So sorry it's taken me a few days to finally post this new chapter. I got pretty busy and my bestie was in town last night so we hung out :D anyways here is chapter 7!

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

Lara stepped off the lift onto the bridge. She straightened her back and put on her officer face to hide any emotion that would let anybody know exactly how she was feeling at the moment. She made her way to her station slowly, making brief eye contact with Leo and receiving a small smile from Jim, who had taken the liberty of claiming the captain's chair as his seat for the meeting. She returned his smile with a slight one of hers and leaned on her station, tuning into her new captain.

Spock was walking around the bridge and greeted Lara when he saw her, then began. "Have you confirmed that Nero is headed for Earth?" he asked Uhura.

She spun around in her chair, "They're trajectory suggests no other destination Captain."

Spock walked past her, "Thank you Lieutenant."

Jim spoke up from his seat, "Earth may be his next stop, but we have to assume that every federation planet is a target."

"Out of the chair." Spock said calmly walking past him. Jim rolled his eyes and moved to stand next to Lara.

"Well if the federation is the target," Chekov said, "Why didn't they destroy us?" he looked to Sulu.

"Why would they? Why waste the weapons when we obviously weren't a threat." The pilot said watching Spock as he paced to stand in front of the helm.

"That is not it," he put his hands behind his back, "He said he wanted me to see something; the destruction of my home planet."

"How the hell did they do that by the way?" Bones asked out loud, "I mean where did the Romulans get that kind of weaponry?" he turned to Lara, the weapons expert.

She shrugged, "I've never seen anything like it. And it wasn't a weapon…or it wasn't before the Romulans got a hold of it. They made it a weapon. But it's far too advanced for any species to create…"

Spock turned to her, "You are on the right path Sheppard. The engineering comprehension necessary to artificially create a black hole may suggest an answer," he faced Bones, "Such technology could theoretically be manipulated to create a tunnel through space time."

Lara's eyes widened as a slight pause fell across the bridge and its officers. Then she heard Bones' frustrated voice, "Damn it man I'm a doctor not a physicist! Are you actually suggesting that they're from the future?"

"If you eliminate the impossible whatever remains however improbable must be the truth."

Bones rolled his eyes, "How poetic."

Jim asked the next question, "Then what would an angry future Romulan want with Captain Pike?"

Spock made his way toward the chair, Sulu answered Jim's question, "As captain he does know details of Starfleets defenses."

Lara watched Jim walk toward the center of the bridge, "What we need to do is catch up to that ship, disable it, take it over and get Pike back."

"We are technologically out matched in every way," Spock said pacing back to stand in front of the helm to look out the windows at the empty void of space, "A rescue attempt would be illogical."

"Nero's ship would have to drop out of warp for us to overtake it," Chekov said, agreeing with Spock.

Jim held up a hand, "Then what about assigning an engineering crew to try and boost our warp drives?"

"We have two engineering crews already working to fix our radiation leaks on the lower decks…" Spock rambled on about the amount the engineering crew was doing.

Jim walked past Lara and over to Spock, "Okay, alright, alright! There's got to be some way!" he said over Spock's voice.

"We must gather with the rest of Starfleet, to balance the terms of the next engagement."

"There won't be a next engagement by the time we've gathered it'll be too late," that silenced the Vulcan so Jim continued, "Look, if you say he's from the future and knows what's going to happen then the logical thing is to be unpredictable."

Spock took a few steps towards him, "You are assuming that Nero knows how events predicted will unfold. The contrary Nero's very presence has altered the flow of history, beginning with the attack on the USS Kelvin, culminating the events of today thereby creating an entirely new chain of incidents that cannot be anticipated by either party."

Holy shit, Lara thought. "An alternate reality," Uhura said stepping from behind her.

"Precisely," Spock said moving to his chair, "Whatever our lives might have been if the time continuum was disrupted, our destinies have changed. Mr. Sulu plot a course for the Lorentian system warp vector 3."

Jim looked at Lara and walked up to Spock who had taken his seat in the chair, "Spock you can't do that. Running back to the rest of the fleet for a-a confab is a massive waste of time."

"We have an order that was issued by Captain Pike when he left the ship."

Lara couldn't stand aside while Jim was left alone to argue with Spock. She stepped up behind Jim and placed a hand on his shoulder, "That wasn't his only order Spock, you know that."

Jim raised his voice in frustration, "He also ordered us to go back and get him. Spock you are captain now you have to make…"

"I am aware of my responsibilities Mr. Kirk."

Jim was now yelling, "Every second we waste here Nero is getting closer to his next target."

"That is correct and why I am instructing you to accept the fact that I—

"I will not allow us to go backwards…"

Bones held out a hand, "Jim calm down!"

"…instead of hunting Nero down!" Jim said eyes locked with Spock's.

"Security, escort him out." The Vulcan said calmly. Two security personnel took both of Jim's arms. Lara was about to protest when Jim beat her to the punch, literally. He yanked his arms free, flipped one security officer over and knocked the other out. More officers came at him but Jim's fight was short lived due to Spock squeezing Jim in the neck, knocking him out cold. "Get him off this ship." Spock said venomously to the security personnel.

They started to drag Jim's limp body off the bridge. Lara fumed and turned to point a finger right in the Vulcan's face, "Are you serious? Did that last transport screw up that big, fat, Vulcan brain of yours or something?"

Spock tilted his head to the side and raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean Lieutenant?"

"If you think you can just shoot Jim off onto some random planet just because he put up a fight to try and defend his word…" her voice got higher and higher the longer she went. Lara took a deep, shaky breath and said in a low and threatening voice, "You had better send me with him, Captain. I don't think I will be able to control myself from doing anything…illogical."

Spock stared at her for a while; he looked almost intrigued by what she was telling him. "Lieutenant as noble as that sounds for you to stand by your fellow officer and friend I will have to decline your request to leave. Your skills are needed for this mission Sheppard. You are staying on this ship." With that, he took his seat and ended their conversation.

Lara felt like hitting something, and Spock's face looked like a pretty good target right about now. But she restrained herself at least for now. Lara slowly made her way to stand in front of her station and, tight mouthed, pulled up the security footage for the escape pods. She watched as the security staff threw Jim inside a pod along with a duffle and sent him away.

She was seeing red, literally seeing red. Not only did her new acting captain just maroon her best friend on a wasteland of a planet, but he just inadvertently denied her the chance to confess her true feelings to Jim.

Lara stood at her station for several minutes, trying to calm herself down. After a few moments she managed to not have the urge to snap Spock's neck and started to find something to keep her mind off of what just happened. One of these days, she thought looking up at her Vulcan captain, he will finally admit just how stupid he can be sometimes.

Lara rubbed her tired eyes. She had been helping Sulu calibrate the weapons and that took them very long because the pilot couldn't quite understand her method of calibrations. "Are you sure you have it this time?" she asked him.

Sulu looked up from his seat at her, "Yes I've got it this time. Thanks Sheppard."

"Yeah anytime." She said to him and walked back to her station, rubbing her aching neck. God five hours of preparing for Spock's pointless war and all I've been doing is calibrating weapons, Lara thought to herself as she stood in front of her console. It was at this time that she heard the doors to the bridge swish open. She turned to see the Vulcan high council make their way onto the bridge, stoic and emotionless as ever. Of course, even after they just lost everything, they still act as if nothing happened, Lara thought to herself logging into the computer.

As she waited for her log screen to come up she let her eyes dance around the bridge. She was watching all of the crew members scramble about trying to prepare for the upcoming battle with Nero and the rest of Starfleet. She was about to begin her own preparations when she felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned to see Leo standing there with his hands behind his back, "Can I speak to you for a moment?"

Lara simply nodded, afraid of what her voice might reveal. She followed him into the lift and watched him press the button that would take them to the medical floor. Half way through the ride, he stopped the elevator and turned to her. They stared at each other for a while, neither one knowing what the other might say. Leo was the one to break the silence, "I want you to know that I really do care about you Lara…"

"I do too Leo." She said feeling her eyes water.

"Hang on Lar, let me finish." When she closed her mouth and stayed silent for a moment he continued, "You are one of my best friends, the other is Jim. You were right, he is like a brother to me. I love that kid even though he irritates me almost every second of the day. And…I want you to be happy, the both of you. So, with that in mind and with our conversation earlier…I…want to apologize."

When she was sure he was finished Lara couldn't help but smile. "Leo, I…" she stopped herself and instead wrapped her arms around him tightly. He returned the hug after a moment. Eventually she pulled back and punched him in the arm, "You sure we can still be friends? I still need my late night romantic comedy buddy."

Leo rolled his eyes, "Only if you make the popcorn."

She smiled and hugged him again, "Extra butter with a pinch of salt."

"But Lara?" he asked looking at her, "If he ever breaks your heart, I will break his legs…and then his arms." Lara laughed and hugged him again. She couldn't be more happy. She had her best friend back and now he just said he was alright with the idea of her and Jim together.

"There's just one problem, I might not ever see him again thanks to Spock."

"Oh I'm sure Jim will find some way back to us, he always does." Leo said laughing at the memories.

"Hey, you're keeping me from my duties." Lara said pressing the button to take them back to the bridge. Leo smiled at her and was still smiling when they walked onto the bridge. He followed her to her station.

Lara pulled up her log and started checking systems throughout the ship. She and Leo soon fell into comfortable conversation about her work duties and what they entailed. "I have to memorize all these different commands and…hang on." She said when her station started beeping rapidly, "Something's accessed the water turbines."

"What do you mean?" Leo asked looking over her shoulder.

"Well it's unauthorized…might be a malfunction. Here let's take a look," she said pulling up the video feed from the engineering deck. What she saw made her gasp and then she felt her knees go weak.

"Oh my god…Is that?" Leo asked looking closer at her screen.

"Captain you need to see this. There's been unauthorized access to the water turbine controls." Lara said out of pure instinct.

"Bring up the video," Spock said stepping away from his conversation with his father. As she pulled up the video, Spock walked up to Chekov's station. Keeping his eyes on the video he pressed a button and said, "Security seal the engineering deck, we have intruders in section turbine 3. Set phasers to stun."

"Oh shit…" Lara said wringing her fingers together, "This is not good Leo. This really is not good."

"You don't know for sure if it's him." Leo said trying to calm her down.

"Are you kidding me? I've known him my entire life…I know I saw him." Lara exclaimed, her fingers flying over her console.

"What are you doing now?" Leo asked watching her work.

"I need to watch them. I do technically have authority over the security team," she mumbled as she pulled up the video on the engineering deck. The two intruders avoided security pretty well but were eventually cut off on the catwalks. Security didn't fire, thankfully, and instead took the intruders into their own custody. "Security bring them up to the bridge," Lara said over the comm. channel. One of the officers nodded toward the camera and they left the engineering deck.

"Now Lara, I want you to just let things play out this time alright?" Leo said to her quietly.

She took a few shaky breaths and nodded, "Alright, fine I'll just watch this time."

A few seconds later and the intruders were dragged onto the bridge. One was Jim and the other was dripping wet. Spock walked up to them and addressed the dripping wet intruder, "Who are you?"

"I'm with him."

"He's with me." Jim said never taking his eyes off of Spock.

"We are traveling at warp speed," Spock said looking at Jim, "How did you manage to beam aboard this ship?"

"Well you're the genius you figure it out." Jim said indifferently.

"As acting captain of this vessel I order you to answer the question." Spock sounded like he might be getting a little angry, if he could get angry.

There was a small pause, then Jim answered, "Well I'm not telling, acting captain." What are you planning Jim? Lara thought as she slowly stepped forward. Jim's eyes flickered over to her and back to Spock but it only took that one look for her to know that he was relieved to see her. Spock simply stared at Jim, "What? No now that doesn't frustrate you does it? My lack of cooperation?"

Spock turned his piercing stare toward Jim's companion, "Are you a member of Starfleet?"

He looked flustered for a moment, open mouthed and wide eyed. "Wh-I um…yes-can I get a towel?"

"Under penalty of court marshal I order you to explain to me how you were able to beam aboard this ship while moving at warp."

He began to explain but Jim stopped him by saying, "Don't answer him."

"You will answer me." Spock said, his voice sounding venomous.

Jim's companion shifted his weight from one foot to the other and looked like he was thinking of his answer, "I'd rather not take sides," he said smiling politely, but was ignored by Jim and Spock who were staring daggers at each other.

Jim stepped forward and got in Spock's face, "What is it with you Spock? Your planet was just destroyed, your mother murdered and you're not even upset."

"If you are presuming that these experiences in any way impede my ability to command this ship you are mistaken."

"And yet you were the one who said fear was necessary for command. I mean…did you see his ship? Did you see what he did?"

"Yes of course I did." Spock said, his voice wavering slightly.

"So are you afraid or aren't you?"

"I will not allow you to lecture me about the merits of emotion."

"Then why don't you stop me?"

"Step away from me Mr. Kirk," Spock said his voice sounding dangerously close to anger.

But Jim would not back down, "What is it like to feel anger, or heart break, or the need to stop at nothing to avenge the murder of the woman who gave birth to you?"

"Back away from me."

"You feel nothing!" Jim shouted, "It must not even compute for you. You never loved her!" With that Spock snapped. He went at Jim, shouting and letting out all of his pent up emotions. He landed a solid punch to his face, making Jim fall back onto a security officer. Then Spock grabbed Jim by the collar of his shirt and threw him around. Jim turned and tried to block the oncoming hits but he couldn't block them all. Spock hit him in the stomach causing Jim to double over. Spock hit Jim in the throat pushing him to the pilot's console.

Jim fell on top of the console, holding his throat and trying to defend himself. But Spock was faster and got a hold on his throat. Breathing heavily, Spock began to practically crush Jim's throat. Lara wanted to scream, she wanted to throw Spock off and across the bridge. But she just couldn't bring herself to do it. She did feel a tear begin to run down her cheek as she watched in horror, hoping that somebody would do something.

After what seemed like ages someone finally spoke up, "Spock!" his father said from behind. It took a moment but Spock eventually let Jim go, realizing he had just lost control. Jim coughed several times and tried to catch his breath. Spock slowly turned toward his father, an unreadable look on his face.

Lara couldn't hold back anymore, she made her way to Jim quickly, and helped him sit up. She wiped some of the sweat off his forehead and looked in his eyes. You're an idiot, the look said to him. He nodded at her and let her wrap an arm around his waist.

Spock walked toward Leo, his eyes cast down and said, "Doctor I am no longer, fit for duty. I hereby relinquish my command based on the fact that I have been emotionally compromised. Please note the time and date in the ships log." He walked off toward the lift. When he entered Uhura followed after him, giving him a longing look. She did not follow him however, only stood still and silent. Lara watched Spock's father go after his son quietly.

A tense and awkward silence came after they left. Only Jim's heavy breathing and beeps from the consoles were the only sounds echoing throughout the bridge.

But it was broken by a thick Scottish accent coming over the silence, "I like this ship," Jim's companion said his hands still in the air, "It's exciting."

If the situation wasn't so serious or tense Lara would have laughed at him. "Well congratulations Jim," Leo said, "We've got no captain and no god damned first officer to replace him."

"Yeah we do," Jim said standing up and taking his seat at the captains chair. Lara stood as well and went to her station.

"What?" Leo asked watching Jim.

"Pike made him first officer," Sulu said to the doctor.

Leo looked shocked, "You gotta be kidding me."

"Thanks for the support," Jim said nodding in his direction.

Uhura stopped next to Jim and said, "I sure hope you know what you're doing, captain."

"So do I." he took a moment to catch his breath then opened up a ship wide comm. channel from his chair, "Attention crew of the Enterprise this is James Kirk. Mr. Spock has resigned commission and advanced me to acting captain. I know you were all expecting to regroup with the fleet, but I'm ordering a pursuit course of the enemy ship to Earth, I want all stations ready in ten minutes. Either we're going down or they are. Kirk out."

I will try and have the next chapter up by tomorrow. Thanks for reading!