"What did you call me?" she heard Bones ask someone. Jamie knew she should just turn around and walk away but she couldn't move from where she was standing outside medical. She glanced at Uhura and Gaila, both women shrugged and kept listening.

"You hard of hearing too? She loves you. I have never seen her look at anyone the way she looks at you. So, you are a dumbass." It was Trip and he was not happy.

She could hear Bones huff, "I don't have time for this."

"Maybe you should make time. You've known her for two years and you still don't get it, so I'm gonna explain it to you." Trip stopped and took a breath, "I bet you never stopped to wonder why she fights so hard, or why there are nights when you wake up and she's sitting at the window instead of being in bed. Why she cooks but barely eats. Or the real reason people taking about her dad bothers her. Jamie doesn't fight for herself, she fights for the people who died to protect her. She blames herself because people have been blaming her so long she thinks it's the truth when it's further from. It really pisses her off that her father gave his life for her, because she doesn't think she's worth it. Everybody knows about George but nobody gives a damn about her mother or Aunt Marie and Uncle Jeff, they didn't just die, Kodos killed them. Jamie saw his men drag Hoshi into her garden and put a phaser to her head; a decorated Starfleet officer was executed in the one place she felt peace because she wouldn't tell him where Jamie was. Joan Riley, Kevin's mom, handed her six-year-old son to Jamie and told them to run while she used her body to shield them from the enforcers slaughtering colonists. The people Jamie killed to keep those kids alive; her kill count is almost as high as mine and I got a hundred years on her. The shit she's seen in her twenty-four years would make a two hundred year old quiver in fear."

Trip was getting riled up. By now, everybody who wasn't on duty –Spock, Chekov and Kelso- was listening to him, though, she was sure Gamma shift could hear him. "Then there are the things that she won't talk about. I have an idea but I'm too scared to even ask. She's been through too much for you to start doubting her, not when she spends every waking moment praying to Gods that she doesn't even believe in that you don't get killed because of her. The last thing she wants is to turn your daughter into an orphan like she is. The thought of Joanna growing up without you, literally, makes her heart hurt. This mission isn't about saving earth, it's about saving your family. They had no reason to care about her and they do. Jamie is one of the best people I've ever known. Even with everything she's been through, she still smiles. There is wonder in her eyes when she looks at the universe; she lights up. That girl is like a star that drew us all in. Get your head outta your ass or your gonna lose her."

"Why the fuck do you care? Where were you when she needed you?" Bones almost yelled.

Trip chuckled, "Keepin' her out of Section 31. They've been trying to get their hooks in her since Tarsus. Starfleet pulled three thousand nine hundred and forty-one people from that planet and the hero of the whole thing was a thirteen year old girl who almost killed their six-man away team, by herself. When she went to school on Vulcan she lived with me; that house is more hers than mine; I signed it over to her last year. She had classmates in Italy who weren't there for the computer programming. The friend she stayed with in Riverside, was one of my operatives. I was supposed to be done with this shit years ago, but I couldn't let someone take another choice from her. I couldn't let them use the deaths of the people she loved to turn her into a monster. I've spent the last decade standing between Jamie and Section 31. When I told her that I'd chop off my arm before I ever let 31 recruit her, I wasn't kidding. I'm where she needs me to be, you should try it." Trip walked out of medical and everyone attempted to scatter in the small corridor; Jamie didn't bother. "You weren't supposed to hear that," Trip said to her as he wiped the tears from her face.

Jamie shrugged, "Like I didn't know all of that already, especially the operatives following me around at school. Observational awareness and all that jazz."

He smirked, "That's my girl. You weren't mad?"

"Nope. I figured that as long as they were around, you were alive. And it was nice that somebody cared," she whispered to her oldest friend.

He smiled, "Until my heart stops, and then I'll haunt you."

He kissed the top of her head, "Go get some sleep, J.T." She nodded and turned to head towards her quarters.

"Hey, Trip?" She turned to face him.

"Yea."

"I never got the chance to thank you. So, thank you, you know, for caring and looking out for me and everything else that I don't know about," she said to him.

Trip smiled, "You are very welcome, little one." Jamie nodded and headed to her quarters and to bed.

"Kirk. Kirk, wake up."

Jamie blinked her eyes open, "Is it time."

Uhura nodded, "We're an hour out." Jamie sat up, she wasn't surprised that Bones wasn't in the room but she was disappointed; it must have shown on her face because Uhura sat next to her on the bed.

"Give him some time. This is a side of you that you've never really shown. That stuff with the nanites and on the Republic were like teaser trailers and now he's watching the movie," Ny offered. Jamie chuckled at the analogy, it was pretty close. She took a breath.

"Of all the things I thought we'd fight about, this wasn't it." The fact that she's a flirt would've been her first guess, but other than being pissed about that kiss with Trip, he never said anything.

Uhura understood, "You know, just when I think I have you figured out, Kirk, you flip the script on all of us."

Jamie shrugged, "Don't feel bad, I don't have myself figured out yet." The two girls kept talking as they got up and walked to the galley for a quick meal, Jack and Scotty made breakfast. They all chatted with each other until Bones walked in and the room went silent.

"Way to be subtle, idiots," he grumbled. Gaila glared at him, Kelso didn't even look in his direction, Brax, Chekov and Jack ignored him, Scotty was outright mean.

"Monty, be nice," she told her Scottish friend. He looked at her like she was crazy, "For me, please." He nodded and didn't say anything else. Spock looked at each of them.

"Is this the moment where friends of a couple chose sides in an argument?" he asked his girlfriend.

Uhura smiled, "Yes, and as you can see, most of us picked Jamie. Doctor McCoy is being a jerk."

Spock thought for a second, "Expressing his concern for Kirk's well-being is 'being a jerk'?" Jamie was about to laugh, Uhura answered his question.

"It's not just what he said, it's how and when he said it," the linguist told him. The answer seemed to be enough for Spock.

"After contemplating the current argument, and your analysis, I will also side with Miss Kirk."

Bones rolled his eyes, "That's just great, even the walking computer is picking sides." He looked at her before leaving the room. Trip laughed from behind the PADD he was reading, and eventually, so was Jamie.

"This is your fault, Trip."

He nodded, "Probably. It'll work out, he loves you too much to just let it go."