Who: Elizabeth Weir and Leonard McCoy When: Backdated slightly to around her birthday (May.. 21) Where: Out to dinner What: Birthday Celebrations Rating/Warnings: Low/None, some gentle kissing. ^__^ Status: Complete!
Leonard McCoy wasn’t really sure what was going on with his social life. He’d been out with a number of girls lately, but it seemed like things would get in the way. He’d lose track or interest, or something else would come up and make him feel a little less like he even should be dating.
But it was Elizabeth’s birthday, and he actually liked her. He’d picked her up in his rather expensive car, and brought her with him to a restaurant by the boardwalk. He figured they could eat, then go for a walk along the boardwalk. Possibly go on a roller coaster or play some of the carnival games. It was a beautiful night out, and the beach hopefully wouldn’t be too crowded.
Elizabeth was thrilled. She had been picked up by an extremely dashing man in a beautiful car and spirited away to a picturesque coast for her birthday. She hadn’t been treated like this in years. She followed Leonard along the boardwalk, not knowing where he was leading her but trusting him implicitly.
“Dinner first? I take it you’re hungry.” McCoy said, offering her his arm to lead her into the restaurant. It was right on the water, and looked like a dream. “This is another place that my friend Jim suggested.” Of course, Jim had suggested the place ‘to get into any woman’s pants’... so McCoy wasn’t really sure what it was all going to entail.
Elizabeth took his arm, smiling demurely. “Dinner sounds wonderful, and this restaurant looks amazing! Remind me to thank this ‘Jim’ when I meet him,” she joked. “I hope there’s a walk in the moonlight in my future too though,” she pressed closer to his side. “It’s so beautiful out there.”
McCoy chuckled. “I’ll make sure to pass along your thanks.” He didn’t mind the cuddling. She was sweet. “Well, I don’t think I can say no to a moonlight walk. The beach is just outside. There’s the pier, the boardwalk, not too far from here.” He commented, then pulled open the door and ushered her inside.
She smiled her thanks at him and moved into the restaurant, turning to him as he entered. She let him guide them into the restaurant, not knowing if they had reservations and quite content to watch him as he got them situated.
The host led them to a table in the back where they were seated right away. McCoy pulled out Elizabeth’s chair and helped her into her seat before taking his own and picking up his menu. “Fish?” He asked, glancing over it to look at her. “You don’t have fish allergies, do you?”
Elizabeth thanked him as he pulled out her seat for her and laughed as she picked up her menu. "No, thankfully I do not, although it must be said, even if I were, there's no-one else's hands I'd rather be in," she gave him a quick wink and a cheeky grin before pretending to innocently look over the menu.
McCoy chuckled. Well, he’d certainly know what to do should anyone in the restaurant go into anaphylactic shock. He decided on the Sea Bass, and then closed his menu. They were right on the beach, really, with heat lamps over the patio area. The windows were open, and people were seated on the patio. It was a gorgeous night for it, too. Clear but not cold. The moon was reflecting off the ocean.
“Did you have a good birthday?” He asked. “I wasn’t sure what to get you.”
“It was a good day, thank you,” she nodded and put the menu down, having decided on the grilled salmon salad. Sam had managed to persuade her to take the day off work and relax, presenting her with a book on the history of the UN and a box set of Monty Python dvds after making her a wonderful breakfast in bed, with some delicious coffee. “Sam was very sweet, breakfast in bed, dvds and a new book with my favourite coffee too,” she smiled, rubbing her wrists. “And now this...a girl could learn to love this sort of thing,” she beamed at him. This place really was amazing, so very picturesque and Elizabeth couldn’t wait to head out for a walk in the moonlight and maybe along the pier with her handsome date. “Besides, you don’t need to get me anything,” she told him. “I’m here with you, that’s more than enough,” she admitted shyly, feeling a faint blush rise in her cheeks.
For a moment McCoy wondered if Sam was her friend Sam, or if McCoy was barking up the wrong tree. Did she have a live-in, romantic-in-nature Sam-shaped person? But then it clicked. Her friend. He’d seen her at the hospital, they’d talked about her before. “Well, I got you something, anyway.” He said, then pulled a package out of his pocket. Inside was a rare edition of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. He passed it across the table to her.
Elizabeth couldn't help but be thrilled that he had thought of her and smiled at him across the table as she took the package from his hand. "Thank you, you really didn't have to," she told him quietly before setting to work on unwrapping the gift. She peeled the layers apart, careful not the rip the paper, until she revealed a beautiful edition of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. She covered her mouth in shock, this must have cost him a lot, she could tell from the quality of the cover. She looked up at him, tears springing to her eyes at his thoughtful present. "Leonard, this is incredible!" she choked out. "Thank you!" She leaned across the table, cupped his cheek and pressed a long, gentle kiss to his other cheek, which actually turned out to be more the corner of his mouth. "I don't know what to say..." she shook her head as she sat back down looking at the book again with her hand on her chest.
After a little laugh, and a brief moment wondering if she was expecting a return kiss, "Thank you is enough," McCoy responded. He was smiling warmly, watching her with the gift. "I just thought it'd be rude to show up empty handed."
"I..." she shook her head in amazement. "Thank you!" she told him, unable to stop the grin on her face. She couldn't help but wonder what it meant though, and she reminded herself to just enjoy the moment before she thought about any repercussions. She ran her hand over the cover reverently, her bottom lip between her teeth, she couldn't wait to read it!
“You’re very welcome.”
A moment later, the waiter came by and filled their water glasses. He asked if they needed more time. McCoy glanced at Elizabeth, then shook his head. He ordered the Sea Bass and a bottle of wine, then waited for her to place her own order.
Elizabeth glanced up at the waiter and gave her order, after which the waiter left their table. "So, what’s been happening in your life?" she asked, running her fingers absently over the book cover as she looked up at him.
“Honestly, there’s not much to report. Joanna will be here in mid-June, so I’ve been making plans and contacting some people to help support her decision to spend the school year out here in California.” He said, leaning back a bit in his chair. “Other than that, it’s all be normal for me. Boring.”
“Are you excited?” Elizabeth asked as the waiter arrived with their wine and poured out two glasses for them.
McCoy nodded a bit, then lifted his glass for a sip. It was good wine. “I am. I’m a little terrified, though. I’m nervous she’s going to hate living with me and want to go back to her mother.”
Elizabeth smiled sympathetically, it must be a complicated feeling and it made her want to reach across the table and comfort him with a hand on his, but she wasn't sure how he'd react. She kept her hands busy by taking a sip of her own wine. "You'll be great," she smiled. "You're intelligent, kind and caring, what more could a girl ask for?" she said, belatedly realizing the unintentional double meaning of her words with a little smile. "Just talk to her, make her feel confident that if she has a problem she can come to you," she said, she didn't have children of her own, but communication was always key to good relationships in her diplomatic experience. "But don't go all over-bearing daddy bear on her, coz she'll just go and hang out behind the bike sheds with the jocks and cheerleaders," she teased with a grin, she'd been a young girl once too after all.
McCoy chuckled. “Did you go hang out behind the sheds with the jocks and cheerleaders?” He asked. His tone was playful, though, far from accusatory. He was suddenly trying to imagine what she was like back in middle school or high school. Back when she was a teenager. He, on the other hand, was a bit of a rebel. Too smart for his own good.
"Well," Elizabeth tilted her head to consider, still with her wine in her hand. "Let's put it this way...there was a time when I wasn't focussing all my energies on my school work," she winked at him before taking a sip. Truth be told, the year after her father had died had been hard on her and her mother and as her mother tried to keep the discipline her father had brought to the house, Elizabeth had rebelled. That was until she and her friends had been hauled up in front of the principal for getting caught smoking, luckily she hadn't been in on the 'harder stuff'. The principal recognised her potential and gave her a second chance, which she hadn't squandered. "It was fun though," she grinned at him. She pondered Leonard as a teenager, eyes running over his face as she tried to imagine. "What about you? Naughty or nice?" she grinned.
“Oh, a little of each, I suppose.” McCoy said, giving a gentle shrug. Mostly naughty, really. As brilliant as he was, he was mostly bored with his small hometown. “Got nicer as the years went by.” His ex-wife used words like ‘boring’ and ‘vanilla’ to describe him. “It’s hard to be naughty when medical school and residency takes up so much of your time.”
“Oh I’m sure you’ve got your stories,” Elizabeth grinned, putting her glass down as their meals arrived at the table. “You can’t tell me that nothing saucy ever happened in the cubicles on your breaks,” she teased. She’d never told anyone before, but she had a bit of a thing for...intimacies in unconventional places, something most people wouldn’t expect from someone as restrained as Elizabeth was like to be. The escapade with an older student in her office last year was a prime example and she hadn’t been able to keep the grin off her face for weeks afterwards. In fact just thinking about it now made her smile, and she couldn’t help but wonder if Leonard would be up for such an adventure too.
“A few, maybe.” McCoy said, smirking a bit. “I kept things a bit less saucy than you might imagine.” He leaned back a little in his chair, lifting his wine glass for a sip. “Also, I got married fairly young.” There was some joke in there about a married man having no sex, but he wasn’t sure what it was. Or if this was the time and place to say it. “That sort of takes the fun out of some things.” Most things, actually.
"Oh poor puppy," she teased. "Guess you've got some catching up to do then," she arched an eyebrow and grinned at him, sipping her wine before starting on her meal.
The meal was wonderful. The wine was delicious. McCoy was very much enjoying himself tonight, and really hoped that she was having a good birthday dinner. The sun continued to set as they ate and drank, and by the time they finished their meal, it was lower than the horizon. Once the check was settled, McCoy climbed up out of his chair and offered his arm to her. “Time for that walk on the beach?”
Elizabeth grinned up at him, rising from her own seat and grabbing her clutch bag in one hand before taking his arm with her other. “Why thank you sir, I’d be delighted,” she pressed closer to his side, the air off the sea chillier than when they had arrived.
As they made it down to the beach, Elizabeth realized there was a slight problem and halted them before they made it onto the sand. “Just a sec,” she told him and fished out the strap hidden on the inside of her bag and looped it over her shoulder across her body then reached out to rest a hand on his arm as she leant down and slipped her heels off. She laughed as she saw the look on his face, then looped her arm in his again and encouraged him to keep walking, her heels hanging on the fingers of her other hand. “What? A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do,” she joked, encouraging him to walk again. “Thank you, tonight has been wonderful,” she smiled up at him, only then realising just how closely she was pressed against him. As her breath caught, she looked away, feeling heat rising in her cheeks.
McCoy was inspired. He grinned, then bent down and slipped his own shoes off, and turned up his slacks a couple of rolls so they wouldn’t get ruined by the wet sand. He held his shoes in his free hand, and offered her his arm again.
“Well, I couldn’t have you being sad and alone on your birthday,” he said, only partially teasing. Truth was, he was having a lovely night tonight, too.
She pursed her lips and gave him a mini-glare before grabbing his hand and pulling him to the water’s edge while she laughed. “Well, then I should probably reward my white knight for saving me from an evening alone with my friends Ben and Jerry,” she flirted, burying her toes in the sand as she stood there in front of him. She really enjoyed being with Leonard, but she wondered where they were going in this and despite how much she wanted to move them forward, she almost archaically wanted the move to come from him.
“Oh?” Leonard let himself be pulled, grinning softly. There was something about the way she laughed, the way she flirted. He raised an eyebrow, one arm slowly and cautiously snaking down around her waist. He was taking this super slow, cautious to let himself get too interested, too involved. The last time he’d done that, it bit him. And the time before... well, now she’s an ex-wife. “Who are these guys? My competition? I’m better looking than them, right?” He asked, playfully, drawing her in closer.
Elizabeth felt relief flood her body as he pulled her closer. She smiled up at him as their bodies rested together and her free hand ran up his arm to rest against the back of his neck, thumb idly rubbing back and forth. She loved making him smile, and the eyebrow? Well, when he raised it she almost lost her knees from under her. "You don't need to worry," she told him. "Ben's cold and Jerry's bad for my health," she joked. "Besides," she stepped in a little closer, eyes flicking down to his lips with a grin then back up. "You're far more attractive than both of them put together," she murmured, reaching up to gently brush her lips against his.
Her assessment of his competition made McCoy chuckle softly. He thought she had a wonderful sense of humor. And she was downright adorable. As she leaned in, he leaned in as well, meeting her gentle kiss. He let it deepen, pushing back against her just enough to let her know he was there, but not so much as to overpower her in any way. He’d failed with women so many times before, he didn’t want to do it again.
Elizabeth’s breath caught as she felt his lips moving against hers. She smiled against his lips, sighing happily as they started to gently sway on the spot, barely moving in the fading light as they kissed gently. She stroked the skin of his neck just along his hairline with her thumb, gently holding him to her. He was amazing; intelligent, thoughtful, funny, gorgeous...and a great kisser to top it all off.
What started as a gentle, tentative kiss turned into something a little more hungry, a little more emotional. McCoy’s hands came up to cup the sides of her face, her neck, holding her there against him as he kissed her. She was beautiful, intelligent, with a great sense of humor. He really, really liked her. He just didn’t want to fuck it all up again.
Elizabeth felt her breath leave her when he framed her face with his hands. She let him deepen their kiss, moaning softly as his soft lips moved against hers. Her hand skimmed down his neck, onto his chest and she curled her fingers into his shirt, not wanting this beautiful moment to end.
It’d been a while since he’d kissed someone. It’d been even longer since he’d... well. His arms wrapped around her, pulling her in against him as he kissed her. The gentle kiss was gone now, and he was snogging her with hunger. Reigning it in was incredibly difficult, but after a couple of minutes he had to. He didn’t want to mess this up, didn’t want to scare her away or make her think he was only after... He tapped one final kiss against her lips then pulled back a bit. “How about that walk?”