Happy February! Here's another chapter for you all! I haven't heard a lot of responses so I hope you are all enjoying it! Please leave a review!

Chapter Four: Alternative Universes

It was so silent a pin could have dropped. Distantly, Charlie heard the bark of a dog and the subtle rumble of voices below. Although they were only meters from her, they might as well have been galaxies. There was a roaring in her ears as she felt her heart pounding in her chest.

Her attention spun between her father and mother as she vainly tried to convince herself that they were playing a joke on her; a horrible, unimaginable, cruel joke, but a joke nonetheless. She knew that they wanted answers; what parent wouldn't want to know where their child was for years? She just wasn't prepared to give them the truth, knowing that they'd never believe her. Her parents were rational, educated people; a scientist and an engineer. They'd never go for spaceships and aliens.

But she was planning to give them something, just enough to way to assuage their curiosity and show that she was fine. That way when she left again, they'd know she was taken care of. She just didn't know what that was yet - hadn't had a chance to talk to Spock or the others about it. But she recognized her parents demanded information. And as she glanced between their determined fronts, she knew she was going to have to think of something quick to save her friends.

Robert didn't show an ounce of remorse or wavered in his conviction, nor did Margaret quell the glare she leveled at her husband, her lips in an angry scowl. They both were waiting for her, for the confession that she had been locked away in some tower and had only recently freed herself. She just couldn't understand why they thought Jim and the crew were responsible.

"What are you talking about?" Charlie tried again slowly, bidding time. "Why call the police now?"

"Those people must have taken you away and stopped you from coming home. Why else would you have been gone for so long?"

"If they did what you said, why would they be here with me?" Charlie tried to reason. "Wouldn't the last thing they'd do be to show their face to you?"

"They followed you. Brainwashed you—"

"That's ridiculous," she scoffed with a roll of her eyes. "I'm going back downstairs 'til you come to your senses." She spun quickly and tried to beat a hasty retreat. If she could get downstairs, maybe she could come up with a plan, a way to get out of the mess she now found herself in. Maybe she never should have come home.

"Don't you walk away from me, young lady," Robert barked, Charlie freezing in her tracks as that tone set the hair on her neck to rise. Her fists clenched, and she turned slowly back toward her father. "How is it ridiculous?" he continued. "You've been gone for three years. No word of where you were, or what you were you were even alive. What do you expect us to think?"

Charlie drew her lip between her teeth. With a sigh, she tried, "I'm sorry. Really, I am but I couldn't tell you where I was."

"Why not?" Margaret asked. "We taught you how to reach us if something ever happened."

"Where I went there was no way to let you know. Whether by conventional means or not," Charlie answered.

"There is always a way. Did I teach you give up so easily?" Robert growled.

"I didn't give up," Charlie snapped. "I don't give up."

"You must have. To be stuck with those people."

Charlie bit her tongue trying to keep her temper in check.

"'Those people' are very important to me, Colonel. Why can't you see that?"

"Brainwashing. That's what's going on here. I told you we should have done something last night," Robert pointed at his wife, pacing away and running a hand across the top of his shaved head.

"I am not brainwashed," Charlie growled. "Give me a little more credit."

"How can I?" Robert snapped, spinning toward her again. "I don't even know who you are right now."

"You've never known who I was." The words left before Charlie had a chance to pull them back. Well they were out now. No use beating around the bush anymore.

Robert rolled his eyes, his hands on his hips. "Yes, I do. You're a Noland. One in a long line that included kings and generals; a respected history you seem to want nothing to do with."

"That's not true—"

"Oh, it's very true," he cut off. "You've always ran from what was expected of you."

Charlie could feel her nails biting into her palm, her vision beginning to cloud with red. It was the same argument they've had her whole life. Over and over again. She was disappointing the family. She was wasting her time. She didn't have a purpose in life. Well she had a purpose now. And a calling. And she'd be damned if she wasn't going to go down without a fight, even if it was against her own father.

"You've never taken the time to figure out what it was I wanted." It was through gritted teeth and almost a whisper, but her eyes flashed and her shoulders were thrown back.

"What you wanted was a fairytale. I gave you reality." And just like that, it was dismissed.

"What you gave me was a prison."

"Charlotte don't be so dramatic," Margaret chimed in, crossing her arms. "We gave you a roof over your head, food in your belly, and an education many only dream of. Are you really going to throw all that back in our face because you didn't have your way?"

Charlie took a deep breath, trying to regain some semblance of control within herself. "What I'm throwing back at you is that you've never listened to me. You have always done what you wanted. What looked better for you and your career; what this family looked like to others. Did you ever think that I was doing what was best for me? So it didn't suite your plans. Get over it. You're the adults. Wasn't it what you always told me? Assess, improvise and adapt?"

"Now she listens to us," Margaret threw her hands up in the air in exasperation.

"We discuss all this later," Robert tried to reason, quickly realizing the tactic Charlie was using. "First thing's first, we need to take care of the situation involving your kidnapping."

Robert turned just as the front door closed with a snap, Rachel sauntering into the house. She came to a dead stop, however, as she took in the scene in front of her. Her parents were squared off against a fuming Charlie, her sister looking angrier than she'd ever seen. She could practically feel the heat, and was surprised steam wasn't pouring from her ears.

"Well hi everyone," she attempted, untying the scarf from around her neck. "So is there a reason there's a couple police cruisers in the driveway?"

"How could you," Charlie spat ignoring her sister. "They are my friends. They didn't kidnap me."

Robert scoffed. "Obviously they've played you; corrupted you to think you're safe with them."

"They didn't corrupt me!" Charlie's eyes narrowed to slits, glaring at her father, her anger a torrent rush under her skin. "If anything they protected me from what could have happened."

"Hello? Is anyone going to answer me?" Rachel butt in with a sigh. She was surprised it took this long for the first fight to happen.

"Not now, Rachel," Margaret snapped.

"Protected you from what, Charlotte?" Robert yelled. "From coming home? From being with your family?"

"They are my family!"

"What's going on?" Jim, Spock and the others stood behind Charlie, taking in the scene between those in the living room. Jim noticed the red and blue flashing lights reflect off the walls, his concern rising with each minute. "Charlie, are you okay?"

"Don't you speak to my daughter," Robert threatened, his finger raised as he took a few steps toward the captain. Charlie knew exactly what her father was doing. This was tangible enemy. He couldn't reasonably punish her, but he could go after those who he believed slighted him. Like a bull with a bullfighter, he was going for the waving fabric.

"Colonel, stop it," Charlie hissed, jumping between the men before anyone else could react. She glanced at Jim, her eyes pleading with him and the others before she moved her attention back to her angry father. "Stop all of this. They had nothing to do with why I left."

"Oh yes, starships and aliens," Robert growled beginning to pace again. "I heard all about that. Obviously, the Stockholm Syndrome hit you harder than Kate or Philippa."

"I don't have Stockholm's—"

"The mental hospital did them some good. Maybe we should send you—"

"Like hell you will." McCoy spoke up from the back, his southern drawl enhanced by his anger. He immediately stepped in front of Charlie, his broad shoulders a solid wall of protection. "I'm a doctor, buddy. And other than having a shit like you for a father, she's perfectly sound. Lord knows how."

"How dare you insult me in my own house," Robert yelled.

"Your house doesn't stop you from being an idiot," McCoy shot back. "Are you even listening to her?"

"I don't need too. It's nonsense you've shoved down her throat. My daughter knew how to behave and listen to her superiors."

"It's not nonsense!" Charlie fired back, shoving McCoy aside. This was her fight, her war she needed to win. The battles she faced led to this, with the crew giving her the confidence she never had before. She finally found the support she'd been desperate for her whole life.

"Kate, Philly and I were kidnapped, but not by them," she said. "It was someone else. He took us so far away you'd never be able to find us, not in two hundred years. I had to fight to save my own life." She lifted her shirt, showing the white scar across her abdomen, her sister gasping in response to what she saw. "I was tortured. Do you get it? I was subjected to horrors they don't even teach the Seals, and if it wasn't for Jim, I would have died. How's that for nonsense?"

"Maybe we should all calm down," Rachel tried to placate, tentatively stepping between the groups. She knew her parents, and she knew her sister. Their stubbornness would beat against one another until someone broke, and it wouldn't be pretty when that happened.

"Rachel, go to your room," Margaret ordered.

"Like hell I will," she growled, stepping up next to her sister, McCoy barely containing his smirk. "Charlie's back, and I have a feeling these guys brought her back. So you're going to punish them for it?"

"Insubordination, in my house," Robert growled. "I raised you both better than this."

"No, you raised us to be mindless drones," Charlie snapped. "Well I've learned to think for myself. I've accomplished things you've only ever dreamed of, and it's because of the people behind me. They believed in me."

"Doing what?" Robert interrogated. "Getting yourself caught? Tortured? Where were you doing all these 'amazing things' when you should have been here to keep the vigil."

"Robert!" Margaret warned, flickering her eyes between Charlie and her husband.

"The what?" Charlie asked, Rachel shrugging her shoulders.

"It doesn't matter now. You've failed us, and you've failed this family. I'm going to go get the officers. Let them sort this out."

Charlie expected Jim, or Bones, or even Scotty with his rough-and-tumble Scottish attitude to stop her father. Their hackles had all been raised, as evident by the grumbling happening behind her. Instead, it was the stoic Vulcan who calmly walked in front of her father, his hands clasped behind his back. They stood toe to toe, Spock only an inch taller than her father. As usual, he displayed no emotion, but a flash of steel in his dark gaze told Charlie all she needed to know; her father was in deep trouble.

"While the need to find retribution for your daughter's unexpected absence is admirable, the course which you have chosen is illogical."

"Get out of my way." Robert would have had an easier time moving a break wall. Spock merely raised an unapologetic brow, his gaze taking in the man trying unsuccessfully to shove him aside.

"I would not fight me, you will lose."

Robert finally gave up with a huff. "And who the hell do you think you are?"

"A friend to your daughter."

Admiration for Spock grew in her chest. They had shared a powerful connection when Jim died, and although they never spoke about it after, an understanding developed between them. Charlie counted Spock as a friend, and a mentor, and although he never reciprocated such emotions to her verbally, his actions transmitted it clear as day.

"She speaks the truth," he continued. "We did not remove her from your world, however we endeavored to allow her to make her own choices, and grow as she wished. A statement counterintuitive to yours. We are not her enemy. Therefore, we are not yours."

"Then why did you never bring her back? She belongs with her family," Margaret argued.

"She belongs where she wishes," Spock answered, shifting his attention to her mother. "You treat her as an adolescent when she is an adult. You speak of her, about her, but not to her. I find your response to your child distant. Why is that?"

Silence fell on the group, the ticking of a clock the only sound. Slowly, Jim stepped up next to Charlie, his strong hand grasping hers while the words she had always wanted to say came from the logical Vulcan's lips. Charlie squeezed back, the rushing in her ears beginning to quiet as his warm strength flowed into her. He promised he'd be there for her.

Robert Noland deflated before their eyes, a realization dawning that Charlie had never seen before. He almost seemed reflective, his eyes turned inward but like a shot it was gone, replaced by more suspicion.

"If you didn't take Charlie, then who are you? Why didn't you have her let us know she was ok?" Rachel broke the silence, her moss eyes searching the group for an answer.

Spock reached up and removed the band wrapped around his forehead, his slanted brows and pointed ears revealed to Charlie's family. Each member took an unconscious step back with a gasp, their eyes betraying them. "I am Commander Spock, second in command of the starship Enterprise from the Terran year 2261. To your 21st century understanding I am an . . . Alien. I believe Miss Aldridge and Miss Turner spoke to you about us, although you did not have confidence in their account. It appears I present adequate proof to their claims."

The silence was a roar within the house. Never had Charlie seen her parents so flabbergasted, so inept at coming up with any response. They also knew the answers, knew what was going to happen before anyone else did, but for the first time in Charlie's life, she saw her parents genuinely surprised.

"I knew it," Rachel gasped, her eyes the size of saucers. "I knew there was something familiar about you all," she added pointing between the group. "I was just too excited to have my sister back to realize what it was."

"Oh great," McCoy grumbled. "Are we about to get it from her too?"

The crew looked awkwardly among each other. Only an hour before had they learned they were in a universe that regarded them as characters in a show. It was one thing for Charlie to see them that way, it was completely different for her family.

"Rachel, just calm down," Charlie tried to soothe. "They're just realizing where they are now. We can discuss later—"

"Are you kidding?" Rachel interrupted, her face lighting up into a grin. "This is the coolest thing that's happened since I got accepted to the Academy."

"This can't be real," Margaret said, her seafoam gaze widened in shock and her hand covering her mouth. As a high-ranking intelligence officer, there wasn't much she wasn't briefed on. Most of the time she knew what was going to happen before they had even thought of it. The crew standing in her living room went far beyond anything her extensive training prepared her for.

"Oh, we're real all right," McCoy griped, crossing his arms with a huff. "real annoyed by all this bullshit."

"Bones," Jim warned with a side glare, his attention never leaving Charlie's dad.

"This is horseshit," Robert exploded after a minute, his face becoming red. "You can't tell me that this . . . this story is plausible! So, you've has some cosmetic work done to make us believe this shit, and got your story lined up, but that doesn't change the fact that what you would have this family accept is physically impossible! There is no space travel, there are no aliens, and there is no proof that other universes exist."

"But Dad, look," Rachel said, grabbing a film cover from the bookcase next to the television. "It's them- it's him!"

Rachel held up the cover for all to see. There on the front was a picture of Spock and Jim with the Golden Gate Bridge. But they were as Charlie knew them from her timeline, not the group that stood before them now. However, there was enough of a resemblance that one could make the argument that those standing before the Noland family were in fact the younger versions of the crew of the starship Enterprise, brought somehow into their universe.

Robert's gaze kept jumping back and forth between the imagine of prime universe Spock on the cover of the DVD and the Vulcan standing in their living room. His eyes then roamed over the rest of the group, as if finally seeing them for the first time. He took in the scowling McCoy and Sulu, the awkward Scotty, Uhura's glare, and finally Jim holding his daughter's hand and frowning. He growled then, his eyes narrowed until Charlie unconsciously dropped Jim's hand, her face heating.

He harrumphed, still glaring but there was a distinctive deflation in his anger.

"Alright then, Charlotte," he began, turning to address Charlie. "Convince me that what you're saying is true. Where the hell have you been, and how in God's name did you get there?"

Charlie looked to the group, the tension starting to ease as Robert opened the first chance to explain what happened. Muscles relaxed around eyes and mouths, and shoulders relaxed. She last caught Jim's cerulean stare as gave her a small smile, purposefully taking her hand again.

"Why don't we all sit down," he said, gesturing for her parents to take the arm chairs on either side of the fire as he led Charlie towards the couch. "Discuss this like adults."

Both Margaret and Robert were hesitant, but did as instructed, interested enough now to be willing to listen. Charlie moved to the middle of the grey couch, her back straight as she sat on the edge. Jim sat to her right, his arm draped around the back while McCoy took her left, still sizing her father up. The others filled in around, including Rachel, but Spock remained standing between the group and the door.

Charlie took a breath, trying to figure out where to start, so many images from the past few years flashing across her memories.

"It happened in Bristol," she began, speaking between her parents and sister with her thoughts turned inward. "Philly, Kate and I had met up in a park one afternoon to go over dissertation plans. We had just met up, barely even got a chance to talk when the next thing we knew, a giant, whirling, black . . . mass opened below us, and we fell through." She shrugged, remembering the lurching in her stomach as she gawked at the maelstrom. "The next thing I remember, I was waking up in a crater in the middle of a forest. When I tried figure out what time it was by the sun, I noticed there were two moons flanking it. Well, as you can imagine, we all freaked out.

"Kate and Philly were taking it the hardest. I mean don't get me wrong, I was terrified by what I was seeing, but at least I had some training to handle intensive situations," she nodded toward her parents. Margaret had a concentrated look on her face, absorbing the information presented to her, but a small smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. Robert had leaned forward, his elbows on his knees as he listened intently. "To figure out what the hell was going on, I led us into the woods. Maybe we had hit our heads, or something made us hallucinate. Could have been some stupid prank someone decided to play on us. We didn't know. But after a few hours, we caught up with another group in those woods, and I realized we were in bigger trouble than I thought. That's when we found the crew."

"What she didn't tell you is that the group they found were a bunch of Klingons," Jim interrupted, trying to hide his pride. After the exchange he saw, and what Charlie had told him previously, he wanted to make sure Robert and Margaret knew the capabilities of their daughter, even if they couldn't see it themselves. "So you understand, Klingons are a warrior race. They're an enemy of the Federation, and we've had a few . . . run ins with them in the past. Charlie took on three of them by herself and won, saving my away team. And me."

"That's because my sister is a BAMF!" Rachel acknowledged excitedly.

"BAMF?" Uhura asked, confused by the vernacular.

"I'll tell you later," Charlie grinned, her soft smile moving to Jim. "And we saved each other. Anyway, that's how we ended up on the Enterprise."

"You mentioned someone before," Margaret said. "How does he play into this?"

"Yeah. The guy who did all this was a madman, pissed off at Starfleet for something beyond their control," Charlie spat, remembering her encounters.

"Not wrong there," McCoy added with a sneer.

Taking a breath, Charlie continued. "His name was Sagan and he was a physicist with a focus in temporal anomalies. It's how this whole thing started. See, their universe isn't the one we know. It's not the same as the shows or the movies. It's different because something happened that changed their timeline. Sagan believed that because of that, and what was used in order to create it, he could control the manipulation of time, and therefore the universe itself. He had a student, a protégé who figured out how to recreate it. But when he realized what Sagan wanted, he tried to hide his research."

"So why did this guy need you?" Rachel asked.

"Because the one who engineered everything's name was Dr. Noland-Spear. Sagan thought he was related to us, and the way Dr. Spear encrypted the information, mitochondrial DNA is needed to open it. Sagan thought my blood had that connection."

"But it didn't," Margaret said.

Charlie shook her head. "No. I don't know if it was because I came from an alternative universe to his, or if he had set it up that only his would work and no one else's. But it didn't."

"Cor unum," Robert finally acknowledged, nodding his head in understanding.

"Cor unum," the rest of the family answered in unison, Charlie included.

"We had enough of the new red matter – what was used to kidnap us – to send Kate and Phillipa back," Charlie continued. "But there wasn't enough for me too. So, I stayed behind and sent them home.

"That's why I couldn't tell you where I was. Why you couldn't find me. I was two hundred years in the future in a completely different universe. But just so you know, I was happy there. I had the ship, and the crew, and a new life that would actually make you proud. I was in the top ten percent of my class at Starfleet Academy." Charlie directed that last part to her dad, hoping that maybe, he'd see something out of her.

"So how'd you come back?" Rachel tried to hide the hurt from her sister's admission. She knew Charlie had never seem to fit in their family, but she was still her older sister, and no matter what, she loved her

"We don't know," Jim admitted. "We're trying to figure that out."

There were nods and mumbles of agreement from the crew. Charlie found her hands had ended up folded in her lap, squeezing together in a white knuckled grip as she waited for their judgment.

"Robert, go tell the sheriff his services are not required," Margaret ordered after a moment of silence.

"Peg, I'm not entirely convinced—"

"Well I am," a note of finality in her tone. "I know when people are lying to me. They're not. Our daughter is not. These people saved our child. They protected her and gave her a home and a family. I believe them, and I will not have them punished because you don't have someone to blame."

"What happened to Sagan," Robert asked, gesturing to his wife he wanted one more question answered."

"Dr Sagan took his own life," Spock said. "He left instructions on how to get Miss Noland and her friends back to your timeline and then ingested a poison he hid on his person after we apprehended him. He will no longer be a threat to her."

Robert sat a moment longer, interrogating the group without a sound. He was looking for weakness, a break in the chain. He saw none of that, but he wasn't convinced either with their story, no matter how much his wife believed it. It was too unbelievable.

"Fine. I'll go tell the officers we sorted it out. I'll owe Jerry for this, he sent his best to handle this for us." He stood up and stomped out the door, not even grabbing a jacket as it slammed behind him.

Charlie let out the breath just didn't know she was holding, her forehead falling into her hand as the headache that had been brewing behind her eyes decided to explode.

"You know your father missed you, Charlotte," her mother remarked, McCoy barely able to hide a snort. "He did this because he was concerned about you. We had hoped you would continue . . . well it doesn't matter anymore."

"Continue what?" Charlie asked, lifting her head as she massaged her temples.

"It doesn't matter now," she reiterated, more to herself than anyone else while she went to check that the sheriff officers were on their way.

"You know Dad doesn't believe you," Rachel commented matter-of-factly.

"Rachel Lynn!" Margaret snapped, turning to glare as her youngest.

"What?" she shrugged. "It's true."

"But you guys believe us, right?" Charlie searched their eyes for any hint of doubt.

"I wasn't lying to you, Charlotte," Margaret allayed. "I don't understand how it happened, but I see the loyalty you all have. I see the relationships between you. That cannot be faked. That type of loyalty doesn't develop from a sense of fear, but through trust. I believe you saved my daughter. And as a mother, I can never repay you for that." She looked directly at Jim. "Thank you."

He nodded in understanding, feeling some of the tension ease in the room. They had at least two allies now.

The door slammed again as Robert came back in, grumbling to himself. "They're gone. Took some convincing, but they're headed back down the hill."

"Thank you, Colonel," Charlie responded.

"This doesn't mean you're off the hook," he pointed without much heat. "We have other things to talk about. Especially you, Sir," his glare moved to a surprised Jim. "I've got a few bones to pick with you. I don't care what you did, that's still my daughter and we're gonna sit down, just you and me. Discuss this like men."

"Dad!" Charlie scolded, while the crew chuckled silently.

Jim had the decency to try to hide the smile that was threatening to form. He'd heard of the old customs between the father and boyfriend, some of the old films that survived WWIII displaying them in all their outdated humor. He just never expected to see it for himself.

"Yes, Sir."

A ringing began filling the house, both Robert and Margaret's cell phones chiming incessantly from their hips.

Robert sent one last glare at Jim before he answered, "Colonel here."

Ignoring the crew, he made his way toward the office just as Margaret answered her own.

"Noland speaking. Yes, I'm aware. How's it progressing?" She disappeared after her husband, the door closing with a snap.

"Guys, I'm . . . sorry," Charlie said, her gaze on the folded hands in her lap as her cheeks heated. "I was embarrassed about it, and it was my own fault for not telling you. I'm sorry I went off on you like that."

"Ach, lass, no harm done," Scotty spoke good naturally.

"He's right," Uhura agreed. "It's definitely weird, but you're one of us now. It actually explains a lot."

"We love you," Jim added, tilting Charlie's chin up to gain her attention. "Even when you go crazy on us."

Charlie grinned, realizing that this was how a family should be. Yes, there were arguments, but there was forgiveness too.

"Spock?" Uhura said. "What is it?"

The crew all turned to Spock whose attention hadn't moved from the closed study door, his head tilted to the side in concentration.

"I believe we should retire downstairs, for I'm not sure what I just heard."

"What's he got super hearing?" Rachel asked skeptically, her arms crossing as she regarding the Vulcan.

"Actually, yea," Charlie stated matter-of-factly. "Vulcans had more acute hearing than us. This one picks up what's said on the other side of room, although he still doesn't hear sarcasm."

"I understand the premise of sarcasm," Spock argued. "I fail to understand the logic of it."

"Spock, I told you. I can teach you."

"Well you are fluent, Spitfire," McCoy grumbled, eyeing the cabinet in the corner holding her father's prized whiskey collection.

Rachel burst out laughing, practically doubled over with mirth.

"That is not a concern right now." Spock eyed the youngest Noland, one brow raised toward the ceiling. "I'm afraid there is something of greater importance."

"What is it Spock?" Jim asked as he stood, the tone his first officer used setting him on edge.

"I am not certain. But I believe they were discussing the development of . . . augments."

*grins evilly*