2.2 - Third Time's The Charm

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The next day at lunchtime, Cali was surprised when he received a message from Jim telling him that he wanted to arrive at the testing room an hour early. He was told by his partner that he wanted plenty of time to prepare, which Cali agreed Jim needed, knowing he hadn't done any before today, but was still suspicious of the request.

This meant that Cali was already in the observation room before anyone else. It was nice, watching the test being set up in the empty room, since he could stand casually without the instructors or the test's programmer in the room. He watched as all of the participants that would be playing Jim's bridge-crew entered the room to prepare and be told what to do by one of the invigilators. He gave a small smile and wave to both Bones and Uhura as they entered and spotted him at the window above them.

While Cali would have preferred to have his partner present when he finally had to interact with his commander alone for the first time in the several weeks since the incident, he didn't mind having the time alone to mentally prepare himself either. Jim would be there after and they'd both console each other over their losses.

It wasn't too long before the first inspector came in, giving a look over the early cadet before giving a respectful nod and setting themselves up. Of course, after the first came more and soon all the invigilators were in the room, two closer to the screen with clipboard like PADDs to write down their observations of Jim's character while the others manned the screens to load up and ran the actual program.

Cali noticed with relief that his Vulcan Study professor had yet to enter the room, giving him a little more time to prepare, though he wasn't quite sure how he was meant to do that.

His time, however, was very limited as the door to the observation room opened one more time and in Commander Spock walked.

Spock noticed Cali immediately, still always able to spot the familiar silver hair out in a crowd, let alone when he was standing by himself right next to one of the large windows in plain sight of the room entrance. Cali's head had turned as soon as he had heard the door open but turned back to the room below as soon as he accidently made eye contact with the commander. Spock frowned upon seeing the slight distressed look in those electric blue eyes he was once so familiar with.

Some of the invigilators greeted him as he entered, but he paid them little mind, with the exception of giving them a polite nod of acknowledgment, his mind too focused on the cadet stood not too far from him. Walking over to the window so he could see below, Spock stood a fair distance away from Cali, not being able to stand too far due to the size of the room and the position Cali had placed himself in.

A moment passed between the two in awkward silence, them both rather obviously looking anywhere but each other as they both respectively observed the setting up of the room below. One of the invigilators, who Cali had recognised from the last time he had been in the room to observe Jim taking the test, gave the two a curious look, obviously having noticed the tension between them.

Cali spotted the man's look from the corner of his eye and frowned. Deciding to bite the bullet, he turned slightly to the commander and greeted him politely, "Good afternoon Commander Spock."

Slightly shocked for a moment, Spock did nothing but turn and look at the cadet next to him. Although he had wanted it, he didn't think that Cali would speak to him with so many around to witness them, especially since it was him who had plainly told him how it was best to stop their interactions in the first place. He watched Cali look down again, though still in the direction of himself, and fidget slightly with nerves.

Realising it was his piercing gaze causing the uncomfortable reaction, he returned the greeting, "Good afternoon Cadet Caliaire." After a moment more of Cali looking vaguely in Spock's direction while he looked directly at the cadet, Cali turned back to the window, not sure how to continue the conversation. Spock noting the same tension still present, if not now increased from the awkward interaction, decided to try and talk some more, even though he had never been particularly good at small talk. "Is it your partner taking the test again?"

"Third time's the charm." Cali nodded, looking back at Spock politely, his face still rather downtrodden despite the apparent smile in his tone.

"We will have to see how he does." Spock answered, giving his own nod as he looked back towards the room below. This time, Cali was the one to continue looking at the other, trying to think of a way to continue the conversation, if it could even be called that. After too much time had passed between them, he too looked back towards the window, feeling that it would be too awkward now to say anything in confirmation and not knowing how else to speak.

Although the short conversation was tense and dropped off awkwardly, both participants wanted to continue it, to go back to the times where they could talk so comfortably about anything with the other but neither did, just sitting in the awkward air until Jim finally entered the room.

As he did, Spock moved away from the window to look at the large table console to ensure his test was ready.

Cali watched his boyfriend enter with furrowed brows. Although they had arrived early together, Jim seemed to enter rather late. What also caught Cali's eye was the addition of a red apple on Jim's person, that the man quickly tucked behind him as he sat down in the captain's seat. He was looking rather confident, though he had done last time so that didn't really catch Cali as strange.

Not too long after Jim entered, the test commenced.

Alarms started blaring in the faux bridge as all of the actors set about with the controls. Uhura spun around in her chair, looking very unimpressed with everything. Though her reaction was possibly about having to repeat the same instructions for Jim for the third time, Cali also realised that she was likely annoyed at Jim specifically, remembering what Jim had told him about his previous night with her roommate. "We're receiving a distress signal from the USS Kobayashi Maru. The ship has lost power and is stranded. Starfleet Command has ordered us to rescue them."

"Starfleet Command has ordered us to rescue them, Captain." He rephrased her pointedly, spinning casually in his chair so that he was facing the front again with a smug look on his face. Cali frowned further. He wasn't sure whether to be relieved or worried that he was taking a more laid-back approach this time round. Though, he did giggle slightly when he spotted Bones very obviously roll his eyes at Jim's behaviours as a new alarm started going off at his desk.

"Two Klingon vessels have entered the neutral zone and are locking weapons on us." Bones commented, sounding a lot more serious about the test than his fellow actor, though that was expected of the serious doctor.

"That's okay." Jim smirked, looking around the room to gage the reactions of those around him.

"That's okay?"

"Yeah, don't worry about it." He replied again, sounding just as uncaring.

One of the invigilators questioned, taking a step forward so they could better look at Jim, "Did he say don't worry about it?"

"Is he not taking the simulation seriously?" The other with the clipboard questioned, also moving forward.

Upon seeing the movement above out of the corner of his eye, Jim spun his chair so he could see them, looking down at him in utter confusion. As he did, he also spotted his boyfriend watching in slight concern and winked up at him, smirking as he spun his chair back around again.

The little wink made Cali smile slightly, but he blushed and frowned again when he spotted Spock to his side again, looking at him with his brows furrowed, obviously having returned in time to see the little action.

His eyes were drawn back to the goings on of the test when Bones spoke up again in slight exacerbation. "Three more Klingon warbirds decloaking and targeting our ship. I don't suppose this is a problem either." He stated, turning to look at his friend and faux captain in annoyance making Cali smile slightly again.

"They're firing, Captain."

"Alert medical bay to prepare to receive all crew members from the damaged ship." Jim ordered Uhura behind him, not losing his knowing smirk that was really starting to worry Cali.

"And how do you expect us to rescue them when we're surrounded by Klingons, Captain." She questioned, getting extremely frustrated with how Jim was acting. What was the point of taking the test for the third time if he wasn't even going to take it seriously?

"Alert medical." He repeated patronisingly as he spun around to face her.

Suddenly, Bones called out again, getting worried as more alarms blared, "Our ship is being hit. Shields at sixty percent."

"I understand." Jim replied, taking his apple out from wear he had hidden it and fiddling with it in clear view of everyone.

"Well should we, I don't know, fire back?"

"No." he responded simply, taking a large bite out of his apple. What was he doing?

"Of course not." Bones retorted in irritation.

Suddenly, everyone started looking around in confusion and worry as the screens all started glitching and the power seemed to go out for a second. All of the alarms stopped blaring making the anxious voices of those in both rooms more obvious. Cali turned to look at the room behind him in time to see Spock return quickly to his previous spot at the console.

"What is this? What's going on?" one of the invigilators questioned in panic as Cali looked at the people who were meant to be ensuring such system failures didn't happen during the exam.

Cali's eyes moved over to Spock for a moment, taking a measure of the man who had programmed the test to see how he was taking it. The Vulcan seemed to be completely confused, obviously not understanding what was happening either. Enough so that anyone could likely have read his face if they actually looked at him.

"Hmm..." Jim hummed as soon as the power was back on, making everyone look back at the room, before getting right back on with the test, giving out orders to those around him with his apple holding hand, "arm photons, prepare to fire on the Klingon warbirds."

"Yes, sir."

"Jim, their shields are still up." Bones reminded him.

"Are they?" he countered, taking another obnoxious bite of the apple in his hand.

Looking back at his console in confusion, Bones was amazed to see that Jim was right. "No. They're not. "

"Fire on all enemy ships. One photon each should do it, so don't waste ammunition."

"Target locked and acquired on all warbirds." The cadet below replied, sounded very amused by his captain's behaviours, enjoying the more fun test in comparison to the others he had sit in on, "Firing." Everyone looked up at the main display screen to see the photons shoot out and easily dispatch the enemy warbirds.

Cali almost laughed as Jim made a finger gun at the exploding ships, also spotting the cadet at the com looking highly amused, but managed to stop himself, knowing that the unease in the observation room was rising as he caught sight of Spock's slightly tensed shoulders behind him as he turned his head slightly. "All ships destroyed, Captain."

"Begin rescue of the stranded crew." He ordered, quickly jumping up to his feet and continuing talking as he wandered around his chair, obviously extremely pleased with himself, even as he spotted Uhura facepalm at her desk. "So, we've managed to eliminate all enemy ships, no one onboard was injured, and the successful rescue of the Kobayashi Maru crew is underway." As he finished his little victory lap, he took another bite of his apple and looked up at the window, making eye contact and smirking up at the wide-eyed Cali.

"How the hell did that kid beat your test?" One of the instructors turned to ask Spock, no one in the room truly believing that he had done it.

Cali's eyes quickly tore away from Jim's and looked over at the Vulcan as well, who was now looking extremely perplexed, a frown clear on his face as he looked up from the console. "I do not know."

Although all those who didn't know him would believe that he was simply put off by the fact, Cali looked into the Vulcan's eyes and could clearly see him anger. The Polyvore had never seen the Vulcan look so angry, obviously furious at Jim for beating his test. Though Cali couldn't blame him. That technical glitch was too suspicious to be a coincidence. Jim had cheated. And he had cheated the wrong person.

While everyone in both rooms was still practically frozen at the outcome of the test, Cali spotted Jim casual stroll out, throwing his apple to one of the cadets who were in his room. Needing to go after him, Cali bowed his head down and tried to rush out of the room after his boyfriend as inconspicuously as possible. Even so, he did feel the Vulcan's angry look dig into his back as he left, causing a shiver to run down his back.

As he entered to corridor, he spotted Jim stood not too far away, obviously waiting for him. As soon as he approached his smug looking partner, Cali frowned again, "What did you do?"

"I beat it." Jim replied with a smile, but Cali didn't replicate it, still looking really worried for his partner.

"Jim, I'm serious, I've never seen Spock look so angry, you shouldn't have done that." Although Jim felt slightly worried about himself for a moment before managing to shake it off, he couldn't help but smile. Cali had actually acknowledged his other love interest. That was a good step. He felt a twinge of pride for having caused it.

"Please, he'll never work out how I did it, it'll be fine my angel." He comforted, lacing his fingers with Cali's and beginning to walk down the corridor, away from the room, "Now come on, let's celebrate my victory!"

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