Charlie waited anxiously with Leonard in the shipyard for Joanna, who would be arriving any moment. Once the shuttle had landed, she stayed behind while Leonard went to collect his daughter, taking her over to meet Charlie.
"Joanna, this is Charlie and she's going to be with us a lot while you're here." He didn't quite know how else to introduce Charlie to an eight-year-old.
The girl appeared a little shy, so Charlie lowered herself and held out her hand. "Hi, Joanna."
She shook Charlie's hand slowly. "Hi, Charlie."
Charlie was stunned by how much Joanna resembled Leonard: the same dark hair, the same eye color, and even their faces seemed like carbon copies. Definitely Leonard's daughter. "It's nice to meet you," Charlie told her. "I don't know if anyone has told you, but you are very pretty."
Joanna's face lit up with delight. "Thank you. Are we going to your house, Daddy?"
"Yep," he said.
Charlie couldn't help but notice the look of enchantment on Leonard's face whenever he looked at Joanna and she herself was enchanted by his look. She was finally adjusting to the idea that he was a father and was actually beginning to like it. While they were walking – Joanna a little ahead of them – he slipped his hand into hers, both of them in high spirits. "She looks just like you," Charlie told him.
This elicited a smile from Leonard. He had been so nervous about what Charlie might think but his fear felt ridiculous when he saw the way she looked at Joanna. "She likes you."
Charlie couldn't help but feel as if she were on cloud nine while they headed back to the apartment, near enough to the base that it wasn't a long walk. As they walked, she noticed Ryan on the other side of the street and the look he was giving her now as she strolled down the sidewalk with Leonard and Joanna was absolutely priceless.
"Has he been bothering you?" Leonard asked her.
"I can handle Ryan, even if he is persistent."
"If you happened to allow your fist to make contact with his face – accidentally – then I don't think there is a single person in Starfleet who would care to make a report." McCoy liked imagining Ryan in a great deal of pain – not only out of jealousy, which played a very small part, but mostly because he would hate anyone who had hurt Charlie.
She laughed and leaned her head against his shoulder. "It isn't necessary. I didn't know you were the jealous type," she teased.
"I'm not," he insisted. "I know that you aren't about to go running back to him and I have absolutely no reason to be jealous."
"The look on his face was great, wasn't it?"
"It certainly was," he agreed happily.
At dinner Charlie mostly just listened as Joanna talked about school on Cerberus and about how happy she was to be able to see her dad.
Before too long the little girl was practically comatose in the bed and Charlie was easing onto the floor in the living room, next to Leonard. She expected he would be as cheerful as she was but instead he looked heartbroken. "What's wrong?"
He turned to her and shook his head. "It's nothing."
"I'll get it out of you the easy way or the hard way, Leonard McCoy, but you're going to tell me what's bothering you."
He knew he was defeated, so he gave in. "Today I felt like I got a glimpse into a different life where you and I could live with Joanna all the time. It felt like we were a family having a normal dinner tonight and I guess I wish we could have that all the time because when I have to give her back to Kathleen I'm going to hate myself."
Charlie was on the verge of tears now, listening to what he wanted and realizing that she wanted it, too. But she also loved being in Starfleet more than anything else and wouldn't give that up for the world. "Maybe one day," she sighed. "But we're a little stuck right now."
That was the moment her phone chose to go off, showing a message from her father. Is the crisis averted, or do I have to continue being consumed by my curiosity?
Leonard gave her a puzzled look. "Your father wants to know about Cerberus?"
"Well, I contacted Carter through him, but I was pretty vague with the details."
"I guess it would be a lot to tell your parents – that your boyfriend has a kid." He understood that, but the look on her face told him that there was more to it. "Can we be open about everything, now? I want to know."
Charlie prepared herself for the conversation about her family, her complicated family. "My parents think I'm still dating Ryan," she began, which alone caused Leonard to frown. "It's not because I've been telling them we're still together but I haven't been updating them on my love life and the Ryan situation is complicated with my parents."
"Why the hell would you let them think you're still with him?" McCoy knew that Charlie hated Ryan so he assumed she had completely purged herself of that asshole.
She sighed – Leonard wasn't the only one with familial baggage. "My parents were very unhappy when I chose to enter Starfleet; so much so, that they weren't talking to me for a fairly long period of time and completely cut me off financially. Then, out of nowhere, I get a call from my mother asking me if I can come home sometime soon. I jumped at the opportunity, wanting to patch things up with them, but seeing me again was not exactly my mother's sole motive for calling me.
"When I got there, she introduced me to Ryan who is the son of one of her friends. Apparently, since Ryan was also in Starfleet, it was suddenly a respectable path in life. Or, maybe she thought I would leave Starfleet if I got married, in which case she will eventually be sorely disappointed. Anyway, my parents loved Ryan and I'm not sure what my mom will do when she learns we're no longer together. She could disown me for all I know.
"My relationship with you also complicates things because you have quite a few strikes against you as far as my parents are concerned: you're in Starfleet, you've been married before, you have a daughter and, at the very top of the list, you don't come from a 'respectable' family. My parents want me to marry someone from a family that is just as wealthy and pretentious as ours.
"So that's why I've been avoiding it," she finished.
McCoy had no idea Charlie came from a wealthy family, especially with how tight money could be with them, but then remembered that she had apparently been 'cut off'. He suddenly felt a little inadequate; her parents would probably hate him if they were ever introduced. "So what do you want to do?" Even if he thought her parents were being completely irrational, he didn't want to take any course of action that could put Charlie in a difficult situation.
"Well, I'll wait until things have calmed down here and then I guess I'll have to inform them that I'm no longer with Ryan but I have traded up to a very handsome medical officer who happens to be one of the most skilled in all of Starfleet. I'll also have to mention that you, unlike Ryan, are not an asshole. Whatever happens after that isn't my problem," she decided, on the spot.
He couldn't feel mad at her for the same reasons that she couldn't feel mad at him: they had kept these secrets because they were afraid of what it could do to their relationship. "I've been ostracized by my parents before and while it isn't nice, I can deal with it. I don't know if I can handle living without you, especially since you have done nothing to deserve being ditched."
"We'll deal with it as it comes," he said. "And I feel the same way. I don't want to live without you." He saw a strange look spreading through her face; there was something else. "Now would be the time to share anything else."
"I haven't been deliberately keeping this a secret," she informed him. "But due to recent events, I may be transferring to the U.S.S. Archer."
"What?!" He couldn't believe it. They worked so well together! The med bay was a well-oiled machine with the Jacobs/McCoy team. However she looked like she was in a great deal of pain so he tried to hold back, not wanting to hurt her.
"Aboard the Archer, I would be the Chief Medical Officer and that's something that I've wanted for a long time – before we had even met. I love working with you, but I need to consider my career, as well."
"We won't see each other very often," he said, trying not to yell. "On two separate starships there could potentially be months between the times when we're both on Earth."
"Yes, but that doesn't mean we can't talk to each other. Even on separate starships, we can send messages, or talk face to face if we both have the time. Interstellar communication has made leaps and bounds in the past couple years and there are others who have managed to do this."
His face still told her he was unhappy about the situation. "Have you told Jim? He won't let you."
"I haven't spoken with him yet, but I've made arrangements to prevent him from throwing a tantrum."
McCoy could only imagine. "That won't prevent him from being a Drama Queen on our next mission." He paused. "Are you going to be on our next mission?"
"I have one or two more missions aboard the Enterprise before my transfer officially goes through. Please try to understand, Leonard, this wasn't an easy decision to make."
He was still pissed, but he also realized that wouldn't change anything – he would just have to adjust. "I'm trying," he assured her. "It just isn't easy."
"Bones, you tell me where that short, frizzy-haired girlfriend of yours is, or so help me I will go through your med bay and completely disorganize it." Kirk, if nothing else, knew exactly how to elicit a response from McCoy and Charlie as he burst into their apartment.
"She's in here with me, Jim, there's no need to yell."
"What the hell, Charlie!" Kirk began, before noticing Joanna in the room and pulling one of his stupid, confused looks.
"Go right on ahead," McCoy insisted, enjoying the expression on Jim's face.
When Kirk began babbling inanely and gesturing towards Joanna, Charlie took pity on him and explained, though she saw Leonard was thoroughly entertained. "This is Joanna, Leonard's daughter. She is also the reason I wasn't able to inform you of my transfer myself: I wanted to spend time with her and Leonard."
"Bones, why didn't you tell me this?" he cried.
"You're not the only one who was kept in the dark," Charlie grumbled. "However, please return to yelling at me so we can get this over with."
"I'll get to you," Kirk assured her. "You will transfer to the Archer over my dead body."
By now McCoy had shuffled Joanna out of the room so she wouldn't get caught in the crossfire. "Well, I guess I'm just going to have to send Spock to kick your ass, then," she replied casually. "This isn't anything personal," she said, trying to get him to understand.
"Then what is it?" he replied. "Please inform me, Charlie, what is in your magical crystal ball?" he cried mockingly.
She rolled her eyes at how childishly he was acting. "I want to be Chief Medical Officer aboard the Archer. Now I know that you entered Starfleet with no other goal than becoming captain of a starship. Well, my goal is to become Chief Medical Officer aboard a ship, and to eventually move up the ranks from there."
His face softened, realizing that he wasn't the only one aboard the Enterprise who had ambitions. "I can't change your mind?"
"I'm afraid not. Our next mission together is likely to be our last together, as well."
Charlie and Leonard's phones both went off at the same time which could only mean one thing: a mission. The mission, in turn, meant not only that Charlie and Leonard would have to leave Joanna, but also that they would have to leave her with Kathleen.
Leonard was gone, preparing for their mission and Charlie was left in their apartment with Joanna, helping her pack.
"Are you his girlfriend?" Joanna asked, which caused Charlie to freeze with awkwardness.
However, she decided that it was probably better to be honest. "Yes, I'm his girlfriend."
"Are you two going to scream and yell, too? Then divorce and hate each other?" Joanna clearly had not benefitted from the rocky relationship and ensuing messy divorce between Leonard and the former Mrs. McCoy.
However, Charlie was confident about one thing. "I could never hate your father," she told Joanna earnestly. "And we don't always get along but we've never really fought."
"Do you wanna marry him?"
Charlie was having difficulty with the very direct questions but continued with the theme of honesty. "I don't know. Maybe."
Joanna regarded her before saying, "Okay, but I wouldn't mind if you got married."
Charlie had to at least laugh a little at that particular comment. "Well, thank you. I'll keep that in mind."
The morning came when she and Leonard would have to face Kathleen, toting Joanna along with them. Charlie hadn't quite known what to expect when she saw his ex-wife for the first time, but nothing could have prepared her for it.
Kathleen was the type of woman who walked into a room and immediately made every single other woman self-conscious. She was blonde and had very bright green eyes which alone would have been intimidating. To make matters worse, her face was perfect, her figure was perfect, even her damn boobs were perfect. Not to mention the fact that Kathleen was at least six inches taller than Charlie, maybe more. Charlie had never felt more sub-par in her life. Kathleen's hair didn't frizz like hers did. Kathleen didn't have to worry whether or not she would be able to reach something. And Kathleen certainly had never done anything as embarrassing as participating in a boxing match half naked and intoxicated. She was the woman every other woman wanted to be.
Until she opened her mouth. "Leonard," she spat coldly. "What kind of crap did you have to pull to prevent the school from contacting me?" Then she noticed Charlie. "I see you've brought a little whore, too, how wonderful."
McCoy struggled to be civil. "That was uncalled for."
"Whore or no whore, I think you could do better. Though I can't think of a sane woman who would be interested in you, or why anyone would want to be with you for that matter."
"Because I love him," Charlie stated boldly, earning a look of shock from both Kathleen and Leonard. They had never actually said they loved each other, though it was implied. She felt nervous saying it in front of him, as neither of them was particularly good at discussing their feelings, but she meant it.
"I'll remind you that I have full custody of Joanna since you're off gallivanting in space. So, you and your little whore can go."
Joanna looked at Charlie sadly. "Bye, Charlie."
"Bye, Sweetheart," she replied, before Kathleen practically sprinted away with Joanna. "I'm so sorry, Leonard."
"Well, at least she doesn't know that Joanna and I write to each other while she's at school," he sighed.
Charlie kissed him, wishing she could make things easier. They began to make their way to base to check in with Kirk when he noticed how self-conscious Charlie looked. Kathleen had a habit of doing that. "Did you know Kathleen failed out of college? She can't keep a job for long, which is why she was able to take everything from me." He could see that he was beginning to cheer her up. "And besides, I am definitely partial to shorter women."
An irritated huff escaped her lungs when she received yet another message from her father, completely ruining the moment. "I'm telling my parents everything after this mission," she announced while she sent her father the same message.
"I'm here no matter what happens with them." He waited for a few minutes before adding "And I love you, too."