I do not blame you (if anyone is still reading this. I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't) if you want to throw mud/rotten fruit/assorted sharp objects at me.. I haven't updated since February and though I do wish I could say I had a reason, I had plenty of time in the 6 (oh god six. That's half a year. ) months that this story has been stagnating. I almost forgot what it was about and where I wanted it to go.

Loads of stuff has happened and has been straightened out, for instance, my results were good, and I've got a place in a university in Europe, I've moved there, settling in, sorting out administrative poop. Currently I'm rather sick and I can't get an appointment because all the General Practitioners are full. (I'm starting to miss Singapore's polyclinics. Waiting times and all.) And it's a foreign country to me, so I expect to be pretty busy. This translates to updates with longer breaks in between, though I do hope that it won't be as drastic as to merit the 6 months that have gone past. To those that are still reading, for a reason I cannot fathom but am boundlessly thankful for, well, thank you. Really. I'd love to hear from you guys, even if it is to express your hate and desire to throttle me with my own shirt.

And without further ado. Because there was enough of it already.

Jim stared, dumbfounded, as Gaila twined her arms around the smirking Gary. He returned the gesture, pressing the Orion to his chest in a seemingly affectionate gesture, but with her head pillowed under his chin and her face hidden, he looked over at Jim and twitched his eyebrows. His smirk deepened as he ran one hand down Gaila's back, eliciting a quiet, happy sigh from her. Something in Jim twisted.

Gaila disentangled herself from Gary, but kept close, one arm around his waist. His face shifted immediately from arrogant to gentle as she turned her face up to him. She giggled, blushing.

"You should see the look on your face, Jim. Didn't expect me to land the most amazing girl in the Academy, did you?" Gary said, and Gaila blushed deeper.

Two pairs of eyes watched Jim attentively, waiting for his reaction. Though Jim had known Gaila for a shorter period of time than he had Gary, with whom he had shared tutorials from the start of his time in the Academy, her expression and feelings were easy to read. Joy. Love. Eagerness for Jim to be happy for her.

"I definitely didn't. I suppose I should have guessed, eh?" Jim forced out, pasting a smile on his face. "When did you two get together?"

"Just yesterday! And it feels like the most right thing ever!" Gaila exclaimed. "You should hear about what happened—Oh, unless you mind, darling?"

Gary flashed a smile. "Not at all." Jim listened numbly as Gaila launched into a tale of flowers, notes under doors and locked gazes across no less than twelve different rooms. He wasn't paying much attention to her words. Instead, he concentrated on Gary, who was looking at Gaila in a way he didn't like at all.

When Gaila finished, flushed, she took a deep breath and bounced a little on her toes. She looked over at Jim again, though this time, with a hint of hesitation. "You- What do you think, Jim?"

"Fantastic! You two look really great together!" Jim lied, and Gaila beamed. Gary only smirked, keeping his eyes on Jim.

Of all people, why did it have to be Gary? Jim counted him as a friend, he conceded, but it was the kind of friend he hit the clubs with, or drew up a list of 'best girls' with, or pulled stunts with just to chase away boredom. If Jim hadn't found a best friend in Leonard McCoy, who had decidedly put a stop to the more reckless pursuits he would have otherwise embarked on with Gary, well… it didn't bear thinking about. A disciplinary hearing would probably feature somewhere. "I'm meeting Leonard," he heard himself say in a cheerful voice that didn't sound like him. "I'll catch you two later, yeah?" And he legged it down the corridor with as much discretion and dignity that he could muster.

Why Gary? That was a pointless question, he knew the answer already. Of course it was Gary. Gary's fervor in chasing the ladies was comparable only to Jim's. But while Gary would describe everything that happened in the bedroom down to the tiniest graphic detail to the delight of the male listeners hanging on to his every word, Jim would keep mum about it, shrugging, refusing even to give ratings. It wasn't much, but that thought was at least a small saving grace. He had never liked how Gary talked about girls, but he had always managed to ignore it. But now, Gaila's bright, hopeful eyes were at the front of his mind and he couldn't help but curse. He knew what Gary was after, simply because they had spent so much of the first year pursuing just that. Alcohol or not, hadn't he done pretty much the same thing at the Galaxus Dinner?

Jim slowed his pace and headed towards the dorms.

Gaila was obviously head over heels in love with Gary. It was just a matter of time before she got her feelings trampled into the floor again. He ran his hand through his hair distractedly and sighed. He couldn't leave it at that. His conscience would be unbearable.

In the next two days, Jim tried ineffectually to catch Gary alone. It was more difficult than he had anticipated, as he was either with Gaila, or his sports buddies, or gone (and presumably with Gaila). And the last thing Jim wanted was to cause a scene that would hurt Gaila more than anybody else, which would undoubtedly happen if he confronted Gary in front of such witnesses.

Oh, god. It sounded like he was gearing up for murder.

Nevertheless, he managed it. Knowing that Gary had Piloting reading to do, he borrowed one copy of the lecture disc in the Library and hid the other eleven in the Xenobotany section. When Gary's double break arrived, he retired into a Cell that wasn't too obscured, and waited.

It didn't take long. Within 15 minutes, the Library doors opened to admit Gary Mitchell, who made a beeline for the Piloting section. Jim, meanwhile, basked in smug self-satisfaction, and when Gary emerged from the shelves, empty-handed and agitated, moved to busy himself by slotting the disc into his PADD and feigning interest. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Gary checking the Library database. He knew his name would be there, probably among a few others, on the list of students who had borrowed a copy. Hopefully Gary would notice the time of the borrowing and think to take a look around. He had probably planned only to pop in and pick up the disc before meeting up with somebody (Jim fiddled with his pad, frowning slightly), but he would have to sit and talk with Jim before that.

The Cell door slid open, and Jim looked up at Gary with a very credible look of surprise. "Hey Gary! Wasn't expecting to see you. What's shaking?" He nodded at the seat opposite him, inviting him to sit down. Gary did so, eyeing the PADD.

"Background reading?"

Jim leaned back in his seat, stretching his arms, then leaned forward again and tapped the disc cover. "Nah. Just refreshing. I'm in a Piloting mood today." The lies came more easily than Jim thought they would. He briefly wondered if he should be concerned about that, then dismissed the thought just as quickly.

"Ah. See, I have a favour to ask. I need to read up on that and there aren't any copies available for borrowing."

"You're kidding! There's always loads of spare copies, I thought." And there are. There had to be, too. Piloting was popular.

"So did I. They're either borrowed or I can't find them." A tiny thrill went through Jim's body at this affirmation of his plan working perfectly.

"And you want to borrow this one?"

"If you don't need it that badly. Because of the lecture with Johns later."

"He's still sore about you flirting with his wife?"

"I wasn't to know. She looks 20 years younger than him!"

"She is. You might want to notice the matching marriage bands in the future." Gary only waved his hand dismissively at this. "Anyway, why are you reading up so late?"

Jim's building suspicions were confirmed when Gary shot him a wicked grin. "That Orion. She's a piece of work, right enough. She's gone out of my room only for lectures and tutorials." He held Jim's gaze. "Only lectures and tutorials. I'm meeting her in a bit behind the engineering building."

Jim fought the urge to clench his fist, and pushed the thought of too late away. "Funny you should mention Gaila. I wanted to talk to you about her, actually." He had been dreading this. But he owed it to her. All the more now that he hadn't been quick enough to stop Gary taking her back to his room.

"Oh, I think I know everything about her already. Down to the last freckle in the most unlikely place and how having her back touched puts her on edge. I'll give it to you, I thought you were crazy, but you knew what you were doing at the Galaxus Dinner-" He stopped, staring at Jim. "Hey. What is up with you?"

That was it. Jim looked down at his hands, which were gripping his PADD so hard his knuckles were white. Beating about the bush was never his strong point, even when the situation expressly called for it. This wasn't one of them anyway, so he took a deep breath.

"Unless you are serious about being in a relationship with Gaila, and I don't mean a sex-buddy relationship, I want to you stop it. Right now." He inhaled. "She deserves better than a wham, bam, thank you m'am. But I wouldn't expect you to thank her, even."

Gary stared at him, struck dumb. If he had been expecting anything, Jim knew, it most definitely wasn't that. Their talks about girls before that had, Jim thought somewhat guiltily, revolved around what could be described as comparing notes on bedroom techniques and experiences. To his credit though, Jim didn't expect his reaction, which was a delighted, raucous laugh that echoed painfully around the small Cell. He wiped tears of mirth from his eyes, and propped his elbows on the table. "Jim," he began, and snorted in laughter again. "Are you in love with her?"

"I—No! That's not what this is about at all! Look, Gary. Gaila's had a hard time. Because guys only see her as an Orion. She's just like any other girl with feelings, and I want her to be treated like one." The laugh was fast disappearing from Gary's face. "If you can give her that, fine. But if you're with her just for the orgasms, and if you hurt her when you're tired of her, you will have me to answer to."

They stared at each other across the table, the fading threads of Jim's uncharacteristic words hanging in the air. Gary's mouth, Jim noticed, was slightly open. Was saying such a thing really so strange?

For Jim Kirk, famed ladies' man extraordinaire, it probably was.

"Let me get this straight," Gary finally spoke. "Unless it's for a deep, caring, mutually fulfilling relationship, you want me to leave Gaila?"

"Yes."

Gary gave a bark of a laugh, but it was cold. "Why? You've had your fun with her. Let me have mine."

Jim had been mentally preparing himself for this particular argument. "I was drunk at the Galaxus Dinner. It was a mistake and I regret it."

"Oh, sure you do! I bet little Jim doesn't, though. If I didn't know better, I would say you're jealous that I'm with Gaila."

"Jealousy has nothing to do with it. I made a mistake I'm trying to make up for, and-"

"So you're telling me I can't sleep with her? Oh, for fuck's sake. Stop being such a damned hypocrite and listen to yourself. Since when did you take such an interest in what girls felt?"

To that, Jim didn't have an answer. He always made sure that the girl didn't expect more than a one-night stand, but at the same time didn't regret it later. To tell the truth, Gaila had been the first to completely give herself up to the idea of a night in bed (or in that particular case, on the bench in the rose bushes) as a perfectly sound opening to a relationship that was meant to last beyond the morning.

"It doesn't matter." Jim hid his hesitation under a steely glare and prayed that Gary didn't see through it. "Gaila is a friend, and deserves more respect than you're giving her. If you make her cry…" He left the words hanging.

Gary glared at him through narrowed eyes. Then he got to his feet. "You damned hypocrite." he hissed, and let himself out.

Jim sat very still for about a minute. Then he folded his arms on the table and buried his face in them, which was how Leonard McCoy found him an hour later. He put a gentle hand on Jim's shoulder. "Jim?"

"'m not sleeping."

Bones raised an eyebrow and dropped into the seat that had been occupied by Gary Mitchell just over an hour ago. "It sure looked like it. I commend your choice of location, but you're missing lunch."

"Don't feel like eating." Jim mumbled against the fabric of his sleeve. "'m tired."

"Well, alright." Jim could hear the shrug in Bones' his friend's voice. "You're forgoing the delights of Mrs Beesworth's excellent herb sauce tagliatelle."

"Tagliatelle is easy to handle. It doesn't hold grudges and come around to bite you in the ass."

Bones paused and regarded Jim's form. "Which is why you should be appreciative of it. Lunch. Now. You can tell me about what is bothering you."

Finally, Jim looked up, meeting the doctor's steely grey gaze that belied the concern within. "Alright. I'll meet you in the cafeteria in 10."

"So let me see if I have this right." Bones put his fork down purposefully on his empty plate. "You and Gaila are on good terms. But she's found a new man in Gary, who's just using her."

Jim, his mouth full of tagliatelli, grimaced and nodded.

"You tried to talk him out of it with little success. Now you think he might give Gaila a harder time because of the little talk you had. Not to mention you're not too proud of the fact that your motivations weren't much different when you met her, and you don't much care for the notion of her finding that out." Jim grunted in reply, focusing on the pasta on his plate. "Tough. I never liked him."

"I'm wondering if I should try talking to Gaila, but she's completely in love with him."

"You wouldn't achieve much."

"No."

"No." Bones agreed.

The conversation lapsed, in favour of the clink of Jim's cutlery on his plate as he finished off his lunch. He was frowning slightly, the corners of his mouth drawn. Bones knew better than to disturb him when he had his thinking face on- he'd only get monosyllabic answers and then Jim would find some excuse to hide somewhere and just think. Which, in this case, didn't seem like such a bad idea, because Bones didn't have any idea himself as to what Jim should do in terms of damage control, short of knives and body bags in the night. He knew if there was a way to get out of the situation, Jim would find it. He just hoped the time he needed to do that wasn't too long.

"Any lectures today?"

"What? Oh. No."

Bones stood up and gathered his used crockery. "I do. You had better make use of the time. Where will you be later?"

Well, the answer to that was easy. "The Library."

The Piloting class was a big one. Which meant that Jim, who had been allowed advance placement, could enjoy the Library at its quietest best even, and especially, when the lecture was taking place. He paused at the entrance; being back here, he was reminded of his intention to beat the Kobayashi Maru. He still wanted to. Oh, how he wanted to. Life just saw fit to throw itself in the path of his plans and be annoying in the way it was so good at. He glanced at his usual seat at the Librarian's desk. It was his favourite place, but now it didn't seem appropriate. It wasn't like he would be solving formulas and ploughing through excess readings- no, he had to come up with a solution to the Gary problem. He had no intention of sharing such troubles with the Vulcan Librarian, though he could use the calming influence right now. He strongly doubted that he'd be spared an inquiring question or two (or, heaven forbid, the eyebrow) if he spent two hours sitting in his chair frowning and not saying a thing.

Then he remembered the angry note on which he had the Library just three days ago. Well, sitting there was definitely out of the question. 'Awkward' would not even begin to describe it.

To the Cells it was, then.

He took a step forward. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the Librarian look up at him, and felt his gaze pull at his eyeballs as he drew level with the desk. His internal litany of don'tlookdon'tlook proved useless as his eyes met the Librarian's emotionless brown ones. There was no feeling there as far as he could see- just calm observation. Jim gave him a small nod of acknowledgement and hurried up the staircase to find a calm, quiet spot, feeling the back of his neck flush red. With embarrassment? He cursed. Why the hell was he embarrassed? He had so many other things to worry about than his image in front of the Academy staff.

He found what he wanted midway up the Cells structure- a group of Cells that was completely, blessedly abandoned. He picked one and shut the door behind him.

Could he talk to Gaila? What would he say? The only way he could credibly discourage her was by admitting his own original intentions, his imperfections. Nobody could expect him to be perfect, but Gaila thought of him as her friend. He couldn't betray that…

Gary? Talking to him didn't help… Jim knew him, what he was like. He would spite Jim, just to show he could, and would… He hated giving up or getting beaten as much as Jim did, which naturally meant that this whole damn situation had 'BIG PROBLEM' written over it in red marker…

Maybe he could trick him into leaving Gaila somehow? Find a hotter chick… But no, Gaila WAS the hotter chick, there wasn't anyone else Jim could think of that would agree to get with Gary Mitchell for Jim's reason, no matter how differently he phrased it. Short of a downright lie, that wouldn't work and there'd just be more problems after that.

Jim lost himself in speculations and half-baked, wholly unrealistic plans. The PADD surface became convoluted with little squiggles and notes and arrows that were crossed and corrected and re-circled again.

This wasn't working. Just like in the Kobayashi Maru, he was missing something, the crucial point. If what you tried didn't work, go for another strategy and try them all. All the strategies…

Strategies. Well. He wasn't sure if the great generals of history and space meant for their ideas to be used in an academy to resolve problems such as his, but they were certainly in no position at all to protest. Lying in a grave somewhere wasn't a position to do much other than lie there, after all.

So.

Gary Mitchell had all the power in his hands, there was little Jim could do if that remained the case. That was straight out of Bridge Psychology and Battle Strategems. So if he was to have a chance, there were variables he would have to influence, or new ones that he should introduce. Get leverage. Introduce an uncertainty factor. But then he came to the big question of 'what', or possibly 'who'—

The answer hit him like a hammer to the head. He couldn't believe it had taken him so long to think of it.

It was time to visit Cadet Uhura.

There you go! I hope that was alright. I have no idea how this became a lets-save-Gaila-from-Gary chapter, but it won't go on for long, I swear. I don't want it to. So I also apologise for the Spocklessness (which think I have done once before. Oh no. ) I hide behind the excuse that it is a slow-building fic. Please don't fling things at me. I also don't really like how its veering away from the spirit of the first chapter (if you read it again you'll see what I mean) in the sense of humour fics, this chapter is all… drama-mamma-llama. I shall do my best to improve on that, please bear with me!

Whether it be lovin' or hatin', I'd love to hear from you! Please leave me a review! Clicky the review button.

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