Disclaimer: If I owned them, then I would be with them blowing up crazy Romulans and trying to keep Jim out (cough in) of sick bay. I would not be writing FanFiction. Okay, maybe I would, but ANYWAY! That is not the point. I do not own these amazing characters.
Author's Note: This one by far is one of my favorites. It's kind of unrealistic in parts and I apologize for that, but I personally love it.
Hope you all enjoy it!
Thanks to Jordan for your wonderful review! You really made my day!!
The Quirks of Jim Kirk
Chapter 9
Igloo
In which Jim builds an igloo.
It was cold. Really cold. So cold in fact that even Uhura couldn't think of a word to describe just how freaking cold it was.
How Bones, Scotty, Spock, Uhura, and Jim had all ended up on a barren ice planet together, no one was quite certain. But what Bones did know that if he didn't get Spock somewhere soon, Jim was going to have to get a new first officer. The Vulcan was turning an eerie shade of teal as frostbite covered his face.
"Damn it, we need to find somewhere warm!" Bones said as the wind howled around them.
Jim, who alone wasn't freezing his ass off, heard Bones' comment and shot a worried look to the nearly comatose Spock, who was stumbling alongside of the doctor. Vulcans weren't made to handle the cold, Bones was discovering.
"Let's stop for a moment," Scotty suggested from a little ways back.
Bones could hardly see the engineer through all the snow, but he was fairly certain that the Scottish man caught sight of the doctor's glare.
"T-that w-would b-be ill—illogical," Spock stuttered through chattering teeth. "M-moving is t-the o-only thing k-keeping us a-alive."
"We're all going to be lucky if we don't catch damn pneumonia," Bones muttered. He looked to Jim, who had a thoughtful look on his frost covered face.
"I agree with Scotty," the younger man said after a few minutes of trudging through the snow. "Let's stop."
"Are you crazy?" Bones demanded.
"We're going to freeze to death if we don't keep moving," Uhura agreed.
"I could go for a sandwich," Scotty said randomly.
"Just give me a minute, okay?" Jim pleaded. He shot an anxious glance toward Spock.
"I-If the c-c-captain has an i-idea, we sh-should t-try it," Spock said. "I-it i-is the logical thing to do."
Bones sighed heavily, knowing that he wasn't going to win an argument with both Spock and Jim on the opposing side.
"If he freezes to death," Bones said warningly.
Jim didn't seem to hear him. Suddenly, the black figure that was the Captain disappeared in the snowstorm. He reappeared ten minutes later, looking out of breath.
"Come on," he said.
Bemused, the exhausted and frozen members of the Enterprise followed their Captain a few more yards through the snow.
Bones stopped and stared. Uhura let out a small gasp of surprise. Scotty grinned. Spock looked cold.
Standing in front of them, looking extremely out of place in the barren landscape, was an igloo. It was very sloppily built, but it looked sturdy enough.
"This planet's uninhabited," Uhura said. "How is this here?"
"I b-believe th-that q-question w-will be best answered when we are in-inside," Spock said, leaning heavily against Bones. A shudder ran through the taller being's body.
"Come on," Jim said. "It's perfectly safe."
The crew followed the Captain through the small entrance and into the main room of the igloo. Instantly, it was warmer, for the snowy walls blocked out the wind. Jim had taken some of the emergency flashlights and turned them on, setting them around the interior.
"It's a little cramped," Bones heard Jim say. The doctor shot an exasperated look in his friend's direction.
"It's great," Scotty said, enthused to be out of the cold wind.
"How did you build this?" Uhura asked. "I thought you were from Iowa."
"I am," Jim said with a shrug. "But I didn't spend my whole life there."
With that last cryptic remark, the small group settled down and prepared for sleep. They were all grateful to be out of the cold, no matter who built it or where that person was from.
The next morning, however, told a different story. Everyone was warm and well rested now and Uhura wanted to know where Jim learned how to build an igloo.
"It's not common knowledge!" she protested. "And he's from Iowa! He shouldn't know what snow is!"
"Sitting right over here, thanks," Jim said. "And I told you, I haven't spent my entire life in Iowa."
Before Uhura could respond, gold light filled the igloo and the transporter room of the Enterprise materialized in front of them. Spock was whisked off to sick bay along with Jim, who managed to get severe frostbite on his fingers. Apparently, building an igloo didn't agree with him.
The rest of the away team was forced to listen to frantic apologies by Chekov and the rest of the crew on board for losing their signal in the blizzard that had swept over the planet. Uhura snuck away the first chance she had to go stalk her Captain and Spock in sick bay. She was determined to find out where Jim learned to build an igloo.
Spock was in one of the private rooms when Uhura walked into sick bay. Jim, on the other hand, was half asleep on one of the beds while the dermal regenerator was working on his hands. Uhura realized that he was exhausted and concluded that he must not have slept the night before while everyone else had.
"Captain?" she asked quietly.
McCoy was in his office, more than likely asleep, so Uhura didn't have to worry about the doctor interrupting and throwing her out of sick bay.
"Whaddya want?" Jim asked sleepily. He forced his eyes open. "Uhura?"
"How did you build that igloo?" she asked.
She knew that it was probably really stupid to still be going on about it, but Jim's odd skills were beginning to annoy her. She wanted to at least try to figure out the mystery that was Jim Kirk.
"Why do you want to know?" Jim asked.
Uhura was struck by how young Jim really was. She knew it was a stupid thought—Jim was a year or two older than she was, but he looked extremely young at that moment with his hair messed up and dark circles underneath his eyes.
"I just wanted to know," Uhura said. "Not very many people know how to build an igloo."
"I told you—didn't spend my entire life--."
"In Iowa," Uhura said. "Yeah, you said that."
Jim looked like he was about to respond, when an exhausted hint of a smile crossed his face.
"Lieutenant? Is there something you need?"
At the sound of McCoy's voice, Uhura jumped. She hadn't heard the older man approach and now she knew that he must be pissed for disturbing Kirk's healing process.
"No, sir," Uhura said, ignoring the highly entertained look on Jim's face. Apparently, the Captain was loving someone else being at the receiving end of the doctor's wrath.
"Then I suggest that you either go visit Spock in his room or clear out of my sick bay," McCoy said. "The idiot over there needs his rest."
Jim's smile turned into a glare as he stuck his tongue out at his friend. Sensing that she was in the middle of some weird, bizarre guy thing that she would never in a million years understand, Uhura quickly left, thinking not for the first time that she was glad Spock was half-Vulcan and didn't believe in stupid childish pranks.
As she was leaving, she heard McCoy yelling, "Damn it Jim!" really loudly and Jim changing the subject.
She never did find out where Jim learned to build an igloo.
Next week's Quirk: Jam, in which Jim gets stuck. Stay tuned for more crack!!
