Filling in the Blanks - 2/6 - Star Trek XI - Chulu
Second installation. This is a finished fic (just the way I like them!) and I'm cleaning it up from my hasty post on the st_xi_kink_meme where the original prompt was posted (all can be found in ch 1 post, which I will link here).
~ ~ ~
Filling in the Blanks
Rating: PG (I think)
Warnings: Swearing. Impled slash. Drinking
Filling in the Blanks (2/6)
Turns out, it wasn't as bad as he thought. After the doctor confirmed the tricorders readouts of no fractures, just a slight concussion, he was able to eat and given a hypo for the pain. It sucked staying awake when his foggy brain and body just wanted him to sleep, but the nurse wasn't too annoying and he had all the replicated chocolate ice cream he could ever want at a word.
When alpha shift was over, he had a string of visitors. Ensign Stone, from Engineering who was in his beginning judo classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, Lieutenant Uhura and Commander Spock, Captain Kirk again, and Ensign Chekov.
He smiled to himself. It had been a better ending than start at least.
~ ~ ~
Pavel smiled to himself. 'He-karu's okay!' he thought gleefully. He had been so worried when he saw Hikaru's head connect with the console out of the corner of his eye. Helpless but to stay engaged with the firefight between them and the alien ship. He wished he could have ignored the sight of Mr. Spock lowering Hikaru out of the helmsman chair to the floor and then the younger man's position.
A misunderstanding. A stupid pizdets na khui blyad misunderstanding. He wanted to spit he was so pissed.
But whatever. Hikaru was safe. He was safe and coming back on shift today. He could barely believe it had only been yesterday. Pavel had brought the other man a book, when he'd visited after shift, one he'd promised to lend him not twenty minutes before the attack. He couldn't explain why Hikaru's face had glowed with such happiness over an astrophysics book, but Chekov knew how he had his own silly quirks and shrugged it off. He'd conceded to the hug and blushed when Hikaru had kissed him on his pale cheek, but otherwise didn't comment.
He surpressed the urge to jump in his excitement when he reached the turbolift that connected to the Bridge, to see Hikaru standing there.
"He-karu!" he grasped the man on the shoulder, clutching at the muscles there, before he released him. "I'm wery glad you are alright."
Hikaru reached out to wrap an arm around Pavel's neck, pulling him to abutt against his chest. Touching his head sideways to rest against Pavel's, he mumbled, "Me too."
The turbolift arrived and Hikaru didn't disengage his arm, instead leaving it strown around the younger man's neck only removing it when they stepped onto the Bridge.
"Lunch? Later?"
"Of course," Pavel added easily. They almost always had lunch together unless Hikaru had an experiment to take care of, or a tempermental new plant that needed extra attention.
He couldn't help the confused chuckle that escaped him when Hikaru winked at him. Winked. He looked around and his eyes connected with Lieutenant Uhura, who had both elegant eyebrows raised skyward before she snapped out of it and turned back to her station.
~ ~ ~
Lunch was strange. He couldn't shake the unease in his stomach. Something was different about Hikaru. He couldn't pinpoint exactly what yet, and the puzzle was driving him up a wall.
The two men stood and walked toward the conveyer belt to dispose of their lunch reminents. "I think I'm going to go work out a bit. I'm still feeling a little stiff after the day stuck in Sickbay."
"I will head down to Rec 5, see if anything is new on the Cortex."
They were filing out of the cafeteria when he felt a hand grip the crook of his elbow. Turning around, Chekov had the second to figure out it was still Hikaru before warm and slightly chapped lips connected with his and a hand brushed his cheek, cupping his face. He choked back the sob that threatened to emerge, and raised a hand quickly to Hikaru's chest and pushed him away.
"He-karu? What are you doing?"
Sulu's forehead crinkled in confusion as the side up his mouth quirked up in a half-smile, "Kissing my boyfriend."
"Umm... I think we should go see the doctor." He eyed Hikaru's forehead as he stepped back, out of range.
"Im fine, Pavel. Are you mad at me?"
Pavel cleared his throat, trying to forget that his best friend just stole his first kiss, "No. I just don't know why you would kiss me... I don't find this joke amusing."
"It's not a joke, Pavel. Come on. Stop messing around." He took a step toward Pavel and the younger man countered.
"Are you sure you're feeling alright? That we shouldn't go see the doctor?"
"I feel fine. Why are you acting so cold? You're acting like we..." he trailed off as the realization hit him, feeling like someone punched a hole in his chest. "Ar--are we not together anymore? Did we break up? Did I break up with you?" Chekov could feel the panic rise in him as Hikaru's breathing and speech became faster and faster, spilling out of him in a dizzying fury. "Did you break up with me? Oh God!" he broke eye contact with the younger man whose stare confirmed his fears, they weren't together. Something had happened and he couldn't remember. He glared at his feet, trying to recall their breakup, "I don't remember." He looked back up into Chekov's worried eyes. "Pavel, I don't remember. Do I have amnesia or something?!"
"Calm down, my friend. Let's get you back to the doctor. He will figure this out. He will help."
~ ~ ~
Pavel sat in the doctor's office waiting for him to finish the exam on his best friend. He thought they were dating. That they were a couple. He wasn't disgusted by the idea, just worried that this was a sign of something worse. The sound of the door wooshing open pulled him from those maudlin thoughts.
"Ensign." the doctor nodded at him as he took the seat across from him.
"What is wrong with him, doctor?"
Doctor McCoy took a deep breath then let it out. "Nothing."
Pavel opened his mouth to protest but the doctor cut him off with a wave of his hand. "Lieutenant Sulu is experiencing a phenomenon that we deal with in every day life. Memory is a tricky thing. Even after hundreds and hundreds of years of experiments and observation, we still don't know exactly why we remember some things and not others. Let alone when something like this crops up. The brain is incredibly complex and likes to make sense of our world. Hence, from time to time, it'll fill in the blanks after a trauma."
"That is why he thinks we are boyfriends?"
McCoy nodded. "He took his feelings for you, which may or may not be fraternal love, and his brain interpreted it as romantic love. He has vivid memories of dates, sharing quarters, and your first kiss," he paused, "which from what you said earlier and the look on your face now, is a false memory."
"First kiss was today in the mess hall." he ducked to hide his blush, hoping the doctor didn't realize it was his first kiss.
"When-" Pavel was starting to get a headache, "When will he stop thinking we are or, were together?"
"Thats the thing... He could realize it in a few minutes when you see him next or... and here's the hard part, he may never remember. He experienced brain damage. This could be permanent for him." He paused and cleared his throat, "I'm sorry if that isn't exactly helpful."
Pavel could see in the doctor's soft eyes and slight frown that he struggling with the lack of knowledge on his end too. The unsolved puzzle. He knew that frustration.
"It-it will be alright," he found himself saying, not sure who he was trying to comfort.
"Theres just one other thing I have to ask of you: don't challenge his ideas about reality. It will only agitate him further. His mind needs to cope with this in it's own way." He saw the uncertainty in Chekov's face. "I'm not saying help embellish this alternative memory, just side step any conversation about it. You 'don't want to talk about it', etcetera." Pavel nodded, though he was still somewhat confused.
"I'm going to finish my rounds. Take as long as you need before returning to the Bridge. This is a lot to take in."
Pavel had almost forgot that it was still alpha shift and after he'd taken Hikaru to Sickbay, he had reported for duty, only to be called to report to Sickbay not an hour later.
"Thank you-" he started, turning toward the door, but the doctor was already gone.
~ ~ ~
Comments are deeply appreciated. I'm a newb. :)
Chapter 3
Posted via LiveJournal.app.