#really giving away my age with that christopher pike answer

[primewritessmut]

2, 10, 11, 13, 16, 18, 19, and 40

2. talk about a notable time a narrative or character has looked you dead in the eyes and said “fuck your plan, here’s what we’re actually doing.”

already answered

10. at what point in the process do you come up with titles, and how easy or hard is that for you?

Very early in the process only because I have zero chill and as soon as that first chapter is written, it's getting posted. That's lead to having some fics that I wish I could rename because it didn't end up fitting the final form but... eh. It's all a learning curve.

Usually, I pull a quote out of the fic and that becomes the title (for the entire fic and the chapters), but I also like making puns or using well known phrases because I'm a fucking dweeb.

11. what’s something neat you’ve learned while doing research for something you were writing? also, how much do you worry about doing research in general?

I don't do a lot of research. Anyone that hangs around this blog and reads these asks for even a minute probably knows that I write strictly for the vibes. Basically, I don't worry to much about it and, if someone corrects me later, I try to change it.

I did an unusual amount of research about spiders as background for Peter in Songs for the Zombie Apocalypse. Mostly around how spider eyes work and what specific spider Peter might have gotten his mutations from. Jumping spiders have eyes that can do both telescopic vision and see colors and depth in the same way that humans do. I originally had plans to incorporate this more (lots of head tilting to dial in the telescopic sight) but it didn't fit the word count.

Also, if you ever need to know about New York cities surrounding Albany in the 1930s, I've drawn up a map. For reasons.

13. talk about a writing experience that has pleasantly surprised you.

already answered

16. where is your favorite place to write?

At home. I alternate between my desk and the kitchen table. I do genuinely enjoy writing in public as well (the library especially is fantastic!) but am hyper paranoid that someone is going to accidentally catch sight of a knife kink scene over my shoulder and call the cops.

18. what is your most and least favorite part of writing?

Writing is one of the few places that I ever experience a true sense of flow. The other being athletics which are frustratingly thin on the ground as an adult. I don't know, it probably sounds stupid to say that writing makes me happy. It doesn't make me happy but it allows me to get out of my own way sometimes which I fucking need.

Opening myself up for feedback is my absolute least favorite part of writing. It's why I usually don't edit (hope ya'll enjoy my sloppy first drafts!) or have a beta. Like, I write to get the fuck away from people and expectations, so it's EXHAUSTING when the writing creates those things in excess. I am terrible at taking constructive criticism. Don't give it to me. It will not end well.

19. what are some books or authors that influenced your style the most?

There are the authors that I wish would influence my style and then the ones that actually did. I grew up on a steady diet of very specific teenage horror and, the more I look back, the more I realize how much that probably influenced my work.

So, uh, thanks to Christoper Pike, I guess.

Beyond that, there aren't a lot of authors that I think influenced me. I found Chuck Palahniuk at a very special developmental stage for my brain and romance, as an entire genre, has (no shit) probably saved my life. Got to get the good brain chemicals from somewhere if you can't produce them yourself, right?

40. best piece of feedback you’ve ever gotten.

My fifth grade teacher, after grading a writing assignment, called my parents and convinced them to send me to creative writing summer camp. Maybe that qualifies more as praise than feedback, but it was wild to have someone believe in me that hard and go to bat for me just because she saw some potential in there somewhere.

[carrietrekkie]

Dream, Nightmare or something else?

So, let´s see how this goes on. Second part to Thunderstorm.

Part 2 of 3 that tells how Cathrin gets in her strange situation.

This time with much more Chris Pike in it! Enjoy!

He had been through many strange things. Some of it creepy and savage, others were beautiful and exciting but this here, was absolutely unbelievable.

“Okay. And know from the beginning and please, slowly.“ Pike crossed his arms and try to follow the words from his chief medical officer.

“I don´t know how this is even possible but she is a human being, like you and I.” Dr. Pollard pointed at her still unconscious patient. “And in the view of her not treated anomalies and diseases and the medical deposits, who by the way where ridiculous easy to medicate, I would guess she was born at the end of the 20th Century and I estimate her at the age of 33 years.” She turned her gaze now to the captain. “She is a bit shaken up, had a lightly cut on her forehead and I´m sure, a hell of a shock and an enormous headache when she wakes up but no other injuries at all.”

“Is it possible to wake her up?” Pike watched her thorax moved slowly up and down. Someone get her out of her bloody clothes and dressed her in a Discovery hospital shirt.

“I don´t recommended this.” Pollard checked her vital signs. “If our surmises are correct, then, from the moment on, she awakes, she will have a lot of things to process.” She sighed a bit. „Everything here would be new for her and assuredly frightening.”

“Oh yes, definitely.” Pike hesitated shortly, than he placed his hand carefully on her shoulder. “Call me, when she awakes.”

“Yes Sir.”

*****

Captain Pike sat on the head of the conference table, surrounded by some of his officers and listened to the words of Ensign Tilly. As always, he was impressed by the speed of words that popped out of the young woman´s mouth, but this times it seemed even Silvia Tilly are lost in words.

“Altogether, this is a car from the early 21th Century. Markings are set 2018 and the brand dates back from Germany.”

“So, she is German?” Detmer smiled a bit, she although was born in this country.

“Those cars were very popular around the world this time.” Spock shifted some pictures. “But we found documents in those languages, so it substantiated our presumption.”

“What else we got?“ Pike watched at the photos Tilly brings up.

“Some CD´s, new clothes.“ Silvia smirked a little. „“Some really cool shoes and her handbag.“

“Under the passenger seat we found her smartphone.” Burnham slipped it to Pike, he grabbed it and turned it around. “Nothing unusual at that times, but hers barely used.”

The display was broken but still worked, Chris tipped on it. It showed the unidentified woman, two little boys on her side.

“Oh man.” Chris presented the phone to Burnham. „Please tell me, that they are not hers.“

“Dr. Pollard didn´t found any indication for pregnancies or childbirth, but there is a certain similarity between them, maybe her nephews or brothers.”

“Did we have a name?” Saru taken the phone from Pike and considered it in curiosity. “Or did we call her farther the unknown.“ „She still didn´t awake.“ Pike rose from his chair. “Dr. Pollard would give her the opportunity to do it on her own time.”

“Wise decision.“ Spock turned off the screen. „How do we proceed?“

„Owo, ensure she gets a quarters, when she´s allowed to leave sick bay.” The captain turned around to dissolved the meeting.

“Shouldn´t we take her to the brig?“ Agent Tyler interrupted him. “I mean, we still don´t know who she is or where she came from. Maybe she´s not that harmless then she seemed.”

Pike stared at him, bite back his snappy answer. He and Tyler just approached a little and he didn´t want to start another argument. Just because he didn´t like what he did, didn´t meant that he couldn´t like him.

“Dr. Pollard found no hints of a hidden identity.” Tilly chooses Pikes site. “It were mean to put her in a cell, if she´s been to those things we guess.

“You both made your point clear.” Pike looked back and forth between them. “Commander Nhan, turn off one of the security guards, till we know who she is, someone should guide her all the time.” Another look goes to his officers. “Anybody alright with that?“ They nodded at him. „Good, keep on your researches, please keep me informed.”

Everyone confirmed, than the briefing been resolved and they turn to execute their commands.

“How is this possible?” Burnham turned around to look at Pike. “Did we do something to bring her here? Is it a result of the signals?”

“I guess only time will tell us this.” The Captain leaned again his desk. “Or we are lucky and she knows the answer.”

“Would you bet?” She smiled at him.

“Captain Pike please to the sick bay.”

“No I wouldn´t but maybe we now get some context.” He looked up, than he catches her gaze, a knowing smile on his lips. “Do you want to accompany?

„Yes Sir! Thank you.“  

 ++++++

How could I describe this to you?

Imagine your mind like the desktop of your computer, the icons are your memories. All the things you go through, everything you ever loved, made, learned, watched… I could go on with that, but I guess you got the point.

Now something or someone took some of those icons and put them away, not deleting it, just out of your reach, of your sight, but not so far away that you didn´t had a glimpse of them from time to time. This someone put your memories in little boxes, sealed with something like a password or a key you don´t have and thrown it in the transitions of a labyrinth. So near and so far at the same time.

 Or if this explanation fits you better. Like memories taken away with a wand from a wizards mind, putted in little bottles and placed away on an unreachable cupboard. You knew they are there but you unable to get it.

Oh and the best is yet to come. Me, sitting there and watch helplessly how this happens to me.

I knew so many things.

I go through every war Starfleet has been, had mourned every lost and fight and now I could even say, what this wars were about.

I followed a starship halfway through the galaxy but I just remember that the captain was a women.

I could name every captain of the Enterprise, in the right sequence but yet this list vanished right before my eyes, left just the taste of a cup of earl grey tea and been replaced by only one sentence.

The Captain of the Enterprise is Christopher Pike.

 Pike…I tried to remember the things I knew about him but even them were cloaked under a vail, not so sealed like the other ones but still not touchable.  

So this list goes on and on and it felt like eternity but I wasn’t able to open my eyes, to move or to get away from this torture. I run, hide in the darkest corner of my mind and hope that all this wasn´t more than a really, really bad nightmare.

Before I get lost in something like a panic attack, I sense a strange feeling in my head, like a big cotton ball that droops over me, calms me down and cuts me up, taking me finally away to a deep, dreamless sleep.

 *****

Red, everything was red and it seemed like forever till it decided to left me. It was not pitch black where I was, but even it was not totally bright. As well as it wasn´t noisy or quiet at all. A little while ago, someone talked by side, maybe about me, I hadn´t understood anything of it and after a short time there were silence again. A blanket laid on me but I couldn´t take it of my body, so I stopped trying. The pillow was soft but a little weird at all. Slowly I tried to move my head a bit.

“Ouch.”

That hurts, but the question was, why? A doll throb goes down my spine. I pinched my eyes before I decided to open them up, I was curious what was going on.  It took some seconds to get a clear view at all, than I looked at a weird ceiling light. A moving shadow catches my attention and I turned my head. A dark skinned lady looked at me, her eyes warm and carrying with that special glance in it, that only doctors could do. That would explain her white clothes and the silver badge…

“Ohhh.“

I raised my hand, searching for the wound on my forehead, but there was nothing and my explanation for this distracting view before my eyes was blown away like dandelion seeds. So I closed my eyes again.  

“How do you feel?”

“Shaken up.” I took a deep breath, than I opened my eyes and gazed at the other visitors on my left side. “And I think I getting crazy.”

The doctor raised a funny instrument and headed it over my body. I followed her with my eyes, then I glanced to the other forms and then I felt how my temper raised.

“Okay, who wants to mess around with me?” I started to move but that the doctor don´t agreed and so she pushed me back into the bed.

“You should take it slowly.” Her hard look at me didn’t have the effect she wished for. She would be the first doctor that scares me.

“I don´t want! I just want to go home! My mother and I.“ I took a deep breath, a try to calm myself, than I dropped back again. “That´s not funny anymore.”

The man and the women shared a quick look, then he nod to the doctor and she left those funny little gathering.

“I can imagine that this is hard for you to take but maybe you found it reassuring that it is also for us.” He smiled at me and damn, that looks cute. As well as I had it in my memory.

„Would you reveal us your name?“ And her voice was as beautiful as I expected it.  

I sighed, sit up and breathed deeply. “My name is Cathrin Zimmer.” I looked at him and cut him up, before he could said something. “Listen, I really appreciate what is going on here. Someone really make an effort and I´m sure that costs a hell out of money but.” I shook my head. “That’s not as half as funny as you may think it is.”

Again they exchanged views, than he takes a step towards me. Somethings emanating from him, something I couldn´t arranged, so I looked up in his blue eyes, as he continued to speak.

“What do you think, where you are?” He was persistent. Now I´m even more annoyed that I didn´t get the name from this actor last week. I preferred to get me some ice crème while the intro was playing.

 “I guess I´m on a film set or some kind of an escape room or I lay dying in my car somewhere in the middle of nowhere.” Now I get started right. “She is Commander Michael Burnham and you are Captain Christopher Pike.” I pointed around me. “This is some place set up like the infirmary of the USS Discovery and I must confess that it looks fantastic but I´m not up to it. I had a long, long day and a horrible way home, so please, can I lay down on my couch finally?”  

“You think this is a TV show?” Pike tilted his head. “Or a movie?”

“Yes!” I nodded, not the best idea. My head quitted this with a heavy throb, followed by some ugly stars before my eyes and everything starts to move.

“Calm down.” Burnham steps towards me too. „How could we make you clear that this here is real? That nothing stepped out your imagination or someone else?”

 I would started to laugh, she couldn´t be serious, but her gaze left me no doubt on her genuine intensions and so I did her the favor and looked around. And then slowly, really slowly I recognized some things, I didn´t see before. On the bed next to me lays another patient, he seemed to be injured, his values on the display behind him fluctuated up and down. The doctors working at her office, a woman stepped inside and the slices turned opaque.

Outside on the hallway someone or something passed by. It has a giant head and as it toke a brief look inside, I must covered my mouth with my hand, otherwise I would had start screaming. No special effect make-up have had done those effect. It blinked at me, differently with every eye.

 “That wasn´t the best timing.” Pike caught my attention as he raised his hand. I flinched back and he paused in his movement.

“That´s impossible!  I mean.” My brain needed a confirmation of that, what I started slowly to realize. I raised my hand, its shaking demented and I couldn´t believe that I am going to do that. Guardedly I tipped against the badge on his uniform, than I placed my whole hand upon his breast. Unsure about what to do now, he cast a look to Burnham, but didn´t do anything to stop me.

I sensed how his heart beats under my fingers, the fabric felt strangely, sturdy and supple at the same time, I never saw something like that before. I looked up from my hand, right into his eyes and that was the moment I recognized it.

 An expression no actor could work out ever. A combination of the burden of command on his shoulders, mixed up with kindness, warmth and the unbreakable recognition that he knows exactly what he wants. At this moment I didn´t even know, but it would cost me some time to get completely behind this look but in this second now, it was enough to break the protective shield, my mind build up around that unbelievable knowledge and as he suspected what is going on inside of me, he laid his hand on mine, still placed over his heart.

 His touch was like a shock. I heard myself gasped for air, than I teared up my eyes.

“Hey, everything’s alright.” He tightly enclosed my hand with his. “Nothing will happen to you.”

His other hand landed on my shoulder, like he must prevented me from running away and to be honest, that’s exactly what goes through my mind right now.

“Cathrin look at me! I will not let anything happen to you!” With his blue eyes he gazed directly into my green and that took something from the panic away that threatens to overwhelm me. “Nobody here does!”

I take a look over my shoulder right to Burnham and she softly smiled at me. “I knew, it is much required but I guess we must trust each other, to understand what is happening here.”

“That sounds good.” I replied her smile, then I looked at Pike again. “I think you could release me now.”

“But don´t run away.” He smiled so bright, that his dimples were shown, a totally different smile than before and I liked it too.

“I´ll try.” Then I pulled back my hand, he let it go and takes his hand from my shoulder. Ironically it had doesn´t bother me, if he had leaved it there.

“So from the beginning?“ He placed a hand on his chest. „Christopher Pike.“

„Michael Burnham.“ She reached out her hand and I grab it for a shake. We both shared a smile.

“Cathrin Zimmer.“ Then I felt another need in my body. “Is there anything to eat on this spaceship? I´m starving. How long did I passed out?“

„More than two days.“ Pike pointed at the door, smiling at my confused look. “Let´s get some food for you.”

[ayearofpike]

Christopher Pike’s Tales of Terror #2

Pocket Books, 1998 207 pages, 5 stories ISBN 0-671-55076-4 LOC: CPB Box no. 1462 vol. 11 OCLC: 40117246 Released December 1, 1998 (via B&N)

Five more short stories, but they’re all kinda longer this time. I knew it was too good to be true. One of these is 75 pages, and the others (with one exception, maybe two) smack of a big idea that he needed to get out but didn’t have the pages to do it justice. It seems like maybe he knows his contract is coming up and that he’s not going to be retained? See also the dedication page: the book is dedicated to the longtime YA editor at Simon & Schuster, because she “has always supported my writing.” I can’t find any evidence of turnover or retirement through a cursory Googling, but this seems very much like a veiled shot at changing leadership that sees new trends in YA and doesn’t feel that Christopher Pike will be a part of it.

The Burning Witch

Pike jumps back into short stories with the longest one in this book, and with a return to Marvin Summer’s side, who he says is “a thrill” to write as, considering Marvin has “ten times the talent” Pike does. Which ... I don’t know about that. Obviously we can’t see anything Marvin has written, and whatever he spurts out is going to be via Pike’s brain anyway, so I guess we just have to imagine it.

But anyway, there’s this old friend from high school who needs Marvin’s help to extricate herself from a cult. Because when you’re in trouble with a cult, of course you go to the horror writer, which now that I say it actually makes a little sense. They go to the ritual, because the old friend has a feeling that they already have her in their magical clutches and to no-show would be worse than sticking it out. Of course Marvin is immediately in over his head, feeling drugged and soporific, unable to stop the three witches in charge from treating his picture of his girlfriend in such a way that she drowns in the hot tub the next day.

By chance, Marvin is writing a novel about a young woman who channels through typing, and slowly comes to realize that a future self is giving her warnings through her present self about some changes attempting to be made to her past self. Yep, we’re back on that whole contiguous timeline thing again. But he came up with the idea after a fan letter suggested telling a past self something, and as the witches want him to bring the manuscript to the next session he’s now suspicious. He breaks into Old Friend’s apartment and learns she’s been using hypnosis to regress into past lives, and then he tracks down the hypnotist and tries a session himself, upon which he suddenly realizes that not only did he and Old Friend have a dalliance sometime in the past, but that sometime was 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts. 

I didn’t mention that Old Friend was known for having terrible scars on her face from a childhood bout with antivaxxer parents smallpox. But when she reappeared in Marvin’s life, the scars were almost gone. She claimed it was plastic surgery a year ago, but everyone he talks to who she’s worked with in the last couple of months noticed a sudden change, right around the time Old Friend said she was sucked in to the cult. Marvin realizes that maybe she started it, solely in order to get back at him for what his past self did to her; i.e. outing her as a witch. But she hasn’t counted on his work on plots to come up with a devious one for himself. See, she was looking for a clue in his manuscript about a way to change the past, one that would make him the witch instead of her. Of course he beat her to the punch and gave a false clue, which swiftly and suddenly reverses her facial healing. And then he pulls out a Molotov cocktail and says they’re both done.

So she panics and runs out to the balcony, where he’s loosened the railing, and she falls off fifteen stories to her death because that’s what happens in a Pike story. But then the woman Marvin thought of as the head witch shows up and offers him a deal to serve the Dark Side or whatever. Marvin says OK and that his payment is to be Shelly alive again. Sure, the witch says, just go to sleep and in the morning she’ll be next to you and neither of you will remember any of this. Of course Marvin feels like he’s smart enough to get out of anything, and goes to take some notes for a “future story” about escaping a deal with the devil ... only he has writer’s block.

The Tomb of Time

This story works on an almost identical conceit as “The Burning Witch,” in that past and future timeline selves are showing up to help Shannon White change the course of the world through positive and negative vibrations. The difference is that they’re physically manifesting, rather than using fireside witch chants to pass information back and forth.

Basically, it’s the last day of school, and Shannon wants Senpai to notice her. She’s encouraged by the random appearances of women who claim to be this dude’s aunt and niece, who say he talks about her a lot and not to tell him because he’d be embarrassed. She’s discouraged by this blonde chick who smooches all over Senpai and writes a phone number and a time on his notebook. Weirdly, immediately after all three of these encounters, there’s an earthquake, and they grow stronger each time, so that after the last one school is finally canceled and Shannon goes home.

The blonde is there, though, and suddenly she realizes that she’s looking in a mirror except for the hair. Blonde Shannon explains that yes, of course I’m you; alien beings of a negative vibration got hold of some of your DNA and sent me to now, where I could affect the world in such a way to make it explode through enhanced negativity. The positive ones are trying to meddle, though, and they also have Shannon’s DNA and are showing up as different-age versions of herself so that she’ll go through with asking Senpai to notice her and create more love and affection in the world, which will reduce the tension that is currently threatening to literally tear it apart.

It’s too late, though: Blonde Shannon has given Senpai Now Shannon’s phone number and is going to shoot her and then answer the phone and be rude, which will cause the earth to blow up. (Now we see why I never called girls in high school ... too much responsibility.) Too bad for her, Good Future Shannon plugged the barrel of the gun before Blonde Shannon ever showed, so it explodes in her hands, and Now Shannon is able to answer the phone and apologize for weirdness and get a date for ice cream, thus saving the world. Yay!

Bamboo

This story is certainly not what we expect from Pike. It’s a lot closer to Sati than any of his other work, in that there’s a narrative about a group of friends trying to find the right path in life with some guidance from a teacher who leaves too soon. It’s more about mood than visceral grossness, and so I think it works. This is my “maybe” caveat for a story that was conceived as a short story — yes, he says he wrote it “in a few hours,” but there’s potentially room here to make this a novel.

We start with three friends that embody the good, the bad, and the neutral, much like the soul concept from The Lost Mind. They go to meet a new man who’s just moved into town, an Indian who had lost his whole family to circumstances of poverty, and who has a story for them about lost souls being trapped in shafts of bamboo and the possibility of saving them through cleansing fire. The kids are eight or so at the beginning of the story, and they stay friends with the old man through high school graduation, at which time he gives them gifts symbolic of hope and protection of their souls. And then he dies, because he’s old.

Two of the friends follow quickly: the bad soul in military action in the Middle East, the good soul (who had married the bad one and was pregnant with his child) of an overdose. She doesn’t die right away, though, and the neutral one (our narrator) understands that hey, her soul is trapped in the bamboo because of the severity of her action in trying to end her life. So he goes to the old man’s house, which by now is overgrown with giant stalks of bamboo, and starts a fire in the yard. And sure enough, by morning she’s gone.

Again, this story is really reliant on mood. It doesn’t feel like there’s a lot here, and I think Pike could have done a whole bunch with who these kids are and how they interact with each other and the rest of the town to make it into something bigger. But what came out is pretty and poetic and reasonably good.

The Thin Line

A disgruntled injured ex-basketball player shows up at his school with guns, intending to kill the coach and the whole team and maybe the cheerleaders, which include his ex-girlfriend. He gets cold feet at the last minute and turns the whole deal into a terrorist situation, for which he steals money and a plane and jumps with it and a parachute and his ex-now-on-again girlfriend. But then she feels upset about the one kid who got shot in the leg and the pilot who died jumping out of the plane, and kills herself by walking in front of a bus. So even if the injured kid won, he has now lost.

I really don’t have a lot to say about school shooting stories, and so I am not going to unpack this any more. However, it is important to note that Pike references the school shootings in Jonesboro, Arkansas and Springfield, Oregon, which seem to have stayed his hand in fleshing this out and making it into a full novel. (Columbine happened five months later, too.) It pisses me off that we had what seemed like a flash point in school shootings and that it felt like enough to mobilize us, but twenty years later we’re still having the same fucking conversation.

The Tears of Teresa

This one is the most on-brand Pike story we’ve seen in years, It’s also the shortest, just seventeen pages. It’s so solid and strong that I hate to sully it by trying to write a recap, because the storytelling is so reliant on the intercuts between past and present that we don’t realize are happening until the last couple of pages.

It starts with a middle-aged couple coming home from a date to find that there is an intruder in their house. He forces them at gunpoint to drive to a house in Las Vegas, and then announces his intent to cripple them, to take away their mobility just like Max. 

Who is Max? This is the past intercutting part. Max was a young man who worked for his father, a successful business owner, but didn’t have any wealth of his own. He’d recently gotten his girlfriend pregnant, and knew that it wasn’t possible to support a child, so he paid for her to have an abortion. She’s torn up about it, but when he offers to take her away for a weekend to help settle her mind, she agrees and asks to go to Vegas. So they get a nice hotel room, and when he steps out on the balcony he unexpectedly gets thrown over it, because Pike.

(That’s a tweet for the thread: “Submitted for your approval, The Kid Who Got Flung Off a Balcony.”)

Max wakes up in the emergency room in pain, and overhears his girlfriend talking with some other dude — no, shit, it’s his BEST FRIEND — about their plot to kill him and give birth to his child and go after his rich dad for money. There’s a baby crying nearby too, obviously in distress, and after Max gains enough consciousness to let the schemers know they’re caught, he dies. But the baby survives, and eighteen years later he is getting Max’s revenge.

Like, fuck yeah. I don’t know that this was worth pushing through fifty pages of a school shooting, but I’m glad I didn’t put the book down before I read this story. We’re back at the blend of the evils that people are capable of with a little bit of supernatural magic that made me love Pike and be excited for this project back at Spellbound in February. I didn’t realize how much I missed it.

Two more Archway Paperbacks, and Pike will be done with a certain era of writing for teenagers. Surprising? Not so much, and it really does feel like he sees the writing on the wall with this collection. Still, we close on a very solid and satisfying note here. If Simon & Schuster wanted to reprint the Fucking With Teresa trilogy (Road to Nowhere, “Revenge,” and “The Tears of Teresa”) it could have been a strong mover. I bet Pike would have no problem with it, seeing as he apparently continues to hold a grudge and keeps naming these victims after her.

[captainsbabysitter-blog]

Pride Before The Fall

Fandom: Star Trek AOS

Characters: Christopher Pike and Jim Kirk

Word Count: 1,512

Summary: Chis never thought about having kids, so the last thing he anticipated was James T. Kirk worming his way into the man’s life and heart.

@thevalesofanduin @gracieminabox

All I can say is... Sorry? I may have made myself sad at the end. I wrote this in between studying for an accounting exam so it’s super short, super rushed, and not even edited.

           The first time Chris met James Kirk was at the 10 year memorial service for the USS Kelvin and her crew. He stood staring at the plaque on the wall with something bordering on hatred, and Christ couldn’t blame him. Everyone had heard the story of George Kirk’s bravery at least in passing, but all the “you should be proud” and “your father was a hero” commentary in the world wouldn’t bring the kid’s dad back from the dead.

           He had never been big on kids, yet he found himself kneeling beside him. Bright eyes glanced his way for only a second before they rolled and turned away. “Save it.”

           “You don’t even know what I’m about to say.” Chris kept his hands to himself, avoiding the usual pat of the shoulder in favor of giving the kid his own space.

           The tone that followed was mocking, barely contained contempt surprising from a 10-year-old dripping from each word, “Oh your father was such a good man. You should be proud he was such a hero! He died so you could live! Yeah, like that’s supposed to make me feel good.”

           Chris’ face softened in response. “That’s not what I was going to say. It must be hard to spend today here of all places.”

           Surprise followed swiftly by suspicion flickered across Jim’s face. He finally turned to face Chris, however, so the man counted it as a success. Even still, Jim seemed wary. He seemed to search Chris’ face, a spark of intelligence lighting behind the upset before his shoulders released the tension they had been holding since Chris arrived.

           “Yeah. Not really the best birthday. Who’re you?”

           “I’m Christopher Pike,” he answered as he held out a hand for Jim to shake. “You’re James?”

           The correction was swift as Jim took his hand in a firm shake, “Jim.”

           “Okay, Jim. How about I show you how to play a game? I think everyone else has this memorial business in hand don’t you?”

           Jim perked up a bit at the prospect. “What kind of game?”

           “Have you ever played chess?”

           “No. That’s the one that’s like checkers, right?”

           “Sort of. I think you’ll like it.”

           They spent the rest of the afternoon playing round after round of chess. Chris couldn’t help but be impressed by some of the plays made by the boy, but a first time player would never have stood a chance against the officer let alone a child. Instead of a tantrum, Jim seemed to inspect each board after being checkmated as if dedicating it to memory. He made a note to get contact information to keep in touch and keep an eye on the boy.

           The next two years are spent sending messages back and forth. Chris sends Jim puzzles and problems and the occasional real life scenario to see how quickly Jim solves them. Such a brilliant mind needed to be nurtured and challenged, and Chris was more than happy to help with that. The answers he received were never boring even if they were occasionally bordering on dangerous or illegal.

           He was thrilled when he received a message one day asking for a letter of recommendation and then informing him that Jim would be attending a school off-world for children with high potential.

           Not once did he ever expect to hear the name of the planet come across the wire. All available Starfleet ships make for Tarsus IV immediately. The things he read turned his stomach and for the first time in a long while, Christopher Pike found himself praying as he redirected his ship in an instant.

           Wild, alert blue instantly met Chris’ eyes when he walked into the room they had left Jim in. Recognition wasn’t immediate, but the weak, questioning voice that said his name shattered his heart. He was at Jim’s side in an instant.

           “I’m right here, son.” He waited for Jim to attach to him before Christ returned the hug gently. “Have they found your mother yet?”

           “She’s back in Iowa. Where are the others?”

           “Others?”

           “The other kids. Where are they?” He sounded almost frantic as he clung to Pike.

           Chris rubbed at his back and glanced at the guard near the door. “We’ll find out. Let’s find you something to eat while I see what’s going on.”

           Not once did Jim let go of his hand and as they walked the halls, Chris noticed more than once that any appearance of someone new came with a flinch and a subtle shuffle behind the officer. Seeing the proud child he had left reduced to such a state sent rage singing through his veins. He had to keep it in check. Jim couldn’t see him like that right now; not when he was in such a vulnerable position.

           “You stay here and eat. I’ll find out where your friends are and contact your mother.”

           He was in the middle of speaking with the commander in charge of recovering survivors when a commotion kicked up over where he had left Jim. A chorus of voices yelled the boy’s name in a disjoined chorus as a gaggle of children ranging anywhere from 5 to Jim’s age surrounded him. The smile and obvious relief that lit up Jim’s face made Chris feel like he could relax just a little now. Jim seemed to be taking stock of each child and waited until they were all sitting down with food in front of them before he let his attention wander back to his own plate.

           Not for the first time, Chris found himself picturing the kid captaining a ship of his own one day. He certainly had the protective instincts for it. Must be genetic.

           After returning Jim to the custody of his mother, it was another year of back and forth messages with Jim before Winona Kirk finally sent him one with a police report attached. I need help with Jim. I know he looks up to you, and so I’m asking you.

           He pinched the bridge of his nose after a quick readthrough. Sent a car over a cliff?

           “Why’re you causing your mother so much grief, son?” Chris watched Jim with a raised eyebrow. Stubborn silence followed as the teen looked everywhere but him. “Jim…”

           “It’s not like you’re my dad. What do you even care?”

           He frowned, a twist in his gut he couldn’t identify fueling the snapped response, “If I didn’t I wouldn’t be here, now would I?” Regret quickly overtook his anger when Jim flinched further away. He sighed and tried to think of anything that could bridge the awkwardness of the whole situation. “How about we get out of here and get some ice cream?”

           Hesitation, then, “Fine.”

He waited until they were half way through their cones before trying again. “Okay, so… I’m no good at this, and I know you’re too smart for me to lay out some bullshit, so how’s this sound: I’ll check in with you regularly, and you don’t give your mother a heart attack before you finish puberty."

Jim stared at him for a minute before shrugging. “Fine.”

“Are you going to say anything other than fine?”

For that, he received a raised eyebrow. Chris returned the look, every line of his face screaming how unimpressed he was. He was rewarded with a bright grin.

“Thanks for the ice cream, Chris.”

He chuckled and ruffled Jim’s shaggy hair before pulling him into a hug. It was reluctantly returned. “You’re welcome, kid. Let’s get you back home.”

The next few years were full of messages back and forth between Chris and Jim. Questions about plans for the future, more puzzles and tactical questions (he would deny it to his last breath, but some of Jim’s solutions were implemented on his ship), what life on a ship is like, how things are going for Jim on Earth are passed back and forth but with decreasing frequency. Jim starts to trail off contact, and Chris finds himself growing more concerned as the time between responses increases.

After six months of nothing, he contacts Winona. Everything she relayed to him did nothing to assuage his concerns. Bar fights, more acting out, and a once brilliant mind wasted as Jim floated through life.

Chris was pissed. When there was a scheduled pickup of cadets in Iowa, he signed up to supervise and wasn’t disappointed when he followed them to a local bar. A fight had broken out, and he frowned to see Jim sprawled out on a table.

He would remember the conversation for the rest of his life. Jim was too smart, too talented, too important to just let him waste himself barhopping across Iowa until he landed himself in jail.

“Your father was captain of a starship for twelve minutes. He saved eight hundred lives, including your mother’s and yours. I dare you to do better.”

Even in his dying moments, Christ took comfort in the pride he felt that James T. Kirk, the son he never asked for to anticipated, did just that.

[janeykath318]

The Courtship Of Miss Kirk 5

[carrietrekkie]

Firelight - Part II                              Let´s try Starfleet.

Hey!

Here is part 2/4! This time a little bit more from Pikes perspective! I hope you all enjoy it!

Part I  Fire and Ice

We left the transporter room and reached the sick bay in a few minutes. Surprisingly, we met Dr. Culber, in view of the many injured from the station, he seemed to help out.

"Captain Pike!" "He turned to us, took Pike's other arm and together we put him on a bed. "What happened?" He walked away to get bandages and a tricorder. "We were overturned and unfortunately a steel beam got in the way of his landing." I unzipped Pike's jacket and helped him to undress. "Lie down." "Yeah, that sounds good." He sank down on the cushions. Meanwhile, he was a little pale around the nose. "Here." Culber handed me some compresses. "Thanks." I gently pushed it onto the wound and Pike flinched imperceptibly. Culber began to examine his head while I started to wipe the blood from his face. "What about the station?"

"Captain, you have a capable crew to take care of it." Culber grinned at me, I gladly replied. "You should take care of yourself for five minutes." He looked at his ads. "Okay, that looks good. No bleeding, no injuries, no concussion, the blow just knocked you out for a moment. "He put down the tricorder and picked up a skin regenerator, before he put it on, he looked at me.

"Do you want to give it a try?" "Really?" I looked at the doctor, then at the device in his hand. "Yes, of course." I let go of the compresses and went to the other side of the bed. "I'll show you how." Culber gave me the regenerator. "I'm not asked?" Pike followed me with his eyes. "Don´t worry, I'll stop her from doing anything nonsense with your head."

 The device was a bit bigger and heavier than a permanent marker and I had to keep it that way as well. Culber explained the speed I had to hold and the button I had to press. I held the device just above Pike's skin, then activated the regenerator and began to guide it over his forehead. He squinted up, which didn´t necessarily make my nerves calm. "That looks good. Just keep going, I'll be right back. "Culber hurried to another injured who was just ushered in.

"Wait, what?" My eyes darted after him, then back to the task he had assigned me. Now Pike looked really suspicious.

"Don´t look like that!" I tried not to look at him. "How am I supposed to look?" He started to grin. "Hey, don´t move!" I reached the end of the wound and switched off the regenerator after it closed. "Okay." Just now I did realize how much I had been tensing up around the instrument.

Pike raised a hand and stroked the now-healed skin. "I'll look at it later, but my head is still up." "I can change that, too." I looked at him maliciously as he wanted to get up. "What do you think you are doing?" I crossed my arms. "I have to go to the bridge." He looked at me as if I had lost my mind. "The station has just exploded, I'm very sure despite the bump."

"Well, we can´t change that anyway." I grabbed his jacket, that stopped him first. "That's why I'm pretty sure, when Dr. Culber comes back, he order you to take a break for today. " He grinned at me. "I keep the bet."

"Okay, Captain." Culber stepped back to us, pulled out a hypospray, and then looked at Pike. "Against the headache." He injected it and then looked at him. "You should take a break for today. The evacuation is complete, there are no dead to complain and all injured will get through." He answered my question in advance. "Do you make sure he keeps his feet still?"

"Me?" I pointed to me for support. "I don´t know if I see myself capable for that." "I'm still in attendance." Pike got up from the bed. "And I can take care of myself." "Don´t try to make a fool of yourself." Culber smiled at me, then Pike. "I want to see you again tonight." Then he went to look after his other patients.

Pike looked at me, then reached out to grab his jacket from me. "I think it´s done." I turned it so that he could see the bloodstains. "But not everything is yours." "You should change, too." He pointed to my smeared clothes. "Yes, it looks like that." We smiled at each other, then left the sick bay and made our way to our quarters.

"May I ask you something?" "Of course." I looked at him. "What did you do in your time? I mean professionally. " "I had just finished paramedic training, previously I was a surgical nurse." I smiled at him. "So you knew what you were doing." A smile crept around his lips. "Eh, no. I just reacted. "I stopped. "I have never experienced something like that." "Nevertheless, you saved his life." Pike looked at me, I prefer to ground. "Maybe this would be something for you?" "I should work in the sick bay?" "Why not?" He put a hand behind my back and we walked on. "That seems to lie to you."

"I don´t know." I shrugged my shoulders.  "There is so much to learn here, I feel like I'm missing so much when I'm committed to something and I don´t always want to look like I don´t know what's going on." "You underestimate yourself. You barely stand out. "A crew member walked by and looked at us with wide eyes. This displeased Pikes claim of just a huge damper. I grinned at him. "Do you want to reconsider that?" He cleared his throat.  “I would also be staring if I would see us like this. I looked down at myself. "Yeah, okay, we look like we bathed in blood."

"I know you like showering with water, but you'd better put it down with the sound shower." He pointed to my glued hair, I glanced at my braid, not wanting to know what the rest of me looked like. "Works better." "Good to know." We reached my quarters. "Do you know what's missing on this incredibly cool and awesome spaceship?" "No, but I think you'll tell me right away." "A bathtub." Pike laughed. "Or isn´t that done anymore in the 23century?” "Not at all." He raised his eyebrows. "Anyway, I don´t want to watch how all the dirt swims around in front of me." I opened the door. "You owe me another piece of cake." "I didn´t forget. Let's say in two hours at the mess hall? " "That should be done. Don´t forget to report to Dr. Culber again."

“I knew you would say that.”

“Another point for you.”

We said goodbye and I hurried to get into the bathroom. I took off the bloody uniform and threw it into the laundry shaft, my jacket would be useless anyway. I turned it and pulled the badge down. But it was Chris jacket, I had forgotten that I still had it in my hand, but since it also looked like they were swimming through blood, I also threw it away and put the badge so that I would not forget it later. For a moment, I was tempted to take a shower with water, but the thought of how the blood drained from my body made me gasp for a moment, so I took Pike's advice to heart and stepped under the sound shower. It felt strange when the warm impulses swept over me and carried away all the dirt and blood. In fact, it was a pretty good feeling, it would probably have been impossible to do with water. So I just stood there for five minutes, feeling the warmth that had now spread through the cabin, then turned on the water and closed my eyes. It did so well, and scared away the last few dark thoughts still haunting my head. I almost forgot that the whole mess had just happened because Leland wanted to talk to me. But we didn´t think that the whole station would fly around our ears. I turned the sound shower on for a moment and was dry in a few seconds, then I got dressed and reached for a fresh T-shirt. Going out, I tied my hair back and put the badge in my pocket. A strange noise grabbed my attention for a moment, but there were enough and constantly new ones on this ship. I looked for my communicator and activated it.

"Zimmer at Pike." I pulled some fresh boots out of the closet. "Pike here." "I still have your badge if you were searching for it. Your jacket was over." "I wondered where I forgot it." I could hear the shower running. “I didn´t want to bother you. See you soon!." I hung up, trying to dispel the thought of Christopher Pike standing in the shower. Unsuccessful. Instead, he made me smile all over my face.

"Hello Cathrin." I jumped up and stared into the face of someone dressed all in black, a phaser in her hand and a bad look on her face. "Who are you, what the hell are you doing in my quarters?" "I think we have a date." Before I could do anything, something hit me in the face and threw me to the ground. I gasped and tasted blood. When I looked down, I could see blood dripping on the carpet. Curiously enough, the thought of that the shower was for the barrel, was the last thing that flashed through my mind when something hit me again and drove me into unconsciousness.

XXXXXX

The dull feeling in his head reminded him that he was supposed to take a break, but the captain he was had driven him to the bridge. He wanted to have at least a brief update on the situation before taking care of himself. The station had actually fallen victim to their age. The three large docked spaceships had been too much for the outdated power lines and had led to an overload in the main energy core. As he already knew, all the crew members had survived and were now on the cargo ship, which would take them to the nearest starbase.

Leland's ship had disappeared, but Owo couldn´t tell if it was gone or camouflaged, and that was just what made him nervous. Leland had changed since their days at the academy, that had made the conversation an hour ago even more clearer. Chris didn´t want to imagine what would have been happened if had he not accompanied Cathrin, surely it would have taken an unpleasant turn for her. He thanked the bridge crew and handed the commando to Commander Saru for the rest of the day, then set off as ordered to report to the infirmary. The calm that surrounded him in the turbolift, along with the unexpectedly free afternoon, allowed him to calm down his thoughts the first time since days and he caught himself smiling as he remembered the moment he had Cathrin in his arms. It had felt so damn good and when she had asked him not to let her go, he could no longer ignore the butterflies in his stomach, his feelings for her. Chris had almost forgotten what it felt like to do more than serve Starfleet. He was starving for love and affection and he was tired of fighting it. The first time he had become aware of this, was on Talos, Vina would never have been able to get so close to him if he had not sealed himself off like this.

What had come closest to a date in the last five years had been a dinner with a lieutenant, he had only engaged in because Una had not stopped bothering him. To say it ended in a series of embarrassing moments would be grossly understated. He reached the infirmary, after all the injured had been brought to the cargo ship, it was pleasantly quiet here. Dr. Culber was still here and Pike was glad the doctor was working again. The constant doing nothing had done his situation not well.

"Captain." He nodded at him to sit on the bed in front of him. "I have to admit, I actually expected to have to get you out of your quarters." "Then I'm happy that I've exceeded your expectations." "What's the head doing?" Culber pulled out a small lamp and checked Pike's pupil reaction. "It doesn´t really hurt, but it's not pleasant." Chris stroked the spot where the cut had been. "I'll give you some painkillers for tonight." Culber finished his investigation with a quick scan of the brain. "Your values ​​look good, you should be back on the dam tomorrow, Sir." "Thanks Doc!" Chris leaned on the bed. "Do you have a moment?" "Of course." "How much time does Cathrin spend here?" Culber's face was captured by a broad grin. "She past every now and then, looks on, asks, she knows her way around, even if she tries to cover it up." The doctor raised a hand. "I could use her well here, but I think she's not ready to make a final decision. She spends a lot of time with Tilly." "I know." Pike slid back from the treatment bed to his feet. "She practices with her for the commando training program and she's good at it." Let's try Starfleet.

These were Cathrin's words when she had asked him to join the participants in the program. He could remember exactly how she had tried her best to cover up her insecurity. She had no idea what awaited her, what she was getting into and yet, there was this twinkle in her eyes, the way she wore the uniform that Stamets had just given her and the smile that told him that she would not be getting down so fast.

 A throat cleared him from his thoughts. "It's none of my business, Captain." Culber glanced around, then at the captain and Pike immediately wondered what he had done. "You both should find out what that is between you." "I beg your pardon?" "Ohh Christopher." The doctor patted his shoulder briefly. "Think well if you want to lie." Culber raised an eyebrow. "I studied psychology for a couple of semesters. And most of all, you shouldn´t lie to yourselves. " But before Chris could answer, Ensign Tilly jogged into the infirmary. Seeking, she looked around before she turned to the captain. "Are you feeling better, Sir?" "Everything is all right again, thanks." He smiled at her. "Can we help you?" "I'm looking for Cathrin, she's not in her quarters and well, she's not with you either." Tilly pushed a nervous grin behind. "Sir." "All right." Pike frowned. "Did you try to reach her via the comm?" "A few times, but you know that she always forgets her communicator."

“Yes.” Apart from that, a bad feeling spread in him. "Chris, what are you thinking about?" Culber looked at him. "Nothing good." He pulled out his communicator. "Pike on bridge." "Sir?" "Owosekun can you tell me where Ms. Zimmer is right now?"

The information took a few seconds longer than he was used to by the OPS officers. He closed his eyes as she finally spoke again. "Sir, she is not on board!" Tilly teared her eyes. "What?" "But I can see a faint transporter signature in their quarters."

"Captain Pike!" Ash Tyler stormed to the infirmary. "Sir, we have a problem!" "If I'm right, you have a problem!" Pike felt himself getting angry, and unfortunately, his anger would hit the Section 31 liaison officer, again. Bad Timing following that man. "Okay, gentlemen." Culber pushed between the two men. "This is the infirmary, so get it together!" "Tyler if I find out that you are behind it!" "Sir, I'm not here to argue with you and yes, this time I can even understand why you are mad at me but we should really get together and for the protocol, I have nothing to do with it!" "Let's say I believe you." Pike took a deep breath. "Where is she?"

Tyler's answer was a mystery, but Chris understood immediately what he was getting at. "It´s one of Leland's agents, there are interrogators within Section 31, and aspiring agents are always on the lookout for a way to move up quickly, regardless of casualties or Starfleet regulations." "Tilly to the bridge, say I'm on Shuttle 1 with Agent Tyler. We're leaving Discovery." "Sir, what should I tell Commander Saru where you go?"

Pike exchanged glances with Tyler, a mute agreement in both men's eyes. The knowledge that they would break the law, more than that, they would revert to direct orders from the High Command, and in that case it was punishable by death. "It's better if he don´t know it."

[carrietrekkie]

Surprise!

@virtu-s Here is a little birthday gift for Aurora! I hope you like it and it fits her!

Enjoy

„Sir your delivery has arrived.“

“Thanks Chief, to the bridge please.”

“Aye Sir!”

 Pike smirked lightly than entered his quarters. He found Aurora on the couch, reading a book.

“Up Cinderella, I´ve got something for you.” Chris didn´t wait for her answer, grabbed her arm and guided her out of the room.

“I´m not in the mood for birthday presents. “ She twisted her eyes. “Anyway I don´t want them and you know that!”

“Yes, Yes I know but I found the perfect one so please, just this time.” His hand on her back they entered the turbolift.

“I was perfectly fine with the beautiful bouquet of daffodils you give me in the morning.”

“Yeah but I guess you like this one even more.” He smiled at her. “It´s just arrived, had a long journey and waits on the bridge. In my opinion it talks too much and it´s Captain was too willing to leave it here for a few days.”

“What?”

The door opened and they stepped upon the bridge.

“And I bet she refused to wear the ribbon I handed her.”

“It was a screaming pink, glittering monstrosity made of tulle.” The commando chair turned around and Aurora made an unexpected funny noise. “You didn´t really think that I put it on my head.”

“For me?” Pike raised is eyebrows.

“Certainly not, pumpkin.” She tilted her head slightly to the side.

“Angelina!” On Auroras face spread out the brightest smile since weeks. “That’s not true?”

“Oh it is.” The Betazoid woman, dressed in gold, ranked as Commander raise from the chair, her smile as bright as the one in the face of her long missed friend.

And how she missed her. Five years of unsteady and rare subspace communication let her fear that their friendship would get through it and now she was standing right in front of her, that imperturbable optimistic view in her black eyes and an aura around her that let Aurora guess she was the Captain of this ship, not the wonderful, lovely man next to her.

“Can I get a hug or will you continue staring at me?”

Still speechless Aurora stepped forward, throw her arms around her and closed her eyes as Angelina replied the gesture in the same warmly way.

“Happy Birthday Rora.”

******

Many years ago, the same date

Splashing footsteps, followed by a funny curse get Auroras attention to her left side.

“Okay, if this is the result of a little malfunction in the weather control systems, I don´t be keen to know what happened if it fault out completely.”

“I like the rain.”

“Oh me too, but I don´t like thunderstorms.” She jerked as the next thunder rumbled through the sky, leaving Aurora a little smirking. “Damn, that was loud.” The woman, Aurora guessed she must be at her age smiled at her. Even in the twilight she recognized her completely black eyes. “Hey, did we know each other?”

“Not personally I guess, but you are in my astrophysics class.”

“Oh yes.” Her eyes brightened. “You´re Aurora Desruisseaux.”

A little impressed about the flawless pronunciation of her name Aurora nodded. “Angelina, right?”

“Angelina Devereaux.” Ah, that explained a lot. “How about.” She pointed over her shoulder. “It´s almost five o´clock, let´s have a tea together.”

Ten minutes later the two women warmed her cold hands on her teacups, already involved in a conversation like two old friends.

“Oh wow, linguistics!” Angelina face showed totally impression. “I´m so bad in learning foreign languages, I still stuck at French.”

“If you into it, it comes with itself.”

“Oh no, I believe you must have some talent for that especially for that amount of languages!”

“Thank you.” Aurora was sure she was getting blushed. “What´s your major subject?”

“Space technology and astronomy.” She smiled a little shy. “Don´t reveal it but I think my place is in the commando chair of a spaceship.”

“I don´t know you very well but something tells me that you will end up there.”

“That´s nice from you.” Angelina leaned back in her chair. “The first Betazoid to command a Starfleet Ship.”

“I bet that only makes you better in it.”

“And I bet you ask yourself since I stepped beside you if I read in your mind?”

“I didn´t.” Aurora shrugged on shoulder. “Okay, maybe a little bit. I never meat a Betazoid before, I mean personally.”

“It´s okay, really.” Angelina smiled and Aurora felt a tone of stones felt from her heart. “I would do the same and to answer your question, which I have looked at the tip of your nose by the way, I didn´t read your mind, just your feelings, but that’s something I couldn´t control.”

“And?” “Your nervous, like everyone that I meet here but you not afraid of me.”

“Why should I be afraid?”

“I have no idea.” She smiled a little sadly. “But that’s the normal reaction when I meet people, they forced themselves through some not binding word and then bring as much as room between me and them as it is still politely.”

“That´s mean.” And absolutely incomprehensible. “I find it fascinating.”

“Yeah.” She looked up as something catches her attention. Aurora turned around and starts smiling.

“Are you following me pumpkin?”

Aurora’s eyes got bigger as she heard that nickname that Chris hated so much, turned around and stared at her new friend.

“What?” Angelina stared back.

“Oh no, that’s you?” She pointed at her, trying her best to hold herself together.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Pike got Angelina a funny look before he leans toward Aurora to place a shortly kiss on her lips. “I hoped I didn´t see you till Monday.”

“I hoped for Tuesday.”

Both smiling brightly and Aurora was still amazed about the situation she found herself in.

“That´s unbelievable!” She shocked her head. “That is the girl that you told me about?” “Did you tell me now that Christopher Pike is your boyfriend? I mean there is no needs for this you’re both feelings are talking for you.”

“Yeah.” Chris curled his nose. “Are you two friends?”

“Since an hour or so.” Angelina stood up, still smirking at Chris. “You never told me that you have such a wonderful girlfriend.”

“I was sure you know it.” He squinted at her. “You mostly now everything.”

“I´m just pretending to know everything.”

“Oh that’s gold.” Aurora grabbed his hand. “Why did she call you pumpkin?”

“I don´t want to talk about it.”

“Please, make it my birthday present!”

“It´s your birthday?” Angelina tore her eyes, than looked form Aurora to Chris. “So I´m crashing your date right now?”

“No you didn´t! Stay!”

Chris wanted to appeal but as he saw the look on Auroras face, he bited his tough. That glimmer in her eyes, in both of their eyes makes him instantly clear that he had no chance against this newly growing friendship and by knowing both women it was clear that it was destiny that they met.

“The hell I do!” The Betazoid smiled bright. “But I have a propose. You and I have breakfast together, tomorrow and you two know have your date.”

“I would like that.” Aurora raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure?”

“Of course.” She pointed at Chris umbrella. “Can I borrow that?”

Pike handed it to her, his silent Thank you in his mind.

“I wish you both a lovely evening.”

Aurora got up and hugged her new friend shortly.

“Happy Birthday Aurora.”

Then with a smile and a wink Angelina disappeared and Aurora was sure that she found a friend for life.  

*****

Now

 “It´s so good to see you.” Aurora glanced at Angelina. “It was so long ago.”

“Feels a lifetime ago.” The Commander looked around, than squinted at Chris. Aurora knew what comes next, what has to come.

“Don´t say it!”

“Orange.” There was an evil grin on her lips. Aurora giggled already.

“Somehow I know it was a mistake to invite you.” Pike twisted his eyes. “It should have made me wonder that Captain Roberts was nearly happy to get you of his ship a few days.”

“You´re still on the Atlantis?” Aurora pushed Chris softly away. They two could make enough fun of each other later. “I am and I stay there a much longer than I have planned it.”

“Sir, hails form Captain Roberts.”

“On the screen.” Pike turned around, a look at Devereaux. “Already longing?”

She woman shrugged her shoulder than she also turned around.

“Chris, sorry for the interrupt.”

“No problem Charles, what can we do for you?”

“Is my Fist Officer in reach?”

“Sir?” Angelina smiled at him.

“Ah Devereaux.” He seemed a little embarrassed but only for trained eyes. “When is my appointment with Dr. Simpson.”

“Midday Sir.”

“Yeah right.” He nodded. “He´s

“His wife had a boy a week ago, his name is Tobias and I stored a baby blanked at your ready room.”

“Oh yes, thank you.”

“I have been admitted Lt. Commander Johnson to everything that’s in need till the next days and wrote it down on a PADD placed on your desk.”

“Good Commander, thanks again. Then I could only wish you a nice spare time.”

“Thank you Sir.”

“I want her back Chris.”

“Oh you get her back Charles.”

Than the screen turned black and Aurora gazed at her friend. She knew the symptoms, even the Captain hided it nearly perfectly. Alzheimer´s disease.

“When?”

“Four weeks.” The Betazoid smiled a little gloomy. “It was diagnostic a year ago. But he accepted it very well, planed a long vacation together with his daughter. He made his peace about it and asked everyone to do the same. Only jokes about it are allowed on board.”

“What means.” Chris placed a hand on her shoulder.

“After my return to the Atlantis I get promoted to Captain and took over the command.”

“And that’s mention by you in a subordinate clause.” Aurora nudged her. “Why didn´t tell you?”

“It´s your birthday, it should be about you, not about me!” Angelina looked at her. “So, we talk about later!” She made a movement that made clear, she didn´t want to talk about it anymore. “First, I want to know what´s up in your life and do not think of dropping something! And I must see that ship!”

“Your released from your duties today Commander.” Chris smiled at Aurora. “Enjoy your day.”

Before he knew what happened Aurora throw her arms around him and hold him tight.

“That was the best gift ever.” She placed a kiss upon his cheek. “Thank you so much.” “I hoped you like it.”

He released her and the two women turned around to leave the bridge, arm in arm, like only one day has passed by not five years.

“Commanders be decent.”

“Shut up pumpkin.” Angelina looked back.

“For the next day´s it´s Captain pumpkin to you!” He winked at her. “And just for the protocol I burned that shirt, long ago!”

“Did you know that he never allow me to call him that nickname?” Aurora threw a hand kiss towards him.

“I had a clue.” Still over her shoulder she looked at him and he knew what come and hoped he still was able to do it.

Did you screw up the surprise party?

I didn´t but if you couldn´t distracted her for the next two hours it will be screwed up.

That should be no problem.

Good.

I´m impressed you still know how to do it.

I got a good teacher.

Smooth talker.

Let us stay to pumpkin.

They winked at each other.

“You know it is unfair when you do this?” Aurora laid her head on Angelina´s shoulder.

“Yeah but you such an incorrigible sniffing nose that we have no other way.”

“Okay I got the message.” She laid an arm around her. “So, how do we start?”

“It´s almost teatime and I´m so hungry.”

“Good, mess hall.”