something to do (Pavel Chekov)

43

Pavel washes his hair and sighs at how nice it is to feel so clean again. He runs a towel through his hair and comes out of the bathroom. Eadie is on their bed and drifting off. She grunts at him and signs for him to join her. He smiles at her and finds some clean clothes. He asks her to keep her eyes clothes for a minute as she gets changed and she nods, just rolling over and trying to stay awake.

He cuddles up close to her and she smiles sleepily. He kisses her cheek and she smiles, unable to keep awake. He stays there a long while, unable to drift off quite as easily as she does. He stares at the ceiling and thinks about finally being allowed back in their own bed again.

"I love you Eadie Carmen," he whispers, pulling her just a little closer.

Pavel wakes up alone and starts stressing, pulling himself out of bed and looking around for Eadie. He's about to call out her name when she steps out of the bathroom and looks at him. He wraps his arms around her and she pats his pat gently.

"Are you alright?"

She nods, kissing his cheek and taking his hand. They get back into bed and Eadie runs her fingers through Pavel's hair. He whispers to her in Russian and she closes her eyes, smiling to herself.

"We needed this," he mutters. "All I wanted was to be here with your hand in my hair. That's all I want. That's all I really need."

"I l-l-love y-you," Eadie says softly.

Pavel breaks out into a grin.

They wake up properly another hour or so later and Pavel drinks a whole glass of juice in one quick go.

"Sugar?" Eadie asks, watching Pavel nod as he gets another glass.

"I need something sweet. McCoy told me to watch my sugar intake but I'm sure juice doesn't count. I wanted to ask you something... You remember that poem you wrote? Do you mind letting me see it again? I was thinking of it when I was by myself in the cell. It kept me going. I had a shard of the box and I was thinking about just giving up and seeing you in our next life... I'm glad I didn't but I was really convinced that it was a good idea."

She looks to him, gesturing for him to come over. He comes closer and she wraps her arms around him, not saying anything. She kisses his cheek. He takes a seat and they eat together, glad to have something other than bread again. She goes into her bedroom and comes back out with her little notebook, passing it to Pavel.

He reads through her poem a few times again and sighs. He wants to rewrite his own poem in the same style and either give it to her or read it to her as a marriage proposal. She watches him furrow his eyebrows at it and wonders what's running through his crazy head.

They head back to medbay and Doctor Vessa comes and checks over Eadie again. He has to give her a hypo and he tells Pavel to prepare himself. Eadie notices the hypo and shakes her head.

"N-n-no. N-no hypo."

Doctor Vessa just nods and asks if he can put her under for an hour or two. She nods, looking to Pavel and trying to slow her breathing. The doctor puts a patch on her arm and she slips under, her hand still in Pavel's. The doctor gives her a few hypos and scans her again. He shows his PADD to Pavel and points to a few red areas.

"The red areas are where she's showing signs of damage. It's actually showing a drastic improvement from 24 hours ago. Look."

He flicks back to another scan and Pavel's eyes widen. It's substantially different and he asks to see the scans again. He feels like he can breathe a little more and he takes a seat with Eadie and holds her hand. She wakes up after an hour and smiles at him. She says she's feeling well and he's glad to see her not in pain.

McCoy comes in a little later and tells them to go to the holodeck and get a little more sunshine again. Pavel feels his skin warming up just at the thought. He takes Eadie's hand and swings it as they walk. He's been thinking about writing a poem and he as a few ideas that he should write down before he forgets.