Hello all! It's Bonnie here, with a new story. This idea had been floating around my head for a bit, and honestly I'm not sure if I'll continue the story line or not. It depends on if you lovelies are interested. This first chapter was bugging the hell out of me though, so I had to write it. Leave C&C, I'd love to hear what you guys have to say about it, and let me know if you're interested in more!

I obviously don't own Star Trek (le cry) but I do own this small semblance of a plot and the lovely Contessa Morana. As well as what ever other small characters might pop up that aren't quite canon.

And on to the story!

Hey, you, Medicine Man
You know what the broken need
Hey, you, I'll give you a dollar
To take this pain away from me

In the medical profession, you meet a lot of eccentric people. Dr. Leonard McCoy wouldn't be the first to stand by that rule – in his years as a physician he's met quite a few characters. Jim Kirk being only one of many that came to mind right off the bat. Dr. McCoy had thought he had seen it all – until he met the lovely, ever-so-strange Dr. Morana.

It was a typical Monday at the Starfleet Academy, Science Division. About half way through the year, and all of the MD's-in-training were about to witness their first live anatomy presentation. In other words, an autopsy on a dead man. Dr. McCoy, clearly already a licensed doctor, was the Teacher's Assistant for several medical classes, Anatomy and Physiology to name one. The Academy didn't like free time too much, he had determined, even if he was already years beyond his cadet peers. To prepare for this morning's class, he had to venture down to the Academy's morgue. McCoy was honestly a little surprised to hear that they had one that belonged to the Academy. He just assumed cadavers were donated from other hospitals in the area. Regardless, he had to go get his dead body.

McCoy knew his way around the hospital well. During class hours, if he wasn't being a teacher's assistant, or in one of his Starfleet mandated classes, he was working in the hospital. He arrived on the first floor, flashed his badge at the nurse's reception area, and made his way to the elevator. Inside, he pushed a button to a floor he never had been to before – B. The basement of the hospital had two entrances – one for the general doctor's (or whoever else might have business there) and another in the back for the DOA's. Nearly all hospitals had this, as they obviously couldn't be parading around a dead body in the middle of a civilian populated hospital. Apparently it's unnerving to others.

The elevator arrived at the basement with a ding! It was eerily quiet in these hallways, as opposed to the other floors. McCoy still got a chill down his spine when his work took him to the basement. He ignored the disconcerting silence, and confidently made his way through the double doors that led to the morgue. The lead instructor, a Dr. Flipsen, had informed him the onsite M.E. would be there to greet him and get the paperwork sorted. Except, he didn't see anyone. At first. Out of the corner of McCoy's eyes he saw movement coming from one of the metal slabs used for autopsies. His heart skipped a beat as he slowly turned to see what it was. Laying on the slab was a young woman in a lab coat, half asleep.

"Jesus Christ!" McCoy shouted, his heart now thundering in his chest. His outburst woke the sleeping woman, who responded in equal surprise.

"Oh shit!" She shot up, her hand covering her heart. Once she saw McCoy standing there, she took in a deep breath. "Dear God, man, don't you knock? You scared me half to death!" The woman exclaimed as she hopped off of the table. McCoy looked at her bewildered.

"Me!? You were the dead body lying on a slab!" He shouted back at her. The woman waved off his response with ease, and made her way to a filing cabinet on the other side of the room.

"You must be Dr. McCoy. Here for the fresh cadaver, right? It's usually Flipsen who comes in here, you know. She must have some kinda faith in you, she never sends newbies for pickup. Last one she sent fainted." The woman was blathering on as she sifted through poorly organized folders and papers. McCoy was still trying to calm his thundering heartbeat as the not-dead woman went about her business.

"I don't blame him, if you pull that stunt with everyone." McCoy grumbled. He saw her wave him off flippantly once more.

"I'm the only M.E. on call, they had a DOA late last night. Had to come in and deal with that, decided to take a nap about an hour ago to make up for it." She checked her watch. "They're not that uncomfortable, really." Finally finding the file that she was looking for, she snatched it up and returned to Dr. McCoy.

"I'm Dr. Morana. Resident M.E., and unfortunate cadet." She stuck her hand out to shake McCoy's hand. He obliged and shook hers, an eyebrow raised in question.

"Aren't you a bit young to be a Medical Examiner?" He asked.

"Aren't you a bit old to be enlisted?" She shot back with a raised brow. A scowl marred his face. Morana gave him a sly smirk as she deemed that she had won the banter, and she beckoned him to follow her. The back wall was covered with tiny doors, freezers, for all intents and purposes. Dr. Morana referred back to her file, finding the location she was looking for, and opened the corresponding door. She slid the drawer out to reveal a fresh corpse.

"Meet Mr. Royce Meier, 49. Last night's DOA. Auto accident, no official cause of death, Flipsen asked me to hold off on the autopsy for the class, but unofficially, there was severe head trauma, internal hemorrhaging, and I believe several broken ribs. One of which punctured some internal organs." Dr. Morana brushed the hair out of the face of the man as she spoke. "Victim of a drunk driver. He had a wife and two children." Dr. Morana's face was calm, but her voice sad. Even with centuries of advancements in medicine and safety, the best doctors couldn't prevent simple stupidity. Dr. McCoy looked on with pursed lips.

"How'd he end up in your care?" He asked, trying to find something to change the subject to something less heavy.

"Donated his body to science. We were the closest institution that had the means to keep him." Dr. Morana tore her eyes from the man on her slab and walked back to her desk, fishing out more paperwork. "I'm assuming you haven't done this before so I'll give you the run down." Morana grabbed a stylus and her PADD. She highlighted several boxes and wrote in some notes in other blanks before passing it over to McCoy. "Sign the highlighted areas. It's pretty much an agreement saying you're taking over custody of the body, promising no selling body parts on the black market, blah, blah, blah." She explained scrolling through and handing McCoy the stylus. He quirked his brow, but followed her lead, signing every highlighted block he had to sign, and leaving his bio-signature on the final page. He never knew obtaining a body for medical school was such intensive work. As he placed his last signature and handed the PADD back to Dr. Morana, she accepted it with a smile.

"Great! I'll see you later then!"

"Right…" McCoy said, almost slightly confused by her parting words, but didn't spend much time thinking about it. He now had to get a dead body to class.

"This morning, we have a special guest." Dr. Flipsen announced to the Anatomy class. "Allow me to introduce Cadet Contessa Morana, or as she as known in the morgue, Dr. Morana." At the back of the room, the strange woman McCoy found lying on an autopsy table stood. She gave an awkward wave and made her way to the front of the room.

"Dr. Morana has an established career as a Medical Examiner outside of Starfleet already. For reasons still unknown to me," Dr. Flipsen gave Morana a covert grin, "She decided she wanted to leave Earth and continue her practices in the stars, like much of you. The only difference is, she's already got her degree, so listen up." With that, Dr. Flipsen gave the floor over to Morana.

"Thanks, Dr. Flipsen. Sometimes my decisions even baffle me." Morana grinned. She felt nervous as all eyes were on her. "So… uh… Show of hands, how many have you been present for an autopsy before?" She asked, raising her own. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Flipsen and McCoy raise their hands. No one else did.

"Okay… How many of you have seen a dead body before today?" She asked another question, her hand still raised. A few more hands went up, maybe half the class. Dr. Morana lowered her hand and looked them over slowly while ringing her hands. McCoy noticed this. She was nervous. Terrified, even. Dr. Morana began giving a rather shaky spiel about what she does as a Medical Examiner, and what duties the cadets might have to perform as doctors on a starship that might not have an ME. McCoy turned to Dr. Flipsen with a raised brow.

"Where did you get this girl?" He asked the older professor. Flipsen smiled as she watched Dr. Morana attempt to convey her thoughts out loud.

"I happened to come across Tess when she was still a little pre-med student." Flipsen explained. "The girl was twenty at the time, and already on her last semester for her degree. I knew she was special then. Brilliant mind, lightyears beyond her peers at school. Her only downfall being that she was absolute shit at talking with other humans." Flipsen snorted.

"I can see that." McCoy watched as Morana's face was slowly growing redder as she tried to answer a question a student had.

"She almost failed out of med-school for it." Flipsen confided. McCoy looked to the older doctor, shocked. "I saw some potential in her, and intervened. Might have twisted her arm a bit, but it was harmless." It was in that moment that Dr. McCoy knew that Dr. Flipsen was one very devious woman. Not someone he would ever particularly want to cross.

"How did you manage that?" He inquired.

"I promised her I would get her through med-school if she agreed to join Starfleet once she got licensed. Of course, she agreed, I pulled a few strings, and here she is. Basking in the most awkward light I have ever seen." Flipsen smirked and looked to Morana fondly. She thought of the young doctor almost as the daughter she never had. "Tess has always had an affinity for dead bodies. A strange fascination, I know, and incredibly too morbid for someone her age. But she's good. She likes to help, when most people would just call it a day when the dead body shows up. It's uncomfortable, even for some of the most practiced."

"Okay, I'm really bad with Q&A, so let's just cut up a dead body, shall we?" Dr. Morana finally cut off her informational lecture and hopped right in to the hands-on activities of the class. "For those who want a closer look, feel free to come up here, proper sanitization is still required, those who want to just watch on the screens feel free to stay in your seats." Morana clicked a switch on a remote, which powered on several screens, all showing various angles of this morning's anatomy practice. Tess was gonna be in for a long day.

Well! That was a first chapter if I've ever written one. If I continue, the following chapters should be longer, but I wanted to cut myself off before I got too far ahead for this first one. What do you guys think? Tess a little too morbid, or do you like the direction this is going? I figured for large starships on long journeys (a la the Enterprise) would probably have some form of Medical Examiner aboard, probably with other side duties since people aren't dying on the daily. (Well, one would hope)

Leave comments and love n stuff. Let me know what you hoodlums think.

Much love,
Bonnie