It's just another manic Monday…

Here's the next update.

Big thank you to all of you out there, reading, alerting, and doing what you do best. I will never beg for a review, but they do make my day when open my email. I guess, I'm just easy that way. Get your minds out of the gutter.

Chapter 4 – Kindred Spirits

Gaila

Very few people new the real Gaila Orion.

Of course when anyone heard her name, immediately they thought of the girl smiling in the high school yearbook photos, wearing the short cheerleading uniform, crowned homecoming queen, and the desire of every heterosexual male. Few knew the Gaila that preferred glasses to contacts; enjoyed reading Kurt Vonnegut over Cosmopolitan any day; and that she was a scarred fractured human being.

Nyota knew.

The two had been friends since their freshman year in high school. There were secrets that each girl knew about the other; like the real reason Gaila lived with her grandparents from age fourteen until she went off to college and the sacrifices Nyota continually made for her current relationship.

Pike knew.

The man had found her one too many nights on campus, drunk and blabbering about the past. Wrapping his arms around Gaila and attempting to ease the pain the girl felt; once they both had allowed things to go too far. Somehow their relationship morphed, he had become a protector, a motivator, and a shoulder when she needed to cry.

"Who is the kid with the ice blue eyes?"

Pike dropped a handful of cherries in Gaila's fizzing Coke. A knowing smirk spreading across his lips, highlighting the laugh lines around his eyes. "Wouldn't you like to know?"

"Quit acting like my daddy." Gaila suggestively took the straw into her mouth.

Pike took a breath refusing to comment on her obvious attempt to break his cool, "Kirk, the kid's name is Jim Kirk."

"The new football star?" She leaned across the bar waiting for him to continue.

"Yes, his dad saved my ass more than once in Desert Storm." Pike made his way from behind the bar to a stool beside Gaila. "Shit, he's the reason I'm alive today."

"An army brat too…I think I'm in love" She eased back on the stool waiting for the man's next words.

"A kid that's got a lot of growing to do." The smile left his eyes and he focused on her face, "Just like you."

Gaila turned her head to avoid his penetrating gaze. "I'm doing just fine."

She felt his hand burning on her knee, "Don't lie to me."

Gaila covered his hand with hers, "I'm fine, thanks for worrying." She was fighting to find the truth in her own words.

Like Nyota, Pike understood that Gaila had a tendency to get involved in relationships and situations that were not healthy.

"The tide is turning Pike, I'm becoming restless, and I want to fall in love." She allowed her head to roll to his shoulder and the tears rose to her eyes.

"You will."

Jim

Jim could see Gaila through the window. Head positioned on Pike's shoulder, hand twirling the straw in her drink, and eyes full of tears. He wanted to rush in and ask what was wrong, punish who had hurt her feelings, but he knew that he would intrude on something deeply personal. Jim had spent the last few days asking questions about the girl. Only to find out she was way out of his league. They were both Pre-Law and he had never noticed that they shared several classes. He didn't notice because she was front row of every class, hand up, and sharing her understanding of every topic or theory presented.

Her intellect blew his mind.

Her beauty left him speechless.

It wasn't like constantly asking Nyota out. Jim knew that would be an undisputed no. It was fun and entertaining to pester that beauty, but Gaila, that was another story. He'd interrogated Nyota one day in the quad.

"Slow down brainiac."

"The answer is no. I bought you lunch the other day, what else do you want?" Nyota was still run walking, but Jim was having no trouble keeping up. He wasn't even breathing heavy.

"The redhead, what's her name?"

What two a days and a mountain of time spent in the weight room didn't prepare him for was the verbal thrashing Nyota unleashed in response to his question.

"Have you thought for one minute, that every girl on this campus doesn't want to know the flavor of your dick? Stop using women for their bodies and learn to love their soul and mind as well. You're such a dumbass. Horny ass mother…"

"Wait one damn minute, I just asked you a fucking question."

"Fuck you James T. Kirk. Fuck you and your gorgeous eyes and your captivating smile. Leave my friend the hell alone."

It had taken Jim two weeks to even make eye contact with Nyota again. He was waiting for her outside of the library and when she opened her mouth to begin another assault, Jim was ready.

"Shut up and listen for once. You talk entirely too much."

Nyota took a deep breath, relaxed her shoulders, and bobbed back and forth on her heels. "Thirty seconds…farm boy."

Jim rolled his eyes, "A name, all I want is a name."

"Why?"

"Why are you so protective?"

"Gaila is my friend."

His eyes brightened with the prospect of hope. "Beautiful, like the apple."

"No with an 'i' between the 'a' and 'l'. Look, jock, she's my best friend, like a sister to me. I swear if you disrespect her or run some of your little backwoods games on her, I'll kick your ass. No smacking you with a book this time, full, defensive line beat down."

"I cross my heart and hope to die." Jim made the pledge and even stuck out a pinky finger for good measure. He knew the smart beauty before him would never admit it, but that was the day their friendship really started.

Jim watched as Gaila curled up in Pike's arms. The convulsions of her body less noticeable now, but he still longed to know what had created the need for comfort in the first place. He was jealous that it was Pike holding her and not him. The kid shoved the hands that had been pressed against the window back into his pocket and begrudgingly left his front row seat.

"Good things come to those who wait."

That's what Nyota had told him. So he would take his time, and let fate guide the way.