Author's note: Thank you SO much everyone who favorited/alerted/reviewed this chapter, it really made my day! Unfortunately I haven't been able to respond to reviews yet due to a crazy RL schedule, but wanted to get an update for you all, and promise to respond as soon as I can! Thanks again to my AWESOME beta, syfymango. Thank you all so, SO much again!

Disclaimer: Not intended for any copyright infringment. Unfortunately, this does not belong to me :(!


Nyota moaned grabbed her pillow and slammed it across her face. Of all the times for Gaila to come in late, it had to be this night. The night before her final exam for her Xenolinguistics II class, one of the hardest classes in the Academy, and taught by the hardest instructor, Commander Spock.

Gaila had been her roommate since she had joined the Academy, and although there had been large amounts of fights at first – mainly attributed to Gaila's sex drive, and Nyota's obsessive neatness – they had worked out their problems and were close as, well, as sisters.

However, that didn't mean that Gaila had lost her sex drive;

merely that she had arranged alternate 'accommodations' in order to continue. It also meant her coming home to the dorm at any hour in the day.

Nyota had spent the past three months studying as hard as humanely possible for this test, determined that she would obtain the highest mark she could, and as close to 100% as she could. Failure was simply not an option. And neither was locking the door to keep out one's roommate coming home at 0200 when her test was scheduled for 0900 hours she mused.

"Oops, sorry!" Gaila tried to whisper. "I'm just going to find my bed and oof!-"

Nyota bolted upright in bed. "What on earth is it?" She screeched.

Gaila sat up giggling. "I fell over your 'neat' pile of books," she said, pointing to the once neat pile of books now lying haphazardly on the floor.

"Layls, I don't have time for this. I have my final tomorrow with Commander Spock, and you know that I need to sleep otherwise I'm going to flunk it!" She clutched her hair in desperation, already picturing a large, red circled "F" in her mind. Not that such grades were now given out, they were now in percentages. But she watched many old Terran movies were that would happen. She'd also seen the movie where the children with the lowest marks had to sit in a corner with a large hat with the word, "Dunce," on it.

"Woah, slow down." Gaila held her hands out, "First of all, you are not going to flunk this test. So, stop panicking! And, I'm sorry I woke you up, but go back to sleep, you can do it!"

"How on earth do you think I'm going to get back to sleep when I'm obviously so awake right now?" Nyota asked in agitation, watching as Gaila stood up and came closer to the bed.

Gaila smiled sweetly at her, and started singing softly.

Nyota started to feel sleepy and smelled roses. And then she realized what her room-mate was doing. Emitting pheromones to make her drowsy, "Gaila!-" She fell asleep mid-protest.

Gaila looked down at her unconscious room-mate guiltily. But, there hadn't really been another option, and she needed to get her sleep. Satisfied, she cleaned up the pile of books that she'd knocked over on her way in, and set the alarm clock for 0730 hours, knowing that if Nyota wasn't going to give her a stern enough lecture tomorrow after her test about coming home at reasonable hours, that missing her test would definitely blister her ears.

She fell asleep with the picture of tonight's hunk in her mind, a Mr. Jim Kirk. A smile wistfully played on her lips, maybe soon Commander Jim Kirk?

Nyota ran frantically around their dorm, trying to remember whether she'd gotten all her things together that she needed for the final. She had her PADD, her student identification card, stylus and a couple of extras, just in case.

Gaila groaned from her bed and pulled the pillow from underneath her head, and clasped it over to her face. Nyota grinned at their role-reversals from last night.

"What is this ungodly hour?" Gaila groaned.

"0800 hours," Nyota responded promptly.

"And remind me, precisely why you're awake?"

Nyota rolled her eyes. Gaila had the memory of a gold-fish when it came to tests. Another reason she was thankful for the wall calendar that she had insisted upon, despite Gaila's misgivings that it clashed with her complexion. Instead of answering, she simply pointed to the calendar.

Gaila's lips turned up in a mischievous smirk. "Just kidding." She grinned at Nyota and her sigh of exasperation. "Do your best with the knowledge you possess," she said solemnly.

"Thanks, Layls." Nyota grinned back at her room-mate.

"Sure you got everything?" Gaila asked sarcastically, taking in the sight of Nyota's almost over-flowing knapsack.

Ignoring the sarcasm, Nyota ran through her mental checklist again. PADD, extra PADD in case first PADD broke, and another one just in case the back-up one broke. Check. Old-fashioned Terran writing utensils in case the Commander decided to utilize them. Check. Student ID. Check. Food. Check. "Yes." She took one last deep breath, glanced around the room and grinned.

"You ready?" Gaila asked seriously.

"Ready." Nyota took a deep breath, and walked out the door, and to the examination room.

The final took three hours, and to Nyota it felt like it had been a lifetime since she had walked in the room and started the test. During the examination, four out of the thirty students had broken down in tears. Six more had handed in their test paper's, faces ashen to Commander Spock. Ten more of those had handed in their examinations with tears threatening to fall. And the rest of them were left squirming in tense agitation. The pressure was mounting as their colleagues left, leaving the students still writing clearly visible.

Wondering whether that gaze was looking at them, and wondering if he had somehow been able to read their paper and was trying to convey that an answer was wrong. Or simply wondering why they hadn't already exited the room, knowing that they were going to fail.

Nyota didn't care about any of that though. She felt the gaze of the Commander fall upon her, and instead of ignoring it, she raised her head and nodded to acknowledge his gaze. He nodded back to her, eyes displaying no emotion as usual, and her head bent back to her work. She refused to be intimidated by the number of the students left in the room, knowing that she would take however long as necessary to accomplish what she needed.

And, to be quite honest, she was somewhat enjoying the examination. She knew that the examination was one of the hardest that she would experience at the Academy, and rather than being daunted by that, she welcomed the challenge. She knew that this was all in preparation for her future career on the Enterprise, and she would do whatever necessary (within her moral guidelines), to get there.

She finished the examination with 20 minutes to spare, and instead of handing in her paper and leaving, she closed her PADD, cleared her mind for a minute, and re-opened the PADD, double-checking all her work. She wanted to make sure that she had made no errors, and had done the best she possibly could.

She ended up in changing one answer. Not because she was wrong, but because she had remembered some additional information from reading another question. As a result, the answer was more rounded, and she was thoroughly satisfied with her work. As she closed her PADD, a bell chimed, signaling the end of the examination.

Nyota collected her examination PADD and other personal belongings. Three other students had remained with her until the end, and as they were seated at the front of the classroom, handed in their PADD's before her, and quickly left. She had sat in the middle of the classroom, preferring the personal space around her, and the feeling of not being stared at for being in the front, but not being able to hear from the back. She walked to the front of the classroom, handing in her PADD to Commander Spock.

"Thank you, Commander Spock for a wonderful semester, it's definitely been one of my favorite classes," she said earnestly.

He inclined his head in acknowledgment of her statement. "No thanks necessary, Cadet Uhura. I simply provided the knowledge as dictated by the course outline."

Nyota suppressed a smile. Vulcan's never accepted compliments. "Of course, Commander. Thank you again." She turned to leave.

"Cadet Uhura," he spoke quietly.

She turned around to face him. "Yes, Commander?"

"Your knowledge of this course is well above normal for other Cadets. May I inquire as to your further intentions within the Academy?"

Nyota smiled. "Commander, I would like to serve aboard the Enterprise as a Communications Officer. I know that it is an extremely competitive position, and as such, every language that I can take aids my position more."

"Cadet, it is only logical that with your academic record that you be considered for such a position."

Nyota inclined her head in thanks.

"I believe your success rate will be high with the results of this examination." He spoke with no inflection, but Nyota knew that he was complimenting her.

"Thank you, Commander."

"I will have the results from this examination delivered to you before the end of today." He nodded at her to dismiss her.

"Thank you," she said softly. She took in one last look at the classroom where she had learned so much, and quickly walked out of the door.

And straight into Jim Kirk.

"Oof!" Nyota found herself flat on her back, staring up at the ceiling.

Nyota opened her eyes and groaned at the throbbing in the back of her head. Of all the people to run into in one of the hallways, it would have had to be him.

"Well, hello," he said huskily, opening his eyes and looking down at her.

"Get off me!" She said indignantly, pushing at his chest to let her up.

"Cadet Uhura, Cadet Kirk, may I inquire as to the meaning of this?"

Nyota groaned and closed her eyes, praying that when she opened them, she wouldn't still be lying underneath Jim Kirk, and that Commander Spock wouldn't have witnessed said incident. She opened her eyes. No such luck.

"Cadet Uhura?" He prompted.

Thankfully, Jim took that moment to stand up and extended a hand to help pull Nyota up. She glared at him, and ignored his hand. Pretending not to notice her reaction, Jim swept a hand over his hair. "My fault, Commander Spock. I was walking down the hallway and did not notice Cadet Uhura exiting, and unfortunately knocked her over."

Spock raised his eyebrow, the only expression of emotion he would allow himself. He often thought how clumsy these human males were, and this was no exception. And to leave Cadet Uhura still lying on the floor. He snapped his attention back to her. "Do you require assistance to stand up, Cadet Uhura?"

"No, thank you," she said through gritted teeth. The throbbing in the back of her head was growing stronger, and it felt like a team of Romulans were banging hammers inside of her skull. She slowly collected the items that she had dropped when Kirk had banged into her, trying to delay standing up. Knowing that she couldn't delay any longer, and feeling the curious glances of Commander Spock and Kirk on her, she slowly got herself to her feet. The throbbing inside her head increased and she winced.

"Are you feeling alright, Cadet Uhura?" Spock inquired politely.

The throbbing inside her head had now reached pitch volume and the world was starting to shake around her. She put out a hand to touch the wall and promptly collapsed.

The little army in her head had now subsided their banging and were instead only doing a soft march on her cranium were her first thoughts of waking up.

Second was her concern about why everything was so white. Painfully white.

Third was why she was lying on a bed.

"Welcome back, Cadet Uhura," spoke a mock-jovial voice to her left.

She spun her head around and saw one of the doctor's of the Academy. Doctor McCoy, she thought?

"Where am I?"

"You're in the medical ward." He huffed in agitation.

Nyota rolled her eyes; she had figured that out funnily enough, by this point.

He laughed quickly at her reaction, and hastened to explain. "Commander Spock brought you here after you collapsed."

Nyota gaped at him. Commander Spock?

He correctly interpreted her expression. "He carried you in here about two hours ago. Explained that you'd had a run-in with Cadet Kirk and appeared to have hurt your head. We checked you out, and it seems you'd sustained a large bump, not a concussion, but large enough to make you see stars for a little while. And not the ones outside." He grinned at his joke, and Nyota couldn't help but laugh, while her brain was going a mile-a-minute, trying to figure out why the Commander had brought her himself, and not asked someone else to do it. She was torn between acute embarrassment at him lifting her to annoyance at that stupid Cadet Kirk for putting her in this position.

Then she realized Doctor McCoy was still staring at her, probably expecting some response from her.

She coughed awkwardly, trying to cover up her silence. "Well, thank you for your assistance. Am I allowed to sign-out?"

Doctor McCoy nodded. "Just make sure that you don't do any strenuous activity over the next 3 days, you don't want to aggravate that injury, or hurt it worse." He slapped a bottle of pills in her hand. "Make sure you also take 2 of these in the morning and the evening for your headache."

"Thank you, Doctor." Nyota smiled at him, and after signing her release form., She slipped off the bed and walked back to her dorm, her brain torn between plotting evil ways to get revenge on Kirk, to embarassment about being so close to Commander Spock, and the fact that he'd carried her. She was just thankful that it was the end of the semester. She would go by his office tomorrow to thank him, and then she wouldn't have to see him for two whole months, and hopefully he would forget the incident (she conveniently put the thought of him having a photographic memory out of her mind).


So how did we like the non-movie scene? :)