Walking Out of The Shadows

Chapter 5

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This is Sydney's first trip into space (that she remembers she was unconscious on the way to Earth) since she almost died. So she has a bit of fear being on a tight little shuttle and McCoy's rant about blowing up isn't going to help. Panic attacks are not a sign of weakness, and that's not what it meant to show by her almost having one. It's a manifestation of fear, and it helps McCoy having something to do too.

Sydney leaned against the shuttle and looked at her watch. "Dad, he's not coming," she informed her father.

Pike looked at his daughter and sighed. "We can wait a few more minutes," he told her. "Why don't you go find a seat?" he asked.

"Well considering we can't take off without the pilot, which is you, we're not going anywhere with out you being in the pilots seat," Sydney told him. "Plus, I'd rather stay out in the fresh air until the last possible moment," she said.

"You can sit up front with me, you know," Pike informed her as he looked back out in the open.

Sydney smiled. "Thanks, but no special treatment, remember. My own fault for waiting until the last possible second to see if I was going to have any trouble being in a shuttle," she said as she cast a glance inside. "Well at least it's not on fire," she stated.

"I'll try to keep it that way," Pike assured her. "You didn't sleep last night did you?"

"Do I ever?" she asked as she heard a sound of a motorcycle approaching. "Well, look who showed up," she commented as she stood up from her leaning position. "I'm glad I didn't make a bet with you, I would have lost."

Pike gave her a small grin. "You're not as gullible as you were a teenager, you know," he told her.

Kirk grinned as he came up on the pair. "Four years?" he questioned Pike. "I'll do it in four," he told him as he walked up to Sydney. "Thought I wouldn't show up did you Syd?"

"We're not friends, Kirk," she told him. "You're not on the shuttle yet, so therefore you can still change your mind," she said.

"We can be more then friends, you know," Jim told her.

Pike cleared his throat. "Kirk, that is my daughter you're talking to," he reminded the younger man. "Shuttle," he said.

Sydney tried not to grin. "You first, I don't trust you not to make a run for it," she told him.

Jim grinned as he got in the shuttle, and proceeded to hit his head.

"Oh this is going to be fun," Sydney said as she rolled her eyes as he took a seat. She looked at Pike. "I'm going to remind you that this was all your idea when he crashes and burn," she told her father.

Pike laughed. "And then I will have to remind you that you did talk to him after me," he informed her.

"Just make sure he's not on my ship," she warned as she sat down next to Uhura.

"Oh this is going…." Uhura started to say as she cast a glance toward Kirk.

Sydney nodded as she glanced toward Jim then back at her. "Fun?" she asked.

"Not the words I was thinking," the other woman answered. "You doing ok?"

"For now," Sydney answered her friend. "I kind of feel bad that he's going to be in your class," she whispered.

"You could always volunteer to be first year," Uhura teased her friend.

"And have to sit in on my father's lectures? Please!" she said with a grin.

Jim glanced over to the two women. "You know we were never properly introduced," he said to Uhura.

"I guess you're just going to have to wait until orientation," Uhura answered.

Syd laughed as a woman officer escorted a man past her.

"I can get you a doctor," the officer told the older man.

"I told you people, I don't need a doctor. I am a doctor," the man grumbled.

"You need to get back to your seat," the woman told him.

"I had one in the bathroom with no windows," the man grumbled.

The woman looked at him. "You need to get back to your seat, now!"

"I suffer from Aviophobia, it means the fear of dying in something that flies," the man grumbled.

Sydney glanced at the man as he grumbled.

"Sir for your own safety and everyone else's, I need you to take your seat or I'll make you sit," the woman officer said.

" Fine," the man grumbled as he took a seat beside Kirk.

The officer sighed. "Thank you," she said before she stomped off.

"This is Captain Pike, we're cleared for take off," Pikes voice said through the intercom.

Sydney glanced past Kirk to the older man. "Everything ok? You don't look to good," she questioned.

"No everything is not OK," the man grumbled as he looked at Kirk. "I might throw up on you."

"I think these things are pretty safe," Kirk told the other man.

"Don't pander to me, kid. One tiny crack in the hull, and our blood boils in thirteen seconds," the man grumbled.

Sydney glanced at Uhura and shook her head. "Um…would you mind keeping your voice down?" she asked passed Jim.

"What you don't want to think about what you're getting yourself into? A solar flare might pop up and cook us in our seats. And wait 'til your sitting pretty with a case of Andorian shingles. See if you're still so relaxed when your eyeballs are bleeding. Space is disease and danger after darkness and silence," the older man grumbled.

Sydney took a breath. "You said you were a doctor, you've got a hell of a bed side manner," she told him as she took a breath and undid her seat belt.

"What are you doing?" Uhura asked.

Jim looked at her then back at the man. "Well, I hate to break this to you, but Starfleet operates in space."

"Yeah, well, got nowhere else to go. The ex-wife took the whole damn planet in the divorce. All I've got left is my bones," the man said.

Sydney ignored Uhura as she moved to the seat on the other side of McCoy. "Change seats with me, Erikson."

"Sit down," the same female officer that had dealt with McCoy told her.

Sydney looked at her. "I will, when Erikson gives up his seat. Or your other choice is that I go up to the cock pit in the middle of a panic attack and tell the pilot to land this thing," she said as she looked at McCoy. "You're a doctor, I take it that you know how to deal with panic attacks."

Kirk gave a small grin at the officer. "She does have a bit of a pull with the pilot, and I don't think you'd want me to tell him that you didn't help his daughter out," he told her.

"Syd, do you need me to get your dad?" Uhura asked.

Sydney shook her head at the woman starting to try to control her breathing.

McCoy stood up and looked at the man next to him as he took hold of Sydney's shoulders. "Well you heard her, damn it get up."

The young man got up and sat down beside Uhura as McCoy sat her down in between her and Kirk. "Now you're the one that doesn't look so good," the man told her. "Leonard McCoy."

"Sydney Pike," she answered.

"Jim Kirk," Kirk said. "You're turning green, Syd."

Sydney looked at him. "Didn't I tell you last night, Syd is reserved for friends? You haven't made it to the friend level yet," she informed him.

McCoy raised her sleeve to take her pulse and paused as he saw the scars. "What happened?"

Syd sighed. "I was in a patrol ship that was fired upon and it caught fire. Four of the six people died. This is my first time on a shuttle, well that I remember, since," she explained.

"My little rant about blood boiling didn't help?" the Doctor asked. "Sorry, I speak before I think. Now I know why I'm in this tin can, but want to explain to me why you are?" he asked as he took her pulse.

"I'm a little curious myself," Jim told her.

Sydney let her eyes scan over both men. She knew neither one of them wasn't going to accept silence as an answer. The doctor in a professional way, and Kirk in a noisy need to know way. "I'm 24, Doc, I shouldn't have lived but I did. I could either hide away for the rest of my life doing some job I hated or I could get back out doing something I'm passionate about. I decided I'd give Fleet a try this time, and if I didn't make it, well I had family and friends to fall back on."

"Think you just made yourself two more weather you like it or not," McCoy told her.

"We were friends last night, and she sure doesn't like it, do you Syd?" Jim asked.

"I'm going to make sure you're assigned to my hand to hand combat class," she murmured to herself.