Chris was situated closer to Jim than he had been at the start and like the Captain, his attention was very much attuned to the strippers on stage. He'd started on his third brandy by this time and had a nice buzz going...

Admiral Pike stepped inside and glanced around. He thought that he and McCoy had made themselves very clear the last time this had happened. The boys were not supposed to be going out by themselves without permission. And while neither he nor McCoy had been on board ship at the time Jim and Chris had taken off, it didn't matter. Pike didn't know what McCoy had planned for Chris, but James would not be sitting down at all for the next few days... if he was lucky.