Echo

Chapter 11: The Devil You Don't

Author's Notes: First of all...wow! Thank you so much to everyone who voted for my story. I never anticipated that I would end up making the list for the Best of 2013 category, and I am so honored that I was chosen!

Second of all, enjoy this extra long chapter!

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Leonard

McCoy followed you as you slowly made your way down the hall, pausing now and then when you heard a suspicious noise. His stomach turned in fear and his heart rate picked up each time you showed him the back of your hand, holding it up to make him halt.

He wished you would have just let him stay in his office, in his hiding place. He was fairly confident that they wouldn't have found him, but then again, you had within minutes of entering. You were a trained operative, but who said the enemies weren't as well? If they had hijacked the ship, it was very likely they were better organized than he had originally thought.

He wondered about Jim and prayed that he was alright, that he had gotten out of there before getting hurt.

You went to turn a corner, and then threw yourself back and pressed Leonard to the wall as you spotted someone down the hall.

The doctor wanted to ask you what it was that you had seen, but he knew better than to make noise and disrupt your concentration. Plus, he might give away your position. You held him there for a moment before trusting him enough to let go and peek again.

After a second, you held up a hand to him, suggesting he wait, and disappeared around the corner.

A few moments of silence passed before someone shouted "Hey!"

There was a groan of pain and the sound of a gun going off before his curiosity got the best of him and he turned to look.

He emerged just in time to see that one man was unconscious, and that you were in the process of fighting the other one. He knocked your gun out of your hand and it clattered to the floor, sliding against the wall.

You kicked him in the shin and he roared, but used his wrath to tackle you to the ground, effectively pinning you on your back and then immediately trying to point his gun at your temple. You grabbed his arm before he could, barely managing to hold it in a position where firing it would be useless. McCoy gasped and covered his mouth, fearful that you had been outmatched, but you employed a desperate tactic and sank your teeth into his arm, and he yelped as you rolled on top of him and punched him in the face, breaking his nose and causing blood to spurt from both of his nostrils.

He groaned and you stood up, going to get your gun but not turning your back on him.

The man got to his knees and then climbed to his feet, and just as he pointed his gun at you, you shot him in the chest.

Then, effectively outmatched, he fell onto his back with a tremulous thud, and Leonard was surprised to see a burn in his shirt at the entry wound. The phasers on your gun had been set to stun. How had you managed to use the weapon to incinerate him?

You looked over to where he was hiding and ticking your tongue impatiently. He had obviously defied you by watching the fight, but he couldn't really help himself.

"Come on," you said, beckoning him.

He obeyed you and stepped over the unconscious man's legs.

"How did you do that?" He hissed at you as you walked, "That guy had a third degree burn."

"Oh relax, he'll live," you replied, rolling your eyes.

"But the phasers were set to stun," He stated, pursuing the subject.