Leonard McCoy knew what to do. His plan was perfect but he needed to employ a little help in order to pull it off.
This is why the Chief Medical Officer of the USS Enterprise was deep in the bowels of the engineering deck looking for the best friend and assistant of his partner of 10 years. He came across the Roylan working on a piece of machinery that Leonard couldn't even begin to understand how it helped run the Enterprise, despite the efforts of a certain Chief Engineering Officer.
"Hey Keenser could I ask you a favor?" Leonard asked while looking around to make sure one Montgomery Scott wasn't in sight.
The alien pulled his head out of the machine and looked up at him with the big black eyes, blinking in that way that had made Leonard feeling like the little alien could see right into your soul.
"I plan on proposing to Monty and wanted a special ring for him. I thought you'd be able to help me out in making one out of scraps from the Enterprise." Leonard said quickly and quietly. Keenser nodded and went back to work on the machine.
"Can you also not tell him, I don't want to ruin the surprise" Leonard added. He leaned against the machine standing next to Keenser who kept working.
"Right, like you'd say anything. I'm just nervous because we've been together so long that I don't want to mess this up...Did Monty ever tell you how we met?" Leonard asked aimlessly. Keenser poked his head out of the machine and shook it.
"Huh that's weird I would have thought he'd tell you by now." Leonard mused out loud.
"Private" Keenser stated. Leonard smirked; for once Monty was keeping something about their personal lives to himself.
"It's probably for the best that you heard it from me, you know how Monty likes to embellish." Leonard replied.
xXx
10 years earlier.
Leonard was sitting at the desk in his dorm room of Enterprise Academy; his door was open because most everyone was asleep.
Suddenly a boy with auburn hair he had seen around campus and in his history class had rushed into his room slightly out of breath.
"Hi can ya do me a favor an' preten' tha we've ben studyin' in here fer tha las' couple o' hours" the boy rushed in a Scottish brogue. Leonard narrowed his eyes at the boy trying to remember his name. Sco-Scotty...sounds about right.
There were footsteps coming down the hall and the other boy looked nervous. Leonard took pity on the other teen and tossed a book at him tilting his head to an empty spot on his floor next to the desk.
"Thank ya" he whispered sitting in the spot indicated and opening the book.
No sooner had the redhead took a seat, Admiral Archer and Lieutenant Commander Pike were in Leonard's doorway. Archer looked pissed and Pike annoyed.
"There you are! I swear if you've harmed Buttercup I won't just expel you I'll make it to where you can't even get a job in menial labor!" Archer exclaimed.
"Excuse me sir what is this about?" Leonard asked politely, turning his chair to the adults.
"This is none of your business McCoy." Archer growled.
"The fact that it's happening in my room kind of makes it my business, sir" Bones countered, crossing his legs and placing his hands over his knees.
"Fine; my Buttercup went missing an hour ago and he was the last person to be seen with her." Archer explained glaring at the auburn boy.
"It's improbable that Scotty had anything to do with it sir, we've been here studying for the last three hours." Leonard lied.
"You see sir; he had nothing to do with it." Pike defended.
"McCoy's probably just covering for his friend." Archer argued.
"That is possible sir, but you don't have any proof right now, so why don't we leave these boys to their studies and you can punish the responsible parties when you have solid proof." Pike reasoned.
"Fine but once I have proof nothing will be able to save you." Archer said threateningly at the redhead as he left. Pike sighed and shook his head after Archer left. He then turned to the boys.
"It's great that you're studying but it's nearly 2300 and should be heading to bed." Pike said.
"It's a Friday sir, no class tomorrow." Leonard countered.
"Fine McCoy but don't stay up too late and Scott, stay out of trouble will ya?" Pike said as he left the room.
Leonard got up and closed his door. The other boy let out a breath of relief.
"Mind telling me what the hell that was about?" Leonard asked turning on the other teen.
"Ah was arguin' with Lieutenant Williams about relative physics an' how it relates ta our transwarp travel. He says tha' a transporter is limited ta a few hundred kilometers, whereas ah hypothesize tha' ya can beam a living organism from one planet to another within the same planetary system." The other boy explained.
"What does this have to do with Archer's missing beagle?" Leonard asked.
"Ah decided ta test my theory with Buttercup. It worked ah just cannae locate her now." The redhead said sheepishly.
"So you just had me lie for you and they're going to look at the security footage, get their proof and probably expel us both." Leonard said exasperatedly.
"Nah, ah hacked the security feed a few hours ago an' put the footage on a loop to hide what ah was doing." The redhead replied.
"Ok" Leonard muttered before collapsing on his bed.
"Well ah'm goin' ta go. Me name's Montgomery Scott by tha way." The redhead said as he got up and headed to the door, placing the book in his hands on Leonard's desk.
"Sorry for calling you Scotty" Leonard apologized.
"Ah kinda like it, an' ah think it's what sold the lie" the other boy said opening the door.
"Alright then, see you around Scotty." Leonard said leaning up on his elbows.
"See ya around Len'rd." Scotty replied closing the door behind him.
Leonard lay back down on his bed wondering why exactly he was looking forward to seeing the rule breaking redhead again.