Captain Kirk's ready room

Where Kirk holds briefings. Sometimes you can find Captain Kirk in here avoiding his yeoman.

Jim stepped into his ready room and sat down, facing the screen. He pressed the comm. "Pipe Archer in, Lieutenant."

"Aye, sir," she said.

A moment later, Archer appeared on the screen.

"Sir. To what do we owe this pleasure?"

"Cut the crap, loverboy," Archer snapped, looking immensely annoyed. "When were you going to fill me in on the fact that you and the Vulcan were making space nookie all over the Enterprise?!"

Pock blanched.

Jim blinked. "Uh... Excuse me, sir?" he said, thrown off by he conversation starter. "I'm afraid I'm a bit confused."

"Yeah," Archer snarked dryly. "I was too, when Winston Ferrus informed me that you were doing the No Pants Dance with your First and didn't think it was something you should goddamn mention so your ass didn't get handed to you by Command."

Jim deflated slightly. Should have seen that coming, he thought. "If fact, sir, it was something I thought to mention to you, but hadn't brought it up with Commander Pock yet." A deep breath. Shit was going to hell in a hand basket.

"Admiral," Pock began, a sage-colored blush rising quickly on her cheeks, "I see not why - "

"Spare me, Pock," Archer grumbled. "Because you two hadn't talked it out over a goddamn bagel yet, you just brought the goddamn hell and high water to your doorstep. Ferrus didn't just fill me in, Jim, he filed a fucking complaint stating that you two are unfit as a command team. He's demanding a reprimand and a reassignment."

The older Admiral sighed. "Do you have any idea how deep this shit is? This is the fucking Mariana's Trench of shit, and now I have to dig you out with a goddamn baby spork. I don't know what the hell you did to piss Ferrus off, but you did it, and now he's out for somebody's head on a spike. Preferably Pock's."

Jim sighed as well. "It wasn't so much as what we did as what he implied, sir, and we merely defended ourselves. I could give you a play-by-play, but it probably wouldn't do much good." A pause. "I'll tell you if you think it would help. Hell, I'll send over the recordings from our encounter yesterday."

"Do," Archer said. "Send 'em. Send 'em all, everything you've got, because I've got to take this to a Command appeal, Kirk." he sighed, rubbing his temple as though it ached. In that moment, every facet of his age shined through, and then some.

"Take what to appeal, exactly?" Pock asked, eyes narrowed.

The Admiral sighed again, then looked up.

"Your promotion, Commander," he said. "Congratulations, you're being reassigned as the captain of the U.S.S. Intrepid."

Jim's stomach dropped, even as he dipped his head to his PADD to have Uhura pull all the footage from the Command Crew's Mess and send it to him. It was on his PADD moments later. The whole crew had heard about the incident with Ferrus. Uhura was a smart woman. She must have figured out what it was for.

His heart had a metal band around it and his heart sank as well. He was going to lose her to another ship. But she was getting a promotion. At least her career wouldn't be harmed. The Intrepid was a first rate scientific vessel.

"Sent, sir," Jim said, looking up. He felt like a dog that had been kicked by his owners. "Should be on your computer now."

Pock swallowed, eyes wide for just a split second. Then her emotionless features were back and there was no sign there had ever been a crack in the glass where her true shock, her true feelings, seeped out. "I politely decline, Admiral."

Admiral Archer's eyes were locked sympathetically on Jim. "Not an option, Pock," he said. "This is a reassignment dressed up like a promotion to ease your very powerful friends. The choice to accept or decline it is a vain illusion."

Pock pressed her lips together. "Admiral - "

Archer's eyes were hard. "I know, Commander," he said, voice commanding. "I'll let you know more about the appeal when I have some information for you. I just wanted to keep the two of you informed, and let you know that if this appeal goes tits up..." He cleared his throat. "Just be ready, just in case."

Jim nodded. "We understand, sir." He paused, trying to remind himself how to breathe. "Do you need us to give formal statements?"

He knew they should have told Archer when they were at Earth. He knew it. And now this.

He was telling himself, that if this did go toes up, at least Pock's career wouldn't be hurt by it.

"Later," Archer said. "I've got a preliminary and then a meeting with a 'Fleet legal rep. I'll keep you posted."

"Understood, sir," Jim said, voice hollow. "We'll be waiting for your call. Kirk out." He hit the button and the screen when blank. He turned to Pock, face suddenly no longer wearing the mask. His hurt, insecurity, and pain was painted on his face for Pock to see.

"That was bad news I could have done without."

Pock approached him, placing her hands on either side of his face and tipping it upwards towards her. Her eyes were laced with her own displeasure and sadness at the course of these events. "Jim," she murmured, running her fingers along his cheekbone. "Ashayam. We will endure."

Jim's hand placed themselves on her waist as he met her gaze and saw the same things in her eyes that he felt for her. He loved her fingers on his face. Hell, he loved everything about her. "We will. But I don't like it." A pause. The hurt in his eyes was clear. "I'm sorry. I should have talked to you about telling Command before Ambassador Asshole got to them." He rubbed his thumbs up and down her sides. "Pock. I don't want you to go. I love you. I'd miss you too much. There has to be something we can do to get out of this."

He was getting to be secure enough in their feelings for each other that he had no qualms in stating that he'd miss her.

"If the appeal fails, I'll send a message to James Komack. He was a friend of my Dad's. He's always told me if there was any strings I needed pulling, to contact him. This seems like as good a time as any to call on him. What about on your side? Anyone you could contact?"

As he spoke, his hands tightened on her waist. Not enough to bruise her, but enough to remind both of them that she was standing in front of him and not on the Intrepid.

"Jim," she murmured softly, her own eyes filled with love and sadness, mixed together like a warm, bittersweet wine. "I do not want to leave you. I never want to leave you. Whatever we must do, we will, for I have no intentions of departing to serve on the Intrepid."

She pressed a soft kiss to his forehead, pulling a deep, slow breath through her nostrils and down into her chest.

"My father is the Vulcan Ambassador to Earth," Pock thought aloud. "And my Clan is the most prominent of the Vulcan clans that remain. I am certain I could call upon T'Pau and several of my clan brethren to aid me."

Jim's hands tightened again. "Though I'm not sure your dad is my biggest fan. Considering the last time we saw each other... Yeah." A pause. "I really shouldn't be surprised that you're related to T'Pau..." He pulled her closer in until he was hugging her, and his head was resting against her stomach. He needed to touch her, remind himself that she was there. And that she was refusing to leave.

"We can wait here, or wait in one of our rooms," he said, looking up at her. "I don't know about you, but I don't think I'll get much work done, waiting for Archer to get back to us."

Her hands move to wrap around his head, her fingers burying themselves in his hair. Pock drew another deep breath and forced herself to focus, to swallow her emotion and think rationally and logically about the situation at hand.

"Either option is amicable to me," she said. "Perhaps it would be best to utilize this time together, as you propose. Just in case..." She cleared her throat. "Just in case we are not triumphant in our appeal."

Jim stood, arms still around her waist. "We won't lose. There's no such thing as a no-win scenario, remember?" He pressed a kiss of his own to her forehead. "We'd best wait here, that way we aren't scrambling to get to the comm. when Archer calls." His head dropped to her shoulder. "I don't want to lose you. Not now."

Pock nodded, pulling him closer to her. "You will never lose me, Jim. Never. Not while I love you as I do, and I do not believe I will ever cease." She pressed a kiss to the side of his head, to his ear, her fingers still buried in his hair. She murmured again, "I love you."

Jim's hands twisted themselves in her uniform, gripping it tightly. "I love you too. So much," he whispered against her neck.

A pause. "If we... If we do lose the appeal... At least the Intrepid is a scientific vessel and your career really won't be hurt by it at all," he murmured, voice quiet.

"Perhaps not," Pock said quietly, but firmly, "but I would be. I do not wish to serve as captain of the Intrepid. I want to be the First Officer of the U.S.S. Enterprise serving under the command of James Tiberius Kirk, the best captain in the Federation and the man I love."

She did not desire command, and never had. What she did want was Jim.

Jim was sure that if he gripped her uniform any tighter, it would rip, so he forced his hands to loosen. He pulled back to look at her, meeting her eyes. "We have to think of a way to stop this from happening." If he didn't have Pock as his XO, he would probably resign at the end of the five year mission. Seeing and exploring wouldn't be the same as when they were side by side. He pressed a desperate kiss to her lips. "I love you."

She kissed him back, kissed him fiercely and with a kind of desperation that she had never let out before. She pulled him closer, pulled him into her, seating herself on the table and wrapping her legs around his waist. Pock had never loved like this. She wasn't sure she could ever love like this again. All she wanted was him, all of him, forever, and they were trying to take him away from her before they had even begun.

"I love you too," she murmured. "I love you."