The next morning, Kirk summoned her to the briefing room. "Everyone has agreed," he said simply. "We sent a message to Fleet Command this morning. It'll take them a while to give us an answer, so in the meantime, you need to keep up your classes, all right?"
Elle nodded. "Absolutely."
"Good."
She couldn't concentrate that day to save her life. Nobody grudged her absent-mindness. And everyone was very careful not to make any plans for the future, although Sulu did let it slip that next semester he was planning on teaching her how to fence.
That night, Elle couldn't go to sleep. She was sure, the second she went to sleep, Star Fleet Command would call the ship, and she'd be taken to some grey-walled institution before she could blink. She knew she was being ridiculous, considering the Enterprise was way far out from any other ship, but still, the nagging fear kept her awake.
At about eleven o'clock, excuse me, 2300, Elle got up and shuffled her way down to sickbay to ask for a sleeping pill.
She entered the main ward and found McCoy and Spock talking to each other in low, urgent tones. They stopped abruptly when they saw her. McCoy started forward. "Elle? Something wrong, kiddo?"
"Can't sleep," she said, hugging herself against the slight chill in the air.
McCoy nodded in understanding. "Give me one second." He disappeared into the other room.
Spock frowned at her. "What are the reasons for your anxiety?" he asked in the calm, level tone of a meditation analysis.
Elle looked at the soft carpet of the deck. Analyze, identify, state. She needed a minute to sort through the causes of her emotions. "I don't want to leave. I'm scared that I might be taken away."
"Illogical," Spock said, not unkindly. "You would not be removed from this ship without fair warning. And as the captain says, not without a fight."
She gave him a brief smile. "Thanks." But that didn't really help the lizard-brain part of her that insisted she needed to be worried.
McCoy came back with a little red pill that was cut in half. It was tiny. "This is for your size and weight," he said. "Drink it with a half glass of water and then go right to bed."
Elle nodded and shifted on her heels. "If, uh," she started, feeling like a wimp. But he'd told her to ask, so she did, "If I start to have a nightmare, will this let me wake up?"
McCoy's eyes softened. "It should," he said gently. "Do you want to sleep here tonight, just in case?"
Elle shook her head. "Sickbay's too noisy."
"All right. But let me or Nurse Chapel know if you need anything," McCoy said.
"Thanks, doctor. Night." She turned and walked out of sickbay and left them to their conversation.
Spock caught up with her at the turbolift, looking extrememly unflappable for someone who must have run two corridors to catch up with her. "As a Vulcan, I require one-third the amount of sleep as a human," he said.
Elle looked at him, confused. "Huh?"
He clasped his hands behind his back. "Dr. McCoy has a daughter," he said. "He has informed me of a technique used to assist her in sleeping through the night after she watched a classic Earth movie called 'The Shining.'"
Elle stifled a giggle. Her parents would never let her watch that, not in a million years. She wondered how Joanna McCoy must've pulled that one off.
"As Dr. McCoy is now not as young as he was, in agreement with his assertions, and as he has his responsibilities as Chief Medical Officer which he must give priority to, I offer my services instead," Spock continued.
Elle blinked at him. "Spock, I don't know what you're talking about."
"Dr. McCoy called it simply, staying to keep the nightmares away," Spock said.
Against her will, Elle felt tears welling up in her eyes.
"Elle?" Spock asked, looking a teensy bit alarmed at the onset of tears.
She forced them back with a smile. "Sorry, it's just, my dad used to do the same thing. When we watched Lord of the Rings when I was little I was freaked out that the dragon was gonna eat me, and he'd sit in that awful bean-bag chair and wait for me to fall asleep, and then he'd sleep there all night long, so any nightmares that came would have to get through him first. He'd get a crick in his neck but he wouldn't move." She laughed, just a tiny hint of wistfulness in her tone.
"I cannot guarantee you will not have nightmares," Spock said, looking doubtful, "but I can guarantee that you will not wake up alone."
"You don't have to do that," Elle told him. "I am actually old enough to take care of myself, not that you've seen much of it, but-"
"Elle," he interupted, kindly but firmly, "you are a child in circumstances that are out of your control. No one is asking you to shoulder more than you can safely carry."
She blinked at him.
"On Vulcan," he added, "children are highly valued and no one would be left to suffer in the dark, alone."
"Not even you?" she asked.
He gave her a tiny smile. "Not even me."
"Okay," Elle said. "If you're sure I'm not bothering you."
Spock held up a small stack of PADDS. "I can assure you, paperwork can be done from any location."
She laughed. "Okay."
He escorted her to her quarters and took up a post on the sofa in the work area while she took the little red sleeping aid and got in bed.
"Hey Spock?" she asked.
"Yes, ax'nav?"
"Did you have friends?"
"Friendship does not exist on Vulcan," he replied.
Elle facepalmed. Duh. She knew that.
"However," Spock said, his voice easily carrying from the work area to her room, "if you concentrate on going to sleep, I will tell you about my relationship with the logic teacher that taught me to play kal'toh three years ahead of my agemates."
Elle grinned. "Okay."
She could've sworn he was using five times as many big words as he needed to, and somewhere in between 'tea with Professor Sor'el' and 'championship semi-finals' she fell asleep.
-/\-
Elle woke up in a panic, half-formed images of Section 31 operatives in her mind.
From the other room, Spock raised his voice. "You've been asleep for four hours, twelve minutes, Elle. You are still here." A pause, then, "The quarterly energy emissions report from Engineering states that twelve percent of the gamma radiation is..."
She pulled the covers over her head and did her breathing exercises until she fell back asleep.
-/\-
When she woke up, Spock was sipping a cup of tea in the other room and the stack of PADDs was neatly piled on the table. "Good morning," he said.
"Morning," Elle replied, yawning. "Is there-" She yawned again.
"There is no word yet," he told her.
"Mkay." She scrubbed the grit out of her eyes. "Thank you, Spock."
"There is no thanks needed," he said.
"Thank you, anyways."
He inclined his head in acknowledgement and said, "I will see you for Science class. We will be moving on to chemical reactions."
"Sounds fun."
A raised eyebrow was her only reply.
By the end of the day Elle was wound tighter than a string. After her language class with Uhura, the older woman invited her to a water aerobics class to relax.
"Sure," Elle said doubtfully. "I don't have a swimsuit though."
Uhura smiled. "Let's find one you like."
They used the computer and found one in the database that could be replicated. It was a basic two piece with a tanktop and shorts, in a pattern that reminded Elle of sunshine.
"Super cute," Uhura said, once they picked it up from the quartermaster. "Good choice."
They headed down to the swimming pool where about twenty women from various departments were in and around the pool.
Elle found out "water aerobics" was a great name for "hang in the pool and talk and have water fights", hence the "aerobic" part of it.
By the time she got out of the water she was pleasantly tired out. And, she knew all the latest gossip. You would not believe the hijinks that the Ops department got up to.
They had their meditation session and Spock stayed on the couch to meditate further while Elle went to bed.
She woke up at a tiny thump from the work area.
"Captain!" a quiet reproach from Spock, a moment later.
"Sorry," Kirk whispered, not as quietly as he thought he was being. "I thought she was awake. I'll come back later."
"Has Command returned their decision?" Spock whispered.
"Yes."
At that Elle gave up all pretense of sleep and rolled out of bed. "What'd they say?" she asked, dragging the duvet with her and shuffling to the work area.
Kirk's smile could light up the Enterprise. "They said yes."
Elle beamed at him. "Really?"
"Really." He smiled at her. "They want to test having a civilian consultant on an active-duty starship. Even Komack agreed that having you on the Enterprise is less of a security risk than on a stationary base."
Elle nodded slowly. "How about when I grow up?" she asked.
Kirk raised an eyebrow. "What do you think?"
"I wanna join Star Fleet," she said.
He smiled at her. "You'll have at least ten people fighting to be your sponsor."
She hugged him tightly. "Thank you, captain."
He hugged her back and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. "You are very welcome, Elle."
Spock spoke up. "That matter being resolved, I believe it is still seven hours, fifteen minutes till Elle's designated waking hour," he said, giving Kirk a significant glare.
Kirk laughed. "All right, mother bear, I'm going. Good night, Elle, sleep tight."
"Don't let the bed bugs bite," Elle replied, and they shared a grin as Kirk left the cabin.
Spock's eyebrow was in his hairline. "Bed bugs?" he asked.
Elle giggled. "It's an expression," she said.
"I see."
With the certainty of knowing her fate, Elle suddenly felt sleepier than ever. She gave a last little laugh and yawned. "Good night again. I think I'll be okay."
"Good night again," Spock said, his eyebrow indicating 'somewhat-amused', and he let himself out.
Elle slept like a log. Literally, a log. Her alarm went off five times before she woke up and she coasted drowsily through breakfast and down to her first class.