Thirteen

Routine physical examination at 0900 hours tomorrow.

Victoria narrowed her eyes suspiciously, opening the attached document that had arrived with the mass message that had gone out that morning. She scanned the names quickly, automatically going to the Ms and only pausing when she realized her new name would be closer to the bottom. Her heart nearly stopped beating when she saw that the initials scrawled next to her name meant her attending physician would be Dr. Leonard McCoy.

"No way in hell," she muttered. She rushed to the computer on the wall and punched in Jim's access codes again, ignoring the stab of guilt she felt. She scanned the duty roster, and saw to her relief that McCoy was off shift for a few more hours. She tapped her comm. "Woodville to Nurse Riley."

"Nurse Riley," said the bright, but professional voice at the other end.

Victoria took a deep breath to steady her voice. "Hi, Nurse Riley, it's Natira."

"Hi!" Nurse Riley sounded chipper as always. "What can I do for you? Your hypos aren't until day after tomorrow, you know."

"Oh, yeah, I know," Victoria tried to make her tone friendly. "I was just going through my messages and I saw that I'm down for a routine physical tomorrow?"

"Yeah, Dr. McCoy yelled at us and said that it should have been done the first week in," Nurse Riley laughed. "I'm still working out some of the kinks thanks to scheduling conflicts. Have you got a problem too?"

"Yeah, unfortunately," said Victoria, thinking quickly. "I, umm, I'm working on something at the lab and I can't leave it unattended for very long. Is Dr. McCoy in the medbay right now? I could come by and –"

"He isn't here for another few hours, but if you're worried about your physical you can come down now and I can get Dr. M'Benga to do it," offered Nurse Riley. "It'll still count, attending physicians are only for serious injuries and shift timings anyway."

Victoria pumped her fist in the air triumphantly. "Thank you so much, Nurse Riley, that would be a major help."

"No problem, I'll tell Dr. M'Benga to expect you in a few minutes!"

Victoria shut off her comm, taking in a deep breath. Now all she had to do was convince M'Benga to keep a secret.

But not necessarily an accurate one.

!

"Lieutenant Woodville?"

Victoria didn't miss the surprise that underlined the man's tone as he poked his head into the exam room. She smiled cautiously, well aware of the part she had to play. Tilting her head to the side, she held her hands up in surrender. "Guilty."

"Ah," M'Benga glanced down at the PADD in his hand, one eyebrow going up as he read over whatever was written on it. "And the N stands for…?"

"Natira," said Victoria, holding out her hand for the doctor to shake. "I can totally explain, Doctor."

"I bet you can," M'Benga shook his head smilingly. "Give it to me straight, Lieutenant."

"I know Dr. McCoy," said Victoria carefully. M'Benga raised her eyebrows, and she forced herself to turn slightly pink. "It was supposed to be a one-off thing," she muttered. "I just think it would be awkward to do this with him."

"No need to be so uncomfortable," said M'Benga, his comforting tone unexpected. He smiled at her. "You'd be surprised how many people reschedule appointments and check-ups because of flings that they'd rather forget about. I know you're new around here, but don't worry about it. McCoy's a pain in the ass and a stickler for the rules," he told her, entering the room finally and closing the door behind him. "But I've been a doctor longer, and I don't really care either way. As long as you're not messing with any treatments, I'll save you from any potential awkwardness."

Victoria shook her head. "I take my meds and everything, and I know Dr. McCoy is the one who handles my case. I just think this would be more trouble than it's worth."

"I see," with the non-judgemental attitude common to doctors that Victoria had always taken for granted, M'Benga came to sit on the chair next to her. "So, you called Nurse Riley and asked if I could do it instead?"

"Something like that," Victoria attempted a shamefaced smile. "I totally understand if it's putting you in a tough situation."

M'Benga shrugged. "A patient's a patient, Lieutenant. But I suppose this does explain his curiosity with you," he said conversationally, picking up his PADD again to begin filling out the physical report. "Your name threw him off, I think."

"My mom's maiden name," said Victoria, thinking quickly. "My dad and I aren't the closest."

M'Benga smiled sympathetically. "Right, well since I've just reassigned your physical to myself, we are now bound by a confidentiality agreement, which means I can't tell McCoy anything you tell me," her look of genuine relief made him chuckle. "Shall we get this over with?"

Victoria was ridiculously grateful that the medical file M'Benga had pulled up showed that she had a foreign implant in her leg, which would lead to askew readings on any tricorder that attempted to scan her body. Technically, it was true, even though no file on her actually stated what the implant did. In her experience, doctors rarely questioned it - more and more humans were born and brought up on foreign planets, and not all doctors were well-versed in the medical practices that took place there. Natira Woodville was born on a Federation planet a few lightyears from Earth, where implants of a similar nature were common to repair birth defects, which was what her leg injury had been explained away as for years. Accordingly, the tricorder was put aside and M'Benga took a blood sample to run some quick tests, which were clear. Another examination of reflexes and a few pointed questions showed that, on the outside at least, she was in perfect health. If Dr. M'Benga was suspicious about her time in the Laurentian system and on Yorktown, and her injuries from there, he didn't question it. Twenty minutes later when Victoria left the medbay with a relieved smile on her face, she was too distracted to notice McCoy watching her from the door of his office, his eyes narrowed suspiciously. M'Benga came up to stand next to him, an amused smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.

"What did she tell you?" asked McCoy flatly.

M'Benga shrugged, still smiling. "Confidentiality, Leonard."

He groaned. "Damn it, Geoffrey."

"You could just ask her."

"I have no idea who the hell this woman is," snapped McCoy. "But I know I've seen her before, and I want to know what the hell Jim and Spock are up to."

"You should already know the reason she's avoiding you," said M'Benga. "That's all I can say. You want to tell me how you knew she would call Nurse Riley and try to get someone else to do her physical?"

"I had a feeling," McCoy ran a hand through his hair tiredly. "Damn it, man, I don't have time for this!"

"You sure you don't remember her?" why did M'Benga's tone sound faintly disapproving? "How could you forget a face like that?"

"I have no idea," said McCoy, his eyes still fixed on the spot where Victoria had been standing moments ago.