BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
McCoy grumbled.
"Whythehell?"
Oh yeah. Alarm.
Just one reason he had that alarm while this drunk. Time to feed the kid.
He rolled, feeling for the edge of the bed, and yelped in surprise as he fell to the floor.
"Shit!"
"Doctor?" One of the new male nurses popped his head in. "Are you okay?"
"Umm... you're not... shit. Right. Yes. Give me a moment to scrub up."
Of course he wasn't in his wife's bed. No one to feed, burp, sing to to get them back to sleep.
He pealed off the stale fabric on the way to the sink, scrubbed mechanically, let someone dress him. His eyes didn't quite want to stay open.
"Doctor McCoy? Doe is getting-"
"Right. Right. Sorry."
"Doctor Leonard McCoy."
"Coming! Yes dear. Coming. Ugh."
He needed toothpicks. Maybe with olives still attached, to prop his lids open.
McCoy trundled his way into the sterile tent. Opened the box, reached in. His fingers went through the motions with their usual precision until an odd bit of texture brought him out of habit.
"Shit. Right. Sorry little girl. I'm going to go back to quarter rotations for you for a little while. When I'm a little more sober in a few hours, we'll start you up on quarter turns every other hour. How does that sound, hm? You'll be able to keep up with your brothers and sisters and stay nice and strong." He did the same truncated turn for the other one they'd just worked on. He itched to pull them out and do full scans, but they'd been out long enough earlier. He didn't want to chance them getting too cold for too long... and to be honest his eyelids were sinking back to their former locations.
"Doctor Leonard McCoy. Thank you."
"Of course. Oh man. Night. Why are your eyes uncovered?"
He reached for the assortment of items on the bedside tray, moistening the exposed organs and offering a familiar gauze, before turning the lights back down to thirty percent or so.
"Sweet dreams."
He hauled himself back to his office and collapsed back on the couch.