Holy extremely difficult chapter batman! Haha...so yeah this chapter took me quite a while to write, I hate love triangles...so complicated! D: Oh well it turned out pretty good and...here it is!

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek...I only own Lara Sheppard

Lara turned to follow the others to the lift when she felt a strong hand on her elbow. She turned to see Leo standing there, a concerned look on his face. "What's wrong?"

"Lara…" he trailed off, worry and fear evident in his eyes.

"I'll be fine Leo. I promise." She walked into the lift and watched him until the doors closed on her. Lara couldn't help but feel a need to come through this little mission successfully, she just couldn't bear the thought of what would happen to Leo if something bad happened to her.

The ride down was quiet but the energy in the air was tense, the officers didn't know what their captain was planning. When the elevator came to a stop, all five of them walked off following after Pike as he started laying out his plan.

"Without transport abilities we can't beam off the ship, we can't assist Vulcan, we can't do our job. Mr. Kirk, Miss Sheppard, Mr. Sulu, and Engineer Olsen will space jump from the shuttle. You will land on that machine they've lowered into the atmosphere that's scrambling our gear, you'll get inside, you'll disable it, and then you'll beam back to the ship.

Mr. Spock, I'm leaving you in command of the Enterprise. Once we have transport capability and communications back up, you'll contact Starfleet and tell them what the hell is going on here. And if all else fails, fall back and rendezvous with the fleet in the Lorentian system." They came to a halt at another elevator that would take them down a level to the shuttles. Pike looked at Jim, "Kirk I'm promoting you to first officer."

Several versions of "what" came after that. Than Spock asked the captain, "Captain? Please I apologize, the complexity of human pranks escape me."

"It's not a prank. And I'm not the captain Spock, you are." Pike entered the elevator followed by Sulu, Lara and a smirking Kirk.

Jim looked to the captain and asked, "Sir after we knock out that drill what happens to you?"

"Oh I guess you'll have to come get me," Pike looked to Spock, "Careful with the ship Spock, she's brand new."

They rode this elevator in silence again and exited quickly. Pike pointed them toward the space jump uniforms. There they met Engineer Olsen, who seemed very excited. He was already dressed and placing the charges in his pack. Sulu pulled out a golden jump suit and Kirk pulled out a silvery blue one.

Lara went to her own locker and pulled out a metallic white suit. She went into the bathroom and put on her suit, admiring herself in the mirror briefly before walking out to find Sulu and Jim preparing their packs.

Sulu started asking Olsen questions about the charges but Jim just stopped what he was doing and stared at Lara. She placed her white helmet on the bench and raised an eyebrow at him, "What?" and when she saw the look in his eyes, "James T. Kirk are you jealous?" she giggled putting her hands on her hips.

"I don't know what you're talking about." he said avoiding her eyes.

"I can't believe it. You are actually jealous, well Jim I never took you for the jealous type." Lara said strapping her pack on. He was about to say something but was interrupted by Sulu calling them over to the shuttle. Lara gave him one last look that said drop it then made her way to the small shuttle, followed closely by Jim.

They took their seats, Olsen and Sulu on the ends, Jim and Lara in between. "You brought the charges right?" Jim asked Olsen.

"Oh yeah," the engineer said, "I'm ready to kick some Romulan ass." He grinned. Lara rolled her eyes and started to focus. She had only done a few space jumps but they were all in training and she never had to land on a giant ass drill. She had to admit though, she loved the adrenaline rush she got from a space jump. If Starfleet has taught her anything, it's to love a good rush.

"So what kind of training do you have?" Jim asked Sulu.

"Fencing." Sulu said proudly. Jim just looked at him, and Lara raised an eyebrow. They were getting closer to the jump. Lara felt her stomach flutter, she was about to do something that could be deadly.

"Jim?" she faced him and continued when he faced her, "Pull your chute when I say to alright?"

"Lara you don't…"

"Promise me Jim! And you to Sulu! And Olsen! I don't want to lose anybody, we've already lost the rest of the fleet." They all nodded at her.

"Prepare for pre-jump." Pike said from the pilot's chair. Jim began to put on his helmet, Lara did the same and soon all four had their helmets sealed tight. When all four officers were ready, they stood and grabbed the bars that they were meant to hold.

"Gentlemen and lady, we are approaching the drop zone. You have one shot to land on that platform. They may have defenses so pull your chute as late as possible. Three, two, one," all four were magnetized and now had their backs to the ceiling of the shuttle, "Remember the Enterprise won't be able to beam you back until you turn off that drill. Good luck." He said than they were free falling.

It was silent. No sound in space. The only noise was their breathing. When they were released, all four officers immediately straightened out their bodies to go as fast as possible. It seemed like they were falling forever. Lara could hear her breathing, it was calm, and so was Jim's. Sulu's breaths sounded strained and Olsen just sounded anxious.

"Sheppard to Enterprise," Lara spoke calmly, despite the strain it took to speak, "Entering the Vulcan atmosphere in five, four, three, two…one." She said as they all heard the boom when they passed the thick layer of ozone.

Lara could feel her heart rate increasing as they fell toward the surface. She heard Jim's voice after what seemed like ages, "Kirk to Enterprise, distance to target, five-thousand meters."

"Forty-five hundred meters to target," came Sulu's voice. Lara started to breathe deeply and slowly to keep herself calm and prepare for the next step, landing.

"Four thousand meters," Kirk reported. Almost there, she thought.

"Three thousand meters!" Olsen said enthusiastically from ahead of the others.

"Three thousand meters," Kirk said.

"Pulling chute!" Lara heard Sulu say, he released his chute.

"Now Jim!" Lara nearly shouted at him. They each pulled their chutes at the same time. Olsen however had yet to pull his.

"Two thousand meters," he shouted from below them.

"Come on, pull your chute Olsen!" Jim yelled down at the engineer.

"Olsen do it now!" Lara nearly screamed. If he didn't pull it now…she didn't want to think about what might happen.

"No not yet! Woo-hoo!" Olsen was officially an idiot, "One thousand meters!" But Lara knew it was already too late. He pulled his chute, that part was successful. But what Olsen didn't take into account was the fact that traveling at that speed and trying to land on something from one thousand meters that fast, it was impossible. He was now a dead idiot.

"Olsen!" Sulu exclaimed.

"No! Damn it!" Lara cursed. Jim was simply speechless.

But they couldn't worry about Olsen now. At the moment they had to focus on landing on the drill safely. Lara came first, she expertly lowered herself to just above the platform than closed up her chute. She landed on the balls of her feet and pulled off her helmet, but lost it over the edge due to the strong winds that were hitting the drill.

She looked up to see Jim come in for his not so smooth landing. His feet did touch the drill's surface but he slipped and fell on his back. He tried to roll over and stand but the winds where far too strong. They were pulling him over the edge due to his open chute! "Jim!" Lara yelled running over to him. She grabbed his hand but was pulled down with him. She reached out with her other hand to grab something, anything. Her hand found purchase on some grating on the drill's surface. Lara held on for her life and for Jim's. "Close your chute! I can't hold on forever!" she shouted at him.

Jim raised himself to his knees and with great effort closed his parachute. He fell down on top of Lara breathing heavily from the exertion. He pulled off his helmet and held her face in his hands, "Are you alright?" he practically had to shout over the noise.

"Yeah!" then she heard shafts moving up into the open. Lara looked back and saw two Romulans step onto the platform. Jim ran head first toward the biggest Romulan and started beating on him with his helmet. Lara on the other hand stood and walked toward her opponent slowly. She balanced on the balls of her feet and raised her fists. Then she realized something, her opponent was as big if not bigger than Jim's opponent. "Bring it on baldy!" she yelled at the imposing figure standing in front of her. And he did.

Baldy came at her and threw a heavy right hook at her. But Lara was faster. She ducked underneath his arm, jabbed him several times in the stomach with her fists and went to his back. Baldy doubled over from the loss of air. Lara then kicked out his knees and the Romulan fell on all fours. She was about to finish him off when she heard a loud thud. Sulu had landed, good.

Lara turned back to the fallen Romulan but he was up and very angry. He grabbed her by the neck and raised her feet off the surface of the drill. She nearly lost consciousness from his strong grip but luckily her legs were long. Lara swung her right leg around and kicked the Romulan in the neck. She heard a tell tale crack when her foot made contact. Lara flew out of the alien's grip, spun her body around mid air and landed on her feet with one hand on the drill's surface to brace herself and the other outstretched to keep her balanced.

She stood and checked her surroundings. Sulu had just killed one of the Romulans using the drill itself. Lara turned to look for Jim and saw his gloved, blue fingers hanging onto the side of the drill. A Romulan was trying to stomp his fingers and made contact with Jim's hand! "Sulu!" Lara shouted at the pilot. When he looked up at her she pointed to the alien. Sulu nodded and walked over to the Romulan and shoved his sword through the alien.

He gurgled in pain and when Sulu pulled out his sword, the alien fell over the side. Lara and Sulu helped pull Jim up, all three were breathing heavily from their fights. "Olsen had the charges!" Sulu shouted.

"I know!" Jim and Lara said together.

"What do we do?" the pilot asked.

Jim turned and picked up a fallen Romulan weapon, "This!" He aimed the rifle at the center of the drill; Sulu and Lara followed his lead and started spraying the drill with phaser bullets. They heard the laser from the drill sputter out and die. Lara threw down her weapon and so did Jim and Sulu.

"Remind me to never do something like this again," she said moving some hair out of her face. The two men laughed with her but stopped when they heard a loud boom. They looked up to see some sort of missile drop down into the hole that the drill had just made.

Jim raised his arm to his mouth, "Kirk to Enterprise, they just launched something at the planet into the hole they just drilled," there was no answer, "Do you copy Enterprise?"

Still no answer, Lara was getting anxious. She turned on her communicator and like Jim contacted the crew, "Sheppard to Enterprise, now would be a good time to get us out of here. And when I say now, I mean now!"

"Kirk to Enterprise, beam us out of here!" Jim said after her.

They heard a woman's voice come over the comm. channel, "Stand by locking on your signal."

"Jim, I don't think you should be so close to the e-ah!" she exclaimed catching herself from falling face first onto the drill. Jim had caught himself as well but not Sulu, he was standing too close to the edge and had fallen over the side.

"Sulu!" Jim shouted after him as he jumped over the side.

"James no!" Lara screamed but it was too late. She could already see the white lights of the transporter dancing in front of her eyes. Before she knew it she was inside the transporter room of the Enterprise.

"Hold on! Hold on! I can't get a lock on your signal!" she heard the same voice from early say.

"Clear the platform!" someone shouted at her, when she looked up she saw Chekov. He was working frantically at the transporter station.

"Beam us up!" she heard Jim's voice over the comm. channel.

"Hold on! Hold on! Hold on!" Chekov said frantically working at the controls.

"Now Enterprise do it now!"

"Chekov he said now!" Lara said looking over his shoulder biting her nails.

"Now, now, now, now, now, now!"

"If you get him killed Chekov…" she said starting to pace.

"Compensating gravitational pull and…gotcha!" Chekov shouted looking at the platform. Kirk and Sulu landed very hard on the pads, shattering one to pieces. The Russian whiz-kid cheered in his own language.

"Oh thank you God," Lara said running over to the platform to help Jim and Sulu stand.

Sulu was panting, "Thanks," he said to Jim.

"No problem," Jim said back to him, breathing heavily as well. He looked up at Lara and gave her a tired smile, than saw Spock walk into the room.

"Clear the pad," he said stepping onto it and strapping a phaser to his hip, "I am being beamed to the surface."

"The surface of what?" Jim asked as Spock kneeled, "What are you going down there are you nuts?"

"Spock you can't do that!" Lara shouted at the crazy Vulcan.

"Energize." He commanded.

"Spock!" Jim yelled, but to no avail. He was already gone.

Several minutes passed but it seemed to Lara like hours. She paced in front of Jim and Sulu biting her nails, "For a Vulcan he isn't acting very logical right now."

"He's trying to save as much of his culture as he can," Sulu said from behind her.

"You'd do the same if Earth was in Vulcan's place." Jim said placing a hand on her shoulder.

Spock to Enterprise, get us out now!

Lara looked up at Chekov as he replied to the Vulcan, "Locking on your signal, stay right where you are." Kirk's hand snaked into her own and Lara squeezed it gently. She may not like Spock very much but she did respect him greatly especially for being brave enough to save the Vulcan High Council.

Chekov's fingers flew over the transporter console as he locked onto his targets. "Transport in five…four, three, two…I'm losing her! I'm losing her! I'm losing her!" Chekov shouted as the console beeped rapidly than he sunk back into his seat, "I lost her."

Lost who? Lara wanted to ask but when she saw Spock and the rest of the High Council standing on the platform, she knew. Her hands covered her mouth to suppress a gasp that would surely make this whole situation worse than it already was. Spock's mother…was gone. His hand was stretched out to the empty space where she should have been.

Spock walked toward the empty space slowly, he looked so heartbroken. But he never shed one tear. Vulcans, Lara thought as she was led to the medical bay with Jim close behind her. Sulu quickly returned to his station as did Chekov.

Bones worked on several patients at once, he was now the Chief Medical Officer. Jim had his hand wrapped in several layers of gauze while Lara had the bruises on her neck checked out. They were minor and had already begun to fade.

The mood in the medical bay was somber, tense, and even a bit lonely. As the remaining members of the High Council were checked out by Bones and casualties were accounted for. Spock gave Lara leave to rest in her quarters until she was needed.

Lara entered her room and fell on the small bed in the corner. She felt groggy and decided a shower was needed. When she stepped out of the bathroom she opened up her closet. There was a uniform that was more to her taste. It consisted of tight black pants, knee high black boots and a fitted, red, long sleeve shirt with the Starfleet emblem on the left shoulder. Lara pulled on the uniform and fixed her smeared make up. She dried her hair and started to pull it over her right shoulder to put it in its usual fish tail braid.

She had just tied the end of the long braid when she heard her "doorbell" ring. Lara stood and pressed the button that would open her door and found Leo standing there. "May I come in?" he asked politely.

Lara nodded and he stepped inside, the door swishing shut behind him. She sat in her desk chair, "Shouldn't you be at your station, Chief Medical Officer?"

Leo sat on her bed, "Yeah but that's when assistants come in handy." They both snickered and sat in a tense silence. "So," he said trying to break the ice, "Is it too early to ask what happened with Olsen?"

"He wasn't thinking like a Starfleet officer, he was thinking like a regular adrenaline junkie," she replied rubbing her temples, "Damn it I said when to pull the chutes, and did he listen? No. Ugh this is why I wanted to go into SFSO."

"Why is that?" Leo asked hesitantly.

"Because most of the missions would have been solo, and I wouldn't have to worry about losing people. But what's done is done I guess," she looked up at him and gave him a half smile that didn't quite reach her eyes, "Sorry if I'm ranting."

Leo shook his head, "No…I mean you are, it's just…I'm sorry, here I am trying to cheer you up and we end up talking about death."

"It's fine Leo. I've dealt with death; I can handle a little bit more."

He looked up at her, "You mean your folks?"

She watched his boots intently, "Yeah…mom and dad…" she trailed off lost in memories.

"You never talk about them very much."

"Yeah I know. They died when I was eighteen, if you really want to know. It was a complete accident, a shuttle crash; computer failure that sort of thing, but sometimes I think the universe just feels like messing things up just for the hell of it."

"Hey…hey Lara are you alright?" he asked slowly making his way across the small room to her. She looked up at him, eyes brimming with tears and bottom lip quivering slightly. Leo didn't say anything as he pulled Lara out of her chair and into his arms.

"I miss them so much Leo." She sobbed into his shoulder, holding him even closer. They stayed in their embrace until Lara's sobbing turned into quiet whimpering. She slowly pulled away from him, "Thanks, I haven't talked about my parents in a long time."

Leo moved a stray piece of hair behind her ear, "I'm here for you."

Lara gave him a reassuring smile, "Thanks Leo."

"Anytime," he said kissing her forehead softly. When he pulled back and met her eyes, he felt the distance between them begin to shrink.

He got closer, so close, she could feel the heat radiating off his skin. Lara shut her eyes, waiting for what was to come next. Leo cupped her face with his hand and leaned forward slowly. He pressed his lips to hers softly.

Lara felt his arms wrap around her and she tried to feel what he obviously was but just couldn't. The one thing, the one person that kept running through her mind was Jim. What would he say if he saw us? Would he still be friends with me? Would he still be friends with Leo? I bet Jim would laugh if he saw us…then cry.

"I…" she said pulling away from him, "I can't." Lara walked out of his arms and leaned against her tiny desk.

"What do you mean you can't?" Leo asked, shock evident in his face.

"I love him Leo. I-I always have."

"You mean Jim? You can't do this because of Jim? How do you even know that he feels the same way Lara? You know how he is with women, how he treats them, and how he acts. All he wants is to get in a girls pants and then he's done."

Lara shook her head, "He would never do that to me."

Leo crossed his arms, "Oh yeah, why not?"

"Because I know he loves me back. Look you haven't grown up with him like I have. I can read him like an open book Leo, I know how he feels about me." She said standing up from her desk.

"Then why hasn't he ever made a move like I just did," Leo pointed out crossing his arms.

"He's nervous Leo. He's afraid of what might happen if he screws up and hurts me because he knows how good of a friendship we have, he doesn't want to ruin what we have." They looked at each other for a while. Leo just couldn't believe what he was hearing, after all the flirting and all of the vibes he got…he couldn't believe that she would pick James T. Kirk, a known womanizer, over him.

"But…why him Lara? Why not me?" he took a step toward her but was stopped by her out stretched hand.

"Trust me Leo, if there was never a James T. Kirk in this world, it would be you. I love you Leo…but I love Jim more. And if I ever have to pick, I will always pick Jim, every time and every chance I get, it'll always be him…" she trailed off, feeling the tears behind her eyes.

"I…I have to go, organize the medical equipment or something. I'll see you on the bridge Sheppard." He said turning to leave her room.

Lara followed after him, "Leo I…I can't change how I feel. Please don't take this out on Jim, you're like a brother to him. If anything, just take it out on me, shun me, hell hit me if you really want to but please, leave him out of this."

Leo couldn't believe what he was hearing, she was begging him. But she was begging him for the sake of Jim. He turned to her, "I…I need to think about all of this. And don't worry about Jim. It won't be me who tells him everything, I'll leave that to you."

With that he turned and walked to the lift leaving Lara alone in her doorway. She closed the door and walked to her bed, sat down and held her head in her hands. She let the tears fall then. She knew that she had messed up this time. Leading Leo on and then just crushing him when his hopes were up like that? She really was a horrible person.

Sheppard you're needed on the bridge, she heard Uhura's voice over the comm.

"Yeah," she said to the air, "I'll be right there." Lara stood and went to the bathroom. She looked in the mirror and fixed her smeared make up, then decided to splash cold water on her face to try and erase the evidence that she had been crying. Satisfied with her looks she left her room and made her way up to the bridge, preparing herself for whatever was to come.

Review please! Thanks for reading!