In which there is bedlam, chaos, and more beautiful things! In the midst of getting to the Enterprise, we have trace amounts of teen angst and one of my favorite Bones moments! (As you were...) Camille flirts, and I reference an awful episode of TOS. Forgive me for that. I really couldn't resist. It just added to the teen angst. Mwahahaha!

I own nothing. Well, I own Camille and Karina. But I swear, that's it!


Karina was hurrying through the crowd, looking for Pavel, when her communicator beeped. Though she really didn't have the time to answer it, her brain and her reflexes were not anywhere close to in the same place, and she flipped it open.

"Bartowski," came the last voice she ever expected to hear in this instance.

"Captain Pike!" she practically shrieked, almost dropping the communicator. Every one within a fifty yard radius turned to look at her, and once again, her face matched her uniform as she realized they recognized her as the kid who'd cried out during the hearing. Fortunately, it also resulted in her making eye contact with Pavel, who was about twenty feet away, apparently looking for her as desperately as she'd been for him. There was no sign of his pretty friend, and she felt a slight surge of satisfaction, for reasons unknown.

"Calm down, cadet," Pike said from the other end. "I'm assuming you got the word about the Vulcan distress call?"

She nodded vigorously, then, when Pavel gave her a look as he hurried toward her, she realized it was a lost gesture. Karina was vaguely reminded of the phrase, "I'd lose my head if it wasn't attached to my shoulders," and quickly amended it to fit her life: I'd lose my head if I didn't have a Russian around to remind me of its existence.

"Yes, sir," she said.

"And you believe that you two are ready for this mission?" he asked.

Pavel came up beside her and she looked at him to see if he'd heard. When he nodded, she turned back to the communicator. "Yes, sir, I believe we are."

"Then the pair of you report to Sector E of Hangar One," he said. "You both know what ship you'll be on, but it's just a necessary formality. Good luck. And know that, personally, I'm rooting for the pair of you."

The communicator clicked off, and she looked up at Pavel. His eyes wide, he let out a huge breath, a grin tipping his mouth, and she gave something that was a cross between a hysterical giggle and a sigh of anticipation. Their excitement was palpable, but so was their nervousness.

Karina tried instantly to diffuse that portion. "I think we'll be okay," she said. "Let's do this?"

He nodded. "Da, let's – "

She shook her head. "Uh-uh. English, mister."

Another wave of nervousness seemed to wash over him. "Yeah, let's do zis."

She held a hand out. "Pleasure to be working with you, Ensign Chekov."

He took it and shook, and she was reminded of the first time she'd left for a break and wasn't quite sure where they were in their friendship, if it was acceptable for her to hug him yet, and they'd merely settled on a handshake.

"Likevise, Ensign Bartowski," he replied, grinning.


The hangar was buzzing with activity as Jim, Bones, and Camille crowded into the group in Sector A. They knew where they were going, of course, but they were still required to report and be assigned.

"I don't see why this is necessary," Jim grumbled, the hearing still weighing on him.

"Oh, stop your grousing," Camille muttered, her nerves setting her on edge and making her far less inclined to dealing with Jim's nonsense. "Just be glad you're still in Starfleet at all with that stunt you pulled back there."

"They're calling it," Bones said, and though they knew they were on the Enterprise, they leaned forward with anticipation, none of them quite daring to believe it until they heard for themselves.

"Fugeman, Regula One! Gerace, USS Farragut! McCoy, USS Enterprise!"

Camille drew in a sharp intake of breath, and felt Jim go tense beside her. They'd skipped over the K's. This would be listed alphabetically, and Jim had been skipped over entirely.

"McGrath, USS Wolcott! Osbourne, USS Enterprise! Rader, USS Hood. Welcome to Starfleet, and Godspeed."

Most of the cadets disassembled in general order, but Camille turned to look at Jim, who had suppressed look of terror on his face. Bones, meanwhile, looked simply resigned, as if he had suspected this would happen but didn't want to say anything. Camille didn't blame him, after the day Jim had been through already.

"They didn't call my name," Jim muttered, as though just now processing it. He strode off after the officer. Bones looked from his retreating back to Camille, then the pair of them took off after him.

"Commander? Sir, you didn't call my name. Kirk, James T.?"

The commander, a short, squat man with a fatherly face was punching some numbers into a computer. "Kirk, you're on academic suspension. That means you're grounded until the Academy Board rules." He turned back to Jim, a tad bit of sympathy in his expression, but only a bit. He looked to Bones and Camille as if to say, "Don't you have somewhere to be?" and then walked off.

Looking over toward Sector E, Camille saw Karina and her Russian friend standing in front of a commander who was shouting out, "All right, listen up! I'm gonna read this list one time, and one time only!" Kari, however, was doing the opposite of listening up. She caught Camille's eye and waved excitedly, blissfully unaware of what was going on over in Sector A.

Bones, trying offer some lame comfort, said, "Jim, the board will rule in your favor." Looking at Camille, he saw the trepidation in her eyes and realized he couldn't flat-out lie to Jim. "Most likely."

Camille said nothing, trying to desperately formulate some plan that might allow Jim to come along with them, something that he'd so avidly worked toward for three years. She couldn't see his face with his back turned to them, and she was sure that was on purpose, from the tenseness of his shoulders.

"It'll all be fine, Jim," she said, going to put a hand on his arm, but he jerked away.

His face grim, Bones said, "Look, Jim, we gotta go."

Finally, composing himself, Jim brought himself to turn. "Yeah," he said, clearly trying to hold it together. "Yeah, you go." He shook Bones' hand. "Be safe."

Camille, not caring that Bones was watching, stood up on tiptoes and kissed Jim on the cheek. He tried to muster a smile for their sakes, but all he managed was some feeble attempt at cheer. Camille struggled within herself, turning around and walking away from him. The man literally looked like a lost puppy who just desperately wanted to be found.

Suddenly a thought occurred to her. She had no power over whether Jim could get on the ship. But Bones, as his acting physician…

She turned to him, a knowing look on her face. Judging by the frown and the set of his jaw, his wheels were turning as well. A note of joy and pride surged through her, but she wasn't quite ready to show those yet.

Her mom voice came out. "You're not actually going to stand for this, are you?"

Bones stopped walking, and Camille paused alongside him. He appeared to wrestle within himself for a moment, looked halfway over his shoulder, looked forward as if to go on, then shook his head and rolled his eyes, mentally cursing his own stupidity. "Dammit."

The pair of them strode back to Jim, whom Bones grabbed under the arm and said, "Come with me."

Camille was practically bubbling over with excitement, and the look of bewilderment on Jim's face was surely worth any trouble they might get into later.


"Bartowski, USS Enterprise! Chekov, USS Enterprise!"

The Commander barked out several more names, but Karina barely heard them. She'd had confirmation from Captain Pike that the pair of them would, in fact, be assigned to the Enterprise, but she couldn't quite believe it was happening. She pinched herself, just to be sure. Yep, this was real.

She might have been swept away by the tide of cadets going to their shuttles had Pavel not grabbed her by the arm and hustled her along toward their own. She pulled herself together mentally and turned to him, her teacher mode coming out.

"Converse with me," she demanded.

Pavel stared at her, thrown off by her sudden reversion to teacher phase from the girl who was practically jumping up and down in excitement a second ago. "Vait, vat?"

"You're going to need to speak in English for extended amounts of time for who knows how long at this point," she said. "Why not start now? Let's have a flipping conversation – oh, crap!"

He followed her gaze toward an older female cadet who was striding toward them at breakneck speed. Karina attempted to pull him off to the side, and he resisted.

"But, Karina, ze shuttle is zat vay," he protested.

"Just trust me on this!" Karina said, grabbing him more firmly and really giving him no choice in the matter. She began leading them on a more roundabout way to the shuttle, ignoring his mutterings about who, exactly, was the "nawigator" here. There had been murder in Nyota Uhura's eyes, and all she could think was, She knows!

A storm was coming for her as soon as she and Uhura met up next, she just knew it. Working on the same vessel might prevent this goal, but she was determined to stay as far away from her as humanly possible.

They boarded their shuttle, sitting in a window seat – which Pavel had insisted on. "Ve need to see ze ship when ve approach it," he said, and Karina found herself mildly intimidated by the accent. What was Pike going to think of it? She supposed he couldn't help it, that it was a bit early in his life as an English speaker to expect no accenting, and she wondered if it would ever come to that at all.

Personally, she hoped not. It was very "him." But would Pike find him hard to understand?

Trying to take her mind off the concern, she asked, "So…when do you think we get our uniforms?"

He turned and gave her a look. "Are you serious right now?"


Camille was attempting to keep up with Jim and Bones, but her legs were much shorter than theirs, so she ended up have to grab onto Jim's other arm to even come anywhere close to keeping up with them.

"Bones, where are we going?" Jim demanded.

"You'll see," Bones said.

Camille was suddenly jarred by someone passing to her right, and lost her grip on Jim's arm. She looked back to see who her assaulter was and saw Uhura disappearing into the crowd, her back ramrod straight, looking for all the world like a woman on a mission.

Suddenly remembering Jim and Bones' much longer strides, she nearly panicked for a moment before she heard Bones call, "Cam, come on! We need to hurry if this is going to work!"

She ran to catch up with them and, once again grabbed Jim's arm, flashing Bones a flirtatious smile. "I knew you wouldn't leave me behind, cowboy."

Bones turned slightly red, and Jim rolled his eyes in exasperation. "Which leads me to the question: If what is going to work, Bones?"

"And I repeat, you'll see," Bones growled.

Jim turned to Camille. "Do you know what he has in mind, here?"

She shrugged. "I just try to smile and nod and not call the mental hospitals."

"Heard that."


The conversation Karina had so lamely tried to start up had fallen to an awkward silence, and Chekov was practically on the edge of his seat. This was actually happening. They were actually about to go on the Enterprise, actually about to be evaluated by Captain Pike to see if he spoke acceptable enough English to serve on the ship. This was exciting. This was great.

And Chekov had never been more terrified in his life.

Finally, though he wasn't exactly one to mind silences, he could stand this one no longer. He turned to Karina and said, "Talk to me."

Her eyes widened. "Didn't we already try that?"

"Yes, I know. I just need something to break ze silence. I'm about to go insane ower here."

Karina eyed him, her face saying she knew him far too well. "Or barf?"

He frowned. "If zat means ze same sing as srowing up…yes."

"Okay…" She frowned, as though trying to come up with something to say. Chekov enjoyed watching her as she struggled with herself inwardly, of course, only when it was something as light-hearted as this. Her eyes widened for a moment, as though a thought occurred to her that she dared not ask, and he wondered briefly what it might be. Then she eased her expression back into neutrality, not aware of the fact that he'd been looking at her.

"So…who was that girl with you at the council session?"

He was a bit taken aback by the question. "Is zat important?"

She shrugged. "It's conversation. I've never met her. I'm curious."

Not quite sure how to respond, and also not sure why he felt a slight amount of guilt, as though he'd been caught doing something he shouldn't, Chekov told her, "Her name is Irina. She's in some of my nawigation classes. She just came to ze Academy zis year. She's from Russia. Vy?"

Karina shrugged again. "Nothing. It's just… you know… she's pretty. Isn't she?"

He frowned. Had he noticed that? Well, of course he had. He was male. And Irina was pretty. Very pretty.

"I guess so," he said, his voice careful. What he couldn't figure out was why the fact that Irina was pretty mattered so much to Karina…

And why it mattered so little to him.

Letting his gaze drift out the window, his jaw dropped. "Holy Leningrad," he muttered. "Karina…Look at zis."

Whatever slump she'd fallen into fell away as soon as she eyed the landing dock. There it was. The Enterprise, in all its glory.

"Whoa," she muttered, her face going slack in awe.

He turned back to her. "Still sure about zis?"

She smiled, her eyes fixed on the ship. "Never doubted."


"What are you doing?" Jim demanded, as Bones strode into the hangar's medical supply room, Camille jogging along behind them.

"Yes, please enlighten us," she said, out of breath.

"I'm doing you a favor," Bones said, going to a rack filled with vials. "I couldn't just leave you there, looking all pathetic. Take a seat." He grabbed a vial filled with blue liquid.

Jim sat down, and looked at Cam as though searching for validation. "Pathetic?"

She merely nodded, knowing that to say it out loud would only add insult to injury.

"I'm going to give you a vaccine against viral infection from Melvaran mud fleas," Bones went on, seemingly without thinking attaching the vial to the syringe and injecting it into Jim's neck. Camille winced as the needle went in and Jim cried out in shock and pain.

"Ow! What for?" Jim complained, rubbing his neck. Camille merely sat off to the side, suppressing her giggles. Normally she would have no problem wounding Jim's pride a little, but today she thought it needed some boosting, no matter what he'd done to deserve his grounding.

"To give you the symptoms," Bones said, breezily, as though discussing the weather or what he'd had for lunch last Saturday.

"What are you talking about?" Jim whined, looking for all the world like a child being disciplined for an unknown reason. Camille got a glimpse of what his childhood had been like and said a silent thank you that she had not been his mother.

"You're going to start to lose vision in your left eye," Bones continued, putting the syringe away to be cleaned.

Jim looked at Camille, but it became evident that he wasn't actually seeing her. He blinked as though to regain his vision and said, "Yeah, I already have…"

"Oh, and you're gonna get a really bad headache and a flop sweat," Bones said, coming back over to them with a black pouch hanging off his neck like a man purse.

"You call this a favor?" Jim asked as they assisted him off the table, already sounding terrible.

"Yeah, you owe me one," Bones said, escorting them out of the supply room.

Jim looked as though he was about to protest, but a look from Camille silenced him. "Yes, Mom," he muttered under his breath.

Fortunately the shuttle was only a few hundred yards away, but even at that short distance, Jim was getting progressively worse. He started breathing really hard, in fact, Camille could only compare him to a winded horse. He looked, and sounded, ridiculous. Once again, she found herself having to suppress peals of laughter, but if not for her innate trust in Bones' medical ability, she might have found herself just a little bit worried. Jim really did not look good.

The commander stopped them before entering. He was, once again, a short, squat little man, but looked slightly easier to intimidate than the last one had. Camille thought secretly to herself that Jim probably used to take lunch money from guys like this, though he wasn't very well in a position to do any bullying today. That unpleasant job fell to Bones.

"Kirk, James T…" the commander said, looking at his roster. "He is not cleared for duty aboard the Enterprise."

Mostly confident…but there was a touch of uncertainty there. Which was all Bones needed to start in.

"Medical states that the treatment and transport of a patient is to be determined at the discretion of his attending physician, which is me," he said. Camille eyed him, impressed. The utter pompousness, the authority in his tone that dared the commander to question… Normally she preferred pacifist Bones, but this… Dang.

"So I'm taking Mr. Kirk aboard," Bones continued, practically steamrolling the now flustered commander. "Or, would you like to explain to Captain Pike why the Enterprise warped into a crisis without one of its senior medical officers?"

The commander, considering this but clearly trying to maintain some authority, merely nodded and said, "As you were."

Jim, in his practically delirious state, attempted to reply, but Camille elbowed him in the ribs, making him shut up.

"As you were," Bones growled. "Come on."

Bones took full charge of Jim, dragging him along. Camille, walking along by his side, turned to him and said, "Huh. You're kind of hot when you're all authoritative, cowboy."

Then she flounced off to find them a seat, leaving Bones standing there for a moment trying register what she'd just said. Wait. Had she just called him –

"You know, about this so-called favor," Jim muttered, bringing him crashing back to reality. "I'm not a fan of it."

"Oh shut up," Bones said, dragging him to the seats Camille had chosen by the window.

Once the shuttle was off the ground, Camille leaned back in her seat, relishing the feel of being in the air, and Bones looked over at her, shaking his head.

"Born to fly, remember?" she asked him jokingly.

He snorted. "More like born to be insane."

They cleared Earth's atmosphere, and suddenly the landing dock came into view. Camille's eyes widened, and she tugged on Bones' sleeve. He followed her gaze, and his expression mirrored her own.

From Bones' other side, she heard Jim say, his agony evident, "I may throw up on you." Oh, joy.

Bones motioned for him to turn toward him. "Jim, you gotta look at this."

Jim continued to hyperventilate, not really caring about what there was to see outside that window, just focusing on maintaining what little dignity this virus was leaving him.

"Jim, look."

"What?"

"Look!"

He finally turned to look and see what was drawing Camille and Bones' attention, and his jaw also dropped. The USS Enterprise was beautiful. It was the newest ship in the fleet, and there it was, looming in front of them. The lady in all her glory.

Jim clearly thought he was in love.

"Whoa," was all he could say as they approached the shuttle dock, his encroaching illness temporarily forgotten in the splendor of the ship suddenly overtaking him.