So…I went PG. If you want the adult chapter posted in the Mature section, let me know. But….I left some "stuff" too. About what you'd find in a romance novel.

~Cooper

CHAPTER 26

McCoy saved the document again, afraid that the computer would have a glitch and lose all his work. As long as he'd served on the Enterprise, McCoy had never had a computer glitch; so it was quite reasonable to assume that he was due for one. Especiallysince the documents contained all his notes on the non-threatening nature of the woman he loved.

McCoy hit save twice and then sent the attachment to Kirk.

There, he thought, pausing to watch the symbolic piece of paper curl into a laser beam and shoot off the screen. Jim should have it now. McCoy sat for another half second before jumping from his chair. He should probably go to Jim's quarters just to make sure—

The door chimed.

"Damn it, Jim," he shouted, knowing that the doors were sound proof. He liked to think the captain could hear him though and headed for the door. "Come in! You should be working on—"

The doors slid open to reveal the last person he'd expect to see. "Spock? What the hell are you doing here? Are the sensors—"

"I'm here to deliver a message, Doctor."

"A message?" McCoy demanded, confused. "From who—"

Spock stepped to one side to reveal the figure standing behind him.

"Ohmystars!" McCoy spoke so quickly that his words became one. "Aggie!" He pulled her out of the corridor into his quarters. She felt warm and solid beneath his hands, but he still struggled to believe she was really there. He turned wide eyes on Spock but the Vulcan held up a hand, forestalling any questions.

"I don't know how long you will have," he said. "I've looped the security feed in the brig as well as the corridors leading to your quarters. There is still possibility that Gray will realize the deception and come looking for her. Do you understand?"

At the agent's name, McCoy's hands had curled into fists. He shot a glance at Aggie before looking back at Spock. "Then we can leave, take a shuttle, get outta here."

Spock shook his head. "I'm afraid that is impossible, Dr. McCoy. The agent's ship would be able to track and intercept the shuttle before it could leave the system."

McCoy felt sick. Why was everyone acting so calm? As though it were a foregone conclusion that nothing could be done to prevent Gray from taking Aggie? Surely there was something they could do; McCoy would not—could not—accept it. "What the hell is this then?" He demanded, his grief making his words sharp. "A farewell party or something? Or just a temporary stay of execution?"

Aggie blanched. "Len, please. This time together, it's a gift." She raised her eyes to look at Spock. "I know you are disobeying the agent's orders by bringing me here, and you are risking much in doing so," she said. "I want to thank you. From both of us."

Spock inclined his head in acknowledgement. "I shall return shortly before the due time," he said, then exited McCoy's quarters.

After the doors had slid shut, McCoy remained motionless. The joy of seeing Aggie warred with the grief of the approaching deadline, paralyzing him. They had failed to reach Star Fleet in time. Aggie would be placed in stasis. She would be taken from him.

A soft tug at his arm, then, "Please, Len. Don't think about the morning, just tonight." He turned to look at her, a brave and hopeful look gracing her features. His own face twisted as pain shot through him, and he turned away sharply to hide his own expression of defeat and shame. "I'm frightened," he confessed quickly so that she didn't mistake his sudden movement as rejection. "Terrified, actually."

Arms wrapped around him and squeezed him tightly. McCoy felt the warmth of her cheek against his back and the warmth of her breath when she spoke. "Of what?"

"Losing you," he whispered, his voice broken. He inhaled and twisted around to face her. "Section 31 is so large, it's everywhere and nowhere. How. . . how will I ever find you again?"

For a moment her eyes became liquid pools of sadness but then she forced a smile. She tapped his chest. "I'll be right here. Always. But why are we acting like all is lost? Wasn't it you that once told me that Captain James T. Kirk could pull a miracle out of his ass?"

McCoy chuckled despite himself. Aggie never swore, and he knew she'd done it to startle him. He rolled his eyes, playing along. "More than just miracles, but as per patient confidentiality, I can't give you the details." Aggie pulled a face, laughed softly, then leaned into his chest. They had begun to sway slowly from side-to-side as she hummed gently.

"I dreamt of our life together," he confessed after awhile. Normally he would have been embarrassed, but he felt the strange need to share it now. Perhaps it was Aggie's humming, so like the sound from his dream when she'd been with their child. "It was. . . beautiful."

Aggie pressed against him harder as though seeking shelter from a cold wind. "Tell me. I want to see it, too." And McCoy did.

He told her of the old country house with the wrap-a-round porch. Of the flower garden with an Alice plant standing proudly in the center. Of finding Aggie with their daughter. Of how the sun had kissed her skin, and how he'd kissed her later that night in the big bed they shared on the second floor.

"It's the perfect dream," Aggie whispered into his chest when he was done. "What I wouldn't give—" She broke off suddenly then pulled away to gaze up at him. "I love you, Leonard H. McCoy. I will always and forever love you." She kissed him then, a kiss that was unlike all the others they'd shared. This kiss was passionate, demanding, and desperate, as though he were the air she needed to breathe. And McCoy felt the same. They stood that way, breathing eac hother's breath, tasting each other's need, until with a gasp, Aggie stepped away.

For the first time, McCoy noticed that Aggie wasn't wearing the prisoner uniform from the brig. She was wearing the silvery night kimono from her quarters. With a quick tug from her hand, the belt fell free and the robe parted. McCoy inhaled as Aggie parted the robe wider until it slid from her shoulders. It landed at her bare feet in a silvery pool. She stood in front of him, looking almost wild in her nakedness as desperation etched across her face.

"I want you, Len. I need to. . . " she paused, struggling for unfamiliar words to describe her urgency. "I need to feel your love for me. Please."

McCoy let his actions speak for him. He kissed her deeply, with all the pent-up longing that had been growing inside of him from the moment he had first seen her. He'd make her forget the hell they were currently in, and instead do everything in his power to send her to Heaven. Again. And again.

And again.

McCoy woke with a start. The bed next to him was empty, and after feeling the coolness of the mattress, he determined that it had been empty for awhile. Fear clutched at him—had she left without waking him?—but the chronometer on his nightstand showed that it was barely 5:00 am, and he registered the faint hum of the sonic shower through the bulkhead. He sat up as feelings of sick dread coiled in his stomach. Tick tock, tick tock. He glanced at the chronometer again—5:09 am—and felt a moment of panic. In less than an hour, Aggie would be in stasis once more.

I won't do it, he thought wildly. It was inhumane and unnatural to force someone into a defenseless position, especially after he'd spent the night making love to the so-called prisoner. The chronometer continued its merciless march forward, and McCoy grabbed it from the nightstand and threw it as hard as he could. The casing shattered against the bulkhead, sprinkling the floor with plasteel shards.

The sonic shower turned off, but McCoy barely noted it. Fat, hot tears were landing on his hands. He imagined Aggie lying inside of the cryo-unit as the cold mist crept over her body, dragging her into the cold, empty embrace of unconsciousness. Would she feel pain? Would she suffer? And what if something went wrong, and he ended up smothering her with the incorrect mix of the unit's environmental gases?

But if he refused, Gray would murder her outright.

His thoughts spun out of control with desperate ideas for escape. What if they could reach the Guardian? He pictured Aggie and himself stepping through the portal and going back in time, before computers and spaceships had even been dreamed of, and finding a place to themselves where they would have no impact on the future. Perhaps a cottage by a lake, a palm hut by the ocean, or a cabin in the woods—anywhere that was far away in time and place from the here and now.

It took McCoy several seconds before he became aware of Aggie's hands gently wiping the tears from his face. Her touch only sharpened his grief, and he let out a mangled sob as he gathered her close to him.

"Len," she whispered but he shook his head, refusing to listen to her. He noticed that she'd put back on the silvery kimono and suddenly hated it because it meant that she was preparing to leave. With an almost violent gesture, he yanked it from her shoulders and down her arms, throwing it on the floor. He felt slightly calmer when she was naked once more.

"You're not going anywhere, Aggie," he said raggedly, stroking the curve of her jaw, her shoulders, her breasts. He lingered for a moment on her abdomen, splaying his fingers wide, and imagined it growing large and round with their child. With all the times they'd made love last night, it was very possible that she was with child now.

Impulsively, he slid the silver ring from his pinky and grabbed her hand. It slid on her finger easily as though it had always been meant for her. His vision became blurry again, and he wiped at his eyes.

Aggie shifted so that she was straddling him. He felt her take hold of his sex, stroking it until it became hard in her grasp. McCoy inhaled sharply as she sank down on him, engulfing him in a world that was all love. She found a comfortable rhythm, and he watched as her breasts swayed with the movement. He could feel her eyes on him, watching him as he found comfort in her body. Unable to remain a passive recipient of her movements, McCoy held onto her hips and lifted his knees so that he was cradling Aggie's straddled position, and began rocking his hips upward, matching her movements.

Too soon, Aggie let out a breathy moan and had to place both hands on his chest to keep herself upright. McCoy increased the tempo until Aggie cried out as her body shuddered, and she pitched forward onto his chest. The feel of her silky hair gliding across his skin sent McCoy over the edge, joining her in a brief but exquisite delirium.

When McCoy's senses returned, his intense joy was immediately tainted with foreboding. He wrapped his arms around Aggie, and she quickly, desperately, returned his embrace.

McCoy didn't know how long they held each other—the chronometer was shattered—but far too soon he heard the door buzzer. Aggie tensed but then pulled away. His body felt cold without her. Numbly, he stood and slid into clean black pants and a shirt. It took three attempts to lace his boots. For the first time in his professional life, his fingers felt thick and awkward. Aggie had already slid on the kimono. She needed no other clothing and soon she wouldn't even need that. In the few medical texts from the 90's that still existed, it documented how even the softest material would cause abrasion on the skin over time.

Aggie reached into his dresser and pulled out the round-necked version of his standard medical shirt and handed it to him. "I always liked you in this one," she said with forced lightness.

The door buzzed again.

Slipping the uniform over his head, McCoy reached for her hand as they stood facing the door.

"Mr. Spock," Aggie acknowledged when the doors slid back, and McCoy felt her hand tremble a little. "I believe it is time."

The Vulcan nodded once. "I am to escort you to the shuttle bay where the procedure will take place. It was at the agent's request that it not take place in Sick Bay." He turned dark eyes to McCoy. "Nurse Chapel has overseen the equipment transfer, along with everything else you will need. She also wanted me to express that she is thinking of you both."

McCoy could see from Spock's face that Chris had probably said a lot more than that—she could be surprisingly foul-mouthed when aggrieved—but the Vulcan had summarized the gesture well enough. Unable to speak around the tightness in his throat, McCoy nodded.

"Mr. Spock," Aggie said. "Is it all right if Len and I arrive together? If I was supposed to be in the brig, well, I don't want Agent Gray to have any reason to retaliate."

Spock glanced at their clasped hands and then at the mute defiance on McCoy's face. "We will walk there together. Dr. McCoy will enter first," he said with surprising gentleness. "You and I will walk in shortly after that."

A fluttery nervousness combined with heavy grief made McCoy feel sick, but he didn't have time to think about it as Spock was stepping away from the door. It was time for them to go.

McCoy was only able to put one boot in front of the other because he told himself—over and over again, like a mantra—that this was only temporary. Once the Enterprise reached Headquarters, Section 31 would be forced to release Aggie. Kirk had damn well guaranteed it with all the communiqués he'd prepared, even resorting to a little blackmail with one of the rear-admirals.

But it still felt like Aggie was going to her execution.

And that he was her executioner.

The turbo-lift ride went too fast and the walk to the large shuttle bay was too short. They stopped to one side of the doors, and McCoy gazed at Aggie. She was rigid and deathly pale. "Everything's going to be okay, Aggie," he said softly, trying to reassure her despite his own fear and pain. "Just keep thinking about our future together. I'll make you happy, Aggie. I promise."

She gave him a strange, little smile, then said, "You already have, Len."

Gray's piercing voice could be heard through the doors although it was impossible to hear what he was saying. Spock glanced at the chronometer on the corridor wall—6:05—then turned to McCoy.

"Doctor, I think it is time for you to activate the medical equipment. I will remain with Aggie in the corridor until we are summoned."

McCoy understood that Spock was sparing Aggie the pain of waiting by the cryo-unit and nodded his thanks. He turned to Aggie, kissed her quickly on the lips, and squeezed her hand again. "I love you," he said softly and she nodded, clearly unable to speak.

"When you come in, just keep your eyes on me," he said. "Don't look at anything else."

She nodded once and it took all of McCoy's strength to turn and walk through the doors to the docking bay.

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