"Elenore, just the person I was looking for."
Ellie turned to see Captain Pike coming towards her. She had just taken the shuttlebus back from the hospital after her shift and she had been sluggishly walking back to the dorms discussing a patient with Bones. "Hey Captain Pike," she said tiredly offering him not even a hint of a smile.
"You look exhausted," he said when he reached where she was standing and he gave a short hello to Bones who had stopped behind her when she'd been called.
"I just got off of a 72 hour shift, I don't think exhausted covers half of it," she said in return and he smiled. "Why were you looking for me?"
His smile grew. "I know you said you wouldn't talk about it but my offer still stands, and now I'm here to ask again."
She sighed trying not to smile. "You still want me?" she asked, feeling more flattered than she let on.
Bones stood behind her confused, the words they were exchanging not explaining the true meaning behind what was being said.
"Of course I do. You're the best surgical resident in the Academy, not an easy feat I might add. You are exactly the person I want aboard my ship," he told her with a smile.
Ellie was quiet as she thought, staring hard at Pike. "I want Bones," she said simply.
"What?"
"Bones, Dr. Leonard McCoy, my senior medical officer. If you want me I want Bones," she clarified surprising both men.
Pike looked behind Ellie to see the grumpy looking man behind her. "I've requested you on my ship every year since you joined. I was just told should you ace your boards you will be my surgical attending," he told her. "Three years I've been asking. Your history gives you some leniency, some. I can't guarantee he'll be with you, you'll have to leave it to chance. And I'm afraid I can't ask, I gave it all up for you."
Ellie exhaled loudly before nodding. "Alright. My boards are in a month, I'll guess we'll see then."
Pike smiled. "I go up in three days," he said watching as consternation spread across your face. "Your boards will be held tomorrow."
"What?" she cried outraged making him laugh. "That is not enough time, I have to study."
"You better get to it," he said still chuckling as he walked away.
Ellie turned wide eyes up to Bones. "That's not enough time," she told him dazedly.
Her boards were not what was on his mind. "You want me to be your chief medical officer?" he asked, swallowing the warmth that was spreading in his chest.
"You already are," she said casually, not understanding what he was asking about.
"Yes, but we could be forced together for years," he clarified.
"We have been working together for three years. We've become like a unit, a team. We finish each other's thoughts in the OR, we go over cases together and research for them," she said sounding more professional than emotional.
He nodded, berating himself for thinking she wanted him because she liked him as a person. "We do work well together," he said in agreement.
"Besides," she said as they continued towards the dorms, "I don't like making friends. And quite frankly people are usually scared of me. Like hell I'm gonna be forced to make another friend."
"So we're friends then?" he asked looking down at her, stopping when she did.
She looked away from him uncomfortably. "Yeah, Bones, we're friends. Whatever," she mumbled before she resumed walking.
"Whatever," he said softly in agreement, wondering just what it is was she felt for him. He stopped again when she did and he looked down into her wide eyes.
"My boards are tomorrow," she whispered, the meaning of those words settling around her. "The biggest test of my medical career is tomorrow and I haven't studied for it," she said, her voice rising with each word. "What if they ask me something and I don't know the answer? What if I answer something wrong? What if I completely freeze and I can't answer anything? What if I fail!?" She asked him all of this panicked, her eyes wide and her voice shrill.
"Hey," he said silencing her, grabbing her shoulders. "You are a damn good doctor, and Captain Pike just offered you the opportunity of a lifetime. Suck it up," he ordered, shaking her every so often as he spoke. He released her when she didn't say anything. "I'll help you study," he said before walking towards the boys dorms. "Are you coming?" he asked impatiently when he turned to see her still standing where he'd left her.
She studied all night, giving herself four hours to sleep. Jim and Bones both held a medical book and gave her various scenarios which she had to give her plan for action and then the reason behind it. Though she did not let it show she was a mass of raw nerves, from the moment they started studying and until she got her results the second day after.
"I passed," she said in shock as she held the paper, standing in Jim and Bones' doorway.
"Yes!" Jim exclaimed before hugging her tightly, taking her off her feet. They were both laughing when he put her down.
She looked up at him smiling. "I'm an attending," she said with a laugh before looking back at the paper.
"So when are you leaving?" Jim asked knowing that meant she would be heading to space, the slightest bit unhappy she was leaving not only before him but also without him.
"Tomorrow," she said and as she exhaled she realized for the first time that she would be going into space without him.
"You're gonna be fine," he assured her quickly, seeing the worry rising in her eyes. "Pike will your captain, he'll take care of you. So no worrying," he ordered. "We're celebrating tonight," he declared turning to Bones. "Bones you're coming too, right?"
"Of course Bones is coming," Ellie said before he could answer, turning her bright blue eyes to his which hadn't left her face since she had come to their room. "He's the reason I passed."
"I helped too," Jim said in defense.
"You left in the middle to go screw some girl," she told him. "Bones is the one that helped, and he's most likely gonna be the one to take me back to my room cause you'll be too busy screwing someone else."
Bones snorted at the truth in her words before grabbing his jacket and following the bickering cousins out of the door.
Ellie had been right, they had arrived at the nearest bar and within an hour Jim had left their table to chat up a girl; a very pretty blue Andorian woman whom he left with shortly after. "That didn't take long," Ellie said before tipping her shot glass and downing her tequila.
"You wanna go home in another hour?" Bones asked cradling a glass of the strongest alcohol the bar had.
"Tomorrow morning I am going to go into space," she said as she raised a finger telling the bartender she wanted another shot. "And I'm not gonna have Jim. Or you," she added as an afterthought. "I wanna drink until my liver fails."
He chuckled lightly before downing his own drink and asking for another. "Alright then."
They sat talking for another two hours, getting drunker by the minute – their tongues growing looser as they became drunker. They stumbled their way back to their dorms, ending up at Jim and Bones' instead of hers, not a clear thought in either of their heads.
Their minds were foggy, their judgement impaired, care and caution thrown to the wind as their tongues only let loose of the truth. "I almost kissed you," Bones slurred. "When that tanker exploded."
"Hmm," Ellie said nodding her head, her lips pursed slightly as she tried to unglue her tongue from the roof of her mouth.
"What would you do if I kissed you now?" he asked backing her against his door.
"What I did then," she said simply as she stared up at him.
"And what's that?"
She smiled looking at him. "I'd wait for you to do it."
That was all it took for him in his drunken state to crash his lips upon hers, pressing her against the wall with his body.
She woke the next morning to a pounding in her head, as though someone was marching to a beat in her ear. She hit the button on her watch to make it stop beeping, remembering she was leaving today. She stared down at her bare body in shock before her eyes traveled up from the legs tangled with hers to see Bones. The night before came flooding back; the drinking and talking, him kissing her, their clothes coming off not long after, and then the sex – and good God if he wasn't good in bed. Her throbbing head was momentarily forgotten as she stared in astonishment at his sleeping face, and then she was left not knowing what to do.
He groaned at the ache surrounding his head, wrapping tight around him leaving him barely able to move. This was not a new feeling to him, but he never got used to it. He casually noted his unclothed body, having come out of a drunk stupor naked before, until he remembered Ellie. She left, was the first thing he thought, not knowing who he was more angry with; her for leaving without saying anything or him for expecting more out of her.
So to say he was surprised when she came out of the bathroom in her uniform was an understatement. He took the water and the tablet she offered him and just looked at her as she sat on the edge of the bed. She didn't do much more than him, and so they sat there staring at each other not knowing what to say.
Her watch beeped again. "I have to go," she said softly as she silenced it.
"Yeah," he said in agreement. He wanted to kiss her again, remembering just what her full lips felt like beneath his, remembering the taste of her mouth on his tongue; her mouth had not been the only part of her he'd tasted, she was glorious. He didn't though, he let her leave without a word.
And even though she was in the same mind as him, wanting to feel his strong hands roaming her body, she did nothing. She closed his door and headed for the launchpad. And then she was gone.
So "butterflies in the stomach" doesn't really fit with Bones, so I didn't put it. But she does churn something in him and I wasn't sure if I made that at all clear in this chapter. Next chapter will be a month later and it'll start on the day Vulcan is attacked, so now I'm on to the movie. Please let me know what you thought, and thank you for reading.