Nineteen

Victoria had never felt so awkward in her life.

And what was worse, it was awkwardness combined with guilt, which made talking practically impossible for her. She was normally excellent at small talk and all kinds of conversation, but here in a dark, dusty tunnel where she was following Dr. McCoy and a penlight, all her talents failed her. She didn't want to say too much, because she wanted Jim there when she told him the full story of why she was on the Enterprise, but as they walked further through the tunnels she realized maybe it had been a bad idea to keep quiet. Now, she couldn't think of a single thing to say that wouldn't bring up the topic of her false name or fake medical records, which meant that the silence was practically suffocating her.

They had been walking for at least an hour, and by Victoria's calculations they should have been coming upon another crater in the next few minutes. Of course, she hadn't voiced this to Dr. McCoy, because she couldn't think of how to bring it up. So, when his communicator suddenly came to life and let out a high-pitched whine, they both jumped with surprise and McCoy swore. Loudly.

Victoria clicked her tongue in disapproval despite herself, and McCoy gave her a wry smile as they stopped so he could look at his screen. Victoria found herself returning his smile, but it slipped off her face quickly when she heard the voice emitting from his device.

"Bones?" it was scratchy and faint, but the voice was definitely Jim's. "Can you hear me?"

"Yeah, I can," McCoy exchanged a look of relief with Victoria, who motioned for him to keep walking. They sped up to a jog. "Where are you?"

"In a crater," the signals were getting clearer with every step. "But I'm not sure how far I am. Where are you? Did someone find you?"

"Yeah, someone did," McCoy gave Victoria a look, and she grimaced before holding out her hand for the communicator.

"Jim?" she held it close to her face, trying to hear the faint voice. "Honey, are you okay?"

"Tori?" Jim sounded confused. "Uh, I mean, Dr. Woodville, I –"

"Save it, Jim, I figured something's goin' on," interjected McCoy. Victoria could see Jim run a hand through his hair awkwardly in her mind's eye, and it made her smile. "Just stay put and we'll come get you, we're nearing a crater now."

"We'd have heard him by now if he was here," murmured Victoria quietly so Jim couldn't hear her. "He needs to get beamed up to the Enterprise."

McCoy nodded. "Jim, can you get in touch with the ship?"

"I tried, but my long-range signal is shot," replied Jim. "I'll wait for you guys and we'll beam up together."

Victoria paled, and McCoy scowled. "Dammit, Jim, how come you don't know where you are? What does your PADD say?"

"I don't have it, must have dropped it when I was running to save your sorry ass, Bones."

"Enough," Victoria spoke firmly before McCoy could retort. "Jim, we'll try and get to you as soon as we can, okay? Just save power right now and wait for my call."

"Yes, ma'am. Kirk out."

McCoy swore again when Victoria switched off the communicator. The shift in the air was obvious – they were only a few feet away from a crater, and there was no indication that Jim was nearby. Victoria tugged at McCoy's arm and they both sprinted for the opening; she knew he was hoping just as much as she was that Jim would be there, by some miracle. When they got there, however, it was very obviously empty.

Victoria immediately shoved the communicator at McCoy and took out her PADD. "Call the ship," she said, eyes glued to her screen. "Get the bridge."

McCoy did as she asked and held up the communicator between them, and Victoria didn't even look up when she heard a calm voice speak. "Sulu here."

"Hikaru, open your map," said Victoria. Her fingers were flying across the screen as she spoke. "I'm in the south-east crater, and I've cleared both south-west and the crater sixty-five degrees north from it."

"Okay," Sulu still sounded calm. McCoy glanced at Victoria's PADD and saw the map of the terrain she had open, where there were four blue dots and three red dots in various places across the screen. "I've marked where you've been in red. What do you need me to do?"

"I need you to get Mr. Scott to use whatever magical powers he has and tell me where Jim is," said Victoria. Her voice was even, but not calm – there was a shrill touch to her tone that made McCoy immediately wary. "There is a quake in one hour and I can't run to four different locations, and we can't beam down in case a quake strikes and someone else gets injured too."

"Okay, give me a second," Sulu still sounded as though they were talking about the weather, but McCoy wasn't fooled. The pilot was completely freaked out, he knew it. A few seconds later, another voice came on. "Scott here."

"Find Jim," said Victoria. She still hadn't looked up from the map – McCoy saw that she had another window open next to it, where she was inputting numbers with one hand in a steady stream. He had no idea what she was doing. "I'm shifting signals from my tracker to his so you can narrow down his location."

Oh, so that was what she was doing. McCoy blinked. "How d'you know –"

"That is a bad idea!" yelled the Scotsman. "If we lose your signal –"

Victoria snatched the communicator out of McCoy's hand, her eyes flashing. "For god's sake, Mr. Scott, you know which crater I'm in, beaming me up should only take a second," she snapped. "I don't care if it's not protocol, he's the damn captain."

"Calm down, Tori," it was Sulu again. "Look at your map. We've narrowed the radius, he's in one of two craters. Just let me –"

"I don't care if he's in one of three, beam him back up onto the ship!"

"The seegnal izn't strong enough, he'z damaged hiz trecker!" it was Chekov this time. "Can ve –"

"Beam me into both craters and use mine," Victoria didn't let him finish. "You have twenty minutes before the next quake, that's plenty of time."

"What do you mean?" asked Sulu.

"Send me to both craters, one at a time, and use the signal from my tracker to narrow down locations. You can beam him up if I grab him, right?"

"Theoretically, yes, but it isn't the best idea," insisted Scotty.

"Why?" demanded Victoria.

"Tori, you've been back and forth using the transporter too much, it's not good for you," said Sulu gently. "We can send someone else, just –"

"Setting up another tracking device and sending someone down here who isn't familiar with the terrain is dangerous and stupid, Hikaru, we have Jim to make decisions like that, not you," Victoria had shut off her PADD now, and McCoy could see that she had made up her mind. She still hadn't looked at him. "Just do it. Twenty minutes is enough for me to –"

McCoy interrupted her firmly. "I'll take one."

Victoria blinked. "You'll what?"

He grabbed the communicator from her and addressed Scotty. "My tracker's still working. You take one crater, I'll take the other. We'll get him out faster that way."

"That's not a bad idea!" interrupted Scotty excitedly. "McCoy's tracker is still working and vitals show you're more tired than he is!"

"Thanks," muttered McCoy. "Just beam us up, Scotty."

"Aye, give me a minute!" and the line went dead.

Victoria was giving him a strange look. McCoy caught her eye and raised an eyebrow. "What? Have I got somethin' in my teeth?"

She smiled, but it wasn't at his joke. "Jim always said you hated using the transporter."

"I do," McCoy scowled. "Damn things ain't natural."

"We're in space, Doctor. Most of the stuff we do doesn't fit into the category of natural."

"Yeah, well, either way," McCoy tossed his penlight up into the air and caught it again, suddenly unwillingly to look her in the eyes. She was doing that weird thing where she looked at him with an expression that made it seem like she had just read his mind. She had done it that night they had talked in her house, when she had made him coffee and brownies and he had seriously reconsidered his policy of not sleeping with women he could potentially be friends with. Considering how much he clearly didn't know about this woman, though, he wouldn't be surprised if she somehow could read his mind. "If using that thing is the only way to get Jim out, we gotta do it."

Victoria smiled, and McCoy's communicator beeped, signalling they were ready to go. He scowled again, and she breathed out a short laugh. "Energize," she said.

McCoy shut his eyes immediately and tried to think about something, anything other than the fact that his molecules were hurtling through space at the speed of light. His chest constricted painfully, and he had the sudden urge to throw up: fortunately, it was over in barely a second, and when he opened his eyes he saw that Victoria was making her way off the platform and towards Scotty.

"Here and here," the engineer was saying, pointing to another map open on the console in the transporter room. "We'll send you and McCoy to one each, and the signals from your trackers and Jim's broken one should be enough for me to get a lock on you."

"How long do we have before the next earthquake?" asked Victoria.

"Seventeen minutes," said a voice, and McCoy saw Spock enter the room, hands folded behind her back and a blank expression on his face. "Dr. Woodville, if I may –"

"You may not," Victoria was already heading back to the transporting pad, ignoring the Vulcan completely. She smiled at McCoy slightly, and tossed him another tracker. "It'll double the signal," she said. "Ready to go?"

McCoy clipped the tracker onto his sleeve and glared at the ground. "I hate these things," he muttered, more to himself than Victoria. But she heard him.

"It'll all be over soon," she said reassuringly. "And I'm sure you can opt out of all away missions for the foreseeable future after saving Jim."

McCoy snorted. "I've been savin' him since we were in the Academy. I got made CMO on his damn ship for my troubles."

"Just think about how satisfying it'll be to punch him in the gut when this is done."

"That's what's keepin' me goin'."

Victoria laughed just as Scotty looked up. "Ready?" he asked. They both nodded. "Say the word."

"Energize."

Victoria shut her eyes reflexively, but when they opened and she breathed in the familiar air of the foreign planet, she immediately knew something was off. Her head snapped to the side, trying to see if her suspicions were correct. When her communicator suddenly beeped, she picked it up without looking at the name and held it to her ear. "Did you find him?"

McCoy sounded annoyed. "He's not here."

Victoria's eyes widened. "He's not here either!"

"D'you think Scotty got it wrong?"

"I don't know, you know him better than I do!" Victoria ran hand through her hair in frustration. "What the hell do we do now?"

"Look around and see if he's left somethin'," said McCoy calmly. "I just landed on a water bottle, and I know Jim dropped one in a crater when I was still with him so we'd know we'd been here before. He might've done the same thing here."

Victoria scanned the ground quickly, trying to find anything out of the ordinary in the fading light. In her rush to get back to the surface, she hadn't thought to bring a torch with her. Fortunately, her eyes had adjusted, and it didn't take long for her to spot something shiny in the middle of the floor. "I got something," she told McCoy. She picked it up carefully and bit her lip. "It's his communicator badge."

McCoy swore. "What the hell does he think he's doin'?"

"I don't know," Victoria peered into the downward sloping tunnel warily. "You don't think Jim would be stupid enough to go wandering off when I told him to stay put, right?"

"You're makin' him sound like a three year old."

"I'm serious!"

"So was I. That's exactly what he'd do."

Victoria glanced at her watch. "There's still twenty minutes until the next quake."

"It'll take you over an hour to get through that tunnel."

"I could go about halfway in and yell really loudly, couldn't I?"

"And what if the roof collapses? I saw you limpin', you can't run anymore."

"I'll be fine," Victoria was already inching her way into the tunnel. "If I don't call you back in twelve minutes just beam up, okay?"

"Hey, don't even think about –" Victoria flipped the comm shut and took a deep breath, entering the tunnel with quick, long strides. On instinct, she stuck west, praying that Jim hadn't gotten too far. She focused on being speedy, not needing to be thorough – even if her eyes didn't adjust, she knew she was loud enough to attract attention.

"Jim?" she called out. Her voice echoed back to her eerily, and Victoria had to cup a hand over her mouth to combat the coughing fit she got as soon as she inhaled. The dust and dirt certainly weren't going to help matters. "Jim?" she tried again, this time keeping her mouth covered slightly. Once again, the echo bounced off the walls, but there was no response.

Victoria had been smart enough to turn on a timer on her watch as soon as she had landed in the crater, and the beep every minute told her she didn't have a lot of time if she wanted to make it out before the tunnel collapsed. And she could turn back now, she knew that – no one would blame her, and Jim certainly would want her to be safe. But she couldn't just leave. He may be Captain James T. Kirk of the USS Enterprise, but all Victoria saw every time she looked at him was the scared little boy who had run away from home into her yard and stuck to her like glue ever since that day. She couldn't leave him.

"I'm going to kill you, Jim," she muttered to herself. The tunnel was turning towards the east now, and Victoria forced herself to slow down and look at her watch. She had spent more than half of her twenty minutes in these tunnels – if she planned to get out, she'd have to run, and now.

But she didn't. Instead, she kept walking. To distract herself from her impending doom, she began to hum, softly. Her low tones echoed off the walls around her, but it was a good distraction, and she kept it up. A few minutes later, as Victoria paused for breath, she heard an unfamiliar sound. It was a groan.

"Jim?" she called out again. Someone groaned louder. She sped up, and almost cried with relief when she saw a figure slumped by the wall a few feet ahead of her, matted blonde hair caked with dirt and blood. She fell to her knees next to him and gently, but firmly, shook his shoulder. Jim's eyes flickered open. Victoria smiled. "Hey, kid."

"Tori?" his eyes widened. "What're you –"

"No time," interrupted Victoria. "Are you hurt?"

"Roof gave in," Jim jerked his head upwards. Victoria followed his movements and saw that, indeed, the roof of the tunnel had collapsed. There was debris everywhere. Jim coughed. "Hit my head."

"It's okay," soothed Victoria. "You'll be okay, honey." She took out her phaser and offered him a smile, which he returned weakly. Shielding Jim's head with her torso, Victoria fired a shot up into the hole, and grinned when she didn't hear it collide with anything. The roof had given in, alright. It had left a gaping hole straight up to the surface in the process. Which meant…

Victoria unclipped her tracker and pinned it to Jim's collar. He was trying very hard to keep his eyes open, and received a kiss to his forehead for his trouble. He smiled again. "I knew you loved me the most."

"If by that you mean I wasn't going to leave you on this planet, you're right," Victoria took out her PADD and put it in Jim's lap, opening her comm as she did so. To her relief, it let out a static noise when she switched it on. She held it to her ear. "Hello?"

"Gotcha!" it was Scotty. "I see ya, lassie! You got the captain with you?"

"I've got Jim with me, the combined signal from our trackers should be enough for you to beam us up."

"Eh, no, it's not," he sounded confused. "I'm only getting one signal."

Victoria closed her eyes and sighed deeply. "Can you tell who?"

"Whoever's got two trackers on them."

"Okay," Victoria nodded to herself. "Jim needs a medic. Beam him up, I'll make a run for the crater and you can find me then."

"You sure?" Scotty sounded doubtful. "We can try and wait –"

"No time," said Victoria. Jim's eyes flickered shut and she pinched his arm soundly. "Count to thirty and beam him up. Over and out."

"What're you doing?" mumbled Jim sleepily. "I'm not going without you."

"Yes, you are," Victoria quickly inputted the exact location of the crater into her PADD and tucked it safely under Jim's arm. She caught his eye and smiled. "You're going to have to help me out here, kid," she said softly. "Beam up to the ship and tell someone to use this location to find me, okay?"

"Tori," Jim groaned and tried to sit up properly. "If this is your damn guilt again –"

"This has nothing to do with guilt. I'm not letting you die," as the familiar pulses of energy began to circle Jim, Victoria dropped his hand and inched away. "Just go. I'm going to make a run for the tunnel."

If Jim had an argument to that, Victoria didn't find out. When the light was gone and she was sure Jim had been transported, she stood up and took a deep breath.

And then she ran.