Chapter Text
Years passed, and Monty grew lonesome. No one at school wanted to talk to someone who was a genius, who sat in the back and answered everything right. No, he only got beaten by some of the bigger kids and there was nothing more embarrassing than that. So he shut up; kept his logic to himself. Kids were mean, but he was smarter than them and he could go anywhere in the world. He could be an engineer, like almost every Scott was.
Montgomery was only nine, when he met a young Leonard McCoy. David, Leonard’s dad, and the young child himself went to Aberdeen–to meet up with Monty’s granddad.
David and Monty’s granddad talked and left Monty to just sit alone on one of the swings. Figured they would meet in a recreational park, somewhere boring. Could’ve been worse though, the young Scot mused. Leonard pulled himself on the swing and tried pushing himself.
"Need a hand?" Scotty asked, peering over at the young McCoy, only to be received with a nod. Monty grinned and hopped off his own–only to go push the stranger. He hadn’t met him before, so he was rather confused as to why a father and son from Atlanta showed up on his doorstep, with the son hiding and nervously checking out the young Scot from behind his father’s legs.
Pushing lightly, Montgomery gave him simple instructions: tuck your legs in when in reverse but extend when you’re going forward. It’s how you got to be the highest, and fastest.
"Higher! Higher!" Leonard kept yelling, with laughter in his voice.
After a while, they did hit the rest of the playground before eventually hanging out in the top, right near the slide that was a good fifteen feet to hit the gravel.
This was the start to their friendship, and the visits kept coming.
They’d go biking, through the hills before crashing on them and tackling the other; trying to wrestle. Leonard kept sitting on Montgomery, kept making it difficult. They’d outrun all the bullies, Monty often helping him onto his bike and biking as quick as they could back to his house.
"Monty, what’dya want to be when you’re older?"
"An engineer, what ‘bout you Leo?"
"I want to be a dad!" Len exclaimed, attempting to be like his father.
"Really?"
"I wanna have a family, and I want to be happy. Monty, you want to be a part of my family?"
"I thought I already was!"
That night was the last night they saw each other for six years.
The shuttle from Aberdeen to Atlanta crashed before they hit Georgia. Leonard and David got out alive, with a few scratches that could be maintained with bandages. Nothing that was too severe.
It developed a fear in Leonard, though. That it was only going to crash whenever he would go on it next.
Monty didn’t hear back from Len, and when David came–he looked everywhere for Len, thinking that he was going to be with him. David, somberly, had to explain that Len was terrified of the shuttles after a tedious accident; that he was having nightmares.
It still didn’t get rid of the thought that Len hated him; that he did something wrong and that he was once again, friendless.