Archive of Our Own ^beta

When Dr. Leonard McCoy pulls into the faculty parking lot, he finds his assigned spot is right next to a convertible that’s an obnoxiously loud shade of cherry red. He steps out of his truck, a beat up Ford four-door truck that looks even more worse for wear next to its younger, sexier sister, a Mustang that can’t be more than three years old.

In another year, with two semesters under his belt, he figures he can replace the pick-up, though he’s not sure if he wants to. There’s still a bit of sentiment there that keeps him hanging on, which ironically, is probably the story of his life.

Leonard bought the truck for himself after saving up for three summers while working as a lifeguard in high school. It went with him to college, then to med school. It’s the steady ride that picked up Jocelyn in Atlanta when they were first dating, the working man’s vehicle sticking out like a sore thumb in a street lined with Beemers and Benzes.

But it was also the chariot that carried McCoy’s proudest accomplishment, his infant daughter Joanna, home from the hospital after her birth.

Maybe… even if he did get a new truck, he’d hang onto it. Pass it down to Joanna one day. Out of sentiment and all.

Joanna is the main reason he’s here today, making his way through a college campus he has never set foot on before. He’s a southern boy, a Georgian through and through. And this is New Jersey, a place that’s pretty far from home and a hell of a lot different.

Jocelyn had gotten everything in the divorce, despite her infidelity, because well, that’s the way the Georgian laws work. Lawyers generally agree that the family courts favor women in his home state, just like the applicable laws. Though she doesn’t have a job, her alimony-adjusted income must be equal to Leonard’s, and a simple country doctor makes just enough to support one household, not two.

The job offer had come out of the blue. So much so, that it took him two weeks to give his friend and former med school roommate at Ole Miss an answer. The prospect of being away from his daughter was difficult to bear when they were only a few towns apart, an intentional distance put between them by a court order. But to voluntarily move away? It was a battle that raged on for weeks and survived more than a few bottles of whiskey.

He eventually decides to go, of course. The money too good to pass up, especially if it means that he can give Joanna more and put himself in a place to challenge the custody agreement.

Rutgers University looks nothing like Ole Miss. The smell of maturing fruit trees doesn’t linger in the air, though he can smell fresh cut grass and a hint of chlorine seeping through the doors of the rec center that holds an Olympic pool. In the distance, he can see the upper tiers of the football stadium, which has been renovated three times in seven years. He’s been told that professors can get free tickets, but Leonard isn’t sure he’ll ever think of himself as a Scarlet Knight or anything aside from a Rebel, the mascot at his alma mater. Even if he has heard they fire off canons anytime the home team scores.

By the grace of God, he finds the building his office is supposed to be in and nearly runs face-first into the petite student with curly black hair that has been assigned as his TA for the semester.

“Dr. McCoy!” she practically squeaks and he’s a little confused as to how she recognizes him. But then he thinks about the ease at which his name can be typed into Google and searched across social media. “It’s so nice to finally meet you. I’m Cosima, your TA!”

She extends an eager hand and McCoy shakes it. “Nice to meet you, Cosima. I’m sorry I don’t have any work for you today. My classes don’t start up until tomorrow.”

“I know that, Dr. McCoy.” She smiles at him easily. “I’m actually here to show you around for a bit. Busch campus is the biggest and easiest to get lost in.”

Leonard dips his head in acknowledgment, right hand gripping the buckle of his messenger bag. “Lead the way then.”

Cosima takes McCoy through a tour of the campus via one of its buses that run on a loop. It’s the biggest of the five campuses at Rutgers, filled with greenery that flows into a golf course used by more prominent alumni and members of the staff.

“Back where I’m from, you had to be a big city doctor to get on one of those,” he notes, watching as the green disappears from view with a turn of the large red bus, the dining hall approaching on the left.

“Not to overstep my boundaries, Dr. McCoy…” the young woman begins with a tilt of her head. “But being a pretentious douchebag seems to be a prerequisite for a tee-time up here.”

Leonard lets out a loud snort as a mass of hungry students exit in a pack. He and Cosima are going to get along just fine.

When the circuit is complete, he follows her back into the office building and she leads him up to his office. It’s on the sixth floor, virtually the furthest point from the elevator. But he supposes that’s one of the perks of being the low man on the totem poll.

Cosima double-checks the number of his office assignment and glances up from her iPhone with a smile. “Your office is next to Dr. Blake, so you’ll have at least one nice neighbor. Dr. Carruthers is on your other side…” she lowers her voice to a whisper. “I’d stay away from him.”

“Duly noted,” Leonard acknowledges with a dip of his head as they pass the man in question’s office on their left.

“Here we are!” she announces brightly, opening the door with a key she promptly hands over to him. “It’s pretty bare bones for now, but I’m sure you’ll make it your own.”

Bare bones is an understatement. So would describing it as a shoebox. In fact, Leonard is fairly certain that it’s the size of the master bathroom at his old house, which actually seems bigger.

The black Formica desk is smack in the middle of the room, even though one side is butted up against a gray wall. The computer chair behind it has just enough space to allow him to slide out from underneath the surface without bashing into a wall. Two chairs, which look more like they belong in a dorm than an office, are positioned in front of the desk.

“Here’s hoping it doesn’t look and feel like a cubicle in a few weeks.”

“I’m sure you’ll do just fine,” his assistant assures him, pocketing her cell phone. “Well, Dr. McCoy… it was a pleasure to meet you. I’ll leave you to getting settled. If you need anything, you have my contact information waiting for you in your email. I’ll see you tomorrow.” She gives him a small wave before she departs.

Leonard lets out a small sigh as he feels his hands start to shake from caffeine withdrawal. His habitual consumption of coffee has helped ease him off his preference for bourbon and Tennessee Whiskey and he’s started to become a little reliant on it, especially once noon hits.

He remembers seeing that the staff lounge is located on this floor and he wanders off in search of it, only to find that the coffee machine is out of order. He’s not sure how the dining hall works yet or if there’s even coffee available. So as the shaking gets worse, he shoves his hands in his pockets and returns to his office, passing the door in favor of the neighbor Cosima talked up a few hours before.

The door is open when he approaches, but he still knocks anyway. Though, he’s glad he knocked before looking at its occupant.

As it turns out, Dr. Blake is a woman and a beautiful one at that. In fact, if he saw her walking around campus, he’d probably assume she was a student. Blake is fair-skinned with bright green eyes he notices the moment she looks up at him, blonde waves tumbling over the fabric of her flowing pink chiffon tank that’s layered over what Leonard suspects is a while cotton one beneath.

“Can I help you?” she asks, clicking to bookmark her position in an article.

“Hi, sorry, erm-“ McCoy stammers lightly before he manages to get a hold of himself. “I’m your new neighbor. Came to introduce myself.”

The blonde rises from her chair and crosses the room to greet him. “Dr. Danielle Blake.” She holds out a hand. “Please, call me Danielle.

“Dr. Leonard McCoy.” He glances down at the hand, both hands as a matter of fact, and sees that she’s wearing a heart shaped ring on her right hand, but her left hand is devoid of jewelry. Not that he notices or anything. “Please, call me Leonard.”

“How about I call you Leo?” she offers instead as she shakes his hand. “Dr. Carruthers, who is on the other side of you, is also named Leonard. He’s seventy-five and miserable and you seem a hell of a lot more worth talking to.”

“Leo it is.”

“You’ve got to be a MD,” Danielle notes with a small smile, slipping her hands into the back pockets of her jeans. “I’m a PhD, Chemical Physics to be specific.”

For the first time, Leonard notices framed diplomas from Cal Tech and Stanford proudly displayed on her walls. “Impressive. This your first year teaching?”

The blonde lets out a loud laugh. “God, no. This is my fourth year, just a hair away from tenure. I swear, this is the longest I’ve ever stayed in the same place.”

“Oh?” McCoy raises an eyebrow at her.

“Army brat,” Danielle answers with ease. “Sufficient to say I moved around a lot. Did my Bachelor’s and PhD in six years total, spent six months as a researcher before this offer cropped up. Big change from California, but I kind of like the seasons.”

“We don’t really get seasons either where I’m from. I grew up in the south…”

“No kidding,” she snorts with amusement and Leonard already feels more comfortable around her than he’s felt around any co-worker in years. “Love the accent, by the way. Georgia, am I right?”

“Yes, m’am.”

“There aren’t enough Southern gentlemen in this world… hopefully, you’ll rub off on some of these blockhead frat boys.”

“They might be beyond repair,” Leonard jokes, the shake in his hands becoming more prevalent. “Listen, I’m in desperate need of caffeine and the coffee machine is broken. Any chance there’s one on another floor?”

Danielle shakes her head. “All the money they charge these kids and we can’t even get a decent coffee machine.” She takes a few steps back to the table in the back right corner and reaches for the pair of travel mugs. “Decided to buy my own,” she adds, gesturing to the Keurig machine before waving him over. “Come pick your poison, Dr. McCoy.”

He opens his mouth to correct her before realizing that she’s teasing him and amused grin eases its way across his face. “Dark roast, please,” he requests, plucking out a cup with a dark brown lid.

She busies herself for the next few minutes, preparing the two travel mugs of coffee. She adds two single-serving cups of hazelnut creamer to hers before handing the other canister to Leonard. “You seem like a man who takes his coffee black.”

“You’ve got me all figured out, huh?” he posits with the arch of an eyebrow, accepting the metal from her outstretched hands.

“Not in the slightest.” She shakes her head at him, blonde locks cascading over her bare shoulders. “But maybe one day.”

One month into the fall semester, Leonard is fairly certain he’s finding his stride. He’s got a decent handle on his lesson planning and seems to have the attention of most of his students who, thankfully, actually need the class in order to be pre-med. Certainly cuts down on the slackers and nappers.

But he’s also hit a bit of a groove as far as his office neighbor is concerned. He’s on campus Monday through Thursday, spending all four days grading papers or preparing materials for an upcoming class. Thankfully, she’s present for the same stretch of the workweek and they take their 3pm coffee breaks together every day. Though, on this particular day, he comes baring two large boxes of K-cups, one with Dark Roast, the other with her favorite Hazelnut Roast that has a bright red bow on it.

When Leonard knocks on her door, she looks up at him with a bright smile and gestures to the stainless steel mugs sitting on the edge of her desk. “The usual, I presume.”

It’s at that moment the doctor notices one of them is monogrammed with the letter L. “Did you get that for me, darlin’…?” he drawls out, making no effort to conceal the boxes.

“I could ask the same of you,” she answers with a knowing grin that causes him to sport a matching one. “Anyway, I thought we’d take a little field trip today. I know you’re done with your classes for the week and I thought we could celebrate your one-month anniversary as a professor. And as a New Jersey transplant.”

He decides not to tell her that he doesn’t plan on staying here for long, may not even last past this academic year. The objective is to make his money, get a solid evaluation, and transfer to a school close to Joanna so that he can get better visitation rights. Hell, any visitation rights.

Danielle picks her purse off the table, dangling her keys in the air. “I’m driving.”

“This is yours?”

Blake slides into the driver’s seat and unlocks the soft-top, peering out at him through the open passenger window. “That a problem?”

Leonard shakes his head as he watches the canvas descend, the doctor coming into full view. “Not at all. You know, in spite of the weather back home, I never got to ride in one of these.”

“A Mustang or a convertible?”

“Neither, actually,” he admits as he opens the door and slips inside, tucking his messenger bag into the foot well.

“Well then, Doctor McCoy…” Danielle turns the key in the ignition, lolling her head to the side to grin at him. “Get ready to have your mind blown. Buckle up.”

Leonard has no idea where they’re going and frankly, he doesn’t even care. The wind is whipping through his relatively short hair, defeating any styling gel he may have used in the morning, but he finally understands the appeal of drop tops.

“I take it you’re enjoying yourself,” Danielle pipes up from beside him as the radio station switches into a commercial. “You haven’t said a word in twenty-five minutes.”

He looks over at her, finding amusement in the way the rush of air sends her hair sprawling about, reminding him faintly of how models look during photo shoots in a few movies he’s caught on cable. “I see what all the fuss is about,” he says in a raised voice, battling with the noise of cars and wind breezing by. “Where are we going, anyway?”

“You’ll see,” Blake tells him with the slightest hint of a smirk. “But I really think you’re going to like it.”

“Where have I heard that before?” he grumbles a little under his breath and gazes back out his side of the car.

No more than ten minutes later, the car is traveling down the streets of a town called Westfield at a hair over 25 mph. Westfield reminds Leonard a little bit of Georgia. It’s full of flowers and greenery, small Mom and Pop shops unfettered by chains. Most people seem to be walking around the town, with cars dotting the street here and there. Even the kids seem to be walking home from school.

Shortly after arriving in town, Danielle parallel parks across the street from a restaurant called Isabella’s and Leo pointedly attempts to ignore the fact that she maneuvered the car with one hand on the steering wheel with ease, which he finds oddly attractive.

Once the soft-top is back in place, she steps out of the car and inclines her head at the green and white awning. “Here we are.”

“We drove a half-hour so you could show me a restaurant?” Leonard questions a little cynically. “Don’t they have restaurants in New Brunswick?”

“Not like this one,” she answers dismissively and starts leading him to the door. “My second year of teaching, I started mentoring this one student. She’s at Cal Tech now, but her parents still own this place. I think it’s right up your alley.”

“I didn’t think you knew what my alley was.”

“I pay attention.” She bounces her shoulders, face spreading into a grin as she spots two people Leonard assumes are the owners of the restaurant. They quickly usher the pair to the table, bringing back a pitcher of sweet tea. “So what do you think?”

Leonard takes a sip of from his glass, letting the substance flood his palette. “I’m impressed.”

“And that’s coming from a southern boy. Pretty big compliment.”

His eyes flicker to the menu, full of classics he’s so desperately been missing since he left home. “So that’s why you took me here?”

“Mostly,” she answers, eyes still fixated on the list of food options, but elaborates on it no more.

A platter of Mac n Cheese lollipops, which Leonard is certain he’ll be salivating over for the next week and a half, later, Danielle pours herself a second glass of sweet tea.

“So what’s your story, Leonard McCoy?” she finally decides to ask, stirring the sugary liquid with a straw. “A good southern boy like you can’t have decided to come all the way to Jersey on a whim.”

He scoffs and snorts, looking down at his own glass. “Probably not a story you’d like to hear.”

“If I didn’t want to know, I wouldn’t have asked.”

He lets out a loud sigh. “Ex-wife got everything in the divorce, including our daughter, then got engaged to the man she had an affair with. Kind of needed a fresh start after that.”

He expects her to recoil or to express a sentiment of pity. But instead, her nonchalance catches him off-guard. “That sucks.”

Leonard’s gaze flits up to her face, which remains unmarred by lines of worry, concern, or confusion. “It does. I’ve got alimony payments up to my eyeballs cause she doesn’t work. Some bullshit theory about equal spousal income… basically means she’s getting half of what I earn, regardless of that asshole that lives in my house now.” He laughs bitterly. “Probably won’t marry him for years… once she does, all I have to pay is child support and she can’t have that. Can’t let go of the golden cow.”

There’s a strange, almost strangled noise and his head snaps up from his drink. He realizes rather quickly that Danielle is choking back laughter.

“I- I’m sorry, Leo,” she gasps, inhaling shallow breaths. “But you called yourself a cow… and now I’m picturing you with udders and mooing.” She lets out another burst of laughs. “How much sugar is in these things?”

He doesn’t know how it happens and he doesn’t know why, but Leonard McCoy finds himself smiling at the complete ridiculousness of the image she describes.

It’s nice, for a change, not to face the judgment that often comes along with his divorce. He hates the term divorcé, hates having to send off a check every month to the Department of Child and Family services that nearly drains his bank account, and most of all, despises the fact that he’s now damaged goods.

Especially because he looks at the woman across the table and it’s like she’s composed entirely of pristine fine china. Her skin is practically flawless, blonde hair tousled like a model. Her green eyes sparkle when she looks at him, studies him, and it makes him feel even worse, like she can see every crack in his armor. As if there was any armor to begin with.

“So what about you?” He turns the tables as the waitress approaches with his braised short ribs and mashed potatoes, setting it down in front of him. “What’s your story, Danielle Blake?”

She thanks the waitress after she drops off her bacon and cheddar stuffed meatloaf with creamed spinach. “Grew up as an Army Brat. My dad was a captain for most of my childhood, so we moved around a lot from base to base. Once I went to college, it was the first time I was stationary anywhere for more than a year. Three years at Stanford, three years at Cal Tech. Got a research position as soon as the ink dried on my PhD.”

“Isn’t that supposed to take eight or nine years?” Leonard inquires before taking a bite of the ribs.

She nods and swallows her first forkful. “I did in six total.”

McCoy breathes out a puff of air. “Shit, I am not worthy…”

Danielle shrugs lightly before cutting another piece. “Somehow, I doubt that.”

Leonard merely returns his stare to his food.

It’s a little colder on the way back to campus. The sun has been down for roughly three hours now and the air rushing over the windshield of the Mustang has just the tiniest hint of a bite. He knows Danielle isn’t likely to feel it with four years of Jersey living under her belt, but he’s still got the warm blood of a Georgian and an affinity for ungodly temperatures.

They’re still talking about dessert by the time she pulls back into the faculty parking lot, agreeing that the banana bread pudding might top their respective lists of the best desserts they ever ate, though Leonard swears nothing will ever touch his mama’s pecan pie. Danielle doesn’t doubt that for a moment.

“So I guess I’ll see you Monday, then?” Leonard looks over at her, head tilting as he waits for an answer, ignoring the fingers itching to reach out and touch her as he sits.

“See you Monday.” She smiles brightly and watches as he leaves her car to hop into his pickup.

Danielle loves the feeling of having all of that American horsepower under her foot, but it’s not everybody’s cup of tea. Certainly, not Leo’s. But she finds that his Ford truck is so country, so him, that it suits the doctor just fine.

She tries not to let her eyes linger too long before she starts to back away, cognizant of the fact that sticking around would be a combination of clingy and creepy that she’d like to avoid. Taking a man out to dinner was already a bit more than her mother would approve of, but hell, there’s a reason she’s no longer trailing her parents around the country.

Danielle is barely at the first traffic light when she feels her phone buzz in her pocket and she fumbles to push the button that will transfer the call to her Bluetooth. “Hello?”

“Hey, darlin.’ Sorry to bother you, but I have a bit of a situation on my hands.”

The risk of a ticket for an illegal K turn in the middle of Biel Road is worth it, even if she doesn’t get caught.

“Thanks again for coming back to get me.”

Leave it to the old F-250 to finally conk out at 10 o’clock at night on a Thursday and be too stubborn to jolt back to life with the assistance of a pair of jumper cables. He is pretty sure he just needs a new battery, but he can’t find his AAA card and isn’t willing to shell out $650 for a tow at full cost.

“It’s not a problem, Leo…” she waves him off as they stop at the same traffic light she’d turned around at an hour earlier. “No work in the morning, so I think my mother will let breaking curfew slide.”

A smile breaks his wearied frown. How is it she can just make him do that at the drop of a hat?

“Still,” he insists, gesturing for her to make a left turn at the next signal, “You didn’t have to go out of your way for me. Again.”

Her green eyes flit over to him for just a second. “You’re better company than you think.”

The section of East Brunswick that his apartment is located in isn’t exactly premiere, but it’s as decent as Leonard can afford at the moment. The apartment has a poor excuse for a master bedroom, an even worse excuse for a guest room that he’s converted into an office, a tiny kitchen, a decent sized living room, and a space just big enough for a table and chairs that he could be overly-generous and call a dining room.

He bought all his furniture at a local value center, so he got a little more bang for his buck. The sectional couch, the bookcase, the cherry wood dining room table, the wooden bed set with matching dressers, and the oak desk are all pieces he could take with him if he manages to finagle his way back to Georgia, but he’s not attached enough to them that he wouldn’t leave them to the next occupant for the right price.

Danielle, on the other hand, lives in a more family-oriented area, having been able to save most of her only year’s salary as a researcher and combine it with her first two years as a professor to afford a house. It’s nothing really fancy. There’s no hardwood, plenty of carpet, and tile in the kitchen that she’d like to renovate in the next few years, but it’s homey and it’s hers and it’s the first place she’s ever owned, ever set down roots.

Though, forgoing the planned renovation the past two years so she could have her shiny red car has totally been worth it.

“Just give me a call tomorrow and I’ll come pick you up,” the blonde tells him as she parks in a guest spot just outside of his front door. “Take you back to where we left your car.”

“You don’t h-“

“I know,” she cuts him off. “Just shut up and let me help you, okay?”

He nods silently and plucks his bag from beside his feet as he slips out of the car in one smooth movement. After Leo shuts the door behind himself, he stops, reminding himself of his manners, and turns back around. “Do you want to come in for a bit?” he finally manages to ask her. “Have a drink? Least I can do…”

“I don’t want to impose on you, Leo…”

“No, I want you to,” he insists, a little stronger than he’d like or was even expecting the words to sound. “Plus, I just cleaned it this morning and I need someone to bear witness before I let it all go to shit within the next twenty-four hours.”

Danielle goes about retracting the convertible top back into place and rather than walk inside without her, Leo watches her move effortlessly through the routine. It seems like a lot of work for open air driving, but the feeling that goes along with it in the warmth of the September sun is worth it. And he hopes to feel it again sometime.

He tries not to fumble with his keys too much as he approaches his front door and lets her walk inside ahead of him. “I’d give you the grand tour, but you can pretty much see everything from here. Don’t mind the fact I live in a cardboard box. Make yourself at home.”

“A cardboard box with a nice TV,” she corrects him teasingly as she sits down on the steel gray couch and notices the 50” flat screen on the wall.

“First paycheck splurge.”

“Ah, I know it well. Bought a $300 hairdryer with mine. Worth every penny.”

The statement draw’s Leonard’s attention to her blonde waves and he can’t help but agree.

To distract himself, he walks into the kitchen and opens up the cabinet above the sink, then peers into his refrigerator. “I’ve got beer, a half a bottle of white wine I’d probably advise against drinking because it very well may be from the last tenant, some Jim Beam, and Jack.”

“Beer would be great. Have to be able to drive home tonight and back in the morning, you know.” Her wandering gaze finds only one picture frame on the bookcase, featuring a girl no more than eight years old missing approximately three teeth, clearly posed in front of a sponged blue background. “Is that your daughter?” she calls to him in the kitchen.

But he’s already crossed the juncture of carpet and tile, so it takes care for him not to drop the open bottles of Budweiser in his hand.

Leonard sucks in a deep breath and an even deeper swig from one, moving toward the couch to hand a Bud to her. “Yeah, her name’s Joanna. Jo or Jojo for short.”

She gratefully accepts the drink, twisting in her fingers as her focus remains on the photo. “She looks a lot like you.”

“Wants to be a doctor someday, just like her daddy.” His heart swells a little with pride at the notion and Danielle swears she can sense it a few feet away. “Don’t get to talk to her as much as I like. I’m pretty much limited to a phone call a week. Her mother, my ex, won’t let me send letters or setup an email address.”

Blake takes a long pull of her beer and shakes her head. “Your ex-wife sounds like a major bitch.”

“It’s what I get for marrying a city girl.” He rolls his eyes and downs another quarter of his beer. “Was always going to be a simple country doctor. I was perfectly happy with that, but Jocelyn- that’s my ex’s name- she was a socialite. Grew up with money. Wasn’t happy being anywhere but in the heart of Atlanta. I used to work double shifts at the hospital just so I could keep up with her credit card bills. Clay, on the other hand…” he huffs miserably. “Her high school boyfriend, the one she dumped for me way back when, then wound up fooling around with, has plenty of money. Basically, she’s got two incomes right now. Finally able to live the high life… the fancy dinners, the nice cars, the over-the-top charity functions. Was never me.”

Danielle nods, trying to take in and process all of the information he’s given her. “I know this probably doesn’t mean much, and I’m sorry that you had to go through a divorce and everything that comes with it, but you deserve a lot better than her.”

Leonard downs the last of his beer far quicker than he anticipated earlier and silently chastises himself as he feels his mind slipping into the state of binging. But he can’t do that, he can’t indulge his frazzled and battered psyche tonight. Not until she leaves anyway, though he’s not keen on pushing her to go either.

“I’m gonna grab another beer…” He backpedals, quickly excusing himself. “You want another?”

“No thanks. I’m good,” she returns softly, watching him sadly as he retreats into the kitchen.

The doctor opens the refrigerator door and just stays there, pressing his forehead into the freezer door directly above it. He wonders why every time he takes a step forward, he takes two steps back and then the universe drop kicks him back another for good measure.

He knows he wasn’t exactly an angel while he was married to Jocelyn, but he wasn’t remotely close to a devil, either. Leonard McCoy was a faithful husband, a solid provider, and a damn good father, far better than nearly all of the husbands of Joce’s friends. In fact, he’d seen a good chunk of them with other women at some point in his travels, but had kept silent for the sake of a happy home. Didn’t even tell Jocelyn about his abhorrence regarding the men’s affairs.

He is still well aware of the irony all these years later.

After a few deep breaths, Leonard finally plucks a new bottle from the refrigerator. “Are you sure I can’t get you-“ He turns around to find Danielle is in the kitchen, only a few feet behind him as she leans against the wall. “Sorry, wouldn’t have yelled if I’d known you were here.”

But rather than dismiss his apology, she crosses the room and carefully extracts the beer from his hands, setting it beside him on the counter.

His eyebrows knit together in confusion, but he doesn’t have much time to contemplate her actions before she presses her lips to his.

The kiss takes him by surprise, not because he hadn’t thought about it before, but because it was just that: a thought. It wasn’t real, it wasn’t happening, and he doubted it ever would.

But then her mouth is soft and warm against his, her smooth hands holding both sides of his face, and it far exceeds anything his imagination has ever conjured up.

He breaks away from her, their hot breaths mingling in the few inches that separate them. “This wasn’t what I angling at when I invited you in.”

“I know,” Danielle whispers back at him, emerald orbs meeting his hazel ones. “But this was what I wanted from the moment you walked into my office. You made it worse when you turned out to be a nice southern boy. So shut up and kiss me, Leo. I’m not going to change my mind.”

“I think I can handle that,” he manages to reply, dipping his head so that he can reclaim her lips.

His hands roam up and down her sides while hers thread around his neck and shoulders. She’s melting against him, his body molding around hers as her back connects with the counter top and he runs his tongue over her lower lip to beg for entrance. Blake obliges almost immediately.

Leonard grips Danielle’s hips and lifts her onto the almond-colored surface, taking a detour from his original destination to trail open-mouthed kisses along her neck and jaw. Once he returns, the blonde’s fingers find their way to the third button of his shirt, the top two already free, and begin to open each one with a deft ease.

He flings off the shirt and curls his fingertips underneath the fluttering silver sequin tank, hauling it off her head and dropping it onto the floor.

It seems like it’s been forever since he’s done this, since he’s felt this way about anyone. She’s beautiful and untarnished in his eyes, sure, but something about Danielle Blake makes him feel whole again, makes him think that maybe there’s something more for him after he gets Joanna back in his life for good.

And as much as he’d like to go a few rounds in the kitchen, there’s something in the pit of his stomach and the back of his mind that tells him to slow down, to enjoy himself… to enjoy her.

Leo slides his hands down her thighs and over her calves, pulling so that she understands that he wants her to wrap her legs around him. When he feels the limbs tighten, he lifts her up and carries her blindly to the bedroom, still hitched to her at the mouth.

He lays her down in the center of the queen-sized bed and cages her underneath his muscular arms that pleasantly surprise her. Though, his tendency to cuff his sleeves up to the elbows gave Danielle the slightest hint that his well-define muscles existed.

Twenty minutes later, they’re in nothing but their undergarments when Leo moves for her neck again. She hums into the quiet air, save for the light smacks of his lips separating from her flesh.

“Leo…” she whispers into his ear, fingers pressing into the dips and ridges of his back. “Do you have… you know?"

Protection, he finishes in his head and curses under his breath. It’s a reminder of just how long it’s been since he’s had any romantic prospects, let alone the time to indulge. Yet, it’s even more embarrassing because he has his medical degree, for Christ’s sake, and if anyone should know to be prepared, it’s a doctor. However, he’s not even remotely equipped.

“It’s fine,” she assures him, pulling him away from his assault for a brief respite so that she can bring his eyes to meet hers. “I have…”

Relief floods through his body, along with his arousal, and he leans in for a kiss. “Where?” he mumbles against her lips.

“My purse… inside zipper,” Danielle instructs him between kisses and it’s clear to the Georgian that he’s going to have to seek it out himself. “Pink satin pouch… can’t miss it.”

He nods, stealing one more kiss before he dashes into the other room, careful not to trip over his jeans on the floor. Her instructions turn out to be precise and he recovers the pouch with ease, but takes the whole strip of black squares he finds inside.

Noticing Leonard’s bounty as he drops it onto the nightstand, Danielle looks up at him with confused eyes once he climbs back into bed.

“Just in case…” He smirks deviously in reply, brushing his thumb across her cheek. “No work tomorrow, remember?”

Consequently, only one unopened packet remains by morning.

The blinding sun streams through the window, rousing Leonard from his slumber. He drags himself from the bed, hearing the springs of the mattress protest beneath him a little less than usual, and fumbles to close the shades.

When he turns around, after attempting to rub the sleep from his eyes, he catches sight of another body under the blanket, skin practically glowing in the dim sunlight.

He’s genuinely surprised to not only find that last night wasn’t a dream, but that Danielle didn’t sneak out while he was asleep. And it’s not just because she’s his ride back to deal with his truck once he finally manages to find his AAA card.

As quietly as he can, Leonard slips back under the comforter. He leans over her and places a gentle kiss just over the curve of her shoulder. Then the dip in her posture. Followed by her collarbone. And lastly, the hollow of her throat.

When his lips connect with their final destination, she starts to rouse from her sleep, drawing her shoulder up and trapping his chin so that their warm skin presses together. She hums brightly and stretches, rolling onto her back to look up at him with a drowsy smile.

“Good morning, beautiful,” Leo says pleasantly, bowing his head to kiss her.

“Good morning, handsome,” she murmurs in reply. “How’d you sleep?”

“Like a stone. Best sleep I’ve had in… I can’t remember, honestly.”

Danielle yawns, covering her mouth. “I guess you tired yourself out.”

“I’m pretty sure that you tired me out,” Leo muses with an arch of his eyebrow. “Though darlin’, I am nowhere near complainin’ about that.”

She grins back at him, pink tinting her cheeks. “So you had a good time?”

“God yes,” he groans, reliving the night in his head. “Last night as a whole was incredible.”

“Then you should taste my home-cooking,” she boasts a little. “That is if you have anything other than beer and stale white wine in the refrigerator.”

Leonard lets out a booming chuckle. “I’m a doctor, not a frat boy. I do have actual food in there.”

“Well then, Doctor…” she practically purrs, digging her palms into the bed as she starts to sit up. “How about I make you breakfast? I promise it’ll be better than anything the dining halls have to offer.”

McCoy quickly follows, engulfing her slender torso in his arms so that Danielle’s are no longer bearing her weight. “Later. I just want to stay here for a while.”

She tilts her head at him, contemplating what the doctor means to say. Yet, as he keeps a loose hold on her, his eyes warm and inviting, she understands that what Leonard is trying to tell her is that he wants to remain like this: with the blonde professor in his embrace, just comfortable and lazy and at complete and total ease for what she estimates to be the first time in a while. And it has nothing to do with sex.

“I’d like that,” Danielle admits with an upturn at the corner of her mouth, green orbs flickering to his lips, signaling him.

And Leonard reads it with ease, drawing Blake closer and into a kiss. Though, he eventually lowers her, and by extension, himself, back onto the mattress.

He inclines his head to gaze down at her, the backs of his hands sandwiched between her skin and the sheets. “You’re beautiful,” Leo says quietly, the sincerity of his words unquestionable despite the volume at which he speaks them. “And I want to know everything about you.”

For the next four months, they’re nearly inseparable. They start out alternating nights at his apartment and her house, but find the routine is too disjointed and more often than not, someone leaves something important at the empty location. And of course, it means one of the professors is unprepared for class. So instead, the doctors decide to alternate weeks and find their professional life is no longer affected.

Their relationship is common knowledge by the time Thanksgiving break rolls around. The first of the students figure it out after an unseasonably cold snap spools into New Jersey shortly after Halloween and dumps a boatload of snow and ice over the Garden State. The roads are a mess, but McCoy’s truck is in working order again and he insists on driving because Blake’s Mustang has rear-wheel drive that is no match for the glistening black pavement. When they get out of the truck in the faculty lot, she looks so damn pretty in her bright pink scarf and black pea coat that Leonard can’t resist wrapping the knit fabric around his fist until her lips are against his.

Of course, this is just in time for a pair of his students to walk by. He’s surprised it takes a full 48 hours before the lecture hall buzzes when he enters. It takes only 36 for her.

They’re grading final exam essays in her kitchen over breakfast when Leo’s iPhone buzzes on the table. He may be an old-fashioned country doctor, but he certainly isn’t living in the flip phone days.

His heavy sigh draws Danielle’s attention from a particularly laconic response. “What is it?”

“My folks want to meet you,” he answers thickly.

She lets her red pen settle atop the well-inked pages of the bluebook. “And you don’t want them to?”

The implication of her words isn’t lost on the Georgian. “It has nothing to do with how I feel about you.”

And the look of relief on her features isn’t unnoticed either. “Then what’s the problem, Leo?”

Leonard buries his stare in his mug of coffee. “I can’t be that close, knowing she’s only a few miles away and I won’t-“

The chair squeals as she pushes away from the table and rises from her seat, walking over to Leo and wrapping her arms around his shoulders.

“We should go to Georgia,” Danielle tells him, certainty in her voice. “And while we’re there, you can file a petition for amended visitation. Georgian common law follows the default rule,” she starts to explain. “A non-custodial parent is entitled to visitation, regardless of his place of residence. Visitation agreements shall take residential circumstances into account when the non-custodial parent is deemed to be fit for parental duties. Minimally permissive forms of visitation include religious holidays and school vacations,” she rattles off to a finish and her boyfriend merely stares blankly at her. “What? I’ve been doing some research in my spare time.”

“What spare time?” Leo questions, still a little rattled by her information. “The two hours during the week we’re not basically living together?”

“And the three hours my students are writing out their exams… whenever I put on a movie for them.”

Leonard continues to focus on the table for a moment, tallying the amount of times Danielle has complained about students using cell phones during film days, mentally calculating how many hours her research must have added up to. Then he slips out of her arms, departing from the kitchen to walk out the front door.

Danielle blinks as the door shuts, remaining quiet for a few minutes. When she gathers her thoughts, she heads for the door to give chase, but stops as she hears the familiar southern drawl on the other side. She peeks through the window and sees that Leo is sitting on the top step, elbows resting on his knees as he holds a phone to his ear with one hand.

“Yeah, Mom… everything’s fine,” Leonard assures his mother, his head still bowed in his hands. “I just wanted to let you know that we’ll be able to finish up with the final exams earlier than we thought, so I’ll be coming down for Christmas after all.” His words cease as he listens for her response that’s inaudible through the wall. “Yeah, Danielle’s gonna come, too,” he confirms with a small puff of air, waiting to hear the McCoy matriarch’s opinion on the matter. “I know. I really think you’re gonna like her, Ma…” A small chuckle escapes his lips, a smile returning to his features for the first time in hours as he tilts his head back. “That obvious, huh? I do. I really, really do. You’ll see why when you meet her. She’s really looking forward to it.”

And though Leo hasn’t exactly consulted her on the matter so he can’t know her opinion, he isn’t technically lying. Because she really can’t wait to meet his parents.

Eleanora McCoy was never really a fan of Jocelyn Darnell. Even in her early thirties, the woman is a spoiled, impetuous child. One can only imagine what she was like when she and Leonard met at nineteen, when she was still somewhat an adolescent. How her son, who had always been relatively independent, but hard-working and appreciative of the small comforts he had grown up with, had fallen in love with the rich socialite, she never understood.

For all her faults, Jocelyn had been a decent mother to Joanna. Even her convoluted belief that the child’s life would be better without her father in it was from a maternal instinct. Granted, it was a delusional one. But an attempt to be a good mother, nonetheless.

Eleanora loved her son, but he hadn’t proved to have the greatest taste in women. So she was surprised when he’d shown up on the doorstep of the family home with a woman that was the complete opposite of his ex-wife in every way.

“Let me help you clean up from the table, Mrs. McCoy,” Danielle insists, rising to her feet from the chair beside Leo and grabbing both of their fairly-empty plates on the way.

His mother waves her off. “Nonsense, you’re a guest, Danielle…”

“What kind of guest would I be if I took advantage of your hospitality?” the blonde returns with a small smile, scraping the remaining residue of Christmas Eve dinner from the dishes and into the garbage can. “Besides, it’s nice to have a real sit-down dinner with other adults.”

Eleanora begins to load the silverware into the dishwasher. “Must be hard living so far away from your family.”

Danielle shrugs weakly, depositing the plates, as well. “It’s not that… we just never really had family dinners when I was growing up. Dad was usually overseas, Mom would spend weekends at her sister’s when it got particularly hard for her to take. Usually wound up being just me and my sister.”

“Well, consider yourself an honorary McCoy while you’re here. You feel like family already.”

David McCoy gets called into the hospital in the middle of dessert after a car accident on the icy freeway leaves a child in critical condition. It’s clear that his children and wife are used to these kinds of emergencies, a small flicker of pride crossing their faces as he darts off into the night to be someone’s superhero.

“Best surgeon in all of Georgia,” David’s father, Thomas, or TJ as he’s mostly known, chimes in, two forkfuls deep into his second helping of pecan pie.

“Takes after his old man,” Leonard tells his grandfather with a smile. “Imagine what you would have done with all these new tools, Pa.”

“Ach!” TJ declares with a grimace, fanning a hand. “Technology and I are a worse mix than oil and water. They would have put me out to pasture by now. In my day, when you were a doctor, you were a doctor. There was no such thing as a cardiothoractic surgeon. When you had that MD after your name, you were a jack-of-all-trades. You did everything, no matter how big or how small. And you had to give it everything you got in ya.”

Danielle lets out a small chuckle that draws the attention of the rest of the adults at the table. “I see where Leo gets it from.”

“What?” Leonard’s older sister, Donna, raises her eyebrows at the younger woman. “His grumpiness?”

She shakes her head and replies simply, but honestly, “His drive to do good.”

Leonard’s Gran can barely conceal her smile at the end of the table.

It’s four in the morning and David still isn’t home from the hospital. Danielle, even from her place in the guest room, can hear Eleanora pacing in the kitchen, busying herself with cleaning and making tea while she waits up for him.

“I’m gonna go wait with her,” she tells Leonard in a quiet voice, head lolling over to the side to look at him.

“Danielle, she’s done this a thousand times. It’s just what Mom does; she worries. She’ll be alright.”

“I watched my mom do the same thing for sixteen years. You lose a patient, you lose a soldier…” she posits as he faces her and she turns over to mirror him. “It’s still death. The end result is still the same.”

He looks at her sleepily, a hand coming up to rest against her cheek as his eyes close. It’s almost as if he’s willing her to stay. “He hasn’t lost her yet.”

Danielle presses a kiss to his palm, but slips out of bed anyway. “Go back to sleep. I’ll come back once he’s home.”

At 7am, David walks through the door and she watches as his wife embraces him. As it turns out, he manages to save the little girl, but it comes at a cost. She’s paralyzed from the waist down and it’s unlikely she’ll ever dance again.

The older woman dips her head in a silent offer of gratitude as the younger woman passes on the way back to bed. She wonders if someday, her son will find his way to Georgia again, maybe pick up his father’s mantle at the hospital, and have the blonde waiting for him after a particularly rough night.

The relationship is still very new, but Eleanora McCoy knows her son, knows he wouldn’t bring just anyone home for Christmas, even at her insistence. So it’s that hope for Leonard’s happiness that carries her through the difficult morning.

Still unused to the trauma of a half-hearted victory, Danielle carefully closes the door behind her, as not to wake Leo. But upon turning around, she finds his drowsy hazel gaze has already landed on her, silently asking what he can tell from the look on her face.

Danielle shakes her head and he pulls back the blanket, waiting for her to crawl back into bed. He wraps his arms around her, bringing her back to his chest, vaguely hearing the word paraplegic through her muffled sobs.

He shouldn’t feel this way; not when a little girl just lost her ability to walk. But something about the situation, how much she cares about the health of a child she’ll probably never meet, how insistent she was on supporting his mother, makes him fall in love with her just a little more.

It’s three PM on a Thursday in February when Leonard gets the call. His petition to the court has been accepted and a judge has scheduled a court date for the second week of April, which falls perfectly over Spring Break.

He sits outside of her classroom, knee bouncing up and down from his place on the bench. She knows something’s up as soon as she lays eyes on him.

“The judge is going to take my case,” Leonard practically bursts. “I might actually get her back. For good.”

“That’s- that’s wonderful, Leo,” Danielle returns with a bright grin. “I’m so happy for you. Let me buy you Starbucks to celebrate.”

They’re halfway through their coffees when Leo’s guilt gets the better of him. “There’s something I need to tell you… something I need to talk to you about.”

Danielle swallows hard and places her cup back on the table. “Are you breaking up with me?”

“What? God, no,” he insists, averting his eyes for a moment. “But I can’t be sure you won’t want to break up with me after I tell you this.” He inhales a deep breath. “My plan was always to build up enough of a reputation here with the Board to generate some offers in Georgia, so I could be near Jo… save up the money to get a nice little house.”

The realization hits Danielle like a ton of bricks. “You’re going to tell the court just that… you’re going to say you’re planning to relocate. And you’re actually going to do it, aren’t you?”

He merely shrugs in reply. “She’s my little girl… I’ve already missed too much. I didn’t expect to meet you, to fall in l-“

“Don’t finish that sentence,” she cuts him off sharply. “Because if you’re planning on leaving, I can’t take knowing that. Otherwise, I’ll be mad at you and I have no right to be when you’re leaving for Joanna.” She slowly rises to her feet, depositing her still-sloshing cup into the trash. “I need to get some air. Maybe we should stay at our own places tonight.”

Two minutes later, she’s gone. And Leonard doesn’t hear from her for three days.

On the fourth, she shows up at his doorstep at three in the morning. It’s cold and it’s snowing; she probably risks flipping her car on the local county roads at least half a dozen times, but she doesn’t care. Because she has something she’s dying to get off her chest.

“What are you-?“

“I’ll come with you.”

Leonard blinks. “What?”

“If you’re moving back to Georgia,” Danielle begins to clarify, “and if you’ll have me, I’d like to go with you. New Jersey’s just a temporary home…”

He pulls her inside the warmth of his apartment and shuts the door. “But you’re a semester away from tenure…”

“Then I guess it’s a good thing I’m gonna fall short.” She shrugs. “Would make it harder to leave.”

He shakes his head at her. “I can’t make you give up your life for me… you’ve got a job, a house here.”

She rolls her eyes at him. “I can get a new job, I can sell my house and get a new one of those, too.”

“It’s not that easy…”

“It was a buyer’s market back in 2010, I can put the money towards a place in Georgia… get more bang for your buck in the southeast these days.” She adjusts her purse over her shoulder. “I made a call this morning to a former professor of mine who now teaches at Emory,” she informs him, referring to the prestigious university in a suburb of Atlanta. “A slough of teachers are retiring in the next eighteen months to avoid a pension change coming in the bylaws, a handful of which are in the pre-med and applied sciences departments. They’ll be happy to have professors with decent experience that won’t entirely break the bank.”

“Danielle,” Leonard says firmly, gripping her shoulders. “I can’t ask you to do this.”

“That’s why I’m offering.”

“But you love it here.”

“No,” she returns with immense exasperation. “I’ve had a nice life here. Jersey has been good to me, Leo, but the only thing I love is you.”

His heart hammers against his ribs and he’s sure it’s going to stop altogether. “You love me?”

Danielle drops her purse onto the couch and grasps his forearms, holding his questioning hazel gaze. “Desperately and irretrievably.”

Leo stares back at her, disbelief clouding his vision. It’s been years since he’s heard those words from someone other than his daughter, too long since he heard it from her at all.

There was a time he heard them every morning from the lips of Jocelyn Darnell, peppered over phone calls in the afternoons and evenings when she was still awake when he got home from class or from the hospital. He used to sling them around a lot back then too, but when they stopped being returned, that’s when Leonard McCoy knew something was wrong. As it turned out, she’d found another man to share the words with and he never thought he’d hear another woman tell him again.

But that was years before he met Danielle Blake, someone he never saw coming. She was brilliant and kind, caring and sincere. But she was also fiercely passionate and never did anything at less than 100%. And apparently, that included her relationship with Leonard.

“You’re going to tell me that I shouldn’t, that I deserve better. You’re going to say that you’re just a simple country doctor out of his element, who is old and broken and grumpy. But I don’t care about any of that.” She shrugs her shoulders, her features warm. “And even if I did, I couldn’t stop myself if I tried.”

He relinquishes his tender hold on her shoulders and swiftly takes her face in his hands, crushing their lips together with everything he has in him. Before they know it, their bodies are pressed up together, Danielle’s back separated from the wall by nothing more than her coat. Though, McCoy makes quick work of that and the black long-sleeved shirt she’s wearing underneath.

Twenty minutes later, they’re underneath the navy comforter of his unmade bed. Danielle’s legs are firmly wrapped around his waist, fingertips pressing into his shoulder blades as his strong arms cage her against the mattress. His head is buried in the dip of her neck, breath hot against her already-warm flesh. “I love you,” he whispers into her ear as their bodies rock and writhe in syncopation. “I love you, I love you, I love you.”

Jocelyn Darnell is not what Danielle Blake is expecting. Though the same age as her ex-husband, the olive-skinned woman looks considerably younger in her well-tailored black blazer and pencil skirt. With brown eyes that match her chocolate-colored hair, she seems at ease as she walks into the courtroom, a blond man in tow that she figures is her fiancé, Clay.

Her eyes flicker toward Leonard for just a moment, the smile she’s sporting as she approaches her attorney bordering on a sneer in that split-second, but it’s back to its effortlessness when her focus changes.

Danielle is sitting in the first bench behind Leonard and his attorney, sandwiched between his mother and his sister. She’s not sure if Jocelyn knows about her place in Leo’s life, but her place in his support team should be enough to make her wonder.

In spite of her conscience, Danielle hopes the curiosity drives her crazy.

They leave the courthouse five hours later after agreeing to being evaluated by psychologists. Clay will also have to endure a meeting, as Joanna’s future stepfather and a current member of Jocelyn’s household.

Surprisingly, the judge asks Leo of his intentions when he returns to Georgia and if he will be living with anyone. He states that he’s moving back with his girlfriend of nine months and that they’ll be living together near Jo and Emory University, where they both have jobs lined up.

They hadn’t talked about moving in together, but the nonchalance with which he tells the judge, his certainty of his desire to take the next step with her, brings a bright grin to Danielle’s face.

If Jocelyn didn’t know who she was before, she certainly does now.

They’re sitting in bed, backs to the headboard, answering emails regarding the midterm grades they posted shortly before they left for Georgia, when Leo shuts his laptop.

“What if this doesn’t work?”

At first, Danielle wonders if he is referring to their relationship. Then she realizes that it’s his custody challenge. “Then we appeal.”

He shifts under the blanket to look at her. “And what do we do about moving?”

His girlfriend shuts her computer, as well. “It’s up to you, Leo. We haven’t given Rutgers our notice. We can stay in New Jersey, bide our time for another year until the appeal, and you can move into the house. But if you’re asking my opinion…”

“I am,” Leo confirms.

“Then we move,” she answers simply. “You show the judge that you’re committed to the fight for Jo, that you’ve gotten an even better job and you’re building a life here.”

“We.”

She raises her eyebrows at him. “Hmm?”

“We’re building a life here,” he corrects. “I couldn’t go through this without you.”

Danielle stacks her laptop on the nightstand, leaving it to charge as she curls up against his warm body, tucking her head into his neck. “I didn’t know how much I was missing you in my life until I found you.”

Silence lingers for a while after Leo slips an arm around her, twining the fingers of their left hands together. And though neither says a word, Leonard soundlessly wonders how Danielle’s hand would look with a diamond gracing her ring finger.

----

Three months later, Danielle is finishing unpacking the last of the boxes marked kitchen into her and Leo’s new home in Vinings, Georgia. It’s a twenty-minute commute from the house to Emory and a ten-minute drive to visit Joanna.

Today is the first day that Leonard has seen his daughter in nearly two years. As it turned out, the judge assigned to his case disagreed with the judge that presided over the McCoy divorce and awarded him shared custody of Jo. He gets the little girl on weekends and will alternate holidays. In the summer, she’ll live with them for two weeks a month.

Though they’ve already begun to move into the house, Danielle and Leo agree that Jo should spend their first weekend together at his parents’ house, just so that she’s not overwhelmed. She’ll get to meet her father’s girlfriend the following weekend and they’ll all go shopping to decorate her new room.

It’s 9:30 at night when the porch door creaks open, signaling that Leo has dropped Jo back with her mother and is now home. When the blonde looks up, she swears he’s never smiled so brightly in all the time she’s known him.

As if sensing Danielle wants to know how the weekend went, Leo’s chest practically swells. “I don’t even know what to say…”

Danielle pushes shut the cutlery drawer. “Was she excited to see you?”

“She wouldn’t let me go for two hours, wouldn’t leave my side for five, or let me out of her sight all weekend long.” He steps further into the kitchen, leaning a hip against the counter. “I told her all about the new house, how she’s going to be able to pick out all the things for her new room. And about you.”

She pauses, gaze slightly unsteady. “How’d she take it?”

“Nine-year-olds are surprisingly astute.” He shakes his head in marvel. “Said that her mom got to be happy with Clay, so it was only fair I got to be happy with someone else, too.”

“Takes after her Daddy.”

“I’d like to think so.”

“You’ll have to make me a list of her favorite foods, dinners, breakfasts, all of it…” she rattles off, setting the empty box down on the floor. “I’ll make all her favorite meals while she’s here...”

“Hey…” Leo says softly, lightly gripping her arms to pull her upright. “Remember how you said she takes after me?” One hand rises to cup her cheek. “Well, I love you, darlin'. And that means she’s going to love you, too.”

True to his word, Leonard’s daughter takes to his girlfriend like a fish to water. The nine-year-old is a little confused by the fact that they’re both doctors, yet Danielle doesn’t help sick people like her daddy. Though, once she discovers that Danielle’s job consists of science experiments and cool equipment, it’s only a matter of time before the little girl is taught how to make her own rock candy in the kitchen.

Every weekend Joanna visits, Leo and Danielle spend one day having an adventure, whether it’s to a park or a playground, a mall, a new play in town, or even fishing at the lake near where he grew up, while the other is spent working on her bedroom.

They may have agreed that Joanna could pick out all of the new stuff for her room, but when they discover Jo’s newest love is patterns, the bolder and more obnoxious the better, they decide to step in and edit some of her choices. The first weekend is spent painting, a pale yellow that borders crème and they allow her to pick out any color furniture she likes that doesn’t clash with her maple hardwood floors.

Oddly enough, on the second weekend, Joanna picks out a bed frame that’s relatively low off the ground, wooden with round knobs for feet and no posts, that turns out to just come in sage. The short bookcase with a few drawers to is the exact same shade.

When her mattress is delivered right before her third visit, Joanna winds up picking out a beige comforter with large flowers, lilies, roses, plumeria, and irises, all done in beautiful water color. Two pillows match, though the other two cases will be rotated out to indulge in her latest fancy: wisteria-colored sheets with geometric patterns. Somehow, Danielle manages to steer her away from chartreuse zebra print. And Leo’s pretty certain the mandatory stop for ice cream on the way home is how she does it.

The fourth weekend is spent mainly getting knick-knacks for the room. A beige lamp with pink trim, a bright pink alarm clock, antique picture frames for the walls that bare inner images of pressed flowers to match her bedspread. Wire flowers adorn her wall, each petal double-rimmed to hold photos Jo chooses to display. There are roughly seven or eight on the tall flowers by the time she’s done, her and her grandparents, her aunt and uncle, her great-grandparents, one with her mother, another three with her dad, one of her and Danielle, and a final one of her, Leo, and Danielle in the center of one flower.

The fifth visit is special, mainly because it’s the first of Joanna’s two-week stays at the new house. Her bedroom is nearly finished, even if she’s been sleeping in it since the mattress arrived, although the bookcase is still empty. They spend most of the two weeks hunting for books to fill it with, though they soon realize her voracious reading habit is going to mean that most of the books will be read at the end of the summer. So they decide she’ll keep a few of her favorite titles and they’ll donate the ones that she’s finished with to the local children’s hospital. But they always take her to the local bookstore after to replenish her shelves.

On Day 4 of Jo’s visit, Leonard has to attend a full day’s seminar at Emory that is exclusively for the pre-medical department. As a result, she spends the whole day with Danielle and they decide to do only girly things. They drive to a salon to get manicures and pedicures, followed by lunch at a restaurant of Jo’s choosing that turns out to be Chuck E. Cheese. But watching Joanna scarf down enough pizza and soda that she becomes a little hyperactive ball that seems to bounce from game to game, machine to machine, into the ball pit, and back again, makes her smile uncontrollably.

Leo returns around eight-thirty to find Joanna is passed out in bed after a dinner of homemade macaroni and cheese, marveling at how smoothly their day went.

“You’re a miracle worker,” he tells her, planting a tired kiss on his girlfriend’s cheek once he manages to drop himself onto the couch beside her.

“Not really. I’m as hypercompetitive at those arcade games as she is. Just be glad I convinced her not to get the gigantic stuffed clown she wanted for all of her tickets.”

On Day 7, Leo lifts a sleeping Joanna from her bed at ten o’ clock at night and tells her that they’re going to take a special adventure in the car. She mumbles incoherently something that sounds like ‘okay, Daddy’ and promptly falls back to sleep as soon as she’s fastened into her seatbelt in the rear seat of his pickup. It’s already been loaded up with their luggage and the cup holders in the front row are filled with fresh-brewed travel mugs of coffee, stainless steel canisters bearing the letters L and D that survived the journey from their old offices in New Jersey.

Seven hours, a few bathroom breaks, and three driver switches later, Leo carries the still-slumbering Jo into the nearly-empty lobby of a hotel, where Danielle checks them in and a bell-hop escorts them and their luggage to their room.

Jo is still in her pajamas when she curls up in the double bed and Danielle and Leo barely manage their way into their own bed before passing out in an exhausted heap.

It’s a little after ten a.m. when Danielle awakens to a pair of arms around her torso and the scruff of Leonard McCoy nuzzling into her neck. “Do you want to wake her up and tell her?”

Her green eyes remain closed as she lets out a small sigh, absentminded fingers brushing over his rough cheek. “We should tell her together. But after showers. I feel disgusting.”

“You look beautiful.”

“I feel like a gas station.”

“I don’t even know what that means.”

“Jojo Bean,” Danielle coos while she attempts to gently rock the younger McCoy awake. “Wake up, Sleeping Beauty.”

She pulls a face at her boyfriend on the other side of the bed and he just laughs. “Come on, Jojo… don’t you want to see where we are?”

“Daddy?” Joanna yawns, rubbing her eyes. “Dani?”

“Both here, baby,” Leo assures her with a kiss on the nose. “You’ve been asleep since we left last night. It’s almost noon.”

The little girl looks up at them with big brown eyes that scan their surroundings, the red and black linens she’s curled into, the colorful art on the walls, and the bright sunlight streaming in through the windows. “Where are we?”

Her father tips his head, nudging her towards the window. “Go see for yourself.”

For a kid that was just asleep no more than five minutes ago, the adults are incredibly impressed by the speed at which she hurls herself out of bed and pulls back the curtains to gaze out the window.

In the distance, past the expansive lake where boats of all sizes are docked, over a sea of lush palm trees, she can make out the white turrets and bright blue conical spires of a castle.

She lets out an ear-shattering scream, which is soon followed by her bouncing up and down like a pogo stick, messy brown hair flying in every direction possible as she tackles Leo and Danielle onto the bed. “WE’RE IN DISNEY WORLD!”

Joanna McCoy hasn’t been to Disney World since she was three years old and barely remembers it. The only thing she does remember is begging her parents for a stuffed Mickey Mouse that she slept with every day for the six years without fail. But now, she’s a big girl, or so she claims, and she plans on riding every ride, meeting every princess, getting every autograph, taking every photo.

And she certainly does, much to the exhaustion of her father and Danielle. They hit four parks in four days, including Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom, with a stop at Blizzard Beach after they breezed through Animal Kingdom on the third day at Disney.

Breakfasts and dinners were spent with the characters, including a special meal on the last night at Epcot in Norway, where the trio dined with all the princesses as part of the Princess Storybook Dining, which Jo had insisted on dressing up for. With her brown hair and chocolate eyes, she was a picture perfect Belle.

Before leaving the hotel after a breakfast consisting of Mickey-shaped waffles, they picked up a last souvenir in the form of a stuffed Minnie Mouse to join her Mickey at home.

Halfway back to Vinings, Joanna suddenly pipes up in the car, “Hey, Daddy?”

Leo’s hazel eyes flicker to the rearview mirror so that he can check on her as Danielle snoozed in the passenger seat. “Yeah, Jojo?”

“I’ve decided…” She inspects her new present carefully in her hands. “I don’t want Minnie to come back to Mommy’s house with me. I want her to stay in my new room.”

“Are you sure, baby?” he asks, switching lanes on I-78. “Don’t you think Minnie will miss Mickey?”

Joanna shrugs. “Maybe. I don’t know. Mickey and Minnie have been away from each other a long time.”

“You and I were away from each other for a long time…”

“But that’s different. You’re my daddy,” she points out like it is the most obvious thing in the world. “I think it’s like you and Mommy. Sometimes, people aren’t in love anymore. And they just don’t belong together.” Jo looks up from Minnie to stare back at her father. “Mommy and Clay belong together and Mickey belongs with them. You and Dani belong together and Minnie belongs at your house.” She picks up a book that was sitting on the seat next to her. “It’s very simple, Daddy.”

“You sure?” Leo raises his eyebrows at her, an amused smile tugging at his lips.

“Mhmm.”

“What about you? Where do you think you belong?”

“With all four of you,” Joanna answers simply, incredibly black and white in her mind. “I’m very lucky. Most of my friends only have two parents and if you think about it, I kind of have four now. I didn’t think I was lucky when I was little and I didn’t get to see you a lot…” He fights off a chuckle at the nine-year-old’s past tense reference to being a little girl. “But I know I am now.”

The last Friday Joanna is with her dad, it’s Danielle’s turn to head to Emory for the applied sciences department’s pre-semester orientation.

Leonard and Jo have a daddy-daughter day, which consists of bowling, McDonald’s for lunch, the latest Disney movie, as if the child didn’t get enough Disney in their five days in Orlando at the start of the week, a trip to Barnes and Noble for just one book that ends up being a three for one deal, and pizza for dinner.

“Daddy,” Joanna says as she puts her plate in the sink, a slice and a half of pepperoni pizza later. “Is there pizza leftover for Dani?”

“Yeah,” he confirms and rises to deposit his own dish. “Why?”

“We learned at school that it’s very important to wrap up food so that bacteria doesn’t get in and make you sick.” She opens up a cabinet and pulls out a roll of aluminum foil. “If you leave any food out on the counter for more than fifteen minutes, it’s in the danger zone!”

Leo raises an eyebrow, trying to temper his amusement. “The danger zone?”

“The danger zone,” Joanna repeats with a scoff. He’s a doctor. He’s supposed to know these things. “It’s when a hot food starts to get cold or cold food starts to get warm… and bad bacteria can grow on it. You can get food poisoning from eating food in the danger zone, Daddy.” She holds out the foil to Leo. “And we don’t want Dani eating food in the danger zone.”

“No, of course not…” He tears off two sheets of foil, one for each slice of pizza remaining in the box, and hands it off a single one to Joanna. “I’ll need your help in wrapping up the pizza, then.”

A clear expert in food safety, Joanna skillfully wraps the slice into a smooth triangle, much to Leonard’s surprise.

Early August rolls around and brings with it the start to a new semester at Emory University. The school year begins nearly a full month earlier than in New Jersey, due to a combination of tradition and the hot temperatures Atlanta experiences in May.

It’s strange for Leo and Danielle to not have neighboring offices, let alone ones on the same floor, but it’s still an interesting change of pace. And they find it a bit easier to get their work done, with him teaching Virology and her teaching Biochemistry.

They find the same faces every day in the lounge on the third floor, where there’s a coffee machine that actually works and provides pretty decent coffee for the caffeine-addicted Leo, though Danielle keeps a Keurig in her office out of habit.

The interesting thing about their office building is the cast of characters that occupy it, a scattering of professors from disciplines across the board.

Professor Spock is a long-tenured Biology professor, holding his three degrees from Emory University, even though he was more than expected by his father to attend the University of Georgia. His paternal legacy there goes back as many generations as anyone can remember.

Professor Uhura, whom Danielle suspects to be in a relationship with Spock that no one seems to be able to confirm or deny, teaches linguistics and is a polyglot. She has twelve languages under her belt and is currently working on her thirteenth, Russian. It leads to some interesting conversations with Chekov, the Trigonometry professor who hails from Russian and indulges in using his mother tongue with the woman whenever he can.

Jim Kirk is the astrophysics professor that every member of the female student body seems to clamor to get into the class of, as evidenced by the fact that all of his students are seniors, overwhelmingly female. And he teaches Astronomy 101. He rapidly becomes one of Leo’s close friends after a mishap involving his motorcycle and a runaway gopher that results in a broken nose. Jim uses the opportunity to try and garner sympathy from the unfamiliar Professor Blake, leveraging it into an attempt at scoring a date, only for McCoy to reset his nose and half-heartedly warn him that he can re-break it, if he likes, for hitting on his girlfriend. Kirk never makes a pass at Danielle, or refers to Leonard as anything other than Bones, ever again.

Hikaru Sulu bonds with Danielle over his love of gardening, though it turns out that he’s a former Air Force pilot and an aeronautics professor. And she also forms a friendship with Dr. Carol Marcus, a fellow Applied Sciences professor who teaches Applied Physics and hails from England.

Leonard becomes good friends with Montgomery Scott, or Scotty as Jim constantly refers to him, the Engineering professor from Scotland with a habit of drinking his co-workers under the table.

Though most women wouldn’t be secure enough to let their boyfriends out with a tank of a drinker like Scott and a playboy like Kirk, Danielle’s just happy that Leonard is continuing to build a new life for himself in Georgia and that includes a couple of bros, as she refers to the trio, much to her boyfriend’s dismay.

Also sharing their building, but rarely visiting the lounge, is Dr. Geoffrey M’Benga, the Dean of Medicine at Emory University and a Genetics Professor at the undergraduate level. He’ll occasionally join Kirk, McCoy, and Scott for drinks, but his hectic schedule and immense workload keeps social calls to a bare minimum throughout the semester.

The first semester at Emory flies by and Blake and McCoy are pleased to find that the workload isn’t all that different than it was at Rutgers. There’s rarely any snow on the ground, ever, and the temperature never seems to dip below fifty-five through Thanksgiving.

The holiday famous for turkey, college football, and general binge eating is the first one that Leo gets Joanna for as part of the new custody agreement with Jocelyn.

Danielle is busy preparing the traditional dinner for the swarm of McCoys and Blakes that will descend upon their new home the following day and can’t spare the time to join her boyfriend on the drive to Atlanta, so she stays behind.

Jocelyn is cordial, though a bit icy, at the door and he packs Joanna into the car with her little suitcase for the journey back to Vinings.

“Sorry that Danielle couldn’t come pick you up too,” Leo apologizes as he pulls off of the road he once called his own. “But there are a lot of people coming over for dinner tomorrow and she’s trying to make sure everything’s ready. Don’t worry,” he adds with a wry smile, “she practices excellent food safety. Knows all about the danger zone.”

“That’s good,” Joanna agrees with a nod. “Who’s coming for dinner?”

“Grandma and Grandpa, PopPaw and MeMaw,” he begins, the latter referring to his grandparents and Joanna’s great-grandparents, “Aunt Donna, Uncle Fred. And Danielle’s parents and sister are coming all the way from California.”

“Are they nice?”

“Her sister is really nice. You’ll like her. Her name is Sam, short for Samantha. I talk to her a lot because Danielle likes to talk to her on Skype, like we do sometimes.” He slows to a stop at a red light. “I’ve talked to Mrs. Blake a few times on the phone, but I haven’t met her or Danielle’s dad before. He was a Colonel in the Army, but he’s retired now.”

“He sounds scary.”

Her father lets out a snort. “I think so too.”

Joanna stares out the window while she asks her next question. “Are you going to ask Mr. Blake if you can marry Dani?”

Leo sputters, barely registering the honking horns of the cars behind him as he ignores the light that turned green. “What? Where did you get that from?”

“In the movies, when a boy wants to marry a girl, he asks her daddy for permission first.” She turns to look at him just in time to miss a man swerving around the truck on her side and flipping them off. “I thought that’s why he was coming to visit. So you could ask him.”

“I, ah…” He scratches his neck, completely dumbfounded, as the light turns red again.

“I think you should get married,” Joanna says decisively, sounding very convinced for a nine-year-old.

He manages to compose himself enough to press the gas when the light turns green and to ask his daughter for an explanation. “And why is that, Jo?”

“Because…” She shrugs, which isn’t a great sign in his head. “Mommy says that marrying you wasn’t a mistake because you and her made me and that’s what you were meant to be together for. But now that I’m here, she is with the person she was supposed to end up with and that’s Clay.”

“I’m not following, Jojo…”

“I see the way that Mommy and Clay look at each other… like googly-eyed and stuff.” She wrinkles her nose. “It’s kind of gross sometimes, but it’s the way you and Dani look at each other.”

“How we look at each other…?” Leo furrows his eyebrows, amazed at how astute a kid still in single digits can be.

“Yeah!” she exclaims and in a few years, he knows it’ll be punctuated with the dreaded addition of ‘duh’ to the end of the sentence. “So if they look at each other like that and they’re meant to be together forever… it must mean that you and Dani are meant to be together forever because you look that way, too.”

While Joanna spends the next fifteen minutes humming her new favorite Taylor Swift song over and over in a fashion that would normally drive her father crazy, Leo drives in complete silence, perplexed by the accuracy of the words spoken by a nine-year-old child.

At least, for the first five minutes. He spends the remaining ten figuring out how the hell he’s going to ask the Colonel for permission to marry his oldest daughter.

After the torturous cleanup that was Thanksgiving, Danielle Blake is beyond thrilled that Christmas Dinner is once again on the shoulders of Eleanora McCoy. While she fully intends on helping with the meal and the cleanup like she did last year, she won’t have to worry about guests staying in the new house and airport drop-offs, either. Even Jocelyn will be bringing Joanna by his parents’ place for Christmas morning, just in time to open presents.

Christmas Eve merely consists of her and Leo in a relatively quiet house, sleeping in and curling up together under the blankets in front of the gas fireplace in their bedroom.

“Good morning…” Leonard greets her brightly as she turns over to face him.

“Morning,” she attempts to repeat sleepily, letting out a small yawn.

“Do you know what today is the anniversary of?” he asks, propping himself up on his right hand as his left tucks a lock of blonde hair behind her ear.

“The day before Jesus’s birthday?” Danielle suggests with a cheeky smile.

“No.” Leo rolls his eyes. “Well, alright. Technically, I guess. But one year ago today, you met my family for the very first time.”

“Yeah…” She drops her head a little as she recalls the day, biting on her lower lip. “I was terrified, you know?”

He cocks an eyebrow. “Really?”

“I barely slept the night before.”

“Which explains why you were passed out for the entire flight and were of absolutely no use to your aviophobic boyfriend.”

“Did I or did I not hold your hand from the moment we left the gate at Newark Airport to the second they turned off the fasten seatbelt sign at Atlanta International?”

“It doesn’t count if you were unconscious…” he grumbles.

“My hand was sore for three days,” she retorts.

All Leo can do is laugh. “Regardless,” the doctor redirects the conversation, “one year ago today, you charmed the hell out of my family.”

“You’ve got it backwards…” the blonde corrects him with a small smile that comes easily, seemingly brightened by the sun streaming in through the window. “They charmed me, Leo. They made me feel like I was one of their own, made me feel like I was part of the McCoy family.”

“How would you like to be?”

“What are you-“ It’s at that moment Danielle notices Leonard is holding a ring box in his hand. “Oh my God.”

“A little less than a year and a half ago, I had no idea what I was doing,” he puffs out with a bounce of his shoulders. “I was just treading water, scraping by while trying to figure out what I was supposed to do next. I was… I was broken, Danielle.” He sighs and shakes his head, remembering just how dark his life had gotten. “But then, thanks to a broken coffee machine, you came along. And you… you reminded me of the man I used to be, the man I’d forgotten. You gave me purpose again, helped me find the strength to fight for my daughter. To rebuild my life. You made me want to be a better man.” Leonard pauses to take a breath, uncharacteristically overcome by emotion. “You have given me so much in fifteen months that it would take an entire lifetime, maybe more, to return the favor.” His warm hazel eyes gaze into her green ones, trying his hardest to convey the sincerity and weight of his words. “But if you’ll let me, impossible as it may be, I’d really like to try.”

McCoy pops open the black velvet box to reveal a soft pink, pear-shaped morganite ring. The stone is surrounded by a halo of diamonds that extends to line the rose gold band it sits upon and the moment she lays eyes on it, Danielle swears the breath has been knocked out of her.

“Darlin'…” Leonard addresses her with glassy eyes that she can tell are full of nervousness and fear. “I have been in love with you since the moment you looked up from your desk in that poor excuse for an office and smiled at me. And it would be my honor, my privilege, to call you my wife.” Danielle’s heart hammers in her chest, tears streaming down her cheeks before the question can even pass his lips. “Danielle Blake, will you marry me?”

“Oh, Leo…” Her voice is shaky, though her grin as bright as the golden rays flooding their bedroom. “Yes, yes… of course!”

Leo’s grin nearly splits his face and he leans in to press his lips to hers, tasting the saltiness of the joyous tears mixed with lingering mint from the toothpaste she used the night before. They’ve shared thousands of kisses since the first one in his kitchen the previous September, but none have been as magical as this one, filled with love and hope and something new that he can’t quite put his finger on yet. But damn it, if he isn’t going to spend the rest of his life trying to figure it out.

“Alright, everybody… it’s five after two, I think we can get started now…” the dark-haired man at the front of the lecture hall booms and the cacophony in the room dims and dissipates altogether. “This is Virology… Mondays and Wednesdays 2pm. My name is Dr. Leonard McCoy, Dr. or Professor McCoy will be fine. No one calls me Leonard, except for my mother, and I prefer to keep it that way…”

The crowd of undergraduate students laughs and Leo knows the joke has landed for the fifth semester in a row.

“I expect you to be on time to class and if for any reason you’re late, please take a seat in one of the back rows so you don’t distract the rest of the class. I understand that things happen, so I’ll let one or two lates slide, any more and I’ll ask to speak to you after class.”

He holds up a piece of paper while simultaneous pressing a button on the podium that projects the information on its face onto the screen beside him.

“This is your syllabus. It is posted to the course page online… your grade will consist of an equally-weighted midterm, final, and cumulative lab score consisting of six labs throughout the semester. Your scheduled lab dates with your respective TA’s are also posted to the course page, please email me with any conflicts after class. Your textbook is available at the Emory bookstore, but is available for a quarter of the price on e-Textbooks.com, so I suggest you go there to purchase it. Consider it a reward for actually showing up the first day of class,” he tells the students with an easy smile. “Don’t tell the stragglers.”

Another smattering of chuckles from the students indicates his second joke is also successful, meaning another great semester is ahead.

“Your reading assignments are listed by due date, but if we start to fall behind, I will tell you at the end of class whether I’m going to slow down the syllabus to lighten the load.” A few whispers of approval demonstrate the students’ appreciation for the statement. “And…” His hazel eyes skim over the text on the paper, flipping it over for confirmation. “I think that’s it for the general housekeeping before we discuss today’s reading. Does anyone have any questions?”

Leonard looks up to find a redheaded boy, who looks to be about nineteen or twenty, is raising his hand in the seventh row.

He leans forward, resting his forearms on the podium as he makes eye contact with the student. “Yes?”

“A lot of us took Biochem with another Dr. McCoy in the Spring,” the young man begins, reclining a bit in his chair, fingers curling around the small desk hovering over his thigh. “Out of curiosity, any relation?”

McCoy’s gaze flickers momentarily to a blonde woman with a crooked smile sitting in the back corner of the room. Her fingers are toying with the pear-shaped engagement ring and matching diamond band on her left hand as she sits in on Leo’s first class of the semester, her half of the tradition they started upon transferring together to Emory University.

“Yeah,” Leonard replies with a nod and a quirk of his lips. “That’s my wife.”