Chapter 10

"This is twice in a week, Leonard your getting as bad as him." Geoff joked as Leonard opened his eyes, he didn't need to explain who he was.

"ugh, is he okay?" Leonard asked blinking away the fuzziness, looking around to see his crazy friend. "What time is it?"

"It's about 1 am, and we'll talk about him in a minute, let's do you first!" Geoff didn't give an inch, he made sure he had completed all the checks and aftercare from Leonard's emergency surgery before he sat down to answer any of Leonard's questions.

"Physically he is okay. However that's not what concerns me." Geoff trailed off sadly.

"Geoff, what's going on?" Leonard hit the bed control, pushing himself upright.

"Tom Leighton didn't make it." Geoff sighed, as he sat down on one of the wheeled stools next to Leonard's bed.

"God!" Leonard breathed, leaning back into the pillows. Jim was already going through a particularly troubling event, but to add the death of an old friend. "How has Jim taken it?"

Geoff shrugged, "As well as can be expected." Geoff knew that there was some pretty significant history between the two men he had seen it. "He was with Tom for the end. Think he appreciated that." He sighed "He was here a to check on you about an hour ago I guess the Admiralty is awake and has had a chance to read the report I suspect that he has a few questions to answer."

"What happened?"Leonard asked softly as his voice felt scratchy.

"Well after he pulled you out of Tom's quarters Jim went after Kodos from what I hear." Geoff paused. "I understand there was a bit of a fight when Kev Riley burst in and threaten Kodos, although he was quickly disarmed by Lenore Kodos daughter. Apparently it was Kodos' daughter Lenore that had been killing off the witnesses. Scary thing is she was only 17." Geoff shook his head in disbelief. "Unfortunately it ended when there was a stalemate and Kodos killed both of them." he sighed. "It's been a crazy couple of hours. I have treated half the cast for shock and the captain was forced to arrest poor Kev Riley who is currently under suicide watch in the isolation room as the captain refused to send to the cells." He rattled off with a sigh. It had been a long night and he was exhausted.

"Wow!" he breathed leaning back into the pillows.

"Yeah. I wouldn't want to have to explain this one to the Admiralty!" Leonard nodded slightly in agreement; he looked over at one of the displays for the time. It was a little after 2am. He guessed that this was Geoff's first opportunity since the whole thing had kicked off yesterday evening to sit down and relax. "Anyway I promised him I would let him know when you woke up, so get some sleep." Geoff stood up and headed for the exit med pack in hand.

Spock followed his captain in to his quarters. He wasn't really sure what he would do once inside but he knew one thing that he didn't want to leave his captain in the state he was in or in fact call anyone else that did not know how personal the pervious few days had been for his habitually bright eyed friend. Usually so calm and collected the captain had become increasingly restless, angry and pale over the past few hours, it was now 0215 ships time and he had just finished with the last of his reports.

"If I have to answer one more pathetic question in the next 24 hours, I will claim I am Kodos just to stop the ridiculous line of questioning. I swear you have to have your brain removed just to work in Admiralty building!" he shouted as he ripped off his gold command shirt, throwing it on the floor of his sleeping area. "How the hell Pike can sit there and listen to that drivel, I don't know." He started searching his cupboards for something. "Spock if they comm back tonight tell them,... " sidetracked as he finally he found what he was looking for "I would offer you some of this but it would be a waste of good Jack." He waved the bottle of amber liquid.

"Captain, I take it that you are declaring yourself off duty, if you are planning on consuming alcohol?"

"I think that is a safe assumption Mr Spock." As he poured himself a very large measure of whiskey and swallowed the whole glass easily before pouring himself another one. Spock watched with growing interest as the captain started changing into gym kit.

"Captain may I enquire why you are changing into sport attire?"

"I am going to the gym Spock, you are welcome to join me. Perhaps a sparring session would be agreeable?" He said his voice sharp although he clearly tried to remain an even voice.

"Sir, I highly doubt that physical activity at this time of night would be helpful as you should be on you sleep cycle, also I understood that you are still restricted from exercise."Jim laughed hollowly. Spock recoiled at the unnatural sound.

"Spock I have absolutely no intentions to sleep right now." He said from the sleep area as he pulled off the black undershirt revealing toned and recently healed wound at his side, he ignored Spock's concern into his health. Spock was spared answering the captain's alarming statement by the door chime.

Geoff was surprised as Spock answered the door of the Captain's quarters. "Mr Spock, I have come to let the Captain know that Leonard as woken up and has no negative neurological affects. He made me promise to tell him as soon as he woke up."

"Come in Doctor. I think that news will be most welcome." Geoff stepped into the captain's quarters. He was not sure what he was expecting to see, but it wasn't what was in front of him. The captain had just finished climbing into his sports kit and was swallowing his second large measure of whiskey.

"Doctor, I hope you have got good news." He said conversationally, although the burning anger remained barely veiled in his voice.

"Captain, Doctor McCoy has regained consciousness and I can confirm that he has sustained no negative neurological effects from his head injury. I expect him to be back on his feet in two days, after intensive regen therapy for his burns to his hands and face." The captain closed his eyes as he remembered the horror of seeing his best friend through the smoke and fire of Tom's quarters. It was only the scientific blues that had indentified him, as his face had been so burnt. He placed a supporting hand on the shelving unit behind his desk.

"Good." He breathed visibly relaxing, as he place the empty glass tumbler back on the desk.

"He might be still awake if you would like to see him?"

"No." He shook his head trying to forget those images of blacken skin. Bile churned in his stomach. "I am sure he needs his rest. I am going to the gym, I'll come by in the morning." He said leaning forward to pick up the bottle of whiskey. Geoff was quicker; he placed his hand on the top of the bottle gently creating a barrier.

"Is this real?"He indicated to the bottle on the desk not moving his hand.

"You think I am going to reach for a bottle of alcohol free whiskey? Move your hand Doctor!"

"You've had enough, Captain!" Their eyes locked, the doctors soft concern meeting with the angry coldness of the captains blue. "Alcohol reacts badly with the medications that you are still on. As you might have forgotten you are still recovering from a severe injury!"

"Fine!" he growled, letting go of the bottle. He stepped back to the bed and grabbed the towel he had thrown there earlier. "If anyone needs me, I will be in the gym!"

"I'm sorry, Captain but I can't let you do that either." The doctor told him softly.

"Why the hell not!" Jim half exploded.

"For the same reason, Captain. If you tried to complete a workout now, you would set back your recovery. Most likely you would injure yourself as your body is not ready to untake strenuous activity."

"Let me be the judge of that! Get out of my way!" He growled irrupting the doctor, who had passively blocked his path to the door.

"That's best case scenario. Look you're exhausted; you've had an extremely stressful day, your body needs to rest. I can't let you punish yourself for something that you couldn't have prevented."

"What the hell do you know about it doctor!" His eyes narrowed dangerously. "I knew what Kodos was capable of. I knew and I brought him onto my ship. I knew!" he let the word hang for a second. "I practically painted a target on Tom's back by doing so. Which not only got him killed but got my best friend also blown up in the process! It's only by sheer bloody luck that both aren't dead right now! So tell me doctor, how could I not have prevented it?! I bloody caused it!" He took a breath. "and tell me what has it achieved!? How is the world different now we have found Kodos! Another of his victim's is dead, total death toll 4133. There will be no trial, no punishment, and no justice!" The world started spinning around him, but he pushed on. "No doctor, I could have prevented this, because I knew!"

He gripped the shelf harder as he felt himself lose his balance. Nausea hit him like a truck and sent him struggling for his private bathroom. He just made it to the toilet as the whiskey made an unwelcome violent reappearance.

Exhausted and shaking he sank back against the wall of the small bathroom. His eyes tightly closed, arms hang uselessly by his side, too heavy to move. He had forgotten completely that Spock and M'Benga were still in his room, until Geoff started shaking his shoulder. "Captain! Captain you still with us?" with effort he cracked open an eye revealing Geoff M'Benga kneeling in front of him a concerned look in his eye.

"Yeah." At that moment he felt truly awful. "What the hell is this?"

"Sorry, captain. Alcohol and therapeutic doses of Tri-ox don't mix."

"You know," he grumbled tiredly through half closed eyes. "You should really tell people that when you give them that stuff!" He closed his eyes again trying to lessen the queasiness and dizziness that he was feeling.

"And you shouldn't have 20 year old Jack Daniels on this ship, but you do!"

"Touché." He whispered behind tightly closed eyes the pain in his head pulsating, making him unable to focus on anything else. It was strangely relaxing. "That was a bloody waste of good Jack!" He felt and heard the hiss of the hypospray against his neck, slowly the pain and queasiness receded. He blinked carefully trying to take in the scene around him.

"Better?"

"Yeah, what was that?"

"A one way ticket to sickbay for the next 6 hours, and trust me your going to be thankful your there!"

The morning had runaway with him after he had got back from sickbay, although he was not supposed to be working after unwittingly giving himself alcohol poisoning the night before, but he just couldn't sit on his hands all day. To avoid a second dressing down from the doctor that day he used the desk in his quarters and worked his way through the reports from the incident the previous evening now that all of the evidence had been gained. With the exception of the medical report which Geoff M'Benga had promised the Captain would be completed by the end of alpha once all the tests had been run by the lab. The short statement that he had issued to the Admiralty last night would be now require further infomation so that they could react diplomatically and have media plans in place if required. Swiftly he sent the reviewed documents off to Uhura for the first comm packet of the morning.

By the lunchtime he knew he couldn't put it off any longer. He forced himself to call Martha, Tom's young wife of two years. The Admiralty had confirmed that a Starfleet officer had broken the news to her the previous night as protocol dictated. He wasn't required to call her, but he wanted to tell her how sorry he was and that he hadn't died alone. He had briefly met her once when the couple visited San Francisco before moving to Planet Q for Tom's work, she was young, intelligent and beautiful, he had definitely been jealous of his friend that day.

The conversation had been brief, and he had fallen back on his grief training as he tried to describe what had happened. Martha thanked him for calling and asked a few questions but otherwise didn't speak or cry. Her pale skin, framed by dark hair made her look so utterly lost. He told her he would make arrangements to bring Tom home, but it might not be for several weeks. "He'll still be dead in 4 weeks, Jim. Time doesn't really matter now, does it? He's still dead." She had said without emotion, but the devastation was broken across her face. Sensing that the conversation was over he had signed off, not wanting to cause more pain.

The conversation had left him angry, angry at himself and angry at Kodos. He needed to do something, something to make a positive out of the whole unfortunate affair. He headed for the bridge, they were due to enter orbit of Cygnia Minor to drop off the acting troop that they had picked up in their attempted to arrest Kodos quietly and take him to earth for trial. He was greeted by Sulu at the helm, who quickly brought him up to speed with the events over the past few hours. He settled into the chair.

He made it through to the middle of Beta before Geoff M'Benga turned up in his ready room black pouch in hand. "I don't remember inviting you in, Doctor!" he said gruffly from his desk.

He had avoided the appointment that he was due earlier that day as he couldn't bring himself step inside sickbay. It wasn't that he was avoiding treatment; it was that he was avoiding his friend. He hadn't seen Bones since he pulled him out of Tom's wrecked quarter. Even though he had spent the night he had avoided looking for Bones and given strict instructions that Bones should not be told about his little accident, so the grumpy doctor didn't demand his presence.

It was the smell, the smell of burning flesh. You don't get the odour from one phaser burn set on kill, but multiply that by thousands and you choke in it. He couldn't look at his friend right now and see the blacken skin. He just couldn't be strong right now if he looked at Bones, the delicate wall would crack.

"And I remember telling you to come see me at 1300 today."

"My apologies Doctor I got stuck in a meeting with Legal. I thought Janice left you a message?"

"No Captain, you had her tied up with researching and rewriting your media release all day, then rearranging your diary to include the extra fire, first aid and security training that you have ordered for the entire crew." The doctor looked sternly at his patient. "In fact it would seem that you have managed to max out your whole staff just so they would leave you alone, and more importantly not mentioning that you are not in fact supposed to be on duty at all."

"It's been a busy day." The captain said his eyes narrowing.

Geoff couldn't denied it was a brilliant ploy, which until he had off- handly mentioned to Leonard that the captain had asked that sickbay provided extra first aid training package for the next 12 weeks starting the following day, McCoy had laughed at the junior doctor. "Geoff, he is playing you! He's got an appointment today, right?" Geoff had nodded. "He does this when he wants to be left alone. Max everyone out so they are so focused on what he wants, they avoid him, afraid he'll give them more work. It's actually very effective. Send Tony or Christine up with his triox and whatever else you still have him on, and then go see him later when he thinks he got away with it." Leonard had said cheerily at his subordinate.

Spock was an unexpected visitor as Leonard prepared to leave sickbay. His face and hands had pretty much healed although the new skin was bright red and wouldn't settle to the normal colour for a day or so.

"Doctor you are much improved."

"Thank you, Spock. What do I own this pleasure to?" he enquired politely.

"I have come to enquire about the captain, plus he also requested that I -" Leonard hackles went up, three days of silence and now he has Spock deliver a message to him. Anger, concern and irritation sparked at once causing him to cut off Spock's words with his own rant.

"Unbelievable! I haven't seen hide nor hair of him since the explosion! I am clearly not the one to ask! He snapped at Spock unable to hide his anger at Jim avoiding him. "When you see him Spock, tell him from me that the next time he is laying in sickbay, he won't be getting any more contraband sneaked in when he thinks I'm not looking!" he continued. It hadn't bothered him on the first day, not even the second, but by the third day of complete silence and ignored comms he was pissed off, angry and hurt. Geoff was also keeping tight lipped about him. Even reminding Leonard that he was not on duty therefore he shouldn't be worrying about the captain, which had meant that the captain had asked Geoff not to mention anything to Leonard. It was a bit of a fruitless exercise considering as soon as he was back on duty he would have access to all of Jim's files anyway. "Also tell the little shit that -" He suddenly saw the photograph on the screen of the PADD in Spock's hand. As abruptly as he began the doctor snapped his mouth shut. Spock took the opportunity indicating to the PADD.

"I understand your daughter is waiting to speak with her father. You have an hour starting in fifteen minutes, the passcode is Joanna." His mouth dropped open, his tirade forgotten. An hour real time with his daughter, the doctor knew it was only Jim who could sign off on an hour long call and persuade his ex wife to allow him an hour outside of their normal 30 minute monthly conversations, or more frequent vid messages. Real time minutes where gold dust on the ship.

"Thank you. Spock." Taking the offered PADD. Not thinking about anything other than his daughter he scurried off to his quarters.

"Doctor, I still require a conversation with you."

"Later, Spock." The doctor headed for his quarters PADD in hand.

It was late. He knew he should at least try to sleep but he knew it would be futile. Even though he felt exhausted, sore and emotionally drained he knew his mind wouldn't let him forget. The last thing he needed right now was the long forgotten memories to flood back in to his dreams.

He tried to forget his earlier conversation with Kev Riley was still replaying in his head. Kev had been angry, furious with him. He could understand that. He should have realised the potential for Kev to see Kodos. It wasn't fair on him, without warning to be faced with your parent's killer. He closed his eyes and tried to forget the look of anger and pain Kev had greeted him with. M'Benga had said he would be fine in a few days and back on duty a few days after that, although he would still recommend counselling for a few months.

Failing, he got up from the sofa and burying himself in the ships efficiency scores from the last 2 quarters and the training cell's plan that they had thrown together that afternoon after his foul mood. It was a good distraction. Pulling up the plans and stats from previous ships he settled himself for an all nighter. He was determined that by the next morning he would be able to implement the plan and bring the standards up.

An hour later he was startled out of the stats from the Bradbury by the door chime.

"Come in." he said automatically from his desk, rubbing his tired eyes as he refocused them on the visitor.

"Evening Captain." The over cheerful sound of Geoff M'Benga's voice filled the cabin.

"Evening Doctor, what can I do for you?" He asked tiredly, picking up his coffee mug with a hint of suspicion.

"Well I'm just going off shift and I thought that I would drop by."

"Oh?" his eyebrows raised, not to giving the doctor the opening he was after. The doctor looked at him, and folded his arms sizing up his challenge. "I was under the impression that my medical staff didn't work over 12 hours shifts so due to patient safety."

"That's normally true captain, however with one doctor out of action for the next few shift rotations and extra demands from command, I have spent the last few hours tied up with admin. However that's not why I am here."

"Oh." Kirk repeated.

"Captain, when was the last time you actually slept?" he asked bluntly.

The captain grunted. "Surely you should know." He said testily as he raised his wrist showing off the medical bracelet.

"I'm not so sure captain. As you see, when I checked a few minutes ago the vitals that the feed was displaying were those of a sleeping adult, resting healthily. However once I looked a little closer at those vitals I noticed something a little odd. Were you aware that this little monitor can measure the tidal volume of your lungs? It's not often used but I can be quite helpful in your case. When I had a look this evening I noticed that your tidal volume was back to the normal parameters for you, which is excellent. So surprised that the treatments had worked so quickly I reviewed the data from previous nights." The doctor paused briefly watching the captain's passive face. "You know I saw that not only your tidal volume had improved last, but I fact every night that you have spent out of sickbay to then suddenly drop during the day. Fascinating don't you think?"

"You're point Doctor." Jim said grumpily.

"Captain for the past two nights you have been hacking into that bracelets signal and replacing the feeding with a pre-recorded set of vitals." Geoff said carefully. "Why? What drove you to all that trouble?"

"Doctor are you sure that your figures are correct? I mean you said it yourself, you have had a long day." The captain said evenly.

"Computer, display Captain James Kirk vital signs, via medical bracelet." The computer in front of the captain instantly changed into a page full of graphs and numbers. Geoff walked toward the captain tricorder in hand. "Captain can you explain this?" he held up the readings from the tricorder which displayed a very different set of vitals to the computer screen. The captain looked up at the doctor from the desk. "So are you going to tell me what's going on?"

The captain's bright blue eyes closed briefly before he looked up at the doctor. "Nope." He said simply.

"Well that's a shame." He walked over to the captain's sofa and sat down slowly. "Because, now that we have an unexplained malfunction with the bracelet, which will have to be properly investigated, before we use the bracelets again. You'll have to come back to sick bay to be monitored for the next few days, as I can't let you run around the ship without being monitored until you're nerves have healed properly." The young captain crossed his arms looking pretty frustrated.

"Seriously!" he half laughed half spat.

"Seriously." Geoff said evenly. "Captain, please remember the only reason that you are currently breathing is that electrodes are forcing your diaphragm to contract. This technology hasn't been used that widely and still has to be proved as safe. Also, you are still recovering from major surgery only 5 days ago. Both points you seem to be forgetting." He said seriously. "Look you are exhausted, in pain, your blood sugar is pretty low as is your blood pressure. I suspect that you haven't slept properly in two nights, if at all. I think those reasons alone are fairly justified."

"Fine, get me another bloody bracelet, I'll drink some orange juice and go to bed as soon as I am done." He ground out.

"Captain, I don't think that is really going to fix the problem." He said seriously. "I think you need to tell me why you have felt it necessary to hide the fact that you are not sleeping and haven't seen your best friend since Professor Leighton died."

"Doctor you are treading on thin ice." He growled dangerously at the doctor his anger bubbling up. He knew that the doctor wanted him to confess how he was feeling by dangling a threat in front of his nose. It wasn't that M'Benga was a bad guy it was just that he had no need to tell anyone else of the ghosts that had been dug up from the past few days. "You have no idea what caused a malfunction in the monitoring bracelet."

"However, I my medical opinion I cannot leave you unmonitored so you will have to spend the night in sickbay to be safe." He said evenly. "Unless, of course we get an explanation for the malfunction." He laid out the suggestion again.

"Fine, doctor you win." He stood up abruptly not wanting to play M'Benga's game, discreetly grabbing the table top to stop him swaying too much. He had no desperate wish to sit in sickbay all night just to make a point, but he would not talk to anyone else about his experiences, which was what Geoff clearly wanted him to do. Open up and tell all, well he could wait. Bones would be on duty in the morning who would let him out. "Lead on."

"Jim, what are you doing here?"

"Bracelet malfunction, Geoff won't let me out until it is explained." Bones raised his eyebrows at his friend knowing that Jim would have tampered with them. However most likely they would never figure out what he had done.

"Jim, what the hell is going on?" Bones looked at his friend. "You haven't seen me in days. Clearly you haven't slept in days, quite frankly, you're a mess."

"Is that your official medical opinion?"

"Jim, for god sake, he's trying to help! We all are, Tom's death was horrible. The fact that you where on Tarsus IV at the time is horrible. But Jim you need to talk about this and get passed it. What is going on in that head of yours?"

"Apart from the fucking obvious?"

"Okay, so talk me through it!"

"No, I can't. I won't. You want to know about my dirty little secret? You know it already, remember the 2nd year ethics at the academy?" He paused, Bones nodded they did a whole module on genocides, Tarsus IV massacre was the main case study. Their assignment had been an individual presentation the best of which would have to be presented to entire academy on the annual student lecture day. Kirk had scored the highest mark for his realistic timeline of the Tarsus IV tragedy through the eyes of a handful of survivors. "The file is still saved on the academy's server. You want to know why I couldn't look at my best friend burnt to a crisp. Watch it knowing that I was speaking as a survivor."

He found the file that Jim was talking about fairly swiftly. He remembered Jim had been fighting with his tutor as he didn't want to present it to the academy. Eventually he had lost the argument and Jim was forced to do the presentation again.

The recording started as he watched a younger version of Jim walk out onto the stage, to stand behind the lectern, his bright cadet reds making his pale face stand out painfully. He slotted the file chip into the AV equipment and a black and white picture of a group of skeletal children, eyes sunken, staring accusingly at the camera. Slowly pictures scrolled through of the scenes that Starfleet were met with when they had finally arrived. Each picture a gruesome depiction of the violence and suffering that the colonists had endured at the hands of their so call governor.

"Above the brown and barren land, where the daisies grow.

Above the sea of frozen eyes. With what little dignity we can show.

Above the stained streets of genocide. We lay her down to die.

Above the rows of broken homes. We sing hushed lullabies.

Above the wasted wheat fields. We share our last goodbyes

Above the lingering stench of death. She breathes her final breath.

Above the shattered hopes and dreams. The Soldiers are closing in.

Above the ransacked food stores. We know their listening in.

Above the last survivor's cries. Another victim dies.

Above the brown and barren land, where the daisies grow. A poem written by Tom, aged 13, Tarsus IV survivor and witness." He began.

The recording finished, he'd had seen it before, he knew what to expect it was horrible the first time round. But the second knowing and understanding what his friend had survived. He felt drained, his stomach doing back flips. He would have loved to pull out the bourbon but it was mid shift. No wonder Jim hadn't wanted to do the presentation, he hadn't written it for the marks. He had wanted to tell a story that no one would ever hear. As he spoke it was evident to Leonard that Jim wasn't engaging with the audience, he was speaking directly to someone, who that was Leonard had no idea.

Jim had gone off the rails for a few weeks after that, but slowly he had calmed down and something in him had changed. He was less arrogant, more at peace with himself.

Sometimes, some memories are better left alone. There was no healing benefit that he would get from having to re live it again. Jim had healed himself once, and he had made himself pretty clear, look but don't touch. Leonard exited his office and headed to the nurses' station, he was pleased see Jim was where he had left him. He grabbed a few supplies before heading over.

He threw the small pot of pills at his friend, startled Jim fumbled the catch.

"Painkillers, I know those nerves are playing merry hell with you, 'cos mine are doing the same. One every four hours, don't tamper with the bracelet tonight, I will be checking." Jim smiled as he climbed off the bed. He knew he was out of here. "Oh and Jim, dinner, mess hall 1830. Don't be late!"

"Jim. Thank you for the reports, they have been reviewed by the admiralty. We will not be perusing the matter further. Please remain on your current course. I need you prepared and ready for this Federation wide exercise in three months. The Bradbury is due to return to earth after the exercise you can transfer the bodies then." Admiral McCleary said warmly.

"Admiral, I have been speaking to Tom Leighton's wife Martha, she would prefer if his body was returned to Planet Q for burial as they have family there. As we are due to pass there in a few weeks, I would like to put in for 2 days rest period for the crew as the preparation programme is pretty intense leading up to that point."

"I have no objection to that Kirk. Please let me know if the funeral will be a public event."

"I will Sir. Thank you for informing me of the Admiralty decision." The admiral sighed.

"Jim, you did well son. Don't get me wrong, not everyone is pleased by this outcome but I am convinced that 8 thousand families out there are extremely happy that they have closure now." Craig McCleary smiled softly. "I know that the whole federation is glad that the affair has been dealt with, I am just sorry that it was you that had to clear up the mess. Make sure that you take some time to deal with this yourself. I can't imagine what you are feeling." The captain nodded.

"I've got a few good friends." He said simply, Bones had been great as had Spock. They had watched him closely.

"Now get out there and prove to the federation that you can kick arse. I want to see you as lead ship this year!"

"Thank you Sir, I look forward to the opportunity."

The End.

A/N: So this is it. I know this hasn't been the easiest of stories to follow, but if you have made it this far I am really glad that you haven't hated it that much!

Thank you to all that have reviewed. I have read each and every one and taken them on board and relish the guidance. I am intending to write more stories as for this fandom, being dyslexic i find it difficult to articulate my ideas into writing but the more I practice doing something that I enjoy, the better I can be in 'real' life and also, I hope that someday I might be able to write something that's really gripping. Therefore please let me know what you think as it all really helps me! However, on the flip side I would also love to know what you didn't like about it as that is just as important!

Once again thank you for reading, if I have had even one person enjoying this story then I measure that as a success!

Last but not least thank you to Compliment Giver, thanks for all your help and support! btw where I am, has moved up from the dark ages to dial up! (although uploading this just took me an hour)