"Rachel!" Zac yelled from the kitchen into the rest of the house.

"What, and there's no need to yell." Came Rachel's disembodied voice from the next room, before she made an appearance in the door way, her ever loyal shadow trotting along at her heels.

"Get your coat, and the Jeep. I need you to get to these co-ordinates in the next 15 minuets." Zac instructed as he handed her a post-it note.

"Why can't you go?" Rachel asked sounding irritated about being ordered around.

"Because you're infinitely better at dealing with people that I am. Plus I need to stay here and work on some calculations. I don't know who'll be on that ship, and I can't afford to lose time if all of them are idiots."

Rachel rolled her eyes as she snatched the keys for the jeep off of the wall. "There you go displaying that glowing personality of your again. Still not sure if you're being rude to me, or flattering." She quipped. "Come on Archer, we're going on a car trip."

In a way, when she thought about it, Zac was lucky that she understood him better than anyone else ever had. When they were growing up, there was an air of expectancy surrounding them both; they came from a long line of technical people, a line of people that had built a business empire on warp technology development. And whilst it was clear early on, the Zac was a genius, no one could get through to him, not even their parents. No one other than Rachel, and then later on George Kirk had managed to hold his own against her surly brother, which is why she had named her own son after him. George Kirk had been the only friend Zac had ever had, his only real friend other than herself, and if that didn't warrant being a name sake, she didn't know what did.

Stepping out into the yard again, Rachel was reminded that is was still very much April, as the excruciatingly cold wind rattled through her at a rate of knots. She shivered against the cold, and made a bee-line towards the jeep. Archer got in before her and bounded across the seats to the passenger side, and he settled down comfortably as she kick started the engine into life. The jeep was an ancient piece of machinery; Zac hadn't even bothered to upgrade its systems, so it still ran off of Petrol. The thunder of the engine's pistons firing reverberated around the tiny yard, and Rachel managed to get away into the night.

"Jim?" Bones called through the sealed door, for what seemed like the hundredth time. "For God sake Jim, open up, don't make me beg now!"

"Leave me alone Bones." Came Jim's muffled response through the thick metal.

'Well at least he hasn't hung himself.' Bones thought bitterly to himself, only half joking.

"Jim, open this door, or I swear I'll have Scotty force it!" Nothing came back in response. "Come on Jim, please, just talk to me."

The faint sound of the door being unlocked reached Bones' ears, as the door remained closed, but at least he now had access. Punching in the key code, Bones watched as the doors slid open, revealing his friend hunched over in chair.

"Fine, talk. Just none of your psycho-babble crap." Jim murmured, keeping his eyes averted, "I haven't got the time for that shit at the best of times."

"Come on Jim, you've got to give me something…" Bones was keeping his voice low and calm, not wanting to aggravate Jim again.

"Do I?"

"Yes you fucking do." Bones was trying to get Jim to at least smirk a little. "Don't make me order you."

"Who died and made you Captain?"

"No one, now talk to me dipshit before I hypo your ass into the 21st century."

That had done it; Jim was smirking slightly, and had even glanced up towards Bones who was perched on the edge of the up turned desk.

"You stay the hell away from me with that hypo spray."

Bones couldn't help the smirk of victory as Jim sat up, rolled his shoulders, and looked directly at him.

"Now, are you gonna tell me what some of this crap is about then? You know all about my bat-shit crazy past, my early marriage to an insane woman and the lack of a relationship I have with my kid because of her, so start sharing. But properly this time."

"Where d'you want me to start?" Jim mumbled, he didn't like where this was going, he hated talking about his past, especially the emotional stuff.

"Start with the fact you actually had some form of a childhood when you were a young kid."

"You already know the basics yeah? I was born in space, my dad died to protect me, and all of that?" Jim was dragging his feet into this discussion, and it was showing.

Bones sighed. It was his father sigh, the one he used to use on Joanna when she was a little girl. "Come on Jim; just tell me how much the Cochrane family factor in. Not all of it, just enough to give me something to work with."

"When my mom got back to Earth, I was only a couple of weeks old," Jim continued. "She'd just lost my dad; she had me and no one else to turn to, other than my dad's former best friend, Rachel. Rachel Cochrane had been close to my dad before my mom had even come into the picture, she named her own son after him. Rachel knew how to look after kids, so she taught my mom how to look after me. And over time, she started looking after me when my mom started leaving the planet to get away from the fact I looked just like my dad."

"Jim… I had no idea."

"Of course you didn't Bones, no one does." Jim let out a bitter laugh. "When I was about four, I learned that Rachel wasn't my mom and I cried about that. I wanted her to be my mom instead of mine. And it was Rachel who held me as I cried, it was her who was with me at the hospital the first time I broke my arm falling out of a tree, it was her who gave me my first bike and it was her who was the first person that believed I could be someone."

For the first time, Bones could see Jim, the real Jim. And deep down, he was a mess. "Jim, you are someone. Look at you, the youngest Star Feet Captain that's ever served. Rachel will be proud of you!"

"What about the 12 years before Star Fleet?" Jim murmured. "Think she'll be proud of them?"

"Why does it matter? You're the Captain here Jim, you're going to have to be the one who greets this woman when we land, something I think you should be there for by the way, so quit moping, and be who you are."

Rachel groaned audibly as the Jeep made another rough landing after ambling over yet another bump in the hard ground. Trust her brother to pick a location out in the fucking sticks, where there wasn't an ice-cream's chance in hell of there being a tarmac road. It wouldn't be so bad if the jeep's suspension wasn't totally shot from driving over terrain just like this, having people in the back would be interesting; there weren't any seat belts back there.

"Nearly there buddy." Rachel murmured to Archer as he bounced up and down on the hard padded seat beside her, he grumbled as he lost his footing again. Rachel knew she was going to have to have one of these guys hold Archer on the way back to the house; hopefully none of them were afraid of dogs.

The sat-nav system beeped as she reached to co-ordinates Zac had given her, and once she cut the engine, she could make out the familiar sound of impulse engines as they descended to make a landing, it was a sound that seemed to be engrained on her soul and it was one she missed. Making sure to leave Archer in the car, she stepped out and watched at the sizeable craft landed. Looking at it, it seemed more advanced than what she was used to, but then again she was used to prototypes, and seldom ever piloted the finished products of her brother's work.

Rachel closed her eyes as she felt the pulse of the engines flow through her body, and reverberate in her chest. This is what she loved about piloting, this feeling of being one with the machines, knowing how to get the best out of them by feeling it. She heard the craft land with minimal noise, but the sound of the ground giving way beneath the landing gear was enough to tell her it had truly landed.

Pushing herself off of the bonnet of the Jeep, she let Archer out of the car, and he bounded over to the door of the small ship. Rachel smiled at his behaviour, and moved to stand behind him, watching him snuffle about. There was a mechanical clunk just before the door started to slide open.

Rachel allowed a natural smile to form on her face as she saw the six figures silhouetted against the light; it was nice to not have to hide who she really was from these people.

"Hi there!" She called out, giving a small wave. "I'm Rachel; I believe you've already spoken to my brother."

One of the figures stepped down, Rachel guessed that this must be their Captain, as he came closer she could make out his features and in doing so, he cause her heart to thunder in her chest.

"George?" She gasped, not believing her eyes.

"Not George. It's me, Jim."

I'm sorry it's taken so long for this to be updated! I've only just realised it's nearly been a year and that makes me feel bad. But inspiration is a fickle mistress, and she can be a bitch sometimes. But I have some more free time now, and I hope to be able to devote more time to my writing process.

Still thanks for the awesome support! I love all you guys!

Xoxo