Star Trek is property of its respective owners. I only own Mallory.
But if someone wanted to...I don't know, lend me Karl Urban for a few hours, I wouldn't say no...
14
"Do I look like I want to hear you whine, McKenna?" Mal brushed past a biobed where a groaning helmsman was trying to get her attention. She was about two seconds away from knocking him out the good old fashioned way…with a fist to the face. "If you don't want to pick up parasites then maybe you shouldn't eat month old Cardassian egg salad. Now, cork it."
She had already changed into her new blue uniform and was hard at work in medical bay. The CMO, a miserable old jackass by the name of Tam Puri, had ordered her to deal with the over anxious cadets that were throwing up into their own laps because of the hasty shuttle rides and their nerves at suddenly finding themselves onboard an active starship. She spared a second to scowl at the computer when she heard her father's voice over the ship-wide communication system announcing they were about to leave the space dock, but she had to admit…he sounded completely at ease. Beneath her irritation she felt her usual pride for him bubble up. Her dad was the captain of Starfleet's brand new flagship. Even if he was making her life difficult, she was lucky to be serving under him.
She would just have to keep reminding herself of that.
With a sigh, Mal looked up from the tricorder in her hand to the panicked cadet hyperventilating in front of her. "Try to remember that we've been training for this," she said patting his arm and projecting a touch of resolution into his subconscious. She knew without a doubt that when push came to shove now, he would be able to keep his head. "Now, go do your job."
Someone grabbed her as she bustled past the nurse's station. "Dammit, McKenna, quit wheezing on me! Christine, please sedate this moron before I knock his teeth in!"
"Yes, doctor." Nurse Chapel hurried to take the helmsman back to his biobed and Mal immediately loaded a hypo with the vaccination for lung worm and pressed it to her thigh. She flinched as it was forced into the muscle but breathed a little easier. Clearly she spent too much time with Leo. She was starting to get skittish around germs.
Mal was about to move on to the next person clamoring for attention when she heard a familiar, albeit distressed, voice. "Where're we?"
Jim?
"Medical bay," came the gruff reply.
Leo?
Her frustrated scowl evolved into a relieved smile. The powers that be saw fit to keep the team together. She saw Leo practically dragging Jim over to a biobed while the younger man sloppily turned every which way to leer at the nurses. Jim didn't look so good. He was sweating and stumbling, breathing too heavily, his face flushed. Leo propped him up on a bed and dosed him with what Mal assumed was a sedative, considering he passed out two seconds later.
"Unbelievable," Leo grumbled.
"What happened to him?" Mal extricated herself from her place among the heaving personnel to stand by Leo. He was still in his Reds and he seemed confused at seeing her in a medical uniform, tricorder in hand.
"How did you…did they just let you onboard?" he demanded. Mal gestured for him to follow her and she led him to the line of medical personnel waiting for uniforms, and though she was already changed, Mal waited with him.
"Why wouldn't I be let onboard?" she asked, confused.
Leo received his uniform from a bored looking orderly and ducked behind a curtain while he changed. It wasn't that he wasn't thrilled to see Mal on the Enterprise. If anyone deserved to be on that ship it was her, but a part of him had hoped that Pike had grounded her, too. He would have felt better knowing she was safe on the ground. God only knew what sort of contaminants they were going to run into on a foreign planet. His mind was already rolling over all of the Vulcan diseases he could remember. As far as he knew, they didn't get sick much.
That was a small blessing.
"Jim was grounded because his goddamn hearing hadn't been ruled on," he said through the curtain. "They were going to leave him behind. I had to give him a vaccination for Levaran mud fleas to make him sick enough to smuggle onto the shuttle."
Mal snickered. "I knew we were rubbing off on you. Way to think on your feet, cowboy."
The curtain was yanked back and Leo towered over her, hazel eyes not amused in the slightest. Mal audibly swallowed as she looked him over. He looked good in his medical uniform, put together and capable. God bless Starfleet, Mal thought to herself as her throat went dry. "Well, hello doctor," she said with a grin.
"What?" He self-consciously tugged on his collar and smoothed his hair. Mal's fingers itched to reach out and touch him. That was the Betazoid in her. She was picking up on Leo's insecurity and all she wanted to do was reassure him. Still, she couldn't trust herself not to get swept up.
Crap. Maybe she did need to start meditating.
"Nothing," she said softly. "It just…suits you." She traced the Starfleet insignia over his heart and tried to ignore the way he emotionally recoiled from her touch even while he leaned cloesr to her.
"Hey!" Doctor Puri emerged from his office, looking extra pissy. "Are you my last senior medical officer?" he demanded, coming up between them. Leo nodded and Puri grunted. "Great. You stay here with Doctor Allen and do what you can for these squeamish kids. Watch that man like a hawk. He's a wreck. I don't know why they keep sending me babies." Puri pointed to a nervous looking young doctor, holding a tricorder with a shaking hand. "I have to go to deck six. Someone had a panic attack and passed out in the hall. And you," he glared at Mal, "you're coming with me until we have a chance to discuss your bedside manner. I don't care what he did to you, you had no right to make that poor sot with lung worm cry."
Mal smirked. If Puri thought she was bad, just wait until he caught Leo in action. Leo seemed to be having the same thought. He smiled slightly as she sent him a knowing look. "Take care, cowboy," Mal said, turning to follow the impatient CMO out of the bay. "I'll see you soon." She left with a wink.
Leo picked up where Mal had left off, scaring the handful of anxious cadets back to their posts. The unknown they could face. An aggravated Doctor McCoy…not so much. Leo didn't pay much attention to the mission broadcast. It was some tweeting, young voice, heavily accented and difficult to follow. Something about…Wulken? And he certainly didn't think about how Mal looked in that blue minidress, her curls spilling down from her messy ponytail, her hand on his chest...
"Lightning storm!" Jim sat up with a groan and Leo ambled over.
"Ah, Jim. You're awake. How do you feel?" Leo took one cursory glance at his friend and his eyebrows shot up into his hairline.
"Good God, man!"
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