✴GUESS✴ // Jim Kirk [1]

Chapter 3

✴NEVER DID GET THAT ANSWER✴

Eleanor arrives at the shuttle and sees her Dad, walking up behind him she wraps her arms around him, "Good morning, Daddy."

Pike smiles hearing his daughter "Morning sweetheart." he says. "Do you think he'll show up?" Eleanor asks quietly to her Dad.

"I'm not sure, but I got a good feeling about him." Pike answers, with a slight smirk, "Get to the shuttle." Pike says smiling at his daughter.

Eleanor smiles and gives him a kiss on the cheek, "I'll see you later." she tells him while climbing into the shuttle. She walks down the rows looking for Uhura, making sure to duck under a bar at the beginning of the row.

"Ellie, right here." She turns towards the voice, seeing Uhura with her hand raised up in the air and a smile on her face. "Hey" Eleanor says with a smile as she sits down next to Uhura.

Jim climbs into the shuttle looking around with a stupid grin.

Eleanor sees him, she can't help thinking about how happy she is that he came, or how 'He looks like a kid in a candy store' she giggles at her own thoughts causing Uhura to look at her strangely.

Jim looks down a row to see Eleanor smiling at him, he puts on his best flirtatious smile and starts to walk down her row when, he hits his head on a beam, he can hear Eleanor chuckle.

He ducks under the beam and continues to find a seat, preferably close to Eleanor.

Eleanor watches Jim walk down the aisle, but slows down when he passes the cadets he fought with from last night, "At ease, gentlemen." he says, while doing a mock salute, and finds a seat rather close to her.

Smiles at her saying "Never did get that answer, did i get it right?" though he's clearly joking, Eleanor laughs, shaking her head no.

Jim chuckles, he really does like that laugh. He buckles up, and hears an argument coming from the bathroom?

"You need a doctor." A female officer says irritatedly, to a man that looks, well, homeless. "I told you people, I don't need a doctor. I am a doctor." The man fires back, the officer now practically pushing him towards Jim's row, and what seems to be the seat next to him.

"You need to get back to your seat." The officer is getting really upset now, "I had one in the bathroom with no windows" the homeless looking man states, 'He was going to stay in the bathroom?' Jim thinks with a confused face.

"You need to get back to your seat, now!", " I suffer from aviophobia. It means fear of dying in something that flies.", 'Why is he here?' Jim thinkst, "Sir, for your own safety, sit down or else I'll make you sit down." The officer almost yells, "Fine." The man says, rather intimidated by the woman, and starts to buckle up in the seat next to Jim.

"Thank you." With that the officer leaves.

"This is Captain Pike. We've been cleared for takeoff." Captain Pike is heard over the intercom.

"I may throw up on you." The man tells Jim while leaning towards him, Jim looks at him a little freaked out, just a little. "I think these things are pretty safe." Jim tries somewhat to comfort the man, but it kind of back fires.

"Don't pander to me, kid. One tiny crack in the hull, and our blood boils in thirteen seconds. A solar flare might pop up and cook us in our seats. And wait 'til you're sitting pretty with a case of Andorian shingles. See if you're still so relaxed when your eyeballs are bleeding. Space is disease and danger after darkness and silence." The man says while taking out a flask.

Jim looks over to Eleanor, seeing her looking at the guy with the same face as him, freaked out, yet very amused at the same time. She looks over to him and smiles, when they make eye contact, her shoulders start the shake with laughter, and turns back to Uhura.

Jim can't help but smile, her laugh and smile are just contagious. What's with this girl, He couldn't get her out of his head all last night.

Jim turning back to the man next to him says "Well, I hate to break this to you, but Starfleet operates in space.", honestly curious as to why he would be here if he clearly hates space so much.

"Yeah, well, got nowhere else to go. The ex-wife took the whole damn planet in the divorce. All I've got left is my bones." He responds by taking a swig from his flask, he turns to Jim and offers him a drink.

"Jim Kirk" Jim says, before taking a swig from the flask and handing it back to the guy.

"McCoy, Leonard McCoy.".

✴~✴~✴~✴~✴

[EDITED: 8/29/25]