Chapter 10

The Painful Truth

A few days after speaking with Tommy, Jim immediately says yes to the offer of transporting a council member from Tellar Prime to Cgynia Minor for a conference.

The Tellarite council member and his posse were nice enough. It was the band of stowaways who caused an entire system shutdown and tried to kill the council member as well as bomb his planet, a goal which was not exactly out of reach, as they did cause an entire system shut down on her ship.

Jim had some idea how the stowaways had gotten on unseen by looking at their little steel bands, she assumes it is some sort of advanced cloaking device, making them undetectable from the ship's sensors.

"Is it some fashion trend?" She says to nobody in particular, holding up the wrist of an unconscious stowaway. "How did they get their hands on this sort of tech?"

The lithe metal band has a small light that blinks red when Jim takes it off and puts it in the pocket of her skirt for Scotty to check out later.

"I hypothesize that they are not working alone, Captain," Spock notes. Her first officer is bleeding green from a cut on his forehead that he got during a scuffle earlier. Jim herself is sporting a growing bruise on her left cheek. "I will also mention the need for further investigation in my mission report."

She finds the rest of them and shuts them in her ship's brig as they make their way back to Tellar Prime.

"We are cleared to dock at Bay 21, Captain." Uhura informs her. "The prisoners will be transferred to local authorities after landing. Starfleet also requests your presence at Tellar Headquarters at eighteen-hundred hours tomorrow."

"Thank you, Uhura," Jim says, and turns in her chair to share an incredulous look with Spock. Well, she was shocked. Her XO simply conveyed his puzzlement with a raised eyebrow.

This incident was under scrutiny because the people at Starfleet thought the cause was her negligence. Jim didn't know why, they were safe with minimal casualties from her crew, she hadn't gone against any regulations she knew of when dealing with the intruders, and the stowaways' equipment was nothing they had ever seen before.

So, Jim's grounded. Yes, she could take a shuttle to Planet Q, but she wasn't going to be seen on the Enterprise any time soon.

Bones expresses his sympathies. Starfleet really was just looking for an excuse to scare Jim, who refused to follow instructions and leapt into hostile situations with her heart rather than her head sometimes. Such were the problems of being an ambitious women.

"It's a case of bad luck," He reasons as they disembark, dressed in civilian clothing. "And you're lucky you weren't arrested."

"For what? At least the councilman's safe. The unknown equipment should've been a suitable excuse for me to be unsuspended," Jim says. "And I don't blame luck, I blame Murphy's Law."

"Anything that can go wrong will go wrong?" A wry smile twists Bones's mouth. "You shot the councilman in the leg, dammit."

"It does happen." She keeps a grin on her face, though he could sense her anger. "There's no telling how long I'll be grounded. This is bad, Bones."

A year ago, Jim would have said something like to hell with consequences, but now she was responsible for herself, of course the crew and her ship came first.

"Jim, no need to get yourself in a twist. You did the right thing."

"Ideally, do not harm." She quips bitterly.

"I did not know you were familiar with the teachings of Surak, Captain." Spock steps into the conversation seamlessly, still wearing his uniform. He must have overheard it with his Vulcan hearing.

"Just the one." Jim says. "And there's a lot of things you don't know about me."

"I assure you that the crew respects your personal privacy, and that we express our condolences for what had happened. You are an adequate captain and I will endeavor to lead in your stead."

"That's sweet of you to say so, Commander," Jim smiles crookedly, tucking her hands into the pockets of her leather jacket. "But I'm not being left behind that easily."

"I speak as a colleague." His face was devoid of any human expression, but Jim could see some sort of softness in his eyes. "I sincerely wish that you will continue your time on the Enterprise as captain."

She shrugs. "Well, I did shoot someone important in the leg deliberately, so we'll see about that."

Spock tilts his head and says nothing. They walk to the arrival hall of the building with little conversation. Jim's thinking about her actions, now that was going to be bought up by her peers when she faced a review.

She checks her PADD for shuttle times to Cygnia Minor while she strolls away from Bones and Spock. There was one two days later, she should probably take that one, it was before she went back to Earth for a review-

Jim's interrupted by a tap on her back. Senses alert, she instantly reacts. Grabbing the man's arm, she flips him over with ease in a textbook judo throw.

Tommy stares up at her, his hair mussed and a dazed look in his bright green eyes.

"Sorry!" Jim finds herself flustered, her cheeks burning. She was amazed how happy she felt when she sees him in person, for the first time in two months. He must've came all the way to see her. "Are you alright?"

"Nothing hurt but my bruised ego. I'll live." He remarks dryly, propping himself up with one arm.

The blonde helps him up. "Don't sneak up on me."

"It was supposed to be a surprise."

"Well you certainly surprised me," She giggles. Bones could hear the sound from where he was- Jim never giggled. "You came all the way here to have a date."

"And you threw me over your shoulder." He holds out a bunch of slightly squashed blue flowers tied with a silver ribbon.

"They're beautiful." Jim beams and takes the flowers from him. "I bought you flowers."

"It's a variation of a flower that my botanist friend discovered on Q. I tweaked its genes t a little to make them the colour of your eyes." He says proudly. "Kirk blue."

Jim sniffs a delicate flower. They smelled faintly like roses but had sharp-edged petals and a golden core.

"Thank you."

She kisses him. It's their first real kiss. Jim could feel something, like something expanding in her chest, just waiting to burst free. And her nose itched.

Jim couldn't take it after ten seconds- Tommy was a passionate kisser, and just drags a moment on for so long- she tears their lips apart to sneeze.

"Are you okay?"

"Just the pollen." Jim sneezes again. She has a funny sneeze, soft and a slightly wheezy.

"Are you allergic to the flowers?" Tommy takes the flowers away from her weak grip.

"No."

And then she goes off into a sneezing fit, her nose red.

"Maybe, but it's fine. The flowers are great."

Jim rubs her eyes and sneezes again.

"I'm fine."

"No, you're clearly not." Bones appears next to her with a hypo in hand. He turns to Tommy. "She's allergic to the pollen, this should give her some time."

"Some time before what? Is she going to be alright?"

"Ouch! Bones!" She hisses in pain. "I should've known you carried those torture devices everywhere."

"I'll get those." He whisks those flowers away and leaves a hypo in Tommy's hand. "She's also allergic to the medication, but that's the best I can do. You take care of her."

"Those flowers actually last a long time, they don't really need water. But what they need are some vitamin supplements." Tommy smiles sheepishly and waves Bones away. "Thank you, Doctor."

"'M fine." She murmurs, her throat was all clogged up. "Don't need another one."

"You're cute." Tommy deadpans and stabs the hypo into her neck.

"I feel much better." Jim says brightly after a few minutes of sitting down. "All ready to go."

"Do you want to see the famous moons of Tellar Prime at the planetary observatory?" He links his arm with hers. "Or go to the market for the famous sweet dough balls?"

"You choose." Jim wipes tears from her eyes, which were still a bit puffy after the allergic reaction. Her head felt like it had been stuffed with cotton. "Sorry about the flowers. They really were a lovely shade of blue."

"Nah, it's fine. I'll give you chocolates next time." He grins. "And there's only one shade of blue that I care about today."

Jim couldn't help but smile. Tommy was just so unlike the people she used to go on dates with. She sniffs again, at least her nose wasn't running.

"I think I love you." Jim says, with a hint of hesitance, but she got it out. Yes, I do. She reassures herself.

Bones looks down at the flowers he was holding, the colour really was close to the shade of Jim's eyes. He snorts, the poor kid must've been shaken up that she had such a bad reaction to the pollen.

And they were quite pretty. Awfully sweet-smelling and the vivid blue petals were spread in an attractive way. He presses down on one and it refuses to bend, it felt like he was touching a sheet of reinforced platinum.

He doesn't know what to do with them, it seemed too crass to throw something so beautiful away.

So he goes to a rundown bar in the centre of town with Christine and Dr. Grant, gets himself drunk and hands out those flowers.

He knows he'll never see them again and he doesn't want to see that stark reminder of Jim. Christine takes one, with a knowing smirk, and he gives the rest to the ladies- which were loose terms to give to them.

And his thoughts drift back to his little girl, he should get something for her. They were returning to Earth in a month or so and Joanna always looked forward for her daddy's gifts.

Jim had good taste. She picked out a bag of candies that changed colour with your mood at Betazid and a blue stuffed whale. Joanna was interested in animals and the extinct species was a nice touch. His daughter loved her gifts.

He smiles to himself fondly and thinks about Jim as he slumps over the table with an empty glass in his hand.

"Hey stranger." A slender figure slides into the booth, bumping her shoulder to his.

"Jim?" He raises his head. Speak of the devil.

"The one and only." She quips, looking fresh despite the late hour.

Bones groans and drops his head into his hands.

"Don't you want to know how I found you?" Jim asks wryly.

Bones grimaces into his hands. A horrifying thought of trackers implanted into his skin pops into his head.

She presses on. "How drunk are you?"

He doesn't respond.

"Sober enough to ignore me, I see."

Out of the corner of his eye, Bones could see the slight lines on her forehead. The lights of the bar bounce off her glasses, hiding her eyes. He could tell she thinking about something.

She tugs on his sleeve. "I have something I need to tell you."

Author's note:

Star Trek doesn't belong to me.

This is not the best way to end a chapter, but I can't think of any other ending to this. Jim finally opens up to Bones (more coming soon). Tommy is my choice for a love interest, someone I think Jim would like. He's seen the worse side of her (having been present during the Tarsus IV massacre) and he cares a lot about her. Will he be the one for Jim? Wait and see.

Anyway, thank you for reading, reviewing and following this story! :)

Updated 7/31/2018. Day ?: I don't know how to write romantic stuff.