TLP #003 Peace

NOTE: Since I'm doing more than one 100-theme challenge, I'm going to use three-letter tags along with their numbers to help keep their titles distinct. This one will be the "TLP" challenge, short for "tulip," since that was the image the list's creator put on its thumbnail: organiclife4me.deviantart.com/…. I'll be using the TLP challenge for the continuing adventures of Scotty (from Star Trek) and my OC, Orin (his adoptive daughter).

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003: Peace

The cheers in the courtroom had been overwhelming. Some of the officers who knew the crew better had actually shouted with joy and jumped up in their seats. Kirk and his crew were shaking hands and embracing shoulders all around them. Scotty and Uhura found themselves spun towards each other, their eyes melting with warmth. They hugged tightly, rocking back and forth, rubbing each other's backs, crying with relief. Orin, who had been sitting with Gillian, Christine, Janice, and Sarek, had managed to break free from her temporary caretakers' hands and leaped right over the final row of jury seats. Luckily, Scotty had released Uhura just long enough beforehand to catch his little "bairn" in midair.

"Oh Unca Scotty! Oh Unca Scotty..." Orin gabbled out indistinct words, burying her chin in his chest and sobbing with joy. The seven-year-old Dinarian couldn't really understand the full effects of the court-martial going on around her--but she could tell, very clearly, that her adoptive father and his dearest friends were very somber and worried. She knew that they had been facing some sort of punishment for what all they had done on their trip to the Genesis planet ("But you did it to save Mr. Spock! Don't dey understand that, Unca Scotty? Why would they disc'pline you for savin' your *friend*?!" she had cried earlier, in her innocence). And she knew that now, suddenly, they had been completely pardoned... everything was all right... the tears were all happy ones now. She understood that much, and her little heart was almost bursting with the freedom from its former weight.

The effect on Scotty's heart was very similar. As he stared at the little girl in his arms, he almost collapsed, trying not to sob as openly as she. It all hit him at once. Orin, Orin... he had been so worried, *so* very worried about what would happen to her, if the trial had gone badly for him and his crewmates. If Scotty and his friends had been sent to a penal colony... he didn't even want to think about that. Who would have been Orin's guardian then? Would the Terran government have taken her away from him? His heavy knees almost buckled. That was why he had intended to leave Orin on Vulcan for the time being, with Sarek and Amanda--the Vulcans would have hopefully seen to it that Orin ended back up with Scotty, or at least with his relatives, after this had all blown over. But bless her, the wee child hadn't known all that--she had just known she didn't want to be left behind again, so she had stowed away, on the rechristened Bounty. She had been with them all through their adventure going back in time, finding those whales, meeting Dr. Gillian... and now here she was, fidgeting between Gillian and their old friend Christine Chapel, who had both agreed (along with their other old friend, Janice Rand, and Ambassador Sarek, who was also there on the bench) to watch over the little Dinarian and keep her quiet during the proceedings.

No need for quiet now. No need for any more stern faces. No need for worrying. It was all over. Everything had worked out more wonderfully than the crew of the late Enterprise could have imagined. They were freed from any punishment, hailed as heroes, and were to be assigned a brand new starship of their own to boot.

After hugging and kissing his bairnie to his heart's content, Scotty looked back over to Uhura--the sweet lady who had been his friend for so many years, and perhaps now was becoming something even more. She smiled gently up at him, still visibly crying herself. "Scotty, you're trembling..." she whispered, her bronze hand lying over the old Scotsman's pounding heart.

Scotty hugged Uhura gently one with one arm, drawing her and Orin both closer to him. He could feel each of their heartbeats as well, pounding against his heavy chest. They *all* were trembling. The relief and joy had hit them all with such force, their bodies scarcely knew how to hold it all in.

"Let's... let's go ootside," Scotty managed an exhausted, but happy, chuckle, and led the little girl and the middle-aged woman out of the silvery courtroom halls, hand in hand.

It was a beautiful early spring day, under a shining sun and a cool breeze. With almost unspoken agreement, the trio flopped onto the grass lawn in front of Starfleet Headquarters. Not caring who knew or heard, they all laughed softly but uncontrollably for a few moments, the tears threatening to come back. Then they sighed, trying to relax, trying to ease their heartbeats into rhythm with the Earth's slower, steadier green blood.

"Should we say a prayer?" Orin whispered seriously.

Scotty petted the top of her downy bangs. "Yes, Dairlin', we should," he smiled tenderly and agreed.

There was a peaceful silence as Scotty, Uhura, and Orin held hands and bowed their heads, each giving a prayer of thankfulness to Heaven and to the One who held it and all of the galaxy side by side. Thankfulness for protecting them and their friends, and their new lives together.

Then Orin nuzzled up to Scotty's chest, and Uhura, with a slowly-growing smile, did too. The old engineer gave a quiet chuckle again, holding them both. He squeezed the two gently. "Lassies," he whispered, "we've been richly blessed."

Sometimes, in the saddest and scariest of moments, the only way to find peace is to just pray, and hope, and go on breathing... and loving. And sometimes, in the very happiest of moments... it is too. A few white and green whisps of early spring trailed over Scotty, Orin, and Uhura, dancing gently but happily in the sky, just like their newly-soothed hearts. *Peace.*

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I'm kind of surprised this is my first real Voyage-Home-based short story, since it's my favorite Star Trek movie, and I've always imagined Orin going along on the adventure in my "timeline" for her. I need to try and find more matches for scenes about it, and some of the other movies, on this current challenge, I think.

Thank you as always for all your support and comments on these little stories and pictures, guys. This one had another very profound yet broad theme word/title, so I hope I did it justice.

PS: The moment where Scotty and Uhura hug each other in the courtroom here is from the real canon. Watch in the background behind Kirk and Spock when they greet the Vulcan extras during that part of the movie to see it.