After Lydia was able to not only wake Jim up but also get him to be a little more coherent she sat him down to talk to Pike. She had to admit taking care of Jim was a full time job, but then again it was so much fun seeing him trying to be coherent enough to stand. The only thing she knew was that someday who ever had done this to Jim would pay for it. She just wished she would be able to see their faces that day.
"I couldn't believe when the bartender told me who you are," said Pike sitting next to Kirk who the bartender had giving another drink. They were regulars and many people seemed to respect them. So this fights were actually very unusual. She didn't think he really minded the fight especially if as Kirk said he hadn't started it.
"... and who am I, Captain Pike?" He asked looking back at Lydia who was tiding it up. He was mad that he couldn't help her but the truth was he could barely stand.
"Your father's son," Lydia and Jim looked at each other and smiled. So the sale pitch had started. They had heard it all before. Whenever someone from Starfleet realized who he or she were, they had this whole speech ready for them. They sometimes wondered if it was a something that they showed every recruiter with the off chance they saw one of them. After all they were the children of legends. It stands to reason they would be wanted to be the crowning glory of any recruiter. With a smile Pike continued. "For my dissertation, I was assigned the U.S.S. Kelvin. Something I admired about your dad... he didn't believe in no-win scenarios."
"He sure learned his lesson," mutter Jim.
"Depends on how you define winning. You're here, aren't you? That instinct to leap without looking- that was his nature, too. And in my opinion it's something Starfleet has lost. We're admirable, respectable. But overly-disciplined. Those cadets you took on, they'll make competent officers - but you can bet your ass they'll run home to momma the minute they're looking down the barrel of a Klingon phaser cannon."
"- why are you talking to me?" asked Jim turning to the guy next to him.
"I looked up your file while you were drooling on the floor. Your aptitude tests were off the charts- what is it, d'you like being the only Genius Level repeat-offender in the Midwest?"
"Maybe I love it," he said with a smile back to Lydia who had sat at one of the tables looking at something in her hands.
"So your daddy dies… you can settle for a less than ordinary life…or do you feel like you're meant for something better? Something special?"
"Come to think of it, I do want to feel special. You know what? I'm gonna go start a book club… Lydia what do you think?" he asked turning completely to her.
Without looking up from whatever she had in her hands, she said without missing a beat. "Whatever, just don't make me read any classics."
"Enlist in Starfleet," said Pike like the interaction between them hadn't happen.
"Enlist? You must be way down on your recruiting quota for the month," Kirk turned back to Pike.
"If you are half the man your father was, Jim, Starfleet could use you. You could be an officer in four years, have your own ship in eight."
"We're even right? I can go."
"Riverside shipyard. Shuttle for new recruits leaves tomorrow, 0800. Your father was captain of a Starship for twelve minutes. I dare you to do better," As he walked out Pike turned to Lydia who by now was looking at them. "You think about what we talked about this afternoon as well Ms. Talbot. Having you at Starfleet would be a great addition."
With that, Captain Pike walked out leaving behind a bomb between two best friends who now had a lot to talk about.
Jim followed Lydia all the way back to her house. He had been trying to get her to talk to him all the way back. She walked through the door leaving it opened knowing he would follow her in.
"What did he mean Lydia? When did you two talked?" He said waiting for her to put her jacket in the closet.
"This afternoon, didn't you hear?" she asked walking out of the closet into the kitchen almost slamming the door in his face.
Standing outside the door, he asked, "What did you talked about?"
Coming out with some water for both her and Jim, she gave him a bottle. "Here drink. You know about what, the same thing as always."
They walked to the second floor one behind the other. As she walked into her room, he stayed outside while she changed her street clothes.
"Yeah that in not an answer. He made it seem like it was a done deal. Lydia what is going on?"
Finally, she opened the door.
"Ok, so maybe… I am… reconsidering some things," she said as she walked back down the stairs to make sure everything was closed up.
"Like what? What could he have said to make you change your mind after so many years?" he asked walking after her like a puppy. For a moment, he stopped ad shook his head trying to clear his own thoughts.
"Ok here it goes," she said stopping at the bottom of the stairs turning back to him. "Jim yeah I have for years cried out against the fleet, but I am tired. Have you ever wonder what made our mothers literally abandon us for that fleet after what happened with our fathers? Have you ever thought about the place our parent all describe as one of the most amazing place in the universe. We are literally stuck in the middle of nowhere America, US. The two people in this entire place who wanted to leave more than anyone else, and somehow we ended up stuck here. I want to know what is so amazing about space that both my parent left me for it. Don't you?"
Sitting next to her on the stairs Jim felt how her head fell on his shoulder.
"So what you were going to leave me here then. Be abandon by you as well like you say?"
"Jim I would never leave you behind that is the problem. You think I would stay in the middle of nowhere doing the same thing every day if you weren't important to me? If you actually meant nothing to me this place wouldn't have been home it would have been nothing more than a stop on the map."
Taking a moment, they just sat there next to each other. The problem about being best friends was doing things that maybe you really didn't want to, to make someone else happy. Jim knew that. He had been there on their first day of school walking hand in hand into the room. He had hated his mother for forcing him, until he realized she was trembling. From that day on he decided if something made her happy even if he hated doing every second of it he would do it just for her.
"Does it mean that I am going to have to use that stupid uniform?" he asked her.
"Well look at it this way you are probably going to be Captain so that means you will probably use the yellow uniform. I will go into engineering. That's red all the way," she said picking her head from Jim's shoulder with a smile.
"Oh no. You are so not going to use that cursed uniform. You could use purple for all I care, any color you want, I will make it a rule. You could use any color you want," they started laughing with each other. The red uniform curse was something that everyone talked about.
"Ok so question of the night," Jim turned to her looking down at his best friend.
"What?" she asked smiling up at her best friend.
"Are you really going to send me back to my house or could I stay over?"
She laughed as she stood and started pulling him up to the bedroom. "Fine, but if you start snoring I will lock you out of the room."
"But are you going to give me a side of the bed?"
"No way! That is my bed the best I could do is give you some space on the floor and only if you don't snore."
"And this is how you treat me on the last day on this planet after I am leaving everything behind for you?"
The world or better yet the universe was never going to see them coming.
The next day both friends got ready to leave the house and take on the universe. They had to stop at Kirk's house for him to get everything he needed and they left without looking back. They took Jim's motorcycle for one last ride. The bike had been their allied on more than one occasion and it was almost poetic that she was the one delivering them to Starfleet.
As they got to the ship shard Kirk turned off the bike. Getting off Jim and Lydia looked at the shipyard where a starship was being constructed.
"You know," she said looking at Jim. "We could be on that ship one day."
The universe had a way of laughing at them with affection since they were looking at what one-day would be the U.S.S. Enterprise.
As they walked to the ship that would take them away from nowhere Midwest a man that was walking near turned to look at the bike saying "nice ride, man."
With a smile Kirk tossed the guy the start card and told him to, "live it up." Passing Pike he took Lydia's hands.
"Four years? I'm gonna do it in three." With a grin at Captain Pike, both friends walked into the shuttle. Walking in Kirk hit his head in a low ceiling making Lydia laugh.
"What just because you are barely 5 feet tall."
"Excuse you! I am 5'3". I may be small, but the best things come in small packages. You know like perfume… and poison."
He laughed taking a seat next to her near the girl Kirk had seen at the bar completely ignoring the idiots from the bar.
"Never did get that first name."
With a grin, Uhura turned to them. Lydia had actually met her already. The girl seemed nice if a little entitle. Then again, if everything she had heard about Uhura was true then her attitude was warranted. She had seen the way she smiled at Kirk and realized that this girl wasn't going to fall for everything Kirk was but his charm was still working on her.
"And you never will."
With a smile, Kirk starts buckling himself in when he feels Lydia trying to get his attention. As he turned to her Lydia made a motion toward the back where a man was being force out of the bathroom.
"Are you people deaf? I told you I don't need a doctor, damnit! I AM A DOCTOR!"
"I can't decide if he looks like a southern lilt or a prisoner waiting for the execution," she whispered to him. She was so close that Lydia's hair tickle his nose. It smelled like coconut.
Shaking his head Kirk turned to the officer and the man fighting.
"You need to find a seat!"
"I had one, in the bathroom, with no windows. I suffer from Aviaphobia, in case you don't understand big words, it means feat of dying in something that flies."
"Sir sit down!" Having finally steered him to the only available seat, which was the one next to Kirk staring at the man until he did sit.
Turning to Kirk with a look that spelled trouble, he said, "I might throw up on you."
Leaning away from the man towards Lydia Kirk tried to calm him in the only way he knew. Talking.
"I think these things are pretty safe."
"Don't pander to me, kid: one tiny crack in the hull and our blood boils in thirteen seconds – solar flare might crop up, cook is in our seats. Hell, some of the damn passengers are blue. And wait'll you're sitting pretty with a case on Andorian shingles, see if you're still so relax when your eyeballs are bleeding. Space is disease and danger, wrapped in darkness and silence."
"I hate to break this to you," Kirk tried with a look of amusement toward Lydia who was trying really hard not to laugh in his face. "But Starfleet operates in space."
"Yeah, well my ex-wife took the whole damn planet in the divorce, I got nowhere to go but up. All she left me was my Bones. Leonard McCoy."
"Jim Kirk and this girl here that hasn't stop laughing since you sat down is Lydia Talbot." Lydia smile at the man and waved sitting back in her sit. She could here Kirk whisper to Bones, "- you really gonna throw up-?"
"Maybe," said Bones. With a snort, she had to wonder where this new adventure would lead them.