"Hey kiddo." Nyota smiled, giving Chekov's shoulder a light squeeze.

The Russian winced slightly at the pressure, but smiled in return. "Uhura." She chuckled at his pronunciation of her name, something that always made the boy smile.

"Everything ok, Pavel? Lookin' a little rough around the edges." She placed a gentle finger under his chin, compelling him to look up.

"I am fine." He lied easily.

"No you're not." Her eyes narrowed minutely. Nyota crouched by Pavel's chair and pressed a hand lightly to his forehead. She then proceeded to run her hands up his arms, pinpointing the spots where he flinched. All this he endured wordlessly. Nyota had, as the only woman in the Bridge, taken on the job of surrogate mother to the youngest crewman.

"No, you're not." She repeated. Over her shoulder, she said, "Captain, I'm borrowing Chekov until further notice." At Kirk's slightly raised eyebrow – yes, even Jim picked things up from a Vulcan – she sighed irritably. "Get your goddamn head out of the goddamn gutter, Farmboy."

"Really, Nyota, I'm fine!" Pavel insisted.

"No. Come on." She all but dragged him out of his chair, and pulled him into the lift. She stopped it midway to Sickbay, and looked at him sternly. "Ok kiddo. You and I both know you can't lie to me. What's wrong?"

"Nothing!" He insisted, his voice growing high and his accent thicker as he tried to deny the obvious.

She took his face in gentle hands. "You flinch when we touch you, you don't want to talk about anything but work, you've stopped running animatedly through the halls because you just know your better at something than the person doing it. You haven't been like this since Amanda. What's wrong?"

A rush of guilt drowned him for a moment at Amanda Greyson's name. "It is nothing. You have better things to think about."

She paused a moment, before demanding, "Off with the shirt, Pavel. Now." Daring not resist, he reluctantly pulled his shirt over his head. Nyota's quick hand was instantly on his wrist, extending his arm away from his body, the other tracing the nasty gashes lined up neatly along his left arm.

"Baby…" She stared in blatant disbelief. He knew the word from her lips so well, it barely registered. She spoke to him like she would her own son, and treated him much the same. In private, anyway. She would never risk their careers that way.

"It is…"

"Say 'nothing', and you die." She snapped. "Why?"

"I…" His thin mask cracked under her protective eye, and his words came so quickly she could barely understand. "People always say I am too young to be on a Starship like the Enterprise. That I signed on too young, that I got my position too easily… And then Amada… I didn't want to feel like a failure anymore."

Her face melted into the tender and sympathetic expression so few people saw. She snaked a hand around to the back of his neck, the other going around his waist as she pulled him close. He was only a smidge taller than her, affording him the ability to bury his face safely in her shoulder, taking in the familiar scent.

"Baby, you're never a failure. You're just young. But hey, you're just a kid, and you still made Enterprise. Do you have any idea how wonderful that makes you?"

"They should not have let a kid onto the ship." He insisted.

She pulled away and sank to the floor, her back against the wall. She patted the spot next to her, and he followed suit. Nyota put an arm around his shoulders, and he leaned comfortably against her.

"You aren't really a kid, hon. You're young, you're still just a boy, but you see what needs doing and you do it. You're a man before your time. That's what they don't like about you. They don't like that you're better at what they do than they are."

"People always call me a child when they think I do not hear-"

"Honey, when are you going to learn?" She moaned playfully. "'People' are asses, and life is a bitch. It's the way it is." Pavel snorted. She'd said that so very, very many times.

"I know, Ny."

She reached down to grab his wrist again. "And if you don't stop this, I'm gonna kick your ass so hard you're gonna be a black hole. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes ma'am." He nodded vigorously.

"Sickbay." She said firmly to start the lift again. Then, leaning softly into Pavel's curls, she murmured, "That's my baby."

There was something wonderful about having the mother now he'd never had as a child, so he took no negative feelings from being eighteen and hearing such terms of endearment.

"Nyota?"

"Yes?"

"You will not tell the Captain about this, will you?"

"Of course not." She squeezed his shoulders a little harder. "Of course not."

"Thank you." The words were almost silent, but conveyed everything he wanted to say. His gratitude for everything since joining Starfleet. For her always taking care of him.

She smiled into his hair. "Always, baby."

The doors of the lift whooshed open, and Dr. McCoy glanced in. Neither Uhura nor the boy looked up, or seemed to realize the door had opened, so he simply smiled and went about his duties. There was no reason to ruin their little moment.