Captain James T. Kirk had his eye on Iris Fay since she walked onto the Bridge on the first day of the U.S.S. Enterprise's five year mission. She walked with a slight swagger, swishing her long, wavy golden – brown hair over one shoulder as she batted her melted-chocolate eyes at the handsome captain.

"Hi there," he said casually, none too subtly looking her up and down. "You must be Lieutenant Fay."

"Yes, sir," she said with a stunning smile, flashing her even white teeth.

"Great...you're over there then, I guess," Jim smiled back, gesturing to the console to the left of him. "Right next to me."

"That's seems about right, sir," she replied as she glanced around the Bridge. Spotting Lieutenant Uhura rolling her eyes at her, she mouthed; "What!?"

"You're as bad as each other," Uhura mouthed back. Giggling and shaking her head, she smiled at the navigators at the helm.

"Hi, I'm Iris – Iris Fay."

"Oh, hey, I'm Hikaru Sulu and this is Pavel Chekov. Nice to meet you."

"You too," said Iris, blissfully unaware of the affect her presence was having on the Enterprise's very own Russian whiz kid, eighteen year old Pavel. He gulped as he glanced into her big brown eyes and she gave him a smile, blushing bright red and tugging nervously on his light brown curls as he glued his eyes to the console in front of him.

"You OK, kid?" asked Sulu.

"Uh-uh," said Pavel in a strangled voice, still with his eyes fixed on the console. Oh, wow, he thought desperately, she's just so...so...she's...

"Beautiful," he whispered out loud.

"What?" said Sulu, giving him a strange look.

"Um, n-nozing..."

"OK...if you're sure...you're looking a little red..."

"Am I?" said Pavel in a distracted voice, thinking about the way the light brought out the gold in Iris' brunette hair, and the freckles on her nose, and her pretty tan, and the flecks of green in her brown eyes...

"Chekov? Chekov? Pay attention, kid..." Sulu was waving his hand in front of Pavel's face.

"V-vhat?"

"Captain wants us to set a course for Ceti Alpha V."

"Oh...oh, OK."

"OK, great. You sure you're OK? You seem distracted."

"Oh, I'm fine..."

Jim and Iris soon had a relationship going, much to the exasperation of Iris' friend, Nyota Uhura.

"It's never going to last, Iris. He's a player," she sighed as she picked at her food, glaring at Iris over the table.

"So? I don't expect it to last; you know how my relationships go."

"Yeah, and I'm always left to clean up the mess. You and Kirk are a disaster waiting to happen."

"I know, I know, but...he's really something, y'know?"

"No! I do not! And I don't want to know!" Groaning, Nyota picked up her tray and flounced off, presumably to find her Vulcan boyfriend. Iris rolled her eyes. "Drama queen."

"Hi, do you mind if we sit here?"

Iris looked up to see Sulu, Chekov, a young blonde girl in Medical blue and an Engineer she didn't know standing at her table.

"Sure, go ahead."

"Iris, this is Nurse Hamilton –"

"Lily, Sulu!" said the blonde girl. "Or Lillian, at least."

"Whoops, sorry, Lil. And this is Montgomery – sorry, Scotty."

"No problem," said the Engineer in a Scottish accent, "This young lady can call me Monty if she likes." He winked as Iris giggled and Lily rolled her eyes. "Back off, Scotty, your making the whiz kid uncomfortable," she said, nodding at Chekov, whose face matched Scotty's uniform.

Iris sat back and let the easy banter and laughter of the group wash over her, occasionally making a comment. Suddenly, she spotted Jim beckon her from across the mess hall.

"Sorry, guys – gotta go." She jumped up, not spotting Chekov's face crumple with disappointment. Or the way Nurse Hamilton's eyes flashed with hurt when she noticed the way he gazed longingly after the attractive, older Lieutenant.

Pavel picked miserably at his food for the rest of the meal, wondering why Iris left so suddenly. Was he being awkward? Did he insult her by accident?

Lily leaned over to him. "Are you OK, dude? Sulu said you'd been acting a little weird. Are you feeling ill?"

"No," he said miserably, "I'm...I'm fine. Just not hungry." Abruptly, he stood up and rushed back his quarters, leaving Lily staring after him.