Author's note:
Well, for at least one reader who was hoping for some more Bones/Orion action...here is the promised chapter.
I NEED/WANT/MUST GET SOON some input on who you'd like to see Orion with. Current standings: Jim-2, Bones-1.
But with out further ado....I give you the next chapter!
"Damn it, Jim!" Bones said with his perpetual scowl firmly in place. "You're being a bit irrational about this and one might even say that you are over reacting to the extreme!"huffed the good doctor. Bones had just spent the last couple of hours listening to jim rant and rave and threaten Chekov for being late. McCoy also knew the captain was probably more pissed that the ensign was spending time with a certain woman from the past who recently boarded the Enterprise.
Jim stared incredulously at Bones. Had the doctor not heard a single word? "Over reacting, Bones?" exclaimed Kirk, whose eyes might have popped out at any moment. Deep down jim knew Leonard was right. McCoy was almost always right when it came to matters of the heart, just as Spock was almost always right when it came to matters of the mind. Jim sighed and rubbed his throbbing temples. "It's not fair, Bones!" he pouted and whined. "How come Chekov gets to take a whack at her...get on her good side and all, while I'm stuck up here?"
Bones groaned and almost slapped his palm on his forehead. "You're acting like an infant again, Jim,' he warned, knowing that the remark might help slap some maturity onto the captain. "Besides, Chekov is just a kid still," McCoy reasoned. "He was just visiting with his hero for Pete's sake! I mean if your hero had just boarded, what would you have done?" Bones gave Kirk a pointed look which was meant to convey that the captain would have done the same. Whether Kirk would admit it or not, it was the truth.
By talking to Jim, Bones had hoped to have Jim see some reason to not beat the Russian kid. The Chief Medical officer sighed, shaking his head a little. He had better things to do than sit around and chat with Jim about his over reacting to Chekov's absence. "Just don't be too hard on the lad," Bones muttered as the happy Russian bounced onto the bridge with his wide grin still intact. And that was how it ought to be. So far the ensign had not seen much of the world and its effects, like Bones. 'Keep that smile on, kid,' Bones thought with a little sadness.
However, as the doctor left the bridge, a faint smile appeared on his features. Chekov hadn't appeared that happy in a couple years. Sure there had been a few things to keep a smile on the Russian, but nothing that had him smiling from ear to ear (which made Bones shake his head as he remembered Spock pointing out the impossibility of a person to grin or smile from ear to ear). Maybe having Orion aboard would be a good thing for everyone, though one Leonard McCoy would never own to it.
"Your behavior, though unsatisfactory to this ship's captain, will be excused this one time, Chekov. One time only," were the final words the good doctor heard Jim say as the door of the turbo-lift finally swooshed shut, leaving McCoy alone for a few moments of quiet. He was glad Kirk chose to do the right thing and just let Pavel off with a warning. It showed that Kirk was a understanding and gracious captain.
McCoy sighed and leaned against the wall. His current impression was one of brooding, but those who knew the doctor knew that he was merely thinking. Bones especially did not like to be disturbed while he was thinking, hence the unapproachable appearance on his part.
Once the turbo-lift had stopped, the Chief Medical Official sauntered down the hall toward his medical bay. He had barely been in there all day and had left his 'baby' in the capable hands of Nurse Chapel. She was the only one that McCoy trusted to keep his bay running smoothly and not end up a mess or in chaos, and so she was in charge when he was gone. And so far she had not let the good doctor down.
"Welcome back, doctor," came the sweet and gentle tones of Nurse Chapel as Bones breezed passed her and into his office.
"Thanks! Do you think you could stand to watch the Bay for a little bit longer?," he called from his office while he searched for a smaller medical kit. He was sure there was at least one lying around (though the space was small enough that the doctor wondered how the hell he couldn't find any).
"Sure, " responded Chapel who was rather worried about her boss. He had been away from the Medical Bay for almost the entire day. That never happened. Bones had been away more in this one day than he had for the past month. Although she wasn't one hundred percent sure, Chapel had a feeling that it had to do with that pretty young woman who had been in earlier. Deep down, Christine hoped that maybe this woman could be the one who could help bring Doctor McCoy out of his funk that he got from that disastrous divorce.
Once Bones reemerged from his office with medical kit in hand, he looked at Chapel expectantly. "Well?" he asked, wondering if she would or wouldn't. He really did need to go and see if Orion was doing fine. After all, the shots he administered might have caused some sort of problem. Leonard also wanted to give the young lady a fair warning about Jim. She needed to know about him before she got her heart broken by Jim and his ways.
Christine Chapel just smiled and shook her blond head. He was an easy read. He wanted to go check up on the woman and warn her about the flirts aboard. She wondered silently if he would warn Orion (at least that was what she heard the woman's name was) about himself. 'Probably not,' she thought wryly. "I'd be more than willing, sir," she said with a small nod and watched as the CMO waltzed out the door.
Bones wondered as he wandered toward the guest chambers if was going to check on Orion for purely medical reasons. If Leonard was honest with himself, of course he wasn't going just to check on her. To be brutally honest, McCoy was going to warn Orion about Jim and his...womanizing ways. To be gut wrenchingly honest, Bones was going because he wanted to know more about this curious woman who could be the answer for so many of the crew.
Orion could be that best friend who understood Pavel like no one else. Someone who could possibly out logic Spock...or at least make it hard for the Vulcan to prove himself correct. A dynamite assistant to Scotty who was in desperate need of a second in command. A woman who could whip Jim into place.
And for himself? Bones didn't think Orion could do much for him. Although McCoy hoped that they could at least be friends. As much as he agreed with Jim about her physical attractiveness, the good doctor wasn't sure if he was ready to take the leap into the pool of dating and romance. So the best he wanted or hoped for was friendship.
As he rounded the corner of an empty hallway, Bones heard a loud bang followed by a rather unladylike, "Bloody effing hell!" coming from the room that was undoubtedly Orion's. The doctor bit back a smirk as he rushed to the room and overrode the door (though in normal circumstances he would have knocked, but if she was seriously hurt, there was no time to be the gentleman that he was).
"Are you alright?" a worried Bones asked upon actually entering the room. However, he was stopped a little short at the sight in front of him. His mouth dropped slightly. Leonard McCoy thought he had seen it all when he saw Jim and Gaila doing a drunken chicken dance, but this was right up there.
"What the hell are you doing?!" cried Orion, who was a little flushed with embarrassment. She had been hopping on one foot (the same one she hurt earlier) with some hair singed and her face a little smudge with dirt. Almost the epitome of a mad scientist, in Bones' opinion..
"Well when one hears a shout of possible injury, he tends to be a little worried. And you aged me prematurely...." muttered Bones with an eye roll as he shut the door. He walked over to the table and set the kit down.. An eyebrow was raised at the sight of the mess of burnt electronics on the carpet.
Orion raised an eyebrow. "Well, excuse me for living. I just wanted to get that blasted piece of junk put back together. I was connecting some wires when BAM, it explodes, causing me to endure the smell of burnt hair again, and trip over my foot...again," she said in the same kind of tone that the doctor was famous for. Bones just shook his head. "And what the hell are you doing here anyway?" she asked, wondering why the doctor decided to pay her a little visit.. She hopped onto the counter of the little kitchenette.
McCoy chuckled slightly. "Just here to make sure that your not gonna kill yourself, and to make sure the shots I gave you earlier aren't causing your system to go berserk," he said with a quick uplift of the eyebrows while he was getting his scanner out. "That, and to give you a word or two about a certain James Tiberius Kirk."
From her perch on the counter, Orion tilted her head in a curious pose. "And what pray tell are you going to warn me about? That he's an insatiable flirt? That he may see me as just another challenge, another notch on the bed post. To be one the first person in this time to bed a time traveler of sorts?" she scoffed. As if she needed to be warned about his character.
If there was one thing Orion knew, it was people like the captain. Once when she was in her teens, Orion had opened herself up to a man exactly like Kirk. Suffice it to say it ended with her heart in pieces, and Artemis needing to take a few hours at the family cabin alone. She knew that he blamed himself for not seeing through the guy's lies. Orion shook her head. Thinking of home and family at the moment just wasn't too smart. Especially since it appeared that Bones was not the kind of person to be the best at the whole comforting thing.
Leonard raised an eyebrow. "Your powers of observation are astounding. At least I can scratch that off my to do list," he said sarcastically, which caused Orion to snort a bit.. "But in all seriousness, just be careful around him. He knows every trick in the book," Bones said as he neared Orion with his scanner in hand.
"I will take it into consideration, doctor," she said with a small smirk before looking at the metallic object with slight distaste. "But what exactly is that?" she asked, not exactly loving the feeling of having an unknown object near her body in any way shape or form.
"Relax. It's just like an x-ray, cat scan, MRI, and any other kind of testing all bunched up into one device," Bones explained before waving the device over Orion's body. The young woman felt a little awkward in the silence.
"My dad was a doctor...sort of. More like surgeon," she said trying to dispel the awkwardness. McCoy raised an eyebrow but otherwise did not respond. Rather he continued to check Orion's vitals. "He was a brain surgeon and a damn good one too." Orion smiled lightly. Bones couldn't help but like that smile of hers. Almost contagious. However, it turned a bit wry along with a laugh. "But I suppose his methods would be considered archaic, even Dark Age almost, huh?" she half-heartedly asked.
Bones was in thought but looked up when he didn't hear Orion speaking anymore. "Yes, indeed. Very stone age. But all seems in order, so I suppose I should get going before Jim threatens me with some ghastly thing like teaching basic first aid to Ensigns." McCoy shuddered at the thought. It was bad enough to see those snot nosed brats with a serious case of hypochondria. To be forced to teach them? Nightmare to the tenth degree.
Orion snickered a little. She liked Bones. He was not quite what she had expected. So far he and Pavel had been able to get a laugh out of her. The young woman liked people who could make her laugh. However, after a moment of thought, Orion's silvery eyes widened. "Did that damn cap'n threaten, Pavel?" she asked, jumping off the counter and getting ready to storm up to the bridge (never mind that she had no idea where where it was), and give Jim a very peppy verbal assault.
Bones sighed. He admired her sense of indignation for a friend. It was something he had only seen in a hand-full of people before he came to the Enterprise. Almost everyone on board would give an arm, leg or even life for his friend. It was nice to see that people from the past (okay so Orion ended up being the sole model of what a twenty-first century person was like, but that was okay with Bones. If that meant most were pretty women with silvery eyes...he as definitely okay with it) still had that kind of quality.
"Now before you go storming to the castle you don't know the location of, I talked some sense into Jim, and he only gave Chekov a warning this time.," Bones said as he put his medical stuff back in his bag. He could analyze it later, though he wasn't for sure when later would be Just sometime when he had some time which was almost never. Sighing, the doctor turned and looked at Orion with an unreadable expression. "That boy admires you, Orion Montgomery," he said bluntly, evoking a confused furrow of Orion's brow.
She started to pace. "I can call you Bones, right?" Orion asked, pausing slightly to look at the doctor. He nodded, which signaled Orion to commence her pacing again. "Okay, Bones," she said quietly, trying the nickname that fit the doctor out on her lips. It sounded nice. A much better name for him than Leonard. Said doctor stared at her as though he should have run a mental check as well.
Orion clasped a hand under her chin.. It was her typical thinking pose. Pausing again, she turned to Bones with a questioning visage. "What exactly do you mean when you say that Pavel 'admires' me?" The young Montgomery lass was a little scared to find out what Bones meant. She wouldn't have been able to handle finding out that she had a 'love' kind of admirer, especially since she hadn't been there for a full day yet, and Orion was not one to believe in love at first sight..
Bones helped himself to a chair, sitting on it with the back between his legs. "Not the love kind of admire. No, he's too young for that anyway," the doctor started with slight sadness in his tone that had Orion wondering what caused it. Fortunately she knew this was a time to keep her mouth shut. She would just have to ask him again at a later time.
McCoy took a deep breath before exhaling. "Well you know how Jim said that Pavel was a genius? And by now you know that too. So what does it have to do with you and your brother?" Bones smirked a little before shaking his head. "The kid found a history book for various inventions, and it happened to feature your brother." The doctor shrugged and leaned his forearms on the top of the chair back. "Suffice it to say that it really inspired little Pavel. Give him a few other science books, the bes teaching despite his slightly poor background, an Academy scout in Russia at the right time...and voila...you have the ensign we all know and love."
Orion had a lopsided grin on her face. So all that hard work she and her brother did was not a waste. Inspiring brilliant minds to work was something that Orion and Artemis had planned on doing once they got too old for their craft. Artemis would have been glad to know that at least one person gleamed from his work, since Orion wasn't there for most, in fact all, of it. "Thank you, Bones. I needed that," she said softly. The doctor rolled his eyes as if to say 'if you say so' and nodded.
"Medical Bay to Doctor McCoy...." chirped a tense sounding Nurse Chapel. In the background Bones could hear the chaos. What ever had happened was not good. Time for another long night, but McCoy didn't mind so much.
"I'll be right there...keep that fracas under control for a couple more minutes," Bones said hurriedly as he rose from the chair. Once the connection had been cut, he looked at Orion. "It was good to chat normally, and I'll have the results for you sometime tomorrow," he said while walking to the door and opening it. "Sleep well, Orion," McCoy said before leaving her alone for the second time that night.
"Good night!" she called softly, though she knew that he would not hear her. Sighing, Orion stretched and strolled to the bed. Almost as soon as her head hit the pillow, the young Montgomery lass was fast asleep and drifting into her dreamland.
Author's note;
Thank you for reading! I hope you take some time to review! Don't forget I'm still wishing for some input!
I hope you enjoyed this I'm sorry if people are totally OOC...Im using this as my NaNoWriMo this month so I'm rushing a lot especially since I am WAY behind.
Also, I'm sorry if you seem it's unfair to give Bones a longer chapter than Pavel, but in all seriousness...Bones and Jim are the two possible love interests so chapters involving them will probably be a bit longer than the others.
But again I digress, thanks and hope you read again!