Nobis ✴︎ Pavel Chekov

Chapter Twenty Nine - Collision Course

       
Irina works in nursing with McCoy and when Pavel gets called in for a physical he fears the worst. McCoy is on duty and brings him onto a bio bed, asking him a series of questions about his health that he answers with little thought. McCoy is quiet while he types a few things onto his PADD, briefly looking away to call out into the corridor. All he yells is nurse but Irina comes in, making Pavel sigh a little under his breath and tense up.

"Interesting."

"What?" Pavel asks quietly, trying as hard as he can not to make things awkward.

"Your heart beat just sped up by twenty three beats per minute."

"Yes doctor?" Irina asks, before Pavel can say anything. McCoy tells Irina that Pavel needs a vaccine and he groans a little, remembering the last time he was stabbed with one.

Pavel doesn't say anything as McCoy leaves and Irina loads a hypo. She gives him a look before pulling his shirt slightly off his shoulder and pressing the hypo into him. Pavel winces and tries not to squirm too much in pain.

"I'm surprised McCoy let me do that. It's normally his favourite part."

Pavel smirks and Irina packs the hypo away. "Someone saw you in engineering. I thought you were a navigator?"

"I'm a navigator yes, but I've also been studying engineering and working with Scotty, the head engineer. Engineering isn't easy but it takes my mind off things."

McCoy comes back and Irina passes him her PADD, heading back over to another patient.

"So you're familiar with Nurse Irina, yes?"

Pavel gives him an exasperated look and nods, pushing himself off the biobed. "How did you find out? Did she tell you?"

"I was listing off who was supposed to come in for physicals and I said your name. She said she was quite familiar with the ship's head navigator but didn't give many other details. A different girl to the one I saw you with last if I remember correctly. Interesting."

"Irina is my ex. The other girl is long gone. That's all there is to it."

McCoy picks up on Pavel's bitter tone and sends him back to duty. He didn't realise how turbulent Pavel's love life was and decides not to pester him anymore about it. Pavel heads back towards the bridge with the thought of Irina's gentle handle on his shoulder on his mind. He can't help but hate how anxious she makes him, leaving his heart pounding uncomfortable and making him question everything he says. He hopes it'll get easier as he sees her more but he feels like that may take a while.

Irina comes and find Pavel when he's on break again and he wishes that she wouldn't. She smiles cordially from across the mess hall and finds herself something to eat. He takes the limited time he has to try and calm himself down enough to talk. He's bouncing his foot up and down below the table and trying to breathe a little.

"Borscht? Could you be any more Russian?"

"Hey, I like Russian food. Borscht is one of my favourites."

Pavel already knows this, Irina is very Russian, maybe even more so than he is. She manages to lose the accent when speaking English however, that he's a little jealous of. He still gets denied by the console occasionally.

"How are you finding working with McCoy? Apparently he's hard to get used to."

"He's grumpy and everything but he's fine. He's pretty funny when he wants to be. I think he just works himself too hard."

"Yeah, he takes a lot of shifts. I don't know why when he seems to be so stressed in medbay."

Irina nods and starts eating, Pavel starting to wonder if eating together will be a regular thing. He hopes not. He still doesn't know how he feels about being around her. It's nice that they're civil and friendly but he still can't help but think of why they ended in the first place. He looks up at her and for a few seconds all he can see is her naked and with another man that wasn't him. He turns away and rubs his eyes, realising that he desperately needs to calm down.

"You okay?" Irina asks, noticing the terrified expression on his face.

"Fine," he mutters, taking a long drink from his glass and starting to eat with his eyes cast downwards.

"You really don't seem fine. What happened?"

"Look, don't suddenly come back and pretend you care. Every time I look at you I just see that again."

"See what again?"

"You fucking another guy, Irina," he says coldly. A few heads turn in their direction and Pavel keeps an intense gaze with her. She clears her throat awkwardly, brushing her hair from her face and looking away. "I don't get it," he adds. "What was with that phone call? That condescending tone in your voice as if I'd done something wrong and then as soon as you come back you're all calm and happy and trying to be my friend or something."

"The tone was a defence mechanism. I'd asked if you were alright and you shut me down and it just sort of happened. I cried when I hung up, Pavel. I felt terrible."

"Must have been so hard for you," he says bitterly, breathing heavily in anger and thinking of a way he can leave before things get any worse.

"Believe it or not, I was in pain from what I did too. The guilt I felt over hurting you, hurting someone I loved over some stupid fucking hook up."

"Don't you dare say it was a hook up! It happened multiple times, we both know that. Don't you dare try and tell me that it was a mistake when you did it, you would have kept doing it had I not found you!"

Many people are looking in their direction but Pavel's trying not to care.

"Pav, please, just let me-"

"It was a mistake talking to you," Pavel says quietly, giving her one last fatal glare and leaving the mess hall, which is now in a stunned silence. Irina looks down self-consciously until the normal level of noise returns to the mess and she can bring herself to leave.

(Author's Note)
Dramaaaaaa