Karina had an extensive vocabulary in twenty different languages, including Klingon, French, Swahili, and Russian. But words for Starfleet headquarters escaped her. Huge. Metal. Expansive. Was there anything else, really?

Camille dragged her along. "Come on, kid. We've got to drop our stuff in our room and change into uniforms before the new cadet assembly."

Eventually Camille let go, but Karina was too busy taking in her surroundings to even attempt to keep up. This was unlike anything she'd ever seen. You didn't exactly get this kind of stuff in the forests of Vermont. The real world was turning out to be a lot better than even she'd expected -

Her thoughts were interrupted when she clipped someone's shoulder. Glancing at the person she hit, she saw it was a boy about her age, maybe a little older. It was good to know she wasn't the only kid here.

He didn't look that intimidating, and for some reason she found herself smiling without thinking about it. "Sorry," she said, and hurried to catch up to Camille.

She couldn't see him looking after her for a while, a tiny ghost of a smile on his face, then shake his head and walk away, still smiling.

Karina hadn't had too long to get to know her roommate, she supposed, but when Camille came limping into their room their first week in, she began to worry whether this would be routine. The other day she'd been favoring her wrist a bit. When asked, Camille had just brushed it off as though it were no big deal. She'd let it go then, but when Karina saw how swollen her ankle was today, however, her eyes widened

"Why are you limping?" Karina asked, thoroughly perplexed. Minus the halting walk, Camille looked perfectly fine, not even in pain.

"I may or may not have tripped down the stairs about five minutes ago," Camille muttered, the strain in her voice giving away what her countenance concealed. She flopped down on her bed, sighing in relief. "It's nothing, really."

Karina raised an eyebrow. "Your ankle is swollen. I don't think that qualifies as nothing, dear."

Camille rolled her eyes. "It'll be fine tomorrow. So how was your day?"

"Oh, relatively boring until my roommate came in with an ankle obviously at least rolled and pretended she's going to just walk it off. Come on, I'm taking you down to the med office."

Camille groaned. "You're seriously going to make me walk again?"

"I could carry you. That's always an option," Karina replied, shrugging. When Camille half-smiled in amusement, Karina felt herself getting riled. "Oh, come on!" she exclaimed. "You're tiny."

"And you have no upper body strength. I could judo throw you in a half second."

"I was raised by nuns. We didn't have a lot of time to lift weights. Most of my time was spent reciting prayers in Latin. Or German. Or in school. Or anywhere. We're getting off the subject."

"Now I know why you hate German," Camille muttered. "I would too if I'd been force-fed it."

"Just shut up and put your arm around my shoulders," Karina said. "I am taking you to the doctor whether you like it or not."

Fortunately, the med office was only a hallway down from their room. Camille winced with every step, finally giving up the façade of being fine. Karina had thought so.

"Excuse me, who's on shift at the moment?" Karina asked the well-muscled, dark-haired man with his back turned to them.

"You're looking at him," he muttered, and something about his voice sounded familiar. Camille's eyes widened when he turned around. The paranoid one from the shuttle in Riverside? Oh, come on! Was she going to catch a break today?

"Don't look so enthusiastic," he muttered. "I don't bite, girl."

The term bit at her for some reason, and she forced herself to look him directly in the eyes, not focus on the fact that he looked a lot better and a lot less like a crazed mountain man without the scruffy beard he'd sported a week before.

"Help her onto the table," he instructed Karina.

Camille, not to be outdone, disentangled herself and pulled herself up on her own.

"All right, then," he said, his face establishing that he'd received her message loud and clear: she was not going to be an easy patient.

Karina sat back, a smirk on her face. This should be an interesting show.

He felt her ankle up. At least that was how it felt to her. Why should he need that much of a feel on it? Clearly the man was some kind of creep. Camille's glare deepened. Karina's smirk turned to silent giggling.

The doctor remained oblivious. He did frown, however. "What did you do to this, exactly?"

"I…" Camille bit back her answer, then finally gave in. "Fell off some equipment."

"What were you doing on the equipment?" the doctor asked, at the same time Karina exclaimed, "I thought you said you fell down the stairs."

"Does it matter what I was doing?" Camille exploded, wishing they would both just leave well enough alone. "The point is, my ankle is fine. My roommate, however, was slightly concerned about my well-being. May I go now?"

The doctor sighed, rolled his eyes and handed her a clipboard screen. "Fill this form out. Consider yourself a patient of Starfleet. Congratulations."

Camille frowned down at the screen, wishing she had never decided she needed an adrenaline rush and climbed up on that stair banister – no way was she telling them that was the actual story. "So, what's your verdict on my ankle…Dr. McCoy?"

"It just so happens your ankle has a fairly bad sprain, Miss Osbourne," McCoy retorted, appearing as though he hadn't glanced down at her newly scrawled name on the paper. Jerk.

Karina's laughter was barely under wraps now. Unfortunately, her roommate was too focused on her new nemesis to pay much attention. She cleared her throat.

"Excuse me, doctor, I need to…" Unable to think of a suitable excuse, she muttered, "…take care of something for one of my classes. Take care of her, will you?"

McCoy nodded at her. She practically stumbled out of the room, and he turned back to Camille. "Now, I can give you a osteoregenerator treatment, or – "

"I don't have time for this, and my ankle is fine," Camille insisted through gritted teeth.

"Or I can give you a pair of crutches and we can do this the old-fashioned way," McCoy continued, looking as though he wanted to get this over with just as much as she did. "Your call, Osbourne."

Jim Kirk was on his way past the clinic when he heard a very familiar voice shouting, "Dammit, girl, your ankle has to heal! You at least need crutches to get back to your – "

"I can make it fine on my own!" came a defiant feminine voice. "I don't need your lousy – "

"Do you want to walk normally again?"

"Walk normal – I'll be walking just fine in a week! You literally just said – "

"You were too busy storming out of here to pay attention to a word I was saying! You know, people like you are the reason the human race's life expectancy is lowering. Of course, in space, it'll be a lot shorter if you continue like this!"

Jim peeked in the window. A petite girl of around eighteen was standing next to the table, leaning on it, attempting to get at the door, which Bones was blocking. At his last comment, her jaw dropped.

"Well excuse me if I'm not a big fan of doctors. I've been to too many who aren't worth what they make me pay – "

"Oh, great. You'll be around more often then?" Bones muttered. "Lucky me."

She emitted a cry that was somewhere between a human scream and an ostrich screech. Only then did Jim notice the other girl practically on the floor laughing outside. He turned to her.

"That one yours?"

She straightened up and looked back at him, tears streaming down her face. "In a way."

The kid was around fourteen. What the heck was she doing at Starfleet? She turned toward the door, waiting. "Give it five…four…three…"

The older girl stumped out on a pair of crutches that were too tall for her five-foot-one frame. She looked at him, glared, then turned to her friend. "Happy?"

"I'm at least satisfied. And my heart got a good workout just there."

"Oh, shush."

The pair of them walked off down the hallway. Jim smiled, shaking his head, and knocked on the clinic door.

"Anyone home?"

Bones looked up, glaring. "What the hell are you doing here? Don't you have a date or something?"

"Date? Nah. She caught me…"

Bones raised his eyebrows.

"Kissing another cadet."

"Really? Isn't this the fifth one? We've been here a week!"

"Jim Kirk gets around."

"Well, maybe Jim Kirk should consider focusing on something else. Like, I don't know, take the Kobayshi-Maru. Nobody's passed that. It should give you a challenge, at least. Now, back to my first question. What are you doing here, Jim?"

"I was just in the neighborhood and couldn't help noticing a scuffle going on. That one was pretty feisty, wasn't she?"

Bones shook his head, his frown deepening. "You don't know the half of it. That was by far the most stubborn, hard-headed, arrogant patient I've ever had."

"She wasn't bad-looking either," Jim muttered.

"What?"

"I didn't say anything."

"Oh, no," Bones said, glaring at him. "You aren't sucking me into your web of woman after woman after woman. I've had enough of – "

He stopped short and turned back to his work. Jim gave him a thoughtful look.

"Enough of what?"

"Nothing. If you're here, you might as well be useful. Hand me that metal thing."

"What metal – "Jim, who had been looking at all the medical tools and thinking the request a bit vague, saw the metal thing which Bones had been referring to on the floor. "Did she -?"

"Break the handle off the table? Yes, yes, she did. Call me crazy and all, but I think that one's a bit accident-prone."

Jim handed him the handle, sneaking a glance at the paper in his hand. "Huh. Camille Osbourne, the hot accident-prone cadet. Wonder who her friend was?"

Bones whirled. "You do know she's probably at least ten years younger than you?"

"Come on, Bones! You don't seriously think I'd go for a fourteen-year-old? Or somewhere around there."

"I'm not quite sure what I think you'd go for yet, Jim. Seems like you'd go for anything."

"And you're clearly going for nothing."

"Dammit, man, I'm a doctor. I don't have time for this!" He paused, remembering the way her arrogant little chin stuck out when she was refusing to do as he said.. "And if I did, why would I choose someone that infuriating?"