The USS Enterprise

"Listen, Molls, I just don't think…"

Molly glared at her cousin. "Don't call me that, Jimmy," she snapped, emphasizing his name to make her point. "On board this ship I'm Ensign Hooper, at least while we're on duty which, last I looked, we both were. And you're the captain, not just my cousin here!"

She couldn't believe she was scolding her commanding officer like this – rather undermining her own argument against his unprofessional behavior at the same time – but really, Jimmy had driven her to it. As soon as he'd seen her name on the transfer roster he'd gone ballistic; they were chasing after a dangerous terrorist, after all. A man who'd blown up a building in London, killing dozens of people, and then attacked a meeting of Starfleet captains and their first officers, killing and wounding several others in the process. Including Jimmy's good friend and the former captain of the Enterprise, Admiral Christopher Pike.

Now they were racing for Klingon space, and Jimmy had belatedly read over the duty roster, more than a little perturbed to find that his cousin had transferred aboard when he'd been too distracted – and overwrought – to notice.

"I'm not taking a shuttle and abandoning ship," Molly said when he demanded that she do that very thing. She lifted her chin and gave him her most stubborn look…and Molly Hooper was nothing if not stubborn. Jimmy had tried many times to coax her into showing him her soul name, even going so far as to bare his own forearm when they were teens and showing her the name he'd been wearing since his own twelfth birthday. It read 'Carol' and Molly sincerely hoped he'd find that woman one day. Just as she now very sincerely hoped that he'd stop being such a berk about her presence on his ship.

"Molly, we're going into a very dangerous situation," Jimmy growled at her. The two of them were in Sickbay, having temporarily taken over Dr. McCoy's office while the CMO was in one of the labs messing about with his beloved tribbles (which he was very careful not to overfeed).

Molly huffed and rolled her eyes, but at the same time she gave her cousin an understanding look. "I know that, Jimmy," she said softly, reaching out to squeeze his arm in a comforting gesture. "But I didn't sign up with Starfleet because I expected to be kept safe from danger. This is part of the job, and you're just going to have to get used to me being here, at least until this mission is over. But if you think for one minute that I'll let you torpedo my career just because you still think I'm ten years old and afraid of spiders…"

"You are still afraid of spiders, Molls," he scoffed, but his expression had softened and she knew she was winning. That his sense of fairness was winning out over his impulse to shield her from the harsh realities of life. And one of those harsh realities was one she always met unflinchingly – life wasn't always fair, and death was a part of it. She'd learned that when her father had died of a rare form of cancer, and her mother had been killed in a freak transporter accident a year later. "Fine," he sighed, reading the resolve on her face. "I won't treat you like my kid cousin while you're on board my ship and on duty. I won't take a phaser set on stun to you, stuff you into a shuttle and shoot you back toward Earth, either," he added with a hint of his usual devil-may-care grin. "But if anything happens to you…except for my mom and Sammy, you're the only family I've got left."

She tiptoed up and kissed him on the cheek. "I know," she said softly. Then she stepped back, deliberately stiffening her posture and standing at parade rest. "But on board the Enterprise, I'm Ensign Molly Hooper, biochemist on the medical staff under Dr. Leonard McCoy, and you, sir, are my commanding officer. So, Captain Kirk," she added formally, "if this discussion is over, I request permission to return to my duties."

"Granted," he replied, stepping aside and watching as she strode out of McCoy's office.

Molly was never sure, after, how she'd ended up joining Jimmy in the ship's seldom-used brig after he, Commander Spock and Lt. Uhura had returned from their visit to the Klingon homeworld with John Harrison in tow; had she volunteered or had Dr. McCoy asked her to take his place? It was all a blur, especially considering what had happened when she hurried into the room, focused on not dropping the tricorder and medical kit she was carrying as she stumbled over something on the floor.

Jimmy had caught her arm, she remembered that, exclaiming, "Molly! Be careful!"

And then that voice…the prisoner spoke, his voice a cultured British drawl as he said, "Molly? Now? Here?" And then he'd thrown back his head and laughed, while Molly and Jimmy both turned confused eyes on him…and then she had dropped everything she'd been holding, right there on the floor, and clutched Jimmy's arms as the world tilted beneath her feet, the darkness threatening to overwhelm her.

She'd not seen any of the vids showing the image of John Harrison; she'd been deep in a research project in the biochem lab at her previous posting on Earth, hearing only vague rumors that seemed to have nothing to do with her. Then she'd received her transfer notice, and in her rush to board the Enterprise and make sure her research would be overseen properly in her absence, she'd still managed not to see the face of the Federation's current Most Wanted.

Until now. Right now, right here, in the Enterprise brig. A face she'd seen once before, when she was twelve years old and raging at the Universe and Fate for inscribing the name of a dead man on her forearm. Like a woman in a trance, she eased herself out of Jimmy's grasp, patting his hand distractedly as he demanded to know what was wrong. She vaguely heard him snapping out an order for someone to call Dr. McCoy, but ignored him, his words fading into insignificance, ultimately unheard over the pounding of her heart, the rush of blood in her ears. Slowly, carefully, she approached the plex-glass barrier between her and the prisoner, who had stopped laughing and now faced her with a bitter smile on his lips.

She stopped directly in front of him and met his gaze, brown eyes staring into sea-green liberally flecked with blue and the tiniest hints of amber. She shoved her sleeve up, knowing before she'd even looked that the tattoo she'd had so painstakingly applied to her forearm would have faded almost to nothing as she and her soulmate met for the first time.

John – or rather, Khan – echoed her gesture, his smile never leaving his lips as he, too rolled up his sleeve. There, in elegant cursive so similar in style to the name on her own arm, was the name 'Molly'. He showed it to her, lifting it up to show to someone behind her – Jimmy, probably – even as Molly raised her own arm and rested it on the plex-glass for Khan to read.

"Say it," he said, his voice hoarse and the bitter smile vanished from his lips as if it had never been. He stared at her intently, their gazes locked as he took a single step forward and then stood in front of her, unmoving, as he waited for her to do as he'd asked…no, as he'd demanded.

Molly licked her lips, coughed, swallowed, then finally spoke. "Khan," she said. "Khan Noonien Singh."

Ridiculously enough, as soon as she'd spoken, everything went black.

For the second time in her life, Molly Hooper fainted.