Sharing the Wealth, nuTrek, K/S
Sharing the Wealth, nuTrek, K/S
This is a short companion piece to Filial Piety by corpus_invictus. You must go read it first. It's an excellent nuTrek story! Go, read, comment to her. I was moved to write down this scene which came to mind.
Sharing the Wealth
Bones strode into sickbay grinning like a loon. "Christine," he called out, "alert all medical staff I'm upgrading our status to orange alert. Massive earthquakes on Andoria...we're in charge of rescue operations. I want all duty personnel to begin prep for on-planet triage in field units." He rubbed his hands together, still grinning about Spock. Damn Vulcan always surprised the hell out of him.
Christine Chapel stood looking at him askance from the office doorway. "I know you've been bored lately, but frankly, I find your glee about a rescue operation a bit much. And..." she bit her lip. "Well...not to mention the Captain and...." She gestured vaguely with a hand. "Everything planetside."
"Ha." Leonard grinned some more. "Jim owes me a bottle of Kentucky's best. And that damn green-blooded elf just made my day, hell, my year. If you could've seen the look on those prissy-mouthed green computers down there when Spock had us beamed up before everything could begin...."
Christine gaped. "Are you saying...."
The wall comm blared out before he could reply. "Dr. McCoy to rec room one, medical emergency. Please respond."
Two steps to the wall and McCoy pushed the comm button. "McCoy here."
"Doctor, it's Taal Hass. He's having some kind of seizure."
"Be right there." By the time he'd turned from the comm, Christine was tossing him his medkit.
"I'll ready a stretcher."
"I'll let you know." Two steps had him out of sickbay and ten more in the nearest turbolift. A terse medical override command sent the car speeding on priority to the opposite side of the ship, stopping, then accelerating up ten levels before coming to an abrupt halt. Another ten steps took him into rec room one.
"Let me through." The small crowd parted, and Leonard knelt down next to where Taal gasped and writhed on the floor. "Taal, it's Leonard. What's wrong?" McCoy peered down at his own P.A., hesitant to lay hands on the Betazoid unless he couldn't respond. "Taal, come on, talk to me. I need you to tell me what's wrong."
As Taal opened his eyes, Leonard saw they were huge and dilated. "Doc...tor," he gasped, arching up off the floor and moaning. "Need to...sickbay," he managed. "P-please," he added. "Fine, but...away from...crew."
Leonard frowned even as he flipped open his comm. "McCoy to sickbay. Christine, send up that stretcher ASAP."
"Right away, doctor."
He turned his frown on the crowd around him. "And everybody clear the room," Leonard groused. "Now. That's an order."
The milling group cleared out of the rec room in short order, a few casting worried glances back at the Betazoid moaning on the floor. Taal was a popular crewmember; it didn't surprise Leonard that they were worried about him.
As soon as the room emptied, Rutger hurried in, pushing an anti-grav stretcher.
Leonard turned back to Taal. "Stretcher's here. We'll lower it to the floor...you need help or d'ya want to do it yourself?"
Taal shook his head. "I can do it," he gritted out.
In short work, they had the medical assistant back in sickbay in a private room, everyone but Leonard barred from entry.
"I need to know what's going on, Taal," Leonard said, keeping one eye on the read-outs above the bed. Already it appeared he was managing better; his readings, while very high, had stabilized.
To Leonard's surprise, the Betazoid flushed a deep maroon. "Lost control...like a zadwan neophyte," he said, gasping a little. "Can't get it back."
"You lost control?" Leonard repeated, amazed. Taal Hass was his best P.A., and was known for his iron control over his native empathic senses. It was a necessity in his job. "What in hell caused that to happen?"
Taal's face flushed a little darker. "It...I...ah, aaahhh...." He moaned loudly and arched his back off the bed, arms and legs rigid for long seconds before falling back onto the bed limp, his mouth slack. After a few seconds, he raised an arm up and covered his face from Leonard's gaze.
Leonard blinked, his mind suddenly racing down roads previously not recognized. "That looked like.... Seriously, tell me you didn't just.... Are you tuned in to...." He ran a hand through his hair, at a loss for words. "Good God, man," he finally spit out and fell into the seat beside the bed. "Just tell me. Did, uh...this have anything to do with a certain Vulcan deciding to stay on the Enterprise instead of getting married on New Vulcan?"
Taal's mouth quirked beneath his arm. "You might say that, yes."
Leonard snorted. "I take it the Captain was happy about his First Officer's decision."
Taal removed his arm from his face and just stared at Leonard.
"Right." Leonard slapped his thighs and stood up. "So...everything's good now, you don't need me for anything at this point, right?"
"Perhaps you could get me a clean med jumpsuit," Taal said evenly.
"Ah." Leonard felt his own face flush at that. "Right. I'll get it right away. And Taal, you have the rest of this shift off. And the next one, also," he added, just to be on the safe side.
You never knew with James T. Kirk and Spock. It was never dull around the pair of them, that was for damn sure.