"Dammit Sadara! When are you gonna leave my crusty old ass behind and get on with your life?!"
A pair of slanted eyebrows shot for Sadara's hairline in amused surprise at the vehement tone. She quickly finished washing the makeup off of her face and then glanced up in the mirror to see her husband of the last century reflected behind her.
He had always been too thin, but at the wizened old age of 137, his body couldn't be described as anything but frail though it was as healthy as it could be for someone his age thanks to cloned organs over the years. Given his love/hate relationship with modern technology it had surprised her somewhat that the self proclaimed "old country doctor" had chosen to clone his organs rather than let nature take its course as she figured an "old country doctor" would. He had mellowed a little about such things over the years and Sadara briefly wondered how much of the organ replacements had to do with a fear of death. She couldn't blame him honestly; it was common and natural for most living beings to have a healthy fear of death thanks to the uncertainty of what lay after the jump.
A shock of thin, snow white hair skimmed his head in unruly wisps and his face was a roadmap of fine and not so fine lines. Though his physical condition had deteriorated over the decades, his feisty disposition, mental faculties, and razor sharp wit were still in fine form.
Thanks to his wife's half Vulcan heritage and Vulcan physiology, she had aged much more slowly than him. Adding to the disparity was the fact that they started out with a 20 year age difference.
Sadara smiled warmly even though they'd been through this many times over the last forty or so years. His ability to be so selfless even in the face of loneliness caused her both perfect love and perfect pain. It warmed her heart to know that he still loved her so much to think of her happiness first, but it was misplaced. She had no desire to leave him behind even though he was no longer capable of keeping up with her physically. A part of her though wondered if there was a selfish reason to his insistence. Perhaps he didn't want her to see him die.
"Len, this is my life," she said, pulling the pins out of her hair now that her face was washed. The chocolate brown curls fell about her ivory shoulders and their soft floral scent wafted gently to his nose. Early middle age had deepened slightly the fine lines in her face; and the pregnancies and births of their children had left their toll on her body, but she was still as gorgeous as ever to him.
It frustrated Admiral Leonard McCoy that their love life had been so savagely curtailed by his age. His ancient body simply wasn't up to the same task as his vivid imagination. And it didn't help that his still vibrant wife continued to dress for bed in little satin slips that left little to the imagination and little in the way of obstruction.
Leaning closer to the mirror, the Vulcan/Human hybrid examined her hair hunting for one of those pesky silver hairs that had been peeking out from the brown with alarmingly increasing frequency. Isolating one, she plucked the silver strand and with an impish grin, showed it her grumpy old man.
"See? I'm not that far behind you."
"Hogwash, Sadara, and you know it!" His still bright aqua blue eyes blazed at her. "You still have at least 80 years ahead of you. God knows I don't want you to ever leave me, but I'm an anchor to you now and have been for over 40 years. You would have a much fuller life if you left me behind. Why you could get married again, have another family. Hell, you could even go back to commanding a starship!"
A patient sigh escaped Sadara. "Len, is this about me or is it about you? Both?" She asked gently.
McCoy wilted slightly at that. She had always been a gifted counselor. In many ways, they balanced each other, personally and professionally; he a healer of bodies and her, a healer of minds, hearts, and souls. But in all the times that they had argued about this very subject, this was the first time she'd confronted him with his own fears.
"Well I…," he fumbled, searching for the words he wanted. "It's just I want you to live; really live again before you get old. And I don't want you to see me die like this. Just a frail old bedsore… Dammit, Sadara, I'm ancient as hell and you are barely middle aged!"
He looked away as his eyes misted over with unshed tears. Sadara's own sapphire eyes burned with the same as his emotions traversed the intimately woven tethers of their telepathic bond. She swallowed hard, fighting to drive them back.
"Len, I take my marriage vows seriously as I know you do. I said til death do us part and I meant every word. I knew the deal when I signed up. You've made up your mind that you're holding me back from my life, but I don't feel that way about it at all. This is my life and I'm quite content with it."
She wandered out of the bathroom, the light winking off as they exited. The black satin slip she was wearing clung to her body as she padded over to their bed to turn down the covers. Candles she'd lit earlier in the evening still burned brightly, casting flickering shadows that danced about the room.
"Besides what would our children think?"
"You just had to bring them into it, didn't you?"
"Yes, because you're being ridiculous!" Sadara insisted.
"Of all the stubborn, pigheaded…"
Sadara grinned. "pointy eared, green blooded… I come by it honestly, you know this."
Silence hung between them like a dense fog for a long moment. Finally Sadara broke the silence.
"I love you, Len. I'm not going anywhere. I appreciate that you want what's best for me and are thinking of my future, but deep down I think you don't really want me to go and insist because you think it's the right thing to encourage me to do. As for you not wanting me to see you die, we can talk about that in the morning, but I can't imagine returning to the stars and getting that message delivered to me by subspace from some admiral."
"Like I said, stubborn, pigheaded…"
"Pointy eared, green blooded…"
"So are you still coming with me to that god forsaken maiden voyage of the Enterprise D? At my age there are few social pleasures left in life, but parading my still hot wife in front of a bunch of young whipper snappers is still one of them!"
Sadara laughed and put out the candles as McCoy crawled into his side of the bed. She joined him as he mumbled sleepily into his pillow.
"I wouldn't miss it for all the Romulan Ale in the Alpha Quadrant," she assured him.
"Stubborn, pigheaded, pointy eared…," he trailed off.
"Good night, Len," she chuckled, leaving a gentle kiss on his lips.