Four Years Later
It didn't matter that they were three years into their five year mission and that she had experienced standing in the transport room waiting on Jim to get back countless times now, it still put Kate's stomach into knots waiting on Jim to get back on board the Enterprise safely after going down to a new planet. He was currently down speaking to the Tenaxi, trying to broker a peace deal between them and the Fobonese. However, the two planets had a long history of violence against each other, so it was unlikely that Jim's message would be well received.
Her stomach did seem to be in an unusual amount of knots today, though, as she sat down next to Scotty and put her head in her hands and let out a sigh.
"You good, lass," Scotty asked her.
Kate took a deep breath and nodded her head before sitting up and saying, "Yeah, I just haven't been feeling well. I always start feeling a little stir crazy after being on the ship for so long. Getting to Yorktown today will do me some good."
Scotty laughed before saying, "Don't let your dear husband hear you say that."
Kate laughed again, stopping quickly as it unsettled her stomach too much, before she said, "It still shocks me that he ever joined Star Fleet, as much as the man hates flying. You think he'd get use to it by now."
Scotty chuckled before saying, "Aye, lass, but you think you'd be use to it as well."
Kate nodded and said, "Touche, Scotty. Touche," and continued to think about how unwell she was feeling. It had to be more than just going stir crazy and being worried about Jim. Something just felt too off, so she made a mental note to give herself a scan and do a quick blood test once Jim got back on ship before she, Jim, and Leonard met up at the ship's bar this evening. She wanted to make sure she wasn't sick, especially before they got to Yorktown and she and Leonard got to celebrate their fourth wedding anniversary.
Thinking of the past three years of working with her husband brought a smile to Kate's face. Some people say that it's better to not work with your spouse, but that couldn't have been further from the truth for the two of them. She and Leonard were good doctors separately. Working together, it's like they were unstoppable and there wasn't a medical mystery they couldn't figure out. And being around each other in such close quarters all day sure had it's benefits of building up romantic tension. Sure, the first several years of marriage were the honeymoon phase, but Kate wasn't convinced it was ever going to end for them. She thought she was in love with him before they got married and the day they got married. The extent to which she loved the man now, though, was almost unfathomable to her, and she was so grateful every single day for the opportunity to be with her husband as much as she was.
She was pulled from her reverie by Jim calling in saying, "Scotty, get me out of here!"
Scotty sat forward in his seat, seeming surprised, and said, "That was quick!" Frankly, Kate was surprised too. There was no way the Tenaxi agreed to peace that quickly.
The unease in her stomach increased when she heard the anxiety and stress in Jim's voice as he screamed, "Scotty!"
Scotty began working on locking in on his signal, but said, "There's a lot of surface interference, sir."
Jim, still sounding like he was under a lot of stress said, "Scotty, get me out of here now!"
Kate added to his pressure by saying, "Scotty, Jim sounds like he's in trouble."
Scotty waved her back and said, "Alright, alright. Locking in on his signal," then pressed a button and Jim began to appear on the transport pad.
Once he solidified, Kate saw he had brought several small creatures with him, which security quickly began trying to grab. Jim brushed off two of the creatures and walked off the pad and over to them and said in a defeated tone, "I tore my shirt again."
Scotty began helping security try to capture the creatures, who Jim told her were the Tenaxi, as she walked over to Jim and hugged him, feeling a little bit of relief in her upset stomach. Jim shook his head and asked, "Are you always this worried about me when I leave the ship?"
Kate nodded and joined him as he walked out of transport and said, "Yes, but it is my job as one of your chief medical officers to worry about you."
As the exited transport, Spock and Leonard joined them, and Kate suspected that Uhura had let them know that Jim was back on board. Spock got right to the point and asked, "How did it go, Captain?"
Jim shrugged and said, "Eh... Let's just say I came up short."
Kate laughed, regretting it as it jostled her stomach, but was glad Jim was able to have a sense of humor about the situation. Jim tossed the artifact he was offering as part of the peace agreement over to Spock as he asked, "Could you lock that back in the box, Spock? Thank you."
Spock nodded in response as he walked away, and Leonard stepped up beside them saying brusquely, "Jim, you look like crap."
Kate smiled at her husband's rough sense of humor as Jim rolled his eyes and said, "Thank you, Bones."
Kate egged Jim on by saying, "Yeah, you've got that little vein popping out of your temple again."
Jim shrugged, walking away from them and toward's the flight deck of the ship as he said, "Just another day in Starfleet. I'll see you two later this evening."
As Jim walked away, Kate turned toward Leonard who said, "Well, hello darlin'."
Kate smiled and winked at him as she greeted, "Hello handsome," before leaning in and kissing him softly. As she pulled away she asked, "Do you think people ever get tired of us?"
Leonard shrugged as they began walking toward med bay and said, "I don't care if they do or not. All I know is every time I see you I can't believe that I somehow actually tricked you into marrying me four years ago."
Kate smiled before saying, "Oh, it was no trick. It's all your southern charm and rugged good looks. Though, Star Fleet better be glad for the ban on facial hair. Because if you had that beard all the time, I don't know how I'd ever get any work done."
Leonard shook his head and said, "You and your obsession with my facial hair. I think the happiest day of your life will be the day we retire from Star Fleet. You'll throw away my razors and never see my full face again."
Kate nodded and said, "I'm glad you know it. Now, let's finish this day quickly so we can have our meeting with Jim then get ready for our anniversary date tonight."
The rest of the day passed smoothly, and just as Leonard and Kate were about to head to the ship's bar to meet Jim, Scotty brought Keenser into med bay and said, "Sorry to bother you as you're leaving, but we've got to get him checked out."
Kate squeezed Leonard's hand and said, "Go on ahead, I'll catch up with you."
Leonard nodded before kissing her on the forehead and saying, "Don't take too long, darlin'," then went to join Jim.
Scotty had gotten Keenzer sat up on an exam table and Kate walked over and asked, "What seems to be the problem here?"
Keenzer crossed his arms, looking like he was unhappy to be there, as Scotty filled her in, "I don't know if he's got a cold or what it is, but he's sneezing and coughing all over the place. And when he sneezes, it's some sort of acid."
Kate crossed her arms and looked at Keenzer and asked, "Is this true, Keenzer?"
Keenzer hung his head as Kate ran the scanner over him and saw his temperature was higher than normal for him. She closed the scanner and said, "Well, I'm not sure what exactly is going on, but you've definitely got an infection. As for this acid sneezing, I'm going to have to insist you not report for duty in engineering until this clears up. We can't have you sneezing on something and destroying important equipment."
Keenzer sunk his head again and Scotty said, "I told you, wee man. You've got to rest. Now you've got it on doctor's orders."
Keenzer jumped off the table and headed out of med bay, so Kate grabbed some decongestant and fever reducer and gave it to Scotty saying, "When you give him the decongestant, it will make the coughing and sneezing worse at first, so make sure he's got something to aim the acid in."
Scotty sighed as he took the medicine and said, "Thank you, lass. No you go enjoy the rest of the evening."
Kate nodded and said, "I will, Scotty. I've just got some stuff to wrap up here first."
As Scotty left med bay, Kate went over to the medical supplies and grabbed a needle so she could draw a blood sample from herself. After getting the sample running to try and figure out what was going on with her, she also scanned herself to see if there were any other issues beyond her stomach causing her problems. When the scan results came back, she saw that her heart rate and temperature were both slightly elevated from her typical baseline.
She sat down in front of the computer that was running the tests on her blood sample and for the first time really put all of her symptoms together. She had been nauseated for days, and now with the increased heart rate and temperature, she felt pretty sure that it was just anxiety from being on the ship for so long. Getting to Yorktown today would be a blessing for so many reasons, it couldn't come fast enough.
She got up from the computer and was about to cancel the blood test when it beeped to let her know the test was done. She shrugged as she took the report that printed from the computer and decided to read over it to see if it indicated anything else. As she read through it, though, her heart stopped.
Her HCG levels were also elevated above normal, and suddenly there was a much more logical reason for her stomach problems than anxiety. Kate plopped down in the chair again and looked at what her HCG level was. Based on that number, as well as some backward calculation she did in her head, she came to the conclusion that she was about 6 weeks pregnant. She dropped the papers on to the desk in front of her and put her head in her hands.
It wasn't like this should have been a total shock. She and Leonard certainly knew where babies came from and participated frequently in that activity, but it just hadn't happened up to this point. Kate had been so consistent in taking birth control, that this didn't seem like a possibility. Then she thought back some more to when she was sick several weeks back and shook her head before saying to herself, "Kate, you're a doctor. You know that there are medicines that interfere with birth control."
She took a deep breath, still trying to calm herself down. Of course she and Leonard wanted kids...someday. But they certainly didn't want them while they were on a five year mission in deep space. She shook her head one more time before taking another deep breath and sitting up. She gathered up the results of her blood test and shredded them and buried the results in the bottom of a trash can. Then she went and deleted the record of the blood test being run. She was going to have to tell Leonard soon, but she certainly didn't want him to find out by seeing the blood test in the computer.
Making sure that there was no other trace of her pregnancy to be found, so stood up and smoothed out her clothes before taking a calming breath. She was supposed to go meet Leonard and Jim for drinks in the ship's bar for her and Jim's birthday. Now she had to find a way to avoid drinking now and come up with a way to tell Leonard that she was pregnant before their date tonight. She rolled her shoulders back, trying to find confidence and not come across as nervous as she felt, then headed to the bar.
As she entered, she heard Leonard ask, "Are you going to call your mom?"
Jim responded, "Yes, of course I will call her that day."
Kate sat down beside Jim, as Leonard was behind the bar, and said, "We'll call her together. I'm sure she'd love to hear from us at the same time."
Jim patted her hand and said, "Yeah, it'll give her a better distraction from what she's missing," then silence settled over the three of them for a moment.
Leonard poured Kate a drink and slid it across the counter to her, and she took it and smiled, still trying to figure out how she was going to avoid drinking right now since that was what the three of them had made plans to do right now.
She heard Jim sigh beside her before he said, 'I'm a year older."
Leonard shrugged as he raised an eyebrow and said, "Yes, that's typically how it works," then took a drink.
Kate shook her head and clarified for him, "No, babe. A year older than our dad ever got to be."
Leonard slowly sat his drink down, and she could see the apology in his eyes, but he didn't get a chance to say anything as Jim said, "He joined Starfleet because he believed in it. I joined out of a dare."
Leonard shook his head and said, "No, you joined so you can live up to him. You've spent all this time trying to be George Kirk, and now you're wondering what it means to be Jim."
Kate took Jim's hand in hers and said softly, "You may have actually joined out of a dare, but it's something you've always wanted. We talked about it all the way from our childhood."
Jim squeezed her hand before pulling away and said, "You did it to be a doctor and help people. Bones is right. I did it to try to become our dad. Now, I don't know, I just feel lost."
Kate smiled sadly at Jim before putting her head on his shoulder and saying, "I wish I could help you find yourself. But if it makes you feel any better, I think you're doing a fabulous job as captain in your own right. Not just compared to dad."
Jim leaned his head over onto hers and the twins looked up at Leonard, who nodded and said, "Your sister's right, Jim. And I don't just say that because she's my wife. You care about your crew, and you're doing right by them."
Jim nodded as he pulled away from Kate, still not seeming convinced that it was enough. Leonard raised his drink, so Jim grabbed his and the two of them turned to look at her. She shook her head and grabbed her stomach, saying the first lie should think of, "I've had stomach troubles all day. I'm afraid if I drink now, I won't be okay for our date tonight."
Leonard winked at her and said, "Alright, darlin'. And I'll get you all checked out before we go out tonight." Kate blushed and shook her head, still finding herself surprised at how much he implied about their sex life in front of her brother.
Jim made a slight choking noise and said, "Okay, enough," then drank his drink as Leonard did the same.
As they sat their glasses down, Sulu's voice came over Jim's communicator saying, "Approaching Yorktown base, sir."
Jim nodded and replied, "I'm on my way Mr. Sulu."
As Leonard walked from around the bar and put his arm around Kate's shoulders, Jim said, "Let's keep this birthday thing under wraps, okay?"
Leonard nodded and said, "Yeah, yeah. You know me, Mr. Sensitive," which earned him a soft punch in the ribs from Kate.
Jim had already headed to the bridge so Leonard asked, "What was that for?"
Kate shook her head as she said, "For constantly teasing and harassing my brother about the fact that you see me naked and do terrible things to me."
Leonard pulled her closer as they left the bar and said, "Terrible things that you seem to enjoy, ma'am," which got him a soft punch in the ribs again.
Kate only hoped that Leonard continued to be in a good mood like this after she told him her news.