Chapter 29- The Bottom Line
McCoy took a little nap to sleep off the buzz much to Leti's displeasure. He tried telling her he didn't sleep well the night before, and then he changed his story to say he didn't feel good but that was his mistake. Never switch horses in the middle of a stream, pick a story and stick to it. Although he tried to keep his distance, it wasn't like she couldn't smell the beer on his breath as he exhaled. He wasn't exactly drunk- I had seen him far worse before, but it seemed he had broken a house rule by drinking at all and he was banished to a large swing on the porch. It was warm, but with the shade, breeze, and fan overhead, he stretched out and rocked himself to sleep in no time.
Leti had brought her husband Peter and her three children home from church. They had gracefully packed up and spent the weekend camping so she could have the house to herself for her charity. Peter seemed a nice man, he was quiet and friendly. When I asked him if he was a doctor as well, he gently chuckled and said he was the only one who wasn't. He was a librarian by trade, but his hobby was being the local historian. We sat on the opposite end of the porch from McCoy and he told me all about the Civil War and Sherman's march to raze Atlanta. I sat politely and listened although he couldn't have known the period was much closer to my own timeframe than he could have imagined. It had only been 150 years or from when I left compared to almost 400 for him, so I was more than just a little familiar with the history of the period. He was very knowledgeable and passionate about his subject, of that there was no doubt; but I had to get to work.
I reluctantly excused myself to begin the long process of getting through the red tape at Starfleet legal until finally I had the documents I needed. While I was on hold and bounced between the Houston, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Moscow offices, I made reservations for Jocelyn and Jo under my name at a nice hotel downtown. I also booked two one way shuttle tickets to Phoenix and was pleased to find out that as an enlisted Officer I got a nice discount. There were a few perks after all. I forwarded it all to the hotel and sent her a short and cryptic message to meet us there just in case Clay got the message first. If there was anything I remembered how to do from the age of information overload, it was how to multitask.
I went back out to the porch where a small child no older than 3 was standing on his tip toes and peering anxiously at McCoy's sleeping face. The boy was wearing a pair of overalls with the legs rolled up and it looked as though that were all. No shirt, no socks or shoes. One strap slid lazily off his shoulder and he turned his dirty face to his mother and yelled, "Momma! The man smells funny!" Leti hissed at him to get away, but McCoy was already awake and glaring in confusion at the strange child which sent him into fits of giggles.
Leti sighed and said, "Blake, that is your uncle Leonard. Remember I told you about him?"
The child looked back at the uncle he had apparently never met before with wide eyes and squealed, "Space man!" McCoy smiled and sat up despite Blake's constant tugging on his shirt trying to get his attention. When it became irritating, he looked down at him and gave him a mild scowl. "Tell me about the Womulans." He pleaded twisting in a full circle and almost falling down in his excitement.
McCoy glanced at Leti and smirked at his curious nephew. "They are mean and that is all you need to know for now." He ruffled the child's hair and added, "Maybe when you get older." Blake began running around the porch and making hissing sounds with his arms outstretched as though his entire body were a spaceship and he was flying. I tried to smile, but I really hated children. They were so strange and their behaviors were often obnoxious. I used to call them aliens, but I have since met actual aliens and they were nothing alike; children were far more bizarre. I wondered what Spock thought of human children and their unrestrained and frantic movements and sounds so unlike Vulcan children no doubt. He probably thought it every bit as distasteful as I did, although he would never give anyone any indication that he felt one way or another about it.
Blake used McCoy's back for a landing strip. He climbed and tumbled all over him like a jungle gym and even pretended to ride him like a horse until he ran out of energy and apparently fell asleep still draped over his back with his head resting on his shoulder. All the while, he patiently ignored the child's hyperactivity and only scolded him when he nearly poked his eye out. I was amazed. How could he be so oblivious to such an annoying ordeal when he didn't afford adults who needed his help the same courtesy? Maybe physical contact had a calming effect on him. I would have to tell Jim to try riding him like a horse the next time a hypo was in his future. Perhaps the crew would have to randomly dog pile him now and again to keep him calm.
Thankfully, Leti's other two children were much calmer and approached their uncle with a sense of awe and trepidation. They had apparently met him before. Jocelyn was quick to get back to me and I alerted McCoy who carefully removed his nephew from his back and laid him down on the swing without ever waking him. The sleep of a child was more like a coma and I was amazed at the amount of jostling they could endure without ever stirring.
We were off again to Atlanta to see the only child that really mattered to him, but not before having meatloaf sandwiches and peaches picked straight from the tree thrust upon us for the trip. McCoy wolfed his sandwich down in three impressive bites and was struggling to chew as we drove off. I decided to enjoy mine. Real, actual, non-replicated beef and every bite was pure ecstasy. "Don't eat the peaches." He warned once he finally choked his massive mouthful down. "You will have juice all down the front of your shirt." I looked sadly at the glorious fuzzy fruit the size of a baseball. How I really wanted to sink my teeth into it.
We pulled into the parking lot of the hotel and McCoy was a little confused as to why he was meeting his daughter there, but he didn't question it too much and I smiled at his subtle giddiness. I bypassed the front desk and went straight to the room I had rented. McCoy was growing suspicious as to how I would know where to go, but he kept his comments to himself and took a deep breath when I knocked on the door. I looked back at him and checked, "Are you going to be ok?" He put his game face on and nodded sternly when the door opened.
A young girl with her dark hair pulled back in a pony tail peered up at us. I had never seen her before, but I could tell who her father was without a doubt; she looked exactly like him in almost every way. Cut her hair short, put her in a blue uniform, make her scowl a bit and I would swear Scotty had an accident with the transporter and shrunk McCoy. She looked past me and up at her father. Her eyes grew wide and she began jumping up and down excitedly with her arms extended to him while she squealed, "Daddy!"
He squatted and greeted, "Hia, sweetheart. How's my baby girl?" He drew her into a tight embrace as though it were the first and last times and I knew then that Jocelyn was right; he would probably never love another human as much as he did her. The sheer explosion of joy in his eyes and the wide smile that threatened to split his cheeks was beyond words. "I missed you too, honey." He laughed when she began to swivel back and forth nearly wrenching his neck. She took a step back and kissed him on the forehead with a loud, "Mwwah!" He chuckled and gently stroked her face in wonder as though she were an apparition. She put her hands on the sides of his face and giggled until he picked her up in his arms and deftly slung her onto his back to give her a piggyback ride into the room where her mother was sitting on the bed, still wearing her sunglasses. They greeted each other with slightly less animosity than before; an uneasy truce had been called for the benefit of their child.
McCoy let Jo slide down his back to the floor and he took a seat in a chair next to the bed. It didn't take long for Jo to climb up in his lap although she was just a little too big for that. "Daddy," she called sweetly, "I know I said I wanted to be a doctor just like you, but would you mind if I was an animal doctor instead?"
Her voice was like honey to his ears and he smiled grandly at her. "Darlin' you can be whatever you want and I will still be proud of you. Animals get sick and hurt, they need doctors too." She seemed satisfied with his blessing and went on telling him about bugs she had trapped in her backyard and the neighbor's new dog. He listened with a faint smile; it didn't matter what she said, her voice was angelic to him and he would have been happy to sit there while she read the entire phone book to him.
I quietly whispered to Jocelyn and we left him there with her while we went to the front desk to retrieve her tickets and get a printout of the paperwork for us to sign. She read it all over and asked, "So he agreed, then?"
"He did." I confirmed. "I didn't tell him why, but he promised not to go after Clay. In fact, I didn't tell him anything. He doesn't know why we are here or that you are leaving." I signed my name after hers and we turned to go back to the room. "Now to get him to sign. This will be like 20 questions."
When we returned, he was examining Jo's arm with a frown. "What did you get into, baby?" He asked cautiously. Jo hung her head and tried to avoid her father's eyes by sinking into his shoulder. McCoy's eyes blazed fire at us, but he wrapped his arms around her protectively and tried to comfort her by rubbing her upper arm and whispering soft nothings into her hair. He knew, and I knew that I faced a very long night because he would likely badger me for information that I couldn't give. Sometimes the confidentiality clause really sucked.
She sat there for awhile with her arms loosely draped around his neck until she declared that she was hungry. Once McCoy mentioned he had peaches from her Auntie Leti's house she licked her lips excitedly. "I can take her to get them." I volunteered slyly gesturing to the pile of paperwork I left on the bed. Jo looked to me and I smiled bravely. She was at least old enough that I could tolerate her for a little while because she seemed to be near the age of reason.
On the way down in the elevator I was trying to remember where we parked when her small voice said, "My name is Joanna, what's yours?"
I smiled down at her. "I guess we haven't met, have we? My name is Dr. Collins. I work with your father."
"What do you fix?" She hummed pleasantly swinging her arms back and forth.
"Problems." I said thoughtfully. "I try to make people feel better if they are upset." I wasn't really sure if she could grasp exactly what I did if I didn't put it in simple terms.
She looked up at me with her large eyes and sincerely asked, "Can you make my daddy happy again? He is upset a lot. He doesn't want me to know sometimes, but I do. The last time he called me for my birthday from space he was sad then."
"Sometimes being in space can make people sad because they are so far away from the people they love." I explained locating the car and digging out the peaches to give to her. "And your father loves you very much, he probably missed you. You make him happier than anyone he knows."
"When he called, Mr. Kirk also said happy birthday." She stated proudly. "He waved at me." I nodded my head and tried not to laugh. I guess such a thing would be a pretty big deal to a young girl. She probably got a lot of bragging mileage to her friends out of that one. "And Mr. Chekov too." She giggled blushing. "He waved and said happy birthday in Russian. He is so cute, I am going to marry him when I get old enough and we will live in Russia and live happily ever after." She sighed. Ah, the joy of a kiddie crush. I just wondered if Pavel knew of her plans or that McCoy was destined to become his father-in-law. I also wondered if she knew how damn cold Russia was compared to Georgia.
To my dismay, I could hear them bickering all the way down the hall and Jo slowed her pace. This was probably far from the first time she had been witness to them arguing. "Damn it, Jos, I have a right to know!" McCoy yelled.
"I don't have to tell you anything!" Jocelyn retorted. "We are leaving tomorrow and that is all you need to know." I knocked on the door to quiet them before I entered with Joanna in tow, holding her peaches close to her body as though they somehow protected her.
McCoy was clenching the paperwork in his hand and he looked very irritated until he saw his daughter, then he tried to put on a more pleasant mask that didn't quite cover the anger he still held. "Hey, baby." He smiled inviting her to come to him. "I heard you are going to stay with your aunt in Phoenix for awhile." She nodded her head and he tried to be neutral. "Well then you have some fun, but don't forget to use sunscreen every day and turn your shoes upside down at night so scorpions don't climb in."
"Leonard!" Jocelyn scolded, "You will frighten her."
He scowled and replied, "I'm just trying to keep her safe. Do you know what scorpion venom does if it doesn't get treated right away? Her whole foot will swell and…"
I held my hand out to halt his lecture. "I am sure she will be fine, and I am equally sure she will receive adequate medical attention if anything should happen, right?" I asked looking directly at Jocelyn. I was mentally frayed and felt the beginnings of a headache coming on. I picked up the paperwork to see that McCoy had in fact signed his section with his looping, illegible signature and I sighed, "I have to go take care of this. Please, for the love of God, act like adults while I am gone." There was a little more irritation than I had intended in my voice, but I was exhausted and tired of being a referee.
I had the front desk send a copy of the completed documents back to Starfleet and then confirmed that the credits would be available for her when she checked out in the morning. I stopped by the bar and ordered a Bailey's and an entire bottle of the finest scotch they had for Scotty. The bartender looked warily at me and asked, "Hard night, miss?" I kept my head down and massaged my temples. I was in no hurry to get back up there, but I feared if I didn't then they would be at each other's throats again.
I felt a warm hand on my shoulder and McCoy's voice quietly asked, "Can I buy you a drink?" I wiggled my glass at him to remind him I already had one. He nodded and declined anything for himself when the bartender came around. He sat uneasily in the chair with his elbows on the table. "I don't suppose you can tell me what any of this is about?" He asked although he already knew what I would say.
"Can't." I said simply. "You know the rules, McCoy." I looked into my glass at the ice floating in a sea of tan. I knew it broke his heart to only be left with suspicions and theories as to what had happened to his little girl, and in some ways it seemed grossly unfair- he should have a right to know, but he didn't.
If he was disappointed with me, he didn't show it. "I'm going to come back tomorrow and see them off at the depot. It's getting late and Leti will start worrying soon." I took that to mean hurry up, so I finished off my glass with one gulp and went to the bar to pay the tab.
I closed my eyes for most of the trip home. My head was hurting and the brightness of oncoming headlights didn't help. McCoy had found some soft music on the radio and I grinned. He knew I loved music. I wondered if traditional radio stations even existed anymore or if it was all like an XM satellite system or even computers like the ship had. I froze momentarily when he took one hand off the wheel to place it on mine that lay in the seat between us. The voice on the radio sang, "You're an exception to the rule, you're a bonafide rarity. You're all I ever wanted. Southern girl, could you want me?" I smirked and squeezed his hand lightly and I saw him smile by the soft glow of the dashboard lights.
