"How is she, Bones?" Jim stood over the diagnostic bed staring down at his daughter. Someone had brushed her hair out of her face and cleaned her up since he'd seen her on the Children's Deck. Jamie had been found in the section of the ship damaged when the torch had exploded the day before. It had been sealed since the accident. Again there had been no clues as to who took her or left her there. She hadn't been there earlier when the Red Security Team did a thorough search. After the Yellow Alert, one of the designers had gone into the rec room to get a sample of paint and heard her scream. He'd alerted Security and called Sickbay. By the time Jim had arrived, Jamie was under sedation and being carried to Sickbay. He couldn't stop touching her hand, her forehead - brushing her dark curls, so like her mother's, back behind her ears. His worried eyes took in every inch of her, searching for the tiniest scratch or bruise. Guilt, fear and too many other emotions churned inside him. "This is all my fault. I never should have brought her into space."

"Jim, stop beating yourself up," Dr. McCoy adjusted a dial on the bed and went to stand at the bottom. "Jamie's going to be fine. There's not a scratch on her. Whoever had her took good care of her."

"If she hadn't been on the Enterprise, no one would have taken her at all. I should have left her on Earth."

Bones sighed and reached out to clap Jim on the shoulder. "You can't know that. You've told me yourself how many times Winona made Jamie use a different surname so people wouldn't find out she was your daughter. You're kind of a legend in Starfleet and beyond, Jim. There are people everywhere - on Earth - in space - who'd use that for their own gain. Just like what happened today."

Taking Jamie's hand, Jim pressed it to his cheek. She felt so warm and alive. No matter what Bones said, he knew that he'd been wrong to even imagine Jamie could fit into his world. "This whole Children in Space program . . . how could I have been so wrong? It's not going to work."

"Of course it'll work! More people want to sign onto Starfleet, especially now when they won't have to leave their families behind. You told me yourself how pleased the muckity muck higher ups were at the newest enlistment numbers."

"Maybe it will work for others, but it's over for me." Sighing, Jim placed Jamie's tiny hand back on her chest. Watching the slight rise and fall of her breath, he turned to his friend. "I'm going to send Jamie home."

"To what? Winona's not going to be available for a year. You don't have any more relatives . . . oh, no, don't tell me you're even considering a boarding school? Haven't I told you enough times that's how I lost my daughter?"

"No, I . . ." Slowly, in resignation to the inevitable, Jim spoke words he'd never expected to say. "All day I've been thinking, if I got Jamie back . . . alive . . . the best thing to do would be to give her to Diana's family. Her parents are living on Earth now. Mother's taken her to visit with them a few times. It's not like she'd be going to strangers . . ."

Bones face wore his most disapproving frown and he didn't bother to sugarcoat any of his disgusted words. "That's poppycock and you know it! Diana's family blamed you for her disappearance. They've never forgiven you. How long do you think it would be before they turned Jamie against you Do you want to lose her forever, Jim?"

"I don't want to lose her at all."

"Then don't make any hasty decisions. These last few weeks have been stressful, and you need time to think."

"I have thought. All day. I want Jamie to be safe. Whoever took her today is still on the loose. Who knows if we'll ever find out who it was? Since she's been aboard the Enterprise, she's been taken prisoner on Mavaro and kidnapped. How much more can a little girl take? I want her to be somewhere that I know she'll be safe."

Would it matter so much if her heart were turned against me? It's my fault she lost her mother. The other night she said she hated me. Maybe giving her to her grandparents would be doing her a favor.

Putting his hands roughly on Jim's shoulders, Bones made sure he had to face him - eye to eye. "Look, Jim, right now Jamie's safe. Having her aboard the Enterprise has given the two of you a chance to reconnect. Sure there have been some bumps in space, but there always are when you make an important decision. Give this some time. Jamie doesn't belong with Diana's family - she belongs with you. Think about what I said."

"I will."

Jim sighed and motioned to the bed. "Does she need to be here?"

"Not at all. I gave her a light sedative since she seemed so upset when she was found. But there's really nothing wrong with her."

"I want to take her to my quarters. I just want to hold her."

"That's probably the best prescription I could give." Bones smiled a tired smile. "All Jamie needs right now is you."

#######

A long-time later Jamie started and woke up in the dark. "Daddy!" The word came out loud and scared and she tried to gulp it back. Just in case the elephant man didn't want her to scream.

"Shh," a strong, calm voice said. "It's all right. I'm here."

It scared her at first, that voice. It sounded like Daddy, she wanted it to be him, but what if this was a dream and she was still in the scary, dark place? Jamie woke up a little more, struggling away from the arms circled around her, holding her tight. Then the voice was gentle, talking softly and a firm hand began to pat her back, settling her into a cozy nest of lap and chest. It took a minute but then Jamie knew. Daddy. Daddy held her. She was snuggled up on his lap with her face pressed against the chest of his soft, green velour shirt. He'd found her after all.

"D -daddy?" She asked just to make sure.

"I'm right here, honey. Go back to sleep. It's just a dream."

Jamie settled into the warm, broad chest and heard, right beneath her ear the strong, steady pounding of Daddy's heart. "I c-can't. It's dark."

"Lights low," Daddy said and enough tiny lights came on around that Jamie wasn't scared. Daddy's quarters. She was in his quarters, sitting all cozy in his lap in Grandpa's old brown chair, the one that tilted all the way back so you could sleep. A warm, fuzzy blanket was wrapped around her and Daddy's strong arms kept her safe. "There, is that better?"

"Um hum . . ." she managed because she was suddenly so, so sleepy. Her eyes closed for a minute and then a thought came. Something she needed to tell Daddy right away. It made her head hurt trying to remember but then she did. "Daddy?"

"Um," he answered like maybe he had fallen asleep too.

"Daddy, do you remember when I said I hated you first?"

"Yes, Jamie." Suddenly he sounded like he was wide awake.

Jamie reached down to touch his hand but didn't look up at him. "I didn't mean it."

"I know. It's all right."

Her heart felt a hundred times lighter and she wiggled back down until she was as cozy and comfy as a kitten. This was the daddy she wanted, she thought, right before she started to fall back asleep. This was the daddy who played Fizzbin and took her camping and . . . and . . . loved her more than the Enterprise. Or did he? Was he going to wait until she was asleep and then sneak away to the bridge? Then what if the elephant man came back and took her somewhere again? Suddenly Jamie was wide enough awake to ask another question.

"Daddy?"

"Um?"

"Don't you have to go to the bridge and run the ship?"

His answer was very satisfying. "No, Jamie. All I have to do tonight is hold you. I'm not going anywhere. Close your eyes and go to sleep."

It was the best answer of all. "Daddy?"

"Yes?"

"Will you hold my hand?"

His big hand reached down and took hold of one of hers. "That better?"

"Yes." This time Jamie let herself go to sleep. Daddy was here. He'd keep her safe.

######

Jim woke to the uncomfortable sensation of someone staring at him. Reaching up to run a hand through his unruly hair, he squinted and glanced down into Jamie's smoldering eyes. At her first words, he understood the accusation in her glare.

"Your com is blinking," Jamie said in a disapproving tone.

Yawning, he reached around her to tap the button. "Kirk here."

"Captain," Uhura's voice sounded wide awake and energetic as usual. "I'm sorry to disturb you, sir, but you asked me to inform you when Ambassador McCale was getting close. The freighter is within hailing frequencies and estimates their arrival to Mavaro within the next few hours. The Ambassador will visit with the King before coming aboard the Enterprise."

"Very well, Lt.," he managed to stifle another yawn. "Keep me informed."

"Now you have to go to the bridge," Jamie mumbled without trying to hide her resentment. "You always have to go to the bridge."

He squeezed her into a hug, despite the sudden stiffening of her body and her I-won't-be-comforted stubbornness. No one had to tell him that what Jamie needed right now was a daddy, not a Starship Captain. "Well, now, that's where you're wrong. What I have to do is take a shower and dress. Then after that, I need to see that you get dressed and fed."

"Guess Nanny Banks can do that," Jamie voiced her glum predictions, wiggling away from his embrace.

"Actually, I prefer to take my own shower and dress myself," he said as deadpan as possible, earning a slight giggle before Jamie remembered her anger at him. It was enough of a wedge for him to slip in the information he'd been dreading.

"You know, Jamie, I'm not sure how much you remember about what happened to you yesterday . . ." A gasp and her eyes took on a hunted look that broke his heart. Jim took both her hands in one of his and tried to reassure her as he shared the hard truth. "Nanny Banks is in Sickbay. She was . . .hurt trying to keep you safe. Right now she isn't able to take care of you. I need you to be a brave girl . . ."

"Will she die?"

"No. Dr. McCoy thinks she will be fine, but right now she needs a lot of rest."

Jamie worked that through her mind. Looking steadily into his eyes, he could read the fear and concern mirrored there. "Who will take care of me?"

"If you promise not to run amok and destroy my ship while I shower and dress, for today I will."

It took a minute for the news to penetrate Jamie's mind and then the corners of her droopy mouth began to curve upward in a slight, can-I-trust-him smile. Jim's heart lightened considerably. Just as suddenly, Jamie's smile curved down and she glared up at him from underneath those dark, curly lashes so like her mother's. "You won't. You have to go to the bridge. You said."

Leaning over until his nose touched hers, he whispered, "I'll tell you a little secret, Jamie. I'm the Captain of the ship and I can take anybody on the bridge I want."

"Me?" She whispered back, staring eye to eye. "You'll take me on the bridge."

"If you want to go."

"I do, Daddy! I do." This time she squealed and threw her arms around his neck. He'd forgotten the exuberance of Jamie's hugs. Not that he'd gotten all that many - but sometimes when he went to Earth, she was so glad to see him that her hugs became her main expression of joy. He hugged her back, letting the worry and indecision about keeping her on the Enterprise, fade away. For the moment.

"Okay," he stood her on her feet. "I need to clean up and then we'll go find you something to wear. Unless you intend to appear on the bridge in a pink nightie with yellow ducks."

"You're funny," she giggled. "I can go find my own clothes right now . . ."

"No, Jamie!" The rush of unreasonable fear was new. He couldn't bear the idea of letting her out of his sight to take a shower. He knew that he'd secured his quarters last night and that she was perfectly safe as long as she didn't let anyone in, but suddenly that wasn't enough. The thought of having her walk to her own quarters and get dressed alone sent chills down his spine.

Her lips trembled and her words wobbled. "You don't h-have to h-holler."

"I'm sorry, honey." The damage had been done but he could salvage the day if he was honest. He needed to make her understand the seriousness of the situation without being frightened. "Until we catch the person who took you and hurt Nanny Banks, I need to know you're safe. I want to keep you as close to me as I can. You can't wander around the ship alone . . ." He made a sudden decision to call Security from the shower and have them guard the door. That way Jamie would never know. "We'll go to your quarters together when I'm ready. Until I'm done, why don't you watch some animations on the Children's Channel? I won't be long."

"Okay," she answered after a couple of sniffs, fighting to gain her composure.

To make sure he hadn't scared her, Jim sat back down, took her on his knee and gave her a few reassuring hugs and kisses. "I didn't mean to scare you, honey."

After a few minutes of cuddling and a little tickling, Jim finally had Jamie back in a steady mood. Knowing how much she enjoyed puzzles, he brought out a tiny wooden box he'd been given on Veridian VII. "If you don't want to watch anything, see if you can solve this. You have to pull out all the little drawers and then get them back into the correct slot. It's harder than you think."

He left her absorbed in the puzzle which he'd never been able to solve. Once out of her sight, he called Security and had the reassurance that two were standing by outside his door. Nevertheless, he took the fastest shower on record and dressed with the speed of light. He wondered, briefly, how he could let her go back to Earth where she'd be light years away. If he could let her go . . .

#######

While Daddy was in the shower, Jamie tried to work the puzzle. It looked a lot harder than she thought so she put it down. Wandering around Daddy's quarters, Jamie stared at some of the pictures on his walls. She remembered the big one of the old-fashioned sailing ship. Gramma had bought it for his birthday one year. There were some holo images Jamie had never seen sitting on the cabinet beside his big bed. Uncle Sam, Jamie knew from Gramma's pictures, and some of Mama. Jamie stopped beside one that she had never seen of Daddy and Mama. They were both laughing at something, looking down at a pink, wooly . . . Jamie wasn't sure what. As soon as Daddy came out of the shower, all spiffed and sparkled as Gramma used to say, she asked him.

He came over to look at the image and smiled. "We were looking at you. We'd stopped on a cold planet - well, I can't recall now - but the natives there sold those wooly blankets. Diana wanted to have one and when we put you inside, you settled right down and went to sleep. We were laughing at . . ."

Suddenly, Daddy's voice changed and got all thick like he couldn't talk. He swallowed hard and Jamie could see he didn't want to say more.

"I'm hungry," she said real quick so he wouldn't have to feel sad. "Could we eat now?" Maybe another time she could ask him to talk about Mama and the wooly blanket.

"Now that you mention it, I'm famished too." Daddy looked glad that he didn't have to talk about Mama anymore. "Let's go to your quarters and see what we can rustle up."

"Huh?"

"Let's see what we can find to cook," Daddy explained.

Jamie thought it was awful funny and a little embarrassing to walk to her quarters in the pink nightie. Especially since she saw some Security officers at both ends of the corridor. They were pretending not to look, but Jamie's face flushed bright red anyway. She knew because she saw herself reflected in the door as Daddy slid it open.

"Find something to wear," Daddy told her as he went to the cooling unit. "I'll see what I can find in here."

"Who's going to cook?"

"Me."

"You can cook? Not just use the replicator?"

Daddy grinned and winked. "A few things."

This was something she had to see! Jamie hurried into her bedroom and changed into a pink dress. She liked pink and purple so she slid her feet into purple slippers. Not sure who would do her hair, she grabbed a purple flowered headband and the brush from her small built in vanity table. When she got back into the tiny galley, Daddy had eggs, milk, and a mixing bowl set on the counter. He'd turned on the heating unit and was stirring something in a flat pan, the kind Gramma called a skillet and Nanny Banks called a flat cook.

"What are you cooking?" Jamie stood beside him and on tip toe peered into the pan.

"Scrambled eggs and . . ." a pop sounded from the toasting oven and bread slid out of the space. ". . . toast. What do you like on your toast?"

Jamie liked honey and so did Daddy. There were three kinds in the cooling unit, so Jamie got them all out and put them on the table. She got out plates and silverware as Gramma had taught her and set the table. Nanny Banks hardly ever let her do anything, so it was fun now. Back on Earth it got kind of boring. Before too long, Daddy had the eggs and toast on the plates. They sat down to eat.

"Yum," Jamie said, "you're a good cook."

"Your grandmother saw to that. She taught my brother and me how to mix up a few things."

With her mouth full of egg, Jamie mumbled, "Wishaawa . . ." swallowed and said, "She sure showed you how to make yummy eggs."

Daddy laughed. "There isn't much to making eggs. Drink your milk."

"You sound like Gramma. She always . . ." Jamie didn't know what happened but right then she got a huge pain in her tummy and a big ache in her heart. It was like the elephant man had dropped another big, black bag over her head and turned everything sad. She suddenly missed Gramma so much she thought she might cry. A tear plopped into the honey on her toast and Jamie knew for sure she was going to cry. "I miss Gramma an awful lot," Jamie said and swallowed down the hurting lump in her throat. I will not cry. I will not cry.

"So do I," Daddy said. "When we get to the Denali Base, we'll be close enough for you to talk to her over Galaxy Greetings. Would you like that?"

Jamie nodded but she didn't trust herself to talk. For the next few minutes, she ate her eggs, finished her toast, and drank her milk. It didn't taste as good as it had before, but it made some of the awful ache in her tummy go away. While she'd been eating, Daddy got up and used the replicator to make coffee. Jamie could tell by the scent, which smelled so much nicer than it tasted. Once, she'd sneaked a sip of Gramma's. Daddy made a face after the first sip, so maybe he didn't like the taste much either.

"Jamie, can you be a brave girl for me?" Daddy asked.

Looking down at her plate, Jamie felt the thumpity thump of her heart. Every time someone asked her to be a brave girl, something scary happened. She didn't want to find out why she had to be brave this time.

######

Taking another sip of the gruesome fake coffee, Jim leaned back in the molded plastic chair and took a hard look at his daughter. At his words, Jamie's head drooped and she slid down in her chair, trying to make herself invisible. She didn't answer him but Jim knew he had to press on. Bones had said the little girl was capable of answering questions about the kidnapping - that no memory blocker had been used on her. Yesterday, he'd given orders that no one was to question Jamie but himself or Bones.

"Honey, I don't want to frighten you, but I need to know what you remember about who took you."

As if she'd thought he wanted her to be brave about something worse, he saw Jamie visibly relax and her breathing even out. Without a hint of fear in her voice, she spoke up clearly. "I don't remember anything."

"You didn't see the person? Not at all?"

He'd seen the masked person in the ransom recording, but he wanted to see if Jamie could add any scrap of information. "Think, honey."

"You . . . you wouldn't believe me if I said it wasn't a person."

So that was it. Jim leaned across the table and put his hand on top of hers. "Yes, Jamie, I would believe whatever you told me."

She seemed to be thinking that over. Quietly, as if she were afraid the words might someone be wrong, she bit the corner of her lip and then whispered, "It was an elephant headed person."

"With legs and arms like a human?"

Jamie nodded.

"But the person wore an elephant mask?"

"A mask? Was it a mask? I thought . . . maybe it was a half elephant, half person like the minotaur. You believe me, Daddy?"

"Of course I believe you." Having the confirmation, he wanted, he shared what he knew. "I saw him or her too."

"Did it speak? Could you remember the voice?"

Jamie shook her head, took a reflective nibble of toast. "It talked but with a universal translator. They all sound the same."

Frustrated, Jim had hoped for another answer. "I know."

"Daddy? Why did the elephant person take me and hide me? I don't understand. Was it a game?"

"No, honey, it was no game."

In simple words he told her that she'd been taken and held for credits. He explained ransom at her questions. Jamie didn't appear to be frightened of that, so he told her how they'd searched the ship looking for her. With a surreal sense of duty, he explained kidnapping.

"That's a bad thing to do isn't it?" She asked, playing with a crust of toast on her plate. "Once at the school I went to, this boy kept making me give him my milk credit card. He was mean."

His daughter had been bullied? Jim wondered why he'd never known this and a new wave of guilt washed through him that he hadn't been there for her. It took him a minute to realize Jamie was still relating the story and he'd missed part of it.

" . . . so he never tried to take my card again." She finished.

"What? I missed that last part. Why did he stop?"

"Because of Susan, this friend I had."

"Your friend made him stop taking your milk card?"

"No, Daddy . . ." Jamie laughed. "Because of the Vulcan part."

Jim shook his head to clear it, obviously he'd missed more than he thought. "Can you tell me the story again. I'm afraid I wasn't paying attention."

Jamie shrugged. "Avi, this mean boy at school kept making me give him my milk credit card. An' then Susan said he kept taking hers too. So we made up this plan so he'd stop. I told Avi that I was part Vulcan an' if he didn't stop taking my card and Susan's, I'd give him a Vulcan nerve pinch every time he took our card. An' while he was knocked out, we'd paint his face like a Venusians Clown."

"And he believed this?"

"Not at first. So then me and Susan thought we better prove it."

"How?"

"That was the easy part. Susan's big brother, Todd, didn't like Avi." Very intense, Jamie stopped to fill him in on this part of the story. "Todd is almost grown up. He's got his own flitter an' everything. That Avi, one day he took a key and scraped it all the way down the side of Todd's flitter and made a big scratch. That's why he didn't like him. So he helped me and Susan with our plan. Todd pretended he was chasing Susan, yelling at her. We made sure we were in the playground where Avi could watch too. Susan started yelling for me to do the Vulcan pinch on Todd. He's pretty tall so I had to climb up on a tree and lean over in a branch to pinch him. Todd rolled his eyes back like he was really pinched, and he fell on the ground. He stayed there too when Avi walked over to see if he was really out."

He couldn't help it. Jim burst out laughing at his daughter's ingenuity.

A little smug herself, Jamie shrugged and finished up. Her grin reminded him somewhat of a younger James T. Kirk. "When I told Avi he better stop for good, he got really scared. He told all the other kids too an' nobody bothered me an' Susan the rest of the year."

Jim took another sip of the coffee, grimaced and decided to have his Yeoman make the real thing when he got to the bridge. "That sounds like something I would have done. Maybe you have more of me in you than I thought. I always thought you took more after your mother."

"That's what Gramma said when she found out." Jamie agreed. "She said Jamie Diana Kirk, you're Jimmy the second." They laughed and then Jamie turned serious again. "Daddy? How come the person wanted all those credits?"

He sighed. "That's something we're still trying to find out. If you're ready, let's get to the bridge."