Christine Chapel was in trouble.
She didn't know what she'd done or what Commander Spock wanted, exactly, but she knew it couldn't be good. The only reason that she'd be requested on the bridge right after a crisis, when the immediate danger had passed but there was still work to be done, was if she'd done something wrong. What that was, though, she had no clue.
They had lost no patients. Even with hull ruptures on two decks and an explosion in engineering, there were miraculously no casualties. Dr. McCoy had performed nearly a dozen surgeries and with her and the other nurses' help, they had managed to save everyone. It was almost too good to be true. Even though it had appeared to her that something was off about the Doctor, he had put whatever it was aside instantly and performed admirably.
She wondered if it was about something else. Maybe Dr. McCoy had reported that singing incident...? But no, she didn't think that was very likely. She had, technically, not been on duty yet and he hadn't seemed angry. The anxiety was going to kill her.
Breathing deeply to steady herself, she exited the turbolift, announcing her presence. "Commander Spock, I believe you requested my presence?"
"Yes, Nurse Chapel. As the Captain is on the planet, kindly meet me in his ready room." Uh-oh, this couldn't be good. He wanted to see her in private? This had to be bad. Keep calm, Christine. If you can't think of something that bad, then he it's probably just something the rest of the crew shouldn't know. Maybe we'll be treating a new species. A species that likes their privacy. No reason to panic...
She followed the commander and sat in the chair that he motioned towards. Pulling nervously at her skirt, she thought she saw his eyes flick to the motion before looking back up at her.
"Nurse Chapel, you are aware that Starfleet has a rather strict dress code, are you not?"
Dress code? What is this?
"Yes."
"And you are aware that the female attire is either pants or skirt." He paused, and if she didn't know better, she would have said he looked uncertain. "A skirt of a certain length."
Christine felt her eyes widen and her face flush slightly. She knew instantly what he was trying to say - she was wearing the skirt that she had hemmed earlier in the day. The only clean uniform, the one that was fraying along the bottom, the one that was only about three inches shorter than normal. This is what he had called her for? A skirt?She wondered what the significance was, as she tried to explain.
"Yes, Commander-"
"May I inquire if there is a particular reason for the...decreased length of your skirt?"
"Yes, Commander. You see, this morning I didn't realize that my only clean uniform had begun to fray at the ends. I've had some rather bad luck with the refresher, and I know how to sew. I thought I could just fix it temporarily until I had time this evening to take care of the situation." Though his expression never changed, he seemed somehow to be less accusatory. Maybe it was his something in the way he held his shoulders...
"I see. And you had planned on finding complete uniforms later this evening? Very well. Please do so as soon as possible. Starfleet has standards that we must uphold."
"Yes Commander." Christine bit her lip before blurting out "If I may, why did you have me meet you all the way up on the bridge over a skirt?" Christine was convinced that her earlier stress had somehow made her temporarily loser her sanity because there was no way she was seeing amusement on Commander Spock's face.
"Yes, well, as you may recall, the Captain and myself met you and the Doctor down in sickbay shortly before the attack on the Enterprise. Despite the fact that we were discussing an urgent matter, I noticed that the Captain was distracted. As you may have noticed, the Captain is known to rather openly admire certain…female attributes. This is not unusual for him, and as it does not affect his performance, it is something I have not yet felt the need to make an issue of. However, today I noticed that he was more distracted than is the norm for him."
Okay, there was no way she was imagining that amusement now.
"What was also rather unusual was that Dr. McCoy also seemed distracted. It did not take me long to determine the common factor and while the difference may have seemed subtle to you, I have noticed that many human males are very proficient at finding these displays among females. This was intriguing, though, because over the course of many away missions, the Doctor has seen many females of various species garbed in much less clothing and showing much more skin then your shortened skirt presented."
Christine couldn't quite help the small frown at the mention of scantily clad women throwing themselves at the away team.
"I may not have said anything, had it been only the Captain, but since this new development also put the work performance of Dr. McCoy at risk, I felt I must bring it to your attention. I will not make an official note of this, as I do not believe that you were in any way intentionally causing…disruption among the staff."
"No. No, that wasn't my intention" she told him, a little dazed. She had been distracting the doctor? Kirk she could understand; McCoy was his best friends and there were some things that reached her ears in sickbay. But the doctor, that was shocking. She was tempted to think that Spock may be mistaken, but then again, he was Vulcan, and they weren't mistaken about a lot of things.
"Good. Unless there is anything else that you wish to report, you are dismissed, Nurse Chapel."
Christine stood up and saluted before heading out of the ready room. As she was about to enter the turbolift, none other than the Captain himself entered the bridge. He looked tired, but when he saw her he flashed a brilliant grin. And then she saw, she saw, his flick towards her legs before he walked past to confer with Sulu. Heading into the lift, she could feel his eyes on her and she hurriedly pushed the lift close button. Closing her eyes, she hit the stop button, breathing deeply. This had been a long day, and not at all what she had expected when she woke up in the morning.
Regaining her composure slowly, she resumed the lift and walked towards sickbay. Taking one last deep breath, she told herself for the final time the things she had to convince herself of.
Just a man…men have always loved your legs…doesn't mean anything…don't get any of your hopes up…pull yourself together…
Striding into sickbay, Head Nurse Christine Chapel was determined to regain her professional appearance. She would blame that party Kirk had had the previous night and the alcohol and the Klingon attack and the many other things for the way she'd lost her professionalism – albeit minorly – in front of the commander. Now she had work to do.
Unfortunately for Head Nurse Christine Chapel, the first thing she was greeted with upon her arrival was a very agitated CMO, looking as though he was about to shake her.
"Damned transporters and their damned 'convenience'" he muttered, before simply demanding "Well?"
She was proud that she only hesitated a moment before responding. "The Commander had heard about the particular trouble I was having with the refresher. He wished to discuss it with me."
McCoy looked visibly relieved. "Spock called you all the way to the bridge about the refresher?"
"Yes, Doctor." Among other things.
"Well, who can understand Vulcans? Let's get back to work, Chapel."
"Yes, Doctor" she agreed, professionally ignoring the way his eyes flicked to her skirt line as she walked past him.
I had a terrible time writing Spock. I wanted to try and capture the more emotional Spock you see in the movie, but I'm not sure how that worked out. I also feel like I used way too many pronouns. So, of course, constructive criticism is welcome and appreciated. One last thing - this is sort of an...addition to a larger story I'm working on, so there are a few vague hints towards that. I just got the plot bunny, as they say, and couldn't resist posting this. I hope that it stands alone well enough. Thanks for reading!