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It wasn’t a conscious decision. It just sort of…happened. Ever since she got back from the mess one day, he just started checking up on her. That day was about a few weeks ago. She was just acting strangely.
“Campbell?”
“Yes?” Ensign Alexis Campbell. It wasn’t often Bones had a specific staff member he paid attention to. They all worked like a machine. Crystal was always there to help with a patient. Lewis stuck to his station by the experiments. Andrea hovered, calming down the patients and prepping the next treatment. Alex was different. She kind of did…everything. Helped with the patients, ran the experiments, turned away the Annoying Ones (Spock and Jim) whenever they came to bother him. She was new, so he tried her in many different places to see where she fit in, except she fit in everywhere. Now she walked over, stopping at the edge of the table. “How can I help you, sir?”
“Could you check whether the next dose has finished synthesizing?”
“Yes, sir.”
That was another thing. She always called him ‘sir’. Not ‘doctor’. Just ‘sir’. Nothing wrong with that, but it was…different. She came back, carrying the tray of hypo-syringes. He indicated the small table and she set it down carefully.
“Anything else, sir?”
“No, that’s all.”
She nodded and turned away. Before he could stop himself, Bones asked: “What are you still doing here?”
“Sir?”
“Your shift ended about three hours ago. Now I’m not complaining, ‘cause it’s nice to have someone else here, but,” Bones gestured around the otherwise empty sickbay. “This ain’t exactly the highlight of the ship.”
Alex shrugged. “I guess I didn’t notice the time. Would you like me to leave, sir?”
“I don’t care. Do what you want.” Bones shrugged and turned back to cleaning his tools. He glanced up to see Alex straightening the covers on the empty beds and reading the monitors on the sleeping patients’ beds. In other words, not doing much of anything. “If you’re gonna hang around here, you might as well do something useful. Here,” he placed some of the tools in an empty tray and set it on the bed. “Clean these.”
“Yes, sir.” She walked over, drawing the tray closer to her. Picking up a towel and some antiseptic, she began cleaning the blade of a tool, taking care to get everything clean before gingerly setting it down with the other tools Bones had cleaned. They worked in compatible silence for a few minutes.
“Have you given any more thought into what you want your station to be?” Bones picked up a pair of scissors and started cleaning the blades.
“I don’t mind, sir. I like running the experiments, but I’m fine with what I’m doing now.” Alex set down the bottle as she wiped off the hypo-syringe.
“You could do what Andrea does, and do a bit of everything.”
“I can do that, sir.”
“Of course, that’d mean you’d have to stay here longer.” Bones held his hand out for the antiseptic. She gave it to him and gave a small smile.
“With all due respect, sir, that’s probably not going to be an issue.”
Bones smirked. “Yeah, you already spend as much time here as I do. And that’s not normal.”
Alex stopped, lowering the towel. “Is ‘not normal’ a bad thing, sir?”
“No.” Bones gestured around again. “It’s just that most ensigns would rather be gossiping about other crew members or gallivanting about somewhere, not here, cleaning tools.”
Alex smiled, reaching for the next tool. “I’m not really the ‘gallivanting’ type, sir.” Bones huffed a laugh. “And I’m kind of obnoxious to hang out with, so…”
“Well, that doesn’t mean…” Bones paused, then looked up, brow furrowed. “Who told you that?”
“Sir?”
“Who told you you're obnoxious to hang out with?” Alex avoided the question, cleaning the tool in her hands. “Campbell?”
“Does it matter, sir?”
“Yes.” Bones set down his tools and stared at her. “It wasn’t anyone in here, was it?”
Alex shook her head quickly. “No, no, of course not. But it’s not your job to deal with my problems, sir. It’s fine.”
Bones wanted to argue more, but it was clear she wasn’t going to talk about it anymore. So he just finished cleaning the tools and let her go (as in he ordered her to go back to her quarters). That was the first time he noticed she was hanging around later than she needed to. Cleaning the tools after the main fuss of the day had died down became something of a routine. They talked about nothing important; the results of an experiment, something Bones wanted to try next, what Alex studied at the Academy. (Apparently she’d worked on warp core and advanced weapons tech as an extra credit project.) A few days later, she was there when he got there and left only a few minutes before he left. He raised the question with Crystal.
“I haven’t noticed anything, doctor.” Crystal shook her head. “But I’ll tell you if she tells me anything.”
Well that wasn’t helpful. But he wasn’t complaining, Alex was a hard worker. He could leave her in charge of something and not worry about it getting done right. While he was up on the Bridge, he could focus on being annoyed by Jim or Spock. About a week after the first time she stayed behind, there was an emergency and Bones was called to the Bridge until the issue was resolved. It was a good four hours before he went back down to sickbay, expecting it to be as he left it. He cringed at the thought of the forms that needed to be completed. When he sat down in his office and pulled the monitor to face him, he blinked. All the forms were completed and waiting for his authorization to formally enter them into the computer. There was no way that he’d done this. And all of his staff’s shifts ended about three hours ago. He looked up and noticed one of lights was still on by one of the tables. Damn.
“Campbell, what the hell are you still doing here?”
“I’m just finishing up, sir.” Alex packed away the last tools and locked the antiseptic cabinet. “All done.”
“Did you do all of those reports on my desk?” Alex nodded. “Damnit, kid. You didn’t have to that.”
“I don’t mind.” She turned to the side and slid the tray back over to its place under the table. “Not like I have anything else to do.”
“Okay, kid.” Bones placed a hand on the tray and slid it away from her. “Go on, git. I’ll finish up here.” She nodded and started towards the door. “Campbell?” She stopped. “Thank you.”
“Of course, sir.” And then she left. Bones shook his head. Something changed. He said as much to Jim the next day.
“Dunno Bones, sounds like the kid’s grown on you,” Jim smirked and took a drink. “You’re the one who was complaining about getting the youngest cadet. How old is she again?”
“18.” Bones downed his glass. “I’m serious, Jim. Someone’s done or said something.”
“Aww, is Bones getting protective of his little girl?” Jim teased, stopping when Bones shot him a glare. “Dude, don’t you think that she’d tell you if something was wrong?”
“I guess.” Jim threw his hands up.
“Then that’s all you can do. That’s what you told me when I started worrying about Chekov.”
“These damn kids.” Bones grumbled as he refilled his glass. Jim threw back his head and laughed. “What?”
“Now you sound like a grumpy old man.”
“Shut it!”
“C’mon, Bones, it’s adorable.”
“I will confine you to sickbay.”
“Then you’d have to get your little girl to work around the clock.”
“Dammit, Jim!”
The captain narrowly avoided a shouting match when Spock called him to the Bridge. Shaking his head, Bones made his way down to sickbay, half expecting Alex to be waiting just inside even though her shift didn’t start for another hour. Surprisingly enough, she wasn’t. Good. The kid finally found something else to do. Crystal was tending to one of the patients so Bones started running one of the experiments with Lewis. He glanced up about two hours later and Alex was still nowhere to be seen.
“Lewis, did Campbell come in?”
“I haven’t seen her yet, doctor. She was headed to the mess this morning. She’s probably fine, and if she’s not she’ll have to come here anyway.”
Bones nodded and got back to work, leaving the experiment to run as he tended to the crew member that just came in. A few minutes later Alex walked in and went straight to the station he’d placed her at - recalibrating the tricorders - and started programming in the new settings. Leaving Andrea to finish up, he walked over. She heard his approach but didn’t turn.
“Sorry I’m late sir, small problem.”
“S’okay, just don’t do it again.” Wasn’t like she was going to. “When you get a minute go help Lewis catalog the results.”
“Yes, sir.” She didn’t even look at him. That was weird. “Anything else?”
“How’re you doing with recalibrating these?” He walked to her other side. “I understand it’s not as simple as - what the hell?”
There was a large purple bruise on her cheek. She swore softly and covered it with her hand. “I fell over.”
“The hell you did.” Bones picked up one of the reprogrammed tricorders and ran it over her bruise. “Someone hit you.”
“Doctor McCoy?”
Alex flinched. Bones turned around to see one of the security officers holding his arm. “Got into a little trouble. Mind?”
“Sit down on there.” He pointed to the table in the middle of the room. Alex was still facing the wall, head down, working on the tricorders, but her hands were shaking. “Nurse!”
Andrea came over and began fixing the officer’s arm. Bones stayed next to Alex and picked up a tricorder, pretending to reprogram it while listening to the conversation behind him.
“How did this happen?”
“Ah, well, I was in the mess, and some exchange officer started talking crap about the Enterprise, so…” He clicked his tongue. “Then the bastard ran away.”
“Do you know where that officer is now?”
“No, ‘fraid not.”
“Well, that’s everything.”
“Thanks, gorgeous.” The officer left.
Bones turned to where he’d just gone out. Alex carefully pried the tricorder from his hands and reprogrammed it. She was still shaking badly. Bones turned back to her. “Has he done this before?”
“Sir, I - “ Her voice trailed off at the angry look on his face. “Yes.”
“Was he the one who told you that you were obnoxious to hang out with?”
“Yes.”
"Do you know why?"
"He tried to hit on me and when I said no he started - "
“What’s his name?”
“Sir, you don’t have to - “
“His name, Alex.”
There was a pause. That was the first time he’d called her by her first name. “Lieutenant Henry Jefferson.”
“Okay.” Bones looked over to see Andrea was over with Lewis entering the results. “Sit.”
“Sir?”
“Can’t just walk around with that thing on your face.” It took about two seconds to fix. “Go ahead and finish the tricorders. I’ll be in my office.”
“Sir.” She stopped him. “Don’t do anything, please?”
“Alex, he’s hit you. And he’s bullied you.” She looked up at him.
“I know sir, just please let me handle it. It’s not the first time something like this has happened. I can take care of myself.” Bones looked at her. This 16-year-old would be the death of him.
“Okay.” Her shoulders relaxed. “But if this gets worse, I’m doing something about it.”
“Understood, sir.” She trotted back over to the tricorders and got back to work. Bones shook his head and went into his office. Looking over the medical reports, he poured himself a drink, thinking about Lt. Jefferson. Pulling up his file on the monitor, he flipped through it. Normal, normal, slightly egotistic, yeah, well, what command officer wasn’t? Specialized in weapons tech at the Academy, trained to become a tactical officer, normal. Assigned to the Enterprise a few months ago. Normal. Hmm. He took a sip of his drink. Maybe just an asshole. But then why Campbell?
Bones pushed it to the back of his head. Kid said she could handle it, so she would. No use worrying about it. Switching back to the results of the experiment, he began planning for the next test.
Jim was sitting with Scotty when Bones walked into the mess the next day. Scotty was talking enthusiastically about something or other. As he got nearer, Bones caught the end of his rant.
“…it’s insane! I cannae understand what’d make someone want to do that.”
“At least you stopped it.” Jim waved Bones over. “Hey, Bones, listen to what Scotty found.”
“What happened?” Bones sat down. Scotty downed his glass.
“You know how I’ve been tryn’ to find the equipment that’s gone missin’?” Bones nodded. “Well, yesterday I found it, and you're never gonna believe where it was.”
“Apparently, someone’s been hiding parts of the warp core and dismantled phasers in one of the storage compartments.” Jim jumped in, drawing an angry look from Scotty.
Bones frowned. “Why’d they do that?”
“Believe it or not,” Scotty leaned forwards, “they’ve been tryin’ to build a disruptor.”
Bones’ eyes widened. Disruptor technology was new and highly volatile. “That could’ve blown up the entire ship.”
“Aye.” Scotty poured himself another drink and took a swig. “Cannae have that.”
“How’d you figure it out?” Jim asked, swirling his drink around in the glass. Scotty shrugged.
“Someone sent me the records that the equipment had been checked out of the maintenance room by the same person.”
“Did you catch who it was?” Jim asked. Scotty smiled.
“Aye. It was the new Lieutenant. Jefferson.”
Bones set down his drink. Jim finished his. “Glad you caught him. What’d you do with him?”
“Sent ‘m back tah Starfleet. They can deal with ‘m.” Scotty downed his glass. “I’ll have to get another one. Laddie and I cannae do everything ourselves.”
“We’ll pick up another lieutenant when we get back,” Jim said, smiling. “It’s a good thing someone gave you those records.”
“Aye, but I cannae just find another one. They need to have some warp core experience.”
“True. That’s not easy to find.” Jim took another drink. “But there’s gotta be someone.”
The conversation continued, and then they went their separate ways. Jim headed back to the Bridge, Scotty went down to Engineering, and Bones went back to Medical. Crystal, Lewis, Andrea, and Alex were gathered around one of the tables, talking.
“I can’t believe it! So close to the warp core too.” Andrea took a hypo-syringe and inserted the vial into the chamber.
“I can’t believe it was Jefferson. He was only in here yesterday!” Crystal passed Lewis the empty tray.
“I can’t believe someone figured it out and sent that report to the Chief.” Lewis slid the tray back over to the side.
“I can’t believe you’re all standing around here talking about it and not working.” Bones said, raising an eyebrow as the four of them looked up guiltily. Crystal spoke up.
“Do you know who sent the report to the Chief, Doctor?”
“No, and even if I did I couldn’t tell you.” Bones waved his hands. “Go on, get back to work.”
The staff scattered. Bones shook his head and turned to go into his office. “Campbell, my office.”
Taking a seat, Bones pulled up her file as she stood in front of his desk. “Sit.” She sat. “I assume you’ve heard what happened in Engineering.”
“Yes, sir.” Blank face.
“Then I assume you’ve heard that Jefferson has been sent back to Starfleet.” Bones leveled his gaze at the ensign. “Someone tipped off the Chief.”
“Quite unfortunate, sir.” Still nothing. Bones sat back.
“Would I be wrong to assume you have no idea what happens to officers who get caught doing something like this?”
“I’m afraid I’m not aware of how Starfleet deals with this type of thing, sir.” Nothing. Bones leaned forwards.
“Scotty’s looking for another person to help him and Chekov in Engineering.” Alex nodded. “I told him you might be interested.”
She sat up straighter. “Sir?”
“Well, you’ve got experience with warp cores, and you’re already here.” Bones watched as she tried to form a response.
“But I’ve been assigned as a medical officer.” She managed. Bones turned the monitor so she could see the display.
“The way the shifts are set up you’d be able to do both if you wanted to do that.” He folded his hands on the desk. “And considering you’re here pretty much all the time anyways, you’d still be spending the about the same time here as a normal shift.”
She looked at the schedule, quiet. Bones watched her, waiting until she looked up and sat back.
“Thank you, sir. If it’s alright with you, I’d like to give it a try.” She smiled.
“Alright. Take this to Scotty, he should be in Engineering.” Bones handed her a tablet and she stood up, turning to go. “Alex?”
“Yes, sir?”
“Jefferson’s sprain wasn’t caused by a visiting officer, was it?”
“Per Starfleet regulations, I can’t comment on that sir,” she stated, “however, I can point out that there were no such officers aboard the Enterprise at the time of Jefferson’s injury.”
Bones smirked. “Go on. Give that to Scotty, he’ll get you started.” Alex left. Bones got back to work, looking over the reports. As they grew more in depth, the time began to pass quicker, until Crystal poked her head around the corner, announcing they were shutting down for the night. Sighing, Bones rose and turned the corner, grabbing the tray of dirty tools. This was the first time in a few weeks that he’d done this without Alex. He’d just started before there was a soft knock on the window. He glanced up.
“Sorry I’m late sir.”
Speak of the devil. Alex walked over and picked up a towel. “Got slightly too caught up.”
“Just don’t do it again.” Alex looked up and smiled. Bones slid the tray closer to her. “How was your first shift in Engineering?”
“Mostly uneventful. Mostly just the Chief showing me the ropes, what does what, what not to do, and which piece of the warp core is his favorite and why.”
Bones snickered. “Did he introduce them to you in alphabetical order or in order of maximum efficiency?”
“Alphabetical.”
“Was it Cherise, then Flora?”
“No, Cherise then Fiona.”
“Ah, of course.”
They kept working for a few minutes before Alex spoke again. “How was your day, sir?”
Bones looked up. “Mine? Why’d you want to know about that?”
“Because the only people you actually talk to are the Captain and Commander Spock, and half the time the people you want to talk about are those two.”
Bones shook his head. “Fair enough. You’ll never believe what Kirk came in here with today.”
“What?”
“So you remember how we did that experiment with the chemicals from Tarsus 5?”
As he explained how Jim managed to get his head swollen to about three times its size (“Literally, not figuratively, god knows it’s big enough,”) Alex started laughing and had to put down the tools she was holding so they wouldn’t fall. Her laugh was infectious, and by the end, they were both giggling.
“There…is no way…the Captain got into that cabinet.” Alex was struggling to breathe. “How did he even know where it was?”
“Why do you think my scotch goes missing every two weeks?” Bones slid the tray of now cleaned tools back under the table. “Jim raids it whenever Scotty won’t fork his over anymore.”
“Is that why you keep it in the same place even though he knows where it is?” Alex slid the antiseptic back into the cupboard.
Bones straightened up and stared at her. “Watch it, missy.” Alex laughed.
“Hey, Bones!”
They turned towards the door. Jim was leaning on the door frame. “C’mon, let’s go. We’re late.”
“Hold on Jim, let me finish up.” Bones grumbled. Jim walked into sickbay and sat on the table.
“Hurry up, I want alcohol that won’t make my head swell up.” Bones rolled his eyes. Alex smirked and went to retrieve the PADD left on the table. Jim looked her up and down as she picked it up. “And who’re you?”
“No.” Bones turned around and crossed his arms. Jim looked up.
“I didn’t even do anything yet.”
“No.” Taking Jim by the arm, Bones walked him out of sickbay. “You said we were late.”
By the time Bones deposited Jim in his seat, Scotty was been treated to an earful of questions as to why Jim couldn’t talk to Alex. “What are you, her dad?”
“No Jim, I’m just trying to keep you out of my sickbay.” Bones took the glass from Scotty.
“Why? What happened to the last guy who tried to hit on her?” Jim took a swig and smirked. “Don’t tell me, he’s under a sheet in the back?”
Bones smiled. “No, he’s on his way back to Starfleet HQ.”
It was worth it to watch the blood drain out of Jim’s face.