"Location, Location" (G)
Title: Location, Location
Wordcount: 463
Rating: G
Characters/pairings: Kirk(/Enterprise), Scotty
Challenge: #1, "Lady"
Notes: "Kirk has insomnia" seems to be a regular theme in recent fic. Ah well.
Jim has trouble sleeping, all through the time he spends at Starfleet Command. He tosses and turns and finally gives up most nights, sitting up against the wall. It's not that it's too loud, that there's too much noise. He can deal with noise; he did live at the Academy for three years. He's not really sure what's keeping him up now.
If asked, he would probably mention all the people who died at Nero's hands, or watching Vulcan disintegrate without being able to do anything to stop it. He could make the case about mind-melding with the other Spock, the emotional trauma he got a sense for and that hasn't quite left him. And though he would never mention this to anyone else, he could even blame his insomnia on finally facing down and defeating the enemy who killed his father, all those years ago.
But none of those things are keeping him awake.
The problem persists up to the night before liftoff on their first mission. After yet another sleepless night, Jim gives up as light first touches the eastern sky and staggers out, still in yesterday's clothes, into the shipyard. Enterprise is waiting for him, tall and elegant and healthier than ever. He smiles up at her. If there's anyone he'll never leave in the morning, it's her.
"You're up early, Captain." Scotty - Jim called him that once, and hasn't been able to call him anything else since - appears at his side, grinning ear to ear and wearing a ridiculously colourful knitted cap. "Here to see your lady before everyone else gets at her?"
"Something like that," Jim replies, smiling back despite the early hour and his lack of sleep. "She all ready for takeoff?"
"And then some," Scotty says. "You'll nae find a better-prepared ship in all Starfleet, now that I've been inside her." He wags his eyebrows suggestively, and Jim has to laugh.
The day passes in a blur of unanticipated rearrangements and last-minute amendments to the crew roster - Spock being only one of the people to sign on just prior to takeoff. Once comfortably settled into warp drive, the types of problems they encounter change, but they all make their way to Jim anyway. By the time Bones forces him out of the bridge, he's worn out and not at all looking forward to another sleepless night.
But when he's undressed and crawled into bed, no longer moving, a new sound fills the room. Up on the bridge, he wouldn't have recognised it amongst all the other noises that Enterprise makes. Now in the relative quiet of his bunk, he can practically feel his ship humming all around him. He exhales, letting himself sink a little deeper into the mattress, and finds his eyes finally slipping shut.
Wordcount: 463
Rating: G
Characters/pairings: Kirk(/Enterprise), Scotty
Challenge: #1, "Lady"
Notes: "Kirk has insomnia" seems to be a regular theme in recent fic. Ah well.
Jim has trouble sleeping, all through the time he spends at Starfleet Command. He tosses and turns and finally gives up most nights, sitting up against the wall. It's not that it's too loud, that there's too much noise. He can deal with noise; he did live at the Academy for three years. He's not really sure what's keeping him up now.
If asked, he would probably mention all the people who died at Nero's hands, or watching Vulcan disintegrate without being able to do anything to stop it. He could make the case about mind-melding with the other Spock, the emotional trauma he got a sense for and that hasn't quite left him. And though he would never mention this to anyone else, he could even blame his insomnia on finally facing down and defeating the enemy who killed his father, all those years ago.
But none of those things are keeping him awake.
The problem persists up to the night before liftoff on their first mission. After yet another sleepless night, Jim gives up as light first touches the eastern sky and staggers out, still in yesterday's clothes, into the shipyard. Enterprise is waiting for him, tall and elegant and healthier than ever. He smiles up at her. If there's anyone he'll never leave in the morning, it's her.
"You're up early, Captain." Scotty - Jim called him that once, and hasn't been able to call him anything else since - appears at his side, grinning ear to ear and wearing a ridiculously colourful knitted cap. "Here to see your lady before everyone else gets at her?"
"Something like that," Jim replies, smiling back despite the early hour and his lack of sleep. "She all ready for takeoff?"
"And then some," Scotty says. "You'll nae find a better-prepared ship in all Starfleet, now that I've been inside her." He wags his eyebrows suggestively, and Jim has to laugh.
The day passes in a blur of unanticipated rearrangements and last-minute amendments to the crew roster - Spock being only one of the people to sign on just prior to takeoff. Once comfortably settled into warp drive, the types of problems they encounter change, but they all make their way to Jim anyway. By the time Bones forces him out of the bridge, he's worn out and not at all looking forward to another sleepless night.
But when he's undressed and crawled into bed, no longer moving, a new sound fills the room. Up on the bridge, he wouldn't have recognised it amongst all the other noises that Enterprise makes. Now in the relative quiet of his bunk, he can practically feel his ship humming all around him. He exhales, letting himself sink a little deeper into the mattress, and finds his eyes finally slipping shut.