Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek I only with to be in it...and if I was I'd have Bones to myself.

Spock turned the corner his hands clasped behind his back on his way to his quarters after being told many times by Kirk that even Vulcans needed rest, but what he didn't expect was running into Commander Scott.

"Oh my, I am so sorry," she said meeting his eyes.

"It is alright Commander, accidents do happen," Spock replied, but instead of replying she walked around him continuing away. He turned and called after, "When are we going to stop pretending we don't know each other?"

She stopped short and looked back at him with sad eyes, "Until my mind decides to believe it." She left him after that not wanting to hear a reply.

Spock stared after her in unnoticed shock and waited till he was sure his mind was at rest before continuing on his way. Once at his quarters he entered suddenly feeling what felt like the universe crashing down onto his shoulders. He trudged into the main room dropping down onto one of the chairs and looked at the wall. His whole soul screamed to chase after her, but his mind told him otherwise.

When Kirk had introduced him to her, his mind felt like it had exploded, but something in her eyes told him to stay quiet, to not say a word and he didn't. For five years he'd had nightmares after nightmares of what happened to her of how he couldn't stop what had happened and how it was his entire fault. Though everyone told him it wasn't, he knew better than that, he knew that the reason she had gotten on that shuttle was because of what he had said and somehow for the first time one of the shuttles decided to malfunction and explode. They said that everyone was killed and there were no survivors, none, but yet there she was in the flesh speaking and breathing. It shouldn't have been possible, but it was and somehow she had graduated from the academy and made her rank all the way to Commander without his knowing. And he knew why too…she had made damned sure he wouldn't know.

Spock got to his feet walking to his bedroom and opening the left bedside table pulled out a piece of paper with one word written on it: Rom-Halan. He sat down on the edge of his bed looking at the words and balled his empty hand into a fist sending it into the headboard cracking the wood harshly. He took a deep breath closing his eyes and after a moment put the paper away feeling his whole being shaken with the need to express tears, but he wouldn't allow it. Instead the Vulcan went to the bathroom hoping a shower would wash away his mixed emotions.

)()()()(

Ivory woke to the sound of her commlink beeping on the nightstand to her right, she scrambled under the covers grabbing it, "This is Commander Scott go ahead."

"Commander Scott this is Big Brother Scott."

Ivory smiled at Scotty's voice, "Why am I being woken up at," she looked over at the chronometer, "0100, Monty?"

"Because, I've got good news to share with you that you might care to know about."

"Oh yeah and what's that?"

"This." There was a loud beep and the sound of the ship humming, lights flicked on to fifty percent and the computer's voice chimed throughout the room, "Full power restored, all power directed to designated sectors and mainframe, Warp Core will be operational in two days."

"Ha, way to go Monty, how'd you do it?" Ivory resisted the urge to go down and see for herself.

"Actually the tinkering you had done earlier, which by the way, was very terrifying for me to watch don't ever do that again. It took three hours for it to work, but it did. Good job little Ivory!"

"I'm not little anymore Monty."

"You are to me," Scotty laughed through the comm and continued on, "Well anyways, sorry to wake you, but I thought you'd like to know."

"Thanks for keeping me updated."

"Commander's orders," Ivory could feel the grin spreading across her brother's face, "Now go back to bed, you've got to be up in five hours."

"Okay, thank you," Ivory set the commlink down and nestled back into her pillow, "Lights at zero percent." The room fell dark and she found herself drifting into sleep quicker than before as memories of a certain doctor's smile blocked everything else, but her dreams went from McCoy smiles to the icy blue eyes of Kirk to the voice of Spock. Her dreams began to twist between the three men tormenting her brain, but waking up wasn't an option. Her mind wouldn't allow the easy escape.

)()()()(

Ivory stepped onto the bridge looking up from her padd to locate Kirk; she saw where he stood looking out of the view screen at the endless line of stars, "Captain."

Kirk looked at her as she stopped next to him, "Ah, Commander what can I do for you?"

"Did Engineer Scott contact you about the Core?" Ivory tucked the padd under her arm looking into the glacier eyes of her Captain.

"Actually yes he did and that's wonderful news, however I still don't understand why this problem occurred to begin with. I mean when we docked I had Scotty go down there and make sure that everything was intact after that Klingon attack," Kirk stopped, noticing her head shaking.

"No he didn't," Ivory held her padd to her chest looking up at Kirk.

"What do you mean he didn't?" Kirk had fully turned so he hovered over her.

"Exactly what I said," Ivory kept her eyes locked with his, "Engineer Scott did not check the core upon docking."

Kirk's lips pinched together, he took a deep breath before continuing, "So he disobeyed my orders?"

Ivory's head shook again, "No, he was going to check on the core and everything else, but an Admiral told him otherwise."

"Then who the hell was messing around with my ship?" Kirk's voice started to climb in volume allowing others on the bridge to hear.

"We're not sure Captain, there's no trace of who touched the core," Ivory wanted so badly to break eye contact, but as a Starfleet member speaking to her Captain she had to keep respect.

"Well for God's sake! Why didn't we know sooner?" Kirk snapped.

"Because Engineer Scott was told that everything was running normal," Ivory answered.

"Did Engineer Scott look afterwards?" Kirk leaned towards her.

"Yes, sir, he did," Ivory kept her eyes locked, but felt herself shrink back.

"And what did he find?"

"That everything was fine, readings were normal," Ivory watched her Captain straighten and turn around walking away before walking back.

"Who the hell was this Admiral!" Kirk asked.

"Admiral Pike," Ivory gulped.

Kirk turned to look at his on staring crew, "I want to speak with Admiral Pike right this instant! I don't care where the hell he is, I want him hailed and now!"

"Yes sir," Uhura as strong as she was and never liked to be told what to do by Kirk turned to her station and worked.

"Spock," the Vulcan stood, "I want you to accompany Commander Scott back to Engineering I want the department under constant watch."

Ivory's eyes widened and she spoke, "What?"

Kirk turned towards her, "You heard me, Commander I want your department under constant watch. No one enters or leaves without me knowing, no one touches a damned thing down there unless I say so, I will not have my ship fall to pieces due to the fact that someone on board might be the cause of this. Do I make myself clear?"

Ivory gaped, "You can't do that."

"I can do what I want, when I want and what I want right now is you to get back to work and inform your area of the situation and if anybody disobeys these orders they will be punished."

"But sir, you can't."

"Yes, I can. I've made my decision Commander, now fix my ship or I'll be finding a new set of Starfleet members to do so. DO I make myself clear?" Kirk stared down at her his eyes icy and cold yet burning with anger.

"Yes, sir, very," Ivory looked away.

"Good, now get off my bridge," Kirk hissed at her. He watched her walk to the lift followed by Spock before turning to a wall and sending his fist into it, the wall cracked along with his hand; he pulled it back noticing instantly the heat and the unnatural growth in swelling. Something was broken in both the wall and his hand, "Call Medbay."

"Yes, sir."

Kirk looked out the viewing window holding his limp hand in his good one anger still boiling inside him as his frustration of why Pike was involved in anyway, "Fuck!"

"Captain, I've contacted Admiral Pike," Uhura stated.

"Good, send the transmission to my quarters along with Dr. McCoy," Kirk turned on a heel storming off the bridge yelling back, "Chekov you have con!"

"Yes, sir, keptin!" Chekov answered back.

Once the door to his quarters began to slide open he slid in heading straight to his office letting his wrist go, he touched at his LCARS and waited till an image of Pike filled the screen.

"Hello, Kirk, to what do I owe the pleasure?" Pike grinned, but it faltered as he noticed the scowling eyes of the younger man, "What happened?"

"Who the hell do you think you are?" Kirk asked.

"Excuse me?" Pike raised an eyebrow.

"Don't act like you don't know!" Kirk shouted, "You told my Chief Engineer not to check on my Warp Core so that you can have someone else do it!"

"What the hell are you talking about Kirk?" Pike's brow furrowed.

"My Warp Core is fried because of what you did! Whoever you had "fix" it, did a horrific job! We were stranded for a few hours without power and a nonworking, still nonworking Core. You had no right," Kirk's lips pinched together till they turned pale.

Pike looked down closing his eyes, "Let me get this straight, I told your Chief Engineer not to look at the core so that I can have someone else look at it?"

"Yes," Kirk growled.

"Kirk," Pike looked up, "I was on Uzh Vulcan at the time."

Kirk's mouth dropped and his eyes widened, but he shook it off, "Bullshit."

"No, not bullshit," Pike sighed and a second later a file appeared on screen next to Pike's face showing his log hours and Kirk couldn't help, but show his shock.

"Then who the hell…" Kirk trailed off as a though hit him, "But it's just a folklore a story, nothing else."

Pike wetted his lips, "There's been…"

"Been what?"

"Reports of friends and family members disappearing and returning not the same on multiple planets, we sent teams over to do readings of the people, but nothing came up on our sensors. Kirk, they exist."

"It's impossible."

"One showed itself to us and told us that he and the others were trying to better understand the lives of others," Pike sighed, "They left and returned the missing friends and family."

Kirk stood up and spun around slamming his broken hand on his desk, he pulled back cussing loudly before turning back to Pike, "Wait, are you telling me this because you think that…"

Pike nodded, "Yes, I think just that."

"Admiral, that's a crime," Kirk looked at his hand noticing that he just caused faster swelling.

"I am aware, but I wasn't at the time of this happening, Kirk that means you are in serious risk of having one aboard your ship."

"I don't think that's the case," Kirk looked up, "if it were they wouldn't have messed up the Core. No, I think they have a different plan."

"Look, Kirk I'm going to go over this with some of the others," Pike sighed again and this time met Kirk's eyes, "Good luck, Son." The transmission ended and a whistle came from the door.

"Bones," Kirk's eyes widened, "how long have you been there?"

"Long enough to realize we got Changelings on our hands," McCoy entered the room fully putting down a med kit on Kirk's desk.

"You knew they were real?" Kirk asked.

"No, of course not," McCoy opened the kit pulling out a tricorder, "Changeling stories are what made Georgia nights exciting."

Kirk felt a smile tug at his lips, "Bones, we're dealing with something the Federation doesn't even know how to deal with. There's no room for error."

"Then don't let there be," McCoy said coolly, "Keep everything running smoothly and only tell those who need to know. Also, Jim…"

"What?" Kirk met the brown eyes dead on noticing the hardness they've suddenly took.

"Don't blame the Scotts for this, they don't need to be punished for something that was out of their control," McCoy didn't break eye contact as he waited for a response.

"How do you know about that?" Kirk stared at his friend.

"Jim, we're on one single ship. You yell at one crew member and put them under constant watch by a Vulcan the whole ship will know," McCoy sighed and brought a hand to the back of his neck, "Lay off, Jim that's all I'm saying."

"You don't get it Bones," Kirk shook his head, "Any member of Engineering could be a Changeling for all I know. It's not the Scotts it's the risk of one being among us."

"Then keep the watch, but for God sake don't take it out on them," McCoy hissed, "The Scott siblings are the best damn thing this ship could have, hell half of Starfleet is on their knees begging for them. So I suggest you show a little more appreciation before they choose to move on."

Kirk blinked at his friend soaking in his words and suddenly remembering the pain flooding Ivory's eyes as he drilled her into the ground with his words, "I will."

"Good, now let's see what you did to your hand," McCoy took his hand a little more rough than necessary getting a hiss from Kirk, "Don't be such a baby. What the hell did you do?"

"Punched the wall, you going to fix that too?"

"I'm a doctor not a repairman."

"Technically—"

"Shut up, Jim."

P.S. I like getting reviews guys. I know they're a pain to write, but it lets me know if you really do want to know what happens next. So I'd really appreciate it if you did. :) Thank you!