Star Trek is property of its respective owners. I only own Mallory.
Leo found Mal the next morning when he almost broke his neck tripping over her on the way to the bathroom. She didn't so much as twitch while he cursed to high heaven and resurfaced from a pile of Jim's dirty clothes. He took a few minutes to stare at her, the vein in his neck pulsing spastically, while he tried to figure out what the hell Mal was doing in his room in her goddamn underwear, and if it was some sort of trick. He cocked his head to the side…Who knew she had a tattoo on her hip?
Not to be distracted, Leo fidgeted. First things first, he had to get her off the floor. The room was too small for her to constantly be curled up on the carpet like a pound puppy. He was tempted to put her in Jim's bed since it didn't look like the kid had even come back last night, but he wouldn't wish Jim's germy, filthy sheets on anyone. Instead, he scooped her up and tucked her under his blankets while he went and showered.
When he came back out, she was still there, wrapped around his pillow, a giant bruise on her forehead. He recognized Averie's handiwork immediately.
What the hell had happened last night?
"Mal?"
She didn't even move.
"Come on, darlin' time to wake up." Leo sat on the edge of the mattress and pulled on his boots. Mal just burrowed deeper in the blankets with a squeak of sleepy distress. He brushed a dark curl away from her cheek without thinking. The second he touched her skin he felt nothing but delighted contentment. Mal was projecting lightly in her sleep, perfectly happy where she was and at the offhanded contact. Leo could tell that it was him making her happy and he snatched his hand away like she had burned him.
Had she been awake, he never would have felt that hint of cheery satisfaction. She would have kept it carefully hidden away so he didn't have to tell her no. He shook his head. Even after all this time, it was still him.
It wasn't fair.
Tentatively, Leo ran a finger along her jaw, pouting like a petulant child when he felt the affection practically seeping from her skin. He should stop. He should break the contact and the link before he drove himself crazy. It was like he was teasing himself, looking at something he could never have. Seeing what could be instead of staying focused on what was. Mal, and every other woman for that matter, was off limits. Sure, she was sweet, smart, and funny, now…but all that could change in a heartbeat. Leo had a habit of turning women into evil, malignant harpies vomited straight from the depths of hell.
He didn't like the thought that he could end up hating Mal as much as he hated Jocelyn.
Not for the first time, he wished that he had met Mal first, back when he believed in things like redemption.
"Mal?" She growled in her sleep and went back to snuggling his pillow. Chuckling at her determination to stay unconscious, Leo shook her open acceptance of him and his own miserable thoughts out of his head.
How the hell was he supposed to wake her up without giving her another bruise? She was the sleeping dead…
He might as well take this opportunity for a little payback.
"Computer, play Hottie Toddy, maximum volume."
Leo covered his ears just in time. His alma mater's fight song boomed from the speakers, and Mal nearly hit the ceiling. "Computer, knock that the fuck off!" The chant stopped and Mal struggled to steady the heart palpitations she seemed to be suffering through. "Leonard McCoy, do you think you're funny?"
Leo smirked and drew a point in the air for himself. "Hi-larious," he answered, stretching out the word. "Now get up, Jim's exam is this morning. I hope he remembers. He didn't come back last night."
Mal stretched languidly and tried to rub the sleep out of her eyes. "We played musical rooms. Averie wound up in Gaila's bed, Gaila and Jim wound up in mine, and I apparently wound up in yours," she said looking around. "I'm pretty sure I started out down there, didn't I?" She pointed to the quilt on the floor and stood up. She wasn't in the least bit embarrassed about being in front of Leo scantily clad.
Leo was having a more difficult time with it. She noticed and snickered. "I wouldn't have guessed that you were an ass-man, cowboy."
"Just put on some damn clothes," he said without any heat. Leo threw her a pair of the scrub bottoms that he normally wore in the infirmary and waited while she tugged them on, pulling the drawstring as tight as she could so they wouldn't slide down.
"So I showed up here in my underwear and I'm leaving in your pants…what will people think?" She asked mischievously.
Probably not the same thing that Leo thought.
That he had just missed a golden opportunity.
"Remember, Jim. Don't do anything until the encryption kicks in." Mal kept her voice low, giving him last minute instructions while no one was listening. She was fussing with his hair, trying to get it to do something other than stick up like he had licked a car battery. He smirked at her nervous fussing. She was worse than Bones.
"Where'd you go last night?" Jim questioned. He eyed the scrub bottoms with delight. "You filthy girl, did you play doctor with Bones?"
"I stayed in your room," Mal answered, pinching his nose tersely, "on the floor." She didn't mention that she had woken up in Leo's bed. The kid would take a little information like that and run with it. "Now, I mean it. Don't do anything. The program will hiccup and then the War Birds won't have their shields. After that, it's up to you. Maybe you should—"
Jim caught her wrists and pulled them slowly away from his hair. "You worry too much. Hey, Bones! Can you please make this woman relax?"
Leo grumbled and worried at his simulation suit. Every one of the people in the exam had to wear the stupid blue uniform with its high neck and pinching sleeves. "This is the last goddamn time I do this, Jim." He handed Mal an apple he got from the replicator down the hall and she shot him a grateful look.
"Will all nonessential personnel please leave the exam area. Testing will begin in five minutes. Everyone to their stations.
Mal sighed. "Well, that's them telling me to get out. Good luck, Jim." She hugged him quickly. "See you guys after." She squeezed Leo's hand before she left, giving Uhura a wink as she went through the door.
She didn't even realize until she was in the hall that her apple was missing.
"Dammit, Jim!" she scowled and stalked down the hall to find the replicator and replace her stolen breakfast.
Once again Mal felt him before she saw him. She walked into the break room and had to rapidly rein in her empathy before she was sucked into the eddy of emotion that was Commander Spock.
"You know for a guy that feels that strongly, you are remarkably good at hiding it," Mal went to the replicator. "Hot chocolate. Hot, do you hear me?" As usual the machine gave her a melted candy bar and Mal kicked it once before the sloppy mess was recycled and her drink appeared. "Fuck you, machine," she grumbled.
Command not recognized.
"Smart ass." Mal grumbled at the replicator before she accepted her drink. She could feel Spock watching her, highly amused, but when she turned around, there was no expression on his face save his usual bored grimace.
She was almost to the door when Spock cleared his throat. "Is it true that you plan on forcibly removing my eyebrows from my person?"
Mal swore as she choked on her drink, nearly shooting it out her nose and burning the back of her throat in the process. She glanced back at him, her lopsided smile still in place. "It crossed my mind, Commander."
Said eyebrow twitched up. "I would advise against that, cadet. You would be unsuccessful."
"Then maybe I'll just mess up your hair," she said with absolutely no regard for his rank.
He was puzzled, though it was natural for him to not show it. Most people were afraid of him, including those that outranked him considerably. Larger, older men, hardened officers of Starfleet that had seen some of the most terrible things in the universe, still thought twice before crossing paths with the Vulcan, and yet in one year he had met two young women who were no more afraid of him than he was of the dust bunnies under Nyota's bed.
"If your attempt is to make me feel in any way threatened you are failing miserably," Spock said carefully. Mal was similar to Nyota, though drastically different. Words were heavily important to both cadets, the way things were phrased had great meaning. He noticed the way Mal spoke, quickly and erratically, but intelligently. She swore unreservedly and with enthusiasm, though with purpose. It was, in itself, a trick and he knew it. She forced the listener to pay attention for fear of missing something drastically important. Something that would make a difference in the long run. It was illogical that he would notice that, but then again…Doctor Parker was clearly an illogical being.
Strange.
Mal watched him and went through a number of emotions right along with him. She couldn't help it, she was dragged along for the ride. He landed finally on baffled tolerance. "Again, any attempt you would make to affect my personal appearance would be unsuccessful. You lack the power and stealth skills necessary to apprehend someone of my size and strength. In addition, you would be expelled for an attack on a ranking officer."
"Heh," Mal didn't try to hide her laughter. "You aren't familiar with the concept of a prank, are you?" she asked, blowing the steam away from her coco.
"Explain."
Mal shook her head. "I wouldn't know where to begin. I think you'll get the picture sooner rather than later."
His head tilted to the side. "Am I to understand that you have already commenced in an act of retaliation against me for my intrusion on you yesterday?"
Mal grinned. "Commander, if I didn't know any better, I would say you were worried."
He paused, those dark eyes burning Mal with their intensity. And she thought Leo had emotional baggage. This guy was completely at odds with himself. A walking contradiction, an emotionally detached emotional being. He gave her a headache. "I have no reason to fear you."
"That's good," Mal said, sipping at her drink. "Because I'm not trying to scare you. I don't hurt people, Commander, regardless of what you gleaned from my file proper, which by the way you had no right to even look at, considering none of my Academy transcripts are in it. I am more of a… mind ninja. Mess with me and I rock your world."
"You are under the delusion that you can move the terra firma of Vulcan?"
Mal was about to correct him when she felt his amusement again. "You're teasing," she said uncertainly. "So you do have a sense of humor. Good. You're going to need it, Commander." She looked down at her PADD. "Excuse me, sir, my friend is taking the Kobyashi Maru. I promised I would cheer him on from the tank."
Spock stood. "I am also required to be present at the exam. I warn you, Doctor Parker. I am not likely to fall prey to any of your…pranks, and should you be caught, I will show no mercy."
Mal only smiled as they walked down the hall and back toward the observation tank. "Neither will I, sir."
"How the hell did that kid beat your test?"
Spock stared down into the simulation room, his eyes angry, even if his face was impassive. "I do not know."
It was the truth when he said it. He had built the program to very precise specifications. It was meant to instill, as so many had phrased it, the fear of God into the usually arrogant cadets in the command track. It was meant to teach them humility, to weed out the weak, and to infuse them all with the gravity of their decisions. No captain ever went unscathed. People would be lost. The sooner they learned that lesson, the better.
The program could not be beaten and yet this unimpressive youth from Iowa had somehow managed to do just that.
It was inconceivable.
It was a travesty.
It was…he turned back to the wall where he had left Doctor Parker standing so she could watch her friend's exam. She was gone.
No. She could not have tampered with the test. She was a researcher, a doctor, not computer scientist. It was altogether illogical to assume that she had anything to do with this. There were no facts to indicate her involvement.
Spock struggled to control his temper while he watched the smug Cadet Kirk accepted stunned and excited congratulations from his peers. Even Nyota went over and offered her words of praise. Kirk was nearly knocked over, though, when Doctor Parker charged in and jumped into his arms, her face absolutely gleeful. She mussed his hair and Kirk threw her over his shoulder impishly.
Spock heard every word that passed between them through the microphones in the exam room.
"Piece of cake, huh kid?" Mal said.
"Yeah, thanks coach. Hey, Bones, hold this would you?" Mal was unceremoniously dumped into Leo's lap where he still sat at the helmsman station. Mal grinned up at him happily even while he scowled.
"What the hell am I supposed to do with this?" he demanded.
Jim smiled wickedly. "Get creative. Now, come on, Bones. You know you want to congratulate me. The Kobyashi Maru…it's alright to be impressed. I am all things that are awesome." Mal snorted and Jim dropped into her lap so they were both sitting on Leo. "And Doctor Awesome. You are my hero, Mal."
"Do I look like a goddamn sofa to you two?" Leo snapped standing up and dropping them both. He kept an arm around Mal so only her feet hit the floor instead of her entire person. "I don't know how you did it, Jim, but it don't smell right."
Jim flashed his teeth. "Yeah, sorry about that. I didn't have a chance to shower before the test. Gaila wanted to wish me luck…"
Whatever else he might have said was drowned out by Leo's growls and Mal's howling laughter. The three of them headed out the door as Spock watched. Doctor Parker was the last one out and he couldn't help but notice her wink up at the tank as though she knew he was watching.
