Title: Oblivious
Paring: Leonard McCoy X Reader
Warnings: Leonard McCoy has a crush, Reader is oblivious, fluffy, everyone ships it, cute.
Spoilers: not really? I just mention characters from all three Star Trek reboot movies. Perhaps watch all three right now to get to speed? (I also include characters from the original series, but please know I haven't seen it, I'm just name-dropping. Also, if I was rich, and could afford to buy the ST:TOS, I would. Therefore I will remain a name-dropper).
Request: from an anon on Tumblr
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The last time Leonard H. 'Bones' McCoy fell for someone, it didn't end well. It was most of the reason he was off in the stars away from that mess. He never intended for the lovebug to bite his ass. At least, not before he was at least one foot in the grave or while they floated in space with Jim in charge of his and all the others' lives. But, life finds a way. Love does too. And when Scotty brought one of his own with him to fix a medicinal replicator, that lovebug bit him hard enough to see stars (or really, he turned to look outside the window. He was on a starship, for crying out loud).
If this had been anyone else, at any other time in Leonard's life, he would've gone to the bar, knocked back a row of the finest whiskey he could afford, and go home with someone else if he fancied it. But he didn't. Leonard McCoy realised it wasn't the same sort of thing he felt for his now ex-wife. It was more.
The patients had been relocated to the secondary Medbay, where Doctor M'Benga and his staff took care of them while the two engineers went to work fixing the medical replicator. Usually, if this was just Scotty, Leonard would buzz off, perhaps go to annoy Spock, or catch up on his to be read list. But beside the Scotsman, there was the most beautiful woman Leonard had ever seen, motor oil and grime all over her red shirt, and yet, the most joyous smile upon her face.
"So, to reverse the problem that it's got, I need to do the action twice, but backwards..." she muttered, tools splayed across the floor.
Beside her, her mentor nodded. "Aye, you've got the hang o' this, lassie," he clapped her shoulder proudly, "Soon I'll have ye on your own for repairs, you won't need me followin' ye around."
Leonard stood behind the both crew members of the engineering division, hands akimbo upon hips, inspecting the work as it was done. He watched as the machine clicked over to the proper mode, and the two red shirts high-fived each other. His protégé gathered the tools, and wiping down the area, said they were returning to their workbench to grab a tool forgotten that was needed for the next job.
As Scotty went to leave, Leonard coughed. "So, your apprentice..." he began.
The Scotsman beamed, "Ye mean Ensign ________? She's a delight, don't ye think?" Scotty grinned, laughing, "So, Bones...what has my Ensign piqued your interest for?" He wags his eyebrows.
Leonard waves him off. "Lay off it." He shakes his head. Only now, he's realising that as pretty that she is, there's a great chance of her deciding that his advances are not to her liking. Perhaps this thing he has could stay in his head. Yes. "I looked at the girl for five minutes, and you're hearing wedding bells?"
Scotty made a noise. "Ach, you said that, not me. It's just that ye look like head over heels." He shrugs, and adds, "If you're truly askin' about her credentials, she's a new transfer from the USS Bradbury. Had a bunch of 'em at the last stop made where we crossed paths with them." Scotty's communicator goes off, and before he answers it, he adds, "Bones, she may be a smart lass, but she isn't cluey."
Leonard frowns, and during the next hour and a half of re-organising the Medbay to reinstate patients from M'Benga, he thinks of those parting words.
It was about a month or so until his schedule aligned once more with ________'s, and lucky for Leonard, it wasn't when he was on duty. As much as he loved clucking around his Medbay (Nurse Chapel's words, not his), there was a certain thing about being off shift he loved. Perhaps it could be he could relax with a whiskey. Or maybe slag off Jim Kirk without it being on the record. Both, at once? Usually, those were the highlights of Leonard's time off.
But today, ________ and a group of her engineer colleagues had just walked into the recreational room, and all those regular plans of Leonard's flew from his mind. ________ wore plainclothes, like one would wear for shore leave, a casual pair of denim slacks, a baggy faded sweatshirt. But the thing Leonard noticed most about her, was her smile; someone had made a joke, and her pearly-whites could light up the moon.
He takes a quick drink from his cup and goes to approach them. He sees Keenser, Jaylah, and a handful of other ensigns and lieutenants from engineering he hasn't socialised with enough to know more than their rank. Leonard clears his throat and gives the posse a nod.
"Hey there, you all," he says, giving the posse a nod. "________. Nice night tonight, ain't it?"
Jaylah smirks, looking at ________. "It's the best, isn't it, ________?"
The Ensign blinks, "Y-yeah. I mean, we're off shift, and going to see what Holo-film they're playing tonight."
A lieutenant Leonard had given a medical check up to six months ago chimed in, "Hopefully it's something from Earth. I didn't understand the last Vulcan movie I watched."
Mr. Spock walks past at that moment. "The film you are referring to, Lieutenant Stalewski, was a highly informative documentary of the lifecycle of a Tribble, not a frivolous feature film." He intones and keeps walking.
Jaylah shakes her head, and when Spock turns, pokes her tongue out at him. "Anyways, Dr McCoy, want to come with? The theatre seats in pairs, and we've got odd pairs, and that leaves one of us by ourselves." She pauses and turns to ________. "Dr McCoy could sit with you!"
Leonard wonders if Scotty told Jaylah anything. He'll have a chat with him later.
________ hums. "But I was sitting with Stalewski...if you wanted to come, why not sit with Keenser?" Keenser shook his head, turning, left them all. "...I take that as a no."
Pushing him and ________ together, Jaylah cheered, "We're even now! Let's catch this movie!"
He nods and joins the group of engineers for surely a terrible movie night. But it's better than drinking alone. It's better than drinking with Jim, or any of his friends and listening to their problems. But as horrid as the prospect of watching a factual film on something like the rotation of the Milky Way in correspondence to the Andromeda galaxy, at least ________'ll be there.
He glances to ________ and reading the text on her sweatshirt, says, "Is that a Starfleet academy jersey?"
She nods, smiling softly. "It's my Mom's." she looks down at it, and chuckles. "It's a good luck charm. She was assigned to the USS Kelvin, but got sick, and never left Starfleet soil."
"I'll say," he raises his brow, leading the way to the holo-film. He holds the door for her, and adds, "Let's hope your Mom's luck rubs off on this five-year mission we're on."
________ shrugs. "What do you mean, Captain Kirk is a good captain."
Bones coughs into his fist, not going to start on that complex issue.
It's as simple as chasing after Mr. Sulu into the hallway when the other man has evaded his hypospray shot updates that leads to trouble. Why is it that everything he does turns to mess? In what past life did Leonard commit such a heinous crime that led to his anti-Midas touch he had?
Leonard hadn't looked where he was going, simple. Without warning, there was ________. He managed to get out of the way, a reflex response from all the times adventuring with Jim. But because of that response, he knocked into the wall. It was then when he went head over arse, tumbling like he was in an overwritten trope, rather than a world-class scientific vessel. When he managed to work out which way was up, and which way was the floor, he realised something.
________ looked down to him. He is lain upon the floor like a baby left in a crib, all his limbs aching from the tumble. "Doctor?" ________ asks, blinking. "Are you okay?"
He feels his face become Engineering red, and he goes to get up. But there's an ache on the back of his head, from where it struck the walkway, and unable to stand, he stays on the floor. Leonard groans.
It's just then when Chekov turns the corner. He notices that he's wearing a red shirt, and that before anything else, the Russian rushes to their side, looking at the commotion.
"Vhat happened?" He asked, looking to ________.
Leonard groaned, and stayed on the floor.
"Dr McCoy and I were going to collide, and I –," Chekov stands, watching. "I don't really know what happened, one minute he's chasing after something, and the next, he's on the floor. I don't know how I'm not on the floor too."
Leonard shakes his head, wincing. "I was trying to chase Mr. Sulu for evading his shots, and I wasn't looking where I was going."
She nods. "I – it's okay. Can I give you a hand, to stand?"
Chekov chirps, aiding ________ to get him to his feet, "Perhap you should take ze to his Medbay?" Leonard was about to give the boy a look that said no shit, Sherlock, but, unlike every other time, he felt that he had a concussion, and the more he fought it, the more Jim, and the rest of them would make fun of him.
"Are you okay?" ________ repeats, arm around his shoulders, leading him back to the Medbay. "You're awfully quiet."
"I'll be fine," he says.
"I vill call Nurse Chapel to say you need assistance." Chekov smiles, and when ________ is not looking, he gives Leonard a thumb up, and an even bigger smile.
Ensign ________ stands by the screen, biting into her closed fist. It's hard enough to design and manufacture a set of new of real-time voice relay communicators to the Enterprise, but it's the first time her inventions are in the field, on an away mission, no less. It's not that she's afraid they'll break, no, she knows they're tough as hell, but it's that the mission isn't something in-and-out, simple. There's a Starfleet ally on the planet the crew are talking to. If all goes to plan, they'll stay allied to the federation, and not become a radical.
She's not usually this invested in away missions; typically, she's relaxing in her room with a good book, or finishing any paperwork processing on her PADD. But apart from the Captain of the Enterprise on the mission, there's Mr. Sulu, a handful of security officers she knows vaguely, and Dr McCoy.
"Ease up there, lassie," Her supervisor, Mr. Scott approached, giving her back a good-natured pat. But as soon as his hand came down, she flinched, even more tense. "Oh, your design'll hold up, you worked hard on them. They're nigh invincible."
She pauses, turning from the screen to her supervisor, confused. "I'm not worried about the communicators, Mr. Scott."
He raises a brow. "Then what has ye acting like ye expecting a ghost?" He questions.
________ doesn't know. She wonders if she's tense because of the situation on the screen before her. Maybe so. But she's not a diplomat, she's an inventor, a mechanic. She has no real cares if this ally to Starfleet breaks away. But...
But what if they break away from the alliance, and harm the group? That's a problem. Perhaps that's why she's tense. Yes, she cares for the Captain; he's the one who leads the Enterprise, and without him, the crew would surely feel a loss. But ________ has no idea what he's like other than on ship-wide broadcasts, she's never talked to him face-to-face before. She doesn't know Mr. Spock, either, except from the remarks given to Lieutenant Stalewski that time and passing comments in the hallway to other people. Sure, she's friendly to the security team, but they're just drinking friends from when there's a shared breaktime, or shore leave. Dr McCoy, however –
"Oh shit," she whispers.
Mr. Scott pats her back once more, this time softly, kindly. "Took ye long enough, lassie."
As soon as Leonard made it back to the beaming pad on the ship, he was greeted to a pair of arms wrapping around his middle, a head buried deep into the crease between his shoulders and neck. He blinks, his mind only really just materialising into the spot where he stood, and a second later, he noticed the body, the scent of the person who had attached themselves to him. In front of the rest of the returning away team, no less.
"________?" He asks, "What's –," Her body rescinds from his proximity, and as soon as she's released him from the embrace, he feels the absence. "What's happening?"
She laughs, a tear falling down her cheek. "Would you believe that for a very smart person, I'm incredibly stupid?" She giggles, and wiping the tears from her face, adds, "Took me long enough to realise."
He raises an eyebrow. "You're not dumb."
Beside him, Jim elbows him in the ribs, "You're dumb though, Bones, being subtle with someone so oblivious to your pining."
He frowns, contesting, "I was not pining."
________ throws her arms around him once again. "You so were. How about we go for drinks?"
Jim musses Leonard's hair up, and walking off the beaming pad, calls back to them, "Do it now. You've got Captain's approval to go and smooch on duty."
"Smooch?" He questions.
________ nods. "Yeah, let's smooch."