Difficult Decisions

"He will," Victoria murmured, shaking herself out of her fear, "He'll make it."

She knew he would, she knew he'd make it because it was the same reason he'd made her captain in the first place. He knew she'd do anything to see him back alive…if just so she could kill him herself when he got back. The same could be said for his efforts to get to the other ship. He'd go and he'd give it his all, he'd make it because he was just too stubborn to die like that. He'd go down in a blaze of glory in a starship crashing to Earth before he let himself get taken out by a bit of debris.

She looked at Sulu, "Do we know where Khan is? His screen is working right?"

"Affirmative," Khan's voice called over the comms. and Victoria wasn't sure whether to feel relieved the man was back or disappointed he hadn't been taken care of with the debris, "My display is still function, I see you Kirk. You're 200 meters ahead of me, my one o'clock. Cut to your left few degrees and follow me."

She resigned herself to being relieved, but only if he could get Kirk into the other ship safely, which reminded her, "Scotty?" she called out, "Do you have access to the hanger door?" but there was silence, "Scotty!"

"Scotty, we're getting close," Kirk shouted in warning, "We need a warm welcome. Do you copy?" still more silence, "Do you copy, Scotty!"

"Scotty report!" Victoria ordered, but nothing.

"If you can hear us, Mr. Scott, open the door in 10…" Spock made his way to the Captain's chair, standing beside it. He knew that humans seemed to appreciate proximity when they were concerned or worried about something. This though, was a more…triple reason for him to stand so close.

The first was that he'd observed that humans tended to react differently when they knew they were being watched by others. They acted braver, sometimes more calmly, were more aware that they were going to be questioned if they made the wrong choices. He noticed that they tended to become more professional, stiffer, more focused when others were observing them. To be so close, he hoped, would remind Victoria of her duty as captain and help her focus on the fact that she needed to remain calm and rational about this, not let her concern for Kirk get to her.

The second was that, the comfort he had noted before. If his observance of her actions was not enough to calm her and get her to rationalize, then the next course of action would be to try and…be there for the girl as the humans would say. Often the humans were…quite nice in how they didn't often need words to be made aware that others were empathetic to their plight, just sitting beside someone who was upset and being silent could comfort them. He was appreciative of that, especially when Uhura had explained that to him when she had been upset once. Just being there for someone, even if you didn't speak, could mean the world to them. And even though Victoria didn't seem to be aware that he was so close, he liked to think that he might help her cope with the fear of Kirk being in danger of his helmet shattering and dying mid-flight.

The third and final reason was…she was…his friend, he could admit that, she and Kirk had become good friends of his and he…was worried for the man as well. The comfort went both ways, to see her equally as alarmed as he felt (though he didn't show it) comforted him on some level. He knew the crew would be alarmed, their captain was in danger, but…Kirk was more than just a captain to the two of them, he was his friend and Victoria's…something, he honestly wasn't sure what to call the two.

"Scotty!" Kirk cried.

"9, 8…" Spock continued to count, "7…"

"Scotty open the door!" Victoria ordered, standing up, frantic and wishing she was there, somehow, that she'd be able to do something to get the other door opened.

"Mr. Scott where are you?!" Kirk shouted.

"6…"

"1800 meters," one of the crew reported to Victoria, NOT helping her calm down at all, "1600 meters…"

"Scotty, where are you?" Kirk repeated.

"3…"

"Scotty please!"

"2…"

"Scotty get the door open!" Victoria pleaded.

"Open the door!" Kirk yelled.

"Mr. Scott, now!" even Spock had taken to shouting in the emotional onslaught that hit them all, the fear for Kirk, that his plan was going to fail.

Suddenly there was a mechanical noise, like a latch unlocked followed by a suction sound and shouting and screaming and grunting and…

"Welcome aboard," Scotty greeted with a pant.

Victoria let out a breath, falling back onto the Captain's chair, her hand to her racing heart as she tried to breathe again. That was…far too close, far, far too close. She knew that Kirk wasn't ever going to stop jumping into situations like that, but usually SHE was right there, holding his hand as she took the plunge with him. This…she hated moments like this, where he went off on his own and she wasn't there to help him. She knew, in most cases, there was probably not much she could do to help him, but she just liked being there, standing beside him, sharing the experience with him. She especially liked when they both escaped from a deadly situation and she and Kirk would end up on the ground, panting, thrilled to both be alive…before he'd grab her and kiss her in celebration, those were her favorite moments because it reminded her that they were in it together.

"Good to see you, Scotty," Kirk added.

Victoria smiled at that, glad to know they were both alright, the second they'd entered the ship, their scans had cut off and the dot representing Kirk had disappeared, leaving them all frantic till Scotty spoke.

"Who is that?" Scotty asked.

"Khan, Scotty. Scotty, Khan."

"Hello."

"They'll know we're here," Khan got right to the point, "I know the best way to the Bridge."

"Of course he does," Victoria muttered, cutting off the comm.. She didn't want to distract the others with their talk on the Bridge and she knew that there would, hopefully, be a transmission coming in from New Vulcan and she didn't want to risk the transmissions affecting each other. If she saw there, listening to Kirk the entire time, she'd be jumping at every single sound, at every noise of a fight, at every alarm going off and…she had to focus on the crew until Kirk contacted her, "Ny?" she looked over at Uhura, "Anything from New Vulcan?"

She nodded, "The transmission's just come in."

"On the screen, please," Spock called.

"Standby," Uhura reported, getting the projection up, the screen blinking on, replacing the image of the Vengeance with that of an older Vulcan who looked surprisingly like Spock.

"Mr. Spock," Spock Prime greeted, seeing his younger self first.

"Mr. Spock," Spock gave a nod in reply.

Spock Prime's expression softened as he grinned at Victoria, "Mrs. Kirk."

Victoria flushed at that as the others turned to look at her, not sure if the Vulcan who appeared to be a future version of Spock was being serious or not. Having lived through the events of the Narada and now aware that time travel was possible, it wasn't hard for anyone on the Bridge to work out that this wasn't just someone who looked like Spock, but that it WAS Spock, it was the future him that Nero had been so keen to find. And…if HE called her MRS. Pike…well, it left little to the imagination of what Victoria was to the other Kirk, and what she likely meant to the present one.

"Spock," she let out a breath.

Spock Prime's grin widened seeing her reaction. He may not know this particular Victoria as well as he did her other self, but he could still tell when she was agitated, when she was scared or upset and right now…she was all three. He also knew that for her to be properly that way, then it was something very serious, likely something that involved Kirk.

"What is wrong?"

"I don't even know where to begin," she admitted.

"If I may, Captain?" Spock stepped beside her once more.

"By all means," she waved him on , knowing if she had to start from the beginning, where she probably would have, she'd end up crying at the reminder of her father's death. And being captain…she couldn't afford that right now.

"I will be brief," Spock turned to his future self, getting only the most basic points, the only thing they still needed to know, "In your travels, did you ever encounter a man named Khan?"

The way Spock Prime fell silent, the expression on his face, told them all that whatever it was the man was going to say was NOT going to be good, "As you know," he began after a moment, "I have made a vow never to give information that could potentially alter your destiny. No," he looked at Victoria as she opened her mouth to argue, "Speaking of your marriage to the James T. Kirk of my reality in no way influenced your own destiny," he countered lightly, "I believe, as I'm sure even your Dr. McCoy did, that you and Jim would have found your way to each other eventually."

"That or killed each other," Bones remarked, taking the appearance of future-Spock in stride, really, after all he'd seen with Jim as captain this was relatively tame.

"Your path, Mr. Spock," Spock Prime continued, "Is yours to walk. And yours alone. That being said…" he took a breath, "Khan Noonien Singh is the most dangerous adversary the Enterprise ever faced."

He looked at Victoria as the woman frowned, "How so?" she asked, thinking of at least a dozen or so enemies that not just the Enterprise, but the Fleet in general, had faced in the past.

"He is brilliant, ruthless, and he will not hesitate to kill every single one of you."

Victoria was silent for a moment, "He and his crew are truly that dangerous?"

She had no doubts about it, but then again, she could argue that it was her bias against Khan that was making her think that. If Spock-Prime could confirm it, could tell them yes or no just how much of a threat Khan and his crew was to the Fleet, to the Universe…she would have a better grasp on how to handle the man in the future, what decisions had to be made about him and his crew.

"I am afraid so," Spock Prime sighed, "Khan, as hard as it may be to believe, was the kindest of his crew."

"Did you defeat him?" Spock inquired.

"At great cost," the older Vulcan nodded, "Yes."

"How did you do it?" Victoria looked at him, but Spock Prime was quiet, "Spock," she made him look at her, "James is trapped onboard another starship, alone, with Khan," she informed him, not telling him about Scotty, she (as terrible as it was to think) doubted that Scotty would be much help in a situation that Khan could get them into, "So please, tell us how you stopped him."

Spock Prime nodded, "We tricked him into lowering the shields of his ship and fired at him and I led him to believe the Enterprise was crippled so that he would follow us when we fled to the Mutara Nebula. His shields and visuals were distorted and unable to be maintained and we were able to defeat him. He refused to accept his defeat and activated a device meant to take both our ships out, yet we were able to escape."

Victoria frowned as she listened to that, she got the feeling that he wasn't telling them everything about what he'd done, but she could agree, he'd given her enough for the moment.

"Then he is likely to attack only when he thinks us weak," she mused.

"Which, it appears, we may be," Spock agreed, thinking on the state of the ship. One more blast from the Vengeance and they would be destroyed.

"Whatever you do," Spock Prime called, "You must take care and you must think two steps ahead."

Spock nodded, "Thank you," he added as Spock Prime's transmission cut.

Victoria looked down, thinking about this, "What do we do then?"

There were...quite a few options really, there were a number of things she could do, especially as captain, but...she didn't know which path to turn down. Did she follow her father's footsteps and do what he would have? Or perhaps Spock? Kirk? Marcus? She had been around captains her entire life, and they would all react so differently even in keeping in line with the rules and regulations of the Fleet or breaking them entirely. And the hard thing was...she wasn't either of those men, she was just...her. She didn't train to be a captain, she didn't want to be a captain, this was the exact reason she hadn't wanted to. And now...the future of the Enterprise, of Kirk, possibly of Earth might rest with them and she had to make a decision.

What do they do?

"If I might Captain," Spock looked at her, "I believe I may have an idea," she gave him a nod of approval and he turned to Uhura, "Lieutenant, I need you to assemble all senior medical and engineering staff in the weapons-bay."

"Alright…" Uhura began slowly, but looked at Victoria for confirmation.

"Why do you want them there?" she stood and turned to Spock.

"We will need them there, and you Dr. McCoy," Spock gestured the man over, "You inadvertently activated a torpedo, could you replicate the process?"

"Why the hell would I want to do that?" Bones scoffed.

"Can you or can you not?"

"Damn it man, I'm a doctor not a torpedo technician!"

"The fact that you are a doctor is precisely why I need you to listen very carefully," Spock looked at the three of them before offering them his plan, Victoria's frown deepening the more he went on...

~8~

Victoria stood on the Bridge, staring at the viewscreen, watching the Vengeance, when Spock came up beside her, "Are you certain THIS is the course you wish to take?" he had to ask.

Victoria took a breath and nodded, "I am."

No matter if it damned her or not.

She stiffened when they saw the lights starting to come up on the Vengeance again and realized they'd gotten their power back, "Everyone," she turned, heading back to the chair, but not sitting down in it, merely standing before hit, "Maintain positions," she warned, "Sulu," she turned to him, "Can you scan for James?"

"Our sensor array are down," Sulu shook his head, "I can't find him."

They turned to the viewscreen as it crackled to life…Khan appearing with Kirk, looking a little battered, held before him at gunpoint, the man's phaser pressed to the back of Kirk's head, "I'm going to make this very simple for you…" the man began.

"James!" Victoria gasped, the same time Spock called out, "Captain!"

"Your crew for my crew," Khan continued.

"You betrayed us," Spock glared, seeing Victoria's eyes locked on Kirk's, Kirk's on hers as well, Carol was in the background, on the ground, clutching her leg as Scotty was laid out beside her, unconscious given the minute rise of his chest.

"Oh you are smart, Mr. Spock," Khan mocked.

"James…" Victoria breathed.

"Victoria don't…" Kirk tried to speak, but Khan whacked him.

"Little Pike," Khan sneered at her, seeing Spock standing to her side meant that the girl was in charge, well, that would just be perfect, women were by far the weaker race, she would be easy enough to manipulate with a few well aimed threats to Kirk and reminders of what he'd done to her father, "Give me my crew."

"Like hell we will," she ground out, her hands clenching into fists beside her as she glared at him, "Like hell will I let you have your army."

"Ooh," he tsked, "An army? We are not soldiers."

"No, you're murderers," she spat, "I give you your men and you'll slaughter half the Universe. You'll kill everyone, just like you did my dad."

"Shall I destroy yet another Pike then?" he remarked, seeming far too pleased with her reaction to him and the predicament Kirk was in, "Or perhaps a Kirk?" he smirked, seeing her flinch, "Will you give me what I want?"

"We have no transporter capabilities," Spock cut in, stopping Victoria from giving whatever sort of comeback she'd likely had on the tip of her tongue.

He could see it in her, the fear for Kirk, the concern, and he couldn't stop himself from feeling the need to help her. Over the last year he had come to know Kirk and Victoria quite well, they were...a source of both amusement and exasperation to him, yet...they had endeared themselves to him. He...cared for them both and had sworn to himself to protect them, to keep them safe, and to help them to the best of his ability. He was quite...stoic, by human standards, typical (to an extent) in Vulcan terms, he often came across as a silent protector, a watchdog of sorts, whereas Bones, who seemed to have the same sort of relationship with the duo, was more vocal and vicious, a guard dog. But both of them were exponentially loyal to Kirk and Victoria and would give their lives to see them safe and happy, to try their best to do whatever they could to help them in many things they attempted to do.

"Fortunately, mine are perfectly functional. Drop your shields."

"Tor…" Kirk tried again, but Khan backhanded him before pressing his phaser closer to Kirk's head.

"Stop!" Victoria cried, seeing him hurt.

"Release my crew to me," he ordered.

"No," she shook her head, trying stand strong.

"We have no guarantee that you will not destroy the Enterprise," Spock added, hoping there might be some way to try and negotiate still. He had begun with a plan he thought would work best for both sides…but Victoria had disagreed and the new plan…he honestly wasn't sure what would come of it.

"Let's play this out logically then, Mr. Spock," Khan glared, "Firstly, I will kill your Captain to demonstrate my resolve, then if yours holds, which I doubt it shall, I will have no choice but to kill you and your entire crew."

"YOUR crew is onboard this ship," Victoria reminded him, "Blow us up, and you blow them up."

"Your crew requires oxygen to survive. Mine does not. I will target your life support systems located behind the nacelle. And, after every single person onboard your ship suffocates, I will walk over your cold corpses to recover my people. Now..." he smirked, "Shall we begin?" but they were silent, "Or would you prefer to see the methods of persuasion I have been taught?" he lifted the phaser even to Kirk's temple.

"Drop the shields," Victoria ordered.

"Victoria!" Kirk gaped, but Khan bashed the butt of his phaser into his neck, sending Kirk falling to the ground.

"A wise choice, Pike," he turned and kicked Kirk once more for good measure, before he headed to the controls, commanding the transports to bring the 72 missiles back to the ship, "I see all the 72 torpedoes are still in their tubes. If they are not mine," he looked up at the viewscreen, "I will know it."

"Vulcan's do not lie," Spock stated, knowing he was the only one Khan would likely believe, "The torpedoes are yours."

"Now give us OUR crew back," Victoria demanded.

Khan let out a small chuckle, "As you wish," and they watched as Kirk, Carol, and Scotty, who had just started to wake, disappeared.

"Sulu?" she turned to the man.

"They're onboard," Sulu confirmed.

"Of course they are," Khan smirked, "After all, no ship should go down without her captain."

"He's locking phasers on us!" Sulu shouted as the alarms began to go off, Khan ending the transmission with a dark chuckle.

"Where did he transport the others?" Victoria called above the noise.

"Khan's holding cell!"

"Right," she nodded, turning to Spock, "Spock, I'm appointing you captain," she told him, knowing that, now that Kirk was safe onboard and the torpedoes were with Khan, there was no need for her to be in charge any longer. Kirk was safe, any rules that had needed to be broken were, Spock was safe to be his cold, calculating, commanding, logical self, "I need to get to Engineering," they would need the ship to be able to fly to escape the upcoming blasts and that wouldn't happen without a proper engineer there. She knew Scotty would make his way there, but she had to get there soon, she needed to do something to help.

Spock had barely gotten a nod together before Victoria was running out of the Bridge, hearing Sulu calling behind her, "Shields at 6%!" just as the ship jolted, sending her flying into the wall as Khan fired at them.

"15 seconds," she glanced at a watch on her arm, before pushing off the wall, knowing they just had to hold on for seconds more to be safe…

"Crew of the Enterprise," she heard Spock over the comms., "Prepare for immediate proximity detonation."

~8~

"What's he talking about?" Scotty looked up at the announcement, "What detonation?"

"The torpedoes," Kirk realized, "They armed the damn torpedoes…" he'd barely finished saying that when the ship rocked again, an explosion visible through the windows of the Vengeance being engulfed in flames, "Come on," he struggled on, him and Scotty trying to keep Carol upright between them and get her to medbay for examination…he needed to get her there so he could get him and Scotty to meet Victoria in engineering.

Oh he knew where the girl was when she hadn't immediately appeared after they'd escaped Khan's cell (more like been let out by one of the guards). She had to have seen that Carol was injured, she knew that his priority would be to get his injured crew back to the medbay first and, despite Carol being one of her closest friends, she wouldn't go into the medbay if HE was lying in there sick and dying, there was no chance she'd go there for Carol either. So he had to get her there so they could get to Victoria and help her. He knew it was risky, to make her captain when her skills would have been better used in engineering, helping Chekov get everything repaired, but he really had needed someone to break the rules, and that was Victoria in a nutshell.

"Bones!" Kirk shouted as they rushed into the medbay, seeing it going insane and crowding with other injured crew, "Bones!"

"Nurse!" Bones spotted them and rushed over, instructing a nurse (with the help of Uhura) to take Carol away, leaving him to quickly examine Kirk and Scotty, "Good to see you, Jim."

"You helped Spock detonate those torpedoes?"

Bones was silent a moment, "I helped Vicky detonate them on Spock's idea."

Kirk frowned at that, something about Bones mentioning Victoria striking him, "They killed Khan's crew."

Bones fell quiet once more.

"Bones."

He let out a long breath, "Vick was the one to order them to remain in their cryo-tubes," he told Kirk solemnly, "Spock wanted them removed, extracted to the medbay…Vick refused."

"She…left them in there?" Kirk frowned at that, realizing that, in doing what she had, in leaving the 72 members of Khan's crew in the torpedoes…she had followed through with what Marcus had originally wanted.

"She said they were too dangerous," Bones explained, "And she was right Jim, we talked to Spock, an…older Spock, a future Spock," he gave the man a meaningful look, "Khan would kill us all, he nearly did, and he was apparently the NICEST of his crew."

Kirk blinked at that, NOT liking the sound of it at all. If Khan was the kindest…he could only imagine what the cruelest member was like.

"Vick couldn't risk letting them wake up and be released. I can't say I agree with it, I think it was cold, colder than sucking on an ice cube in the middle of a blizzard. But…Jim, even I have to agree that she probably saved the Universe doing that."

Kirk let out a breath at that, thinking about what had to be going through Victoria's head to give that order, to decide to leave the 72 others in the weapons knowing they'd go off and destroy them all. It was as logical a move as Spock would extol, it was preventative like Pike would have wanted in protecting others, it was as cold and calculating as Marcus, and…to send them there already detonated, was just like what he might have done, let the other side think they won and pull the rug out from under them. But most of all…he could say that it was something he knew, deep down, that Victoria would have done. He knew to most it would appear that the man had murdered her family and she was simply returning the favor, but he knew better. He knew she was doing what she always did when she found herself thrust into a situation she wasn't prepared for. She thought it out as far as she could. If Khan survived, if he got a hold of his crew, hell if they were even freed in the future, it would be the end. Khan would not rest till he and his people took over the Universe and if they were found in the future, all of this would just happen again.

This was a last resort, and sadly it had come to it.

"I need to go," Kirk turned, "Scotty with me!"

"Aye Captain," Scotty rushed after him, heading after the man, knowing they were going to engineering and, for the first time, felt thankful he'd quit and didn't know what was in the torpedoes, if he'd known it was people…he didn't know what he'd have done.

Though he did know one thing, when this was over, he was going to give Victoria an enormous hug, because he knew it couldn't have been easy to look past the fact that Khan had killed her father and not use this as a moment to exact revenge by killing his family in return. Of all the excuses Bones had given, not one of them held revenge and he knew…it probably hadn't even crossed her mind in making such a decision. And for that…the girl deserved a hug, to decide this course of action couldn't have been easy.

~8~

Victoria winced as she crashed into a wall when the ship not only jolted, but leaned, actually leaned, the gravity cutting off as the power grid failed. She cast a quick glance out a nearby window to see Earth…getting closer and closer and realized…they were caught in its gravity. This was not good, at all, SO not good, because she also knew that, for a starship to get caught like that, it meant that the Warp Core was offline.

She looked up as alarms began to go off, sounding the evacuation of the ship, but pushed herself up, running as best she could down the halls even as they turned, jumping over the corners and trying to get to engineering quickly, she needed to help stop this or at least stabilize the ship. With the power failing the way it was, none of the crew would have time to reach the escape pods let alone launch them.

She bolted into engineering just in time to see Chekov frantically trying to get some sort of program into the controls, trying to check and see what was wrong see what to do and instantly felt so guilty for leaving all this to the boy when she was more qualified to handle it all. She ran over to him, "Chekov!" she called, pulling him away from the controls and turning him to face her, "Leave this to me. You get off the ship, now!"

"But…" he began.

"Now!" she shoved him away, turning back to the controls as the boy took off, frantically putting in a program, needing to find the exact part of the ship that was wrong with the core or they'd spend too long trying to fix the wrong thing.

She froze moments later when the report came up…the core was misaligned.

"No…" she breathed, staring at it in horror.

"Tory!" she heard someone shout, looking back to see Kirk and Scotty running over to her, Kirk pulling her right into a tight hug.

"Oh nice," Scotty rolled his eyes, seeing her hug Kirk back, "Blue eyes gets a hug but not me, the dashing suave Scotsman?"

Victoria pulled away quickly, "We don't have time," she told them both, "Scotty, the core's misaligned."

Scotty's mouth fell open for a moment, before he pushed past her to see the scan, double checking her work, and stared in shock, "Oh no, no, no, no, no!"

"What?" Kirk shook his head, not sure what it all meant, he could guess, but…it sounded more serious from them than it did in his head.

"The housings are misaligned," Scotty said quickly.

Kirk blinked, "I got that, but what's it mean?"

"We can't redirect power," Victoria explained, rubbing her head.

"The ship's dead, sir," Scotty looked at him, solemn, "She's gone."

Kirk's jaw tensed as he turned, "No she's not," and ran off, the two engineers after him.

"Wait, Jim!" Scotty called, both he and Victoria working out what Kirk was planning to do. To Kirk, it had to be simple, if something was misaligned, they just had to knock it back into place, to THEM though, they knew it meant radiation poisoning, climbing, brute force, among other things that made it near impossible to do, "If we go in there, we'll die. Do you hear me? The radiation will kill us!" he reached out and grabbed Kirk's arm, spinning him to face them, "Will you listen to me? I'll die. YOU'll die. Victoria will DIE!" but Kirk pulled his arm out of his hold and turned back to the side controls, "What the hell are you doing?"

"I'm opening the door," Kirk told them, a grim determination in his voice as Victoria closed her eyes and let out a breath, "I'm going in."

"That door is to stop us getting irradiated," Scotty reminded him, "We would be dead before we made the climb!"

Kirk was silent a moment.

"You're not making the climb," he said, turning quickly and slamming his fist across Scotty's face, knocking the man out and back into a chair. He let out a breath and quickly moved to strap the engineer into his seat, not wanting him to get hurt while unconscious. He took a single moment to look down at Scotty, silently apologizing for what he'd done and turned to try and stop Victoria…

Only to run right into a fist meant for him as well.

Victoria didn't even cry out as she was entirely sure she'd broken something in her knuckles this time, as she watched Kirk fall to the ground. She'd never…done that to him before, knocked HIM out with a punch, she'd never thought she ever would…but there she was just…looking down at his prone, unconscious form with a solemn, grim expression on her face before she whispered...

"Neither are you."

A/N: Oh...dear...god... O.O and only one more chapter left! }:)

On a slightly lighter note, last day to vote on the poll for pairing names ;) It's up on my profile ;)

And just to explain the lateness of this chapter...apparently my mother thinks that staying up till 2am and waking up at 6am every day for the last week is unhealthy. She shut my alarms off after I went to sleep and I literally just woke up 2 minutes ago, realized what time it was, yelled, and ran to my computer to get this up as my mother came to see why I was shouting and told me what she did :( I'm SO sorry it's late :(

Some notes on reviews...

I was debating giving Victoria an action moment in this story, beyond her punching people out thing, but there's a moment I have in mind for a scene involving her kicking but that I think would be best with the subplot for the next story ;) So we'll definitely see it :)

Oh I don't think I could be a starship captain either, I'd panic and crumble under the pressure and responsibilities :)

I think Victoria just has an irrational fear of doctors and medical lol :) She can't really explain why, she hasn't had bad experiences with it, it's like her fear of fire, she's just afraid of it :)