losthunter | Thorn in the Garden of Life

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Thorn in the Garden of Life

Hunter paced his apartment, his phone in one hand, and a list of phone numbers in his other hand. He just got off the phone with Marcus, one of the six other people who had been given a gift by Kendra. And had learned that Marcus had been attacked by Austin.

Luckily, Marcus was able to get away, without any major side effects.

But Hunter was now worried about the others. And so he was making calls to everyone else who he had talked to, and warned them about Austin so they could stay safe.

And he knew it was time to face Austin again. But even though he felt like it was an emergency, Hunter knew that it would be better to make sure someone else came with him. He also knew exactly who he wanted to have by his side.

Jim. Austin attacked another person. I feel like I need to deal with this. Are you available to come with me?

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"Jimmy?"

He's not on Tarsus anymore, the abrupt change in scenery unnoticed as blinding pain shoots up his spine and into his head. Jimmy wakes, all but collapsed on the floor of the bathroom at the Kirk farmhouse, and Sam's concerned face hovers over him. A cool hand touches his forehead, and he shivers from the fever, trying to lean into the touch before the sharp pain in his back stops him at once.

"Jeez, Jimmy, you're burning up. Why didn't you say something?"

The words don't want to come, but he forces them out, past the pain in his head. "I thought it was nothing..."

Sam says a bad word, one that he's heard Frank use when he thinks no one is listening, and there's the sound of running water before something cool and wet slaps over his forehead. "Stay right there. I'm getting Frank. You've gotta go to the hospital."

"I can't, I've got a test today, I can make it..." His protest is weak, though, and Sam is already too far away to hear, his footsteps thudding away down the stairs as he hollers for their stepfather.

Hunter is growing concerned, since Jim has not broken free from his flashback yet. And he is only getting half of the conversation, as Jim says the words that he would have said, before in the past.

He is not moving much this time. He is laying on the floor, away from anything that might accidentally hurt him.

Hunter hovers close by, waiting to see if he can do anything to help Jim.

The pain in his neck and the icy feeling of the soaked cloth on his forehead trigger another shift in memory, and Jim comes back to awareness in a cramped escape pod, his shoulder aching where that pointy-eared bastard nerve pinched him. His broken hand throbs unpleasantly, but it's honestly the least of his concerns as his eyes focus, and he realizes he's looking through frost on the glass escape hatch.

Frost? "Ugh, computer, where am I?" he asks, a sinking feeling in his gut.

"Location: Delta Vega," the computer replies pleasantly. "Class M planet. Unsafe. There is a Starfleet outpost fourteen kilometers to the northwest. Remain in your pod until the arrival of summoned authorities."

"Oh, you've gotta be kidding me." Jim leans forward, now aware that the escape pod is sitting at a skewed angle, to get a look out the hatch. The escape pod has carved a hole in the snow and ice, making a rough pit almost thirty feet deep. An easy climb, if it was rock. But it looks cold as fuck, and he has no climbing gear, but fuck no he's not staying put. He digs through the emergency gear to find the cold weather pack, but there's no way he'll be able to climb up after he bundles up.

The icy temperature blasts through the pod as he opens the hatch, and he slings the pack over his back as he scrambles out of the pod and reaches for the ice wall. "Hurry the hell up," he mutters to himself, "unless you want frostbite." His broken hand screams with the strain, but he can't afford not to use it, shivering violently as he scales the wall barehanded.

It is sort of like dealing with a sleep-walker. Hunter continues to watch and monitor Jim, unable to wake him up. And when he moves towards the wall, and tries to climb his entertainment center, all Hunter can do is place a supportive hand on Jim's back. He is only going to get a couple of inches off the floor, but it would still be dangerous for Jim to wake up at this point.

The moment Hunter touches him, the memory changes again, triggered by the feeling of a hand on his back.

Jimmy lashes out when the nurse reaches for him, unsure if the hands are meant to hurt or help but not wanting to take the risk, batting them away with a good deal of force. He's damn near feral, rapidly skittering away from the touch and seeking out a wall to put his back against, so no one can sneak up behind him again, fearful hands raised to defend himself.

He doesn't know where he is. This isn't the cave on Tarsus, or one of the abandoned houses that once held one of the bodies now buried in a mass grave outside of town. It's too clean and shiny, so bright that it almost hurts his eyes, and there's an odd roar rattling through the floor and the walls, a droning sound that doesn't go away no matter how long it lasts.

His eyes don't want to focus on the faces around him, nameless faceless people just like Kodos' men, until a shiny golden arrowhead on the closest person's chest catches his attention. Starfleet.

Fucking Starfleet.

"Where's Tommy?" he demands, and though the adrenaline is coursing through his body, his thin arms tremble from the effects of two months of starvation. "Where the hell is he? I want to see him."

Hunter immediately takes a step away up when Jim bats his hand away, and then backs up against the wall. He watches, fearful, as once again he only gets pieces of what Jim is seeing within his own mind.

The name 'Tommy' comes up again. So Hunter assumes it is another memory from when Jim was younger. And he hates that he is trapped within those memories.

"It is okay Jim. I am here."

This time, Jim pauses. Blinks a few times. He's frozen in place, disoriented, unsure where he is or what's going on. Is this Tarsus IV? The Enterprise? Delta Vega? Iowa? His heart is pounding and he doesn't know why, uncertain if he's in danger or who is in the room with him.

"...am I awake now?" he asks, still struggling to grasp what exactly is going on.

Hunter pauses for a moment himself, before realizing that this is not a flashback any more. And Jim is back in the real world.

"Fuck..." Hunter approaches to gently wrap his arms around Jim. "That was scary. One moment you were moving around the living room, the next you were trying to climb the wall, and then..."

He has to collect himself and just hold onto Jim. "You were out of it for at least 15 minutes. Could have been longer."

Jim doesn't quite relax in Hunter's hold, nor does he hold him back, but he doesn't push him away either. To say that he's still confused is an understatement, only just now even recognizing Hunter and where he is.

"I don't... understand... what happened?"

What the hell was all that?

"I am not sure. I was making breakfast, when I saw you entering into living room." Hunter explained. "And then I just kept following you, to make sure you wouldn't hurt yourself."

"Breakfast?" That actually surprises him, and now that he's paying attention, he can see that it's daytime. When did that happen? "I thought... maybe it was nightmares." That the potion didn't work. "I slept?"

"It has been about eight hours since you took the potion." Hunter tells him. "You seemed to be sleeping during the night. But you didn't move at all the whole night."

"I was so scared that I kept checking your pulse, whenever I was awake."

"I don't remember that." That's the most disorienting part of it all, perhaps. He doesn't remember falling asleep, only being tired and then being in the warp core again. And then it was just... one memory after another. Until now.

But apparently that was later?

His body is slow to get the idea that he's safe now, that all the horrible experiences in his past are still in his past, half expecting to be plunged back into the nightmare at any moment. But he forces himself to relax his defensive posture, struggling to act as normal as possible, for his own sanity rather than to soothe his ego or anything. "It just... wouldn't stop."

Hunter gently guides Jim to the couch, so he can sit down if he wants. He is very concerned to hear that the flashbacks kept affecting Jim.

"It doesn't sound like that potion was any help..."

Sitting down is good. And now that he has more physical sensations to help anchor him in the here and now - the couch underneath his legs, Hunter's hand on his back - he's able to calm down a little.

"It wasn't... it wasn't all eight hours. I don't think." He's genuinely uncertain how long it lasted, but it doesn't seem like it was the entire time. "You said fifteen minutes?"

Hunter definitely doesn't like seeing Jim so disoriented. "Roughly. I was more concerned about watching you, than watching the time."

Luckily for both of them, Hunter hadn't started cooking anything for breakfast yet. He has a bunch of fruit on the counter, to prepare a smoothie.

That's certainly fair, because Jim doesn't like being disoriented either. He's getting back to normal, though, a little at a time. Especially now that it doesn't seem like he's going to go straight into more flashbacks, not right away anyway.

"Maybe a little longer." It's hard for him to really put a number to how long it actually lasted, but that sounds... roughly right. He doesn't quite shudder, but he does rub his hands over his face. "I don't think I dreamed while I was actually sleeping."

Hunter frowns. "Maybe that is why you had all those flashbacks at once."

He heads back into the kitchen, to start preparing the fruit to make them both a smoothie. "I don't think you should take the second one, later tonight. I would rather deal with you waking up in the middle of the night, then you wandering around the apartment all zoned out."

"Maybe," Jim agrees uneasily. It's as good a theory as any other. And he can't help but agree with Hunter's second idea. "I would too. That was... fucking terrifying." He's not ashamed to admit that, not to Hunter. He's so far out of his depth here, and he can't help but feel like he's actually going insane, that small knot of anxiety and terror hidden away inside of him even when he's not in the grips of a flashback. He knows damn well why this is happening, and that the curse will eventually wear off, but... he still worries.

"For a moment there... I thought I lost you to your memories..." Hunter frowns. "And I don't know what I would have done..."

Jim pulls the jacket a little tighter around his shoulders, staying put on the couch until he's more positive that he isn't about to relive yet another horrible experience from his past. "If that was what the curse was supposed to be like, then thank fuck we got Bill to make these for us."

"No fucking kidding... if the curse meant for you to relive those memories over and over again..." Hunter shakes his head. He can't even think about losing Jim like that. Where he would be stuck in the past.

He starts up the blender, to mix up the smoothies, before starting up another topic for them to concentrate on.

"I am making a breakfast pizza with tomatoes, goat cheese, basil and eggs. Do you feel up to helping?"

The sound of the blender startles him at first, though not enough to spark any new flashbacks, thank goodness. He rubs his hands over his face again, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees. "I, uh..." He wants to say yes, sure, but he's rattled enough that he doesn't think he'd be able to pretend everything's fine either. "I gotta... freshen up first."

"Go right ahead." Hunter knows that Jim can't really take a bath or a shower since he can't remove that jacket. But he can still wash his face.

Now that he feels relatively confident in his ability to get around again, Jim retreats to the bathroom to do what he can to make himself feel more... normal.

As if that were even possible.

Still, there's a lot he can do with a washcloth without taking off any clothes, and while he doesn't feel entirely refreshed, at least he feels human again.

He's in there for several long minutes before he comes back out, a bit less distressed than he was before, though the bizarre and awful awakening has already started his day off on the wrong foot. "So... breakfast pizza, huh?"

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