Kirk's mood had moderately improved by the time he made it back to the bridge, although he was still sulking a little. Chekhov announced his presence on the bridge, at which point Spock relinquished the captains's chair and came over to him.

"Everything is going smoothly, captain," he said in his usual dry manner. "All decks report no abnormalities."

"Thank you, Mr. Spock," the captain acknowledged as he headed to his chair.
The Vulcan tilted his head. He could tell that something was bothering his friend. Perhaps it was Dr. Cole. Jim had seemed interested in her since their first meeting. No matter what it was, the captain couldn't let it interfere with his duties. And it was his duty as first officer to make sure the captain remembered that as well.

"Are you alright, sir?" he asked, going to stand beside the chair.

"I'm fine Mr. Spock," Kirk said through his teeth.

"But everything points to–"

"I'm fine Spock."

Before the disagreement could go any farther, a beep came from the captain's chair. Someone was paging him on the intercom. Kirk was grateful for the distraction. He really didn't want to talk about what just happened.

"This is Kirk," he answered, all business.

"You'd better get down here captain," the voice was urgent. "The prisoner is out of control."

Kirk and Spock exchanged a glace and ran off the bridge. They burst into the brig with their phasers drawn, only to find the prisoner standing calmly in the middle of her cell, completely calm. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, except the guards in the room all had their phasers pointed at her.

"You said she was out of control," Kirk said, confused.

"She is, sir," one of the men replied. "She started throwing things."

"I only threw one thing," Leo groaned, rolling her eyes.

She walked up to the glass and picked up a shallow metal bowl. The guard's phasers moved with her, never leaving the enemy. She straightened up, ignoring the weapons pointed at her.

"My food bowl," she indicated the metal dish. "I'm surprised it doesn't have 'Fido' written on it."

"It should have 'bitch' written on it," one of the men mumbled under his breath. Leo fixed him with a glare that would have melted steel.

"It's alright, gentleman, you can lower your weapons," Kirk ordered.

The guards obeyed and went back to their posts. Kirk and Spock approached the cell, putting their phasers away.

"What happened?" Kirk asked, rubbing his forehead.

"Nothing," Leo replied shortly.

"You seem distressed and agitated," Spock observed.

Leo gave him an exasperated look.

"Is something bothering you?" the Vulcan pressed.

"Not anymore," she replied.

"Well, since there's no immediate danger, I'm returning to the bridge," Kirk sighed.

Spock nodded in acknowledgment. Kirk started to leave, but paused at the door. He turned to face Spock.

"She is not leaving that cell under any circumstances. That's an order," and he left.

Spock nodded. "Affirmative, Captain."

Wendy took a seat at one of the empty cafeteria tables. While the Enterprise was the newest and most advanced starship in the fleet, the food still sucked. She had barely taken her first bite of mystery space meat, when she was joined by Lieutenant Uhura.

"How are things on the Kirk-front?" she asked as she sat opposite her friend. Wendy rolled her eyes.

"He won't leave me alone. He asks me to join him for dinner pretty much every day. It's getting pretty annoying."

"Well you keep turning him down. Don't get me wrong, Kirk is a great captain. But when it comes to women . . . well, he can be a bit of a womanizer."

Wendy nodded, "I know exactly what you mean. If he wasn't so damn attractive. . . ."

"I suppose so," Nyota shrugged.

"Oh, right. I forgot you prefer men with pointier ears," Wendy joked. Her friend laughed and nodded in defeat.

"I can't argue with that," she chuckled.

"Speaking of which, how are you and Spock doing?"

"It's . . . interesting."

"Interesting how?"

"He's so. . . ."

"Frustrating? Annoying? Clueless? Being a typical guy?"

"All of the above," Nyoa rolled her eyes. "Sometimes I wonder if he knows what the word 'romantic' means."

"Hey," Wendy pointed her fork at her friend. "He likes you, I can tell. And he's working really hard to make you happy."

"You're right," Nyoa smiled. "He does try. And I know his feelings are genuine. I've been really lucky. And I wish I could give you some advice about Kirk, but I don't know what to say. I mean, he's been that way since we were cadets. You remember."

"Yeah," Wendy sighed. "I do."

Today was going to be the first time the cadets worked with a flight simulator. Their first year at the academy been spent in discussions and the occasional theoretical or role-playing scenario. Everything had been talked about in theory up until this point. But today the cadets were going to put what they learned into practice, and it was a big deal. Everyone was excited and nervous at the same time, especially Wendy. She was confident that she could ace this test if she took it alone. But their instructor had thrown in a catch; they had to work in teams. Assigned teams. Wendy sighed as she looked over her team mates. Why couldn't she have been put with Nyoa? She should have been put with Nyoa. Instead she was stuck with a couple of air heads, who had no business being at the academy in the first place, and James Kirk. James fucking Kirk, notorious playboy and class clown. Wendy couldn't remember a single time that he took a class seriously. He was already flirting with the other two girls on the team and completely ignoring Wendy. Not that she minded.

"Wendy, I am so sorry," Nyoa apologized as she walked up to her friend.

"It's not your fault," Wendy replied. "The groups were chosen at random. It's not like you abandoned me or anything."

"I know that, but it seems like you drew the short straw. I mean, not only are you stuck with Amanda and Jess, you've got Kirk to deal with. You'll be doing the whole thing yourself!"

Wendy put a comforting hand on her friend's shoulder. "It's just a simple take off and docking simulation. It should be easy."

About half an hour later, she was wishing it was as easy as she told Nyoa. The simulation room was set up so that no one person could do the entire thing by themselves. It was a good thing in the fact that it forced every person in the group to do something and not just sit back and do nothing and get credit for it. But it was bad in the fact that, if three out of four members didn't even care about the test, then the one person who did care got thrown under the bus.
And that was the situation Wendy found herself in. Amanda and Jess were useless even on a good day. If Kirk would step up and help her, the two of them might be able to pull this thing off.

But Kirk was too busy flirting with Skank 1 and Skank 2 to even look at the sim screen, let alone actually keep his hands on the flight controls.
They made it out of the dock in one piece, despite Cadet Loverboy scraping the hull against the sides of the dock, and Cadets Dumb and Dumber constantly asking where the controls were and what they were supposed to do next. But when it came time to bring the starship back into the dock, things really went south.

Kirk was leaning back in his chair, chatting up Jess shamelessly.

"So you're originally from Texas?" he asked the brunette with his trademark smirk.

"Yeah, it was so boring though," Jess tossed her hair and giggled.

"No, no. Texas is great," Kirk leaned over the console, his elbow almost pushing a nearby button.

"Hey! Watch it!" Wendy interrupted.

"Shut up, Cole," Jess snapped.

"Yea, Cole," Amanda added. "Shut up."

"He almost pushed the self destruct," Wendy snapped back.

Kirk looked down and immediately moved his arm back. He looked over at Wendy and smiled apologetically. She rolled her eyes at him and went back to doing what she was supposed to do. Which was more than she could say for the others.

"I love Texas," Kirk continued like nothing had happened.

"Really?!" Jess gushed.

"Oh yeah. The wide open spaces, the barbeque, those big hats. . . ."

Jess and Amanda both giggled, and Kirk's smirk widened. He leaned over again, completely forgetting that he'd almost blown them up just a few seconds ago. Wendy did her best to ignore it. Maybe if she did her part well, she'd get a good grade despite her team mates. Thankfully, they were almost done. If she could keep the ship steady for a minute longer, they would be safely in the dock. And maybe they could get by with a passing grade.

"So, if I could get your number. . . ." Kirk continued.

"Of course!"

Jess grabbed Kirk's hand, pulled him the rest of the way over the console so she could write her number on his palm. But as she did, Kirk's torso bumped the steering controls. Sirens went off as the ship swerved sharply to the left.

"Shit!" Kirk and Wendy swore at the same time. They both frantically tried to right the ship, as Amanda and Jess stared blankly at the screen, looking very confused. But it was too late. The ship crashed into the side of the docking station and the simulation ended.

Several hours later, Wendy stood outside of the instructor's office. She had a feeling that she was in trouble. She knew that Jess and Amanda had already talked to him. They had spent all afternoon complaining about it. She took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

"Come in," came a voice from inside, and it didn't sound very happy.

She opened the door and was surprised to see Kirk already standing in front of the desk. Captain Ross motioned her inside and she quickly obeyed, taking her place next to Kirk. Their instructor stared at them for a while before finally speaking.

"It's been a while since I've seen that simulation go that badly," he started.

Both cadets just nodded and mumbled, "Yes, sir."

"Do you want to tell me what happened in there?"

There was a long pause. Wendy and Kirk both stared at the floor, unsure of what to say.

"Well?" Captain Ross pushed. He was growing impatient, so Wendy decided she'd better say something.

"Well, sir, what happened–"

"It was my fault," Kirk interrupted.

Both Wendy and Captain Ross stared at him. He was staring straight ahead, a determined look on his face.

"It was my fault, sir," he corrected. "I wasn't paying attention."

"The whole thing was your fault?" the captain question.

"Yes, sir. I wasn't paying attention and I bumped the controls. And, may I be frank, sir?"

"You may."

"We only did as well as we did because of Cadet Cole. She did her best to keep the ship steady. If I hadn't been so irresponsible, we would have made it."

Wendy stared at Kirk in shock. This wasn't something she expected from the self-centered boy from Iowa. Their instructor nodded, although he didn't seem to fully believe Kirk's story.

"Alright, dismissed," he shooed them with one hand.

The cadets didn't need to be told twice.

Leo watched in annoyance as Wendy opened the folding chair and set it down right in front of the cell. The woman just wouldn't leave her alone. Though she had to give her credit for her determination. And she seemed to genuinely want to help.

"We need to talk," Dr. Cole said as she sat down.

"I don't feel like it," Leo replied, pacing.

"Well too bad."

Leo raised an eyebrow, surprised by her frankness, then started to laugh.

"I'm serious Leo. Something's going on with you and we need to talk about it."

"Fine," the woman sighed, dragging out the 'i' sound. "What do you think we need to talk about?"

Wendy started to answer her, but she was interrupted by Spock's arrival.

"Is Captain Love Machine not coming?" Leo asked dryly.

"It appears from her sarcastic and defensive manner that she does not wish to speak to us," Spock said to Wendy.

"Thank you, Captain Obvious," Leo drawled sarcastically.

"I am a commander, not a captain, Miss Aristov. You should know this," Spock replied, genuinely confused.

"Oh my god. . . ." she groaned.

"God? I did not think you were a religious person."

"Who says I have to subscribe to any one religion?"

"You seem far too logical to believe–"

"Oh my god, do not start talking about religion again," Wendy interrupted. Leo smiled.

"And you," she continued, pointing a finger at Leo. "Stop trying to distract us from the subject."

"What subject?" Leo asked innocently.

"Your dreams," Wendy replied curtly.

Leo narrowed her eyes and Wendy could tell that she had struck a nerve. She could tell that this was going to be a delicate subject.

"Leo, please. . . ."

"There's nothing to discuss," Leo spat out.

Wendy was taken aback, Leo was angrier than she had thought.

"Clearly there is," Spock shot back, unfazed. "Something has been going with you since you woke up."

"Nothing's been going on with me! That's part of the problem! I've been stuck in this cell for three weeks!"

"We came here to talk about your dreams, Leo," Wendy soothed. Leo slumped onto her bunk.

"There's nothing to talk about," she sighed. "I'm just reliving old memories night after night."

"Bad memories?" Wendy pressed.

"No, good ones. But that just makes it worse."

The conversation with Leo stayed with Wendy all day. She could understand that reliving good memories could sometimes be more painful, especially if the person was depressed or in a bad situation. But what she didn't understand was Leo's extreme reaction to them. Were her dreams really so vivid and real? That would explain why she was getting more and more frustrated about waking up in a cell day after day. Wendy also thought that the subject of the dreams might have something to do with it.

She entered her quarters and got ready for bed, still thinking about the conversation. Bones had mentioned that, before she was captured, Leo attempted to revive someone else. Khan, to be precise. Leo claimed that it was because of her loyalty to him as her leader, but Wendy thought there might be something more. Maybe it was a different kind of loyalty that prompted Leo to revive the deadly warrior.

She picked up her tablet and turned it on. Maybe she would find some clues in her research. Opening the file on Leo, she started to pour over documents and notes for any sort of clue. She searched for hours, but only found circumstantial evidence to support her theory. That is, until she came across a certain video file. It was a video of one of Leo's speeches, given at a rally in London after her two and a half year hiatus. Except this was a very special video. This particular camera had happened to record the second attempt on Leo's life; the one that almost killed her.

At first, Wendy wasn't quite sure what she saw. She re-watched the clip several times before it hit her. She enlarged the video and ran a facial recognition scan just to be sure. But there was no doubt in Wendy's mind. She knew exactly what kind of dreams were haunting Leo at night. And now she had an idea on how to fix it.

I've reverted back to my old self. I wanted to update this story regularly, and I just kept forgetting. Although I have been kinda busy lately. But I feel like that's no excuse. It's not like most of this story isn't written out already.

Anyway, I decided to make this a longer chapter to make up for it.