A/N: This'll be a serious of quick little drabbles about dealing with pain and grief and such on the Enterprise where you have so few people to turn to. This series was probably started to allow later Dr. Springer some screen time without being seen from Bones' perspective and some real insight into how she goes about her job. This first one isn't with her, but it does go along the same themes as the rest of them will. And also I realized I didn't really have anything with Uhura in it being her sweet little self. This is mostly inspired by Nichelle Nichols' version, but is really supposed to be Zoe Saldana's Uhura. Dur. Silly me. You don't have to have read any of my other fics to get this series, I think, but all my stories are in the same timeline unless I say otherwise.

I don't own Star Trek, only Dr. Springer.


Bogeys and Shoulders


Scotty had prided himself on the fact that he had never had a full-on mental breakdown, well, at least not in a public place. When he was a child he had rarely witnessed anyone crying let alone wracked with grief. Maybe it was this upbringing that made him sure that crying was the most private thing in the world. If he so much as shed a single tear he felt like he needed to leave the room instantly. But this all went to hell in the mess hall one day a week after he got the call that his mother had died.

He could actually feel the breakdown coming for days. It was like he was a pipe that was clogged, and more and more grief kept flowing in but his own pride kept it all bottled in and the pressure kept building up until the straw that broke the Scotsman's back landed and his tears exploded from his eyes into his mashed potatoes. The breaking point had been so close for a while, that as soon as Uhura started talked about her dad's visit to Giza to see the 'mummies' he couldn't hold it in any longer. When it did come out his sobs were violent, loud and heard by everyone in the room.

All eyes were on him, and Nyota tried to calm him, but he could hardly hear her at all. He felt her hands on his back, gently rubbing to try and soothe him. Eventually even that faded away and all he felt were the tremors going through him like a 8.0 earthquake, all he heard was himself and he couldn't see a thing through the veil of tears streaming from his red, inflamed eyes. Within a few minutes he was taken away by the woman and they walked down the halls for a bit. He could tell that Uhura wanted to give him more than that, but didn't know how.

His tears stopped eventually, and soon after he managed to choke out words, "Thanks."

"It's alright," she whispered with a sweet smile. "Do you want to sit down?"

Mr. Scott nodded weakly, and in case she hadn't seen he did so twice, "Yes. Yes, that'd be... that'd be for th' best." The two of them sat against the wall on the cold, hard ground and both felt very grateful no one was walking by to be sure. "I dinnae know what came over me." The girl shrugged, but didn't seem convinced that this was just an unexpected phenomenon. In fact she seemed to know quite certainly that it wasn't.

He wondered if he was that transparent or if she was just smart.

"I guess I haven't been quite the same since... since me mum died."

"I'm sorry, Scotty." He felt her hand grab his. That was only mildly uncomfortable and awkward, and it was definitely sweet. "Do you want to talk about it, or would that be too painful?"

"I guess I should, eh? It's not good ta keep these things inside, right?"

"Probably not, hon, but it's your choice."

"I wanna talk about it," he decided finally, and supposed it was better than having to explode again in the near future. "Although... it did feel sorta good just ta get all of that crying out there."

"You should never keep a tear in, Scotty, purging yourself will usually make you feel better afterwards."

"I'll keep that in mind." He laughed a little, feeling silly that he never learned that. "I don't feel bad about me mum's passing in a sense that she ought'nt t've died, exactly. Her prognosis was a few years at th' most and that was a long time ago, y'see. I just... I feel like I shoulda been there with her to spend her last few moments, not way out here. I can hardly remember th' last thing I ever said ta her."

"You couldn't have known when she was going to pass on, and you were already enlisted in Starfleet when she was diagnosed weren't you?"

"Yes, but... I just... I feel like... I dinnae know what I feel anymore, and that's certainly not gonna help me, huh? Me paps always told me that psychology is like engineering. Figure out the problem and then ye can easily fix it. But I dinnae know what the problem is!"

"Not always true. Sometimes," Uhura started, "no ammount of talking or figuring can fix a problem. All you need is time and to let it all out. Sometimes just a good shoulder to cry on. I can't guarantee mine's the best to cry on, but it's always available."

"I dinnae want to get your sleeve covered in bogeys."

"Then you can have my metaphorical shoulder."

Scotty smiled and wiped the tears from his eyes and snot from his nose.

"And you can have me metaphorical bogeys."