I can't believe this. Jim Kirk was standing on the side of the road. It looked like he got a new motorcycle, except it wouldn't start up. He eventually gave up on it as I stopped next to him.

"Hey, Jim Kirk?"

"Yeah… have we met or something?"

"Eh, no, not really. Long story. Looks like you need a lift, though," I tried to cover for mysteriously knowing who he was.

"Yep. Just got this damn thing, too. I called Scotty on my communicator to take a look at it, but I can't figure out what's wrong," he grumbled.

"Well, I can drive for now. Where are you going, anyway?"

"Starfleet Academy." I felt a little dumb now, since he was dressed in uniform, all grey, with a matching hat hanging from one of the motorcycle's handlebars. "You probably don't know where that is..." He was trying to sound smart as he sat in the passenger seat. I was about to surprise him.

"Oh, son, I could get you there with my eyes closed," I smiled as I hit the gas. His suspicious glance over at me was priceless.

•••

"This should be your building," I said casually to Jim as I pulled up.

"How do you know where my classes are?" He was growing more suspicious now.

"Oh, I'm just a Starfleet hopeful, but I know my way around. I'm going to pass my entrance exams the first chance I get. I turned fifteen this week, ya know," I added. I could tell by the expression on his face that he was thinking about Chekov, wondering if I could also pass at such a young age.

"Well, good luck. Maybe one day I'll see you on the Enterprise,"

"Yeah, kick some butt until I get there!"

He smiled as he headed towards the Academy. Turning back to wave at me, he didn't see that Scotty had fixed the motorcycle and was now riding it back to the Academy. He didn't seem like he had much experience in that area.

I could see it all happening. Scotty swerved out of the way of a few students, but he was wobbling and didn't have much control over the motorcycle. As he glanced down for a split second—

"Jim, watch out!" I yelled. Too late. I ran towards him. He was sitting on the ground with one arm wrapped around himself and one holding him up. It wasn't a head-on collision, but it wasn't good, either. He was holding a bright red slash across his uniform, and one of his legs had a burn from the engine. I squatted next to him. Someone had helped Scotty with the motorcycle, and he was now running towards us.

"Ah, damn it," Jim mumbled as he tried to get up and was forced back down by the pain.

"Just stay here for a minute, Jim. I'll get Bones." I looked around, searching… there! Getting up and starting at a run, I headed straight to Doctor McCoy.

•••

"Is it bad?" I asked Bones as he treated the scrapes.

"Not too deep, but just deep enough for him to lose quite a bit of blood," he explained as he looked through a couple shelves, grabbing various medical supplies.

"Jim, I—" Scotty started to apologize.

"Scotty," Jim interrupted, turning to look at him. "Don't worry about it, okay?"

Scotty smiled in relief. "Aye. Well then, who's this lassie? You're not in Starfleet, are ya?"

"Nope, just visiting." Bones looked up from his patient, giving me a sarcastic look. "Okay, I guess I'm technically not supposed to be here, especially not in medical…"

He laughed a little. "You're fine, kid."

"So how long will he need to recover?"

"Oh, two, three days at the most. I've seen him recover from worse," he said, more to Jim than to me. I knew what he was referring to, but I tried not to let it show.

Bones suddenly looked like he had remembered something. "Damn it, Jim, you're supposed to be teaching tomorrow."

"Teaching?!" I would have never expected Jim Kirk to be teaching a class at the Academy.

"Yeah, he's supposed to be preparing them for the Kobayashi Maru, since he did 'win,' but right now—"

"I'm fine, Bones!" Jim cut in, "Look, I'm better now 'cause you're such a great doctor," he pointed to his healing wounds, trying to convince McCoy to let him go.

"Jim, you need rest. And you won't be going to the bar tonight, doctor's orders."

"What?" Jim protested.

"Oh, don't be such an infant. I'm still researching some of these treatments. Drinking anything funny could set off a chemical reaction inside you, and I don't feel like going into surgery at 2:00 tomorrow morning!"

"Chemical reaction? Cool," he thought out loud. Bones sighed in exasperation.

I sat in the chair at McCoy's desk. He had obviously been working on an experiment with tribbles. There were several strange-looking liquids sitting around, and one of the tribbles was half purple. I wanted to hold them, but that would most likely interfere with the data being picked up by the computer.

I'm not exactly sure how long I stayed there. Scotty left after a while, and I watched Bones work on his tribble experiment. I tried to help out with anything I could. Somewhere along the way, we accidentally turned another tribble half yellow.

•••

Slowly, it became dark outside. Fewer students passed by on the way to their next classes. As McCoy cleaned up for the day, we both realized I didn't have a place to sleep. After a moment, Jim came to the same conclusion.

"Hey, Bones, why don't you call Uhura? She has an extra bed since she only has one roommate."

"How do you know that? Wait, don't answer," Bones said as he picked up his personal communicator off the desk.

•••

"Come on in," Uhura didn't seem to mind the late-night call. "I just came back from the long-range sensor lab… always an interesting night in there." I thought of that night when she picked up an emergency Klingon transmission.

"Hey, Uhura. Who's this?" Gaila asked as we walked in.

"She's not in Starfleet, but I said she could stay in our extra bed."

Gaila was in her pajamas. She smiled at me. "Okay, cool."

"Hey," I said as I glanced around the room. It was a little messy, but functional.

Through the window, I could see what was usually the busiest part of the Academy, but now it was calm. Some of the lights on the buildings had been turned off for a group of astronomy students working on an assignment.

Eventually, we each got in bed, and I realized how tired I was from helping Doctor McCoy all day. As I drifted off into dreams, I imagined I would wake up the next morning and put on my own Starfleet uniform…