LIGHT-YEARS AWAY (Data x Reader) // Star Trek

Chapter Three

The door opened and Data allowed you to enter before he followed you into the observation lounge. 

At the long table, you saw Captain Picard, Counselor Troi, Commander Riker, and of course, your best friend, Dr.McCoy.

Your heart skipped when you saw his familiar face, you went right to him and stood near him. You gently placed your hand on his shoulder, just to make sure he was real. He put his old hand on top of yours. "Was everything okay?"

You bit your lip and nodded. 

"Please take a seat." Captain Picard said with a smile.

You sat down next to Bones, Data came and sat down in the other seat next to yours. You weren't sure why, but already he felt familiar to you. 

"I have been talking with the Admiral here," Picard started.

"Don't start that Admiral stuff with me boy! Please, call me Doctor. Or Bones." Bones interrupted. You forced a cough to hide a laugh, his personality was just the same as always. 

Picard looked awkward for a moment, "Ah yes. Um, I was talking with...The Doctor here, and he filled me in that you two used to work together on the Enterprise, over a hundred years ago?"

You nodded, but couldn't help but shiver when he said "used to", you didn't like the past tense verbiage. 

You noticed Deanna Troi had tears in her eyes, "It's just so sad" she whispered to herself, no one else seemed to notice. You wanted to ask her if she was okay but Riker butted in with a question directed towards you. 

"Do you have any idea how this happened?" Riker asked.

"I have no idea. No idea at all. As I said, about 40 minutes ago I was in the sickbay with Leonard," You didn't take your hand off of his arm, "and then Captain Kirk came in and we talked awhile. He called me to the bridge, I don't know why. It was going to be my first time there. Anyways, I was on the turbolift alone and I tripped when I reached the bridge. But when I stood up, I was here." 

"And nothing weird was happening that day? Nothing that could alter time." Picard asked.

"Not that I'm aware of." You said desperately trying to think back, "Do you remember anything Leo?"

Bones back stiffened as he remembered the day, his eyes filled with sorrow, you could tell this was a memory he had replayed in his mind a million times over. "When you left my sickbay I finished tidying up and attended to a few patients. I was surprised you hadn't come back to bug me yet and figured it must have just been something really important you were attending to. That's when my communicator beeped, the Captain asked me if I knew about your whereabouts as you had never shown up. I knew something was off. I looked everywhere for you, but you were gone. No one had seen you, everything was left just as it had been left it in your quarters, it was like you had vanished into thin air...and by the sounds of it, you did. I kept looking for you for months. Even Spock was on the hunt trying to find out what could have caused your disappearance." His face grew sadder, "Eventually, they stopped looking, there just wasn't a single lead. And you were the only disappearance. They put it down to being a fluke, missing in action...I never stopped looking (y/n)." he said shaking his head sadly.

The room grew quiet, no one was sure how to handle this situation. "If I may," Data suddenly pipped up "I was just reading over some of the log entries from Captain Picard and it seems like time travel was not uncommon in the years he served."

Dr.McCoy scoffed at the memory, "You're right. I remember when we ended up on Earth in the 1930s."

"And that time when we went to Earth during the 1960s." You added.