Fic: Friend is a Four Letter Word
Title: Friend is a Four Letter Word
Rating: PG/PG-13
Fandom: ST:XI
Pairing: McCoy/Spock; Jocelyn/OC; mentions of past Jocelyn/McCoy
Warnings: character death, unidentified illness, awkward conversations, AU
Notes: Written for the following prompt:
So we've had a ton of fics where McCoy and his Ex-wife hate each other, but what if they became pretty much BFFs at some point after their divorce, exchanging letters, she keeps him updated on Joanna, and she gives him advice on how to deal with his attraction to a certain half-Vulcan.
Bonus: Shore-leave and she meets up with McCoy with Joanna and rumors fly around the ship of them still being together.
(Captcha says "Crop Emphasized" WTF?)
Didn't get that bonus in there, sorry. :(
Still, I hope everyone likes it.
Grandmother of Notes: Thanks to blue_orbit for the beta.
Grandfather of Notes: Among the potential names for this were "I'm Sorry" (suggested by a friend on twitter), "Goodbye", "Talk", and "Best Friend". I'm hoping the one I chose was the right one.
Summary: Jocelyn and Leonard try to be friends again, one call at a time.
The first call is awkward. They don't know how to react to each other anymore, and it shows. They go through ten painful minutes of conversation before Jocelyn puts their daughter on. They're about to cut the connection before she speaks.
"I'm sorry Leonard."
He frowns. "What for?"
She looks away briefly. "Everything."
He knows then what she's talking about. He shrugs. "I guess it's just as much my fault for not telling you before."
"Maybe," Jocelyn says. "Still, it wasn't good for any of us, you especially. I hope you'll forgive me."
He shifts, uncomfortable. "Don't worry about it."
The second call is nothing but Joanna detailing a trip to Grandma's. Jocelyn does nothing but nod at him.
"I'm getting married," Jocelyn says on the third call. Leonard is startled.
"That's fast."
She snorts. "Don't I know it. You remember Steven?"
Leonard makes a face. "That asshole?"
Jocelyn grins. "You're just pissy 'cause he didn't like your pasta salad."
"He tried to feed me broccoli salad and claimed it was coleslaw. I still don't know how he hasn't poisoned himself thinking mothballs were sugar cubes."
She laughs and for a moment it's as if the last few months hadn't happened.
It's call fifteen. He's in last Thursday's shirt, his hair's a mess, and his eyes are bloodshot. Jocelyn answers the comm and he starts the conversation by saying "Vulcan's gone."
Jocelyn nods sadly. "I saw it on the news. It's horrible. Are you alright?"
He rubs a hand across his face. "I dunno. I had this Vulcan woman staring at me; when… Someone asked her why, I dunno who. Said I looked like her son."
"Yeah?"
"Her son who hadn't made it off the planet."
Jocelyn has her compassionate face on; Leonard doesn't know if it helps or hurts.
"You were there?"
He nods. "Close enough to get up close and personal with a black hole. Jim got himself marooned, then took over the ship. Almost got himself and everyone else killed, and then saved the day as if he was trying to be some old fashioned superhero."
"I don't know how you did it."
"Neither do I." He cradles his head in his hands. "My mind's locked up tighter than a steel trap, and I can still hear them screaming. There was nothing, then there were billions of Vulcans crying out, then there was silence. I imagine it was worse for those who could hear it better."
The call lasts two hours; Jocelyn listens to him talk until he runs out of words, then tells him to go to bed.
"...so this woman's running around, screaming at the top of her lungs about some Andorian porn star, and Clay says..."
"What ever happened?" he asks, without thinking, interrupting Joceylen's monolouge.
She blinks at him, startled. "What?"
Since he's already put his foot in his mouth, he decides to continue."With you and Clay,"
Jocelyn slumps and sighs. "That... Me and Clay were a onetime deal. We're friends, nothing else."
Leonard shrugs awkwardly. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have..."
Jocelyn snorts. "I shouldn't have slept with him. I think we're even."
"Still, that wasn't..."
"Len, stop. It's okay." She smiles thinly at him. "I should check on Joannie."
She ends the call and Leonard feels like an ass.
"Steven's still complaining about your last visit."
"Still?"
"Unfortunately." Jocelyn rolled her eyes. "If I hear the word 'boozehound' one more time…."
Leonard chuckled. "He's a persistent one isn't he?"
"If he were anymore persistent I'd shoot him."
Jocelyn hangs up out of annoyance when Leonard spends the next fifteen minutes laughing at her.
"I'm…married. Sort of."
Jocelyn blinks. "Really?"
He nods.
"Okay," she says slowly. "What do you mean 'sort of'?"
"I mean: in both our native cultures we'd be considered married, but as far as records go we aren't."
Her eyebrows shoot up. "Who is this?"
"Spock."
"No. Way."
Leonard slumps in his chair. "I ran out of supplies. I had no idea my cycle was coming up. He showed up, and he tasted good, so we ended up going at it."
Jocelyn looks like she's trying not to laugh at him. "He tasted good?"
He gives her a sour look. "Get your mind out of the gutter. I licked him. On the cheek!" he added when she started to lose control of her placid expression. "Nothing as dirty as you're thinking."
She took a few deep breaths to get a hold of herself. "So? What're you gonna do?"
"We talked. I said I'd like to give it a try."
"That the truth?"
He made a face. "Of course it's the truth; what kind of guy to you think I am?"
Jocelyn held up her hands in a gesture of surrender. "Alright, alright. Tell me more about him."
"We're on our way back to Earth."
Jocelyn smiles. "That's good news. Will you be back in time for Joannie's birthday?"
"Should be." He bit his lip. "Would you mind if I brought Spock along? He wants to meet her in person."
"Sure." She grinned. "I'll admit it, I'm eager to meet him in person as well. I doubt these tiny monitors do him justice."
He rolled his eyes. "Cool your engines; you don't want to make Steven jealous."
Jocelyn huffed. "Steven can eat hay. He asks more questions than Joannie does."
"That bad, eh?"
Jocelyn shuddered. "Leonard, I swear. Clay was less obnoxious when it came to calls. Steven's so… So… Nosy. And loud. And he calls every soft drink 'coke' which is ridiculous."
Leonard laughed. "Sounds like fun."
"You wish."
"Do you know," he drawled as he leaned against the desk, "that I've had no less than seven people question my intentions towards Spock. One of them accused me of leading him on."
Jocelyn snorted. "That's…wow. What brought that on?"
Leonard sighed. "I have no idea. Some of them were even harassing Spock with questions. It's been that kind of day."
Jocelyn giggled. "Poor baby."
Leonard stuck out his tongue at her.
"Joannie won't stop talking about him," said Jocelyn with a smile. "It's adorable. It's 'Spock said this' and 'Spock did that' and 'When're we gonna see Spock again, Mommy'. Driving us crazy, just about."
Leonard grins. "I hope you recorded it."
Jocelyn laughs. "Of course. It's comedy gold. She'll be grown and bringing her boy toy home and I'll be armed and ready with this clip of her as a toddler in love with her daddy's husband. She'll be mortified."
"I can't wait to see it," Leonard said. "You have our visit, too, yeah? Jojo was climbing Spock like a pole."
"You know I do. His face was hilarious." Jocelyn laughs 'til she chokes, then spends a few minutes coughing and trying to catch her breath.
He frowns. "You alright?"
She waves her hand, nodding quickly. "Fine," she gasps. "I'm fine. I'll have those clips to you in a bit."
The quality of the transmission may be shitty, but it's clear that something's wrong. Jocelyn's hair is thinner, her eyes sunken. She's lost weight, and when she speaks she sounds like she's about to cry. "Len… There's… I'm in a bad way, Len. I'm sick."
It's only been a couple of months since he last talked to her. Her voice is rough and weak.
He frowns and leans forward in his chair, as if he was leaning closer to her. "What've you got?"
"They don't know. The doctors said…they said maybe it's something from off-planet. Maybe a combination of Earth diseases and foreign ones?" She shrugs, clearly tired. "They won't tell me much of anything, except that it's killing me." She snorted. "I could've figured that out my own self. What good are they?"
"How long?"
She frowns. "What? Have I had it? Have I got?"
"Both."
She looks away. "Had it for, ah, twelve weeks. Three months give or take. They're saying I got less than that 'til I'm in the ground." Jocelyn covers her face with shaking hands, working hard to hold it together. "Jojo's so upset. She…I don't think she…." She stops to take a deep breath, and coughs on the exhale. "She needs you Len. We both do."
He watches her in silence as she fights the tears away, contemplating. When she looks a little less like she's going to fall over, he straightens. "Get me your medical records. I wanna see what you're dealing with. I might be able to help."
"Len, will you come? You have to come. We need you here."
He wishes he was there beside her, to hug her and hold her hand. "The Enterprise isn't due back for another month, but I can catch a hop. You make sure you take care of yourself 'til I get there."
She nods and relaxes into her seat. Leonard's already planning what he'll say to Jim, to Spock.
"Len?" Jocelyn's voice is small, weaker than he's ever heard it.
"Yeah?" he replies, just as quietly.
"Thank you."