A Child of Two Worlds
We started off meeting in the Rec room at breaks in our shifts. She sure likes an old band called the Beatles, and to be fair to her, some of their stuff was pretty good. I was never good at being charming – my heart would come up with something real good and then my brain'd be like: 'Hey, wait a minute, Len, let's fix that up for you…'
This is the only way I can explain telling her that I would like to see her 'blow' things. She'd told me that she'd seen a glass-blowing class back in England and fancied giving it a go someday. I died a little inside as the words came out.
The only person I properly told about my affection for her was Nyota – and not only did I have her swear an oath of secrecy to that boyfriend of hers, but also to keep it from Bernie herself. I owe her one.
The first sign I should've picked up on was when I went down to visit the Engineering deck to 'see how things were going'… well at least that's what I told Jim.
After scouting around for a little bit, I saw her beautiful form leaning on one of the control panels, her hands gripped around the main visual panel and her eyes focused on whatever it was showing her. It was then that I noticed her ears.
Across the middle of each ear there was what I can only describe as a small line – perhaps a scar - spanning from one side to the other – the type of scar that may have been left by a skin graft? I'd never noticed before: her hair always seemed to cover them nicely. They weren't ugly by any stretch of the imagination, just unusual. I walked up to her.
"How's it going?"
"Pretty good, thankyou. Core temperature normal, warp's working great and no major hiccoughs yet…" she flashed a smile at me.
"That's good," I looked at her for a while as she was deep in work, "Do you mind if I ask about your ears?"
"My ears?" she looked startled.
"I mean, I don't mean to be rude, but I think I can see what look like marks from skin grafts on them… it really doesn't matter to me, I just… Professional curiosity."
"I was born with malformed outer ears. My hearing is perfectly fine, it's just the outside form: the doctors corrected it for me…" it sounded rehearsed. I assumed she just got asked about them a lot.
"Oh, right, well. They did a lovely job," I smiled sheepishly. Man, I hoped I didn't just blow it.
Returning to sick bay, I just sighed as I looked as Ensign Chekov, who had slipped down an engineering shaft and caught his leg on one of the metal bars on the fall.
Thank God I have a strong stomach.
I got another clue the day I told her about my schedule for her physical. The start of something I never knew would happen.
She was sitting opposite Anna Benjamin, a Lieutenant in Weapon operations, when I came into the Rec Room.
"Hey, how're doing?" my southern twang becomes stronger around her for some reason I can't put my finger on.
"I'm good thankyou, and yourself?" she looked up at me. Tingles shot down my spine.
"'m good. Jus' doing the rounds. Your physical, next week Tuesday, that alright?"
"Oh, Bones, thanks for scheduling me in, but I don't need one, nothing wrong with me…"
"I'll be the judge of that," I smiled at her "I'll be as gentle as you like."
"No really, Bones, it's fine, I'm all good." She got up, gently raising herself from the chair to face me.
"You're like Jim, c'mon – you won't feel a thing – it's Starfleet Regulation,"
"Len, look, I'm being seen this Friday by a doctor on Rigel V."
"What?!" But I'm your doctor, I'm the CMO for this vessel" I couldn't help but feel disappointed. The woman I loved didn't trust my ability.
"No, no, no, please, Len, I have no doubt in my mind that you are the best doctor Starfleet has, but this doctor is a family one, known me from when I was little…"
"Best doctor in Starfleet, but not good enough for you…" I turned around and headed for the door.
"You don't understand…" were the last words I heard before I skulked back down to sickbay.