Alright! I'm back! I am so sorry for how ridiculously long you all had to wait for this chapter. I literally have the worst case of writer's block and rewrote this thing like 10 times. It's finally finished now though, and I have a few of the following chapters already laid out, so hopefully (and the writing gods permitting) I can start posting on a regular basis again. Thanks again for your amazing patience and I hope you enjoy.

McCoy wasn't even sure what made him do it. The punch was stupid and irrational. The sight of the alien just seemed to drown his senses in a red film of pent up rage and frustration, the feelings surging through him and begging him to lash out at something, anything, as long as he was able to release some of the pressure that had been building inside him since the moment he woke up in this unfamiliar room. It didn't get far, the Covilli reflexively blocked his fist with one hand while the other quickly grabbed a dagger from his belt and held it against McCoy's throat, the sharp edge biting into the skin of his neck. The man's face remained unreadable, but the threat of the blade said enough.

"You should desist, Terran." His voice was deep and lacked inflection, his words phrased like a suggestion, but his tone making them an order to be followed. Seeing no other way, McCoy forced his body to relax and dropped his arms to his sides. The Covilli sheathed his weapon once it was clear the doctor wasn't going to try anything else. That didn't mean he wasn't still angry though and McCoy continued to glare at the taller male.

"You attacked the Enterprise," he growled in accusation. He distantly noted the door to his room sliding closed behind him, leaving him outside in the hallway with the Covilli, but he couldn't bring himself to really care at the moment. The alien didn't respond or even seem to acknowledge that the doctor had spoken, grabbing McCoy by his arm and pulling him along as he began walking away from the room.

"You are to be taken to the healer."

"What? A healer?" McCoy stumbled, trying to keep pace with the man's longer strides and the sudden change in behavior. He didn't understand. He hadn't been hurt during their confrontation; the dagger had barely even nicked his skin. McCoy attempted to pull his arm out of the Covilli's grip, dragging his feet as he resisted against the direction he was being towed in. "Wait a minute! I don't need a doctor. Let go!"

The larger man ignored the doctor's demand, instead saying, "The Captain has ordered it. The healer has to assess your condition so that you can be optimally placed once we get back to Covillis II."

McCoy frowned at the information, but barged on, hoping to get more than just that out of him. "Why am I even here? Why was I taken from the Enterprise?" he demanded. The Covilli again chose to answer with silence and the doctor groaned in frustration. They turned a corner and a set of doors slid open in the wall. McCoy was pulled inside and made to stand next to his companion in what turned out to be a lift, the doors sliding shut behind them. The man released his arm and directed the lift to Level 3.

"What will this healer be assessing exactly?" McCoy asked nervously, glancing up at the man beside him. He had apparently no other choice but to follow the Covilli to wherever they were going, but the more the doctor thought about it, the more anxious he became at the idea of some unknown doctor performing tests on him. He wondered what would happen if he tried to resist. Would they force him to submit? Tie him down? McCoy shuddered as he recalled the last time scientists had performed 'tests' on him. He wasn't ready for an encore.

"Your mind," the Covilli stated, pulling the doctor out of his thoughts. The answer only lead to more questions for McCoy, questions of what they could want with his mind, what they were searching for, how they would go about seeking answers. That last thought sparked even more paranoid ideas and horrors of what might be awaiting him and the doctor quickly searched for something else to distract himself with.

"What's your name?" He blurted out, his voice a little loud in the enclosed space. The Covilli turned and looked at McCoy. His face was a model of indifference, but the doctor felt like there was a hidden emotion lying underneath that he just couldn't see. It reminded him of someone else.

"Ronm," he replied. "I will be accompanying you until we land."

"Like a guard," McCoy stated. He had figured it would be something like that. He had been kidnapped after all.

"Guard. Protector. Escort. They all fall under my present duties. I am here to ensure you remain safe."

McCoy eyed Ronm as he turned away and faced the lift doors again. The man's words confused him. He could understand being placed under guard, his every move watched and monitored in case he attempted to escape or hurt someone, but what prisoner was given a protector? For that matter, why was one even needed in the first place? McCoy had no clue, but he felt himself start to relax despite his earlier reservations and the atmosphere in the lift seemed to become a little lighter.

The lift doors slid open a few seconds later as it reached its destination and Ronm casually stepped out and started down the hallway. He didn't look back and after a few moments of hesitation McCoy hurried after him.

xxx

Level 3 was a lot busier than the one they had come from. As he followed Ronm, the doctor observed several Covilli as they made their way from one destination to the next on the ship. Their large height made him feel conspicuously short as he walked amongst them. The thing he noticed most about them though was something that he had not seen while on Covillis II. As some of the Covilli walked past each other McCoy watched in surprised confusion as they gave each other small smiles and nods in greeting. It wasn't anything big, but it was unexpected. The race wasn't suppose to have any emotions at all and yet here they were readily sharing smiles with each other.

McCoy's observations were interrupted as Ronm came to a stop in front of an unmarked door halfway down the hallway. He watched as the guard pressed his hand against the wall next to the door, a blue square coming to life around it, before the door slid open quietly.

So that's how they work. McCoy followed Ronm inside, his nerves from earlier in the lift reappearing as he remembered why he was here again. The equipment in the room was similar in appearance to what he was used to working with back on the Enterprise: medical beds along the wall to the right, various larger equipment arranged on the opposite side, and two examining tables placed in the middle of the room. An office seemed to have been constructed along the back wall and sitting behind the desk was a Covilli who seemed to be reviewing something on a data pad.

"Healer, I have brought the human," Ronm called, catching the attention of the lone individual and as she walked out of the office McCoy was able to see her a little better. The Covilli healer stood at least six and a half feet high, her skin a tan color with a plain sleeve of dark brown on her arms that spanned from her hands to her elbows like a large bracer. Her eyes were the usual violet and upon catching sight of them by the door, her face broke out in a broad smile.

"Hello, I'm Healer Braxi," she greeted McCoy brightly.

"Doctor McCoy," he offered back, watching her warily as she continued grinning. The Covilli out in the hallway had displayed their feelings in small gestures, but Healer Braxi practically oozed sunshine as she stood before him. He wasn't sure what to make of it.

"So you're here for your assessment, right? Ah, this is so exciting! I can't believe I finally get to examine one of your species, and one that underwent the Separation as well!" Braxi squealed in happiness. She skipped over to one of the examining tables and patted the top of it. "Here, lay down here. This shouldn't take long and won't hurt a bit." The healer turned away and began poking at certain buttons and tabs along the bed. Her actions caused it to start humming and emitting beeps, display screens flickering to life on adjacent consoles and McCoy eyed the bed with no small amount of trepidation. He couldn't remember the last time he had been this nervous in a clinic.

"Now hold on a second. I'm not doing anything until you answer some things first," he stalled, making no move to get near the table. His voice wasn't as assertive as he'd hoped it would be and he crossed his arms over his chest in an effort to appear more confident and determined.

Braxi turned her focus from the screens she was adjusting, a smile still on her face as she looked at him with understanding. "Well, I guess you are entitled to some answers after everything. We can answer your questions as I'm running the scans though. It won't affect anything." Ronm gave a noncommittal hum of agreement, a noise McCoy barely made out as Braxi fluttered around him, grabbing his hand and pulling him towards the table.

He was still unsure, but she was all smiles and energy as she moved around him, urging him forward, and before he could even think McCoy found himself laying flat across the examination table.

"There you go," Braxi said triumphantly. He couldn't see her from his position, his eyes tracking the ceiling above him as he tried to calm his rising sense of anxiety, but he could hear her moving about behind his head. McCoy began taking deep breaths, telling himself that he had nothing to worry about. No one had done anything horrible yet and, listening to Braxi chatter happily to herself as she worked, McCoy was pretty sure nothing would. The healer's smiling face popped back into his field of vision, holding a tablet in front of her that she gave a cursory glance, tapping a few more commands into it, before beaming down at him. "Alright, we're ready to begin. So what do you want to know?"

"Uh..." McCoy tried to think, watching as a piece of equipment above him started to move, the device hooked to a mechanical arm that rose from the table he was laid out on. "What's the Separation you mentioned?" A blue beam of light shot out of the instrument and scanned over him from head to toe, making a few passes before switching to a green color and making more sweeps.

"Oh, of course, you wouldn't know! It's not really something that's discussed with outsiders, to do so is a bit of a taboo after all. You don't really fall under that rule anymore, huh?" Braxi chuckled at her own thought before she continued. "The Separation is the process every Covilli goes through once they come of age. Through it we remove all of our emotions from our being." The beam made one final scan down his body before shutting off and McCoy released a heavy breath that he hadn't even been aware of holding.

"And I was put through this 'Separation'? How can you be so sure? I still have my emotions. I haven't been separated from anything," the doctor argued, although he knew it wasn't completely true. He knew that there was something wrong with him, that he wasn't really the same man he'd been when he beamed down to that planet with Jim and Spock, but he was still hoping for some other reasonable explanation for what was going on with him. One that didn't involve mind tampering.

The sensor arm panned over and stopped right over his head. He watched the device make minute shifts and changes in its settings before having to slam his eyes shut as a myriad of lights came to life above him. Colors flashed behind his eyelids as the beams danced over his head.

"Completely sure," McCoy heard Braxi answer. "You wouldn't be here otherwise."

It was a vague answer and didn't really give him much to go on. There was a reason behind why he'd been taken from the Enterprise, but as of right now he still had no idea what that might be. All he kept getting were little hints that failed to answer anything. The light show above his head finally switched off and McCoy opened his eyes, blinking a few times to get rid of the spots darkening his vision.

"The process takes all emotion from whoever's undergoing it, but I have heard rumors that it can be concentrated to target certain ones if the operator is careful and skilled enough," Braxi continued to explain as McCoy sat up. "Although, there is no telling what effect it may have on a human mind. Until now, it's never been done before. Hopefully these scans will tell me what the Covilli in the city did when they put you through it."

The doctor watched Braxi as she wandered around the room reading the scans. "Covilli in the city"? Does Braxi know who did this to me? McCoy's eyes drifted around the room as he puzzled over the matter. When they landed on Ronm standing silently in the corner, his observations from earlier crowded his mind.

"Now Miss, you talk about this...mandatory Separation process, but I've seen the people on this ship display emotions left and right. If your race supposedly cuts ties with their feelings at a certain age, then how do you explain them? How do you explain yourself?" he accused. There were too many things he didn't know. About the Covilli and what happened to him. McCoy was tired of being in the dark about so many things.

The healer looked at Ronm, but the guard showed no inclination of jumping in and joining the conversation. Laying down her equipment, Braxi gave McCoy her full attention, her tone a little slow, as if she was carefully choosing her words as she began to explain. "Most of the Covilli on this ship, doctor, and in the community we're apart of, only retain some of their emotions."

"So they chose to only remove specific emotions instead of wiping the slate completely clean?" McCoy asked, slightly incredulously.

"No...no, what happened during the Separations was more like a mistake, or a malfunction." The thought seemed to please her and she grinned broadly as she rushed on. "Yes, that's a much better word for it. A malfunction. You see, every so often there's a Covilli that just doesn't take to the procedure. Something wrong with the mind I guess, and the Separation just can't do anything about it. It still tries though, which is why people like Ronm and myself end up the way we are. It took pretty much everything but my positive emotions, not that I mind really. With Ronm, well..."

She trailed off, looking at the other with embarrassment and a touch of apology in her eyes, as if she wanted to share but didn't think she had the right to. Ronm picked up her thought readily enough though, not seeming to mind having to say something. "It took my ability to feel anger, sadness, and happiness." Well that explained why Ronm acted the way he did at least.

Braxi beamed at the guard and turned back to McCoy, her high spirits apparently restored, and her eyes shined as she excitedly clapped her hands together. "Yes, and there are some rare times where it takes nothing at all and the person leaves in the same shape they went it. The Captain's one those you know. Didn't lose a single thing during his Separation, but he doesn't seem to be any worse for it." The pad she had laid down emitted a chirping beep and she quickly picked it up. "Oh look, your results have been finished! Hmmm...," she said looking it over. "Well, it looks like you're completely healthy," she happily remarked before giving a slightly self-deprecating smile to the doctor. "At least I think so. I don't know what's normal for humans, but the scans don't show anything weird or fluctuating so I'm gonna assume that means you're fine. As for the Separation process.. it looks like it only succeeded in removing the majority of your more positive emotions, along with others that may be closely associated with them. That's not too bad."

McCoy disagreed. Missing any of his emotions was a bad thing. McCoy felt like he was going to be sick as the cause of his condition was officially confirmed. He was already having issues dealing with his out of balance emotions. What would happen if he couldn't get them back? There had to be a way to reverse the process, put his emotions back in his head where they belonged...

"Hey, I want to test something else really quick. It shouldn't take very long." Braxi beckoned his guard over with a wave. "Ronm, come here and help me out. Oh, stay right there doctor," she said, motioning for him to stay at the table while moving Ronm where she wanted him; which turned out to be about four feet in front of where the doctor was sitting. She turned away briefly, grabbed something off a nearby stand, and moved back towards the guard, only to promptly slash a knife down Ronm's arm and across his chest, slicing his shirt apart and leaving two large and deep looking cuts in both areas. The guard had obviously not been expecting the sudden attack, but he only winced and used his hand to try and apply pressure to the cut on his arm.

"Are you insane?" McCoy yelled at the healer, shocked by the unexpected action. "You don't go around cutting people up just because you feel like it!" Blood had begun to leak steadily out of both wounds, the one on his chest saturating Ronm's shirt while the other spilled past his hand despite his effort to stem the flow.

Braxi completely ignored Ronm and McCoy's words as she looked at the doctor closely. "What are you feeling?"

"Are you serious?" McCoy gasped, aghast that she would want to keep asking him questions. The doctor wasn't sure what to think; one minute the healer was all smiles and the next she was emotionlessly cutting up another person like it was nothing. He tried to judge whether or not he could make a run for it, but she was between him and the door, and was still holding the knife. She made no move to divert her focus from him and he gaped at her in disbelief, realizing that she was still waiting for his answer. "What am I feeling? What do you think I'm feeling?! You just stabbed him!"

She studied him for a few moments. "You don't want to help him? Maybe stop the bleeding? It's a pretty deep cut, "she said and McCoy almost scoffed at the observation. She would know, wouldn't she? "It might get infected if it's not treated soon."

Annoyed and somewhat confused as to what she was looking for, McCoy glanced at Ronm again. The man still stood where Braxi had placed him, blood dripping steadily onto the floor. He looked almost unconcerned considering he had just been attacked, and was watching McCoy much like the healer was. The doctor's eyes drifted down to the chest wound, watching as a well of blood flowed freely from it, and was suddenly hit by the healer's words.

McCoy paled. "No..." he whispered, as if the word caused him physical pain. "No, I don't care that he's hurt. Or in pain." He felt no need to heal the guard. The man had been standing there for several minutes, bleeding and obviously in pain, and yet he had made no move to reach him, to offer help. Instead, he had focused on Braxi and the shock her actions had caused him, practically ignoring Ronm as he stood there. The doctor felt disgusted and unsettled by his actions, confusion and sadness warring within him. What sort of doctor was he that he didn't even try to help an injured person not five feet from him?

"Interesting," Braxi stated, her words cutting into his self-recrimination.

"Interesting? It is not interesting!" McCoy yelled, his voice catching as he tried to hold back his tears. "This is wrong! I'm a doctor. I'm supposed to help people, not sit around and watch them bleed all over the floor like it's nothing." He slid off the table and marched towards the healer.

"I can't be a doctor. Not like this." He glared and pointed a finger up at her. "I want my emotions. All of them. You must know something, someway it can be done. How can I get them back?"