My first semester flew by, and I passed my introductory Starfleet courses with flying colors. I had slowly become accustomed to life as a cadet, but I had even grown to like my life in Starfleet. Naira and I had become close friends despite our very different personalities, and I continued to have routine meetings with Captain Pike, who had become my advisor this semester. My progress towards an engineering track was well underway, and I was enjoying being able to put my computer and technological knowledge to a different use.

"Captain Pike is ready to see you now, Cadet Greaves," the secretary said while motioning to the door. I nodded to her, quickly moving into the office.

"Greaves, it's good to see you." He gestured to the seat across from him at the desk, and pulled out his PADD, typing quickly. "It looks like you completed quite a few of the introductory courses last semester, but you still have a few to complete. It is mandatory that you take two self-defense courses, so I would recommend enrolling in one this semester to be one of your less stressful classes."

"Less stressful?" I groaned. "If I have to take it, I suppose I might as well get it out of the way."

Pike grinned, fully knowing of my clumsiness as he had probably read the reports of my accidents from the Medbay this last semester. I had tripped down a staircase one day, spraining my ankle and getting a concussion. "I have also arranged for you to be enrolled in the Introduction to Artificial Intelligence class this semester as well. Along with a couple of Engineering classes." He handed the PADD to me, allowing me a glance at the schedule he had arranged. "Are you sure you still want to take this heavy of a course load? We can easily spread some of these classes out to next year."

I scanned the schedule quickly, and a challenging smirk crossed my face. "This looks perfect. I should have no problems with this."

Pike shook his head slightly, a twinkle glinting in his eye. "Well then. I suppose this meeting is over. See you in a couple of months, cadet."

"Until then, sir." I returned the PADD to him before walking out of the office, a slight spring in my step.

My enthusiasm did not carry through the next day, however, when I was faced with my first self-defense class. I was already waiting for my clumsiness to prove itself detrimental during the course, and I dreaded the injuries to come. I threw my duffel bag onto the bench in front of my locker, yanking out the shorts and T-shirt cadets were told to wear for the course. After changing, I carefully folded my uniform and placed it in the locker, tossing my duffel bag in last minute.

Racing to the training room, I realized too late that the mats were a few inches higher off the ground and tripped, falling face first onto the mat and allowing a painful yelp to escape my lips. Laughter erupted from the other cadets as the commander teaching the course turned to look at me. "As I was saying - this course is designed to help you defend yourselves when the need arises. Cadet…?" he prompted, searching for my name.

"Greaves, sir," I supplied, rubbing my cheek as I limped into my place in the line of cadets.

"It would seem that Cadet Greaves will need to learn to defend herself against her own clumsiness." I grimaced, keeping my gaze down as I heard giggling throughout the room. "Alright, alright. Let's get started. We'll be splitting into pairs today to begin learning some of the most basic defensive maneuvers."

I was paired with a tall, muscular cadet, and I groaned audibly, knowing this wasn't going to end well. He laughed slightly and opened his mouth to say something just as the instructor began speaking. "First, we're going to practice using your opponent's momentum against them. If a Klingon is attacking you, he isn't going to try to slow down before slamming you into a wall. Use that to your advantage."

I squared off with my partner, and he began running at me after the instructor yelled, "Begin!"

I grabbed his shoulder with both hands, trying to push him slightly to the side while using his own momentum to move me in the other direction as we had been shown. Unfortunately, my movements were too slow, and I found myself smashed between his shoulder and the mats, pain lancing through my body and a cracking sound audible as we landed.

"Stop! Stop!" I could faintly hear the instructor yelling as I struggled to breathe. "Who was it?"

The cadet had already rolled off of me, and I could hear him panicking. "I didn't mean to, sir! Cadet Greaves-"

"Of course it's Cadet Greaves." I could feel the mat shifting slightly under me, and I could faintly see his mouth moving as he hovered over me, but the darkness seeping into the edges of my vision was quickly taking over. I only just realized I wasn't able to hear anything he was saying as the darkness took over.

White filled my vision when I cracked open one of my eyes, and I immediately squeezed my eye shut again. I could faintly hear people talking, and the beeping of a nearby machine. My chest felt as though an elephant had stepped on it, and I groaned, wondering which bone I had managed to break this time.

"Perfect timing!" a feminine voice hit my ears and I slowly began opening my eyes once more. "Your doctor is just about finished with his shift, but he might be able to discharge you before he leaves now that you're awake! I will go get him so that he can answer any of your questions." With that, the overly cheerful nurse hurried off.

Shouldn't you ask the patient if they need anything before you go running off to find a doctor? I scrunched my eyebrows at her quick dismissal of me, and struggled to push myself up into a seated position. The initial pain that had lanced through my chest was quickly receding, and I realized they must have already used a regenerator on whatever bone had been broken.

Just as I finally pushed myself to the back of the bed, and was somewhat comfortably leaning on the pillows, the door to my room opened. I glanced up to see my doctor reading his P.A.D.D., probably looking through my files.

"Alright, Miss Greaves, it looks as though the regeneration of your rib was successful, and I can't see any problems with it. You can go ahead and get dressed. Once you are ready you are free to sign out," he continued, finally looking up from the P.A.D.D.

"It's you!" I exclaimed, recognizing him now that he had finally looked up at me.

"We never did introduce ourselves that day," he chuckled. "My name is Leonard McCoy. I didn't really believe you when you said that you would see me soon."

"Well. I did try to warn you that I am very clumsy."

"So I see. They told me it was an accident in your self defense class when they brought you in." He started turning off the computers and systems attached to my Biobed and I struggled to swing my legs over the other side. "Take it easy!" he yelled gruffly, hand clasping onto my shoulder. "Even though your rib has healed, you're going to be sore for a couple of days. Don't push yourself. And just sit in on your self defense class, okay?" He helped me turn in the bed, his hand gently holding onto my elbow as he helped me stand up out of the bed. "Take your time. I don't want to see you back here too soon, alright?"

His grumbling made me grin, and I just nodded before he rushed out of the room. I slowly yanked on my uniform that had been left in the corner of the room before signing myself out of the Medbay.

Over the rest of the week, I was allowed to simply watch the self defense classes as they were taught, and I caught myself analyzing how each move worked. By the next week, I was no longer sore from my former broken rib, and I was required to participate in class once more. On my return session, the instructor decided to do it as a review, and had everyone pair off to hone the skills they had already studied. He chose the best in the class, a young Asian cadet named Sulu, to work with me in an obvious effort to tutor me.

"Hi, I'm Roxy," I murmured, reaching my hand out in greeting.

"Hikaru," he returned, shaking my hand gently. "I don't intend on having any repeats of what happened in your last class, so let's take this slowly, okay? We'll start doing each move in a much slower pace and work up to an actual combat-like speed."

I sighed gratefully. "That sounds wonderful."

For the rest of the hour, we did just that. He slowly rushed at me, and made sure my grip was correct, never having me fully fend him off until I had done the first steps of the move perfectly. By the end of the class, I had already become successful with half of the techniques they had learned while I was not participating in the class.

"Roxy, you're not actually that bad. A general suggestion though? Keep your feet a little wider apart. You have them too close together to be able to pivot fast enough to defend yourself from opponents if they were actually determined to harm you," he suggested kindly, a smile on his face.

"Thank you so much for all the help, Hikaru! I doubt I would have made it through this uninjured if you weren't my partner," I gushed, belatedly realizing I might have overdone my gratitude.

"It's not a problem. Do you want to meet up outside of class to catch up on the rest of the techniques? I doubt Commander Wesson will let you have another session to catch up during class time."

A few strands of hair had escaped my braid, and I pushed them out of my face as I responded, "That sounds wonderful, actually. Are you sure you will have the time though? I don't want your studies to falter because you're trying to help me."

"Absolutely. It helps me relieve stress, so if anything, you'll be helping me in my classes." His grin was infectious, and I quickly realized that maybe, just maybe, I had made a new friend.