When he got back to his quarters, Leonard sat down at the small desk to check his personal messages for the day. He suspected that he wasn't getting all of them, as Command had taken to filtering out all sorts of messages that could be potential threats. He had a few relatives that kept in touch who might write in such a way that their messages would easily get caught in such a filter. He didn't really care as long as anything and everything from Joanna got through.
He was a few messages in when he opened the one that would once again rock the peace he had managed to find, despite the insane turn his life had taken. The wording was much like the earlier threat he had received, only this message appeared to be complete and contained some of the rhetoric that one of the more vocal groups objecting to "this travesty," as they liked to refer to his pregnancy, often employed. Leonard thought the group calling itself "The Association For the Preservation of Human Normalcy" was more a travesty than anything going on with him.
This message did hit him a little harder. One time could easily be written off as an empty threat, but a second time made it much more real. Leonard quickly found himself on the comm demanding that someone from security be sent up immediately to review the message and investigate. He also contacted both Jim and Spock separately, knowing full well that he would likely never hear the end of it from either man if they weren't told directly.
This was how he found a gathering of the same people who had been present for the first threat, minus Christine, now occupying his former safe haven, known as his quarters.
"It would appear, based on the log records I'm seeing here, that the message was also sent from this terminal," Lieutenant Red Copoka stated.
"Are you suggesting that I sent it to myself?" Leonard asked. "Because I've got to tell you that the only reason someone would do something like this is to draw more attention to himself, and the last thing I want is more attention." In this agitation, his voice had risen steadily.
"No, doctor," Lieutenant Copoka said quickly. "Just that someone entered your quarters and sent the message. From the time stamp, I believe you would have been in the middle of your shift and still in sickbay."
"That would be a given considering that I get there at the start of my shift and can't leave till the end, even to get some damn food, because someone told my staff not to let me," Leonard informed the security officer, his irritation at these instructions evident in his voice. His glare was focused on Spock, who was unperturbed, and not at the security officer, something that Copoka was entirely grateful for.
"You did not follow the directions given," Spock stated. "The next course of action was to recruit others to ensure your safety."
"You are being one big pain in the butt. Do you know that?" Leonard demanded.
"A smart one," Jim reminded him, eyeing his friend with concern. "You did get another threat."
"Maybe all this paranoia around the first one is encouraging the nutcase. Did you ever think of that?" Leonard snapped back. He wasn't handling the idea of someone breaking into his quarters to send him a message very well. It added a whole new level of creepy to an already disturbing situation. He wanted, he needed, to believe that the threat was an empty one from some nutcase who was getting off watching them jump through hoops.
"That is a possibility," Lieutenant Copoka stated as he stood to leave. He would be able to investigate the system better elsewhere to see if the logging had been tampered with. Plus, there were security cameras in all the corridors, so if someone had entered the doctor's quarters illegally, he or she would have been caught on video. "I could send up someone to stand guard outside the door, if you like. I doubt the perpetrator will return tonight. They have to be aware of the strong interest the message will generate."
Both Spock and Jim agreed to the suggestion of a guard outside the door. Leonard, however, did not. His incensed "no" had everyone pivoting and staring at him. Leonard's face was flushed, and he could hear his blood rushing past his ears as he prepared to speak. A guard outside his quarters was just too much. It was like he was becoming a prisoner and he was not going to stand for it. But when he opened his mouth to make his point, everything went black.
Leonard opened his eyes and took in the sickbay ceiling above him. He knew it was sickbay because, staring back at him, were various diagnostic and treatment devices that would only be found in an infirmary. . He wasn't sure why he was there. He vaguely remembered getting worked up about something, but he wasn't sure what that was. His mind was a bit foggy at the moment.
Looking to one side, he saw Spock sitting in a chair next to his biobed and Jim sitting in the next biobed over. Both looked quite concerned, so Leonard decided that the reason he was in sickbay couldn't be good.
"You are awake, Doctor," Spock commented, his gaze fixed on Leonard's face.
"Jesus, Bones," Jim stated as he jumped down off the biobed and moved closer to his friend, "that was a hell of a fright you gave us."
"What happened?" Leonard asked. His voice was groggy to his ears, but he didn't feel all that tired. He wondered what the hell Geoff had given him. "I remember being in my quarters. You guys were there, right?"
"Yes," Spock said. "You had received another threat and were unhappy about the suggested security. However, before you were able to voice your objections in what I am certain would have been a very loud manner, you collapsed."
"Right in front of us," Jim added. "Right after you received a threat. And we had no idea what had just happened."
"I guess I could see how that might be a little unnerving," Leonard admitted in a quiet tone. "Sorry about that."
"You do not need to apologize," Spock stated. "You did not collapse on purpose and, therefore, have nothing to be sorry for."
"Still, didn't mean to worry anyone," Leonard muttered.
"According to Doctor M'Benga, the reason for your collapse was due to your rising blood pressure, as you became agitated by the conversation," Spock explained. "Another example of the way in which the Abrbonians elected an approach to protect the child, but not the child-bearer."
"You kind of hit your head on the desk as you went down, so you have a concussion," Jim said. "Having a person faint is not the best reaction to high blood pressure. You don't know where that person may be at the time and put them at risk."
"Which is, of course, exactly what happened to me," Leonard concluded for his friend. "Because that's just the way my damn luck rolls."
"Now that you are calmer, perhaps you could explain in a more rational manner why you objected to a security detail being posted outside your door." Spock said.
"Are you trying to upset my patient again?" Geoff asked as he returned to the biobed to check on his friend and colleague. "Because if you are, I am going to have to have you removed from sickbay. I don't care if you are the First Officer or the Captain." He looked pointedly at each man as he spoke. "Don't think I won't."
"Hey, there is no need to go kicking anybody out of sickbay," Jim reassured Geoff. "Bones doesn't have to answer anything he doesn't want to answer, and we'll just leave it at that."
"Bones has no problem answering the question, however," Leonard stated as he attempted to sit up on the biobed. The movement was ill-advised as he got a little dizzy, but he did manage to drag himself up, despite the look of disapproval from everyone around him. "I have no desire to feel any more like a prisoner than I already do being confined to the ship. Adding a security detail will exacerbate that feeling, so, no, I am not having it."
"An understandable reaction," Geoff said sympathetically. "However, I am sure that the Captain and Spock only have your best interest in mind."
Jim nodded emphatically. "See. That's all it's about: keeping you safe, not keeping you locked up."
"I know you just want to keep me safe. I just want to keep me safe." Leonard sighed. "However, there are lines I just can't bear to cross. I'd rather stick to having friends with me when I go anywhere and maybe have a safer code on my quarters. Hell, I promise not to be in my own office on my own, if it'll make you happy. Christine pops in there half the time, anyway. And don't think I don't know why she keeps doing it."
"We like to check up on you from time to time," Geoff admitted. "The threats have unnerved more people than just you. We'd like to keep our Chief Medical Officer around."
"I'm not arguing with these measures," Leonard said. "I am just drawing a line at being assigned actual security, like I'm the one guilty of something."
"Think of them as bodyguards," Jim suggested.
"No Starfleet doctor needs a bodyguard, and I'm not about to start a trend," Leonard snapped. "It doesn't feel normal, and I need as much normality as I can get in my life right now."
"And it's time to change topics, gentlemen," Geoff ordered in his quiet voice. "The patient is starting to get agitated, and we now know that the Abrbonians have included an odd solution to dealing with the resulting symptoms."
"He is on a biobed," Jim pointed out. "A safe location should he faint again."
"There is that," Geoff agreed. "However, I would prefer he not need to have a safe location in which to faint."
"A point well taken," Jim said sheepishly. "We'll try switching to a more neutral subject."
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