"What are you doing?" McCoy asked looking over Lorna's shoulder as she scribbled away with her stylus.

"I'm designing our garden," she told him without looking up.

"Our garden?" McCoy repeated.

"Yes, our garden." Lorna peered up at him. "We're not having a garden?" He shrugged his shoulders in way that Lorna understood to mean that it was the first time he'd thought of it and he didn't really feel one way or another.

"What's that?" He asked, pointing to a corner of her drawing.

"The vegetable patch," she told him scribbling in a few cauliflowers and cucumbers.

"Huh?"

"You haven't thought about these things?" Lorna asked him, suddenly aware that their entire relationship and marriage had taken place on a ship and who knew if they could sustain it on land?! Would the gravity make a difference? They'd been on shore leave together? It would be fine…

"I haven't 'not' thought about these things," he told her.

"And…?" she pushed.

"And," he stopped, not quite knowing what to say. It was a lot to think about. "I thought that's where the chickens would go?" he finally settled upon.

"Chickens?" Lorna creased up her brow in confusion.

"Yeah, chickens. Don't you want fresh eggs every morning?" A look of yet to come happiness appeared on McCoy's face at the idea of two sunny side up eggs being served to him every morning.

"I suppose I do, I'll make room for the chickens." She told him as she scrubbed out a patch of the drawing and drew a chicken.

"What's that?" he asked.

"A chicken," she told him annoyed that it wasn't apparent. McCoy laughed.

"Don't laugh at my chicken Leonard, Betty is going to be working hard making all those eggs you want."

"Betty?"

"You got a better name?"

"Miss Emily," McCoy replied a little too quickly.

"Miss Emily?" Lorna repeated trying not to smirk.

"You got a problem with Miss Emily?" He actually sounded offended.

"No no, Miss Emily is just perfect. In fact, why don't I leave you in charge of naming all the animals?"

"All?"

"Miss Emily may get lonely all on her own, don't you think?" Lorna took McCoy's hand and squeezed it gently.

"I'm a Doctor not a Vet Darlin'," he told her good humouredly before kissing the top of her head and walking away.

There'd been a nasty explosion in Engineering and Lorna had spent much of her day, if not more so patching up the poor sods who'd had the displeasure of being within the vicinity. Crewman Treen had been particularly bad and Lorna's heart bled for the young lad clearly scared out of his wits when he'd been dragged in by another Officer.

"Hey," she said, catching the Crewman's attention as she went about patching him up. "Are you listening to me?" Crewman Treen's eyes flickered back onto Lorna and she smiled at him warmly before asking her question again. "What's your favourite ice cream flavour?" she asked. Treen looked at her puzzled but thought about the question nonetheless.

"Umm, mint choc chip?" He told her, Lorna carried on treating his injuries but leant in ever so slightly so that she could whisper in his ear.

"You're a monster," she told him.

"What's wrong with mint choc chip?" he asked.

"What's right? That's what you need to be asking." She told him sternly.

"Well, what about you? What's your favourite?" Without missing a beat Lorna gave her answer.

"Pecan," she told him in way that made it evident to Treen that there could be no other choice in the Doctor's opinion. "No wait, Pistachio!" Treen laughed. "Any nut basically," she added. "Except Peanut… Ugh!" Lorna pulled a face at the very thought of peanut.

"You can't choose more than one." Treen told her.

"Who said?!"

"You did, when you asked me the question." Treen was finding it hard to keep up but he was just thankful for the distraction.

"Yeah well, don't trust a word I say. I'm not even a qualified Doctor! Just sneaked my way on here and found a uniform." Lorna looked at him seriously until she saw Treen's mouth open ever so slightly. "I'm joking Crewman."

"Are you?" he laughed, still not quite sure.

"I hope so, otherwise I currently have no idea what I'm doing!" She held the dermal regenerator up in the air that she'd been using on his arm and looked at it quizzically.

After treating numerous other Officers Lorna thought to herself that most people made it through their careers without really seeing the true dangers of what they did and where they were and where they went. Some were less fortunate and as Lorna finished up Crewman Treen's notes on her PADD she ensured he'd be seen by the ship counsellor as a matter of urgency.

"You done?" looking up she took in McCoy's dishevelled appearance.

"Nearly," she answered as she continued to tap away. McCoy crossed the room and stood by her side. "Standing over me isn't going to make this go any faster Leonard," she told him and she heard him chuckle.

"Come on, we've done enough." Hauling her out of her chair Lorna let him direct her towards the main bay door.

"Wait!" she told him as she pulled herself from his grasp. "I just need to tell Kostas something." McCoy tried not to roll his eyes as he stood and waited for his Wife. She cared too much sometimes, as far as he was concerned at any rate. A certain level of detachment was good for a Doctor he believed but he couldn't fault her as a Physician, she was better than he was in many ways. As she skipped back towards him she gave him a wide smile and hooked her arm back through his. "Proceed," she said as the pair left.

"Whiskey?" he asked and she nodded as they walked down the corridor. "Steak stew?" he asked and again Lorna nodded. "Dirty Harry?" he asked and Lorna rolled her eyes.

"Again?" she whined.

"You've got to ask yourself one question…?" McCoy started in his best Eastwood impression but Lorna cut him off.

"Fine, fine." She conceded. "But I'm picking next time."

"Deal."

"I'm having the first shower," she told him in no uncertain terms.

"We could just have a shower together?" McCoy suggested. "Save time?"

"Really? You think that's happening?" Lorna asked, God loves a trier!

"Worth a shot," with a shrug of his shoulders McCoy pushed Lorna in the corridor so that she bounced off the wall.

"Leonard!" she shouted at him.

(He was always pushing her into things, on the way to work, in the mess. Nobody ever seemed to notice him doing it just Lorna seemingly tripping and falling into the wall. Once he did it when they were both stood on the Bridge, he hadn't expected her to end up grabbing the sleeve of Kirk's uniform to keep upright and the colour of her cheeks matched Uhura's uniform! It was just too funny. He'd also got in on the act of scaring her, hiding round corners and behind doors. So it came to pass that Lorna couldn't trust anybody on the ship, including her Husband and every day she would find herself against a wall, on the floor or screaming at the top of her lungs at the most inappropriate moments).

McCoy just laughed and then laughed some more when she tried to do the same thing to him but he didn't budge. When they got into the turbolift Lorna tried kicking the back of his knee so that his leg went from under him but again he was too fast and all she ended up achieving was being pushed into the wall again.

"You suck," she told him.

"I'm not the one who can't walk in a straight line." McCoy countered.

"You push me!"

"Come on, if you don't hold my hand you start veering off to the right." McCoy's eyes were twinkling with mischief.

"And whose fault is it that I don't hold your hand anymore?" Lorna pointed her finger at him and he held up his hands in surrender.

"I apologised for that!" he retorted.

"And I told you I refuse your apology." Lorna crossed her arms in a huff.

(So, what happened is every time Lorna held hands with McCoy on her left he'd drop his shoulder so that it felt longer than when she held hands with him on her right side. He convinced her that one of her arms was shorter than the other, even when she asked him to swear he was messing with her. For days she thought one arm was shorter than the other until she asked Nurse Vallo to measure her! Yeah, that hadn't gone down well… (McCoy still found it funny, which irritated Lorna even more but he didn't care, it was funny and it had totally been worth it as far as he was concerned.))

McCoy eventually pushed Lorna into their quarters and groaned when he finally pulled off his boots. It had been a long day and he was just glad that he was ending it with her. He heard her plop onto the bed with a thump.

"Don't go to sleep!" he shouted at her through the doorway.

"I won't!" she answered, as if the idea was absurd.

"You will! Get up, now!" he shouted back.

"UGH," Lorna peeled herself off the bed and sulked as she went to the bathroom. It didn't matter, she'd be asleep soon enough. Whenever they watched a film they'd always start by sitting next to one another, slowly but surely she'd scoot down and either lay her head on a cushion or in his lap. She'd be asleep within minutes, McCoy would check on her and she'd be just awake enough to pretend to still be watching the film but they both knew she wasn't. It was a strange façade they both kept up but neither really minded.

Lorna sat mesmerised at her desk, PADD stood up in front of her and a colossal bowl of exceptional hummus half eaten to her right. Her eyes had glassed over and she was silently murmuring the words of the characters on screen.

"Perhaps I didn't always love him as well as I do now, but in such cases as these a good memory is unpardonable." She could rattle off the lines in her sleep, having watched the ancient adaptation of one of her favourite books a million times. It was a comfort blanket to Lorna, McCoy had lost count of the amount of times he'd come back to their quarters and found Lorna asleep with a PADD still in hand playing one episode or another. "It's been coming on so gradually, I hardly know. But I believe I must date it from my first seeing his beautiful grounds at Pemberley!" She loved that line! Using her last piece of pitta to scoop up way too much extraordinary hummus she shoved the whole thing in her mouth.

Her Regency bubble was burst however when the primary lighting went off and secondary life support was activated. Looking up at the ceiling, mouth still full and seeing the red hue bleed from the fascia's Lorna pursed her lips in contemplation. Sitting quietly she waited for the inevitable ship wide communication explaining the reason why; hostile force, bad weather etc. but when none came Lorna's face scrunched up even more. What had just happened? Her hand hovered over her comm badge just as the lights flickered back on. Huh? Must have been a glitch or Engineering carrying out maintenance Lorna thought to herself, they always forgot to tell her! Speaking of unexpected emergency power outages, Lorna was hungry (even she knew that made no sense). Making her way over to the replicator she stared at the thing absentmindedly, she had no idea what she wanted. McCoy had banned her from hummus (I know! Right!) citing that if she continued to consume her weight in glorious, life changing hummus she would metamorphosis into a literal chickpea. She turned and looked guiltily at the bowl of 'I'll never let go hummus, I mean Jack, I mean hummus' hummus on her desk and reminded herself to get rid of the evidence of her betrayal before McCoy came in to work.

Cupcakes were no longer her friend (look, you get to a certain age and you can't just eat what you want any more alright! Sure, you can treat yourself from time to time but ultimately your body tells you very quickly, especially your waistband, that you may want to watch what's going in because the vast majority isn't going out but taking up residence on your hips). There were positives, like her rack looked amazing, still… When Lorna had expressed her wish to take care of herself a little better to McCoy and that meant 'everything' reducing in size she laughed to the point of tears when he asked her if there was any way she could exercise but keep 'the Girls'! She'd reminded him he was a Doctor and that he knew already that's not how it works but he had continued to sulk for the rest of the day nevertheless.

So, that's how she found herself ordering fruit and that's when the replicator spat something out more akin to vomit.

"Ew," Lorna said quietly, watching as the goo slowly spilled over the side of the replicator and dripped and splattered onto the floor. She felt like it was a sign that she should never order fruit again but knew that was just wishful thinking on her part. Tapping her comm badge she tried to open a channel to Engineering, no such luck. "Is everything on the fritz?" she asked herself as she turned back and looked around the med bay.

She thought back to her mission continuity training, there were certain things she was supposed to do she was sure of it?! She knew that the Bridge would be identifying the critical areas of the ship and the resources needed to maintain them, they'd be prioritising the recovery efforts but she just didn't know where she was on the list.

Lorna decided to stay put, she'd only get in the way and what would happen when they turned up to sick bay and she wasn't there?

Nothing worked, her PADDs, some of the medical equipment, even the atmospheric controls seemed to have gone offline. Was it just her or was it getting warm in there?!

She was on her own.

"In nineteen seventy two, a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles underground. Today, still wanted by the government they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them... maybe you can hire The A-Team." Lorna actually made herself laugh. "Be serious for minute," she told herself as she picked chickpea out of her teeth and gums with her finger.

She was such a Lady!

Fanning her face with her hand she went about going through the contingency process, when she'd flicked all the switches and basically made sure she could still save somebody's life if need be Lorna definitely knew it was getting warmer. Her cheeks were blushed red and her fringe had begun to stick to her forehead, she kept blowing it off with a huff of breath but she was fighting a losing battle.

"Why's it so warm in here?" She decided to put some scrubs on, they were a much lighter material and the short sleeves would certainly make her feel cooler.

Grabbing a pair she went to one of the private examination rooms but the door didn't open.

"For crying out loud!" A little voice in her head told her to check the main door, which she did and of course it wouldn't open. "Right, okay, that's fine." Lorna shook her head and smiled. "No need to worry, perfectly fine, everything is perfectly… fine."

Yeah, it wasn't though was it.

Lorna figured that if the main door wouldn't open and she couldn't go into any of the private rooms she'd have to crouch behind one of the beds and quickly get changed, which she did managing to fall over twice and panic when the top got stuck over her head. That's just what she needed, for Engineering or whoever to come barging through the door just when her arse was hanging out. Standing up she made sure everything was in its place and then double checked again that the comms wasn't working, any PADDs or the replicator for that matter. Ten minutes went by and then for no reason at all she banged away on the main door, shouting if anybody could hear her.

It was getting seriously hot!

Lights and systems kept turning on and off again of their own accord.

"Jeffries tubes!" Lorna shouted, remembering there was a way out. The access hatch wouldn't open but there was a manual override, Lorna didn't try it just yet though. Thinking that perhaps it wouldn't be too long. What kind of crazy person would escape through a Jeffries tube after twenty minutes?!

"Me?" Lorna said out loud. "No, wait it out." She admonished herself. Sitting at her desk she tried not to focus on how hungry and thirsty she was, she'd already polished off the last of the enigmatic hummus. (Was licking the bowl too far? She didn't think so, it was a matter of survival let's be honest.) Why hadn't she brought a snack or something?! McCoy always put out an apple before he left for his shift, sometimes it was a Satsuma and he'd draw a silly face on it. That day it had been a banana, she hated bananas. He knew she couldn't eat anything phalic shaped.

Pushing her hair back off of her forehead she let her head loll back, a little too far it turned out because her chair careened back and before she knew what had happened Lorna was a pile of limbs on the floor. Scrambling back up she kicked the chair, as if it was the fault of the inanimate object and not her predilection for accidents. Limping over she tried the door again, still nothing. Enough was enough, she was getting out of there! What had it been? Twenty five minutes! Perhaps she would just have a lie down first, she'd kind of hurt her ankle when she fell and it had made her feel sick. Lying down on one of the beds she wafted her top up and down to try and get some air against her skin. She was a hot mess, literally and figuratively. Then good old imagination came a knockin' and her mind began to race with the possibilities of what may have happened.

The ship had been taken over by a hostile force.

All the crew had disappeared.

Life support was failing and she'd suffocate to death and they'd find her there a shrivelled grape.

The rest of the ship had been blown apart and she was just in a carcass listlessly spiralling through space to eventually burn up in a sun's atmosphere.

Had she knocked the thermostat?

"This sucks…" Her thoughts went to McCoy, she hoped he was alright. Lorna didn't do very well thinking about her Husband in dicey situations, it made her worry too much. Anxiety had been her tried and trusted friend for a long time, McCoy had introduced another facet to her sometimes legitimate sometimes tenuous fears. Like steps, or crowds, or food on sticks. All legitimate fears.

A light reflected on the wall beside her so she tried making hand puppet silhouettes, her dog was pretty good, as was the bird but that was about it. She remembered they had cooling packs in the store cupboard, jumping up she jogged over to grab some. Even if she had to cover her entire body in the things she didn't care. Sticking one on her forehead Lorna sighed in relief, she felt so much better. She stuck a couple more in her bra for good measure. She was done, Jeffries tubes here she came. Using the manual override Lorna pulled the leaver out of the access hatch, getting a good grip on the handle she went to push the thing right.

"Come on!" she said through gritted teeth when the thing didn't budge. Putting all of her weight behind the thing she tried again, having the upper body strength of a toddler wasn't helping her to say the least. Sitting back and panting she stared at the thing and then rolled her eyes and made a tutting sound when she noticed the arrow instructed her to turn it left.

"I mean the signs not that clear…" even she knew the sign was perfectly clear and fine.

(She'd drank way too much tea as well! She had a bladder the size of a toddler and she'd drank too much tea! (Her bladder wasn't the size of a toddler, she had a toddler sized bladder. Not that's not right! Her bladder was the same size of that of a toddler. A toddler's bladder.))

Again, getting a good grip she pushed it left, toppling over when the leaver moved easily and the hatch opened. Looking inside she took a deep breath before crawling in, the things weren't small small but they didn't feel great either. On her hands and knees Lorna set off, just trying to get to another deck or anywhere she could escape.

"Come out to the coast, we'll get together, have a few laughs..." Lorna scrambled forward until she reached another access hatch. When it didn't open Lorna huffed, swore, complained to herself about her sore knees and hands and then carried on. She felt like she'd crawled the length and breadth of the ship and not one access hatch seemed to be working! The thought only occurred to her after she'd opened the first one in sick bay that maybe using the manual override wasn't a good idea since maybe there was no ship on the other side?!

She collapsed on her front, panting and feeling sorry for herself. These things went on forever! Turning so that she was lying on her back she let herself have a well-earned break, staring at the ceiling. She noticed that her boobs sagged to the side more than they used to.

"Well that's depressing," she muttered. She tried pushing them back together but they didn't stay. For a while she just smacked her lips together, making a sound akin to a Goldfish eating fish flakes that sat on the surface of a fishbowl. "To be, or not to be, that is the question!" Lorna held her arms out in front of her dramatically. "Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune or to take arms against a sea of troubles. And by opposing end them. To die, to sleep, no more." She was really going for it now. "And by a sleep to say we end. The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks. That flesh is heir to 'tis a consummation. Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep. To sleep, perchance to dream, ay, there's the rub. For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, when we have shuffled off this mortal coil…"

What came next?

"For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, when we have shuffled off this mortal coil…" she tried again but for the life of her she couldn't remember what came next! "Damnit!"

She couldn't go to sleep in a Jeffries tube could she?

No.

Maybe?

No!

Lorna scrambled on, not sure how much more she could take. She'd completely lost her bearings and had no idea where she was as well, with a sigh she saw another access hatch coming up and silently prayed that it would open. Coming to a stop in front of it her hand tentatively hovered over the panel. Wait! Had she been opening all the others properly? She'd been pulling the leaver left right? Ha! Left right!

"Please please please," she whispered as she brought her hand down. With a gush and somewhat theatrical puff of smoke the panel opened and Lorna shouted out with joy. "GET IN!" Tumbling out she peered around her, working out where she was on the ship. Turned out she was in the mess and as she came to stand up all eyes turned to her. Lorna was hot and sweaty, out of breath and had a cooling pack stuck to her head (not to mention the two in her bra). Lorna looked at the confused faces in front of her and scrunched her own up in response.

"I take it there's no attack?" she asked the closest person to her who silently shook their head. "Huh?" Noticing a jug of water on one of the tables Lorna made a beeline and grabbed a cup. "You don't mind do you?" she asked rhetorically as she poured herself a glass of water and chugged down the entire thing, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand and breathing heavily.

"Are you alright?" a Crewman asked her.

"I was stuck in the sick bay, did anybody know I was stuck?" she asked him a little abruptly. When he shook his head Lorna looked around the still captivated mess hall. "Did anybody know I was in the sick bay?" she asked at the top of her voice to which there was an eerie silence in response. It reminded Lorna of the old Westerns McCoy watched where a tumbleweed rolls through an abandoned town. "Nobody?" she repeated.

"I think Engineering were doing some trials?" a faceless voice replied after a moment.

"Were they? Were they now? Well isn't that nice for them, would have been nice for me to know! Would have been nice for me to be able to leave the sick bay, not via a Jeffries tube but you know?! The normal way!" Lorna's hands were erratically flailing around as she spoke.

She felt faint.

"I feel faint," she said a second later. "I need to sit down," little spots of light danced in her vision. Swaying back and forth it was pure luck that she ended up tipping in the direction of Ensign Fernandez-alvarez (who was built like a brick shit house) who caught Lorna before she decked it.

The ensuing activity was… curious and fascinating in equal measure. She was conscious again in a matter of seconds but Kostas had been there and they'd stopped her from legging it and insisted she go to the Med Bay. "I'm fine really," she told Kostas as she sat on the floor looking pale and sweaty.

"Uh huh, whatever you say." Kostas replied. Lorna rolled her eyes but had to admit she wasn't going anywhere fast, seeing McCoy appear through the crowd made her feel worse. She hated seeing that look on his face.

"Damnit Woman!" he whispered to her as he knelt down.

"Don't…" she started.

"I will!" he ground out. "You're going to put me in an early grave."

"How much life insurance do I have out on you?" Lorna joked but very quickly went quiet when McCoy's face told her he wasn't in the mood for joking around.

"Hey Darlin'," Lorna blinked her eyes a few times and looked around her, when she saw McCoy stood beside the bed she was currently occupying looking down at her sympathetically she smiled lopsidedly back at him.

"Hey," she replied, struggling to sit up.

"Well this is a new one, I've got to say…" McCoy couldn't help but laugh quietly to himself, his mood seemingly improved from earlier.

"Leonard!" Lorna looked at him astonished. "They forgot about me!" she told him.

"Lorna, they sent a communication to all medical staff…" Lorna was already shaking their head.

"No they didn't," she told him vehemently. "Absolutely not!" McCoy pulled a PADD off the shelf beside them.

"I said yesterday when I got back I'd see you on Deck seven…" That was it, that was when he saw the realisation in her eyes. He desperately wanted to make a joke but he knew well enough when it was the right time with Lorna and this wasn't the right time.

"I don't think I saw the message?" Even she knew she sounded ridiculous.

"Do you remember now?" he asked her quietly.

"Yes," it was barely a whisper. "Sonofabitch," shaking her head she covered her face with her hands. "I completely forgot Leonard."

"No harm done," putting a hand on her shoulder McCoy waited for her to look up at him. "Come now, you're fine, it was an easy mistake to make." Lorna laughed sadly.

"No it isn't but thank you for saying so."

"You followed the continuity process!" McCoy tossed her a bone.

"I did!" Lorna took it gladly.

"So, not an all-out loss?" he tussled her hair lovingly.

"You're the best you know that," she told him.

"Yeah Darlin', I know." Giving her a wink McCoy walked away hearing his wonderful, ludicrous Wife laugh behind him.

I am beyond happy that you've all enjoyed this story so much! Thank you to each and every one of you who've followed, favourited and reviewed! LLAP ;-) XOXO