Title: Old School Botany
Fandom: Star Trek: The Original Series
Notes: As a response to a challenge/prompt. Star Trek doesn't belong to me; they're Paramount's. Shel Silverstein wrote I Got Stoned and I Missed It, and Dr. Hook sang it. So that's theirs. Now I wonder, do I call up and go "Hey, Dad, I used one of the songs you sang in a story!"? Sorry, just kidding. Rambling. May or may not be decent, I dunno. Might lengthen it later on, who knows.
The book lay wide open on Leonard McCoy's desk, turned to a page most in the medical practise had debated on for centuries. He himself had never delved too deeply into it.
That is, until now.
He'd been reading over the short chapter for hours since he'd last checked the entire crew. That last mission had been hell on thrusters and until tey reached the next starbase, McCoy had to find an alternative to the pain killers in some need of restocking.
There were no deadly-serious problems, thank goodness, but he wanted the crew to have some relief.
It was this train of thought that had McCoy go on a hunch and sift through his computer library. Finding no luck there, he'd moved on to a collection of hard-bound, paper-written books and found this obscure, short little chapter on an interesting plant.
Interesting plant, if controversial.
Still, a hunch was a hunch and McCoy weighed his options.
A slightly "happier" crew was certainly better than one in discomfort. And while mild, irritating discomfort was a far cry better than some disaster...
Yes. "Happy" was happy, no matter how you sliced it.
"Heh. Nice remedy you cooked up, Doc."
McCoy watched with some mild amusement as Sulu passed him in the companionway. The man walked and talked like he was on cloud nine - hell, he probably was.
Reflecting momentarily, McCoy ended up grinning a little. He hadn't used much of that green plant - only a little had been needed - and kept in its natural state, the stuff did as it was touted to do.
At that point, McCoy wonder what the entire debate had been about in the first place.
When he returned to his office, he found his book still open where he'd left it who-knows-how-long ago but atop the open pages lay a brief note.
Dr. McCoy,
I must applaud you on your inventive solution until we reach Starbase.
-Spock
It was characteristic of the Vulcan to be economic with words, even formal to some extent or another but what wasn't so usual was the small audio tape that the physician soon spotted beside his book.
Curiously, he took up the tape and slid it into a playback device.
Minutes later, McCoy shut his old medical book, put it away and just shook his head in utter amusement. Now he knew who had sent the tape and he knew exactly who to get back at.
A happy crew and friendly "revenge" was definitely a nice ending to an Enterprise day.
"I got stoned and I missed it; oh me, oh my!"