Chapter Sixteen: In which Bones and Camille have a bit more than a "domestic", (and if you are a Sherlock fan, PLEASE read that in Mrs. Hudson's voice!), there is more teenage awkwardness (because why not?), and much jumping out of planes.

In other words: in which I screamed in frustration, cackled like a hyena, and then proceeded to laugh in a villainous manner. The things I do to these characters.

Bones: I still blame you for everything.

Reasonably, you should, sir.

Bones: Damn right, I should. All right, browneyedgirl29 owns only her OCs. The rest of us are free men and women.

Well...technically... Eh, we're not going to go there. Enjoy this one! I certainly did!

"You're doing what?" Bones asked, his jaw completely dropping. Along with her discarded cast, which clattered out of his hands and onto the floor. Camille rolled her eyes, testing out the freedom her now-healed wrist felt.

"Relax, Bones," she said. "It's just skydiving. People do it with relative safety all the time."

"Would you mind explaining to me this death wish you appear to have, woman?" Bones exclaimed, throwing his hands up in exasperation. "I keep telling you, you're going to get yourself killed one day!"

"And since when did it become your business whether I lived or died?" Camille demanded, even while wishing she could bite her damned tongue. She wanted it to be his business. She just didn't want to have to answer to him for every potentially dangerous decision she made.

"Because I'm your doctor!" he repeated for the fifteenth time that week.

"Do you do this with your other patients, Bones?" she asked, her voice deadly in spite of its apparent evenness. Bones opened his mouth to respond, then shut it. The pair of them glared at each other for a moment. Camille, as usual, was the first one to relent. She sighed and stood, reaching out to him and taking his hand. If she wanted this to work one day, she needed to make it right, now.

"What's with us lately, Bones?" she asked. "All we ever do is argue. Consistently, that's all we do. And I know it's not me. So what's been going on? What put the burr under your saddle about me, cowboy? Answer me that question?"

He yanked his hand away from her. "Nothing," he said. "You're free to go. Enjoy the free use of your hand. Maybe you'll be able to successfully pull your chute tomorrow."

Glaring, Camille knew what she was about to do was immature, but anger was consuming her. She'd tried reaching out to him, and he'd rejected it! Of all the stubborn, selfish men! "Fine!" she exploded, stomping out of the room and making sure the door positively slammed behind her. The great thing about the automatic doors was that they had several settings. If one wanted to convey one's frustration by the slam of a door, that was a perfectly available option.

She utilized it a bit too often, according to Karina.

And Bones.

And Jim.

And her parents.

And everyone, now that she thought about it.

Camille didn't stop her quick-footed pace until she was in her room, at which point she slammed another door, and then flung herself down on her bed. She beat the pillow in frustration a couple of times, imagining Bones' face. She couldn't recall being this angry at him since – well, since they'd first met and she'd hated the man.

Glad Karina was having her English sessions with that Chekov kid at the moment, Camille continued her beating of the downy decoration and screamed into it a couple of times. She wanted this to work, wanted it really badly. But Bones' insistence that she stay safe at all costs was insufferable!

Camille needed independence in a relationship, the knowledge that she was alpha of her own life. And Bones, unfortunately, was also an alpha in his own life, with a protective streak a mile wide. With a sinking heart, Camille realized she had one of those, too. How would they make anything like that work? Didn't relationships need some balance?

She wondered briefly if he looked at her recklessness as a lack of appreciation for all he'd done for her medically. It wasn't the case at all, in fact. She owed her life several times over to Bones, and she wanted so desperately for him to know that. But if he never let her in, if he never let her express that, she couldn't be in a relationship like that. It would eat away at her slowly.

Camille was too independent for Bones, and he needed someone to depend on him. He needed someone who needed him. Camille wasn't quite sure she did. She didn't need anyone. When it came right down to it, she realized that it was mostly that she and Bones were just too alike for anything to work out.

Karina walked in later to find Camille staring straight up at the ceiling, her mouth set in a firm line, her eyes hard and unfeeling. That was Karina's first tip that she was in a foul mood, but when she didn't even look up and comment on Karina's sweaty face and her disheveled hair, results of her run at the track, that was when Karina knew it was best to camp out somewhere else for the night.

Grabbing her pajamas and anything she'd need for the night, Karina didn't even bother speaking to Camille, who didn't seem to mind. That was the thing about Cam. When she was silent, she was either upset or just one hundred percent did not care. And right now, Karina was willing to bet it was both. She'd try again tomorrow – perhaps after Cam and Jim got back from their crazy skydiving escapade. Karina shuddered. What they saw in flinging themselves out of a shuttle and hurtling toward the hard earth below, she had no idea. She couldn't even bring herself to go watch. No, she was perfectly content to bug Bones all day tomorrow.

She mentally ran over a list of who she could stay with. Automatically, her mind went to any other females she could stay with besides Camille. There was Juliet, but she was better friends with Cam, and would want to know what was up. Besides, Karina wasn't all that comfortable with asking favors of those she didn't know very well.

A month ago, she might have considered going to Uhura, but now, that thought was laughable. The older cadet seemed to sense a coldness off of Karina ever since that day they'd been partnered, and the rivalry was returned full force. To show up on her doorstep asking for a place to stay was something Karina would never stoop to.

Nope, there was nothing for it. She'd have to stay with one of the guys.

But the fact of the matter was, she didn't want either of them questioning Cam on the matter, because that would just put her in an even worse mood – and then what could Karina get out of her? Not a whole heck of a lot.

Plus, there was also the fact that she was terrified of walking into Jim's room at this time of night, not knowing what kind of female friend she might run into. Also, she preferred Jim with his pants on. And something told her Camille's foul mood had something to do with Bones.

Crap. Where could she go now?

A thought occurred to her. She wondered why she hadn't gone there sooner.

She made her way through the hallways, across the compound, to the outer buildings that housed the overflow cadets. Finally reaching her destination, she knocked on the door…and immediately rethought this decision. People were more likely to find this suspicious than her knocking on Bones' door, right? Maybe she should just turn around and head back. Bunking with Cam had to be better than giving anyone any ideas –

Too late. The door slid open.

The first thing she noticed was that Pavel's hair was wet. He must have just gotten out of the shower after their run. Not that she blamed him, showering actually had been first on her to-do list when she'd gotten back to her room, but Cam had put a damper on that.

Then she noticed that he was shirtless. With his shirt on, he looked fairly lean, and he still was with it off, but Karina could see that there were at least a small set of abdomen muscles there. She blinked, hoping she wasn't staring.

As her eyes continued to drop, she then saw that the only thing he was wearing was a towel wrapped around his waist.

It seemed like she'd had a while to take all of this in, but it must have only been a split second, because she jumped and whirled around, shrieking, "Oh, dear lord!" She had just enough time to see his eyes widen and face flare up red before he cried, "Whoa!" and fumbled for the door switch. She heard the sound of something fabric falling to the ground and realized with horror that he'd dropped his towel in shock.

"Oh, gosh!" she groaned, burying her eyes in her hand, in spite of the fact that she was facing the opposite direction. "Just…let me in when you have clothes on, okay?"

When the door slid shut, she assumed he'd heard. Whether he'd let her back in before he died of embarrassment was another matter entirely.

Meanwhile, inside, Chekov moved so quickly for his dresser and actual clothing that he ran into a table. Pain shot up his toe. Going from a run to a hop, he continued his trek to the dresser, letting off a string of very strong Russian profanities. For the love of Mother Russia, what is she doing here at this time of night? he wondered disgruntledly.

Exactly sixty seconds later, the door slid open to reveal Karina still with her back turned to the door. She asked, disgust still evident in her voice, "Is it safe, or will I be permanently scarred if I turn around?"

This girl did wonders for a guy's self-esteem, that was for sure. Maybe he had let himself go a little recently. Okay, maybe for his entire life – minus the running. Doing some ab work might be a good idea.

"I think you're okay," he said, rather stinging from that last comment. However, she laid any insecurities he had to rest when she turned around, tilted her head as though intrigued, and, to his great shock, started staring at his abs! Chekov felt his face turn bright red – again.

"Huh," she said. "I was beginning to wonder if there actually was anything under that uniform. Not bad."

She walked in and placed her things on the extra bed in his room, which was at the moment, unoccupied. His acceptance into Starfleet had been rather last minute, but then again, so had his application. He assumed he'd been one of the last to enlist, because though he was in overflow, he had no roommate. It had been good in some ways, and bad in others.

But at the moment, Chekov couldn't figure out for the life of him why Karina was here…at nine o'clock at night.

She turned to look at him. "Now, are you done in there, or can I shower, too? In case you hadn't noticed, I'm still suffering the effects of our little exercise session there."

He gestured to the bathroom. "Um, no. Go ahead."

She practically flounced into the bathroom and slid the door shut behind her, leaving Chekov behind, wondering what the heck had just happened.

Karina, in the bathroom, slid up against the door, blowing her hair out of her face. Putting the lock on the door, she prepared herself for the shower. Luckily, she'd remembered to bring her pajamas along with her, because the last thing today needed was Pavel to see her in only a towel, as well.

Okay. That hadn't been the most graceful of entrances, but in her defense, she was planning on explaining why she was invading his room for the night, before he'd basically flashed her. Or came close to it. After that, there really was no way to ask if she could bunk here for the night without making things even more awkward.

She finished up in the bathroom and went back out into the main room. It looked surprisingly empty without all the trash on the floor – though she did feel good that he'd attempted to keep her finished work up. Other than that, there wasn't much in the room besides a pair of beds, a desk, and, the one sign of comfort, a beanbag chair, which Pavel was currently sprawled in, a bemused look still resting on his face.

"Karina, not that I'm not pleased to see you – okay, I wasn't a while ago, but that was…well, you know…" He trailed off, blushing profusely again, and she gestured that he was getting off subject and needed to go on.

"But, what are you doing here?"

"Well, Camille, my roommate, is in a pretty bad mood. Rather than stick around and risk falling prey to it, I decided to bunk somewhere else. That a decent enough explanation?" she asked.

He looked confused for a second. "Wait. So I was the first person you thought of?"

A look of discomfort passed over her face. "Well, no," she said. "Truthfully, not. I'd just rather stay with you than any of the others."

He smiled. Any hint of lowered self-esteem she'd inflicted with that comment about being scarred had just dissipated. Chekov had seen Karina around when they weren't working on English, and he knew she had a few friends besides him and Camille. And though he supposed it made sense that she'd rather hang out with someone her own age, he knew she was pretty close to at least one of the older male cadets she was with quite frequently. What was it she'd called him? Jim?

But of all her options, she'd chosen to come to him. That must mean he rated pretty high on her list of friends.

What pained him was that he knew this wasn't going to last long. After that message, his days at Starfleet were numbered. Though he wouldn't leave until he knew whether something was up – after all, he'd be eighteen in a year, and who would come after him while he was off planet? – if his past caught up to him soon, he wasn't sticking around long enough to shake the dust of San Francisco from his feet.

"This is okay, right?" Karina asked, bringing him out of his thoughts rather abruptly.

"Of course it's okay!" he responded, then bit his tongue, wondering if he sounded a bit too eager. He moved down to the floor. "Here, do you want the chair?"

Karina considered. She adored beanbag chairs, but she also hated being an inconvenience. "No, that's fine," she said. "I can sit on the floor."

Chekov wasn't quite finished insisting yet. He patted the chair, saying, "I'm nothing if not a gentleman. Come on, take the chair."

"And I'm nothing if not stubborn. If you want to sit on the floor, we'll both be sitting on the floor." She plopped down directly in front of him. They sat in silence for a few minutes, neither one daring to break it.

Finally, he asked, "So, are you ready to go to bed?"

"Nope."

"Yeah, me either."

She glanced around the room. "So, what do you want to do in the meanwhile? I mean, once again, this 'having a friend my own age' thing is kind of new to me, but I'm told when they hang out outside of normal activities like school, they don't just sit around staring at each other."

Chekov for some odd reason wanted to ask if she was complaining about the view, then bit it back. Where had that come from?

Karina was rummaging through his desk drawers. Anyone else, it might have bugged him, but she just felt like she fit right into this room. Besides, there wasn't anything in there that was hazardous in any way. Or valuable, for that matter.

She produced a box from his bottom drawer. Upon closer inspection, he realized it was his chess set.

"So, I tried to get Camille's dad to show me how this works when I was in New York last weekend," Karina muttered. "Turns out he's a great talker, but that kind of gets in the way of his being a good teacher. So I'm still pretty clueless when it comes to the game of kings." Almost shyly, she held the box out to him. "Teach me?"

He took it, a grin spreading over his face. So the master was becoming the pupil, at last.

Camille rose early the next morning. Normally, she wasn't all that much of an early bird, in fact, she was downright a night owl. But today she was determined she'd make the most of every minute.

Because though she was born to fly, she imagined jumping out of a plane 30,000 feet above the ground would feel much more like falling.

Jim had probably rolled his eyes when she insisted on meeting outside of the clinic. She knew he would have preferred to avoid any conflict between herself and Bones, but she was raring to show that arrogant, controlling Southerner just how much she didn't need his protection.

She stood squarely across from the doorway, staring the clinic down, daring Bones to comment. He knew she was there, of course. But he only chose to show himself when Jim showed up.

"Well, it's been nice knowing you, Bones," Jim attempted at humor.

"Whatever, Jim. Let me know if you intend on becoming a splat on the ground right now so I can get used to the idea," Bones growled. His eyes fell on Camille. She thought she saw them soften for a moment, then the hardness came back. Stubborn man. "Try not to kill yourselves, okay? I doubt I can handle Karina's tendency to attract trouble on my own."

"I hear my name?" Karina's voice sounded from down the hallway, and she hurried up to them. She obviously hadn't even tried to bother with making herself presentable this morning. Her evident bedhead was going in every possible direction, and her eyes still had sleep in the corners of them. Idly, Camille noted she was still in her pajamas. Normally, that would have been a serious offense in the hallways, but it was a Saturday. Bones had worked night shift, it was the only reason he was even in the clinic.

"Oh, well," Karina said, shrugging it off effortlessly. "Have fun, you two. Don't die. And make sure your chute works! I hear those things can expand just fine, but then once they're up, break off! And then you're basically dead."

Jim snorted. "Come on, Kari. That's ridiculous!"

She shrugged. "Just try not to die, Jim. Having you both come back in one piece would be nice"

The two adventurers made their way down the hallway, and Karina turned back to Bones. "So, what's on the agenda for today?"

Bones raised an eyebrow. "There's an agenda?"

"I would assume so," she replied, breezing right on by as though the utter lack of enthusiasm in his voice hadn't been obvious. It wasn't as though Bones didn't like Karina, he did. It was just that when it came down to it, she wasn't loud, she just…was a bit chatty for his taste. But the kid was endearing, he'd admit that.

All right, if she wanted him to entertain her, he would. That was at least something to take his mind off Camille. Bones couldn't quite explain why he was being so cold to her. Perhaps it was because she seemed to wordlessly demand something from him that he wasn't quite sure he was ready to give. Did he want to give it? Yes. But he wasn't about to jump into something if he wasn't sure. There was no point in leading her on otherwise, either.

However, something to do was a thing he could, for certain, give Karina. He eyed her up and down. "Well, for starters, are you going to put on some decent clothes?"

Karina looked down at her attire. It was as though she'd forgotten she'd only been clad in pajamas for a brief few seconds.

"Huh. Yeah, I guess. I'll be by your place in ten minutes, then?" she asked, headed down the corridor.

"Sounds like a plan," Bones called, then turned back toward his apartment. Hopefully this would give him some time to come up with an idea, provided Karina didn't come up with something first.

Jim made sure Camille was strapped to him tightly enough that she would feel secure without having her breathing restricted. As they'd taken off, she'd looked less and less sure about this venture, but when she'd heard that due to his experience in skydiving, she'd be jumping strapped to him, she'd turned positively sheet white.

"Oh, relax, Cam," he said. "Would you rather be strapped to someone you didn't know or be on your own? Answer me that."

She swallowed, her eyes the size of small dinner plates in her head. "You, I guess."

"You guess?" Jim demanded. It occurred to him that most of the time he, Cam, and Bones were together, they tended to split into pairs, either the girls in one or Camille with Bones, leaving him with Karina. So while he'd had the opportunity to feel that trust vibe from Kari over and over, Cam had never been in a situation where she'd needed to trust him. He'd gotten used to that feeling of being innately trusted, and it kind of stung now that he wasn't receiving it.

Shaking it off, he leaned down to her ear, shouting over the roar of the wind sliding by the open hatch. "You ready for this?"

She started shaking her head vigorously. "Not really!"

"Great!" he shouted. "On three…one… THREE!"

He leapt from the plane, the sound of Camille's scream coming back to him over the roar of the wind.

"Geez, Cam, you have some serious pipes!"

"I can't hear you!"

"What?"

She let out another scream as they continued to plummet toward the earth 30,000 feet below.