Carol finally made it to her own deck by an hour past the time she should've been home. The lack of sleep from the night before was definitely starting to set in, and a headache was forming just behind her ears. She glanced around before leaving the turbolift to be sure that no one was in the hallway. The absolute last thing she needed right now was to run into one of her neighbors by chance.

The problem with being a Starfleet officer with a disgraced father, she reflected as she walked towards her own door, was that it was difficult to find confidantes. Everyone was either a subordinate or a witness to how she'd been duped during the Khan situation. There was no one on this entire huge, noisy ship with whom she could commiserate. No one to whom she could explain: I'm not embarrassed today because there was an accident in the lab, there was an accident in the lab today because I was embarrassed.

At last – her own door. She quickly tapped the unlock pad and then shut the door behind her without even turning on the lights. She slumped back against the wall and groaned before crouching down to unfasten her boots. She groped around for the slippers she usually kept by the door, and absentmindedly mumbled, "lights on!"

Slippers donned, finally comfortable, Carol Marcus stood up and looked into her cabin. Captain James T. Kirk was sitting on her bed.

She jumped out of her skin and yelled in surprise. "Fuck, Jim, what the hell are you doing in my room? And why the hell didn't you turn on the lights?"

The captain stood up and backed up against the far wall, his hands out in a conciliatory gesture. "I really didn't mean to startle you, Carol, I'm sorry about that. I did turn on the lights but they turned off when you tapped the outdoor lock. I don't know why they were programmed that way. Then once you were inside I didn't know how to turn them back on without scaring you."

"Clearly!" Carol snapped. "But how the hell did you even get in?"

"Captain's override of the door lock. It's actually scary how easy it is for me to get in anywhere."

"I'll say," Carol said icily. "Now, would you care to explain why you broke into my room?"

Jim put his hands down, and wiped the palms on his pants. "I thought we should talk."

"And you've never heard of sending a lady a message if you want to meet, instead of ambushing her in her own bedroom?"

Jim met her gaze without an ounce of embarrassment. "I am not ambushing you. I will leave whenever you ask me too. But you know why I'm here. And you know there is hardly any privacy on this ship, especially not for the captain. So you can definitely guess why I snuck in to meet you."

Carol sighed and rubbed her head. "All right, yes, I do. But I'm not – it's just, I've had a terrible day."

"I heard. The adventure of the smoking soil samples," Kirk grinned the way he always did when the Enterprise was about to discover something new. "Your incident report was very interesting, though I'm pretty sure your grammar teacher would make you do it over if she saw – "

"Did you come in here to discuss my grammar?" Carol snapped. "Or was there something else on your mind?"

"Uh, right, I'm digressing," Jim said. "Can we sit?"

"Sure," Carol said, waving at the cabin's desk chair. "You sit there, and I'll sit on the bed. It'll save time for when I pass out after this."

They sat down. "So," Jim said, and for once in his life he looked nervous. "Last night . . ." He trailed off.

"Last night," Carol said, her bad mood bubbling over into impatience. "We had sex. What do you have to say about it?"