Listening carefully, Leonard's voice eventually came through the ambient noises in the bar to Uhura.
"I knew Jocelyn could be a vindictive bitch but not like this. She got everything - my house, my cousin, my money, my balls - why this?"
Uhura sipped her Jack Daniel's and waited, motioning the bartender to replace McCoy's empty bottle of Collier and McKeel Tennessee whiskey with a full one. As she refilled her own shot, McCoy's moody drawl rumbled over to her.
"I loved Abby and Jocelyn never forgave me for that. We'd been divorced forever when I met Abby. She was a pediatrician in my building. Had to move into a NEW office because that bitch Jocelyn took my house where my OLD office was."
At some point in the recollection McCoy stopped drinking. Uhura twisted in her stool enough to see him staring through the dark amber truth serum in the glass he held. Days of binge drinking forced him to lean on his elbows to keep upright and to stop his hands from shaking.
"You know what I loved most about Abby?"
Uhura delayed answering long enough to confirm whether the question was rhetorical. When McCoy tilted his head towards her, she saw the misery and the tears that would buttress his reply.
"No, Len. Why was Abby special?" she softly prodded.
"Because she loved my sorry ass. You know me, darlin'. I'm the archetype for 'Doesn't Have A Life'. Abby decided she'd give me one. Wouldn't sleep with me until our wedding night - although some of our petting sessions would turn your cheeks crimson."
Uhura thought back to some of her make-out sessions with her Vulcan lover and seriously doubted that McCoy could surprise her. Telepathic geniuses can be... inventive.
"Abby gave me more than any other woman. First, she bought us a house so I could have a home office again. Then she told me she'd resigned as a partner in her practice so we could start a family xeno practice together. I was doing a fair amount of xeno obstetrics by then so she figured we'd get'em and keep'em that way. She wanted to cut my patient load - she knew my work life ended my first two marriages."
McCoy stopped, Uhura thought, to refill. Slowly he lowered the glass to the bar and folded his arms in front of him, chin on his chest, as he sat back in the stool.
"Found out on our wedding night I was her first. Got to introduce her to what it meant to make love. Then she introduced me to what it means to make love. She'd been on fertility treatments since we got engaged; she wanted to make sure she got pregnant right away. We made Becca Jo on our honeymoon.
"Abby gave me everything I wanted - a beautiful wife who loved me, a beautiful baby girl and a great job doctoring."
"Sounds like you had it all, Leonard."
"I did and I blew it. Abby wanted us to have an old fashioned family practice but we were really good together at complicated xeno treatment. Pretty soon I was back to working 90-100 hours a week with hospital rounds.
"Missed Becca Jo's first word. Missed her first steps. Missed Becca's emergency tonsillectomy and it happened in the same hospital I was delivering somebody else's baby in.
"Abby fought like a bobcat to show me I had my priorities ass backwards but I didn't listen... Too busy enjoying my god complex..."
McCoy's left hand absently batted the partially filled glass across the marble in a random pattern.
"Rebecca turned 3 months old the first time Jocelyn served me with papers to raise her alimony. Abby's name-callin' rant still brings a grin to my face. Abby's got a professional temper. For three years I got papers requesting more alimony - always on Becca's birthday. Jocelyn couldn't stand the fact that I had finally found someone who believed in havin' a family and a career - in that order.
"I tried for years to convince Jocelyn to start a family after my residency. She didn't want kids; she wanted money. Told me I'd be a piss poor daddy because I didn't love anything but doctorin'..
"I put every dime of the 175,000-credit Starfleet bonus in trust for Rebecca, Uhura. Abby and I worked it out. I trust Abby. I spent 30,000 catchin' up on alimony and support payments. I took care of my baby girl with the rest.
"Jocelyn hired a forensic accountant. He tracked down the Starfleet payment. She's suing me for triple the alimony backdated to the bonus payout date."