The trio stood in the back of the group of cadets, waiting to be told their assigned ships. After the man went over the K's in their class, the three began to get worried. Luna especially was. She had wished this wouldn't affect him getting assigned, but it looked like it was. "L. McCoy," Both of them looked up. They had this down to a science by now. Bones was first since his name came before hers in the alphabet. "USS Enterprise." Bones let out a kind of relaxed sigh, but Luna was still on the edge of her seat. She never knew if Pike still wanted her or went with the Russian wiz kid. "L. McCoy," Luna's breath caught in her throat as she prayed to get assigned to the Enterprise. "USS Enterprise."
A smile spread across her face. She was so excited she didn't listen to all the other names. "Welcome to Starfleet." The commander spoke, making Luna almost giddy. "Godspeed."
Everyone turned away and began to go towards their assigned ships, but when both Bones and Luna turned to look at Jim, he looked angry. "He didn't call my name." He grunted before hurrying after the man, Bones and Luna following as fast as they could. "Commander, sir, you didn't call my name." Jim called, ending up directly behind him once Bones and Luna were finally caught up. "Kirk, James T."
"Kirk," the commander sighed. "You're on academic suspension. That means you're grounded," Jim let out an annoyed sigh accompanied by an eye roll. "Until the academy board rules."
The commander walked off, giving Luna the perfect chance to go up to him, and place her hand on his shoulder. "Jim, the board will rule in your favor."
Bones moved up, right behind his daughter before adding, "Most likely."
Luna shot him a dirty look. He couldn't hold onto that until Jim was gone? Jim was still looking down. There was nothing more he wanted than to be on the Enterprise with the two, and now his last ditch effort to get Luna back was keeping him away from her. "Listen, Jim," Bones began. "We've gotta go."
Luna swallowed, wishing she wouldn't leave him right now. Not when he needed comfort the most. Jim turned around, looking to the two, giving Bones his hand to shake. "Yeah, go. Be safe." Jim then let go of his hand, and looked to Luna. When he looked at her, he just saw all of their history play before them. From the moment they met to the bitter end of their relationship. They both had to swallow the lumps in their throats before giving each other a huge hug. "Knock them dead, middle seat."
Luna let out a little laugh before pulling away from him, giving him one last smile before turning around with her father and beginning to head for the aircraft. Jim watched the two as they walked off, really hoping the best for them.
As Bones and Luna were walking, they felt this guilt pulling them down. All he wanted to do was pass. What he did wasn't malicious, he just wanted to prove he could do it. Bones stopped walking, before turning to his daughter with the look of thought. "Go ahead and get on the shuttle ship."
Luna turned her head slightly. "What are you talking about?"
"I'll meet you on the Enterprise." He promised while putting his hand on her shoulder.
"What?" He was beginning to push her forward, knowing this was the only way he was going to get rid of her, but she anticipated this, throwing all of her weight on him. "Why?"
"Because if this all goes to shit, you knew nothing about it." He then shoved her into the crowd of people, making her lose him immediately. Bones then turned around, hurrying to Jim and grabbing his arm. "Come with me."
When Luna was finally able to get out of the crowd, she looked to where Jim was standing, not seeing her father or Jim anywhere. With an angry sigh, she turned on her heels and moved to the ship that was going to the Enterprise.
As Jim and Bones walked to the medical area of the hanger, Jim was getting impatient. That was also when Uhura angrily ran into Jim from walking too fast. "Bones, where are we going."
"You'll see." Bones spoke before continuing to pull him along.
"And why didn't Luna come?"
"Because," Bones began before looking around to make sure she wasn't following them. "What we're about to do isn't necessarily…legal."
Jim's eyes widened after that before they ducked into the medical tent. "What are you doing?" Jim exclaimed.
"Doing you a favor." He scoffed as Jim just stood behind him, that explanation not giving him any information. "I couldn't just leave you there looking all pathetic. Now, take a seat."
Reluctantly, Jim moved to one of the chairs as Bones pulled out a syringe and one of the vials. "Let me give you a vaccine against viral infection from the Ovaran mud flies."
The second he finished that sentence, he plunged the syringe into Jim's neck. "Ow!" He screamed before grabbing his neck in pain. "What for?
Bones moved to get some more medical supplies that he would have to use to get Jim back to normal. "To give you the symptoms."
"What are you talking about?" Jim whined as he looked around, but that's when he noticed things were getting blurry.
"You're gonna start to lose vision in your left eye."
Jim blinked, trying to stop it, but it was just getting worse. He was also feeling woozy. "Yeah, I already have."
"Oh, and you're gonna get a really bad headache and flop sweat." Bones spoke as he moved back to Jim, picking him up by the arm, Jim obviously already feeling the headache.
"You call this a favor?" He mumbled, stumbling as Bones began to drag him out.
"Yeah," Bones scoffed before tugging him a little harder. "You owe me one."
Bones dragged him all the way to the ship, Jim almost falling at the feet of the commander who was doing the roll call. "Kirk, James T." It was almost like he was scolding them both. "He is not cleared for duty aboard the Enterprise."
Bones straightened up, that know-it-all look on his face. Bones didn't know if he picked it up from Luna or if Luna picked it up from him, but they made the exact same face when they did it. "Medical code states the treatment and transport of a patient is to be determined at the discretion of his attending physician." He looked at Jim, noticing how sick he was looking after just a few minutes before pointing to himself. "Which is me. So, I'm taking Mr. Kirk aboard. Or you would you like to explain to Captain Pike why Enterprise warped into a crisis without one of its senior medical officers?"
The commander stood there for a moment, finding a familiar pattern with everyone assigned to this ship. They all thought they were right, and there was no telling them wrong. "As you were."
"As you were." Bones scoffed before looking back to Jim. "Come on."
When they got inside the ship, they noticed Luna sitting towards the back at the window seat, letting out a relieved sigh with an empty two seats next to her. "I thought I told you I didn't want you in any part of this." Bones spoke before throwing Jim down in the seat closest to her.
"Yeah," She scoffed. "Well, you're the only family I've got left, so if you're going to do something stupid, I'm going to do it with you."
That's when she noticed Jim was holding onto his sides while sweat poured down his face. "What the hell happened to him?"
Bones moved to Jim, making sure he was buckled up before looking to his daughter while she brushed his hair back and Jim shivered. "I gave him a vaccine against viral infection from Ovaran mud flies."
Luna blinked a couple of times at how casual he sounded. Like giving your best friend a vaccine against viral infection from Ovaran mud flies was a normal occurrence. "Why?!" She finally screamed out to him.
"You want us all on the same ship or not?" Bones almost yelled back at her.
Jim just sat in the middle, continuing with his shivering before finally speaking. "I might throw up on you."
Then, the ship gave it's last warning about seatbelts. Bones and Luna gave each other a panicked look before buckling up and getting ready for takeoff. Surprisingly, Bones was completely fine during the flight, it was Jim who was losing his mind. He was griping Luna's hand as he whispered out angry and scared mumbles. Luna looked out the window for the whole ride, finding it hard to believe that after all this time and all of her hard work, she was finally in space. And from her window, she got a perfect view of the Enterprise. "Jim," She gasped out, her breath almost taken away from her. It was so beautiful. "You've gotta look at this."
He just continued to shake and grumble, but Bones moved over him to look, finding the view amazing just as Luna. "Jim," Bones spoke this time. "Look."
"What?" He grumbled out before finally looking out the window. His eyes grew wide too. Luna was smiling so wide, finding the ship so beautiful she was about to cry. Then Jim's eyes drifted to Luna. Her face was almost kid like. The look of how excited she was almost made him forget about all the pain he was in. "Wow."
Their ship landed in one of the lower bays of the Enterprise, Bones and Luna trying to get Jim off the ship as fast as possible so no one would see him. He was not supposed to be here, and the last thing they wanted was for someone to notice him or worse, someone to notice them helping him. "We need to get you changed." Bones spoke as they easily weaved through the crowd. Luckily, everyone was worried with getting their uniform and getting to their posts.
"I don't feel right." Jim spoke while shaking his head, his voice much louder than the angry mumbles on the ship. "I feel like I'm leaking."
"Damn," Bones cursed as he looked straight ahead. Luna followed his gaze to notice Professor Spock. "It's that pointy-eared bastard."
Bones then pulled the two behind a column, stopping to look at Luna with a sympathetic stare. "Why are you looking at me like that?" Luna asked before looking him up and down.
"Because we both know you have to get to your post."
"But dad – "
"No arguing." He spoke before picking up a finger to her. Jim was nodding in approval, but they were both sure he wasn't coherent at the moment. "Now get out there and be the best damn middle seat this entire galaxy has ever seen."
Luna let out a little laugh while shaking her head. "Dad, I'm the only middle seat the galaxy has ever seen."
"Well," Bones shrugged. "Be the best damn example for everyone after you."
Luna looked at her father, someone who always resented her career choice finally coming around, and encouraging her. And Bones, he was looking at his now twenty-five year old daughter, still seeing that little girl who only talked about flying in space. "I love you." Luna whispered before wrapping her arms around his neck in a long hug.
Bones pressed his cheek to her head, having to do everything not to cry right there, his grip on her just getting tighter. "I love you, darling." Jim smiled at the two. He wanted that. He wanted that so bad with his own daughter.
Spock entered the bridge, Pike sitting in the captain's chair, and Sulu and Chekov at the helm with an empty seat in between them that would be Luna's. "Mr. Spock," Pike called just as Spock sat down at his usual spot.
Spock began to run his usual checks before speaking again. "Captain, engineering reports ready for launch."
Pike quickly thanked Spock before calling everyone's attention to him, everyone turning around in their seats or stopping what they were doing to look at him. You could almost hear a pin drop on the bridge. "Ladies and gentlemen, the maiden voyage of our newest flagship deserves more pompon circumstance that we can afford today. The christening will just have to be our reward for a safe return." That's when Pike noticed the empty middle seat. Where the hell was Miss. McCoy? "Carry on."
Everyone moved back to their normal duties before Pike opened up a ship wide channel. "All decks, this is Captain Pike. Prepare for immediate departure." He then looked over at the helm, nodding to them. "Helm, thrusters."
"Retracted." Sulu reported while going away on his controls. "Captain, dock control reports ready. Thrusters fired. Separating from space dock."
As Luna hurried to the bridge, she could feel the ship moving upwards, and she knew that meant it was getting ready to take off. She stopped for a moment, panicking at the realization that she was late. "Shit." She then began to run.
Once the ship was in position, Sulu turned to look at the captain. "The fleet's cleared space dock, captain. All ships ready for warp."
"Set course for Vulcan."
"Aye-aye, captain." When Sulu was done putting in the coordinates, he looked to Pike, a slight smile on his face from the excitement. "Course laid in."
"Maximum warp." Pike had that little smile on his face as well. This was the first time they were testing out the new ship, and he couldn't ask for anything better. "Punch it."
Sulu pushed the lever down, and everyone could feel the ship power up, but once they thought it was going to take off with the other ones, nothing happened. Everyone turned to look at Sulu, confused at what happened. Sulu looked confused too.
"Lieutenant," Pike spoke like his patience was being tested. "Where's helmsmen McKenna?"
"He has lung worms sir." Sulu reported before turning to look back at him. "He couldn't report to his post. I'm Hikaru Sulu."
"And you are a pilot, right?"
"Very much so, sir." Sulu spoke through a laugh before looking back to his equipment. "I'm...I'm not sure what's wrong here."
"Is the parking brake on?"
Sulu laughed again, but honestly he was beginning to feel panicked. "No. I'll figure it out, I'm just – "
The elevators opened up and Luna hurried out into the bridge, looking panicked and wide eyed for her tardiness. "Lieutenant McCoy." Pike spoke in a cheery tone at the sight of her.
Luna began to panic at the fact that he didn't call her "Lieutenant Commander". Did her tardiness mess up her guaranteed position? She then shook her head, knowing it wasn't a guarantee, but Pike was pretty adamant about wanting her there. "Yes, sir." Luna spoke with a nod while standing at attention right in front of his chair. "I'm sorry I'm late, sir; I just got…lost."
For some reason, Pike didn't totally believe her. "It's okay, it's a big ship." Luna let out a relaxed breath before Pike nodded to the helm. "Maybe you could help us with the little warp issue we're having, Lieutenant Commander."
Luna got a little smile on her face at that. So, she was middle seat. "Excuse me, Captain." Spock spoke while standing up from his seat. Luna slightly rolled her eyes. He was going to be a problem for her too it seemed like. "I would like to know her qualifications for the middle seat position."
Luna almost glared at him. She really did hate that pointy eared bastard, and she only knew him personally for a good five minutes. "I'm a certified space pilot, I actually finished at the top of my class." Spock's eyebrows went up slightly, but Luna wasn't going to stop there. "I'm a great navigator." Pike's eyebrows went up just a little bit as she talked, realizing since the last time they talked about this, she went from "good" to "great". "I'm also a weapons specialist. I can take apart and put back together just about any weapon you give me." The whole bridge was looking to Luna McCoy, but she still wasn't done. "I also know a little bit of nursing, and," She turned to the captain for the last one. "I've gotten better at engineering, sir, but I still wouldn't call myself an expert."
Pike was fighting a smile at how she had completely destroyed Spock with her qualifications before looking back to the Vulcan. "Any more questions, Mr. Spock?"
Spock opened his mouth, but words failed him for a moment. Luna was still staring him down, though. "Her qualifications are sound."
"Thank you." She spoke as loud as she could before moving over to the helm. She looked around for a moment, everything on her end looked good, until she looked over at Sulu. "Have you disengaged the external inertial dampener?" Through the entire sentence, she was looking at the lever he needed to pull before nodding to it.
Sulu took a deep sigh before moving to the lever, and pulling it. Luna gave him an annoyed stare since that was basically the parking break, and he should know better. "Ready for warp, sir." It was so quiet, Pike could barely hear it.
Pike smiled just a little before nodding as Luna took her seat, taking a deep breath before looking to the helm right in front of her. It was more beautiful than she could ever imagine, and it was all hers. "Let's punch it." This time, the ship actually launched.
Bones was escorting Jim through the ship when they finally got in the medical bay. Jim could still hardly see. "Where are we?
"Medical bay." Bones was so done at this point, everything he said was blander than normal.
"This isn't worth it." Jim grumbled before he saw someone cute walk by.
"A little suffering's good for the soul."
"Hi, how are you?"
Bones rolled his eyes, taking it as Jim was still out of his mind. "My mouth is itchy. Is that normal?"
Bones pushing him down on one of the beds before going to the supply cabinet. "Well, those symptoms won't last long. I'm going to give you a mild sedative."
Jim shivered as he left him, shaking his head while he still continued to grip his stomach from the pain. "Oh, I wish I didn't know you."
"Don't be such an infant." He then plunged a syringe in Jim's neck for the second time today. Jim was really starting to hate that he was best friends with a doctor.
Jim screamed before looking back to him. "How long is it supposed to..." His head hit the pillow before he even knew he was out.
Bones just shook his head at him, beginning to wish it was Luna in here rather than Jim. She would have at least taken it better. "Unbelievable."
Luna turned around to look at Captain Pike once she was sure everything was operating normally. "Engines at maximum warp captain."
He nodded a thank you to her before looking to the navigator. "Russian whiz kid, what's your name? Cheikov? Chirpov?"
The navigator turned around with a boyish smile. Luna began to smile. He was just so adorable. "Ensign Chekov, Pavel Andrejevic, sir."
"Fine. Chekov, Pavel Andrejevic," Luna smiled to him again before looking back to Sulu. She really liked the team she was going to be working with. "Begin ship wide mission broadcast."
"Yes, sir. Happy to." Chekov then moved back to his screen, pulling up the broadcast. "Ensign authorization code 95VV2." Luna put her hand to her mouth as she watched him. The fact that his Russian accent was making his V's sound like W's just made him even cuter.
"Authorization not recognized." The computer reported with a loud, obnoxious beep.
He sighed, obviously about to try his hardest for the computer to understand him. "Ensign authorization code 95VV2."
"Access granted."
Luna turned to look at Sulu, her hand still on her mouth with wide eyes. "I just want to buy him at the local supermarket, take him home and eat him up."
Sulu just stared at her with his brows furrowed for a moment before shaking his head and turning back to his screen. "Your southern is showing."
Luna moved in to slap him on the arm, Chekov getting a small smile before looking back to the camera. He was really going to like this team too. "May I have your attention please. At 22:00, telemetry detected an anomaly in the neutral zone. What appeared to be a lightning storm in space. Soon after, Starfleet received a distress signal from the Vulcan high command that their planet was experiencing seismic activity. Our mission is to assess the condition of Vulcan and assist in evacuations if necessary. We should be arriving at Vulcan within three minutes. Thank you for your time."
In the medical bay, Jim was stirring slightly, but some of what Chekov said triggered his memory, and he remembered what Uhura had said last night. He sat straight up, thinking about everyone on this ship, especially Luna on the bridge. "Lightning storm."
"Ah Jim, you're awake." Jim was still looking all around as Bones continued to move towards him. "How do you feel?" Bones just so happened to look down as Jim was grunting in pain, noticing this allergic reaction Jim was having. "Good God, man!"
"What?" Jim also looked down at his hands. "Ah!" He picked his enormous hands up, managing a little cry after his scream. "What the hell's this?"
"A reaction to the vaccine. Damn it." Bones ran off, finding himself beginning to panic. This was bad. This was really bad. "Nurse Chapel, I need 50cc of cortisone!"
"Yes, sir!" She was also freaking out at the look of Jim's reaction.
Jim got up, though, moving to the nearest screen, playing back Chekov's message. Bones just got up to him to check his vitals. That's when Jim turned to Bones, grabbing the sides of his face, making him stop what he was doing immediately. "We've gotta stop the ship."
Jim then proceeded to run down the halls of the Enterprise. "Jim!" Bones screamed as he hurried after him. "I'm not kidding!" He felt like he was chasing Luna as a little girl whenever she did something bad. "You need to keep your heart rate down!"
Jim then stopped, realizing the ship didn't have the time for him to run around looking for Uhura. He went to the nearest computer there was, Bones taking a breath at the fact that he had finally stopped. "Computer, locate crew member Uhura."
Bones was going through all the medical gear he brought, finally able to ready the syringe. "I haven't seen a reaction this severe since medical school.
"We're flying into a trap!" Jim then took off again, stressing Bones out more than anything.
"Damn it, Jim! Stand still!" Jim stopped for a moment to figure out where he was going, giving Bones the perfect chance to stick him.
"Ow!" Jim yelled before grabbing his neck. That was the third time! "Stop it!" Jim then continued to run through the ship, pushing everyone he could out of the way until he finally found her. "Uhura!"
"Kirk." She got up from her seat, not really noticing the one huge difference since she last saw him. "What are you doing here?"
"Transmission from the Klingon prison planet," Then Jim began to wave his hands around, and it was impossible to miss it. "What exactly did it say?"
"Oh my God, what's wrong with your hands?!" She screamed out, Bones finally catching up to him, continuing to check on him with his medical devices.
"It doesn't matter!" He waved his hands at her, but Uhura just couldn't stop looking at them. "Who is responsible for the Klingon attack?"
She finally looked away from his hands, giving him a bewildered look. "What?"
"Was the ship Romu...?" That's when Jim noticed he couldn't really talk.
"Was the ship what?"
Jim turned around to look at Bones, his breath increasing from panic. "What's happening to my mouth?"
Bones studied him for a moment before pulling a concerned face. "You got numb tongue?"
"Numb tongue?!" Jim screamed out, waving his hands around again.
"I can fix that." Bones then looked back into the bag of medical supplies.
Uhura looked back to Jim, wanting to understand what he was saying so bad. "Was the ship what?" He just mumbled again, Uhura shaking her head. "What?
Jim tried to enunciate as best as he could. "Romulan."
Uhura's eyes lit up in realization. "Romulan?"
"Yeah." Jim nodded excitedly.
"Yes!" She excitedly screamed in confirmation.
"Yeah!" Then Bones stuck Jim in the neck for the fourth time.
"Stop it!" His scream was more of a desperate plea than anything this time.
Ziggy55: Yes! I will definitely read it. I can't promise when, but I know I will! Thank you so much for your compliments. I loved writing his little guilt, and Luna may find out what happened, so keep that in mind! Also, thank you for all of your likes on Tumblr. It really means a lot since I've been on a moodboard craze.
Love. Fiction. 2016: Don't we all? Haha, thank you so much, love!
rebootfan: Okay, first of all, happy early birthday! I was thinking if I should wait until Tuesday, but early birthday presents are a thing too, right? Alright, back to your review. One of the things that I love about Jim is that he is actually a pretty flawed character, so that's what I wanted to capture in the last chapter. I was actually thinking about Carol Marcus! What do you think? Again, happy, happy birthday, love! This chapter is for you!
MisfitCarter: Shit, dude. I didn't mean to trigger anything for you, but I am glad to see you here as well. Your review legit made me tear up, and I hope you're doing well. Thank you so much for the compliments, and remember I'm not just hear to write for you guys, you can talk to me anytime about ANYTHING! I'm always here for you. I love you!
Alright, business first: HAPPY BIRTHDAY REBOOTFAN! It's on Tuesday, but this is an early present! Okay, I'm so tired. I went to work sold and moved furniture all day, and then came home to edit and post. So, sorry if there's some mistakes. We're finally on the Enterprise (btw I just bought some awesome Star Trek art at work) and I'm so excited we're finally here. I'm going to be working on my Olympus Has Fallen fanfiction while also working on this one, so I may be a little slower with updates for a while, but we've covered a pretty good chunk of the story. If you've read my stuff before, you know I don't really sit down and plan how long a story is going to be, it just kind of happens, but we've still got a ways to go on this one! Thank you all so much for reading, and remember to review! I love you all and I hope you're all having a wonderful new year so far!
