leonard mccoy (adoctordamnit) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2013-03-19 20:37:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, jane foster, leonard mccoy |
Who: Jane Foster and Leonard McCoy
What: Jane and McCoy on their date
When: Valentine’s Day evening
Where: Some fancy restaurant in the OC?
Rating: G
Status: Complete!
Jane waited by the entrance of the restaurant Darcy had told her to meet her date at. She’d dressed up for the occasion, wearing one of a handful of dresses she actually owned; a simple design, dark blue with stars patterned all over it and a white shrug and clutch bag. She glanced at the watch on her wrist, her grandmother’s, and smoothed her dress down in front and behind self consciously. Three minutes to eight, plenty of time before she had to worry about being stood up.
She definitely wasn’t going to be stood up. McCoy arrived wearing a casual suit, and having foregone his shaving that morning, as he was told. Something about the stubble making him look... hot? Whatever, he was starting to think that marriage was driving Jim insane. And he’d argued with himself, and talked himself both in and out of this date about a dozen times since Jim had told him he’d signed him up for it.
He stepped over to the woman in the... well, the incredible dress... and tapped her gently on the shoulder. “...are you supposed to be meeting someone here tonight?”
“Uhmm...hi, yeah,” Jane smiled, holding her hand out in greeting. “I’m Jane Foster. You wouldn’t happen to be the ruggedly handsome, slightly grouchy doctor I’ve been told about, would you?” She joked, using Darcy’s exact words to her this afternoon. And he is really quite attractive, she thought to herself.
McCoy couldn’t help a soft chuckle. “...slightly grouchy, hmm? You’ve been talking to my patients, I take it?” He asked, holding a hand out to her. “McCoy. Leonard McCoy. My buddy Jim... set this up.” He said, though now he was fairly certain Jim’s wasn’t the only hand in making this arrangement happen.
“Nope, no patients, I swear,” she laughed. “My best friend Darcy was the one who plotted with Jim, he mentioned something about it in the Net post she put up,” she smiled. “Shall we?” She gestured to the restaurant’s entrance.
“Yes, let’s.” McCoy said, giving her a grin. He didn’t think he knew this Darcy person. Jim and Darcy must have known one another. Or met somehow. He hadn’t seen Darcy’s post on the internet, he’d been busy.
The two went inside, gave McCoy’s name, and were led straight away to a private table in the back of the restaurant. It was a very posh place, and McCoy was impressed. At least Jim could pick a nice restaurant. Even though it was rather busy on Valentine’s Day. He opened his menu once they were seated and looked over the top of it at his date. “What are you interested in?”
“Me? Oh, uhh...I’m an astrophysicist,” she told him with a shy smile, tucking her fringe behind her ear. “But I enjoying painting too, a little something I can thank my grandmother for,” she gave a small shrug, looking down at her menu, then glancing up to ask her own question. “How about you?”
McCoy chuckled softly. “I meant, what are you interested in on the menu.” He said, gently. “But uh... that’s good to know about the painting.” He winked, then glanced down at the menu. “I’m Head of Surgery at Irvine General. I like reading, and I spend a lot of time on Skype with my daughter. She lives on the East Coast with her mother.” He paused. “And I think I’ll have the chicken special.”
“Oh!” Jane blushed, hiding a little behind her menu as she laughed at her own mistake. “Sorry,” she smiled. “What can I say, I love my science,” she shrugged. “Uhh...I think I’ll...have the chicken caesar salad, please,” she told him, placing her menu down on the table and sitting back in her seat. “So uh...you have a daughter, that’s cool,” Jane reached out to pour herself a glass of water from the jug on the table. “What’s her name?”
“That’s okay.” Jim was amused. Pleased, actually. He nodded once, then turned to the waiter and ordered for them. And some wine for the table. It sounded like a very nice meal
“Joanna. She’s eight.” He said, nodding again. “She’s out here a few times each year, but it’s a shame I don’t get to see her more often.”
“Sorry to hear that,” she told him genuinely. “You sound like you miss her a lot, what happened?” Then clamped her hand over her mouth as she realised she’d done it again. “I’m...really sorry! Sometimes my mouth gets ahead of my brain, please,” she waved her hand in front of her as if striking something from the record. “Ignore that, and...just, carry on like normal. So a surgeon you say? Head surgeon no less...very impressive,” she tried her hardest to smoothly change subject, taking a series of sips from her water, but it had never really been her forté.
McCoy chuckled and shook his head. “It’s all right. Her mother and I divorced. It wasn’t pretty. It was a long time ago, though, and things are better now than they were. That’s for sure.” He knew that she was just being curious, and it was endearing. The babbling was endearing.
“Enough about me. Tell me about you.” He said, using a cliche as the waiter brought them each out a glass of wine.
“Oh god, me?” She grimaced a little, smiling up at the waiter as he placed the wine glass in front of her. “Umm...let’s see...I’m studying for my PhD at Irvine university under Professor Carter, I have an apartment not too far away from the university, I paint...” she tried to think of what else she could tell him. “To be honest most of my time these days is taken up with my degree work,” she tipped a smile. “In fact, serendipitously, Mr Stark has offered me an open ended internship with his company,” she grinned proudly. She still couldn’t quite believe it herself and she figured the more people she told the more real it would become...it hadn’t worked so far.
“Wow. That’s great.” McCoy said with a nod. “He’s done some great things for the community, Tony Stark. I’m pretty impressed every time his name is mentioned.” That was saying a lot. McCoy didn’t normally gush over people. He had a lot of admiration for Stark.
“What will you be doing for your internship?”
“He really is, I mean I was actually there to pick up my friend for lunch, saw someone doing the math all wonky, he saw me, we talked for about five minutes and he offered it to me! Well, that and access to his particle accelerator,” she laughed. “I uhh...I don’t know to be honest,” Jane admitted shyly. “We didn’t get round to talking about specifics,” she shrugged with a little smile. “I was a little too blown away to think beyond ‘Oh my god, wow!’”
“It’s pretty great.” McCoy responded. “Is that where you want to work? Playing with the particle accelerator, that sounds like fun.” He said, though he wasn’t sure what that was exactly or what it did. He could understand hospital machinery, but some of the other sciences were beyond him.
“Well from the sounds of it, it’s a pretty awesome workplace,” Jane shrugged. “It has a huge science division and it seems like I could research pretty much whatever I want...and my best friend works there, gotta be a plus, right?” She joked, playing with the stem of her wine glass. “I wouldn’t exactly call it...fun, at least not for normal people. Just fascinating mostly, finding what we’re made of, how it all works together, y’know?” She shook her head with an embarrassed smile, knowing that if she didn’t stop herself she could very easily start gushing about the subject. “Sorry, I get carried away, how about you? Did you always want to be a doctor?”
“Who’s your best friend?” McCoy asked, not that he would have known who it was. He might, though. Working for as long as he did at the hospital meant he met and got to know a rather random sampling of people. “No no, it’s okay. I like hearing about it.” McCoy said, shaking his head.
“I think so. Since the end of high school at least.” He said. “As long as I’ve known I had to grow up some day.”
“Her name’s Darcy Lewis, she’s a student with me at UCI,” Jane told him, smiling as she picked up her wine glass. “Oh I won’t bore you with all my physics chatter, its not everyone’s cup of tea,” she gave a little shrug. “That’s pretty much like me, I’ve always been fascinated with the stars, dad got me a telescope when I was four,” she smiled at the memory before taking a drink.
“I’ve always looked to the stars with interest. But it makes me feel... really small. Insignificant.” He didn’t want to mention that in his dreams he flew around in a space ship. That was just too weird.
“Are you close with your father?” He asked, reaching for his own glass.
“I uhh...I was,” Jane smiled tightly. “He and my mother were killed in a car crash when I was thirteen,” she told him quietly, playing with the stem of her glass again. She didn’t mind telling people if they asked, she had grieved for them long ago, mostly throwing herself into her studies, but she doubted the hurt of not having them there as she grew up would ever truly fade.
“Oh, I’m so sorry.” McCoy said, his face falling a bit. He felt a bit guilty for bringing it up, which was silly. That was simply first date conversation starter. How could he have known?
“That’s ok,” she smiled at him across the table, giving a little shrug as she continued. “I don’t mind talking about them, they were pretty influential on me after all. Dad with his love of science and mum with her love of the arts. My aunt and uncle looked after me until I was 16 and while they didn’t quite get me, they understood my passion. They own a farm, so y’know, gotta be pretty dedicated,” she laughed.
McCoy paused. “Sounds kinda... I dunno.” He was trying to put it into words without sounding lame. It sounded like Spider-Man’s backstory. Or Clark Kent. Or Luke Skywalker. But he didn’t want to sound like a nerd. “I’m glad that they were so supportive of you. How was it on the farm?”
“Hard work,” Jane told him with a little smile. “They’re not really sit back and watch the world go by people, y’know? Did me good I think, got me through my degrees so can’t really complain,” she shrugged, taking a sip of her wine again. “How about you? What can be said of Dr McCoy’s past?” she teased gently.
McCoy gave a little laugh. “Nothing. I mean, I’m an open book. I grew up in the South, went to college on the East Coast, got married, moved out here... had a baby, got divorced... that’s all there is to it, really.” He was a simple guy. “I’m more interested in you.” He said, with a hint of flirtation on his voice.
“I don’t know about open book, you seem fairly...enigmatic,” she smiled. “Besides, yours sounds like a much better story than mine. Mine’s pretty sad and dull I reckon,” Jane looked down at her fingers still playing with the glass’ stem. “Parents died when I was thirteen, grew up on a farm with my aunt and uncle, studied, got a degree, studied, got a masters and studied for my PhD, which pretty much brings me up to date,” Jane told him modestly, she didn’t like to talk herself up too much, it wasn’t in her nature.
McCoy gave a laugh. “Enigmatic? Really?” He shook his head a little. He’d never thought himself to be mysterious in the slightest. But that could work in his favor, right? ‘Tall, dark and handsome’ or whatever the saying went.
“Up to this blind date.” McCoy teased. Though, it was a really lame joke, and he winced at his own lameness.
Jane laughed, it was a bad joke, but she laughed easily when she was nervous. “So umm...tell me about your daughter...that is if you don’t mind,” she added quickly, her natural curiosity leading her.
“Not at all.” McCoy said, but was interrupted when the food was set down in front of them on the table. It looked absolutely delicious. McCoy would have to pester Jim about his choice of restaurant. This place was great.
“So, she’s eight.” McCoy said, nodding. “She’s great. We spend Christmases together, and some time during the summer. She’s really really smart, and loves to give her mother a hard time. A girl after my own heart.” He teased, then started in on his food.
“Ah, so you’re a bit of a troublemaker then?” Jane teased back as she started tucking into her delicious looking meal.
McCoy grinned. “You could say that. Especially where the ex is concerned.” He was only half teasing. “I like a good joke as much as the next guy,” he added, talking between bites. “My friend Jim--the one who set me up for tonight--he’s a bit of a joker. I guess I picked things up from him.”
“There’s nothing wrong with being a bit of a joker I suppose,” Jane gave a little shrug. “So tell me about your work.”
“My work? It’s a lot of day-in, day-out kind of stuff.” McCoy was pretty modest about his work. “I like that I’m able to go in every day and help people. Save lives. Though a lot of what I do is wrapped up in paperwork and red tape.”
“That’s really cool,” Jane smiled at him. “What got you into it?”
“Into medicine? I don’t know. I’ve always been interested with the way the human body works. When I realized that I wasn’t terrified of blood and wouldn’t mind cutting people open, I figured surgery was probably the way to go. I could help people, make a good wage, and use my brain muscles as well as my dexterity.” He said, wondering by the end if those words worked as well out loud as they did in his head.
Jane grinned at his innuendo, dipping her chin and sipping her wine. “Hows uh...hows your meal?” she waved at his plate with her fork.
“It’s good.” McCoy said. “I should have known that Jim would set us up in a good place.” He said, giving her a smile. “How’s yours?”
“It’s uh...it’s good thanks,” she smiled, poking at her food a little. She almost always lost her appetite when she was nervous, and dates made her nervous (particularly when they were blind ones). Which explained why her track record with men was fairly appalling.
McCoy nodded. “...We don’t have to stay here, you know.” He said, softly. “We could... go for a walk, or something.” He could tell she was nervous, and he didn’t blame her. Blind dates were nerve-wracking.
“Sorry,” Jane felt guilty, she didn’t realise she had been acting ‘off’. “I didn’t mean to be rude, I just...I get really nervous on dates,” she gave an awkward half-smile and a shrug.
“It’s okay.” Mccoy said, giving her a smile. She was cute, he couldn’t deny it. “Let’s get out of here.” He said, standing from his place and setting his napkin on the table. He reached a hand out for hers.
“We can go for a walk, get some ice cream.”
Jane hesitated for a second, probably gaping at him like a fish. You know what...that sounds like a great idea, Jane thought to herself, giving herself a mental slap before reaching out for his hands. She owed it to herself to try and move on, past Thor, and what better way than a walk under the stars with her attractive date.