InsaneJournal

It had been 53 days since the first traveler, out of her time and place, arrived in the 23rd century, and about 50 days since she came on board the Enterprise. Since then, more had arrived, and Jim Kirk had no idea about the how or the why. Hell, Starfleet and the Federation didn't have any idea of the how or the why. Sure, there was a nebula and a rift that's been documented, but that was about as much of the 'how' as they had put together so far.

Truthfully, Jim liked having the travelers on board the Enterprise. It mixed things up. It gave him new people to meet, new faces to see. He even thought it might be one of those things that helped them all out during their endless days and nights of space travel.

He sat on one of the long sofas in the senior staff lounge off of the bridge, bent over Scotty's latest engineering report, and sipped from a mug steaming with hot coffee. He looked up when the doors slid open and Bones walked in. "Shouldn't you be in the med bay?" Kirk teased, an eyebrow up.

Leonard was tired. Tired of checking up on more people, tired of people having opinions, tired of all the new faces everywhere.

Sure, this is exactly what the Federation was about. What the Enterprise's mission was all about. Seek life, explore civilizations, blah blah blah, etc. etc. That was all well and good, and naturally these travelers qualified, even if not quite what they expected. But did they have to live on the Enterprise? Did they have to be clogging up his system, destroying his routine? Why couldn't they destroy Yorktown instead? They hadn't had any excitement in a couple of months.

He entered the senior staff lounge and ignored Jim, just taking the seat beside him. "I needed a break. You have any idea how many physicals I've done? So many people treated by their damn ancient medicine and barbaric techniques. It's infuriating." He folded his arms and harrumphed louder than intended.

Jim usually knew when it was time to take a break from reports and duty rosters, and Bones griping and complaining was definitely that time. He pushed his PADD aside and sat back, stretching an arm out across the back of the sofa. "Didn't you just go on duty?" Jim's cheek twitched and he hid his grin behind his coffee mug.

"Hey, at least there's no outbreak of Flouridian flu like there was two months ago," he pointed out. "I mean, I'd take ancient medicine and barbaric techniques over bulbous hives and spewing blue pus any day."

"Those are at least interesting." Disgusting, yes, Leonard had to admit, but still interesting. "Some of these people have heart murmurs, Jim. Heart murmurs. We fixed those kind of heart irregularities ages ago. And they're boring."

He looked around for a drink. He inspected Jim's cup and turned his nose up at the coffee and instead slipped his flask out of his back pocket instead.

Jim was clearly amused and ready to talk, but Leonard wasn't sure what about. These people weren't going anywhere. More were probably coming. Chatting about it wasn't going to make his med bay normal again. "I am on duty, I just decided right now I needed to be on call duty rather than physically present duty."

"Well, at least you can be the hero doctor to fix those outdated heart murmurs and give all of them a better quality of life," Jim said very seriously, though he had to press his tongue against the inside of his cheek to keep himself in check. He raised an eyebrow at the flask but didn't comment on it. As long as Bones did his job - and he always did his job, even amid the hours of groaning and complaining - then it wasn't a problem. "I'm sure your medical staff is up for the challenge of being on their own."

He crossed his ankle over his knee and tilted his head to the side. "Answer me a question, will you, Bones? These people - these travelers that we've opened up the Enterprise to - would you consider them members of the crew or simply ... guests?"

"Hero doctor. Only stupid starship captains get to be heroes. The rest of us are just your good looking co-stars." He chuckled at that. "My staff is fine, yes. And no one has had something life threatening in at least a week."

As Jim continued talking, Leonard raised an eyebrow at him and shook his head back and forth. "They are not crew. Don't start thinking about them like crew. Guests only. We get into enough trouble as it is without making people who haven't been through the academy crew members."

He was actually very afraid of where Jim was going with that comment.

Jim shrugged a little nonchalantly. "Well, I don't know. That was some fast and fancy surgery you did there on Mr. Stark when he showed up. He probably would have died otherwise, and especially back in his own time, don't you think?

His coffee was getting cold, so he stood up and walked over to the wall where he pressed a button to open the food panel. He set the mug in and heated it again. "I just meant, hypothetically, if they aren't members of the crew -" Excepting, of course, the ones who went through the training to work as enlisted officers. "- then there wouldn't be any reason to frown about ... illicit assignations, yes?" Jim glanced back at Bones over his shoulder, his eyebrows up innocently and a smirk tugging at his lips.

"Ah, now Mr. Stark, he was an exception," Leonard said as he leaned forward. "His own ingenuity in keeping his body alive is remarkable. That was a pleasure to work with him." He liked his attitude, too. He had the kind of attitude and presence that he found refreshing.

Leonard looked across the room at his best friend and grinned out of the corner of his mouth. Okay, maybe not that refreshing.

As he listened to Jim's next comment, any attempt he made to hide his groan failed miserably. "Jim, it must be exhausting, trying to run a ship with that blood rushing away from your head all the time."

While not as fascinated as Bones was about Tony Stark, he did appreciate what the man had done and appreciated also what McCoy had done to help him when he showed up here. He took his mug of now-hotter coffee back to the sofa and sat down. He gave McCoy a look. "I'm just saying," he said, "that you know my policy about mingling with the crew, but that this could be an opportunity, that's all. For all of us." Though it did occur to him that he might have to take that into consideration if things got a little too out of hand.

Leonard sighed and had to admit, Jim had a point. With the exception. Of Yorktown, leave was a pretty rare thing, and the crew got - antsy. "I think it could end catastrophically, but you're probably on to something."

"Of course it could. Anything has the possibility to end catastrophically," Jim posited. "But the fact remains that maybe we ought to have some kind of policy in place, either way. Just in case." Mostly for him. If he had a rule, even a self-imposed one, it would do better for himself than not having a rule at all.

"You raise a good point. No telling when Spock next upsets Uhura and he turns sex-crazed with anything that moves."

He grinned and got up to get of water, instead of taking another swig from his glass. "So what are you thinking, to help keep Spock in check, of course."

Yeah, because this was definitely all about Spock and Uhura. "I still can't quite figure out of they ever have sex," Jim said, his nose twitching and his face scrunching up at the thought. He shook his head, shaking any completely unwanted images from his mind. "I'm not thinking anything just yet," he continued. "But maybe it just needs to be the same policy we already have for the crew with relationships. You know, no direct reports, no same department, on and on."

Leonard chuckled and shook his head. "I don't want to know."

He sat back down with a sigh and considered Jim's question seriously. "I don't totally understand how that would work, especially if these travelers aren't necessarily taking on jobs on the ship."

"Some of them are, though. Sure, they're not officially Starfleet, but they're considered members of the Federation and they're pulling their weight." He shrugged.

"That's true." He swirled his water around in his glass and shrugged. "I don't see a problem with it. I don't see myself partaking, but clearly you already have eyes on someone. I applaud your desire to control yourself."

He shook his head. "No, I don't have my eye on anyone," Jim admitted. "But I don't want to close out all of my options either. And neither should you, Bones."

Leonard rolled his eyes and scoffed. "If you're going to start talking like that, I'm going back where I belong." In truth, he wasn't even sure the last time he'd even considered pursuing something. His wife had burned him so badly that he - well, it was difficult to find the desire to take a chance.

Jim laughed at that and grinned behind his coffee mug. "Suit yourself, Bones," he said. He left his mug and the crew reports on the table when he stood up to stretch. He clapped a hand down on his friend's shoulder. "I've got to get out onto the bridge and make sure Mr. Sulu hasn't driven us into anything messy." Even though they both knew that wasn't the case. He glanced back at McCoy. "Just consider it," he said. "It doesn't have to be a commitment. Hell, when have you even seen me pursue a commitment. Just - a little bit of fun. Don't you want more fun in your life?"

Leonard gave him a side eye and shook his head. "Our lives are far too interesting to need anything like fun in them."

But, he did crack a smile. "You know Sulu drives into messy things for fun when we're not looking. I'll go make sure my team is doing their jobs." But, he knew they were. "Try and be productive for once, will you?"

Jim made a show of pretending to look offended. "When am I ever not productive?" he asked incredulously, shaking his head as he headed out the door and to the bridge.