The buzzer to his door pulled Chris out of his paperwork-induced coma. He stood up, hit the command to open it and found a very pale Leslie Rice on the other side. "You have a minute, sir?" the tactical officer asked him.

"Everything alright?" Chris asked as he nodded and stepped aside to let the other man into the apartment.

Rice shook his head, "Not really. I know it's not really my place to ask, but I'm gonna. Do you know where Jim was when she was thirteen?"

Oh shit. Winona must've started talking and her husband wasn't taking it well. If Chris was being honest, Leslie was taking it the way Winona should've taken it back then, like a parent whose child went through hell. Chris nodded at the question, "Yes. I probably know more about it than you do."

"She was fighting for her life…" Leslie sighed, "she was fighting for her life while we were here, happy and getting ready to have Max. Winona didn't say anything. She didn't say anything at all until today." Chris sat down next to the other man and watched as Leslie put his head in his hands and burst into angry tears, "That poor kid. No wonder her friends are all deathly protective of her. She almost fucking died and Winona could care less. What kind of mother does that? If you don't want your children there are things you can do besides shuffle them from family member to family member. Who the hell did I marry?" Chris couldn't answer that, he didn't know.

"I used to admire her. Winona," he told the older man. He probably still would if he didn't know so much about Jim's childhood. Winona got offered every planet-side posting there was and she never took any of them, opting to go out in the black on different ships while her children lived with the alcoholic jerk, as Jim refers to her Uncle Frank. "I wrote my dissertation on the Kelvin. I tried to talk to her a few times but she was never on planet. I always wondered what happened to her children if she was always gone. I still don't know the whole story, Jim doesn't talk about it that much and I won't make her. The pieces I have are bad enough."

Leslie looked at him, "I'm done. I can't stay married to someone like that. She lied to me and to Max, and she abandoned that girl and her other son. I can't stay married to her, I thought I could but I can't do it."

"Are you sure you're not just upset?" Chris asked. He doesn't know why he's trying to talk him out of this but here he is.

"I'm sure," Leslie nodded. "My son doesn't deserve this and neither does my step-daughter. Right now, it's a choice between them and Winona… I pick them."

Chris had a whole new level of respect for the man. Leslie and Jim haven't known each other that long and they weren't really related but that man wanted to protect Jim like she was his own daughter. In the short time Leslie's known Jim, he was more her parent than Winona has been Jim's whole life.

"How's Max with all this?" the admiral asked.

Leslie sighed at the question, "He's upset at his mother but resigned to the fact that he never really knew her. Hell, I don't think I ever really knew her either. I just want answers."

"You know, you might not like the answers you get," Chris told him.

Leslie nodded, "I don't know if that's better or worse. I can't believe I'm spilling my guts to an admiral."

"I'm just Chris around here. You can blame Jim for that," he told the other man with a smile.

"Girl's got a way of drawing people in," Leslie chuckled. That was very true, it was one of Jim's least obvious traits.

"Yes, she does. I didn't even realize that I got pulled in until her last year at the academy."

Leslie looked at him, "What happened?"

"When I realized how deep I was? Jim was doin' what she does best, saving people. Saving me."

"Sir… Chris, can you hear me?" his ears were ringing but Jim's voice was unmistakable. He gave her a weak nod and tried to push himself up. "Go slow. We took a one hell of a fall," she muttered as she checked him over. Chris looked around as his vision began to clear and he realized how right Jim was. The room they were standing in was a good fifteen feet above them.

"Status, Lieutenant?" he asked her.

"The planet is being bombarded, I don't know the details. Sexton and T'Cela are dead. Gellar is hurt, but it's not life threatening. I have minor cuts and bruises, you… you kinda broke my fall," Jim told him.

"That's why I feel like crap?" he chuckled.

"Yes, sir. I'm sorry." For some reason, Chris didn't mind getting hurt to protect her. It should've worried the hell out of him but it didn't.

"Better me than you," he told her honestly. "Any idea where the Prime or his security minister are?"

Jim shook her head, "I tried to get to Vodanis and Reggis but the floor fell from under us before I got close. We should probably move before this building comes down on our heads."

"Like it's any better outside. I think we should stay here and wait it out," Geller made himself known.

Chris glanced at the young man before he looked at Jim, "Kirk, you're the survival specialist. Thoughts?"

"The structural integrity of this building is getting worse by the minute and we have no clue if it's over," Jim sighed, "I tried raising the Constitution but nothing's getting through. Whether that means comms are down, being actively blocked or the ship is gone, I don't know, sir. I do know that we won't last in here very long."

Chris nodded his understanding of the situation. If they stayed, there was the chance of being safe until the building fell on them and if they left, they could walk into more trouble but there was a chance of finding out what was going on. Chris looked at Gellar, "Can you walk, Lieutenant?"

"Yes, sir," Geller nodded.

Chris looked at Jim, "Exits?"

"There's a door on the far side of the room, sir. We'll have to go further into the building before we'll get out but it's safer than attempting to climb up."

Chris agreed with her assessment and ordered her to take point. She was the least injured out of the three of them and he trusted her judgment. Gellar wasn't happy since he technically outranked Jim –she was still a cadet slated to be commissioned as a full lieutenant- but he was smart enough not to say anything. They were making their way through the building when they heard a noise. The three officers stopped and listened.

"Someone else is in here, sir. Over there," Jim said quietly. Jim, Chris and Gellar moved closer to the sound and found one of the Prime Minister's aides trapped under a beam.

"Captain, you have to… I don't know… the word," the woman, Zelna, pleaded with him in broken Standard. The support beam was too heavy for any of them to move at full strength, let alone injured.

"Can you pull her out if I get it off of her, sirs?" Jim asked as she carefully pulled a long piece of metal that reminded him of rebar from under a small pile of rubble.

Chris nodded, "We can give it a shot. Nice thinking, Kirk."

"Work smarter, not harder, sir," she chuckled. He shook his head as he knelt next to Zelna.

"Charlie says that all the time."

Jim smiled as she wedged the metal between the beam and a large piece of the stone wall, "Where do you think I got it from? Chief Pike is like a never-ending fountain of wisdom."

"Don't tell my father you said that, he'll never let either of us hear the end of it," Chris told her.

"Roger that, sir. You ready over there?" she asked. Chris and Gellar looked at each other before they nodded to Jim.

Chris glanced at Jim, "Count us down, Miss Kirk."

She took a deep breath, "On my mark. Two… one… mark." Jim used her body weight to push the bar down, moving the beam off Zelna just enough for Chris and Gellar to pull the young Sordinian woman clear.

"Thank you, Captain Pike. We must get to the Prime," Zelna said to him.

"Where is he?" Chris asked.

"What is the word?" the aide asked after taking a breath. "Uh… safe place… under the feet…"

Gellar looked at her, "Underground bunker?"

"Yes. We're not far,"Zelna told them. "I need… I need…"

Jim touched her shoulder, "Help? You need help?"

"Yes," Zelna nodded and motioned to her leg. Jim checked her over as best she could before she helped the woman stand and pulled one of Zelna's arms over her shoulder. The four people made their way through the crumbling building. Each of them took a deep breath when they finally got outside. "That way," Zelna pointed. They didn't get far before some of the Sordinian security forces spotted them.

One of the officers started talking to Zelna in their native language and Chris wished that his translator wasn't broken in the fall. The first officer took Zelna's other arm and helped Jim with her while another one of the men looked at Chris. "We will take you to the Prime, Captain." Chris nodded and followed them into a building.

To say the Prime was happy to see them was an understatement. He couldn't figure out why until Gellar whispered that from what he could understand, Zelna wasn't just an aide, she was Vodanis' daughter. The security minister, Reggis, wasn't happy to see them but he wasn't gonna turn away help. The three Starfleet officers were with him in front of the massive screens trying to figure out where to start.

"There," Gellar pointed, "I'll bet that's where the comm signal is being blocked. You were right, Kirk."

Jim nodded as her hands flew over one of the screens, "The bombardment's from orbit. If I had to guess, the Constitution has their hands full. The focus appears to be centered on the capital city, which is good for the rest of the planet and bad for us. Too bad we can't call for an evac."

"Is there any way past the jammer, Kirk?" Chris asked her.

"No way to know for sure without getting eyes on, sir,"she told course they had to physically see it before they could disable the damn thing.

Chris looked at Reggis, "Is there any way to get someone over there?"

"It's possible, Captain, but I don't have anyone with enough experience to make it worthwhile," the security minister looked at him.

"I can do it, sir," Jim offered, "I just need two bodies and a weapon."

Jim was the top of her class in survival strategies and tactical analysis, on top of being Chris' assistant instructor for the intermediate and advanced hand-to-hand combat courses. She was also invited to participate in Advanced Tactical Training at the Command College, earning her ATT rating as the captain of Team Delta after the six months of training during her first year. If she says she could do it, he wasn't gonna argue with her.

Gellar and Reggis looked at her and Chris stifled a laugh. "She knows what she's doing. Get her what she needs," Chris told the Sordinian. Reggis nodded and left them to round up a pair of volunteers to go with Jim. Chris looked at her, "You die on me and I'll kick your ass. We clear?"

"Crystal, sir," Jim nodded.

"Good. Be safe, Kirk," he told her.

"Not until we all are, sir," she smiled. Chris watched as Jim joined Reggis' men. He sat in her vacated seat and looked at the screens.

Chris and Gellar worked quietly for awhile, helping the Sordinians until Gellar sighed and looked at him, "Permission to speak freely, sir?"

Chris nodded, "Make it brief."

"I know this is none of my business and all kinds of personal but… Is there something between you and Kirk, sir?" the young security officer asked.

The captain sighed, "We're friends, if that's what you're asking. I recruited her, I was her advisor during her first and second years, and she's my TA. Kirk is an amazing person and has the makings of an outstanding officer, I would never want anyone to question her ability to do her job because of an association with me. Her parentage is enough of a problem for her."

Chris hoped he put enough conviction into that statement to get the message across. Of course, that's when he realized that he didn't believe it any more than anyone else probably did. It fuckin' figures. They were just friends but he'd be lying his ass off if he said he's never thought about her in a not so platonic manner. Jim was extraordinary. There was no other way to put it. Professionally, she surpassed the potential he saw in that dumb bar and he could tell that she was only scratching the surface. Personally, there were parts of herself that she left buried for so long in an effort to protect herself, but somehow, Chris -and McCoy- got past the walls she put up and she was finally beginning to heal, seeing the lessons instead of the pain. Jim's heart and mind proved to be just as beautiful as she was.

"Understood, sir. I was just curious. If I may…?" Chris nodded before Gellar finished his question. The officer looked at him, "Can she do this?"

"She's done a lot more with a lot less. This is nothing for Kirk," Chris chuckled. Gellar nodded and that ended the conversation.

Chris couldn't blame the man for asking. Being on training cruises meant putting cadets and instructors in the mix with a bunch of officers who mostly knew each other already. The gossip train never stops, it just shifts gears. For every person who's brave enough to ask, there are a hundred people who aren't. Chris heard the murmurs surrounding him and his protégé but he never put much stock into them until they were trapped on a ship without the distractions. Chris and Jim haven't talked about it and, if he was being honest, he didn't really want to.

"Kirk to Pike," Jim's voice over comm pulled him out of his thoughts.

He opened the small device with a smirk, "Go ahead, Kirk." She relayed what she found in the small building that housed the signal jammer. The bombardment was from a bunch of satellites in orbit around the planet and the Constitution was getting rid of them.

"Comms to the ship are open, sir," she reported.

"Good work, LT," he said to her.

"I've had better, sir," she took a breath. "Captain Augenthaler will have us beamed out as soon as he… shit. You have hostiles incoming, sir. I…" Jim cut out before she could finish her sentence.

"Kirk… Kirk… Jim, come in," he said into his comm with no answer.

"This place is safe. We are safe within it," Vodanis looked at him. That didn't stop Chris from being worried about Jim.

Chris noticed that the security team didn't seem worried at all, Gellar must've noticed it too, both Starfleet officers stood. The captain looked at Reggis, "Can I have a weapon?"

The security minister's eyes locked with his before the Sordinian officers turned their weapons on Chris, Gellar, Vodanis and Zelna. Reggis looked at him, "I think not, Captain Pike."

"Reggis, what is this?" Vodanis asked. Reggis responded in his native tongue, effectively cutting Chris and Gellar out of the conversation. Chris needed something, anything at this point.

"What happened to my officer?" Chris asked Reggis. "Where is she?"

The other man looked at him, "She could be anywhere. The men I sent with her are very loyal and very thorough."

Vodanis looked at Reggis, "You would kill a Starfleet officer in cold blood. You would kill civilians. What makes you think you could rule?"

"You are weak," Reggis growled. "You would yield to the Federation. We are better than them."

Gellar shook his head, "Not if open warfare on a civilian population is the platform you're basing your leadership on."

"Humans… you've been waging war among your own people for centuries," Reggis growled.

"That was over two hundred years ago," Chris said. "The third world war rose from the ashes of the Eugenics Wars. The whole thing escalated into a nuclear cataclysm and genocidal war over genetic manipulation and genome enhancement, killing six-hundred million people. If you're gonna base your actions on our history, at least get it right." Reggis looked at him but didn't respond, Chris was taking that as a small win.

"What are we gonna do, sir?" Gellar whispered after giving Chris small nudge. The captain looked around the room for anything that might be helpful but there was nothing there. The officers had the weapons, Chris and Gellar were in no shape to fight them. Even if they won the fight, they'd need some help. Reggis needed to be taken down if they had a chance of getting out of this alive. As it stood, Chris couldn't figure out what the man wanted with him and Gellar. Reggis made it clear that he wasn't shy about killing Starfleet officers, so why hasn't he killed Chris or Gellar yet?

"You aren't in charge," Chris said aloud.

"You wish I wasn't but I can assure you that I am," Reggis told him.

"Someone else is giving the orders," Chris said with a shake of his head. "That's why you don't know where Kirk is and it's why we're still alive. You need us for something." The security officers didn't seem overly surprised, which meant they knew what was going on too.

"You need to get us onto your ship, Captain," Reggis told him.

"Not my ship, I'm just a passenger," Chris smiled. "Captain Augenthaler is the Constitution's CO and I doubt he'd risk the five hundred people on board for the two of us. If your plan was to use us as leverage, I'm sorry to disappoint."

Reggis pointed his phaser at Chris and Gellar, "What use are you, then?"

What happened next was so fast, Chris almost missed it. Jim, banged up and bloody, shot Reggis from the doorway before taking cover behind a desk. She popped up, took out three guards, returned to cover, popped up, took out two more guards with the phaser. Jim tossed the spent weapon on the deck, grabbed one of the guards and used him as a shield as she shot his comrade with the weapon in his hands. Then she knocked the guy out, took his phase rifle and pointing it at Zelna, "It was you. You're the one in charge."

The Sordinian woman looked at her in shock before a smile crossed her alien features. "And here I thought you all incompetent."

"Hardly," Jim growled.

Vodanis looked at his daughter, "How could you?" She said something in the native language and he responded. Chris wasn't sure he wanted to know. A few seconds later, a team from the Constitution beamed into the room.

"Sir, are you okay?" a security officer Chris didn't know asked.

"Yea. Yea,"Chris said. He was more worried about Jim than himself.

The security officers secured Zelna, Reggis and their people while Chris, Gellar and Jim were beamed back to the ship. McCoy was standing in the transporter room. Jim chuckled, "We're fine, Bones."

Her friend glared at her, "You're bleeding." That's when Chris noticed the blood running down her left side.

"So, I got a little banged up, not a big… deal," Jim mumbled the last part. All three men reached out when she staggered, McCoy getting the best hold and wrapping an arm around Jim as the blood loss and fading adrenaline caught up with her.

"She gonna be okay, doc?" Gellar asked, giving voice to Chris' thoughts.

"Yea, it's not bad, just a shock to her system," McCoy said as he shifted to take more of Jim's weight. "Come on, you all need to go through medical." Chris didn't argue but only because he wanted to keep an eye on Jim himself.

After getting checked out and settled in a bio-bed between Jim and Gellar, Chris fell asleep. Gasps and 'oh my God' woke him up. Gellar had a bunch of people around his bed, judging by the glances they tossed at Jim, the security officer was telling them how she saved their asses.

"Shut up," Jim grumbled and pulled the pillow over her head. Gellar and his friends all looked at her before they looked at Chris.

"Contrary to popular belief, she doesn't like the attention," was all he offered them. Gellar nodded his understanding and told his friends to get back to their jobs and off-duty activities before the medical staff kicked them out. Judging by McCoy's glare, it was gonna happen any second.

"Damn kids," McCoy grumbled as he checked Jim over. "How's you do this, anyway?"

"Two men tried to kill me, I defended myself," she said quietly.

Chris looked at her, "I'm so sorry I let you go with them, kid."

Her beautiful blue eyes were on him in a millisecond, "I volunteered, we didn't have any other options, and it's not like you were having a picnic. Don't blame yourself for this… sir."

"I'll try," Chris muttered.

"I swear, you're worse than me," she chuckled.

He nodded, "Sometimes."


"If I said I was surprised, I'd be lying. My mother has a lot to answer for and she's dug herself into that huge ass hole. I mean, I've known about Max his whole life. After Tarsus, they contacted Winona to figure out what to do with me. She knew what happened and she knew I wasn't dead. Technically, I was a ward of the Federation because of her but I was smart enough to petition a judge to emancipate me. I'm sad that Max and Leslie are dealing with this but there's nothing I can do."

Chris looked at the woman on the screen, "Nothing you can do or nothing you want to do?"

"Nothing I can do," Jim sighed. "I'm over what she did to me. My problem with her is what she did to Max. I can't do anything until she apologizes to him. I know what it feels like to think you're all alone in the universe. The fact that he asked and she didn't say anything is not helping. I'd talk to her, but I don't even know if she'd listen to me. Even if she did, I don't know where to begin."

He ran his hand though his hair, "Yea."

"You know, you don't have stress yourself out over this," she chuckled. "My family is… drama. Always has been."

"You're not here and your brother needs someone on his side. Leslie is looking out for him but he has feelings invested in this whole thing too. If it was my family... there's nothing you wouldn't do to help," Chris told her.

"True," Jim said, "but now someone is gonna have to talk to my mother."

Chris chuckled, "Why do I have the feeling like I just volunteered for that?"