[NVC Day 27] -- [Open Office] -- [Open to All]

[kirktastic]

With the sentencing over, the Enterprise would soon be leaving Sha'Kwai and returning to its original mission. By this point, Jim was ready for it. He wanted off the planet, his wanderlust getting the better of it. It was the longest stretch of time he had spent in once place minus his years at the Academy - always moving, always traveling, wanting

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[janice_rand_sir]

Despite her best efforts at concealing it, no observer could have failed to recognize the look on Janice Rand's face for quiet pleasure and pride as she walked through the open door and over to the Captain's desk. The famous Enterprise and its famous Captain, and Starfleet had allocated her to serve them both - any young yeoman would have been delighted.

Still, Janice tried to keep her expression at least mostly professional as she saluted the young man behind the desk. "Yeoman Janice Rand, sir, reporting for duty. I've just been detailed to the Enterprise."

[janice_rand_sir]

"Kick-boxing," Janice returned without hesitating. Training in kick-boxing had been the quickest and easiest way to hone her unorthodox skills into something with some semblance of structure and finesse. "But I could learn other stuff, I'm sure, sir," she added, earnestly.

[kirktastic]

"If you end up coming on away missions to help, you'll need to be trained well in hand-to-hand or something else." He offered out his hand. "Sorry if we got off on the wrong foot... Jim Kirk. You already know me as Captain." He tried not to sound like as much of an ass as he had been moments before.

[janice_rand_sir]

"Anything you like, sir," she agreed readily. "I always kind of wanted to learn hand-to-hand, instead of just my rough-and-tumble stuff."

She took the offered hand. His voice was lighter, now, and she couldn't help noticing, as she shook his hand, that his eyes were incredibly blue.

"Nice to meet you," she said, a little shyly. "I'm just Janice."

[kirktastic]

"Well, Just Janice," teasing lightly. Why did it seem the women who ended up working for him start off with the first name of 'Just'? "Have a seat. Thirsty?" He gestured to the pitcher beside him, grateful that--

That reminded him. He grabbed a PADD and his fingers flew over the screen. Within seconds, he started transferring everything on the replicator menu in his room to his one on board the Enterprise. It'd make for some great new additions - he would add it to the ship's main computer later.

[janice_rand_sir]

"Please," she said, idly watching his fingers skimming over the PADD. Quick fingers. Could have been a surgeon or something.

Flushing slightly with relief, she pulled out the chair and sat down.

"I really didn't mean to show up and cause you a load of trouble," she said apologetically.

[kirktastic]

Insert perverted comment here about quick, skilled fingers.

When he was done, he poured her a drink and offered it to her. "It's good stuff. Some sort of fruit that tastes like strawberry lemonade. And look, you're just following orders. I can understand that. Just been a lot of shit passing down from Starfleet lately and I thought you might be more of it. Instead... well, we'll see how this works out. I don't just want anyone going through my paperwork."

[janice_rand_sir]

"Thank you," Janice said, taking the drink from him with a slight smile.

"And - well. I can understand that. But - if I'm your Yeoman, I'll report to you, not over your head to Starfleet, sir, won't I? Captains have yeomen to be their personal assistants, as I understand it. So when you don't particularly want to waste an afternoon ticking boxes on equipment requests, or signing off on leave, you can make me do it."

Perhaps a simplistic explanation of how it worked, but there it was.

"And I replicate coffee with the best of 'em," she added brightly.

[kirktastic]

The coffee line made him grin. "If you're any good with coffee, we'll get along just fine in the morning." A cup of coffee with morning paperwork always was a good way to start it. Specially since Bones was a damn coffee-hog.

"It's the little things I work hard on. Making sure that crew members who don't like each other end up in seperate parts of the ship for quarters, making sure people dating or married end up on similar shifts. Getting the latest recipes for the replicators," he gestured to his PADD, showing that's what he had just been doing. "'Bout a million little things that get caught up. I need someone who can think like that. So far I've only trusted my First Officer to handle it, really."

[janice_rand_sir]

"Oh, I'm good with coffee," she assured him, smiling. "And I'm pretty good with minutiae, too. So if that's what you need doing, I can surely do it. I'm good at concentrating on repetitive stuff for long periods of time."

You learned that, in a slave colony.

[kirktastic]

"I'll try not to make it any more boring than it actually is," Jim chuckled a little. Paperwork got dull, fast. Would that mean she would have to have access to his office? He wasn't much for having people invade his privacy. Something he would have to look into. Trust, Jim. You gotta learn it.

[janice_rand_sir]

Janice shrugged. "I don't expect to get much exciting stuff thrown my way while I'm a yeoman, sir, don't worry. I won't blame you for it. I guess I'm here because Starfleet thought you should be spared all the really really boring stuff."

She surveyed him critically. "And you probably do need someone to bring you your coffee and snacks, too."

[kirktastic]

"Hey! You're not allowed to give me that look!" He laughed, only because he was so familiar with it. "That's the same look Bones gives me when he thinks I haven't been eating enough." Definitely not fair. Bones was bad enough!

"As long as you realize that you have to disregard any order Bones gives about my food," couldn't help himself.

[janice_rand_sir]

"Bones is...the ship's doctor?" she guessed. And then shrugged, smiling. "I'm your yeoman, not his." She paused. "Although I hope you realize it's part of my job to make sure you eat." Another little pause. "Sir."

She looked him up and down again, subtly. She was obviously going to have to enforce this. But perhaps he'd be more willing to be coaxed by her than by this Bones guy? Janice could be quite persuasive.

[kirktastic]

"Sorry. Yes... Bones is Doctor McCoy." Damn, he tried hard to not call Bones Bones when it counted like this. "Very nice touch there with the sir," a gentle tease, but he could see an aggression in her that was almost refreshing. Bones would love an ally in this, Jim was sure. "And I do eat, and it isn't that I forget about it, just don't get the urge to." He tactfully avoided commenting how his stomach got rid of anything he put in it when he was stressed out enough.

[janice_rand_sir]

"Well," declared Janice, decisively, "I'm sure I can give you the urge somehow when you start to look like you're wilting, no problem. An attractive sandwich stuck under a guy's nose often does the trick."

She smiled at him. "Don't worry. I'm here mostly to do your paperwork, not to boss you about, honestly. I know how the chain of command goes."

She made big eyes of earnestness. She really did want to be on the Enterprise. And she wanted him to like her, not resent her.