Author's Note:
Hello everyone and a nice sweet chapter for you all. It stars most of the Command Crew but not much Spock so apologies to any Spock fans out there. Thank you for your continued support and chapter suggestions and I hope you enjoy the chapter. It was inspired by a song from Disney's 'Brave' which was where I got the chapter title from.
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Into the Open Air
It was a rare event but Jim had managed to organise a shore leave with the majority of the Command Crew. The only one who wasn't joining them was Spock who'd voluntarily remained behind to command the Enterprise stating that it was against regulations to have all the senior officers absent from the ship at any one time and that he found it illogical to expend energy in rest time to no apparent practical effect. This had finally got Jim to give up trying to get him to come with them and he and the others went on shore leave leaving the Enterprise in Spock's capable hands.
It was a nice peaceful colony planet with a climate and environment not unlike a nice, picturesque English summer and they had made their way into the countryside with a genuine picnic (Nyota and Bones' idea) in a genuine picnic basket and soon settled next to a beautiful river. They ate a leisurely lunch and Nyota and Leonard lay on the ground sunning themselves, Jim and Scotty had entered into a deep discussion about different ships while Pavel, with his bottomless energy, went off to see if he could swim in the river. Hikaru soon joined him and it wasn't long before they were splashing each other, ducking each other and generally mucking about in the water.
After a while Scotty and Jim wandered down beside the river and watched the two of them play around, grinning Scotty called out to the teen and the younger man, "Ye having fun in there lads?"
At his voice the two in question looked at him and grinned, Scotty failed to notice the mischief behind the grins and suddenly found himself being grabbed and flung headlong into the river. He surfaced spluttering and saw the two culprits for his impromptu swim cackling while Jim laughed his head off. Jim's laughter was cut short when he suddenly joined Scotty in the river and he surfaced to see Pavel and Hikaru staring in surprise at Bones who'd pushed him in. The doctor grinned at him until he also joined the swimming club courtesy of a push from Nyota, the set was complete when Pavel and Hikaru threw her in as well. After that the formally peaceful scene deteriorated into a chaotic flurry of splashing, giggles, happy shouts and occasional screams as six of the senior crewmembers of the most famous starship in the Federation spent the afternoon playing in the river like a bunch of unruly children. When they beamed back up to the ship much later soaking wet and with a picnic basket Spock merely raised an eyebrow and said, "I assume you all had a most enjoyable time."
They all simply grinned at him.
PS-So there we are and I hope you liked that. As always please review and any more chapter suggestions are welcome.