AN: Got nothing to say but the fact I like genderbending. Don't like, don't read. Seriously, don't be an asshole.

She wasn't really sure what she was doing back here in Riverside. Her mother wasn't even in the same sector, little less dirtside yet she was in Riverside even though she promised herself not to come back here. There was nothing to go back to. Albeit someone might have pointed out that technically that statement only became true today, seven hours ago when her uncle Frank Davies was buried four feet into the ground. The vicious sliver in her heart just wanted to dump his body into waste disposal but he had been her mother's only remaining family member besides her two children so that was a no go.

Either way, the service was short and there were not many people attending. Not because Riverside had a small population but rather because Frank Davies had been a walking, talking stereotype of an asshole to its fullest. It was her honest belief that aside her mother, no one was going to miss him. She certainly wouldn't. Nevertheless she needed a drink or two just to dull her nerves. Of course, the only bar that had wider variety of drinks in Riverside happened to be the one close to the shipyard and therefore had steady influx of Starfleet members, mostly engineers assigned to the shipyard. Tonight however, because her bad day had to have become worse, the bar was teeming with cadets.

Some were newly signed up, picked up from all over the planet Earth and on their way to Starfleet Academy for the first time while some of them were on their way back to the Academy from short training cruises, the older ones that is. Most of them, much to her dismay, have proverbial stars in their eyes that usually accompanied the dreamy ideas of being out there in space, exploring and what not. Now there was nothing wrong with that per say, human curiosity brought them in contact with about equal amount of friendly and unfriendly alien species, the great exchange of technology and culture. The rules and somewhat edgy behavior of top brass of Starfleet that included heavy inclination of sweeping dirty secrets under the rug and not paying attention to seemingly unimportant details was entirely different thing.

It was downright infuriating and for her personally, did not give much reason to trust them. However, she was not above admitting that most Starfleet members were good natured people and very good in their professions. Still, progress and change were somewhat sluggish. Ignoring the cheerful, partially alcohol infused chatter around her, she went straight for the bar, ordering strongest whiskey on the rocks they had to offer. The bartender, Lew if memory served her well, gave her a once over as if that would actually reveal to him whether she was legal to drink or not before following her drink order, glass with dark amber liquid set before her moments later.

The liquid had smoky flavor to it, something she always appreciated with her favorite blood poison even though she did not indulge it often. Anymore that is. She was on her third round when pretty lithe thing of her age appeared at the old-fashioned bar and leaned forward to order her drink. Or seven as it turned out. "That is a lot of drinks for one woman."

The young cadet gave her a once over and she was entertained by the dismissive glint in her eyes which simply made her want to flirt further, if for no other purpose but to banish all the dark thoughts from her mind. "And a shot of Jack, straight up."

"Make it two – her shot's on me."

"Her shot's on her. Thanks but no thanks."

Maybe this day would not end on a dark note after all. "Hmm, I don't get a 'no' often."

"Really? Well then, it seems to be my duty to tell you that when I say 'no' it means no." Smile stretched her lips, she liked this one. "I'm not really trying to drag you to bed."

"You have a bad way of phrasing it then." The woman replied without a hint of an honest smile, her foot tapping as if that would make the drinks come any faster. "I'm really not but your dismissing behavior is quite entertaining. Besides I am not nearly drunk enough for any after midnight activities and you seem too wound up."

This time she got no reply. Grabbing her drink, she sidestepped the long faced barfly and leaned on the bar next to the cadet. "The name is Jane. What's yours?"

Silence. "If you don't tell me your name, I'll make up one for you and I can be very creative."

"Uhura."

"Hmm…How about first name?" Finally she got something else rather than fed up superiority. "Unless you prefer to be addressed by your last name which is fine by me. So, Uhura…You're a cadet, you're studying. What's your focus?"

"Xenolinguistics." Uhura replied without even looking at her for a moment. "You have no idea what that means." And dismissive superiority was back.

"Study of alien languages: phonology, morphology, syntax, variability in different mediums of aural conveyance, symbology and so on." Jane took a short sip of her whiskey. "Means you got a talented tongue."

"I'm impressed. For a moment there I thought you were just a dumb country girl who only has sex with farm animals."

Jane almost broke into full blown laughter. It has been a while since she met someone who could verbally spar with her without resorting to curses and not well thought through arguments. "toH, wej neH (Well, not only),H." Eyes went wide with surprise and Uhura finally laughed. "You really don't look like you set one foot out of this town."

"Oh I set my foot out of this town a very long time ago. Today was…exception."

Uhura blinked a bit at sudden dark tone in the voice of her interlocutor. "So where did you learn Klingonese?"

"Around." Jane replied mysteriously, the playful twinkle in her eyes returning. "And you don't seem to be the type to hang around all of this." She aimlessly motioned to the rest of the bar where most cadets were well on the way to alcohol induced oblivion.

Uhura did not get to respond since a large shadow cast by a bearded cadet who was larger than both women put together and Jane's mood immediately soured before he even had a chance to open his mouth. "This townie bothering you?"

"No and if she were, it's nothing I couldn't handle." Uhura replied dismissively before turning to get her drinks that were finally served. She downed the shot of Jack and moved away from the bar with the rest of her drinks.

Feeling still playful enough, Jane shot cadet Uhura a somewhat flirty wink which made the woman smile before reaching for her whiskey glass. Naturally the burly cadet caught the gesture and for some reason got riled up. "Hey. Mind your manners."

Leaning her weight on the bar, Jane looked slightly up so she could see his face. "Relax cupcake. I didn't touch her or say anything real bad. Unless you're jealous that I didn't wink at you?"

Silence started to fall over the bar as the not really a confrontation started to take the spotlight. Cupcake was still steaming over the last comment. "What was that?"

"Do you have hearing problems?" Jane asked bored, whiskey sloshing around in the glass she was slightly shaking side to side. By now, the cadet's cohorts gathered around him and the rest seemed to be paying rapt attention.

Well, her day was shitty anyway she might as well finish it with a bar fight. It has been a while since she beat the ever living daylights out of idiots. "Maybe you can't count farm girl, but there's five of us and one of you."

"Then go get some more and we'll be even." She waved her hand dismissively but the man didn't respond. "Been wondering though. Do they beam those uniforms on you? 'Cause they are so form fitting and…"

Predictable as the sunrise, Cupcake swung. Though he was somewhat faster than she expected, the move was avoided and in three seconds flat he was in a tight chokehold. "Please tell me you haven't had combat training yet 'cause that would be embarrassing to Starfleet. That would be punch was adorable."

His friends did not seem to like the idea of a local blonde girlie making an idiot out of their friends and moved to help which prompted her to knock Cupcake out cold. It took two seconds for all out brawl to break out, unfair one at that if one counted the opposite participants. People moved out of the way yet did nothing to stop it, partially entranced to see a young woman beating by now five Starfleet cadets bar still unconscious Cupcake in a really brutal though surgical manner.

Jane did not pass unscathed, in fact her busted lip was not grateful for the fight nor her right part of her rib cage but by the time she had the last man standing on the table and punching ever loving shit out of him, she was in far better condition than the rest of them. She was well on the way to smash the cadet's face in when a shrill whistle calling to attention had her freeze in movement and forced her to look up.

At the entrance stood a man in his fifties, wearing dark grey uniform and looked completely unimpressed and annoyed with the entire scene. "Outside, all of you. Now!"

The crowd disappeared from the bar at the speed of wrap five at least, leaving only civilians behind. As the adrenaline rush suddenly left her body, Jane felt flashing pain in her fists though considering the size and mass of her opponents, this was not a surprising thing. "You alright miss?" The new arrival asked part curious, part concerned with something of a contemplative glint in his eyes.

Just that put her on alert again. "Spectacular." She replied before turning to the bartender. "Get me another round when I return from the bathroom." He gave her a withering look but buzzed around to get her drinking order nevertheless she picked up0 five minutes later after cleaning up some of the dripping blood from her busted lip and cut on the left cheek.

"You're still here Starfleet?" Jane short stopped at the sight of the Starfleet officer sitting in a laid back manner, still studying her with way too much curiosity she found healthy. "You need my statement or something? Who are you anyway?"

"Captain Christopher Pike." Wry smile stretched his lips. "I swear I am looking at you and I am staring right at him."

Jane almost bit her tongue to blood as her anger bubbled up at warp speed. Yet another George Kirk fan and she thought she had managed to shake them all off. A resigned sigh escaped her lips as she muted out him babbling about dissertations and what nots of famed Kirk family history that George Kirk made and sipped her whiskey. "He didn't believe in no-win scenarios."

That got captain Pike a derisive snort. "He sure did learn his lesson."

"Well, that depends on how you define winning. You're here, aren't you?" Pike shot back, not affected by the acidic sarcasm. "You know, that instinct to leap without looking, that was his nature too. In my opinion, something's Starfleet lost."

"And you are telling me this because…?"

"I re-checked your file while you were taking care of that lip. Your aptitude tests are off the charts so what is it? You like being the only genius level repeat offender in the Midwest?"

"Maybe I love it." Jane sneered, she was getting tired and just wanted the day to end already by now.

"Look, so your dad dies, you can settle for less than ordinary life. Or do you feel like you're meant for something better? Something special." Pike gave a little pause. "Enlist in Starfleet."

For a moment, she thought she heard him wrong. "Enlist?" She chocked a bit on her drink. "You guys must way down on your recruiting quota for the month."

"If you are half a person your father was Jane, Starfleet could use you." The blank look she gave him forced him to switch tactics. Obviously, nostalgia wasn't working. If anything, it made her apathetic or angry. "You could be an officer in four year, have your own ship in eight. You understand what the Federation is, don't you? It's important. It's a peace keeping and humanitarian armada."

"We done?" Jane finally snapped, any kind of minute patience gone.

Pike just stared at her for a long moment before setting his glass down. "I'm done." The chair legs scrapped the floor as he got up. "Riverside Shipyard. Shuttle for new recruits leaves tomorrow 0800."

Her hand made a sluggish motion of waving him off. There was a bit of hesitation in him before he spoke again. "Your father was a captain of a starship for twelve minutes. He saved eight hundred lives, including your mother's and yours. I dare you to do better."

A mocking salute was all he got from her in return and decided that they were truly done. If he said anything else, she might continue the bar fight with him as the main punching bag. And judging by two unconscious cadets and others with seriously bloody noses and somewhat wrong angled hands, she was force to be dealt with. He was good but not that good. With one last look at the graceful face framed by short, choppy golden hair he turned on his heels and left the bar. Hopefully his gambling dare would make her move.

Come morning, Jane was not really sure what her mother's reaction would be once she contacted her from San Francisco. Damn that man for challenging her. Educated or lucky guess on his side, Jane never backed from a challenge. She's been doing those since the day she was born. It was a day she detested and liked to get completely smashed, preferably with the strongest alcoholic drink she could find.

She spent most of the night sobering up in the fresh air by staring at the half finished Constitution class starship that was named Enterprise. For some unknown reason, it called to her. This made little sense to her because it was hardly the first starship she had seen or actually been on. Yet, the mysterious charm remained. She cursed captain Pike several times before her mind was really made up and once she finished her early breakfast, Jane made way to the shipyard. It was easy to pass security, Jane noted and filed away to make a mention to Pike at some later date.

"Nice ride." A passing worker noted and without looking, Jane threw her keys into his hard hat. "It's yours." Her best winning smirk stretched her lips as she walked to and around clearly but pleasantly surprised Pike. "Four years? I'll do it in three."

"I have no doubt." Pike murmured as she climbed into the shuttle.

He just hoped he could keep her busy. People like her tended to get easily bored with standard curriculum. Looking around, Jane allowed an easy smile to stretch across her lips and did not pay extra attention to the bulkhead with stamp 'CAUTION LOW CEILING' so naturally she banged her head quite forcefully on it. Waiting a moment for her head to clear up, she moved around to find an empty seat, passing by the five of the cadets from last night, all of whom were sporting nice shiners and one was wearing a wrist brace. Unable to help herself, she gave them mock salute in the passing. "At ease, gentlemen."

Her spirits went further up when she saw her flirting target sitting not four feet from her. "Never did get that first name." Uhura was partially successful in suppressing a grin. "And you never will."

"Challenge accepted."

Jane tugged on the harnesses to strap herself in when commotion from the back interrupted her. A clearly agitated, older gentleman was forced out of bathroom. By her estimate he was around thirty and the lengthy list of complaints his mouth was firing put his place of origin in American Southeast, Georgia if Jane would be asked.

"I told you people, I don't need a doctor. I am a doctor."

"You need to get back to your seat."

"I had one in the bathroom with no windows." The protestor vociferously stated, trying to wrench himself out firm grip the academy officer had on him. Jane could tell the woman dealt with worse problems than the current one. "You need to get back to your seat, now!"

"I suffer from aviophobia. It means fear of dying in something that flies."

"Sir, for your own safety, sit down or else I'll make you sit down." There was a short glaring contest before the man acceded. "Fine."

"Thank you." Just after she departed, Pike's voice could be heard over intercom. "This is Captain Pike. We've been cleared for takeoff."

"I may throw up on you." Oddly enough, this was not the strangest thing someone said to her upon meeting her for the first time. "I think these things are pretty safe. Also it would not be the first time." Jane replied calmly, tapping the armrest.

"Don't pander to me, kid. One tiny crack in the hull, and our blood boils in thirteen seconds. A solar flare might pop up and cook us in our seats. And wait 'til your sitting pretty with a case of Andorian shingles. See if you're still so relaxed when your eyeballs are bleeding. Space is disease and danger after darkness and silence." Jane's jaw almost dropped in amazement at the speed and detail of the man's speech.

Obviously he wasn't an idiot like the rest of starry eyed cadets here and definitely was not a sweet talker. At least not with general population. Maybe they could be friends. "Well, I hate to break this to you, but Starfleet operates in space."

"Yeah, well, got nowhere else to go but up. The ex-wife took the whole damn planet in the divorce. All I've got left is my bones." As he was saying that, he withdrew a flask from his jacket's inner pocket he handed her after taking a sip.

"Jane Kirk." Her peripheral vision caught good number of cadets reacting with total shock upon hearing her name, recognizing it now that the alcohol was out of their blood system but she paid no attention to them and handed the flash back after taking a sip. The doctor knew his poisons well.

"McCoy, Leonard McCoy." The shuttle rocked a bit as it rose to its determined altitude and then swerved into the direction of San Francisco, making the doctor flinch a bit which told Jane that he was dead serious about aviophobia. "So, Bones, are you from Georgia?"

"Bones? What the hell kid?" The doctor all but growled at her.

"Well, all you got left are your bones. Besides, didn't they used to call army doctors back in Civil War sawbones? Fits you perfectly."

He was looking at her like she was crazy, not that he was far off, and his eyes narrowed. "You're not gonna drop it even if I asked nicely."

"Nope." Jane grinned.

"Damn it." One of his eyebrows quirked when he properly took in her face. "What happened there?" One hand already rose to inspect damage, his doctor's instinct kicking in.

"The five bravehearts over there." She leaned backwards to her right, and his eyes widened upon seeing the bruises, definitely two broken noses and wrist brace. "Good God kid, they're twice your size."

"Yes but they certainly lack in IQ department. Or at the very least, they were never told not to judge a book by its cover."

That finally got him to smile. "Sounds about right. Anything besides that busted lip and cut?"

"Obviously bruised knuckles." She showcased her hands for inspection. "And maybe a bruised rib or two. Like I said, they misjudged their chances."

"Clearly." The shuttle shook a bit when it landed with a loud 'thug'. "We're there already?"

Jane smiled at his incredulity. "Time flies in good company, no?" She followed the question with a wink and unbuckled her harnesses.

"Unbelievable." Bones grumbled but it did not carry any really ire. "No throwing up then?"

"You're a smartass."

"Like you wouldn't believe it. Come on, we should disembark."

After being called out and sorted by either being new or returning cadets, they were assigned to academy officers who then sent them to their allocated dorm rooms within specified halls. Naturally, Jane did not make more than two steps towards the Academy before Pike appeared at her side. "You're coming with me to get your 'papers' sorted." Only then he noticed Bones. "Ah, doctor McCoy. I trust the flight wasn't too traumatic?"

Bones snorted. "Smartass here kept my mind off of it."

"Really? See Kirk, you're a good influence." Jane snorted. "You wish."

"Well, doctor you can make your way to your dorm room. I'm pretty sure that even if you don't want to see Kirk again, she'll find you."

The doctor rolled his eyes and muttered something under his breath before leaving. "That was not nice." Jane remarked.

"Somehow I doubt that hurt your feelings." Pike started to move in slightly different direction. Good number of people stared at her when they passed the duo. "Sit." He commanded once they got into his office.

"Do you have a spare PADD?"

Pike rolled his eyes as he sat down. "I'd rather you not hack anything before I even enrolled you properly."

"Very funny, sir. Even if I hacked something right now, you wouldn't know about it." Jane smirked. "So you have a spare PADD or not?"

He retrieved one and handed it to her as he busied himself by pulling up her personal file and creating a new one for Starfleet. "What did I say about hacking?" Pike shot her an annoyed look.

"Relax, captain, I am simply unlocking part of my file. I'm pretty sure you can guess why I keep it as vague as possible."

He nodded and waited to see which one of the blanks in her private file would be shown. If he didn't have his clearance and authority, he would simply be able to see her basic information and what school she finished. And that was it. Not even an address. One of the fields came alive and Christopher Pike had to use every bit of his hard earned experience to keep his jaw from hitting the floor. "Kirk…"

"Don't." Jane bit out. "I am not showing it to you because I want pity or something special. Just so you know I'll be skipping those classes. Because I absolutely have no desire to either speak about it, though I am sure the lectures are laced with pretty much general knowledge only, or have some sort of debate. I'd sooner shoot myself than talk about it in public."

"Is there anyone else who knows about this?"

"Maybe four people altogether have access to the files, obscure as they are about the whole matter since it was a clusterfuck of a situation. And no, I don't want to talk about it. Ever."

Pike frowned but knew better than to counter her or to try to poke the subject. So he nodded and continued his work in silence. Strangely, he found it very unnerving and it took a good hour after she left for the letters he read to finally sink in. And he immediately reached for the bottle in his desk he rarely broke out and technically should not be even opening it considering he was on duty and it was only nine in the morning. But damn it, he needed it and as he drank the dark colored liquid, prayed he could make a schedule for her that would keep her busy but not exhausted. People like her, rare as they were, tended to get bored quickly with the standard curriculum. One thing was certain. Life was about to get a lot more interesting.