Beyond the Stars, Beyond the Moon

Part 5: Something fishy

Pov: Cassie

I follow Pavel down the hall to the elevator and go up about 2 levels. In the elevator I notice him looking at me out of the corner of my eye. It makes me nervous yet feel all...what's the word mother used? Bubbly? Is that right? She also used an old metaphor when she would talk about being with father...stomach full of moths? Or was it butterflies? That sounds like it fit this feeling more.

I keep holding my finger as we exit the elevator, blue blood still spilling out of it. I try not to look at it; blood always makes me feel like vomiting. Yet I want to know what's in my finger.

We enter this room with lots of beds and exam tables, looking like a far overcrowded hospital. Not too many beds are occupied, which is a good thing I suppose, but I can see about 14 familiar faces on the left side. But didn't we end up with 19 in here...?

"Bones!" Pavel nearly shouts next to me, making me jump. A man with dark hair turns around to look at us. His stressed faced seems to be softened when he sees Pavel. Then his eyes turn to me and directly go to my finger, or more specifically, the blue blood I'm starting to drip on the floor.

"My god..." He says and speed walks toward us. "What happened?!"

"I don't know sir, I was working on this panel that was damaged down in engineering and-"

I'm cut off so he can ask Pavel to grab bandages, a towel, magnifier, and tweezers from his station as I sit on an exam table.

"- I just felt something prick me, I have no explanation sir."

Bones wipes a majority of the blood off my finger and puts on the magnifier to get a closer look at the wound.

"Well something is REALLY lodged in there..." He incoherently mumbles something and picks up the tweezers. "Ok this is going to hurt a bit...uhhh" he looks at me, then Pavel "uhh kid you don't have to stay. She's safe with me." He must've sensed I might be embarrassed if it hurt to the point of tears. But maybe him being there might offer comfort too. I just met Bones and I'm sure he's lovely, but there's something about Pavel...

"Vill she be ok?" He looks at Bones with genuine concern, then at me and I can't shake the feeling I want him here, and that he wants to be here.

"Pavel, actually...could you stay?" I regret the words as they leave my mouth. Am I coming off as too odd? Needy? Childish that I want someone to stay and practically hold my hand as I get a splinter out of my finger? Only this is no splinter...

He actually smiles, while still looking concerned. "I can do zat" and he looks around for a comfortable place to sit.

"You can sit here," I motion to the spot on the examination table next to me "if that's ok with you, sir."

"Sure kid. And enough with the sir stuff. Name is McCoy. Leonard McCoy. But you can call me Bones. Everyone else seems to." He rolls his eyes at the last part. "I didn't get your name actually."

"Oh, I'm Cassie. It's nice to meet you, Bones."

"Same to you. Sorry it's under these circumstances....ok try to relax and look away. It'll hurt less that way."

I look away and my eyes land on Pavel next to me unintentionally. As soon as I can feel my cheeks turning red, I wince and feel a pinch on my finger, then another and I clench my fists. Pavel notices and offers his hand. A little too eager for the comfort, I take his hand and start squeezing as I feel a hard pinch and something long and sharp being dragged out of my finger.

"Well that part's over. But looks like you need a stitch or 2." Bones says as he puts the culprit into a Petri dish.

"Vhat is it?" Pavel looks over at the Petri dish without letting go of my hand.

"I'm not sure. Some tiny chip or device...I'm a doctor damnit, not an engineer. But....there's a blue-ish gray scale on it."

"Just like the Piscians...." But how did it get there?!

"I'm gonna run DNA on it. Meanwhile..." Bones opens his communicator. "Hey Jim...you might wanna get down here."