A:N: hey guys! well, I just wanted to preface this by saying THANK YOU to everyone who reviewed! I write these stories for myself, but it's always nice to know someone else is reading and enjoying them. If you've put these stories on your favourites list or alerts, please drop me a line and tell me what you think! Reviews feed the soul, you know, and no author is too proud to ask for them, haha! This chapter introduces Kirk's PoV, and will be followed by one final chapter before I start the next sequel. Lastly, I own nothing you recognize, and some FAQ's are at the bottom. Enjoy!

Chapter 2:

To Fall

"Now let's get to seeing that throat looked at, hmm?" she asks him, all soft and sweet and she really truly sounds concerned about him – just like any good Nurse should.

And that's the root of this whole fucking thing – this mini flirtation he's got going on with Christine Chapel, head Nurse.

See, she's sweet, right? Yeah, the answer is 'yes'. She's like the happiest, softest, sweetest thing there ever was. He knows because he hears it from everybody on board this fucking ship – especially Bones (that old softy, he knew it), who'll praise her often while he's nursing a glass of bourbon in Jim's quarter's late at night. Actually, when Jim thinks about it, that was really what started it.

It had been late one night two or three weeks ago– really late too, like one in the morning, and Bones had just gotten off his shift. Jim had just gotten off the bridge as well, after a rather tense navigation through an unexpected asteroid belt, and they'd decided to wind down together as they often did. There'd been a small glitch in engineering which had turned into a small explosion, and some poor engineer had had a piece of the nacelle containment unit fly off and slice into his stomach.

Anyways (Jim kind of gets caught up on the details sometimes when he's telling stories in his head), the point was, was that Bones had been in his quarters telling Jim about how the surgery had went.

"But man – that Chapel," he'd said in this awed sort of tone, taking a swig of the amber liquid, scrunching his face up a little as he'd swallowed. Jim had looked up from his own glass at that – Chapel. He knew her – that cute strawberry blonde from the shuttle that he'd taken up to sickbay. "Goddamn," Bones had gone on, off in his own world. "That girl knows her way around a suture, that's for damn sure". And then he'd taken another drink and they'd moved onto something else.

But that had been it – for some reason he'd just gotten to thinking about her, and it hadn't gone away. So after two days of hearing Bones repeat "but man – that Chapel" in a reverent tone in his head, he'd decided to do what any smart person would do – he'd see what she was all about. Then he'd have some answers about her and she'd be a real person in his head, as opposed to just "Christine Chapel, suturing wonder with the strawberry blonde hair and great legs". He'd flirt and she'd flirt back, and they'd sleep together and then he'd get bored and that would be the end of it.

So he'd gone about doing just that. But it hadn't really...worked out right. See, if there was one thing Jim Kirk knew about, it was women. And he knew that the best way to see what kind of woman someone was, was to get a reaction out of her. And the best way to get a reaction out of her was to flirt.

Shamelessly.

Which he did, and often. What? It's not like it's a crime.

Anyways, the problem was this – Christine never seemed to...well, react. See, for example, take Uhura. When he tries to flirt with Uhura, Jim honest to god expects a slap on the face most days, or at least an eye roll and an angry huff. It's cause Uhura is passionate – she can get angry real quick, and she's determined too. She's expressive and she knows what she wants, and by some of the insults she used to throw at him when they were Cadets, he knows she really does have a talented tongue. All that, just from flirting.

But Chapel never reacts like that. And she doesn't react like...say, Janice Rand does, either. Janice is his yeoman, and he knows she's into him something fierce because when he flirts with her, her heavily lidded eyes rake up and down his body and her voice gets lower and it's always laced with the promise of innuendo. Simple, right? It's like math. And Jim was always good at math.

But Chapel, she's not...she's not displaying any of the regular patterns, which is making this harder than he thought. Christine's just sweet, and Jim swears to God he's repeated that fucking word in his head so many times it's just about lost all meaning. But her being sweet with him doesn't count as a reaction because it's not a deviation from her usual behaviour, see?

She doesn't get flustered or nervous like other girls do when he flirts with them - another no. But then again, she doesn't just lie down and take it, either – he can tell when she thinks he's crossing a line because she shoots him these little looks that seem to say 'I know what you're doing, and I also know it's not going to work.' And for all her sweetness she doesn't...she doesn't really flirt back with him either. She's not a temptress; she doesn't bat her eyelashes at him or swing her hips or lower her voice or flip her hair when she's around him. She's just....sweet.

Goddamn, it was fucking frustrating!

Not that he was all hung up over this girl or anything – Christ, are you kidding? No way. If there was one thing Jim Kirk wasn't, it was a one woman man. At least – not yet, anyways. There were too many beautiful and willing women aboard this ship (who all reacted very strongly to him, thankyouverymuch) to get hung up over a girl like Chapel.

She was just...a nice distraction. A nice, interesting distraction who happened to have great legs and the sweetest, softest voice he's ever fucking heard. But that was all it was – Jim's been infatuated before, and this isn't infatuation. It's just...a little puzzle, with attractive packaging. And it's not like he's actively pursuing her or anything like that – he certainly hasn't been abstaining from...other areas of his life that he would need to abstain from were he pursuing her.

Which he isn't.

He doesn't dream about her body, or wonder what her skin might taste like right below her ear, or what she might sound like when he digs his fingers into her hip, or her thigh, like he does when he's really into somebody. Like he does with say...Mallory, in engineering, who has the most amazing ass he's ever seen on a woman. Seriously, it's out of this world. Pun intended. And yeah, he realizes that those things are pretty shallow but he's never had feelings for a woman that weren't shallow (at least mostly), so what's a guy gonna do.

He just....he thinks about her is all. Not a lot, but just...sometimes. He'll finish on the bridge, or with supper or something and he'll think to himself, 'I wonder what Chapel's up to', and he'll smile because it's one more opportunity to see if he can get under her skin. Actually, when he thinks about, it's all pretty platonic. Mostly.

So when he sees her in the mess, stretching up to get the cup out of the dispenser and not quite reaching it, he can't help himself from going over there and helping her out. The top of her strawberry blonde hair reaches to just under his nose and she smells good, and maybe he's a cocky bastard but he can't keep a grin off his face because he knows the next couple of minutes are going to be fun.

He just wants a rise out of her – just one, honest, so that he knows she feels something for him. Jim doesn't really care what somebody feels about him, just as long as they do – he's never been able to stomach indifference, not since he was younger and his step father treated him like the miraculous invisible boy.

So he walks to the lift and she goes with him, with a little scheming from her friends. Not that she would have said no, anyways, but still. And then they get inside the small compartment and he's really pushing it because he's going on about not biting unless she asks for it, and he can see her eyes (which are already fucking huge) widen just a bit like she actually can't believe he said that, and then she's all quiet with kind of a stern look on her face. So he asks her what's up.

She looks him straight in the eye (which he isn't really used to because most girls tend to sort of look at him through their eyelashes or via sidewards glances and things like that) and smiles and says everything's fine, and it's really the same as usual except it's not, something's different, like right then and there she's decided to herself that up until this point she's been too lax with taking his crap and maybe she wasn't going to be so sweet about it when he's being deliberately difficult with her.

Or something.

Anyways, now they're walking to sickbay and he actually feels kind of bad because he knows she's late and it's his fault. They walk in, (she goes first) and Jim can see Bones gearing up like he's gonna tear a strip off of her, but then he sees Jim.

"Dammit Jim! What'd I tell you about staying away from my nurses!" he shouts out, but please – she's like five minutes late, if that, and Jim really does have a sore fucking throat, okay?

"Geez Bones," he says, and is it weird that he always feels sicker once he gets to the hospital? He's about to open his mouth and say something else when he looks at Chapel out of the corner of his eye and she looks...wow, she looks kind of pissed, actually.

"It wasn't like that Chief," she says, and her voice is still soft, right, but she's doing this thing where the words come out a bit sharp and you can tell she is not a happy camper. Jim (because he's a dumbass sometimes, yeah, he can admit that, what?) actually has to fight to keep the smile off his face when he sees Bones' reaction. The older Doctor looks affronted, like he wasn't expecting her to say anything back to him. But then he shakes it off and gets ready to shout something else when Chapel speaks again.

"The Captain's been complaining of a sore throat - did you want to take a look at him, or would you like someone else to diagnose?" Boom! Just like that, back to business, and Bones is standing there like he doesn't even know how this skinny red head was able to do that just then. He scowls a bit and turns to Jim like he isn't sure if he's faking it or not, but then gives in.

"Alright – take a seat at the end Jim, and just wait there – and for god sakes don't touch anything, got it? Someone'll be with you in a minute. Chapel, in my office!" He barks out the last part of that and shit, now Jim really feels guilty because Chapel's walking into Bones' office and if she gets in trouble it's gonna be on his shoulders.

The cadets in the room are all trying to be quiet, but McCoy isn't having any of that.

"What is this, the goddamn theatre?" he bellows out, with that crazed look on his face everybody's always talking about. "I want to see some quality Vertical mattress sutures when I get back out here to remind me you all went to medical school." And he storms into his office, closing the door behind him.

Maybe he'll talk to Bones after shift and let him know it was his fault that she was late...not that Chapel, you know, needs him to or anything, but still. He's ruminating on this subject for a while, when he hears Bones' door open and Chapel comes out. The students have learned quickly not to stop what they're doing, but he sees Chapel's two friends from before give each other worried looks. He looks at her approaching him, and it's weird. He expected – well, he doesn't really know what, actually. He kind of thought she'd be crying because when Bones gets going his voice could strip the bark off a tree, but she looks fine and Bones looks no worse for wear either, he just goes on over to a group of cadets and yells at them a bit for confusing vertical and horizontal sutures and don't they have their heads on straight.

Chapel comes up to him and smiles prettily, and he looks sheepishly at her. She gets busy pulling out some equipment and he wants to ask what happened (not that he cares a whole lot or anything, it's just that not knowing would drive him crazy) but he's not really sure how to bring it up.

In the end he settles on dry wit, because mouthing off will at least get him somewhere as opposed to sitting here wondering about it.

"So," he begins, his voice a little raspy. "I guess you're fired, huh? Zero tolerance on lateness right? When do we drop you off?" She looks up to him with a sort of softly amused expression like she knows he's joking but she isn't going to rise to it.

"Unfortunately not," she says, smiling a little, and Jim feels kind of lighter knowing that she's sticking around. "I suppose you're stuck with me for the time being," she finishes.

Well great- no harm no foul, right? So then why does he still feel so fucking guilty? Jesus it's not like they were an hour late or anything, it was like two minutes! Jim doesn't know when he got to be so fucking emotional about all this stuff, but before he can even send a message to his mouth to shut up he's already blurting out,

"Sorry."

Chapel looks up at him from where she's started to run the tricorder up and down him, checking for anomalies, or whatever.

Suddenly he's really interested in her reaction. She might scoff it off, rolling her eyes, or maybe she'd say something like 'well, you should be'.

"For what, Captain?" she says, and she's not doing any of that, she just looks curious. He knows he looks sort of confused, but he can't help it.

"For...making you late," he says as she puts the tricorder down.

"That's alright," she says, and suddenly she's moved closer to him. "You aren't feeling well, and I'm a nurse. That's what we're there for," she says, and Jim is just...completely dumbfounded.

She sounds totally sincere, like she really believes him and just wants to see him get better. It's weird; Jim's not used to this kind of concern from people- and whoa, hey now, she's touching him.

He's sitting on the med bed and she's standing sort of in between his knees, and her hands have reached up to touch the side of his neck. She takes her thumbs and pushes into a spot just below his ear on both sides and he winces a little (just a little though, because he's Jim Kirk, not a fucking pansy). But she's just - she's just so gentle.

She isn't touching him like she wants to get him into bed – it's not sexual at all, which is actually more than he can say for most nurses who've ever attended him. But at the same time it's not strictly clinical either – when Bones patches him up after he's done something stupid he lets Jim know what he thinks by being...not rough, per se, but just...brusque.

Chapel's got the softest fucking hands he's ever felt and she's treating him like she's just genuinely concerned about him – not because she wants him or because she feels sorry for him, but just because he's a patient and she's a nurse and it's her job and she's happy to do it.

Jim isn't used to this - this kind of...empathy from people, this kind of soft care that he's getting from this woman in front of him who's moving her fingers up and down, pressing hard here and there on the column of his neck.

It reminds him of things he doesn't really like to think about, from when he was young and things were still good with his mom. Chapel's still right in front of him, but thank god she's taken her hands off him now because he's a little (read: massively) embarrassed by this crazy reaction he's having. For fuck's sake, all she did was put her fingers on his neck for like two seconds! (But it's just so different from how people usually treat him, that maybe that makes it okay).

He takes a minute to really look at her while she continues doing...whatever it is that she's doing in front of him, Jim doesn't really know. She's pretty – she's not sensual or anything like that, she's not the kind of girl Jim is usually attracted to. She doesn't have full pouty lips or dark eyes or anything – she's just...pretty. He notices it in a non sexual way, in a platonic way, as if he were looking at a painting, or something. She looks a little child like, actually. Not like – no, not like that you pervert – but just in how innocent and gentle she appears. Her skin is pale and smooth and she's got a smattering of tan freckles across the bridge of her nose. There's a flush on her cheeks and her lips are small and pink and her eyes are what really get him though, they make him feel stupid for how often he fucking thinks about them.

They're just so big – they're doe eyes, Jim thinks; big and brown with long lashes and always, always kind.

She looks up and smiles sort of sadly. "Well," she says softly, "you definitely have an infection – actually, it's a pretty bad one too. Your lymph nodes are inflamed and your tonsils aren't looking so great. Why didn't you come in sooner? You know it's never silly to get things checked if you're not feeling well," she adds, and her voice is melodic and kind of confused, like 'what the fuck is wrong with you, leaving this until now?'

Jim's never liked Doctors though - even Bones he sometimes has a hard time going to. It's just the idea of vulnerability, of somebody being in control of you when you're helpless...that's stupid, he knows, but he's always felt that way since he was a kid and he can't help it. He's not going to say that though.

"Well it didn't really hurt until this morning, so..." he trails off, sheepishly grinning. She gives him a kind of exasperated smile.

"Well, that waiting might just cost you your tonsils – weren't you inoculated when you were younger?"

No, he thinks, my step father cared more about his stupid car than he cared about taking me to get my shots, but thanks for asking.

"No, I guess not," he says instead. This is getting way too fucking sentimental, so he adds, "But you're free to inoculate me anytime you like, Chapel." He's grinning, and it feels comfortable to do that, to make quips and little sexual innuendo's.

She gives him that look again, that little half smile that's half amused and half chastising, and then continues.

"That's alright, at least you came in," she says softly, like she wants to make sure he doesn't feel bad. "Doctor McCoy is going to have to make the final assessment though, so I'll just give you a hypo for the pain and he'll be with you soon, okay?"

Jim nods. "Sounds good."

She picks up a hypo delicately with her fingers and he can hear her humming lightly under her breath, something lilting and pleasant. She loads it and then turns back to him.

"Just tilt your head to the side, Captain," she says. Jesus, most people just fucking jab it into his neck, no head tipping. He does as commanded though, and her fingers are warm and soft on his neck again. "This'll just sting a little," she says, and gently but firmly presses the jet injector against the skin of his neck, allowing the pain medication intravenously into his system, and he starts to feel better as soon as she does so.

"There we go," she finishes, and gently smooths the area of skin she'd placed the hypo against. The action makes Jim swallow a little uncomfortably because he doesn't know how to react when people are this nice to him without wanting anything in return.

"All set," she declares. "You'll wait here, alright? The Chief has to finish up with someone else, but he'll be right over to look at your tonsils. And the next time you're not feeling well Captain, make sure you come see someone right away."

He's nods. "Will do, Chapel," he says, and he watches a small smile come to her face before she walks over to the pull curtain and tugs on it, separating him from the rest of sickbay. Then she's gone.

He turns around on the bed to glance surreptitiously through the little crack in where the pull curtain didn't close all the way, and sees her talking to a group of cadets. He can see how differently they react to her than they do with Bones – he scares them into submission with his gruff voice and his medical expertise; he's a great doctor, and they all want to be great doctors, after all. But Chapel has them smiling, laughing a little at something she's said as she begins to demonstrate something – he can't see because she has her back to him, but the cadets are watching intently and some are following – oh, it's the sutures they were practicing before. She's not two years older than most of them, but they respect her. There's no backtalk, they've just all fallen quietly in line.

Jim lets a smile come to his face. 'that Chapel' indeed, he thinks to himself, remembering how Bones had spoken of her. He doesn't – his feelings are all mixed up for her and it's an odd sort of sensation because they're mostly things like 'like' and 'respect' and 'friendship' instead of the usual 'sex', or...well – 'sex', when he meets a new woman he likes. He doesn't really have girls who're 'friends' - mostly because he'd slept with them all first. But he doesn't want to do that with Chapel, because then she might change around him and he wouldn't want that.

She's...soft, with him.

And it makes something in his chest ache, but in a good way.

Suddenly Bones flies in, starts telling him to open his mouth, turn your head to the side and dammit Jim, when are you gonna learn you have to come tell me when you don't feel well, cause these are gonna have to come out now? He finishes with 'I'm a doctor, not a mind reader' and Jim can't help but start to laugh, even though it hurts his throat something fucking fierce. Whatever though – he's had a lot worse. (A lot worse.)

Bones starts prepping him for surgery, which, oh, okay they're going to do right now, and he tells him to lie down, which he does. Suddenly there's another hypo at his throat, and Bones let's him know he's gonna sleep for a while.

That's alright – Jim likes sleeping. The drugs are making his head all woozy and numb and random thoughts are going through his head, with pretty much no sense at all. He thinks about Spock, and wonders how things are on the bridge since he'd left his first officer the conn. He thinks about the ice cream he's gonna get to eat once his tonsils come out, and he thinks about Mallory in engineering and if she'll play nurse for him once he's out of surgery. Damn, she had a great ass. What? It was true, geez.

And then lastly, he thinks about how much fun he's gonna have annoying Chapel for the day or two he'll be in sickbay for the post-op. That brings a smile to his face.

Sometimes, it was really great being Jim Kirk.

~tbc

FAQ's:

1. What's up with Janice Rand?

Good question! I needed a character who I could pit Christine against a little bit; someone who she doesn't quite get along with. I remembered that in TOS Janice rand was the Captain's yeoman (basically a personal assistant) and I thought she'd make a great foil in that I could create a little jealousy there. Janice could like the Captain, and because she sees so much of him, she'd be jealous of his semi-flirtation with Christine. This story is meant to be humorous too, so it's not meant to be a drmamtic 'janice Rand is evil' kinda thing. It's ship life, right? You see the same people everyday, every hour - sometimes you get along, sometimes you don't.

2. Hey - wasn't Christine traumatized like a month ago? She just broke up with her boyfriend! That's a pretty quick rebound.

haha, another good question. But remember - Christine *hasn't* rebounded - she's physically attracted to Kirk in the way that a lot of women (and men) probably are, because he's handsome and confident and he's got a great body, but she isn't emotionally tied to him at all. She's definitely not in the frame of mind to start dating anybody yet, so Kirk is sort of acting as a harmless fantasy that she can indulge in when she needs to. You're going to see how this relationship evolves, how she moves from this sort of harmless physical attraction to a friendship with him, and then maybe more.

3. So what - is Kirk into her, or isn't he?

I tried really hard not to make Kirk a 'gary stu' - he's a womanizing lothario, but Christine isn't the kind of woman he usually goes for. What I tried to portray in this PoV was that Kirk is confused about his feelings for her - he's not sexually attracted her (not really - he recognizes that he's attracted to her but he isn't lusting for her), and his thoughts about her are more comforting than anything else - she's very gentle with him and kind, which is something he hasn't experienced a lot of. I think that's what gets him the most, is that she reminds him of a lot of things from his past, and his own mother. So I've tried not to make the story go from 'first meeting, love, sex, done' - these characters have been through a lot of hardship, and that needs to be explored. So what we've ended up with (at least at the end of *this* chapter anyways, is a more platonic kind of puppy crush on Kirk's part, as opposed to love or lust. After all, he's currently chasing Mallory in engineering, haha ;)

4. What does Christine look like?

Well, you can see a picture of the original Christine on wikipedia, but I was actually inspired to write Christine after seeing Jayma Mays in 'Glee' - she's super adorable and prim and sweet looking, and that's what I wanted for Christine. But you're free to imagine her however you like!

Anyways, that's all for now - stay tuned for the last chapter and more stories. And please, REVIEW! :)

-jb