Fandom: Star Trek
Pairings/characters: Leonard McCoy x reader
Words: 4487
Summary:
She catches a nasty alien flu for Christmas, but thankfully Leonard McCoy comes to her rescue. But then the Enterprise run into an anomaly, crippling the ship’s systems.
Note:
As I was driving to work on November 30th, I was thinking about advent calendars and my best friend @iguess-theyre-mymess, and an idea came to me. I wanted to write her an advent calendar, revealing a little bit of story every day until Christmas (which is the 24th here in Norway, not sure how advent calendars work everywhere else). So here it is, a little surprise every day for this beautiful person I’m so lucky to have in my life. And thanks to her, I am now genuinely excited about writing for the first time in a year and a half.
She was not happy. This was not the way she hoped the day would go, at all. She stared at her glassy eyes in the mirror and then huffed in annoyance, but that sent her into a violent coughing fit. Spitting and gagging and hacking, she stumbled backwards, almost tripping over her pants on the floor and made it to the replicator.
Cough "Wa-" cough "Water" cough, deep breath "3 degrees." Holding her breath, hoping that would hold it off for a bit. Her eyes were watering and her nose was running from the effort.
After what felt like forever, the replicator held a clear glass with cold water, condensation forming on the glass already. She grabbed it and gulped down half, sighing with relief. "One more glass," she told the replicator and took her time with the last half of water. Replacing the freshly formed glass of water with the empty one in the replicator, she wandered over to the couch and sat down sipping the cool liquid.
No, definitely not how she had wanted the day to go.
It was Christmas Eve, by Earth calculations, and there was supposed to be a big Christmas dinner in the mess hall. Leonard would be back from his shift any minute now, and they'd planned on going, like everyone else on the ship. It wasn't often they got the chance to enjoy a big event like this.
But her throat had felt a bit itchy ever since she woke up that morning, and after lunch, she got a bit congested and started itching in her mouth. When she got back to her quarters, the coughing had started. She'd blown her nose at some point after lunch too, and thought the stuff that came out looked blueish, but she was sure that was a trick of the light.
Leonard would have to take a look at her either way, and hopefully he wouldn't be too disappointed that she couldn't go to the Christmas dinner.
Speaking of the devil, the doors slid open with a light hiss and Leonard came in, pulling off his medical blues almost before the door had shut behind him. "Are you ready to go, darlin'?" he asked, starting to pull off the black undershirt. "I'll just take a quick son-" He saw her sitting on the couch, pouting and half dressed. "Darlin'?"
"I'm sick," she said, and her eyes widened at the sudden hoarse and raspy quality of her voice.
Leonard instantly straightened up and she could see his internal doctor switch click on. He grabbed a tricorder from near the door and sat down next to her. "Tell me everything," he said as the tricorder whirred to life.
She explained about the symptoms that started that morning and how it had progressed during the day. She hesitated when it came to the bluish phlegm, feeling silly about it, but decided she should give him all the information no matter how relevant.
He hummed and made thoughtful noises as she spoke. "Hold out your tongue," he said when she had finished. She obeyed immediately and saw his eyes widen slightly, the narrow. "White spots and you have a light fever," he said with a nod of confirmation to himself.
"I'm sorry I can't go to –" her voice cracked and she tried again, but no sound came out. The Christmas dinner, she mouthed and sighed inaudibly.
"I expected your voice to go, sweetheart. That is the final symptom that arrives. I know what you have and I think I gave it to you."
She cocked her head in confusion, eyes narrowing slightly. Leonard looked apologetic when he began explaining. "I treated two of the Ensigns that were on the away team on that new planet five days ago. We thought it wasn't contagious after the transporter took care of any foreign matter, but one of my doctors have gotten sick. And it seems to only infect females. We checked me and Doctor M'Benga, and we checked out fine. But that nurse M'Benga has an eye to have gotten sick and now you too, my sweet honeybee." He laid a hand on her cheek. "I am so so-"
There was a sudden lurch and Leonard almost fell into her but he steadied himself with a hand on the table. They both looked at each other in confusion and then she reached for the monitor embedded into the table, but before she had the chance to press any buttons, the entire ship shook and rattled and tossed them around on the couch. The light blinked and then it went dark.
Leonard had grabbed her and held them both down on the couch while whatever was happening went on. When it seemed to have stopped, he cautiously sat up and helped her up too. "What in the blazes was that?"
The lights were still out, and there was no red alert – not even yellow alert. Only a few emergency lights near the door and windows were on. Leonard pulled his communicator from his back pocket. "Dr McCoy to Captain Kirk." There was no response. "Dr McCoy to Spock." Still nothing. "Jim!" he called impatiently into the device, but there wasn't even static.
Just as he was about to yell into the communicator again, she laid her hands on his and made him flip it shut. She had cocked her head, as if she was listening.
"Darlin'?"
Then she mouthed in the shine from the emergency lights, warp engine, and gestured to her ears and shook her head.
"You're right. We're dead in the water."
Leonard laid down the communicator and walked over to the door, but it wouldn't open. He pressed several buttons on the control panel, but nothing. She tried to get the computer in the table working, but nothing. Leonard even tried accessing the computer's voice command, but it seemed like dead in the water was a very accurate description. Cursing under his breath he sat down on the couch again.
"I don't have the equipment I need here to treat you," he said. "The tricorder can only do so much, and there is a couple of hyposprays I need and I need to monitor your vitals closely while I give them."
She laid her hand on his thigh and looked up at him. It's okay, she mouthed. And then she exploded into another coughing fit.
"Goddammit, Jim!" Leonard snapped and grabbed the glass of water she had replicated earlier and tried to have her drink some.
Her coughing came back under control and quieted down, but it made her eyes water and nose to drip. And there was no more water.
Leonard took the glass and went over to try the replicator, but it was not responsive, just as everything else. "Damn space and space germs and spaceships," he muttered and slammed a fist into the wall.
The glass was snatched out of his hand and he spluttered, but watched as she navigated to the bathroom in the dark and filled the glass with water from the sink. The doctor groaned.
"Well, all right then. With all the too advanced technology, I forget we have plain old water still." He chuckled. She grinned, gulped down half the glass, sneezed and then filled it up again. "We seemed to be stuck here for a while, darlin'. I wish I could treat you, but there is no rush. Why don't we sit down and just wait?"
They settled down on the couch, her snuggled into Leonard side, coughing and sniffling occasionally. Life support seemed to have taken a hit as it started getting colder, so he found a couple of blankets to wrap around them. Every few minutes he tried his communicator too, but it was as quiet as space.
They sat in silence for a long time, she nodded off, but Leonard couldn't make himself relax completely. He had to keep an eye on her, and his mind started thinking about all the possible injuries out there from when the ship had run into something. He should be out there helping.
After what felt like hours, there was a faint clunk and he started, waking her up. She looked questioningly at him, but he just looked this way and that, listening. Something seemed to whir to life. The lights flickered and faded to a low setting and the computer in the desk lit up.
She coughed slightly, then leant forward to check. She pressed a few buttons, and her eyes widened and she pointed to the screen.
Leonard scooted closer and read. "Oh damn."
Life support on secondary, all propulsion offline, communication offline. And given the glitchy way the computer was behaving, little control of the computer. She tried to get sensor readings up, but it seemed they had only partial sensors and she couldn't see anything except incomplete internal ship readings.
"There are life signs out there," Leonard said, zooming out on a map of the ship. "I really should be out there treating you and all the injured crew."
She could hear the empathy in his voice, and how much he worried for everyone out there. But there was nothing they could do until someone managed to get the ship back under control. There weren't even any Jeffries tubes of use in their quarters. She laid a hand on his knee and looked up into his eyes.
"I know," he said and sighed. Then he took out the tricorder again and scanned her. "Your fever is a tad higher. Nothing that concerns me, but I really should get some medication in you. At least there's nothing to do but rest right now."
She smiled weakly and sniffed, but then, taking them completely by surprise, the replicator came to life and produced another glass of water and Leonard hurried over. "Black coffee, hot," he said and a Starfleet mug appeared, with steaming hot coffee inside. "I know how to help you now."
Leonard walked over with the glass of water and scanned her one more time for good measure. "Let me see your tongue, honeybee." She stuck her tongue out obediently. He nodded and then read the tricorder. "Still white spots on your tongue. Temperature steady at 38.5 Celsius. I can hear from your breathing that you're still congested too. Itchy?"
She gritted her teeth and wiggled her fingers over her cheeks as if scratching. And then she tried to talk, but the yes, itchy came out as a croak.
"Go blow your nose, I want to see if the colour has changed." She did as she was told, while he walked over to the replicator and started requesting a range of ingredients and spices and finally boiling water in a special heat preserving bowl.
She was suddenly next to him holding out the tissue for him to see.
"I had hoped it would have turned clear, or at least yellow, but I knew it's too early for that."
She gestured to the wide range of bowls filled with vegetables and spices.
"There is a soup," he explained.
"Recipe's been in my family for generations," he explained and found a knife and chopping block from the cupboard under the replicator. "But my grandmother – did I tell you she was a doctor too – tweaked it by adding some Vulcan vegetables, Betazoid fruits and Risian spices." He started chopping vegetables, quite expertly, taking her completely by surprise. This was a skill she did not know about. "And years ago, when Joanna was little, she caught a flu for Christmas and I added Christmas flavours for her."
Leonard added pinches of spices, the water still boiling in its special bowl and did indeed smell like Christmas. She just stared at him in complete shock as he added the vegetables. He was about to start chopping the fruits, when he noticed her staring.
He turned to her, smiling warmly, and his hand reaching up to caress her cheek and slide through her hair. He pulled her to him and kissed her hair. "It'll help clear your sinuses, reduce your fever and hopefully get your voice back. As much as I rely on modern medicine, it all started with this. And if it'll even feel like a Christmas feast..."
Feeling suddenly emotional, she wrapped her arms around Leonard and nuzzled against his chest, breathing him in. Still wearing his black undershirt, the smell of disinfectant lingered, but it was also him and now Christmas spices and boiling vegetables.
He could probably tell she was emotional, because he tightened his arm around her shoulders and kissed the top of her head again. "We'll make our own Christmas, darlin'."
She looked up at him with a smile, coughed a little, then pulled away so he could continue his cooking. She went over the couch, laid down and pulled the blanket over herself, watching him work. It was too dark to see him clearly, but still just enough light to see what he was working on. Perfect dices of fruit, hands sprinkling them into the boiling water as if they'd done nothing for years. Once he was done with the Betazoid fruits, he came over with the leftovers for her to snack on.
He was so focused on the boiling soup, she knew he wasn't only doing this for her healing or them celebrating Christmas. It was just as much to distract himself from thinking about what was going on outside the safety of their cabin.
They'd only guessed that the ship had run into something. The lack of a red alert, no sign of hull breaches, no more shaking and rattling, meant it probably was an anomaly of some sort. Anomalies usually resulted in the med bay filled with various injuries of broken bones, concussions and the like, but they didn't really have any idea what was going on. Apart from the clunk earlier, and the sound of soft bubbling now, it was dead quiet.
She checked the computer every once in a while, but it was as glitchy as ever showing nothing more than partial internal sensors.
Just as she felt like she would fall asleep from fatigue, there was a very loud hissing noise. She raised herself up on her elbow and they both looked at each other and then towards the doors.
There was banging and running footsteps, shouting voices and a lot of commotion outside in the corridor. Leonard ran to the door and banged on it. "Hello! Anyone out there?" The noises stopped abruptly for a moment, then started up again. Leonard shouted again but there was no reaction.
"Can you watch the soup for a little bit, sweetheart?" He had his ear pressed to the edge of the door.
She said yes automatically, no sound came out, but she yawned and hobbled over and looked down at the boiling concoction.
"Sounds like they're trying to put out a fire, from the words I can pick up," Leonard explained.
After a few minutes there was suddenly a bang on the door from the outside and Leonard started and jumped away from the door as if it burned him.
"Hello! Doctor McCoy?" someone shouted from the other side.
He collected himself quickly and pressed his lips to the edge of the door and shouted back. "Yes! We're in here! What happened?"
"Don't know, but we just put out a plasma fire in the bulkhead near the turbolift! We can't reach engineering! We're trying to reach the bridge through the Jeffries tubes! Comms are down!"
"Have you seen Captain Kirk or Commander Spock?"
"Negative! They should be on the bridge! You should sit tight! We are working on it!"
Leonard sighed and muttered "Be safe" even though they couldn't hear it. He walked over to the counter again and started adding a few of the fruits. "Go rest, darlin'. The soup will be ready soon."
She gnawed on her tongue, the itching in her mouth was getting worse, but she didn't let him know. Instead, she slid her arms around his waist from behind and rested her head on his back.
With his constant fear of space and his sense of responsibility for the lives out there and not knowing if his friends were okay, she could feel his entire body was on edge. She worried about the captain too, and her colleagues in exobiology lab. Even Spock. But there really was nothing they could do, but sit tight.
She yawned, kissed his clothed back and pulled away. She was getting tired from the weird flu and everything that had happened. Walking over and laying down on the couch, she pulled the blanket over herself and took a few deep breaths through her mouth. Her congestion was getting pretty bad and she couldn't breathe through her nose anymore.
She must have fallen asleep, because she was suddenly aware Leonard kissing her cheek and she opened her eyes and rubbed the bleariness from them.
"The soup is ready, love."
Even through the congestion, she could smell it and her stomach started growling with want. Leonard helped her sit up and then he served them a steaming bowl each.
"Merry Christmas," he said and held up his bowl as if saying cheers.
She filled up the spoon, blew on it and tasted. It tasted hearty and warm at the same time as fresh and sweet and full of Christmas joy. She gave him a thumbs up and dug in as if she hadn't eaten in days.
Leonard chuckled and started on his own bowl.
They ate in silence for a while, and it was very cosy with the dimmed lights. Almost romantic if you didn't think about being dead in the water and infected with alien flu.
But she noticed that it was getting easier and easier to breathe through her nose, she didn't have to stop and pant between each spoonful. By the time she had emptied the bowl, she had to go blow her nose, and she wasn't sure if it was because she was hopeful or not, but it was less blue, wasn't it?
"How are you feeling?" Leonard asked when she came back to the couch.
"Better," she croaked out and her eyes lit up with pleasant surprise.
"That is very good to hear. My grandmother's soup can perform miracles." He winked as he pulled out the tricorder again and scanned her. "Down .4 Celsius already. Your voice is back, if a bit rough and your nose is clear. Tongue."
She stuck out her tongue.
"White spots still. But I didn't really expect them to disappear. I'll get you a shot of priaxate as soon as we can get to the med bay. That should take care of all the symptoms in a day or two."
"Thank you, doctor," she said. "Is there any more soup left?"
Leonard chuckled and nodded. He went to get her some more and replicated two cups of hot tea with honey. They snuggled up together on the couch under the blanket with their tea and soup.
"This is better than the Christmas party," she said after a few spoonsful. "I'd rather not be sick and I'd love to see our friends and I wish the ship was okay, but this soup is very Christmassy. And the company is rather nice."
"Thank you, darlin'. I enjoy your company too."
Having only taken a few sips of tea and not even finished half her second helping of soup, she fell asleep. Her head falling gently onto Leonard's chest.
He carefully took the tea and soup from her and set it on the table. As he looked down at her sleeping form, a wave of guilt washed over him for having infected her with this strange flu they'd encountered. In the back of his mind, he knew he had taken every precaution and all tests showed that he had not a trace of antigens in him, it wasn't his fault. But he still felt guilty. They'd have to quarantine themselves, and M'benga and everyone he had been in contact with too, after everything was back in order. Just until they were sure none of them were contagious anymore.
Leonard felt himself becoming sleepy too. He allowed himself to lean his head back on the couch and close his eyes.
He wasn't sure how long they'd been asleep and he wasn't quite sure what had woken him, but he blinked in the too bright light.
Scrunching up his eyes, he felt himself being pulled towards sleep again, but then his communicator chimed on the table.
The sound woke him up completely and him scrambling for the device woke her up too.
He flipped it open and spoke. "McCoy."
"Bones, there you are. Lieutenant DeSalle said you were locked in your quarters."
"Yes, we've been locked here. What the hell happened, Jim?"
"Quantum filament, difficult to detect." Jim sighed loudly over the line. "All the systems were down, but we've bypassed computer control and all systems are on manual override. Antimatter containment field is stabilized. We've got some repairs to do before we can go anywhere."
"Crap on a..." Leonard caught himself from cursing. "Listen Jim, I'm sure there's a lot to do in med bay right now, but I'm caught up with that flu we thought we were free of. The two of us have to be quarantined until I can be sure I'm not infectious. Only infects from asymptomatic males, females get sick but can't infect other females."
"Well shit..."
"M'benga has to be quarantined too. And everyone he's been in contact with the last few days."
"I'll let him know ASAP."
"And I'll contact Chapel and hear if she can deliver some hyposprays and equipment so I can treat this thing."
"Good. We'll be back up and running as normal in a day or two. Kirk out."
Leonard flipped his communicator shut and they looked at each other.
"I'm sorry you have to be quarantined, Len..."
"Don't be, darlin'. There was nothing indicating I was contagious. It was an accident." He laid a hand on her cheek and she leaned into it. "But now I get to focus on taking care of you. I'll just make a call first."
He got his communicator out again and called for Nurse Chapel. She reported that the med bay was quite busy, there had been some falls when the ship hit the quantum filament. There was also a lot of burns to treat from several ruptured energy conduits and electric surges. They'd even lost two of the crew from electric surges through consoles in engineering. But she would of course come over with the medicine he needed and she promised to come check on them every once in a while.
Leonard sat in silence for a few moments after the conversation thinking about the two dead crewmembers. "This is why I hate space," he said after a while.
"But you keep working here because you are so good at what you do and you love the challenges," she said, laying a hand on his knee.
He looked at her, so much warmth in his eyes and took her hand in his. "And you are an exobiologist, this is where you belong, and I belong wherever you are."
The chime of the door ended the moment and Leonard told the computer to open the doors.
"I've got your medicine," Nurse Chapel said and stepped just far enough in to lay the things on the small table by the door.
"Thank you, Christine. Did Jim let M'benga know?"
"He did. He's thankfully not been around anyone but that girlfriend of his since treating Ensign Hansen and Ensign Paris."
Leonard nodded. "If there is anything I can do to help from here, let me know. And please keep me updated on what's going on."
"I will, Doctor McCoy. Call if you need more priaxate, but there should be enough."
Nurse Chapel left, with a feel better and Leonard went straight into doctor mode. He scanned her with a medical tricorder and gave her several hyposprays that made her feel all warm and fuzzy and sleepy. And then he ordered her to bed.
"It's already late and we've done all we can for now," he said.
"Have I told you how much I love you, Leonard?" she mumbled with a grin as she settled down into bed.
"That's the priaxate talking, darlin'. It's making you a little loopy." He undressed and slid into bed next to her.
"But it's true. I looove you..." She snuggled into him making a kissy face.
"Loopy, but adorable." He slid his arms around her and they settled into a comfortable tangle of arms and legs. "And I love you too."
The next morning, she woke up to full daylight. The had forgotten to tell the computer they weren't getting up at a normal time.
"Computer, lights at 50 percent." They dimmed to a more comfortable level. Her brain felt a little fuzzy, but she also noticed that the rest of her felt better than yesterday. The itchiness was gone, she wasn't nearly as congested and her voice was clearly back to normal.
She carefully made her way out of bed, not wanting to wake Leonard, and tiptoed into the bathroom. Blowing her nose, the phlegm had only a hint of blue. She did her morning business and then headed back to bed.
"Darlin'? You up?" came a sleepy voice from the bed. Leonard was sitting up on his elbows, looking at her, eyes heavy with sleep but very clearly in doctor mode.
"I feel better," she announced as she laid back down.
"You sound like normal. Let me check." He turned around to the tricorder next to the bed and scanned her.
She followed his eyes as it followed the tricorder up and down her body. She saw the frown between his brows smooth out as he scanned, and then a small smile when he finished.
"Temperature at 37.7. Tongue." She stuck it out obediently. "White spots, but they're usually the last to go. The medication is working."
"The soup did wonders too. Thank you for that. And remind me to thank your grandmother next time we visit Earth."
"Why don't you rest while I make you breakfast in bed? It's Christmas after all." He gave her a quick kiss and then rolled out of bed.
"Have I told you how much I love you, Leonard?" she repeated her question from the night before.
He turned around in alarm at the drunken sound in her voice, only to see her grinning playfully at him.
"I love you," she said in a normal voice.
"I love you too," he returned with relief and went to get the replicator going.
"By the way, I want that soup every Christmas from now on."
"Deal."