Chapter 7 – 33 weeks

A/N: This one is based on a true story. Thank you for the kind reviews and keep them coming! Enjoy - Amelia

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Jon reread the sentence again, trying to make sense of it all. Apparently, he had broken his starship and Starfleet was none too pleased about it. And as a punishment, they were going to promote him.

What?

Two days ago, Enterprise had transitioned from low-level, relatively routine maintenance at the Earth orbital spacedocks to a much more in-depth and intense rebuilding at Jupiter Station. One of the reasons for the transfer was that the station was home to the best imagining sensor money could buy; it could survey ships for hidden damage or instabilities that a regular inspection up at the shipyards might miss. After months-long and sometimes years long missions in deep space, the warp ships began to breakdown unexpectedly or pick up odd rumbles when they burned their impulse engines or other such quirks that told the brass that it was time to bring the ship in for a good looking-over. Jon saw nothing wrong with that. Every ship that was out for more than three months needed to be checked comprehensively to make sure it was still safe to fly and, if not, put in the work to make it safe to fly. That system had protected him and his crews for years before.

Enterprise had gone through the six hour scanning process the day before and Jon really hadn't thought much of it. He had a feeling that they might find something, but he was confident that it wouldn't be that bad. He had been talking to Erika about it the night before and managed to convince himself that his ship of five years was still in good shape. Erika, on the other hand, had a different idea.

"You know, I wouldn't be surprised if they find some serious damage in your frame beams," she said that night as they were doing the dishes. Well, Jon smiled to himself as he remembered, Erika was rinsing the dishes and he was patiently bending down to lower them into the dishwasher. His wife had stopped being able to bend, reach down or stand up quickly about the time she entered into her sixth month of pregnancy.

"What do you mean?" he had asked.

"Come on, Jon, you've slammed that poor ship into the atmospheres of far too many planets to even think that you'll get a clean bill of health," she chided.

"Now wait a minute…"

"I'm not saying you are reckless," Erika continued, handing him a plate. "I'm just saying that you should prepare yourself for a bad report. Remember when Dan brought Challenger in a few weeks ago? His ship is half the age of yours and after his scan came back they grounded him for eight months."

Jon didn't buy it. "Dan's a destroyer guy," he had countered, reaching for another dish to load. "He doesn't know not to slam on the breaks every time his warp core flutters. Challenger's beam problem was because of a corrosive radiation field they flew through on accident. My ship'll be fine."

"They won't be mad at you if you break it, you know," Erika had pointed out.

"I didn't break it!"

"Whatever you say, darling."

She'd been right of course. They had been married for almost a decade so he should have known that one. The Corps Commander had sent him the report in the early hours of the morning. The NX-01 Enterprise was unsafe for interstellar flight until 18 of its 43 main frame beams were replaced and 6 others extensively repaired. Moreover, the hull plating, impulse assembly and access ports around the torpedo bays would have to be stripped and redone entirely. His ship was grounded immediately and his short six-month repair stint back on Earth was going to get a whole lot longer. Great, just great he thought as he absent-mindedly bounced Adalie on his knee.

When he woke up that morning to the sound of the report coming in, he quietly got out of bed and made his way over to his daughter's room, careful not to wake his pregnant wife. Now in her third trimester, Erika was barely able to sleep at all. She tossed and turned all night, desperately trying to find a position where the baby wasn't pressing to hard on her back or worse her bladder. During the day, she was still working full-time as Sam's Chief of Staff, but at her doctor's insistence spent most meetings with her feet propped up on her desk or pacing the edges of the room when she got restless. The entire department took very good care of "their pregnant captain" but he could tell Erika was still exhausted when she got home every evening. So he always tried to let her sleep a little longer while he got the kiddo ready for the day.

Today though he had woken up early and hadn't expected Adalie to be awake. Yet there she was, sitting happily in her crib, waiting for him. Jon shook his head with a smile as he lifted her up into his arms. As they made their way downstairs still in their pajamas, Adalie's with the puppies and Jon in an old Stanford shirt and some jogging shorts, he picked up a few things for his daughter to play with as they sat at the table: her favorite rubber giraffe, a couple of books and a baby doll. He turned on the coffee pot and sat down in his chair, placing his daughter in his lap. Then he began to read.

What bothered him more than the grim structural integrity report was what Starfleet said next. Much to his chagrin, Jon realized that the Corps Commander had not sent the report directly to him, but instead had first forwarded it to the NX project commander, Admiral Sam Gardner. And Sam (thank god he hadn't needed Erika for this) had attached his own addendum before firing it back to Jon, who was now staring at it blankly.

"Your ship has been damaged…" he read quietly to himself, "… six months of further grounding… testing phase and shakedown period extended… possible crew transfers… damage well beyond the acceptable range of injury to a vessel during a given time…. review and investigation boards may be called in … would like to offer you a promotion to Admiral…" he stopped.

Forrest had always joked that if Jon kept breaking his ship they would have no choice but to promote him, but this … this was too far, he thought as his mind raced. This had to be a prank, part of some punishment he was sure to be in for. He reread the orders for a third time. No, this was real.

"Huh," was all he could muster.

He continued to stare at the words until he heard the distinct sounds of Erika making her way down the stairs and into the kitchen.

"Hi Rike," he said without looking up.

Erika yelped in alarm. Now Jon did look up.

"What?" he asked worriedly. "Are you…?"

Erika was staring at him, her brow furrowed but her lips threatening to break into a smile. She pointed discreetly at the little girl in his lap. "Jon…."

He wasn't sure if he wanted to look. He remembered the last time Erika came into the kitchen, yelped and pointed. Adalie had only been seven months old then and the two of them were sitting at the table waiting for Erika to wake up. Jon was holding a bottle for his daughter and munching on a piece of toast as he read the morning paper. It wasn't until Erika came downstairs that he realized that Adalie had a head full of toast crumbs. Bath time had happened a little earlier that day.

But today, it wasn't toast crumbs. Jon looked down to see his seventeen-month-old happily smearing lipstick all over her face. Reddish streaks covered her chin, her cheeks, anywhere but her lips. And she looked like she was having a great time.

"Oh crap," he muttered as he snatched the lipstick out of her hands and hoisted his daughter up and over to the counter by the sink. He could feel his wife watching him in silent amusement as he grabbed a warm washcloth and began to gently scrub those chubby little cheeks.

"Adalie, Adalie, what did you do?" Jon murmured, as much to himself as to his daughter.

The only response he got was Adalie mimicking the gesture of putting lipstick on and proclaiming, "like Mama!" Jon shot Erika a look over his shoulder. The lipstick wasn't coming off.

"Jon, at least take a picture of her before you wash it off!" Erika finally spoke, bursting into a fit of laughter. Adalie began giggling too. Her mother reached over to see if she could at least smudge some of the offending make-up off. She shook her head and smiled. "Let me go upstairs and grab that make up remover Maria gave us and you'll be fine."

"I can go get it," he offered, glancing at her belly. He always started to get nervous around eight months.

"I'm fine, Jon." His wife, on the other hand, did not start to get nervous around eight months, he observed as she began climbing the stairs.

"Erika, wait up!" he picked up Adalie and hurried after her.

"I'm serious, Jon," she said stopping and turning around.

"It's not that."

"Okay," she said as they continued to climb. "Then what?"

"The report just came in."

"And?" she asked as she walked over to the bathroom.

"And you were right. They are grounding us for at least six more months."

"Six months? You really did break your ship," she shook her head as she rummaged through the cupboards.

"That's not all," he paused as he adjusted Adalie in his arms. "Erika, they've offered me the Admiralty."

"For breaking your ship?" she asked incredulously.

"I'm not sure that the two events are related."

"So this is real?" She stopped looking and turned around to face him.

"As real as the lipstick currently covering our daughter's face."

"Oh my god, Jon! This is wonderful." She threw her arms around him and then stood up on her tiptoes to give him a kiss on the cheek. "Are you going to accept?"

"I don't know… I don't even know what they want me to be doing down here… I mean, yes of course! Of course I'll do it. It will mean giving up Enterprise, but that doesn't matter because we've been thinking about it anyway and I would be closer to you and the girls and…"

"Whoa there," Erika placed a hand on his chest to slow him down. "Have you talked to Sam yet?"

Jon shook his head no.

"You probably should," she looked over at Adalie who was now tugging on her father's ear, "as soon as we get this little lady cleaned up." She handed Jon a bottle of make-up remover that his sister-in-law swore had removed all sorts of things from his nieces' faces. He hoped she was right.

"Stay right there, I'm going to get the camera," Erika said as she gave him another look.

Jon turned to the little girl in his arms. "So, what do you think, darling? Should Dad become one of the brass and stay here?" Adalie nodded her head vigorously.

"Well okay then."

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