Author's Note:

Greetings everyone and welcome to this chapter. This one is set during the Academy and stars Hendorff (Cupcake) the security officer. Thank you for you reviews and I hope you enjoy the chapter.

I own nothing.

Bullies

Hendorff was hurrying through the corridors of Starfleet Academy.

He'd hung back at the end of his last class since there'd been some aspects of the topic they were covering that he didn't quite understand. The teacher had patiently gone over it with him again and given him a better understanding but it had taken longer than he'd planned meaning that he was at risk of being late to his next class.

As he made his way there he suddenly heard mocking voices coming from a secluded corridor and he looked down it to see a group of cadets gathered round a young boy also in a cadet uniform. The boy was pressed up against the wall and it wasn't hard to work out what was happening, especially when one of the cadets stepped up to the kid menacingly, "You think you're so great don't you kid, playing at being a big boy in the big academy. Who's so smart he thinks he's better than the rest of us and can make us look stupid in front of everyone else."

The boy nervously answered with a thick accent, "I just answered ze question correctly in class. Zat's vat I'm supposed to do eesn't eet."

The lead cadet stepped closer so that he was towering over the boy, "No 'zat's not vat' you're supposed to do brat. You're supposed to keep quiet and not speak since you can't speak Standard anyway. You're a child who's only here cause some admiral took pity on a worthless, useless orphan which no-one else wanted."

From where he was standing Hendorff could see tears appearing in the child's eyes. The lead cadet snorted in disgust, "And now the little baby is crying well guess what little boy, I'm gonna show you what the universe does to cry-babies."

Hendorff saw the cadet raise his fist and moved before the other man could strike. He blocked the cadet's punch and then shoved him back, the surprised cadet was caught by his mates and Hendorff positioned himself between them and the child. The cadet he'd shoved snarled at him and made to swing at him, again Hendorff easily blocked the blow and shoved him back. The others then tried to mob him and they tussled for a few minutes with Hendorff blocking their blows and giving out one or two of his own. In the end the bullies realised that they were outmatched and ran off down the corridor throwing back dire threats of vengeance.

Knowing that they were all talk Hendorff ignored them and turned to the boy behind him who still had tears down his face and was wearing a look of shock. He took in the child before him and found that in terms of height the boy barely came up above his waist. The uniform he was wearing was obviously way too big for him and its sleeves were rolled up several times. Hendorff wanted to know what a kid this age was doing in the Academy but decided to ask the more pressing question instead.

"Are you okay kid?"

The child started as he realised that the question was for him and nervously nodded in response. Hendorff smiled reassuringly at him and crouched down so that he was at the boy's eye level, "What's your name?"

The boy hesitated before answering, "Pavel Andreievich Chekov sor."

He smiled again, "Well Pavel, seeing as we're both cadets you can call me Geoff instead of sir."

Pavel looked surprised, "Okay."

"Do those guys bully you a lot?"

Pavel nodded again, "Da, I don't know vhy zey do eet."

"They shouldn't," the boy looked at him in surprise, "there is no good reason for what they are doing to you and you have to tell someone about it."

Pavel scuffed his feet and nodded meekly in response. Guessing that was all he was going to get from the boy Hendorff stood up, "I'll take you to your next class, which way is it?"

The boy looked at him in confusion, "Vont zat make you late for your own class?"

Hendorff shrugged, "It'll be the first time I'm late and I think making sure you reach your own class safely is more important anyway."

Pavel stared at him for a moment and gestured down the corridor, "Eet's zat vay."

"Well let's go then."

They started walking down the corridor in silence until Pavel spoke again, "Sank you for protecting me."

Hendorff smiled at him, "No problem, those guys were cowardly jerks for picking on someone smaller than them."

Pavel shyly grinned in response and they fell back into silence. Eventually they came to Pavel's classroom and the boy turned to Hendorff, "Zis ees eet, sank you for bringing me here ewen zough eet made you late."

"Don't worry about it; just make sure you tell someone what happened."

"I vill, see you sometime."

Pavel was turning towards the door when Hendorff spoke, "Pavel," the boy turned back to him, "if anyone gives you any trouble and there's no teachers or officers about come and find me and I'll sort them out."

Pavel smiled at him, "Sank you, bye Geoff."

"See ya Pavel."

In the end Hendorff was very late to his class but once he'd explained what had happened the teacher was exceptionally understanding. The bullies were soon caught and ejected from Starfleet by a particularly angry Admiral Archer, the surprising thing was the fact they left in one piece.

PS-There we go and a glimpse of Hendorff and Pavel at the Academy. We're never told what Hendorff's first name is but his first and middle initials are apparently G.P so I decided to call him Geoff. I'll hopefully update soon so watch this space.