000 Disclaimer, I own absolutely nothing 000 Well, found this on my extra harddrive, I'd completely forgotten about it to tell the truth. Anyway, its about everybody's favourite Lieutenant when he was a Cadet 000

In all his years teaching at the academy Professor Watson liked to think he knew which from his course would actually make it all the way through. He'd developed a certain knack of knowing which would make it past the first year and which would drop out.

So, as he stared at his new class for the year he found himself mentally assessing which would drop out. He'd found that the best security/tactical officers tended to be tall and well built.

His eyes roamed round each student, and he mentally marked each one with either 'in' or 'out'. Finally his gaze fell on a young man seated near the front.

He smirked slightly. He'd be surprised if this one would last the first three weeks. Possibly the smallest, scrawniest male student he'd ever had the misfortune to have in his class.

The young man raised an eyebrow slightly and looked mildly amused. Watson frowned. The young man was assessing him.

He glanced down at the class register; it took a micro-second to find the Cadet's name…Malcolm Reed.

Watson smiled, he remembered him now, the Navy boy. He cleared his throat and began the class. As predicted none of the students had noticed what was going on – how could they? His whole process was over and done with in the space of mere minutes.

Watson's gaze fell on Reed at the end of the lesson. "Cadet Reed, can I have a word?"

As the others filed out, Reed made his way across to him.

"Yes sir?"

British, Watson found himself thinking, probably from a well to do family. Watson leaned back slightly. "How did you like your first lesson?"

Cadet Reed smiled slightly. "It was good, sir."

Watson studied the Cadet once more. "So tell me, Cadet, why this course?"

"You don't think I can complete the course," Reed realised suddenly. "You're kicking me off it?"

Watson shook his head. "The course weeds out those who can't do it, I was merely wondering what your reasons were."

The Cadet smirked slightly. "I can complete this course, sir, I will complete the course."

"I've never been wrong yet," said Watson.

"There's always a first time," Reed replied.

Watson smiled. "See you next lesson, Cadet."

Over the next few lessons, Cadet Reed was first to arrive, he listened dutifully to every spoken word, order and instruction. He completed every task to a high standard and Watson couldn't find fault with him.

But of course, Watson reasoned they hadn't even gotten onto the hard stuff yet.

Explosive Ordinance. Possibly one of the most difficult parts of the course, there were usually quite a few dropouts at this point, Watson felt confident, this would weed out Reed and the other students he'd picked out as non-armoury officer material.

"Ok, I've shown you how to do it, now do it!" said Watson starting his stopwatch.

"But, sir!" A cadet spluttered nervously. "What if it goes off?"

Watson resisted the urge to roll his eyes, there was always one, every year there was always one…"It's for teaching purposes, Cadet, the worst it'll do is spray water in your face."

The Cadets kneeled before their 'bombs'. Watson smiled, this was the easy part, the easiest one to diffuse and the one least likely to be found in the field. There was a cry of surprise as one Cadet fell prey to the water bomb. Watson's grin widened, one of the ones he'd marked for failure had been first to get wet.

"Clock's ticking!" He called cheerfully.

Yeah, he wouldn't win teacher of the year, but if he could weed out those that could from those that couldn't it would be a big bonus to whomever they ended up serving with.

"Done!"

The voice sounded mildly smug, Watson kept his expression neutral as he wandered over to the diffused bomb.

"Ok, Cadets! We got one done already!" He called out moments later.

Reed smiled slightly.

One year later Reed was still on the course. Watson found himself reassessing his decision but still found himself unwilling to retract his first impression.

Even after Reed finally graduated from Starfleet Academy Watson felt sure his career wouldn't last long. Pride kept him from retracting his opinion, he'd never been wrong yet, he wasn't wrong now.

Many years later the Enterprise returned home. Watson pushed his way to the head of the welcoming party and shook Reed's hand.

"You proved me wrong," Watson acknowledged finally.

Reed offered him a half smile. "There was never any doubt in my mind, sir."

Watson grinned. "You were just deceivingly scrawny, Lieutenant. Still are."

"You aren't the first to make that mistake, sir, doubt you'll be the last," Reed replied grinning.

They shook hands one last time.

Watson returned to the academy. By the time he retired his track record was nearly perfect. He'd only ever been wrong about a Cadet once, and as testimony to this he had a newspaper clipping on the wall of his office.

It was a reminder that everyone is wrong, at least once.

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