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༄ chapter twenty three
-ˋˏ THE DOWNSIDE OF LOVE ˎˊ-
CHRISTOPHER Pike was one of the few people Vera found she could truly talk to about anything. With Christopher, all her feelings were valid, all her jokes was appreciated, all her thoughts could be expressed without judgement of any kind. Vera had been entrusted to him at a young age, a mere sixteen, after her father left and Verenia was unable to watch after her, sending her daughter from their comfortable flat in London to a whole new world in San Francisco.
Ever since then, Vera and Christopher had been the best of friends, with Vera growing closer to both him and his son, Kit, and eventually considering them more of her family than her actual family, including both of her siblings, whom had been studying at Starfleet Academy when she was sent overseas. Of course, she had known the father-son duo long before then, with Verenia and Christopher having been close friends during their time at the academy, but it was only after Cassius left that she truly bonded with the two. And, before she ultimately left, Vera had practically become a part of the Pike family, entrusting Christopher with all her feelings and never going anywhere without Kit.
Vera had hoped that, with her reinstatement into Starfleet and her place aboard the Enterprise, she and Christopher would be able to patch up the mistrust he had gained for her when she left. Unfortunately, as Christopher was named Admiral, neither of them were actually able to ever sit down and talk again, and Vera had become much to enthralled with the safety and stability of her crew to be able to simply take a moment and relax, without any sort of worry nagging at the back of her mind.
The crew of the Enterprise was finally back from their six month mission, though, and everyone had split apart to get time to themselves, a vast majority of them drifting off towards the local bar while Vera situated herself in Christopher's office.
"I mean, it's like every single one of them have some sort of deal with death! Like they have to go and almost get killed every few weeks or their contract expires or something!" Vera growled as she pulled at her hair, curled up into a ball in one of the chairs of Christopher's office as he sat across from her. Christopher listened diligently to Vera's rantings, never once interrupting or stopping her to give a different point of view, knowing she would only listen to reason once her frustrations had properly been let out.
After her conversation with Spock on the Enterprise, it had come to Vera's attention just how keen her friends were to die. Every single mission they went on, in some proportion, had at least one of the people she cared for putting their life at risk in a situation where it shouldn't be in the first place.
First it was Kirk - as expected - then Kit, then Spock - if one could consider him as a friend, of course - then McCoy, then Scotty, then Darcey, then Kit again, and finally Kirk, McCoy, and Spock in one mission. It was tiring to finally have people to care about and watch over, and Vera, having been prone to losing friends so often throughout her life, couldn't stand to see any of their lives at risk.
