Uhura and the Ex-Wife
Another away mission from Hell landed her in a med-bed between Spock and Kirk. Kirk's unguarded and admiring look at the village leader's fiancée disintegrated weeks of long-distance diplomacy and set back the Federation First Contact team (hidden in the hills) by a standard year - or more.
Regaining consciousness slowly, Uhura spent considerable time reconstructing her memories of what occurred before she grabbed Kirk's prone body and dragged it behind a solid object to keep the indigenous peoples from hitting him with more projectiles. The last rock-ball ricocheted off her temple as she terminated her comm to Scotty to get them the hell off the planet. Eventually she recalled her perpetual frustration with Kirk's inability to maintain protocol during diplomatic encounters.
When Uhura awoke the first time, only Kirk remained beside her. Spock left Sickbay first with most of his bruises and cuts completely healed by Vulcan meditation. Kirk, underneath all his bravado, remained terrified of all medical treatment - especially hyposprays. Because Kirk returned to the Enterprise unconscious, McCoy fiendishly strapped him to the med-bed to ensure he would remain where deposited. Within 36 hours, however, the captain's uncanny recuperative powers - or his irrational fear of Bones McCoy and his medical torture - returned him to sufficient health that McCoy reluctantly had to release him.
When Uhura awoke for the second time in Sickbay she lay alone in the subdued lighting with the agitated voice of Dr. Leonard McCoy interrupting her quiet return to health. The conversation did not appear to be amicable - if any conversation with McCoy ever was.
"Jocelyn, dammit, you're being unreasonable!"
Jocelyn McCoy remained one of Leonard McCoy's exes. She retained his last name not because she regretted their divorce but because she used Leonard's sizeable alimony checks to support herself and her new boyfriend - Len's first cousin Colin McCoy.
"It took me a while but I finally got an accounting of that settlement from Starfleet. Over 100,000 credits, Leonard, will take care of Colin and me just fine."
"Look Jocelyn, you and that jackass have gotten every dime I owed you! Why are you doing this?"
"Because I can, Leonard. You're such a gooood provider."
Uhura didn't hear the rest of the conversation because Physician's Assistant Christine Chapel administered a hypospray that sent Uhura back to dreamland wherein she cheerfully and repeatedly punished a disobedient Jim Kirk for always being underprepared for diplomatic away missions.
Over the days following her release from Sickbay, Uhura routed a number of calls from Earth to McCoy's private comm. Not all of the calls came from the same caller. One comm code in particular Uhura knew came from Abigail McCoy, Len's 3rd ex-wife and the mother of his daughter Rebecca Joann McCoy.
Abby - the ex-wife Leonard still loved.
McCoy's state of agitation and sobriety worried Uhura. Over the next several weeks she made an effort to spend time with Leonard.
McCoy didn't make it easy.
No fool himself when it came to avoiding other people's concern for him, McCoy figured out Uhura had his best interest in mind and made it near impossible for her to get close to him. The added pressure of ducking her compassionate and genuine concern did nothing for McCoy's naturally acerbic disposition or his Tennessee whiskey consumption. Uhura cornered him four or five times in his office only to have him explode in anger and anguish all over her. After Christine Chapel separated the Comm Officer and the Good Doctor during an epic shouting match in Sickbay, McCoy requested emergency leave on Babel and Uhura met with Kirk to discuss McCoy's more-miserable-than-usual and more-drunk-than-healthy behavior.
With Solomon-like wisdom, Kirk granted McCoy's leave request without explanation but only if McCoy agreed to take Uhura with him. No amount of argument would dissuade Kirk from his conditional approval. The 15 minute meeting lasted almost 45 minutes as McCoy introduced an experienced Kirk and a more sheltered Uhura to curses neither had heard before at volume levels Uhura believed left them both with damaged ear drums.
McCoy sulked from the Enterprise transporter pad to the front desk of the hotel on Babel. Discovering that Uhura had upgraded his reservation from a single to a 2-bedroom suite (and charged it to Jim Kirk) provoked a disgruntled chest rumble from the country doctor but no conversation. In deference to his mood, Uhura sent their bags up to the suite and traipsed behind McCoy into the hotel bar. Whatever disaster McCoy was walking into wouldn't happen until tomorrow...
Hopefully...