Who: Watson and McCoy When: Lunchtime, after this conversation Where: Cafeteria What: Lunch Rating/Warnings: Low Status: Complete
McCoy headed down to the cafeteria not long after speaking with Watson on the Valarnet. He was hungry, having skipped over breakfast in lieu of a rather large cup of coffee this morning. It wasn’t like him to do so, but he was running late. He’d been up far too late the night before, catching up on some television show or another. Perhaps Downton Abby? Whatever, guilty pleasure. He wasn’t about to bring it up.
McCoy stepped into the cafeteria and glanced at the menu board for today’s specials. Normally they were fairly satisfying and healthy, and he liked the variety of just picking out the special and going with that. It kept things interesting.
Watson, on the other hand, had opted with a cobb salad with some sort of vinaigrette dressing -- along with a little brownie, as if he were a bit concerned that he might have been a bit too respectable without a sweet beside his otherwise healthy lunch.
“Dr. McCoy!” He greeted from across the room, once the Head of Surgery had gotten his lunch. He gestured, cheerily, to the seat across from his.
McCoy nodded, then headed straight for Dr. Watson’s table. He was carrying some sort of goulash on his tray. It looked like hell but it smelled fantastic. “Hello!” He said, sounding a little chipper. Unusually so, but hey. He’d been getting out more, and no one was singing, so that’s a plus.
He slipped into the chair. “Enjoying a music-free lunch?”
Dr. John Watson rolled his eyes at that, leaning back a little into his chair. “Yeah, I really am actually. It’s made me a bit flighty, I think, though.” He sipped at a little bottle of milk, and then shook his head. “I’m just waiting for the other shoe to drop. For someone to hum.”
“Every time I realize that the radio is playing, I feel a huge wave of relief.” McCoy said, smirking a bit, and then picked up a fork to start in on his food. “Keeping myself busy makes me slightly less paranoid, but only just.”
“Same,” agreed Watson, with a half bemused sort of smile. He hadn’t dealt well with the singing -- possibly, it was his roommate’s need for answers of all kinds rubbing off on him, but the truth was that now that it was all over, it was kind of funny in retrospect.
“Must have been something in the water. Glad it’s over.” McCoy said, then started in on his food. There were a lot of strange things going on in Orange County lately. That weird flu, the huge mushrooms, and the singing mess... the woman appearing in his condo? Bizarre. Things were getting weirder and weirder. And now he had the Enterprise. McCoy was a happy man, even though things were strange all around him.
“How are you settling in here at the hospital?” It’d been what... six or eight weeks since Watson joined the team. McCoy wanted to make sure he was settling in all right.
“So far so good,” Watson shrugged, but smiled. He did like his job, and he was glad to have had the chance to get it -- good thing he’d thought to volunteer his time during the Blue Flu, or else he might not have. Not that his credentials weren’t good. “The hours are a bit wonky, but I guess that happens to us lowly general practitioners.” Mostly, Watson just did a lot of clinic hours. It wasn’t the most exciting of jobs, but it was steady, usually easy work.
McCoy nodded. “I know how strange the hours can be.” He did his rotations in the ER and in Urgent Care. Those hours were all over the clock. Now his job was more of a nine-to-five, he got to make his own hours as Head of Surgery, though he was still there way more than was absolutely necessary. “It’s good to see that you’re enjoying it. I knew you’d make a good fit for this place.”
“It’s easier than the background I was trained for,” John admitted, shrugging. He’d been a doctor in the military. Digging bullets out of people was all well and good, but Watson had to admit he rather preferred writing out medicine ‘scripts for the common cold instead. He could get his adventure in elsewhere, after all. “But enough about work at work, right? How’s it going with you?”
“You mean there’s something to talk about besides work?” McCoy said with a chuckle. Actually, for the first time in a decade or so, he actually had things going on outside of work and his daughter. He was sort of dating three women, and had a space ship in orbit that he could visit at any time. Talk about life changes. “Things are... good.”
Watson rose an eyebrow at that, as if prompting for a little more to work with than all that. Good was good, but it wasn’t really conversation material. He and McCoy weren’t exactly best friends, but John did consider him a good friend with potential for being a better one.
McCoy gave a little chuckle, setting down his fork. “Sorry, sometimes it feels like I’ve forgotten what it’s like to interact with people who aren’t my patients.” Or Jim. The way McCoy interacted with Jim was a completely different matter. “...I’ve been... dating.” He said, his face twisting up into an almost confused expression. “It’s strange. But good, I guess.”
“Yeah?” Asked John, amusedly, as he finished off his salad, and then laid eyes on his brownie. He’d been waiting for this, oh yes he had. “Who’s the lucky lady? One of the nurses?”
“Oh. No.” McCoy shook his head. “One is a former patient of the hospital. One was a blind date, and another I met randomly on the street.”
“Quite a line up,” Watson said, raising his eyebrows in that comically almost-blank way of his. “Have a favorite picked out yet, or do you just like three-timing?”
“There’s one in the lead,” McCoy said, softly. He was still trying to sort out his feelings. “Lux is beautiful and smart and funny. She’s got a great personality. I feel really protective over Elizabeth. She was a patient here, though not one of mine. And Jane is an intellectual. She and I can talk about anything.” He shrugged gently. “I’ve never felt so... social.”
Oh! Well! Wasn’t that funny? John paused, midbrownie and rose his eyebrows yet again. “What really?” he asked, and there was a half laugh on his ips. “You know Lux -- the lady magician?” Okay, he supposed Lady in that sentence wasn’t really all that necessary.
"Yes, I do." McCoy paused. They hadn't been dating the same woman, had they? How very... sitcom. "She and I randomly bumped into each other on the street and hit it off. How do you know Lux?"
Well, dating would be putting it a little strongly. Watson had hung out with her a time or two, and they possibly flirted a little. About murder. It was a little strange, but the girl was fun. Probably that wasn’t the best thing to say to this other doctor, who was actually maybe dating her though. “Oh. Uhm -- “ he smiled then, shrugging. “I treated her employee here -- sprained ankle.”
“Dangerous line of work, that. Magic.” McCoy said. “Hopefully it wasn’t too serious of a sprained ankle.” He leaned back a little in his chair. “She puts on a really entertaining show. You should take some time to go see it.”
John finished off his brownie, licked chocolate from his fingers. “It wasn’t bad. He was up a week or so later. Fell off a ladder, I think. And -- Oh, yeah,” he said nodding and grinning. “I’ve seen it. Impressive, yeah?”
“Very.” McCoy finished the last of his lunch, then set his fork down and glanced at his watch. “I should be heading back. Surgery in an hour.” He gave Watson a nod, then picked up his tray and stood.
“Oh. Right.” Watson blinked, looked down at his tray and then stood as well. “Well -- I’ll have to catch you later, then.”
McCoy nodded, then tossed his trash into the trash can. “...we should do this more often.” He said, a final thought on the end of lunch. He turned to Watson. “Lunch, I mean. Checking in.” He added, then attempted a smile. McCoy didn’t do a whole lot of smiling, so it was a bit of a stretch. Looked a little funky.
It did, sort of. But it was okay, Watson got it. He rose his eyebrows up, amused, and gave a little nod. “We should. Well. I’m here all the time. Page me, I’ll sneak out of clinic.”
“I will.” The smile was a bit more genuine now. McCoy nodded. “I’ll see you soon. Don’t work too hard.” He said, then gave a little wave and headed out of the cafeteria to head back to his office. He didn’t have a whole lot of time before he had to prep for surgery.