'Eli!'

The mouthy little toe-rag who'd been given Christine a hard time suddenly lost his swagger, all but leaped over as the visibly shaken chief engineer put the student onto an exam bed. 'What happened, why's he here?'

'What's going on, Mister Scott?' Bones asked in his calming way.

'The kids were playin' a game of king's dodge on the holodeck and this laddie here, he took a small hit in the chest with the ball but then he coul' nay get up,' Scotty explained, 'so we, that is the school chaperone and I, though' it best to bring him straight here.'

'Did he hit his head when he fell? Was there any dizziness or vomiting, lack of awareness?'

'Nay, none o' that, just weakened like he'd run the San Francisco marathon,' Scott replied as Christine moved the scanner over the child's body, which fed data directly into the PADD she passed to Bones.

'He'll be alright, though, right?' Bertus inquired, and Christine at once saw the family resemblance. Brothers, she decided, and pulled out her stylus.

'We'll do what we can. Does your brother have any pre-existing medical conditions?'

'Something about his heart, he has to take a pill for it every day.'

'Just one, or several, or the same one a few times a day?'

'I'm not gonna stand here and play twenty questions when my brother could be dying, lady!'

'Hey!' Bones barked it, making Bertus jump and face him. 'You show some respect to Nurse Chapel, she's doing her job to help save your brother from a trip to the hospital, or worse.'

'I think it's the same one once a day,' the boy relented.

Christine nodded. 'When was the last time he went to the doctor?'

'Just before we went back to school after our March break. Mom got his pills filled up, then Mama took us out for dinner, and the next day we transpo'd back to the school.'

'Got it. Does your brother have any allergies? Food, environment, medical?'

'He can't have quad-somethings, it's bad for his heart.'

'Quadra-chain antivirals?'

Bertus nodded. 'Oh man, our moms are gonna kill me, they always tell me watch out for him, but I can't watch him all the time, I'm not his doctor or his babysitter!'

'Right now, you need to have a seat and let us work on Eli,' Christine replied, signalling to Scotty to keep the rest of the group occupied and turned back. 'Eli is ten years old, and has a heart condition known as Capshaw migration, most commonly seen in Klavian males. His medical records show no other pre-existing conditions except for an allergy to quadra-chained antivirals.'

Bones read the chart on the PADD, nodded briskly as he popped in his stethoscope - sometimes the old ways worked for a reason - and put his fingers to Eli's wrist to check his pulse. 'Get me an oral hypospray, small dose, of nitroglycerin and a subcutaneous syringe of triple-four blockers.'

'Right away, Doctor.' Christine immediately went into the lab to the medication dispensary where she acquired the vials Bones requested, and added two half-dose vials of a calmative to help put the boy into a resting state. Returning, she uncapped the hypoallergenic tops of the blockers and the nitro-spray, saw Eli's eyes flutter. 'Eli?'

'Tired,' he mumbled, rubbing at his stomach. 'Wanna sleep.'

'You can have a rest soon, but first can you tell me what happened.'

'Got hit with the ball, then everything kinda slowed down inside,' he said, and Christine got the first dose of the spray in as he yawned. 'Did we win?'

'Did you go into blackout?'

'Nuh-uh.' Eli shook his head, yawned again and Christine added a second spray. 'Just want a great…big…nap…'

'Well, now that's a shame because if you do, you'll miss out on going to the greenhouse with Nurse Chapel and your field trip group,' Bones informed him, taking the injection vial Christine offered him.

'We have snacks there,' she added, holding the boy's hand in hers while the other checked the pulse at his neck and nodded. 'Pulse is steady at eighty-eight, Doctor.'

'Excellent, just what we like seeing after a few nitro-blasts. Now Eli, I want you to look at Nurse Chapel and tell me if you think she looks more like Cinderella or Sleepy Beauty?'

The boy turned his head, fixing his dark eyes on Christine and considered her; the move gave Bones a perfectly clear field to administer the injection. 'Mmm, I think she looks more like Alice in Wonderland.'

'Really?'

'I- ow!'

The quick sting of the injection was fleeting on the boy's skin, and the effect was almost immediate - the healthy colour began to return to Eli's face and his voice strengthened as he insisted on trying to sit up but Christine was quicker; she gave him one more dose of the oral hypospray before recommending his stay for at least another hour to ensure he was still able to function normally.

The sudden smattering of clapping startled them both, and Christine and Bones turned back to see the group of teenagers applauding their work. 'Uh, thank you,' Bones said to them, 'but this is what we do. Not as dramatic sometimes, but you're always quick acting because you're relying on your skills as a physician or nurse.'

'We also have to act as field medics from time to time as well during away missions as well,' Christine added, and saw the hardened looks in their eyes soften as she and Bones forewent the planned activities and just talked to the students while Eli recuperated, treating it like a Q&A seminar. Every so often when she recounted a tale of treating civilians in the war-torn Outer Rim, she caught the look in Bones' eye as a cross between empathy and encouragement, the same look when they'd been in the cold-storage locker and shared a moment. She smiled back, certain that she was giving herself away but not really caring at that point.

'I have a question!' The Orion girl asked, eyes dancing. 'How do you have a relationship with someone when you're on a five year mission? Doesn't it get lonely without them…or, you know, tempting to love the one you're with?'

'It can, that is a reality, but I know that if you've got a good strong relationship where you stay connected, then-'

'Are you in a relationship like that?'

Now Bones stuttered; how was it teenagers were even more probing than his own friends? Fortunately, he had his lovely Christine to bail him out.

'That's too personal a question for Doctor McCoy to answer to someone not a close friend,' she informed the students, saw the Orion girl and a friend trade looks. 'And before you think of asking me, the answer is no comment.'

Before the conversation could get any more awkward, the ship-wide broadcast went out from Kirk thanking the visitors and that the final rotation had come to an end so they needed to head back to deck twenty-two for their departure shuttles. As the group filtered out, Bertus escorting his brother along with him, Christine heard a few of them mumble how Bones and herself were totally doing it, and if not they should be. Alone once more, Christine and Bones looked at each other and laughed hysterically, partly out of the nerves that had been hit but mostly to alleviate the held-in anxiety of the day.

'Teenagers,' she managed, swiping at the tears in the corners of her eyes. 'Oh, man and just think, by summer's end your sweet Joanna will become one of them.'

'I've had a stressful enough day waiting for someone to slice an appendage off in the lab with a laser scalpel, do not add the idea of my beautiful baby girl flirting with a man old enough to be her father into the mix,' Bones groused, resting on his elbow on the counter. 'And tonight will be even worse.'

'It will?'

'Shit, no, not us, not…no.' He shook her head fervently when her voice sounded so panicked. 'I mean, when we have the reception if you thought those girls were bad, wait until you meet the man-hungry moms who come to things like this.'

'Oh?'

'They make Korvellian jackals look like snuggly puppies.'

Christine's eyebrows lifted skyward so fast they nearly shot off her face. 'Really?'

'They hear I'm a doctor and immediately have a picture of a life of luxury then feel misled when I say I'm flat broke and divorced with a daughter who is nearly twelve from harridan of an ex-wife.' Bones shot her a slightly doleful look. 'Still sure you wanna keep our plans tonight?'

'Absolutely.'

Christine slid closer, gave his arm a friendly squeeze and fluttered a little inside. The regulation suits did nothing to highlight his physique but that was probably for the best so that she could actually get some work done around him. 'Then I will see you later at the reception.'

'Wait, you're just taking off like that, so soon?'

'Leonard, a tip since you have a daughter growing into a young woman?' Christine lifted her shoulders in a minuscule shrug. 'It's already sixteen-hundred forty-five, the reception begins at eighteen-thirty, I'll already be pushing it to make myself into something fabulous.'

'You are already fabulous,' he told her, leaning closer to breathe deep that wonderful lemon-pie fragrance he always associated with Christine. 'But I see your point. Girls have their rituals which you gotta respect.'

'Exactly.'

He was so close to her, he could almost count her eyelashes individually. It would be so easy to tilt his head just a little to the side and plant a big fat kiss right on her lush full lips. But it would be easy to do that, and he didn't want easy with her, he wanted it to be romantic like she deserved.

Chickening out for what felt like the millionth time, Bones gave her hand a squeeze and told her, 'You do realize you could wear a recycled paper bag and still be the most beautiful woman there, right?'

'Well, I may end up looking like a paper bag princess if I don't head out and do something to resemble a human female,' she laughed, then gathered her things and left, tossing a 'see you soon' over her shoulder.

'I feel like an idiot.'

'Why? You're a dad, haven't you done a bunch of these before?'

'And every time I always manage to get hit on, groped or in one unfortunate case my ass openly pinched. By a deputy headmaster no less.'

Kirk chuckled, shook his head as he sipped lightly on more orange juice; it was just his luck a thirteen year old Phorkys he nearly mistook for Keenser was sneezing on everything in sight. 'Poor handsome available Bones, getting hit on by attractive single women just looking to bed you for the fun of it.'

'Single, not always, and attractive, rarely, at least to me.' Bones tightened his grip on his drink as he looked towards the open doors of the mess hall and was disappointed when the new arrival wasn't the one person he wanted to see. 'I had a married woman once slip her number into my front pocket just so she could feel me up.'

'And that's bad because…why?'

'Because I don't go for married women, flings or otherwise.' Bones wasn't about to add that the incident had caused Melanie to deny him his shore-leave visit with Joanna when the blown-up rumours had circulated back to her. 'Besides, you know why else that'd be bad.'

'Yes, I do, and there she is.'

Bones turned and for a moment felt everything fade into the background just like in the old-time screen-vids he and Christine had discovered they both enjoyed. He saw her, a vision in an emerald green dress with gold gel-sandals that laced up to her knees; the v-neck of the dress dipped downwards enough to give him a view of her curves yet remained high enough to stay professional, and she'd fastened long thin earrings of dark green crystal drops so it made her long neck look elegant and regal. Her hair was loose and wavy over her shoulders instead of its usual style pinned back off her face, but her eyes were still the same vivid blue - Christine wasn't one to go in for tinting her irises with temp gel-drops as was the fashion Bones had seen amongst other female crew - and she'd added some type of smudged-smoke shadow and dark liner so they looked like two deep blue pools Bones wants to spend the rest of the night swimming in. Preferably naked, with her, under the stars of a moonlight beach on the holodeck.

'Wow,' he muttered, and even Kirk had to admit the nurse was a stunner.

'She cleans up nice.'

Bones gave him a withering stare. 'Nice is for rainbows, she looks hot.'

'Then go get her.'

'Not just yet, I wanna watch a little more.'

At this, Kirk choked on his orange juice, went to find napkins to prevent himself from splattering his dress uniform.

Christine saw Kirk leave Bones' side, and did her level best to stay cool upon seeing Bones in his dress uniform. Having seen just the previous morning what was tucked under that tunic, it made her want to loose his collar all the more. He'd shaved - even at a distance, she could tell he'd done so - and more than likely he'd showered so he would have that deliciously male fragrance around him. The kind that made her think of riding horses in the fresh mountain air while wearing leather boots, denim pants, and a checkered shirt.

Then they'd hitch the horses somewhere and ride each other under an old oak tree as the last glimmers of sunset drifted over the horizon.

'Nurse Chapel?'

She turned at the mention of her name, stomach sinking inwardly when she saw one of the women she recognized from Eli's medical file as one of his mothers. Still, this was the point of the evening, she reminded herself as she extended her hand and began a talk with the grateful parent. The cocktails, the dinner were all intended to be an evening for the parents of the kids. Whatever annoyances Christine felt had to be tabled until they were officially off the clock.

'You know, if you are ever looking for a position beyond this ship, I'd be happy to recommend you to be a school nurse in the Federation's diplomatic school system.'

Christine didn't miss the slightly condescending tone at the mention of the Enterprise. 'I am flattered by your offer and your support, but I fully intend to remain an officer as long as possible.'

'But what about-'

'It's us who should be grateful to have such dedication in the medical ranks on the ship.'

Both women turned and had varying degrees of lustful reaction when they saw Bones, a short pilsner glass one hand and a bourbon on the rocks in the other; he passed the beer to Christine and kept the bourbon for himself.

'Why hello there, you must be the Doctor McCoy who saved my son.'

'That I did,' Bones agreed all the while thinking back off tiger. 'Truly it was a joint diagnosis and treatment between myself and Nurse Chapel.'

'Oh, right.'

Christine couldn't believe it; the woman had been just singing her praises moments ago, now suddenly with an XY chromosome on the scene she was barely noticeable above dryer lint.

'So, tell me, Doctor, what do you do with your time when you're not saving children's lives?'

'Studying how to save them, or spending time with my daughter Joanna whenever I can, whether it's over vid-chat or on shore-leave.'

'Oh, a single dad.' The aggressive mom put her hand on Bones' arm, making Christine want to break every last one of her digging little fingers. 'Well, surely you must make time for…fun.'

'Doctor, I do believe I see Ensign Chekov over there, didn't he need to speak to us about the Frisian report?' Christine interrupted, earning a look of profound gratitude from Bones and an annoyed pinched one from the parent. 'So sorry to cut this short, but it is a time-sensitive matter. You understand.'

'Certainly. Perhaps we'll have time to catch up later.'

Once out of earshot as they made their way across the room to Chekov, Bones leaned in and whispered hoarsely, 'Thank you so much for that Christine, I was pretty sure she was about to mount me then and there if I said another word.'

'Anytime.'

'No, I mean it. Only woman I want looking at me like that is you.'

Christine fought the blush as best as she could, whispered back in an exaggerated southern-belle accent, 'Doctor, please, not in front of our guests! How long until we're sprung to the holodeck?'

'About…' Bones checked his wrist unit, calculated. 'Another two hours and fifteen minutes, easily.'

'Well, let's pray that woman was the low point and things only get better from here.'