. "I did a little research on that ship she was on – Enterprise. Apparently it's some kind of honor to serve on it. She's good at what she does. Doesn't that count for anything? Did you know she's a lieutenant commander now? Don't tell me you're going to stop talking to her again. Because I'm not going along with it this time."

The next morning, before they got the chance to see Charlie, a group of people crowded into her room, clearly from Starfleet. One of them was even Vulcan. All of them appeared concerned for her and relieved when Leonard explained that Charlie was going to be fine.

After a while they filed out and the Vulcan turned to them. "Am I correct in assuming that you are Dr. Jacobs' parents?" They nodded. (Mr. and Mrs. Jacobs were unused to Vulcan mannerisms.) Spock paused before deciding to continue. "Charlie is a very competent officer, often playing a vital role on the bridge."

"What he means to say," Nyota interjected. "Is that we all love Charlie and we're happy that she's alright."

The Vulcan appeared almost ruffled that Uhura had ascribed human emotions to him – including him in the collective 'we' – but he didn't object.

While they left the immediate vicinity, Mrs. Jacobs said "I haven't met a friend of Charlene's since before she went to medical school."

The couple entered the room, where Leonard was still sitting, keeping his vigil over Charlie. "How long before she wakes up?" Mr. Jacobs asked.

"It could be a couple days," Leonard sighed. "She suffered a lot of trauma and none of the other officers who received the same…treatment that she did have woken up, yet. Did that pointy bastard give you the same spiel about her 'competence' as a Starfleet officer? Don't let him get away with that. He cares about her just as much as the rest of us, even if he won't admit it. Damn vulcans," he muttered under his breath. It was then that he remembered he was talking to Charlie's parents so he quickly stood and shook their hands, hoping he could make up for his botched first impression. Given the look on Mrs. Jacobs' face, that didn't seem likely.

"How has Charlene been?" Mr. Jacobs was desperately trying to diffuse the tension his wife was creating, especially because the kid seemed so nervous in front of them. "It's been a while since we've seen her and had a real chance to talk."

Leonard was at a loss for words. What was he supposed to say? "She's going to be the chief medical officer aboard the U.S.S. Archer. They'll be lucky to have her. She's the best there is in Starfleet when it comes to xeno-anatomy. There was one instance with an Andorian cadaver…" Leonard stopped before he got to the heart removal part. That probably wasn't what Mr. Jacobs had meant.

"That's good. I hope we're still on for dinner once Charlene is out of this place."

"Sure." Leonard really wished he was better at meeting people.

"Then we leave her in your capable hands."