AN: I'm sorry to say that this will be the last chapter of this story. I've lost all inspiration to write Star Trek stuff, so this is the end. I don't think I'll be writing for this fandom anymore. If anyone actually cares, I apologize, but as you all probably know, inspiration is fickle.

I'll probably be posting a really old story about Janice Rand's first mission on the Enterprise over the next couple of days. (I stumbled upon it while cleaning up my files.) It's written pre-Into Darkness, so it'd now be considered an AU, and is set in the same universe as all of my other Star Trek stories, apart from this one.

Jim Kirk grinned as the familiar, dark-haired man entered the store.

'Hey, Spock. What brings you here to my humble convenience store?'

The academic raised an eyebrow.

'That is an illogical question, Jim. I frequent your convenience store at least three times a week, and have done so for the past year. You are well acquainted with my purchasing habits. On Wednesday, I purchase fruit juice, on Friday, an alcoholic beverage to accompany dinner, for Nyota's enjoyment...'

'And today is neither Wednesday or Friday, so you're here to buy something for Nyota, because you pissed her off.'

Spock nodded.

'Unfortunately, I have, to use your term, 'pissed her off', so I must purchase something to assist me in procuring her forgiveness.'

He walked briskly over to a nearby shelf, and selected a box of chocolates.

'This should suffice.'

Jim grinned as he scanned the box.

'Good luck, man.'

'Thank you. Though I do not normally believe in luck, I think I may require it in this situation.'

He exited, box of chocolates in one hand.

Only seconds later, a curly-haired teenager ran through the door, looking supremely excited.

'Jim! Jim! Vas zhat Professor Spock?'

Jim nodded.

'Yeah, Pavel, the one and only.'

The boy looked as if he'd faint.

'Woah, calm down, kid! He's not some celebrity or something.'

The boy shook his head vigorously.

'Nyet, he ees! Professor Spock ees a Physic superstar! He ees already one of ze top ten Physicists in ze vorld, and he ees not ewen thirty! I really vant to do my PhD under him, but I am not sure eef he vill take me...'

Jim shook his head.

'Hey, if anyone can do it, you can, Pavel. Besides, Spock's a great guy. I mean, I hit on his girlfriend the first time she was here, and a year later, we're actually friends!'

The Russian stared at him, wide-eyed.

'You deedn't!'

Jim shook his head.

'I did! Believe me, I did! Now, what did you forget to buy this time?'

Pavel Chekov, aged only seventeen, was in the final year of his Physics degree. He lived in a nearby apartment on his own, but being a seventeen year old boy, and a child prodigy constantly thinking about Physics, or Maths, or generally difficult stuff that Jim didn't get, he always forgot something during his weekly grocery shopping trip. Hence, he was always at the Enterprise Convenience Store at least once a week.

The boy grimaced.

'Meelk. And bread. Oh...and I need some tinned soup.'

Jim laughed.

'Well, I got it all here.'

'Hey, Bones. Here for the usual?'

The doctor nodded. Jim took a handful of chips out of the bag beside him, and stuffed it into his mouth.

'You're eating yourself to death, you know, Jim.'

He shrugged, and pointed at the bottle on the counter.

'No more than you're drinking yourself to death, Bones.'

The brown-eyed man glanced at him.

'Then we'll see each other in hell. 'Till next time, Jim.'

'See you, Bones.'

Jim had met Bones when the older man had stumbled in, half-drunk, and bought another bottle of bourbon, raving about alimony and his ex-wife taking the whole damn planet in the divorce. Although he wasn't technically supposed to, Jim had sold him the bottle anyway. He'd looked like he'd needed it. They'd been friends ever since.

As the doctor left, a frazzled, slightly balding man, covered in grease, passed through the door.

'Hey, Scotty!'

'Hello, lad! I'm just here to grab a sandwich, and then I'm right off back to work, so I can't stay and chat. We're having a wee bit of trouble with one of the car engines...'

Scotty was a mechanic, who had once been a top engineer at a top firm, before he'd managed to lose his boss's dog while dog-sitting it and got fired. (Yeah, it was crazy.) He'd been Jim's friend ever since he'd walked in, raving about his tale of woe.

Jim was just about to close up when an Asian man strode in.

He smiled.

'Hikaru! Long time, no see!'

The other man grinned back.

'Hey, Jim! Yeah, I know, I've been deployed for the last three months, I only got back stateside two hours ago, and there's absolutely nothing in my apartment to eat...'

Hikaru Sulu was an Air Force pilot, so Jim didn't get to see him much, but the guy had some seriously awesome stories and was a real badass, so Jim liked him an awful lot.

'Cleared the fridge out before you left?'

'Nope. But I wouldn't want to risk my life eating any of the stuff I got left.'

It was funny, Jim thought, how close a convenience store owner could get to his regulars. Heck, he even got an invitation to Spock and Nyota's wedding!

It was about seven months after the wedding when the Physicist walked in on a day that was neither a Friday nor a Wednesday.

'Good evening, Jim. Do you stock tinned sardines?'

'Umm...yes...Err, Spock, doesn't Nyota hate tinned fish? Won't it piss her off even more? Why don't you stick to chocolate?'

'You are mistaken as to the reason for me being here, Jim. Nyota has ordered me to bring her tinned sardines, cookies and cream ice cream and jellybeans, and threatened to not allow me back into our apartment if I do not return with the required items.'

Jim looked quizzically at Spock.

'Tinned sardines, cookies and cream ice cream and jellybeans?'

'Indeed.'

When he saw Jim's confused expression, Spock offered an explanation.

'Nyota is experiencing pregnancy cravings.'

Jim looked up from his book (What? He wasn't illiterate.) to see a familiar Russian prodigy enter his store.

'Hey, Pavel. What did you forget this time?'

The PhD student shook his head.

'Nyet, I did not forget anyzing, Jim! I just need to pick up some snacks. I have a friend coming ower zis afternoon and I zought zat she might like some food...'

Jim grinned.

'So you finally went and got yourself a date! Great job, kid!'

The young man blushed beet red.

'Nyet! Eet's not a date, she ees just a friend. She ees coming ower to give me a hand vith ze experimental portion of my thesis and I am helping her vith a Physics component of hers...'

Jim interrogates Pavel for a couple more minutes, but all her can get out of the kid is that she's about his age, and doing a PhD in some sort of Chemistry at the same university.

Figures. A pair of whiz kids...

'Hey, Bones. Here for the usual?'

The doctor shook his head.

'Nope, you got any plain flour, Jim?'

Jim tried to raise an eyebrow.

'Err...yeah, second aisle, top shelf...Why do you need flour?'

And then he noticed a young, brown-haired girl, with Bones' eyes, holding her father's hand.

The little girl grinned and held out her hand, only just reaching over the counter.

'My name's Joanna McCoy, and I'm very pleased to meet you. Daddy talks about you all the time, Mr Jim. Daddy and I are going to bake cookies, but because Daddy's silly, he doesn't have any flour at home!'

Jim laughed, and shook the little girl's hand.

As father and daughter left the store, he watched them go.

Bones talked about Joanna all the time, and it was easy to see why. He'd never seen the usually grumpy man smile so much.

'Jim, lad! Do you sell dog food?'

Jim stared at the Scotsman.

'Umm...we've got a small range of it in the back corner over there...you do know it's not for human consumption, right Scotty?'

(Scotty was an experimental, odd sort of fellow...)

The ex-engineer stared at him like he was crazy.

'No, it's not fer me, lad! Porthos has finally re-appeared!'

'Your ex-boss' dog? The beagle?'

The other man nodded vigorously.

'Aye, the very same. I get home from work, and the wee bugger is sitting outside my apartment block! It's a miracle!'

Jim looked out the window, to see Hikaru Sulu talking with a very attractive blonde woman. A moment later, the two entered his shop.

'Hey, Jim. I've got someone I'd like you to meet. Jim, this is Carol, Carol, this is Jim. Jim, Carol's a weapons specialist, we served together last deployment.'

The blonde woman, Carol, shook hands with him.

'Hello, Jim. It's nice to meet you. Hikaru has told me lots of stories.'

Jim grinned.

'Well, he is an awesome storyteller. So, have you met his parents yet, or has Hikaru deemed the local convenience store owner test more important than the parent test?'

Carol looked puzzled, before realization dawned on her face.

'No, no, Hikaru and I aren't a couple, Jim. We're just friends. You see, he's gotten it into his head that the two of us would be well-suited, so he insisted that I come meet you.'

Jim resisted the urge to facepalm. Hikaru was trying to write a real-life fairytale of sorts. But hey, Carol was very pretty, had a lovely British accent and was a weapons specialist. Why not go along for the ride?