"This townie isn't bothering you, right?" the big cadet asked Jim's new friend. She let out a sigh as she turned to size him up. He had to be around 6'2" and he was stocky. Attractive enough, if not for the attitude. It left a lot to be desired.

The girl she was talking to, 'no first name' Uhura, chuckled. "Oh, beyond belief, but it's nothing I can't handle."

"You could handle me; that's an invitation," Jim told the other woman.

"Hey, you better mind your manners," the big guy said with a glare. Jim understands the whole 'Starfleet is a brotherhood' thing and looking out for each other is a given but this really was unnecessary. They were a bunch of kids in a bar.

"Oh relax, cupcake, it was just a joke," she said, patting the man lightly on the cheek.

"Maybe you can't count, but there are four of us and one of you," Cupcake's even taller friend said. Jim was not in the mood to deal with dumb, dumb, dumber and dumbest. All she wanted to do was grab a few drinks and maybe make out with the cute linguist chick.

"Look, if you think that you scare me, you don't. I've been through some shit that would have you crying for your mommy. It would take more than the four of you to just to subdue me. Uhura's a big girl, if she doesn't want to talk to me, all she has to do say so. I seriously doubt she needs you to protect her from me. My advice, go back over there and pout because the hottest girl in the place would rather talk to me than flirt with you." Of course, the biggest idiot of the bunch didn't like that and took a swing at her. Jim dodged the first punch and blocked the second, twisting his wrist in the process. "You seriously can't be that stupid."

Having been in her share of fights, Jim was well aware that his buddies were going to try to back him up. She felt one try to flank her and kicked him in the knee, not hard enough to do any major damage but it was still hard enough to hurt. Guy 3 charged at her, which wasn't the best idea. She ducked low enough to knock him off balance and pushed him into a table. Number 4, Cupcake, seemed to have some sense, he held his hands up and took a step back when, all of a sudden, a whistle went through the room. Like lightening, all the cadets in the place went to attention.

"All of you, out. Now!" Everyone ran out of the bar, Starfleet and civilian alike, at the authority laced voice.

For a long moment, he stared at her and she could almost hear him giving her shit for getting into another fight. Jim picked one of the chairs up and sat down in it. "Too bad they don't know what a softy you really are, Captain Pike. Slummin' it?"

Jim and Chris had a love/hate relationship. She loved to give him grief and he hated all the shenanigans she pulled. Most of the time, it was him pulling her aside or calling her whenever she did something stupid. He'd read her the riot act and she'd promise not to do it again and they both knew that there was a good chance that she would. It wasn't bad, not really. Chris was slightly more of a parent to Jim than her mother was. Not to say Winona didn't try, she did, it was just hard raising two kids alone while being on active duty and the eyes of the whole Federation on you. Jim and her brother didn't like not being close with their mother but they understood.

Unfortunately, her mother's one real effort at settling down a bit turned into a nightmare when Winona took an assignment on Tarsus Four. They were fine for a while, then the governor the colony massacred half the place after a fungus killed the plant life, including a good amount of the food. Pike was on the ship that rescued them and kept an eye on the Kirk kids while their mother blamed herself for surviving something else. Winona didn't realize it, but Jim carried the same guilt. Luckily, Pike gets it, which is why he keeps an eye on her.

"Came to check on my ship. Heard you were working on her," he told her.

"The new Enterprise is yours. You lucky sonofabitch. That ship is gonna be a masterpiece." Jim loves ships. She loves looking at them and she loves building them, especially the one they were working on in the shipyard. The things she would do for that ship.

"You want her, you gotta join up," Chris told her with a smirk. She both loved and hated how he could always read her damn mind.

This was part of the game they like to play, he'd tell her to enlist and she'd pretend not to care, even though they both knew she did. Then, he'd go back in the black and she'd go get another degree just for the hell of it. Only, there was a big difference this time. Chris wasn't going anywhere, he was assigned as a special recruiter at the Academy while his new ship was being built. If she was ever gonna join Starfleet, now was probably the time to do it.

"You gonna give me the speech this year, or should I just do it myself?" she asked. He made a motion for her to continue. Jim chuckled and dug up her best impersonation of the Federation hero. "'Something I admired about your dad: he didn't believe in no-win scenarios. You know that instinct to leap without looking; that was his nature too. In my opinion it's something Starfleet's lost. You're a genius, Jim. I know it and what's worse, you know it too. You can settle for a less than ordinary life, or do you feel like you were meant for something better? Something special? Enlist in Starfleet.' How'd I do?"

"That sounds about right. Then you roll your eyes at me and give me some reason why you won't go. What is it this year?" Chris asked.

Jim shook her head, "I uh… I got nothing. I've been thinking that maybe it's time... been putting it off long enough. I have three conditions, though."

"I'm listening," his smile was so big you would think she handed him a puppy.

"I don't get stuck with some squeaky clean, optimistic kid for a roommate, I get to keep working on the ship and you have to be my advisor. Those are my conditions," she told her only real fatherly influence.

"Done, done and done. Shuttle leaves tomorrow at oh-eight hundred," he told her.

"I'm already on the list, aren't I?" Jim asked.

"No clue what you're talking about, Cadet," he told her with a wink and walked out of the bar.

"Cheeky bastard."

"At ease, gentlemen," Jim said to the cadets from the night before. To say they were surprised when she got on the shuttle was an understatement. The big one she called Cupcake just watched her as she interacted with Pike. The older man gave her a nudge and told her to be nice. She gave him a pout. "But, Chris… uh, sir."

"That hasn't worked on me since you were eleven, Jimmy. Sit down," the captain told her. She dropped into an empty seat with a chuckle and winked at Uhura, who gave her a beautiful smile.

"You know the captain?" Cupcake asked.

Jim shrugged, "He served with my dad on the Olympus and my mom on the Aldrin. One's dead and the other boldly went on a five year mission, so Pike keeps an eye on me."

The big cadet nodded, "Sorry about last night."

"Are you sorry that you started a fight with some random person you didn't know over a girl who isn't your girlfriend? Or are you sorry that that random person turned out to be a fleet kid on a first name basis with Captain Pike?" she asked.

"A bit of both, I guess," Cupcake mumbled.

"Fair enough. I tend to rub people the wrong way just by existing, so it's cool. You telegraphed, by the way. And you should plant your feet when you swing that hard. You did half my work for me by being off balance. You're wasting your size advantage," she told him.

He gave her a nod, "Still working on my hand-to-hand combat."

"If you need someone to spar with you," she glanced at his friends, "who knows what they're doin', let me know." The cadet gave her a small smile. She had to admit, he was more handsome than she gave him credit for last night. His eyes were almost as blue as hers and carried a wisdom that she did see in the bar. It was probably hidden behind alcohol.

"You need a doctor," she heard the flight officer say. Jim looked in the woman's direction.

A distinctly southern voice replied in aggravation, "I told you people I don't need a doctor, dammit. I am a doctor!"

Chris' flight officer was not having it, "You need to get back to your seat."

"I had one. In the bathroom with no windows," the guy growled.

"You need to get back in your seat, now," the lieutenant told him.

"I suffer from aviophobia, it means fear of dying in something that flies!" Jim actually felt bad for him. If she had to guess, this wasn't his idea. As a matter of fact, it had Chris written all over it. She glanced at the flight deck and saw Chris smirk as he turned towards the helm. Oh, this was definitely his doing.

"Sir, for your own safety, sit down or else I'll make you sit down!" The flight officer held her ground. Even though she was smaller than this guy, the woman stared him down. The doctor huffed before he dropped into the seat new to Jim and the officer walked away.

"I may throw up on ya," the man said to her.

Jim chuckled, "These things are pretty safe."

"Don't pander to me, kid. One tiny crack in the hull and our blood boils in thirteen seconds. Solar flare might crop up, cook us in our seats. And wait'll you're 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 wrapped in darkness and silence," he ranted.

"Dude, I was born in a shuttle and I turned out okay. I hate to break this to you, but Starfleet operates in space," she offered up. He had to know that.

"Yeah. Well, I got nowhere else to go. The ex-wife took the whole damn planet in the divorce. All I got left is my bones." He pulled out a small flask and took a swig before offering it to her. Just her kind of guy.

"Jim Kirk," she said after taking the offered drink.

"McCoy. Leonard McCoy," he introduced himself.