A Captain's Commitment

Chapter 1: Two Captains Meet In A Bar

She nodded. "Yup. Not all of us jumped to Captain quite as quickly, or as unconventionally, as you did, Jim."

"You deserved a ship the moment you walked out of the Academy, more than me—you always were a brilliant leader, and obviously have incredible patience and fortitude to put up with me and Bones through Academy."

She laughed. "I won't argue with you on the patience and fortitude. How is Bones?"

"He's good. As grumpy as ever. Quite annoyed that I got our five year mission extended. He was a tad bit jealous he didn't get an invite to this little get together."

She shrugged, trying not to make a big deal out of it. "I figured you had at least a week or so before you're leaving. We're here for at least three. We can maybe all three get together another time—just like old times."

"He'll be happy to hear it. And what about this? Just me and you—you'd never let that fly back at the Academy. If I remember correctly you made sure that I could never improperly assume anything even remotely resembled a date."

She stared at her beer a moment before taking a long swig. "I just thought it'd be nice for the two of us to get together, you know, the two captains."

He watched her carefully. "Is that what this is? Just two Captains getting together to talk shop? Compare notes about the life of a Captain? I'm a little disappointed."

"What, Jim? Were you hoping for a date, just like you used to when we were cadets? Looking for a one night stand with your old best friend?" her last comments had come out more snippy than she'd meant.

"Whoa, Tara, I—"

She sighed. "I'm sorry, Jim. Just—just forget I said that."

"That's going to be kind of hard to do." He swallowed. "It's probably deserved though, isn't it? I was terrible. All those girls, all those one-night stands." He shook his head and took another drink. "And there you were, the perfect friend, my best friend, the perfect picture of beauty and intelligence, the perfect girl, with the ability to counter and resist every move I made on you." He shook his head. "I'm glad you did—I didn't deserve you."

"I had to protect myself, Jim. And you. You were better than the way you got when you had your sights set on your latest pick. And I knew that if I didn't say no to the date, I wouldn't be able to say no to—to whatever came after it. And I couldn't bear the thought of being the next girl who woke up alone after a night with Jim Kirk."

"You would never have been 'the next girl,' Tara. You were always something special to me."

"You say that now. But I had to be certain. Neither of us would have been able to bear the repercussions."

They were silent for a few minutes. Jim knew she was right. And while he liked to think he would have treated her differently, even he couldn't guarantee what old Jim would have done. "Did—did you hear about what happened. About my sort-of death?"

"There was nothing 'sort-of' about it, Jim. Yes, I read the reports, in detail. You were dead. Bones brought you back to life using blood from that Human Augment."

"Yeah—Khan Noonian Singh. Both my destroyer and my savior."

"Your destroyer? Last I checked it was Marcus who woke him up, Marcus who fired on your ship—"

"True. A Starfleet Admiral," Kirk said with a shake of his head.

"A Starfleet traitor. You seem to keep running into those, don't you? I heard about Balthazar Edison."

"I suppose Edison, Khan, even Marcus... they all felt they were doing what was right, didn't they."

"But that doesn't make it right. Murdering innocents is never right."