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It had been a
few months after the destruction of the Enterprise, and, despite
Starfleet’s
efforts, it would have taken a long time to see her successor plough
the skies;
Enterprise’s crew was scattered across the Galaxy, waiting to
be reunited once
again on the deck of the Starfleet’s flag ship –
Kirk, McCoy and Chekov were
serving on the Endeavor, Mr. Scott was teaching classes at the Academy
back on
Earth, Sulu was on the USS Concord, and both Spock and Uhura had chosen
to take
a sabbatical of sort, getting to know anew the Vulcan society and the
new planet
they had started to call home – and it was indeed on New
Vulcan that the
Endeavor, in the third month of her yearlong exploratory survey, found
herself.
“
It
’
s been very kind
of you to have us all here, Nyota
” As
the men from the Enterprise were busy arguing
about Kirk’s constant lack of protocol, Uhura was enjoying
the sunset from her
current residence, overlooking marvelous red mountains. At her side, Dr.
Georgia Chase – Captain Kirk’s
half-sister, and McCoy’s wife, xeno-botanist on loan to
Starfleet – was staring
in awe at the sight as well. “You were right, the sunsets are
hard to beat
here.”
Nyota shrugged,
smiling a little; with the complicate hairdo and the long, white dress,
she was
a far cry from the woman Georgia had gotten to know when she used to
hang
around Jim at the Academy, back in the day. And yet, her essence was
still
there. “Even is Spock and I are in no hurry to set foot again
on a ship, we’re
glad we could have you here today. I was starting to miss
Jim’s antics.”
Georgia
chuckled, leaning with her back against the elegant railing in some
sort of
metal. “Trust me, you wouldn’t say that if
you’d know him your whole life, but,
I have to say, I kind of agree – hearing Len complaining
about Dr. Groffus isn’t
the same as when he is annoyed with Spock.”
Both women
laughed; but then, as they looked at the first stars appearing in the
sky
above, they fell into silence; it wasn’t comfortable, but
rather, heavy, and filled
with things left unsaid.
“Are
things all
right with Dr. McCoy and Jim, Georgia?” Nyota asked her, a
kind hand on the
younger woman’s shoulder. Georgia took a big breath, and
shook her head no.
“No, we
are
fine, better than fine, actually. My company was already a
subcontractor for
Starfleet, so it’s not like there’s something new
with what I do and how I do
it, and Len and Jim are back on track. What got me thinking, actually,
was…
being here.” She admitted, blushing a little.
“Here?
Are you actually
worried about me, Georgia?” Uhura smirked, acting a little
dramatically for
both women’s amusement, but Georgia shook her head- she was
smiling too, although
hers was a little tainted.
“No,
actually,
it was seeing the picture on the mantelpiece.
It’s… it’s them, isn’t it? The
crew from the Enterprise- the other
Enterprise,
I mean, the one from that alternate future timeline.”
Georgia’s
eyes
got distant, and she stared at the ground, lost. She didn’t
need to add that it
was a timeline where she didn’t exist, for Jim’s
father had lived a long life
and Wynona never married that drunk loser who happened to be
Georgia’s father –
her gaze spoke millions words left unsaid,
more than she could actually say with her own voice.
“Ehy,
Uhura, I
hope you’re not saddening my wife!” McCoy strolled
onto the terrace, and hugged
his fresh bride from behind, leaving a tender butterfly kiss on her
neck,
smiling, he nuzzled her vanilla-scented air, and caressed her now flat
belly –
only a few months from Joanna’s births, and yet Leonard
couldn’t wait to be a
father once again. He loved his daughter more than life itself, but, as
he and
Georgia hadn’t been in a proper relationship at the time, he
hadn’t been able to
enjoy the pregnancy to the fullest, nor he had been there all the way.
He
wanted to do it again- this time, their child would have been desired
first and
conceived later, not the other way around.
Uhura smiled,
of that peaceful and understanding smile of hers, and gently squeezed
Leonard’s
shoulder as she passed him. “Enjoy the sunset with your wife,
Doctor- I’ll
check on the plomeek soup
meanwhile.”
Leonard turned
Georgia in his arms, and quizzically looked down at his wife
– even with the
heels, she was still a good eight inches shorter than him.
“What’s wrong,
darling? You miss Joanna? I know it’s the first time
we’re going out without
her, but she is in good hands with Carol. Still, if you prefer to come
back to
the Endeavour I’ll…”
But Georgia
shook her head, cutting him short, her hands on his strong, big
shoulders. “No,
it’s not that. I mean, I do miss Jo and I constantly worry
about her like crazy,
but I know she is safe with Carol and that I can’t spend the
whole evening
calling to know what’s going on….”
“Then,
what,
darling?” He asked her, his voice heavy with his southern
accent, as he cupped
her cheeks, running his thumbs over her soft, pale skin.
Georgia lowered
her gaze, then, she took a heavy breath, and freed the weight she was
carrying.
“I saw the picture of you all in that other future,
and…. It got me thinking.”
“I
thought that
Jim had already told you about….”
She nodded,
biting her lips. “Yea, I… I knew that it existed.
That it exists. But, seeing it
first hand, it’s… it’s different.
Like…
it’s real? And I started wondering if maybe Jim
wouldn’t have preferred living there
– in a world where I don’t exist
but where he still has his dad.”
Leonard sighed
heavily, looking at sky like for some kind of illumination about how to
deal
with his wife and this whole situation. It was official. He hated time travel and alternate
dimensions
just as much as he hated space.
“Sweetheart,
Jim loves you – it doesn’t mean anything that you
don’t share his surname. You
are his little sister, and that’s a fact. If he
wouldn’t care about you, would he
have punched me the way he did when he found out that it was me who got you pregnant?”
She pouted.
“I
know, but, still….”
He smiled,
nuzzling her nose as he held her close. “Besides, from what I
know, there was a
George Kirk there, so, you kind of
were there, only, it was an alternate version of you, and I gotta say,
honey- I’ve
seen weirder things happening when it comes to alternate realities. A
world
where I was Spock’s best friend and your brother had been
raised by Klingons,
one where the crew’s sex was switched, one where we were
robots – in another we
were all speaking and walking damn plants, for God’s
sake!”
“Infinite
possibilities, infinite outcomes – somewhere out there, there
could very well
be other us who met and fell in love, and others who went their
separate ways…”
He kissed her
once, a gentle peck
on her lips. “Still,
I don’t see any version of me saying no to you that evening
at Jim’s party. I
think that every Leonard McCoy would have followed you home, and
decided that
you were it for him.”
“You
smooth
talker. If you keep that up, you may even get lucky today.”
“Ah,
honey, you
found me out. You really know me better than myself.” He
sighed, smiling a
little as he joked around with his wife. “Still are you sure
it’s all right?
You know you can always talk with me or Jim if something bothers
you…”
“Yeah,
I’m
fine, and it was kind of stupid, I know that
now. I just, I guess I just had to say it
out loud to actually realizer how silly I was being.”
“You
weren’t
silly, darling, you were just being true to yourself. As long as
I’ve know you,
Georgia Samantha Chase-McCoy, you’ve always put others before
you. You’ve got a
big heart, honey, and that’s one of the many reasons I fell
in love with you.”
She laughed,
one of Leonard’s favorite sounds in the whole universe,
together with his
daughter’s nonsensical mumbling. “You are definitely
going to get lucky, mister.”
“Good,
because,
I gotta say, Mrs. McCoy, I’ve got plans for you –
plans that definitely involve
a total lack of clothes on both our parts. Besides, I’ve been
told it’s Valentine’s
Day back on Earth. We have to have
sex, it’s like, an unwritten law or something.”
Playing with
his dark hair, Georgia smiled. “Well, doctor, if
you’ll be as handsome as your
counterpart in your old age, I think I could agree to be on your plans
for a
long time to come.”
“Oh, so
you
think I’ll be handsome in my old age?”
She nodded as
they started to kiss, the sun gone, replaced by the pale light of a
huge moon
hovering before them.
“You
about ready
for Ambassador Salek’s special plomeek soup? The sooner we
finish dinner, the
sooner we’ll be back on the ship with our kid.”
“Oh,
and here I
thought you wanted me naked in your bed, ready to be ravished by you, Lieutenant
Commander!”
“Well,
that,
too, wife dearest, but first comes quality time with our daughter, then sexy time with you.”
“Sexy
times? Really,
Leonard?” She lifted an eyebrow, smirking.
“Dammit,
I
spend too much time with your brother.” They laughed, and
Leonard, once they
were in silence, staring onto each other’s eyes, sighed.
“Something else on
your mind, honey?”
Georgia gave
him a quick peck on the lips. “Just one thing, honey- as a
doctor, you should really have a
talk with Scotty about
going easy on the snacks. I mean, you saw how many pounds he will put
on,
right?”
Leonard laughed
and shook his head. “Never change, my love, never
ever.”