A/N: So I wrote this chapter after being infected with a nasty bout of inspiration. Anyways. Review if you think it still needs something.

A Dangerous Bet

It was 6:35 on a Wednesday and the card-table was missing a member. Sulu was definitely there, and had been complaining for the past half hour that Scotty and McCoy had taken until an apauling 6:05 to get there. He wasn't usually this on edge, none of them were. But tonight was the mark of two extremely stressing ocassions. The first being the only time in the history of poker nights that Chekov had been late, and the second being the game that made the rest of all of their matches seem like nothing in comparison.

Tonight was the night that they played for not just paltry amounts of money (which in hindsight was probably not allowed), but embarrassment as well. Sulu had suggested it last meeting and it was a combination of the old game Truth or Dare and poker. Basically instead of collecting chips, points were counted until the end of the game when you could use those points to embarrass the other players. Scotty had some good stuff planned and just wanted the game to start already so that he could get the doctor to streak down the halls of the Enterprise. Sulu's involved soaking Chekov's hand in Quillian lizard piss.

Just as the helmsman imagined how hilarious the Russian's face would be as he sat there with his hand in a tub of reptillian bodily fluids, Chekov arrived with the cards and chips that would represent their points. He sat and briefly apologized before McCoy finally agreed to pass around the whiskey. All accepted, but hesitated to take sips except every once in a while out of sheer determination to win.

A few rounds in it was obvious that Sulu was in the lead, with a pile of chips so high that the others quite visibly shook in their boots for fear of what he was going to make them do. Chekov was next, though by a wide margin of twenty chips. And Scotty and McCoy were tied for dead last with three each. A few more rounds and it evened out a little more. Sulu lost at least ten on a bad round and it seemed by 7:49 that they had all gotten back to where they had started.

"This is the last round I can do today," Scotty declared a minute later, meaning that this would be the last chance for anyone to lessen their chances of getting utterly humiliated. "I've got hard work to get to in the mornin'."

"Yeah," Sulu agreed, "I fell asleep on the console after last week's game."

And it was agreed that after this the points earned would be set in stone. Ante was made and the cards were dealt and tensions rose within a matter of seconds as all their faces changed suddenly. Sulu tried hard to restrain an uncontrollable glee, and put on his 'I'm not interested in anything right now' face. McCoy tried hard to keep from uttering a curse so loud the entire ship would hear it. Scotty almost hit his head on the table out of frustration and Ensign Chekov's face was almost unreadable.

"Ten," Sulu said instantly pushing the chips in. Then Scotty and McCoy folded immediately afterwards. "What do you say, Chekov?"

"All in," the boy stated confidently.

"Wait," Scotty interjected, "what? Are you insane?"

"I'll bet he is," McCoy agreed adamantly, but Chekov didn't say a thing more.

"I'll bet he's bluffing," Sulu shook his head and pushed all of his chips in before turning his cards over. The asian man leaned back in his chair rather confidently, "Four of a kind."

Chekov blinked and turned his over as well. "Straight flush."

Sulu's eyes nearly popped out of his head and he scooted forward to look at the cards in disbelief. His fear confirmed, he grabbed his bottle of booze and downed the rest of the large bottle. Now his and the other's fates were in the young boy's hands. Ending the game with zero points, Sulu lost the most out of all of them. McCoy ended with a fair ten and Scotty with about seven. But the Ensign ended with fourty-three chips with which each of their fates could be decided.

And it certainly wasn't Chekov's hand that had to soak in lizard piss an hour a day for six weeks after that.