Out of This World

by Lady Dawson and EssentiallyRei

Chapter Eleven: The Right Partner

Emily wanted to laugh. Or cry. Or possibly both.

Joni was on the ship. Joni was on the Enterprise.

Joni was on the Enterprise.

On the list of all the things that could've happened today, this definitely was nowhere on it. Emily never could have predicted, much less anticipated, that her roommate—from the real world—would appear on the ship, never mind that she would also be a Vulcan and Spock's twin sister.

But before she could even register what was happening, Spock had appeared, ordering his sister out of the way and then they were beaming down to the surface of Vulcan together. Emily wasn't stupid; she understood why they were going. If Joni was Spock's sister, then that meant that their parents were in danger and their mother was going to die in the next couple minutes. She understood that part, but what she didn't get was why Joni was so determined to go down there when Emily was perfectly willing to go down to help Spock. Sure, the guy was annoying, but she understood the pain of losing a parent; it wasn't something that she'd put her worst enemy through.

Rather than let Emily take her place, though, Joni just went down there with—with her brother and Emily was left standing there helplessly with Jim, her entire body aching from her fall from the drill and landing on the platform, anxiously waiting for them to come back. It was only a few minutes, but every second that passed felt like an eternity.

And there was nothing she could do but wait; nothing she could do but stand there and wait for the outcome.

The second that the lights flashed, bringing the group into sight, Emily realized why Joni had gone down there, what she had gone down there for; in addition to Joni, Spock, his father, and the other elders of Vulcan, there was another person . . . a human woman that Joni was embracing as they swarmed back into place, the white lights fading around them.

Joni and Spock's mother . . .

Emily didn't know what to think, but her mind spun at the implication of what this could mean; by saving her, Joni had changed the entire course of events from here on out. His mother's death was part of how the rest of the movie had affected Spock; who knew what that would mean?

Though she wanted desperately to stay and talk to Joni, to try and get some answers, one look from the brunette was enough to tell Emily that there would be no getting answers from Joni right now; after assuring her that she would be in Sickbay shortly, Joni had gone after her brother.

Frustrated, Emily stalked down the hallway with Jim, silently fuming and wondering what the hell was gonna happen next.

All the frustration left her as soon as she stepped into Sickbay and she saw the few Vulcans that had been sent there; all breath left her in that instant as she stood there, everything suddenly crashing down onto her in full.

An entire planet was gone; it had just been sucked into oblivion . . . hundreds . . . thousands . . . millions . . . no, billions of lives were just ripped away from them, some of them undoubtedly before they could even begin. Men, women . . . Gods, children . . . all of them were just . . . gone . . .

Her stomach lurched without warning and Emily stumbled backwards. Next thing she knew, she was heaving into a bin that had been shoved underneath her mouth and someone was pulling her blonde hair out of the way. She didn't even need to look up to know that it was McCoy.

"Thanks, Doc," she mumbled, her knees trembling underneath her as she staggered backwards into the chair he pushed her into.

"Forget about it," he replied, more gently than was his usual manner. "You okay?"

"Define 'okay,'" she mumbled, pinching the bridge of her nose. While she didn't feel quite so nauseous anymore, she didn't feel altogether steady. McCoy surveyed her appearance critically before waving his tricorder at her. "How is everybody?"

He blinked, startled, then glance towards the Vulcans. "They're . . . shaken, but they're holding up. Looks like you're about the same," he observed. Emily couldn't argue. "Alright, looks like you hit your head pretty good, so I'm gonna give you something for that, but otherwise, you look okay."

"Thanks, Doc," she said with a hesitant smile before glancing in Jim's direction. He was having his hand wrapped by a couple of nurses, but even he seemed quiet, affected by the tragedy that had occurred.

McCoy seemed to notice where her attention had gone, because he cleared his throat suddenly and she looked back at him. "What the hell were you thinking, Em?"

"What are you talking about?"

"You know what I'm talking about," he replied, dropping his voice a few octaves and giving her a fierce look. "That kiss."

Oh . . .

Emily felt the heat rise into her cheeks, but she tried, vainly, to ignore it. "This isn't really the time or place to talk about that, is it?" she mumbled, shifting uncomfortably. "Anyway, Leonard, it's none of your business."

"Of course not," McCoy grumbled. "Just because it concerns my two best friends, that means I can't put my two cents in." Emily sighed. "You know what he's like, Emily; I don't want to see you get hurt."

"You don't need to worry about . . . that," Emily said, her eyes flying to the man in question. "Jim would never hurt me, even if something like . . . that did happen. He's my best friend, Leonard, and I . . . I know he'd never intentionally hurt me. We have each other's backs," she said softly and it was true. Back on that drill, it had felt so effortless, fighting next to Jim as though she'd been doing it all her life.

"I think you're making a mistake," McCoy drawled, shaking his head as he jabbed her with a hypo. "Whatever happened to the whole swearing off men thing?"

Emily jerked as though she'd been hit with lightning, her head whipping around to stare directly at McCoy. "What?!"

He looked up at her reaction, obviously realizing that he'd said the wrong thing. "Ugh, I forget Jim said not to mention that to you," he muttered. "I'm an idiot . . ."

"What . . . exactly did Jim tell you?" Emily said slowly, her heart racing, a crazy, almost impossibly idea forming in her head.

"About your high school boyfriend," McCoy said hesitantly, looking awkward. "Adam, I think he said his name was. Jim said that's why you're so adamant against dating anyone."

Emily felt as though she'd been punching in the stomach, but she forced her expression to conceal whatever she wanted to show. The whole Adam thing happened here too . . .

"I'm sorry," McCoy apologized, "I didn't realize that it was a secret."

"No, it's okay," Emily managed. "It's okay that you know . . . I just . . . didn't realize that Jim told you . . ."

McCoy nodded once. "So . . . what did happen to the swearing off men?"

"I don't know," Emily admitted, realizing that this was true. She wasn't sure when she'd tossed that out the window. "I guess . . . I guess maybe I've just been waiting."

"For what?"

She glanced towards Jim, suddenly aware of just how true her words were, though she found it hilarious, later, how the quote from Captain America seemed to fit here.

"The right partner," she whispered.


Emily stepped onto the Bridge, her gaze immediately flying to Joni, who was standing there in her red attire, her gaze serious and anxious as she surveyed her brother. Briefly, her light brown gaze met her green ones, but she gave Emily a significant look; this was neither the time nor the place to discuss anything that either of them wanted to. Like it or not, she was going to have to wait until later to get answers from Joni—although, Emily was starting to get the feeling that neither of them had the answers they both desperately craved.

Which begged the question, who did have those answers?

With a small sigh, Emily joined Jim, standing next to him as she listened to the conversation going on around her, glancing edgily at the blond next to her. His hand absently reached down to grasp hers as McCoy exclaimed, "I'm a doctor, not a physicist; are you actually suggesting they're from the future?"

"If you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth," Spock replied.

"Is this really the time to quote Sherlock Holmes?" Emily muttered, too quietly for anyone but Jim to hear.

"Then what would an angry future Romulan want with Captain Pike?" Jim wondered, though he was suppressing a grin at Emily's comment.

"As Captain, he does know details of Starfleet's defenses," Sulu offered.

"What we need to do is catch up to that ship," Jim said, letting go of Emily's hand suddenly and approaching Spock, "disable it, take it over and get Pike back."

His voice shook slightly at the mention of the captain, which Emily hadn't noticed before, when she and Joni had been watching this back in their world. And then it hit her; Pike had recruited Jim, he had been there from the very beginning, ever since Jim had first stepped foot into Starfleet. He was probably the closest thing that Jim had to a father. So of course he would be worried about him . . .

"We are technologically outmatched in every way," Spock retorted, brown eyes flashing dangerously. "A rescue attempt would be illogical."

"Illogical, maybe," Emily replied, frowning at Spock, "but sometimes the most illogical thing can be the most logical course of action."

Joni made a small noise, almost like laughter, but when everyone glanced at her, her face was perfectly stoic, a mimicry of her brother's.

"What about assigning engineering crews to try and boost our warp yield?" Jim suggesting, glancing at Joni.

"Remaining engineering crew are being used to repair radiation leaks on the lower decks," Joni said when Spock didn't immediately speak up, "and damage to subspace communications."

"Without which we cannot contact Starfleet," Spock picked up where his sister had trailed off, looking towards him. "We must gather with the rest of Starfleet to balance the terms of the next engagement."

"There isn't gonna be a next engagement!" Jim exclaimed, throwing up his hands in frustration and glaring at the two Vulcans. "By the time we've gathered, it'll be too late. You say that he's from the future, knows what's gonna happen? Then the logical thing would be to be unpredictable!"

"You're assuming that Nero knows how events are predicted to unfold," Spock corrected him. "On the contrary, Nero's very presence has altered the flow of history, beginning with the attack on the U.S.S. Kelvin, culminating in the events of today, thereby creating an entire new chain of incidents that cannot be anticipated by either party. Whatever our lives might have been, if the time continuum was disrupted, then our destinies have changed. Mr. Sulu, plot a course for the Laurentian system, warp factor 3."

"No, Spock, don't do that," Jim tried to stop him. "Running back to the rest of the fleet for a confab is a massive waste of time."

"These are the orders issued by Captain Pike when he left the ship," Spock reminded him with a subtle glare.

"I think those orders changed when Nero turned out to be from the future," Emily interjected while Jim retorted, "He also ordered us to come back and get him. Spock, you are captain now, you have to make—"

"I am aware of my responsibilities, Mr. Kirk," he said as sharply as Emily had ever heard the Vulcan. "Lieutenant Conner, stand down."

Emily glared at him, daggers in her eyes. "I think I'll stand, thanks."

"Every second we waste, Nero's getting closer to his next target," Jim exploded.

"That is correct and why I'm instructing you to accept the fact that I alone am in command."

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Pike make Jim First Officer?" Emily pointed out. A flicker of surprise ran around the room. "That means that you're not alone in this, Captain," she said, somehow managing to use his title as an insult. "He is supposed to be at your side."

"Pike did what?" McCoy asked incredulously.

"Not now, Doc," she said placidly.

"I will not allow us to go backwards, running away from the problem, instead of bringing Nero down!" Jim shouted as Spock, finally getting fed up, ordered, "Security, escort him out."

Emily scoffed in disbelief, marveling at just how irritating Spock could actually be; for such a brilliant guy, he was being such an idiot right now. "You shouldn't do that; you need him here."

Spock proceeded to ignore her as two red shirts approached Jim and tried hauling him away, but right as soon as they were two feet away, he yanked free, fighting them tooth and nail to get away, but before he could do too much damage, Spock had reached down and did something to him that send him to the floor, unconscious.

"Jim!" Emily exclaimed, about to run to him, but McCoy grabbed her around the waist, hauling her back.

"Don't, Em," he whispered. "It's not worth it."

"Get him off this ship," Spock ordered Security.

"Gods, you are such an idiot!" Emily exclaimed, drawing attention from every single person in the room. "Just because Jim disagrees with you, that's reason enough to throw him off of the ship? You know, it may not have crossed your mind, but he might actually be right about Nero and we know he's headed for Earth! You really want Earth to suffer the same fate as Vulcan? Because that's what's gonna happen if we let him get his way!" She shook her head. "Jim's right, you know; he's the only one here who can actually see this through."

"Emily . . ." McCoy tried to stop her, but she just shrugged him off, glaring in his direction before looking back at Spock.

"No, Leonard," she snapped at him, "don't 'Emily' me. He's not thinking straight about these and honestly, who can really blame him, after having their entire planet get sucked into oblivion. And that is what this is really about, isn't it?" she challenged Spock, whose gaze had fastened on something behind her. "You—"

A sharp gasp escaped from her as she felt a sharp pain on her neck, something that sent her tumbling to her knees just as Jim had a moment before. The last thing she remembered before everything went black was Joni standing above her, pulling her hand away from Emily.


"Emily? Em, can you hear me?"

She was vaguely aware of someone saying her name and someone shaking her, but she was too out of it to really put much sense of it as she groaned, instead turning her head into the particularly warm pillow underneath her, mumbling something indistinctive.

A small chuckle came from somewhere nearby and she registered that the pillow seemed to rumble as she heard it. "Come on, Em, you have to wake up, otherwise you're gonna freeze to death."

Freeze? Emily wondered. But she wasn't cold . . .

Actually, now that she thought about it, she was snuggling against the warm pillow more than she normally would have, curled up into a ball, as though trying to block out the cold that was seeping in.

Groaning, Emily forced her eyes to open and found herself looking at a black shirt. Her gaze flickered upwards to find Jim grinning down at her in some amusement, his bright blue eyes laughing at her.

"Holy sh—" she yelped, yanking away from him so fast that she hit her head on the ceiling above her—or . . . well, yeah, ceiling would work, she thought, rubbing her head painfully as she looked around her, realizing that the two of them were snuggled together in a very small compartment. "What happened?"

Jim's amused look faded and he suddenly looked murderous. "Acting Captain Spock put the two of us out, then shoved us in a pod, and dumped us on Delta Vega," he replied, "which as far as I'm concerned is a serious violation of Security Protocol 49.09 governing the treatment of prisoners aboard a starship vessel."

He sounded so outraged that Emily couldn't help but laugh at him, shaking her head and suppressing a smile.

"Yeah, well, take it up with the admiralty when we get back," she told him, "presuming that we actually get back, anyway."

"Oh, we're gonna get back," Jim replied in all seriousness. "And then I'm planning on ripping the bangs right off that pointy-eared—"

"Jim."

He sighed, then glanced at her. "You should've stayed out of it, Em; I could've handled Spock on my own. If you had, then you'd be safe on the Enterprise. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that you're here, but I wish you were safe."

Emily gulped, wrapping her arms around herself as she suppressed a shiver. "I'd rather be here with you," she said, honestly meaning it. Gods, when did she start sounding like such a sap?

Jim looked happy to hear her say that, though, because despite their situation, he looked like a kid at Christmas as he straightened, moving past Emily to push open the door to their pod, grabbing one of the two duffels and climbing out.

Snagging the other duffle, Emily followed Jim, accepting his help as they climbed out of the pod, making their way up the cliff where they had landed and crawling up to the surface. Emily felt her breath hitch as she looked around at the icy wasteland that they were marooned on.

Hoth has nothing on this, she thought despairingly as they pulled on their jackets and began making their way through the snowy wasteland, trying to get to the Starfleet outpost. She almost wished that Joni was here, but thinking back and remembering that it was her roommate, her friend that had put her out and ultimately had her end up here, she wasn't quite so sure she wanted her here.

"Hey, Em, can I ask you something?" Jim said through chattering teeth. They were huddled together as they walked, trying to keep warm by their own body teeth. She nodded, too cold to answer. "What was with the kiss back there, on the ship?"

Emily groaned; why couldn't he save that kind of talk until . . . well, they weren't exactly doing anything right now, but she was too cold for this kind of conversation. Go figure that James T-for-trouble Kirk could still talk about anything, even in these below freezing temperatures. "Do we have to talk about this now?"

"Got nothing better to do," Jim replied with an easy shrug. "Look . . . Emily, I . . . I thought that you . . ." He fidgeted with the zipper on his jacket, looking at loss for words, avoiding Emily's green gaze.

"You thought I what?" she asked, watching him. She had never seen him so nervous; it seemed to out of character for him.

Jim didn't look up. "I thought that you didn't want to date or even have anything to do with guys in that way—ever," he mumbled. "I figured after Adam that . . . it was pointless to try and talk to you about something like that."

Emily swallowed, her heart quickening. "I know. I just . . . I was waiting for the right guy to come along."

"I've been here; I've always been here."

"I know," Emily said, trying to think straight. "I guess . . . maybe I needed to be ready, too, and I wasn't sure that I was. Heck, I'm still not sure if I am," she added with a laugh. "But I guess . . . maybe I'm ready for the possibility. I just . . . I'm scared, Jim," she confessed. "Gods, I don't think I could handle being hurt like that again."

Jim stopped walking and took a step closer to her. "You know I would never do that," he insisted. "Emily, you're the one person that I have always trusted, have always been able to go to when I needed. I've always wanted you," he confessed.

Emily met his eyes. "And all the others?"

He looked down, abashed. "I . . . guess I thought that if I was paying attention to others in that way, then I could forget about you. Stupid, I guess."

She considered it. "No, not stupid . . . idiotic, maybe," she corrected. He laughed. "But Jim . . . if we were to . . . pursue . . . something like that, then I would have to . . . have to know that we're both in it for the long run, not just some . . . friends with benefits thing," she said, wrinkling her nose.

Jim chuckled, pulling her closer. "Em, I never wanted anyone else," he said. And looking at his sincere bright blue eyes, Emily could almost believe him.

Before either of them could say anything else, though, Emily heard something in the distance, a roar and panic rose through her. Oh, great . . .

She spun around just in time to see something running straight at them in the distance, a wild animal that looked very hungry.

"RUN!" Jim yelled at her, grabbing her arm.

More than happy to obey, Emily broke into a run, glancing back over her shoulder just in time to see the thing forced off of its hunt by a bigger, scalier animal. "There's always a bigger fish," she moaned as they ran, determined to put as much distance between themselves and the creature as possible.

"If it's bigger than that, I'm not sure I wanna meet it," Jim complained, nearly stumbling over a slick piece of ice. "Just keep running!"

"Until when?" Emily shouted, a scream escaping from her as her feet suddenly dropped underneath her and she went tumbling with Jim down a cliff, trying to grab on to something to slow down her fall, but there was nothing to grab. She just kept falling until she hit the ice.

Slightly dazed, she wondered how many times she was going to fall until they got back to Earth—if they got back to Earth—before she scrambled to her feet, hauling Jim up as the creature appeared on the cliff above them.

"Come on, let's go," she urged him, slipping on the ice but managed to keep herself upward as they ran.

"There, we can lose it there!" Jim shouted in her ear, pointing at a cave.

"I'm not sure that's small enough!" she shouted back, but still ran for it, praying that the movie hadn't changed enough and he was still there to help them.

Sure enough, though, the creature followed them straight in and threw its tongue to grab—

Emily shrieked in both shock and alarm as its tongue snaked around her legs, knocking her off of feet. "JIM!"

"EMILY!" he shouted back, running for her and grabbing her around the waist, trying to pull her back from the thing, but it had a surprisingly strong hold. She screamed, trying to keep a grip on Jim as it tried tugging her away from him. "LET GO OF HER!"

A flicker of fire caught Emily's eye and she felt the creature release her as someone holding a torch waved it back and forth at the creature, driving it back, out of the cave. The creature retreated, backing away from the fire, and scurried away, albeit irritated that it didn't get the meal it wanted.

A small sob escaped from Emily as she gripped Jim's jacket tightly, feeling his arms wrap around her just as tightly. "Hey, hey, hey," he whispered, smoothing her blonde hair away from her face. "It's okay, it's okay, I've got you, it's okay, Em, you're okay. You're okay," he reassured her.

Only when her breathing had calmed somewhat did she allow herself to look up, realizing that they weren't alone. Okay, sure she knew that, but she had only been vaguely aware of that fact.

The old Vulcan was staring at the two of them, surprised marking his face. There was a flicker of recognition as he looked at Jim, but Emily realized when his dark brown eyes flew over her, there wasn't even a trace.

"James T. Kirk," he said and Emily marveled at the familiarity of his voice. Maybe it was because she knew who he was, but he sounded like an older, wiser Spock. And really, that's who he was, she reasoned. "How did you find me?"

AN: Because you guys were so wonderful with the reviews, I decided to update this sooner than I planned! So thank you so much for those and . . . well, you guys know the drill. Hope you enjoyed!

Lady Dawson