leonard mccoy (dammitjim) wrote in the100, @ 2016-05-09 21:34:00 |
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Entry tags: | !log/thread, christine chapel (aos), leonard "bones" mccoy (aos) |
Who: Christine Chapel and Leonard McCoy (and NPC Lauren)
When: Tuesday April 19, after this
Where: The Tavern
What: Old friends catching up
Rating: Bones has a potty mouth, but it's pretty tame
Christine was still trying to process all that had happened in the last two and a half weeks. A whole different life, marriage to Jim, two kids, it was a lot to think about. It hadn’t been a bad life though, just….different. The hardest part so far was getting used to Lauren once again being not quite two instead of five. Then there was the fact that while she’d been gone, McCoy had arrived. She was glad that he was here but she wondered how he’d feel about the news that she had given birth to Pike’s child especially since she had left for Sahara III without telling anyone goodbye. There was also the question of whether or not Spock had mentioned Lauren to him but she’d know that soon enough, she thought as she walked in with Lauren on her hip and spotted McCoy at a table. “Hey,” she said as she put the booster chair she’d grabbed on the way in and put Lauren in it, handing the little girl her sippy cup. “She can drink with us although that’s apple juice or what passes for apple juice here. So hi!” Christine sat down and smiled. “I have a kid.” McCoy’s somewhat grouchy demeanor was well known, but when he saw Christine come into the tavern, there was a genuine smile on his face. It had been a long time since he’d seen her, but she looked just the same as he remembered. Well, minus the toddler she held. That was new, but in the two weeks or so that he’d been here, he’d been caught up on the things he didn’t know. With everyone else gone, he and Spock had sought each others company more than once. The two of them couldn’t have been more different, but at least they were familiar, they were all each had left of home. At least until the others had come back. Hearing wasn’t the same as seeing, though, and he watched the pair in amazement. Motherhood suited Christine, he decided and her daughter was beautiful. “So, you do,” he nodded. “I still can hardly believe it, but it’s a good look for you.” She smiled. “Thank you. She’s my sunshine, I don’t know what I’d do without her.” Christine looked at him, happy to see him again. “You look good. I’m sorry I took off without saying goodbye, I’m assuming that Spock told you who Lauren’s father is. Even if he didn’t, you could pretty much guess just by looking at her.” Lauren was the spitting image of Christopher Pike with her mass of wavy brown hair that was already started to cause daily battles of will when trying to get her dressed. “I never really thought about having kids, I was married to Starfleet but now I can’t imagine not having her.” Spock had left a few things out, probably not thinking of them as important, and McCoy was surprised to see so much of his former commanding officer in the little girl. He hadn't wanted to assume, but it didn't take much to take the leap to who had fathered the girl. “Is she why you left?” he asked quietly, empathy all over his face rather than his trademark frown. Whether things had been serious with Pike or not - and he didn't think Christine was the type to be careless or casual - raising their child alone had to be tough. “Yeah, she was,” Christine said softly. “Christopher and I, it happened while I was working with him after the Narada. Once we realized it was a serious thing, we kept it quiet, we could both get into a lot of trouble. He didn’t worry about that as much as I did but Starfleet meant everything to him, I wasn’t going to be the reason that he had to give it up.” She reached over and gently smoothed Lauren’s hair, an automatic gesture and smiled at her daughter. “We had decided that we were going to come clean, he was seriously thinking about retiring and then he got the Enterprise back. The day that Khan attacked the meeting, the day that Chris was killed, was the day that I found out I was pregnant. We were supposed to have dinner and I was going to tell him. I never got that chance.” Christine reached for the chain around her neck and pulled out the Starfleet insignia and a pair of Admiral’s bars. “Jim took these off him and gave them to me at the Memorial Service. I had no idea that he knew, he said that no one had to tell him, he just knew from looking at the two of us.” She let the pendant drop and looked back at McCoy. “I wanted to go after Khan with all of you but I couldn’t. I knew that I couldn’t take any chances, the baby was all that I had of Christopher, I didn’t even get to tell him goodbye. They were looking for someone to go to Sahara III in the Outer Rim to run the Medical Clinic at the new base there. I signed up and left almost right away. I didn’t tell anyone from the Enterprise goodbye, I knew that if I saw any of you, I wouldn’t be able to go.” she sighed. “I know that it was ridiculous, that I shouldn’t have done it, I didn’t have to do this by myself but I was so screwed up…..then we came here and Jim has been amazing. He loves her to death and she adores him and Spock. Spock taught her how to sing Happy Birthday believe it or not so she could sing it to Jim. He ever lets her pull on his ears if you can imagine that. Sulu’s here too, did you know that? Lauren calls him ‘Hulu...it’s pretty funny.” McCoy nodded as he nursed his drink. He didn’t care that the relationship Christine had had with Admiral Pike had been against regulation. He could be a grump, but his heart went out to her at hearing about what she had gone through. They’d all felt the losses of that day. They’d all been angry enough to go after Khan, even if he’d tried to talk Jim out of the mission. Scotty had, too. Christine had lost so much more than any of them, though. He could barely imagine how devastated she must have been. “I’m so sorry, Christine,” he said, reaching over to give her hand a quick squeeze. “I’m sorry you went through that alone. I’m sorry you had to go through it at all.” Jim had told him a little of the story just before he'd come here to meet Christine, but it was different hearing it from her. Hearing about Spock teaching the little girl to sing, though, made him smile. He didn’t doubt those members of the crew who were here would have been here for her. “She’s adorable,” he said, still smiling a little. “I can just imagine how she’s wrapped everyone around her little finger.” “Oh she has. Jim adores her, he’s been very good to her.” she returned his squeeze. “It was tough but part of that I did to myself. I could have told someone, I know that none of you would have judged me and would have been supportive but I was so hurt and confused and I just ran.” Christine picked up her drink and took a sip. “I contacted Nyota a few times but I never mentioned Lauren. Just before I came here though I’d decided I was going back to San Francisco, my assignment was done and I was going to go home, Starfleet Medical had offered me a job but we never got that far because we ended up in a mountain.” McCoy shook his head. “I really can’t blame you there. It’s not worse than I did after my divorce.” He’d been a mess after everything had fallen apart. It had been a hell of a mess and he hadn’t done the best job of dealing. Eventually, he’d enlisted in Starfleet as his own version of running away. He could appreciate how Christine had felt, even if the situations were very different and even if he couldn’t understand exactly what she’d gone through. “Weird as it sounds, I’m glad you’re here. It’s nice to have someone to help me keep Jim in line,” he added. “Keeping Jim in line should be a full time job,” she laughed. “But he’s been great with Lauren, honestly it surprised me how good he is with kids. Or with her anyway, I haven’t seen him with anybody else’s kids.” Christine paused and looked at McCoy. “I’ve missed you, you know. It’ll be good to have you here in Medical. Not that the others aren’t good to work with, they are but they’re not you.” “That’s because Jim is just a big kid, himself,” he joked. For all his complaining, he loved the man and he wasn’t really surprised he’d be good with kids. Jim was good with people, in general, when he wasn’t busy pissing them off. Which he was also good at, sometimes. He was a handful, but McCoy wouldn’t trade him for anything. Not that he’d admit that to him. “I’ve missed you, too,” he admitted and he meant it. It had been too long since he had last seen her, let alone worked with her. It sounded weird to say you were glad someone was stuck here in post-apocalyptic hell with you, but he was. He was glad she was here, too. |