#nursesorders

         Enchanting. That was precisely the word Christine would have used to describe Beziar. Positively enchanting. He was never anything as he seemed; a strong, brutish type man on the surface, but a compassionate, gentle soul of poetic proportion beneath. A careful heart in the chest of a fearsome beast. She was only reminded of that again as they stumbled in the dim light of her cabin and fell, laughingly, onto her bed.

         “I know, I know–” Christine muffled his warning with breathless kisses. “It would be– easier if you weren’t so tall.”

         With surprising ease for someone so slight, she pushed him onto his back and fell after him. It would have been sexy if her foot hadn’t also caught on his leg. With a startled squeak, Christine made a clumsy effort to catch herself… and promptly managed to roll them both to the floor with athud.

         There was a moment of stunned silence, pale blue eyes staring wide-eyed at dark blue. Then, quietly at first, Christine began giggling again.

         “Oh my god–” She covered her mouth to stifle herself. “D-Did I really just do that…?”

As usual, Pike had angered the wrong person. The abrasive bastard he was. And who’s job was it to save him? Number One as always. Even if she hadn’t been his first officer, she would have moved galaxies for him. They were such a perfect unit, both personally and professionally. Those lines never crossed. That is, until reports came in from all over Prairie. 

The planet was already destroying itself well before Number One had fired on a dilithium deposit, but that didn’t matter. What mattered was her sister was dead. All One had left in life was Number Two, her twin Leighton. Their family had all perished when Ilyria was destroyed bad radicals. Only the twins had survived.

One had felt Leighton’s death even before the report came. At the helm, her shoulders suddenly slumped and tears stung her eyes. Blindly, she’d stood and stumbled off the bridge without a word to anyone.

“Spock, take over,” Pike commanded and the Vulcan hurried over to the vacated seat. “Tyler, you have the conn.”

Then he’d hurried after One, but not before Garrison began reading names of those deceased. “Damn,” Pike muttered when her heard Leighton’s name. Impatiently, he pressed for the turbolift again. “Spock, take us home,” he gave one more command before exiting to soothe Number One.

Once on Earth, Number One had insisted upon speaking to her niece herself. She felt awful for the situation and blamed herself for what happened. Pressing the button on Christine’s door, One waited with her head bowed and hands behind her back.

    words    surprise    even    himself          as    they    confidently    chase    after    the    nurse        ,    fist    moving    to    conceal    his    minute    regret.             he    can          SEE          the    skepticism    on    her  face    !                 but    also    the  hope    that    lingers            ────          continuing    to    draw    him    closer    with    each    twitch    of    unsure    features.                “ yes    ,    of    course. ”              his    own    brows    narrow    slightly    whilst    shifting             ,             lips    pursed.                “ i    am    simply    requesting   your    company.            please    do    not    feel    obligated    to    remain. ”

The relief effort is just what Leonard needs. 

He hadn’t minded the extended leave at first, as the remainder of the doomed Enterprise’s crew temporarily adopted Yorktown as their base of operations. A better way to put it might be vacation destination, but most had found their burdens a little heavy, and Bones would never claim to really, truly have enjoyed himself despite the chance he’d been given to get some good, undisturbed rest under his belt.

The respite had lasted a few weeks before he’d grown restless. Leonard had lent his expertise best he could, but Yorktown made him anxious in a way that even keeping busy wasn’t enough to soothe. It would take a long while yet to fix the ship, particularly since she was in need of being damn near built again from the ground up, and the wait eventually drove the doctor to seek purpose elsewhere. 

"There, Hrask," Christine began (and she always made a point to pronounce his name as correctly as she was able). "We're all done." Without entirely thinking about it, the nurse bent to kiss the tip of the Gorn's snout. "I told you that the physical wouldn't be so bad, didn't I?"

SUGGESTIVE STARTER.