I don't own Star Trek or the song Burn by Jo Dee Messina. Or any play by Shakespeare.

…Can't believe I'm doing this…

… … .. . .. … …

Do you wanna be a poet and write?

Uhura flushed, scrambling to hide the old fashioned papers on her desk as Spock entered her room. She only succeeded in sending them flying everywhere. She bit her lip and held her breath as Spock picked one up from where it landed at his feet and began to inspect it. Even now it was hard for her to tell what he was thinking.

"You are exceptionally skilled at writing poetry." He informed her, handing the paper back.

She beamed at him. "Really? Because it's just a hobby."

"Indeed. Perhaps you would considers publishing your works as an amateur. Your work appears to be melodic and full of vivid imagery." He inclined his head to the papers on her desk. "Though I can not make an educated statement on the content of one poem alone."

She gestured for him to sit, still smiling. "Would you like to read some more?"

"I believe I would."

… .. .

Do you wanna be an actor up in lights?

"Call you me fair? that fair again unsay.. Demetrius loves you fair: O happy fair! Your eyes are lode-stars…"

She couldn't believe she was actually doing it. All her life, she'd dreamed of being up on the stage, and it may just be for her acting class at the academy, but there she was. And no one cared if a young Orion girl was shaking on the inside because she said her lines perfectly.

"Fair Helena!" James Kirk called to her, grinning like a mad man as he slipped backstage after the show.

"Jimmy!" Galia grinned, sweeping him into a hug.

"You were wonderful out there." Jim insisted. "Straight from Broadway."

"You think?" She sighed wistfully. "It's just for this class."

"I think you should run away and join a troop. It has to be better than this place."

"Oh Jimmy." She slapped his shoulder playfully. "Wanna come back to my dorm and practice for Romeo and Juliet?"

"Hell yeah."

… .. .

Do you wanna be a soldier and fight for love?

Giotto grunted, gripping his arm where it was bleeding freely. Why did he have to be the red shirt to beam down with Kirk?

"Cupcake! Where are you?" Kirk called over the sound of gunfire. "Are you alright?"

Good old Kirk. The little bastard was always worried about something else instead of covering his ass.

Giotto looked around his cover, and nearly took a bullet to the head. No. No he was not alright. He was bleeding. The princess was on the ground unconscious next to him. He assumed the other nation's prince was with Kirk. Damned lovers and their world wars they start.

Starfleet was supposed to be peaceful, a scientific journey. But security was always going to be the vocation of the soldiers of space. And that was why he joined. Because he belonged on the front lines, dealing with the kind of people who would never let others live peacefully.

"I'm over here Captain." Giotto called, catching a sight of blond hair. "I can provide cover if you think you can make it."

"Alright! We're coming."

All at once things started happening. Giotto fired into the amassed troops joined by the occasional blast from his captain as they darted between barriers. When they were close enough, he wrapped his hand around the prince's collar and hauled him down. Kirk immediately took to scanning the princess with a tricorder to see if she was alright.

"Not bad Giotto." Kirk grinned at him. "I knew you were the best."

"Want me to get us out of here?" Giotto waved a flash bang, finally free to use it now that they were all together.

"That'd be perfect."

… .. .

Do you wanna travel the world?

"I've been to so many worlds, seen so many stars, and the only places I've been here are Riverside and San Francisco. Besides, you're going up into space, what does it matter if I'm in Riverside, Prague, or Rome?"

Jim sighed, shrugging. "I don't know. I just figured you'd like to relax, stay on the farm, you know?"

"Sweetie, Sam's taking care of the farm for me right now." Wynona smiled softly at him. "I wouldn't let it go into disrepair. But Sam and his wife have their new baby and could use the alone time."

"I know. I know. It's just…I never really thought about it." Jim grumbled, scuffing his shoe on the summer warmed ground. "I guess it's hard to imagine you backpacking around the world."

"Jim, I'm always going to be an adventurer. This is just a new adventure for me."

"Have fun, and be safe, please mom."

"Have a little more faith in me than that." She laughed, ruffling his hair. "And keep in touch alright?"

"Yes, ma'am."

… .. .

Do you wanna be a diver for pearls?

"Do you have any idea how unsafe the ocean is?" McCoy threw his hands up, staring at the woman in front of him like she'd lost her mind.

Chapel laughed. "You say everything's dangerous. I'm surprised you haven't put your daughter in a bubble yet."

"And ruin her immune system? No chance." McCoy snorted. "And not everything is dangerous."

"Just the ocean, space, and anything you don't know about?"

"Ha ha." McCoy snorted. "And space is just a bigger ocean with less oxygen."

"You should go diving with me next time we have shore leave on Earth, Doctor. You might actually enjoy it."

"Not a chance."

"You could get a pearl for your daughter while we're down there." She offered.

He paused, almost considering it. "Even if I wanted to, there's way too much involved in lessons and the like."

"Oh come on. You came into space, you can go in the ocean. It's less likely to get you killed than spending your free time with Captain Kirk."

"But isn't that the truth?"

… .. .

Or climb a mountain and touch the clouds above?

It had taken a couple hours to scale the mountain, but they'd finally made it to the top and were out of the jungle that was messing up their signals to beam back aboard. Spock was radioing it in and McCoy was laying on the ground, panting furiously. Jim was standing on the very edge, arms splayed at his side, drinking in the rush of air.

"Step back from the edge Jim, you're going to fall." McCoy grunted.

"I won't." Jim sighed, closing his eyes and grinning as the wind whipped past him.

"In all likelihood, you most likely will." Spock informed him. "You have a notoriously poor track record for such incidents."

"Oh very funny." Jim grunted and fell back, landing on the ground hard.

"Hey now. You're going to hurt yourself." McCoy warned, scowling.

Jim reached his hand up towards the sky, watching the clouds drift past, almost close enough to touch. "Hey guys?"

"Yes?" "Yeah?"

"It doesn't get better than this, does it?"

They exchanged a glance behind him, not really sure how to answer. Jim laughed at their silence.

"We should do this again some time. The camping, and the climbing, and reaching the sky."

"We should." McCoy agreed, reaching his hand up towards the sky.

Spock blinked at them glancing up. "I do not understand the significance of 'reaching the sky'. The same effect can be achieved by reaching upwards from sea level, can it not?"

"No. Because you don't have to work for it." Jim insisted. "Here, you can touch the clouds, because you've reached for it."

"Fascinating." Spock said flatly, watching the two men closed their hands into fists.

Slowly, he raised his own hand up, watching as the clouds passed behind it. It did feel different, almost like he could pluck one from the sky. One held perfectly still, and he closed his hand around it, watching it disappear into his palm, as though he had taken it.

"See?" Jim asked, having turned to watch him.

"I do."

… .. .

Be anyone you want to be.

Bring to life your fantasies.

Jim grinned, watching as people, the same people who had decried him just a few days before, were applauding. The were applauding because he was Captain. They were applauding because he'd manage to one up his father. He wasn't just a legacy, he was a protégé.

I want something in return.

Pike smirked up at him, because Jim had risen to the challenge. Trust the boy to take his deadline of three years to heart.

I want you to burn.

"Thank you, Pike." Kirk spoke earnestly, shaking his hand.

"Thank you." Pike's eyes drifted up and caught a suspiciously familiar flash of black. "You'd better hurry, or your first officer's going to get away."

Jim turned to see the retreating man and sighed. "He's not my first officer."

"Not with that attitude."

Burn for me, Baby.

Spock sat in his rooms, contemplating what he had been told. He had just said not that long ago that what could be was no longer a definite. And yet…

And yet here they all were, in Starfleet. Of all the contrived coincidences, the time stream was trying to correct itself. He belonged on that ship with Kirk, as his first officer. Who was he to say he wouldn't do it? Sure, nothing was predetermined, but wouldn't the time stream just keep trying to correct itself? Eventually, he would return to Starfleet, and when he did, would Kirk just happen to need a new first officer?

Why should he put off what could be?

Like a candle in my night.

Oh burn, burn for me, burn for me.

"You know, I'm surprised you decided to put up with me." Jim smiled at him from across the chess board.

"It was…logical." Spock informed him, eyes trained on the board.

"You're not going to decide you want to leave after a month, are you?"

"No. I will not."

"Good, because I like having you here."

"I enjoy being here, Captain."

… .. .

Are you gonna be a gambler and deal?

"We've only got one chance at this Cap'n." Scotty informed him over the comm. "If we can'naut make it work we'll be completely disabled."

"I trust you Scotty." Jim insisted.

"Well then, brace yur self, because we're getting out of here."

True to his word, the long shot got them out of the decaying orbit and well away from the dangers posed by the planet. It also brought them an extra three days.

"That is the craziest thing you've ever done!" Jim laughed, slapping him on the back when he came up to the bridge.

"Aye, well if it works." He smiled at the crew who were whistling and applauding.

"I doubt it would a second time." Jim admitted.

"It was a gamble…"

"Get out of here." Jim chuckled, slapping his shoulder. "And get some rest. You can repair the damage to the engines in the morning."

"Aye Cap'n. I think I will."

… .. .

Are you gonna be a doctor and heal?

"Of all the stupid…I'm a Doctor, Jim, not your private physician." McCoy grumbled, rubbing at his tired face as he spoke to the unconscious man on the bed in front of him.

Jim was the last of the injured to need treatment. Not by choice, but by way of having been unable to beam him back aboard while everyone else had been taken care of. Jim's color had come back, but he was still pale and far too cold for any good to come of it.

Spock sat at his bedside, wrapped in blankets, freezing from the short rescue mission. For once Jim had remembered all of his safety gear, but that didn't help much if you'd been stripped down to your under shirt and regulation pants by hostage takers, dumped in cold water, and left to the elements in a cave.

"He'll be fine." McCoy told Spock, watching the man as he continued to stare blankly forward at the unmoving man. "Quit blaming yourself because he manage to get himself in trouble. You couldn't have known leaving him alone when he pissed you off would have given him a chance to get himself kidnapped. I doubt he did it on purpose."

"I do not blame myself." Spock replied stubbornly.

"Look you green blooded hobgoblin, I can heal everything but a heart."

"I do not understand your statement."

"Just tell him how worried you were when he wakes up."

"I am not worried." Spock sniffed, his cold green nose comical to the odd doctor. "Concern for his safety is my responsibility as first officer."

"Uh huh. And I'm a monkey's uncle."

"I was unaware you possessed simian relatives."

"Just keep and eye on him." McCoy rolled his eyes. "And do us all a favor, let him know it's 'your job to be concerned' alright."

"Affirmative."

… .. .

Or got to heaven and touch God's face?

"I do not understand the concept of heaven." Spock admitted ruefully, staring up at his mother.

She laughed softly, patting her lap for him to come over and sit in it. "You understand the concept of Katra, don't you?"

"Affirmative." He crawled up as he was told, ignoring the memory of his father's insistence not to touch unnecessarily. "Katra is the concept of a living soul or the essence of one's mind. Their existence is still debated. It is believed they were stored in vessels after the owner's death. It is also believed they can be given to another to that person's benefit."

Amanda nodded. "Humans have a concept of souls as well. In some religions, when people die, it is believed that the soul goes to a place, like heaven, to live eternally in an afterlife."

"It is illogical to assume one lives on after the expiration of their life." Spock said stiffly.

"Maybe to you, but hope and faith are very important to humans. We don't know what happens after death, so we can only speculate."

"It is important for humans?"

"Well, I know I'd like to believe that, no matter what happens, I'll see you and your father again some day, and get to live happily with you both. Wouldn't you like that too?"

"Yes. I would."

… .. .

Are you gonna be a dreamer who sleeps?

"You vould not be falling asleep all the time if you vould simply rest at night." Chekov scolded his friend, having shook him awake from where he had fallen asleep in his lunch.

"I -Yawn- I know." Sulu rubbed at his eyes a bit. "But I've got so many projects."

"Vhy are you taking so many? There are other botanists, da? Is wery bad for your health."

"I know." He said sheepishly, grinning a little. "But I can't help myself. I just want to do it all."

"You vill not be allouved to pilot ship if you are falling asleep."

"I know, I know. Don't worry. I'll be fine. Once I finish these current tests I'll cut back and get some more sleep."

"Is lie." Chekov replied cheerily.

Sulu laughed. "Okay, maybe. But I haven't fallen asleep at anything important and I won't. The Captain keeps us all wide awake."

"Da. He is good for that. You are sure you are being vell?"

"I'm good. Don't worry so much."

"I can no help but vorry. You are much dreamer Hikaru." Chekov admonished him. "Is impossible to do ewerything, alvays. Is vhy you fall asleep in meals. Alvays dreaming."

"I guess I am."

… .. .

Are you gonna be a sinner who weeps?

"Spock, you've got to get a hold of yourself." Jim snapped, dodging a punch from the compromised man.

Spock growled at him, eyes narrowed as he poised for another strike.

From now on, no one was drinking anything the locals offered them. It just wasn't happening. Whatever they'd put in his drink was obviously not designed to be drunk by Vulcans. It had caused some reaction and basically made him lose control. Now Jim was trying desperately to not get hit and keep Spock away from anyone else while McCoy tried to find a cure.

"Come on, Spock." Jim yelped, watching the wall next to his head crumple under a fist. "You're better than this. You can control it."

Spock looked up at him, and immediately Jim was frozen. Spock, Captain Logic, Master of the Emotionless, was crying. He was crying.

"Spock, what's wrong?" Jim whispered.

"I am ashamed." Spock whispered. "I am ashamed of our friendship."

"Excuse me?" Jim deadpanned, scowling at him.

"I should not have these feelings." Spock insisted, drawing himself away. "I should harbor no feelings, and yet I do."

"Uh…Okay? But you're not just a Vulcan, so it isn't that big a deal." Jim stared at him blankly, not sure what to really say.

"You do not understand Jim!" Spock lashed out, smashing a decoration nearby. "I can not…"

"Spock, come on. It's alright." Jim took a tentative step closer. "It isn't wrong to have emotions."

"It is not alright." Spock insisted, gripping Jim's shoulders tightly. "I must not…I can not…"

"Spock." Jim reached up, holding Spock's wrists and rubbing his thumbs against the skin there. "It's okay. You're okay. You know I…the whole crew…everyone accepts you as you are. We'd never want that to change. It isn't a sin to have feelings, and I won't let you act like it is."

"Jim…"

"See Spock." Jim smiled up at him. "You don't have to deny it, just…control it. You can do that. I know you can."

"Yes…"

… .. .

Or and angel under grace?

Most people would panic, being the youngest graduate of Starfleet academy and the child navigator of the Federation's flagship. Most people weren't Pavel Andreievich Chekov. Most people didn't go above and beyond the call to do everything within their power to prove they were capable of any job asked of them. Most people didn't have to.

Sulu chuckled, lifting the sleeping navigator into his arms out of his chair.

"Poor guy." Jim smiled, shaking his head. "He's been up two days straight, keeping track of everything on the ship while we were planet side."

"He shows exceptional skill." Spock agreed.

"Remind me we need to make him an officer pronto." Jim nodded to Sulu. "Take him away Lieutenant."

Sulu snorted, nodding and heading out. They were right. Chekov had performed admirably. Thanks to him, no one had died. It was times like that it wasn't too hard to see him as a great and competent member of the crew.

Sulu sighed as Chekov curled closer to him, snoring softly in his sleep. Around the ship, everyone had come to call him the Angel of the Enterprise. Not that he'd heard it. Everyone was sure not to let it slip around him, because they didn't want to embarrass him.

"You're really something." He whispered settling Chekov into his bed and turning to head back to the bridge.

"Thank you Hikaru." Chekov mumbled sleepily.

"No, thank you Chekov." Sulu smiled back at him. "We'll all be here when you wake up."

"I am knowing."

… .. .

I'll lay down on your bed of coals.

Offer up my heart and soul.

"Just go!" Jim snapped, pushing McCoy away from him.

"I can't do that." McCoy snarled, pressing his hands to the gaping wound in Jim's stomach.

"Go."

"We must leave, doctor." Spock tugged at McCoy's shoulder.

"I'm not just leaving Jim here to die!"

"I would not propose such." Spock knelt next to Jim, sliding his arms under him.

"Oh God!" Jim cried out, clutching at Spock's chest. "Bones, tell him to stop."

But in return.

"We're going to make it out Jim. Just hold on." McCoy drew his phaser, heading up the back to cover them as Spock made for the tree line.

"Guys…" Jim moaned, shaking his head. "You can get out of here if you don't drag me along. I'm just weighing you down."

I want you to burn.

Burn for me, Baby.

"You weight is negligible, Jim. Do not concern yourself with it." Spock told him simply, shifting him to just one arm and drawing his own phaser.

"I'm serious!" Jim insisted "I'm ordering you to put me down."

"Doctor, is the Captain currently fit to be in command?" Spock called over his shoulder, eyes darting around as they made their way through the darkness.

"Not one bit." McCoy snapped, firing a shot into one of their pursuers.

"Then I am assuming command until he is able to return to duty."

"Damn it don't even!" Jim barked, furious.

"As you are no longer in command, I request that you follow my orders. Wrap your arms around my neck so as to provide greater stability." Spock eyed the craggily path in front of him.

They could reach the cave he had seen previously in the mountainside mostly by following the jagged switchbacks, but it would leave both them and their pursuers exposed.

Like a candle in my night.

Oh, burn, burn for me, burn for me.

"Are you out of your mind?"

"No more than you are, Jim." McCoy snorted.

"Did you just defend Spock?"

"Silence, please. It is imperative we not draw attention to ourselves."

I want you to burn baby, oh.

"Any sign of them?" McCoy called to Spock, who was standing guard at the entrance .

"I do not see them." He sighed, returning to the two other men.

"Not what I had in mind when I said we should go camping." Jim sighed plucking at the tatters of his gold shirt that was serving as a bandage for his stomach.

"Or climbing a mountain." McCoy reminded him.

Laugh for me,

"Haha, ow." Jim groaned. "I don't think I'm going to make it out of this one."

cry for me.

"Do not say that, Jim." Spock knelt next to him, placing a hand on his arm. "You will survive."

Pray for me,

"God damn it Jim" McCoy whispered, eyeing the red staining his colorful bandages. "They'll be here any minute now. They'll get us out of here any minute now."

"I know." He sighed, laying his head back on a rock.

fly for me.

"Come in. Come in." Spock's communicator erupted in sound.

"This is Commander Spock."

"Commander!" Sulu sounded relieved. "Hold on, we've got a shuttle in your area. We've had a hell of a time getting a lock on your signals."

"Be quick. The captain is injured."

Live for me,

"You hear that Jim." Bones shook him lightly. "You're in good hands."

"They're here, Captain. You are fine." Spock insisted, lifting him again as the shuttle landed.

die for us.

"See?" Jim mumbled against his shoulder. "I told you jumping in front of that bullet was a good idea."

"I doubt that."

… .. .

I want you to burn.

Burn for me, baby.

Like a candle in my night.

Oh, burn, burn for me, burn for me.

"Everyone, give a hand to our genius Captain." Sulu laughed, offering up applause for Jim as he limped onto the bridge.

True to their form, the rest of the bridge crew joined in. Kirk rolled his eyes, smirking at Scotty as he clambered out of the command chair. Chapel and McCoy were helping support him, Spock trailing after closely.

"Doing vell Keptin?" Chekov smiled at him as he settled into his seat.

Yeah I am,

I want you to burn.

I want you to burn for me, baby.

Oh, yeah, burn for me.

"Yeah, I think I am."

"We have new orders, Captain." Uhura informed him.

"You don't say." He sighed. "Everyone ready?"

Yeah I am.

I want you to burn.

I want you to burn for me baby, oh yeah.

Burn for me.

The room answered all at once. "Yes Sir!"

… … .. . .. … …

What's this? A fic based on a song? How dare I? Stupid bandwagons (making for horrid puns). But…yeah. Here you go. The crew.