You Can't Be Too Careful [Star Trek/Leonard "Bones" McCoy Love Story]

[7.] All I Want For Christmas Is Your Company, Dangit!

No, I thought, horrified. No, please don’t draw attention to me!

All fifty sets of eyes turned and landed on me, followed by smiles and a loud applause. I blushed and grinned, thanking them all. I quickly allowed my eyes to slide over to Jordan’s seat. As suspected, he sat glaring at me, his face burning with anger. My smile quickly faded as I locked eyes with him. He didn’t even have to say anything, and I knew: the next threat was about to come.

The rest of the class period was spent preparing for what was to come next semester. When Commander Haines dismissed us, I hung back to talk to him about some of the extra work I had been doing, just to avoid being stopped by Jordan. Commander Haines, unfortunately, could not stay for as long as I wanted to stall, and I was forced to leave by myself. I quivered and braced myself for the worst. My eyes darted from side to side and my heart pounded furiously in my chest as I made my way back to my room.

“Hi,” a voice said from behind me.

I screamed and clapped a hand over my mouth, whirling around to face the one who had addressed me. Bones raised an eyebrow.

“Jumpy much?” he asked.

“Bones,” I sighed. “You scared me half to death!”

He held up his hands in defense. “Sorry. Didn’t know you scared easily.”

“It’s not your fault,” I sighed. “I’m only jumpy on certain days…”

He scoffed. “You’re on an anxiety schedule?”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “What do you mean?”

He immediately mocked my stance and began to speak in a high-pitched voice, “I’m only nervous on Mondays and Wednesdays, but all other five days of the week I’m perfectly confident!”

“Shut up,” I said, trying to hold back a snicker.

“You so want to laugh,” he said. “I can see it in that awkward, pained expression on your face.”

I chuckled. “Okay, you win.”

I began to walk once more, and he matched my pace.

“So, why are you so twitchy today?” he asked.

“I’m fine now. I just don’t like walking back to my room alone.”

“You squealed like a girl because you were walking alone?”

“For your information,” I muttered, “I am a girl. And yes. There are some days where I just feel like I’m being followed.”

“Well, now that you know it was me following you, you don’t have to be nervous anymore.”

“Oh no,” I said. “That’s still plenty of cause for me to be nervous.”

He glared at me, and I laughed. We continued on toward my building, simultaneously agreeing that he would escort me to my room. I felt my nerves relax, and my thoughts were brought back to the day when Jordan had stopped me and tried to suffocate me. Why didn’t you trust him then, Catherine? I asked myself as he filled me in on the details of what he had been up to. Because you didn’t trust anyone then, I answered myself. But I was still mentally smacking myself. I could’ve saved myself so much mental trauma had I just told him what was going on that night when we ran into each other at the post office. I began to tune him out, considering telling him now, and ending it once and for all. Heart pounding once more, I decided that yes, I would tell him once we reached my room.

I tuned back in to Bones’s spiel about med school. Once he finished, I gave him my story about my computer classes, and he listened patiently. Just as I was starting to relax once more, we neared building 6. A small piece of me deflated; I actually wanted to keep walking and talking with Bones. But I knew that I needed to prepare for Astrid’s arrival, and the small sense of disappointment disappeared.