Nobis ✴︎ Pavel Chekov

Chapter Sixty - Evaluation

Pavel wakes up in medbay with more holes in his memory. His chest feels uncomfortably tight and doesn't know what's going on. He sits up, shaking his arms out and trying to ease his breathing a little. He keeps trying to think back to when he was conscious last.

"Mr. Chekov?" someone asks.

Pavel looks up and doesn't recognise the doctor in front of him. He rubs his eyes a little and nods at her, wondering where McCoy or Irina are.

"I'm Doctor Castello. McCoy isn't on shift at the moment. Do you know where you are?"

"I'm in medbay," he says weakly. "Though you just pointed out you were a doctor and that McCoy isn't around so it's really not a hard question."

"Can you tell me what you remember last?" She asks, sitting beside him.

"I've been trying to remember but everything feels foggy. I last remember... I had just come into medbay for something else... Sulu! That's right, he nearly touched a live wire but I pulled him away. We came here because McCoy said if anything abnormal happened I had to return to medbay and I guess premonitions aren't exactly normal so..."

"You don't remember the botany lab?"

"The botany lab?"

"Interesting," she mutters. "Someone is going to come do a psych evaluation with you later today. Just take it easy for now, okay?"

"Wait, you aren't going to tell me what happened in the botany lab? And... Am I allowed any visitors?"

"We want you to do the psych evaluation first. We might have to hold off on visitors. It shouldn't be long though. I'm sorry to keep you here by yourself but we'll get a better idea of what's going on if we can gage exactly where you're at after one of your blackouts."

"Oh, okay..." He says softly, thanking her as she goes. He lies back down, staring at the ceiling and trying to think back to where he remembers last. He wants an explanation. He wants to know that everything's okay with the botany lab. He has little idea what to do in the meantime."

Pavel wakes up with Irina scanning him again. He asks her what happened, she doesn't reply.

"Irina?"

"Ah, so you're responding now, hm?"

"What's that supposed to mean? I remember literally nothing, you're going to have to give me more details than that."

"I can't say much until your evaluation, but you weren't responding to me at one point. I'll explain the rest after, but it was weird, weirder than it has been already."

He sighs, wishing he could hurry up with the evaluation so he could find out what was going on. He stays still as Irina scans him. He feels isolated like everyone's tiptoeing around him at the moment. Irina frowns at the scans and he asks what she's seeing.

"It's normal. I guess I'm just surprised."

He rolls his eyes and lies down, crossing hands over his stomach and looking at the ceiling. Irina tells him he shouldn't have to wait long. He just nods, not interested in talking. She's right though and someone comes to see him a few minutes later. It's a girl with impossibly dark eyes and he wonders which planet she's from. She takes him into another small room and asks him to sit down. She seems nice, though her eyes unnerve him a little.

The evaluation seems like less of an evaluation and more of just Pavel retelling what snippets of everything he remembers. She asks a lot of questions about colours, senses and smells. He has no idea why. He has to explain everything that he didn't remember and had explained to him. He has only a vague recollection of the light falling and only a slightly better memory of the replicator malfunctioning. He's told the whole story and he hopes he's nearly finished but really, they've only just started. He asks about his relationships with Emory, Irina and Sulu. Pavel realises he's going to be there for hours. He sighs before answering anything, wondering where he can start.

It takes nearly three hours and Pavel is exhausted by the time the doctor finally says she has everything. He never expected to tell her as much as he did. He tells her about waking up in Emory's room the night after breaking up with Irina. He tells her about the dream he had where Emory cheated on him and just painful it was. He tells her about the letter Irina, about his fallout with Sulu and how he hasn't apologised yet. He tells her how painful it was coming back from the dead. She just listens, occasionally taking notes on her PADD. She lets him out and he just lies on his stomach on a bio bed. He doesn't have the energy to talk to Emory or Sulu. He tells himself he will when he wakes up.

Pavel feels like he's floating when he sleeps. He's on his biobed, in is dream but he feels like he's floating just centimetres above it. He's in space and surrounded by a million beautiful stars. He smiles at them and feels a warmth he can't explain. His chest tingles and he places his hands on it gently. He doesn't know where he is but he feels peaceful and calm, the whole galaxy in front of him.

When he wakes up, Pavel still feels warm. His eyes open to a scanner being waved in front of his head. He goes to sit up and whoever's scanning him puts a hand on his shoulder to stay still.

"Can you tell me your name please?"

"Pavel Andreievich Chekov. What happened, Doctor McCoy?"

"You're alright, kid," the doctor says softly, almost like he doesn't entirely believe it. Pavel's eyes focus a little better and he notices just how tired he really looks. His under eyes are almost as black as the sky outside and Pavel wonders how long it was since the doctor slept last.