Chapter 2: Safety First

Summary:

Valerie must finally come face to face with Leonard McCoy, and is pleasantly surprised by his own interest in her, especially when he goes out of his way to visit her in Engineering.

And so, Lt. Valerie Maynard had been there for the entire dramatic mission to hunt down John Harrison…aka Khan. She'd been close by when Scotty had basically quit because of the weapons being loaded on the Enterprise. She'd done her best to assist Chekov as he came up to speed with running the Engineering Department. She didn't take it hard that she'd been passed by for taking over as Chief—she knew she wasn't as familiar with the workings of the Enterprise, and Kirk wasn't as familiar with her as with Chekov.

When Scotty got back, however, and saw how she'd so competently assisted Chekov, he was pretty quick to promote her to Assistant Chief—a position he'd yet to fill because he hadn't yet trusted any of the other Engineers enough to handle the position.

She'd gotten away with not reporting to sickbay because of the nature of the mission they were on, and the need for her in Engineering. But in the end, things finally settled down, and McCoy had saved Kirk's life using Khan's blood. It was pretty miraculous, and one day she hoped she would get to hear the story in full as she'd only gotten bits and pieces because most of the time she was trying to help keep the ship from falling apart. She even allowed her the smallest of hopes that perhaps it might be Leonard McCoy himself that she got to hear the story from.

Sure enough, things had quieted down and soon enough the repaired ship would be heading back out on mission—it wasn't long before she'd gotten a notice on her PADD that she was to report to Sickbay as soon as possible for her shipboard physical.

Now, she sat on the end of a medical bed, feeling more nervous than she should for a physical. She was certain he'd probably have forgotten about her and their first encounter. A lot had happened, Academy, Nero, Khan, and so many other missions between those. Uhura was right, she'd had a crush on him from afar their entire time at Academy. She'd kept up with some of the reports of the Enterprise's missions, paying particularly close attention to those that included her best friend, or her secret crush doctor.

And now, that Doctor was approaching, PADD in hand, paying more attention to it and her records than to her. "Let's see, Lt. Valerie Maynard, Assistance Chief Engineer. In for your first shipboard yearly physical. Sorry we didn't get you in before. Things have obviously been a bit hectic on board. Anything of concern we need to discuss?"

"No, Doctor. Feeling perfectly healthy."

"I'm rather impressed with your record, Lieutenant. Most of Scotty's crew end up in here with burns or cuts or something, himself included. You seem to be the only one never injured?" At that, he finally looked up at her. She noticed immediately that his eyes narrowed.

"I suppose I just take safety very seriously, Doctor." She smiled politely, trying to ignore the intensity of his gaze.

"Well that's a breath of fresh air coming from anyone on this crew," he said in his normal grumpy tone that made her internally chuckle. "Do I—do I know you from somewhere else? I never forget a face, and you seem somehow familiar?"

She flinched a bit and looked away from him. "Wow, really—you must not ever forget a face. It's been… six years? At least."

"Six years? When did we meet?"

"We didn't exactly meet. I was on the cadet shuttle that left Riverside Shipyard headed for the Academy. I sat across from you and the Captain."

His eyes lit up in recognition. "That's right! I remember now! You're the one who laughed at my comment regarding my divorce."

She held out her hands, much like she had that day, in a show of innocence. "I apologized then, and I do so again. I'm sorry, Doctor."

The corner of his mouth quirked up into a smile. "It's alright, darlin'—I suppose I would have laughed too, had I been on the outside looking in."

She felt relieved. "Oh, I'm so glad to hear you say that. I've felt bad about it ever since then."

"Really? Six years? My god, woman, if you felt that guilty, you could have looked me up at the Academy and cleared the air."

"You seemed to be busy, between Academy classes and trying to keep the Captain out of trouble, you didn't have time to bother with me."

"On the contrary, I probably could have used the distraction from both said tasks. A beautiful woman with a good, intelligent, head on her shoulders would have been a nice change from the ones that Jim tried to throw at me. Your presence would have been a breath of fresh air." She couldn't help but blush at that. If he noticed, he didn't say anything about it, but moved on. "But it's all water under the bridge and now the air is cleared. Time to get back to business. I'm going to take a blood sample to run a gamut of tests—nothing to be worried about, just standard tests to check against your last recorded results. You'll get a notification on your PADD when the results come in."

A few days later McCoy was looking over the latest batch of lab results that had come through and noticed a now familiar name. Lt. Valerie Maynard. Everything looked good, but he suddenly had the desire to see Lt. Maynard again. Intrigued by the recollection of their first meeting, and her knowledge of his friendship with Jim, he looked a bit deeper into her records after her sickbay visit. Turned out she was not only a competent engineer, she was a 'damn good one' as Scotty had put into her record as a part of his recommendation for her being made Assistant Chief. There was even a special addendum from Chekov giving recognition for her assistance during the crisis with Khan. She really did seem to have a good head on her shoulders, and he'd gotten a pretty good look at her when she was in Sickbay and couldn't deny that she was easy on the eyes. With that, he decided he'd pay her a visit in Engineering. He checked the duty roster and saw that she was on shift so he hopped up from his desk, PADD in hand, and headed out of sickbay.

When he arrived in engineering he quickly found Commander Scott. "Scotty, I was wondering if your Assistant Chief was around?"

"Val? Yeah, the lass is hanging around just down the way. Everything alright, doc?"

'Bones' filed away that the Lieutenant was called by 'Val'—at least by Scotty. He wondered if others did the same, as they now called him Bones—the nickname that Jim had given him all those years ago. He once again thought about that being the first time he'd met Valerie. "Everything is fine, Commander. Just paying the Lieutenant a follow-up visit."

Scotty's eyebrow raised, but he shrugged. "Come on, I'll show you the way. You'll never find her otherwise."

Leonard questioned Scotty's judgment on his ability to find Lt. Maynard, of course he also questioned his own judgment as to why he was even doing this, but followed the Commander nonetheless. A few minutes later, several turns and stairwells later, he was glad Scotty had shown him the way. They arrived on a walkway rather high above the pipes and tanks that made up parts of the Enterprises' engine systems. He took nothing more than a quick glance over the side before deciding he'd stay away from the side. Scotty pulled a small square from his pocket as McCoy watched. "What are you doing, Scotty?"

"It's the only way to get her attention when she's up there working. She keeps headphones on so she can listen to her music. Says it helps her focus on the job."

"Up where?"

It was only then that Scotty nodded further up into the structure and McCoy almost had a heart attack right then and there as he saw the Lieutenant hanging from a series of ropes in the air.

"What in the blue blazes is she doing up there?"

"How did you imagine we access the pipes and systems up there when they need repairs and routine maintenance, Doc? Now, just give me a moment." Scotty used what McCoy now realized was a small mirror and angled it just so that light bounced off and flashed into Valerie Maynard's eyes.

She pulled off the headphones and looked down. "Yeah, Scotty, what's up?"

"The Doc here was looking for you. I've got to get back to those bloody reports now or else I'm going to drown in them. Don't do your normal stunts, lass, the Doc already looks as if he might have a heart attack from the sight of you up there in the harness."

Even from down below, Bones could see the scowl on her face. "You and I both know, Scotty, that I'm not the one who pulls the stunts on the cable system." After Scotty walked away, waving her off as he did, she swung around so that she was in a sitting position looking at the Doctor. She was still about twenty or thirty feet higher than him and about the same distance away from the walkway into the middle of the drop that Bones was currently refusing to get close enough to estimate the distance of. "What can I do for you, Doctor?"

"I came to deliver your bloodwork results. Care to tell me what you're doing hanging from the ceiling God knows how far up in the air? I thought you said you care about safety?"

"I do, that's why I'm wearing a harness and all the proper safety equipment, Doc. I promise I'm doing everything by the book."

Bones frowned and eyed the lines overhead, mumbling, "Still doesn't seem safe."

"Give me just a moment, Doctor," she said before doing some work with the clamps that held her harness line in place. She tapped a button and soon was moving towards him, still high above. Once she was just over his head, she tapped another button and slowly lowered to the walkway. Once her feet were firmly planted on the ground, she released the clamp and it raised back into the air. It was only then that she frowned. "Now, Doctor, is there a problem with my blood work?"

"What?" he was still in a bit of shock from her movement on the cables. "Oh, no, no problem. Everything came back clear."

She frowned again, this time in confusion. "I thought I'd receive my results by a message on my PADD?"

"I, um," suddenly Leonard McCoy found himself fumbling. "I just thought I'd get some exercise and take a walk, deliver them personally, you know."

Notes:

Cliffhanger, I know... but keep reading... I'm not leaving you hanging. :)