Jim's head throbbed as he finally managed to wake up from an alcohol induced coma, the thunderous pounding in against his skull a reminder of just how much he had drunk the night before: enough so that he could barely remember what happened last night.

Leonard had been there, having let Jim take him up on his offer to drink about it. And there were a couple of assholes that decided to loudly protest Starfleet and obnoxious cadets. Someone got in a fight, and as he tried to sit up, Jim realized he was the one that had gotten into a fight. And then Alice had shown up at some point too.

Alice, Jim remembered. Shit, he hissed, both in pain from whatever damage he had received from the fight that flared up when he moved and as he remembered with perfect clarity what he had said to her before the drinking, only hazily remembering her coming to his and Bones' rescue.

Not that we should be surprised you don't care. After all, what do you expect from someone who was created instead of raised? Why the hell had he said that? Well, he knew why. It was December 8th, four thousand people had been needlessly slaughtered the night before, and he and eight other kids had been witnesses to it. Jim could still hear the screams, remember the way their blood completely soaked the ground beneath their bodies…

But why had he taken it out on Alice?

Jim knew the answer to that one, though, too. Alice had just seemed too…accepting of the smoke Starfleet was blowing up their asses in response to smoke that followed a bomb-like explosion. She had been so ready to put it behind her, and he didn't understand how she could just sit back and let them cover up what happened when she had been a victim and when her own father was involved. It didn't make any sense to him. Alice should have been angry, demanding answers, up at arms.

She should have behaved like less of a victim.

The realization that, that is what had been bother him finally struck home. Alice was incredibly strong, that much was coming back to him as the memory of last night bubbled to the surface, no longer lost in the confusion of alcohol; but she always acted like a victim, shy and timid, not taking any risks. And he knew that it wasn't her fault, that he shouldn't blame her for it; but it always made him think of his own past when she behaved that way. It made him remember the most obvious truth Jim always buried behind his aloof and reckless façade: he was a victim of tragic fate as well.

Casting those horrible thoughts back into their hole, Jim tried to sit up, pain erupting from seemingly everywhere as he did so. The pain was almost enough to distract him from the fact that he had no idea where he was.

It was definitely a dorm room, but it wasn't his dorm room. It was far too spacious and clean to be his. Plus, it lacked the three other roommates that would glare at him just to let him know that they believed the only reason he got in was because of his father and not because he deserved it or earned it as they obviously had.

"Don't be so dramatic," came a caringly scornful voice. "You only nearly passed out from alcohol poisoning." Apparently, Jim had been groaning as he struggled to move loud enough for the Bones to overhear him.

"Where am I?" he grimaced, shielding his eyes as Bones intentionally drew back the curtains to let the late morning sun in.

"You are currently in my dorm, in my bed," Bones growled. "You're welcome for that by the way, not that you gave me much choice. There was no way in hell you were gonna make it back to your own dorm."

Jim swung his legs over the bed. He still had on his jeans and t-shirt but his jacket and boots were missing, and there was no way he had been in any condition to have gotten that comfortable last night. A small smirk tugged at the corner of his lips. It was the subtle things that Bones did that made it so obvious his cynical, blunt, and sarcastic overtones were just a way to hide how much he truly cared for people. As a doctor, it was probably a defense mechanism to keep things from hurting so much should the worst come to pass.

"Thanks, Bones," Jim said earnestly, giving the grumpy man a small smile as he looked at him. "I mean it. Thank you."

But such open honesty was far too much for him, and Bones shrugged Jim's gratitude off with a roll of his eyes. "You remember anything from yesterday?"

Jim scoffed. There were some parts from he wished he could forget since he couldn't take 'em back. "I remember being an asshole, taking you up on that offer to drink about my shitty life, uh…starting a fight, kind of, then Alice finishing it, and…" he trailed off. "Something about an elevator shaft and you being mad at Alice for being…hurt, I think. Then Alice knew why I was an asshole who went drinking." That's when he realized the most important part. "Alice was pissed."

"And she had every right to be," Bones sneered. "And just to let you know, if it comes down to choosing between you or her in the divorce, I choose her."

"Thanks, Bones," Jim groaned, shaking his head.

To say that Bones had been angry with Jim after Alice broke the study room, would have been an understatement; furious didn't even scratch the surface, and livid was only partially close to the true depths of his rage. It was only after they had gotten out of there, Bones not pausing a beat from cursing Jim the whole way while the other cadets stared at them as they quickly made their way out of the shattered room, that Jim had finally told Bones the significance of yesterday.

Bones had stopped mid-storm and just stared at him for a moment, letting it sink in a moment or simply letting himself cool down, Jim hadn't been sure which, before finally finishing off his fury induced rant by adding, "That still didn't give you the right to be an asshole to her."

And Jim understood what the doctor meant. He had a be-an-asshole-to-everyone free card as far as Bones had been concerned yesterday—it was probably the reason Bones had even backed him up in the fight as well—but Alice was off limits. It was just a shame that he hadn't known about that limit until it was too late.

"Damn it," Jim hissed in frustration, cradling his head in his hands. "Do you think she'll forgive me?"

"She shouldn't forgive you, as far as I'm concerned," Bones growled in his soft, southern way as he quickly flicked on a news broadcast on the dorm's private terminal. "But she seems to like you, so she probably already has."

Jim scoffed lightly, "She seems to like you too, Bones."

"Yeah." There was a small smirk so faint and quick that Jim almost missed it. "Must've had a momentary lapse in judgment when she met the two of us on the shuttle."

"That or there's something about having someone nearly throw up on you that just brings people together," Jim teased him.

Bones looked as though he was about to get Jim back with his own witty comment, but something caught his attention. "Holy shit!" he exclaimed in monotonous surprise.

Jim slowly stood up and moved so that he stood beside his friend, now able to see the broadcast that had taken Bones by surprise. And Bones had certainly said it.

"…We are pleased to inform you that we have successfully identified and apprehended the individuals that were responsible for the threats against Starfleet Academy personnel and the explosion in the north wing of the Starfleet Science Complex," Admiral Marcus, said from behind a podium, dressed in full ceremonial regalia. His uniform almost as commanding as his voice. "A group of single-minded individuals, calling themselves 'Manifest' has been identified and taken into custody for the attack on our prestigious academy. Their ideals are those of a single species, humans, being superior to all others, and became hostile towards Starfleet as we have made efforts to be more inclusive over these past few years."

"This group goes against everything that Starfleet and the Federation stand for, and we will do everything within the bounds of the law to dissolve 'Manifest' and all other groups that share similar ideals and threaten the sanctity of our doctrine." The admiral's voice was a commanding growl as he spoke. "It is only through diversity and cooperation that we can fully achieve our true potential as a united galaxy, a diversity that has already led to the apprehension of a mindlessly hostile group." Admiral Marcus' tone became much more pleasant. "It is only through the hard work of both the investigative team, police, and our own cadets that we were able to locate those responsible for the attack and bring them to Justice…

At the word cadet, Jim finally peeled his eyes off of the Admiral and surveyed the others that were in the background. There was Captain Pike, standing closest to the Admiral; then came a Commander, the one Jim recognized had been the other victim of the blast; and at the very end, in cadet reds, stood Alice.

"Holy shit."

It was hard not to miss Alice seated at the bar. That ebony hair that trailed down her back and her slim figure were hard to miss in its exotic beauty. And as Jim approached, he felt a preposterous feeling: nervous. Jim never felt nervous, and certainly never around women. He was a smooth talker, one who always knew what to say, yet as he drew closer to Alice, he wasn't completely sure what to say. If anything, he half expected her to get up and leave once she saw it was him and not Bones she was meeting.

Bones hadn't been all too pleased with the idea of tricking Alice to Joe's under the pretense of meeting him so that Jim could have a chance to talk to her and apologize. It was only when Jim spun it as not lying, but merely arriving late and Jim coincidentally being in the bar at the same time that Bones had finally relented; though in all honesty, it was probably only because Jim kept pestering him about it and not because he was convinced that Bones had agreed.

The worst that can happen is that she kicks your ass, Jim told himself as he finally worked up the nerve to sit next to her, sliding smoothly onto the barstool next to her, his body tense and his breath held as he did so.

Dry laughter escaped her lips as she looked over at him, "I had a feeling it was really you that would be meeting me here."

"Was it that obvious?" Jim asked, his voice forcefully light and playful.

"Mhm," Alice hummed, a small smirk as she took a swig from her bottle.

Jim frowned. "Hard cider? What are you, twelve?" he avoided the reason he was here, deflecting it away with humor.

"No, I'm someone who likes a little variety," she played back. "Vodka gets dull after a while."

"You're clearly not a true alcoholic then," Jim smirked.

"Well, I'm nowhere near on yours and Bones' level, that's for sure." Her eyes caught his, and Jim always found him cursing them for their intensity. It was an unfair advantage. They always seemed to undo him. It was like they were goading him into getting to the point of tricking her here.

"I saw you on the news today," he stammered, kind of getting there but not really.

Alice raised an eyebrow, a knowing smile on her face. "Was that speech as dry as I thought it was?" she asked lightheartedly. "I fell asleep about half-way through."

"Oh yeah, that speech was horrible," he said, "but, uh, that's not why I brought it up." Alice tilted her head slightly, urging him to keep going. "You, uh, figured it out, huh?"

"Not really," she smiled. "More like sped things up."

"Still you… you know," Jim gave a wave of his hand to finish his sentence as if Alice should know what he was talking about.

Instead, she frowned. "Jim, if you're trying to be coherent, you should know that you're failing."

"I know!" he groaned, letting his head drop, nearly smacking against the counter. "It's just talking to you is so difficult right now."

"I'm sorry?" Alice offered wryly.

"Yes, that's exactly what I'm trying to say, it's just not coming at all." The frown remained, but when Jim looked at her again, there was a small smile tugging at the corner of her lips. "Listen, I was an absolute ass yesterday—no worse than that; and I might have had a good excuse for it, but it doesn't excuse what I said to you. So… I'm sorry, for what I said."

What Jim wasn't expecting was the laughter that sang from Alice. "That has got to be the absolute worst apology I have ever received in my life," she managed between fits of laughing.

"Forget it then," Jim growled, clearly thinking she was laughing at him for expecting forgiveness and not.

"No, no, no, no," Alice quickly said, pulling Jim back down into his seat as he tried to leave out of mortification. "Come back." Her smile was inviting and true. "Of course I forgive you, Jim. You're my friend." Mischief gleamed in the gold of her eyes. "You've never done this before, have you?"

"What, make a fool of myself?" Jim joked, relieved that he had royally screwed things up as bad as he thought. "I do that all the time."

"Apologize," she corrected him gently.

"I've honestly haven't been around too many people where I care if I hurt them," he shrugged. And that was the unfortunate truth.

"Well, Jim, Friendship 101 states that no matter how mad you might make me, you're still my friend," Alice explained as if she were speaking to a child, "and I'll forgive you for whatever it is you did."

"Yeah, I uh…" Jim smirked, "I think I missed that class on Tarsus."

Alice hummed in amusement. "I didn't exactly take it in the facility either."

Jim scoffed lightly at their dark humor. "And you weren't mad," he corrected her. "You were pissed. Did you forget the room you broke?"

There was that smile, quiet and timid, but no less in its brightness as it lit up her face. "I guess it's a good thing I find your obnoxious charm so endearing, huh?"

"You think I'm charming?" Jim teased her, leaning in obnoxiously close to her.

But Alice didn't slide away or look uncomfortable as he would have expected. Instead, she jokingly winced, hissing playfully in regret, "Can I take it back?"

"Nope, too late," he smirked, causing Alice to merely shake her head in fondness of him. "Oh!" he remembered. "You know, I got you something in case my apology was worse than I thought it was going to be."

"Apologies can be worse than that one?" Alice teased him.

"Ha, ha," Jim forced out as he dug into his pockets for what he had purchased earlier, hoping the shiny object would appease her. "Here," he grumbled, though he couldn't keep the smile off of his face.

Her laughter was a sweet honey, gold with its mirth as she couldn't help but laugh near uncontrollably as she reached for the item he had placed on the counter. In her hands she held a silver star, the edges rounded and imprinted in the center was the word sheriff.

"You're kidding," Alice finally managed.

"Well, you did solve the case," Jim said, a wolfish grin on his face.

Alice sighed as her she finally caught her breath. "It's perfect," she said, quickly pinning it to her shirt. The sight of it sent her into a more controlled fit of laughter, though, as if she couldn't believe Jim was that big of a dork.

"Where on earth did you get this?" she asked incredulously. "Is there some poor little kid crying because some big bad cadet stole his toy?"

Jim played offended, "I'm an asshole, Alice, not a monster."

"Good to know," she smirked, chuckling faintly at his demeanor.

"So…" he dragged out, awkwardly. "Are we good?"

Alice huffed in amusement, "Yeah, Jim. We're good." She took a casual sip from her bottle. "You ever talk to me like that again and I'm likely to break your arm, though."

"I ever talk like that to you again, and I'll fuckin' present," Jim said gruffly before swiping Alice's bottle from her hand, not knowing that she let him and taking a gulp.

"Hey!" she cried out, playfully swatting his arm. "That was mine."

"Yeah, well you can let me buy you another one."

She raised an eyebrow at him, unimpressed. "Jim Kirk, you know I don't let anyone buy me drinks."

"You've let Bones buy you drinks before," he argued, enjoying the soft flush of her cheeks as she became slightly flustered. It was clear that Bones and Alice both had a thing for each other, it was just they were the last people to know about it, clearly.

"That's because he doesn't come on to me nearly as much as you do," she countered.

"So he has come on to you," Jim pushed, smirking devilishly as he took advantage of her slip up.

"That's not what I—"

"Who's coming on to who now?" came a familiarly gruff voice from behind, Jim quickly spun around on his swivel chair, enjoying both the spin and the near perfect timing on Bones' part.

"You're coming onto you Alice apparently," Jim grinned.

Bones balked his expression flickering to shock for just a moment before he regained composure. "I must have been drunk," he offered quickly.

Alice frowned playfully, "You mean you don't think I'm pretty enough to come on to?" she teased.

"No! That's not—" he the glared at Jim. "I hate you."

"Me?" Jim asked in a mocking sense of disbelief, thoroughly enjoying the exasperation in his friend's eyes. "What'd I do?"

"Start it, no doubt," he growled seriously before taking a seat next to Jim. "Anyway, I'm sorry I'm late, sweetheart. Some idiot decided to play chicken with a tree and I got stuck in surgery."

Raised eyebrows made it painfully obvious that she wasn't buying his excuse for a second. "Uh huh, and Jim just happened to walk into the bar as I was waiting for you."

"I came in to drink about how awful I felt for what I said yesterday," Jim offered to aid the excuse."

"I honestly had no idea that Jim was even here until he started talking," Bones added quickly, "then it was kind of hard not to notice him."

"Gee, thanks, Bones," Jim frowned.

"Don't mention it, kid."

"See, it's the times that you call me a kid that make me realize just how old you are," he teased.

"Yeah? Well, it's the times you call me old that make me want to stick you with everything I know you're allergic to," Bones argued back, his voice lighthearted and playful even if his face was twisted into a soft sneer.

"Do I have to put you two it time-out?" Alice interrupted, laughter creeping into her voice.

"Hey, he started it," Jim quickly placed blame.

"I started—you're the one who started it!" Bones blamed right back.

"Children, please," Alice chuckled. "You're starting to ruin a perfectly good evening for drinking."

"Sorry," Jim offered in his most teasing sincerity.

"Yeah, sorry," Bones added quietly, waving bartender down.

It was as Joe took their orders and began pouring their drinks that Bones finally asked the most important question that was a precursor of how the rest of their drunken conversation and slightly obnoxious fun would go for the entirety of the night.

"Is that a sheriff's badge?"

~~.O.~~

Remember kids, there's no ship better than friendship. ;)

Anyway, I really wanted to play said friendship angle in this chapter and so I did.

Also, in case you hadn't picked it up, I'm trying to run the schedule for the Academy more like a college would if it had a ROTC section (officer training for American military) where it still follows a college schedule but is more specialized in the military aspect.

Basically, that means we are at the end of the fall semester somewhere in the middle of December with this chapter if you haven't been able to keep up whit my random mention of days, weeks, and months passing by.

And as always, please let me know what you think. You guys are a wonderful audience and I continue to enjoy every second of your support.

Until next chapter. :)