heir to the throne

CHARLES “CHARLIE” HENRY ARCHER, JR

“May- May’s a ghost.” Tilly swallowed hard and tried to speak, but-

‘I’m not a ghost! I’m your friend! 

I’m your friend!

You need to start treating me like one!’

treating me like one!

Tilly stared at May and shook her head.

“You’re not my friend! You were my friend, but then you died! You died, and this new you is mean and pushy, and I don’t like that!”

“Hey hey...” Charlie pulls back a little but doesn’t let go, so that he can see her face and put himself in her line of sight, “Focus on me, look at me...when did this start happening?”

“I yelled at May, but of course nobody else can see May, so they thought I was yelling at Captain Pike! And then I quit the Command Training Program! Oh my god, what have I done!?”

Tilly stiffened as Charlie hugged her, but after a few moments, she relaxed.

“Help me,” she whispered, grabbing a fistful of his shirt as if that could somehow help anchor her to reality. “I’m losing it, Charlie. I’m- I’m seeing things.”

Charlie holds tight onto her, rubbing her back and trying to soothe her. It hurts to see his sister in this state and he would do anything to help her.

Tilly’s crying too hard now to speak. She drops to her knees, still covering her ears.

“JUST SHUT UP AND GO AWAY! I’M SICK OF YOU AND YOU’RE ‘HELPING’! YOU AREN’T HELPING ANYONE, LEAST OF ALL ME!”

Charlie didn’t move, he only proceeded to frown even more concernedly at his sister. Utterly confused and baffled at why she seems to be acting in this way that he had never seen her be.

When he held onto her shoulders, she flinched and yelled, “LET GO OF ME!”

‘This isn’t your captain, either! Where is he? Take me to him!’

Tilly closed her eyes and covered her ears, screaming, “shut up shUT UP SHUT UP!!!”

Charlie lets go immediately but he certainly doesn’t move away. If anything, he’s even more alarmed.

Now that he thinks about it, Tilly was suppose to be on the bridge for a command training test. Did something go wrong?

Charlie supposes destiny is just something one couldn’t escape from. He thought he would make his own way in Starfleet, but it seemed inevitable that he’d end up on the Enterprise, just as Starfleet always wanted him to be. After all, it’s the namesake of his grandfather’s ship. They’d always wanted him to one day captain it, despite Charlie’s clear refusal to do so. It’s not that he didn’t want to be captain, but he wanted his own way. 

But now after all the drama of the mirror universe, of finding his way back with his captain, and missing out on the war back home. They’d taken Captain Lorca, the real one, back to Earth to help him recover, but Charlie had to reassigned to the Enterprise under Captain Pike. It was strange, but Charlie figures he’d just have to go along with it, sometimes life is just strange.

seven   spares   a   glance   to   canis   lupus   familiaris ,   assessing   their   threat   level   overall .   UNLIKELY .   posture   relaxes ,   but   grip   remains   firm   on   the   phaser ;   it   seems   that   she   might   have   overreacted .   the   temporal   prime   directive   is   no   reason   to   act   with   violence   first . 

❝     TALK ?   very   well .     ❞   eyes   flicker   around   for   a   console .    ❝     where   am   i ?     ❞  

Charlie gently shushes the angry puppies until they were more calm and mostly staring at the intruder with suspicion. He relaxed a little as he notes that he or the puppies were unlikely to be shot down.