Something Blue
Leonard “Bones” McCoy/Reader (Original Female Character)
Summary: All is well on the starship Enterprise. Except for, well, its missing Captain.
Word Count: 2,640
A/N: ahh omg hi friends!! so happy 2 post another update & as per usual could not have done it without @lightninginmyeyes best beta evr <33333 tysm for the support!! let me know how u like it :p
Being on the bridge was peaceful for Sunshine. When she was at her station, attending to her duties or conferring with her colleagues, she was calm and truly enjoyed her work.
Today, though, held an air of unease. Everything was running smoothly, but the only problem was, well, the empty seat in the center of the room.
The bridge crew had been stealing glances at the vacant chair every so often for the last hour, all with the same question in mind.
Where the hell is Jim Kirk?
It wasn’t, by any means, uncommon for Kirk to be late for a shift or even to hand the command to Spock while he did god knows what, but this was different. It had been an hour, with no word from the captain. After the thirty-minute mark, unease had begun to settle amongst the crew, and with every ticking minute, it grew.
It was all too obvious, from the way Spock’s eyes were glued to his PADD, that he had messaged the captain several times by now. As the operations manager, Sunshine had done the same, if only more aggressively.
_
Outgoing Message To: James T. Kirk, Enterprise Captain
Hey Kirk, I hope everything's alright. If you get a chance let me know when or if you’re coming in.
Regards, Lieutenant Sunshine, Operations Manager
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Outgoing Message To: James T. Kirk, Enterprise Captain
Kirk, is everything okay? It's been like 30 minutes. Just let me know
Regards, Lieutenant Sunshine, Operations Manager
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Outgoing Message To: James T. Kirk, Enterprise Captain
Jim where the fuck r u
Regards, Lieutenant Sunshine, Operations Manager
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Outgoing Message To: James T. Kirk, Enterprise Captain
U make my job so hard u don't even know
Regards, Lieutenant Sunshine, Operations Manager
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Outgoing Message To: James T. Kirk, Enterprise Captain
Jim???? R u ok??? If ur not here in another 30 min im going to ur quarters
Regards, Lieutenant Sunshine, Operations Manager
She stared at her PADD, frowning. This was a little too unusual for her liking, and the ball of anxiety in her stomach was beginning to grow to an uncomfortable size. Time dwindled, as did her hope that the captain would arrive.
Sunshine knew what she needed to do, though she had little desire to do it. Rising from her seat, she approached the first officer.
“Spock,” she hissed. “I think I should go to his quarters. I’m gonna guess he hasn’t responded to you either?”
His eyes dragged from his PADD.
“He has not. Perhaps it would be best—“
Spock never got to finish his sentence. The bridge door opened with its usual woosh, calling the attention of the room. Sunshine held her breath waiting for that familiar yellow shirt to saunter through.
It didn’t, and he didn’t. Instead, a run of blue came barreling through the door.
“With me, Sunshine,” McCoy grunted as soon as he got through the entrance. She stared at him, bewildered, as does Spock.
“What? Leonard why are you—hey!”
He clapped his hands on her shoulders and in a whirlwind, she was spun around and pushed towards the elevator, stumbling over her own feet.
She would fight it, but she trusted Leonard, and she maybe, possibly liked the feeling of his hands on her.
“Operations manager and Captain will be back before ya know it,” he announced to the crew and punched the close elevator button with a fist. As the door shuts, she caught Spock's bewildered gaze, to which she could do nothing but shrug.
Finally, McCoy’s hands dropped, and he sighs.
“Leonard, what the hell,” she started with a fire in her eyes. He held up a hand to stop her, the equivalent of throwing gasoline on the flame, and rubbed the space between his eyebrows with a pained expression.
“Listen, I apologize for the abruptness but Sunny,” he lifted his gaze to her, full of desperation, “I need your help,”
Those words threw water on the fire. Anxiety coiled her insides again, this time for Leonard.
“Yeah?” she said timidly. “Whatever you need.” She meant it.
He deflated a bit, a weight off his shoulders.
“Good, because I’m gonna kill Jim Kirk.”
Oh? She laughed before she could stop herself and that only made Leonards's face pinchier.
“Wh-what?” she stuttered out between giggles.
“I’m serious,” he insisted.
She believed him, of course, but that didn’t make it any less funny.
“Wait,” she breathed, “does that mean you know where he is?”
“Oh, I know, alright.”
The elevator doors opened, and Sunshine was faced with a corridor of quarters, senior officer quarters to be exact. He stomped out and she followed.
“He’s…in his room?” she wondered aloud, attempting to keep up with Leonard.
The entire ordeal didn’t make much sense to her, but she followed regardless.
“You organized yesterday's away mission, didn’t you?” he asked without looking behind him.
Huh?
“I mean yeah… but is now really the time for small talk?”
“What? I’m not- never mind,” He shook his head. “Who else besides Kirk was beamed down?”
It took two of her steps to keep up with his.
“Um, It was just a diplomatic introduction, so it didn't require a big team. It was just Kirk and two Ensigns, Henly and Donavan. Donavan minored in intergalactic relations, and she’s always talking about going back to school for poli-sci so I thought it might be a good experience for her–”
“Just needed the names, Sunshine,” he said shortly. She quirked her eyebrow at his tone. McCoy was known for being terse, direct, and abrasive. However, he was never any of those to her.
Finally, they reached the end of the hallway in front of the captain's quarters. Leonard stopped so suddenly, she smacked against his back. Dazed, and a little out of breath, she took a step back.
“Okay, can I know what's going on now?” she demanded.
Locking their eyes, he gave a near inaudible “shhh,” with a finger over his lips.
Sunshine was, again, bewildered. Leonard's hands landed on her shoulders and pulled her towards him suddenly. Her heart skipped a beat, maybe even two.
“Listen,” he leaned down to whisper in her ear, “I’ve been trying to get Kirk out of that room all morning, but he’s way past the point of listening to me. You still have a chance.” He was close enough that Sunshine could feel his breath on her face, and as hard as she tried to listen to him, her mind was miles away.
“I really need your help, darlin’.”
She was nodding along before she could process his words. “Okay,” she breathed. From this close, Sunshine could make out every detail of his face. His eyes had a certain depth that could only be seen this close. It made her feel small.
He turned her around and gave her a light encouraging push towards the door. As she stared at the gray paneling, she wondered if she even wanted to know what the hell was behind the door. Still, she knocked.
From inside, a muffled voice called out, “Bones, for the last time, I am fine, and you can leave me alone.”
She glanced behind her for reassurance, and Leonard gave her a nod.
“Kirk? It's Sunshine. I came to see if you were okay,” she called back.
It was silent for a second.
“Is Bones with you?” he asked. Sunshine cringed and whipped her head around to her friend, who was already furiously shaking his head and mouthing no. If only she worked well under pressure.
“Whaaat? Bones? Psht, no. Why would he be here? You guys have a play date scheduled or something?” she said like the lowest-paid actor in Hollywood. She didn’t hear Leonard slap his palm to his head, but she knew he did.
“Okay, so, Bones is definitely there, and you can both leave me alone now.”
Sunshine groaned. “Kirk I’ve been messaging you all fucking day, and you’ve got Spock staring at his PADD like he's a teenager waiting for his crush to text him back. Can you at least tell me what the hell is going on?”
There was quiet, then some shuffling. Leonard took a step forward beside Sunshine, she hoped, in solidarity.
“It's nothing, I’m just a bit under the weather-” Kirk started.
“Under the weather my ass!” Leonard interjected, pointing angrily at the closed door as if Kirk could see it.
“I knew he was with you!”
“Will you two quit it?! Jim, just come out here, and we can work this out.” She was pleading. Surely Jim would listen to reason.
“No.”
Leonard and Sunshine shared a look. A ‘can you believe this asshole?’ sort of look.
“Kirk, I’m coming in,” she said decidedly, raising her hand to the keypad.
“Don't bother,” Leonard stopped her. “He’s disabled any override you might have. I already tried my medical one.” She shook her head.
“I don't have an override key, Jim told me his combination when he was wasted one time.”
She tapped in the pitiful ‘1111’ passcode, and before Kirk could stop it, his door slid open.
For a moment, the two of them just stared, flabbergasted.
“Jim. Why are you blue?”
Kirk leapt for the door, to shut it again, but McCoy had endured this shitshow far too long to let that happen. He was through the door before Jim could make it two feet.
“Jesus Christ, man, how did you let this happen?” he demanded, hands digging through his med-kit. “You look like a bad art project!”
Sunshine stared, for several beats, trying to take it all in. Of all the things that Jim's absence could have been, this was never on her list. Jim was blue. A proper bright teal. His entire body. He was awfully sweaty too, she noted with disgust.
She came back to herself and moved, following Leonard through the door.
“Great questions, both of you, which I will answer eventually–”
Leonard grabbed a fistful of Kirk’s shirt before the blue man could dart away and shoved a blinking tricorder in his face.
Kirk, who was usually endlessly combative, was uncharacteristically resigned.
“Leonard, gentle! Are you trying to strangle him?” The passive look he gave her leaned toward yes, but she didn’t have time to unpack that. As she entered, the door closed behind her, and she moved to untangle the doctor's fist from Jim’s shirt.
“Everybody, just relax,” she laid a palm on both of their shoulders, like a teacher breaking up a playground fight. “Why don't both of you, calmly, explain what happened.”
Kindergarten teacher, Starfleet operations manager– every day the line blurs more.
Leonard sighed and stepped back from his opponent.
“Henly came in this morning complaining about some vision loss and fever. I run some tests and, whaddya know, it comes back positive for Anura berry poisoning, which is incredibly interesting considering those are only found on Aridius and–”
“Jim, oh my god, did you convince Henly to eat illegal fruit?” Sunshine interrupted, snatching her hand from his shoulder. “Oh! You both ate illegal fruit, what is wrong with you?”
The captain sighed, dejected, and looked at her sheepishly.
“I thought they were ‘fun’ illegal forbidden fruit– maybe ‘gets you a little high’ fruit! Not highly poisonous!”
The two stared at him like disappointed parents.
“You’re a Starfleet captain, for christ's sake– you didn't think to look it up?” Bones gritted out. “Even a tree stump has got more sense than that.”
Sunshine shook her head, nudging Leonard's side, until she got his attention.
“He was trying to impress her,” she explained. Leonard's eyebrows pulled together. “Ya know, he wanted to be all ‘check this out. Henly, I know it’s illegal, but I’m a star fleet captain, and I know all about space fruit.’ He probably even did some dumb move like feed it to her.”
Leonard’s eye twitched. “Ya know, you could just buy her flowers, right? Take her to dinner? Do you commit misdemeanors with all the women you court?”
“Chivalry’s dead, Len,” Sunshine sighed with a hand on her hip. “It’s all about committing petty crimes these days.”
The day he had doesn’t stop him from smiling at her. She returned it while trying not to blush and trying even harder not to think about how cute Leonard looked when he was doing that little half-smile. For a small moment, it was just the two of them…and then it wasn’t.
“Well, I’m glad we got this worked out, you two, thanks for stopping by-” Jim started, and, just as soon, stopped under the harsh glares he received. Leonard—suddenly remembering how mad he was coming in–grabbed Jim by the arm.
“If you think you’re getting out of the six-hour poison detox that Henly’s in the middle of, you’re dead wrong,” he said lowly. Jim’s body sagged in defeat. Sunshine wondered absently how the hell he thought he was just going to avoid this but decided it’s a question for when he was the right color again. Instead, she came around his other side, laying a comforting hand on his shoulder.
“Aw Jim, don’t be so blue. I’m sure it’s not so bad,” she cooed with a grin. Both men rolled their eyes, but she noted Leonard’s budding smile.
“C'mon, Casanova, got a bed set up for you n’ everything,” Leonard grunted, lightly pushing the captain out the door.
Sunshine added, “Now, you’ll really have a chance to bond with Henly!”
Before Leonard could follow Jim’s miserable figure, Sunshine impulsively shot out her hand to grab his arm. Her brain only caught up to her movements a moment later, and girl what are you doing screamed in her head. She could think of no good reason for her actions, other than just not wanting Leonard to leave quite yet.
Leonard turned around because, of course he did–she was gripping his arm. Their eyes locked, and nervous laughter bubbled out of her. She ripped her hand away, now incredibly sweaty.
“Thanks,” she squeaked out and hated how small her voice sounded, “for finding him and for getting me off the bridge for a few.” He waved her off.
“I should be thanking you, I woulda been breaking down damn the door by now without ya.” He leaned his shoulder against the door frame, and Sunshine forced her gaze to not drift to his arms.
“Well, if someone has to keep you from property destruction, I’m glad it's me,” she said lightly…or she tried to say lightly. She wanted it to sound like a joke, but it came out much too sincerely. He blinked at her, caught off guard, but Sunshine, for once, didn’t shy away from her words. She was glad it was her, and she wanted him to know, and that wasn’t weird or crossing a line between friends.
… right?
He opened his mouth to reply, and she held her breath. There was something important on his tongue– she could feel it– but he never got to say it.
Kirk retched loudly in the hallway, shattering whatever moment had begun to form. Sunshine winced.
“You should probably take care of that,” she said. Leonard swore under his breath and looked between the captain, now supporting himself on the wall, and her.
“God damn it, man. I’ve gotta go, sweetheart, sorry. I’ll see you later,” he said quickly, before leaving her in the doorway to usher Kirk down the hall.
She meandered in the doorway, long after the two had disappeared from sight.
Sweetheart, she thought, that's a new one.
She shook her head and begun her trek back to the bridge. The nickname didn’t mean anything, they never had, she knew that. But, as she rode the elevator alone, and her blush began to fade, she couldn't help herself wishing it did.
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