Star Trek Imagines and One-shots

Germs - Leonard McCoy/Bones

Dr. Leonard McCoy walked down the corridor of the Enterprise, frowning at the display in his hand. The damn thing was malfunctioning. Again. Either that or his last patient actually had a temperature of 210 degrees. Unlikely as they were human and didn't spontaneously combust. And they hadn't even been sick. They were in the med bay for a sprained wrist. 

McCoy sighed and raked a hand through his hair. As if he didn't have enough to do, he had to deal with shoddy equipment. He'd been through three different engineers trying to solve the problem. As that didn't work, he was on his way to engineering to discuss it with Scotty. A flash of color caught McCoy's eye and he stopped to frown at the floor. 

Squatting, he examined the droplets that had caught his attention. Blood. He touched it with the tip of one finger to find it still wet. His frown deepened into a scowl. They hadn't had any lacerations or anything of the sort in medical for the last two days. Perhaps someone had simply had a nose bleed or something. He sent a message off to maintenance to send someone to clean it up. 

He kept a sharper eye out now and continued to spot splashes of crimson liquid all the way to engineering. He'd attempted to scan it with the device in his hand to see which crew member was responsible for the wanton disregard of safety protocols but the damn thing told him it was his blood. He was pretty sure he'd remember bleeding all over the ship. Stupid thing.

Stepping off the lift and into Engineering, he saw more droplets along the metal walkways. "Scotty!" he yelled. 

The man in question appeared with his brows up in his hairline. "Aye, McCoy. What are you doing down here?"

He thrust the broken equipment at Scotty. "This damn thing's broken again. They all are. This one's just the worst. Send me someone competent this time, would you? Oh, and one of your damn redshirts is bleeding all over the ship."

Scotty grunted as his eyes found the blood McCoy pointed out and followed it with his eyes, both to the lift and deeper into engineering.

"You'll be wanting Y/N," Scotty announced. "Oi, Y/L/N, front and center," he yelled.

"For which, the repairs or the bleeding?" McCoy asked with a sour expression and his arms crossed over his chest. 

"Both, I reckon."

"Damn it, Scotty. I was in the middle of something. What do you want?" the voice drifted to them before the owner stepped into view. When she did, McCoy froze for just a moment. She was stunning. Even with the frown on her face and her hair falling from its messy up do. He couldn't recall ever having seen her before which seemed impossible given his position on the crew.

"I need you fix the malfunctioning equipment in the med bay, lass," Scotty told her, looking bored. "You'll be the fourth. It's still not working right."

"Why didn't you send me in the first place?" she asked and held out a hand for the device.

"Because you can't be all over the bloody ship at the same time. I need you down here. And you didn't go to medical for your hand like I told ye to, did you?"

***

Y/N frowned and looked at the hand she was holding out, only to see blood dripping from it onto the floor. "Damn it."

She grabbed a rag from a nearby table and pressed it against the wound before looking over the edge of the railing. "Keenser," she yelled, spotting the little alien. "Glue."

He grunted and tossed her up a tube of their industrial glue. She wiped at the deep cut with the rag and sat it aside to open the glue.

"What in God's name do you think you are doing?" a voice boomed from beside her.

She turned to find a man in a blue shirt. He was attractive and would have been more so if he hadn't been looking at her like she was some sort of abomination. "I'm fixing my hand?"

"With that?!" he sputtered out and pointed at the glue accusingly. 

She leaned to the side to look around him to Scotty. He grinned at her. "Lass, meet Dr. McCoy. McCoy, meet Lieutenant Y/L/N. Best damn engineer on this ship besides me."

Y/N looked back at the doctor. She didn't see what the big deal was. This was how she fixed most of her wounds. "Listen, I don't have the time to be running up to med bay every time I nick my finger."

"Nick your--" He huffed and grabbed her hand to examine it. "That is not a nick. That is a deep laceration that needs to be cleaned and sealed properly."

"Whatever," she said completely unbothered. "I'm heading up there to look at the equipment anyway."

The doctor snatched his display back from Scotty and stormed to the lift. She followed behind at a more leisurely pace, taking the small toolbox her boss handed her as she passed by. "Have fun, lass," he said. 

She simply arched a brow and stepped onto the lift.

***

McCoy looked at Y/N from the corner of his eye as they rode the lift to the correct floor. When she'd cleaned the wound with that dirty rag he'd been shocked. But when she prepared to glue it shut he couldn't keep his mouth shut any longer. Doesn't the woman know that space is disease and danger wrapped in darkness and silence. Who knows what germs she almost sealed into the wound.

He frowned and shifted on his feet  as he resisted the urge to shudder. When the lift stopped he led her to the med bay. "Sit," he ordered and pointed at an empty bed. He gathered what he'd need to fix her wound properly and went back to her. He ignored her as he began to clean the wound out.

"I still don't see what the big deal was," she said in a quiet voice. "The glue would have done the job just fine."

He glanced up at her and felt his cheeks heat at their proximity. She had leaned forward to watch him work and they were mere inches apart. He cleared his throat and returned to his work. "Do you know what kind of germs or bacteria you could be sealing into a wound like that? You could cause permanent damage."

"Hasn't happened yet."

He straightened and sealed the wound now that he was sure it was clean. Taking a step back, he crossed his arms over his chest. "What do you mean yet?" he asked as he scowled down at her.

She shrugged. "Check my record. I'm only in here for physicals. You honestly think this is my first injury working in engineering?" 

Dropping his head, he pinched the bridge of his nose. "I don't even want to think about his right now. Just do me a favor and come up here from now on. For one thing, if it's fixed properly it won't open back up on you. I can't have you bleeding all over the ship."

"Whatever you say, Doc." She hopped off the table and grabbed her tool box. "Now is it just the handhelds you're having trouble with?"

***

By the end of his shift, Y/N not only had all of the handhelds working properly, she had repaired the glitchy biobed and the touchy lock on the storage cabinet. She'd just finished showing McCoy everything she'd done while he observed with wide eyes. 

"It all works?" he asked in disbelief. 

She smiled and nodded. 

"And it will keep working?" 

Again she nodded. "If it doesn't you either have faulty equipment or you're breaking it on purpose."

He glanced in her direction to find her smiling. His eyes locked with hers and her smile turned into a smirk. She looped her arm in his. "So, Doc, how about we go to dinner and you can tell me all about the diseases and danger of space while I recount my many self-repaired injuries?"

He was stunned for a moment, but then said, "Yeah, I can do that. Shall we go?"