Fanfic: Tainted Love [ 17 / 20 ] McCoy / Chekov
Title: Tainted Love [ Part 17 / 20 ]
Disclaimer etc: see other parts
Author's Note: HOLY CRAP did this one take me forever to write! I am so sorry guys! My inspiration kept running away every time I sat down to write on this! At least it's nearly over! Thank the gods for that!
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“Hell no, Jim. Not yet. I refuse and I have several very important pieces of evidence to show why this is a dumb ass idea.”
“But Bones, seriously-”
“No fucking way and that’s final!”
“Doctor McCoy-”
“What is it Spock?”
“I do believe I hear Ensign Chekov calling for you.”
McCoy stopped his tirade and listened for a second, hearing the faint call too. He excused himself snappily and walked over to where Pavel lay, an osteoregenerator hovering over his cheek where the cheekbone had been broken and another hovering over his ribs. He looked tired though that may be from the pain medications the doctor had him under more than any real exhaustion and to say he looked like a mess was an understatement. As pissed as he was that this shit wasn’t prevented, it didn’t give him the right to vent it on the innocent victim. “What do you need Pasha?” he asked quietly, “I’m here.”
“Who vere you yelling at?” Even half out of it, he had been able to make out the yelling huh? Leonard supposed that being half conscious for several years while people yelled around you certainly helped with that. “Was eet someone who deed somezing rong?"
McCoy laughed softly and gently brushed back some of Pavel’s curls. “No, Kirk was just asking for something stupid. As usual.”
“Vhat deed he ask for?”
For a minute or two the doctor contemplated not telling the young man. However, it was his right to know so there really was no reason why he shouldn’t say it, morally. “They wanted to ask you to take the witness stand for all three major cases they have on that prostitution ring you were a part of. They’d have to hook you up to machines that will let them know if you are telling them the truth and let the admirals on the other end of the conversation ask you questions.”
Pavel looked scared and immediately the doctor leaned forward, gently pressing their noses together as he petted the boy’s hair and shushed him quietly. “It will be over a communication. You’ll never see these people in person. Other than that one kid who attacked you just now on the bridge, everyone else is light years away. No one can get you out here. You’re safe with me. I promise, Pasha. You’re safe.”
“No, zat ees not eet.” The accented voice trembled, making it sound frailer. The younger man closed his eyes and let a shaky breath out. “My friends, my co-vorkers een Leningrad… vhat vill happen to zem?”
“What do you mean, darlin’?”
“So many of zem hawe no home outside ze place Alabugin giwes zem. Eef he should lose all business, zey are zrown onto street. Zey become prostitute for someone else, perhaps someone not as nice or someone who forces zem to take drugs.”
Bones frowned. Oh no. Not this. “Pavel, hon, not all of ‘em are going to end up like that. Some will, yeah, but not all. Some will take the chance to start a new life, an attempt to be happy.” He smiled softly and kissed a thin hand. “Like us.”
Pavel still did not look convinced do the doctor sighed and sat back, giving the boy room to breathe. “If you honestly don’t want to do this then I won’t force you to. It’s entirely your choice, darlin’ and no one else’s. I just want you to think about it and make an informed decision.”
At some point in their conversation, Kirk and Spock had slipped into the small area and stood at the foot of the bed. Spock was looking as stern as usual but the Captain had an unusually serious expression on his face. Although he could not sit up to address them, not with the doctor’s strong hand pressing gently on his shoulder to keep him there, Pavel stiffened where he lay, as if standing at attention. Whatever this was, it was meant to be a serious discussion and he would not pretend it was anything less than serious. “Have you made a decision Ensign?” Kirk asked with a dead serious tone.
“Decision about vhat sir?”
Apparently this was the right thing to say because Kirk glanced at Spock for a second then said with the same voice one would expect of someone with real authority, on the ship or off. “Ensign Pavel Andreievich Chekov, I am asking you if you are formally going to press charges against Lieutenant Liev Tatamovitch for assault and attempted murder as defined by Federation law.” McCoy was surprised at the charges. He would have figured assault was the best they could get.
“Yes sir I do.”
“And do you formally press the charges against Admiral Christopher Pike for sexual assault on a minor?”
“Yes sir I do.”
Kirk went down the list, with Spock as his witness, formally having Chekov press charges on everyone in Starfleet that they could find a decent amount of evidence against. While they spoke, the Vulcan filled out the paperwork on the PADD he held. So it was official now. As soon as this was submitted Pike would be arrested and in a few weeks the trials would begin. At least, Bones admitted to himself, the wait would soon be over. Sooner rather than later, the fuckers that took from this young man something he had never really been old enough to willing give, would be forced to face what they did. He wouldn’t be able to kill them himself, yes, but it was better than getting arrested for seemingly random murders…
It took several days for the court martial to get under way and as those days flew by Doctor McCoy became very aware of a certain date that was quickly approaching, a date that he had marked on his calendar and circled with good ole fashioned red ink as if that would help him remember it better. In a way, he supposed, it did. He wasn’t about to forget that on that specific day, according to all the medical files he had, Pavel Andreievich Chekov would be turning officially 18 years old. He would become a legal adult and therefore fair game after this business with the court martial was taken care of.
But while Leonard knew about this date and so did Pavel, it seemed, and not many other people were overly concerned with it. Kirk was too busy gathering evidence and Spock was preparing a kind of lie detector from one of the computers on the ship, calibrating and testing it. They were the only two, outside of McCoy and Pavel, who knew of the full extent of this particular court martial though Sulu was going to be brought in as a witness for that Russian kid in the brig when it was time to talk about that damn assault. At least, McCoy had to grant his equipment worked quickly and his patient and beloved would be able to walk on his own with very little pain on the day when the fucker’s fate was decided.
But the trial was the day after Pavel’s birthday and that meant that he had the chance to do something with the boy to celebrate it. The regenerators should leave his once broken bones strong enough to let him walk around without too much pain so they were free to do something outside if Sickbay if they wanted. Perhaps something in his quarters? It couldn’t be anything too intimate. The cameras were on them all the time now and McCoy would be damned if he let those bastards get any kind of information that could help get those fuckers acquitted.
In the end, Leonard decided on something simple. He would have the replicator get him the ingredients he needed and he would bake the kid a birthday cake. It would, no doubt, be the first he’d had in seven long years and to the doctor’s mind, that was something that was just whole new levels of wrong. He was a father. He knew that if he could he would spend every year making his little girl a birthday cake of some kind (since Jocelyn couldn’t bake anything to save her damned life) because her birthday was a very special day to him. The idea that Pavel’s birthday hadn’t been celebrated in seven long years was just barbaric to him and so decided to correct that. That and he needed to get a gift too.
The day of Pavel’s eighteenth birthday, McCoy had everything set up. Before his shift that morning he had baked the cake and frosted it by hand, looking up how to write “Happy Birthday Pavel” in Russian before using some colored icing to write it out in the same Cyrillic characters he knew his beloved would recognize and like. All around the cake, using some edible gel-like substance, he had written out physics formulas in various colors on the white frosting and on top of the cake he had placed eighteen small candles in the shape of a heart, candles that he had to find a small lighter to light them with.
But with the cake, Leonard had also found what he thought would be the perfect gift for his deprived beloved. It had taken him a while to find and worth a good deal of credits but he honestly didn’t care. Pavel deserved it after the hell he had endured in life. It sat, wrapped up, hidden in his closet. Well it was three things really instead of just one but it was hardly the point. It was something the kid would own beyond what few trinkets he carried in that duffle bag. A teenager’s entire life shouldn’t fit in something as small as a duffle bag.
That evening, with his latest twelve hour shift complete, Doctor McCoy signed off on the last of his PADDs and turned he reigns over to M’Benga shortly before going to Pavel’s bedside and checking not only his vitals but how he was feeling. The upcoming court martial had definitely made him nervous, but McCoy had hoped for something a little more optimistic about today. Surely he would remember his own birthday.
“Hey there,” he said quietly, closing the privacy curtain around him as he watched the young man wake up from the nap he had decided to take earlier, “You feeling better today?” The nervousness of the trials had made the teenager physically ill a few times since he had first formally pressed charges against those that assaulted him and while it worried Leonard, at the same time he found it understandable. So far today Pavel hadn’t been ill and his nod seemed to confirm that he was feeling better. “Good. I have a surprise for you.”
Blond eyebrows rose at the mention of this but a hesitant smile crossed the young face at the same time. McCoy understood this. He didn’t think Pavel had experienced too many good surprises so far in his life. However, he was pretty sure his lover would appreciate this surprise. “It won’t hurt you,” he promised and offered him his hand, “but it’s in my quarters so we gotta leave sick bay for you to see it.”
Chekov said nothing as he took the offered hand and got to his feet, leaning a little heavily on the doctor’s arm for a second while he tested his ability to stand straight. After a minute or two he was fine. Leonard was glad. He would hate for Pavel to be hurt today of all days.
The two walked slowly through the hallways, ignoring the various personnel that tried not to stare as they walked passed on their way to wherever it was they needed to be. Pavel was dressed in scrubs still and while he wasn’t leaning on the doctor he still had a hand on the man’s shoulder as if he was balancing himself carefully. If it had been anyone else, they knew, until the patient was 100% healthy he would have never been allowed to step out of that Sickbay. When McCoy thought about it later that was probably the first clue to the crewmen that they were more than just co-workers.
Just before they got to the room, though, Leonard paused and turned to his boyfriend, telling him quietly to cover his eyes. “It’s okay. I won’t let you run into anything. But I gotta set something up real quick to make this an even bigger surprise than it already is.”
He got a questioning look for an answer but eventually the young Russian complied. McCoy was gentle as he guided the younger man into the room and had him sit at the table, calling for the lights to turn on to only a fraction of what they would normally be and went about lighting the single candle on the birthday cake. When he told his young boyfriend to uncover his eyes and take a look, the expression on the boy’s face was well worth the bit of trouble he went to get the ingredients to bake the cake and get the rest of the presents for the kid. He hoped he’d keep bringing such absolute joy and happiness to once haunted features.
For the first time since he had known Pavel Chekov, his grey eyes were sparkling with happiness. The smile on his face was bright and for once it reached those same eyes. There was no trace of the fear he could remember Pavel having when he first spoke with him. There was no emptiness. He was happy. For the first time in so long, Chekov was happy.
“I hope you like vanilla cake,” he said as he guided the younger man to the table where the small cake sat, “I had trouble finding a recipe for the frosting but I thought it turned out okay.”
Pavel couldn’t speak; in too much shock at this gift he had been given by the man he loved. A birthday cake. A real birthday cake! Oh he had seen them before the few times he had gone to client’s birthdays, especially when he was bought for the birthday, but he had never been allowed to taste any. He wasn’t even allowed to be in the same room as it. But here he was, sitting in front of his own birthday cake, it’s candle flickering in the dimness of the room, illuminating the words written around it in such shaky Cyrillic it had to be someone who clearly had no idea how to write in the language. He couldn’t remember the last time someone did something like this for him.
So he turned in his seat towards his beloved, who was kneeling next to him at the table, watching him with a brilliant smile on his handsome face. “Happy Birthday, Pavel,” he said. That was all it took. Chekov couldn’t take it anymore. He leapt out of his seat and tackled Leonard to the ground, kissing him messily, trying to express his joy through the kiss when he was pretty sure it was impossible to do so. He didn’t care. He kept trying. There was nothing else he could think of to do.
McCoy laughed in between kisses, hearing all the unsaid and the said “thank you”s that the younger man was positively brimming with and after a minute or so he gentle pushed on the smaller chest, getting Pavel to back off. “You’re very welcome, Pavel. However, you had better get to blowing out that candle before it melts too much and you get a cake that tastes like wax.”
Pavel, as excited as a puppy, got back into his seat and was about to blow out the candle when he paused. Wasn’t there some kind of ritual to this? “Aren’t I supposed to do something first?” he asked. It had been a long time since he had done something like this.
McCoy sat up, again kneeling beside the chair, his larger hand resting gently on Pavel’s upper back. “I don’t know about Russia but in America, it’s traditional to make a wish -in your head of course because wishes don’t come true if you tell them to someone-then you blow out the candle.” That earned him a stare. “It’s said that whatever your wish was should come true in the next year if you manage to blow out all the candles… in this case, candle.”
“But vhat eef my vish has already come true?”
The doctor wanted to cry. What had he done to earn himself someone who loved him that was so sweet and yet so very broken inside still? “Then you make a wish for everything to stay just the way you want it.” He looked back at the cake as Pavel took his deep breath, clearly thinking about his wish as he did so, before expelling all that air narrowly and blowing out the candle with ease.
McCoy clapped at that, as he had always done, and ordered the lights to their half strength ( the brightest lighting he could stand without being reminded of medical bay ) and getting a knife to cut the cake with along with two plates, two glasses, and a small, half gallon powdered milk he had managed to find that tasted decent. He set his items on the table around the cake and turned to Pavel, who was still staring at it, no doubt reading the formulas.
“So, darlin’ which would you rather do? You wanna eat your take first or open your presents?”
Pavel’s head shot up so quickly that the doctor could have sworn the kid had given himself whiplash. “Presents? You mean there are presents too?”
Another wave of warm and fuzzy swept through McCoy at the joy and surprise and happiness in his young boyfriend’s face. If a simple birthday party could do this, he got the feeling the kid would fuckin’ explode around Christmas... and wasn’t that a comforting thought. “Yeah, of course there are. It wouldn’t be much of a birthday without presents for the birthday boy now would it? All you gotta do is decide if you wanna open ‘em first or eat the cake first.”
Chekov thought about it for all of thirty seconds before saying “I think we should eat the cake first, while it is still fresh.” Well, that was what his mouth was saying. McCoy could hear the words echoing behind it. ‘Before it takes taken away.’ He ignored his sadness at that thought and instead smiled as he took his seat and plucked the candle from the middle of the cake, setting it in a plate before handing Pavel the knife. “Birthday boy gets to cut the cake and get the first slice so, have at it.
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PART 16 | PART 18