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Title: The Movie Never Ends (It Goes On and On and On and On)
Series: Star Trek XI: waterpark 'verse
Rating: PG-13 for swearing and some fade to black hanky-panky
Total Word Count: Are you ready for this shit? 44,841. It's just...it's full of stars.
Summary: Welcome to the Enterprise's newest mission, a voyage to a little planet called Castro III. For once, obeying the Prime Directive is the least of their worries. It's hard to be in Starfleet when you have to deal with transporter malfunctions, video game sessions, rings, jail cells, matador costumes, bowling matches, miscommunications, spies, observation deck talks, champagne, disciplinary hearings, new nicknames, romantic dinners, and a pair of people who won't be talking when the dust settles.
Pairing Notes: Kirk/Bones, Spock/Uhura, Sulu/Chapel
Notes: This takes place a year and eight months into the five year mission, meaning Kirk and Bones have been dating for eight months. (LOL POSTING IN MY OWN UNIVERSE OUT OF ORDER.) If you haven't read everything else in the land of waterparks and roller rinks, certain things will be confusing to you.
This story makes very brief references to the TOS episodes "Patterns of Force" and "The Enemy Within."
The title, and this should be obvious to anyone who has ever exchanged a sentence with me, is from the song Don't Stop Believin' by Journey.
Here's a list of things I had to google in order to write this properly: transporter technology, how to beat a seven-ten split, controls for the video game Wing Commander, Much Ado About Nothing, Heisenberg compensators (“They work very well, thanks”), metric conversion charts, the United Federation of planets, and the lyrics to Amy Winehouse's Back to Black.
That's not even all of it, by the way. I'd show you the google history on my iPhone but I like...I don't think there's any way I can do that. I would also probably horrify all of you.
Dude someone needs to take author's notes away from me. I just never shut up.
Now
The cell door slammed shut with a loud bang.
Jim sighed from where he stood against the bars and took a look at his crew.
Still wearing their special team uniforms, Sulu, Uhura, and Bones sat together on a bench. Uhura had her arms crossed and was staring pointedly at the wall across from her. Sulu was leaning against the wall behind him and slouched, his thumb and forefinger pinching the bridge of his nose. Meanwhile, Bones was this impressive combination of resigned and pissed. His arms were crossed and he tapped two of his fingers against his bicep without any rhythm or regularity.
Kirk looked across the cell to the other bench, where Spock and Chekov sat. The Vulcan wore a blank expression while Chekov looked beyond irritated. That was about right.
Jim looked to the left for a moment, making sure to avoid eye contact with Bones. He glanced back to the other side. Finally, he forced a smile onto his face and clapped his hands once loudly.
Everyone turned to look at him.
“So. This went well.”
-----
Three days ago
“Those are our orders,” Jim finished to the assembled crew members. “We go in, make friends if possible, observe definitely, and hopefully...new Federation allies.”
The USS Enterprise was nearing its destination of Castro III, a planet long thought to be uninhabited. The Yorktown had come across viable life and technology readings in a small area on the planet, but had been unable to investigate further due to the time constraints with their current mission of getting vital vaccines to Argelius. As the Enterprise was the next closest ship in the system and they were at somewhat loose ends, it fell to them to make the contact.
He looked around the large conference table in his ready room. Uhura and Spock looked as intrigued as always by the prospect of learning about a new culture. Nerds in love, it was the cutest thing.
Speaking of nerds, Sulu had been typing notes on his PADD the entire meeting. Or maybe he hadn't been, judging by the eye roll Chekov made as he peered over his shoulder. Which meant that in all likelihood, he had been sending messages down to his girlfriend in sick bay.
How hilariously inappropriate.
Scotty had actually seemed really enthusiastic about the whole thing. He had been the only person to bother asking any questions, and Jim had delighted in answering them. He got tired of droning on some days and, well, anything to spice up the meetings.
Meanwhile, Bones sat listening with his chin in one hand. Unfortunately for him, Jim knew the look in his eyes meant he was doing doctor-y things in his head instead of listening.
Oh, it was so going to be on later.
“The Yorktown said the readings were small, and in one very localized area,” he said as he pointed to a spot on an image projected onto the wall. “They also said there was some kind of interference with a lot of their scanners, ostensibly from all of the debris surrounding the planet.”
Chekov raised his hand and Jim nodded at him. “Debris?”
“Yeah, Castro used to have three moons. Starfleet isn't sure exactly when, but one of them exploded quite some time ago.” Kirk crossed his arms. “The Yorktown wasn't able to properly assess exactly what kind of damage that had done to the planet, although it appears that it's harmed all but a small piece it.”
“Leaving some type of desert oasis?” Scotty looked curious.
“Something like that, yeah.” Jim shrugged. “There's not just a little of the debris either, there's a ton of it so transporters will be our only way on and off the planet. It's too risky to try flying through it.”
Sulu looked up from what he was doing for a moment with a mildly insulted expression. Oh so he was listening. That was nice of him.
“They do have some technology, so the Prime Directive doesn't necessarily apply here. We need to be somewhat conservative in how we approach them, as we don't know exactly what level of development they've achieved.” Jim moved to stand behind his chair, putting his hands on the headrest. “Since we need to start small, myself, Spock, and Chekov will beam down first.” He tried to ignore the slightly disappointed look on Scotty's face. “Scotty, you'll have command of the ship while we're down there. Should be fairly routine, I don't think we'll need any security to go with us.”
“You should probably take five of them, then, with the way things go around here,” Bones grumbled quietly.
“I believe going in with such forces would give the appearance that the Federation is hostile.”
Bones rolled his eyes. “Spock, I know you're still somewhat new to the whole concept of sarcasm, but you really should know me better by now.”
Spock raised an eyebrow. “I do not understand how that would be possible, as your normal tone of voice is virtually indistinguishable from the one you designate as being for sarcasm.”
The room was silent as everyone stared at Spock in surprise, except for Sulu who simply snorted as he typed on his PADD.
“Snap,” Jim finally announced to no one in particular. Scotty and Chekov nodded their agreement. “Although, maybe one officer wouldn't be a bad idea. Think Cupcake can spare a redshirt for a few hours?”
“I'll give him a ring when this is over,” Uhura said.
“Awesome.” He smiled at the room. “With that, I guess we're all done. Dismissed.”
Slowly, everyone began making their way back to their duty stations, except for Uhura who had hung back. Bones paused at the doorway to look back at Jim, who promptly beamed and blew a kiss to him. With an irritated expression on his face Bones mimed catching it, but Jim didn't miss the smile that started to form as he turned away. With him gone, Jim was free to turn his attention back to his communications officer.
“Is there something else, Lieutenant?”
“Just wanted to make sure you only want the one redshirt and not two or, as Leonard so dryly suggested, five.” She tilted her head to one side and smiled.
Jim grinned at her. “One's fine, it's probably just a standard meet-and-greet. I don't think it's necessary at all, but it'll make Bones feel better.”
Nyota rolled her eyes. “Speaking of, you two really should tone it down sometimes. You're setting a bad example.” She raised an eyebrow. “I'd imagine that your behavior is why Sulu thinks he can get away with the electronic flirting like he was today.”
Jim stared blankly at her. “You have met Bones, right?”
The expression on Uhura's face spoke volumes, most of which said don't bullshit me, we were all there. Jim winced.
“Okay, so, I may not have a leg to stand on.”
“Considering you two still act like newlyweds and it's been close to a year, no, you really don't.” Uhura smiled. “Although, I suppose I should congratulate you as today you kept it professional until the very end. The last time we had one of these meetings, I had to keep myself from throwing up because of you two.”
“Is that what you were doing? I couldn't quite read the look on your face.” Jim winced for a second time.
“Yes, sir.” She turned serious. “You two do a good job in front of the rest of the crew and when you go on away missions, but it sends a bad message when you behave like that during the meetings just because we're also all friends. I know it seems like no one cares, but...”
“No, I'm glad you said something. It was just all in good fun, but we should really be more careful. I'll make sure to both talk to Sulu and make more of an effort when we're in an official capacity to stay professional.” He paused, because here was a prime opportunity to needle her if ever there was one. ”I guess we should just take lessons from you and Spock then. You two never do anything inappropriate.” It was almost unnerving.
Uhura rolled her eyes, but the smile on her face undermined it. “Inappropriate is not in the Vulcan dictionary.”
“This isn't one of those things like telling me gullible isn't in the Standard dictionary, is it?” She gave him a weird look. “I think it's a legitimate question! I never really know where things are with you.”
“That's because you aren't supposed to,” she said with a grin. They made their way out of the room and to the turbo lift. He remembered a conversation he and Sulu had with Spock a while back during that shithole of a mission with the plant people. He was curious, but he thought it was best not to ask Spock directly.
Why not just ask her?
“So...how are things with you guys anyways?” Take the bait, Nyota.
“Shouldn't you be asking Spock at one of your chess matches?” Or not.
Jim shook his head. “Uh uh, Spock and I don't talk about our relationships. Everything else but not those.” He rubbed the back of his head absently. “Something about him not wanting to give me any ideas. I honestly don't know what he meant by that.”
She made a tsking sound. “Of course not, because you didn't spend the first eight months of our voyage hitting on me in front of him or anything.”
Oh right. “Huh. You know, I forgot I used to do that.”
This made her smile again. “Well, he hasn't, is all I'm saying.” She shrugged one shoulder. “I've tried explaining that, especially with you being so besotted with Leonard, he has nothing to worry about but he gets oddly insecure sometimes for a Vulcan.”
Jim nodded, then found himself smiling. “I guess that not everyone's relationship can be perfect like mine.”
Uhura laughed loudly. “Okay, wow. You better hope you didn't just jinx yourself.”
“Psht,” Jim said eloquently with a sweeping gesture of his hand. “It's only true.”
She gave him a knowing look. “I'm going to remember you said that so when your man arbitrarily falls into a coma or something, I can properly say I told you so.”
“Harsh.”
“Thank you.” The lift doors opened and they stepped onto the bridge.
Hannity looked up from her console. “CAPTAIN ON THE BRIDGE!”
Everyone flinched and covered their ears.
“...That was too much,” she said to herself as she made a face.
“Little bit,” Jim nodded as he sat in his chair and Uhura took her station. He had more pressing matters to attend to at the moment. Such as mockery. “So Sulu...”
Sulu slowly turned around from his console with a wary expression.
“How's Christine?” Jim pronounced “Christine” as if it were a song.
The helmsman at least had the decency to blush. At this, Chekov's expression became strangely nauseated.
“She's...fine. And I'm sorry.”
Jim's smile turned wicked. “Oh not yet. But you will be!”
Sulu winced. Chekov rolled his eyes and muttered something in Russian under his breath, causing Uhura to make a scandalized noise at her station and look at him with wide eyes. Pavel realized he had spoken out loud and made a face of his own. Jim made a note to ask Uhura what the kid said later because whatever it was, going by her face it was gold.
“Steady as she goes, Mister Sulu. Warp four.”
“Aye, sir.”
-----
Spock looked down at the small black box in his right hand curiously.
He considered it for a moment.
“Nyota, I wish to join you in matrimony.”
That didn't seem right.
“Nyota, be my wife.”
No, that was too much like an order.
“Nyota, I love you. Please be mine forever.”
He shook his head in consternation.
This would be much simpler if she were also Vulcan. All of this would have been arranged for them in childhood and they would honor the agreement upon entering maturity or there would be a duel to the death. It was all so much more straight forward with Vulcans.
Nevertheless Nyota was human, a fact for which Spock normally was grateful. In this instance it left him with a feeling of not knowing exactly where he should begin. He had to somehow find a way to ask her for her hand that would be acceptable to a human woman.
He thought about asking his father, but it seemed...improper given everything that had happened with his mother. He honestly did not wish to cause Sarek any undue pain.
That left him with attempting to figure it out on his own and so he used his lunch hour to try his hand at writing a speech. It was unfortunate that all of his efforts were leaving much to be desired.
Perhaps a speech was the wrong answer. This situation possibly called for a more...grand gesture.
But what exactly could he do?
He stared down at the small box for another moment before it finally occurred to him.
The Enterprise had quite an extensive media library involving data from many different cultures, not the least of which was Terran. He could simply consult Earth films and books and put something together from those. It wasn't an ideal solution, but it was the most logical and therefore best one that he had at the moment.
Making sure to put the box into his pants pocket, he began to make his way down to the recreation room on deck seven.
-----
Pavel Chekov finally got off beta shift at the appropriate time and made his way to the quarters he shared with Hikaru Sulu.
He knew for a fact the pilot did not have any plans that evening, so he wanted to see if they could play (and beat) his new flight simulation game.
Correction: the pilot didn't have any plans for once.
It wasn't as if he wasn't happy for Hikaru. He seemed to care a great deal for Nurse Chapel, even though they had only been together for a couple of short months. As far as Pavel was concerned, Hikaru was great and deserved all of the happiness in the world.
Just...did he have to see her all of the time?
If he wasn't eating lunch with her, he was spending the night in her quarters. If he wasn't spending the night in her quarters, they were at the water park together. If they weren't at the water park together, they were sparring together, which honestly was a little weird in Pavel's opinion. He was even teaching her how to fence.
This last was unforgivable.
Fencing had been their thing!
Now with his new girlfriend monopolizing all of his time, Pavel had just fallen to the wayside.
When they had first gotten together, Pavel hadn't minded this. It was a new romance and that happened. He had dated a few people himself, so he knew how it went.
Briefly, he reminded himself that he owed Irina a letter.
This, however, was ridiculous. It had been three months and they still were together all of the freaking time.
Hikaru seldom made time for him anymore, and when he did all he could talk about was Christine this or that. Even if it was just the two of them, like it had been for lunch the other day, all Hikaru could could speak of was his wonderful Christine.
But what could he really say? Most likely, he would just tell him he was being ridiculous and call him childish or something. Or worse, say he was jealous of what they had.
Which...to be fair, Pavel was jealous and he realized this.
Just...not in that way.
He did feel rather like he'd be spoiling his friend's happiness, though. So he figured he'd just try to make plans with him whenever he could. Rather frustratingly, it seemed to always result in something that started with Oh well, Christine and I...
Bitterly, Pavel remembered when it used to be Pavel and I as he entered the entry code to their suite. The door opened and he stepped inside.
“Hikaru?” Pavel called into the darkness. That was odd, Hikaru had been on alpha shift that day. He should definitely have been back before him. That was when he noticed his door was closed. Sulu only closed his door when he was sleeping, maybe he was just taking a nap. He walked over to the pilot's door and knocked a few times. “Hikaru!”
It took a while, but the door eventually opened and Sulu caught it so it only slid part way. He also wasn't wearing anything except his boxer shorts and his hair was mussed. “Pavel? Oh wow, beta shift's already over?”
Pavel blinked several times. “I...have new game. Thought we could perhaps play it?”
Hikaru smiled thinly. “Uh, I would but I'm kinda busy.”
The door being only partially open suddenly made a lot of sense and Pavel once again found he felt sick to his stomach. “Oh. Perhaps...when you are finished?”
“Um...” Sulu looked back into his room over his shoulder for a moment. “I...”
“Never mind. Forget I said.” Pavel forced himself to smile in the off-chance that Hikaru would feel badly about this. “Another time.”
“Hey thanks,” Sulu's smile became more genuine. “And um...we'll try to keep it down.” Sulu stepped back and pushed the button to close his door, leaving Pavel alone.
Of course he was with her.
Of course.
He should have known better, some genius he was supposed to be.
Pavel stalked over to the living room with a sour look on his face.
This was getting ridiculous.
It was bad enough that she had stolen his best friend, but now he couldn't even come back to his own quarters without having that fact shoved in his face. It was almost as if they were flaunting it.
He paced around their couch angrily a few times before he finally decided that he needed some air. Hastily he threw off his gold tunic, not caring if it ended up on the floor. Hikaru usually insisted they keep their quarters pretty clean, but Pavel found he was fairly indifferent to what his roommate wanted at that moment.
Honestly, what he most was in the mood for was a fight. He held no illusions about his combat capabilities, however, and decided going for a long run was a more sensible alternative. He stepped into his room and changed into his Starfleet Academy marathon t-shirt, shorts, and trainers.
Some best friend.
He made his way past the roller rink to the gym with a sour look on his face. Riley and a few of the guys were in there working out and he nodded a curt hello to them as he made his way to a treadmill.
“Computer, training program Chekov. Please load media library file Pavel-twelve.”
Pavel-twelve was his angry playlist. He didn't use it often, but he found that nothing else would do. He put in his earbuds and began to run.
The problem wasn't Hikaru, he decided as he hit the first kilometer mark.
The problem...the problem was her.
Oh sure, he technically had no issue with Christine Chapel. She was actually really nice and funny. She refused to put up with the doctor yelling at her which, Pavel had to grudgingly admit, impressed him. She was very good at her job. She was extremely pretty.
As far as Pavel could tell, she was practically perfect. Well, aside from the whole friend-stealing devil-woman thing.
But if he could figure something out, get her out of the way somehow, he was sure he would have his Hikaru back in no time.
Sure Hikaru would be a little sad when they would end things, but that was where his good friend Pavel would come in, with cookies and games and tons of time to spend cheering him up!
A nagging voice in the back of his head that sounded suspiciously like Hikaru told him this wasn't very nice. But, he had been nice and patient and it was getting him nowhere. Maybe he wouldn't outright scheme but if he could help the inevitable along...well that was fine, right?
He started to smile to himself as he kept his pace and passed kilometer number two.
These thoughts bore more careful examination after his run.
-----
Jim sat on the couch in the quarters he shared with Bones, knees bent with a PADD balanced on his thighs. His stylus was in his left hand as he went through the week's TPS reports. It was nothing that couldn't wait until later, but after almost two years in space he knew better.
Every single time he put off his paperwork before a mission, it ended up going straight to hell in a hand-basket. This of course meant that they were so busy putting out the fires he never got around to it. And then Pike would end up calling him with what Jim privately referred to as his disappointed dad face.
He really hated Pike's disappointed dad face.
So here he was doing his paperwork and handing it in early, which made him fairly content.
Sometimes he wondered about what had become of his life that he took doing paperwork early as something good and not, like, being a suck up or something else.
Then again, being James Tiberius Kirk was awesome for a multitude of reasons. The universe had to spread such awesome all around, so there was bound to be some minor fail here or there.
He dimly heard the door open. Without looking up, he knew the main reason his life was awesome had just come back to quarters after his shift.
He continued going over his reports and he felt Bones sit down next to his feet on the couch. He glanced up and smiled at him before looking back over the paperwork.
They sat together for a while, neither of them speaking. Eventually, Bones reached out his hands and undid the fastenings on Jim's right boot. Jim kept his head down somewhat so the doctor wouldn't see his grin as the boot was slowly pulled off. Bones repeated the process with the left one, leaving Jim in just his socks and regulation trousers. The captain felt warm hands slide up and under his pants' legs and start massaging his calves.
He couldn't hide it any longer. Jim looked up, his grin firmly in place as he met Bones' heated gaze. Yeah, that was about what he had expected to see.
'You're such a piece of shit,” he finally said.
“Put the PADD down, Jim,” was all he got in reply. Jim raised one of his eyebrows, but did as he was told and placed his PADD on their coffee table. It was Bones' turn to smirk and he shifted so that he was kneeling on the couch. He moved into position so that he was laying over top of Jim, propped up on his hands. “Hi,” Bones whispered.
They kissed, a slow lazy one that made Jim whimper a little as he wound his hands into Bones' hair. He spread his legs to better accommodate his lover and Bones made a low growl in the back of his throat.
God, he loved those sounds.
They lay there for a while, not in any hurry to move things along. They did eventually have to come up for air and Bones nuzzled Jim's neck.
“You think coming in here like this is going to change the - ah - fact that I noticed you daydreaming, Doctor McCoy?”
“Picked up on that, huh?” Bones mumbled in between kisses.
“Mm-hmm,” Jim said as he moved to give Bones better access. “One day when you do that, I'm putting you in the landing party on purpose.”
“The very thought is enough to strike fear, Captain.” It really wasn't fair how Bones could deadpan like that in the middle of making out. Jim pouted for a moment at the injustice of it all, until his mouth was captured in another deep kiss.
Speaking of the meeting...
“Uhura says we flirt too much,” he gasped when the kiss ended.
That was enough to make Bones back off a bit with a raised eyebrow. Hey, no, come back. “Does she?”
“Yeah. She says we're setting a bad example.”
Bones looked thoughtful. “Sulu and Christine?”
“Sulu and Christine.” Jim nodded. “I told her we'd be more professional.”
“Probably not a bad idea,” Bones agreed. “Although...we're a lot better than we were.”
Jim nodded again. They had toned it down a lot since the time Scotty lost it and threw his PADD at the wall. Really for five people who had been so dead set on getting them together, they sure acted like jerks about their relationship. “I think any is too much in this case. And she's right, even if we don't do it in front of the regular crew, we really shouldn't be doing it at all.” He tilted his head to one side. “I mean when we're off duty like now, whatever, they wouldn't care. We just...need to be more careful with the meetings.”
Bones smiled. “I think we can agree to those terms.” He leaned back down towards Jim. That was much better.
They kissed again.
And again.
Pretty soon, nothing else mattered except the feel of skin on skin.
-----
Hikaru wrapped his arms around his girlfriend as Christine smiled and snuggled in closer to him and he kissed her shoulder.
Things had been going amazingly well ever since Kirk had practically shoved him at her during her birthday party a couple of months ago. Hikaru had never connected with anyone like he had her and it was absolutely thrilling. Admittedly he had been a bit surprised the first time she had teased him into sparring with her, but he had never been happier to have his ass kicked than he was that afternoon.
Come to think of it, she always won their sparring matches.
Hikaru felt like maybe he should wonder about that a bit more, but honestly? His girlfriend being able to take him in a fight was hot. She evidently agreed, because more often than not things would go like they had that afternoon; they'd start on the mats and end up in bed.
Mimi Sulu had not raised a fool and Hikaru knew better than to complain about that.
“By the way...” The sound of Christine's voice brought Hikaru out of his thoughts. “Who was that earlier? Was that Pavel?”
Sulu made a soft hmm noise in the back of his throat. “Yeah, it was just him. I feel kind-of bad about that, I didn't realize he'd be here.”
“You two are pretty tight.”
“Well, he is my best friend,” he replied. “We got paired together for flight sim training back at the academy and we've always worked together seamlessly, even that first time. I asked if we could train together off-hours and it just grew from there.”
Chris had turned somewhat somber. She picked at a spot on his sheets.
“Hey,” he lifted her chin so she could look him in the eye. “What gives?”
“Do you think he feels left out?”
Hikaru gave her a funny look. “What, like a threesome or something? Because I'm not comfortable with...”
“No, you ass,” she laughed as she smacked him on the arm. “I mean, do you think he feels like a third wheel or pushed to the side or anything?”
“Honestly?” He thought for a moment. “I don't think so, I mean we just had lunch together yesterday. Not to mention that Pavel's one of the most direct people I've ever met. He'd come right out and tell me if something were wrong.” Sulu smiled at her. “It's sweet of you to worry though.”
Chris smiled back easily. “You're probably right.” She stretched lightly. “I should get going.”
“Oh come on,” he groaned. “I know you're on alpha shift tomorrow, but we can get you up early enough where you can change before heading to sick bay.”
The nurse raised her eyebrow and Sulu gave her a pleading expression. They looked at each other like that for a few minutes and finally she sighed. She settled herself in more comfortably and, realizing he had won, Hikaru grinned.
“Fine, but if I'm late I'm ratting you out to Leonard.”
-----
Scotty stood with Keenser and Richards with a perplexed look on his face.
The Enterprise had entered orbit near Castro. It was nighttime on the side of the planet they were visiting, so the landing party was due to beam down first thing in the morning. Only a few minutes after their arrival, Scotty had been called to the transporter room the two engineers in order to have a look at something troubling.
“You're absolutely sure?”
“Yes sir,” Richards said. Keenser nodded.
“There was a completely random energy spike in them ten minutes ago,” Keenser supplied. “It was big enough that we noticed it, even though they're powered down.”
Scotty tilted his head to one side. “That's not only peculiar but ominous.” He knelt down and took a closer look at one transporter pad in particular. “She do it again?”
“No sir,” Richards answered. “Just the once and it doesn't appear to be ongoing. It just was the strangest thing and we figured better safe than sorry.
Scotty kept looking at the pad closely, almost as if it had personally betrayed him. “What are you doing, love?” He pat the floor next to the pad fondly. “You feeling temperamental?”
His two top staff members watched him warily.
Scotty finally stood back up. “Ship's telling me she's fine now. We need the transporters for the away mission tomorrow morning; the shuttles aren't an option this time as they'd most certainly crash into the debris.” He crossed his arms and looked back down at the pad. “We'll just keep an eye on her in the meanwhile. If it happens again, then I'll take a deeper look. There's no sense in hitting the alarm over one spike.” He pat the wall a few times. “Is there, love?”
Richards blinked several times and then looked down at Keenser. The small green man was long used to Scotty's unique brand of insanity and just shrugged. Richards sighed.
She still wasn't paid enough for this.
-----
“I think we destroyed the living room again,” Jim said as he stared up at the ceiling.
From where he lay on his back next to him, Bones snorted. “And what? Are we having guests?”
Jim rolled his eyes in a good-natured manner. “And we just cleaned yesterday. I swear with you around, it's like Sisyphus pushing the rock some days.”
Bones shifted so he was on his side in order to get a proper look at Jim's face. “I can't believe we still have to have this conversation. You're not some innocent little lamb and I'm not the big bad wolf coming to get you.”
“You go right ahead and tell yourself that,” Jim said with a grin. “I mean, here I was doing my paperwork and you came in all tempting and hot. What am I supposed to do?”
Bones frowned. “It wasn't urgent.”
“How do you know?” Jim sat up, determined to prove his point. “It could have been extremely urgent.”
“You never do urgent paperwork here. You only ever do it in your ready room.”
Jim opened his mouth to reply, then closed it rather abruptly.
Fuck.
He scowled and Bones got the most smug expression ever in response.
“All right, fine, it wasn't urgent,” Jim said as he poked him hard in the chest. “The point still stands about you, douchebag.”
“I'll take that,” the doctor said smoothly. Appeased, Jim lay back down. Bones quickly pulled him into his arms, and he rested his head on his shoulder. The blond sighed contentedly before moving so that they were face to face again.
“I love you,” he said softly.
Bones smiled and pulled him into a gentle kiss. When it ended, Jim shifted once more so that his head was on the other man's shoulder and he closed his eyes.
“Computer, lights out,” Bones called and the room became dark. He planted a kiss on Jim's hairline before whispering “Good night, Jim.”
Jim smiled even though he knew Bones couldn't tell in the dark. He always made him feel so...
His eyes opened back up.
That was weird.
Bones hadn't said I love you back to him.
At that moment, a huge yawn came out of his mouth. Well, it wasn't that big of a deal; just a one time thing or something.
He closed his eyes for the second time, and it wasn't long before he drifted off to sleep.
Chapter Two
Series: Star Trek XI: waterpark 'verse
Rating: PG-13 for swearing and some fade to black hanky-panky
Total Word Count: Are you ready for this shit? 44,841. It's just...it's full of stars.
Summary: Welcome to the Enterprise's newest mission, a voyage to a little planet called Castro III. For once, obeying the Prime Directive is the least of their worries. It's hard to be in Starfleet when you have to deal with transporter malfunctions, video game sessions, rings, jail cells, matador costumes, bowling matches, miscommunications, spies, observation deck talks, champagne, disciplinary hearings, new nicknames, romantic dinners, and a pair of people who won't be talking when the dust settles.
Pairing Notes: Kirk/Bones, Spock/Uhura, Sulu/Chapel
Notes: This takes place a year and eight months into the five year mission, meaning Kirk and Bones have been dating for eight months. (LOL POSTING IN MY OWN UNIVERSE OUT OF ORDER.) If you haven't read everything else in the land of waterparks and roller rinks, certain things will be confusing to you.
This story makes very brief references to the TOS episodes "Patterns of Force" and "The Enemy Within."
The title, and this should be obvious to anyone who has ever exchanged a sentence with me, is from the song Don't Stop Believin' by Journey.
Here's a list of things I had to google in order to write this properly: transporter technology, how to beat a seven-ten split, controls for the video game Wing Commander, Much Ado About Nothing, Heisenberg compensators (“They work very well, thanks”), metric conversion charts, the United Federation of planets, and the lyrics to Amy Winehouse's Back to Black.
That's not even all of it, by the way. I'd show you the google history on my iPhone but I like...I don't think there's any way I can do that. I would also probably horrify all of you.
Dude someone needs to take author's notes away from me. I just never shut up.
Now
The cell door slammed shut with a loud bang.
Jim sighed from where he stood against the bars and took a look at his crew.
Still wearing their special team uniforms, Sulu, Uhura, and Bones sat together on a bench. Uhura had her arms crossed and was staring pointedly at the wall across from her. Sulu was leaning against the wall behind him and slouched, his thumb and forefinger pinching the bridge of his nose. Meanwhile, Bones was this impressive combination of resigned and pissed. His arms were crossed and he tapped two of his fingers against his bicep without any rhythm or regularity.
Kirk looked across the cell to the other bench, where Spock and Chekov sat. The Vulcan wore a blank expression while Chekov looked beyond irritated. That was about right.
Jim looked to the left for a moment, making sure to avoid eye contact with Bones. He glanced back to the other side. Finally, he forced a smile onto his face and clapped his hands once loudly.
Everyone turned to look at him.
“So. This went well.”
Three days ago
“Those are our orders,” Jim finished to the assembled crew members. “We go in, make friends if possible, observe definitely, and hopefully...new Federation allies.”
The USS Enterprise was nearing its destination of Castro III, a planet long thought to be uninhabited. The Yorktown had come across viable life and technology readings in a small area on the planet, but had been unable to investigate further due to the time constraints with their current mission of getting vital vaccines to Argelius. As the Enterprise was the next closest ship in the system and they were at somewhat loose ends, it fell to them to make the contact.
He looked around the large conference table in his ready room. Uhura and Spock looked as intrigued as always by the prospect of learning about a new culture. Nerds in love, it was the cutest thing.
Speaking of nerds, Sulu had been typing notes on his PADD the entire meeting. Or maybe he hadn't been, judging by the eye roll Chekov made as he peered over his shoulder. Which meant that in all likelihood, he had been sending messages down to his girlfriend in sick bay.
How hilariously inappropriate.
Scotty had actually seemed really enthusiastic about the whole thing. He had been the only person to bother asking any questions, and Jim had delighted in answering them. He got tired of droning on some days and, well, anything to spice up the meetings.
Meanwhile, Bones sat listening with his chin in one hand. Unfortunately for him, Jim knew the look in his eyes meant he was doing doctor-y things in his head instead of listening.
Oh, it was so going to be on later.
“The Yorktown said the readings were small, and in one very localized area,” he said as he pointed to a spot on an image projected onto the wall. “They also said there was some kind of interference with a lot of their scanners, ostensibly from all of the debris surrounding the planet.”
Chekov raised his hand and Jim nodded at him. “Debris?”
“Yeah, Castro used to have three moons. Starfleet isn't sure exactly when, but one of them exploded quite some time ago.” Kirk crossed his arms. “The Yorktown wasn't able to properly assess exactly what kind of damage that had done to the planet, although it appears that it's harmed all but a small piece it.”
“Leaving some type of desert oasis?” Scotty looked curious.
“Something like that, yeah.” Jim shrugged. “There's not just a little of the debris either, there's a ton of it so transporters will be our only way on and off the planet. It's too risky to try flying through it.”
Sulu looked up from what he was doing for a moment with a mildly insulted expression. Oh so he was listening. That was nice of him.
“They do have some technology, so the Prime Directive doesn't necessarily apply here. We need to be somewhat conservative in how we approach them, as we don't know exactly what level of development they've achieved.” Jim moved to stand behind his chair, putting his hands on the headrest. “Since we need to start small, myself, Spock, and Chekov will beam down first.” He tried to ignore the slightly disappointed look on Scotty's face. “Scotty, you'll have command of the ship while we're down there. Should be fairly routine, I don't think we'll need any security to go with us.”
“You should probably take five of them, then, with the way things go around here,” Bones grumbled quietly.
“I believe going in with such forces would give the appearance that the Federation is hostile.”
Bones rolled his eyes. “Spock, I know you're still somewhat new to the whole concept of sarcasm, but you really should know me better by now.”
Spock raised an eyebrow. “I do not understand how that would be possible, as your normal tone of voice is virtually indistinguishable from the one you designate as being for sarcasm.”
The room was silent as everyone stared at Spock in surprise, except for Sulu who simply snorted as he typed on his PADD.
“Snap,” Jim finally announced to no one in particular. Scotty and Chekov nodded their agreement. “Although, maybe one officer wouldn't be a bad idea. Think Cupcake can spare a redshirt for a few hours?”
“I'll give him a ring when this is over,” Uhura said.
“Awesome.” He smiled at the room. “With that, I guess we're all done. Dismissed.”
Slowly, everyone began making their way back to their duty stations, except for Uhura who had hung back. Bones paused at the doorway to look back at Jim, who promptly beamed and blew a kiss to him. With an irritated expression on his face Bones mimed catching it, but Jim didn't miss the smile that started to form as he turned away. With him gone, Jim was free to turn his attention back to his communications officer.
“Is there something else, Lieutenant?”
“Just wanted to make sure you only want the one redshirt and not two or, as Leonard so dryly suggested, five.” She tilted her head to one side and smiled.
Jim grinned at her. “One's fine, it's probably just a standard meet-and-greet. I don't think it's necessary at all, but it'll make Bones feel better.”
Nyota rolled her eyes. “Speaking of, you two really should tone it down sometimes. You're setting a bad example.” She raised an eyebrow. “I'd imagine that your behavior is why Sulu thinks he can get away with the electronic flirting like he was today.”
Jim stared blankly at her. “You have met Bones, right?”
The expression on Uhura's face spoke volumes, most of which said don't bullshit me, we were all there. Jim winced.
“Okay, so, I may not have a leg to stand on.”
“Considering you two still act like newlyweds and it's been close to a year, no, you really don't.” Uhura smiled. “Although, I suppose I should congratulate you as today you kept it professional until the very end. The last time we had one of these meetings, I had to keep myself from throwing up because of you two.”
“Is that what you were doing? I couldn't quite read the look on your face.” Jim winced for a second time.
“Yes, sir.” She turned serious. “You two do a good job in front of the rest of the crew and when you go on away missions, but it sends a bad message when you behave like that during the meetings just because we're also all friends. I know it seems like no one cares, but...”
“No, I'm glad you said something. It was just all in good fun, but we should really be more careful. I'll make sure to both talk to Sulu and make more of an effort when we're in an official capacity to stay professional.” He paused, because here was a prime opportunity to needle her if ever there was one. ”I guess we should just take lessons from you and Spock then. You two never do anything inappropriate.” It was almost unnerving.
Uhura rolled her eyes, but the smile on her face undermined it. “Inappropriate is not in the Vulcan dictionary.”
“This isn't one of those things like telling me gullible isn't in the Standard dictionary, is it?” She gave him a weird look. “I think it's a legitimate question! I never really know where things are with you.”
“That's because you aren't supposed to,” she said with a grin. They made their way out of the room and to the turbo lift. He remembered a conversation he and Sulu had with Spock a while back during that shithole of a mission with the plant people. He was curious, but he thought it was best not to ask Spock directly.
Why not just ask her?
“So...how are things with you guys anyways?” Take the bait, Nyota.
“Shouldn't you be asking Spock at one of your chess matches?” Or not.
Jim shook his head. “Uh uh, Spock and I don't talk about our relationships. Everything else but not those.” He rubbed the back of his head absently. “Something about him not wanting to give me any ideas. I honestly don't know what he meant by that.”
She made a tsking sound. “Of course not, because you didn't spend the first eight months of our voyage hitting on me in front of him or anything.”
Oh right. “Huh. You know, I forgot I used to do that.”
This made her smile again. “Well, he hasn't, is all I'm saying.” She shrugged one shoulder. “I've tried explaining that, especially with you being so besotted with Leonard, he has nothing to worry about but he gets oddly insecure sometimes for a Vulcan.”
Jim nodded, then found himself smiling. “I guess that not everyone's relationship can be perfect like mine.”
Uhura laughed loudly. “Okay, wow. You better hope you didn't just jinx yourself.”
“Psht,” Jim said eloquently with a sweeping gesture of his hand. “It's only true.”
She gave him a knowing look. “I'm going to remember you said that so when your man arbitrarily falls into a coma or something, I can properly say I told you so.”
“Harsh.”
“Thank you.” The lift doors opened and they stepped onto the bridge.
Hannity looked up from her console. “CAPTAIN ON THE BRIDGE!”
Everyone flinched and covered their ears.
“...That was too much,” she said to herself as she made a face.
“Little bit,” Jim nodded as he sat in his chair and Uhura took her station. He had more pressing matters to attend to at the moment. Such as mockery. “So Sulu...”
Sulu slowly turned around from his console with a wary expression.
“How's Christine?” Jim pronounced “Christine” as if it were a song.
The helmsman at least had the decency to blush. At this, Chekov's expression became strangely nauseated.
“She's...fine. And I'm sorry.”
Jim's smile turned wicked. “Oh not yet. But you will be!”
Sulu winced. Chekov rolled his eyes and muttered something in Russian under his breath, causing Uhura to make a scandalized noise at her station and look at him with wide eyes. Pavel realized he had spoken out loud and made a face of his own. Jim made a note to ask Uhura what the kid said later because whatever it was, going by her face it was gold.
“Steady as she goes, Mister Sulu. Warp four.”
“Aye, sir.”
Spock looked down at the small black box in his right hand curiously.
He considered it for a moment.
“Nyota, I wish to join you in matrimony.”
That didn't seem right.
“Nyota, be my wife.”
No, that was too much like an order.
“Nyota, I love you. Please be mine forever.”
He shook his head in consternation.
This would be much simpler if she were also Vulcan. All of this would have been arranged for them in childhood and they would honor the agreement upon entering maturity or there would be a duel to the death. It was all so much more straight forward with Vulcans.
Nevertheless Nyota was human, a fact for which Spock normally was grateful. In this instance it left him with a feeling of not knowing exactly where he should begin. He had to somehow find a way to ask her for her hand that would be acceptable to a human woman.
He thought about asking his father, but it seemed...improper given everything that had happened with his mother. He honestly did not wish to cause Sarek any undue pain.
That left him with attempting to figure it out on his own and so he used his lunch hour to try his hand at writing a speech. It was unfortunate that all of his efforts were leaving much to be desired.
Perhaps a speech was the wrong answer. This situation possibly called for a more...grand gesture.
But what exactly could he do?
He stared down at the small box for another moment before it finally occurred to him.
The Enterprise had quite an extensive media library involving data from many different cultures, not the least of which was Terran. He could simply consult Earth films and books and put something together from those. It wasn't an ideal solution, but it was the most logical and therefore best one that he had at the moment.
Making sure to put the box into his pants pocket, he began to make his way down to the recreation room on deck seven.
Pavel Chekov finally got off beta shift at the appropriate time and made his way to the quarters he shared with Hikaru Sulu.
He knew for a fact the pilot did not have any plans that evening, so he wanted to see if they could play (and beat) his new flight simulation game.
Correction: the pilot didn't have any plans for once.
It wasn't as if he wasn't happy for Hikaru. He seemed to care a great deal for Nurse Chapel, even though they had only been together for a couple of short months. As far as Pavel was concerned, Hikaru was great and deserved all of the happiness in the world.
Just...did he have to see her all of the time?
If he wasn't eating lunch with her, he was spending the night in her quarters. If he wasn't spending the night in her quarters, they were at the water park together. If they weren't at the water park together, they were sparring together, which honestly was a little weird in Pavel's opinion. He was even teaching her how to fence.
This last was unforgivable.
Fencing had been their thing!
Now with his new girlfriend monopolizing all of his time, Pavel had just fallen to the wayside.
When they had first gotten together, Pavel hadn't minded this. It was a new romance and that happened. He had dated a few people himself, so he knew how it went.
Briefly, he reminded himself that he owed Irina a letter.
This, however, was ridiculous. It had been three months and they still were together all of the freaking time.
Hikaru seldom made time for him anymore, and when he did all he could talk about was Christine this or that. Even if it was just the two of them, like it had been for lunch the other day, all Hikaru could could speak of was his wonderful Christine.
But what could he really say? Most likely, he would just tell him he was being ridiculous and call him childish or something. Or worse, say he was jealous of what they had.
Which...to be fair, Pavel was jealous and he realized this.
Just...not in that way.
He did feel rather like he'd be spoiling his friend's happiness, though. So he figured he'd just try to make plans with him whenever he could. Rather frustratingly, it seemed to always result in something that started with Oh well, Christine and I...
Bitterly, Pavel remembered when it used to be Pavel and I as he entered the entry code to their suite. The door opened and he stepped inside.
“Hikaru?” Pavel called into the darkness. That was odd, Hikaru had been on alpha shift that day. He should definitely have been back before him. That was when he noticed his door was closed. Sulu only closed his door when he was sleeping, maybe he was just taking a nap. He walked over to the pilot's door and knocked a few times. “Hikaru!”
It took a while, but the door eventually opened and Sulu caught it so it only slid part way. He also wasn't wearing anything except his boxer shorts and his hair was mussed. “Pavel? Oh wow, beta shift's already over?”
Pavel blinked several times. “I...have new game. Thought we could perhaps play it?”
Hikaru smiled thinly. “Uh, I would but I'm kinda busy.”
The door being only partially open suddenly made a lot of sense and Pavel once again found he felt sick to his stomach. “Oh. Perhaps...when you are finished?”
“Um...” Sulu looked back into his room over his shoulder for a moment. “I...”
“Never mind. Forget I said.” Pavel forced himself to smile in the off-chance that Hikaru would feel badly about this. “Another time.”
“Hey thanks,” Sulu's smile became more genuine. “And um...we'll try to keep it down.” Sulu stepped back and pushed the button to close his door, leaving Pavel alone.
Of course he was with her.
Of course.
He should have known better, some genius he was supposed to be.
Pavel stalked over to the living room with a sour look on his face.
This was getting ridiculous.
It was bad enough that she had stolen his best friend, but now he couldn't even come back to his own quarters without having that fact shoved in his face. It was almost as if they were flaunting it.
He paced around their couch angrily a few times before he finally decided that he needed some air. Hastily he threw off his gold tunic, not caring if it ended up on the floor. Hikaru usually insisted they keep their quarters pretty clean, but Pavel found he was fairly indifferent to what his roommate wanted at that moment.
Honestly, what he most was in the mood for was a fight. He held no illusions about his combat capabilities, however, and decided going for a long run was a more sensible alternative. He stepped into his room and changed into his Starfleet Academy marathon t-shirt, shorts, and trainers.
Some best friend.
He made his way past the roller rink to the gym with a sour look on his face. Riley and a few of the guys were in there working out and he nodded a curt hello to them as he made his way to a treadmill.
“Computer, training program Chekov. Please load media library file Pavel-twelve.”
Pavel-twelve was his angry playlist. He didn't use it often, but he found that nothing else would do. He put in his earbuds and began to run.
The problem wasn't Hikaru, he decided as he hit the first kilometer mark.
The problem...the problem was her.
Oh sure, he technically had no issue with Christine Chapel. She was actually really nice and funny. She refused to put up with the doctor yelling at her which, Pavel had to grudgingly admit, impressed him. She was very good at her job. She was extremely pretty.
As far as Pavel could tell, she was practically perfect. Well, aside from the whole friend-stealing devil-woman thing.
But if he could figure something out, get her out of the way somehow, he was sure he would have his Hikaru back in no time.
Sure Hikaru would be a little sad when they would end things, but that was where his good friend Pavel would come in, with cookies and games and tons of time to spend cheering him up!
A nagging voice in the back of his head that sounded suspiciously like Hikaru told him this wasn't very nice. But, he had been nice and patient and it was getting him nowhere. Maybe he wouldn't outright scheme but if he could help the inevitable along...well that was fine, right?
He started to smile to himself as he kept his pace and passed kilometer number two.
These thoughts bore more careful examination after his run.
Jim sat on the couch in the quarters he shared with Bones, knees bent with a PADD balanced on his thighs. His stylus was in his left hand as he went through the week's TPS reports. It was nothing that couldn't wait until later, but after almost two years in space he knew better.
Every single time he put off his paperwork before a mission, it ended up going straight to hell in a hand-basket. This of course meant that they were so busy putting out the fires he never got around to it. And then Pike would end up calling him with what Jim privately referred to as his disappointed dad face.
He really hated Pike's disappointed dad face.
So here he was doing his paperwork and handing it in early, which made him fairly content.
Sometimes he wondered about what had become of his life that he took doing paperwork early as something good and not, like, being a suck up or something else.
Then again, being James Tiberius Kirk was awesome for a multitude of reasons. The universe had to spread such awesome all around, so there was bound to be some minor fail here or there.
He dimly heard the door open. Without looking up, he knew the main reason his life was awesome had just come back to quarters after his shift.
He continued going over his reports and he felt Bones sit down next to his feet on the couch. He glanced up and smiled at him before looking back over the paperwork.
They sat together for a while, neither of them speaking. Eventually, Bones reached out his hands and undid the fastenings on Jim's right boot. Jim kept his head down somewhat so the doctor wouldn't see his grin as the boot was slowly pulled off. Bones repeated the process with the left one, leaving Jim in just his socks and regulation trousers. The captain felt warm hands slide up and under his pants' legs and start massaging his calves.
He couldn't hide it any longer. Jim looked up, his grin firmly in place as he met Bones' heated gaze. Yeah, that was about what he had expected to see.
'You're such a piece of shit,” he finally said.
“Put the PADD down, Jim,” was all he got in reply. Jim raised one of his eyebrows, but did as he was told and placed his PADD on their coffee table. It was Bones' turn to smirk and he shifted so that he was kneeling on the couch. He moved into position so that he was laying over top of Jim, propped up on his hands. “Hi,” Bones whispered.
They kissed, a slow lazy one that made Jim whimper a little as he wound his hands into Bones' hair. He spread his legs to better accommodate his lover and Bones made a low growl in the back of his throat.
God, he loved those sounds.
They lay there for a while, not in any hurry to move things along. They did eventually have to come up for air and Bones nuzzled Jim's neck.
“You think coming in here like this is going to change the - ah - fact that I noticed you daydreaming, Doctor McCoy?”
“Picked up on that, huh?” Bones mumbled in between kisses.
“Mm-hmm,” Jim said as he moved to give Bones better access. “One day when you do that, I'm putting you in the landing party on purpose.”
“The very thought is enough to strike fear, Captain.” It really wasn't fair how Bones could deadpan like that in the middle of making out. Jim pouted for a moment at the injustice of it all, until his mouth was captured in another deep kiss.
Speaking of the meeting...
“Uhura says we flirt too much,” he gasped when the kiss ended.
That was enough to make Bones back off a bit with a raised eyebrow. Hey, no, come back. “Does she?”
“Yeah. She says we're setting a bad example.”
Bones looked thoughtful. “Sulu and Christine?”
“Sulu and Christine.” Jim nodded. “I told her we'd be more professional.”
“Probably not a bad idea,” Bones agreed. “Although...we're a lot better than we were.”
Jim nodded again. They had toned it down a lot since the time Scotty lost it and threw his PADD at the wall. Really for five people who had been so dead set on getting them together, they sure acted like jerks about their relationship. “I think any is too much in this case. And she's right, even if we don't do it in front of the regular crew, we really shouldn't be doing it at all.” He tilted his head to one side. “I mean when we're off duty like now, whatever, they wouldn't care. We just...need to be more careful with the meetings.”
Bones smiled. “I think we can agree to those terms.” He leaned back down towards Jim. That was much better.
They kissed again.
And again.
Pretty soon, nothing else mattered except the feel of skin on skin.
Hikaru wrapped his arms around his girlfriend as Christine smiled and snuggled in closer to him and he kissed her shoulder.
Things had been going amazingly well ever since Kirk had practically shoved him at her during her birthday party a couple of months ago. Hikaru had never connected with anyone like he had her and it was absolutely thrilling. Admittedly he had been a bit surprised the first time she had teased him into sparring with her, but he had never been happier to have his ass kicked than he was that afternoon.
Come to think of it, she always won their sparring matches.
Hikaru felt like maybe he should wonder about that a bit more, but honestly? His girlfriend being able to take him in a fight was hot. She evidently agreed, because more often than not things would go like they had that afternoon; they'd start on the mats and end up in bed.
Mimi Sulu had not raised a fool and Hikaru knew better than to complain about that.
“By the way...” The sound of Christine's voice brought Hikaru out of his thoughts. “Who was that earlier? Was that Pavel?”
Sulu made a soft hmm noise in the back of his throat. “Yeah, it was just him. I feel kind-of bad about that, I didn't realize he'd be here.”
“You two are pretty tight.”
“Well, he is my best friend,” he replied. “We got paired together for flight sim training back at the academy and we've always worked together seamlessly, even that first time. I asked if we could train together off-hours and it just grew from there.”
Chris had turned somewhat somber. She picked at a spot on his sheets.
“Hey,” he lifted her chin so she could look him in the eye. “What gives?”
“Do you think he feels left out?”
Hikaru gave her a funny look. “What, like a threesome or something? Because I'm not comfortable with...”
“No, you ass,” she laughed as she smacked him on the arm. “I mean, do you think he feels like a third wheel or pushed to the side or anything?”
“Honestly?” He thought for a moment. “I don't think so, I mean we just had lunch together yesterday. Not to mention that Pavel's one of the most direct people I've ever met. He'd come right out and tell me if something were wrong.” Sulu smiled at her. “It's sweet of you to worry though.”
Chris smiled back easily. “You're probably right.” She stretched lightly. “I should get going.”
“Oh come on,” he groaned. “I know you're on alpha shift tomorrow, but we can get you up early enough where you can change before heading to sick bay.”
The nurse raised her eyebrow and Sulu gave her a pleading expression. They looked at each other like that for a few minutes and finally she sighed. She settled herself in more comfortably and, realizing he had won, Hikaru grinned.
“Fine, but if I'm late I'm ratting you out to Leonard.”
Scotty stood with Keenser and Richards with a perplexed look on his face.
The Enterprise had entered orbit near Castro. It was nighttime on the side of the planet they were visiting, so the landing party was due to beam down first thing in the morning. Only a few minutes after their arrival, Scotty had been called to the transporter room the two engineers in order to have a look at something troubling.
“You're absolutely sure?”
“Yes sir,” Richards said. Keenser nodded.
“There was a completely random energy spike in them ten minutes ago,” Keenser supplied. “It was big enough that we noticed it, even though they're powered down.”
Scotty tilted his head to one side. “That's not only peculiar but ominous.” He knelt down and took a closer look at one transporter pad in particular. “She do it again?”
“No sir,” Richards answered. “Just the once and it doesn't appear to be ongoing. It just was the strangest thing and we figured better safe than sorry.
Scotty kept looking at the pad closely, almost as if it had personally betrayed him. “What are you doing, love?” He pat the floor next to the pad fondly. “You feeling temperamental?”
His two top staff members watched him warily.
Scotty finally stood back up. “Ship's telling me she's fine now. We need the transporters for the away mission tomorrow morning; the shuttles aren't an option this time as they'd most certainly crash into the debris.” He crossed his arms and looked back down at the pad. “We'll just keep an eye on her in the meanwhile. If it happens again, then I'll take a deeper look. There's no sense in hitting the alarm over one spike.” He pat the wall a few times. “Is there, love?”
Richards blinked several times and then looked down at Keenser. The small green man was long used to Scotty's unique brand of insanity and just shrugged. Richards sighed.
She still wasn't paid enough for this.
“I think we destroyed the living room again,” Jim said as he stared up at the ceiling.
From where he lay on his back next to him, Bones snorted. “And what? Are we having guests?”
Jim rolled his eyes in a good-natured manner. “And we just cleaned yesterday. I swear with you around, it's like Sisyphus pushing the rock some days.”
Bones shifted so he was on his side in order to get a proper look at Jim's face. “I can't believe we still have to have this conversation. You're not some innocent little lamb and I'm not the big bad wolf coming to get you.”
“You go right ahead and tell yourself that,” Jim said with a grin. “I mean, here I was doing my paperwork and you came in all tempting and hot. What am I supposed to do?”
Bones frowned. “It wasn't urgent.”
“How do you know?” Jim sat up, determined to prove his point. “It could have been extremely urgent.”
“You never do urgent paperwork here. You only ever do it in your ready room.”
Jim opened his mouth to reply, then closed it rather abruptly.
Fuck.
He scowled and Bones got the most smug expression ever in response.
“All right, fine, it wasn't urgent,” Jim said as he poked him hard in the chest. “The point still stands about you, douchebag.”
“I'll take that,” the doctor said smoothly. Appeased, Jim lay back down. Bones quickly pulled him into his arms, and he rested his head on his shoulder. The blond sighed contentedly before moving so that they were face to face again.
“I love you,” he said softly.
Bones smiled and pulled him into a gentle kiss. When it ended, Jim shifted once more so that his head was on the other man's shoulder and he closed his eyes.
“Computer, lights out,” Bones called and the room became dark. He planted a kiss on Jim's hairline before whispering “Good night, Jim.”
Jim smiled even though he knew Bones couldn't tell in the dark. He always made him feel so...
His eyes opened back up.
That was weird.
Bones hadn't said I love you back to him.
At that moment, a huge yawn came out of his mouth. Well, it wasn't that big of a deal; just a one time thing or something.
He closed his eyes for the second time, and it wasn't long before he drifted off to sleep.
Chapter Two
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Date: 2010-02-20 03:34 am (UTC)From:Spock attempting to propose to Uhura reminds me so so much of my husband's attempts to propose - even though I helped choose the ring and knew exactly when he was going to do it, he was terrified. And it was ADORABLE.
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Date: 2010-02-20 04:19 am (UTC)From:I'm glad Spock is cute. Unfortunately, we've got four chapters and an epilogue to go. I have a feeling things aren't going to go very smoothly for him. ::plays eerie music::
Thank you for reading!
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Date: 2010-02-20 06:04 am (UTC)From:(And please, continue to ramble, I like your long author's notes!)
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Date: 2010-02-20 08:15 am (UTC)From:Aw thanks, I always feel like I'm boring people when I go on like that! Also thank you for reading, part two will be up tomorrow!
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Date: 2010-02-20 07:49 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2010-02-20 08:07 am (UTC)From:Also you probably want to read this fic, as the planet's based on something very relevant to your interests.
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Date: 2010-02-20 08:45 am (UTC)From:Bewildered Spock is surprisingly adorable and I already want to shake Chekov and be like "NOOOOOOO" but I doubt he'd listen anyway.
Your google list is really fascinating, too. I always like your notes. <3
NOW YOU POST MORE GOOD
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Date: 2010-02-20 07:53 pm (UTC)From:My notes are apparently more popular than I realized. I thought they were annoying. ^_^;;
Chekov...yeah. I'll leave that one alone. I'm kinda really happy with what I did with Spock in this, but I'm also happy at how well I handled Jim later on. So we'll see if other people agree.
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Date: 2010-02-20 11:09 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2010-02-20 07:54 pm (UTC)From:Hee hee thanks! I'm glad other people find it funny! Thanks for reading!
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Date: 2010-02-20 01:40 pm (UTC)From:Damn! The feces is gonna hit the ventilation system in a lot of ways. I can't wait!!!!
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Date: 2010-02-20 07:55 pm (UTC)From:Thank you, as always, for reading!
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Date: 2010-02-20 06:47 pm (UTC)From:God. I love this to bits.
So much foreshadowing. But I have to say, I love the bit with Spock the mostest.
...or there would be a duel to the death. It was all so much more straight forward with Vulcans.
Very straight forward.
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Date: 2010-02-20 07:57 pm (UTC)From:I am glad you are enjoying it! Thank you for coming back and reading!
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Date: 2010-02-25 01:30 am (UTC)From:At some point you might want to add a link to the next part so
lazy peoplelatecomers like me can go straight from chapter to chapter? :-)no subject
Date: 2010-02-25 01:45 am (UTC)From:I am excited that you are excited and hey now you can read it all at once instead of having to wait a day in between! Pretty smart of you I'd say!
Thank you for reading!
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Date: 2010-02-25 01:53 am (UTC)From:I am excited that you are excited and hey now you can read it all at once instead of having to wait a day in between!
You have caught on to my master plan, LOL. *dives back into part two*
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Date: 2010-02-25 02:15 am (UTC)From:Yeah maybe I'll add the links this weekend. I'm lazy right now LOL.
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Date: 2010-12-05 01:22 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2010-12-09 02:07 am (UTC)From:Thank you for reading it!