Never Without You Again

Chapter 4

Hannah's POV

No... you can't be...

His eyes glance at me for a second before he proceeds to take care of the remaining Klingons.

"Stand down," Spock orders him.

"How many torpedos?" Harrison asks.

"Stand down!" Spock yells pointing his phaser at him, which Harrison shoots out of his hand.

"The torpedos, the weapons you threatened me with in your message, how many are there?"

"72."

"I surrender," Harrison says, throwing down his weapon.

Jim stands to his feet and looks Harrison straight in the face.

"On behalf of Christopher Pike, my friend," he starts. "I accept your surrender."

Jim swings at Harrison several times, his fists connecting with his face. Even with continued beating, Harrison does not seem at all affected.

"Captain!" Uhura eventually yells.

Out of breath and exhausted, he stops. He looks back up at him. Harrison simply stares down at him.

"Cuff him."

With this, we do as Jim says. We cuff him and take him back to the transport. A team of guards meets us when we reach the Enterprise. They escort John Harrison to the brig. Jim, Spock, Uhura and I follow.

Spock pulls me aside for a moment before I follow Jim.

"Might I speak to you for a moment?" he asks.

"Uh... sure."

He takes me around the corner before he continues.

"Humans tend to feel emotion more than any Vulcan, and as I have observed, you and your father feel them quite deeply. I must ask. Why does the human race choose to feel emotions as such? Why choose to act on them in such a way?" Spock asks me.

"Well, Spock, I can't speak for the whole human race, but I can speak for me," I state.

"I would hope so," he says.

"Anyway," I continue. "I am going to assume you're either talking about feeling emotions during death or feeling love since your current situation seems to involve feeling both or, possibly in your case, neither. We feel, well, because we're human. Yeah, we feel fear in death. Fear of death is what keeps us alive. It is a driving force. Live every moment like it's your last cause it could be. As for love, well, what is life without it. Without it, is life really worth living. I can't imagine my life without my dad or Pavel, and I'd bet that you can't imagine your life with Lieutenant Uhura. It's what keeps our heart beating. It's the breath in our lungs. Love is our driving force. I know we had more than a few arguments, well shouting matches really, about emotion in your class. You've asked me many times why I feel so deeply, well here it is. Without emotion, life loses its thrill. It loses its purpose. It begins to lose its hope."

Spock ponders what I've said for a moment before he responds.

"Thank you."

"Not a problem."

I turn the corner and catch back up with Jim.

"Bones, meet me at the brig," Jim says over coms.

"Be right there," dad replies.

I follow him until we meet dad.

Bones's POV

I hug her, like I do every time they get back from something that nearly kills them, which is a little too often. I put her face in my hands and begin to examine her.

"Dad..." She says. "I swear, I'm fine."

"Uh huh, I'll be the judge of that."

I continue to make sure she's ok until we get to the brig.

"You can't scare me like that," I say.

"Dad, I told you I'm fine."

"Baby," I start. I don't talk like this often, but this is my baby. "I can't lose you. Do you realize what that'd do to me? You're my only little girl. You are my whole world, my whole universe."

She leans into me as I wrap my arms around her.

"I know, dad," she says.

I don't care if she's technically 18. She's still my little girl, always will be.

Jim and Hannah go to change quickly into their Starfleet uniforms. Hannah, being my child, is still trying to fix the dress when she gets back. I just laugh. We all begin to walk towards the brig.

"Why the heck did he surrender?" I ask.

"I don't know, but he just took out a whole squad of Klingons single-handedly. I want to know how," Jim replies.

"Sounds like we have a Superman on board."

"You tell me."

I walk up to the cell and move the opening closer to Harrison.

"Put your arm through the hole. I'm gonna take a blood sample."

He complies and puts his arm through the hole in the cell. I take the blood sample. I look at him and see that he's staring over my shoulder. I don't realize what he's staring at until he speaks.

"Hello, again, my dear," he says. "I don't believe we had a proper introduction."

"Guess I didn't need one," I hear Hannah state behind me. I feel myself tense.

"Hold!" I start. "Again? What do you mean again?"

"And who might you be, my dear?" Harrison asks as if I never spoke.

"I'm Hannah, jerk," she spits at him.

"Hannah," he says her name, allowing it to roll on his tongue. I feel like my eye is going to start twitching at any moment.

Leave her alone. She's not yours.

He turns his eyes and scans Hannah.

"How strong you are. You're scared, but yet your confidence overshadows it. Many beings would kill to have what you have."

His eyes have something in them that lights a raging fire in me: lust. I want to jump through the containment cell and strangle him.

"Hey!" I yell at him slamming my hand against the wall of the cell. "She's not the one talking to you! We are! So you just keep your attention and eyes on us!" I then turn to Hannah. "Go back to engineering. Pavel is down there waiting for you."

"Oh," Harrison says. "Should you send something so... so... stunning... away?"

I've finally had it. I slam my fist once again and stand staring straight into Harrison's face. I stand so close that I can see my breath again the cell.

"Now, you listen here, buddy," I start as anger like fire burns in me. "You look at me. She ain't yours. Now, that's MY little girl. You best leave her alone, or I swear, you will never see the light of day again. I will kill you with my own bare hands. I'll-"

Jim cuts me off.

"Bones," he nearly whispers, placing his hand on my shoulder. "Go back to medical," he then turns to Hannah. "And Hannah, go back to engineering. Stay with Mr. Chekov."

I do as he says. I walk over to Hannah and place my hand on her back. I look back at Harrison before we leave. I could go back and kill him now. He WILL NOT touch my daughter... ever. I take Hannah back to engineering. I think I actually see the color return to Pavel's face when he sees her. They hug, and I can't help but smile. After what just happened with that crooked man, this is a nice sight.

"Look after her," I tell him before I leave. I'm nervous about leaving her, but I know she and Pavel will be fine. They can take care of themselves. They'll be fine.