My Darling

Sickness

When Charlotte woke up in the morning, her throat was somewhat sore. Khan got her some water, but it didn't work. He decided that it was just the stress of her work to save him and now she was sick because of it. Both she and Khan thought that it was a cold and decided to go exploring. But, after a few hours of this, Charlotte fainted. She regained conciousness in the ship. Khan looked worried.

"This is bad." He said. "You've got a fever."

"What's my tempature?" Charlotte asked.

"One hundred and two point nine degrees." Khan said. Charlotte's eyes widened. She was a doctor and knew that wasn't good at all. She tried to sit up and Khan pushed her down. "Rest, my darling. You have need of it."

Charlotte nodded and took a long nap. Khan took her tempature while she was sleeping and saw that her fever had gone down. He wondered if maybe this was just a temporary virus that would go away. These sort of things had no affect on Khan because of his supieror engineering. When Charlotte woke up, Khan gave her some water. It wasn't too cold since he didn't want to shock her stomach. She threw it back up after five minutes of it being in her stomach. Khan knew that this was bad.

It only got worse as time went on. She wasn't able to keep anything down, the fever kept coming back, and got very weak in a short span of time. She deteriorated to the point where she couldn't even open her eyes. Khan offered a blood transfusion, since his blood could probably cure this, but Charlotte had coughed out a feeble, 'no.' Khan had to carry her everywhere since she couldn't walk. She had lost so much weight that she was light as a feather to Khan. Khan came to her bedside after trying to find out what was wrong with her.

"My darling, have you drank any of the water on this planet before consulting me?" Khan asked. Charlotte gave a small shake of her head. "Have you eaten anything?" Charlotte shook her head again. "What could it be, then?"

As the days continued, Charlotte didn't get any worse but she didn't get any better either. Khan spent every waking moment at her bedside. She could hear and sense him, but she couldn't see him. Khan was terrified. Charlotte refused his blood because she didn't know how she would deal with her new-found strength that it would give her. Khan was getting frustrated. He couldn't help Charlotte in this state. At one point, he had just sat down and had a good cry. Khan had only cried twice: Once when he was telling the story of his crew and now about Charlotte dying. He knew that she was dying. It was just the truth.

"Charlotte, please allow me to give you my blood. It will save you." Khan said.

"No. Don't you dare, Khan." Charlotte said in a whisper. "I love you, but you need to be brave. I don't want to-"

Charlotte broke off into a coughing fit. Khan rubbed her back and his heart nearly stopped when he saw that she was hacking up blood.

"Charlotte, please!" Khan said. "I don't want to watch you die."

"Khan, I don't want uncontrolable strength. I'm scared I would hurt someone." Charlotte said.

"You won't. You've said it yourself, you're too kind and gentle to hurt anyone." Khan said. "Even if you did, I could teach you how to control yourself. I learned."

"No, Khan." Charlotte said. "Now, let me sleep."

Charlotte's breathing evened out. It was shallow. Khan knew that her time was almost up. He didn't care what she wanted. He went to the med bay and grabbed a needle and flask. He didn't care about his phobia as he filled the flask with his crimson blood. He ran back to Charlotte's room and connected the flask to his wife's IV. He and Charlotte had the same blood type so there was no need for a transfusion. Khan watched Charlotte's sleeping form. Already her vital signs looked good. She would probably be awake soon. Khan pulled up a chair next to her bed and watched Charlotte. Charlotte's breathing had already grown deeper and not as shallow. He hoped she would be awake by early evening.