Captain Pike.

The voice was distant. His mind was foggy. He couldn't remember where he was. He tried to speak but his body wouldn't follow his command.

Captain Pike.

The voice again. It was too loud. And deep down, Chris resented it but he couldn't explain why.

Chris…

The voice was getting softer. His surroundings were getting more focused. He was in medical.

Chris.

BEEP.

The sound surprised him. When his eyes decided to focus, all he could see was the smile on Nathaniel Luna's face. "Welcome back, Captain." Chris saw Luna's hand in his periphery, as if he was tapping on his shoulder. But Chris couldn't feel anything. One month ago, Chris had met his fate. He had rushed into the compartment of that old J class freighter and saved as many cadets as he could.

BEEP.

"The surgery was… successful." Luna conceded. "We managed to place the AI into your speech center, away from the areas damaged by the radiation. Right now, you can only say yes - one beep- or no -two beeps- but I'm confident that in a few months, you'll be able to say a few more words."

BEEP BEEP.

"Chris, I know this is not what you were hoping for…" Luna continued. "But we're working in uncharted territory here. I've talked to the Starfleet Corps of Engineers. We're hoping that the device can also be used to motorize a transportation device for you… so you can get out of this bed."

BEEP BEEP.

"Captain, you shouldn't be alone. I can call…"

BEEP BEEP. BEEP BEEP. BEEP BEEP. Do not call Thea, Chris thought.

"Ok." Luna looked up towards the night nurse. "Do a blood panel every hour. We need to monitor how he's doing." He looked down at his patient again. "I'll do everything I can to give you some of your life back."

A tear escaped Chris' right eye. The life he had learned to love was over. He had made peace with that fact a long time ago.

"I'll stop by later tonight. You need to get some rest." Luna waited for an affirmative beep that never came.

STSTSTST

Alathea turned off the monitor as soon as Nathan left Chris' room. She fisted her hands into a tight ball, letting her fingernails dig into her palms to prevent herself from screaming. This situation was unfair. Ever since the accident, she hadn't been able to put aside the conversation she had with Chris in the cave on Upothas II all these years ago. Chris knew, was the only conclusion she had been able to formulate. And this is why he pushed me away when we got back to Earth.

Althea jumped when Nathan entered his sparsely furnished office. "You should go home," he stated coldly. "There is nothing for you to do here. He doesn't want to see you." Nathan took a steadying breath. He sounded exactly like the jealous ex-husband he had promised to never become. "Thea, I'm sorry. I didn't mean…"

When she finally looked at him, her eyes were filled with tears. "You're not sorry. You think this is just what I deserve: I'm in love with a man who has never loved me back." She stepped towards the door, unwilling to let Nathan see her break down over Chris once more.

Nathan gently grabbed her by the arm and turned her around. "Thea." Alathea just collapsed in his arms, unable to fight off the tears any longer.

Nathan directed her towards the couch in his makeshift office. He had received the call about the incident in the middle of the night in San Francisco and had been rushed to Starbase 11 to oversee the care of the victims. Two of the cadets had died while he was in transport. The last ones only survived a few hours after starting treatment. But Captain Pike had survived the grueling treatment. No one had expected him to. They were all in uncharted territory as for his care, especially as far as his quality of life was concerned.

Nathan remembered the panic call from Alathea, her begging him to do everything in his power to save Chris' life. This had been a point of contention throughout their collaboration: she had often asked him when it was time to let go; at what point the individual's suffering could not justify the treatment. But when it had come to save Pike, she had kept any reservations she may have had to herself and Nathan knew his ex-wife well enough to understand that she was blaming herself for not letting him go.

"I'll do what I can for him, Thea. I promise you," he murmured to her. "We have the best people working on solutions. None of us are giving up on him." He paused. "But you are needed elsewhere."

Alathea slowly extracted herself from Nathan's arms. "I can't leave him."

"You're not. But right now, he needs to grieve. Maybe in a few weeks…"

"Chris has made peace with this a long time ago," she interrupted. "At the same time he decided that he didn't want me in his life."

"Thea, the man deserves to know."

"What would that accomplish, Nathan? More grief? More regrets? Do you really think that Chris will want to meet his son in his current state?"

Nathan started pacing his office. They had had this exact conversation several times over the years. The first time was when Thea returned home from the month she had spent with Chris in his cabin in Montana. The second was when she learned she was pregnant. Nathan had resented the man for taking from him not only Alathea's love but also his chance at a family. They had been trying for years but as suspected, Alathea had been left infertile from the treatment she had endured as a teenager. She had started fertility treatment just prior to joining Enterprise. Apparently, they had been successful.

Despite his resentment for the man, he couldn't blame Chris for abandoning the son he didn't know he had. Nathan and Alathea had even tried to pretend that the baby was Nathan's son but their marriage fell apart soon after the birth. Alathea left Starfleet and moved back to her childhood home in Mojave. Eventually, she bought out the Pike's ranch and settled there a few years back. One year later, she had become Phil Boyce's caretaker as his Irumodic Syndrome progressed. As far as Nathan knew, Boyce couldn't remember his own name on most days and wasn't aware of Pike's condition. Perhaps it was better this way.

"But you're right," Althea sighed. "My place is not here. Not anymore. It hasn't been in over seven years." Alathea slipped her doctor's mask on. "What now? How much functionality do you think he'll be able to recover?"

"If you mean his body, none. The chip we implanted today will eventually allow him to communicate, perhaps mimic feelings but he will never be able to do anything on his own." Nathan activated the console on his desk and projected the image of a chair on the screen. It consisted of a black box that would cover Chris's body completely. Only his head would emerge. "Starfleet came up with this design. The chair will be able to sustain his basic functions: breathing, eating, drinking… and allow for some independent movement. In a few weeks, Chris should be able to control it through the AI. Right now, his communication is limited to "yes" or "no" that are rendered through beeps but we hope we might be able to restore more language."

"Hope?"

"His brain wave patterns indicate that he is fully conscious and aware. However, the radiation damage to the speech center of the brain is extreme. We were lucky to even be able to restore yes/no answers. So he can think but he can't communicate. Think of it as patients who see a dog, know it's a dog but say cat. If Chris could talk right now, he would be in a similar situation. With time, the AI might learn to translate his more primitive thoughts but there are no guarantees."

Alathea's tears flew anew. What had she done? Chris would have never wanted this.

"Thea, he's alive. And I know that he probably doesn't see it that right now but his life is not over. In a few months, he will have more autonomy. In a year, we might find solutions to allow him to communicate fully. No one is giving up on finding a solution."

"Nathan, stop. You know as well as I do that he will never be able to enjoy a ride in Mojave or captain a starship. At best, he'll be stuck behind a desk at Headquarters. This is not who Chris is! He needs to make a difference and he's not going to do this from San Francisco!"

"People adapt. And maybe Chris can't save the galaxy anymore. But he can make a difference in people's lives. Starting with his son. Don't you think Chris Jr would want to know his real father?"

"You ARE his real father. Chris might have provided the chromosomes but you were the one who soothed him when he was sick, read him bedtime stories, taught him how to write his name, took him to school on his first day… Chris never did this."

"He never had the chance, Thea. And six years ago I respected your decision. But circumstances have changed. And right now, Pike deserves to know the truth. He needs to know that he can make a difference in his son's life."

"No." Alathea said firmly. "Chris made a choice seven years ago." Her words sounded hollow.

"What really happened between the two of you?"

"Exactly what I told you." Alathea had always known that cheating on her with a fellow captain had been Chris' way of keeping her at arm's length. She had never known why until a few weeks ago. "I know this is going to sound insane but Chris knew. He's always known."

"Knew what?" Nathan frowned. He suspected the answer but he wanted to hear it from Alathea.

"That he would end up here." Alathea scrutinized her ex-husband's face carefully. "You believe me?"

"Thea, when it comes to the two of you, I've learned a long time ago not to question anything."

Alathea grew more and more uncomfortable in Nathan's presence. She slowly stood up and started pacing his office. "On our first mission, Chris got injured.."

"Shot in the leg. No rescue for several days," Nathan interrupted. "Your notes and those of Boyce suggest he made a full recovery."

Alathea nodded. "What is not in my notes or Boyce's were mentions of his mental state. He was clearly suffering from PTSD. Had been even before we embarked on that mission. Phil started treating him once onboard, but considering the … friction with command, it was kept on a need-to-know basis." Althea paused. "Considering Chris' exemplary record, my father agreed to keep the diagnostics under wraps until we got back to Earth. What my father or command didn't know is that Chris wanted to leave Starfleet. And I promised him that I would go with him."

Nathan grimaced. Time hadn't erased the wounds caused by this decision. "So you went to Montana."

Alathea nodded. "I left Montana for a few days to make arrangements to be stationed on Earth. Chris was supposed to resign his commission."

"But he didn't. And it was easier for you to say that he had cheated on you?"

Alathea snorted in derision. "Actually, that part is true. He did find a suitable replacement." She sighed. "I think he got scared. He didn't want me to see him this way or sacrifice the rest of my life to take care of him. As usual, he made the decision for both of us." She turned to face Nathan. "And you know the rest… What you don't know is that Chris tried to get in touch with me about a year after… after our son's birth," she said, leaving who was part of the 'our' as ambiguous as possible. "But I was too angry with him. I told him that he had caused me so much suffering that I never wanted to hear from him again. I guess he respected my wishes."

Nathan buried his face into the palms of his hands. "I'll do everything I can to help him."

"I know," Alathea whispered. She turned towards the chair display still on Nathan's desk. She knew this was Chris' future and somehow, she also understood that she had no part in it. "I need to go back to Mojave."

Nathan nodded. "I'll be back for the holidays. Tell Chris I'll teach him how to play baseball."

"He hasn't stopped talking about this for weeks." Alathea laughed before catching herself. Was she really thinking about continuing on with her normal life while Pike was laying in that bed. She needed to. She didn't have a choice. The two persons she held the most dear in her life were waiting for her in Mojave. And neither one of them were aware of the existence of Captain Christopher Pike.