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Special thanks to Beta Notes from the Classroom. Check out her latest "Crossing the Equator" in my faves for some Pike / Number One and Spock / Uhura goodness.

Second Intermission

Jim's stumbling into his quarters through the dimly-lit halls. The hallways on all Starfleet ships are always dim now, except when they're on red alert. They're conserving power. He hits the access code and walks into his quarters. He's literally falling into his bunk when his comm rings.

"Don't let that be Pike. Don't let that be Pike," he breathes into his pillow, because Pike or someone else from the admiralty is the only thing that will get him out of bed.

"Lieutenant Commander Nyota Uhura on subspace," his comm chimes, its light blinking red to signal it's official business.

Well, there is someone else he'll get out of bed for.

He hops to his computer, clicks a few buttons, and there she is. Grinning like an idiot he says, "Uhura, you look great."

And she does. It's been two months since she was transferred, and he hasn't heard or seen anything of her. If there are any lingering vestiges of TH319 in her system he can't see them. Her cheeks look a little flushed, her skin is a deeper shade of brown, the hair framing her face is glossy and full again. She's wearing only a fitted tank top, and maybe she's some place warm, because he thinks he sees the subtle sheen of sweat.

"Thanks, Captain," she says, looking a little uncertain. "I got a message saying you called on official business?"

"I made the official part up; just wanted to know you were okay. Call me Jim, or Jimmy. Turn your head, Uhura, turn your head."

Giving him a funny look, she obliges.

"Now hold up your hair, hold up your hair! I want to see your ears!" Jim says.

"Are you looking for some remnant of the TH319," Uhura says sounding worried. "I don't think any of that rash got to my ears..."

Jim lets out a breath and sits down. Smiling he says, "They're still round! The way SI swooped in and took you away I thought you'd be halfway to Romulus by now with ears and eyebrows and everything -"

He puts an elbow on his desk and rests his head on his hand. What was he thinking; her eyebrows are obviously still round...He really needs to get some sleep, but his mouth is still moving. "You're safe!" He sits up. "You're safe."

"Yes, I'm safe," she says, not smiling.

"That's great!" he says. And he means it. He is glad someone is.

She's giving him that same melty look she gave him the night he was so messed up at the poker game. "Are you safe, Jimmy?"

Jim tries to summon up his most devil-may-care look. He wants to say, You're looking at the savior of the galaxy here, Babe, of course I'm okay. But it's all he can do to keep a smile. Shrugging he says, "We're okay, Uhura."

Not looking like she's buying it she says, "I heard of what happened at the border. The Enterprise was there. Seven ships, Jim -"

He takes a breath and looks off into the darkness of his quarters, "Yeah, the Enterprise got really lucky." He'd like to say it was his tactical brilliance, but that's really not the truth.

"The crew," Uhura says. "I know there were 15 casualties..." She swallows. "Who...?"

"Do you remember Lieutenant Finney?"

"Oh," says Uhura. "You were kind of close to him...I'm sorry."

"Yeah," says Jim. And then he thinks he knows what she might be asking. "Spock's okay. He's off somewhere doing some top secret stuff in R & D." Spock's actually working with his counterpart, trying to get a jump on the next century's technology, but those details are classified. In the meantime the Enterprise and the rest of the fleet are just nipping at the Romulans' heels, hoping they can give old Spock and company long enough to give them real hope at winning this war. The only reason they seem to be holding on at all is that not all of the Romulan fleet is updated with Nero-esque firepower. Maybe their supply of red matter is limited too, but that's beyond Jim's pay grade.

"Spock's tried to reach me..." Uhura says.

Jim's not surprised. Spock definitely withdrew after Uhura left, even more than usual. He wouldn't even play 3D chess with Chekov or Cupcake anymore, always said he was meditating. Spock was obviously hurting, or something. Jim's not sure if he should say anything, or if he wants to say anything, so he doesn't.

"Sulu your first now?" Uhura asks.

"Yeah."

Jim looks back at the screen, "You're safe and it's good to know." And because he really doesn't want to talk about his dumb luck, or about listening to the sounds from the other ships as they were hit, or about the letters he's had to write home to the families of fifteen dead crew members - which seems like a lot, but is so little compared to seven ships...he says, "But I guess I'm not allowed to talk about where you are, or what you're doing?"

She licks her lips and then smiles a fine-I'll-humor-you smile. "You can ask that, Jimmy -"

He waves a hand at the screen and grins. "But you'd be lying. Come on, maybe I can guess." He sits back in his chair and closes one eye, as though looking through rifle sights. "I'm guessing someplace warm..."

"I think I should tell you," Uhura says, "that everything we're saying is being recorded."

Jim sits up and blinks at the screen. He shouldn't. He really shouldn't. He does.

"I guess this isn't the time to talk about your unrequited love for me then, is it?" He's not even sure he's teasing so much as testing. But he winks at her and smiles like the cat that just ate the goddamn canary and is about to burp up a feather.

Her mouth drops, her eyebrows knit together. And then she smiles, a wide, wicked, evil smile. "You mean, that time in the turbo lift meant nothing to you, Captain?"

The way she purrs out those words, it's turning him on, and he's knows he's in deep trouble. "Wuh?" he says, possibly winning an award for least witty repartee ever.

"Mmmmmm..." she drawls. "I never knew it could be that good..."

Swallowing, he says, "Um?"

She smiles, "...but I guess it's what my roommate always said, men with small -"

Scowling at the screen Jim says, "Wait! No! We never had sex! Do you hear that, monitors? We never had sex! She's making it all up!"

Uhura breaks down in peals of laughter. Jim stares at the screen kind of impressed, but simultaneously too angry to speak – everyone knows you just don't joke about a guy like that, when the klaxons go off.

Jim doesn't even bother to cut the transmission and that's why he hears Uhura yelling, "Be careful!" as he's running to the door.

x x x x

"Lieutenant Commander Nyota Uhura on subspace," Jim's comm chimes two weeks later. Subspace communications have just been reestablished. The light blinks red.

With a groan, Jim picks it up.

"You look terrible," Uhura says. "Are you alright?"

"Thanks," Jim says, "and I'm fine." But just barely. He rubs the recent dermal repair job on his arm.

"Now what was that official business you were calling about?"

"That was all," she says.

Uhura doesn't look terrible. She looks better than ever. Like she might have put on a little weight, in a good way. She looks like she's been getting a lot of sun, and probably some training, too; the weight she's put on is toned and firm. He tilts his head; her muscle tone looks - organic.

"I should go," she says.

But they wind up complaining about the latest movies that have been holofied and released to the fleet - fluffy, cheerful, situational comedies that are really popular but sweeter than Ferengi taffy, and even less filling. They harp about this latest strategy to improve morale for at least an hour.

x x x x

They talk off and on for almost a year. Sometimes he calls. Sometimes she calls. And then one day she just doesn't answer his latest message. He's not too worried. No Federation worlds have been invaded since he last heard from her. And then Spock calls him. His comm light is green, telling him it's personal. Jim can't imagine any reason Spock would call so he picks up.

"Do you know Lieutenant Commander Uhura's whereabouts?" Spock asks. His posture is exceptionally rigid.

"I haven't known Uhura's whereabouts for over a year," says Jim. Although he has a very good guess. It was definitely some place warm, and he suspects it has higher gravity, too.

"But you are in contact with her," says Spock. And instantly Jim knows Spock is not in contact, although he obviously knows where she is – or was.

"What do you know?" Jim says.

"Only that she was...safe...until a week ago. Presumably, code breaking, but now she has vanished."

Jim sits up. He never talked to Uhura about what she was doing, although he presumed it was code breaking, too. He always just joked that she was sitting on the beach somewhere weaving baskets while he was getting shot at by Romulans.

"You know more than me then," Jim says.

Spock quirks an eyebrow, and Jim thinks he sees the ghost of a smug smile.

After the transmission ends, Jim thinks about his last conversation with Uhura. He'd been griping about the trickle of intelligence he'd been receiving. Going off on the "basket weavers" for not weaving fast enough.

Now that he thinks about it, she did look a little hurt. She said, "I'm sorry, Jim, I have to go." But then she'd hung there on the line.

"Don't worry," he'd said. "You'll see me again. I'm not so much a dog as I am a cockroach. You just can't kill me."

"Can I have those awesome cockroach powers?" she'd asked. But then a priority one message came in from Pike and he didn't have time to answer.

Jim sits back in his chair. He knows in his gut that she's not safe anymore.

A few weeks later the Romulans open up a second front with the Cardassians - thank God for the stupidity that comes with perceived superior fire power. It's not like Jim thinks the Federation will win as things stand now, but at least they have a little more time.

Presumably to get a foothold closer to Cardassia, the Romulans attack a little backwater planet called Bajor and Jim and his crew are sent to intervene. These Romulans do have Nero-esque firepower.

The Enterprise goes down and Jim can't think about anything for a while.

A/N:

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One more chapter? Two? I don't know! (But this isn't going to be a Descartes Behemouth, I promise).

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