My first Star Trek story! As anyone who knows me will probably say, that's something of a miracle. Anyway, I usually don't support multiple ships for the same person, but the only ships I can really got on board with for rebooted Star Trek are Kirk/Uhura or Kirk/Carol. I have nothing against Spock, but the chemistry feels forced through the characters by the actors rather than between them. Anyway, on with the show!

Nyota Uhura had never met anyone who sparked such a multitude of reactions in her as James Kirk. The first time they'd met he'd been drunk and hitting on her in a bar, but he'd clearly been smarter than he'd appeared at first glance. Then he'd gotten into a bar fight, shooting his impression back into its first direction. All their years together in the academy had been marked by endless flirting and teasing comments, but he always made sure not to step over the line, and without consciously realizing it their banter had developed into some sort of game between the two of them. He'd been out with countless women at the academy, but even being as intimately aware of all the gossip as a vivacious, socially outgoing communications expert was bound to be she'd never heard a single complaint about his behavior from any of the girls he'd taken out. He'd cheated on the Kobayashi Maru, which earned some serious ire from her, but the incident with Nero happened right after, and that earned him enough brownie points to put the test on the back burner. Throughout her entire tenure under his command he'd kept up the back and forth of giving her things to like and things to hate, but her increasing professional respect for him had given the like just enough of a tip to allow them to become friends. Kirk still completely baffled Uhura, and she was still seeing the parts of him she'd disliked, although the incident with Khan and Admiral Marcus had left it in a state where these things weren't enough to tip her overall opinion back to dislike. But she wasn't quite sure how she thought about Jim Kirk, and figured she never would be. Then, out of the blue, one incident shattered this pattern forever in a way she could've never expected or thought possible.

She came to understand him.

She almost preferred the flip-flop.

Uhura sat in the briefing room with the rest of the Enterprise's senior officers going over the itinerary and details for their next mission. The Enterprise would be playing host to a large group of Federation scientists and engineers for a very unique conference. The efforts to assist the remainder of the Vulcan population in establishing a new home and maintaining their cultural and scientific achievements had caused a large upheaval in the sector of space in which New Vulcan was situated. The delegation was to be touring several planets in the region in an effort to determine what if anything had been neglected as well as smooth over the collaboration on scientific endeavors which had been disrupted by the chaos. As this left them with several working stops before the final meeting on Memory Alpha, it was decided that the conference would begin en route, necessitating all the attendees being taken the whole way onboard a single starship. Most of the crew was ecstatic about having so many of the Federation's leading minds engaged in serious research aboard their own ship for two whole weeks, and this was the final of several staff meetings held in the past few days to ensure the ship was prepared.

"So, in a nutshell Spock, your boys and girls are drooling over our guests, but they'll be ready on time."

"I have observed no sign of salivation, Captain however-"

Kirk waved him off chuckling and turned to ask for a status report from Scotty, but Uhura's mind stayed with the first officer for several moments. It had been more than five months since they'd mutually decided their relationship was not going to last and was impairing the sense of duty Spock felt toward his endangered race, something he was already feeling uneasy about since deciding to serve on the Enterprise. She'd mourned their relationship seriously, but they had remained good friends and close confidantes, and she knew Spock was as close to excited as Vulcans ever allowed themselves to get.

"Well if that's all, I'd say we're ready for the incoming geek hordes. Sorry, Sorry," Kirk held up his hand in peace chuckling at the enraged looks he was getting from Scotty and Marcus as well as the evil eyebrow of doom from Spock. "So for now let's just all get ready for the big arrival in-", he glanced meaningfully at Spock.

"7 hours and 44 minutes, Captain." Spock filled in barely missing a beat.

Kirk nodded. "Right, what he said." And Kirk began rising up out of his chair. Uhura figured this was the perfect time for her one extra piece of business.

"Captain, one last thing."

Kirk paused next to his chair, the others turning to look at her without having gotten up yet. "Yes, Lieutenant?"

"I was going over the guest list yesterday, and I spotted something I thought you might be interested in."

Their galactic hero of a starship captain rubbed his hands together like a five year old. "Ooh, I love surprises, what is it?"

Rolling her eyes at his antics, Uhura took the PADD with the highlighted entries and slid it down the table to the Captain. Kirk picked it up off the table and read the names Uhura had marked out for him.

The next thing that came was a sight that had filled the nightmares of much of the crew for months. Kirk's face drained of every bit of color it had, appearing for all the world as though it was going for a redo at the whole corpse thing. Kirk staggered backward, his legs hitting the arm of his chair and tripping him. He would've landed hard on his butt were it not for Spock's quick reflexes.

"Captain!"

"Jim!"

The various cries from the assembled crew and McCoy's frantic charge to Kirk's side were stopped cold by the hand he held up as he picked himself up out of Spock's arms.

"No, no. Nothing to worry about. Just- I just- I need a little time alone. Excuse me." Nobody in the room had never seen Kirk quite as discombobulated as when he turned away from his concerned officers and wobbled toward the door.

"Jim-"

"Bones!" The entire crew started at that. Even when he was clearly annoying the Captain to death Kirk had never reacted that sharply to the doctor. "I just really need some time to myself right now. Mr. Spock you have the conn." He turned and strode a little more steadily out the door.

6 pairs of concerned eyes turned to look at Uhura, who stood there in shock like the rest of them, unable to do anything more than shrug helplessly. She'd meant it to surprise him, for the life of her she hadn't anticipated anything like this.

After all, why would anybody have such a strong reaction to learning their mother and her longtime husband were coming aboard?

Please read and review. I have a lot of ideas about this story, but I'd love to hear suggestions.