Jamie haunted the shoreline the next few days hoping for another glimpse of the merman. It was four days before she saw him again, lazing under the pier. He seemed to be in a bad mood, judging by the scowl on his face.

"Why the long face, Bones?", she called to him.

"That's not my name," he grunted, clearly sulking. "It is now. You told me you had nothing but a pile of fish bones and I thought it fit." She gave him an impish sass face. "Now tell me what's wrong."

"What's wrong," he griped, rolling into his back and staring at the sky," is annoying little Russian mers thinking they're invincible and getting impaled while going against one of the most dangerous poachers on the planet. Kid just about died."

Jamie really wanted to feel if those abs were as firm as they looked, but she continued on with the questions.

"I take it that's why you were delayed so long? Making sure he'd survive?"

"Yeah." Leonard sighed wearily. "It was rough. Nero's a ruthless brute and won't hesitate to kill or enslave any Mer he can. Chekov's lucky he got away." Bones shook his head.

"Do you run into this Nero a lot?", inquired Jamie, hoping he wasn't risking his life every day.

"No, the Mer population is wise to him by now and most of us avoid the places he trolls. My friend Chekov got a bit riled up when his friend got wounded in a trap attempt and decided to confront the man. Didn't end well. I fixed him up and gave him a lecture on stupid suicidal revenge plans. He'll be okay." Jamie giggled a bit at the thought of Bones' grumpy doctoring.

"So, you ready to share why you were ready to fling yourself into the sea the other night?" he asked, swishing his tail in the water.

Oh, goodness, that was hot. She swallowed nervously. Attracted to a merman. Not a good idea. But she really needed to spill her story to someone and she felt he would understand.

"Up until eight months ago, I had a great life: a position at the Enterprise law firm and a really smart Vulcan boyfriend. Then I bent the rules to try to protect him from this jerk who wanted to totally destroy his reputation. He reported it, I was found out and fired. We had a huge fight and broke up. I couldn't believe he did that to me, but he's a Vulcan and can't lie, I guess."

She pulled the hair tie out and let her long blonde hair fall around her shoulders. It was a habit she had when nervous and she didn't notice the way the merman gaped at the sight. It was McCoy's turn to feel the flutter of heat, but he shoved those thoughts away as she continued speaking.

"After drifting around awhile, I hit a job as a clerk at a department store. It's not what I want, but it's a job." She sighed. "I was starting to get my footing again, and then the day I met you, I had an encounter with Spock and his new girlfriend when they came into the store. He pretended he'd never met me. It was humiliating. After work, I went out, got drunk and ended up kicked out of the bar. I took a walk by the water and there you were."

Sitting in the sand beside the prone merman, she felt a hand squeeze hers sympathetically. "Thats rough, Jamie. Ex encounters drove me to the good stuff, too. It ain't fun, that's for sure."

He pulled himself upright and sat beside her.

She couldn't help herself and leaned on his broad shoulder. They sat together until the sun went down.