"Wouldn't you rather spend some time with Spock?" Janice asked Uhura.
The two were playing cards on the Enterprise's recreation deck. Outside the nearest viewport, Janice had a good view of the battered freighter Sarah Spencer and the world of Veridian III beyond it. The Enterprise had settled into orbit around the new Vulcan colony not long ago, and Janice had just come off duty after several hours of processing reports bound for the Starfleet outpost below.
Uhura smiled, eyes flicking over the cards on the table. "Spock's spending the time here visiting a...Vulcan elder."
"A Vulcan elder? Who is it?"
"Just someone he met after the business with Nero. Anyway, I don't want to spend shore leave all alone and I hear it's great down there. Plus we both need the break. What do you say?"
Janice glanced out the viewport once more. While the refugees from Vulcan had established their main settlement in an arid desert region of the planet, Starfleet had set up a small outpost and transfer station on one of the coastlines. Supposedly, the beaches were quite beautiful. Turning back to Uhura, Janice gave a small smile.
"I have a ton of work to catch up on. I'll let you know?"
"Yeoman Barrows prepared these fuel consumption reports for you to sign, sir. And Burke needs you to approve this list of personnel we'll be transferring once we make our rendezvous with the Valiant. As for the reports from Engineering about the repairs from-"
"How many Yeomen are aboard?"
Janice stopped mid-sentence, still holding the padd she'd been about the set in front of Captain Kirk. "I beg your pardon, sir?"
The two were in the ship's briefing room. Kirk was leaning back in a chair with his feet up on the table idly toying with a parrisses square ball, Janice standing in front of him holding a stack of padds. Swinging his feet down, Kirk offered her a roguish grin.
"How many Yeomen do we have serving onboard the Enterprise?"
"Um...eight, sir."
Kirk nodded, making a show of mulling the information over in his head. Standing up, he paced slowly around the conference table, tossing the ball from one hand to the other.
"Mhm," he said, "And yet...out of those eight, I've only seen you today. Why is that?"
Janice tried not to think about how sexy his smile was. She looked down at the reports in her hands.
"Um, well...Barrows, Atkins, and Burke beamed down for shore leave this morning, sir. Jamal and Landon are off duty and-"
Kirk held up a finger to silence her. Setting the ball down on the conference table, he crossed over to Janice and gently took the reports out of her hands. She tried to ignore the wobbly feeling in her knees as his fingers brushed over against hers, but failed as soon as he rested a hand on her shoulder.
"Thompson and Samno are still on duty and perfectly capable of handling anything that might come up in the next day or so, Yeoman. You've been running at Warp 10 for a week now. The ship isn't going to fall apart if you take some shore leave yourself."
She looked up and was instantly mesmerized by those blue eyes.
"Yes, sir." She replied quietly.
Kirk's smile grew even broader, and he gave her shoulder a squeeze and tucked the reports under his arm, whistling as he headed out of the briefing room.
Janice ran a hand back through her wet hair as she sat down on the sand next to Uhura. "You were right, Nyota."
The other woman smiled. "I usually am."
Clear blue water washed gently up onto the white sandy beach, and up and down the length of it, personnel from the Enterprise were relaxing in the sun, splashing in the surf, or otherwise enjoying the beautiful day. Uhura and Janice had just returned from a swim and stretched out on a pair of blankets to dry off. The swimsuit she'd borrowed from Uhura was a little tight and revealed a bit more than Janice was comfortable with, but it was still relaxing to be away from the ship for a little while.
Janice stretched out on the blanket, basking in the warmth of the Veridian sun, when a shadow fell over her. Blinking up at the dark silhouette, she squinted and raised a hand to shield her eyes.
"Taking my advice, Yeoman Rand?" the shadow said.
Janice's eyes adjusted to the bright light, and a cold dread stole through her as she realized it was the Captain. He was shirtless again except for a towel draped over his shoulder, and wearing a pair of cut-off jean shorts. Janice didn't think it was possible, but to her he looked even better than the first time she had met him.
"Um...y-y-yes, sir!" she stammered awkwardly trying to roll over and snap off a salute. A smile blossomed across Kirk's face. Before he could make any comment he was interrupted by Dr. McCoy, trudging along the beach behind him. McCoy was lugging a small cooling unit, and mirrored sunglasses were perched on his nose. He saluted everyone with the open beer and his other hand as he approached.
"Ogling the crew, Jim?"
Janice barely heard Uhura's retort as she remembered the tight swimsuit she was fairly spilling out of. Oh God, why now? Desperately she scanned around for a towel.
"At ease, Janice." Kirk said, startling her. Looking up, she saw him putting on his own sunglasses as he and McCoy headed off. Down by the surf, she could just make out Commander Scott waving to the Captain with a few members of his engineering crew.
"It's just good to see you relax. Take care, Janice. Uhura."
Uhura smiled up from her own blanket. "Captain."
McCoy and Kirk trotted down to the surf to Scotty. Janice followed them with her gaze, and turned around to see Uhura smirking at her.
"Oh God. First Gaila, now you."
Janice blushed and smiled back, fighting with every inch of her being to keep from turning and getting another view of Jim Kirk as he dove into the surf.