The Cadet

Retribution

"Do you even realize what would happen to you if anyone found out!?"

I looked at Evelyn with a face of complete disbelief. Part of me wanted to grab her and shake her senseless for how reckless she's been. She could lose everything she's worked so hard for, and would never practice anywhere, let alone on a starship. Not to mention, she'd be blacklisted from any respectable college in the country.

"There's so much at stake here! Not just for you, but also anyone who knows or is involved!" I shouted, pacing the room in front of her.

"I know, I-"

"You what? You forgot he was not only your professor but also your commanding officer?" I interrupted, running a hand through my hair.
"Shit, Evelyn. Maybe I should have been more conscientious of our relationship!"

"Oh don't flatter yourself Leonard! It's not like that! I didn't mean for any of this to happen!" She shouted back, her face contorted in a mixture of pain and anger.

"What exactly didn't you mean to happen? 'Oops! I accidentally slept with my professor! Sorry!'. What do you think an ethics board will do!?" I shouted, giving her a questioning look.

"I didn't sleep with him!"

I stopped pacing and looked at her. She looked down at her hands, her tear stained face barely visible through her messy curls. I started to feel guilty about getting so angry with her as I looked at her sitting there, all kinds of falling apart on my couch.

"Listen, I know I messed up. Big time. I didn't mean to catch feelings for Spock, I just did. I actually tried really hard to just hate him instead." She said, halfway laughing as she spoke. "I think he did, too. But for some reason, we kept just-" she flailed her hands, as if she was trying to grasp the situation from thin air. "-coming back to each other. Despite how much we hurt one another, despite how angry we got with the other. Despite how illogical it was," she said, looking up at me with teary eyes. She had a faint smile on her lips, "we just couldn't stay away from each other."

I sighed, sitting down on the couch next to her. She tensed slightly, but eased into my shoulder as I embraced her. We sat there in silence for a while before I spoke up.

"So-" I started, looking down at her with a mischievous grin, "-you got a thing for pointy ears?"

SPOCK POV

There was nothing I wanted more than to pummel this cadet into oblivion. It was easy enough to find him, he was permanently engrained into my mind.

He stood in front of me, his eyes eyes so wide I was surprised they didn't fall right out of his sockets.

"Commander Spock, sir! I'm not sure what you're telling me to do." He said, his voice shaking as I stood over him. He was only in his boxer shorts and a T-shirt as I had just very violently woke his whole apartment up. His roommates stood at attention near the couch, not daring to speak.

"I asked you to please remove your T-shirt. If you do not, I will forcibly remove it for you." I said, with all the calm rage I could muster.

The cadet looked scared, but removed his T-shirt anyway. Underneath, he revealed long scratch marks that practically glowed on his pale skin. The dark marks covered his chest, some even looked like they bled.

It took every ounce of self control I had ever learned to not strangle the man in front of me.

"Want to tell me how you earned these marks? Or should I beat it out of you?" I said angrily, inching closer to him.

He didn't move, and did not break attention, but the fear in his eyes told me he was terrified of what was happening.

"It was a hook-up, sir. She was a little physical with me." He replied, his tone wavering as he lied to me.

"I wouldn't call forcing yourself on someone a "hook-up" cadet, nor would I call self defense "a little physical"." I said, coming so close I was about an inch from his face. I glowered down at him, watching his face fall. "Lie to me again, cadet, and you'll find yourself in the hospital."

His two roommates looked at each other before speaking up.

"Commander Spock, sir! Permission to speak, sir." One said, his chest heaving up and down.

"Granted."

"Sir, Cadet Anderson came back to the apartment boasting about bagging a girl that had been, quote, "practically begging me to rape her"." He said, giving his friend a look to confirm. The other nodded, affirming his friends story.

"Thank you, cadets. You'll be questioned again at Cadet Anderson's hearing." I said to them, turning back to Anderson. "As for you," I started, giving him my hardest look. "you'll be spending the night in a cell."

The cadet began to argue, but I cut him off. "I have already alerted the authorities, they are outside waiting for you. They were going through the tapes in the dissection labs to confirm Cadet McLaren's story."

I turned to leave, but heard the cadet mutter a derogatory term in regards to Evelyn. Without thinking much, I turned around and blew my fist through the cadets face. The other two cadets looked at me, stunned that I had just struck a student.

I straightened my shirt, looking down at the bleeding cadet as he held his nose.

"Let's speak more respectfully, shall we?"

I practically ran back to my own apartment, knowing that Evelyn was there where I left her, teary eyed and hurt.