"Dammit, Jim," McCoy says in frustration, "I don't have the staff to expand the residency program by three more spots."
"C'mon," James Kirk scoffs, looking over the reports on the table between the two men. "You've got space in Surgery, Psychiatry, and Internal Medicine. There are your three new openings."
"Fuckin' administrators," McCoy grumbles. "Y'all think a bunch of lines on some paper tell the whole story."
Jim gives McCoy a hard stare.
"Bones," he starts. "It's not like I just sit around looking for ways to make your life miserable."
"You sure about that?" the doctor asks, cocking his brow at his friend.
"The board is insistent," Jim tells McCoy, his normally mirthful blue eyes dark with seriousness. "They want to see our rankings improve and this is one way I can give them tangible results from our efforts."
McCoy sits back in his chair, glaring at the younger man. He's never gonna understand how Jim managed to become the youngest president of a major private university. It wasn't enough for Jim to get tenure more quickly than the usual history professor – oh no. He'd drunkenly told McCoy the first night they'd met that he'd be president of the university within ten years. McCoy hadn't believed him because who would? But here they are.
"What about Pike's plans to expand the library?" he asks Jim, ignoring his friend's slight wince at the mention of his predecessor and former mentor's name. Christopher Pike had been president of the university for years – one of the longest standing university presidents in the academic world. A diagnosis of pancreatic cancer had cut his illustrious career short and left an opening for Jim to fulfill his own career goals. But Jim would trade the presidency in a second if he could have Chris Pike back in his life. He misses the man he'd come to look at as a father figure.
"A library expansion?" Jim asks. "When was that?"
"About five or six years ago. Pike started talking about how the school would benefit from renovating and expanding the library. He got pushback from some of the more traditional donors but I'm pretty sure they had architects draw up plans. It was right around the time we created an assistant director position within the library – it offered tenure just like the university librarian position."
Jim wrinkles his forehead as he thinks.
"You're right," he says slowly. "I do remember that whole discussion. Whatever happened to that poor woman we hired?"
"She's still here," McCoy answers Jim. "She told me today that she's got something like thirty-five faculty members she does work for and three student workers to help her out."
"Today? You talked to her today, huh?" Jim doesn't miss the way McCoy's eyes soften when he starts talking about the librarian.
"Yeah. She's my liaison. Why are you lookin' at me like that, you nutjob?" McCoy gives Jim a stern look.
"You've got a new lady interest," Jim practically sings, his eyes dancing.
"Keep your trap shut," McCoy mumbles. "You don't know what you're talkin' about, farm boy."
"Yeah I do," Jim argues with a huge smile. "You only make fun of my proud Iowan heritage when I really get under your skin. So tell me about this fine young woman…"
McCoy just continues to glare at the other man and Jim shrugs.
"Or don't say anything," he adds. "I can look her up well enough on my own. I'll just make a quick trip to the library, okay?"
"The hell you will," McCoy snarls. "The last time you interfered with my love life, I ended up with a wild raccoon in my car and no secretary – took me forever to find a replacement and I wasn't even interested in Janice in the first place! You stay the fuck away from the library, ya hear?"
"Okay, okay, Romeo," Jim agrees with his arms up to signal surrender. "I'll let you destroy your chances at a relationship on your own." Jim gets up, indicating the meeting is over. "But just one question."
"What?" McCoy practically spits, still angry over how long it had taken to get the raccoon out of his car.
"Is she cute?"
"Fuck off."
McCoy leaves the room with Jim's laughter ringing in his ears. Sometimes, he wonders how they ever became friends.
Aerie has seen Doctor McCoy at the gym before. He isn't there consistently, and she imagines some of that is likely due to scheduling. Perhaps on the days she doesn't see him early in the morning, he works out in the afternoon or evening. Previous to his early morning surprise visit to her office, she has ignored him, and everyone else, in the gym. She usually gets there around 5:30am and since she's the last thing anyone would describe as a morning person, she keeps to herself, getting on the treadmill and running her five miles before hitting the showers.
Leonard has never noticed Aerie in the gym and once he sees her enter, the morning after their lunch together, he realizes why. She wears a lightweight hoodie and keeps the hood up the entire time, even on the treadmill. He gets on the machine next to her and she briefly glances over, giving him a cursory nod before refocusing on her own run.
"So that's how it's gonna be," he thinks to himself as he adjusts the settings on his treadmill to match her pace.
Aerie doesn't know if she's annoyed or thrilled with the handsome man next to her. She supposes it's flattering that he's noticed her but she isn't really at her best this early in the day. She decides to speed up, noting that he's matched her pace.
For the next half hour, they play a cruel game of tag with one another, each raising the pace on their machines in an effort to outdo the other. Once Aerie hits her five miles, she brings her treadmill back to a cool-down rate.
"Oh, thank God," McCoy puffs next to her, bringing his machine's speed down as well.
"You didn't have to race me, you know," she replies, irritated at having run so fast. "This is why I don't do gym buddies."
"You're a real treat in the mornin', sweetheart," McCoy mutters back at her, equally annoyed, and something about the whole thing – about how red and sweaty they both are, how they're both glaring at each other while trying to catch their breath, and how ridiculous they'd both behaved trying to show one another up – well, Aerie can't help the laugh that bubbles out of her.
Even while McCoy chuckles with her, he keeps bitching. "You think it's funny, driving me to a heart attack?"
"Maybe you need to work out more if a half hour's gonna tire you out," she retorts, still giggling.
"I've got better things to do than spend my time here, trying to outrun the youths," he says, giving her a hard look. "Speaking of better things, how's next Friday for dinner at my place?"
She blinks in surprise and grabs her phone to check. "That works," she says slowly.
"Good. See you then. Try to avoid any more treadmill wars in the meantime, ya hear?"
"No promises," she replies as she walks away. Just before leaving the gym, she turns to see his eyes still on her and she smiles at him. Leonard is pretty sure that smile is worth the run he's just suffered through. He can't wait to see what a dinner with Aerie will bring.
"I'm gonna go to dinner with one of the most difficult faculty members I deal with and I'm…looking forward to it." Aerie forces herself to say the words aloud as she works on the boxes in the attic of her brownstone. Technically, it isn't hers. She's been living there since moving back to take care of her dad, and she makes all the payments on the utilities, etc. but it's her dad's house. And this is his shit – his and her mom's and it's fucking stupid she has to go through everything on her own. So she's giving it all the same attention and care to detail that her family has given her over the past six years – not much. If a few prized books or pictures end up getting thrown out, too bad.
"I'm not crazy, right? He's actually really nice, funny, smart…what the fuck is happening to me?"
She has seen Doctor McCoy two more times at the gym since the first incident. Even though he bitches about it each time, he grabs the treadmill next to her and they race. She's willing to admit she looks forward to their early-morning interactions. Aerie keeps talking to herself as she goes through the junk all around her.
"I mean, he's hot. Yes. There's definitely that. But am I really considering something with this guy? I thought I hated him. He's been such a pain in the ass before now."
Has he really though? She's dealt with far worse. He makes a lot of requests, and the turn-around time is sometimes a bit tight, but he's always been understanding if she tells him she needs more time – as long as she communicates with him, he doesn't seem to have a problem with pushing deadlines back. She wonders if that was part of the problem with previous liaisons – librarians aren't always the best at communicating. Everyone she works with is terrific at researching, great at the back-end library stuff, like maintaining the catalog records, collection development, and the like. But not everyone wants to get up in front of classes to teach about the best resources for a topic. And not everyone enjoys interacting with the faculty, especially the faculty in the graduate schools, who tend to request more obscure materials. The relationships between librarians and faculty members have gotten worse since the librarians were voted out of their faculty status. They've always felt like other faculty members considered them to be somehow less than, but the vote to change their status to academic administrative professionals has deepened the rift between librarians and faculty members. After the vote, Aerie worried the liaison program would be hit hardest and she hasn't been wrong. But she's pretty sure she's been unfair in her perceptions of Doctor McCoy.
"Still, even if he's not that bad, should I really be dating one of my liaisons?"
She sneezes as she opens a box and dust in the air swirls around her.
"What could possibly go wrong? I date this guy, it ends horribly, he complains about me and I lose my job. Good thing I don't want this job anyway…"
Another sneeze.
"And that's another thing. Why should I get involved with anyone in this city now that I'm finally able to look for a better job elsewhere? Still, he's so fucking hot."
"Are you talking to yourself?"
Aerie screams at the unexpected voice from behind her and promptly trips over a box while her friend Nyota laughs.
"What are you doing here?" Aerie finally sputters, as Nyota picks her way through the pile of boxes, furniture, and other junk in the attic and offers her hand to Aerie.
"You lost track of time, girl. It's already 6:30," Ny replies as she pulls Aerie up.
"Really?" Aerie looks around for her phone and finds it on the windowsill. "Shit, I'm sorry." She sees the numerous missed calls and texts Ny has left her.
"Not a big deal. The back door was unlocked so I let myself in. I was ready to leave when I heard you babbling to yourself. Just who is this man whom, I quote, is so fucking hot?"
Aerie blushes. "It's nothing."
"Sure didn't sound like nothing. You were having a regular conversation with yourself." Nyota crosses her arms and looks at her friend. Aerie realizes they aren't going anywhere if she doesn't spill the beans.
"How much did you hear?" she asks Ny bashfully.
"Enough."
Aerie sighs. "I have a date with a faculty member I've been doing work for and I don't know how to feel about it."
Nyota gives her a huge smile.
"A date! That's great! Who is it? Tell me, tell me, tell me!"
"What if you know him?" Aerie asks. Nyota works at the university as well.
"Why would that matter?" Nyota retorts.
She and Aerie met in the cafeteria near the arts and sciences building – they'd both been reading the same book and started a conversation over it. Six years later, Nyota is one of Aerie's closest friends. She's a linguistics professor and currently the dean of the School of Arts and Sciences on the undergrad campus and even if it isn't likely she knows Leonard, Aerie feels weird letting the cat out of the bag. What happens if their date is a disaster? Is it worth telling anyone else about at this point? Still, as she looks at Nyota, who is impatiently awaiting the goods, she decides she owes it to the other woman to be honest because Ny is one of the few people in this city who knows everything else about Aerie's life. And she's going to help with the attic crap after dinner.
"His name's Leonard McCoy. He runs the –"
"Len! Really? Oh my God, you two would be perfect together! Or you're gonna kill each other! I can't believe I didn't think of setting you two up before this!" Nyota claps her hands in delight and more dust motes move around in the air, making Aerie sneeze a third time.
"You know him?" Aerie asks as her face falls. What are the chances? Sure, it's a small campus but the med school is practically on its own campus, far from the arts and sciences department.
"Yeah, silly. And you could've sooner if you'd ever join me when I invite you out with the crew," Nyota replies, moving to the attic trapdoor. "Come on, let's get you out of here before the dust kills you."
Aerie follows Ny down and out of the attic. "Leonard McCoy is one of the crew?" she asks Nyota and the other woman nods.
Nyota has been harassing Aerie to join her with what she calls her crew – a group of administrators and professors from the university that all started at about the same time and went through the orientation program together. Everyone who works at the university agrees on at least one thing – the orientation program is the worst; a three-day hell designed to make a person regret their decision to accept an offer from the prestigious institution. During Nyota's orientation, her group had bonded over their shared hatred of it and all these years later, they still get together regularly for drinks or dinner.
"Who else is on the crew?" Aerie asks, realizing she should have listened more closely when Ny was telling her stories about them.
"Well, let's see. There's Scotty, from the Engineering School –"
"Dean Scott?"
"Yep. And Hikaru Sulu, Pavel Chekov – they're both tenured professors. Chekov is a professor in the Engineering School and Sulu is a Botany guy. Then there's Len...and Jim, of course."
"President Kirk? He was in your orientation group?"
"Sure was. And he's the same womanizing asshole now that he was then. I would not be excited if you had a date with him. I'd shoot you full of penicillin and every STD remedy available before letting you go out with him." Nyota never holds back on her opinions and it's part of what Aerie loves about the woman.
"There are a few others too. Dean Spock, Doctor Chapel…but yeah, that's basically the group."
'I can't believe how many of you are deans now. And the president of the university. That's a hell of a recruiting class there," Aerie says appreciatively. "I don't know if I remember anyone from my group."
Unlike Nyota, the people Aerie went through orientation with had been silent and after three days of a stifling lack of personality combined with the life-sucking boredom of the program itself, Aerie had been ready to quit. And that was before the rug was pulled out from under her regarding the library expansion.
"Yeah, we had a good group," Nyota agrees. "And of them, Len is absolutely one of the best. Seriously, I'm so excited for you! Tell me how this came about – and what's this about a new job?"
The women continue talking through a quick dinner at a café near Aerie's place and then into the work of sorting out the attic afterwards. By the time Nyota leaves, at 10pm, Aerie knows a lot more about Leonard McCoy. He's divorced, with a daughter he gets to see every other weekend during the school year and every other week in the summer. Nyota tells Aerie she's never known Leonard to pursue someone – as far as she knows, he's given up on dating and relationships altogether. In return for the scoop on her date, Aerie tells Nyota about what she's planning – her goal to sell the brownstone and look for a job that will let her focus more on training librarians to teach, preferably in a different city. Nyota is sad to hear it but she understands. What the university librarian has done to Aerie is inexcusable.
She'd been hired to be the assistant director of the soon-to-be expanded library. She would've been the one to hire additional librarians and support staff. She would focus on bringing librarians into the classroom on a more frequent basis and that was the reason Aerie had taken the job. She loves the idea of librarians assisting with the workload of teaching – to her, that's the future of academic reference librarians. However, three months into her employment, Chris Pike stepped down as university president and two months after that, when he passed, his wife, the director of the university library, left as well. Suddenly, the plans to expand the library didn't seem so firm. Aerie loved working with Sarah Pike and the idea of working with someone else when so much now seemed in limbo had filled her with apprehension. She acted as interim director while a replacement was hired. She'd never wanted to be the head university librarian – even on a small campus like theirs, university libraries were big, and took a lot of time to manage. She'd abandoned her own research as she ran the university library and not once did the faculty committee appointed to hire the new director ask for her input. She shouldn't have been surprised when they ended up hiring her least favorite candidate – they'd been blinded by his credentials on paper and missed the fact that he was resistant to change and disliked innovation. He'd immediately gone after Aerie.
To this day, she isn't clear how the expansion plan had been shelved, but Aerie knows the director spoke out against it, claiming he couldn't afford to grow the library. He also scrapped her initiative to train librarians to teach. Truth is, he doesn't like her, doesn't want her competing for attention against him, and knows the best way to keep her down is to prevent the very goals she was hired to accomplish. And, for the last five years, he's been successful. Aerie hates the man and she can't wait to give him her notice. She dreams of a day when she won't have to answer to him.
In the meantime, Aerie is expected to take on a slew of faculty liaisons since she has more time now that the plan to train librarians to go into the classroom has been nixed. In a twist of the knife, she's been given a pittance in the way of three student workers to assist her. Other librarians with less faculty have way more student workers but anytime she points out the inequality, her director snaps at her, telling her as assistant director, it would look unseemly for her to have too many student workers or a dedicated secretary. He simultaneously loves to remind her that her title is effectively worthless now that the library won't be expanded. Every year, she manages to find the cream of the crop, in terms of students willing to work in the library, but even the best students can't compare to having more support staff or even hiring more librarians. Aerie has wondered if she'll ever get to focus on her own scholarship again but when her position as faculty was revoked a year ago, she realized the only good to come from her new status was that she didn't have to feel guilty for not publishing more.
So yeah, Nyota gets it. She knows full well why Aerie wants a new job. She also knows Aerie doesn't love living in this city because it reminds her of her unhappy childhood. But Ny can't help hoping things go well with Len. Well enough that Aerie might consider finding a different job without moving – they're in a major city on the east coast, surrounded by several other academic institutions – surely Aerie could stay and find a different job if she wants. If she has a good enough reason…and Nyota knows Leonard McCoy has it in him to be a good reason for the right person.
