Kate and Leonard rushed to Star Fleet headquarters together, both of them having put their half drunken mistake behind them. At least for the time being. It was going to have to be talked about at some point, but right now there were more pressing matters. It took them about ten minutes to rush across the city to get the headquarters, then they had to change into gear that was more appropriate for entering what was essentially a war zone, as it had been described to them. Kate felt her stomach drop at the description. Jim was in there, and on the walk there she finally processed that Chris and Spock would have been in there too. Three of the people she cared most about in the world were in Daystrom when it was attacked, and she had no idea if they were alive or not.
They arrived at Daystrom via a medical shuttle as things were too severely damaged to try to take the lift up to where most of Star Fleet command in this area had been gathered. Stepping off the shuttle, Kate tried very hard to turn on her emotional response to the situation. Pure hell was the only description she could give. It looked like an army had opened fire and she wasn't sure how anyone had managed to survive, but there were several people dressed in command uniform milling about the floor assisting their colleagues until medical help arrived.
She felt a hand on her shoulder give a soft squeeze and turned to see Leonard give her an encouraging look, though he seemed to be just as upset and concerned as she was. She patted his hand briefly and took off so that she could start assessing injuries and treating the ones that needed immediate treatment.
As she wondered through Daystrom in a fog, she realized that most of the people that had been up there were either one hundred percent healthy and just shaken up about the attack, or had been killed. There were hardly any injuries, and the few injuries seemed to be fairly minor considering the scale of the attack. Even so, she focused on the work at hand, calling it when she came across someone who had passed already, and treating the injuries that she was able to treat.
She wasn't sure how much time had passed, but she finally did see some familiar faces and, for the first time since hearing about the attack, felt a sense of relief. As she looked up from treating a patient, she saw Leonard across the room talking to someone whose back was to her. When Leonard's eyes met hers, a pained expression came across his face and he made some sort of motion to the person he was talking to.
Kate felt her stomach drop in worry. The look Leonard had given her was not a good one, but that worry quickly faded when the man turned around and she saw that it was Jim. She stood up from beside the person she was treating and ran over to Jim and hugged him tightly as she said, "I've been so worried about you," letting all of her emotion out in her words.
She felt Jim hold tightly onto her for a few moments, then he pulled away from her. As he pulled away, she really looked at him for the first time. His eyes were red and he looked like he had been crying, and that made the worry settle deep in her stomach again. Jim said softly, "Kate..." and then his voice trailed off, almost as if he didn't want to tell her something.
She knew immediately that either Spock or Chris had died. There wouldn't have been anything else that could have upset Jim this much. She grabbed hold of Jim's hands and asked softly, hearing the fear in her own voice, "What happened, Jim?"
Jim turned his head to his left and looked at something on the ground as he said in a broken voice, "He was gone already when I found him," then looked back at her with tears in his eyes.
Kate didn't know if she had the courage to look where Jim had been looking, but she also knew that her life had changed forever regardless of who she had lost. Trying to brace herself to be able to handle her emotions better, she turned and looked where Jim had been looking, but she had not been prepared to see Chris lying broken on the floor.
She felt her knees buckle beneath her and was overwhelmed at the grief she immediately felt. Jim had caught her so she didn't actually hit the floor, and his arms were the only thing holding her together at this point. Kate held tightly to Jim as the tears began falling freely and sobs racked her body. All she could think about was the fact that this man had become a father figure to her in the past five years, and now he was gone.
Jim sunk down to the floor with her and held onto her as she cried. Just earlier today she had been pissed that Chris didn't approve her transfer off of the Enterprise. If she hadn't apologized to him at the bar earlier tonight, he would have died having known that she was furious with him, and that thought only made her cry more. At the bar tonight, she had no idea that those were her last words to Chris, and she was grateful that she had been honest with him, but she wished that she would have told him more often how much she appreciated having him in her life.
After a few moments, she felt Jim's hands on her face forcing her to look up at him. She saw the same grief held in his eyes and took some comfort in knowing that Jim was feeling this as deeply as she was. He wiped the tears off her face and said, "You need to get out of here."
Kate shook her head and argued, "No, I've got work to do."
Leonard must not have been far away, watching over the siblings in their grief, as he stepped into the conversation and said from above them, "Kate, we've got it here. You need time to grieve."
Kate looked up and saw the sympathy in his eyes and felt tears return to hers, so she nodded and looked back at Jim and said, "You should get out of here, too."
Jim shook his head now and said, "I might be needed to give a report..." but Kate cut him off and said, "You can still give a report tomorrow. Right now I don't need to be alone. I need you," and ended with tears coming back into her eyes and a quiver returning to her voice.
Jim hugged her close and then helped her stand up and said, "We need to find Spock and let him know where to find us if he needs us," then turned to Leonard and asked, "Bones, you seen Spock around?"
Leonard shook his head before saying, "Not since I first got here, but you know he's still around here somewhere."
Jim nodded said, "Yeah, see ya, Bones," and held onto Kate's hand and began leading her away.
Leonard grabbed Kate's other hand and said, "Wait, just a second."
Jim turned and looked at her, almost as if to ask her if this was okay, so Kate nodded and happened to see Spock over Jim's shoulder as she did, so she said, "Spock's over there. I'll catch up to you in a sec."
Jim squeezed her hand and nodded, then went over to Spock, so Kate turned her attention back to Leonard, who was still holding her other hand. She knew that she should probably ask him to stop, especially after their mistake earlier tonight, but it was too nice to have some form of comfort with Jim not beside her anymore.
She looked up at Leonard and saw his eyes soften as he took in her appearance. He squeezed her hand gently and said, "I'm so sorry, Kate."
Kate felt tears coming to her eyes again and squeezed them shut for a moment before looking at Leonard again and saying, "Thanks, Len," then didn't know what else to say after that.
He seemed to struggle with words for a moment, then settled on saying, "I'm, uh, also sorry for earlier tonight."
Kate, in spite of the grief, felt her stomach flutter with memories of the kisses she had shared with Leonard, and decided to let him off the hook as they had both been at fault in that, and said, "Don't be. We... We weren't in our right minds. We both know sober that neither of us would have done that," then felt sadness fill her again as the reality of her words set in. Tears sprung to her eyes again, and she really wasn't sure if it was still because of Chris or knowing that Leonard regretted a drunk mistake.
Leonard nodded once and said, "Yeah...take care, Kate," then gave her hand one more squeeze before letting go and returning to work.
Kate felt as if something had just broken between them again, but didn't have the emotional energy to dwell on that as she was still raw with emotion from losing Chris. She looked over where Chris was again, then turned away quickly and joined Jim with Spock. She just couldn't stand to be by Chris's body any more.
As she joined them, Spock took in her appearance and said, "I wish this had not happened, Kate."
Kate smiled sadly at Spock, knowing that it was difficult for him to know how to handle her and Jim both in an emotional state and said, "Me too, Spock. Me too."
Then Spock turned his attention back to Jim and said, "We will be more than equipped to handle what is happening here without you and Kate being present. Go get some rest and we will call you if you are needed."
Jim patted Spock on the shoulder and said, "Thanks, Spock. We'll see you," then took Kate's hand again and led her to a shuttle that would transfer them to the ground so they could get out of there. Jim put his arm protectively around Kate's shoulder and led her away from Star Fleet headquarters, and Kate just followed along with him, feeling as if she was in a fog. Today had been such an emotional roller coaster of a day, and she was ready for it to be over.
Before she knew it, they had arrived at Jim's apartment and Jim said, "I didn't know where you would want to go."
Kate shook her head and said, "I don't care, Jim. I just want to be with my brother tonight."
Jim opened the door to his apartment and let her in ahead of him. As Jim closed the door behind them, he and Kate both walked to the couch and took a seat and just stared at the wall for in front of them for a moment. She looked over at Jim and asked, "How the hell did all of this happen?"
Jim shook his head and put his head in his hands and stayed there for a moment, seeming to be processing through everything. He sat up with tears in his eyes and motioned for Kate to come closer to him. She obliged and nestled into his shoulder and let her tears fall now too. Jim said softly, "Chris is why I joined Star Fleet. He became like a father to me, Kate. What am I supposed to do now that he's gone?"
Kate sobbed and replied honestly, "I don't know, Jim, but he was like a father to me too. And I know he loved us, even if we irritated him with our stubbornness."
In spite of the sadness they both felt, Jim laughed and Kate laughed softly with him. Jim chucked again and said, "I think every time I was at a low point in my life the past three years, he found me in a bar."
Kate laughed softly again and said, "And he had to deal with my insanity of being afraid to fly, then wanting to transfer off of the flagship of the Federation."
She felt Jim shake his head before he said, "We put that man through hell."
Kate shook her head and countered, "No, I think you put him through hell. I just was mildly irritating."
Jim shrugged his shoulder into her cheek, then agreed, "Yeah, you're probably right."
Silence settled over the two of them for a moment and Kate enjoyed the feeling of being in her brother's company. It had been too long since they had been able to just be by themselves. She hated the circumstances that brought them this alone time, but she was grateful for Jim being by her side through this.
Jim cleared his throat to break the silence then said timidly, "Kate, I don't mean to pry, but everything okay with you and Bones?"
Kate hesitated on what her answer should be. Honestly, she didn't think everything was okay, but she truly didn't know what their friendship was going to be like now. Apparently she was taking too long to think, so Jim clarified for her, "I mean, he seemed really concerned about you when I told him that Chris had died."
Kate nodded and began playing with her fingers out of nervousness, not sure how much she should tell Jim. So she began telling him, "After you left the bar, Leonard showed up. I ended up telling him I requested a transfer so that I wouldn't have to work with him anymore. Then I told him that I loved him."
Jim sat up and looked her in the eye and asked, "Kate, you what?"
Kate hung and shook her head as she said, "I know, but I was drunk and he drank a lot in the short time he was sitting there, so he was too. It made it easier for us to talk about things."
Jim closed his eyes and shook his head, then asked, "So are you two good now?"
Kate grimaced, so Jim asked, "Or worse now?"
Kate shook her head, almost not wanting to admit anything, but they were being super honest with each other right now anyway, so she told the truth and said, "I don't know. He told me that he didn't deserve me having feelings for him and..." then she trailed off, not sure how Jim would react to this next part.
Jim raised his eyebrows and asked, "And?"
She sighed as she admitted, "Then we kissed...a lot. We were going back to my place when we got the call about the attack on Daystrom."
Jim shook his head, but he had a smile on his face as he said, "Kate, you sound more like me right now than you sound like yourself."
She punched Jim softly on the shoulder, but was glad he wasn't judging her, so she said, "I know, I'll make sure it never happens again," then thought for a moment and asked, "Do you think he's okay?"
Jim shrugged and said, "Probably not. You seem to feel guilty about it, so I'm sure Bones feels terrible too. You two just really need some space from each other."
Kate sat back further into the couch and said, "Seems like we're gonna get that for a while. After the attack tonight, I'm sure we're grounded for a while."
Jim nodded and agreed, then admitted, "I want to go after him, Kate."
Kate furrowed her brows and asked, "After who?"
Jim crossed his arms and said, "The guy that did this. The guy that killed Chris. I saw him, and I know what he looks like. I want to track him down and kill him."
Kate felt a wave of concern for her brother, and grabbed his hand as she looked him in the eye and said, "Jim, you would regret it. You're too good to go kill someone for revenge. You need time to process and grieve. Don't jump in head first into something you'll regret later."
Jim nodded his head, but he didn't really seem to be listening to her. He just squeezed her hand and said, "We should get some rest. You ready for bed?"
Realizing how exhausted she was, she nodded, so she headed back to the spare room Jim had and crashed on the bed immediately, not having time to think through the day's events or process through Jim's want for revenge.
When she woke up in the morning, she could smell coffee in the apartment, so she headed out to the kitchen and found Jim standing by the window, just looking out it. She greeted him softly, "Morning," then began pouring herself a cup of coffee then joined him by the window.
He smiled at her sadly and asked, "You feeling any better today?"
She shook her head and admitted, "Less physically exhausted, but I'm just as emotionally drained. I'm not sure I can handle doing much of anything today."
Jim nodded and said, "Then we stay in today. You've got enough things here that you can make do for today."
Kate smiled and was glad that she wasn't going to be alone today. She finished her coffee and put her mug in the sink before going back to the room and grabbing a change of clothes so that she could shower and get rid of the grime that was still present from working in Daystrom last night. When she finally felt like herself again, she joined Jim back in his living room and sat beside him on the couch.
She had the chance to ask, "So what are we going to do today," but was interrupted by Jim's communicator going off.
Jim looked at her apologetically before answering and saying, "Yeah?"
Spock's voice replied and said, "Commander, Mister Scott has found something in the wreckage of Harrison's ship. He has asked to see us right away."
Jim sat up on the couch and said, "Yeah, I'll meet you there in ten."
As he closed his communicator he asked, "You up for joining me?"
Kate, even though she hadn't wanted to do much today, was curious about what Scotty had found, so said, "Absolutely."
Ten minutes later, she and Jim joined Spock at the wreckage of Harrison's ship. On the way there, Jim filled her in on who John Harrison was and why they had gathered to meet about him in Daystrom in the first place. She agreed that it was suspicious that he had attacked the archives, and found herself becoming more and more invested in finding out where he had gone and what had happened to him after he escaped last night.
Scotty greeted them, "Captain! I found this in the crashed jump ship, sir. This is how the bastard got away."
Scotty handed over what looked like a portable beaming device, but it seemed strange that Harrison, a fugitive, would have access to one, so she asked, "Is that a portable beaming device?"
Scotty nodded and said, "Aye, lass."
Jim shook his head, not seeming to believe it himself, and asked, "Can you figure out where he went?"
Scotty nodded, seeming proud of himself and punched a few buttons on the device as he said, "I already did, sir, and you're not gonna like it."
Kate and Spock looked at the screen from either side of Jim. Kate read, "43 89 26 05. Where is that?"
Scotty looked defeated and said, "He's gone the one place we just can't go."
Kate looked up at Jim and Spock and asked, "Where did those coordinates take him to?"
Spock said flatly, "Unless I am mistaken, those coordinates took Harrison to Kronos."
Kate felt a pit form in her stomach after remembering their last close encounter with the Klingons and asked, "Kronos? As in the Klingon planet, Kronos?"
Jim nodded and said, "Scotty, thanks for the work," then turned to her and Spock and said, "We've got to go see Marcus and tell him about this."