Author's Note: If you are my daughter you should not be reading this chapter. I will send you an edited version. For everyone else: there is no hanky panky, just girl talk, but there are some I just don't want my daughter reading – especially since I wrote it.

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there.

Consequences

Chapter 21

Marissa looked back at Jim. He was standing at the end of the causeway talking with one of the men from security. From the gestures the lieutenant was making and the overtly patient look on Jim's face, it looked like the conversation was going to take awhile. Marissa was torn; on one hand she knew that Jim was probably here to say goodbye. They hadn't talked much over the past few days, but she had told him at one point that she would be leaving the Enterprise as soon as they docked, in order to spend more time with her friend. On the other hand, she just didn't feel up to the awkward conversation saying a simple goodbye might entail.

Making up her mind, Marissa waved, letting him know she wasn't going to wait. His shoulders seemed to slump slightly, but he waved back, before turning to give the Lieutenant his full attention.

She felt bad, but she knew she really needed to get to Janine and actually talk with someone who wasn't intimately involved. It had been hard to keep her distance from Jim. She knew she had hurt him when she turned down his proposal – though she couldn't regret her decision – but the urge to reach out and comfort him was almost overwhelming sometimes. He had a way of looking at her, his blues eyes so open and pleading; it took all her self control not to fall into his arms and apologize.

That was why she needed to see Janine. She desperately needed to talk with an unbiased person before she did something stupid.

Walking slowly down the gangway, Marissa tried to calm her nervousness. She and Janine had talked briefly while the Enterprise was in route to Starbase 17, but Marissa hadn't told her anything, just that she was really looking forward to seeing her again. Janine being Janine, and her best friend, had picked up on something not quite being right, but Marissa had managed to brush it off as being something they could discuss in person. Nodding in understanding, Janine had simply stated, "man problems," as if that was the most logical explanation. Marissa didn't contradict her and they signed off, excited to see each other in a few short days.

Her footsteps slowed even further as she neared the last bend in the gangway, several Enterprise crewmembers looking at her oddly as they passed her by.

This was it. Soon her secret would be out. For so long she had insulated herself among the Enterprise and her crew; she felt safe there. But here, even though it was only a starbase, it felt like her secret would be out there for the whole universe to see. Not that anyone really cared if Marissa O'Donnell was pregnant, but it only took on person telling one other person who the father was…she knew this would happen eventually and that there was no way to stop it, but it was still a worry. The ball that has started rolling six months ago when she had first slept with Jim was going to be picking up speed and fast.

"Oh my God!" a familiar voice exclaimed loudly.

Marissa had been so lost in her worries that she hadn't realized she stepped onto the starbase. Looking toward the voice, she couldn't hold back a huge grin. Janine hadn't changed at all and the sight of her befuddled expression and her jaw hanging open made her want to laugh.

"Hey, Janine," she smiled up at her friend.

"Hey yourself, kiddo," Janine managed to laugh, not taking her eyes off Marissa's stomach. "When I said man problems, I wasn't expecting…" she waved her hands dramatically around Marissa's belly, "this!" she declared. "Oh my…you're actually going to have a baby!"

"Yes, I am," Marissa agreed, still grinning. It wasn't often that she could throw her friend for a loop.

"C'mere!" Janine said, stooping down and sweeping Marissa into a comforting hug. Feeling her friend's arms wrap around her tightly brought tears to Marissa's eyes and she had to blink fast to keep them at bay, as she pressed her face into her friend's shoulder.

Pulling away, but keeping her hands on Marissa's arms, Janine looked at her carefully, a trace of sympathy in her eyes. "Gary?" she questioned carefully.

Marissa startled. She hadn't thought of Gary in a long, long time. "Uh, no," she finally said, shaking her head. "Not Gary."

"Hmmm," Janine looked at her appraisingly. Marissa could see that thoughts and questions spinning around in her mind.

"Look," Marissa preempted, "can we discuss this back in your quarters? I have a lot to tell you and I'd rather not do it here, in front of everyone."

For the first time, Janine looked around them and seemed to notice the curious looks they were getting from the members of the Enterprise crew as they were disembarking.

"Of course, kiddo, of course," she nodded, grabbing Marissa's carryall in one hand, and hooking her arm through Marissa's to lead her. "Let's get going. I have a lot of questions for you!"

"I know you do," Marissa laughed softly. "I missed you Janine."

"I missed you too, kiddo," Janine said softly back.

Walking down the corridors. they made an incongruous pair and drew many glances from the people they passed. Marissa was short, curly haired, curvy to the point of almost being considered plump, and obviously pregnant. Janine was tall, willowy to the point of almost being too thin, and had straight black hair and green, green eyes. Marissa knew that her friend had had her eye color modified while she was at the academy – and often enhanced them with colored films she inserted into her eyes – but the affect was still stunning.

"Here we are," Janine declared as they rounded a corner. "Home sweet home." She punched in the access code and the door swished open. Marissa stepped in and looked around. The living area reminded her of Janine's dorm at the Academy. Gone were the bland, standard, beige colored walls and boring, standard issue furniture. Instead the walls were covered in swathes of bright, colorful fabrics. Large framed posters and photos of different cityscapes also filled the walls, along with posters of Janine's favorite classic plays from the 21st and 22nd century.

The furniture had also been covered in color, and there were pillows and cozy looking blankets draped invitingly. Flameless candles filled sconces on the walls and sat in holders on any available surface. In all, Marissa had always equated the affect of Janine's decorating to that of harem, but she had always felt comfortable and relaxed.

"Would you like some tea?" Janine asked as she let herself sink into a particularly decadent looking chair covered in a soft, electric blue fabric. She would probably need help getting out, but until then it felt like heaven.

"That would be lovely," she replied with a sigh.

Closing her eyes, Marissa let herself relax. Now that she had Janine with her, everything was going to be okay.

She heard Janine moving around in the small kitchenette, and soon a steaming mug of t'erengi tea was being wafted under her nose. "Oh, that smells amazing," she took the mug and inhaled deeply. "I haven't had this in a long time."

"I have a friend on the civilian side who runs a shipping business," Janine smirked. "He doesn't let me run out."

"I bet he doesn't," Marissa laughed. "Same old Janine; contacts and friends everywhere."

Janine took a sip of her tea as she sat on the couch across from Marissa. "I'd like to say 'same old, Marissa,' but I don't think that's true," Janine told her with a small smile. "The Marissa I knew… let's just say I never would have thought she'd get pregnant. Please don't tell me you didn't invite me to the wedding!"

Marissa sighed, shaking her head. "I'm not married. We're not getting married."

Janine nodded thoughtfully. "So there is a 'we.'"

"Yes, there is a we," Marissa rolled her eyes at her friend.

"Well, that's good," Janine said seriously. "I'd hate to think you're doing this alone." She paused for a moment, seeming to marshal her thoughts and questions; then she let loose.

"Is he on the Enterprise? How is this going to affect your career plans? What about away missions? Is the captain okay with this? By the way, what's it like working with Captain Sexy?" she waggled her eyebrows. "Gossip has being going crazy about him recently. Did you know he was on all of the news feeds because of some book? I don't suppose you see much of him since you're buried down in the library, but… the man is not hard on the eyes, and the tragic story of his past…that's just making the ladies swoon."

"Oh Janine, not you too," Marissa moaned. She should have realized that, along with discussing her pregnancy and everything that went with it, Janine, and probably everyone on the starbase, was going to have questions about Jim.

"What?" Janine looked at her innocently. "He's hot and he's been all over the news feeds lately. It's calmed down some, but…" she shrugged. "I'm a human female and he's The Sexiest Man in the Universe."

"Don't remind me," Marissa muttered. She was really beginning to hate that title.

Janine waved her hand dismissively. "We'll talk about Captain Sexy later," she declared. "I want to know about you and what's happened. It's not Gary's and the father is on the Enterprise…" she trailed off expectantly.

Marissa closed her eyes and sighed. It was a slight reprieve, but the topic of Jim was going to come up sooner rather than later, much to Janine's surprise, Marissa was sure. "No, the baby is not Gary's," Marissa clarified again. "I'm 25 weeks along, basically six months. Gary and I broke up seven months ago. Roughly."

"Right," Janine nodded. "And it was about time too," she pointed out. "You should have dumped him months before that. He wasn't good enough for you."

Rolling her eyes, Marissa gave a huffed laugh. "Yes, I know. You've told me that many, many times."

"I'm just saying…"

"Well, it doesn't matter," Marissa interrupted. "Gary's dead and it's not his baby."

"I'm sorry," Janine said contritely. "I shouldn't speak badly of the dead."

"It's never stopped you before," Marissa smirked. "And it doesn't matter now. I'm sad Gary's gone, but… well, I have a lot of other things to think about now."

"So, what happened?" Janine asked impatiently, leaning forward on the couch. "How'd this happen? It's so not like you at all."

"I know, I know," Marissa responded dryly. "I'm the responsible one. It's just…this pregnancy; it was an accident. I didn't mean for it to happen."

"Well, of course not," Janine scoffed. "You'd just got on the Enterprise. I can't even begin to imagine how this is going to mess up your career."

"So far it hasn't been that bad," Marissa told her. "I've been on one away mission to Ibara, and we'll be heading to the Halla sector after we leave here to reestablish contact with Cloral. I'll be going planet side for the mission too."

"And the captain's okay with this? And your CMO?" Janine asked incredulously.

"I have an agreement with them," Marissa explained. "As long as Dr. McCoy clears me for a mission, I can go. Anything that can endanger me and the baby, I stay on ship. Once the baby is born it will be business as usual."

"But how will you do that? How can you raise a baby on a starship as a single mother?" Janine asked.

Marissa blushed. "I may be single," she told her friend, "but I won't be doing this alone. We have a couple other families on the ship and there is a daycare facility. And the father - " Her face turned bright red. "It all started as a one night stand," she admitted, "but he's committed to helping me raise the baby and we're, well, we're together now."

Janine's eyebrows rose. "Really? Together? As in dating and all that?"

"Uh, yeah," Marissa responded, taking a long sip of her tea to avoid Janine's piercing stare. "Mostly."

"Mostly?" Janine repeated. "What do you mean by 'mostly?' Either you're together or you're not, right?"

"Well, it's not that easy," Marissa started. "See, he asked me to marry him and I said no, and I kind of hurt his feelings and we haven't been…we've kind of been avoiding each other for the last couple days. I know he's committed to raising the baby, but…" she shrugged. "Since neither of us obviously planned this, it's been kind of hard and we're both trying to figure things out, but…" she trailed off.

"But you're attracted to him, aren't you?" Janine asked.

"Oh yeah," Marissa agreed, nodding enthusiastically.

"And he's attracted to you."

Janine said it more as a statement than a question, but Marissa couldn't help shrugging. "Maybe."

"Maybe?" Janine looked at her incredulously. "Honey, have you looked in a mirror lately? How could he not be attracted to you? You're adorable."

"And you're biased," Marissa smiled. "Trust me when I say that the women he usually dates aren't considered 'adorable.'"

"So he's a player?"

Marissa shrugged. "Some people think so."

"But you said he wants to help you raise the baby and that you're currently dating."

"I wouldn't exactly call it dating," Marissa shrugged. "It's hard to date on a starship. We meet for lunch if possible. He visits me in the library sometimes. We have dinner together and we play cards or watch vids if we both have some down time."

"And…" Janine asked expectantly, grinning.

"And we've been sleeping together for the past month and a half," Marissa admitted, knowing what her friend was going for.

Janine grin's widened. "And…how's that going?"

Marissa rolled her eyes and tried to control her blush. "Good. It's going good."

"Just good?" Janine prodded with a smirk. "On a scale of one to ten…"

Marissa laughed. "Twelve? Fifteen? Twenty?"

Janine sat back with a big smile. "Really?"

"Really," Marissa admitted with a grin of her own. "He's… he's amazing. He's done things… we've done things…things that I've never done before. Gary was, I mean, things with Gary were nice and I enjoyed it, but I never knew…"

"I knew Gary was too vanilla," Janine grinned wickedly. "I mean, any man who expects blow jobs but won't go down… that's just criminal." She watched Marissa, seeing the red cheeks and the soft expression on her face. "Apparently this guy delivers the goods."

"Oh, yeah," Marissa agreed. If possible, her cheeks turned redder. "I, well, with Gary I could only…finish if he fingered me or if I finished myself later," she admitted in a hushed, embarrassed voice, "but…now, with Jim…he always makes sure I'm satisfied, sometimes more than once and, it may just be all the hormones and stuff from being pregnant, but I've actually come during sex, with him inside me, and it was… it was amazing!" she said dreamily.

"So he goes down on you."

Marissa nodded enthusiastically in response.

"And you've had an actual vaginal orgasm during sex."

"Several times," Marissa agreed, still blushing.

"Well, hell, who is this Jim guy? And when do I get to meet him?" Janine shook her head in wonder. "This sex god actually proposed to you and you said no? If he's that good I'll marry him myself," she laughed.

Marissa smiled. "It's not that easy. I'm not going to marry someone just because they're good in bed," she said. "And I'm not going to marry someone only because I'm pregnant. Neither of those reasons are reason enough to get married."

"I don't know," Janine grinned. "If the sex is that good…"

Marissa threw a pillow at her friend who caught it easily. "It's not all about sex, you know."

"Well, it should be," Janine countered with a wicked grin. "It's been too long since I've been laid," she admitted with a dramatic sigh. "I've been here for two and a half years and there is no one interesting. I'm getting tired of random hook ups. I'd like to have dinner with a guy on a regular basis and play cards and watch vids – and have amazing sex. I'm jealous, damn it. Maybe I should start batting for the other team."

"Yeah, right," Marissa rolled her eyes.

"Well, enough about me," Janine replied, rising out of her supposed funk with no problem. "Who is this sex god and when do I get to me meet him?" she asked again.

"I don't know," Marissa started hesitantly. "He's got a lot of work… I don't know if he was scheduled for leave… he…" she trailed off.

"So, he's in engineering?" Janine asked.

"Uh, no."

"Won't he come over when his shift ends? The civilian side has some great clubs and restaurants. We can all go out to dinner and get to know each other. I can judge whether he's good enough for you."

"Well, we never really discussed if we were going to meet up here…" Marissa said slowly.

"Okay, so you can contact him. I know this really good place; it has the most amazing food from all over the universe. You can even get a decent hamburger or steak, if you want." She looked over at Marissa pleadingly. "Come on, kiddo, I want to meet this Jim guy. I promise not to say anything about his sex god status. Honest. He can't be that busy. Even Captain Kirk and Commander Spock will be coming on base for dinner with Stedham and his command team at least once."

"Well that's just…" Marissa trailed off, her voice so soft Janine had to lean forward to hear her. "It's, well…it's Captain Kirk."

Janine looked at her with a confused expression. "What's Captain Kirk?" she finally asked.

"The father," Marissa said sheepishly, stroking her belly. "It's Captain Kirk."

Sitting in stunned silence, Janine just stared at her, her mouth hanging open.

"The father of your baby is Captain Kirk," she said robotically.

Marissa nodded.

"Captain James T. Kirk; Jim Kirk – the Sexiest Man in the Universe, is the father of your baby."

Marissa nodded again.

"And you've been sleeping with him for six weeks and he's amazing in bed – a twenty on a scale of one to ten."

"Uh, yes," Marissa responded.

"And he asked you to marry him."

Marissa nodded.

"And you said no. Are you fucking crazy, Marissa?" Janine asked in amazement.

"Apparently," Marissa replied, trying to hold back a smile at Janine's stunned expression.

"Oh my… this is amazing. This is unbelievable – no offense," she smiled at Marissa. "Jim Kirk, ladies' man extraordinaire has fallen for my best friend. Oh this is wonderful!"

Marissa was already shaking her head. "I wouldn't say he's fallen for me."

"Of course he has," Janine argued. "He proposed, didn't he?"

"You don't know him," Marissa told her friend. "He only proposed because he didn't want me to be hurt by all the gossip going around on the ship. He was trying to protect me and…he's not in love with me. He's not ready to marry me. He only offered as a way to protect me and the baby from gossip."

"The question is – are you in love with him?" Janine asked with a raised eyebrow, her look warning Marissa that she would know if she tried to lie.

"I honestly don't know," Marissa said after awhile. "It would be so easy to love him. But I…I'm not like any of the other women that he's ever been with, so that's not really a good sign. And I'm carrying his baby. He had a horrible childhood," she waved a hand at Janine's curious expression as if to say 'later,' "and this baby represents something special to him, a way to make up for everything. A way to do things right. He will love and care for this baby forever, but that doesn't necessarily mean he will love me, too."

Janine looked at her for a long moment before finally speaking. "Do you know what this conversation needs?"

Marissa raised her eyebrows questioningly.

"Food," Janine replied. "And chocolate. Lots and lots of chocolate. And I would also say wine, but I imagine you can't have any." She stood up and offered her hand to help Marissa out of her chair. "Go to the bathroom, get whatever you might need. We are going to my favorite guilty pleasure – McCaw's – and we are not leaving until we sort out your inferiority complex and you give me all the juicy details about sex-god-turned-captain James T. Kirk."

Marissa opened her mouth to protest, but Janine cut her off. "No! You are in need of some serious food therapy. And if that doesn't work we'll just have to try some retail therapy – there is the cutest baby shop near McCaw's. I bet you don't have anything ready for the baby, yet."

"Not really," Marissa said, making her way to the bathroom with Janine pushing her from behind. "Not many choices on starship."

"Well, we'll just have to remedy that. You're not leaving this base without all the stuff you need. Who knows when you'll have a chance again?"

Marissa stopped in the doorway to the bathroom. "Thanks, Janine," she said with a smile.

"What are friends for? Now pee so we can go eat. The chef makes the most amazing caramelized onions with mushrooms and planeeks. And the desserts are to die for!"

Please review – it would be an excellent Mother's Day gift. ;-)