Three

It took Jim a while to get used to life as a girl, her least favorite part of the entire affair was her monthly cycle, which came with bullish regularity and ran a week. The mood-swings and cramps were hell, and her roommate was of absolutely no help at all, and she suffered through the first period by herself, taking care of things on her own and never letting on when she was around Doctor McCoy that she was in pain. He'd be all over her if she said a peep. After it was all over, she looked into getting a fertility inhibitor and possibly some form of regulatory contraception. But if there was one thing Jim absolutely hated to do, it was ask for help, so she kept putting it off and putting it off until round two hit. Round two came at the same time Jim was braving it through a nasty cold. She finally gave up and paid the good doctor a visit one day while she had time between classes and she knew he'd be in the hospital. When the nurse on duty asked if she had a specific member of the staff she wanted to see, she asked for Doctor McCoy. He was a medical student, but they gave students this kind of stuff anyway, so she filled out some paperwork and followed the nurse to an exam room where she was given a flimsy cotton gown. She hated hospital gowns, always had, and this was no exception. Then the nurse dropped the bomb. According to the available medical records they had for her, she had never had an exam. Duh, until two months ago she'd been a man and that wasn't necessary. Jim officially hated womanhood.

"The doctor who will be seeing you today will also perform the examination." The nurse missed the look of utter mortification on Jim's face. Was it possible to die of humiliation? She wanted to, oh boy did she want to, specifically she wanted to crawl into a corner, curl up, and just die. The nurse made a note on her chart and left with a sickly, motherly smile.

"Don't you worry a thing, sweetheart!" the woman said cheerfully, patting Jim on the cheek as she left. Jim fell over sideways and hugged her knees, trying to breathe, trying to convince herself this wasn't the end of a cherished friendship. Not that she'd ever told him that, of course, but Bones meant the world to her. Jim waited precisely fifteen minutes before the door opened and Bones skated through. He actually skated through the door he was in such a hurry. If she hadn't been so miserable, Jim would have laughed.

Leonard McCoy had been enjoying a remarkably quiet afternoon when one of the charge-nurses handed him a new chart. He took it with a healthy dose of caution.

"What's this?"

"Your next patient, Doctor McCoy." He hated how that sounded so insincere. He was a doctor, damn it, and he wasn't going to be pushed around by some high-and-mighty charge-nurse just because he happened to be a student! He shot her one of those looks and turned to get a look at the chart she had dumped on him. Leonard got no further than the name before his head shot up. What in the name of The Triple Crown and all that was holy was Jim Kirk doing in the hospital?

"Did I miss something?"

"Everything is recorded in the history, Doctor McCoy." The nurse smirked, and Leonard felt something in his gut sink to his feet, "It's your lucky day." Leonard looked further beyond his best friend's name and almost dropped the padd. An exam? Seriously? He couldn't do that to Jim! He couldn't! Well, maybe he could. He cared enough about her and he wasn't about to let anyone else paw at her. Gritting his teeth, Leonard brushed an invisible speck of dust off the lapel of his lab-coat and excused himself to the duty-nurse, who sweetly informed him that Jim was locked up in Exam Room 6. He rolled his eyes.

"I know that, you red-headed tyrant. It's on her chart." Hating pompous duty-nurses and worried sick something was really wrong with Jim, Leonard started to run. He literally skidded through the door of Exam Room 6, where he found Jim curled up on the exam-bed, looking for all the world like she was expecting the death-sentence.

"Jim!" he rushed across the room and took her outstretched hand, "My god, you look terrible!"

"I feel terrible." Jim croaked, and he knew she was really sick.

"Sit up, sweetheart. It's alright, I can fix this." He coaxed her to sit up and quietly ran a scan to see what, precisely, was wrong with her. She listed off all of her symptoms, all of them, and Leonard understood perfectly why she felt so much like she'd been run over by a steamroller. She also did him the favor of rattling off a list of drug-allergies longer than his arm. He put them in order and rummaged around for something that wouldn't trigger anaphylactic shock. Finding it, he gave her a single dose of the mildest, safest antibiotic at his disposal. Then it was time for the hard part. Jim's pulse thundered against his fingertips and Leonard remembered why he'd always hated this particular branch of medicine, why he'd never made it his practice.

"Is it stupid to be afraid?"

"No, sweetheart. I don't like it anymore than you do, but I'm not about to let some careless stranger get his hands on you." Leonard hugged her, a completely random, spur-of-the-moment thing, "I can take care of you, darlin'. Just bear with me."

"Okay. Okay." Jim was trying to convince herself that it would be okay. After all, she was in the hands of the one person who cared most about her. Thankfully, for both of them, it went quickly. Or at least as quickly as he could make it go while still being careful and thorough. Inspiration hit hard and after she was back in uniform, and god did she make it look good, Leonard took fifteen minutes and walked her across campus to her next class. They chatted about absolutely nothing at all, but he knew she was tired and ordered her go straight home and rest after her last class was out for the day. She promised to do her game best, but she wasn't really all that good at following doctor's orders.

"That wasn't an order, sweetheart. That was a suggestion. Go home, eat something, and get some rest."

"Okay. Thanks, Bones." She just smiled at him and kissed him on the cheek, "You're a good person, no matter what your ex-wife says about you." She was always reminding him that he wasn't a bad person, he wasn't a failure. It was nice, actually. She cared enough to tell him that.


After her last classes were out for the day, Jim did exactly what Bones had said and went home. But getting anything remotely like rest or something to eat was not happening. Her roommate was home, and she'd brought a boyfriend home with her. Jim rolled her eyes and just left again.

"Lock the door next time, Bethany!" she called into the bedroom. The library would be quiet, she could study there. Crossing campus, Jim made her way to the Medical Library, where she found Bones hunched over books that must have weighed five pounds apiece. Taking him by surprise was never easy and never to be recommended, but Jim wanted to touch. She snuck up behind him and quietly hugged him from behind.

"You know, if you keep sitting like that you'll never stand up straight?"

"What are you, my mother?"

"No, I'm your very concerned friend of interest." She pulled up a chair and sat down next to him, "What are you reading?"

"Doctor Phlox's articles on alien anatomy."

"Who?"

"The CMO of the Enterprise NX-01."

"Oh. Archer's CMO. Very cool."

"Didn't I tell you to go home and rest?"

"Yeah, not happening. Bethany brought her boyfriend home and forgot to lock the door."

"Again?"

"You think she'd learn, but noo." Jim rolled her eyes. She had something of a reputation on campus as a flirt and a chaser, but she'd never ever slept with anyone. She'd dance with them, she'd kiss and make out with them, but she never slept with them. Clothes stayed on, touching was allowed, but there were no-go zones and rules. Jim leaned her head on Bones' shoulder, reading the articles. Usually she couldn't get away with this, but tonight she could.

"Are you alright?"

"The antibiotics helped, it's the first time somebody nailed me and I didn't close up right after. I'm a little sore, but that's normal." She smiled and turned the page for him. When they got to the end of the current article, two pages later, Bones closed the book and picked it up. She helped him put the other books away and they left the library. She thought of something and looked at Bones, "Hey, are you hungry?"

"Starving. I was thinking of grabbing something at the mess-halls and calling it an early night."

"The mess-halls? Yuck! No, we're going out tonight." She led him off-campus to a Chinese mom-and-pop joint where she went for soup when she was feeling under the weather.

"What's this place?"

"Cheng's Diner, they've got some of the best Hot and Spicy Soup outside of Chinatown. Their eggrolls are pretty good, too. Oh, and their fried rice? Heaven."

"I take it you come here often."

"Enough to appreciate the service and the food." She pushed him through the door. Madam Cheng greeted them, smiling knowingly as she asked if they would be dining in or taking out tonight.

"I think we'll take it home tonight." Bones mused, peering at a menu. Jim snickered.

"I thought I wasn't allowed inside your room."

"Not without knocking first."

"Oh, come on. You know you like it, it keeps you on your toes." She poked him in the ribs. He just rolled his eyes and they placed an order for two of Jim's usual, to go. Madam Cheng wouldn't stop chuckling as she took the order slip and went back to the kitchen.

Every few months, room-codes were changed for who knew what reasons, and despite every attempt to keep Jim from finding out the new codes, two days later, she would be making herself right at home in Leonard's double-occupancy dorm-room and driving his roommate crazy. She only knocked if it was bad, as they had learned late one night during first semester when she had pounded on the door at midnight, begging Bones to open up. She'd gotten into a fight, over what or with whom he didn't know. He'd just patched her up and let her sleep on the couch. After their orders came, Jim tipped Madam Cheng and promised to come back sooner than later. Then it was off to campus to hunker down in Leonard's blissfully empty dorm-room. Thomas was out of town on family business, so he wouldn't be giving her dirty looks.


An hour later, empty take-out containers littering the coffee-table, Leonard looked up from writing a report, just one of many, and had to smile. At the moment, Jim was sprawled on his couch in sweats and a tank-top, flipping the pages of one of his text-books. She wasn't a medical student, but she devoured everything she could get her hands on and he suspected do half of it if she had to. He would never admit it to anyone, but he actually enjoyed spending time with his irascible best friend, and who honestly gave a damn if the Academy gossips said they were an item? He thought of something and looked at her.

"Jim?"

"Yeah?"

"Have you heard from the Grand Marshalls again?"

"Not since Commander Spock gave me that stupid edict. Why?"

"Just curious."

"Why? Have you heard from them?" She lowered the book and fixed him with a familiar look. He just nodded. Oh he'd heard from the Silogh Grand Marshall, alright. With orders to get married as soon as possible. Within what time-frame, precisely? Four years. And why were they in such a bloody hurry? He'd gotten divorced six months ago, like hell was he going to rush headlong into another mistake like that one. The Grand Marshall had reminded him, pompously, that the Heir of Clan Silogh was expected to marry a suitable mate of choosing. His choosing or theirs? It didn't matter, but if he did not find a suitable mate within four years, it would be of their choosing. Jim rolled her eyes and went back to reading.

"Don't tell me they're on your back about getting married again?"

"I was reminded by the Grand Marshall that I was expected to marry."

"Considering you were divorced from your taresim wife six months ago, I think they need to back off."

"Good to know we're on the same page." He shrugged and went back to writing his report.