something to do (Pavel Chekov)

52

Eadie goes back to the bio lab every two days and starts working again. It keeps her busy and keeps her in a good mood. Pavel spends his days in engineering, waiting another week before he can be cleared to return to the bridge. He works on the ring and sometimes just works with Scotty. He runs sometimes, and other days he doesn't want to get out of bed. Eadie knows how to work with him to get him moving. It takes a little effort, but they start healing and their nightmares decrease in frequency. Pavel still wakes up sweating occasionally. He finds himself asking if it'll ever stop and everyone tells him it will.

Pavel spends a long time thinking about how to give Eadie the ring. He knows how he wants to propose, just not where or when. He keeps telling himself to wait until shore leave, which is only a month away anyway. He doesn't have to rush. He knows he's going too fast but he's already tumbling down a hill with no foreseeable end. He needs to focus on one thing at the time. He starts with the ring. He watches a lot of videos on how to get it how he wants it to be and finds the smaller parts of the ring to be quite tedious.

"You're daydreaming again," Eadie notes, looking at him from the kitchen. "You going to t-tell me what it's about this t-time?"

"Engineering again," he mutters, which is partially true. "What are we going to do on shore leave?"

"Shore l-leave, hm?" She says, suppressing the urge to suggest anything sexual. She wants to go back to what they tried on the holodeck all that time ago. She wants to go back to trying it again but she also hesitates when it comes to initiating their sexual contact. She doesn't want to upset him, she doesn't want to suggest things at a bad time. "M-maybe we can just spend some t-time together, nice and close."

"I'd like that," he smiles. "You should come over here and kiss me. I feel like I could kiss you for weeks and weeks."

"Good, b-because you might have t-to."

She comes over to him and kisses his nose. He wraps his arm around her waist and kisses her cheek, trailing kisses down her jaw and making her laugh. He gets to her neck and starts kissing her softly. She giggles and runs her fingers through the curls at the back of his neck.

"Eadie," he says softly, his playful smile fading a touch. "Do you think shore leave will make us feel normal again? Do you think we will ever feel normal again?"

She pauses for a second and places a kiss on his cheek. "I d-don't even know w-what n-normal is anymore. This is our n-new normal."

He pulls her into a tight hug and holds her, wishing he could just enjoy these moments with her. He rests his chin on her neck. He stays there a while and eventually whispers and tells her he loves her.

Eadie gets Pavel's help to write a list of things that want to do together on shore leave. Eadie wonders if there'll be bikes wherever they go and Pavel notes down that he wants to go stargazing. He mutters that he hope it rains or snows or is windy or gives them some kind of weather that makes them feel real again. Pavel mutters about how nice some snow would be and Eadie asks if he even knows which planet they'll be going to.

"It's hard to say. I haven't been on the bridge enough to get a good idea of where we're going or where we might be in a few weeks from now. We aren't even sure when exactly we will stop. I just want to go somewhere I can step outside and look up at the sky for a while. I never thought I'd miss having ground beneath my feet."

"N-not long," Eadie smiles, putting a hand on Pavel's shoulder and kissing his cheek.

Going to bed, Eadie seems a little lost in thought and Pavel kisses her nose, asking if she's alright. She looks up and pauses, asking Pavel if they have any concrete answers on how they managed to get back in the cell a second time. She mutters about thinking too hard and Pavel sits on the edge of the bed.

"I wanted answers so badly as soon as I was out but once I thought about it, I stopped wanting to know. I was going to ask McCoy or the Captain but I think it will only stress me."

"I w-want answers. I want to know what w-we're in for."

Pavel sighs. He knows that they're nowhere near the planet they landed on. He doesn't say it aloud but he feels like Eadie knows anyway. She looks at the time and mutters that the Captain is probably up and pulls her shoes on. Pavel wants to protest but he follows her as she leaves the room and starts wandering through the corridors. Pavel asks if she honestly thinks this is a good idea and she nods, staring straight ahead.

Eadie walks right into a rec room and there's a small bar with a familiar yellow shirt sitting there, drink in hand. He seems to have female company beside him but Eadie inserts herself between them and asks to speak to Kirk.

"This can't wait a little?" Kirk asks, flicking a glance to his companion.

"I used up all m-my patience, sir," she grumbles.

Kirk gives an apologetic look to his friend and she leaves, Eadie taking her seat. Pavel sits on the other side and Kirk preemptively takes a sip of his drink. Eadie looks to Pavel and he takes that as his cue to start asking questions. He tells the Captain that they are waiting on answers about their trip back to the cell. Kirk seems to tense up a little at the question.

"I'd like some answers myself, honestly," Kirk says. "We aren't in the vicinity of the planet and we don't know how you would have beamed down at this range. We're still trying to figure it out. We thought maybe they used a portable transporter but we didn't detect any ships near us. Our only guess is perhaps they used some kind of cloaking device."

"It still doesn't quite make sense. We went back to the same room. Portable transporters don't have that kind of range on them. How did you get us back?"

There's a silence for a second and Kirk just looks to his drink. "Eadie showed up as an incoming request to teleport. We barely had let McCoy know before we accepted and she rematerialized here. The same thing happened for you Pavel less than an hour later. I wish I had more to tell you," Kirk mutters, taking a drink. "There's a team trying to figure out what sent you two back there but for now, we don't know much."

"They sent us back," Pavel mutters, feeling his stomach sink a little.

"So w-we could end back up there again any minute?" Eadie spits, looking furious. "We're only here b-because they w-want us to be?"

Kirk doesn't have anything to say and Eadie sinks into her chair a little. There's a replicator and she goes over to it, getting herself some kind of drink. There's a tiny umbrella in it and Pavel wonders if she's added it specifically. Eadie raises her glass to Kirk's and they clink it together miserably.

"Doctor McCoy said we shouldn't-"

He stops there as Eadie makes eye contact with him and finishes almost half the drink in one sip. They sit in silence for a little and Pavel decides that he was right and asking questions was a bad idea. He doesn't have any interest in drinking but he sits there with them and thinks over the weight of their new knowledge.

Eadie's onto her second drink when McCoy shows up. He's not in uniform and seemingly looking for Kirk.

"I'm assuming that's not alcohol," McCoy says raising an eyebrow and sitting beside her.

"Fruit j-juice," she replies, twirling the umbrella in her fingers.

McCoy doesn't seem convinced in the slightest but doesn't pester her about it, getting himself a drink and planting himself down beside them.

(Author's Note)

Thank you for staying with this. I've mentioned it before but I did finish writing this years ago but was never happy with this section of the story. I'm rewriting parts of it to try and match the pacing of the rest of the book and not just rush to an underwhelming ending. I'd hate to publish an ending that didn't do the story justice. Again, thank you for your ongoing support and comments pushing me to keep writing. We will get there eventually <3

-Clover