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bearsinpotatosacks · 4 years ago

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Cream and Two Sugars- A McChapel fic

Sickbay was quiet, something he would never say aloud due to the infamous rule of "Never say it's quiet because it soon won't be". They'd done all the physicals, the check-ups and the shots, in fact, he was quite surprised at how quickly they could get work done with a day away from emergencies and a crew that would cooperate.

Leonard was trying to get some work done, trying being the opulent word. Christine had just come back from the labs, where she'd been working on some project just to keep up her skills from the long lost days of her scientific career.

Her hair was up today, he could see the lack of tension in her neck. She was behind him now and whistling a tune to herself as she wrote up her findings.

He tried to look back at his PADD to read the report but the words muddled together into the same scribbled nonsense. She stood up behind him and grabbed his mug, her perfume swirled around his head. He gulped.

"Len," She was the only one allowed to call him that. "Coffee?"

"Yeah, but without all that cream and sugar shit you put in yours,"

"I have my tastes and you have yours,"

He scoffed, "Taste's one thing, masking that taste is another,"

The mugs clicked in her hand as she placed them under the duel-stream coffee maker inset into the wall. She started to hum just as she replied, "Just because you have to consume everything as bitter as your soul, doesn't mean I do,"

With that he shot up, discarding the stylus onto his desk as he rushed across the room to her side. He heard her breath catch in her throat as his warming cologne, her floral perfume and the steaming coffee scents all mixed.

Christine had held his interest for a few months now and he had a sneaking suspicion that she did too. He knew there was a possibility she didn't, that her heart still belonged somewhat to Spock. But now the first officer was wholeheartedly in love with the Captain he thought he might have a chance.

"I think we both know my soul ain't as bitter as my coffee," He made sure his words stroked the exposed skin of her neck.

"I don't know, there's little evidence to say otherwise,"

He feigned shock, "Little evidence, have you ever seen me being kind to a child, or one o'those ensigns barely out of the Academy. I think you'll find that I am a very considerate and gentle person-"

She started to prepare her coffee when he turned her around to look deeply in her blue eyes. They gulped in unison and smiled. Both of them knew they were being silly, all these comments and the severe lack of personal space between them.

"Well, you could've had me fooled,"

She leant in and closed her arms around his chest, taking his scent in with deep breaths. He returned her embrace but held back slightly, wanting to nuzzle and kiss her neck, rub circles into her back and hold her tight enough to never let her go.

"Come on Leonard, show me this gentle side of yourself you're so proud of," She said.

She pulled her head back and saw him pull away when she leant in to kiss him. That fiery thrill in her stomach dissipating immediately. Had she been wrong? Maybe she'd missed the signs or let her infatuation mask reality?

"Leonard, did I read this wrong?"

He stood a few steps away when she reached for him. His own fire turned sour, almost purple as guilt became the fuel.

"No, I-"

"No? Then why are you pushing me away? We both want this, what's stopping us?"

He didn't reply. All she got was a look of despair, a sad longing in his eyes. She'd waited for Roger to show her she was truly worthy of devotion but he couldn't. His research was his devotion, never her. Spock had caught her eye and her will but he too had a reason, although a much more valid and understandable reason, not to return her feelings. She couldn't be rejected again, not after she'd been given a whiff of Leonard's splendorous love.

"Is it Starfleet? Because I don't care about them, I've always told you that. They may have trained me as a nurse but they can't control who I share my affections with," She still got no reply. "Perhaps because you're my boss? Well we both know that you've never treated me as your subordinate, everyone is in this sickbay is equally as needed and equally as busy, that's what you always say,"

He shook his head and clenched his hands. His body tensed, he was holding himself back.

"Then what? I know the looks we've shared mean something, the jokes and he touches. So if you're not going to do something about it then I deserve to get a reason why!"

And with that, he exploded, "Because I'm ten years your senior! I've had time to live and screw up and train and have kids and be married and get divorced and chase the possibilities and you're just getting to the good part,"

"You're getting to the part where you might start experimenting with people differently, you know what you like but you want to know how you like it. You're right in the sweet spot of having all the opportunities to get promoted and train to get whatever role you choose. None of that should include settling with a crotchety old coot who doesn't know if he's gonna stay in Starfleet or go home or go somewhere else entirely."

He stepped into her body again and took a moment to caress her face. She shuddered under his hand, letting herself relax and close his eyes, listen to the sounds of his voice.

"I can't offer you stability, I can't offer you a willingness to go off gallivanting to who knows where. I've felt trapped in a relationship before and I don't want you to realise when you're my age that you wasted your time on a crush that got too deep when you could've been out realising who you are,"

She held onto his hand and moved it from her face. They looked away from themselves, distracting themselves withdrawing abstract shapes on the backs of their palms. A rushing blush flooded her cheeks, and his too when she checked.

Why couldn't he accept that she wanted him? Was he that lacking in self-confidence or had someone taught him wrongly over years of disagreements?

"How do you know what I'll want in ten years? And why do you get to say what I should do in my thirties," She knocked his forehead with hers and lowered her volume so only he could hear it. "I've done my experimenting, I've had my major bad relationship and my heartbreaking unrequited love. Can't we have this?"

Their hands broke apart as she ran her hands over his chest. He was lean, not too muscular and not too thin. His scrubs were smooth over her hands as she lifted their heads and prepared their lips to kiss.

"Why can't we have this? Who told us we couldn't?"

"No one,"

Their eyes locked and everything internally stopped, dropping to the floor as her head floated just within her grasp for her to pull herself back together so she could truly enjoy this.

"Then why don't we give it a try, Len," They chuckled lowly at the nickname. "Why don't we try?"

She closed the gap and everything snapped back into place again. Her thoughts flew out of her head. His hands drew across her waist, running through the few loose hairs falling out of her bun and holding her still with a single grip.

They broke but dove back in. She'd never had something like this before. It wasn't passionate, she didn't have the urge to rip their clothes off and truly discover each other right there in the empty sickbay. Instead, it was home. It was warm blankets and old holofilms, family recipes and days spent in bed as snow fell outside.

He hummed as she pulled away to lay her head on his shoulder and lazily stroke the creases in his undershirt. They stood breathless for a moment before she whispered.

"How about we have a proper date?"

"Sounds like a good idea, how about twenty hundred hours in the mess hall on deck eight?"

"Deck eight? But no one goes there,"

He gave her that charming smile and her stomach swooped. "Exactly, no one goes there,"

They met in the middle again and fell into a routine. Her tongue flashed against his bottom lip just as he broke off and twisted his head to plunge in again. His hands grabbed a hunk of her dress in one hand as they bent slightly and bumped into the counter.

"Ehem, doctor,"

They turned with a gasp to see the Captain and the First Officer at the door to sickbay. Jim had that goofy smile on his face and Spock simply raised an eyebrow.

"I was going to say were you listening to Uhura's announcements, but you clearly were occupied," He made a signal for Bones to follow him. "We have a possible concussion on the bridge, come along,"

Leonard gave a wave to Christine and rubbed his face a few times in a failed attempt to hide the raging red flush on his face. She merely laughed and sipped her coffee as he left sickbay.

"Captain, did you get McCoy? Chekov says he's feeling drowsy," Uhura's voice said through Jim's communicator.

"Yes, we have him now, on our way up, Lieutenant,"

"Where was he Captain, I was beginning to think my transmissions weren't going through,"

"Oh not to worry, Lieutenant, Doctor McCoy was just having a meeting with his nurse," He said with a grin just as he collapsed to the floor after tripping over Leonard's outstretched foot.

"Oh sorry Captain, did I trip you up?" He said, changing his tone from joking to serious when he added. "And how about we start acting professionally, you know, how we're meant to?"

Spock gave one of his ghosts of a smile and stated simply, "That seems like far too great of a task for you Doctor, considering how you were just acting with Nurse Chapel,"

Leonard made a mental note to add more security on his office door just as he stepped onto the bridge and caught as woozy Chekov in his arms.

So, I wrote this in one night after having a day of major McChapel feels. Also, Christine is born in 2237 in TOS? I always thought she was closer to Bones' age but I guess not. I hope you enjoyed this, tell me if you did!

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star-trekkin-across-theuniverse · 8 years ago

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Floating, Pt17

Word Count: 3878 Author’s Notes: Tagging - @medicatemedrmccoy, @from-kitten-to-kitsune @suzen23smith @outside-the-government @sistasarah-sallysaidso @nymphadora-blurryface @bluebird214

I stood, waiting, outside Bones’ room. Christine had been unavailable to hang out with, and Uhura had plans with Spock. I didn’t really know anyone else well enough to impose on their off time. So I was waiting outside Bones’ room for him to answer because my only plans for my child-free evening were rubbing bruise ointment on his back.

The door finally opened, and Jim stepped out. I dodged out of his way before he walked into me.

“Hey,” he smiled. “I didn’t think I’d bump into you so soon.”

“Yeah, I’m actually here for Leonard. On account of it being his room.” It felt awkward and forced. Jim was right, eventually we were going to be friends. But at the moment, it felt stiff and uncoordinated to try to have light, meaningless discourse with him.

“Oh, of course.” He stepped aside, obviously feeling similarly uncomfortable. “I’ll confirm the details with you by tomorrow’s Beta shift, Bones.”

“Thank you, Jim.” Leonard raised an eyebrow at me. I held up the salve and stepped into his room. “That was forced.”

“Maybe a little,” I admitted.

“Did you have stronger feelings than he realized?” Leonard demanded. “Because if he’s hurt you, so help me. I don’t care if he is my best friend, I’ll whip his -”

“No, no, the split was amicable. His read of the situation was right on point,” I interrupted, smiling. “It’s just a little weird. It’ll pass.” He narrowed his eyes and I could tell he was trying to figure out if I was lying. I met his gaze, and he nodded.

“Alright. I suppose you’d like to get on with your evening.” He started pulling his shirt over his head. Jim’s words echoed in my head and I pressed my lips together to stop myself from the torrent of questions I wanted to ask him.

“I’m in no rush,” I admitted, looking at my feet, waiting for him to turn his back to me. I looked up and he was staring at me.

“Why not?”

“Chris was busy. Nyota had plans. I’m not in any hurry to head back to my quarters and sit around waiting on Katie.” I forced myself to maintain eye contact. I’d hard a hard time not admiring Leonard’s physique before everything shook down with Jim. Now I had to fight to look away lest I do something completely stupid. He looked like he was going to say something, and then stopped himself, instead presenting his back to me. The bruise was already significantly improved, but he still flinched when I touched his skin.

“Do you have something against warming up your hands before you touch a body, kid?” he complained.

“Are my hands cold, or are you feeling pain?” I countered. “Because they feel pretty warm to me.”

He reached for my free hand and wrapped his hands around it. His were warmer, but not by much. He scowled and placed my hand on his forearm. Again, there wasn’t much in the way of difference in temperature. “Maybe it’s pain. It doesn’t feel that cold now.”

“Mmhmm,” I murmured, concentrating on rubbing the salve into his skin. “I didn’t bring anything for pain with me. I can run back to medbay -”

His hand covered mine, still on his arm. “I don’t need anything for pain, Bryn.”

“But if you’re -”

“I don’t need anything for pain, Bryn,” he repeated. “But since you don’t have any other plans, maybe you could stick around and distract me.”

“I’m terrible at chess,” I offered. He let out a short bark of laughter, and then braced his side. “Bones, you’re in a lot more pain than you’re willing to admit. I think I should get something for you.”

“Just distract me,” he asked. “Not with chess. I can’t stand the game.”

“Yeah, you kind of look more like a poker guy,” I laughed, recapping the salve, and stepping back to hand him his shirt. He pulled the undershirt on, and stepped over to his shelving unit.

“I have a deck of cards and some chips somewhere,” he commented, moving some things on the top shelf. I fussed with the replicator and got us something to drink while he sat and shuffled the cards. “You can play poker, can’t you?”

“You think I got through med school at the Academy without knowing?”

“Couldn’t tell you, I didn’t go to med school at the Academy. Just officer training,” he countered.

“Oh, I didn’t realise!” I exclaimed. “Yeah, Kara and I were the reigning champs of study poker.”

“Study poker?”

“Yeah, kind of like strip poker, but when you won, the loser didn’t lose clothing, they had to answer revision questions,” I laughed.

“I think I’d prefer strip poker,” he chuckled.

“Yeah, but you seem to really enjoy running around topless,” I countered.

“There’s no guarantee if we played strip poker that I’d be the one topless.” There was a challenge there that I knew better than to accept.

“Oh, I’m very good at poker,” I promised. “And you’re unwell. You can lose at strip poker when you’re back in peak physical condition. It’ll be more enjoyable for me.” I winked. He looked so offended that I had to bite my lip to not laugh.

“Oh, you’re on, kid,” he growled. “We’ll see who winds up losing.”

“When you’re healthy, Bones,” I reminded him. The cards snapped as he dealt them, and I couldn’t hide my amusement. “Do you want to see if you can win at study poker tonight?”

“No, I think higher stakes than that,” he countered. “Next shore leave, drinks on the loser.”

“That seems fair,” I agreed.

“I drink very expensive scotch.” He raised an eyebrow. “So save your creds up.”

I looked at my cards and cringed inwardly. It was going to take a great deal of bluffing to win this hand. I put my bet in, and traded out two cards. My hand improved, marginally. Bones traded out a single card. I checked. He raised the bet. I assessed my hand and called. He dropped his cards. He had a straight. I had two pair. He swept the chips to his side, and handed me the deck. The game continued, and I watched as my chips slowly moved over to his side of the table. He was handing my ass to me. He won the final hand and the grin he gave me was part triumphant and part mercenary.

“Top shelf scotch, kid.” He winked. I nodded.

“I let you win.” I winked back and tidied the chips. Before standing to retrieve the box for them, I stopped beside him. “I like expensive scotch too, but it’s more enjoyable to drink with a friend. You need to get some rest.” I wrapped my arms around his shoulders. His arms snaked around my hips and he laid his head against my tummy.

“I haven’t thanked you.” His voice was so quiet I could barely hear it.

“For letting you win at poker?” I laughed. He stood up beside me and pulled me back into his arms.

“You know that’s not what I’m talking about,” he chided. I sighed and pulled out of his arms reluctantly.

“Well, what would we do without you, Bones? You kinda forced my hand.” I headed toward the door. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Science Fair!” Katie woke me with a shake. I was dozing on the couch after my shift and was completely disoriented.

“What?” I asked.

“Mr. Yim is taking us to a science fair!” She exclaimed.

“Why?” I still wasn’t quite awake.

“Our holographic projection program! If we can work out some of the issues with it, he said he’ll take us to the science fair on Starbase 12 when the crew is on shore leave!” She was shaking with excitement. I rubbed my eyes and processed what she said.

“Shore leave? I don’t think there’s shore leave scheduled for a while.” I had to wonder how many months in the future this shore leave was supposed to be.

“It’s super soon, he said. As soon as we get to Starbase 12 for reprovisioning, Jim has authorized crew-wide leave, and I am going to a science fair!” She started going a happy dance. There were worse things for her to be that excited about. I wondered where exactly my brain had been that I hadn’t realized we were nearing Starbase 12, but I suspected I was suffering from selective hearing. I had been pulled in so many directions since the incident with the rock aliens that I wasn’t even sure which way was up. Bones had returned me to three times a week zero-grav drills, and Katie was struggling with her history class because she was focussing all her energy on science. I’d been spending most of the evenings she wasn’t working on the holographic imaging program tutoring her. And on those nights that she was tied up with the pursuit of science, Bones and I had expanded our poker game to include Scotty, Jim, Uhura and somewhat surprisingly, Spock. I felt like I was finally properly integrated into the crew.

“So are you back to school for extra tonight?” I asked, pulling the pins and elastic out of my hair, and combing my fingers through it.

“I am. We might try a larger scale projection next week, so we need to work on debugging it more.” She nodded. I replicated dinner for Katie and I, and when she finished inhaling her meal, she kissed me on the cheek and headed back to the education centre. I checked my appearance in the mirror, and after determining that I looked presentable, I commed Christine to see if she was interested in meeting me in the cantina, heading there before she responded.

Tarin waved from her table when she saw me, and I joined her. It had been ages since we’d sat down and visited, and I was looking forward to catching up. Christine joined us a few minutes later.

“It’s like the stars finally aligned so we could catch up!” Tarin laughed. “I haven’t seen either of you in too long.”

“Katie has been ignoring her history in order to focus on science,” I explained. “And while science is what will get her into the Academy early, she needs all her marks to be obscenely high.”

“So what you’re saying is that she has ninety-nine percent in history, instead of one hundred?” Christine laughed. I joined in.

“It’s funny because it’s true.” I nodded. Tarin grinned.

“My sister entered the academy at 14. I remember my parents worrying about how single-minded she was as well,” she offered. “I don’t think ninety-nine will keep her out.”

“The worst of it is that I don’t know if I want her to go so young,” I admitted. “I only just got her back full-time. To only get three years with her?”

“But once she finished, she can always request assignment with you until she’s an adult,” Christine suggested.

“Which only gives me two more years,” I sighed. “I’m borrowing worries, I know. It’s far too soon to be losing sleep over this.”

“Particularly when you have someone else helping you lose sleep,” Christine winked. I furrowed my brow in confusion.

“But I don’t.”

“I thought you and -”

“Oh no, that ended almost as quickly as it started,” I laughed. “Far too much cloak and dagger, I think, in the end.” I wasn’t about to share that Jim had pinpointed my less-than-platonic feelings for Bones before I had. Or that I had less-than-platonic feelings in the first place.

“Wait, are we talking about you and McCoy, or something else?” Tarin asked. My jaw dropped and Christine burst out laughing.

“Bones is my best friend. There’s nothing going on there,” I denied. Christine laughed again.

“To use our beloved CMO’s own favourite phrase, horse shit,” she chuckled. “If my best friend and I were constantly in one another’s laps like you two are, we’d be assigned shared quarters.”

“Christine, there is nothing happening between Doctor McCoy and I.” I kept my voice calm and steady. “He’s been my advocate and my ally, and he is my best friend shipboard.” Christine arched her eyebrow in disbelief, but let it go.

“Do either of you have exciting plans for shore leave?” Tarin carefully changed the subject. I lifted my hands in disbelief.

“Am I the only person who hasn’t been paying attention?” I asked. Christine shook her head.

“Nope, this is the first I’ve heard of it too,” she replied. “What shore leave?”

“We’ll be at Starbase 12 in about three days. Captain Kirk has authorized ship-wide leave,” she explained. “You seriously didn’t know?”

“I’ll ask Bones about it tomorrow morning.” I looked at Christine. “I hope that doesn’t mean he’s planning education leave for us or something.”

“12 has a pretty basic hospital and medical centre. I can’t think there would be much for us to learn. And he would never consider drilling us off the ship,” Christine said. My comm chirped, alerting me that Katie was headed back to quarters.

“Sorry to cut the evening short, that was Katie,” I excused myself. I wondered about the shore leave as I headed back to my quarters. I couldn’t think of a reasonable excuse for why Bones wouldn’t let medical personnel know about it, but I assumed there would be a reason.

Katie wasn’t in when I got back. I’d asked her to comm me before she came home so I could be back in time, but the education centre was closer than the cantina, and she nearly always beat me. I looked down at my communicator and checked the message. It wasn’t a message from Katie, it was from Bones. I turned around and headed out to his quarters.

“Okay, you’ve summoned me away from drinks with Chris and Tarin. What’s up?” I asked as I entered his quarters. He was sitting on his couch, poring over his PADD.

“This curriculum is ridiculous. Why is it so important for kids to know about history? Shouldn’t Katie be learning about other cultures? Earth history can be summed up in a few words. And then we blew shit up again.” He put air quotes around the last sentence.

“What are you talking about?”

“I’ve been trying to help Katie with her history homework, but I don’t understand why it’s so goddamn important that she know about,” he paused and scanned his PADD “nuclear proliferation in the twentieth century.”

“It’s all related to the Cold War and the space race,” I replied.

“Well aren’t you a happy little ray of history,” he retorted, finally looking away from his PADD. I smiled and sat down beside him. “Your hair looks pretty when it’s down.”

“Uh, Thanks? When did you start helping her?” I asked.

“Ages ago. Her mark dropped to a ninety-six and she was scared to tell you. She thinks you’ll be upset if she doesn’t get early admission to the Academy. I told her you’d probably prefer she didn’t go early, but she’s convinced you’ll be heartbroken if she doesn’t,” he explained. I sighed.

“I don’t think I want her to go early. But I want her to have the opportunity to, if that’s what she wants,” I admitted. “Does that make sense?”

“Of course it does. But you should tell her that,” he advised. I nodded.

“Speaking of telling, when were you going to let us know about shore leave?” I asked. He stared at me blankly.

“I sent that memo last week, as soon as Jim authorized it. It should be on everyone’s PADDs.”

I pulled my PADD and showed him all my messages. Nothing about shore leave was there. He looked at my PADD, and then opened his own messaging. “Oh for -” He growled. “I left it in drafts. I think I was waiting on Jim to confirm dates.” A few taps later, and my PADD alerted me of the message waiting.

“So right now you owe me drinks,” I prompted. He raised an eyebrow.

“In a pig’s eye, kid,” he retorted. I laughed.

“I’m not going to fight with you about it. Fair and square. I’m ahead right now in the official greatest poker challenge ever,” I flipped through my PADD until I found the tracking page I’d set up, and handed it to him.

“Well, I’ll be damned. I’ll have to try a little harder tomorrow,” he laughed.

“I’ll make you a deal,” I offered. “If you’ll come with me to check out Katie’s science fair while we’re on leave, I’ll buy.”

“Done,” he said, too quickly.

“That was too easy.” I narrowed my eyes. He grinned.

“She’d already invited me.”

“You’re an asshole, Bones,” I laughed, bumping him with my shoulder.

“She’s a good girl,” he commented, more seriously.

“Yeah, I think my parents did right by me,” I agreed. “She’s smart, she’s kind -”

“She loves her mama, she wants to make you proud,” he agreed. “I hope my Joey is growing up the same, although I somehow doubt it.”

“Joey?” I asked. He must have meant the girl in the holo.

“My daughter. She’s a little less than a year older than Katie,” he offered, as though he wasn’t dropping a huge secret in my lap.

“You’ve never mentioned her,” I pressed. He looked sad. Wistful.

“It was an ugly divorce, and her mother got custody.” It was a short answer, but I could hear the pain in his voice. I squeezed his hand.

“I’m sorry.” I wasn’t sure what else to say. He laced his fingers in mine and squeezed back.

“She writes the greatest letters. Jocelyn tried to prevent me from contacting her, but the court said being off planet was hardship enough. Joanna sends me a letter once a month. Says she’s too old for me to keep calling her Joey, but she’ll always be a little girl with pigtails and a lisp in my mind,” he laughed. “I got to see her when we were back on Earth. She’s not a little girl with pigtails and a lisp anymore.”

“You’re a good man, Leonard.” I squeezed his hand again, and leaned against his shoulder.

“Joc would probably argue that point,” he laughed.

“Let me at her.” I wasn’t joking. He slipped his arm around my shoulder.

“Well,” he paused. “I was a different man then.”

“No,” I argued. “You weren’t. Men like you are born, not made.”

“Thank you for your vote of confidence, kid,” he laughed. “But I assure you, I was a fuck up and that ended my marriage.”

“Well, whatever you are, you owe me drinks when we get to Starbase 12,” I teased.

“We just agreed that you were buying!” He protested. “Check in with Katie, and see how much later she’s going to be.” I raised an eyebrow in question, but complied. Her response was immediate. She was busy, I was to stop interrupting her, and Mr. Yim was a god among men.

“Apparently I have at least an hour.” I shrugged. Leonard grabbed the poker chips and the deck of cards and raised his eyebrow in challenge.

“Double or nothing,” he dared. I narrowed my eyes and bit my lip.

“I don’t know, Bones,” I hesitated. “I mean, it’s not much of a wager. A second glass of scotch? Doesn’t really seem worth the risk.”

“Chicken?” He tried to provoke me. He tilted his head from side to side, cracking his neck.

“Oh, you are on.” I rose to the bait. I took an early lead in the game, raking his chips across the table to my pile. A few hands in, I was certain I was going to clean him out. He had significantly fewer chips than I did, and had drawn three cards. I had a solid hand, a full house with three aces and a pair of kings. I knew I could clean him out, and went all in, sure he would follow suit. I showed my hand and his eyes widened.

“That’s a good hand,” he admitted, as he dropped his hand on the table. “But my four of a kind beats it.”

“Twos? You beat me with twos?” I threw my hands up in defeat and glared at him. He smirked winking as he swept the chips across the table. I gathered the cards and put them away, still shaking my head and muttering under my breath. He followed me to the shelving unit and put the chips down beside the cards and laughed.

“Come on, don’t be that way,” he cajoled. I scowled at him. “That was a pretty historic loss, as poker losses go. You don’t see that often.”

“Rub it in why don’t you?” He took my chin in his hand and tilted my head up, forcing me to look at him. I smiled despite myself.

“There’s my girl,” he teased. “Sunny disposition and all.” I cocked an eyebrow and rolled my eyes.

“I should punch you in the spleen,” I grumbled. He stepped a little closer and slipped his free arm around my waist, pinning my arm at my side.

“Come on now, the bruise is only just gone,” he laughed, and I became acutely aware of how close he was. My breath caught. I extricated myself from his arms and stepped toward the door.

“I should go.” I bit my lip. He looked hurt, almost.

“I thought you weren’t in a hurry?” He asked. “Katie hasn’t commed.” He took a few steps toward me, and I had to force myself to not retreat. He pushed a stray curl off my face and looked at me in wonder. I had to force myself to breathe. His hand cupped my cheek, and without realizing what I was doing, I closed my eyes and leaned into it. Then, while my eyes were still closed, I felt his lips brush against mine, soft, without any force. I pulled away, dragging in a deep breath. He stepped away.

“I -”

“Oh, shit, Bryn,” he breathed. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have -”

“No, don’t.” I placed my fingers against his mouth. “Don’t apologize.” I stepped back against him, eliminating the space between us. My arm snaked around his neck, pulling him down to me. Our lips met, and the tight anticipation in my chest exploded as he gathered me into his arms. And then my comm chirped, forcing us apart. I looked down at the message, knowing it would be Katie.

“I have to go.” I didn’t want to go. He nodded, mute, his face flushed. “I will see you in the morning.” He nodded again. I walked toward the door, and turned back before pushing the button to open it. He crossed the room in three steps and pushed me into the wall, his mouth hard against mine. His hands tangled in the hair at the nape of my neck and his teeth tugged on my bottom lip. I slid my tongue against his teeth and he deepened the kiss, leaving me breathless. He pulled away, his mouth turning up at the corner just slightly.

“You have to go,” he breathed. “Katie.” It sounded like he was reminding himself more than me.

#star trek fanfic #star trek fanfic with OC

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star-trekkin-across-theuniverse · 8 years ago

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YOASS 1k challenge!

Hey, @youre-on-a-starship! Here’s my submission for your 1000 follower party!

Word Count: 759 Author’s Note: My words were: SUPPLEMENTARY, ARM and RUIN.

“We’re losing altitude, Captain,” you reported across the communication frequency. The shuttle had hit some sort of interference field entering the atmosphere of the uncharted planet, and the power was failing. Life support systems were just barely functional, and the fuel cells were reading as depleted. The communications system crackled in response. “And apparently we’re not getting through to you anymore either.” You sighed. With careful maneuvering, you managed to navigate the shuttle into a grassy expanse surrounded by trees. You looked back at the rest of the away team and sighed again.

“Now what?” One of the security team asked. “The whole point of this mission is moot without power.”

“I’ll have supplementary systems online within the hour,” you countered. “The mission parameters remain the same. Find and collect samples of the flora of this planet. Hendorff, stay with me. The rest of you will support the science team.”

Hendorff nodded and assisted the rest of the team in exiting the shuttle for their mission before returning to watch you work. “Let me know if you need me to do anything,” he offered.

“You bet, cupcake,” you smiled from under the console. You felt him give you a gentle punch in the arm. He wasn’t wild about the nickname, but Captain Kirk had used it, and it just stuck. What Hendorff tried to cover up was what a softy he really was. The nickname suited him, and you weren’t the only one who realized it.

After checking all the circuits under the flight and steering console, you moved to the fuel cells, and checked the connections. All the contacts and couplings were reporting clean without interference. You moved outside the ship and opened up the engine bay to look. You let out a strangled noise of frustration and then sighed, thumping your head against the side of the shuttle.

“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck,” you mumbled, hitting your head with each curse. Hendorff’s head popped out from the shuttle.

“What’s going on?” He asked.

“Look at the engine,” you pointed. “Something leaked in there. Most of the wires are fried, and I don’t just mean overloaded, I mean some of them have melted. The engine is ruined.”

“Let me take a look,” he offered. You raised an eyebrow.

“You’re going to fix it?” You asked.

“I worked in the Iowa shipyard until I joined Starfleet, Y/N,” he explained. “I know a thing or two about these shuttles.” You stepped away in response and sat down on the step into the shuttle to watch. He poked around, grunting and mumbling to himself a little. He stood up and stepped past you into the shuttle, bringing out the toolkit, and returning to work. He continued working the entire time the science team was away, stopping only once to peel off his red tunic in the heat of the sun. His black undershirt shone with sweat.

One by one, the science team returned, laden with samples. One of them had so many, the security officer was also carrying them. You checked the time, and looked over at Hendorff, filthy, sweaty and looking smug.

“Do your engine check now,” he suggested, wiping his hands on a rag. You climbed into the shuttle and checked the relays and connections before initiating the power sequence. The shuttle hummed to life, and you sighed in relief.

“Everyone on and strap in. Let’s get back to the ship,” you called. You flipped the comm link open. “Lieutenant Y/L/N to Enterprise.”

“Enterprise to Y/L/N, report,” Uhura’s voice came back to you. You smiled in relief.

“We are readying for take-off and returning to the ship. All parties onboard. Please relay to Mr. Spock that there is abundant life on this planet, and many samples for assessment,” you replied as the shuttle lifted off the ground.

“Message relayed. Shuttle bay is readying for your return. Our estimate is fourteen minutes. Enterprise out.” Uhura responded. You looked over at Hendorff and smiled.

“I’ll be sure to notify the Captain how helpful you were, Hendorff,” you commented. He smirked.

“Thanks. You handled yourself well, Y/N,” he offered. “You never lost your cool.”

“I had faith we’d get out of here,” you shrugged, and then furrowed your brow in confusion. “Were you worried?”

“No, I usually sweat like a pig in cool afternoon weather. It’s my usual metabolic situation,” he retorted, the sarcasm oozing from his tone.

“And here I thought you were just working hard,” you laughed. “You kept your hand close too, cupcake. Thanks.”

#yoass1000followerhypetrain #more of a drabble really #this was harder than I thought it would be

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star-trekkin-across-theuniverse · 8 years ago

Text

Floating, Pt5

Word Count: 3055 Author’s Note: tagging @from-kitten-to-kitsune, @suzen23smith, @outside-the-government, @sistasarah-sallysaidso, @nymphadora-blurryface, @bluebird214, @medicatemedrmccoy

I could not move when I woke up, and was so disoriented by the weird weight across my waist that I momentarily panicked. And then I remembered Jim. Jim-from-the-bar who was also Jim-my-captain who was also apparently Jim-who-had-me-pinned-in-bed. He groaned, and stretched his arm above his head before burrowing his head at the nape of my neck and making a noise that sounded a little like a purr.

"Mmm. Good morning."

"Jim, Alpha starts in forty minutes," I whispered.

"No time to revisit past sins then." He sounded genuinely disappointed as he pushed himself up to sitting. I pulled the sheet over myself and slipped off to the bathroom. I was in the sonic when I heard him step into the bathroom and run the water at the sink. I lingered in the shower, suddenly shy about him seeing me naked by the harsh light of day. I mean, there is no harsh daylight in space, it's all artificial day cycles, but the lights were on and I bore the marks of a mother. Not exactly something I wanted Jim seeing quite yet. Not as my lover, not as my captain.

He must have sensed my shyness because he didn't wait around in the bathroom, and was dressed by the time I reemerged. He was waiting for me. I raised an eyebrow in question.

"Don't do that, you look too much like Spock," he laughed. "It felt awkward to just dress and run. I don't want this to be awkward."

“This?” I was a little dumbfounded.

“This.” He gestured to the room, the bed, him and me. “I don’t want whatever we are doing to be weird.”

“Right. Okay,” I paused. “Yeah. Okay.” I wasn’t sure what else I should say. He smiled and leaned forward, brushing his lips across mine.

“I will see you later,” he breathed across my cheek and it gave me shivers.

“I would like for this to not be really overt, Jim.” I didn’t want people thinking the new kid was getting preferential treatment because she was banging the captain. Actually, I just didn’t want people thinking I’d fallen into the captain’s bed within the first month of our cruise.

“I wouldn’t dream of making it public knowledge,” he reassured me, smooth and smiling. “After all, I’m the captain.”

“As long as we’re clear,” I nodded. “Now if you’ll excuse me, Leo is a hardass and if I am late, I will hear about it.”

“He adores you.”

“He’ll still take it out of me,” I laughed, breezing through the door. I just made it into medbay with enough time to make Leonard his coffee. Mine was still in the replicator when he entered. He looked at me and smirked, taking his coffee from me with the cheesiest grin on his face that I’d ever seen. He looked completely ridiculous, and I realized that he’d spent years cultivating his cranky face just so he wouldn’t look like a complete dork.

The grin didn’t budge during report. It didn’t move when he led me into his office. It didn’t so much as twitch when I spilled my coffee out of nerves. I sat down, feeling defeated. How he could have known that Kirk and I had wound up together was beyond me.

“I was pretty sure when you handed me your orders that you’d been the morning after the night before girl,” he commented. “But I was absolutely sure when I saw you without your glasses.”

“And you didn’t think to warn me?” I gasped.

“Jim is my closest friend, kid,” he started. “Why would I warn you?”

“To spare me the mortification of how I’d discovered I’d had a one-nighter with my captain before I even knew he was my captain?” I blurted. He laughed outright.

“No,” he shook his head. “You both needed to figure it out on your own. If I’d been worried Jim would be upset, I would have warned you. But he seemed pretty pleased with how things turned out when he left the cantina last night.”

“Oh?”

“Don’t act like you’re innocent, darling. You look more tired than usual, and,” he pulled down the edge of my undershirt at my neck and smirked again, “a little bit of bruising. I have a salve for that.”

“Have I mentioned how much I hate you, Leo?” I asked. He laughed again, and this time his smile was more natural, not the idiotic shit-eating grin from before. He was such a handsome man when he smiled.

“I must be doing my job right,” he winked. “Now let’s get your labs drawn.”

I pursed my lips and sighed. “Really? You knew just by looking at me what was wrong. Why do you need labs?”

“Because I’m your doctor, damnit, not a magician. You know I need diagnostics to confirm any treatment plan,” he snapped, drawing my blood with confidence. I followed him through all the steps to check his initial diagnosis, and when he clenched his jaw, I felt a small tingle of worry.

“What’s wrong?”

“Something isn’t adding up here,” he murmured. “Climb onto the imager, kid.”

I followed his direction with some nervousness. He watched the scanner as it ran the length of my body and squinted at the readout like he didn’t like what he’d seen. I started to feel a little panicky when he pulled the curtain around us and sighed. “Can you take your uniform off? Just the top,” he asked. I flushed. It didn’t matter that I had fallen into bed with Jim a second time, I’d been developing a weird crush on Leonard since the first day I’d been on the Enterprise. Thankfully I was pretty sure his feelings stopped at the mentor level. I tried to act cool as I pulled my shirt over my head, but I’d never learned a way to prevent blushing.

“Good god, woman, I’m your doctor. Relax,” he snapped. I laughed.

“I’m weird about anyone seeing me unclothed,” I admitted, lying back on the table.

“You’re clothed enough that no one would look sideways at a beach, other than to think you had too much on,” he growled, and began palpating my abdomen. The man had a repertoire of unhappy facial expressions that defied description, and he cycled through a number of them slowly as his fingers pressed and dug into my flesh. He sighed and crossed his arms, looking thoughtfully at me. “You’re what? 28? 29?”

“27,” I corrected, pulling my undershirt back on.

“I didn’t see anything in your personnel file about children,” he started.

“Because there isn’t anything in my personnel file about children,” I confirmed. I hoped it was enough that he would drop it, but even if he did, I didn’t think it would be because he believed me, but because he recognized it was a no-go topic.

“Bryn, if I’m your doctor, I expect honesty from you about your medical history.” His tone was gruffer than usual, and I sighed. “Was there a pregnancy?”

I paused, and adjusted my undershirt. When I couldn’t justify not answering or not looking at him, I met his gaze with my own. “Yes.”

“You have a huge amount of scar tissue around your uterus,” he offered, ostensibly as justification for wanting to know about my reproductive history.

“The endometriosis is in my history,” I countered, raising an eyebrow.

“It usually resolves with pregnancy, and doesn’t recur. Your abdominal scans show new scar tissue development over the resolved scar tissue. I’m going to do a further investigation of your hormones to rule anything else out,” he nodded. “I’m not interested in your medical history for anything other than the medical relevance, Bryn. If there’s anything else you’ve withheld in your Starfleet admission, I’d like to know about it.”

“That’s the big one. Anything else I left out was accidental,” I replied honestly.

“If anything else comes up, just go ahead and toss it in your file,” he recommended. “I won’t write you up for this one. You must have had a reason to hide this. Do you require any other follow-up as a result of it?” I realized he assumed I’d either lost or terminated the pregnancy, and he was trying to dance around whether I needed counselling.

“Nothing that is unresolved.” Except for the existence of my daughter, I thought.

We’d discovered a new planet. I tried to be cool about it because everyone else was acting like it was no big deal, and I guess they were right. We were just filling mission parametres. But it was so cool. There was life on the planet. Life, I was reminded, that we couldn’t interact with because it violated the Prime Directive. So Chekov plotted its location, an away team investigated as much of the planet as was reasonable, and we continued on our way toward Proxima B to drop off a crate of vaccinations.

Proxima B had been the first Earth colony. When the warp drive was first successfully tested, the thought of a similar planet so close to earth but in a different solar system was too enticing to ignore. So after a number of trial missions to Mars, which was an inhabitable, unrelenting planet, sights were set on Proxima B. Was there life there? It was in the goldilocks belt, a term used to describe planets that are at an optimal distance from their sun - not too hot, not too cold, likely having liquid water. It turned out there wasn’t much in the way of intelligent life on the planet, but it was abundant in all the things an Earth colony would need.

Leonard had informed me that we would take a transport to the surface and give some much needed education and inservicing to the Proxima B doctors. I was nervous about that. As a brand new doctor, what could I possibly be teaching these experienced colonial doctors?

“That’s exactly it, kid,” Leonard reassured me. “You are brand new. You have all the latest techniques, and are aware of all the newest innovations in treatment and medication.”

“I feel sick.”

“Not quite so easy,” he laughed. “Besides, it was only last week when you showed me that new technique for dissolving kidney and gallstones. You’ll be a real benefit to the medical away team.”

“I have my doubts, but you are the boss,” I laughed.

“I would have thought by now you’d trust me,” he teased. Three times a week he was dragging me into anti-gravity drills, and I hadn’t died yet, as he was so fond of pointing out. I trusted him with my safety, without question. I said as much, and he laughed again, walking back to his office. He was obviously done with boosting my ego for the day.

I tried to suppress my anxiety about teaching and went to check charts. We had two inpatients in medbay. One was an ensign who had presented with a cardiac arrhythmia that the tricorder couldn’t diagnose. On further investigation, we discovered that he actually had a birth defect that hadn’t been seen in over a hundred years on earth, and had been missed during every physical and assessment while he was at the Academy. Leonard had given him a pill that started the regeneration of the mitral valve, but we’d kept him just to keep an eye on him. It was one of those cases that required reading about techniques from hundreds of years ago.

“Ensign Blackwater, how are you feeling this morning?” I asked as I looked over the reading from the tricorder. Everything looked to be good. I checked the scans, and saw the mitral valve had finished reforming and looked exactly as it should.

“Good,” he smiled. “Last night was the first time I’ve slept well in ages.”

“On a medbay bed? That’s unheard of!” I laughed. “You’re looking good, Ensign. Did you know that back in the old days, they would use the mitral valve of a pig to fix this defect?”

“They didn’t!” He exclaimed. “That seems barbaric!”

“You know, if there’s anything I learned in my med history classes it’s that everything old becomes new again at some point. Hopefully I’ll never need to slaughter a pig so I can replace your mitral valve, but there’s a lot of general wound treatments that have been going in and out of favour since the medieval times,” I laughed. “Anyhow, I’m sure you’d like to get back to your own room. We’ll leave a monitor probe on you, but I think you can be released on your own recognisance. Two more days of rest, then a few days of light duty and you should be perfectly fit.”

“I’m sure Scotty will appreciate hearing that,” Blackwater smiled. “I can go?”

“Get out of here before I change my mind.” I nodded. I proceeded on to my next patient and checked her overnight scans. She’d been working in the botany labs and somehow managed to ingest Borgia plant. We’d had to analyse the toxin in the plant to come up with an antidote, and she’d come dangerously close to dying before we finally synthesized a treatment. She was still weak and needed assistance with day to day activities like mobilization and bathing. But I was beginning to wonder if she wasn’t malingering, as I’d caught her up when I’d popped back into medbay after forgetting my PADD the previous night. Any time Leonard assessed her though, he seemed to think she was just barely managing.

“Lieutenant Graves, how are you feeling this morning?” I asked as I walked into her room. She was laying on her side, head propped up with one hand, other hand placed provocatively on her hip. When she saw it was me, she scrambled to lay back in a more neutral position. I hadn’t missed that the way she’d positioned herself had offered and uninhibited view of her cleavage, and more of her upper thigh than I cared to see.

“I’m so tired this morning,” she began. “I never should have tried walking to the toilet last night.”

“You seemed to be doing quite well when I found you,” I commented as I flipped through her scans. Everything was normal, as it had been the previous two days. Her muscles weren’t showing any sign of fatigue, according to the tricorder. And with a quick glance at her, I was able to tell she’d styled her hair and put on makeup before I’d entered the room.

“I pushed too hard, Doctor Erikssen,” she shook her head. “I was so hoping to impress Leon- uh, Doctor McCoy this morning.” She barely caught herself in the familiarity. I fought the urge to raise my eyebrow and nodded.

“Doctor McCoy is busy this morning arranging an educational opportunity for doctors on Proxima B,” I explained. “I’m afraid you’re stuck with me.”

“That’s too bad,” she said. Her eyes widened when she realized what she’d said and she scrambled to find words. “I mean, it’s too bad he’s so busy taken away from patients. Leaving you on your own like this.”

I smiled. “I think we’ll get the physiotherapist to help you ambulate this morning, Lieutenant. You should be ready for discharge by this afternoon.”

“But I’m Doctor McCoy’s patient,” she protested. “Shouldn’t he be making that decision?”

I laughed. “Like you said, he’s left me in charge of medbay while he fulfils the duties of the CMO today.”

I noted my orders, and checked in with nursing as to whether anything had come up while I’d been with my two patients.

“Your slate is open,” Nurse Chapel handed me the appointment PADD. Sure enough, there was nothing on it.

“Surely we aren’t done all those crew physicals?” I asked. She nodded.

“Your last one was yesterday. From here on out, it’s actual medical needs. And there’s no one in need right now,” she confirmed.

“Well, in that case, I guess I should check in with Doctor McCoy.”

Leonard was poring over his PADD, his brow furrowed in what looked to be combination of frustration and concentration. “You didn’t tell me we’d finished the physicals,” I accused.

“Didn’t think it would be that exciting to you,” he commented without looking up.

“Are you kidding? I would have gone on a tear last night,” I laughed. “Well, in as much as I can on this ship. I would have rolled in this morning with a pair of sunglasses and begged for a potassium hypo.”

Leonard stopped scowling at his PADD and looked up, scowling at me. “That reminds me, we need to fix your eyes.”

“Not today, we don’t,” I refused. I was nervous about the procedure. Nervous enough I’d seen the ship’s optometrist to see if I could be fitted for a different pair of contact lenses. Leonard shook his head.

“You may be under the impression that this is a democracy, kid, but the buck stops with me. I approved that procedure at least two weeks ago and you’ve been stalling ever since. It takes less than fifteen minutes,” he snapped. My jaw tensed.

“I’ve got new contacts on order,” I protested. He shook his head.

“You don’t, I cancelled that requisition when I saw it,” he replied. “You’ll need to be monitored for the duration of Alpha and part of Beta, but if you would just allow me to do it now, you’d be back in your bunk before dinner.”

“If I allow you?” I cocked an eyebrow in question.

“You can allow me, or I can order you,” he explained. “I like the working relationship we’ve developed, Bryn, and I don’t want to order you to do anything. But I will.”

“Fine,” I conceded. “On one condition.”

“That is?”

“Discharge Lieutenant Graves before she starts planning your wedding,” I begged. Leonard’s eyes widened.

“She’s what?”

“She’s malingering because she’s got the hots for you, Leo. She wasn’t happy with my discharge orders. I think you need to go discharge her,” I explained. Leonard’s ears went pink and he mumbled something I couldn’t understand. “Or ask her for a drink, if you like her, I don’t care. But get her out of the medbay. She’s taking up time and resources.”

“She’s my patient, Bryn,” he grumbled. “And she’s hardly my type. But I’ll talk to her.”

#star trek fanfic #star trek fanfic with OC

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