Hello, everyone!
This is my first attempt at an actual multi-chapter Star Trek fic and I'm a bit uneasy about it. I had to re-write this prologue about five times.
I have fifteen chapters planned out, more or less, and I'm going to try and keep the length reasonable (I tend to make chapters really, really long...).
This is a somewhat AU McCoy x OC romance, though there is a decent plot to go along with it. Rated T for violence, action, and language...it's mainly McCoy centric, so...
This is just the prologue; I've finished writing the first real chapter but I need to proofread it. I'll post it later tonight.
Disclaimer: I don't Star Trek.
1. Prologue
He met her at school when they were fourteen.
Later he would wonder why he went up to the skinny auburn-haired girl and said hello when he'd never seen her before in his life. He came to the conclusion that it was because she was the only person in school that looked grumpier than he felt just then.
"Hi, I haven't seen you around before."
"I'm new."
"So I figured."
"Why so grumpy?"
"I hate school. Not the work so much, just the people. They're annoying. Why are you so cranky?"
"I didn't want to move here. We lived in San Francisco, but Dad got a new job here, so…"
"San Francisco, huh? Long ways away."
"Tell me about it. I'm going back someday."
"Really?"
"Yeah, when I go to Starfleet Academy."
"You're going to join Starfleet?"
"Got a problem with Starfleet, do you?"
"I've got nothing against Starfleet. It's the flying…in ships…in space."
"You're crazy. I love flying."
"I'm not crazy. I just get airsick."
For the first time during the conversation, she smiled. Then she laughed.
They sat together at lunch that day.
"I hate math!" he groaned, dropping his head dramatically into his hands.
She sighed and grabbed his PADD from him. "Honestly, it's so easy! Sit up and I'll show you."
After she'd helped him figure out the problem, she said, "I get how you feel, though. I hate biology."
"What? Come on, biology is great!"
"So says you. Aren't you going to be a doctor like your dad?"
"Maybe, I'm still thinking about it…"
"Well, I'm going to fly starships. So I don't see where biology comes in."
"You're going to have to do the homework, though."
"True."
They helped each other with homework after that.
One day they talked about parents.
"My parents are great usually, as you know, but they work a lot." he admitted. "Sometimes I wish they were around more, like when I was younger."
"My dad works a lot, too."
"What about your mom?"
"She left years ago. I don't really remember her."
"I'm sorry. Is your dad nice?"
"Nice enough." She changed the subject.
They didn't talk about her parents again.
One day she missed school and didn't answer his calls. The next day she showed up in class, wearing a long-sleeved sweater that was way to warm for the time of year.
"Where were you?"
"I was sick."
"You don't look sick."
"I'm better now."
"You sure?"
"Yeah."
"What's with the sweater? It's too warm to wear something like that."
"I'm okay."
He didn't want to stop asking questions, but the look on her face convinced him to.
When they were sixteen, she started spending every other night or so at his house.
The first time, she called and asked if she could come over and do homework. His parents didn't mind, so he said yes and they worked on school stuff and then watched a movie together.
She fell asleep on their couch. He didn't have the heart to wake her up and his parents were already in bed.
His parents didn't mind that she'd stayed, but they were concerned about her father. "Wasn't he…won't he be worried?" his mom asked.
"He won't worry." she answered.
His parents knew before he did. They stopped asking her to call her father and tell him where she was.
He figured it out one day when her long sleeves hiked up her arm and he saw the bruises; bruises in the shape of fingers.
She knew that he saw. He asked her if she wanted to talk about it. She said no.
He started inviting her over to his house before she could ask.
Around ten p.m. on her eighteenth birthday, while his parents were away, she came stumbling on his front doorstep with a black eye and a nasty case of hysterics. Apparently she'd enlisted in Starfleet that morning, and when she told her father, he attacked her. This time, she hit back.
She was giggling as she told him, "I think knocked out a few teeth. He could barely swear at me, his mouth hurt so bad!"
"Yeah, and you split your knuckles open while you were at it. Hold still."
By the time he had finished bandaging her damaged hand and had fetched an ice pack for her eye, she had dissolved into tears. He held her while she cried, and carried her to his bedroom when she fell asleep. He slept on the couch that night.
She joined him in the kitchen the next morning.
"Hey." he said.
"Hey."
"How are you feeling?"
"Better. You didn't have to give me your bed last night."
"I just wanted you to be comfortable."
"That's…that's sweet."
"You sound surprised."
"Ha! Hardly."
"So, when are you leaving for the Academy?"
"Three weeks."
"That soon, huh? Well, I'll miss you."
"Wow, that must've been hard to admit."
He laughed. "You hungry?"
"Starved."
When she'd eaten something, she asked, "Where are my shoes?"
"By the front door. Why? You can stay here as long as you want."
"I know that, and I will, but I need to go back home and get some stuff."
"I'm going with you."
"Please, don't make this harder…"
"Don't argue with me on this, damn it. It's either I go with you or I call the police on your excuse of a father like you should've done years ago."
She let him come with her. They found her father passed out on a couch. Staying quiet, they retrieved her things and left.
As far as he knew, she never saw her father again.
"Well, good luck."
"No need to sound so worried; I'm not going into space just yet."
"Yeah, but the Academy is notoriously hard. I've been reading up on it…"
"And you don't think I'm smart enough?"
"Hey, I know you're smart enough."
"Oh, thanks. You can be charming when you want to be."
"Take care of yourself."
"You too."
They hugged and she walked away towards her transport. "Love you!" she called over her shoulder.
He was grinning like an idiot all the way home.
She went through Starfleet Academy far quicker than most cadets. She was eager to get on a starship.
He took his time enrolling in medical school. He wasn't in too much of a hurry to become a doctor, though his dad kept prodding him.
She was terribly busy, he knew that. But she called him every night and they would talk for an hour or so. Sometimes he would call her first.
Sometimes they laughed. Sometimes they were serious.
She spent her vacations with him, too.
At some point during those two years, they became more than friends.
He went to a medical school not too far from his home. He did well.
She graduated with honors and got a post on a starship. She did very well.
They still called each other when they could, send long-distance messages when they could not.
Whenever she got shore leave on Earth, she'd come visit him. It meant extra travel time for her, but she didn't mind.
On her last shore leave, he went to her in San Francisco. They spent the weekend together, not wanting nor needing any other company.
Later he remembered it as the best weekend of his life. Though maybe it was just perspective.
He dropped her off at the shuttle pickup. He still didn't really approve of her career path. Not for the first time, he said, "Starfleet is going to be the death of you."
She laughed and kissed him goodbye.
He went back to finish up medical school. She went back to her ship.
The ship was destroyed in a distant sector about three months later. No survivors were found.
He couldn't believe it when he first heard the news.
I joked that Starfleet would be the death of her…
Some joke that had been. Guilt engulfed him, followed quickly by grief.
Grief which he soon buried and tried to forget. He could be sensible, if he wished, and the sensible option was to come to terms with it all and move on.
So he did. Mostly.
(7 years later…)
He was only mildly intoxicated, which was a real pity. Unless he was blind drunk, he couldn't stop thinking about the things…Jocelyn, Joanna, the divorce…that simply pissed him off. Which was why he was headed to a bar right now.
Should've known it was a mistake to get married. It wasn't as if they'd really been suited to each other in the first place. He'd been lonely, damn it! She'd taken advantage of that…Damn uppity woman… she complained through the whole wedding… manipulative, too…How else did she get everything when I got nothing? Shit, she even got Joanna.
Though considering the state he'd been in for the last few weeks, it was probably a good thing. Ever since he knew he was getting screwed in the divorce, he'd pretty much given up on lots of things, including moderation in drinking and personal hygiene.
What the hell do I do now?
He was sick of this. Sick of the whole Jocelyn drama, sick of not being able to see his daughter when he wanted, sick of the whole damn planet.
A faint memory stirred at the back of his mind from where he'd buried it years ago. "See if I do actually get tired of Earth…"
He stopped his aimless walk down an almost deserted city street, considering. "Why the hell not?" he muttered.
The next day, Leonard McCoy enlisted in Starfleet.
Rebecca would be laughing her head off at this.
Pity he joined Starfleet seven years too late for her to ever know about it.
Reviews are welcome. The next chapter will be up tonight.
