An Admiral Sighs

by Starsinger

Final story in the trilogy of "Let Me Get This Straight" and "Karma's a Bitch", Kirk beams the Admirals straight into Admiral Johnson's office. Seems Jim doesn't trust them for some reason after forwarding his report to his boss. Don't own them.

Admiral Mary Johnson, Commander, Starfleet, had been warned that her wayward Admirals were being beamed directly to her office. She was given mere minutes notice that the Enterprise was approaching Earth to drop them off. Kirk's report had been…interesting. She looked up as the whine of transporter beam resounded in her office. She placed her elbows on her desk and folded her hands together forming a pyramid, her fingers interlaced. All three men looked sheepishly at their shoes. Only Porthos was glad to see her and bounded around the desk and into her lap.

Mary sighed as she petted the dog, "Hello, Porthos, nice to see you too." Porthos responded by licking her face. "Okay, all of you tried Kirk's patience. Although flashing him in that bar was a nice touch, Richard." He wouldn't even meet her eyes.

"Chris, I can usually count on you to be the responsible one, but did you have to get his ENTIRE senior bridge crew involved both times?" she asked.

"Well, they just happened to be there…" Chris' voice trailed off.

"John? You HIT a Klingon? Seriously?"

"I broke his nose," Archer mumbled.

Mary sighed, "Okay, I think you've been properly punished by Kirk. You're dismissed. Chris, stay, we need to talk." The other admirals looked at Pike sympathetically as they exited the office. "So?" she asked as the door closed behind them.

Chris deposited himself in a chair with a grin, "So, what?"

"What's your opinion?" she asked.

"Well, Richard and John were only a little too enthusiastic about joining in, even if they didn't know what the plan was."

"A kilt, really?"

"Scotty's idea, Richard didn't want to be confined that night. I really didn't think that he'd go along with it."

"Kirk didn't suspect anything, did he?"

"Neither did John or Richard. Torture is still illegal, isn't it?"

"Why? What did Kirk do?" Mary asked.

"He locked us in the brig and had loud music played when we woke up in the morning. I suppose it wouldn't have been loud if we didn't have a hangover. Well, Jim didn't suspect a thing, especially since we were interrupting an intimate moment between him and his lady-love."

Mary smothered a laugh, "I'm sure they both appreciated that!" She looked at him seriously. "How'd he do."

"He was surprisingly calm. Scotty started that unplanned barroom fight and he didn't even raise a finger. He let his security people do what they do best. He dressed all down without a real thought as to our respective ranks, and everyone received the same punishments."

"Except McCoy, Chekov, and Sulu," she responded.

"Well, to be fair, they weren't involved in that bar fight. Jim has that one quality that will stand him well in the future, relative rank doesn't scare him. He faced us all down without blinking. He's fair, we all ended up in the same cell in the brig."

"He'll do well," Mary said.

"Those cadets won't know what hit them. And when you make him a Fleet Captain, those captains under his command won't know what hit them as well."