This is a one-shot from Heartlines. Enjoy!

The first time it happens, it's quick and exhilarating. Unexpected yet delightful, since she's never had a one-night stand before. Rose took a break from packing for her journey to the Academy, and headed to a bar downtown, rewarding herself with a strong drink and good music. She didn't expect the bar to be jammed packed with Cadets and townies, as she struggles to make her way to the bar. Once she reaches the counter, she smiles at Alex and orders her regular. When the older woman slides the glass across the countertop- a funny red mixture with some exotic fruit and a splash of whiskey.

Pike notices the exotic fruit, when the drink falls into his lap, after a drunken fool pushes Rose to the side.

"Oh god! I'm so sorry!" she cried, as she grabbed a handful of napkins near the bowl of mixed nuts.

Pike laughs, "It's alright.. Probably deserved it after the night I had," he said, as he dabs his uniform down.

Rose turns around to face the idiot that pushed her and snaps at him. "I would think that as a Cadet, you'd be home right now sobering up so you wouldn't miss your flight. Amazing at who Starfleet will accept this day in age,' she hissed.

The drunk ignores her and Rose shakes her head, disgusted and ready to leave. But the man next to her lightly touches her arm and she turns her attention to him.

"Let me get you another drink.. what were you drinking?" he asks.

Rose is ready to decline the offer, but she came here for a drink and to help her fall asleep tonight. So she smiles and accepts, telling the man what she wants to drink and he gives the order to Alex.

"Do you always buy young girls their drinks, after they've been spilt onto your lap?" she asks, sitting down on the empty barstool next to the man.

He laughs, "No. But I felt bad that you lost your drink, and a lovely woman such as yourself shouldn't have to pay for another," he smirks.

Alex brings the drinks over- a red concoction for her and whiskey for him- and quickly leaves them to attend to the other customers. They sip their drinks quietly, as the music rips through the tiny bar, the beats pulsing through the floorboards and the seats.

"Thank you.."

"Christopher," he said, trying to speak as loud as possible over the music.

She smiles at him and tells him her name, "Rose," and she holds out her hand.

Two hours and many drinks later, finds them stumbling through her apartment, clothes flying all over and their bodies collapsing onto her rickety bed. The sex is unbelievable- probably the best she's ever had in her twenty-two years. She can't tell the difference between what is real and what is her imagination from the alcohol, when she has her third orgasm in a row. They continue until the early morning hours, as the sun rises above the fields of wheat and corn, and the downstairs neighbors yell as her bed squeaks with each thrust and their moans fill the early morning air.

It's an awkward moment, later that morning, when she finally reaches the shipyard to board the shuttle, and Christopher is the one standing outside to greet the new arrivals. When she woke up that morning, Chris was already gone with no trace of him being there, except for the use condoms in the trash and the wrappers on the floor by her bed. Jim makes it even more awkward, when he comes up behind her and says a few words to Chris, before throwing his arm around her shoulders, pulling her into the shuttle. Once they arrive at the campus, Rose quickly goes through the process of filling out paperwork and getting her uniforms and schedule for the semester. She finds her dorm and meets her roommate, and quickly looks for Jim and his new friend Leonard- a grumpy southerner who hated flying- and they have dinner in the cafeteria.

Then the emails start, which then turns this one-night stand into a full blown sexual relationship. The second time they fuck, is during her lunch hour, quietly on the sofa in his office. The doors are locked and the shades are pulled down, as he takes her there over and over, while his secretary sits outside, completely oblivious to everything that's going on. Rose spends her days going from class to class, and quickly leaving her friends behind as she spends her afternoons and evenings at Chris's apartment. She knows that it's wrong, sleeping with a Captain. She can feel the panic in her belly, as she makes her way to his office or home, wondering what would happen if one of them ended the relationship. The consequences that could take place.

After the intense sex, they lay there and talk. About anything and nothing, since time doesn't matter when they are together. Rose talks about her dreams of being a doctor, and her life back in London. Chris talks about how he made his way through the Academy and his time on starships and finally becoming Captain after many years of proving himself. Rose begins to admire him, because while he's seen as a strong mentor to those that dream to be like him, he's also passionate and caring. Sweet and loving behind close doors, but commanding and ready to follow the rules while in public.

Rose continues to ponder on ending the relationship, but every time Chris slides into her waiting body, she closes her eyes and forgets how to put a sentence together. He feels so good and she does as well, when he whispers it into her ear, as he fucks her- slow, fast, harder, deeper. Whatever she tells him, he does it. And she realizes that she would be stupid to give this up.

It's two years into the relationship, when Rose gets pregnant. After a strain of the flu, which clears up before the Christmas holiday, Rose and Chris celebrate at his place with dinner, booze and endless amounts of sex. It's not until six weeks later that she realizes she's late and takes a test at his place, waiting for the results and for him. When he returns from the Academy, she's sitting on the edge of his bed, waiting and holding the test in hand. When she tells him and shows him the test, he's shocked at first, but smiles when he realizes that Rose is carrying his child.

They panic for a while, because she's a student and he's a high-ranking official, but decide that this fate. Rose hides her growing belly with a bigger uniform or sweatshirts, claiming that she was too cold to go without one. It's a struggle to hide the morning sickness from her roommate, but she manages to do it.

"Do you want to tell anyone?" Chris asks her one night, after they've made love in his bed.

Rose shakes her head, "No. There's not one I need to tell,"

"What about Kirk? Or McCoy? They're your friends and they'll notice when you get bigger," he points out.

She smiles at him, "Let them be surprised, Chris. I don't have to explain myself to anyone," she says, before pulling him down for another kiss.

Chris asks her to marry him a few days after she hits the ten-week mark. Partly because she's having his baby, and because he loves her. He can picture a happy life with Rose and their child, on Earth or in space. She tells him no every time he asks, because she doesn't want him to feel like he has to marry her.

"We're fine just the way we are, Chris. The baby will have your last name, if that's what you're worried about," she tells him.

But it's not that, which drives him crazy. He's fallen in love with her, after several failed relationships, and he wants to do this right. He wouldn't be Captain forever, and he was ready to settle down. But Rose smiles at him and tells him that she's his until fate said otherwise. And he believes her.

It's a Saturday when she loses the baby. Chris leaves her asleep in his bed, and heads out to get them breakfast, when she wakes up in pain. It's not until she stumbles into the bathroom, that she notices the blood. She knows it's too early, because she's only sixteen weeks and their baby is the size of a avocado. She clutches her small, but slightly rounded belly, and cries as she miscarries. Chris finds her slumped against the bathroom wall, covered in blood and crying. He helps her bathe and changes the sheets on the bed, before helping her dress and into bed.

She cries for days, skipping classes and ignoring calls from Jim and Leonard. She can't bear to face them, let alone open her mouth to speak because she knows that the tears will follow. Chris feels helpless as the young woman becomes vacant of the person she used to be. The bright and charming, yet sarcastic and slightly rude when it's appropriate woman was gone. It would take six months for Rose to climb over the hurdle and start to go back to her old self- though she's slightly damaged with thicker skin.

By the time the Enterprise is ready, it's their third anniversary. They don't call it dating, because it's just not their style. They aren't boyfriend and girlfriend, because Chris thinks he's too old to be labeled as a boyfriend and Rose finds the term "girlfriend" childish. A week before the Vulcan incident, Rose catches mono from a patient, while doing her training at the local hospital with Leonard. She's slightly fine, until her fever spikes and she can't stop throwing up, which places her in confinement- locked in a single room by herself until she is well.

"I miss you," she whines one night, during a vid-chat.

"It wont be long until you're better and back here with me," he tells her, as she coughs.

But she gets worse, as falls oblivious to the outside world when the Battle for Vulcan takes place. It's not until the Enterprise returns- after she's better and able to shower for the first time in days, that she learns of what happened. When Jim visits her and tells her about Chris, she plays it cool, though inside she is screaming. Once she's cleared to roam the campus, Rose finds herself at Chris's place and is relieved to see him alive and in one piece, despite the wheelchair.

It isn't until the night after Jim is deemed Captain and Chris is promoted to Admiral, that Rose accepts his proposal.

"Let's just do it," she tells him, as they sit on the couch.

But Chris can't find the heart to say yes, though deep down this is what he wanted for a longtime. When he tells her no, he wishes that Nero killed him when he had the chance, because death would've been greater than watching her face fall and the tears that streamed down her face.

"You have so much to look forward to, Rose. The Enterprise needs you and so do your friends. I've kept you to myself for three years and I haven't given you the chance to grow. To get used to this place and take what Starfleet can offer you," he tells her, as she cries.

She reluctantly agrees and they sleep together on last time, and it's this time it's her that takes control, riding him like he's done to her all those other times. Partly to make him feel bad for pushing her away, and to remember what it feels like, because this would be the last time. She leaves in the early morning hours and boards a shuttle that will take her to the Enterprise and away from Earth for five years. When Chris wakes up hours later, he's alone and for the first time, since his child died, he cries. Cries for everything he's ever said and done, to lose the best damn thing that's ever happened to him. Cries, because he made the biggest mistake of letting her go. Cries, because he's alone, and it's the most unbearable feeling in the entire universe.