AN: Okay, guys, I know it's been awhile, but I decided to start a new story with my best friend. We're writing this story together, so please be nice, because she's never done fanfiction before. Anyway, so read and hopefully review and we sincerely hope that you like it!

Lady Dawson

Out of This World

by Lady Dawson and EssentiallyRei

Chapter One: New Roommates

"Yeah, so that's one large half-cheese, half-all meat special, an order of breadsticks . . . and I think that should probably do it," Emily Conner said into the phone, tucking a strand of her blonde hair behind her ear as she tossed a glance over at her roommate. "Hey, Joni, you want anything else?"

Joni Bennett shook her head as she continued typing away what she was doing, finishing up whatever it was she was doing before shutting it down. Her dark brown hair—so dark that it was almost black—swept around her as she disappeared into the next room, her light brown eyes never once glancing Emily's way.

Suppressing a small sigh, Emily briefly wondered if this was as good of an idea as it had seemed this morning while she finished ordering the pizza.

She and Joni had been roommates for all of one week and this was the first time that they'd actually had the chance to sit down and get to know each other. With their colliding schedules, they just hadn't had the chance. Plus, Joni put up this serious front, never letting anyone in. Over the past week, Emily had tried numerous times to get her to open up, to talk about stuff, but Joni was noncommittal, usually only giving her one or two word answers.

But Emily was determined to try and—at the very least—be friends with her. They were rooming together; they had to live with each other, so the least they could do was be friendly with one another, if nothing else.

So when she found out Joni was free tonight too, she suggested that they have a movie night. Joni was reluctant, but after much persuading from Emily, she finally gave in, albeit a bit unenthusiastically.

Making her way into the living room, Emily replaced the cordless before turning to Joni with a bright smile.

"Pizza should be here in about twenty minutes or so," she told her, climbing onto the couch next to her roommate.

Joni just nodded silently while flipping through the channels, trying to find anything decent.

Emily glanced at the guide. "You find anything worth watching?"

"Not really," she responded without a glance at the blonde. "It's incredible; we have all these channels and there's still never anything on."

"We could always just pop a DVD in," Emily suggested, trying to think of something to suggest, but she didn't know what kind of movies Joni was really interested in. "I've got all six Star Wars movies in my room . . . or not," she added as her roommate looked doubtful.

"I've just seen them all way too many times," Joni sighed, looking slightly awkward—or maybe a tad embarrassed, Emily thought. "But, um . . . we could watch Star Trek. The new Star Trek movies have more action in them like the Star Wars movies. If you're more into action," she elaborates.

"There's one that comes right before the one that just came out in theaters, right?" Emily wanted to know. "Into Darkness, I think?"

Nodding, Joni replied, "Yeah, the one in theaters is the sequel to the 2009 one. I've got the 2009, which is just called Star Trek, in my room . . . if you want to watch it," she added offhandedly, like she didn't particularly care one way or another, but Emily grinned at her, getting the feeling that she actually did.

"Actually, that one looks pretty cool," she said cheerfully. "I was thinking about going to see it. Yeah, let's pop it in."

The corners of Joni's mouth twitched, almost like she was smiling—or at least, she looked less grim, Emily corrected herself—as she stood up, going into her bedroom and leaving Emily on the couch. Only a few seconds later, she was back, a worn copy of the DVD in her hands as she opened it up, popping the disc into the player.

"Bear in mind, though, I might be asking you a lot of questions about this," Emily warned her. "I don't know much about Star Trek."

Joni shrugged. "That's okay," she said dryly. "I'd be happy to answer any questions that you have."

Emily chuckled. "You? Happy?"

Light brown eyes flashing slightly, Joni turned to her. "Watch it," she warned. "I'm not a freaking Vulcan."

"What on earth does the Roman god have to do with anything?"

Heaving a sigh, Joni rolled her eyes in exasperation as she turned back towards the television, flipping through the trailers until she reached the main screen, hitting the play button.

"Just shut up and watch," she complained.

"Yes, ma'am," Emily quipped, settling into a comfortable position and pulling a pillow into her lap as the two girls began to watch, only pausing it to get up and get the pizza when the doorbell rang.

Digging into her cheese half, Emily watched in interest as the handsome main character came onto the screen. "He's cute."

"That," Joni replied, "is Captain James T. Kirk. Or, he's going to be," she corrected herself. "Obviously, he's not a captain yet. Careful, though, he tends to leave a trail of broken hearts in his wake."

"Let me guess, handsome, street-smart, intelligent rebel without a cause?" Emily said dryly. Joni stared at her. "I've got a type."

"Really? Would not figure you for the bad boys," Joni mused.

"Not bad boys, just . . . rebels," Emily said weakly. Joni shook her head. "That reminds me, if a guy named Adam calls here, just tell him to shove it and hang up."

"Duly noted," her roommate murmured.

With a faint smile, Emily finished off her pizza, setting her paper plate on top of the empty box and settling back against the couch to finish the movie.

Two hours later, when the Starship Enterprise was blasting apart the futuristic ship, Emily glanced over at Joni, only to find that the dark-haired girl had fallen asleep, her hair fluttering every time she took a breath.

Chuckling, Emily turned back to the television to finish watch, glad that she'd given it a chance, if only for Joni's sake. While she had been an avid Star Wars fan since before she could even remember, she had never really gotten into Star Trek, mostly because the few parts she'd seen of the older ones just got too . . .

Well, scientific-y for her taste. But this one felt a little more action-y and a little less science-y.

First chance she got, she decided, she was definitely going to go see that new one. It actually had looked pretty cool, from the trailers she'd seen. Maybe the next time she and Joni had a night off, they would go, she thought as she tucked a strand of her blonde hair behind her ear as she watched Jim Kirk enter the bridge of the Enterprise, beginning to issue orders to his new crew.

He was definitely nicer than Adam, she thought with a scowl, pushing any thoughts of her on-again, off-again ex-boyfriend from high school.

After he'd successfully ripped her heart in two during prom by sleeping with her former best friend, Emily had sworn off guys, determined never to feel the way that Adam made her feel again. She never wanted to feel the heartache and betrayal that she'd felt when she found them in the parking lot, in her own car, without an inch of clothing between them. Time might mend all wounds, but it didn't mend the memory. She hated feeling so empty and hurt and distressed all at once.

Still, she thought as she flipped back a few scenes to watch Kirk again—an unfortunate habit of hers; once she watched a movie, she usually just skipped through to her favorite scenes to watch them again—it was a shame that Jim was only a fictional character; if she could meet a guy like that, someone who clearly cared about people and would do anything to keep them safe and fought for something he honestly believed in, despite all the odds, and went to great lengths to ensure that it succeeded, even though it was basically a suicide mission, and risk his own life for the lives of others . . .

It's was truly a shame, she thought unhappily, that she couldn't find a guy like James T. Kirk. She might actually give him the time of day.

Getting up to get rid of the pizza box, Emily returned to the living room, pulling a blanket around her as she flipped through the channels absently, barely even noticing the drowsiness that hovered around her until her eyelids fluttered closed and then she was asleep, completely unaware of any changes in her surroundings.

Beep, beep, beep!

Emily groaned slightly, her eyelids fluttering slightly as she heard the annoying, unmistakable sound of an alarm clock beeping irritatingly at her.

"Oh, god, what's that noise?"

Green eyes flying open, Emily spun around quickly to blink into the dark—it was either very dark or very early, she thought, or both—trying blindly to find the source of the noise, managing somehow to turn it off, but that didn't exactly help with the lights. "Where's the lamp?" she muttered drowsily, rubbing her eyes. "Where's the light."

The second that she said 'light,' the lights automatically flicked on, rendering Emily blind for a minute before she regained her sight, glancing wearily around at the unfamiliar room, which appeared to be a dorm of some kind.

Across from her was another girl—or at least, she thought she was a girl until she got a good look at her and realized that:

a) she had a tail

and b) she had unmistakably feline features on her face.

What in the . . . Emily thought wildly, staring in shock at the half-girl, half-cat as she pushed herself into a sitting position, yawning widely and yes, she thought, she did happen to have cat-like teeth.

"What?" she asked sleepily, opening one eye and noticing that Emily was staring at her. "Oh, great, I have bed hair, don't I?"

"Um . . . no, no, sorry," Emily said, glancing swiftly around the room and trying very hard not to panic. Where the heck was she? "Weird dream . . ."

"Yeah, right," the cat-girl said dryly, folding her arms over her chest and giving Emily an exasperated look. "He's here again, isn't he?"

Emily blinked. "Who?"

Rolling her eyes, the cat-girl said impatiently, "Don't give me that. Where is he? If he's in the bathroom with his head in the toilet again, just tell me now so I can go to Nyota's room and get ready."

Before Emily could even come up with some kind of explanation—though what she was going to say, she had absolutely no idea—they both heard a loud grunt, followed by a swear, that was coming right from the bathroom. Emily stared at the bathroom door, then slowly turned to look at the cat-girl, settling for a sheepish grin.

"Um . . . okay, yeah, he's in the bathroom," she said weakly, though she was confused by which 'he' she was talking about.

"Thought so," the cat-girl said unhappily, reaching into one of the closets and plucking out a few items, which seemed to consist of a red uniform, tucking them under her arm as she headed out the door. "Look, Em, I know he's your best friend, but seriously, he spends more time in our dorm than he spends in his own and most of the time, it's because he's dead drunk and you just pulled him out of a bar brawl."

"Yeah, well . . . you know, guys . . ." Emily replied, biting her lip.

"And he's worse than usual," the cat-girl muttered. "What's amazing is how good he actually is." She sighed. "I'll see you later."

"Bye," Emily muttered, her head spinning as she watched the cat-girl leave, closing the door behind her.

Slowly, she looked around at the room, trying to put her thoughts in order. Where in the world was she and more importantly, how on earth did she even get here? The last thing she remembered was . . .

Well, she and Joni were sitting on the couch, watching Star Trek, and then . . . well, she was pretty sure that they both fell asleep. So how exactly had they gotten from there to here? Not to mention where here was.

Taking a deep breath, Emily ran her fingers through her blonde hair, trying not to hyperventilate. "Okay, Em," she muttered, "take deep breaths. You can figure this out."

Hearing a particularly loud groan coming from the bathroom again, she sighed. Probably the best thing—for right now, anyway—was to go see who was in the bathroom. It might be a long shot, but maybe that could answer some questions . . . or not, but it was better than just sitting around, trying to figure out something that she was never going to figure out anyway.

With that decided, Emily got up and walking over to the bathroom. It took her a few minutes to work how to open the door, finally finding the thumbprint on the side of the door, and it slid open, revealing a blond guy with his head in the toilet, just as the cat-girl had predicted, puking his guts out.

"Hey," she said, squatting down beside him, "you okay?"

He just groaned and she sighed, getting up to get him a glass of water and what looked like some medicine from the counter.

Hoping very much that this was Advil or something close to it, Emily handed them both to him. "Here, take these," she told him.

Bright side, she thought, this probably was just a dream anyway, so whatever they were probably wouldn't kill him.

"Thanks," the guy muttered, finally looking up at her with a pair of intense, bright blue eyes, though they looked slightly sluggish due to hangover.

A small gasp escaped from her as she stared down at him, though too soft for him to notice as he took the pills and water from her, downing them both in one gulp. She couldn't believe what she was seeing, even with her own eyes.

Sitting on the floor of her bathroom was none other than one certain James T. Kirk.