Title: Recapture (7/8)
Author: klmeri
Fandom: Star Trek TOS
Pairing: Kirk/Spock/McCoy
Summary: An innocuous tour lands Kirk, Spock, and McCoy in deadly territory.
Previous Parts: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

Part Seven

Jim woke to a pounding head, tingling limbs, and a dryness of mouth that one typically associated with the effects of being phaser-stunned. He didn’t remember being accosted. In fact, he didn’t recall much, except that one moment he had been aware of his surroundings and the next moment he found himself disoriented.

Somewhat slowly, he also realized he couldn’t stand on his own: his arms and legs had been bound. Ignoring a surge of nausea, he sat up and took stock of where he was.

Great, he thought. He had been tied up in someone’s bathroom. Why, oh why did it always come back to the bathroom on this ship? Jim wanted to have a word with the criminal mastermind about that.

He tested the material binding his wrists together and found that it had little give. Could he cut it with something sharp? Scooting his back against the nearest wall, he used the wall to help lever himself to his feet and balanced there.

The bathroom counter wasn’t untouched as he had expected; it was covered with various items, all neatly arranged—some of which, he surmised, were more often preferred by the fairer sex. He caught sight of a short, thin robe made from colorful material hanging by the door. It could have confirmed his suspicion; however, he knew from experience that appearances could be deceiving. A bathroom frequented by a woman did not necessarily imply his enemy was female.

As quietly as possible, he made his way to the counter to search for something sharp to use. It wasn’t an simple task with his ankles tied, but he’d been in such situations before and had long ago learned how to maneuver his body effectively enough.

He wanted these bindings gone.

And he wanted to know the face of his attacker.

There had to be something! he thought, gritting his teeth as he pushed aside the paraphernalia. He studied a small, ornate hand mirror and wondered if he could break it without the sound being too loud.

Suddenly hearing a noise in the adjacent room, his head came up. He bent partway across the counter, rolled backwards just enough to grab at the handle of the mirror, then hopped back to his place by the wall. Jim dropped to his knees and laid down, making certain to shield the mirror from sight with his body.

Releasing a soft breath, he closed his eyes and waited. He was going to get one of his wishes, it seemed.

The bathroom door slid open, and someone crossed over to him, breathed near him. Jim smelled a perfume he recognized but could not quite place in his memory.

Then he felt a brush against his cheek.

“You’re awake,” came a soft hum of a voice. “There’s no need to pretend.”

Jim opened his eyes.

A woman smiled at him. “Hello, Jim,” she said.

His sick feeling returned, accompanied by shock, as years melted away and swept him back in memory. Although Jim had matured in appearance as he had aged, she had not. He was looking at the same person from over a decade ago, everything about her unchanged since right before she left the Academy.

“Pieta,” he said, giving her a name.

Pieta stroked his cheek again. “It’s been a long time, Jim.”

“I don’t understand. How are you here? What happened to—”

His arms jerked on instinct and that pulled at whatever was binding his wrists. Jim sobered quickly, then, and studied Pieta’s expression more closely.

She pulled back. “I suppose I should confess. Yes, it was me. I did this to you.”

He rolled slightly to the side and sat up. “Pieta… why?”

“Why not?”

“Forget the word games! What’s going on?” Jim demanded. “You…” He hated the thought but said it anyway: “…killed a man?”

She didn’t deny it. “His death was an accident. Wrong place, wrong time. Honestly?” Her eyes glittered suddenly. “I was hoping to catch that doctor of yours. Or the Vulcan.”

Something started to burn inside Jim but he didn’t rise to the bait.

“What happened to you, Pieta? You were at the top of every class. Had you stayed on, any captain worth his salt would have jumped at the chance to mentor you… and this is what you’ve done with yourself instead? Become a murderer?”

Something changed, then, in Pieta. The mask she wore of his old friend vanished, and he saw a person he couldn’t claim to know.

One of her fingers stabbed into his chest. “How dare you judge me, Jim Kirk—how dare you! Even now, you’re no better than you used to be! You ruined everything for me, and still—still!—you refuse to take responsibility for it!”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Liar!” She lifted her hand, fingers curled as if to claw his face. She didn’t hurt him, though, and instead darted her hand forward to grasp his chin.

Jim’s stomach turned when she kissed him, but outwardly he gave no reaction. Even as she pulled back to look into his eyes, he kept everything he was feeling (disgust, horror, shame) locked down.

She was out of her mind. He knew that now. He just didn’t know why.

Pieta was calmer as she studied him. “You don’t want me,” she said.

He didn’t contradict her.

Pieta trailed her hand to the middle of his chest, let it linger there. “I loved you, Jim. I loved you so much and not once did you ever say you loved me.”

“We were friends, Pieta.”

“I wanted to be more than your friend.”

“I was with someone. You knew that.”

“Like you are now?” the woman retorted. “Do others know, Captain, that you’re consorting with your subordinates, or do you hide it like a coward?”

“I don’t have anything to hide, Pieta.” His voice changed to something low and fierce. “And I don’t give a damn what anybody thinks about my personal life.”

“Such strong words. You were always good at playing the fearless leader, even when you were a junior cadet. I used to admire that about you, Jim, how brazen you could be. How confident. I thought I was helping you make history—and you did, didn’t you?” She laughed, and it was a bitter sound. “But I earned nothing good in return for my loyalty. I lost because of you.”

There was something there that he was missing, some knowledge he didn’t have. He asked her, “What did you lose?”

She spread her hands. “Can’t you tell? I’m bartering my skills, my dignity, sometimes my body, just to survive.”

“I’m sorry to hear it,” Jim said with genuine regret, “but I don’t understand why I am at fault for that.”

Her face darkened like a storm cloud. “Because you used me! I loved you, and you used me, and after you passed that damned test, you forgot about me. I needed you, Jim. I needed you to defend me and you didn’t do anything,” she accused him. “You didn’t send me an apology after they kicked me out of Academy!”

Jim paled. “…What?”

“That’s right, you bastard: I had to give it all up as penalty for helping you,” she snarled. “My family forbade me from seeing them because of the shame of my dismissal. I should have been the first of our kind to succeed in Starfleet! Now I don’t even have a home.”

“Pieta, that can’t be true. You dropped out!”

“All lies—your beloved admirals forced me to quit!”

Jim shook his head. “No… no, that isn’t true. You left on your own. I always wondered why, but I thought it was personal. No, Pieta…”

But as he looked at her, he saw the truth in her face. She wasn’t lying.

“I was your scapegoat,” Pieta told him with undisguised hate. “They said you beat the test because I had compromised the programming of the Kobayashi Maru. They wanted to blame someone. All I had to do was tell them that it was your idea, but I waited instead. I thought you would save me. Instead you chose to save yourself, Jim. And those admirals chose to save you, too, over me.” She reached behind her back and took a phaser in hand, bringing it around for him to see. “But you can’t be saved this time.”

Jim met her eyes. “Pieta, don’t do this.”

“Oh, I am not going to kill you yet,” she informed the man. “I want to, you understand, but now that I see you I think I would rather show you what it feels like to have your dreams taken away.” She smiled again. “You have one in particular, Jim—I can tell. Otherwise you wouldn’t have brought your lovers on this romantic little cruise.”

That burning inside Jim exploded to the surface: “Don’t touch them! Hurt me if you want to. Kill me. But leave the others out of this. This is between you and me.”

“Oh, how sweet. You love them.”

He ground his back teeth, hating to plead but knowing she wanted it of him. “Please, Pieta.”

She activated the phaser. “No, I don’t think I will. By the way, that mirror isn’t made of glass. It would have been useless to you. I was simply curious to see how much of our operative training you remembered.”

She raised her weapon, the whine of it not quite at a pitch for a kill setting.

“Pieta!” he had just enough time to cry.

Then she stunned him.

~~~

The way the fellow yelled, one would think he was being tortured. Tortured, however, Essler was not—unless it was personal torture he was inflicting upon himself.

Somehow, Leonard didn’t think that was the case. Essler looked scared (which was to be expected since Leonard had expertly tied him to a chair with pillow cases) but when he spoke, he wasn’t concerned with himself. He kept saying Jim’s name.

Leonard cut his eyes at the person beside him and hoped Spock had more luck in understanding Essler’s distress than he did.

Nothing in Spock’s face reflected his thoughts as they listened to their captive’s frantic begging to be released “for Captain’s Kirk sake!”

“You have to let me go,” Essler insisted. “Jim needs me!”

“You let us worry about Jim,” Leonard remarked. “Worry more about yourself. What were you trying to do? Why did you attack me?”

“I wasn’t attacking you!”

“The way you jumped on me suggests otherwise.”

“Dr. McCoy, please, I didn’t mean it. Let me go, and I’ll explain!”

Again, Leonard looked to Spock.

Spock supplied quietly, “He speaks the truth as he understands it.”

Leonard put his back to Essler and lowered his voice. “Can you get a read on anything else? How about his intentions? Is he gonna bolt the moment I take those bonds off of him… or worse?”

“It would not be wise to release him. I do not doubt that he presents a danger to us.”

“But if we can get him to trust us long enough to learn more…”

Spock gave Leonard a sharp look. “Are you willing to risk yourself to earn that trust?”

“Aren’t you?” Leonard fired back.

Something softened in the Vulcan’s countenance. “I cannot deny it,” he said, “but I would prefer that I alone assume the risk.”

Leonard sighed. “That’s not how it works, Spock.”

“Unfortunately. We seem to find ourselves at this impasse with frequency.”

Leonard felt a flash of amusement. “Only as often as we find trouble.”

Spock lifted his eyebrow as if to say is that not my point?

“Um, excuse me,” Essler called out. “Aren’t you going to untie me?”

Leonard met Spock’s eyes.

Seeming resigned to a decision he didn’t particularly like, the Vulcan nodded ever-so-slightly.

Leonard turned around and started to cross over to Essler. He didn’t make it, however, when without warning he grew dizzy and sick to his stomach. He flung an arm out on instinct but by the time Spock had caught his arm, the sensation had vanished as quickly as it had come upon him.

Spock, too, sported an unnervingly pale tint to his skin. Although he gripped Leonard’s arm, it was as if it was Spock who needed the support. His gaze was unfocused, his lips parted.

Leonard touched the Vulcan’s wrist and called his name uncertainly.

“Jim,” Spock echoed in a rough voice. “I felt Jim.”

Oh god, thought Leonard. That was Jim?

“Leonard…” Spock continued haltingly, as if still caught up in a shockwave, “…there was a moment… pain… he cried out.”

Leonard didn’t like how cold Spock’s skin had gotten. He covered the hand on his arm with his own and squeezed the fingers.

Spock’s head turned, and as he looked at Leonard, his eyes regained focus.

“You all right?” Leonard asked him softly.

“Yes.”

“Is—” Leonard swallowed hard. “—Jim all right?”

“I wish I knew. The connection was broken.”

Spock started to say something else but stopped, taking on a look that Leonard recognized well.

“What is it?”

“Until now I have not been able to gain a sense of his well-being, which as you know occurs when the consciousness is muted, distracted, or otherwise contained.”

“Yes, I know. The bond is not a real big help when one of us is knocked out.”

“On the contrary, it would be very useful for rousing the consciousness if I were able to physically touch one of you. But that is not my point, Leonard.”

Leonard crossed his arms. “So what is your point?”

“We were both affected by his distress because it was strong… and close by.”

Leonard’s heart started to pound again but not out of fear. “Can you estimate his proximity?”

Spock prowled to the opposite side of the room, then towards the door. He said, “No more than five hundred meters in any direction.”

“Spock…” Leonard was swamped by panic and gratitude at the same time. He dashed for the medkit which had been discarded on the bed. “That’s just this deck!”

Essler piped up, “There are only five suites on this level because they were designed to be spacious.”

“Minus ours,” Leonard added, “that leaves us with four. “

Essler said excitedly, “If we each check one, we could—”

“No,” Leonard interrupted at the same time Spock said, “Negative.”

“What?” gaped the young man. “You can’t be serious! I’ll help you!”

“Sorry, kid, but we don’t trust you,” said Leonard.

“But I can help—I can save Captain Kirk!” Essler nearly made his chair hop up and down, so adamant was he in his declaration.

“For the love of God,” muttered the doctor. He took a hypospray from the medkit and activated it.

Essler’s eyes grew wide. “What is that?”

“A sedative.”

“Stop him, Mr. Spock!” said the young man, aghast, as Leonard came towards him.

“I see no reason why I should, Lieutenant-Commander.”

Leonard had pressed the hypospray just lightly against the side of Essler’s neck when Essler let out a half-shriek and cried, “WAIT! I’LL TELL YOU ABOUT THE ORB!”

Spock raised an eyebrow.

Essler whimpered. “I’ll tell you everything! I swear.”

“Good enough for me,” said Leonard. He pocketed the hypospray. “Spock?”

“He can be left conscious for now, provided that he give us answers upon our return.”

Essler whimpered for the second time. “I promise… But you’re not going to let me save Jim?”

Leonard patted the young man’s back in an almost fatherly manner. “That’s our job.”

“Because he’s your captain.”

Leonard couldn’t help but smile. “Because he’s our husband.”

Essler’s mouth opened, and stayed open.

Spock glided past them without a word.

“Now, when we get back,” Leonard said to Essler, “I expect you to be here. It’s time that people on this ship stopped lying to us, and you should be the first.”

Essler closed his mouth. But as Leonard moved to follow Spock, he asked them, “You knew all along that I didn’t do anything to Captain Kirk, didn’t you?”

Leonard glanced backwards over his shoulder. “Considerin’ all the hullabuloo you made over him, it was obvious. But it was also obvious that you are involved in this mess some way or another that we don’t know about. That’s the reason we don’t trust you, Essler. It has nothing to do with Jim.”

Spock called Leonard’s name from the doorway.

Leonard gave Essler one last, hard look before he left him behind, along with the warning, “Stay put, you hear?”

“Yes, sir,” the lieutenant-commander agreed.

~~~

Outside the suite, Leonard blew out a breath and wanted to know what the game plan was.

Spock surveyed the hall in one direction, then the other.

Clicking his medkit to his belt, Leonard felt a tick of irritation. “Spock, we don’t have all day.”

“I am aware of that.”

“Then pick—left or right, I don’t care which!”

“No.”

“Lord,” Leonard said, lifting his eyes heavenward, “grant me patience to deal with this Vulcan. ‘Course, you haven’t done it all the other times I asked…”

“Leonard, this is not the time to indulge in histronics.”

“Oh, ho! Histronics? You ain’t seen…!” But Leonard stopped himself short of losing his temper and forced himself to count to five. At Spock’s raised eyebrows, he said, “You’re right. We can’t needle at each other right now. If we really got started, without Jim we might never stop.”

“I doubt he influences our behavior that much,” Spock said in a slightly dry tone.

“He likes to think he does.”

“Indeed.”

“So tell me what’s bothering you.”

Spock looked at him. “I would not recommend that we split up.”

Leonard had sympathy for the Vulcan. “It’s not your fault, Spock. You couldn’t have known.”

“I did know the risks.”

“And voiced them, no doubt, to which Jim said no anyway because he was too focused on catching up to the bad guy.” One side of Leonard’s mouth gained a slight quirk. “I’m not Jim. We’re not splitting up. Believe me, I have no desire to become the last man standing.”

“I find it interesting,” Spock said he pivoted on the ball of his foot and headed for the closest suite to theirs, “that you assume I would be the next victim.”

“What can I say? I’m so much wilier than a Vulcan. Anybody would have a hard time catching me!”

“Ah. Then am I to believe it was a momentary aberration which led to your capture in the public facilities?”

Leonard jabbed an elbow into Spock’s arm. “Stop baiting me, hobgoblin, and ring the doorbell.”

“As you wish.” Spock pressed the door chime.

No one answered them immediately. Leonard was pondering how they would break in if no one was home when the door finally back to reveal the suite’s occupant.

“Hello,” Spock said gravely. “I am S’chn T’gai Spock, and this is—”

“Leonard,” Leonard butted in with his deepest Southern drawl. “Leonard McCoy. Nice to meet you, ma’am. It seems we’re neighbors.”

“Hello,” replied the woman who had been regarding Spock with polite interest. Her shoulders relaxed a little as she transferred her regard to Leonard. “Can I help you, Mr. McCoy?”

“Well, we were hoping to ask a favor of you… Oh,” he said, casting a glance over her shoulder as if the thought had just occurred to him, “I hope we weren’t interrupting anything important. Is this a bad time to be bothering you?”

“Not at all. What kind of favor?”

“It may seem strange,” Leonard began, “but could we take a quick look around? Not,” he added, “that we want to pry into your business! You see, me and the old Vulcan here—my husband, by the way—” Leonard gave a pat to Spock’s shoulder “—were having an argument.”

Hearing this, Spock looked at him with interest.

“It’s our wedding anniversary.”

“Congratulations,” the woman said.

Leonard rocked back on his heels and beamed. “Thank you. To make a long story short, being our anniversary and all, I booked this cruise and, well,” he lowered his voice and held a hand near his mouth as if that shielded his whisper from his spouse, “Spock can be a bit picky about where he sleeps. He doesn’t believe that we have the best room on the ship. But I say we do! We’re paying out the nose for it after all.”

The woman gave them a tolerant, amused smile. “And how long have you two been married?”

“Two years,” Leonard said.

Spock corrected, “One year, three-hundred and sixty-three days, three hours and nine minutes.”

“Wow,” said their neighbor. “Talk about keeping count!”

“He’s like that,” responded Leonard with a grin. “I’m used to it.”

She laughed. “Are you sure it’s only been two years? You act like you’ve been married for a couple of decades at least!”

“Let’s just say that the honeymoon phase was very short.”

Eyes twinkling, the woman stepped back from her doorway and gestured for them to come in. Leonard walked ahead of Spock and tried not to be too obvious about his desire to look around.

Their host remarked, “I have never met any Vulcan-human couples before. Can I ask how you met?”

“Oh, at work,” Leonard murmured. “Hey, this place does look fancier than ours. Spock, you may have been right. I think they jipped us! We should demand a refund.”

“Try for complimentary spa services instead,” Leonard and Spock were advised.

“We might do that.” Leonard’s eyes sparkled as he jerked his thumb in the direction of the bedroom. “Do you mind?”

The woman continued to smile. “I wouldn’t have let you in otherwise.”

Leonard nudged Spock forward as he said, “We appreciate your kindness. Sweetheart, since this is your ego I’m trying to soothe, you lead the way.”

The look the Vulcan leveled at him was very close to what humans call ‘dirty’. Apparently Spock saw no humor in being labeled the fussy one in their relationship. Leonard was fairly certain Spock would get his revenge later on. Whoever believed that Vulcans were peaceful beings had never met an insulted Vulcan before. That thought tickled Leonard.

He reined his amusement in and focused on surveying his surroundings. They both kept their hands to themselves as they entered the woman’s bedroom. Leonard expected to see a room that was more lived in, but the bed was made and any luggage was stowed away.

“She’s very neat,” he observed.

“Or spends little of her time in this room,” Spock hypothesized.

Leonard dropped his voice to a whisper. “What’re the chances a beautiful woman is occupying a state room all by herself?”

“I would not care to guess.”

“I’ll check the bathroom.” Leonard veered in that direction.

“Dr. McCoy,” he heard from behind him.

He turned to see the woman leaning against the side of the open doorway, watching them. “Are you looking for something in particular?” she asked.

“No,” he started to say but Spock interrupted him.

“Leonard never indicated his profession.”

“I know that,” she replied quite calmly, “…Commander.”

Spock unclasped his hands from behind his back. Recognizing the action of a warning sign, Leonard shifted to the side to give him and Spock both room to move.

“You have us at a disadvantage then,” Spock said, his tone equally calm. “You know us but we do not know you.”

“An oversight. I apologize. My name is Pieta. I was coming to look for you—both of you, actually.”

Leonard’s stomach sank when she revealed that the hand behind her back was holding a phaser. Spock tensed.

“Thank you for coming to find me instead,” she said, pushing off the doorframe and stepping forward. “I was afraid that by the time we met, Jim would be awake again and causing trouble.”

The blood rushed out of Leonard’s head, leaving him feeling slightly dizzy. “And where is Jim?”

“Where you were headed next obviously.”

Leonard started towards the door that separated him from Jim.

“Please don’t.”

When Leonard turned back to her upon hearing her tone, he discovered that he was the phaser’s target. “Let us see him,” he insisted.

“Not yet,” Pieta countered. “We have to pick up a little gift first.” She studied them for a few seconds. “But not all of us.”

There was only a split second to recognize her intention as the phaser’s aim shifted. Leonard cried a warning but it was too late. Spock crumpled.

Leonard caught Spock’s upper body before his head could hit the floor. Although Leonard’s brain had registered the fact that Spock had only been stunned, the rest of Leonard was stiff with terror. As he clutched the Vulcan by the shoulders, Spock’s head lolled to the side.

“You didn’t have to do that!” he exclaimed.

“Why, Dr. McCoy, you sound scared.”

Leonard stretched Spock out on the floor and reassured himself that Spock was still alive by taking his pulse. He had a fairly good idea of how long it would be before Spock regained consciousness. Spock, Leonard knew, would say it was logical that of the two of them, he should be stunned. He would spout statistics about his impressive recovery rate.

Leonard also knew that being stunned played havoc with anyone’s system, and no matter what Spock said, he wouldn’t wake up with a pleasant feeling.

Damn it! he thought, and stood up.

“Well,” he said, not feeling very nice, “am I next?”

“Don’t antagonize me, Doctor. I have gone to a lot of trouble these past few days to secure this opportunity. We’ll see this to the end. Whether or not I have to kill you—that’s up to you.”

This was déjà-vu for certain. Leonard sighed through his nose. “You’re not the first person to threaten my life in so many days. In fact, you’re not even the first lady to do it.”

“If you’re referring to the partner of the man I killed, I’m sure her body has been discovered by now.”

The way she talked of death so blithely made him sick. “Why?”

“Why?” she repeated.

“Why did you have to kill them? Why did you take Jim?”

Pieta regarded him with an arrogant tilt to her chin. “It’s better to ask what I’m planning next, don’t you think?” She motioned for him to come closer. “I’ll show you. Let’s go.”

Leonard didn’t want to go with her. He wanted to stay with Spock, with Jim (if she was to be believed that Jim was nearby). But more than anything, Leonard wanted to turn back the clock and stop himself, Spock, and Jim from ever stepping foot on this cruiser.

He cast his gaze down to Spock, who would not stir for several more minutes, and had an idea.

“Don’t worry about your Commander. We won’t even tie him up. I want him to come after us.”

Leonard didn’t like the sound of that.

“I want him to bring Jim along too,” Pieta went on to say. “Then we will find out what kind of man your captain really is.”

“I know what kind of man he is,” Leonard told her, ” but apparently you don’t. That doesn’t matter, though.” He sighed again, aloud this time, knelt down and assumed a cross-legged position beside Spock.

Pieta came forward, snapping out in alarm, “What are you doing?”

Leonard didn’t bother to look at her as he reached for Spock’s hand. “Resting my old bones. Plus, I promised my Vulcan that we wouldn’t separate.” He huffed but the sound held no humor to it. “I guess you’re going to have to stun me too.”

“Get up!”

Leonard just shook his head and rubbed Spock’s knuckles with his thumb.

She came closer.

Spock, he thought, if ever there was a time…

Something stirred, not in his head, not his head.

“I said get up!”

Spock, Leonard coaxed again, a little more forcefully. Hadn’t Spock said the bond was useful for bringing one of them to consciousness?

A hard object pressed to the back of his skull, the muzzle of the phaser, and a familiar smell like ozone reached his nostrils. A significant charge was building up within the weapon.

“You stupid son of a bitch,” Pieta said, looming over him. “I don’t need you!”

“Few do,” the doctor said plainly, “except these two.”

A subtle movement behind Spock’s eyelids caught Leonard’s attention.

“Wake up, Sleeping Beauty,” he said.

Spock’s eyes opened at the same moment a crash came from within the bathroom, followed by the thump of something hitting the inside of the closed bathroom door.

Leonard didn’t think. He reached behind him, locked his hand around the phaser and jerked it sideways. Pieta gave a cry as she stumbled. Her arm went with it. With her finger still on the trigger, the phaser jumped in both their hands—and across the room a large bed fell victim to its power, disintegrating in a sudden bright flash.

The bathroom door hissed open, then, and a body fell through it, rolled, came up on its knees.

Leonard felt an arm slide behind his back, crush him against Spock’s chest as Spock came swinging up into a sitting position, other arm reaching past Leonard. Spock’s arm must have been impossibly long, Leonard would think later, to have so precisely targeted the juncture of their assailant’s shoulder and neck.

He heard the sound of her body hitting the floor behind him but didn’t look, just took a second to breathe. When he did lift his head, it was to find that Jim—a wide awake, furious-looking Jim—had somehow made it over them in that short amount of time. One of Jim’s hands had found Leonard’s back and twisted into his shirt, presumably the other hand doing much the same to Spock’s tunic.

“Are you all right?” Jim demanded of them.

“Are you?” Leonard demanded right back, sitting up straighter for a better view of one of Jim’s arms. “You’re bleeding!”

“Scratches,” said Jim, dismissing the concern.

Spock had twisted around to look at Jim’s arm too.

Leonard wiggled out of the Vulcan’s hold. “Let me see.”

But Jim had released both Spock and Leonard with the intention to move away.

Leonard made a lunge for Jim’s shirt collar and snapped, “Get back here! I can see glass in your arm!”

When Jim landed backwards on his rear, he gave Leonard an intense stare. They didn’t say anything; they didn’t need to in order to acknowledge that fear still had a hold on both of them.

Finally Jim dipped his chin and began to jerk at the bonds around his ankles in an attempt to loosen them. Leonard thought he heard him mutter, “I might have run into a mirror.”

Leonard spared a glance for Pieta, found that he hated the fact that she looked so deceptively harmless as she lay unconscious. Spock was working on Jim’s bound ankles when he turned back to them. He knew that Spock needed the contact with Jim and didn’t begrudge moving aside to give him more room.

“Bones,” Jim said, looking up and catching his attention.

“Have to say, Jim-boy, I didn’t expect our vacation to be this exciting.”

The other man’s mouth twitched. Then Jim gazed past Leonard, his entire face tightened and something like pain appeared in his eyes.

“You know her,” Leonard guessed softly.

“Yes,” Jim said, “I do.”

Spock straightened up, having freed Jim’s ankles. “Jim, do you know if she is the killer?”

“She is,” he confirmed.

“The Bajoran is dead too,” Leonard added grimly. “She confessed that to me.”

Spock’s words were grave as he reminded them, “A confession resolves some matters but not all. We have yet to determine the whereabouts of the Prophet’s Tear.”

Jim looked grim. “Or into whose hands it has fallen. Spock, relay a message to Captain Roraqk. Inform him that we have the murderer in custody—and also that, by order of Starfleet, I am taking command of this vessel.”

“Is that a good idea, Jim? He’ll challenge you on it.”

“If I think of a better one, Bones, I’ll let you know.”

Leonard looked to Spock, but Spock voiced no opinion on the matter and rose to his feet to obey.

Leonard gave in, reaching for Jim’s closest arm and the medkit that had miraculously stayed clipped to his belt. “While Spock’s rousing the whole ship, let me look at you. What’s this about running into a mirror?”

“The hand-mirror wasn’t glass,” Jim replied, as if that should make perfect sense.

“Fool.” Leonard said the word softly but it had no heat behind it. “I guess I should be grateful that you’re alive.”

“I am too, Bones… I am too.”

That Jim didn’t mean himself, Leonard knew without having to ask.

They were together now, he thought, but a darker side to him had to wonder how long that would last.

Next Part

Related Posts:

• Recapture (9/9) – from November 14, 2014
• Recapture (8/9) – from November 14, 2014
• Recapture (6/8) – from October 14, 2014
• Recapture (5/8) – from October 2, 2014
• Recapture (4/?) – from September 22, 2014

00