Title: Sticks and Stones (16/17)
Author: klmeri
Fandom: Star Trek AOS
Pairing: Kirk/Spock/McCoy
Summary: Sequel to Many Bells Down; Riverside ‘verse AU. Khan is hell-bent on destroying everything and everyone James Kirk cares about until Jim surrenders the most important person of all—himself.
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Part Fifteen

The mourners look up at the man behind the podium and the room falls into a hush when he begins to speak.

“Thank you all for coming. Today we mourn the loss of a great man. So many of you have come forth with stories of his valor and his kindness that I deeply regret I did not know James Kirk in person before tragedy took the young man from us. He was the kind of citizen who worked harder to improve the quality of life for others than he did for himself. His selflessness will be always an example to this country of the spirit of an exemplary American. To this town, and his family and friends, I offer my heartfelt condolences.”

The speaker bows his head then and sniffles a little. Mayor Robert Wesley steps up to the podium and pats the man’s back in sympathy. “Thank you, Mr. President,” he says. “Your presence at Jimmy’s memorial is an honor. He would have loved to know you came.”

The President nods and, sad-faced, trails back to his seat along the edge of the audience where his security team encloses around him protectively. It is apparent he intends to stay for the duration of the service.

“And now,” the mayor of Riverside murmurs in the microphone, “Doctor Leonard McCoy would like to say a few words on behalf of the deceased.”

The deep lines in Leonard’s face are carved from grief and his hands shake slightly as he situates them on the podium. “Y’all know how much I loved Jim,” he begins. “Sometimes I thought he was the sun in the sky, because he had the ability to make even the worst of days seem brighter. God,” the man chokes, “how I miss him!” He closes his eyes briefly, perhaps to hold back tears, and then opens them again before continuing on. His voice falls to a gravelly rumble. “But I have to say… he deserved what he got.”

Muttering drifts through the audience; several people nod vigorously as though McCoy is a preacher giving a wholesome sermon.

“The kid was a fool!” Leonard declares into the microphone and thumps his fist on the podium for emphasis. “Time and time again, I told him, ‘Jim, never was there a crazier man than you. I don’t know why you can’t be normal like everybody else.'”

“Amen!” somebody shouts. In the back of the room, against a wall, Jose dressed in a rented suit shakes his head in disappoint at Jim’s closed coffin.

Winona Kirk lifts her black veil and, though her face is streaked with tears, her voice has a fierce quality to it. “Do you know when Jimmy finally stopped popping wheelies with his bicycle? When he cracked his head open! It took forever to convince Dr. Piper I wasn’t beating the child, that he naturally did every dangerous thing he could think of, and that’s why his hospital record took up three file folders before he was even seven years old!”

“That’s right,” Leonard says, agreeing with his pseudo-mother-in-law. “And do you know what I told him right before he died? I said to the idiot, ‘If you think this plan is gonna work…”

“Jim,” a voice hisses in Kirk’s ear, “are you listening to me? I said—”

“‘If you think this plan is gonna work, you’re crazy, stupid, or both.'” Jim mutters. “I heard you, Bones.”

“But you’re not listening, are you? Instead, you’re daydreamin’ like a schoolgirl!”

Jim sighs, shifts slightly to ease the ache in his legs (he’s been squatting in one position for too long) and steals a glance at the man on his right. “I was imagining the eulogy you’d give at my funeral.”

“I’d tell everybody how dumb you were to die.”

“I know.”

Spock interrupts. “Arguing is futile for our current purpose. We have not decided on a course of action.”

The three men lay at the edge of the woods in the shadow of two tall, entwined pines. In the distance, across an expanse of grass, Khan’s house is silhouetted by the setting sun. They cannot readily see any security stationed around the back of the house.

“At this point,” Jim says, “the only plan is to be over there, not here. Let’s go.” He stands up, grimacing at the tight pull of his leg muscles, and breaks from the line of trees.

Leonard catches up to him. “Jim, they’ll see us coming!”

“If they were trained guards, maybe. But I think when Uhura and Pavel show up, they won’t be focused on looking for us.”

“An interesting assumption,” Spock remarks as he strides alongside Kirk and McCoy. “You seem reasonably certain they will abandon their posts.”

Jim hesitates but decides to tell them anyway. “Lady Q said they had someone within Khan’s circle—it’s actually one of Pike’s agents. The agent knows about us.”

Leonard halts Jim by grabbing his arm, demanding, “And where was I when this was explained?”

Jim tries not to wince. “I may have had a… talk with Pike before we left the compound.”

“Jim…” Leonard says in a warning tone.

“What else was said in this conversation that should we know?” Spock inquires, staring levelly at Jim from over Leonard’s shoulder.

Jim has a hard time meeting that dark, steady gaze. “If I said nothing, would you let it go at that?”

Neither McCoy nor Spock reply. Jim realizes his mistake in mentioning Pike. He looks toward Khan’s house, warring over an internal debate, and as if they sense something not weighing in their favor, Leonard and Spock casually rearrange their positions—and it’s clear they don’t intend to let Jim walk away. Leonard blocks Jim on one side; Spock, on the other.

“If you feel you cannot tell us, then there is indubitably intel we need to know before we proceed,” Spock states.

Leonard’s voice is somewhat gentler. “Something on your mind, Jim?”

Trapped. Why are his lovers so good at this?

“I don’t want you involved.” And, boy, does that sound stupid or what? But Jim means it.

“We’re here,” Leonard says. “That means we’re involved until the end. It means we want to be involved until the end. Don’t say you wouldn’t feel the same if the roles were reversed.”

“Leonard speaks for us both.”

He can’t step back or he’ll run into Spock. He can’t step forward or he will run into McCoy. And he can’t sidestep because they will simply sidestep along with him, still effectively keeping him between them.

…Pike doesn’t have to know he told Spock and McCoy. Frankly, Pike should expect that Jim would eventually share this secret plan with them. If the man thought otherwise, then he was fooling himself as much as Jim tried fooling himself a moment ago.

Jim asks once, “Are you sure?” There’s no going back once I say it, he is warning them.

They hear his implied warning; and they still say yes.

So Jim talks. He tells them exactly what is going to happen once they make it inside Khan’s house. When the explanation has come to its natural end, Spock is silent, his expression inscrutable. Leonard slowly sucks in a deep breath and releases it. Then he says, worry acting as a heavy undercurrent of his words, “You could end up in jail. Jim…” His eyes flick to Spock. “We’re talking federal offense, right?”

“At worst,” Spock agrees, breaking his silence. “If the proper plea was made and the circumstances considered, the minimum sentence would still be at least ten-fifteen years in a federal prison.” There is a pause. “If Jim is caught.”

Jim snatches at that idea immediately. “But I won’t get caught! In fact, remember who Komack really works for. He’s on our side.”

“Not every person would be willing to risk his career, Jim,” Spock says too softly, “even for a friend.”

He hears what Spock isn’t saying and smiles half-heartedly. “I wouldn’t blame that person either. I know the risks I run by doing this. I accept them. I also know it’s not my right to ask for help, or expect it.” He lowers his voice. “You’re free to go, Spock. Pretend you never heard a word. That’s what I would like for you to do—you and Bones both.”

Spock looks at him for a long moment before reaching out to caress Jim’s cheek with long, elegant fingers. “My loyalty to you is freely given, as is my love. We will experience this together, Jim.”

Leonard makes a strange noise, then jerks Spock’s head around by the chin and presses a kiss to his mouth. “That’s the best thing I’ve ever heard,” he says roughly when the kiss is over.

Jim shoulders Leonard aside so he can have his turn. “Thank you,” he whispers.

Spock’s hands trail along his back. “You will let me come with you.”

“You can guard the door,” Jim offers.

“Hey,” Leonard says, close enough to knock his knees against Jim’s legs. “What will I get to do?”

Jim lifts his eyebrow in an imitation of Spock’s expression. “Don’t you have the gun, Bones? You’ll guard Spock.”

The lawyer quickly inserts, “I can defend myself.”

Jim grins. “Lifelong judo lessons and all that, I know. But don’t you agree it’s better when somebody is around to help?”

“I won’t shoot you in the foot, if that’s what you’re worried about, Spock,” Leonard adds.

“I was not worried,” Spock answers primly. “Your help will be most appreciated, Doctor McCoy.” He emphasizes the title Doctor as it to imply if you shoot my foot, you are responsible for repairing the damage.

Jim eases back and slaps a hand on each of their shoulders. “Fantastic! Can we go now? I think I hear yelling.”

“That’d be Uhura, I guess,” Leonard says.

“Pavel,” Spock corrects. “The cursing is in Russian. He’s quite inventive.”

“You know Russian?” Leonard asks, surprised.

“My father is a diplomat and well-versed in several languages. He occasionally shares some of his knowledge with me.”

Jim barks out a laugh. Leonard chuckles, saying, “You mean Sarek’s taught you how to cuss in different languages? God, I don’t believe it!”

Spock smoothes down his tailored jacket and says something pointedly to Leonard in a Slavic language. When Jim asks what it was he called Leonard, Spock’s eyes dance with amusement. “I believe I said Leonard has the feet of a pig.”

…They’re on a mission. Jim isn’t supposed be rolling around on the grass laughing so hard his sides hurt. Leonard drags Jim upright. “Shut up,” he snarls, face flushed. To the other man, “You’ll pay for that, Spock!”

Jim accidentally glances at McCoy’s feet and starts laughing all over again.

“Indeed,” Spock intones deprecatingly and turns away to begin a glide-walk toward their destination. Jim and Leonard hurry to catch up.

The tension in Jim’s shoulders returns as his urge to laugh fades. He hates how exposed he feels striding across the neatly trimmed lawn, but it can’t be helped. When Kirk, Spock, and McCoy meet the low wall which marks the beginning of a cobblestone patio, no one comes flying out of the house—upstairs or downstairs—to attack them. In fact, it’s eerily quiet now. Pavel’s cursing rant has been silenced, and Jim hopes that means Uhura and Chekov have been escorted off the front stoop and into the house. But he has no way of knowing that.

“Stay close,” he whispers as they sneak toward the iron gate at the foot of a long set of stucco stairs. Jim eases open the gate and moves up the stairs first. The waist-high walls of the staircase do not entirely hide them for view, but it gives Jim something to crouch behind once he reaches the top. As he had seen from below, the terrace is empty. He reaches up and undoes the latch to the second gate but does not push it open. Spock is crouched on a step just below him, McCoy after Spock.

He gives them a hand signal to keep quiet because now he can hear voices muted through the closed glass doors separating the terrace from the house. Then one of voices suddenly rings as clear as a bell, and it’s the sweetest sound Jim has ever heard.

Uhura is demanding, “Where’s my friend?”

From his awkward angle, he can only catch a glimpse of the shape of her through the glass as she stalks through the room. Another shape rushes after her, in black, but she is already at the door, flipping its lock and sliding it open. Uhura’s eyes skim the horizon as she places a territorial foot onto the terrace; she never once glances at the gated steps where Jim’s hunched form would be obvious.

“Gaila?” Nyota calls.

“You can’t be here!” Jim hears behind her.

The woman half-turns to address the person at her back—a man, unrecognizable by voice. “I can go anywhere I want to, or don’t you know I’m Gaila’s friend? Now tell me where is she is, or I’ll let Pavel kick you in the balls this time.”

Someone else interrupts. “Miss, if you will follow me. I have spoken to Mr. Singh. He is on his way… please, come with me, I beg you…”

Uhura pulls back into the room, slamming the terrace door to showcase her ire. She is arguing with a house servant; their voices fade again.

Jim meets the eyes of Spock and McCoy and announces, “We’re in.” He pushes open the gate and creeps along the edge of the terrace, the two men he trusts most in the world at his back.

“My intelligence said she’s being kept in a room on second floor. There will be guards.”

Kirk clenched and unclenched his fists in fury. “Guards won’t stop me.”

Pike took measure of him. “I doubt they will, son.”

It isn’t hard to find Gaila’s prison, or the men making certain she stays locked up. But surely she had heard Uhura calling her name? Unless… Jim goes cold with the thought that Gaila might have been unable to cry out for help. What would Khan do to her?

No, there’s no time to worry. Act now, Kirk.

Spock and McCoy hang back at his insistence. Jim, stepping around the corner of the hall, strolls toward the two men leaning against either side of a door with his most charming smile. Their heads rise like dogs scenting the prey of the hunt and swing in his direction. The man closest to Jim immediately blocks the middle of the hallway. Jim doesn’t recognize his face, or his companion’s.

“Hey,” he says, still smiling. “I must be lost.”

“Aw, fuck,” the second guard mutters under his breath, his eyes widening when he takes a good look at Kirk.

The first guard’s nostrils flare. “You!” His next step forward reveals his slight limp. “Mother-fucking son of a bitch!”

Jim’s lungs lock up at the sound of that voice, an almost panic threatening to rise to the surface, but he squashes it down.

So it’s true, all of it. Jim had known it in his heart, but here is the proof of Khan’s desire to be rid of him. He has a hard time dragging his eyes away from the gold watch on the guard’s wrist.

“So,” Jim says, pretending he isn’t at all taken by surprise, “did you hear you’re a lousy shot? My friend’s still alive.”

The man’s upper lip curls in a sneer. “You’re dead, you know that? I had to fucking beg for my life ’cause you got away. Never gonna fuckin’ beg again… Kirk.” Jim’s last name is said with menace.

The other hired thug sinks back against the door, face pale, hands shaking. “Oh shit—oh shit. How did—? Fuck, Crawley, he knows what we look like now!” His trembling hand reaches up as if he intends to hide his face, only realizing belatedly it’s too late with Jim staring right at him.

“Shut up, Moron,” the meaner one snaps, flicking off the safety on a gun.

But the younger one panics. “What the fuck do we do! Aw man, they said there are people downstairs! You can’t shoot him here!” His gaze flickers up and down the hall nervously.

“Khan wants him dead so we kill ‘im, and maybe this time we’ll get cash instead of a beating.” Thug #1 calls out sharply, “Hey, where’re you going, you little fucker?”

Jim takes another backwards step, ignoring the way the man follows him, and indicates the opposite direction. “Uh, bathroom?”

“Piss in your pants for all I care. Watch that door, Moron. I got this. You, Kirk—don’t try nothing funny. We’re gonna take a walk.”

Jim stumbles into the wall when the man closes in on him and jabs the gun between his ribs. As the man prods him to start moving again, Jim bites down on his lip to keep from smiling. That’s right, you asshole, he thinks. Let’s take that walk.

And they do, right around the corner of the hallway into Spock’s bone-breaking karate chop. It happens fast: Spock attacks, the thug drops the gun; and the man’s shout of surprise is cut off midway as Spock quickly catches him by the neck then smacks him headfirst into the wall. He drops unconscious to the floor like a sack of potatoes. Jim takes one look at the neatly disarmed killer and decides he is going to fall in love with Spock all over again.

“Crawley!” The second thug who comes barreling around the corner, almost trips over his laid-out partner and straight into the muzzle of Leonard’s gun.

“Hello there,” McCoy says in a slow drawl.

The man looks from the gun to Leonard’s very calm face and back again. “…Shit.”

Spock, perhaps taking pity on the poor fellow, knocks him out.

“Well,” Jim says after a moment, “that wasn’t difficult… but I don’t suppose either of you brought duck-tape?”

“Left my roll in the car,” Bones deadpans.

Jim steps around the bodies. “Wait here. Spock, feel free to punch them again if they wake up.” He pauses to look back at his tall boyfriend. “By the way, that was fucking awesome.”

The door is locked so Jim kicks it in. Okay, he kicks it twice. It’s a BIG door.

Not quite hobbling (how the hell can one twist an ankle with a kick?), he jumps into the room. No Gaila. Clothes are strewn everywhere; a red gown is torn into shreds. The bed is unmade and is missing pillows.

“Gaila!” Jim calls.

Something rattles in the bathroom. He pounds on the door. “Gaila? Gaila, it’s Jim!”

More rattling, a crash and the sound of breaking glass.

Why are all of the stupid doors locked in this house? Jim curses under his breath and throws himself at the door. The frame splinters easily and the door crashes open.

Gaila is in a standalone claw-footed bathtub, fully clothed, bound, gagged, and handcuffed to the spigot. She makes a sob through the cloth in her mouth. Jim, suddenly close to crying, drops to his knees across from her and pulls the gag away.

“Jim,” she says, voice hoarse as if she’d been screaming for a long time.

He takes her face between his hands and kisses the corner of her mouth, not caring how wet or make-up streaked her face is.

A sob shudders out of her. “Oh Jim, Jim, I’m so sorry, he’s so a-awful…”

“It’s okay,” Jim tells her and shushes her. “Let me look.”

Her hands are tied together, with a handcuff below the binding on one wrist. Jim quickly searches through the cabinet drawers for something to cut the rope.

“The glass, Jim—I knocked over a bottle so you’d hear me. Can you use that?”

He crouches by the tub and fishes for a piece of glass on the tile floor. “Got it. C’mere.”

Soon, with careful cutting, her hands are free. Jim shoves away the murderous thoughts in his head when he sees the abrasions on her wrists where the skin had been rubbed off in her struggling. They both stare at the handcuffs.

“Jimmy.” Gaila looks at him with a colorless face. “I don’t have the key,” she whispers.

He starts to get up. “Maybe the bastards at the door…”

“Khan took it with him.”

Jim rests his forehead against the cold porcelain of the bathtub in despair. He feels Gaila’s fingers dig into his hair. They don’t have anything to cut the metal, not of the handcuff or the pipe. Jim picked the lock of a pair of handcuffs once but he was a kid then, they were plastic, and it still took him over an hour.

If the person who led Uhura away is to be believed, Khan is coming back to the house. That can’t happen until…

Damn it, time is running out. What is he supposed to do?

“Gaila,” he says, lifting up his head, “I’m not leaving you. I promise I won’t leave you. Can you trust me?”

Her eyes search his. “I love you, Jim; so, yes, I trust you.” But her voice sounds small, tremulous as she asks, “What’s going to happen?”

“Bones and Spock will stay with you,” he says, standing up, his heart clenching painfully as he does so. He spies a pack of nylon rope tossed carelessly in the corner of the bathroom and retrieves it, then comes back and kisses Gaila’s forehead. “Just… trust me. I have to do something but then I’m coming right back.”

“Okay,” she says as she brings her knees up to her chest. “Okay, Jim.”

Though they are trying to reassure one another, Jim doesn’t think it’s working very well. He leaves her room at a run.

Leonard straightens upon seeing him. “Jim!”

He tosses the rope at Spock. “Make sure they can’t move.” Jim is pleased to see Spock has already used the men’s belts to bind their hands. “Bones, Gaila is handcuffed. Can you think of something to get her loose? Even if you can’t,” he finishes in a rush, “just stay with her, please.”

Jim turns in another direction.

“Jim, wait!” Leonard calls after him, frightened.

“I can’t, Bones. This has to be done. Khan will be here soon, and then it’ll be over. I want you with Gaila; she needs you more than I do right now.”

Spock stares hard at Jim, hands full of rope and a slight look of alarm in his eyes. “You cannot do this alone.”

“That was the original plan,” Jim replies and turns his back to them, sprinting for the nearest set of stairs.

“There is a false wall in the kitchen pantry. Behind it, you will find a duffel bag. That bag, Jim, is our ticket to capturing Khan. Without it, he walks free.”

“What do I do with the bag?”

Pike rubbed the knuckles of one hand. “On the ground floor is a safe room. I’ll provide you blueprints of his house. Memorize them before you leave the compound. In the duffel will be the safe’s combination. The locking mechanism is set up to require a fingerprint in conjunction with the code. We’ve provided a synthetic poly-mold of his fingerprint in the bag as well. You shouldn’t have an issue opening the safe.”

Jim shifted on his feet. “This sounds like major spy stuff, Chris.”

“We’re dealing with an international terrorist. ‘Spy stuff’ comes with the territory.”

“And then?”

“Leave the bag in the safe.”

In theory, Pike’s request sounds simple enough. If Jim were a burglar in an empty house, it would be simple; but there are people downstairs. Uhura and Chekov. Nyota is stalking back and forth across the open foyer like a panther. Pavel, hair and eyes wild, is being closely guarded by two men… one of which is Frank Rand. Each time Pavel spits something in Russian at one of the men, Rand’s hand creeps to his belt.

Jim can’t access the kitchen with passing through this part of the house.

Damn. Well, there’s nothing to be done about it.

Jim takes a deep breath and slowly eases away from the wall to peer between the first two banister rails on his side of the open hall.

C’mon, he prays silently toward Chekov, who is situated closest to the stairs, look this way. C’mon, Pavel!

Telepathy would be an excellent superpower to have right about now.

Chekov’s eyes dart from one of Khan’s cronies to the other. Jim, biting down hard on his bottom lip, cautiously waves his hand, hoping the movement is enough to catch the young man’s attention. Maybe he does have telepathy after all, Jim muses when Chekov looks up. Jim grins in relief. Then he points at Rand and mimes a punch.

Pavel blinks.

Jim does it again. Rand + fist = Thumbs Up!

Pavel’s face has a brilliant light to it when he’s happy, like now.

Rand asks suspiciously, “What the hell are you grinning at, boy?”

Pavel’s head slowly swivels toward Rand. “I grin,” he says equally slowly, “because I can hit you now.”

Rand has less than a second to react because Chekov, with his bird-like frame, is much faster. Jim cheers in his head when Rand is flattened across the foyer by a single blow. Then Chekov, a demon with a cherub’s face, throws himself on top of Rand and begins to smash in his face with fervor. Frank screams.

Uhura, ignoring the alarmed shout of house servant or secretary (whatever the person’s position may be), gives a whoop of joy and barrels toward the other guard, no questions asked and no orders given. The man gapes for a split second, realizes she is after him, and turns tail, running away. Uhura pausing only to kick off her heels before taking off after him.

Jim giggles. The fool will never make it. Nyota is the best runner in Riverside. He deserves the pounding he’s going to get.

Quickly, Jim bounds down the stairs; he tosses a “thanks, Pavel!” to his friend and pinpoints the direction of the kitchen. The servant-person cowers against a wall as he passes by. Jim warns her, “Save yourself” before jogging in pursuit of a kitchen pantry.

“That can’t be it,” Jim demanded after a heartbeat of silence.

Pike sighed. “Will you stop interrupting?”

“I’m just saying,” Jim insisted, “that’s a crappy plan, unless there’s more.”

“There’s more.”

Jim waited.

Pike pulled something out of his pocket and tossed it to Jim, who caught it and inspected it. “Let’s move on to Phase II,” Pike said.

The safe door weighs more than five Jim Kirks put together. Jim grunts with the effort of pushing it open. Wouldn’t Bones be proud that he is using his leg muscles and not his back?

Expecting to see stacked bars of gold and stolen DaVinci paintings, Jim is very surprised when he discovers the safe holds anything of little worth. Papers and books mostly; a rolled-up Persian rug is propped in one corner. But the contents are not his problem. Jim drags the duffel bag (surprisingly heavy itself) into the open safe and positions it in the middle of the floor. He almost, almost looks through the contents of the bag but a sense of urgency (Gaila, Gaila upstairs with Bones and Spock) overrides his natural curiosity.

Slipping out of the safe, his mind is minutes ahead of his body, worried about how he is going to free Gaila, and so he isn’t expecting to meet a setback to his plan. Said setback, a monster with a bloody face, slams a fist into Jim’s nose. Jim’s head snaps back and cracks against the metal bulk of the safe door. For a moment, the pain is overwhelming and black spots dance in front of Jim’s eyes.

Two hands drag Jim away from the door only to slam him against it again. “I ought to have known,” Frank spits thickly from a swollen jaw. “James Fucking T. Kirk.”

Jim worms an arm between them and brings it down into the crook of Rand’s elbow, forcing the man to let him go on one side. He uses his weight to spin them until Frank stumbles sideways into the door. Free, Jim dances back when Rand drunkenly lumbers toward him. Pavel’s handiwork has made a bloody mess of Rand’s face.

“You,” Frank says, stumbling again on his feet. “H-How’d you get in here, Kirk?”

Jim wipes away a thin trickle of blood from his nose. “I came to pay a visit to my dear friend Khan. Can’t I stay for tea?”

“Such a little shit. What’re ya doin’ here?” Frank’s bloody palm slip-slides against the polished steel of the safe door. His body, barely able to support itself, sags against it.

Suddenly, seeing Frank Rand so messed up, Jim doesn’t want to fight him. “Get out,” he advises the once-cop. “If you’ve got a brain cell left in your head, Frank, get out of here while you can.”

“S-s’not my job.”

“Your job’s about to go down the crapper along with Khan.”

Frank pushes away from the safe with a sudden burst of energy. “You—I hate you, Jim. Do you know that? Why’re you always ruining my life?”

“Maybe ’cause you fucked up mine first.”

“Fuck you,” Frank snarls. “Why would I want a cocksucker like you dating my girl?”

Jim’s laughter is made of years of bitterness. “That was before you knew about me, Frank. Don’t kid yourself. You may be a homophobic asshole, I don’t doubt, but it was not about that, was it?”

Frank glowers at him from one eye; the other eyes is swollen shut and purpling. “She made herself sick crying over you. Every day for a whole summer after you dumped her. I had to listen to it. So don’t condescend to me, you bastard. You’re no better ‘n anybody else!”

Jim says nothing. He hadn’t made a mistake when he ended it with Janice, but Frank won’t listen to that. In a small way, he can understand Frank Rand’s hatred for him. But that doesn’t mean he should apologize for it.

“I’m going now, Frank,” Jim says mildly. He skirts around the listing man and pushes the safe door closed. Its lock clicks loudly into place. “You can try to stop me but I think we both know you can’t.” He pauses, turns to Rand again. “I do want the answer to one question.”

“I ain’t got nothing to say.”

“Where’s the key to Gaila’s handcuffs?”

Frank laughs.

Jim waits for a moment, ignoring the ugly laughter, but Frank never stops. The man, hiccupping between laughs, collapses to his knees on the floor. “You’ll never get her out,” Rand chokes out. “Khan’s been waitin’ too, for this moment, for a long time. He’s gonna get you, Jim, and it’s going to be damned grand to see.”

Uhura is bent over listening to an unconscious Pavel’s chest when Jim makes it back to the foyer. “Jim!” she says, sounding upset. “The son of a bitch tazered him! Well, I got the tazer now. Let’s see how that bastard likes it himself!” she snarls furiously.

Jim kneels beside her and touches two fingers to the pulse in Pavel’s neck. He is lightheaded with relief when the pulse seems strong beneath the skin. “Uhura, can you move Chekov outside?” He overrides any questions she may have. “I know where Gaila is, but I have to break her free. Don’t argue with me. I need to know the two of you are out of this house and safe, understand?”

“Why?” she asks softly.

Jim digs into his pocket and pulls out the lighter. “Phase II” is all he says.

Her eyes widen. “You’d better be certain this place is empty, Jim.”

“Trust me,” he echoes. “I won’t do it otherwise.”

Nyota make look long-boned and willowy and lovely but she is very, very strong. Jim helps arrange Chekov on her back and she stands up with the complaint, “He’d better not wake up. This is embarrassing.”

“I think you look kick-ass. Like an Amazon queen.”

“Shut up, Mr. Flatterer.”

Jim squeezes her shoulder. “Thank you, Nyota, for everything.”

Her face softens. “Be safe too, Jimmy.” Then she becomes hard again. “If I see Khan, I’ll rip his balls off for you.”

“You do that,” Jim says, loving the idea.

Bones is in the bathtub with Gaila. Her head lifts from Leonard’s arm when Jim bolts into the room, and Jim can see how shiny her wrist is. An opened jar of Vaseline sits abandoned on the edge of the tub.

“Any luck?” he asks quietly.

Gaila’s face crumples. “Jim.”

He immediately reaches over and winds up pulling both Leonard and Gaila into a hug. “Don’t cry,” he whispers into her hair. “Please, Gaila, don’t cry.”

“Jim,” Bones says against his ear. “I had to tell her.”

Jim stiffens.

Gaila pulls back, laughing hollowing as she scrubs fiercely at the tear tracks on her cheeks. “I’m sorry I’m making a mess of your plan. I’d say go ahead and do what you have to do but I don’t really want to die,” she jokes halfheartedly. “I heard burning to death is as bad as drowning.”

He wants to puke at that thought. “No. No. That’s NOT going to happen. It doesn’t matter, we’re not leaving you here. We came here for you, Gaila.” He knows he sounds slightly hysterical.

Leonard lays a calming hand on his shoulder.

Jim regains control of himself and grasps the only thought that isn’t coated in terror. “Where’s Spock?”

“He had to move the men. When we do get her out, we can’t risk them being left behind.”

No, they couldn’t. That would be murder.

Jim glares at the stubborn handcuff around the faucet. “What can I do?”

“Break my hand,” Gaila says instantly.

“No!” Jim and Leonard snap, aghast at the idea.

She looks at the doctor. “It will heal, right? Come on, do something, otherwise we don’t leave until the cops walk in to arrest you.” Her eyes plead. “I’m a big girl, Leonard. I’ll survive a dislocated thumb. Don’t let Jim go to jail. Please.”

“That wouldn’t work,” Leonard argues. “This isn’t the movies!”

Jim jumps up to pace. He is so frustrated, he wants to beat something into a pulp.

Gaila sighs. “Give me back my nail file then. I can’t just sit here.” She hacks at the handcuffs’ key hole with the blunt end of the nail file, cursing murderously under her breath.

Leonard climbs out of the bathtub and pulls Jim aside. “There’s nothing we can do, Jim. Maybe we can hold Khan on kidnapping charges.”

“He’ll have her killed before she can testify,” Jim whispers furiously, not wanting to scare Gaila with that very real possibility.

“What else is there? Damn it, Jim—!” Leonard is equally frustrated by their lack of options.

The gunshot, unexpected, scares the shit out of them both. Afterward, when Jim can think properly, his first thought is “Gaila!”

The red-haired woman is buckled half-in and half-out of the bathtub, stunned. Her white face slowly turns up to look at Jim at the sound of her name, as if she is hearing from a distance. When he grabs her, not just her but removes the gun from her hand, she shakily lifts up her arm and stares at it. The chain of the handcuff is broken in half; the other half is still dangling from the bathtub faucet. He realizes, too slowly, she had put a bullet through it.

Jim clutches her to his chest. The room is spinning. “Gaila.“

Gaila wilts against him.

Leonard’s hands move past Jim, inspecting her arm, and the doctor isn’t steady either. A soft litany of curses spills out of his mouth.

“Sorry, Len,” the woman partly whispers. “Jim will tell you—” she gasps softly, paling further, “—I’m good at taking things I’m not supposed to.”

Jim shifts her around gently but she is still limp in his arms. “Bones, what’s wrong with her?”

“Shock, I think…” But then Leonard’s breath hitches in a familiar, terrible way. When he lifts his hand from somewhere on Gaila’s body, it’s painted a shimmering red.

Jim, absurdly, thinks of the strawberry jam; it’s the same thing all over again, except, except… it isn’t. More afraid in his life than he has ever been before, Jim looks in his ex-girlfriend’s face. “Gaila!”

She doesn’t respond.

“Get her up!” Leonard snaps.

Jim lifts her in his arms but Leonard immediately takes her away. Her head knocks under McCoy’s chin as she is shifted and that seems to rouse her. “Oh,” she says, staring ahead blearily. The bright red on her shirt isn’t part of the fabric; it’s spreading. She rolls her head to look at Jim. “Jim, Jimmy. I… shot myself?” She sounds bemused. “Stupid… bullet… wasn’t supposed to do that.”

“Gaila,” he manages to say again, something hard and painful, fear but worse, choking his voice; he is crying, though he isn’t aware of it.

“You’re not goin’ to let him win,” she murmurs. Jim takes her hand when she reaches for his. She squeezes his fingers. “Lenny’s got me now,” she says. “Finish it?”

He wants nothing more than to get her to a hospital. He thinks he is going to throw up. But Jim hears her, despite all, and tells his pale-faced lover, “Take her away from here, Bones, and don’t let Spock come back in.”

Leonard shifts her weight, silent, but nods. Gaila, oddly, hums under her breath from a moment. “Love you,” she murmurs to the man she’s always cared for, and then “I trust you, Jim.”

Because he loves her too, he can’t do anything less than what she wants.

When Leonard is on the terrace, meeting Spock halfway who pales at the sight of a bleeding Gaila, Jim shuts and locks the sliding glass door. He turns back into the house with Pike’s lighter in his hand, checks the upstairs and then walks down the stairs to the first floor. One flick of the lighter’s rolling flint and a flame is burning hot. A set of curtains, when he touches the fire to them, burns even hotter.

Next Part

Related Posts:

• Sticks and Stones (18/18) – from April 19, 2012
• Sticks and Stones (17/18) – from April 17, 2012
• Emotional Much? – from April 17, 2012
• Sticks and Stones (15/17) – from April 11, 2012
• Sticks and Stones (14/?) – from April 9, 2012

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