mermaidtales | Fic: Schmoop Bingo

Title: Little Problems
Words: 1040
Rating: G
Pairing/Characters: Pike, Number One, Boyce, mostly gen
Summary: In which Number One comes back slightly different than she came.
Notes/Warnings: For

schmoop_bingo square 'De-aged (physical)' so yeah, silly de-aged fic.

Phil's voice crackled over the comm system, "Captain, we have a, ah, small problem."

Pike suddenly had a new least favorite sentence, "What is it Phil? Why haven't you cleared Number One for duty?"

"You won't believe me until you see it, you should come on down."

More words he hated. Pike passed the conn to Jose and made his way down to medbay regardless. Questioning Boyce's judgement wasn't a path that usually ended well. As he walked, Pike's mind started coming up with less and less comforting scenarios for why Phil hadn't actually said what happened to Number One. The other two on the team had already gone back to duties. Something must be wrong.

That something was immediately clear to him upon entering sickbay.

Sitting on a bio bed, shoulders slouched a little forward but holding incredibly still, was a small dark haired little girl. Boyce was running a scan as Pike approached slowly. Try as he might, there was no denying the child he saw was his first officer. Number One wore a small, but still too big for her, uniform shirt. The sleeves had been cut so her hands peeked out, the shirt itself belted around her waist to improvise a small dress that fell past her knees.

The thought hit him that it was the first time Pike had seen Number One in a dress. He was pretty sure the universe was laughing at him.

"Good, there you are," Boyce waved Pike over, interrupting his dazed thought process.

"So..."

"Told you, you had to see to believe it," Boyce finished the scan and little Number One let out a small breath of relief. She face was a little looser than her adult version, a little more expressive, though she was clearly trying quite hard to behave. She looked to Pike and around sickbay and he could practically see the little wheels in her head turning behind her blue eyes. She couldn't be any more than 5 years old. She fidgeted as she and Pike sized each other up.

"How do we get her back to normal?" Pike asked quickly.

"Well-"

"It's rude to talk about me as if I'm not here," piped up Number One. She glared a little at them both, the expression more endearing than scary on her tiny face.

"Sorry."

"We'll make it up to you later, now say 'ah'," Boyce added.

"I want my teddy," she replied before she opened her mouth and allowed Boyce to continue his examination.

"Well, I don't think we can get your teddy but I'm sure we can figure out something. Can't we captain?" Boyce prompted. Which was good because Pike's brain was still a few minutes behind on the proceedings and stuck on 'Number One is a child'.

"Yeah, of course. We'll take care of you," he smiled which seemed to please her. He could do this. He's dealt with kids before.

Just not lately.

"Okay," she nodded as Boyce moved onto checking her reflexes, "I like giraffes. I also accept stories. And you haven't told me your name yet and I would like it. You can call me Number One, what may I call you?"

This was rapidly moving up the list of more surreal incidents in his life. "You can call me Chris, it's very nice to meet you Number One."

"Hello Chris," she extended a hand and they shook, little One swayed her feet a bit and her brow furrowed in thought -no change there- as she considered her next question, "Dr. Boyce said you're the Captain. Will you show me your ship and then you could read me a story?" Boyce chuckled and marked something down on his padd.

"Sure. We'll give you a tour as soon as Dr. Boyce is sure you're all right. ...She is alright, right? This is just temporary?"

"She's a perfectly healthy Illyrian child and should be back to normal in about 14 hours if my calculations are correct. Which they are," Phil assured, "I'll get to work on the compound that caused in the meantime, but she'll be fine. It'll break down naturally." Pike felt slightly relieved, 14 hours wasn't so bad. Not even a full day, and she was little, she'd probably nap. Well, he hoped she would nap. Either way it'd be a few hours and then he'd have his first officer back. He could manage.

"May I get down?"

"Yes, you're all done." Boyce was about to get her a step stool when she turned to Pike and raised her arms expectantly.

After a brief pause due to pure bewilderment, Pike stepped forward and lifted her off the bed and set her carefully on the floor. Her small stature suddenly more evident as she stood looking up at the two of them. She seemed perfectly at ease with the strange situation. Trust Number One to be unfussed over weird events, even as a kindergartner.

"Thank you Captain Chris," she said primly. She wore a pleased little smile and for a second Pike almost expected her to curtsy at him.

"You're welcome," he replied, biting back a laugh as he did.

"I trust you can handle a child for a few hours," Boyce said with a little much sass for Pike's taste, so he ignored it. He turned to his miniature first officer instead. She was content to stare owlishly up and wait for him to speak.

"What would you like to see first?"

"Hmm. The engines! I've never seen those except in books."

"Engineering it is," he agreed, though already planning to only take her to the more observational parts of engineering. Well behaved or not she was still five. Pike expected even Number One would be prone to some unwise tendencies at that age.

"Show me please," she said and took his hand as they started to walk out. Pike missed the pink blush on her cheeks but Boyce did not.

Phil sent a message to Cait about her incoming guests as soon as they were out the door. Cait was ready and poised with a camera when they arrived down in engineering ten minutes later. And arrive they did, Number One still happily hanging onto Pike's hand as she asked him questions. Complete with a little stuffed giraffe in tow.