Aviophobia (Leonard McCoy)

4. Lightning Storm

As the shuttle landed on the Enterprise and the door opened so they could deboard, Kate breathed a sigh of relief.  Sure, she technically would still be flying here shortly, but it wasn't going to be on a shuttle and that was all she needed.  Shuttles had always been the worst for her, and she continued to pray that her mom was right about not even realizing that you were flying while you were on a starship.

She stepped onto the Enterprise for the first time, followed closely by a frustrated Leonard who was dragging Jim along with him.  She looked around the shuttle bay, taking it all in.  If the shuttle bay was this impressive, she couldn't wait to see what the bridge and medical bay looked like.  She heard Leonard huff behind her, so she called back over her shoulder, "It's your fault you're having to drag him along," not really feeling sorry for how frustrated he was with Jim.

Leonard huffed again and said, "Yeah, I know, but he looked so pathetic I couldn't just leave him there."

Kate turned around and got a good look at Jim in the light of the shuttle bay and said,  "He may have looked pathetic on earth, but he looks like hell here.  What did you do to him?"

Jim piped up and said, "He is right here, you know.  And he feels like hell.  I don't know what he did, Kate.  He just stabbed me with something."

Kate looked at Leonard, who shrugged at her.  She shook her head before saying, "You were right earlier.  I don't want to know.  But regardless of what you did, we've got to get changed and report for duty."

Leonard nodded and said, "Yes ma'am.  I'll take care of this," nodding his head over at Jim, "and rerport for duty shortly."

Kate nodded in return and headed to medbay so she could change.  It seemed like Leonard had suddenly remembered his southern manners that he had forgotten earlier in the day now that they were on ship.  It was strange, but it was nice to have him treat her as an equal rather than a superior, and she hoped he would return to that once they started working together.  As these thoughts consumed her, she ran into a wall of blue and almost fell except for the strong arm that grabbed her.

She looked up to see that Spock was the one that she had run into.  She still wasn't ready to forgive him for being so rude about their father's death during Jim's hearing, but she was sympathetic knowing that Spock must be going crazy on the inside with worry about his planet.  She'd let things with Vulcan get settled before she decided to unleash how upset she was about the hearing.

She steadied herself quickly and apologized, "Sorry.  I was in a hurry to change and report for duty."

Spock nodded once and said, "Captain Pike has requested that you report to Dr. Puri before you report to the bridge."  All business, as always.

Kate nodded and asked, knowing that she would not get a real answer, "How are you doing?"

Spock cocked his head to the side, so before he could say anything Kate said, "Nevermind.  Tell Captain Pike that I'll be on bridge as soon as Dr. Puri releases me."  She wasn't in the mood for dealing with him pretending that he didn't have emotions.

With that, she headed to medbay.  Before reporting to Puri, she grabbed her blue dress that for some reason Star Fleet was insistent that their female science officers wore.  It was like they wanted her to feel uncomfortable while doing her job.  She went to her small office in medbay and changed quickly, tugging at the skirt hoping to add a little bit of length to it, though she knew it was hopeless.

After pulling her hair up into a quick ponytail to keep it out of the way, she stepped out of her office and went over to Dr. Puri's.  She had only ever met him a few times, so she wanted to make sure she introduced herself and try to gauge if they'd get along well with each other.  She knocked on his door and asked, "Dr. Puri?"