Ch 17: The Rumor Mill

Scotty walked down the corridor with a big smile on his face. He whistled an old Scottish tune as he walked, swinging his arms and waving at those who passed by him. Since he had returned from leave, he had been stuck in the engineering room, save the occasional trip to the mess hall or his quarters to sleep. Things had finally calmed down enough, what with some of the new crew trying to get the hang of things and everyone else still wound up about the five year mission, and now Scotty was free to do as he pleased until they arrived at the distant planet. It didn't bother him to be holed up in the engineering room for so long; compared to the base he was stuck in on Delta Vega, the engineering room was a paradise. If you didn't include Keenser, Scotty's little green, bug eyed friend who followed him from Delta Vega, the company was infinitely nicer. Even though he only got four or five hours of sleep the last couple of days, the fact that he was sleeping on a warm ship made those four or five hours feel like small chunks of heaven.

Further down the hall stood Chekhov and Sulu, huddled together and talking in hushed tones. His already big smile grew bigger as he spotted his fellow commanding officers and picked up his pace. The two had been so engrossed in their conversation that they didn't even notice Scotty approach them. The smiling Scotsman stood before the two with his hands in his pockets.

"Hey there laddies!" Scotty said cheerfully, removing his hands from his pockets and clapping them both on the back. The two startled men jumped and gawked at him. "I haven't seen ye two since I got back from Scotland! How've ye been? Did ye enjoy yer time off?"

Both Sulu and Chekhov stared at each other then back at Scotty with matching serious looks on their faces. The smile that had graced Scotty's face quickly melted away. Something told him he didn't want to know what had the two normally jovial young men looking so grave. "What's goin' on? You two look awfully serious. Did something happen that I should know about?"

Sulu spoke up first. "You don't know, do you?" The color drained from Scotty's face. Things were beginning to look like he should have just stayed in the engineering room. Mouth working, he said, "No…I guess I don't. If it's important though, ye best be out with it. I don't like bein' left in the dark."

Chekhov looked at Sulu, who nodded back at him. He motioned for Scotty to come closer and said in a low voice, "Spock and Uhura hawe split up."

Scotty's eyes did a magnificent impression of a pair of plates. "SPLIT UP?!?" he shouted. Chekhov and Sulu quickly slapped their hands over his mouth and shushed him loudly. Eyes still wide, Scotty looked at the both of them in shock. They looked up and down the hall, making sure no one was around to hear the excited Scotsman's outburst. Swiftly, they rushed him into a nearby room to avoid someone walking in on their discussion. If telling Scotty that Spock and Uhura had broken up caused a reaction like that, there was no telling how he'd react to the rest of their news.

As soon as the door closed behind them, Scotty broke free of their grasp and whirled around to face them. He repeated himself in a quieter yet still frantic tone of voice. "Split up? What in the great fields of Scotland would cause them to break up? I thought they couldn't be separated by wild bulls!"

Exasperated, Sulu sighed. "My sources say that Spock didn't feel right that their relationship started during the Nero conflict. I guess he felt his feelings were based more on the fact that she comforted him during his time of mourning than on any preexisting attraction to her. Of course, these aren't his exact words, but for those of us that don't speak Spock, it's the best paraphrasing of his words."

"Are you kidding me?!?" Scotty exclaimed. "Is he mad?!? Any man would be proud to be with a woman who stood by his side when he needed her the most! How can he use that as an excuse to not be with her?"

"Things are a bit more complicated than that," Chekhov said. "Were he a human male, his logic would be equal to yours in this situation. Howewer, Spock is only half-human and was raised as a Wulcan, so his logic is that of a Wulcan male. In his culture, it is seen as a great disgrace to allow yourself to show any emotion, and it's likely that he realized that having a relationship with a woman that wants him to be openly emotional at all times was not the best choice for him."

Crossing his arms and smirking, Sulu added, "It sure doesn't help that he and Kirk are in love with each other."

Scotty's eyes doubled in size for the second time. "SPOCK AND KIRK ARE IN LOVE?!?"

Again, the two men shushed Scotty. Unfortunately for them both, the Scotsman was beyond a point where he could be calmed down. "Are ye daft?!? They've been at each other's throats since I got on this ship! Hell, the Captain was almost choked to death before my very eyes just minutes after I arrived! Ye mean to tell me that those two are in love?!? With each other?!?!?"

Sulu was becoming more than just a little agitated with Scotty. "Look Scotty, I know it's hard to digest but it's the truth!" he shouted. "You've been stuck in engineering all this time, so you have no clue what's been going on!"

"Oh yeah?" Scotty countered. "And what about you? I doubt the Captain and Mr. Spock have been throwing the fact that they love each other around recklessly, especially if Spock broke up with Uhura over it! How am I supposed to believe that what you say is true? For all I know this is just some stupid joke!"

Sulu and Scotty stared at each other intensely, making Chekhov more than just a bit nervous. In a low voice, Sulu responded, "I have a friend in security that watches over all the cameras on the ship. Since we haven't had many security breaches, he looks for the most interesting thing to eavesdrop on. You know all the rumors that circulate throughout the crew? Well, at least half of them are based on truth because the information came from him. He's seen everything that's happened since day one."

Slack jawed, Scotty gaped at Sulu in amazement. If it were true that there was a security guard that just looked for juicy tidbits on the ship, he'd have to be very careful with what he does from now on. Sighing in defeat, he said, "Well, I guess there's no disputing information when it comes from a source like that. Anything else I should be aware of?"

Smirking, Sulu said, "I don't know. But I know someone who does."

Azrael Andrews sat back in his chair, surveying the multiple screens in front of him. Some of the screens showed various crew members attending to their duties or chatting casually while others were empty. The security room was all his; he had sent his subordinates off duty for the evening so that he could look for more juicy tidbits on the screens. Very few people knew that some of the biggest and more accurate rumors were started by him, and he wanted to keep it that way.

When the door to the security room slid open, he lurched forward. Heart pounding in his throat, he instinctively brought his hand to the phaser at his side. When he saw Sulu, he relaxed and moved his hand away from the phaser. But then he saw Scotty and Chekhov behind him. Why were there here? And better yet, why had Sulu come here with them in tow?

"Can I help you guys?" he asked, leery of Sulu's intentions. The three walked closer, Sulu staring straight at him, Scotty and Chekhov staring at the screens. The mischievous smile on Sulu's face only added to Azrael's apprehension. Whenever his friend smiled like that, it meant trouble for him without the shadow of a doubt.

Standing beside his friend, Sulu looked around innocently, as if he had never been in the security room before. "Azrael, you know Mr. Scott and Mr. Chekhov, right?" he said, motioning to his companions, who now brought their attention to the flustered looking security officer.

"Yeah, of course I do," he said, arching an eyebrow at Sulu. He looked at the two men and nodded at them, receiving a nod in response. Turning his attention back to Sulu, he asked, "My question is why are there here?"

The mischievous smile got bigger, making Azrael even more worried. "Well," Sulu began, "I was telling my dear friends about some of the recent developments of our fellow commanding officers and Scotty was rather curious if any other exciting things had been happening. I wanted to tell him, but the last I had heard was about Kirk and Spock being an item. Since I got this juicy nugget from you, I figured I'd bring both Scotty and Chekhov straight to my source to witness any new events with their own eyes."

Azrael groaned. He was afraid Sulu would pull something like this. Bringing him to see the security room was proving to be a grave mistake. It was normal for security officers to occasionally abuse their power, but having not just one, but three non-security officers in the security room at once wasn't going to look good if his superior came in. He had some tenure considering his position, but he was far from the top of the security food chain, and could get in serious trouble for having them in there with him.

"Sulu, you do realize that my bringing you here in the first place was a one time thing, right?" Azrael said as he covered his face with his hand. "If I had known you'd bring your buddies, I never would have brought you here."

The smile disappeared and was replaced with a frown. Hands on his hips, Sulu retorted, "You know, if you were worried about me bringing people, you shouldn't have been bragging about all the things you get to see in here. And as I recall, I didn't exactly twist your arm to come in here either. You were all like, 'Hey Sulu, come check out the sweet set up in the security room, I get to see everything!' Besides, as proud of yourself as you were, I figured you'd love to show your strange voyeuristic fetish with others!"

"Dammit Sulu!" Azrael shouted, slamming his hands on the console in front of him. "I took a big enough risk bringing you in here, and I did it because you're my friend and I trusted you, not because I wanted the whole damned ship to know I spy on them when I'm bored! I may have the night shift, but that doesn't mean my superior won't come in here, see you three, and throw me in the brig!"

Sulu smiled again, crossing his arms. "Which means you should show us something good quick so that he doesn't waltz in and find us!"

Azrael sighed in defeat. There was no way he was going to get rid of Sulu now that he was here. The only thing he could do now was to find something interesting as quickly as he could so he can shoo them all out. He looked behind the three men and was briefly relieved to see the door was closed. "Alright, I'll see if I can find something interesting to show you. But if I find nothing, you gotta get out of here and never come back!"

He swiveled his chair to face the camera and scanned the screens for something out of the ordinary. So far everything was looking familiarly boring. That is, until his eyes fell upon the mess hall camera. He leaned forward and breathed, "Helloooo…"

Sulu turned to Chekhov and Scotty, smirked, and then looked at the same screen Azrael was looking at. Exchanging curious glances, Chekhov and Scotty also turned their attention to the screen. They saw two lone figures sitting next to each other in an otherwise empty mess hall. Upon closer inspection, they saw that the two were Doctor McCoy and his new nurse.

Azrael zoomed in on the two and turned the speakers for that particular camera up. It looked like Sulu was going to get his juicy nugget after all.

"So what's wrong?" Chapel prodded. McCoy scowled at his nosy nurse. Just because she had been assigned to his sick bay didn't mean he had to divulge anything to her, especially not something like this. He didn't know her well enough to reveal anything personal and his sexual orientation was as personal as it got. It was rather strange that she so willingly sat next to him after he had chased her out of his sick bay, and frankly, he'd prefer it if she went away.

Chapel sighed and scooted closer to McCoy, who deliberately scooted away. It was bad enough she wouldn't go away; he didn't need her eating up his personal space. "Come on Doctor," she persisted. "The only people in the mess hall are you and me. No one's going to hear what you have to say. If you're worried about your image as a chiseled, grizzly, hard-boiled doctor, your secret will be safe with me."

McCoy cut an eye at Chapel. "If that's your attempt at getting me to spill my guts, you should work on your technique," he spat. The longer they talked the less hungry he became. He stared at his now cold chicken fried steak, which he had hardly had a bite of. It was one of his favorite meals, and because Chapel insisted on drilling him for information, he wouldn't get to enjoy it. He pushed the tray away from him, frustrated at the waste of a perfectly good meal.

"If I tell you," he said slowly. "Will you leave me alone?" She nodded at him, not wanting to say anything else that could possibly change his mind. He took a deep breath and began baring his soul to the nurse he barely knew. "Alright, but don't tell me you didn't want to know all this when I'm done. You asked for it, so here it is."

"Jim, the captain, is a good friend of mine from the academy. We met on the shuttle in Iowa. Don't ask me why I was in Iowa, just listen to my story," he quickly said, cutting Chapel's question off before she could ask it. "Do me a favor and save your questions until I'm done, cuz if you cut me off even once, I'll dump what was going to be my dinner and leave you here to eat by yourself." He resituated himself in his chair and continued his story.

"Now, I watched that damned fool chase after half the women in the academy. I'm sure at some point he might have even tried to proposition you, though I doubt you'd forget him if he had. Hell, I think I even saw him hit on a few teachers while he was there. At first I found it amusing that one man could flit from woman to woman like a hummingbird to flowers, but then it started to bug me. Not in a way I thought it would bug me either. Normally it'd just be annoying to have his attention constantly shifting away to stare down some pretty girl when we're talking, but it was worse than just that. I found myself getting jealous. Not because I wanted to woo women like him, but because I wanted him to look at me the way he looked at other women."

Chapel's look of surprise didn't go unnoticed by McCoy, but he didn't want to stop and acknowledge her every reaction. "Three years. Three years I tolerated his wandering eyes and his numerous affairs. Not once did I say anything. The only thing that made me hold my tongue was the occasional flirt he'd throw my way. It gave me a bit of hope that the women were just a cover for his masculinity. After we got aboard the Enterprise and he became official captain, I got a little more optimistic. The women chasing all but stopped once he came aboard. Sure his eyes still roamed, but he didn't go beyond that."

"We started spending time together. He'd come to the sick bay just to chat with me. I pretended to be annoyed by his constant loitering, but really, it made me happy. It was nice having him around, having him to myself. On many an occasion, I thought about telling him how I felt, but I always backed down." He sighed sadly and slumped forward. Chapel put a hand gently on his shoulder, which he surprisingly didn't shy away from. As down as he was feeling, the hand was a welcome sensation.

McCoy's sadness was reflected in his voice, which was now softer in both volume and tone. "After the shore leave ended, he didn't come see me once. Not once. I didn't want to seek him out and look desperate, but I was getting more than a little impatient, especially since I was stuck giving the last of my belongings to my ex-wife during my time on Earth. I really wanted to see him. I really did."

"I wanted to be happy when I saw him finally come and see me. I thought to myself, 'I'll do it today. I'll tell him how I feel.'" He raised his hands to his face, covering it to hide the tears that threatened to fall from Chapel. Muffled, he said, "He's in love with Spock! He's in love with that unfeeling, green-blooded, robotic Vulcan male!"

Chapel's beautiful blue eyes became wide. If McCoy's love for Kirk wasn't surprising enough, the thought of Kirk being in love with another man was even more surprising. Hearing about his womanizing ways wasn't a surprise when she saw how strikingly attractive he was, but hearing that he fancied men just didn't seem to compute for her. She hadn't met Spock yet, but she could imagine he must be incredible in order to make some one like Kirk fall in love with him. Her first day on the Enterprise was turning out to be rather eventful indeed.

She studied McCoy's face behind his hands and saw a tear roll down his cheek. She hadn't imagined the doctor to have such a tender, sensitive side to him, but something about seeing him in such a vulnerable state touched her. The hand that rested on his shoulder began to rub his back. A choked sob escaped McCoy's throat despite his best efforts to hold his emotions in. Chapel wrapped her arm around McCoy's shoulders and pulled him closer. McCoy wouldn't embrace her; she knew and expected this. It was enough for both of them to simply sit like that while McCoy allowed his tough exterior to slip and show the softer side of him.

McCoy managed not to cry very loudly, but the tears still fell freely. It had been years since he had cried; he prided himself on being a strong man and keeping a stiff upper lip in even the worst situations. The pain in his heart was too heavy for him to bury this time. If he didn't let it out know, he wasn't sure when he would.

Finally finding the opportunity to say something, Chapel softly said, "I know this doesn't mean much coming from me, but perhaps this is for the best. The captain is your best friend. What if things didn't work out between you two? What if he went back to his womanizing while you two were together? The two of you share a deep bond, or at least that's what I gather from what you've told me. A relationship would have put all that to risk. What would you do if you lost him?"

McCoy took a moment to consider what Chapel said. On the surface, it seemed like a bunch of tripe that she was dishing him simply to make him feel better. But when he thought about it, she had a very valid point. Kirk may have been taking his job as captain seriously and resisting the urge to chase after every woman that passed him, but knowing Kirk, that couldn't last forever. As his best friend, there was nothing to worry about, but in Spock's position…

He smiled in spite of himself at the thought of Kirk breaking Spock's heart by cheating on him with another woman. He could almost picture the anguish on his face and relished it. And of course, when they broke up or had a fight, who was it that Kirk would turn to? When Kirk began to cry because Spock wasn't the man he thought he'd be who would be the shoulder for him to cry on?

Chapel caught the smile on McCoy's face and wondered what it was about what she said that made him smile. But as she looked at the smile, she felt something stir slightly inside of her. Now that McCoy's face wasn't wrinkled up in his normal scowl, she could see how handsome he really was.

Taking a risk, she wiped away one of the tears that still clung to his cheek. The gentle touch startled McCoy, but surprisingly felt nice. He hoped it was because he was still in a somewhat emotional state, but something about her touch reminded him of when he first fell in love with ex-wife. The thought of his ex-wife made him pull away and sit up straight. Chapel looked sadly at the doctor, but removed her arm from around him.

She grabbed her tray and stood up. McCoy looked up at her with still moist eyes. The stirring Chapel felt increased when he made eye contact with her. Her cheeks betrayed what she felt inside as they tinted a light pink. She smiled and said, "Everything will work out for the best Doctor. Just remember that Kirk is still your friend and will always turn to you when he needs you most, and you'll be fine."

McCoy nodded at his nurse then watched her as she dumped her tray and left the mess hall, giving him a final look over her shoulder. His heart fluttered ever so slightly from the small smile that she gave him before disappearing. She really was a beautiful woman, and had a good heart too…

He shook his head violently and grabbed his tray. Standing abruptly and sending his chair flying behind him, he took his tray to the trash receptacle and left the mess hall as well.

"Holy-" Azrael trailed off, his mouth hanging open. The three men had unnecessarily crowded around him and leaned forward. On their faces were matching expressions of shock and disbelief. They had just witnessed a side of McCoy that was formally the subject of many rumors and jokes. Finally registering that there was nothing more on the screen to see, the three men stood up straight, their mouths still hanging open.

Azrael turned in his chair and looked at the trio who were frozen in surprise. Slowly, they turned their attention from the screen to Azrael's face. Breaking the silence, he said, "This…is never…to leave this room. There are some things that should never be seen or revealed, and this is one of them."

The trio nodded in silent agreement. None of them wanted to ever feel the brunt of McCoy's wrath being directed at them. They had never seen him enraged, and with luck, they never would. Speaking up, Sulu spoke to his companions. "Come on guys, let's get out of here before Azrael gets in trouble."

Still shocked into silence, Chekhov and Scotty managed to close their mouths and nod. The trio left the room, leaving Azrael to process what he had just witnessed. This was one juicy tidbit that he was planning to take with him to the grave.