Who: John Watson, Leonard McCoy When: May 22ish Where: Irvine General What: Water Cooler Gossip Rating/Warnings: Low/None? Status: Complete!
McCoy was a little nervous. Watson was moving, Wilson was singing, Tessa was getting married, Joanna was moving in with him. Everything was changing. There was really only one constant friend in his life, and McCoy was a little nervous that something was going to disrupt that, too.
But anyway, he was sitting in the break room at the hospital, avoiding doing work for a few minutes so he could kick back and try to figure out how to text his daughter back on this new fangled phone.
Oi! He wasn’t moving yet! He just wanted to. Because a grown man living with two other grown men was getting tedious. John Watson just wanted a kitchen. A nice kitchen, with a little island. A place to drink tea like a civilized human being. Without things in his kitchen that should not have been there.
He was on a break, and so snuck off to the first place he knew the coffee might be most fresh. Watson was pleasantly surprised to find McCoy there. He grinned his greeting.
McCoy wasn’t sure how a medical doctor could live with those sorts of things in the kitchen. Well, he didn’t actually know about them, but if he did, he’d wonder what other sorts of things were growing in there.
Anyway, he gave a nod. Another grin. “Not you, too,” he said, sighing and refilling his coffee cup. The god damn phone was sitting, untouched, on the table.
“Me too what?” Watson rose his eyebrows into that half blank expression of his before moving to grab a cup of coffee from the counter.
“The grinning. Everyone around here’s grinning. It’s unnerving. This is a hospital, not Disneyland.” McCoy grumbled. Though, his heart wasn’t really in it. Actually, he was kinda happy that people were happy.
“Oh, it was just a hello,” Watson said, amused, even as he plopped down into the seat across from McCoy. “I assure you, there’s nothing for me to be exceptionally keen over, currently. Not like one of our other friends.”
“Have any idea what that’s about?” McCoy asked, moving back over to the table to sit down. “You wouldn’t believe what the nurses have been saying.” Unless Watson had heard said nurses, then of course he could believe it.
“Depends what they’re saying this week.” Sometimes Watson was a little concerned about just how good the nurses’ imaginations were. Maybe they were just bored? Who knew. He sipped his coffee, before giving a little shrug. “I think I have an idea, anyway. When matching it up with the rest of the gossip from a few months back. And his online posting.” Not that he was stalking. It was just hard not to notice things on the same thread you were responding to.
“...wow, you’re a stalker.” McCoy said, mock seriously. “How much do you know about his life? Is there something you’re not telling me, John?” He asked, unable to stop a little smirk from crossing his features. “I sure hope you’re in on the pool if you’ve been doing that. Put those stalker skills to good use, making a couple of bucks off of the water cooler gossips.”
“Godddd,” Watson said, looking aghast. “It’s not like that. The nurses just keep everyone up to--oh, shuttup.” He hid his amusement behind his cup of coffee for a moment, and then shook his head.
“Of course I’m in the pool. Quickest way to make a few hundred if you guess right.”
McCoy was grinning now. He lifted his own cup of coffee for a sip, then nodded. “Good luck. I hope you’re right, then.” He picked up his phone for a moment and started to fiddle with it again. “Do you know anything about these smart phones?”
“At least I hope he’s getting married. I don’t know what else it could be.” Watson: always second guessing. But not really.
He leaned forward though, looking at the phone. “...Yes. Are you -- do you not know how?” A pause, and Watson was looking very amused, indeed. “Do you need help with your telephone, Doctor McCoy, head of Surgery?”
“Maybe they’re buying a condo or adopting a kid, or something.” McCoy said, he honestly didn’t really care. He was secretly pleased they were happy, and didn’t really need to know the why or how. It wasn’t much his business?
“...I know how to use a phone, Watson,” McCoy added, nearly rolling his eyes. He was a little embarrassed, so it was making him snappy. He’d never been good with technology. “I want to put a specific ring tone on here for when Joanna calls. I just can’t figure out how.”
Watson shrugged at that, because frankly, McCoy could be just as right. But he’d stick with his original thought, as far as that betting pool went.
Wisely, he did not point out that most of the equipment in the hospital was more technologically challenging than a phone. “Mmhm,” he said, and picked up the terrorizing technology in question, fiddling with it. Amy would be proud -- one old guy schooling another in recent tech. “You already have the ring tone on here?”
“Yes.” McCoy said. He leaned in and showed the other doctor where he had the ring tone stored. He just wasn’t sure how to attach it to Joanna’s name, number, contact information? It was her favorite song, some pop song made by some poor, young singer who would probably end up abusing substances before her twentieth birthday.
Watson was secretly a music junkie, and so thought it prudent not to actually judge the music tone he was working with. Instead, he gave a half a nod and fiddles with it a bit more, half explaining as he went. "Edit the contact.... Click on that there. And there you have it."
"Ah!" McCoy said, pleased, as he heard the ring tone coming from his daughter's contact page, thingy. "It's her favorite band, so I thought that when she arrives in June I'd surprise her..." McCoy honestly had no idea if it was a band or a single singer. He was too busy for pop music, man. He listened to talk radio in his car.
"Thank you. She's gonna get a kick out of this, I assure you. I'm sure you'll see her around the hospital after she arrives. She likes hanging out in my office. Apparently the wi-fi is faster here?"
“It’s pretty quick here,” Watson agreed with a half smile. It was definitely nice for loading streaming videos anyway. Not that he did that at work. Come on now. “It’s no problem, happy to help where I can. Usually people think I’m too old for stuff like that.” He hid his grin behind a cup of coffee.
“You aren’t?” McCoy asked, breaking into a smirk himself. Though, probably for very different reasons. He thought he was old himself. Far too old for all this technology, even though he was probably younger than some of the people who invented it or worked on it.
Of course, the grin, even hid behind the coffee cup, didn’t go unnoticed.
“Oh, hush, you.” Watson actually stuck his tongue out before standing up. “Back to the rounds for me. Catch you later, I’m sure.”
“I’m sure,” McCoy said, giving the other man a grin.