Lorna held onto her nose, pinching the bridge to try and stop the bleeding.
"Get back in there!" she heard McCoy shout.
"He just punched me Leonard!" she shouted back, aghast at his lack of concern for her wellbeing.
"I've got good money riding on this!" Lorna stared at him incredulously. "That was a joke!" McCoy shouted quickly and then winced when her opponent took full advantage of her being distracted and picked her up over their head and flung her to the floor. The entire away team (Uhura, Sulu, Kirk, McCoy and a guy called Langford who wouldn't stop talking about how much better he felt since turning Vegetarian!) winced and made sounds akin to somebody stubbing their toe on a bed frame.
"Is she okay?" Kirk asked McCoy as the two men stood and watched Lorna turn herself onto her side and cough, dirt and dust clouding and swirling in front of her from the floor.
"She's fine," McCoy answered rather unconvincingly.
"You sure? Bones, she doesn't look…" Kirk glanced from one Doctor to the other hesitantly.
"She can do this," Uhura chimed in, hoping her positivity would rub off on Lorna in some kind of strange case of osmosis. McCoy nodded enthusiastically and Kirk just nodded. Sulu thought the whole thing was crazy. Langford really wanted a Burger.
Bargaining their way off a planet by Lorna agreeing to be in a glorified bar fight with a six foot five alien was clearly par for the course. The worrying thing was they all just accepted it as a pretty normal thing to do. In the back of her head when Lorna had proposed the idea she had expected McCoy to object, to do his usual 'Are you out of your Goddamn mind!' routine. Maybe even take her place, offer to fight the alien instead of her? Defend her honour? No that wasn't right, but whatever it was! The thing where the man does it instead of the woman! Where anybody did it instead of her!
She had expected that!
Kind of sucked when he didn't and just told her to keep her left up, slapping her back as he pushed her forward.
She questioned their entire relationship in that second.
The cheering crowd leapt to their feet when Lorna pulled herself up and gave them a bloody smile, pulling her fists back up to block her face she hunkered down and shook her head, clearing the little tweety birds that were flying around in a circle above her noggin. Dodging the first punch McCoy exhaled in relief and then watched cautiously as the pair danced around one another. Lorna noticed that every time the alien jabbed with his left, he dropped his right guard. Letting him get a few good left jabs in, her jaw and ribs and bottom lip taking the brunt she saw the smile form at the corners of his mouth and knew she had him. Pride before a fall she thought to herself.
Letting him pull back his left she watched as his right faltered and that's when she landed the most iconic, jaw shattering left hook herself. Luckily for her the fella had a glass jaw and like a Lumberjack chopping down a tree Lorna wanted to shout 'Timber!' as the poor sod decked it. There was a moment of quiet shock, from Lorna, from the audience and even from the crew.
"I did it?!" Lorna shouted, her arms going up in the air and her face filled with ecstatic surprise. The room erupted into victorious applause and McCoy had never felt prouder.
"To Lorna!" Kirk toasted, all of them bringing their pints of beer up and cheering. Lorna grinned from ear to ear (as much as she could with a bruised jaw and split lip) and took a sip of her beer trying not to get the tissue sticking out of each nostril wet in the process.
"You're something else!" Kirk told her, shaking his head.
"I am something else! Don't you forget it Sir! I am something else, if it wasn't for me we wouldn't be getting out of here!" Lorna took another swig of beer triumphantly.
"If it wasn't for you we wouldn't have lost our original transport in the first place!" he countered.
"How was I supposed to know that they didn't like hugs!" Lorna laughed. "Who doesn't like hugs?!" she asked Uhura who shrugged her shoulders in response.
"You're a warrior Lorna! You're indestructible!" Sulu complimented her and Lorna smiled and agreed, telling them she hardly felt a thing. The minute Kirk, Uhura, Sulu and Langford fell into a conversation amongst themselves she slowly turned to McCoy who was sat by her side. Her face instantly morphed into pained anguish and she gripped his arm with all of her might.
"Leonard! It hurts so bad!" she whispered to him and he couldn't help but laugh.
"I thought you didn't feel a thing?" he asked amused.
"I was lying, I felt everything. It really hurts Leonard, help me!" she pleaded. "I think I broke a rib."
"Come on, let's get you fixed up." Helping her up the others asked where they were going.
"You're not ready for round two Heiland?!" Kirk said to her and Lorna grinned and held herself up.
"You bet Kirk, I could take you any day of the week." Saying their goodbyes they left the bar and as soon as they were out in the street and heading towards whatever flea infested hotel they were staying in Lorna collapsed into McCoy's arms and cried out in pain. "It hurts so much Leonard!"
"Quit being such a baby!" he told her.
"You quit being such a baby!" came her immature reply.
"You know nobody would have thought any less of you if you'd just admitted it hurt like hell," McCoy watched as she pulled the bloody tissue from her nose.
"I know, I just want you to be proud of me and not worry about me." Lorna stopped and looked up at him, sniffing and smiling wonkily at him. McCoy's hand came up to cup her cheek as he smiled back at her lovingly.
"I will always be proud of you but I will never stop worrying about you, okay?" Kissing the top her head Lorna sighed in contentment.
"Okay," she agreed.
Six Months Later
"Oooo, oooooo wha." Kirk rolled his eyes. "Oooo, oooooo wha." How could one person sing the same song for so long? "Shimmy, shimmy, ko-ko-bop, shimmy, shimmy, bop ahh! Shimmy, shimmy, ko-ko-bop, shimmy, shimmy, bop ahh!"
"Could we maybe have a different song Doc?" Kirk shouted over to Lorna who was swaying as she trudged along.
"Sittin' in a native hut, all alone and blue, sittin' in a native hut, wonderin' what to do." Kirk wouldn't go as far to say that she was a bad singer…
"Clearly not…" he whispered under his breath.
"Along came a native girl, did a native dance, it was like in Paradise, put me in a trance." Lorna nearly tripped when she tried to shimmy.
"Heiland please…!" Kirk was losing it.
"Goin' shimmy, shimmy, ko-ko-bop, shimmy, shimmy, bop! Shimmy, shimmy ko-ko-bop, shimmy, shimmy, bop!"
"SHUT UP!" Kirk shouted and Lorna stopped suddenly and turned towards him looking genuinely upset. "Please, just, can we have a bit of quiet please, just for a bit?" Kirk asked nicely, a weird strained smile plastered on his face.
"There's no need to shout," Lorna replied quietly and then carried on walking.
Kirk could swear he could still hear her singing.
"Are you still singing?" he asked frustrated, closing the gap between them and eyeing her suspiciously.
"No," Lorna answered defensively.
"I think you are," he shot back.
"I'm really not." Lorna smiled to herself as she skipped ahead. "Goin' shimmy, shimmy ko-ko-bop, shimmy, shimmy, bop! Shimmy, shimmy, ko-ko-bop, shimmy, shimmy, bop! Shimmy, shimmy, ko-ko-bop, shimmy, shimmy, bop!" she sang in barely a whisper.
"Just admit it Heiland, this isn't fun." Kirk shouted out in front of him towards Lorna an hour later, who was still slogging through the marshland silently in front of him.
"You're not going to break my spirit Captain, I've told you before; glass half full," she shouted back over her shoulder, being careful not to lose one of her boots in the mire.
"We've been walking for four hours, we've barely made a dent!" Kirk's glass was shattered into a million pieces by this point. Lorna laughed, she'd been keeping their minds busy with inane questions and a running commentary of their escapade. They hadn't expected to be shot down, they hadn't expected to have to make a crash landing. They hadn't expected to have to make their way to a rendezvous point outside the militarised zone.
They hadn't expected any of it.
Still, there they were and Kirk was determined to break Lorna. What else did he have to do with his time? Plus he wanted to get her back for laughing when he lost one of his boots in the mud. She'd let him balance himself by holding onto her head with both hands but still, all's fair in love and war.
"We're making good progress Sir, I reckon we have another three hours and we'll be able to contact the ship, don't you think so?"
"That's if they don't track us down before that," Kirk retorted combatively. He wasn't wrong, their situation was pretty dicey. They had known beforehand they were going to have to possibly deal with a hostile force, the inhabitants of the planet were known to be fiercely aggressive towards any outsiders. Nevertheless they hadn't anticipated the expert marksmanship of whomever had shot them down. Kirk had been piloting so technically it had been his fault anyway.
Luckily neither of them had sustained severe injuries in the crash, a few cuts and scrapes between them. Knowing their location was dangerous they'd grabbed what they could and made a hasty exit, both them following standard protocol for evacuation.
"You ain't got nothing to worry about Doll," Lorna caught herself using her nineteen forties private eye, film noir voice and then realised she wasn't with McCoy and Kirk would have no idea why she sounded the way she did or called him 'Doll' for that matter! She found herself pouting, it was never as fun when she wasn't with her Husband.
"Pardon," she heaved a sigh of relief when he seemingly hadn't heard what she'd said.
"I said we've seen no sign of anybody Sir, they may not have sent out any recon yet?" Lorna replied positively.
"Would we even know?" Lorna rolled her eyes.
"Perhaps not but let's that not stop us shall we?" Kirk heard irritation in her voice and smiled to himself. A crack had appeared.
When the pair found themselves together a strange alchemy of personality sometimes occurred. Depending on the other, each one of their less dominant personality traits appeared. Lorna became more serious and James T less so.
With her Husband Lorna had the great fortune of being able to be exactly who she wanted; at any rate and at any cost. The unwavering trust, loyalty and respect they had for one another allowed her to embrace all facets of herself and he in turn had found the same could be said for himself.
With the Captain? Well…
"You did the advanced combat and weaponry course at the Academy didn't you Heiland?" he asked.
"No Sir, I only completed my Officer training at the Academy." Lorna knew he knew that already.
"Bones took that class with me, I broke his nose!" Kirk laughed at the memory. "Why did he do that class and not you?" Lorna bit her lip, he was feigning ignorance and she found it annoying.
"Doctor McCoy worked at Starfleet Medical at the Academy Sir, he's also command qualified Sir. He told me it was to keep you out of trouble Sir." Lorna cringed, that was a lot of 'Sirs'.
"Did he now? Well I suppose he's right." Kirk desperately wanted to see her face but the way her shoulders were hunched he could tell she was trying to keep calm with him. He'd seen that stance and heard that tone his entire life. "Bones and I were assigned the Enterprise after the Narada incident." he continued.
"You were grounded weren't you Captain?" Lorna shot over her shoulder and Kirk winced at the low blow. He should have known better not to think that McCoy wouldn't have told his Wife everything.
"A technicality…" Kirk shot back quickly, impressed by her saltiness. "What about you?"
"What about me Sir?!" Lorna stopped walking and turned on her heel. Her hands had unconsciously come to rest on her hips and she was eyeing Kirk coldly.
"Were you on a Starship before the Enterprise?" Lorna simply nodded. "Did you want to work on a ship?" Kirk realised he knew very little about Lorna Heiland.
"My commission was reactivated..." Blue eyes bore into brown suspiciously and Kirk's interest was piqued.
"Reactivated? Did you choose to go on a five year mission?" Kirk creased his brow in confusion.
"Sorry what?" Lorna pretended not to have heard him.
"You said you were reactivated?"
"Did I?" Kirk crossed his arms in frustration as Lorna turned her back on him and shaded her eyes from the sun, looking into the distance.
"Yes! How did you end up on the Enterprise Lorna?" She knew he was losing his cool because he used her first name, he only ever did that when they were sat round the dinner table and McCoy and her would gang up on him (it was just so easy).
"Seemed like a good idea at the time. Sir." Lorna smiled tightly. She figured she'd been just the right amount of confusing for him to not really come to any kind of conclusion. Kirk made a mental note to access her records when they were back on the Enterprise.
Lorna picked her foot up to turn back around but she'd been stood in one spot for too long and the thing didn't budge. Trying again she lost her footing completely and fell back into the marsh, all but submerging in the muddy brown water. Kirk grabbed hold of her hands immediately and pulled her up where she spluttered and coughed, wiping the mud from her eyes and breathing erratically from the shock of the cold water.
"You okay?" he asked after a minute, wiping her cheeks himself instinctively.
"No!" she shouted back, batting his hands away and Kirk couldn't help but laugh. "Don't laugh at me!" she scolded him.
"I'm not laughing at you!" Kirk did his best to sound like he was telling the truth.
"You are! Goddamnit this is your fault!" flapping her arms by her side she sprayed droplets of mud across Kirk's uniform. She sounded like Bones.
"My fault?! Come on Doc…"
"Don't 'come on Doc' me!" Lorna interrupted him with a wagging finger. "You've been winding me up for the past hour!" she was dripping head to toe in mud, holding her arms out by her side she couldn't help the shiver that violently racked her whole body. "Honestly I don't know how Leonard does it…!"
Now Kirk felt bad.
"Come on Doc…" He really hadn't intended on repeating himself.
Lorna did the only thing she could think of, she pushed him. She pushed Captain Kirk. Kirk instinctively grabbed hold of the closest thing to him to try and prevent him from falling, and that turned out to be Lorna. Both crashed to the ground, Lorna landing on top of Kirk.
"Don't move," she said as she spread herself over him, tucking her head into his neck. Kirk was taken aback to say the least.
"What? Lorna I…" he stopped talking when she planted her muddy hand over his face.
"Shh, UAV above us." She whispered hoping the cold mud she was covered in would camouflage them both. Kirk did as he was told and didn't move an inch. Seeing for himself the object fly above them between Lorna's splayed fingers. "Has it gone?" she asked a while later.
"No," he whispered back. The pair stayed rigid for what felt like an hour, Kirk's arm had gone dead from the weight of Lorna above him and the warmth of his neck was putting Lorna to sleep. "Don't fall asleep," he whispered in her ear.
"Hmmm," came her contented reply.
"Lorna!" he hissed.
"I'm awake I promise, has it gone?" she asked again.
"Yeah I think so, come on. We need to get a move on." Helping each other up all other thoughts and conversations were forgotten about as the pair trudged on.
She suggested they play Marco Polo but that hadn't gone down so well.
"Sun?"
"No."
"Swamp?"
"No."
"Sky?"
"Yes! Your turn." Lorna said and smiled as she gave Kirk a thumbs up.
"Eye spy with my little eye…"
"Do you have any siblings Doc?" Kirk asked.
"A Brother, you?"
"The same." Well this conversation was going nowhere fast!
"Maybe the mud will be good for our skin?" Lorna mused as she grabbed hold of Kirk's arm for support.
"Speak for yourself," Kirk quipped.
"We're all getting older Captain," he scoffed in response.
"Yeah well, I plan on living forever." They were nearly at the rendezvous point, there'd been no further altercations or slips, trips and falls but the sun had dried the mud on them and both had found themselves pulling strange faces to crack the dirt on their cheeks. Lorna was desperately hungry and had been planning her meal for the past twenty minutes whilst Kirk just wanted to go to bed.
"Would you rather live to be one hundred years old not knowing anything or live to eighteen knowing everything?" she asked him.
"I wouldn't learn anything?" kirk asked.
"No, I mean you'd be born with all knowledge but only live to eighteen or you learn as you go and live to one hundred." Lorna clarified.
"Most people already do that Doc?" Kirk replied and Lorna shook her head.
"Yeah you're right, that was a rubbish question. Sorry." She apologised and Kirk smiled.
"No need to apologise," he replied amused.
"I'm tired, let me try again."
"Okay," kirk waited expectantly.
"Would you rather…"
"Yes?" Lorna shot him a look telling him not to interrupt.
"Be a…" she was really struggling.
"Yes?" Kirk strung out.
"Stop it!"
"Then finish your sentence!"
"I would if you didn't keep interrupting me!" Lorna was so tired. Kirk raised his brows but said nothing. "Would you rather be covered in mud or swarmed by bugs?" she asked, her eyes going wide. Kirk saw her expression change but didn't quite put two and two together.
"What? Doc I don't get it…" Lorna took hold of his shoulders and manually turned him so he was looking in the same direction as her.
Yeah, those were pretty big bugs! A swarm of goodness knows what was heading towards them, fast.
"RUN!" Kirk shouted, setting off in a messy sprint. The winged monsters surrounded them, the buzzing sounding as loud a jackhammer in their ears.
"THIS IS TERRIFYING!" Lorna screamed as they carried on running.
"I KNOW!" Kirk shouted back, changing direction and heading towards some trees. The swarm seemed to head in a different direction and both Kirk and Lorna found themselves jumping up and down, swatting off the bugs that had attached themselves to their uniforms and altogether freaking out. "Are they all off?" Kirk asked, turning round frantically.
"Yes, me?" Lorna asked, doing the same thing. Kirk nodded and then noticed one in her hair. Slapping the side of her head really hard Lorna looked at Kirk in horror. "Ow! What the hell!" she shouted at him.
"There was one in your hair!" he answered defensively.
"There better had of been!" giving him the side eye Lorna looked around them. "This sucks!" she finally said.
"Aha!" Kirk exclaimed, pointing his finger at her. "I knew you'd break eventually." His apparent victory didn't feel as good as he had hoped. Putting a friendly arm round her shoulder Kirk gave her a squeeze. "Come on, we'll be fine. Let's get back before Bones has an aneurism." Lorna couldn't help but laugh.
"He'll be going mental right about now," she agreed as they carried on walking.
"I know, his two favourite people stuck on a planet."
"You're infuriating Captain," the words came out before she had time to think.
"You're no cake walk yourself Doc." Kirk smiled, enjoying the camaraderie.
The rendezvous point was on dry land thankfully, didn't matter that much though, it had started raining half an hour ago. Kirk opened a channel with the Enterprise.
"What the hell took you so long?!" came the booming voice of McCoy in response. Kirk rolled his eyes and Lorna nearly burst out crying but they both laughed silently knowing he had probably been going out of his mind and picking a fight with everybody.
"We didn't exactly take the scenic route Bones," Kirk replied. "Do you mind beaming us up?" he asked sweetly. They both heard angry mumbling before the tell-tale signs of the transporter locking onto them began to make their skin tingle. Just before they disappeared Lorna caught Kirk's attention.
"You look like shit," she said grinning at him.
"Speak for yourself Doc."
"I will never cheat on you," Lorna exclaimed as she appeared from the bathroom after her three hour shower! Hair wrapped in a towel and oversized pyjamas slightly damp, McCoy held out his arm ready for a hug from his favourite person.
"Glad to hear it," McCoy replied amused. "May I ask why you're telling me this?" he looked at her seriously. Lorna sat herself beside him and took a gulp of the Whiskey he'd poured for her, savouring the feel of his arm round her shoulders.
"Because everybody else is terrible and you're perfect." She told him.
"The Kid's a lot isn't he Darlin'." Lorna nodded by way of an answer.
"I know which side my toast is buttered on Leonard."
"Bread," he corrected.
"What? Oh, no I'm pretty sure it's toast." McCoy laughed. "I mean honestly, at this point I don't think I could even be bothered getting to know someone like that you know?" Lorna picked at the thread on her pyjamas, completely unaware of the look on McCoy's face as he sat and listened to her.
"That's what's stopping you?" He had no idea where this conversation was going.
"I've just never had a conversation with anybody or seen anybody where I thought 'yeah you know what, that could work'. They've always been annoying or insensitive or not as handsome." Lorna sat up to look at McCoy, he was giving her his 'heavy eyes with desire' look. "You're not even listening to me are you?" she asked. "I'm giving you a compliment Leonard, a pretty big one at that. I'm basically telling you nobody else compares and you're just looking at me like 'what is she saying?' and 'huh, I really fancy a grilled cheese right about now'."
"You're just going to make me more insufferable you know that don't you?" he told her and Lorna grinned.
"Yeah but I like telling you the truth so…" McCoy turned himself so he could kiss her and when she felt his arms going around her and under her legs to pick her up she giggled. "What are you doing Leonard?" she asked feigning ignorance.
"I was planning on giving you a full physical Darlin'." McCoy purred.
"Ugh! Leonard, that was terrible!" Lorna laughed.
"What? That's a solid line!" McCoy argued.
"That's a tacky line, that's what that is."
"It worked didn't it?" McCoy decided to double down and carry on picking her up and making his way to the bedroom.
"I'll let you know."
The Following Day
Lorna sat staring at nothing, her chin rested in the palm of her hand and her elbow was propped on the desk. She had been huffing her breath out loudly for the past half hour causing the entertaining fluttering of her fringe.
Pushing her chair back she went to get up but just ended up banging her thigh into the side of the desk. Sucking her teeth and swearing under her breath she rubbed the quickly forming bruise and tried to comprehend why she wasn't capable of the simple act of 'getting up from a chair'. Going to the stock cupboard she pulled all the blankets off the shelf and started to fold them again. After all this time she still found herself filling her time doing the same old things. Blankets folded she had a nap, popping in her earbuds and listening to some country music. Waking up with drool all over her cheek wasn't the most attractive thing in the world but at least nobody had come in. Using the back of her hand to wipe her cheek Lorna paused the music and looked around the bay, scrunching up her mouth to one side she wondered what she could do next.
Beginning to tap her feet she started dancing from one foot to the other.
"I'm singin' in the rain, just singin' in the rain, what a glorious feeling, I'm happy again. I'm laughin' at clouds, so dark up above, the sun's in my heart, and I'm ready for love." Arms outstretched she spun around and pushed herself off the beds for a big finish. "Let the stormy clouds chase, everyone from the place, come on with the rain I've a smile on my face. I'll walk down the lane, with a happy refrain. Just singin', singin' in the rain!" With her big finish Lorna threw in some solid jazz hands before bowing to her adoring audience.
"Dancin' in the rain, da da da da da da!" Lorna gasped and spun on her heel, seeing McCoy standing behind her. Taking hold of her hand he began spinning her round the bay, throwing in quite an impressive array of tap dance moves. "I'm happy again, I'm singin' and dancin' in the rain," Taking her in his arms McCoy expertly dipped her as they danced and he sang. "I'm dancin' and singin' in the rain!" Coming to a standstill McCoy bowed in her direction.
"I'm a bad influence on you," she told him, beaming.
"You're the best influence on me," he countered which made her beam even more.
"I love you," Lorna told him as she smushed herself into his chest and hugged him tightly.
"Love you too Darlin'."