Chapter 16- Getting to Know You

All good things must come to an end, and for most of the crew leaving our little taste of paradise was just too much. There were many long faces and forlorn looks out the shuttle windows at the fast retreating beaches, including myself. But as we neared the sparkly white, newly scrubbed exterior of the Enterprise, I was happy to again be home and thought it just a little strange that I considered something as small as a spaceship my world. I located my PADD that McCoy had launched across the shuttle bay resting on a crate sporting a crack by the scroll wheel. I sighed and took my broken device with me to my quarters.

The ship had an unusual oxygenated ozone smell that reminded me of a nice, freshly laundered cotton shirt. It really didn't matter what it smelled like, greasy fried chicken would have been preferable to the stench that permeated every crevice of the ship. The interior was scrubbed spic and span and it seemed like it had just come off the assembly line, giving it a sense of newness and invincibility. I tossed my bag on my bed and inspected my quartets as though it were the first time and found everything to be perfect. Finally, I had my own room back.

I was almost done unpacking when I got a page from McCoy directing me to the sickbay. I immediately dropped what I was doing and made my way to deck 5. His message was fairly vague but I wasn't sure if that was on purpose so as not to alarm me or if it was just his usual efficient style of communication. When I arrived, the sickbay was empty and he was intermittently spraying a strong antiseptic on the counters and wiping it down with a determined look on his face. "Oh, hey." He greeted scrubbing furiously, "Grab a rag and take care of the biobeds. I want to get this done before the first shift."

You've got to be kidding me. You called me down here to clean?!

I rolled my eyes and grabbed supplies. "You know, this area was just cleaned." I sighed wrinkling my nose at the strong chemical smell that was sure to kill anything.

"Not to my liking. I don't know that those clowns know how to properly sanitize medical equipment. I'm not taking a chance on someone getting a nasty, raging infection that could have been easily prevented." He grumbled. "My job is hard enough as it is without any added challenges of 'guess the virus that caused flesh eating symptoms' and you can bet it will be Jim that picks that one up."

"So when does the first shift start?" I asked moving on to the next bed, careful to clean the monitors gently.

"I just thought I would run it myself until beta shift. I am counting on the fact that no one will find a way to get into trouble unpacking, but I am being cautiously optimistic." He shook his bottle of chemicals before soaking the crash carts. "I thought I would give the staff a break."

"That was nice of you." I commented jumping when I accidently activated the monitor and the long, annoying tone indicated absence of a heart beat.

He looked in my direction and laughed. "Damn. Lost one already." I smirked and turned it off. "Well, don't let word about me being nice get out. People will think I am slipping and I have a reputation to protect, you know."

"Sure, because everyone loves keeping appointments with Dr. Jekyll. Maybe what you need is a good PR campaign." I snickered.

He squinted playfully at me and replied, "I like how things are just fine, thank you. I don't care if they love or hate me, as long as the job gets done."

"Honey draws more flies than vinegar." I hummed.

He paused and smiled. "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush." The sarcasm was thick in his voice.

I laughed. "Now you are just being a jerk. Is that what they teach you in Southern charm school?"

"Now darlin', you should know I didn't do so well in finishin' school. I got kicked out for pulling the girl's pigtails." His accent was thick like syrup and his eyes twinkled. "Suited me just fine. Gave me more time to go fishin'."

"And what a catch you are, Rhett" I mused. He chuckled softly at his 'Gone With the Wind' counterpart. "But really, what was your experience growing up?" His smile faded and he scrubbed even harder at the cart until I though the paint would come off. "Come on, McCoy. I told you about me." I prodded.

"I suppose you did." He sighed. "It's just that there isn't much to tell. It was pretty normal. I told you my whole family is in medicine. I have two older sisters that thought of me as their living baby doll and they dressed me up and played house and tea parties until I got old enough to know that pink frilly dresses and Easter hats didn't suit me."

I laughed despite myself. "That was sweet."

He rolled his eyes. "Thanks to them I know way more about table etiquette and women's fashion than a heterosexual male has a right to. Anyway, I ran track in high school, was forced to go to formal dances and learn French in the interest of being a more well rounded gentleman, was suspended once, got into med school, met a soul sucking she devil and yada yada." He trailed off waving his hand.

"You speak French?" I asked with a smile. "Why not something more practical like Spanish?"

"Oui, je parle français." He purred in a low tone. "And it came in very handy when I went to Ole Miss because there were a good number of Creoles and on breaks I would go over to New Orleans with some buddies where it wasn't uncommon for French to be spoken in the deeper parts of the city."

I had to force myself out of the trance he had placed me in. I just found his bilingual skill incredibly attractive. I cleared my throat and he glanced in my direction with a small smile. "So you said you were suspended. What happened?"

He scowled and squatted to clean the bottom half of the cart. "I was a junior in high school at the time and this new kid moved in. He was kind of scrawny, but smart as hell. Of course, kids being cruel as they are, he got picked on a lot and I have to admit I was part of that too sometimes. But one day we were sitting in biology working with microscopes and this kid, I dunno what really happened, but he just fell off his stool and cracked his head on the table behind him. The teacher was gone and everybody just sat there watching this kid bleed all over the floor. So, being from a family of doctors, I went over to check on him just to make sure he wasn't dead or anything and when I moved his head he went into a seizure. Of course I freaked thinking I caused it and one of the kids yelled something like 'what the hell did you do that for' when the teacher came back. He heard what the kid said and saw me by this bleeding and shaking kid and he assumed I had clobbered him or something."

"Why didn't your classmates tell the teacher what happened?" I asked dismayed.

"No one said anything, they were all in shock. Probably didn't help myself any when I told the teacher he was a fucking moron for wasting his time bitching at me when he should have sent someone for the nurse" he shrugged. "I wasn't a doctor then, but damn it even I knew that the kid was in trouble and why the bastard was more concerned with passing out blame rather than dealing with the poor kid, I had no idea. Anyway, I was hauled down to the principal's office and given the 'You know, I really expected more of you, McCoy. Boy won't your father be pissed' speech and suspended for a week. On top of all that, I had to write an apology to the kid and call my Dad at the hospital and tell him what they said I did. It was the most miserable fucking experience ever. Sorry? Sorry for what? Being the only one in the room with balls to try and help him?" He asked bitterly. Even after all those years he was still pissed.

I leaned against a bed and inquired "What happened to the kid?"

He calmed down somewhat and laughed sarcastically. "He didn't remember a damn thing. He didn't even know I had anything to do with it, so a lot of damn good the apology did. I told him I was sorry for something he didn't even know happened. Still, the principal was a dick and he made the suspension stick, so I had to sit at home the entire week and listen to my Dad yell at me every night when he came home from the hospital. My sister and mother just gave me that quiet disapproval that is worse than them screaming at you."

I folded my arms and sadly said, "No one believed you. You were just trying to help the kid and you got punished for it. How discouraging."

He shrugged again. "I really didn't try to convince them. They could think what they wanted, I knew the truth and really I was starting to get bored and pissed with the life they wanted me to lead. I wasn't ever going to be the perfect picture of southern charm and grace, so in a way it was a good thing. I think that was when they finally gave up on me."

I smiled down at him. "You may not be perfect, but you are pretty good at it when you want to be." He lowered his head and blushed slightly. I was surprised it would take so little to embarrass a hardened, jaded guy like him. "At least you dance pretty well." I qualified.

He stood and put his cleaning supplies down. "Yeah, but I was a little rusty. It has been quite awhile since my last cotillion." He wandered over to a sink to wash his hands. "Anything else?"

I raised an eyebrow and debated if I dare approach the topic. "Well, you did meet a soul sucking she devil. How did you get tangled up with someone like that?" He hung his head and dramatically sighed as his shoulders slumped. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to." I quickly offered. I could tell it was a very sore spot for him.

He turned to face me and leaned against the sink as he dried his hands. "No, I suppose it would have come up sooner or later." He sighed and collected his thoughts with a scowl before beginning in a low voice, "You know how you were not proud about selling and using drugs? Well, this is probably the one thing in my life I am most ashamed of. She was by far my biggest mistake. I met her at a party a sorority was throwing at the end of the Fall semester. I was only a freshman in med school and she was a friend of one of the sorority members. I usually didn't go to parties because I was busy studying, but my roommate talked me into it because he said I was all work and no play. Anyway, I had been drinking all night and she was a bit soused herself and had been following me all night even though I wasn't that interested in her and I tried to tell her as much. My roommate thought it was funny and kept encouraging her to sit on my lap or play with my hair and stuff like that. By the end of the night we were both drunk off our asses and at the time it seemed a good idea to take our clothes off."

He stopped to frown and his eyes grew dark while he kept aimlessly wiping his hands even though they were dry. I struggled to maintain my neutrality and I prayed he wasn't about to tell me she passed out and he had sex with her anyway. I wasn't prepared to think of him as a rapist.

He cleared his throat and continued. "I didn't even really know her, but I knew that I wasn't interested in her as far as a relationship went. I mean she seemed like a decent person, but I prefer my women to have something between their ears and her head seemed pretty empty. It felt all wrong, but I was so lonely and she was offering, so…" He shrugged miserably. "I had no intention of ever seeing her again, but she showed up at my dorm about 5 months later and told me she was pregnant. I thought my life was fucking over. I didn't want to get married, I was way too young to be a father or a husband. I thought about just running, but I couldn't. I couldn't leave her with a baby that was my responsibility, so I had no other choice than to make an honest woman of her. She was nice enough at first and I was in my second year of med school when Joanna was born. She was the most beautiful thing ever." His eyes glossed over and he smiled. "And when I held her tiny body in my arms I knew right then and there that I couldn't ever leave her. I loved her like nothing else." His smile faded and his voice became irritated. "That was when she began to turn into a harpy. She said I spent too much time in class or at the clinic and when I was home all I wanted to do was hold the baby. She was right about that, every day I looked forward to coming home and playing with my little girl because she always made me smile no matter how shitty my day was. When she learned to walk, she would run to me at the door and wrap her arms around my leg. When she fell off her bike or was scared she always came to me and I think it pissed her mother off. I was always the one that picked her up from school and went to her plays until her mother decided she wanted to separate. To be honest, I never really knew her mother, I never bothered. I just tried to be the best father I could to Jo and provide for them because it felt like living with some random stranger."

"That sounds like an impossible situation. You couldn't leave, but it was almost worse to stay." I commented. "If it weren't for your daughter you may have been able to escape much sooner than you did."

"All because I didn't keep my dick in my pants or at least be sober enough to use protection." He grumbled shaking his head. "I should have listened to that little voice in my head that screamed at me to run, but neither she nor I were in any shape to be making any kind of decisions that night. I knew it wasn't right, but it didn't stop me. At least I got Jo out of the whole mess. That is probably the only silver lining."

I nodded and said, "And you will have to work on getting her back. She deserves to have such a loving father to care for her."

He quickly smiled, but it faded under the weight of his sadness at the reminder that he no longer had her in his life. His expression was pained and full of misery. I quietly grabbed his wrist and gave him a quietly supportive smile which seemed to make it better for a time. I hoped he could be reunited with her, not all little girls were so lucky to have such wonderful fathers.