A/N: Okay, there is something seriously wrong with the Doc upload screen on , but I'm using my very minimal knowledge of computer code to try and get this out there so I hope it makes it and I hope you like! As always, many many thanks to all who take the time to read, and especially those that review, you make my little Trekkie world go round! Enjoy! - pj

"Engineer Scott?" Jo called out. The junior techs in the front had merely pointed, back into the bowels of the ship filed with miles of titanium tubes and electro-diluted cable wiring, when she asked about the whereabouts of the senior engineer.

She'd been walking for ten minutes and had yet to see any sign of him. Somewhere in the distance an alarm was sounding, a coolant pipe kept releasing loud steam overhead and a strange, cool and sweet scent was growing stronger the further she went.

"Enginee-"

A loud clanging to her right, followed by a colorful curse, made her turn.

"Engineer Scott?"

"Aye, you've found 'im," he griped.

She followed the voice around a huge blinking rubber protrusion in the floor to find the man elbow deep in a cobbled together looking generator. It was the source of the strange scent shed been smelling, and Mr. Scott had one finger in his mouth.

"This is punishment, i'nt it? For not recharging your nacelles at the last dockin' post? I tol' ya we di'nt have time lass." he explained, his head tilted back, addressing no one.

"Mr. Scott?" Jo said hesitantly, at this point no longer completely convinced as to the man's mental stability.

"Ach, call me Scotty," he corrected, turning to emerge his head back into the open panel.

"And hand me the spare power pack for the 3k volt magnetic organizer, will ya?"

Jo looked at the pile of strange looking tools and parts strewn about on the floor and took a wild guess as to which one he wanted.

She assumed she had not chosen correctly when he came back out, gave her a look that said he was questioning her mental stability, and grabbed a completely different device.

Jo frowned and squatted beside him, "what's that smell?"

"That, dear girl, is anti-matter conduction gel. Highly electric, be careful."

Jo peeked under his arms to see his hands reaching out precariously over a flowing river of the dangerous gel.

"Shouldn't you be wearing gloves?"

Scotty pulled back to give her another one of those looks, to which she responded with a shrug, and he returned to his work.

"So what brings you to these parts, Yeoman?"

"Oh," Jo stood, remembering why shed come, she was oddly fascinated by the way Scotty's nimble fingers moved about inside the tiny conduits, "The Captain wants to know why you missed the Staff Meeting this morning."

"Aye, he does, does he?" He grumbled a few things in words she could hear only well enough to know she shouldn't repeat it, "well you tell the captain that if he wants to come down here and run diagnostic codes on every blinkin' cable running to C Deck to find out why the door chimes are barkin' like Centroidian Mud Monkeys, to let me know and I'll fine time for his precious staff meetin's."

Jo frowned, "Really?" there goes that look again.

"Give me that CSCAD emitter there."

Jo raised her eyebrows and reached out.

"Little more to the left."

"The other left. With the green light."

"The long white one with the green light."

"Aye, thas'it Lass."

Jo smiled, "One CSCAD emitter, coming right up."

---

"So we dock at Starbase 23 in two days." Jim said, pouring himself another snifter of Bourbon from the small cabinet above Bones' replicator, it always held some sort of alcoholic treasure.

"Mm," McCoy grumbled, staring into his own Bourbon, motionless.

Jim frowned; McCoy hated docking at the outer lying Starbases. He always complained the on-staff doctors were so starved for companionship they were always 'inviting him to dinner and poker games and wouldn't leave him the hell alone to wallow in bourbon and medical journals in peace'. It was a sure fire topic to get McCoy riled up and hadn't gotten the slightest reaction.

Jim knew his friend hadn't had enough to mellow him that much. Hell, he wasn't sure there was enough Bourbon in the galaxy for that.

"Bones," He tried, sipping his drink and wandering along the bookshelves, aimlessly admiring a few paintings of thoroughbreds from the McCoy Ranch back on Earth home.

"Bones!" he said again louder, when McCoy showed no sign of hearing him.

"Jesus Jim," McCoy said, he'd been about to sip and the man's outburst startled him into splashing some of the amber drink onto his shirt. He stood up, glaring at his companion and reached for a towel in the kitchenette.

"C'mon Bones, what's with you? You've had the personality of a wet cat for the past three days." He complained.

Bones gave him a long look and finished off his drink.

"Is there problem with your staff? With me?" he guessed, following McCoy through the common area of the quarters, down the hallway to the office, "was your request for a new shipment of Penicillin delayed or something?"

Jim was just buzzed enough to find his friend's mood amusing instead of concerning, but the next words from the grouchy doctor wiped the smile from his face.

"No, its Jo," McCoy grabbed a PADD from his desk and shoved it into the young Captain's hands, "read this."

Jim frowned, scrolling through the data, all humor dyeing from his face.

"Bones, what the hell is this?" he asked quietly, as the Doctor took his glass from his hand and finished it off.

"Exactly what it looks like. It's a part of Jo's medical record. Specifically, the part from August 24, 2267." McCoy called over his shoulder, walking back out to the common to refill the glass.

"Bones this says…does this say what I think it says?" he looked up, his face marred with uncertainty and unease.

"Yeah, kid, it does."

Jim shook his head, looking back down at the PADD in his hands, a muscle flexing beneath the skin of his jaw.

"I did more digging," McCoy continued, swishing around the ice in his glass, something violent building beneath the surface of his controlled expression, "her grades started to slip that year. It's also the year she started getting in trouble in school and, later, with the law."

Jim's eyebrows furrowed, "so what changed? She was only, what? Eleven?"

"Ten," McCoy supplied, "her mother remarried that year."

Jim nodded and scrolled back up to the date of the file. "She didn't fall from any tree, did she," Jim said his tone dark.

"No."

"Then what happened?" Jim demanded, clicking through the information furiously, needing information as much as McCoy needed to have it to give.

"I don't know!" McCoy exploded, chucking the empty class at the wall and turning to brace himself against the counter.

Startled, Jim stared only stared. An emotional outburst wasn't unusual from McCoy, but a violent one certainly was.

"Som'bitch trying to take my place beat my kid, Jim," Bones said, sounding winded and defeated. "The bastard beat her badly enough that she needed to go to the hospital and I wasn't there." He took a deep breath and rubbed his face, "she won't tell me anything else."

Jim looked back down at the PADD and then nodded, setting it on the table. "Look, I know this isn't what you want to hear-"

"Then don't say it."

"But," Jim persisted, "it's what you need to hear."

After a few calming deep breaths, Bones turned around, his arms crossed over his chest and his jaw clenched tightly, "what?"

"Let her come to you," Jim said, continuing quickly, "She will, Bones, I promise. But if you try to push her you'll only make it worse," his blue eyes grew shadowed and his voice dropped, "Trust me, I know what I'm talking about."

TBC