A/N: I own nothing of Star Trek or the characters in it. Some of the conversations are the same but I don't own any of it and give that credit to the writers of Star Trek, who are amazing. Only thing I do own is Sophie, and Chris Pikes family. I hope you enjoy my story. I'm going to try and update every Sunday.
Story will follow the first movie but not the 2nd, that will take it's own path. I hope you enjoy and please give me feed back if something is not correct or if you like it and what not! Thank you!
Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek.
"Jim?"
James T. Kirk slowly turned around, drink in hand, to find a woman with dark brown wavy curls pulled back into a messy bun. She like most people in the bar that night wore a red Starfleet cadet uniform, hers consisting of a short skirt instead of pants.
"Soph?" Jim said looking at the woman in front of him.
"Jim!" Sophie said squealing and launching herself forward wrapping her arms around his neck. Jim laughed and spun Sophie around in a circle before setting her back down in front of him at arms length smiling at her.
"Sophie Pace. I always did tell you, you look good in red." Jim said smirking, his arms around her waist.
"Your horrible." Sophie said laughing.
"Come on I'll buy you a drink," he said taking her hand and leading her towards the bar.
Sophie smiled and followed him to the bar where he ordered their drinks. The two of them got their drinks and leaning up against the bar together to talk and catch up.
"Wow Soph I can't believe you're really here. I haven't seen you in ages I feel like." Jim said.
"Try a year Jim." Soph said hooking arms with him like they always did making him smile.
"So tell me Cadet Pace what is you are studying now…Communications still?"
"Nope. I changed it about a week after I talked to you. Operations: with a focus on communications and security. I'd like to be a Tactical Officer someday." Sophie said proudly.
"Wow really? That's impressive Soph. So you are actually doing the fighting in security or no?"
"No more like tragedy and such. I'll know how to fi…" Sophie started but was cut off my Jim leaning a little forward on the bar. Sophie stopped talking and could now ear a voice talking to the bartender. She knew that voice, it was her close friend; Nytoa Uhura.
"Hi. I'd like a Klabnian Fire Tea, two Cardassian Sunrises and three Miller Lite Classic beers, no slim-shots, anything on draft." Uhura said to the bartender.
"That's a lot of drinks for one woman." Jim said leaning forward more so the woman could hear him. Sophie rolled her eyes and tried to tug Jim back.
"Jim stop." she said quietly.
"I got this Soph." Jim said shrugging her off.
Uhura gave Jim a look before looking back at the bartender.
"And a shot of Jack, straight up."
"Make that two, her shot's on me." Jim told the bartender.
"Her shots on her. Thanks but no thanks." Uhura replied to Jim before spotting Sophie next to him leaning on the bar looking pissed at Jim.
"Don't you want my name before you completely reject me?" Jim wondered.
"I'm good without it." Uhura replied trying to figure out who the guy with Sophie was.
"You are good with out it." Jim said flirting causing Sophie's stomach to sink a little bit. "It's Jim. Jim Kirk."
Uhura's eyes widen slightly before she recovered. Sophie had told her about him, her best friend and the guy she's been in love with for 8 years. She couldn't believe Jim was ignoring Sophie and hitting on her at the same time. Sophie nodded to Uhura from behind Jim to confirm her thought. Uhura sighed and turned back to the bar ignoring him.
"If you don't tell me your name, I'm gonna have to make one up." Jim said obviously not getting she didn't want to talk to him.
"Jim…" Sophie tried again, but once again got shut out.
"Uhura." Uhura said after a while.
"Uhura? No way, that's the name I was gonna make up for you. Uhura what?"
"Just Uhura."
"What they don't have last names where you come from?"
"Uhura is my last name."
"They don't have," Jim started as he tried to think, "first names in your world?"
Uhura rolled her eyes and smiled slightly but didn't answer. So Jim decided to move closer to her and leaned next to her on the bar leaving Sophie alone where she stood.
"Ok so you're a Cadet, studying. What's your focus?" Jim asked.
"Xenolinguistics. Let me guess: you don't know what that means." Uhura said turning to him.
Jim just smiled, "Study of Alien languages: phonology, morphology, syntax, it means you've got a talented tongue."
"For a moment I thought you were just a dumb hick who only has sex with farm animals." Uhura replied looking around for Sophie only to find her standing alone with a drink in her hands.
"Well…Not only." Jim said laughing a little.
"This guy bothering you?" another Cadet asks Uhura, causing her and Jim to look at him. Sophie suddenly looks at Jim and Uhura then the guy talking to them, she didn't know him, meaning he was new.
"Beyond belief but nothing I can't handle." Uhura said turning back to the bar.
"You can handle me. And that's an invitation." Jim says.
"Hey! Mind your manners." the Cadet said spinning Jim around. Sophie sighed and walked over to them standing next to Uhura.
"At ease, Cupcake. It was a joke." Jim said patting him on the cheek.
"Jim stop." Sophie says coming to stand in between him and the Cadet.
"What was that?" the Cadet demanded.
"Move Soph." Jim said shoving her towards Uhura. "You heard me Cupcake."
"You know how to count farm boy? There's five of us and one of you." the Cadet said as 4 guys joined him from behind.
"Okay, so go get some more guys, come back and then it'll be an even fight."
"Jim please…" Sophie said.
Yet before Sophie could say more, the Cadet swung his fist hitting Jim square in the jaw, causing Sophie and Uhura to gasp. Jim recovered from the punch and stood up a little straighter before hitting the Cadet hard causing him to fall backwards, the fight had just begun. The four other Cadets then closed in on Jim, grabbing him and beating him and throwing him around the room. A punch from another Cadet and Jim hits the floor hard.
"Jim!" Sophie yells. "Guys stop! He's had enough! Stop!"
The men don't listen to her but continue to hit, throw and kick Jim around the room, breaking tables and glasses along the way. Jim was bleeding everywhere but would always get back up. Finally the Cadet in the beginning threw Jim onto a table, grabbed hold of him and started to punch him over and over and over.
"Enough!" Uhura yelled as Sophie stood there watching in horror as Jim got beat up. "He's had enough!"
The Cadet however did not stop until finally there was an ear-piercing whistle coming from a man standing in the doorway, who was none other, then Captain Christopher Pike.
"Outside, all of you. NOW!" Pike ordered.
"Yes sir." the cadets replied filling out quickly.
"You alright son?" Pike asked Jim.
"You can whistle really loud. Did you know that?" Jim replied slurring his words before he promptly passing out. Sophie slowly approached Captain Pike and looked down at Jim with sad eyes.
"Captain Pike." Sophie asked.
"Yes Cadet…"
"Pace. Sophie Pace."
"Yes Cadet Pace?"
"Sir. May I stay with him? He's one of my best friends sir."
"Of course." Captain Pike replied helping Sophie sit him in a chair before sitting himself. Sophie then rushed around to get some tissues and wipes before starting to clean him up.
"What's his name?" Pike asked after a few minutes of silence.
"Jim Kirk. Well, James Tiberius Kirk. I've known him since we were little sir." Sophie replied wiping his chin.
"Kirk huh? hmmm." Pike said more to himself. "And what is you are majoring in Cadet?"
"Operations Division." she replied.
"So you are the one I've heard about. Impressive Cadet." Pike answered looking up at her.
"You've heard about me?" she said pausing her work on Jim.
"Yes. You're one of the best according to Commander Spock. I'm looking forward to working with you in the future." Pike praised her.
"Thank you Captain" she replied with a smile.
Just as Sophie finished speaking Jim groaned in agony and rolled his head to the side where Sophie was. Jim tried to open his eyes several times before finally opening them and looking straight into Sophie's eyes.
"Soph?" Jim said hoarsely
"Hey. How do you feel?" she said softly.
"Like hell." he replied chuckling a little. "You ask me that every time something like this happens and it's always the same answer."
"Well, I have to be sure James." Sophie replied in mock sternness. Pike watched on in amusement as he watched them interact with each other. "Jim this is Captain Pike."
Jim nodded and then stuck two pieces of tissues up his nose when Sophie gave them to him.
"You know I couldn't believe it when Cadet Pace here told me who you were." Pike started off.
"And who am I Captain Pike." Jim said taking a drink of his mixed drink.
"Your fathers son."
Jim stared at him before holding up his drink, "Can I get another one?" he asked to the bartender.
"No Jim you've had enough." Sophie said firmly.
"For my dissertation I was assigned to the USS Kelvin. Something I admired about your dad, he didn't believe in no-win scenarios."
"Sure learned his lesson." Jim replied as if he didn't care.
"Jim!" Sophie gasped quietly from beside him. Jim looked over at her and sighed before turning his attention back to Pike.
"Depends on how you define winning. You're here, aren't you?" Jim shrugs. "That instinct to leap without looking that was his nature, too. And in my opinion it's something Starfleet has lost." There was another pause from Pike before he continued to speak. "Those cadets you took on, they'll make competent officers but you can bet your ass they'll run home to momma the minute they're looking down the barrel of a Klingon phaser cannon."
"Why are you talkin' to me man?" Jim said a little annoyed.
"I looked up your file while you were drooling on the floor. Your aptitude tests were off the charts. So what is it, do you like being the only Genius Level repeat-offender in the Midwest?
"Maybe I love it." Jim replied as Sophie rolled her eyes.
"So your daddy dies. You can settle for a less-than-ordinary life. Or do you feel like you're meant for something better? Something special?" Pike finished.
There was a pause in the conversation and Sophie was restless about how Jim was going to respond to this.
"Enlist in Starfleet." Pike stated.
"Enlist?" Jim said chuckling. "You must be way down on your recruiting quota for the month. You know why people join Starfleet, because most of them have low self of steam," at the statement Sophie sucked in a breath, "they want to feel like the belong somewhere when really they are just a bunch of losers in matching uniforms." Jim finished.
Pike looked at Jim then glanced at Sophie to see her stiff in her seat with tears threatening to fall. Jim was looking at Pike then glanced at Sophie and realized his mistake.
"Shit Soph. I didn't mean that. I...I know that's not why you...that's not…I'm…Soph..." Jim said stuttering to try and apology to her.
"Are you done?" Sophie said in a quiet voice. Jim nodded slightly wide-eyed at her.
"I've got to go Jim." she replied standing up. "Sorry Captain Pike."
"No problem Cadet." Pike replied watching the two.
"What!? You just got here." Jim said standing up as well.
"I leave first thing in the morning." she said quietly facing him.
"But we've barely seen each other!" Jim argued.
"And who's fault is that?" Sophie said heatedly. "I have tried to call you for THREE days, but you never answered!"
The two friends stood there looking at each other. Taking a deep shaking breath Sophie looked around the bar then back at Jim.
"You want to know why we didn't get to catch up tonight? Because you were to busy hitting on my friend who was clearly not interested and then getting into a fight with 4 guys and getting the shit beat out of you." Sophie stated angrily. "Once again James T. Kirk had to show he was the ladies guy, a guy not to mess with. I guess it was just some stupid dream that when you would see me, you'd want to talk to me, spend time with me and not any woman that is breathing and has great legs. I wanted to tell you how the last couple of weeks have been complete shit, that the nightmares have been coming back," she said as he sighed at hearing the nightmares were back, "to tell you everything like best friends should, but I was wrong. Wrong to believe you'd actually want to spend time with me after we hadn't seen each other in over a year!" Sophie said in cold voice, and Jim he could see the anger, the disappointment in him coming through her voice and eyes.
"But that's you James. And I can't change that no matter what. I'm not blaming you for being who you are, I'm just wish for once you'd want to spend time with your best friend of 16 years." Sophie paused looking at Jim. "I knew I shouldn't have come out tonight, I was just setting myself up for disappointment. Yet I couldn't help it because I so desperately wanted, needed to see you Jim, to see that you were aliv...but now I know I probably shouldn't have come." she said softly tears welling up in her eyes.
Jim looked down at his feet in shame as the words sunk in. In all their years together, Sophie had never told Jim off like that and it hurt. It hurt worse knowing that Sophie was disappointed in him. Sophie stepped forward closing the distance between Jim and her before placing her hands on either side of his face.
"It was good to see you Jim. I'll call you...sometime." Sophie said kissing his temple softly. Jim closed his eyes for a moment before opening them to see her moving away from him. He grabbed her hand quickly bringing her back into a hug wrapping his hands around her shoulders. At first her hands were limp before wrapping her around his waist.
"I'm sorry Soph. So sorry." Jim whispered so Pike couldn't hear. "I..."
"I get it Jim." she replied just as soft cutting him off. "You didn't mean it. You never do."
Jim took a deep breath before kissing her forehead and letting her go. Sophie looked at Jim one last time, before turning to Captain Pike.
"Sorry Captain." she said.
"It's alright Cadet. I'll see you in the morning." Pike said in a concerned tone.
Sophie nodded and walked out of the bar without a backwards glance to Jim, who was still staring at her as she left. Jim stood there rooted to his spot where Sophie left him for a few more minutes before finally sitting back down and looking at Pike.
"Are we done here?" Jim asked quietly.
"No we're not. Enlist, because if you're half the man your father was Jim, Starfleet could use someone like you. Enlist in Starfleet and show Cadet Pace you want to change, I know it's none of my business, but she'll be the best Tactical Officer in a long time in about three years. You could be an officer in four years, have your own ship in eight."
"We done now?" he asked again glancing every now and then at the door.
"Riverside shipyard. Shuttle for new recruits leaves tomorrow, 0800." Pike says standing up. "Your father was Captain of a Starship, for twelve minutes. I dare you to do better."
And with that Pike left the bar as well, leaving Jim Kirk alone with his thoughts.