Labyrinth | Dr. Leonard McCoy

Prologue

A/N: Hello and welcome! Before I begin, this is a sequel to my Christopher Pike story, Destined. If you have not read it, I highly recommend you do so before reading this one. I'm going to try and merge the Star Trek TV shows with the Kelvin timeline movies. I hope it doesn't get too confusing. Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoy the story!

Dr. Leonard McCoy knew it was a damn mistake the minute he stepped aboard the transport. He hated space. He hated how vast it was. He hated the unknown. He hated how dangerous it was, but he didn't have much of a choice after his ex-wife left and took everything. He needed something new. He needed a fresh start. Starfleet was that fresh start just like it was for many people. No one cared how rich or poor you were. No one cared where you came from. They just had the goal of protecting space from people and people from space.

He was a good doctor. He was good under pressure. He didn't take shit from anyone. He figured he could serve Starfleet well. He didn't have much to lose after all. His parents were just happy he stopped sulking and moved out of their house. Going back to school at his age wasn't completely unheard of. He had already received his doctorate years ago. He just needed to complete Starfleet Academy before he was allowed aboard one of their ships. However, it became abundantly clear that he was one of the oldest cadets on move in day.

Nothing was going the way he was expecting it to go. He never anticipated on meeting perhaps the galaxies most cocky man, Jim Kirk. He didn't plan on the two of them becoming roommates. He also didn't plan on Jim getting laid every single night. The man had no shame and it aggravated Leonard to no end, but there was something he liked about Jim. He just didn't know what yet. Of course one of Jim's nightly endeavors caused Leonard the inability to fall asleep until close to four in the morning. Therefore it caused him to sleep through his alarm and then late to his first class on his first day.

He fought to put his stiff cadet uniform on all while trying to eat breakfast and gather everything he needed for classes that day. The Starfleet Academy campus was like a damn maze. Nothing seemed to make sense to him, or it was the lack of sleep kicking in. When the second to last bell rang he knew he was screwed. The professors and Admirals of Starfleet made it very clear that they would not tolerate lateness and he was only minutes away from being late. He thought about quitting right then and there. He could go back to Georgia. Get a job at some hospital, but that wasn't who he was. Somehow, he found the classroom for his charting class.

The last bell rang just as he walked inside. The classroom was slap full of young, eager eyed cadets. Almost every chair in the room was full with the exception of a few in the front row and then one towards the middle of the room. That was the one he headed for. He mutter a low 'excuse me' as he walked down the aisle. Some ignored him. Some gave him snarky looks since he had been the last to enter the room. He sat between a guy who looked like he didn't give a crap he was there and then a girl who did look like she cared to be there.

Her small table space was perfectly organized with her PADD, a notebook, and various different colored writing utensils. She looked like the model cadet Starfleet wanted. Her uniform was pressed perfectly. He didn't see a wrinkle or stray lint on it. Her dark hair was frizz free and curled perfectly toward the end. She had some of it pushed back with a thick headband. Leonard wanted to look at her more, but he didn't want to make himself look like a creep. He turned his attention to the professor.

"Good morning, cadets and welcome to your charting class. During the semester you will learn how to chart and identify stars, planets, galaxies, Starfleet ships, and bases." The professor began as he passed out pieces of paper. "What I'm giving you is your first test. I want you to chart the entire solar system that Earth is located in, on paper."

A few collective groans were heard in the room and the professor smirked to himself. Charting when you had access to Federation technology wasn't that difficult if you knew what to look for. Using only paper was a different story.