a_mused | no (wo)man is an island - for bitcheslovehypos

Leaving Hendroff down there was the point. Jane nods imperceptibly and watches Chekov fly from her chair to get to the transporter room. They needed their best at the controls because Jane still wasn't sure what they were dealing with.

She pages medical, insists on quarantine procedures, and then drops her head in her hands.

"Uhuro, get in touch with the planets leader. We don't want any unnecessary fights." She stops and shakes her head, swinging in her hair to face her first officer who has been observing her with a deliberately neutral expression that Jane only now realized was shrewd.

"Spock, take the conn. I...am seriously emotionally compromised." Jane gets to her feet and rubs a hand over the back of her neck. "She's all yours. I'll be in my quarters."

She swept one last look around the Bridge and the stunned, sympathetic expressions facing her. She could not fail them. She knew when to back down from a mission she was too close to.

Edited 2014-03-25 02:58 (UTC)

That might be the point to Jane, but Len was going to do her damndest to get the lieutenant safely OFF the planet as quickly as possible. It wasn’t that she considered herself more expendable, but she considered it part of her duties as chief medical officer to do what she could to protect her crew. Even if it meant putting herself in danger to do so.

Christ, it was actually a relief to hear the sound of the transporters for once, and she breathed a little easier once her patients were out of harm’s way. One damn problem solved. The next... probably wasn’t going to be so easy.

Her head hurt like hell; there was no doubt that there was some kind of fracture or break going on, but she wouldn’t know for certain until she could run a couple of tests. Her ribs weren’t doing much better, but she was doing a damn fine job of hiding both. She didn’t feel like letting these bastards know just how much she was injured.

Or Jane, once she was back on the damn ship.

Edited 2014-03-26 09:59 (UTC)

Jane didn't even make it on to the lift before being stopped. Spock stepped in beside her right as the doors began to close. "Captain."

"Spock, I thought I left you the ship."

Spock inclined her head, which, hey, at least Jane wasn't going crazy and Spock was more or less abandoning her post. "I believe you are making a mistake."

"And why is that?" Jane asks.

"We currently have the exact locations of Dr. McCoy and Lt. Hendroff." Spock paused and assessed Jane in silence. Jane, who moments ago felt the weight of everyone on this ships judgement crushing her. "They are being transported onto the ship on my command."

"Spock, I could kiss you." Or hug her. Yeah. Hugging is happening. Jane isn't even going to apologize. Not even when Spock stiffens in Jane's arms.

"Unnecessary, Captain. I am merely doing what you would have done had you remained on the Bridge."

"But I didn't," Jane said, releasing Spock and clapping her gamely on the shoulder.

Spock arched a brow. "Which is why I elected to inform you in person."

"You're a good friend, Spock."

And before Spock could give that statement enough thought to formulate a response, Jane was out the door running. Tearing through the halls to the transporter room like someone had lit fire to her ass.

Bones was coming home.

She was coming home.

“Where is your captain,” the rebel leader shouted, leaning into Len’s face. Now that her patients were safe, she was relaxed. She could keep Lt Hendroff out of harm’s way, and not have to worry about them on top of it.

“I don’t know!” she retorted. “It takes time to organize what you want, you impatient bastard. Give her time to work!”

“I don’t have time for this!”

“MAKE TIME!” she hollered, finally losing her patience. And her temper. “She’s a goddamn miracle worker sometimes, but you don’t get to make demands and then get all bitchy when it takes time to get those demands in order.” She’d had enough of these goddamn idiots. “So sit down, shut up, and WAIT.”

Her diatribe earned her another blow, and she went sprawling. Lt. Hendroff looked angry enough to spit tacks, but Len shook her head, stopping any possible action the lieutenant might have taken. She didn’t need Hendroff getting hurt in a misplaced attempt to defend her. Spitting out blood, she heard the sound of transporters again.

Well I’ll be damned.

"Please. Please. Please." Jane gripped the transporter panel, breathing harshly through her nose. Poor Chekov looked like she might throw up beside her as she watched the screen as the transporter locked on its targets. "Come on, Bones."

The sound of the transporter shifted and changed, rising to a sharp, high pitched whine before fading out abruptly. Son of a bitch. That wasn’t a good sound. And seeing as how they were still on the planet, something had gone wrong.

And their captor looked pissed.

His hand closed around her throat and he shoved her back onto one of the empty hospital beds. Len’s ribs screamed in pain at the awkward angle, but she had more important things to worry about. “She LIED!” he shouted in her face. “What is she trying to pull? What is her plan???”

“Well, you’re such a trustworthy sort, I don’t know WHY she would try and do something like this,” she retorted, knowing damn well what her mouthing off was going to get her. But she was so damn tired of this asshole. His hand tightened, and she scrabbled at his fingers, trying to loosen his grip. “You kill me and she will tear your planet apart,” she gasped. Not Starfleet, not ‘they’... HER. She knew Jane well enough that she wouldn’t take kindly to a bunch of damn fools killing one of her officers when they’d been called to the planet to HELP. And she wasn’t sure Spock’s damn logic would be enough to stop her if they did.

Hendroff hit the platform to alarms blaring and blood was trickling from her nose.

Jane smashed her fist on the console. "What the hell just happened?!"

"The source of the disruption appears to have come from the Capitol, Captain."

Jane sucked in a sharp breath. "Uhuro, hail the High Chancellor."

"Sir, they're already on screen."

"Great."

Jane stood silent and tense in the middle of the transporter room. And then came to a decision.

"Spock, take care of our girl. If they start firing on us get us the hell out here." She moved then, moved without warning, disarming one of her own security team and jumped on the transporter pad.

"I'm going down there. Chekov get me as close to the edge of that disruption field as possible."

"Aye, Keptin." Her fingers flew across the screen and then she looked up at Jane with a nod.

She was coming for you Bones. Just hang in there a little longer.

"Energize."

Apparently he didn’t understand just how serious a threat a pissed off Jane T. Kirk could be. Or else he was as stupid as he appeared and just didn’t give a damn. His hand kept tightening, and Len knew the exact amount of pressure her throat could take before permanent damage occurred, and just how much time she had left before she ran out of air.

She didn’t have time for this. And she was so damn tired of this asshole and his stupidity.

She fumbled for the tray of surgical tools sitting next to the hospital bed he’d pinned her to; his stupidity had no friggin’ bounds. “Let go,” she wheezed, still scrabbling to loosen his grip with her other hand to try and keep him from noticing what she was actually doing.

Grabbing a hold of the first tool she could get her hand on, she pressed it to his neck. “I said,” she rasped, “Let. GO. Or I will cut your goddamn throat.”

Jane rematerialized with her phaser drawn and armed but the desert she landed in was devoid of any kind of life. She straightened, squinting against the glare of the dual suns.

"Enterprise, send me the coordinates of our last beam out."

"Sending coordinates, ma'am."

Spock's voice came rippling across the comm with that special sort of judgey tone she reserved just for Jane.

"Captain, I must as is you to return to the ship. All electronic devices will cease to be functional once you enter the disrupters field."

"I know that, Commander. I just need a heading."

There was a crackle of static. "Very well."

The moment the readout came through she was off like a shot.

He didn’t, and Len pressed the tool against his neck, HARD; hard enough to draw blood. And she could see the moment he realised she wasn’t fucking kidding around. His eyes widened, and his hand loosened around her neck.

“You won’t.”

“You threatened my patients. Damn right I will,” she snapped breathlessly. Never mind that he’d hit her; he’d threatened her damn patients. She had his immediate threat dealt with; he couldn’t do anything without her getting in a good jab to his throat. But he had men and women behind him with a hankering to defend him, only god knew why. “Tell your people to drop their goddamn weapons.”

They were lucky, so fucking lucky, Jane thought as she slid her way down a sand dune and pelted toward a craggy outcropping in the direction she'd been sent. If she didn't deviate from the path, she should be stumbling over Bones last known location any minute.

Which, of course, would explain why the ground gave out under her, sending her tumbling with a shocked shout.

The whine of phasers greeted her on landing.

It sounded like the goddamn roof had caved in somewhere, and the sound distracted some of the rebels. Not their leader; all his attention was firmly affixed to Len and the scalpel she had pressed to his throat.

“Your planet is falling apart around your goddamn ears. Tell your men to drop their weapons!” She was so goddamn tired of this. She was tired of this planet, she was tired of the idiots posing as rebels. She was just TIRED.

Reluctantly, he waved a hand at his men, and the sound of weapons dropping to the ground was goddamn music to her ears. She fisted a hand in his tunic and shoved him off of her, keeping the scalpel pressed tightly to his throat all the while. Shifting from being bent backwards over the medical bed to standing upright nearly took her breath away, but the scalpel didn’t fucking waver.

Jane scowled up at the dirt ceiling as a few clods fell down around her. And she didn't look before firing her phaser at the source of movement behind her.

"Don't take another step, or next time I won't miss."

She glanced behind her, satisfied to see the lone guard lowering his weapon and raising his hands with a look of disbelief. Jane's smile was grim as she fired the phaser a second time and the man fell to the floor, unconscious.

"Good choice."

Jane scrambled to her feet and waited a beat until she was sure no one else was coming before creeping down the hall toward the sounds of raised voices.

One more heartbreakingly familiar than any. She came in behind them, aiming her phaser at the head of the first man to notice her.

She loudly cleared her throat and stepped forward. "Next time I tell you to beam out, McCoy, I expect you to beam the fuck out."

Len was completely unsurprised to see Jane. A chance to fling herself headlong into danger? Of course she’d take it. And one of her crew was in danger. If anything would get Jane to jump into trouble, it was that.

Mostly... she was just relieved to see her. She really didn’t want to have to stab him in the throat.

“Wasn’t exactly my choice, Captain,” she retorted, voice hoarse, not moving her eyes from the man under her scalpel. Still pressing the blade hard against his neck, she backed him over to where his associates were being covered by Jane and her phaser. “Don’t fuck with a doctor,” she ground out, before giving him a hard shove that sent him tumbling into the arms of his people.

"Did you actually draw blood? Damn." That's nice, Bones. Now make it back to Jane's side and help her bluff their way out of there. While she fiddles with the stupid phaser's controls so it would overload. There's only two of them, and a roomful of angry thugs who clearly had some death wishes between them.

Jane grabs Bones by the sleeve and shoves her behind her.

"Do you know how hard it is to find a quality doctor out in this quadrant? And you were willing to risk having that, for what? Power? Money?"

Jane inched back the way she had come. "I was actually prepared to set up that meeting with the council."

She stopped when she felt her phaser begin to tremble and heat. "It sucks for you that they won't have anyone to debate with."

Jane shoved Bones hard back through the door and tossed her phaser in a casual arc at the leader. "Here. Maybe your luck will get better."

She only had a second to grab Bones by the middle and send them smashing into the hard, dirty floor. The explosion rocked the cavern and Jane screamed as heat ripped over her back.

Jane sent them smashing into the hard floor, and she let out a strangled, choked cry as pain exploded in her ribcage and everything went white for a moment. It was all she could manage. She could barely breathe, was barely conscious, but all she could hear was Jane’s scream.

As soon as the heat and fire from the explosion faded she was moving, forcing herself to move through the agony in her ribs, her head, in all of her. “Goddamnit Jane, what the hell were you thinking?? Next time you pull a stupid stunt like this I’m tying you to a medical bed and never letting you goddamn leave.”

She needed to see her back, see how bad the damage was.

"No." Jane grit her teeth and pushed herself off Bones. "Not until we're out of here."

She still wasn't sure how many people might still be around. An explosion wasn't exactly subtle. But there wasn't a chance she'd apologize for doing it.

Jane wasn't worried about herself. She was terrified for Bones and the slow way she was moving.

"Are you going to be okay to walk?"

Jane pushed herself off of Len and she choked back another cry of pain. Ribs were definitely fucking broken; she could feel them shifting, the broken edges grinding against each other when she moved. She didn’t have time to take a more detailed catalogue of all her injuries. The ribs were the ones most immediately a pain in her ass. And Jane’s were more important anyway. But the damn woman wouldn’t let her until they got out of there.

Which meant they just needed to get out of there faster.

“I’ll be fine.” No, she wasn’t, but there was no way in hell she was going to tell her that. She would make herself be okay. All she had to do was make it back to the Enterprise, get a good look at Jane’s back and make sure any burns were taken care of.

She could do that.

"Great," Jane bit her tongue as pain raced along her spine as she stood. Her back was on fire. It had to be. The pain was debilitating. She was panting by the time she gained her feet. "Because we're underground."

Yeah, Len noticed the panting. “Let me see your back, Jane.” She was not brooking any damn argument. She might be on her last goddamn legs, but she would make sure Jane was all right first. She pushed herself to her knees and almost folded over on herself, a low breathless groan sneaking through clenched teeth. But she didn’t, she pushed herself to her knees and clambered to her feet.

Great. She was adding dizziness to the list of things she was ignoring for their trek to the surface. “It’ll be quick, I promise.”

Oh hell no. Don't touch her or she might end up right back on the floor. She loves her. She loves her to fucking pieces and she loves those fucking pieces too, but right now Jane can only deal with focusing on one thing at a time or they're stuck here until someone comes from either side of this god forsaken rock and ends them.

"Fuck, Bones. Just- your ribs are busted and you're worried about me? Come on. We need to go."

Goddamn it Jane. Of course she is.

“I know we need to go. But you just blew up a goddamn room. Who knows what sort of damage you’ve done to your back.” She doesn’t mention her ribs, or any of the other injuries she’s taken in the past few hours. She’s hoping she can hide the fact that she almost got strangled to death from Jane. It’s bad enough she can’t hide all of it.

But she lets it go. She hates it, as much as she hates this goddamn planet she hates it, but she lets it go. “Fine. Let’s get off this goddamn rock.”

There's a ring of bruises around her neck. Jane may bruise easier than a peach, but Bones isn't exactly made out of steel. The guy is dead. She can't take out that aggression any more than she already has. She's dealing with it the only way she knows how.

Moving.

"Thank you."

The trek back to the surface of the planet seems to go on forever. Her way in wasn't a viable way out and just finding god damn fucking stairs is the hardest thing Jane has had to deal with the entire day. But when they do break into daylight it's such a relief Jane could almost start crying.

Only they've still got to get out of the range of the disruptor.

Jane grunts as they stagger through dirt and sand. "Not much further."

“You’re welcome.” Len just wants off this fucking planet. She’d so goddamn done right now. She needs to get back to the ship so she can take care of Jane’s back, tend to her own damn injuries, and then sleep for a friggin’ week.

She doesn’t have the breath to respond; if she opens her goddamn mouth it’ll show just how much pain she’s in right now. Which is the last thing she wants to do. She hasn’t been in this bad of shape in a long friggin’ time. And she doesn’t want Jane to worry.

If wishes were fishes, they could eat like kings. Jane's eyes stray to Bones every other step. Every other agonizing step. Jane wants to scream until she falls over but she wasn't lying. They weren't far. She's got her communicator clutched tight in her fist, waiting for a signal that they've fallen out of range of the electronic distruptor.

They just need to get back to their ship. That's all they have left to do.

That's it.

She staggers mid-step and stifles a sharp gasp as sand whips across her burned back. Jane reaches out to Bones with a blind hand and grabs her by the arm, clutching on desperately as finally, finally a voice crackles across the comm. First faint and weak and garbled, but with each pained step onward a little clearer, a little more intelligble until Uhuro's voice rings through uninterrupted like he was beside them.

"Kirk to Enterprise. Get us out of here."

Please. Get them off this planet.

no (wo)man is an island - for bitcheslovehypos

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