Nobis ✴︎ Pavel Chekov

Chapter Sixty Three - Orange

McCoy is quiet as he checks over Pavel the next morning. Pavel knows something's up. He watches the doctor work and waits until he goes, motioning for Irina to come over.

"Did something happen with McCoy?" Pavel asks. "He's gone all quiet..."

"Something did happen," she confirms. "But I can't say anything about it. It's not him anyway. It's you."

"My eyes again?" He guesses, frowning to himself.

"Not your eyes. I'll explain shortly, I'm sorry to keep you in the dark."

He lays back down and sighs, wondering if anyone is any closer to figuring out what is going on with him. He only has to wait another ten minutes before McCoy comes back over. A tight-lipped expression.

"I had a visitor," McCoy starts, sitting on the seat and looking up at Pavel.

"Yes?" Pavel says, encouraging him to continue.

"Emory's roommate Sawyer... She came to see me. She had a lot of questions but also a lot of comments and ideas. She drew out this map of her thoughts and I think she might be on to something about what's going on with you..."

"And what, exactly, do we think is wrong with me?"

"That's the thing, I can't really get my head around her theory. She wrote it down for you but I don't really understand it."

Pavel asks to see the theory and McCoy tells him that he needs a little while to process the idea. He wants to run it by a few more doctors before giving it to Pavel. The doctor has a lot on his mind, he doesn't want to burden Pavel with that yet. He sighs at the thought, telling Pavel to start some light exercise today. He just nods, worried about what the doctor is theorising.

Emory visits and is freakishly quiet. After about two minutes, Pavel questions it.

"Come on, what's on your mind, Emory? Doctor McCoy won't say anything either. I'm going crazy here. Are you alright?"

"Sawyer has this theory and I'm just scared it's correct. McCoy told me he'd show you later but I don't know, I feel uneasy about it."

Pavel takes her hand and squeezes it. He wants to go lay down with her for a while. He wants to be able to just stay in bed with her for a whole day. He wants to walk out of medbay and stay out for a long, long while.

"I dreamt about you. You took me to see the snow. It may have been Russia. You were saying something but I don't know what. It was a really nice dream. We cuddled in the warmth together and I swear I could feel you with me."

"Do you know what I said?"

"It was in Russian."

He gives her a few vague words and she shakes her head to all of them. He keeps trying and they don't come up with anything.

"Any chance it was 'Ya lyublu tebya?'"

Emory looks up, as if that sentence seems somewhat familiar. She nods, Pavel smiles at her gently. He looks up and from a couple of meters away he can see Irina. She holds a medical scanner and lowers it a little, not making eye contact. Pavel swallows, realising that she overheard.

"Are you going to tell me what it means?"

"Maybe," he says softly. "I'll wait until it's relevant."

When Emory is gone, Pavel finds himself incredibly awkward when Irina comes to check his vitals.

"I wasn't saying that to Emory; she just wanted to know the translation."

"I don't care about it, Pavel. You're allowed to say what you want to her. It's not my concern."

He doesn't say anything. He wonders whether he should have just kept his mouth shut. Irina scans him and studies the PADD, trying not to get caught up in her thoughts too much. She takes a small light and shines it into Pavel's eyes. She frowns a little and he asks what's going on. She doesn't answer, just telling him to close his eyes and open them again.

She sees McCoy and beckons him over, passing him the torch. McCoy studies Pavel eyes and wears the same frown, only attracting more of Pavel's concern.

"Note this in his file. I want you to page Sawyer as well."

Irina nods and heads off.

"Are they back to normal?"

"Not even fucking close," McCoy mumbles under his breath, taking his PADD out to get a better scan of them. "They're orange."

"Orange?? You have to be kidding me. My eyes are orange? Please, can I have a mirror or something?"

McCoy finds him a mirror in a cupboard of his and Pavel nearly drops it. He swears in Russian, lowering the mirror and looking up at the ceiling. McCoy takes the mirror back and Irina asks to have a second with McCoy. Pavel tells her that's a definite way to make him more paranoid. McCoy nods at her, encouraging her to say so anyway.

"Sawyer's here. She ran the test you asked... She thinks it explains the eyes..."

"Will somebody please explain what the hell is happening to me?" Pavel asks, starting to get incredibly frustrated with being kept in the dark. McCoy and Irina look at each other, sighing. They tell him they will once they talk with Sawyer. He rolls his eyes as they walk off. He's going to go insane if he spends any more time in medbay.

(Author's Note)

Sorry this took like a month whoops
I went a prewrote most of this and I'm  coming to the end of what I've already written so updates require me actually being motivated to work on this particular piece soooooooo yeah might be a little slow
Though if you like this one feel free to check out my other works (especially Angels because I've redone it with a decent plotline this time and I've actually got heaps already written) 

Enjoy~~~
Clover