In which Bones has some - ahem - internal struggles, Camille meddles, and Karina swears off men. (Sure.) Enjoy!

I own none of the lovely men in this chapter, however all my OCs and the plot belong to me!

"Your neck giving you issues?" Bones asked, noticing Camille rolling her head from side to side.

"Eh, it's not so much my neck as my shoulders," she muttered, reaching back and rubbing the spot between her right shoulder blade and collarbone. She still couldn't get to that one spot that was bugging her. She'd been going non-stop the past week. Bones couldn't make sense of how one woman could find so much to occupy her time in Iowa, of all places, but Camille Osbourne had made do.

He toyed around with the idea in his head. Her back was turned to him, so he shouldn't feel so utterly ridiculous for visibly changing his mind several times over, opening his mouth to offer, then shaking his head and retracting it. He didn't want to seem…what was the term Karina would use? Creepy. That was it. He didn't want to seem creepy, but at the same time, he knew exactly how to rub her shoulders to get the kink out…

The slamming of the door made him nearly jump out of his skin.

"Jumpy much, Bones?" Jim asked, smirking. Bones' gaze traveled from Jim's face, showing a leftover pallor from some experience on the road, to the small, black-clad figure beside him. Bones bit back an identical smirk at the sight of Karina in leather and with the cavernous helmet engulfing her face. The kid definitely wasn't meant to be a biker, that was for certain.

"You're one to talk," Bones muttered. "You look like you've been through hell."

Karina removed her helmet, the static in her hair popping and only adding to the entertainment. "We barely made it past the hover-gangs intact. Jim was great, though."

Bones shook his head. "You would be freakishly good at working that death-mobile," he muttered.

"Any chance I could test that thing out tomorrow, Jim?" Camille asked. Bones eyes about popped out of his sockets. Karina, missing nothing, erupted into a fit of giggling. The other three switched their stares to her, and she turned bright red, but was not nearly enough to dispel her laughter.

"Um, I'll be right back," she said. "I need to… use the bathroom."

She stumbled off into the apartment's bathroom, breathing heavily. She was working on keeping her emotions unreadable, becoming less of an open book, but the look on Bones' face when Camille asked to try out the "death-mobile" was priceless.

Karina wasn't blind. She saw clearly that Bones was attracted, quite seriously, to her friend. But when it came to meddling in the matter, well, that was Jim's business. No, Karina was content to sit back and laugh at how utterly uncomfortable the fact obviously made Bones. The show never disappointed.

The door creaked open, and Camille joined her, a knowing smile ghosting her face.

"Having a little bit of fun at Bones' expense there, are we?" Camille asked, taking a seat on the counter. Karina, for lack of a better spot, lowered the toilet lid and parked herself there.

"You can't tell me you weren't a little bit entertained by that," Karina said. "He looked like he was about to pass out when you mentioned taking the bike out for a spin."

Camille rolled her eyes. "Overprotective doesn't begin to describe the man. I mean, he saves my life once and suddenly everything I might do that endangers it even slightly is his personal business."

It was Karina's turn to make bugger eyes. Did Camille actually not see it? But one look at the glint in Cam's hazel eyes was enough to tell her: Of course she knew. She was having just as much fun watching Bones squirm as Karina. But the one thing Karina couldn't read was whether Camille shared the attraction. Though Camille seemed more okay with people knowing what she thought, she was also less of an open book than Karina. It was a fact that Karina envied more than most things about her friend. Why was it that the people who were more okay with being open about everything could hide things the best?

"So, Karina," Camille began. "I think we need to talk about something."

Karina frowned. Was this about the chocolate she'd stolen from Cam's desk drawer? Crap, she'd hoped she'd taken a small enough amount as to be unnoticeable, but once again, she wasn't that great at hiding things.

"Okay, I'm sorry about that," Karina began. "For one thing, I was bored, lonely, and a little snackish. For another, it was that time. For a third, you shouldn't just go around telling people where you stash your chocolate if – "

"Wait, what?"

"This isn't about – oh. Never mind."

Camille's eyes narrowed. "We'll address that later. Meanwhile, what I was actually talking about: So, before break, I noticed that Jenkins kid from Engineering make googly eyes at you."

Karina was slightly taken aback. "Uh-huh. And?"

"So, he's cute, right?"

"I guess. What's your point?"

"Come on, Kari. You can't tell me you don't notice boys anymore."

Karina shrugged. "I guess not. I mean, my first experience wasn't exactly a great one. I just need a break, Cam. I'll get back there eventually."

"When?"

Groaning at her friend's persistence, Karina repeated her shrug. "A couple of years. I'm fifteen, what's the hurry here?"

Camille stood up. "I can't just let you give up on the male race, Kar. You're the adorable one here. If either of us is cynical, it should be me. And I just have this feeling, your Prince Charming is out there somewhere. But you may have to do some looking. The poor idiot might have gotten stuck in a tree."

"Why would I want someone who can't get himself out of a tree?" Karina asked, rising with her and going to unlock the door. "And besides, like I said earlier, had you deigned to listen, I'm only fifteen. I've got time. My worth is not measured by whether I have any…prospects. Okay?"

Camille smiled and shook her head. "You're not supposed to be this mature, kid. What happened to the teenager inside you?"

"Someone's gotta keep Jim in line," she said. "When Bones isn't around, anyway."

Cam laughed, putting her arm around the younger girl and walking down the hallway to the room the pair of them shared. "Ain't that the truth?"

The shuttle ride went straight from Riverside to San Francisco, but Camille didn't mind so much. A lot of people liked having layovers so they could stretch their legs every once in a while, but she was comfortable on a shuttle. After all, she was born to fly.

Bones, on the other hand, on her right, was having some serious issues. She looked over at him, looking like he was about to hyperventilate, and remembered the first time she'd ridden on a shuttle with Bones. It also happened to have been her first encounter with the man. Amazing how your estimation of a person could change in the course of a year.

Still, he was being a bit of a baby about the whole thing. Shuttles were safer than most forms of travel, but then again, Bones thought all vehicles were metal contraptions of death. Camille wondered briefly what the heck the man would do in space. Then she shook her head, realizing there was no point in wondering. Bones would handle it like he handled everything.

With comments under his breath about their imminent doom and general pessimism.

"How's the aviaphobia?" she asked, keeping a tight rein on her tone. He'd know she was messing with him, regardless of the amount of sarcasm she inserted. And indeed, she received a rather brilliant glare.

"Don't ask me questions, woman. My lunch is threatening to come up if I risk opening my mouth," Bones growled at her.

Karina, on Camille's other side, was shifting around in her seat, trying to get comfortable. They'd barely slept the night before. Rooming with your best friend was bad for some people, but the girls made it work. Unfortunately, that also meant that when you had things to discuss, you tended to get very little healthy slumber. And Cam hadn't quite been willing to let the subject of boys drop. She didn't know why she was so persistent about this topic, but she just had a feeling she needed to make sure it was in the forefront of Karina's mind.

So not only was Karina tired, she was also irritated. Camille got the feeling she'd be spending a lot of time talking to Jim and Bones on this particular shuttle ride. Karina wasn't a big fan of flying, not terrified of it like Bones, but rather found it confining. Once again, Camille wasn't sure how these two would do in space. Then again, a starship was less confining than a shuttle, so Kari would probably do just fine.

Camille had a tendency to worry about how her friends were going to cope in space, she knew. Maybe it was maternal instinct for Karina – though she doubted that was what it was for Bones. Jim was really the only one she never worried about. He'd do just fine, she had no doubt. Sometimes when the pair of them talked about what duty on a starship would be like, she could swear she saw the galaxies reflected in the man's piercing blue eyes, and she knew he would be a natural.

By the time they landed in San Francisco, Karina had fallen asleep on Camille's shoulder – a feat for the girl, who found sleeping on shuttles difficult. She gently shook her awake.

"Kari," she whispered. "We're home."

It felt slightly disconcerting to Camille to refer to San Francisco as home. That title still belonged to New York City for her, but she knew Karina considered Starfleet Academy her home, so when speaking to her, Camille always referred to it as such.

Bones was obviously trying to maintain some dignity and not bolt off the shuttle. It helped, she supposed, that Jim was standing there, probably with some device ready to film any reaction Bones may give beyond the usual.

Once the four of them were off the shuttle, Karina immediately turned toward the south. Standing tall above the shipyard was Starfleet headquarters, and next to that, the Academy. Camille smiled at her younger friend's reaction. The kid had this wonder for life and all things in it that she supposed came from being raised basically in hermitage. Camille went up and grabbed her hand.

"We won't get back any faster by staring at it, Kari," she muttered.

Being home was a good feeling. Karina looked around at everyone milling through the commons, the officers maintaining a certain degree of dignity, but the cadets throwing all of that to the side, greeting their friends that they hadn't seen for a month, or, if they were new, just sort of trying to blend in with the crowd. Karina recognized those. She might have been one last year, had she not had the confidence-exuding Camille by her side the entire time.

Of course, if her luck held from last year, right about now she should be –

Running into someone, which of course she did. She might as well have been going full speed for the force with which they collided. Karina tried steadying herself, but her normal awkwardness was overpowering and she found herself teetering on her feet.

For the first time, the person she ran into actually reached out and steadied her. And for the first time, Karina actually got a good look at him.

It was a boy about her age, she would have guessed. Piercing green eyes with a hint of blue looked directly at her brown ones. She took in a riot of light brown curls and – dang. Those were some really great Slavic cheekbones. Karina had never actually taken the time to look at the people she'd run into, but she certainly wasn't complaining about this one.

Until she realized that the fact that she'd just run full-on into him made things rather awkward. She straightened herself out, tried to pass off the fact that she'd probably just been staring, and quickly made her exit, apologizing.

He was pretty sure by now he must be a magnet or something. What else would explain the fact that she always ran into him – literally? That had nothing to do with him. It was always when he was minding his own business that the girl showed up and practically knocked him off his feet every time.

Looking after her, he vaguely wondered why he was out of breath. Shaking his head and passing it off as nothing, he rejoined the flow of people who were returning from the break. He'd been called into Captain Pike's office that day. The man had paid him absolutely no mind for a year, so he was at a loss as to why, but it seemed like a more important thing to think about than the girl who never looked where she was going.