Countless hours later, Orion woke to the bright light of a few stars. She was a little disoriented until the events of the previous day attacked her memory with full throttle. All the sudden Orion felt very much alone...just a little blip on a radar somewhere. She was grateful for the company which she had the previous day because it helped stave off what was hitting her now. And Orion rather it hit when no one was around than when everyone could see her break down.

Never in her life had Orion spent more than 20 hours away from Artemis. It was a little unsettling not to have that calming force that he oozed. Orion worried about him. How was he faring? She at least had some people who distracted her through those initial hours. He had no one but her parents. Her parents...how were they? Her poor father...

Orion felt tears pricking her eyes. "No!" she shouted in attempt to stop them from falling. However, it didn't help since the tears fell anyway. How could she not cry? She lost her entire life, albeit it somewhat willingly (after all she knew that the possibility of returning was slim to none...but that was when Artemis was still with her). A loss was still a loss, and Orion wasn't heartless. She missed her family. The young woman curled up into a ball on the bed, allowing the tears to silently stream down her face.

She had no idea how long she cried but Orion froze upon hearing someone out side her room. "Good morning, Orion!" came the chipper, and annoying voice of the last person Orion wanted to see at this time. How could he be so happy and generally alive so early? Probably was part of his job to one of the first people awake and one of the last to go to sleep. It was unbelievable really.

"No! Go away, Cap'n. I don;t want to talk to anyone at the-" Orion yelled angrily before shrieking went he entered anyway.. "What the hell are you doing?!" she shouted before turning away to wipe her tears away. Like hell would she let Jim see the tears. "Don't you know it's rather rude to enter a room when you weren't invited in?" she seethed, glaring silvery daggers at the Captain.

James chuckled at Orion's indignation, but when he saw Orion, any comment of the sarcastic or flirtatious nature that was just waiting to come out froze on his lips. Jim may not have been a total genius like Chekov or Scotty or even Spock, but he wasn't blind. Orion's eyes were puffy and blood shot, and her lower lip was quivering slightly (though that might have been from anger though Jim was almost certain it was because she was crying).

He felt his heart go out to the young woman. After all, the excitement of yesterday had worn off and now she was faced with a whole new world...with no one there beside her. Jim understood what it was like to have nothing...be alone in the world. Sure he had a 'family' but nothing like what he read Orion had. Hell, her brother spent almost forty years trying to bring her back, not to mention get himself back. Jim never knew that kind of love, but he still knew the kind of pain she was going through.

Orion stared at the Cap'n. Why was he looking at her with an odd expression? "What?" she snapped. If he was just going to stand there and gape at her like an animal in the zoo, he could leave. The sooner the better, Orion thought as she looked out a window.

"I just came by to give you the layout of the ship. I am aware you know where some of the places of importance are, but I figured a layout of the entire place might prove handy." Kirk said as he set somethings down on the table. Whatever it was he was going to say to try to comfort Orion didn't seem too important right at the moment. Jim could read from her tone and body language that if he hinted at knowing she had cried, he'd be close to a dead man.

After he finished setting the things on the table, Jim turned back to Orion. "I also brought you a PADD which will be your best friend for catching up. This one just covers information on the twenty first century, and a little bit extra, but just come by the bridge when you're ready for another one," Kirk offered a weak smile.

Orion appreciated that he wasn't trying to hit on her at the moment. He probably could tell that she was having a rough morning already, much to her displeasure of having anyone see her in this kind of state. "Thank you," she said quietly. However, Jim's excellent hearing caught it, causing his smile turn into a grin.

"Anything for a pretty lady." And there it was. The same old Kirk that she had been expecting the whole time. Orion glared at him. She was not amused at being called a lady. Call it childish, but Orion was really only lady in gender and a few other things. Other than that, she didn't really see herself as a lady.

She rolled her eyes as he chuckled. "Don't you have, oh I don't know, work to do elsewhere on this ship?" Orion asked with a bit of ice and a bit of sarcasm. Of course he did, so why he was wasting precious working time, delivering something that he could have had another deliver confused Orion.

Jim stared at her, almost as if she had shot him. He was not used to hearing those kind of statements from someone with breasts. In fact, the captain thought that Bones had temporarily inhabited the woman. "Why yes, yes I do. But I'll get to when I want to," he said with a small pout.. But he had a plan. Oh yes, James T. Kirk had a plan.

Orion raised an eyebrow. "Since when did you become a seven year old child?" she snipped, crossing her arms and sitting up on the bed.

The captain shrugged. "You're a genius, you tell me," he said before sitting down in a chair. Orion glared at him. It was more like the look he was used to getting from Bones when he was acting particularly childish. If Jim didn't know any better he would have sworn that Orion was actually an ancestor to the grumpy doctor.

"I have every right to act as I please...being captain and all," he said while looking at his fingernails. The very picture of a rebellious child who was bored with the lecturing.

"Are you trying to piss me off with your arrogance and in general your pride?" Orion asked exasperatedly as she rose from the bed and stood by a window. The stars zoomed by like the lights did on the highways back home. Such a nostalgic, bittersweet feel about it. Those were the kinds of feelings Orion loved, much to the displeasure of her mother. So who cared if she sometimes loved to feel small and insignificant in this big wide world, or that she felt that there was something out there?

Orion was pulled from her reverie by the Cap'n's drawl-like arrogant speech. "No, but I see that it's working regardless," he humored with a smirk. Orion rolled her eyes at the man-child (as it didn't appear to her that he grew up at all, despite being a year or two her senior), and turned her attention to those things which deserved her observation: the stars.

A small smile graced her face. The lights from the room and space made her look like a faerie who was proud of her work. "Aren't they beautiful?" she asked suddenly turning to face Kirk. She wondered if the sight of this beauty every day, jaded the crew to how incredible it was that they were in space in the first place.

Orion had often loved looking at the stars at night with her father. It was one of the few things for which she could use to claim her girly-ness. What man, other than her father of course, would be crazy enough to look at the stars and have such a romantic view of them? Orion's point exactly.

"Yeah, they sure are," he murmured lightly. Jim just stared awestruck at the woman in front of him. She had gone to being as good as Bones' twin to a romantically inclined woman all in a matter of moments. Despite being a self-proclaimed expert on women, it still terrified Jim how women could change emotions with a flip of a switch.

The Montgomery lass wrinkled her nose slightly before giving a bittersweet smile to the Cap'n before looking back at the bright stars and galaxies. "I...," she started with a chuckle, and Jim leaned forward, anxious to hear what she was going to say. "My dad and I., and occasionally Arty, would gaze at the stars. Childishly, I would share my dreams with my dad and brother...about how I knew.," she wrinkled her nose again, as though it weren't exactly the right word. Jim smiled lightly. She was adorable when sharing something personal like this, though it worried him slightly. "More like I felt that there was more to the universe than just us. I never thought I'd find out quite personally that I was right," she said wryly.

Jim frowned a bit. This was certainly not what he was expecting, nor did he wish her to seem so melancholy about it. Hell, he was trying to keep her from being melancholy. He grinned, though thinking of something that would hopefully get a rise out of her. "I bet your name sake 'whispered' that knowledge to you," he mused lightly, causing Orion to blush a nice shade of pink before scowling at him.

The Cap'n held up his hands and had a look of mild innocence(since he rarely had a purely innocent demeanor about him. Always up to something and causing some sort of trouble). "I didn't mean it offensively. It was just a musing that I happened to voice. But since we are on the topic of names...what about yours? I learned about Orion back in elementary, but I never thought it would be a girl's name," Jim said quickly to get his explanation out before Orion could butt in with a sarcastic comment.

Orion couldn't help but smile She knew that this question about her name would have shown up sooner or later. However, what caused her to smile was the person who asked the question. Never in her short time aboard the Enterprise would she have thought Kirk to be intelligent about anything other than how to run a ship and women. In other words, she would have thought Spock would have asked about the peculiarity of a woman being named after a mythological man, not Captain James T. Kirk.

"That's a good question," Orion said as she waltzed over to the counter. With a small shrug she hopped onto the counter and received a raised eyebrow of amusement from Kirk. He used to do that kind of thing whenever his mom was planet side. Damn those were good times....But now was not the time to reminisce on his shitty life before Starfleet.

The young woman shrugged again and leaned forward. "My parents, Doctor and Mrs William Montgomery were brilliant in their own regard. Yet even brilliant people are known to go through brief bouts of insanity," she started to explain, and Kirk couldn't help but wonder what would happen when Chekov or Spock hit that point.

Orion sighed and pushed some hair out of her face while her face screwed in concentration. Jim thought it was a cute quirk. "Anyway," she started again with a title of her head. "My parents hit theirs when my mom discovered horoscope and mythology." Orion shook her head and chuckled. Apparently it always amazed her at how scientific her parents were, and yet they for a time were wrapped up in the most unscientific thing she knew of.

"So of course she dragged my father into it, after all he loved my mom very much and got involved with whatever interested her despite being a busy man ," she said with a smile. Her parents love for each other was very evident from the small notes to extravagant gestures. It was what Orion wanted from a man. His full love in the small things as well as the large ones. However, her thoughts were straying and she shook her head to help clear her mind.

On the other hand, Jim was very interested in what she was saying. He could see where this was heading, and wanted to know if his initial guess was correct. Yet, Kirk was enjoying listening to Orion speak about her parents. It was obvious that they were a close knit family, despite what articles said about them spending little time together. In a way, Jim was envious. She had the kind of family he had always wanted, but never got.. His brow furrowed slightly at these thoughts. No matter what Jim felt or thought, there was no denying that he was placed with the family he did have for a reason. A reason that Jim knew not.

After returning to a passive expression, Jim nodded at Orion for her to continue. She just wrinkled her nose in mock irritation before chuckling and shaking her head. "Well, when they found out my mom was pregnant they were undoubtedly ecstatic about it, and that happiness and joy doubled, no pun intended, when they found out about there being two babies instead of one.

"So, they started to go to the mythology to find names. Interesting names were found whether or not my parents realized that those uncommon and unpopular names might have caused trouble for Artemis and I. Dad didn't think that Artemis and Apollo would work so well, given the various things that had gone on with the Apollo shuttle launches. But then they ran into Orion the hunter after doing some more research. They figured two hunters would make a fine enough pair for twins."

Orion chuckled slightly. Jim smiled lightly as well. It was fitting though. The Montgomery twins had fought tooth and nail over many scientific theories. Though not actually fighting or hunting, the two had dug around and hunted, as it were, for reasons and proofs that 'impossible' theories were in fact very possible. Properly named indeed. However....Jim's puzzled expression caused Orion to smirk a little. "Confused as to how they mixed up the names?" she asked saucily.

Jim laughed and nodded. She wasn't even trying and yet Orion was making a very good impression on the young captain. The kind of impression that would later make the man wonder if he had lost his mind, thinking of perhaps doing the whole dating and courtship thing right with Orion....that is if she'd agree to one date.

"Okay, so that whole ordeal came about when Arty and I were born," Orion said as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. "My parents wanted the first one out to be named Artemis, since they figured I'd be born first...." Orion trailed off with a shrug.

"But you weren't but your brother was instead. Why didn't they just change the documents?" Jim wondered aloud. Orion tilted her head to the side and sighed.

"I've wondered that too. Maybe they just wanted everything over and done with and back home. I don't know those details. All I know is that my parents thought I'd be the first one out since I was apparently closer to...yeah..." she stated vaguely, starting to feel uncomfortable talking about her birth with more or less, a total stranger. Kirk seemed to pick up on this.

"It's alright. I was just curious," he said with a sigh as he rose from the chair. "But alas, I have stayed a little later than I had planned," he said, not sounding sorry or worried at all. Orion figured he had a big 'I'm the captain and can basically do what I want' complex. "So I leave you to a now moderately warm breakfast and the PADD which will begin your catch up process." Jim grinned roguishly. "No doubt you'll be done within the week. But anyway," Jim said as he made his way to the door. He was seriously late for his shift, and though he didn't want to leave Orion, the Enterprise got his top priority. "Good morning, and good day," he said before leaving Orion alone in the room.

Orion's lips pulled up into a faint smile as the Cap'n left. He wasn't such a pain in the ass. It confused her a bit though. How could a man be a pain in the ass and then be the attentive and almost sweet guy that Kirk had been. Orion hopped off the counter and padded to the counter. She picked up the schematics of the Ship and scowled slightly at the note left by Jim. Something along the lines of learning all the nooks and crannies where one could make out without being seen.

Nope. With out a doubt, James T. Kirk was a roguishly handsome and arrogant ass.

Author's note:

I am still in need of input with the pairing(as I totally don't care. I can see Orion with either one). And sorry only one vote per person.

There is only so much more I can write until I can make any romantic advances from either party.

Current Standings:

James Tiberius Kirk- 3

Leonard "Bones" McCoy- 2

Don't like the numbers? Just click the little review button and type a name.

Thanks for reading! Have a good day!