Come Here Often?

Chapter 3: Here's to Living Again

When Leonard McCoy returned to his room after his classes the next night there was a package waiting at his door. His brow furrowed in wonder at what it would be till he saw a handwritten note attached. To LM, from JP. His heart skipped a beat. The illustrious computer whiz Jessica Patton had left him something. He went into his room and quickly opened the stark white box. Packaged within was a brand new top of the line PADD. Another handwritten note was attached.

Don't get your feathers ruffled. I didn't purchase this personally. It's Starfleet issue. I'll explain more later. Message me when you have time and we can get together so I can help you transfer your files over. ~JP

Leonard set his bag down and forced himself to take the time to change out of his cadet uniform into casual clothes before sitting on his bed and leaning back against the headboard. He pulled out his old PADD and sent a quick message.

LM: Don't know what you did to get me the new gadget, and maybe I don't want to know, but thank you nonetheless. How's your night looking? Can I take you up on that offer for tech support assistance to get the thing set up?

He wasn't expecting an almost immediate response, but he got one.

JP: No plans tonight, and since you already know where I live, why don't you stop by? I can fix coffee.

LM: Sounds great. How do you feel about donuts?

JP: Donuts are amazing. Why?

LM: You make the coffee. I'll bring donuts. See you in a bit.

**********

When Leonard approached her dorm room a while later it was hard to miss the three younger first year students giggling from a doorway several doors away as they observed him. He nodded toward them. "Good evening, ladies," before tapping the chime on Jessica's door. It was only then that he realized there was loud music coming from the other side of her door, but he couldn't help but smirk—it wasn't the thumping beat of the music he usually heard when Jim dragged him to the bars, or the rock and roll electric guitar he'd heard from Jim's playlist. It was guitar and a distinctly country sounding singer. This girl really was from the mountains of North Carolina, and he may have softened even further to her in that moment.

"Just a minute!" he heard her yell before the music got turned down and then the door slid open. She was running a towel through her damp hair and wore a pair of leggings and an Academy t-shirt. Her face lit up when she saw him. "Hey Leonard, come on in." He worked to swallow and took a deep breath as he followed her in. "I wasn't sure how soon 'a bit' was so I thought I'd grab a quick shower. I was crawling around Jeffries tubes all day long being quizzed on maintenance procedures."

"That's right, you had a test today, too. How'd it go?"

Her face lit up even further as she poured their coffee. He set the box of donuts and the new PADD box on the table where they'd sat the night before and sat in the chair as he watched her. "It went really great! I am so ready to relax now."

He frowned. "I'm sorry, I'm sure the last thing you want to do is help me with my technological deficiencies."

"Nah, helping you set up your new PADD is easy peasy. You brought your old one?" she asked as she sat down across from him and rested his cup in front of him.

"Oh, yeah," he said as he reached into his bookbag he'd set by the chair he sat in and slid it across to her. She opened the box and pulled the new one out and began tapping on each of them in turn. As she began working he took a sip of coffee and began looking around her room, only then realizing there was only one bed. "So how did you rate a solo room?"