Bonds Know No Distance

[mirroredcommand]

The night was dark and deep and long in space, never ending, without a dawn to break the line between waking and sleep, day and night, beginning and end. It made existence endless, broken only by the silent running of the clocks on the wall, the movements of work, food, and sleep. Without these things, without the sureness of a schedule, time became meaningless. Even the stars could not keep him company.

So after Kirk came and 'visited', time resumed its endless patterns, moving on and on without pause or break or concept. For a man used to near-constant action, it was a form of torture more exquisite then any bit of pain or distress. More then anything, it was a torture that gave him nothing to focus his mind on anything but the swelling pain of the broken bond. It was swiftly becoming over whelming, completely and utterly. There was nothing left to keep the pain away, and with his shields designed only to block out Spock's light intrusions instead of a full on force, they were failing after being buffeted for so long. In short, he was going mad.

His expression showed little of the internal war except for the strong brow being furrowed and the age-lines at the edges of the eyes and corners of the mouth looking thicker. It was his hands that gave him away, gripping fiercely into the fabric of the bed he was reclining on. A headache was throbbing behind his eyes in time with his heart, a thick red-hot band of light that was searing like a knife into his mind. Deeper, deeper with every beat of his heart.

Every part of him was focused on maintaining the failing shields, rebuilding them as Spock had taught him those years ago. He had survived torture from Vulcans who knew precisely what to do in the mind, but could not stop this. This bond that had been forced onto him but in the end welcomed, this bond that had saved his life many times in the past, that had saved the life of his first officer and friend, this bond that had been a respite from a world where one could never relax... this bond was killing him. It would destroy him as surely as any blade to the heart.

SPOCK!

Never screamed aloud, never aloud. Instead, strong white teeth bit firmly into his lip, hard enough to send a trickle of crimson along his chin, down to his jawline. The pain, the strain, had been steadily increasing since James Kirk's visit to his cell, as if the reminder of the bond and speaking of it had started a chain reaction. He had long since started to keep his eyes closed [was it hours? minutes? weeks? centuries?] because at least this way the room would not spin. He was starting to feel that same spinning in his mind, making his world wobble like a child's toy.

It seemed hours passed this way. A day? Perhaps. He vaguely heard someone calling him, but did not dare respond. Still trapped in the arms of the enemy, he could not let a weakness be seen. The smell of food made his stomach swell and gurgle, but not from hunger. It felt like his entire body needed one thing it could not have. [a universe away]

He did not feel when he stood, instead he felt the world sway, go sideways. Could not feel the floor beneath his feet, the slap of his hand against the wall in an instinctual attempt to keep himself upright. Did not feel when the world tuned him out, blew him out like a light bulb, did not feel when the pain consumed him and his shields finally fell, did not feel when he hit the ground.

The darkness had claimed him instead.

Comments

[just-uhura.livejournal.com]

Despite herself, Nyota couldn't help but feel a rush of worry for the man. He didn't look healthy, and though she knew that this was not Admiral Pike and he would turn on her if he could, she wouldn't allow him to die if she could help it. This wasn't his world and that wasn't his fault.

As they entered Medical, she stepped aside to allow the officers to place him on the bed before striding to his side and explaining to Bones what she knew - not that it was much. "He just collapsed as soon as I walked in. His pulse is insane, it's there. Barely though."

[dctr-mccoy.livejournal.com]

The sensors on the bio bed said as much. "His heart rate is elevated," he called out to the nurse standing behind him, "and his neural waves are off the charts." Something was going on in this man's head, something not right.

The gloves were still on him. "No one touches those," he reminded his medical crew. Turning back to Nyota, he gave her a look. "What were you doing down there?" he asked.

[just-uhura.livejournal.com]

Nyota took a step back from the biobed, allowing the people to do their work without any distraction. She knew enough about Vulcan culture to form her own hypothesis about what was happening to him - and none of it was good.

Raising a brow at his look - a look she knew all too well, and it usually meant that she was going to end up with a lecture - she fixed him with a steely gaze of her own, jaw set firm. "I went to tell him about the message from the Bridge." She wasn't entirely sure if he'd been filled in about what had happened, so she added a "from his Spock" for clarity. She hadn't been unsensible about it, keeping the guards with her as Kirk had asked, so he couldn't protest. "And it was a damn good job I was."

[dctr-mccoy.livejournal.com]

The words 'from his Spock' sent him into enough of a panic that he temporarily forgot the chastising remarks he was going to make about her being close enough to him to feel his pulse. He knew

Speaking of... Bones turned back to his patient, frowning. His vital signs were erratic, and he wondered if this was somehow related to his bonding with his own Spock. Yet again, Bones wondered if he'd ever learn enough about Vulcans to be useful in cases like this.

He leaned in, looking at his face, trying to decide what to do next.

[iron-command.livejournal.com]

Pike's eyes opened in that exact moment. They looked up without seeing to Bones, then focused on him and his body surged upwards. Trapped. Someone had him trapped. Could not focus, thoughts abandoned, shields down. Had to repair. Had to get free. Would not tell them anything!

[just-uhura.livejournal.com]

Out of instinct, Nyota jumped back as Pike surged up. She wasn't a doctor, she didn't know the ins and outs of a body like Bones did, but it was obvious that he had to calm down so that he could get some help. Carefully she edged forward, leaning down closer to his head so she could whisper quietly. "We're trying to help you." she soothed in her best calming tone. There was no evidence that it would even work, he didn't exactly trust any of them. But she had to try, though she kept her hands to herself. "You need to let the doctor help you, so we can try and figure out what's going on. We're not trying to hurt you... Captain."

[iron-command.livejournal.com]

Grey eyes focused on Nyota, focusing on her for several long moments. What was this trick? The pain was immense, making his entire body shake. It cried out over and over, focused entirely on one single thing. That single thing was gone, a universe away, but impossible to feel. There was something missing in his gaze that she had seen before, which was that terrible power and command. This was a human being in pain, trying to get control of the tiger and riding it and failing for the moment.

[just-uhura.livejournal.com]

Nyota concentrated on meeting his gaze and keeping it, trying to see if her words were having any effect on calming him. What could she do to make him understand that they were trying to help, that they weren't doing this? There was something a little different in his eyes - perhaps they were simply more human, vunerable. "Captain," she repeated once more, hoping that the title he cherished would garner some kind of understanding from him. She reached out and laid a hand gently and carefully on his shoulder. "Can you tell us what happened? What you're feeling?"

Glancing up at Bones, she fixed him with a concerned look. "Maybe if you sedate him, try to make the pain a little less?" she suggested, once again looking back to Pike. "We need to try and make him explain."

[dctr-mccoy.livejournal.com]

Bones almost stopped Nyota when she reached out and touched Pike, but the other man did seem to respond positively to her - well, at least he calmed down a bit, stopped pulling at his bio restraints. Giving her a look, he decided to follow her lead.

"Captain, I can give you something that will relieve your pain, take the edge off," Bones looked down at the frustrated patient, as professionally as he could muster, "but if you'd rather be unconscious I can do that as well. I won't put you under without your permission, as long as you don't fight us."

[iron-command.livejournal.com]

It was evident that he could not focus more then the immediate without some sort of pain killer. He gave a jerky nod to the first, and a shake of the head to the second. He could not tell them, they would not understand. There was someone else needed here, someone else that he had to speak to who could speak to his own.

[dctr-mccoy.livejournal.com]

Bones caught the message, and prepared a dosage of pain medication, a little higher concentration that typical, but the patient appeared to be in extremely intense pain. "I'm going to apply it to your neck," he told him, leaning over and pressing the spray into his neck. "This should kick in momentarily," he said, watching Pike's eyes carefully for any sort of reaction.

Glancing over at Nyota, he gave her a grim look. "Has anyone told the captain he's in here?"

[just-uhura.livejournal.com]

As Bones moved forward, Nyota withdrew her hand and straightened back up. "No." she replied with a shake of her head. "I just brought him straight here." Her first thought had not been to inform Kirk, but to get him to someone who could help. Looking down at him, she wondered if the Doctor was entirely the right person.

As she spoke to Bones, she focused back to the man on the bed, trying to see if he was able to speak. "I'm guessing this has something to do with his bond. It's not physical, it's mental." As Vulcans were intensely private about their practices, she only knew what she had read and what she had been told. In no way was this enough to help. For that she needed a Vulcan. They needed a Spock. "It's been known, when people are torn away from their bondmate, for that loss to manifest itself physically but... I don't know anything else. We're going to have to get Spock down here." Which one, she had no clue and she didn't want to summon either of them. But it was logical.

"Who can help you?" she asked Pike directly now.

[iron-command.livejournal.com]

The answer was simple, and she had already said it. This woman knew about the bond, more then most humans. So he nodded to her and grit his teeth, "Spock." Already he could feel the pain killer kicking in, relaxing muscles along the pain, but unable to ease the pain that was coming from his mind.

[dctr-mccoy.livejournal.com]

Bones figured as much - he'd experienced first-hand some of the mind-bond, even though it had been the edges, what Spock had shared with him, and that had been pretty fucking strong. This one was bonded with another Spock, he knew as much from Kirk... fuck.

"You go tell Jim and Spock - fuck, both if you can, but either one down here, right now," he told her. "And then get back here," he added, as close to admitting to her that she was a calming presence in this tense situation.

He moved back to check on the scans, pleased that the elevation in his heart rate had lowered a bit, but Pike still suffering, and Bones was pretty sure that nothing he had would alleviate this sort of pain - for this he needed a Vulcan.

[just-uhura.livejournal.com]

Pressing her lips together, Nyota briefly closed her eyes. She had been expecting that. "Alright." she nodded, giving Pike one last look and then turning to McCoy, issuing a silent look warning him to be careful. With the lightest brush of her fingers to his shoulder, she turned and rushed out of the room to find Spock and Kirk.

[iron-command.livejournal.com]

Spock would have to come. He would be feeling this pain. It did not occur to him that he was unable to mentally tell either Spock apart in this state. His eyes turned to Bones, staring at him, knowing the face, assuming the name, and wondering if this Bones would be the opposite of the one he knew.

[dctr-mccoy.livejournal.com]

McCoy looked back into those grey eyes, knowing that this one had hurt his crew mate - but he was still his patient, and he needed to get him back on his feet (and back in the brig) as soon as possible.

"Can you tell me what happened?" Bones asked, one finger touching his face lightly, pulling gently on the skin of each eye, looking inside. "Did something happen to the bond?" he asked quietly, letting the other man know he wasn't totally unversed in what might be happening to him. "Or is this something else that has only to do with you?"

[iron-command.livejournal.com]

"Bond." Pike's pupils were huge, even in the brilliant white light of sickbay, and he was trembling despite the pain killers. "Couldn't keep the shields any longer."

[dctr-mccoy.livejournal.com]

"We're getting someone here who might help with that," he told him quietly. There was very little he could do here, other than sedate him and he knew Pike didn't want that.

Fuck, nothing worse than feeling helpless. "Is there anything I can do to help you until he gets here?" he asked. Maybe Pike had some ideas he hadn't thought of.

[iron-command.livejournal.com]

A tiny shake of his head, and Pike closed his eyes. Spock. His heart started to race, the silent symptoms he had been keeping suppressed.

[dctr-mccoy.livejournal.com]

His vitals began spiking again, and Bones moved to the other side of the bed to check on him, and was not pleased with what he saw. "C'mon, captain, just hold on a few more minutes," he muttered.

He looked up at the doors and waited, wondering when the fuck someone was going to get here.

[sehlatbear.livejournal.com]

Perhaps he had a shorter distance to travel. Perhaps, though he would never admit it, he ran.

The sick bay doors opened and Spock entered, with some small expectation of what he would find.