#like seriously this book has already brought up Kirk’s kid and McCoy’s and now it’s Spock’s turn

[lichqueenlibrarian]

Okay does ANYONE on the Enterprise have a good relationship with their parents or with their own offspring?

[star-trekkin-across-theuniverse]

TrekFest 2017

Four times you fell for Bones, and the one time he fell for you, pt4: Poker Face

Word Count: 1969 Tags: @dolamrothianlady, @supermoonpanda, @kirkaholic123, @shewhorunswithfandoms @youdonebeengarthed, @starmission@emmkolenn@auduna-druitt @outside-the-government@yourtropegirl@pinkamour1588@impalaanddemons@flirtswithdanger@southernbellestatues@engineeringtrashcan @rayleyanns@sistasarah-sallysaidso @samaxraph99​

You’d finally booked a well-earned shore leave, as after bouncing from the the Lincoln to two other missions you were exhausted, and past due time to yourself. You’d opted to head to Risa, but had a stopover in Yorktown on the way to check in with Rayne and Kya. Kya threw herself into your arms, immediately setting into a one-sided stream of conversation updating you on everything that had happened since you’d met them on the Enterprise. Rayne just slipped his hand quietly in yours as you walked through the grounds of the school, content to stay by your side wordlessly while Kya spoke for both of them.

She was soon distracted by a glade of wildflowers, and ran over to them, still babbling away.

“She seems to like it here.” You directed your comment to Rayne, hopefully.

“I like it here too,” he said. His voice was lower than you were expecting, and you realized he was probably older than you’d initially thought. “The houseparents are nice.”

“Do you miss home?” You pressed. “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to,” you quickly added. 

He shrugged. “Kya’s my home now. Her parents were more parent to me than my old man was. As long as we’re together, it’ll be okay.”

“Is it okay if I hug you?” You asked. He blushed and slipped his arms around your waist. You held his head against you, wrapping your arms around his shoulders. “Rayne, I’ve given the school my contact information. If you or Kya ever need anything, you let me know, okay?”

He pulled away and looked up at you, nodding. “That’s what Doctor Bones said too.” 

“Bones came and saw you?” You asked. He nodded.

“Yeah, he came and checked all us kids out, made sure we were healthy, brought Kya clothes for that doll you gave her, and brought me a box of building stuff from Scotty. I made a radio the other day.” He lit up as he spoke of his visit with Doctor McCoy and you felt that familiar tightening in your chest that you’d come to associate with your affection for the man. “And he showed me how to shave.”

You let out a peal of laughter. “I don’t know if you’re old enough to shave, Rayne!”

“Prolly not,” he admitted, blushing. “But I asked anyhow.”

“Bambassabor Y/N! I picked you these flowers!” Kya interrupted, thrusting a bouquet of wildflowers into your hands. “They isn’t really wildflowers because they had to growed them from seeds, but they’re called wildflowers anyhow.”

“They’re beautiful, Kya, thank you,” you smiled.

“Next time you come visit, can you and Doctor Bones come at the same time?” She asked. 

“I don’t know, dear heart, I haven’t seen Bones in nearly a year,” you admitted. Her brow furrowed in confusion.

“I thought him was your boyfriend!” She exclaimed. You felt your cheeks redden at the comment. 

“No, he’s not.” You tried to laugh it off. Rayne gave you a smug look.

“You want him to be though, don’t you?” He asked.

“Okay, that’s enough about me. Tell me about this radio you built, Rayne,” you changed the subject, somewhat successfully.

Risa was just as glorious as you remembered it being. The sun was hot, warming your skin in a way the artificial atmosphere of a starship never could, and the resort you were staying had a swim up bar at the pool. You found yourself in a cycle of sunbathing, jumping in the pool to cool off, and swimming to the bar for a cold drink before you parked yourself in the sun again. You couldn’t fathom it getting any better.

The bartender passed you a drink and winked. “Your tab’s been cleared,” he grinned. You gave him a surprised look and he nodded his head to the side of the bar that was out of the water. There were two men sitting there, but with their backs to the sun, they were in shadows. You pushed yourself out of the water, took your drink and walked over.

“Fancy meeting you here,” you laughed as your eyes finally adapted and you recognized both Captain Kirk and Doctor McCoy. “I didn’t realize the Enterprise was on leave as well?”

“Just a day left,” Jim offered. You took in his red shoulders and nodded.

“It would appear leave has been good to you, Jim,” you teased.

“A little too much sun yesterday, but we’d challenged the crew of the Discovery to a beach volleyball game,” he offered.

“Was it worth it?” You asked. 

“We won,” Doctor McCoy replied. You smiled at him, taking in the dark tan, few days growth of stubble and sunglasses. It was a good look for him, and reminded you too quickly of the soft feelings you’d developed over the past few years for the man. Desperate to engage him in a conversation that was not about how good shore leave looked on him, you grasped at the next thing you thought of.

“I saw the children just before I came here. Rayne says he’s built a radio from that box of parts you gave him,” you offered. He looked pleased, and his smile betrayed his strong affection for the children you’d come to adore.

“The headmaster at the school said he’s showing real mechanical aptitude. Scotty made that up for him to tinker with,” he explained. You fell into a comfortable conversation about the kids, with Jim interjecting every so often.Almost as though he was one of the children desiring attention, Jim got more and more disruptive until finally Doctor McCoy sighed and rolled his eyes.

“Bambassabor, my dear, do you play poker?” He asked, using the nickname he’d been using since Kya’d first said it. You laughed.

“I’ve been known to, Leonard,” you nodded. You weren’t sure if you’d ever called him by his first name before, and you kind of like the way it felt in your mouth.

“We’re playing tonight, why don’t you join us? Jim’s terrible, and he’ll be so distracted by having to watch his hand that we might be able to actually carry on a conversation,” he grinned.

“That sounds like it would be quite enjoyable, Bones,” you responded, and held up your hand to get the bartender’s attention for another drink.

“All I’m saying is that Y/N did a helluva good job helping out last year with the Lincoln, but diplomatic personnel would be better served by having some emergency medical training. It’s sheer luck that she realized something was wrong with Hamada. If emergency medicine was part of the diplomatic corp training, she could have also helped with triage and early treatment,” Doctor McCoy announced. The conversation had turned, as it always did, to ways to make strengthen the humanitarian role of Starfleet, and the doctor had latched onto an idea that had obviously been bouncing around in his head since at least the Lincoln. 

“Helluva good job?” You laughed. “Last I recalled I was fucking useless.” You kept your tone light and teasing, but couldn’t help remind him of his words. He sighed and cocked an eyebrow at you.

“Are you ever going to let me live that down?” He asked. You shrugged and winked.

“Maybe. Tell me again how good I am at doing your job, and I might forget about it,” you teased. He rolled his eyes.

“Jesus, woman,” he groaned. “You’ll be the death of me.”

“Tell me,” you hedged. He let out an exasperated huff of air.

“You’re a brilliant diagnostician, and the world would be better if you were a doctor as well as a diplomat,” he taunted. You cackled and shook your head.

“Maybe doctors need to take diplomat’s training. Would give them better bedside manner, don’t you think, Jim?” You turned to the captain. He held his hands up in surrender.

“Oh no, no!” He exclaimed. “Don’t drag me into this quarrel! What I think is not at question here.” Both you and McCoy laughed. Jim rose, shaking his head, and grabbed drinks for the three of you.

“In all seriousness, Y/N, I do feel that our Starfleet diplomats would be served well to have some emergency training. If you arrived somewhere and there’s some sort of crisis, you could act in the role of a first responder, and be better able to assess the needs of the populations you’re serving.” His tone had changed from one of lighthearted bullshitting to dead serious. “That episode with the Lincoln was an eye-opener for me.”

“Diplomats already take so much education, Bones,” you protested. “I did my bachelors, then a masters, then a PhD. And now you want me to take physician’s training too? I would have been in my forties before I ever started working!”

“Maybe not med school, Bambassabor,” he replied thoughtfully. “Maybe medics training. Or nursing? Something where you can recognize emergent medical situations. At the very least so you are capable of triage, but maybe even begin some treatments.”

“You’ve been thinking about this a lot, haven’t you?” You asked, taking a sip from your beer bottle. He nodded.

“I have. As much as you’d like to remind me that I said you were useless that day, had you not clued in that something was wrong with Captain Hamada, she would have died. The only reason she is alive is because of your eyes. Because from moment one, you’d seen her, and were able to catch that her condition was declining. Without any medical training, you managed to recognize that. Now imagine what you could do if, on landing on any planet you were assigned to, you could get an immediate general picture of their health? The government says they’re doing well, and throwing balls like on Malvar III, but the housestaff show signs of malnutrition. They claim there’s no disease but everyone is covered in scars from some kind of pox, or that personal rights are respected but you can see indicators of post-traumatic stress or torture on first glance. You arrive in the midst of a famine, and are able to begin triaging the most dire needs first. There’s so many different ways that having some medical expertise could be beneficial.” His eyes flashed with the passion he felt about the idea and it stole your breath. Who would have thought this curmudgeonly, dry, sarcastic soul would be such an idealist?

“Well, why can’t I just bring a doctor with me?” You asked. “Wouldn’t that make more sense?” 

“That’s one more person to add to a diplomatic team. One more person who could be sidelined if the situation on a planet is such that only you and security are getting in. It makes more sense to have diplomats cross-trained as medical staff,” he argued.

“Have you ever forwarded this idea to the diplomatic corp?” You asked. It was clear he’d done a lot of thinking about it.

“Sure have, darlin’,” he nodded. “The response I got was fucking crickets.”

“When you’re off leave, can you forward your proposal to me?” You pressed. He cocked an eyebrow and leaned back in his chair, taking a long pull off his beer as he gave you an assessing stare. He leaned forward and nodded.

“That I can, Bambassabor,” he smiled. “If you print it, you could probably make a few paper airplanes, even.”

“Let me look it over. Maybe I can give you some tips on how to be more diplomatic in your approach,” you teased.

“So, are we playing poker, or are you two flirting?” Jim interjected, no longer content to watch the two of you discuss policy. You felt your cheeks heat and picked up the hand Jim had dealt while you’d been talking.

“Let’s play poker,” you nodded.