Adea backed slowly out of her cabin, quietly pulling the door shut as she stepped into the dimmed corridor. She had soldiered on for another week after speaking with Carol, burying herself in work as she stubbornly tried to avoid the truth: she was going to need more than work if she wanted to make it off the ship with her sanity in tact. This morning she had set her alarm for 4:30 earth time, hoping to secure a quiet moment before the majority of the crew woke up. Enough time for a quick-

"Hi."

"Fucking hell," Adea swore, jumping as she spun around.

"Morning run?" Kirk smiled, his blue eyes twinkling.

From her childhood, her mother had insisted on military level formality at all times. Grades. Attire. Manners. Behavior. Nothing was to be out of place. Adea stared back at Kirk in his sports attire, a faint blush shading her cheeks as she pulled down nervously at the short hem of her shorts. So much for a life of situational formality.

"Captain, my apologies," she mumbled swiftly, "I didn't see you there."

"My apologies," he repeated mockingly, "Who even says that? Call me Kirk."

Adea stared at him blankly, hesitatingly opening her mouth before closing it again. Her poor mother would die if she could see this.

"Hey, Mini!" Kirk replied, whistling for her attention, "Are you still running?"

"I was just going to do a few laps around the living quarters, Captain", Adea mumbled quietly, eyeing Kirk as he began jogging excitedly in place. How was anyone this energetic this early?

"Kirk," he corrected, "And perfect. I was just about to start. Want to join me? Sulu's be slacking off. I need a new running partner."

"Um-"

"It'll be fun, I promise," Kirk piped up, gesturing down the hall.

"Ok," Adea sighed slowly, giving in as they took off slowly down the corridor.

30 Minutes Later.

Typically Adea preferred running with music, drowning out the noises and distractions around her. All she needed was silence and focus to run. Kirk on the other hand-

"Is your hair always this curly?" Kirk mused, catching up to her with ease.

Adea frowned, huffing as her attempt to outrun him failed.

"I didn't straighten it," Adea panted in response.

"It's cool," Kirk continued, "Really bouncy. Why doesn't Uhura ever wear her hair curly?"

"I don't know," Adea sighed.

"You guys are what, four years apart?" Kirk quizzed, "You're twenty-four if I read your record correctly?"

"Yes," Adea panted.

"What's up with the last names? Because you're Lieutenant Ele and she's Lieutenant Uhura," Kirk questioned, "Are you guys like half-sisters? I mean, you look enough alike?"

Adea's annoyed frown deepened.

"We're fully sisters," Adea huffed as they rounded a corner, "We have a double last name. It's Uhura-Ele."

"So technically speaking, you're Lieutenant Uhura too?" Kirk mused.

His talking was going to be the death of her.

"So, is it just the two of you or are there more?" Kirk pressed on, taking her lack of response as an answer.

"Just us," Adea answered shortly.

"That explains a lot," Kirk concluded after a pause.

They slowed as they rounded corner, finishing their final lap.

"Walk a lap?" Kirk offered, waving his finger in a circle.

Adea nodded and they began walking slowly, Kirk's last comment echoing in her head.

"What do you mean?" Adea panted finally, looking up at him, "It explains a lot?"

"I mean, Uhura," he paused, smirking, "A bit overprotective isn't she?"

"A bit overprotective?" Adea snorted, "That's a diplomatic way of putting it."

"She's seems worried about you," Kirk shrugged.

"Worried?" Adea repeated, her frown returning, "Last week she wanted me to prove I could fire a gun before I participated in a virtual combat simulation. It's not worry. She thinks I'm incompetent."

"You think it's intense now, you should have heard her before you boarded," Kirk laughed,

"Before I boarded?" Adea repeated, her frown returning.

"She threatened to chop my balls off if I so much as touched you," Kirk laughed, "Good fun."

"What?!" Adea choked, her face burning as she stared back at Kirk, "She said that? To you?"

"Surprisingly not the worse threat I've gotten from her," Kirk admitted, laughing, "I wouldn't sweat it though."

"Don't sweat it?" Adea repeated, her tone wavering dangerously, "I'm going to kill her."

"I think she's just overly cautious when it comes to you," Kirk shrugged, "I mean, it's not like you need it. I think you're more than capable of making decisions by yourself about what you want-"

He trailed off, catching the questioning look in her eyes.

"I mean, not like that, not about me, necessarily," he correctly awkwardly, "Just, I- My mother was really protective of me growing up. It's tough when someone cares so much, they don't even trust you to take care of yourself. I spent most of my childhood rebelling against it, doing things that probably should have gotten me killed or thrown in jail. Just, I get it. It's hard."

"Yeah, it is," Adea sighed slowly, smirking slowly to herself as she grabbed her foot to stretch her quad. As much as she hated to admit it, he was starting to grow on her.

"I like you, Mini," Kirk announced suddenly, stretching his arm across his chest.

"Mini?" she repeatedly dryly, "Who's mini?"

"I'm calling you that," Kirk stated proudly.

"Like Mini-Uhura?" Adea frowned, her brows knitting.

"No, like miniature," Kirk clarified, gesturing with his fingers.

"How on Earth is that better?" Adea blinked, unamused.

"C'mon, you're like five-foot nothing," Kirk sighed, "A nickname was bound to happen."

"I'm five-foot five," Adea frowned.

"Think of it as a badge of pride," he explained in a mockingly serious tone, "Everyone gets one."

"Miniature, Scotty the Scotsman, and Bones the Doctor," she mused, thinking back to the names she'd already heard, "You're really creative Kirk."

"Hey!" Kirk teased, "Bones came up with his."

"Mhmm," Adea drawled, envisioning McCoy's response, "Very likely."

"I swear it. His own words," Kirk continued, "Wife left him with nothing but his bones."

"He has a wife?" Adea sputtered, nearly falling out of her stretch.

A wave of nausea washed over Adea as she stared back at Kirk, her heart racing. McCoy had a wife? She felt dizzy as she racked her brain, trying to make sense of Kirk's words. When had McCoy been married? In the three years they had known each other, McCoy had never once mentioned he had a wife. No ring. No photos. Nothing. Save a handful of mementos from previous voyages, there were no personal momentos in his apartment. They must have split before? It had to be the case.

But what if they hadn't...

"Had one," Kirk corrected, oblivious to her panic, "I know, right? Wasn't expecting that either."

"Yeah, of course," she replied quickly, her voice strained.

Kirk finished stretching, glancing at his watch.

"Alright, time to be a captain again," Kirk announced, his smile faltering as he looked up at her, "You alright, Mini?"

"Too much running," she lied quickly, shaking her head. She need to get a grip. "I think I need to eat something."

"Breakfast in the mess hall at 6:30?" Kirk offered, tossing his towel around his neck.

"Sure," she mumbled numbly, "See you then."

Kirk raised his thumb in response as he disappeared around the corner, leaving Adea to stand alone in the hallway.

Adea ambled numbly back to her room, her stomach sinking as she racked her memories for anything he would have said about it. Brief jokes about no one waiting for him when they'd started spending time in his office. A comment once about never having found the right person. Asking if she was dating anyone. But he had never once mentioned it, and she'd always assumed it was obvious he didn't. Why the hell didn't she ask then?

She tossed her sweatshirt off into the hamper, running her hands over her face as Kirk's words echoed in her head. Had one. There had always been something exciting about sneaking around the Academy to meet him, but hiding the fact she was a student was a far cry from being the other woman. Had McCoy lied to her about having a wife? Adea exhaled shakily, fumbling with shower faucet as she turned it on. She wouldn't be able to forgive him if he'd hidden something like that from her.

She needed to know.


McCoy glanced away from the grey clumpy mixture in his bowl, staring across the cafeteria at the dark waves curling to middle of Adea's back. She rarely wore it that way, always complaining about how frizzy it got in San Francisco's humidity. He smirked in spite of himself, returning his gaze to the bowl in front of him. He'd always found her curly hair beautiful.

As smart and determined as she was, he'd always figured it was only a matter of time before they ended up on the same high-level assignment. He'd even known two weeks before she did that she'd been assigned to Enterprise. Still, no amount of advanced warning could prepare him for the wave of emotions he felt seeing her again.

To this day he had no idea what in the Sam Hill possessed him to kiss her that time - let alone what had motivated him to keep coming back. It felt like since he'd met her, he'd been trying to get her out of his head. That pang in his stomach every time he saw her. That itch under his skin that tugged away at his anger every time her was near her. The way her blush reached her freckled nose when they first met. Her loud huffs everytime she was frustrated. The smile that would reach those big hazel eyes of hers every time she caught him looking at her. How she arched her neck and shivered when she came for him.

Every bone in his body knew no good could come from falling for her. Before Adea, his own wife had gotten bored of him, fucking off to sleep with her colleague and taking everything they'd built together in the process. Adea was eleven years his junior, with a bright future ahead of her. Why on Earth would she stay? There was no reason she'd truly fall for him. And he'd been right. She'd left him and blasted off into space the first chance she could.

"It's better than it looks," Kirk offered, sitting a tray down besides him.

"Dammit Jim, you gotta stop with the surprise greetings," McCoy groaned, "You'll give a man a heart attack."

"It's a good thing we have a doctor on board," Kirk smirked, clapping him on the back as he sat.

"Not if he dies of shock," McCoy muttered under his breath.

"What do you have left this afternoon, Bones?" Kirk started, digging into his soup, "I saw you're fitting Mini for the EV?"

"Who's Mini?" McCoy questioned. Here he goes with the nicknames.

"Lieutenant Ele," Kirk clarified, nodding towards Adea, "She's fine with it."

McCoy raised an eyebrow, knowing damn well what she probably thought of the name. Since when did Jim know her well enough to give her a nickname?

"Fine with it or doesn't know?" McCoy continued, sniffing suspiciously at the soup, "Besides, since when do you two know each other so well?"

"Fine with it. She's like a less wound up Uhura. Less judgy. More brooding cynicism," Kirk explained, "You knew her already, right?"

"I mean she works across from Med Bay," McCoy offered simply.

"I meant before this," Kirk continued, "Weren't you her professor or something like that?"

"I just advised her thesis," McCoy replied briskly, shrugging, "But she did most of that on her own. We didn't really talk much. Hell, I didn't even know she was Nyota's sister."

"Kinda tense between them isn't it?" Kirk asked, "Adea and Nyota?"

"Is it?" McCoy mused honestly, leaving the spoon in the bowl as he gave up on his soup.

"How have you not noticed?" Kirk huffed, "They barely talk to each other. When they do, it sounds forced. I mean, have you even seen them together on this ship when they don't have to be?"

"I try to stay out of other people's business," McCoy sighed in response.

It wasn't untrue. If putting Adea out of his mind wasn't his primary preoccupation in the last few months, avoiding any and all occasion to stand in the same room as her and Nyota certainly was.

"That's why you're boring," Kirk huffed, shoveling another spoonful into his mouth, "Either way, I really like Adea."

"You like her?" McCoy repeated, his voice controlled as he raised a brow.

"No, not like that," Kirk replied quickly, shaking his head as he glanced towards her table, "Besides, I have a thing for blondes."

"You have a thing for anything that moves," McCoy snorted, ignoring the pang of relief as he exhaled, "I'm getting something other than this...soup. Space is bad enough without food poisoning."

McCoy stood up quickly, pinching the bridge of his nose as he made his way back to the queue. Jim's gabbing was going to be the end of him one day.


Adea sat on the edge of the examination table, drumming her fingers rapidly against the padded seat. She tried remain calm as McCoy paced around the lab, his dark hair falling into his eyes.

"Your heart rate is elevated," McCoy stated clinically, handing her a white metal egg, "Hold this."

Was it really?

It was no hope. She knew she needed to ask but she couldn't find the words. Hi, any chance your divorce coincided with fucking your student? She needed time to calm down, but she longer she waited, the more stressed she became.

"Hold out your arms," he instructed calmly, holding up a corporal scanner.

He had scanned her for a few seconds when he stopped abruptly, frowning.

"Jesus, Adi, what did you do to your side?" McCoy questioned suddenly, pulling up the hem of her shirt to reveal a large scar.

"I fell," she snapped curtly, snatching down her shirt.

"You fell?" McCoy repeated incredulously, his voice raising as his hands remained on the edge of her shirt.

She exhaled slowly, relenting as he lifted the side of her shirt, his fingers grazing her side.

"You fell?" he repeated slowly, his fingers lightly tracing the scar that fanned from a dark line across her ribs, "Adi, is this a scar from an electrical shock?"

"The doctor of the Constitution cleared me two weeks after it happened," she answered quickly.

"Cleared you of what?" McCoy pressed, setting down the scanner.

She was two weeks into her assignment aboard the Constitution when an unexpected issue with the thrusters had caused the ship to lurch sharply. Sixteen were hurt, four seriously. Adea had been thrown against railing, fracturing two ribs and bruising four. As she'd tried to sit up, a live wire came in contact with the railing, the electricity searing a jagged scar across her ribs. An emergency power shut off saved her. Any higher voltage or longer exposure would have caused far more damage than scar. She hated talking about it. All it caused was unnecessary worry and attention, for minor fractures than had since been healed, and a burn with minimal lasting tissue damage.

"It's fine," she concluded.

"So you broke your ribs and nearly got yourself fried?" McCoy frowned, "Adi you could have died."

"Technically not," Adea sighed dryly, "The voltage was not high enough."

"I'm serious," he urged, the concern in his eyes growing urgent, "Were you going to say something?"

"Were you going to say something about your wife?" She blurted out.

He stared back at her, his expression pained distant, "Adi, what-"

"Bones, your nickname," she mumbled, her stomach sinking as she watched the flicker of recognition in his eyes, "Kirk said it was because you said your wife left you."

McCoy said nothing, his expression going blank.

"I don't want to talk about it," he stately coldly, turning to enter something on the PADD.

"Were you married?" Adea pressed, stepping down slowly from the examination table.

"I said, I don't want to talk about it," McCoy repeated sternly.

"When were you married, Lee?" Adea whispered.

"It's none of your damn business Adi," he growled, setting the PADD down hard on table, "You're exam is finished. You can go."

Why wouldn't he answer her? Adea watched him slowly, the cold sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach intensifying as he ignored her questions.

"Lee, did she leave because of me?" Adea asked quietly, her voice cracking as her heart pounded in her chest.

"Goddammit, Adi, I told you to mind your own fucking business!"

Adea jumped as McCoy slammed his hand down sharply on the table next to her. She had seen him mad before but this was something new entirely. He was livid. She stared back at him in shock, painfully stumbling into the table behind her as he glared at her.

"Get the hell out of my lab," his hissed, his voice deathly low.

Adea edged past him quickly, brushing past his shoulder as she raced towards the elevator. She waited until the doors had closed behind her to turn around, leaning her head against the wall as she hastily wiped a hot tear from her face. She ignored a wave of nausea as she took another shaky breath, crossing her arms tightly to keep them from trembling.

Why did everything in her life have to wind up so complicated?


Complicated indeed. Live long and prosper - C.H.