A/N: Big thanks to Ten'ou who read all 3 parts in 1 day. Wow. Also, M'eyari rightfully pointed out a mistake I had no choice but to perpetuate: Chekov should be 19 in this story, but I had already stated in Out of Time he was 17. Big mistake on my part- perhaps I will always see him as a fresh faced young'un. Cheers!

Chapter 22- Promises Made

Boot camp was every bit as bad as I thought it would be and then some. My day started at 0500 with running until I almost puked, followed by hours of drills that were meant to toughen me up and make me a hardened officer- ruthless and efficient. Then I ran across campus on rubbery legs to wolf down slop before heading back to start classes on modern warfare tactics, maintaining morale, and logistics. At 1300 I schlepped back across campus for more abysmal chow that was no better than WWII M rations and back again for a full afternoon of combat training, officer conduct standards, weapons training, and history of military campaigns. The day ended at 1700 at the conclusion of yet another run. We had a scant 3 hours of free time before lights out at 2000. I cursed Jim Kirk every night as I fell asleep.

The only thing that made life bearable was my picture and the occasional recorded messages that were relayed across vast distances of space between the Enterprise and my PADD or the obnoxious screen on our wall that woke us up every morning with the damn Starfleet reverie blasting so loud you fell out of bed covering your ears. I was sore and angry most of the time because I hated conformity and of that plenty was expected. The only way I got through was to slip into my old habit of feeling nothing. I stood in line, looked straight past the person yelling in my face stoically, and thought only of getting back to the ship when my joints ached and I felt I was going to die if I ran one more mile. Had I been in my right mind I would have given them the finger and marched off to the nearest shuttle to go AWOL, but it was more than just me- I also had to think of the others and the Enterprise didn't produce quitters. I found that my affiliation with that particular ship and her crew gained me a certain popularity and respect among the other students, but the instructors saw it as an opportunity to expect far more from me than the others. I was beginning to understand what Spock must have felt because like an idiot I tried to reach their impossible standards because I was representing Jim and the rest of the best.

On weekends we were supposed to be free, but it never really worked that way since there was an expectation that you would work in a lab or help instructors with classes. It was not required, but expected nonetheless; to shirk this duty would be a poor reflection on your ability as an officer to suck it up and do whatever it takes. I had confirmed with Starfleet Medical that I had indeed passed my licensing exam and I could rightfully call myself "Dr. Collins-McCoy" since that was what the certificate said. As such, I worked with other students who aspired to be counselors and very quickly grew tired of answering questions about my crewmates. It seemed that was all anyone was interested in, so I thought it an excellent opportunity to impress upon them the importance of patient/doctor confidentiality by imposing a penalty of 20 pushups for each inappropriate question. To reinforce the crucial importance of this I made the punishment corporal so the entire class would have to suffer while the offender stood in the front of the room and watched his or her classmates grunt it out. It was a great little trick I picked up from 'Full Metal Jacket' and it worked beautifully; the asinine questions ceased after a few days and they began to take their professional responsibilities very seriously. After all, being a ship's counselor could not be about voyeurism or your own morbid curiosity.

There were many surprises along the way and more often than not Bowman was the source of that. During the first week I came back to the room exhausted to find her with two random men. As I sat outside with nowhere to go, I tried to block out the noise and wonder how she had the physical strength and where in the hell she could have found them since she was in the same program I was and I didn't have time to say boo, let alone proposition anyone. During the second week I came back to see her watching a video of Jim. She had it on pause at just the right moment with Jim's blue eyes partially closed and his mouth parted ever so slightly as to suggest that he was rather enjoying himself. "Sorry." She said turning red. "I accidently opened it and he was just so….I just had to know what he was like."

What did you hope to learn? Did you expect him to do a strip tease?

I started the file from the beginning and she sat on her bed watching with rapt attention. She either didn't realize she was being rude or didn't care. The video looked like it was taken in the conference room. He hastily sat in front of the screen and adjusted it so only his face and neck were visible. He smiled grandly and said, "Hey Doc! I can call you that now, Bones told me the good news!" He looked around quickly and leaned in close so his blue eyes filled most of the screen. "You have to come back!" He whispered in a paranoid tone. "Get done and get your ass back on this ship pronto! Bones is fuckin' killing me! It is like he has reverted or something- he is the same mean bastard he was before you came and he is bustin' my balls and moping around here like his grandma died or something."

"Who is Bones?" Bowman asked giggling.

"McCoy. He said Jim calls him that because it is short for sawbones- what doctors on sailing ships were called because of amputations and whatnot." I didn't tell her the other version.

Jim sat back and looked toward the door when Pavel's voice called, "Captain, Dr. McCoy paged and said…" he paused and cleared his throat before obviously reading something he had written down, "if you do not get your ass down to sickbay in the next 10 minutes for your booster waxination he vill come up and…" he paused to again cough, "shove the hypo so far up your ass you vill gargle vith the medicine. He promises you vill not like it if he must come find you."

He again turned to the screen. "Do you see what I mean? To make it worse it has been slow and he has nothing better to do but to invent shit." He again turned to Pavel. "I am making a message for Collins. Come say hello!"

There was some shuffling and Pavel's face appeared on the screen, his wide blue eyes cheerful as always. "Privyet, Dr. Collins!" he smiled. I waved at him even though I knew it wasn't a live feed and he couldn't see me.

"Not only is he cute, but that accent is kinda sexy." Bowman purred.

"Well, he would tell you that the Russians invented sexy." I laughed.

There was more shuffling and Spock's calm measured tone. "Captain, Dr. McCoy is awaiting you on the bridge. I will assume command in your absence."

Jim looked alarmed. "He said 10 minutes! Tell him I'm not here!"

"Bullshit, Jim!" McCoy bellowed from the direction of the door. "Don't be such a pussy."

"Hey, Bones." Jim stammered trying to think of a way out. "I'm making a video for Collins. Wanna say hi?" McCoy leaned in close to the monitor and scowled but said nothing.

"Jesus!" Bowman cringed shying away from the screen. "What a psycho!"

"He isn't psychotic." I coolly retorted. "I did his psych eval. He has OCD tendencies, but he isn't loony. Believe me, that is just his default facial expression."

I was surprised to see Sulu's face appear. "Hey, Dr. Collins!" He greeted with his usual warm and endearing smile. "Hope you are doing well. I hope you are putting all your classmates in weapons training to shame!"

"That's Sulu." I provided. "He's the pilot and probably the most sane person on the ship. I don't know how he does it, but the man is a god to have so much patience. He taught me and Chekov how to fence."

"Goddamn it, quit stalling!" McCoy growled. Jim cried out and Sulu moved out of the way just in time to see Jim shaking his head vigorously with a pained expression while he rubbed his neck. McCoy saw his display and frowned. "At least I didn't stab you in the dick like you did me, asshole."

"I didn't!" Jim whined. "And I told you I was sorry!"

"Does he always talk like that to his superior officers?" She gasped.

I shrugged. "Pretty much. He calls Spock…"

"What are you looking at you green blooded bastard?" He mumbled toward the door.

"What's going on in here?" Came Uhura's lovely voice. Her dark hair spilled down to the table as she leaned in for a look. "Hey! Is this for Collins? Hey you!" She smiled and it was beautiful as always. "I hope Sulu had the burals to give you my message."

"I did!" Sulu protested off camera with a laugh.

"I mean it," she continued, "the guys in the bars are horny idiots who will do or say anything to get at your chocha. Don't do it, girl. Trust me, kicking them out in the morning isn't worth the hassle."

"Says you." Bowman huffed.

"Remember your promise! You promised me, Collins!" Jim smiled. He then looked around the room confused. "Who's manning the bridge?"

McCoy pushed Uhura out of the way and growled, "If he told you to go to a bar and get into a fight, don't listen to him. You will find more trouble than you were looking for."

"You promised!" Jim yelled from somewhere to the left.

McCoy narrowed his eyes at the camera. "Don't. Do. It." He ground out with more than enough emphasis to make his intentions clear.

Jim was laughing hysterically. "As your Captain I order you!"

"Give it a rest, Jim." McCoy declared standing up looking to the left. All I could see was Spock's hand, McCoy's waist and groin, and an arm covered in gold which could have been either Chekov or Sulu. "She hasn't graduated yet, therefore she doesn't have to do a damn thing you tell her."

"Gentlemen, if I may remind you that we have a mission to accomplish and a ship to run." Spock said tersely. "Perhaps you can say your goodbyes and we can all return to our stations before we drift into an asteroid or perhaps a black hole will open against staggering statistical odds. To stand here and delay is illogical."

McCoy looked into the screen and pointed to the direction Jim's voice had come from. "He is a damn living, breathing Improbability Drive." I laughed. He had been reading the book and rightfully equated Jim with the machine that generated a field in which anything, no matter how improbable, could exist.

As bodies filed past, Spock ducked to look into the screen. With his usual stern expression he nodded once and then reached up to end the transmission. Bowman probably didn't catch the slight curl at the corner of his mouth that said hello and goodbye at the same time. "That is the Enterprise?" She asked in awe. "I imagined it to be…I don't know, all stern and stuff."

"Jim likes to keep things loose and informal." I looked at the blank screen and sighed, "Those are my boys. Well, all except Scotty. He more or less lives in the engine rooms."

"No place I'd rather be." She said with determination.

Seeing friendly faces made it easier to get through the third week although Bowman didn't. I was locked out three times and once it was a woman leaving with a bashful smile. I didn't really care. I had always been a live and let live kind of person that believed there were far worse evils in the world than two girls kissing, but I was hacked about being locked out when I had an exam the next day. The room was a mess as usual and the next morning we were inspected while out on drills. When we returned at the end of a particularly long and grueling day, a notice had been posted on our door that we had been assigned to an extra hour of drills to start at 0400. I wanted to kill her. Of all the times I had to share with Uhura, Pavel, McCoy, and Spock it had never been this difficult or irritating.

I don't know why I allowed her to talk me into her brilliant plan to make it all up to me. "I'm really sorry," she said balefully, "Come out with me this weekend and I will buy you a drink. All you have been doing is sitting around here with your nose in a PADD. You need to go out and have some fun, even your Captain ordered it!" When I looked at her skeptically she begged, "Please? Come on, what's the worst that can happen?" Famous last words.