#tbd|McCoy and Beth

[brooklynislandgirl]

She wasn't exactly sure if she'd intended to pry into Doctor McCoy's life. His personal business. Sometimes she gets glimpses of feelings. Of truths or thoughts that are bottled up. Whether this is a result of a sort of extreme empathy, or learned patterns of behaviour observing her mother's diplomatic forays, she can't say for sure. She simply took them as they came and made apologies for it later. But what she doesn't expect is his candour, or just how deeply green his own eyes are, that hint of topaz in them. They're rather pretty but she can feel colour rise in her cheeks. "I'm very sorry to hear that, sir. I've never been married personally, or really in... " there's a tiny pause "…a relationship, if we're being honest. But I could never imagine being so in love with someone that I wanted to spend my life with and then just….giving up on them, you know? Not that I'm saying that's what you did." She's quick to catch herself before she put her foot in her mouth. Having an Admiral for a father and a diplomat for a mother meant that neither of her parents were at home together at a given time and maybe that's how they've remained married so long. But that also isn't her idea of love or happiness. When he finally looks away, her hand slips with the motion and draws down his cheek where it stops near that faint scar just below the corner of his mouth. She might someday work up the courage to ask about that. "I never meant to imply you weren't a grown man, Doctor, or that you need coddling. However. You aren't wrong. You do deserve to be taken care of with as much skill and care as you give everyone else. So let me. Take care of you. I'm one of the most skilled nurses in Star Fleet, if I may say so, and there has to be a reason I beat more qualified applicants to be selected to serve with you." Her gaze seems to pour over his profile. Soft as a whisper but heavy too. Maybe she doesn't realise what it sounds like she's proposing but there's a warmth in her tone that suggests she's being earnest all the same. "Even if that just means you come by for some coffee and to talk once in a while."

@brooklynislandgirl asked

The nurse ~serving under him for months now, always a background part of the ship, as efficient and easy as a tri-corder~ daubs at the cut on his forehead. Her small-boned hands are careful, delicately using the antiseptic pad to clean the wound, her wide green-gold eyes surveying the damage and basing treatment on that assessment. She doesn't demand answers like Kirk or even he might from anyone else, she doesn't hold the alien arrogance of the ship's first officer.

Instead, Elikapeka ~Beth if it's easier to say, sir~ only sighs and her breath carries a hint of cinnamon on its softness.

"With all due respect, Doctor," she begins and her voice is still barely louder than a whisper, "Someone, somewhere has failed you miserably. You were supposed to be loved, protected and cared for but you never were."

"If you're talking about my love life than yeah, somebody sure let me down there but other than that i don't think there's anything about the way that i have or haven't been loved that really bothers me all that much. You got to toughen up really fast when you're always on your own but other than that i don't think i've been done that big of a disservice." Leonard looks up at her and smiles sadly "i do wish that sometimes my marriage would have worked out because we both at one time loved each other i think but that's just a dream of what's past now and nothing can bring it back."

He looks away from those gold green eyes before he starts talking again "I have no desire to be coddled and protected, i'm a grown man and grown men don't need thiings like that but they sure are nice though." Leonard gets a thoughtful look on his face as he stares at the wall in front of him "I would like for someone to take care of me every once in a while since i take care of this whole entire ship full of people but it seems the more i think about it the more you could be right and that doesn't make me very happy because i still haven't gotten the love and protection that i would like to have."