A night on the town

Part 18

"Come on kid; give your old dad a break." Analynn continued to scream as Leonard changed her diaper. She had not been her normal sweet natured self since they had left the Enterprise. Well neither had he but they had to figure it out together. "I know baby girl, you miss your momma. I miss her too. But you got to give me a little slack here, I'm tryin'."

Margaret came from around the corner with a sympathetic smile. "Want me to take her for a bit? I know you have been up most of the night."

Leonard turned to look at his mother. "No I'm fine. I just want to hold her... It's the closest thing I got to holding [Y/N]."

"I know honey. But you won't do much good to her if you are falling over exhausted too."

"In a little while. I want to sit with her on the swing a bit." Margaret nodded before walking away, not saying another word. Leonard was trying to do it all to distract himself from the fact he had not heard from you or Jim in over a week now. To say he was losing his mind... he was not going to go there right now.

Analynn was the only thing keeping him sane. As soon as he stepped off the ship and watched the bay doors close, he knew he had made the biggest mistake of his life. Leonard had been so preoccupied with his own wants and desires that he had completely ignored you and what you needed. Now it felt like forever since he had seen or talked to you, and he was worried. What if something had happened to you, he would never be able to forgive himself. Leonard knew he would take living inside a tin can for the rest of his life if it meant that you were happy and smiling. Now if only he got the chance to tell you that.

"On screen Mr. Sulu."

In an instant, the bridge of the Romulan ship occupied the screen. "It is good to finally meet the notorious Captain James Tiberius Kirk in person."

The fact the man knew his full name was not a good sign. "You seem to know who I am... with whom do I speak?"

The Romulan laughed as the rest of his crew were silent as they stood around the bridge. Their cold stares and stiff postures relaying what Jim knew they all truly felt of this interaction. "I am Commander Korron of the Vindel, Captain."

"Commander Korron, I am going to cut to the chase. Why did you attack our science vessels and do you have any of my people?"

The Commander was silent for a moment with a knowing smirk on his face. "Your 'science' vessels were spying on Romulan space, Captain. We did what was necessary to defend our home."

Jim's knuckles were white as they were balled at his sides. "Yes I'm sure you found it necessary to prove your might over two vessels and crews that had little defense against a Warbird. Yes the mighty preying on the weak."

Korron slammed his fist down on his chair. "Your vessels were gathering information on the Romulan Empire. We will not stand for such acts of treachery."

"They were gathering information on the star that is going nova in this sector. They were on the border of the Neutral zone and if you did enough research, you would have found their sensors were not strong enough to detect anything further than that star. Romulan space is five light years farther than their reach. Your people searched the Aurora and downloaded information about Starfleet and their missions; they should be able to confirm this."

Korron had no words for this other than the sick green color his face was now turning in the response to his growing anger.

"I will take it you haven't been told this. I mean if your crew isn't reliable enough to relay that type of information to their Commander, you can only wonder what else they keep from you." Korron looked over to a Romulan woman standing next to him.