Soooo, here we are with the first couple chapters. It's kind of slow moving at first, but it picks up soon.

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek

"I can't do this!"

"Of course you can," Cordelia soothed her friend. "It's completely possible."

Christine glared at her. "I'm going to be a nurse. Why do I even need this class? Languages aren't that big of a deal."

"Seriously?" Uhura said. Her dark brown eyes were fixed on Christine in offense, her chocolate skin darkening a bit at her cheek. She was most likely hurt that Christine constantly mocked her focus of study. "Do you want to take care of people or aliens that you can't understand?"

"I bet things were so much easier in the old days," Ginger sighed. She combed her blonde curls out of her face in irritation. "In the way, way back, nurses and doctors had to learn Spanish or French, and that was it."

"Yeah, well, they were nursing world-wide, not galaxy-wide," Mina popped in the conversation. The brunette girl peeked her green eyes over the top of her engineering notebook. "There is way more to learn."

"Just focus on the fact that you don't have to learn Kling-On," Cordelia suggested. "We are in much simpler languages than Uhura will be learning."

"True," Uhura smiled proudly.

"Ugh!" Christine groaned, flopping back onto the couch. She received strange looks from people, but didn't seem to care. "Fine. What are we on, now? Vulcan?"

"My favorite!" Uhura grinned widely.

"Because of the language," Ginger smirked. "And the culture. And the men."

"Oh shut up," Uhura picked up her flash cards. "Don't be so immature."

"He is fine, there is no denying—

"Who's fine?" a voice said from behind Cordelia. "Speaking of me, ladies?"

Uhura, Ginger, and Christine exchanged irritated looks. The former's eyes narrowed to slits. "Back off, Kirk."

"Just came to see this group of lovely young ladies," the man in question came into Cordelia's sight. She felt her breath catch in her throat when he sent her a piercing look. "I don't believe we've met before."

"Don't do it, Kirk," a deeper voice with a southern drawl said. Cordelia recognized that one and smiled at Leonard McCoy when he appeared. "Cordelia isn't to be messed with."

"Cordelia?" Kirk smirked, sounding almost impressed. "Her name is almost as old fashioned as mine. James Tiberius Kirk, pleasure to meet you."

He offered a hand. Slowly, Cordelia handed him hers, shocked to the core when he kissed her knuckles instead of shaking it. "It's lovely to meet you as well."

James Tiberius Kirk was incredibly handsome. He had tousled blonde hair, eyes bluer than the San Francisco sky, and a strong jaw that was defined with every word he spoke. Cordelia found herself flustered by the feeling of his rough hand around her much smaller one, and struggled to focus. She may not have been a plain girl, but with friends like Uhura and Mina, eyes weren't drawn to her immediately. The fact that this James called her out made her even more uncomfortable than she was used to.

"You're a quiet one," James said. "How long have you been at StarFleet?"

"Two years," she said nervously. "I'm a nursing major."

"Ahh, same as Christine," Kirk smiled. "You know, I think we should get to know each other."

"Oh."

"I was thinking tomorrow night, there's this costume party..."

"No, Kirk!" three voices chorused.

"We can all go to the party," Leonard said. He shared a look with Cordelia that instantly made her agree. Leonard was like an intimidating older brother that you couldn't help but listen to.

"That would be fun!" Christine chimed in, clapping her hands. "We haven't been to a party in a while, our exams for the year end tomorrow...it'll be fun!"

"Fun," Uhura said dryly. "Right."

"Sounds great," James grinned, not in the least bit bothered by his friend hijacking his plans. "Remember, it's all about swing dancing. Someone came up with the brilliant idea to do it from the classic 1920's."

The small group spent the next thirty minutes chatting. Uhura and James preferred to throw insults back and forth, but it had an underlying tone of friendliness. The others were quite amiable, despite the fact that Cordelia was quiet. She kept to herself as always, only speaking when someone said something to her.

After a particularly funny story from James involving Leanord being quite drunk and trying to hit on several girls using the divorced trick, Cordelia realized what time it was. She lightly laid a hand on Mina's arm. "It's eight o'clock."

"Crap!" Mina exclaimed. "We've got to get back to studying! You boys have to leave."

"I'm hurt, Minnie," James pouted. "You want me to leave?"

"We have to study," Ginger put emphasis on the last word.

"But we were having fun," he pressed. "Cordie, back me up, here!"

"I'm afraid that I can't," she answered softly. "I can't afford to not pass this test."

Before James could argue, Leonard grabbed him by the collar and hoisted him up. Cordelia giggled at the pleading look on his face. He stopped his dramatics a moment later and winked, making Cordelia blush. "See you later, Cordie."

"Right," Ginger said when they left. "Where were we? Vulcan?"

That night, Cordelia found it quite difficult to keep her mind focused. James Tiberius Kirk was a very strange, very interesting man, and Cordelia felt that she would be spending some time figuring out just how interesting he truly was.