A/N: It's been a while since I've written anything. I needed a distraction from schoolwork, so I thought I would give writing a shot again. Maybe I'll even write more than one chapter this time.


Eliza grumbled as she stepped into the lift and pushed the button on the wall to her right with a little more force than was necessary. She crossed her arms across her chest and tried to think how she had come to be in her current position. Top of her class at the academy, even graduating early, and where was she now? In the lift, headed to the bridge. Now normally, that would be something to take pride in. Since she was a girl, she had dreamt of being stationed on a starship. She had always done well in school. She learned quickly and had ambitions. Yet, despite the fact that she was offered a senior engineering position on one of Starfleet's smaller ships, she had turned it down for the opportunity to be a lowly assistant on the fleet's best: the Enterprise. Once she found out that Montgomery Scott was going to be the chief engineer on the ship, she was sold. He was her idol, and now her mentor, but that did not give him the right to give her such meaningless tasks.

Eliza was so absorbed in her own thoughts, it took her a few seconds to realize that the lift had stopped moving and the doors had opened. She composed herself quickly and walked briskly onto the bridge. When Scotty had given her a file and told her to deliver it to Commander Spock, at first, she simply laughed. It had to have been a joke, right? But, apparently, it was not. Although she was highly educated and skilled, one of the yeoman was in sickbay and out of commission for the rest of the week. This, unfortunately, meant that Ensign Eliza Roberts had the pleasure of replacing him for the time being. Admittedly, it wasn't all that bad. She was mostly given important files and messages from engineering to the bridge. She felt useless, though. "I took this job to learn from the best and work on the best ship in the fleet, not run errands," she thought to herself. She quickly made her way to Spock's side and cleared her throat in order to get his attention. He looked up from his conversation he was having with the captain and took the folder she was holding out to him. He nodded in a gesture that probably indicated thanks and reviewed the papers within. Eliza made a quick about-face and was making her was back to the lift when she was stopped.

"No wait, maybe you can settle this for us." Captain Kirk got her attention, causing her to stop, heave yet another heavy sigh, and turned around.

Again. Not again. She had made three trips to the bridge today alone and every time she got roped into some time-wasting banter between the captain and his first officer. The first time, it was pretty amusing. When she had first stepped off the lift that morning to deliver a "vital message" on the ship's well being (according to Scotty. Apparently too vital to be sent through the comm. system), she was really just minding her own business. But when the captain of her ship asked for her name and if she could remember the name of a specific old (and, if memory serves her right, a little rude) professor in the astrophysics department, she really had no reason to refuse. She politely introduced herself and rank and reminded him that the man he was thinking of was a professor Herbert. She had taken is class with the captain, although he was in his final year at the time while she was in her first and she did not expect him to remember her in a large lecture class like that one. They shared a short conversation about the way Hubert would yell at random points in his lectures in order to keep his students awake. Spock mumbled something about him being an "exceptional educator with great knowledge and expertise in his field" and chastised the captain while he reminisced about catching up on sleep in the back of the classroom.

Eliza liked the captain. He may be a young and reckless at times, but he was indeed a smart and capable leader. After being stopped in the middle of her work for a childish conversation the fourth time that day, however, she was starting to rethink that. She walked back to the captain's chair and stood calmly with her hands behind her back.

"You wanted something, Captain?" She almost bit out the words through a professional smile.

"Why yes, Ensign Roberts. Now, Spock her and I were having a little conversation and we were wondering if you could lend your expertise." The captain smiled cheekily at her in that innocent-farmboy way that he had perfected. She gave him an exasperated look, but nodded nonetheless.

"Who, in your opinion, is better: The Rolling Stones or the Beatles?"

Eliza looked blankly at the captain for a few seconds. "Excuse me?"

"You know, Old Earth classic rock? Who do you like better?"

Eliza looked to Commander Spock, whose face was expressionless, then back to the captain. He was still grinning. Jesus, when would this day end?

Eliza sighed, but replied anyway, "Well, captain, while both have artistic merit in the history of Earth music, I prefer The Beatles."

Kirk's grin grew even wider. "Ha! I told you, Spock! Everyone knows that The Beatles were better."

Spock straightened his posture and said, "If I may remind you, captain, we were not disputing the issue and I offered no opinion on the matter." Spock looked like he was having a long day, too.

"Well if that's all…" Eliza began to turn away, but was stopped again by Kirk. Before he could take up more of her time, though, Spock, her savior, recommended he let her "get back to her work." She could kiss that pointy-eared little man.

"Oh fine, Spock, you're no fun." Kirk grumbled and turned his chair back to face forward. Eliza began to turn and had made it all the way into the lift by the time he turned again and yelled, "See you later, Roberts!" over his shoulder. Once the doors had closed, she let out an annoyed puff of air and leaned against the back wall of the lift. After a few seconds, she burst into a fit of giggles, which lasted until she was back in engineering. Jim Kirk may be irritating, but she had to admit he had something about him.


"It's just frustrating is all," Eliza said, swinging her legs back and forth. She was perched on the edge of one of the biobeds in sickbay, watching as Christine Chapel made her rounds, checking the stats of her patients.

"I want to work on the ship, not running errands carrying love letters between Scotty and the captain." She had had a long and exhausting day and it felt nice to be able to vent to her friend.

Christine finished checking the blood pressure of a botanist with a large wound on his right leg (apparently there was an incident with a carnivorous plant) and gave her a sympathetic smile.

"I know, and it won't be for much longer. You knew when you took the job you would have to work your way up from the bottom. I can sympathize with you, though; McCoy's not exactly the easiest to work with either."

"I heard that, Chapel." McCoy appeared at Eliza's side and took the chart from Christine's hand. He was looking grumpy as usual. "Don't sweat it, Liza. Jim may be a pain in the ass but you can deal."

"Thanks for your inspiring words, Doctor." Eliza gave him a look of exasperation, but it quickly turned to a shared smile. After having acquired a number of burns, cuts, and bruises while working in engineering, she had come accustomed to the company of Christine and McCoy. Hell, she was there so often, they might as well have a bed reserved for her. But today was a social visit. She looked up to the two medical professionals and found an easy camaraderie with them.

"Well, I'm going to grab some dinner. Want to come, Chris? Len?"

Chapel looked up from the chart she was busily scribbling on and replied, "I'd love to but, I'm pulling a double shift."

"And I have a mountain of paperwork on my desk," grumbled McCoy.

"I guess I'll see you both later, then." Eliza hopped off the biobed, said her good-byes, and headed for the mess hall.

It was a little late, and the dinner rush had already come and gone, so the room was fairly empty. Eliza grabbed a tray and sat at an empty table. As she ate, she skimmed over a recent article from Modern Starship Mechanics on her PADD. She was jolted from her own thoughts when a tray was placed on the table across from her and none other than Jim Kirk plopped himself down in the seat.

"Well, hiya, Roberts," Kirk grinned brightly at her. He picked up his fork and dug into his plate of food with much gusto.

Eliza didn't know whether to be annoyed of amused. She didn't really mind his presence, but he really could have asked permission before he sat down with her. She put down the article she was reading and replied with a polite, "Captain."

"Call me Jim," Kirk said, his mouth full of food. She gave a little smile.

"I don't know about that, captain."

"Well, if you won't call me by my first name, will you at least go out with me tomorrow."

She couldn't help it: she let out a laugh. Jim Kirk was known ship-wide (hell, probably universally) as a ladies-man, chasing anything female, regardless of species or royal status. (She thought back to the unfortunate event about a month ago when he had inadvertently hit on a Princess while at a presidential dinner. Her father wasn't too pleased).

Eliza had her share of interested men in her day. She was slim with big, brown eyes and a nice no-nonsense haircut, which left her brown mess of hair just long enough to meet her jaw. She wasn't the most attractive woman, she knew, but she did all right. She had never really had a man of his status hit on her before, though. It seemed pretty absurd to her.

She chuckled and let out a sigh. "Smooth, Captain. I bet that line works on all the girls."

He grinned back at her. "Well, it does for some of them."

Eliza put her PADD back into her bag and stood up with her tray. "Sorry, but I think I have a late shift tomorrow."

She turned to walk away but Kirk brought her attention back to him. "I'll change it. I am the captain, you know."

Eliza narrowed her eyes playfully and replied, "Yes, I know. Still probably not the best, idea though." She turned and walked away this time.

Behind her, she heard Kirk yell, "I'll convince you one day, Roberts!" She just shook her head, laughed, and pushed through the doors of the mess hall.