Author Notes: * mean thoughts. { mean when a character is talking on a communicator. Please read and review!!! I tried to make this first chapter as lest Mary Sue as I could.

Disclaimer: Paramount owns Star Trek and the characters appearing in this story except for Lieutenant-Commander Kyle Cavanaugh, she's mine.

Special Thanks: To Josephine for giving me a course on Mary Sue 101. Thank you so much :)

Rating: PG-13

One of Their Own

Chapter One

"Main Engineering"

By Tora Ziyal

"What do you mean, you sleepwalk?"

"Ah mean Ah walk around when Ah'm sleepin' occasionally." Commander Tucker said from beneath one of the conduits in the main engineering room.

"Where do you go?" Lieutenant-Commander Kyle Cavanaugh laughed.

Tucker slid out on the dolly from underneath the conduit. "Well," he started. "One time Ah woke up and found myself in the Mess Hall at two-thirty in the mornin'. Ah had even gotten myself a piece of pecan pie!" He laughed.

Cavanaugh laughed along with him. "Are you serious, Commander?" She asked, handing him a wrench. She liked working with Commander Tucker a lot. She was very pleased when Captain Archer asked if she would assist him on this project.

"Ah'm very serious." He smiled at the red headed Lieutenant-Commander. "Hand me that laser soldering gun, would ya?" He asked as he lay on his back looking up at the conduit.

Kyle handed him the gun and crouched down next to him. "How long is this up-grade going to take?" She asked.

"Couple of hours or so." Tucker told her as he fiddled around with the wires and pipes beneath the conduit. "If you're gettin' bored, Kyle, Ah'm sure Ah can handle it by myself, but Ah'd rather you stay."

"Hey, I'm not going anywhere." Kyle replied as she changed positions from crouching to sitting. "I mean whose going to hand you your tools?" She joked.

Trip slid out from under the conduit again. "You're bored." He smiled at her. "Ah promise you'll be needed more after Ah gut this thing."

A smile played on Kyle's lips. "Of course you'll need me to put everything back in the conduit. Men are so incapable when it comes to reassembling things."

"Ouch, woman! That hurt." Trip said in his southern drawl. "Ah can get it done but we'll do it faster if we both work at it."

"I'm just teasing, Trip." Kyle laughed as she picked up a screwdriver and handed it to him.

"Ah know you are darlin'" Trip said as he slid back under the conduit. "Ah'm gonna start handing you parts and pieces, okay?"

"Gotcha." She said as trip handed her some colorful wires. She placed them next to the metal plates. "So is this going to stop that jerking that we've been experiencing lately?"

"Yeah, Ah hope anyway. It seems like every time we drop outta warp, we jerk. And Ah'm pretty sure this is the problem." He said handing her more conduit 'guts'.

"I'm glad Captain Archer assigned me to help you. I always wanted to work with you." She told him as she went about setting the guts on the floor next to her.

"You seemed like you'd be a help." He told her. "What's your field again"?

"Botany, with a minor field in warp core schematics." She told him.

"So Ah got a gardener helpin' me out!" He joked. "That's a pretty odd pairing of fields."

Kyle smiled to herself. "Yeah, I know. My best friend wanted me to take the warp core class with her back when we we're in the academy. She told me all the cute guys took that class."

Trip let out a hearty laugh. "So that's why you took it!"

"For the most part but I actually got into it and found out I was pretty good at it. I worked pretty hard for the next couple of years and worked my rank up to Lieutenant-Commander." She said as she looked at Trip, which all she could see was his legs because he was so far underneath the conduit.

"The Captain said you we're good with numbers and that stuff." Trip said as he gave her a handful of nuts and bolts. "How's the botany thing going? Study any interesting plants?"

"A few. I'd really love to get down to a planet myself. Studying samples in the lab isn't the same thing as studying them out in their own habitat." She said, leaning back on the wall and closing her eyes.

"Ah think Ah got everything out." He said, sliding out and sitting up. He looked at Kyle and smiled. "Taking a nap, Lieutenant-Commander?"

Kyle opened her eyes and returned the smile. "Nope, just waiting for you to finish up." She noticed the black smudged dirt on his face. "You have dirt on your face." She said as she pointed to the area's where the dirt was.

"It tells me that Commander Tucker's been working." Captain Archer said as he came up from behind the two. "How's it coming?"

Tucker and Cavanaugh both turned around. "We're about to install the new coils, Sir." Tucker replied.

Archer nodded his head. "Good. Right on time. We're going to reach the Dorian System with in the hour."

"Are we going to go down to any planets, Captain?" Kyle asked.

"It's a possibility. If we discover any planets with excessive plant life, you'll be the first to go down there." Archer told her.

Kyle smiled. "Thanks, Captain."

"Finish up here and then I want you on the bridge, Trip." Archer said as he left engineering.

"Today seems like your lucky day, Kyle." Trip said as he smiled, looking into her green eyes.

"Looks like it." She smiled back. "Should I start handing you coils now?"

Trip was still gazing at her. "...Oh...Oh yeah, that'd be a good idea." He said as he lay back down and slid under the conduit again. He smiled once he was under there. He was becoming more interested to know more about Lieutenant-Commander Cavanaugh. She seemed to be a really nice person. She wasn't really attractive, sort of a plain Jane but, Trip thought she was kind of cute. *I wonder if she's involved with someone? I should just ask her.*

"Commander Tucker do you want the IC-100 coils or the B-17 200 coils?" He heard her ask him.

Tucker slid out on the dolly. "B-17 200." He replied.

Cavanaugh nodded and handed him the coils. "Here you go."

Trip took them and rested them on his chest. Kyle turned around to fetch more coils and when she turned around, trip was still in the same position as he was before.

"Something wrong, Commander?" She asked.

*Take a deep breath and ask.* He told himself. He shook his head no, and gave her a smile. "Do you ever see any of the movies they show on Friday nights?" He asked.

"Sometimes, but I usually don't have anyone to go with." She said to him.

"They're showin' Casablanca tonight. Ever see that one?" He asked her.

Kyle shook her head. "No, is it an ancient earth movie?" She asked.

"Yeah, a real tear jerker. Ah thought Ah'd go tonight and Ah was wonderin' if you'd like to come?" Trip asked as he clutched on to the coils like his life depended on them.

Kyle nodded her head. "I think I could do that. It would be fun." She smiled.

"Great. It starts at seven. Want me to come to your room or do you want to meet at the theater?" He asked.

"Actually, I'll be in the lab. Want to meet me there instead?" She asked

Trip's grip loosened up on the coil. "Yeah, sure. Is the lab on the tenth deck?" He asked her.

"Yep, deck ten, room 100-L." She told him. She looked over at the computer and then back at Trip. "We'd better get moving or instead of seeing a movie, we'll be watching warp coils glow." She laughed.

Trip smiled back. "Good thinking." He said as he disappeared back under the conduit.

To Be Continued....

((Chapter two will be up soon!))