Fic: Don't kill yourself! Just stick it! - 30 July 2012 (night) (Chapter 3/6)
Title: Don’t kill yourself! Just stick it! - Monday, 30 July 2012 (night) (Chapter 3/6)
Beta: dizilla and aquila_star
Rating: NC17 (overall)
Word Count: 6,612 (43,000 overall)
Pairings/Characters: Kirk/McCoy (unrequited), Spock, Sulu, Chekov, Gaila, Pike, Scotty & OCs
Warnings: Violence, AU - olympic gymnastics
Disclaimer: Not mine, dammit!
Summary: A possible lead to where Pike may have disappeared to is discovered. Jim just has to follow his instincts, (for the most part), and drags along a few of his teammates for the ride.
Chapter 1, Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 on AO3 here.
“Well?” Jim asked as Spock disconnected the call.
Spock just shook his head as he continued to walk back to their group still waiting for their bus to arrive and take them back to the village. Pike was still missing.
“Where the fuck is he?” Jim asked quietly, looking at Bones. All the euphoria of winning a gold medal had evaporated after the media commitments, the same inane questions being asked over and over. Jim had to be mindful to not let it annoy him and use his charm so that the media got the grabs they wanted, in order to break the news on their evening shows.
“What’s up?” Sulu asked as he looked from Jim to Bones and then over to Spock.
Jim looked to the other two to see if they were going to say anything.
“We’re not stupid and Gaila’s keeping a secret too,” Sulu said as he indicated Pavel and himself with his hand.
Garry, Cupcake, and Kevin had been sent off in an earlier shuttle with Chapel and the Women’s team members who had hung around to watch, support, and celebrate, until Number One had put her foot down.
“Where’s the Captain?” Pavel asked.
Jim opened his mouth to break the news to Sulu and Pavel when his arm was grabbed and Gaila hissed his name.
“What?” Jim asked, looking at her and noticing she was looking away at something in the distance. When he glanced in the same direction it was to see two guys in civilian clothes hovering around, the slightly bigger one talking on the phone, arms moving agitatedly as he argued with whoever was on the other end of the line.
“It’s them,” Gaila said.
“What?” Bones asked, speaking almost simultaneously with Spock, who asked if she was sure.
“Oh, I’m sure. That’s the same guys.” She pulled her phone out of her jacket pocket and flicked over to her photo album, pulling up a pic of some of the Russian girls taken in a spot similar to where they were standing now. Gaila zoomed in and, sure enough, there was Nero in the background with two guys that looked almost the same as the ones they were all trying not to watch in an obvious manner.
“Someone going to explain what’s going on and what it has to do with Pike being sick or not really sick?” Sulu asked as he too looked up from the phone. The guy had finished his phone call and had just started to make another short one.
“It’s definitely the guys I saw last week, Spock,” Jim said.
The bigger guy dropped his cigarette and ground it out with his foot before glancing up. A car was driving around the corner and Jim wondered how on earth it got in this section, since it was blocked off for anything other than official vehicles. The car was very obviously not an official vehicle.
“Fuck,” Jim whispered as he glanced around. It was a long shot, but those guys had talked to Nero a number of times and only to Nero, not to any other member of the Romanian team, from what they had gathered. Nero had challenged and even threatened Pike, if the Canadian girls were to be believed. Gaila wasn’t one to lie and the Canadians would have no need to either.
Jim recognized a familiar face about to get in a van that was parked next to the Arena. His decision was made as the other two men got in the car that had pulled up, a green BMW that had seen much better days.
“C’mon,” he said as he grabbed his bag and started running over to the van.
He heard his name called by both Bones and Spock and then the sound of feet slapping on the asphalt behind him.
Jim was glad at least that the driver of the BMW was travelling at a snail’s pace, keeping to the rules, and hadn’t sped out of the area.
“Hey, Scotty. Bet you’ve never heard this before. Follow that car!” Jim said as he tossed his bag into the open doorway on the side of the van. There was no equipment or anything else inside it, which was a blessing.
“Jim, you’re mad!” Bones yelled as he caught up to Jim, trying to grab his arm and stop him following after his bag.
“If we follow them, we might find Pike.” Jim grabbed Bones’ arm in return, using his greater power to tug and pull Bones into the van with him.
Bones had to step up or risk his shins being bashed into the hard metal side of the van. He chose the less painful option, but ended up almost sprawled on top of Jim.
Bones opened his mouth to give Jim a lecture as he pushed up on his hands, so Jim just slapped his hand over the top of Bones’ mouth and ignored the look of complete shock in Bones’ eyes. He also tried desperately to think of Pike and not how soft Bones’ lips felt under his palm. Or how Bones was looming a little over the top of him and how Jim could feel a bit of a flush rising on his skin.
“It is an unlikely scenario, Mr. Kirk,” Spock said, but Jim noted that Spock had gotten in the van too. Jim was ignoring Bones pulling at his arm to try and get him to let go.
“Laddie, what are you on about?” Scotty asked as he leaned in the front doorway.
“Mr. Scott, would you be ever so kind to follow that car? Jim isn’t mad and we would be in your debt,” Gaila said in her best coaxing tone that Jim knew almost no man could be immune to, no matter their sexual preferences. Gaila had skills.
“Well, seeing as you asked nicely,” Scotty said with a slightly mad grin on his face as he hopped up into the driver’s seat. The vibrations from the engine registered with Jim. The van had been idling.
“Hang on,” Scotty ordered as he slammed the door shut.
Sulu and Pavel had jumped into the back as well and Gaila was the last to enter, pulling the sliding door of the van shut behind her.
Before anyone could say anything more, the van lurched forward, propelling them all to grab hold of something. Bones and Jim had a small problem doing so in that Jim only had one hand to brace himself with and Bones had been occupied with making Jim let go. The upshot was that Jim hit the floor of the van hard and had Bones land back on top of him. The movement caused Jim to let go of Bones’ mouth and what he had been dreading happening was let loose.
“Of all the stupid-ass, idiotic and Iowa-backwards stupidity. For fuck’s sake, Jim! You’ve put two and seventeen together, added in yellow and come up with four! Or some other ridiculous leap of logic that even Spock would never countenance and thinking they’re gonna lead us to Pike!”
Bones had pushed himself up to sit on his haunches as he yelled at Jim. What Bones had let loose with wasn’t quite expressed in the way that Jim thought it would be. Jim ignored the questions from Sulu, Pavel and Scotty about what Bones had said and tried his best placating face on Bones. He heard Gaila starting to explain the situation to the other three.
“Don’t you even try it,” Bones said as he pointed a finger at Jim. “You could have taken a photo of the car with your phone and talked to the cops. They could have found them and seen if your stupid theory was right. Instead we are doing the world’s slowest car chase through the streets of London, driven around by a mad Scotsman.”
“Bones--” Jim began, but up went Bones’ eyebrow, telling Jim in no uncertain terms that he had said his piece and he didn’t want to hear anymore.
Bones had sat down on the floor as Jim started to speak, back up against the side of the van and arms crossed as he pursed his lips in annoyance. Jim tried hard not to look at them as the lights from the street lamps hid and revealed their plumpness, reminding Jim of the feel of them under his palm just moments earlier.
“I do agree Doctor, that it does appear to be a far fetched theory, but a sighting of a person who looks suspicious to us would not be considered relevant information. If we can ascertain that they are involved with closer inspection, then the authorities would be able to act quicker. This idea is folly, but Jim may just be right. Those men should not have been in that area.”
“Has the Captain really been kidnapped?” Sulu asked.
“What else would keep him from an Olympic final?” Jim asked back. “Nothing else makes sense.”
“Hold on again, roundabout,” Scotty yelled out.
Jim scrambled over to sit next to Bones, who was giving his best, ‘I’m ignoring you’ look.
“If anything happened to any of us, Pike would be the first to come looking. We can’t not, Bones,” Jim said quietly.
“It just doesn’t make sense and I have no idea why Spock has agreed with you.”
“I am loathe to rely on the vagaries of what others may deem a hunch, but Jim’s reasoning, while impulsive is just...” Spock paused, seemingly unable to admit something that didn’t fit in with his idea of a logical world.
If Spock had felt a pull to follow these guys, just like Jim had, then there was definitely something in it.
“They’re going into the tunnel,” Scotty said.
“Think they are heading back to the Village?” Sulu asked.
“They’re not officials, I can’t see how they could,” Pavel replied as he flicked through his phone looking for something.
“They got in the official area by the Arena though,” Sulu pointed out.
As they entered the Blackwell Tunnel, they all settled into silence. The only light inside the van was from Pavel’s phone and the lowlights of the Tunnel. It was a Monday night and the traffic was sparse.
“Don’t get too close,” Sulu pointed out.
“I’m the one driving here,” Scotty replied, but with a touch of amusement in his voice.
“Got it,” Pavel said as they came out of the tunnel and back into the yellow glow of the London nighttime.
Pavel held up his phone to show the others that he had a map up on his screen, tracking their progress. “Where they go, I should be able to predict so that we can remain unseen.”
“You and your maps,” Sulu said with a little smile.
“They’re not going to the Village,” Scotty said before Pavel and Sulu could start a new discussion on an old subject. “Turning left into Mile End Road.”
Scotty sped up the van to make sure he made it through the lights after the BMW, before dropping back a little and behind another car. Being in the van meant they could see the BMW even with other cars in the way.
“Incorrect, Mr. Scott,” Pavel said. “This is Bow Road.”
Scotty waved a hand in the air. “It becomes Mile End soon enough.”
Sulu shook his head at Pavel and Jim held in a laugh as he and Gaila looked at each other. Pavel had stopped whatever he had been about to say. There definitely was something between those two. Gaila was probably right about them and it made Jim think about what she had said about him and Bones.
Just thinking about his soft lips, and those hands, with long, gorgeous fingers sliding off Jim’s hips had Jim’s cock stirring again slightly. Jim brought up his legs so he could wrap his arms around his knees, hiding his semi-erection from everyone else in the van, especially the man next to him. Jim couldn’t help the little glances he kept sending his way, just to see if Bones was ready to speak to him yet. Jim ignored the smug look on Gaila’s face from her perch right behind the driver’s seat.
It was all her fault that he was finding Bones so attractive.
“Turning again, Mr. Chekov. Looks like they are heading towards Hackney,” Scotty said, raising his voice on the second sentence for everyone else in the van to hear.
“Is that good or bad, Mr. Scott?” Gaila asked.
“Depends who you believe, lass, and please call me Montgomery.”
“That’s a lovely name, Montgomery,” Gaila said as she leaned a little around the front seat.
“Not as lovely as yours,” Scotty replied.
Jim once again tried to hold in his laughter at Gaila flirting with Scotty and vice versa. He glanced at Bones who was looking at him. Once Jim’s attention was on him, Bones rolled his eyes and Jim could no longer hold in the laughter. Spock just looked confused.
Out the front window of the van, one of those red double decker buses unique to London trundled past. This was a view of London that was rare for them. They were always taken to and from all venues via the Olympic Route Network. Roads that had nice clean vistas, not what they were seeing here--graffitied walls of houses, roads that had been patched and re-patched. The real, working London.
Pavel and Sulu were discussing possible routes ahead where the Romanians might be going and Spock was listening in, joining in with a comment here or there. Jim kept one ear on that conversation, ignored Gaila and Scotty flirting and went back to watching the road and Bones in equal measure.
“I’m not going anywhere and I’ve done my yelling,” Bones said after a while.
“You’re never done with yelling. Just save it up for laters,” Jim replied.
“Don’t have to wait too long.”
“Let it out Bones, it can only help.”
Bones snorted. “We’re sitting in the back of a van traveling God knows where in London, with a Scotsman driving, on a wild goose chase. In those bags of yours are some Olympic Gold Medals and yet, we should all be back at the Village, relaxing and celebrating.”
“Can’t celebrate without Pike,” Jim pointed out and risked reaching out his hand to grasp onto Bones’ hand, which was laying relaxed along Bones’ leg.
Jim felt the moment of startle from Bones at the contact, before he relaxed.
“I know, Jim, it’s just...”
“I know,” Jim said in reply, leaning his head back against the van and closing his eyes, trying not to think of a worse case scenario. He didn’t want to be the one who had to tell Number One they hadn’t found Pike.
Even Gaila and Scotty had stopped their conversation as they drove along in silence. Just the traffic noises and the vibration from the engine were their comforts as they continued the trip.
“Damn,” Scotty said.
Jim opened his eyes and realized he was still holding Bones’ hand. More confusing, Bones had been letting him. Jim let go as he knelt up to see what had caused Scotty’s outburst.
Up ahead was an intersection and from the way Pavel was urgently talking to Scotty, it seemed there were a few options for the BMW to take.
“Get down, you lot, those tops are a wee bit obvious,” Scotty ordered.
They all obeyed, even Gaila, dropping down below the seat, which hid them from view. Jim resisted laughing inappropriately at Scotty, in his purple volunteer top, making comments about obvious looking tops.
Scotty turned a little to the right and then he swore before making a sharp left. Pavel was furiously checking his map.
“I’m pulling over,” Scotty announced.
“There is bus depot and lots of streets,” Pavel said.
“And no other cars except us two. The van’s almost as obvious as your tops.” Scotty turned off the lights, but Jim noted he hadn’t turned off the engine.
Jim decided to risk it and tried to look out, but Bones grabbed him on the arm and pulled him back down again.
“He’s gone round a bend,” Scotty said as he pulled out again.
“There is a bend to the right and then to the left. At the intersection they could go in three different directions, we need to see,” Pavel said.
“Turning left,” Scotty announced shortly after they went around the bend.
Jim was almost at the point of getting up to see. Having to listen and try and figure out what was going on in a place he was completely unfamiliar with was driving him nuts.
“He will either go right soon or down to the end.”
“Hang on, will keep creeping up and see,” Scotty said as the van slowed right down.
They all waited in silence as Scotty leaned forward to watch the progress of the BMW.
“Going to the end and going left,” he whispered.
“Yes!” Pavel announced. “Wait until they go, then follow. It’s two dead ends that way.”
Jim breathed out the tension that had been building up during the trip. Now he would find out if he had been right or wrong in his calculated hunch.
“Stop before you get to the end, Scotty. They might have stopped just past the corner. We can go on foot?” Jim looked at Pavel questioningly.
“Yes, good idea,” Pavel agreed as he consulted his map again as Scotty drove down the silent street, once again bathed in the yellow light from the street lights.
It had rained a little, even though it was July, and it made the dark asphalt of the road shiny. There didn’t appear to be any houses in this area, just some solid brick walls, a pointed glass roof of a factory or something, and up ahead some round metal steel work. They were huge--like an exoskeleton for a round building, but there was only air in the middle, no building. Jim had seen them on the flight into London, from the airplane window. He had no idea what they were, but they added to the industrial ambience of the area.
Ahead there were some plants hanging over a brick wall and Jim could see a faded glow from a back window. A rare house, but a house that was a part of four, all joined together in a row, which seemed to be so common in London.
Scotty still had the lights of the van off and Jim noticed that there was no more vibration from the engine, which Scotty had turned off. As he braked slowly, Jim could almost feel them all holding their breaths in as the van headed toward the intersection, but Scotty had timed his braking perfectly. The van pulled up at the side of the group of houses, just before the front of the end one. The only side window was high up on the second floor. No one inside the house should be able to see them.
Jim stood and moved over to open the side door.
“No,” Spock ordered.
Jim looked over at Spock in surprise at his whispered order.
“The door is noisy and would alert others to our presence.”
Jim looked back at the door and his hand on the handle. Spock was right, nothing could keep that door quiet.
Movement at the front of the van caught Jim’s attention. Scotty had moved over to the other side and was quietly opening the side passenger door.
“Climb over and out this way,” Scotty said, before he dropped silently down onto the sidewalk.
Jim was the first to move, climbing over the gap and then sliding out of the van to join Scotty, being mindful of the need to be as quiet as he could. Before Spock or the others could stop him, Jim snuck forward to get a better look around the corner. He was mindful of the light on the opposite side of the road, keeping low under the overhanging bushes along the front fence. No lights were showing on the house at the end as he peeked over the fence.
“Jim!” He heard his name being hissed out by Bones.
Jim waved a hand back to shush Bones as he took in the view ahead of him. There was a block of four houses together, a large tree in the front of the second one, but he could see lights on in the far end house. Jim crept forward again, sneaking carefully around the corner, just in case someone happened to be looking out.
“Fuck,” he involuntarily let out as he saw over the other side of the road a series of apartments with garage doors on the lower level. The Romanians could have driven into one of them and now be hidden away successfully.
The quiet of the night was broken by the sound of some voices reaching Jim’s ears from further down the road. Jim eagerly creeped forward again as he recognized a slavic language being spoken. Maybe tonight was their lucky night in more than one way. Almost on hands and knees, Jim leaned around the edge of the fence to see what he could. He pulled up his hoodie, thanking the dark blue of it to help hide him better. His grey jacket was tucked away in his bag, and for some reason he had known he needed to change into the hoodie for the trip back to the village. He thanked whatever muse or inspiration it was that made him decide do it.
It was their lucky night. In front of the last house in the row was one of the guys that had been in the car, talking to a skinny, younger looking guy. Jim stayed still as he leaned forward trying to gauge any information he could. He couldn’t clearly hear what was being said, but as he didn’t know Romanian, it would have been fairly useless anyway, even if he could hear clearly. Uhura would have been perfect to have with the group, as Jim had lost count of the number of languages she could insult him in. He did know that one of them was Romanian.
Another minute of discussion between the two passed before the one he had seen earlier walked back into the house, leaving the other guy outside. As the door shut, Jim retreated and kept low as he headed back to his team.
He motioned them to move further back down the road, so he could tell them what he saw. In a hushed tone he reported in about the guy being left as a lookout.
“We found them, but we still don’t know about Pike,” Bones pointed out. “We can’t very well go up and knock on the door and ask.”
“Why not ask him?” Gaila asked as she pointed in the guy standing in front of the house.
“He’s the lookout, and I doubt we could just walk up in our U.S.A. gear and he will tell us that Pike is in there,” Sulu pointed out.
Jim and the others looked on speechless as Gaila started to take her pants off, while smiling at them.
“Ms. Oriana,” Spock finally managed to get out. At another time Jim might have laughed at Spock’s inability to stop Gaila stripping off. Gaila had on leggings underneath her tracksuit pants and she tossed the pants at Jim, before unzipping her jacket and also throwing that in his direction.
“Voila!” she declared as she lifted up her hands to untie her hair and let it fall down over her shoulders. “Now I’m not in U.S.A. gear.”
“Ms. Oriana,” Spock began again. “I can not allow you to be a part of this.”
“Tough titties,” Gaila responded, before turning and starting to pull Scotty’s top up. “Arms up Montgomery, we need to turn this inside out.”
Jim couldn’t help the little bit of laughter at the stunned look on both Spock and Scotty’s faces when confronted with the force of nature that was Gaila.
As she continued to undress and then re-dress Scotty, she laid out her plan. “Montgomery and I can distract the lookout, you guys can sneak up and grab him and we can bring him back here to question. I will be perfectly fine, Mr. Spock. Montgomery won’t let anything happen to me, will you Montgomery?”
“Never lass,” Scotty agreed. “It’s an insane plan, but I like it.”
Jim thought quickly that if they could get the guy by the tree, they could take him without being seen from within the house. The other option was to go over the back fence and try and see if they could get some information that way. Jim was about to suggest that possibility when Gaila’s patience wore out. She had grabbed Scotty by the arm and was running down the street and around the corner, doing a remarkably loud impression of a very drunk girl. Scotty’s laughter and then his thick accent were clearly heard.
There was nothing for it but to follow along with Gaila’s mad plan. He tossed her clothes at Sulu before running to follow Gaila and Scotty, crouched over to stay underneath the level of the garden wall. He thought he remembered a half brick lying on the ground and sure enough, it was still there, not a figment of his imagination. He stopped to pick it up and felt a presence beside him. Spock had joined him.
“Mr. Scott is correct, this is insane, but I would be derelict if I did not lend my assistance.”
A third voice had joined Gaila’s and Scotty’s. Jim risked the chance and crept forward again as he had before, almost on all fours. The hand with the half brick he kept close to his chest. Gaila had done as she said she would. The lookout was having a hard time getting away from her and she had backed him along the street without him realizing. He could have walked around her, if he thought about it, but Jim knew the power of Gaila’s intent well. Almost no one said no to her.
Just as she got the guy back in line with the tree and out of sight of the house, Jim took off, running on the tips of his toes to be as silent as possible. He lifted up the brick in his hand, ready to knock the guy out as silently as possible.
A woosh of air surprised him as Spock ran past and, with some strange grab on the guy’s neck, made him drop as if in a faint.
Gaila and Scotty rushed forward to help Spock catch the guy as he fell. Jim mentally shook himself and leaped forward as well, grabbing the guy by the legs and, with a nod at Spock, they carried him quickly back around the corner.
Bones, Sulu and Pavel were waiting, just as they had left them on the other side of the house.
“Great, now we’ve kidnapped some random guy,” Bones complained as they laid the lookout down gently. “And what did you do with that, Jim?”
Jim looked down to see that he still had the half brick in his hand. “Ah, was gonna convince him to come with us.”
“I thought the whole stupid idea was so that we could question the lookout. It’s a bit hard when you’ve brained him on the head.”
“Well, it happened pretty quick, and I didn’t do it! Spock did some ninja thing on his neck and now he’s all sleepy. You’ve so gotta show me that sometime,” Jim said, looking at Spock with a little bit of wonder.
“The risk of the man making noise was unacceptable. I employed pressure on some nerves and immobilized him for the moment,” Spock said, ignoring Jim’s request.
Bones was carefully looking over his new patient, pulling back his eyelids. “And this moment is going to last how long?” Bones asked, sarcasm on full.
“Jim,” Pavel hissed from where he was standing and watching over the fence.
Whatever Pavel wanted to tell him, a voice yelling out “Cezar!” told Jim instead. The lookout now had a name.
Jim left Bones looking after ‘Cezar’, while he ran over to Pavel, flattening himself along the wall. Sulu, Spock and Scotty joined him. They listened while the man called for Cezar a few more times, before saying something muffled. Jim presumed he was talking to someone inside the house.
There was another bit of muffled noise and then Pavel breathed out, “Nyet!”
He turned to look at them and whispered a name that got their undivided attention. “Pike!”
Jim risked a look and sure enough they were bringing Pike down the steps. Pike was being held between two of them and the way his head was lolling forward, he was possibly as comatose as Cezar. Mind made up in an instant, Jim turned to Scotty and said, “Van,” before he took off running around the corner once more, not caring to hide his presence this time. He was going to get Pike, come hell or high water.
They didn’t spot him until he got near to the tree and then they started yelling. He heard some steps behind him, but didn’t know who had followed. The element of surprise was almost gone, but he remembered the half-brick still in his hand. The first guy came running at him, but Jim just gripped the half-brick and swung. He felt the moment it connected with the other guy’s skull, though he didn’t have time to stop and see what damage had been done. A guy still on the steps was yelling at the two with Pike and they were almost running now, dragging Pike along with them as they headed for the BMW parked down a side alley.
Jim charged, shoulder down, just as he had learned playing football in high school. As he went down, taking one of Pike’s guys with him, he twisted and tried to bring the half-brick back into play. The ground met him quickly and knocked a little bit of breath from him. It halted his swing just enough that the other guy got a solid whack on Jim’s face, but Jim wasn’t having any of that. He had spent enough time in bar brawls to know his way around a scrap so he swung again, hearing a satisfying thwack as the brick connected.
Movement off to the side attracted his attention. He twisted and was about to come up to his feet and go after the other guy when he saw a booted foot swinging his way. He twisted back the other way, ready to take the hit along his back instead of his face, but it never came.
“No you don’t,” he heard Pike grunt out.
Jim rolled back over and saw that Pike had launched himself at the other guy and brought them both to ground. Pike was groaning and about to get hit, so Jim sprang forward and punched the guy in the face, hard. A quick look around showed that one guy was down, Sulu was dealing with the guy at the door and Spock, well Spock was doing some weird martial arts move that brought down two guys.
The van roared around the corner and Jim grabbed Pike, lifting him up and apologizing as he groaned again. They stumbled out onto the sidewalk as Scotty pulled the van up onto the curb.
“Great timing, Scotty,” Jim yelled as he pulled and dragged Pike with him out onto the road and around to the other side of the van.
“Jim!” Bones yelled as he jumped down from the open side doorway to help Jim with Pike.
“Bones,” Jim replied, very relieved to see Bones waiting for him.
“Sulu! Spock! Get in!” Jim yelled as they lowered Pike none too gently to the floor.
Gaila was already making a pillow under Pike’s head with her discarded top and pants from earlier, and Bones was starting to check him over, talking to him quietly. Jim looked back to see Sulu jumping in and sliding a little sideways to make sure he didn’t land on Pike or the still sleeping Cezar, who was in the van as well. Spock placed a solid kick on the one remaining Romanian outside and ran for the van. Jim had never seen Spock move with the speed he had this evening. There were hidden depths to the guy.
“Go! Go! Go!” Jim yelled at Scotty as Spock started to close the side door.
Scotty shoved the van into reverse and Jim instinctively grabbed out to make sure that Bones didn’t fall over. He had to grab again, as Scotty slammed on the brakes and then accelerated forward around a corner, back down the street they had been parked on.
“Get us back to the Village, Scotty,” Jim ordered. “Pavel, check and make sure we aren’t being followed.”
“Yes, sir!” Pavel replied, sitting up so he could see out the back windows of the van.
The adrenaline of the fight was starting to wear off, and Jim sat down, inadvertently on his bag. As he pulled it out from underneath him, he heard Pike groan.
Gaila was still sitting at Pike’s head, one hand braced on the side of the van, the other ready to help protect Pike. Spock had moved to his other side and next to Jim, and, leaning over Pike still talking to him quietly, was Bones. Sulu and Pavel were acting as the lookout and Scotty was driving at a speed the van had probably never been at in its life up to this point.
Jim looked over to where Cezar was lying, noticing that a jacket had been rolled up and placed under his head as well. It was obviously Bones’ jacket as he was no longer wearing one. Jim raised an eyebrow at Bones, querying the presence of the Romanian in the van with them. Bones sensed Jim’s stare and looked up from Pike. Jim just shifted his eye-line to Cezar and then back to Bones.
“What? I’m not leaving an injured person just lying around,” Bones grouched before he returned his attention to Pike.
Pike pushed Bones’ hand away and tried to raise himself up but groaned and, with a solid push from Bones, dropped back down.
“You stay right there, Christopher, until I tell you otherwise. Scotty!” Bones yelled as Scotty took another corner fast and all four of them grabbed onto Pike to stop him rolling into the side of the van. How the van had stayed on four wheels, Jim didn’t know. Scotty was a demon.
“They are not following,” Pavel reported.
“You sure?” Scotty asked.
“He’s sure,” Sulu confirmed.
As Scotty slowed the van down, Gaila moved to grab Bones’ bag from the other side and passed it to Bones. While Bones was looking inside it for whatever he needed, Jim scooted a little closer to Pike.
“Hey, sir. Kinda missed you tonight,” he said.
Pike was watching Jim from between narrowed eyelids, as if it hurt to open his eyes fully.
“Mr. Kirk, you and I will be having a discussion shortly about your propensity to engage in brawls. I thought we had knocked that desire on the head,” Pike said as he pointed at Jim’s face.
Jim lifted up his hand to touch his cheek and hissed at the pain he felt. He was going to have a great shiner tomorrow.
“It was for a good cause,” Jim retorted. He blinked as Bones shined the little pen light in his direction.
“When he’s finished chewing you out, then it will be my turn. Of all the stupid, idiotic...I give up really,” Bones complained.
Jim couldn’t see Bones’ face, as the light was too bright and then he had to blink when Bones turned the light and his attention onto Pike. Pike hissed as Bones lifted up his eyelids and checked his pupils.
“Captain,” Spock said, laying a hand on Pike’s shoulder.
“Hurts,” Pike admitted.
Jim wasn’t sure if he was saying that to Spock or to Bones, who was now asking some other questions. They all sat in silence to watch Bones care for the Captain.
After a while, Pike was becoming testy and not being helpful and Jim could see how agitated Bones was getting. You didn’t mess with Bones when he was trying to be all doctorly, even if you were the patient.
“Let me sit up!” Pike was ordering Bones.
“You’ll sit up when I let you sit up. For now you’re staying right here, even if I have to tie you down.”
“With what?” Pike sassed back as he glanced around the van, which was pretty empty of rope or other suitable materials.
Jim reached into his bag, grabbed his medal and pulled it out to dangle it in full view of Pike.
“Could always use this,” he said, trying not to laugh at the look on Pike’s face.
“You smart assed little...” Pike started to say.
“Now, now, Captain. Is that any way to talk to an Olympic gold medalist? Got two other medals around here too, pretty sure we could help Bones out here to keep you in place. Or if he tells me to, I’ll sit on you.”
Pike let out a snort. “Call off your dog,” he told Bones.
“Gentleman and Gaila, we’re here,” Scotty announced.
“Captain, do you have your Identification?” Spock asked.
Pike brought his hand up to grab at his chest, groping for his I.D. that was not there.
“Mr. Scott, if you would be so kind to park the van over there.” Spock pointed to a space.
“There’s coppers,” Scotty pointed out.
Jim leaned over and looked out the window. Sure enough, Scotty was right, there were two cop cars, and some very familiar faces of the higher up U.S. Team officials.
“I alerted the relevant people,” Spock said at Jim’s quizzical look in his direction as he raised his hand up to show his phone. “Also I am sure they will be keen to converse with this man.” Spock pointed at Cezar.
“Are there--” Bones started to say before Spock interrupted him.
“I have arranged for medical staff as well.”
“Ah,” Jim said as the repercussions of the night started to dawn on him. Cops and him had never been the best of buddies.
“Yes, Jim, you’ll have a bit of explaining to do. And when they finish with you, I want to see you,” Bones ordered, not once looking at Jim, his focus was still completely on Pike. “If you don’t, I’ll tell Pike about the Kobayashi Maru.”
The door to the van opened and questions came firing at them from all directions. Jim thought it might be a good idea before Pike comprehended what Bones had just said. Spock was the first to leave, holding up his hands to try and placate everyone.
“We might be in a bit of trouble,” Jim said to Sulu as he looked over the group waiting for them, and ignoring the yell to explain himself coming from Pike still inside the van.
“You think?” Sulu said as he slapped Jim on the shoulder. “Would do the same thing over again though.”
Jim remembered how fluid Sulu had been in those moments that he saw him fighting. “We really should do it again sometime.”
Sulu laughed as he followed Jim out of the van, ready to face the music.
oOo
Chapter 4 this way
A/N: Sheeps Lane, London's Field is where Pike is being held, but I made a little decision to turn it into a dead end street. Just pretend that it stops before the bridge, if you look it up on a map. ;)
I found these lovely night shots of the area which I am sure my descriptions in the story don't do justice.
Beta: dizilla and aquila_star
Rating: NC17 (overall)
Word Count: 6,612 (43,000 overall)
Pairings/Characters: Kirk/McCoy (unrequited), Spock, Sulu, Chekov, Gaila, Pike, Scotty & OCs
Warnings: Violence, AU - olympic gymnastics
Disclaimer: Not mine, dammit!
Summary: A possible lead to where Pike may have disappeared to is discovered. Jim just has to follow his instincts, (for the most part), and drags along a few of his teammates for the ride.
Chapter 1, Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 on AO3 here.
“Well?” Jim asked as Spock disconnected the call.
Spock just shook his head as he continued to walk back to their group still waiting for their bus to arrive and take them back to the village. Pike was still missing.
“Where the fuck is he?” Jim asked quietly, looking at Bones. All the euphoria of winning a gold medal had evaporated after the media commitments, the same inane questions being asked over and over. Jim had to be mindful to not let it annoy him and use his charm so that the media got the grabs they wanted, in order to break the news on their evening shows.
“What’s up?” Sulu asked as he looked from Jim to Bones and then over to Spock.
Jim looked to the other two to see if they were going to say anything.
“We’re not stupid and Gaila’s keeping a secret too,” Sulu said as he indicated Pavel and himself with his hand.
Garry, Cupcake, and Kevin had been sent off in an earlier shuttle with Chapel and the Women’s team members who had hung around to watch, support, and celebrate, until Number One had put her foot down.
“Where’s the Captain?” Pavel asked.
Jim opened his mouth to break the news to Sulu and Pavel when his arm was grabbed and Gaila hissed his name.
“What?” Jim asked, looking at her and noticing she was looking away at something in the distance. When he glanced in the same direction it was to see two guys in civilian clothes hovering around, the slightly bigger one talking on the phone, arms moving agitatedly as he argued with whoever was on the other end of the line.
“It’s them,” Gaila said.
“What?” Bones asked, speaking almost simultaneously with Spock, who asked if she was sure.
“Oh, I’m sure. That’s the same guys.” She pulled her phone out of her jacket pocket and flicked over to her photo album, pulling up a pic of some of the Russian girls taken in a spot similar to where they were standing now. Gaila zoomed in and, sure enough, there was Nero in the background with two guys that looked almost the same as the ones they were all trying not to watch in an obvious manner.
“Someone going to explain what’s going on and what it has to do with Pike being sick or not really sick?” Sulu asked as he too looked up from the phone. The guy had finished his phone call and had just started to make another short one.
“It’s definitely the guys I saw last week, Spock,” Jim said.
The bigger guy dropped his cigarette and ground it out with his foot before glancing up. A car was driving around the corner and Jim wondered how on earth it got in this section, since it was blocked off for anything other than official vehicles. The car was very obviously not an official vehicle.
“Fuck,” Jim whispered as he glanced around. It was a long shot, but those guys had talked to Nero a number of times and only to Nero, not to any other member of the Romanian team, from what they had gathered. Nero had challenged and even threatened Pike, if the Canadian girls were to be believed. Gaila wasn’t one to lie and the Canadians would have no need to either.
Jim recognized a familiar face about to get in a van that was parked next to the Arena. His decision was made as the other two men got in the car that had pulled up, a green BMW that had seen much better days.
“C’mon,” he said as he grabbed his bag and started running over to the van.
He heard his name called by both Bones and Spock and then the sound of feet slapping on the asphalt behind him.
Jim was glad at least that the driver of the BMW was travelling at a snail’s pace, keeping to the rules, and hadn’t sped out of the area.
“Hey, Scotty. Bet you’ve never heard this before. Follow that car!” Jim said as he tossed his bag into the open doorway on the side of the van. There was no equipment or anything else inside it, which was a blessing.
“Jim, you’re mad!” Bones yelled as he caught up to Jim, trying to grab his arm and stop him following after his bag.
“If we follow them, we might find Pike.” Jim grabbed Bones’ arm in return, using his greater power to tug and pull Bones into the van with him.
Bones had to step up or risk his shins being bashed into the hard metal side of the van. He chose the less painful option, but ended up almost sprawled on top of Jim.
Bones opened his mouth to give Jim a lecture as he pushed up on his hands, so Jim just slapped his hand over the top of Bones’ mouth and ignored the look of complete shock in Bones’ eyes. He also tried desperately to think of Pike and not how soft Bones’ lips felt under his palm. Or how Bones was looming a little over the top of him and how Jim could feel a bit of a flush rising on his skin.
“It is an unlikely scenario, Mr. Kirk,” Spock said, but Jim noted that Spock had gotten in the van too. Jim was ignoring Bones pulling at his arm to try and get him to let go.
“Laddie, what are you on about?” Scotty asked as he leaned in the front doorway.
“Mr. Scott, would you be ever so kind to follow that car? Jim isn’t mad and we would be in your debt,” Gaila said in her best coaxing tone that Jim knew almost no man could be immune to, no matter their sexual preferences. Gaila had skills.
“Well, seeing as you asked nicely,” Scotty said with a slightly mad grin on his face as he hopped up into the driver’s seat. The vibrations from the engine registered with Jim. The van had been idling.
“Hang on,” Scotty ordered as he slammed the door shut.
Sulu and Pavel had jumped into the back as well and Gaila was the last to enter, pulling the sliding door of the van shut behind her.
Before anyone could say anything more, the van lurched forward, propelling them all to grab hold of something. Bones and Jim had a small problem doing so in that Jim only had one hand to brace himself with and Bones had been occupied with making Jim let go. The upshot was that Jim hit the floor of the van hard and had Bones land back on top of him. The movement caused Jim to let go of Bones’ mouth and what he had been dreading happening was let loose.
“Of all the stupid-ass, idiotic and Iowa-backwards stupidity. For fuck’s sake, Jim! You’ve put two and seventeen together, added in yellow and come up with four! Or some other ridiculous leap of logic that even Spock would never countenance and thinking they’re gonna lead us to Pike!”
Bones had pushed himself up to sit on his haunches as he yelled at Jim. What Bones had let loose with wasn’t quite expressed in the way that Jim thought it would be. Jim ignored the questions from Sulu, Pavel and Scotty about what Bones had said and tried his best placating face on Bones. He heard Gaila starting to explain the situation to the other three.
“Don’t you even try it,” Bones said as he pointed a finger at Jim. “You could have taken a photo of the car with your phone and talked to the cops. They could have found them and seen if your stupid theory was right. Instead we are doing the world’s slowest car chase through the streets of London, driven around by a mad Scotsman.”
“Bones--” Jim began, but up went Bones’ eyebrow, telling Jim in no uncertain terms that he had said his piece and he didn’t want to hear anymore.
Bones had sat down on the floor as Jim started to speak, back up against the side of the van and arms crossed as he pursed his lips in annoyance. Jim tried hard not to look at them as the lights from the street lamps hid and revealed their plumpness, reminding Jim of the feel of them under his palm just moments earlier.
“I do agree Doctor, that it does appear to be a far fetched theory, but a sighting of a person who looks suspicious to us would not be considered relevant information. If we can ascertain that they are involved with closer inspection, then the authorities would be able to act quicker. This idea is folly, but Jim may just be right. Those men should not have been in that area.”
“Has the Captain really been kidnapped?” Sulu asked.
“What else would keep him from an Olympic final?” Jim asked back. “Nothing else makes sense.”
“Hold on again, roundabout,” Scotty yelled out.
Jim scrambled over to sit next to Bones, who was giving his best, ‘I’m ignoring you’ look.
“If anything happened to any of us, Pike would be the first to come looking. We can’t not, Bones,” Jim said quietly.
“It just doesn’t make sense and I have no idea why Spock has agreed with you.”
“I am loathe to rely on the vagaries of what others may deem a hunch, but Jim’s reasoning, while impulsive is just...” Spock paused, seemingly unable to admit something that didn’t fit in with his idea of a logical world.
If Spock had felt a pull to follow these guys, just like Jim had, then there was definitely something in it.
“They’re going into the tunnel,” Scotty said.
“Think they are heading back to the Village?” Sulu asked.
“They’re not officials, I can’t see how they could,” Pavel replied as he flicked through his phone looking for something.
“They got in the official area by the Arena though,” Sulu pointed out.
As they entered the Blackwell Tunnel, they all settled into silence. The only light inside the van was from Pavel’s phone and the lowlights of the Tunnel. It was a Monday night and the traffic was sparse.
“Don’t get too close,” Sulu pointed out.
“I’m the one driving here,” Scotty replied, but with a touch of amusement in his voice.
“Got it,” Pavel said as they came out of the tunnel and back into the yellow glow of the London nighttime.
Pavel held up his phone to show the others that he had a map up on his screen, tracking their progress. “Where they go, I should be able to predict so that we can remain unseen.”
“You and your maps,” Sulu said with a little smile.
“They’re not going to the Village,” Scotty said before Pavel and Sulu could start a new discussion on an old subject. “Turning left into Mile End Road.”
Scotty sped up the van to make sure he made it through the lights after the BMW, before dropping back a little and behind another car. Being in the van meant they could see the BMW even with other cars in the way.
“Incorrect, Mr. Scott,” Pavel said. “This is Bow Road.”
Scotty waved a hand in the air. “It becomes Mile End soon enough.”
Sulu shook his head at Pavel and Jim held in a laugh as he and Gaila looked at each other. Pavel had stopped whatever he had been about to say. There definitely was something between those two. Gaila was probably right about them and it made Jim think about what she had said about him and Bones.
Just thinking about his soft lips, and those hands, with long, gorgeous fingers sliding off Jim’s hips had Jim’s cock stirring again slightly. Jim brought up his legs so he could wrap his arms around his knees, hiding his semi-erection from everyone else in the van, especially the man next to him. Jim couldn’t help the little glances he kept sending his way, just to see if Bones was ready to speak to him yet. Jim ignored the smug look on Gaila’s face from her perch right behind the driver’s seat.
It was all her fault that he was finding Bones so attractive.
“Turning again, Mr. Chekov. Looks like they are heading towards Hackney,” Scotty said, raising his voice on the second sentence for everyone else in the van to hear.
“Is that good or bad, Mr. Scott?” Gaila asked.
“Depends who you believe, lass, and please call me Montgomery.”
“That’s a lovely name, Montgomery,” Gaila said as she leaned a little around the front seat.
“Not as lovely as yours,” Scotty replied.
Jim once again tried to hold in his laughter at Gaila flirting with Scotty and vice versa. He glanced at Bones who was looking at him. Once Jim’s attention was on him, Bones rolled his eyes and Jim could no longer hold in the laughter. Spock just looked confused.
Out the front window of the van, one of those red double decker buses unique to London trundled past. This was a view of London that was rare for them. They were always taken to and from all venues via the Olympic Route Network. Roads that had nice clean vistas, not what they were seeing here--graffitied walls of houses, roads that had been patched and re-patched. The real, working London.
Pavel and Sulu were discussing possible routes ahead where the Romanians might be going and Spock was listening in, joining in with a comment here or there. Jim kept one ear on that conversation, ignored Gaila and Scotty flirting and went back to watching the road and Bones in equal measure.
“I’m not going anywhere and I’ve done my yelling,” Bones said after a while.
“You’re never done with yelling. Just save it up for laters,” Jim replied.
“Don’t have to wait too long.”
“Let it out Bones, it can only help.”
Bones snorted. “We’re sitting in the back of a van traveling God knows where in London, with a Scotsman driving, on a wild goose chase. In those bags of yours are some Olympic Gold Medals and yet, we should all be back at the Village, relaxing and celebrating.”
“Can’t celebrate without Pike,” Jim pointed out and risked reaching out his hand to grasp onto Bones’ hand, which was laying relaxed along Bones’ leg.
Jim felt the moment of startle from Bones at the contact, before he relaxed.
“I know, Jim, it’s just...”
“I know,” Jim said in reply, leaning his head back against the van and closing his eyes, trying not to think of a worse case scenario. He didn’t want to be the one who had to tell Number One they hadn’t found Pike.
Even Gaila and Scotty had stopped their conversation as they drove along in silence. Just the traffic noises and the vibration from the engine were their comforts as they continued the trip.
“Damn,” Scotty said.
Jim opened his eyes and realized he was still holding Bones’ hand. More confusing, Bones had been letting him. Jim let go as he knelt up to see what had caused Scotty’s outburst.
Up ahead was an intersection and from the way Pavel was urgently talking to Scotty, it seemed there were a few options for the BMW to take.
“Get down, you lot, those tops are a wee bit obvious,” Scotty ordered.
They all obeyed, even Gaila, dropping down below the seat, which hid them from view. Jim resisted laughing inappropriately at Scotty, in his purple volunteer top, making comments about obvious looking tops.
Scotty turned a little to the right and then he swore before making a sharp left. Pavel was furiously checking his map.
“I’m pulling over,” Scotty announced.
“There is bus depot and lots of streets,” Pavel said.
“And no other cars except us two. The van’s almost as obvious as your tops.” Scotty turned off the lights, but Jim noted he hadn’t turned off the engine.
Jim decided to risk it and tried to look out, but Bones grabbed him on the arm and pulled him back down again.
“He’s gone round a bend,” Scotty said as he pulled out again.
“There is a bend to the right and then to the left. At the intersection they could go in three different directions, we need to see,” Pavel said.
“Turning left,” Scotty announced shortly after they went around the bend.
Jim was almost at the point of getting up to see. Having to listen and try and figure out what was going on in a place he was completely unfamiliar with was driving him nuts.
“He will either go right soon or down to the end.”
“Hang on, will keep creeping up and see,” Scotty said as the van slowed right down.
They all waited in silence as Scotty leaned forward to watch the progress of the BMW.
“Going to the end and going left,” he whispered.
“Yes!” Pavel announced. “Wait until they go, then follow. It’s two dead ends that way.”
Jim breathed out the tension that had been building up during the trip. Now he would find out if he had been right or wrong in his calculated hunch.
“Stop before you get to the end, Scotty. They might have stopped just past the corner. We can go on foot?” Jim looked at Pavel questioningly.
“Yes, good idea,” Pavel agreed as he consulted his map again as Scotty drove down the silent street, once again bathed in the yellow light from the street lights.
It had rained a little, even though it was July, and it made the dark asphalt of the road shiny. There didn’t appear to be any houses in this area, just some solid brick walls, a pointed glass roof of a factory or something, and up ahead some round metal steel work. They were huge--like an exoskeleton for a round building, but there was only air in the middle, no building. Jim had seen them on the flight into London, from the airplane window. He had no idea what they were, but they added to the industrial ambience of the area.
Ahead there were some plants hanging over a brick wall and Jim could see a faded glow from a back window. A rare house, but a house that was a part of four, all joined together in a row, which seemed to be so common in London.
Scotty still had the lights of the van off and Jim noticed that there was no more vibration from the engine, which Scotty had turned off. As he braked slowly, Jim could almost feel them all holding their breaths in as the van headed toward the intersection, but Scotty had timed his braking perfectly. The van pulled up at the side of the group of houses, just before the front of the end one. The only side window was high up on the second floor. No one inside the house should be able to see them.
Jim stood and moved over to open the side door.
“No,” Spock ordered.
Jim looked over at Spock in surprise at his whispered order.
“The door is noisy and would alert others to our presence.”
Jim looked back at the door and his hand on the handle. Spock was right, nothing could keep that door quiet.
Movement at the front of the van caught Jim’s attention. Scotty had moved over to the other side and was quietly opening the side passenger door.
“Climb over and out this way,” Scotty said, before he dropped silently down onto the sidewalk.
Jim was the first to move, climbing over the gap and then sliding out of the van to join Scotty, being mindful of the need to be as quiet as he could. Before Spock or the others could stop him, Jim snuck forward to get a better look around the corner. He was mindful of the light on the opposite side of the road, keeping low under the overhanging bushes along the front fence. No lights were showing on the house at the end as he peeked over the fence.
“Jim!” He heard his name being hissed out by Bones.
Jim waved a hand back to shush Bones as he took in the view ahead of him. There was a block of four houses together, a large tree in the front of the second one, but he could see lights on in the far end house. Jim crept forward again, sneaking carefully around the corner, just in case someone happened to be looking out.
“Fuck,” he involuntarily let out as he saw over the other side of the road a series of apartments with garage doors on the lower level. The Romanians could have driven into one of them and now be hidden away successfully.
The quiet of the night was broken by the sound of some voices reaching Jim’s ears from further down the road. Jim eagerly creeped forward again as he recognized a slavic language being spoken. Maybe tonight was their lucky night in more than one way. Almost on hands and knees, Jim leaned around the edge of the fence to see what he could. He pulled up his hoodie, thanking the dark blue of it to help hide him better. His grey jacket was tucked away in his bag, and for some reason he had known he needed to change into the hoodie for the trip back to the village. He thanked whatever muse or inspiration it was that made him decide do it.
It was their lucky night. In front of the last house in the row was one of the guys that had been in the car, talking to a skinny, younger looking guy. Jim stayed still as he leaned forward trying to gauge any information he could. He couldn’t clearly hear what was being said, but as he didn’t know Romanian, it would have been fairly useless anyway, even if he could hear clearly. Uhura would have been perfect to have with the group, as Jim had lost count of the number of languages she could insult him in. He did know that one of them was Romanian.
Another minute of discussion between the two passed before the one he had seen earlier walked back into the house, leaving the other guy outside. As the door shut, Jim retreated and kept low as he headed back to his team.
He motioned them to move further back down the road, so he could tell them what he saw. In a hushed tone he reported in about the guy being left as a lookout.
“We found them, but we still don’t know about Pike,” Bones pointed out. “We can’t very well go up and knock on the door and ask.”
“Why not ask him?” Gaila asked as she pointed in the guy standing in front of the house.
“He’s the lookout, and I doubt we could just walk up in our U.S.A. gear and he will tell us that Pike is in there,” Sulu pointed out.
Jim and the others looked on speechless as Gaila started to take her pants off, while smiling at them.
“Ms. Oriana,” Spock finally managed to get out. At another time Jim might have laughed at Spock’s inability to stop Gaila stripping off. Gaila had on leggings underneath her tracksuit pants and she tossed the pants at Jim, before unzipping her jacket and also throwing that in his direction.
“Voila!” she declared as she lifted up her hands to untie her hair and let it fall down over her shoulders. “Now I’m not in U.S.A. gear.”
“Ms. Oriana,” Spock began again. “I can not allow you to be a part of this.”
“Tough titties,” Gaila responded, before turning and starting to pull Scotty’s top up. “Arms up Montgomery, we need to turn this inside out.”
Jim couldn’t help the little bit of laughter at the stunned look on both Spock and Scotty’s faces when confronted with the force of nature that was Gaila.
As she continued to undress and then re-dress Scotty, she laid out her plan. “Montgomery and I can distract the lookout, you guys can sneak up and grab him and we can bring him back here to question. I will be perfectly fine, Mr. Spock. Montgomery won’t let anything happen to me, will you Montgomery?”
“Never lass,” Scotty agreed. “It’s an insane plan, but I like it.”
Jim thought quickly that if they could get the guy by the tree, they could take him without being seen from within the house. The other option was to go over the back fence and try and see if they could get some information that way. Jim was about to suggest that possibility when Gaila’s patience wore out. She had grabbed Scotty by the arm and was running down the street and around the corner, doing a remarkably loud impression of a very drunk girl. Scotty’s laughter and then his thick accent were clearly heard.
There was nothing for it but to follow along with Gaila’s mad plan. He tossed her clothes at Sulu before running to follow Gaila and Scotty, crouched over to stay underneath the level of the garden wall. He thought he remembered a half brick lying on the ground and sure enough, it was still there, not a figment of his imagination. He stopped to pick it up and felt a presence beside him. Spock had joined him.
“Mr. Scott is correct, this is insane, but I would be derelict if I did not lend my assistance.”
A third voice had joined Gaila’s and Scotty’s. Jim risked the chance and crept forward again as he had before, almost on all fours. The hand with the half brick he kept close to his chest. Gaila had done as she said she would. The lookout was having a hard time getting away from her and she had backed him along the street without him realizing. He could have walked around her, if he thought about it, but Jim knew the power of Gaila’s intent well. Almost no one said no to her.
Just as she got the guy back in line with the tree and out of sight of the house, Jim took off, running on the tips of his toes to be as silent as possible. He lifted up the brick in his hand, ready to knock the guy out as silently as possible.
A woosh of air surprised him as Spock ran past and, with some strange grab on the guy’s neck, made him drop as if in a faint.
Gaila and Scotty rushed forward to help Spock catch the guy as he fell. Jim mentally shook himself and leaped forward as well, grabbing the guy by the legs and, with a nod at Spock, they carried him quickly back around the corner.
Bones, Sulu and Pavel were waiting, just as they had left them on the other side of the house.
“Great, now we’ve kidnapped some random guy,” Bones complained as they laid the lookout down gently. “And what did you do with that, Jim?”
Jim looked down to see that he still had the half brick in his hand. “Ah, was gonna convince him to come with us.”
“I thought the whole stupid idea was so that we could question the lookout. It’s a bit hard when you’ve brained him on the head.”
“Well, it happened pretty quick, and I didn’t do it! Spock did some ninja thing on his neck and now he’s all sleepy. You’ve so gotta show me that sometime,” Jim said, looking at Spock with a little bit of wonder.
“The risk of the man making noise was unacceptable. I employed pressure on some nerves and immobilized him for the moment,” Spock said, ignoring Jim’s request.
Bones was carefully looking over his new patient, pulling back his eyelids. “And this moment is going to last how long?” Bones asked, sarcasm on full.
“Jim,” Pavel hissed from where he was standing and watching over the fence.
Whatever Pavel wanted to tell him, a voice yelling out “Cezar!” told Jim instead. The lookout now had a name.
Jim left Bones looking after ‘Cezar’, while he ran over to Pavel, flattening himself along the wall. Sulu, Spock and Scotty joined him. They listened while the man called for Cezar a few more times, before saying something muffled. Jim presumed he was talking to someone inside the house.
There was another bit of muffled noise and then Pavel breathed out, “Nyet!”
He turned to look at them and whispered a name that got their undivided attention. “Pike!”
Jim risked a look and sure enough they were bringing Pike down the steps. Pike was being held between two of them and the way his head was lolling forward, he was possibly as comatose as Cezar. Mind made up in an instant, Jim turned to Scotty and said, “Van,” before he took off running around the corner once more, not caring to hide his presence this time. He was going to get Pike, come hell or high water.
They didn’t spot him until he got near to the tree and then they started yelling. He heard some steps behind him, but didn’t know who had followed. The element of surprise was almost gone, but he remembered the half-brick still in his hand. The first guy came running at him, but Jim just gripped the half-brick and swung. He felt the moment it connected with the other guy’s skull, though he didn’t have time to stop and see what damage had been done. A guy still on the steps was yelling at the two with Pike and they were almost running now, dragging Pike along with them as they headed for the BMW parked down a side alley.
Jim charged, shoulder down, just as he had learned playing football in high school. As he went down, taking one of Pike’s guys with him, he twisted and tried to bring the half-brick back into play. The ground met him quickly and knocked a little bit of breath from him. It halted his swing just enough that the other guy got a solid whack on Jim’s face, but Jim wasn’t having any of that. He had spent enough time in bar brawls to know his way around a scrap so he swung again, hearing a satisfying thwack as the brick connected.
Movement off to the side attracted his attention. He twisted and was about to come up to his feet and go after the other guy when he saw a booted foot swinging his way. He twisted back the other way, ready to take the hit along his back instead of his face, but it never came.
“No you don’t,” he heard Pike grunt out.
Jim rolled back over and saw that Pike had launched himself at the other guy and brought them both to ground. Pike was groaning and about to get hit, so Jim sprang forward and punched the guy in the face, hard. A quick look around showed that one guy was down, Sulu was dealing with the guy at the door and Spock, well Spock was doing some weird martial arts move that brought down two guys.
The van roared around the corner and Jim grabbed Pike, lifting him up and apologizing as he groaned again. They stumbled out onto the sidewalk as Scotty pulled the van up onto the curb.
“Great timing, Scotty,” Jim yelled as he pulled and dragged Pike with him out onto the road and around to the other side of the van.
“Jim!” Bones yelled as he jumped down from the open side doorway to help Jim with Pike.
“Bones,” Jim replied, very relieved to see Bones waiting for him.
“Sulu! Spock! Get in!” Jim yelled as they lowered Pike none too gently to the floor.
Gaila was already making a pillow under Pike’s head with her discarded top and pants from earlier, and Bones was starting to check him over, talking to him quietly. Jim looked back to see Sulu jumping in and sliding a little sideways to make sure he didn’t land on Pike or the still sleeping Cezar, who was in the van as well. Spock placed a solid kick on the one remaining Romanian outside and ran for the van. Jim had never seen Spock move with the speed he had this evening. There were hidden depths to the guy.
“Go! Go! Go!” Jim yelled at Scotty as Spock started to close the side door.
Scotty shoved the van into reverse and Jim instinctively grabbed out to make sure that Bones didn’t fall over. He had to grab again, as Scotty slammed on the brakes and then accelerated forward around a corner, back down the street they had been parked on.
“Get us back to the Village, Scotty,” Jim ordered. “Pavel, check and make sure we aren’t being followed.”
“Yes, sir!” Pavel replied, sitting up so he could see out the back windows of the van.
The adrenaline of the fight was starting to wear off, and Jim sat down, inadvertently on his bag. As he pulled it out from underneath him, he heard Pike groan.
Gaila was still sitting at Pike’s head, one hand braced on the side of the van, the other ready to help protect Pike. Spock had moved to his other side and next to Jim, and, leaning over Pike still talking to him quietly, was Bones. Sulu and Pavel were acting as the lookout and Scotty was driving at a speed the van had probably never been at in its life up to this point.
Jim looked over to where Cezar was lying, noticing that a jacket had been rolled up and placed under his head as well. It was obviously Bones’ jacket as he was no longer wearing one. Jim raised an eyebrow at Bones, querying the presence of the Romanian in the van with them. Bones sensed Jim’s stare and looked up from Pike. Jim just shifted his eye-line to Cezar and then back to Bones.
“What? I’m not leaving an injured person just lying around,” Bones grouched before he returned his attention to Pike.
Pike pushed Bones’ hand away and tried to raise himself up but groaned and, with a solid push from Bones, dropped back down.
“You stay right there, Christopher, until I tell you otherwise. Scotty!” Bones yelled as Scotty took another corner fast and all four of them grabbed onto Pike to stop him rolling into the side of the van. How the van had stayed on four wheels, Jim didn’t know. Scotty was a demon.
“They are not following,” Pavel reported.
“You sure?” Scotty asked.
“He’s sure,” Sulu confirmed.
As Scotty slowed the van down, Gaila moved to grab Bones’ bag from the other side and passed it to Bones. While Bones was looking inside it for whatever he needed, Jim scooted a little closer to Pike.
“Hey, sir. Kinda missed you tonight,” he said.
Pike was watching Jim from between narrowed eyelids, as if it hurt to open his eyes fully.
“Mr. Kirk, you and I will be having a discussion shortly about your propensity to engage in brawls. I thought we had knocked that desire on the head,” Pike said as he pointed at Jim’s face.
Jim lifted up his hand to touch his cheek and hissed at the pain he felt. He was going to have a great shiner tomorrow.
“It was for a good cause,” Jim retorted. He blinked as Bones shined the little pen light in his direction.
“When he’s finished chewing you out, then it will be my turn. Of all the stupid, idiotic...I give up really,” Bones complained.
Jim couldn’t see Bones’ face, as the light was too bright and then he had to blink when Bones turned the light and his attention onto Pike. Pike hissed as Bones lifted up his eyelids and checked his pupils.
“Captain,” Spock said, laying a hand on Pike’s shoulder.
“Hurts,” Pike admitted.
Jim wasn’t sure if he was saying that to Spock or to Bones, who was now asking some other questions. They all sat in silence to watch Bones care for the Captain.
After a while, Pike was becoming testy and not being helpful and Jim could see how agitated Bones was getting. You didn’t mess with Bones when he was trying to be all doctorly, even if you were the patient.
“Let me sit up!” Pike was ordering Bones.
“You’ll sit up when I let you sit up. For now you’re staying right here, even if I have to tie you down.”
“With what?” Pike sassed back as he glanced around the van, which was pretty empty of rope or other suitable materials.
Jim reached into his bag, grabbed his medal and pulled it out to dangle it in full view of Pike.
“Could always use this,” he said, trying not to laugh at the look on Pike’s face.
“You smart assed little...” Pike started to say.
“Now, now, Captain. Is that any way to talk to an Olympic gold medalist? Got two other medals around here too, pretty sure we could help Bones out here to keep you in place. Or if he tells me to, I’ll sit on you.”
Pike let out a snort. “Call off your dog,” he told Bones.
“Gentleman and Gaila, we’re here,” Scotty announced.
“Captain, do you have your Identification?” Spock asked.
Pike brought his hand up to grab at his chest, groping for his I.D. that was not there.
“Mr. Scott, if you would be so kind to park the van over there.” Spock pointed to a space.
“There’s coppers,” Scotty pointed out.
Jim leaned over and looked out the window. Sure enough, Scotty was right, there were two cop cars, and some very familiar faces of the higher up U.S. Team officials.
“I alerted the relevant people,” Spock said at Jim’s quizzical look in his direction as he raised his hand up to show his phone. “Also I am sure they will be keen to converse with this man.” Spock pointed at Cezar.
“Are there--” Bones started to say before Spock interrupted him.
“I have arranged for medical staff as well.”
“Ah,” Jim said as the repercussions of the night started to dawn on him. Cops and him had never been the best of buddies.
“Yes, Jim, you’ll have a bit of explaining to do. And when they finish with you, I want to see you,” Bones ordered, not once looking at Jim, his focus was still completely on Pike. “If you don’t, I’ll tell Pike about the Kobayashi Maru.”
The door to the van opened and questions came firing at them from all directions. Jim thought it might be a good idea before Pike comprehended what Bones had just said. Spock was the first to leave, holding up his hands to try and placate everyone.
“We might be in a bit of trouble,” Jim said to Sulu as he looked over the group waiting for them, and ignoring the yell to explain himself coming from Pike still inside the van.
“You think?” Sulu said as he slapped Jim on the shoulder. “Would do the same thing over again though.”
Jim remembered how fluid Sulu had been in those moments that he saw him fighting. “We really should do it again sometime.”
Sulu laughed as he followed Jim out of the van, ready to face the music.
oOo
Chapter 4 this way
A/N: Sheeps Lane, London's Field is where Pike is being held, but I made a little decision to turn it into a dead end street. Just pretend that it stops before the bridge, if you look it up on a map. ;)
I found these lovely night shots of the area which I am sure my descriptions in the story don't do justice.