Chapter Six

"Pavel, are you sure this is a good idea?" Sulu asked as he follow his young friend to Sickbay. They were on their lunch break, and the teen insisted on Sulu coming with him to met the girl.

"She did not zhrow me out yesterday," Chekov answered with a nod. "Eet vill be fine, I am sure. I have already promised to leave immediately eef she asks."

"Actually, it's Dr. McCoy I'm worried about. Do you think he'll let us stay?"

"He let me stay yesterday," Chekov shrugged as they stepped through the doors to Sickbay.

The very doctor in question looked up from his PADD as they entered. "Okay, what are you fellas doing in here?" He asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Ve are bringing Paddy her lunch." Chekov answered.

"Paddy?" McCoy gave the teen an exasperated look.

"Da, zat ees name I gave her yesterday."

"Oh, the name you gave her," McCoy snarked. "You do realize that she already has a name."

"But she can't remember eet right now, Doctor," he answered. "Ve can't just keep calling her, 'You'."

"Guess you have a point," the doctor huffed, rolling his eyes. "But we can't really call her 'Paddy'."

"Why not?" Sulu asked.

"Eet ees Irish, da?"

McCoy nodded. "Oh, it's Irish alright, but it's usually short for Patrick."

Sulu nodded in sudden understanding, but Chekov remained confused."Patrick isn't a girl's name, Pavel," Sulu added when noticed his friend's confusion.

"Oh." The teen's shoulders slumped in defeat. "I don't know any ozer Irish names."

"Back in th' day, 'Paddy' was a generic term for any Irishman," a voice rang out from behind the privacy curtain. "I can hear ye."

The threesome ducked behind the curtain. "So, eet ees okay eef ve call you zat?"

She shrugged. "Technically, the term does apply, an' I cannae stop ye."

"If you would prefer us to call you something else, we will," Sulu said, extending his hand. "I'm Hikaru Sulu, just call me Hikaru." Hesitantly, she shook his hand. "Pavel and I thought maybe you could use some company. It gets lonely down here, all by yourself."

"It's quiet," she shrugged once more. "I can think."

"Vot about?" Chekov asked.

"Rememberin'." she whispered, playing with sheets in her lap.

"We'll do everything we can to help with that, Darlin'," McCoy said, speaking a softer tone than the younger men could remember hearing him use. She just nodded.

"Until zen, ve can call you Paddy, da?" Chekov asked, placing her lunch tray on her table.

A faint smile graced her lips as she rolled her eyes at the Russian's hopeful face. "Aye, ye can call me Paddy," she answered good-naturedly, as if she was used to humoring a younger sibling.

"Okay, I'll let you kids eat in peace," McCoy said. He pointed to Paddy with a serious look on his face. "You call for me the minute these two knuckleheads get on your nerves, okay? I will hypo them into next week if they aren't perfect gentlemen."

Chekov and Sulu glanced nervously at McCoy as she nodded, though the look in her eyes left the doctor wondering if she knew what he was talking about. He found two chairs for the young men and left the trio to eat.

"So you really can't remember anything?" Sulu asked Paddy. "I can't imagine what that must be like."

"I have bits 'n pieces; flashes, but no' much. No' much I care tae recall. Most o' is dark, cold, an'...an'...painful..." she trailed off softly.

Sulu laid a gentle hand on her shoulder causing her jump slightly. "I'm sorry, Paddy. We all are." She did not answer, but looked down at her folded hands in her lap. Sulu turned to Chekov and asked about his shift in Engineering the day before.

Paddy silently ate her food, lost in thought. There was so much she knew she should remember but did not. Parents; all people have parents, that much she knew. Yet, her mind could conjure up no image or memory of any people that fit that description. The doctor had called her Irish. While she somehow knew the tidbit about the nickname Paddy, the only thing that really came to mind when she thought of Ireland was the color green.

However, the thing weighing heaviest on her mind was home. She wanted to go home so badly, but she had no idea where home really was.

While she contemplated her desert pudding, she couldn't not help but watch the boys out of the corner of her eye. There was something familiar about the way they interacted together: the way Pavel motioned wildly with his hands as he grew more and more earnest and excited about whatever he was talking about, the genuine interest in Hikaru's face as he patiently listened to the hyper teen, the camaraderie they shared. She had to suppress a giggle as Hikaru gave Pavel a light shove for something the teen said. It was so familiar...

Suddenly, a jolt of pure pain stabbed through her head. Crying out, she clutched her head in her head, shoving her table away. She raised her knees to chest and buried her face in them in an attempt to block out the rest of the world. Faintly, her mind registered voices calling to her, hands trying to hold her, but all she could focus on was the pain. A thousand knives stabbed through her skull over and over.

She knew it had been too good to be true. Their kindness, their gentleness...They even gave her a name this time...but it was too good to last. No matter how nice to her they were, they always hurt her in the end. They always brought more pain and suffering.

Then, images began to flash before her eyes. Two dark-haired boys, one about ten years old and the other around eight, sat at a wooden table with a several little piles of Legos in front of them. The elder one held the instruction manuel and was helping to guide the younger one in building the space ship picture on the box. Both were talking excitedly about all of space adventures that Astronaut Legoman was going to have in the completed vessel.

The scene changed, and the younger boy was now older, sixteen or seventeen, and sat next to a twelve-year-old boy with bright red curls. They were on a bench outside somewhere, and the twelve-year-old was talking very animated about something. The older one laughed and lightly pushed the younger one so that he nearly fell over. Both were laughing and grinning widely.

Then, she was standing on a pier on what appeared to be a lake. Whooping and hollering behind her caught her attention and she turned to see all three boys running towards the pier in nothing but their jeans. The eldest, now eighteen or nineteen, ran past her and jumped into the lake, closely followed by the sixteen and twelve-year-olds. The boys splashed and dunked each other, their shouts echoing off the water. They began calling and begging for her to join them. She giggled and was just about to jump in when she suddenly felt a sting on her neck and her vision began to darken. Her last thought before unconsciousness overtook her was her beloved brothers' names.

Aiden...Keith...little Pat...

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