Beyond the Stars, Beyond the Moon

Part 10: Home coming

Pov: Cassie

I get back to engineering and find Scotty closer to the warp core. "Hey Scotty, I'm going to finish those panels over there that Pavel and I started earlier. Anything else you want me to do?"

"Nah lass, go ahead and get back to Mr Chekov when you're done. Unless you can do me the favor of taking this report to Kirk when you head back up."

"Oh sure. Yeah I can do that." I take the report and put it to the side of the panel I'm working on. As I work, the train of thought I was dreading floods my mind.

I feel awful for Pavel.  Those guys really hurt him physically and it couldn't have done him any good mentally. He was probably so embarrassed. I hear it in the back of my mind like a whisper, but it's there: is Pavel really strong? Of course they had the upper hand in numbers, but it didn't really seem like he tried. I shake the thought out of my head and continue working.

Why should it matter? I'm crazy about him. I think I might even love him, but it's too soon to tell. Mother believed in love at first sight, but I have to agree with father on that one: illogical. I've never been in love before. Is this what it feels like?

When I first saw him when I boarded the Enterprise, I did feel like he had some sort of gravitational pull on me that was really fascinating. He still has that effect on me now too. I'll figure it out eventually. But I think the kiss said a lot too. It was beyond perfect; nothing I've ever felt before.

It's really hard to focus on my work thinking about it, so I hurry to finish up so I can go back to daydreaming about it. Hopefully I can get back to his room to kiss him more, and take care of him of course.

I put my tools away and pick up the papers. Almost forgot I had to take this to Kirk. I head up to the bridge and my brother is standing next to Kirk. Great.

"Hey Cassie! How is he? He alright?"

"Yes he's doing ok captain, thank you. I have these for you from Scotty." I hand him the reports.

"Oh! Yes thank you." He glances over them n then looks back at me as if Spock wasn't there. "So do you know what you're doing on your day off when we get back home?"

"Oh no I don't have plans yet."

"Good 'cause I already made your plans. All of us are going to the annual Starfleet ball." Kirk smiles and Spock stares intently at him. "Relax Spock it'll be fun" he slaps my brother on the back.

I remember hearing about the annual ball, but I never went. There was never really a guy I was particularly interested in going with, and Kane and I used to skip it to study for finals. Although he didn't do much studying. He played games and ate pizza while I studied. Yet somehow he always passed with flying colors. He seemed to know a lot. Sometimes I thought he was merely pretending to be empty-headed.

"Are you going to bring Uhura as your date Spock?" Kirk asks, trying to put pressure on him as Uhura cocks her head to listen from her communications/linguistics position.

My brother is silent and expressionless, looking at Kirk, then looking at me as if he was threatening my soul "don't get any ideas", then he finally speaks up "well now it won't be a surprise, will it captain? My gratitude for being a spoil sport." He keeps his eyes on me and I glare right back at him.

"Will you need anything else captain?" I ask.

"Nope! You may return to Mr Chekov." He winks at me and mouths "I got you" and pats my brother again, signifying he'll talk to him for me. I can't say I'm thrilled, my brother has turned down his arguments without a second thought many times, but I am thankful he's trying to help. I nod and walk off the bridge and head back to Pavel's room.

Pov: Chekov

Sulu walks into our room and takes a good look at me. "Jeez man are you ok? I heard what happened from Kirk..."

"Besides making an absolute fool out of myself in front of Cassie, zhe broken nose, black eye, and bruised stomach...not really no."

"Well here's something that might cheer you up. Guess what's on our day off? The annual Starfleet ball! You gotta ask her."

"Do you think she vould vant to go vith a loser like me?"

"Hey man, you have to think better of yourself. They had you in numbers back there. If it was just Edson it would've been an even fight. But he's locked in detainment now. All three of them are, and you got a girlfriend to take care of. She's still with you isn't she?"

"Yeah. She seemed to like it when I called her my girlfriend." I smile at that, getting a giddy feeling in my bruised stomach, making it feel weird.

"You got nothing to lose and everything to gain by asking her. Hell, if she doesn't want to go to the ball, ask her if she'd rather you watch a movie and you could make her dinner or something. I hear she likes our earthen movies. Maybe you could show her a new genre of movies, one that we would call a porno." He winks and starts laughing hysterically and I throw my ice pack I had on my eye at him, swearing in Russian as I start to laugh a bit too.

"I think she vants to take it slow and I'm ok vith zat. I like her a lot. As long as she's happy."

There's a knock on the door. "Pavel? It's me, I'm back." It's Cassie's voice.

Sulu goes ahead and opens the door. "Hey Cassie how's it going? Come back to take care of the boyfriend?" Cassie blushes. "Yes I have."

She comes over to me and sits on the bed I'm laying on. "Why aren't you icing your eye? Or your nose?"

"Uhh....my ice pack is on zhe floor by Sulu."

She gives the two of us funny looks, then picks it up and gives it back to me. "I won't bother asking about that."

I look at sulu and roll my eyes and head to signal to the door. "Ah, I see, I'll leave you two lovebirds alone. I'll be back so don't get any ideas." And he walks out with a big grin on his face.

"So Cassie...on our day off...it's the annual Starfleet ball...I vas vondering if maybe you vanted to go vith me?"

"Of course I would. It sounds like fun. During my years in the academy I never had a chance to go and no one ever asked me, so this might be fun." She smiles brightly at me and kisses my cheek.

She's here taking care of me so it's only fair I entertain her. I do have some movies I brought from home. Some are pretty old too. "Do you vant to vatch a movie?"

"Yes please! What's a good one you have?"

"Oh! How about zhis one?!" And I pull out one of my favorites, "Terminator Salvation".

"Sure! Are you hungry?"

"I'd say so. I think my appetite is coming back. My stomach doesn't hurt too badly anymore."

"Oh! Here make sure you take these pills Bones gave you." She hands me the pills, water, and some spaghetti from the replicator.

"You read my mind on the spaghetti."

She grabs her plate and sits down next to me as the movie starts, cuddling as close as possible.

Sulu walks back in "hey guys Scotty's about ready down in engineering so we're hitting warp. He asked me to tell Cassie he has a couple small jobs for you in the morning. We should be arriving at earth tomorrow night. What are you watching?"

"Terminator salvation." I respond. "Sit down and vatch it vith us."

"Sure thanks." He sits on the floor by the bed. "Hey Chekov that guy looks a lot like you!"

I laugh "Da I get zhat a lot."

We enjoy our spaghetti and movie and soon after the movie Cassie falls asleep on me. Sulu gets ready for bed too and I tuck myself and Cassie under the covers and set an alarm to wake her up to meet Scotty in the morning. I dream of dancing with her at the ball. She looks so beautiful...

It doesn't seem like I've been asleep too long when my PADD wakes me up, only it's not the alarm I set for Cassie.