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Walking around your room, the only sound you could hear was your own footsteps padding along the floor. Your thoughts were busy with everything you had to get done today before you went off-ship with the Captain and Spock.
You had only been on the USS Enterprise for a week, but you found you were settling nicely. Luckily you knew some of the crew from the academy to help you get acquainted.
As you began to get into your uniform, your eyes paused on the dark mark on your upper right arm. Sometimes it seemed as though you forgot it was there. The hand-print was clear, the fingers wrapped around your upper arm. A full handed grip.
You supposed you were lucky it wasn’t in one of the more common places. A print on your own hand, in the form of a handshake. A small spot on the shoulder were someone might tap you. A red mark on the shoulder as if someone brushed past.
You had only had one false alarm, four years ago when you had lost your balance in a crowd after someone ran into you. You began to fall and someone grabbed you, their hand around your arm. Later you would realize it wasn’t even in the same exact spot, but in that moment, you thought maybe it was them.
But it wasn’t of course. They had no mark on their arm wear you grabbed them for stability. You could see it clear enough from their bare arm. So you waked away, heart pounding and a little less hope in your heart.
But you were lucky. Lucky it wasn’t in such a common spot. And lucky you even had one at all. Some were born without a mark entirely. Which you knew some were fine with, but others were tormented by it.
Though, sometimes you wondered if you were really the lucky one at all. Everyone with a mark paid attention to every touch, to every person they came into contact with. Sometimes it was exhausting
Covering the mark with your shirt, you grabbed your pad and left your room. The thoughts about the mark sitting at the back of your mind. A couple times throughout the morning, it came back to the front of your mind when you saw others around the ship. A young woman with a faded mark on her hand, signalling that she had met her soulmate. That was the only indicator you had. Once your soulmate made contact with the mark, the first time they touch you, the mark fades, but never disappears entirely.
“Y/n.”
You were torn from your thoughts again as Dr. McCoy walked towards you, smile on his face.
“Leo.” You greeted with a bright smile.
He had been one of the few people you knew from the academy, though you never saw much of each other at the time, even tough you had wished you had. He had been your academy crush after all.
As he stopped in front of you, you couldn’t ignore the butterflies that filled your stomach. “You’re going off ship today right?” He asked.
You nodded with a smile. “Yep. First time since I was transferred to the Enterprise.”
“Well I’m sure it’ll go fine. You’ll do great.” He gave you an encouraging smile.
“Thanks.” You said with a soft laugh. “I heard you had your hands busy as well, you got the go ahead to prepare the inoculations for that small planet you guys went to a while ago right?
He nodded his head but sighed. "Yeah, it took long enough though. Half the planets population had to die before it got the go ahead.”
You shook your head in joint disappointment. “Maybe it’ll be different going forward.” Your voice held little hope, but Leonard nodded.
“We can only hope.”
Before you could say more, you heard a voice through your comm. “Lieutenant L/n, you ready for the away mission?” You heard Captain Kirks voice com through.
“Yes, Captain I’m on my way to the transporter now.”
“Great!”
You smiled at Leonard, “Gotta go.”
“I’ll go with you.” Leonard said as he turned to walk beside you.
As you walked into the transporter room together, Captain Kirk looked up. Seeing you and Bones entering together Kirk smiled at Bones, a look only the two of them knew the meaning behind. Bones rolled his eyes at Jim as you walked onto the transporter beside him and Spock.
“Ready?” He asked you, and you nodded. “Good, it’ll be fun, don’t worry. You don’t have to worry either Bones.” He said to him with a wink.
You looked with confusion from the Captain to Leonard, but learned nothing as the Captain signaled Scotty to send you down to the planet. Your curiosity would have to wait.
Leonard let out a deep breath as he watched the three of you disappear. Ignoring the tightness in his gut, he told himself that everything would be okay. It was just a normal away mission. But no matter what it was, he was always worried when you were involved.
He tried to get over the seemingly childish crush he had for you at the academy. But when you transferred to the Enterprise, those feelings came back. And he soon realized thy were not so childish at all. And they were not going to go away so easily.
Absent-mindedly, he placed his hand on the left side of his chest. Letting out another deep breath, he turned and made his way to the med-bay, with you heavy on his mind.
His mind often drifted back to you over the next few hours. He wondered how your away mission was going. He hoped it was as exciting as you hoped. Glancing at the clock, he reminded himself you should be coming back soon. Maybe he should be there to meet you at the transporter. Though, he would then have to deal with the subtle knowing looks from Jim.
“Dr. McCoy, we need you in the transporter room. Hostiles attacked the away mission team, serious injuries reported.”
Leonard rose swiftly, grabbing some of his tools as he tapped his com badge. “Who got hurt?”
“I’m not sure.”
He ran as fast as he could through the ship, his mind racing. He was worried if it was any one of you, but he had a nagging feeling it was you. And if he was the one being called, it was bad.
As he ran into the transporter room, he saw no one from the away team. Turning to Scotty he talked hurried, his voice stressed. “Where are they.”
“They were underground, I couldn’t get a lock on them, they should be getting to the surface soon.”
“What the hell happened?”
“Hostile aliens that were scavenging the planet’s mines. They opened fire on the crew.”
“Do you know who’s hurt?”
Scotty shook his head. “No, but we’re about to find out. Locking on them. Captain, beaming up now.”
Leonard eyes locked on the transporter pad. The swirling lights began to form, and he could begin to make the figures out. Two figures standing, holding one up in between them.
When the lights faded, Leonard heart dropped in his chest. Your arms were laid across the shoulders of Jim and Spock, legs slack as you struggled to stand. Your eyes were stooped, and your abdomen covered in blood, your face bloodied as well.
Running forward he began to scan you as a med team brought in a gurney to transport you to the med bay. “Y/n can you hear me?” He asked, his voice stressed.
Your eyes flicked open as you locked onto his. You nodded lightly, letting out a soft “Yes”.
Filing into the med bay, Leonard looked over at Spock and Kirk. “Are you two hurt?” There was blood on their uniforms, but he had a feeling it wasn’t all theirs.
“I was skimmed.” Jim said as he gestured at his arm. He shook his head as he looked at you on the table. “Y/n saw them first, called out for us to duck just as they were firing. But there was no where for Y/n to take cover.”
Leonard went back to your side, assessing your injuries. “I’ll take care of this.” He said to the nurse. “You check the Captains wound. Spock you alright?”
“Yes Doctor.”
As the others were led away, Leonard began to work on cleaning your wounds, and stopping the bleeding. “You still with me Y/n?”
You opened your eyes as much as you could. Your head was spinning, and you felt nauseous. “Yup, still here.” Your voice was slurred.
“Good, I’m gonna need you to stay awake alright?”
“I-I’ll-try.”
Leonard’s eyes snapped to your face, your eyes were fluttering as you began to struggle to stay conscious. “Hey, Y/n, open your eyes.” Reaching up, his hand grasped your arm as he stared at your blood stained face. “I need you to look at me.”
Through the dizziness and exhaustion, you felt his hand wrap around your arm. A bolt of emotion passed through you as you opened your eyes as much as you could. You could feel the energy draining from your body, as you struggled to stay awake.
“M- arm.” You tried to speak, but found it difficult.
“What? Y/n, come on, stay with me.” Leonard looked at your arms, thinking maybe you were injured there as well, but saw nothing.
Your eyes locked on his, they were almost glazed over. Leonard looked down at you desperately as you slowly brought up your hand and placed it softly on his chest. “M-mark.”
Leonard looked down at your hand, where it was placed, and felt a jolt run through him. Suddenly, your hand dropped to the table, and his eyes shot back to yours. They were closed, and you were motionless.
“Y/n?” He said your name desperately, before he began to check your readings. Your pulse was soft and slow. Leonard began to work desperately to keep you alive. His mind racing, his heart pumping, desperation keeping him going. He didn’t stop until you were stable. Until he knew you were going to be okay.
Once he had finally worked on and closed all of your wounds, and got you comfortable, he left so the nurses could get you out of your torn and bloodied uniform.
Alone in the bathroom, his mind went back over the last thing you said. ‘Mark’, the one on his chest? And before that. 'My arm.’ He had grabbed your arm. Thinking back on the whole time he knew you, he couldn’t remember ever touching you. There were a dozen times he wanted to hug you, to take your hand in his, but never did.
Removing his shirt, Leonard looked at the mark on his chest. The full hand print over his heart. His mother had told him once, his soulmate was literally holding his heart in their hands.
Leonard felt a wave of emotion wash over him. The mark was faded.
Returning to the med-bay, he found you in a bed, still unconscious, but resting comfortably. Taking a deep breath, he slowly lifted the sleeve on your arm. His breath hitched in his throat as he saw the mark. A full hand print around your arm, faded. Gently, he wrapped his hand around your arm again. It covered the mark perfectly. Not too big, not too small. His hand. His mark.
He wasn’t sure how long he stood there, watching you, almost willing you to wake up so he could speak to you. Feeling someone walk up beside him, he looked over, seeing Jim looking down at you.
He watched as Jim’s eyes spotted the mark on your arm before they moved to him, almost cautiously. “I- uh, I didn’t know Y/n had met their soulmate.”
“Neither did I. And Neither did they.” Jim looked at Bones in confusion, he continued. “It just happened.”
Jim furrowed his brow as he watched Leonard. His eyes flicked to his chest, where he knew Bones’ mark was. “Wait, do you mean…”
Leonard nodded once before explaining to Jim what had happened in the moments before you fell unconscious.
Jim nodded his head slowly, his eyes almost wide as he processed. “Well, that’s great isn’t it? You’ve have feelings for Y/n for years.”
Leonard let out a soft breathy laugh. “Yeah. I just- I can’t believe my soulmate had been so close that whole time, and I just, didn’t know it. If I had just….did something sooner you know?”
Jim nodded again. “Then again, maybe it was supposed to happen like this.”
Leonard shrugged. “I would have preferred Y/n not almost dying in the process.”
Jim chuckled. “Yeah, I think anyone would. But at least both of you have something to look forward too now.” He patted Bones on the shoulder before he turned and walked off, leaving Leonard to continue watching over you, waiting for you to open your eyes.
- - - - - -
As your eyes slowly opened, your squinted at the sudden harsh lights above you. Blinking a few times, you saw a bright roof above you, glancing to your left, you saw the familiar med-bay. Suddenly, what happened on the surface of the planet flooded through your mind.
You remembered yelling for Commander Spock and Captain Kirk to get down as you saw the hostiles ready to fire. You looked around for somewhere to take cover, but saw nothing. Suddenly you felt piercing pain through your abdomen, and as you fell, your head smacked the rocky ground.
The rest was a blur, through the weapons fire, and being dragged from the caves. The lights of the ship, Leonard’s voice, lying down, then nothing.
“Well well, looks who’s awake.” You looked to your right, seeing Leonard walking up to you, smile on his face.
He looked down at you and you smiled. “How long was I out?”
“About twenty hours.”
You saw his eyes grazing over you, something in his eyes that you couldn’t really understand. Watching as he moved to grab his scanner, you sat up slowly, before swinging your legs over the bed, your head spinning a bit as you did so.
You waited in silence as Leonard checked you over. You watched him, the way he kept glancing at you, as if expecting something. “Is something wrong?”
His eyes locked onto yours and he set down his scanner, seeming to hesitate before speaking. “Do you…remember what happened after we got you back on the ship?”
“Um.” You rubbed your eyes as you thought back on it again. “You brought me in here, I couldn’t stay awake.”
“Yes. Do you remember what happened just before you blacked out? What you were trying to say to me?”
You met his eyes and saw something in them, something almost, desperate. You frowned as you thought back again.
“I was trying to stay awake, trying to talk, but I couldn’t. I started to lose consciousness, and then you-” suddenly you remembered, and a jolt shot through you as you looked down at your arm. You looked over, and met his eyes and saw they were full of expectation. “Y-you grabbed my arm.” Slowly, you reached up and gently placed your hand on your arm. Looking down, you lifted the sleeve up. Your heart pounded heavily in your chest as you saw that the once dark mark, was faded.
Your eyes shot up and met Leonard’s. He took a small step closer to you, you felt your neck grow hot.
“I wasn’t sure what you were saying at first. What you were trying to tell me. And then-” Gently grabbing your hand, he lifted it up to his chest, placing your palm over his heart. “You put your hand here. And then I understood.”
“Your mark?” Your voice was soft, almost a whisper.
He nodded. “I didn’t realize until that moment that we had never touched. Never even shook hands when we met. Never hugged. Never brushed shoulders, nothing.”
You shook your head. “Sometimes I-I avoided it, I was too afraid.”
He furrowed his brow. “That it would be me?”
You shook your head again. “That it wouldn’t be.”
Leonard stared into your eyes, his hand still over yours. Looking own at his and on yours, you could feel his heart beating beneath his chest, fast, but steady. Slowly, he lifted his other hand, and gently hooked his finger under your chin, making you look up at him. You glanced past his shoulders, seeing no one around. Shyly, you met his eyes again and he smiled softly at you.
“All this time, you were right here.”
You smiled, your heart pounding heavy in your chest. “What happens now?”
He shrugged his head a bit before a wide smile crossed his face. “Well, the second thing you need to do is heal. Then we talk, about all the things we wanted to, but never did. And then, we get to spend the rest of our lives together.”
You felt a grin cross your face. “If the second thing I need to do is heal, then what’s the first?”
Leonard smiled at you, his hand squeezing yours. “First-” your heart seemed to stop as he began to lean forward, stopping when your noses brushed, his lips hovering over yours. “You let me kiss you.”
Your breath caught in your throat, as you were unable to speak. Locking eyes, you smiled softly at him. Slowly, he leaned in, his lips meeting yours. The kiss was gentle and slow at first, then, taking his hand from your face, he cupped your head and deepened the kiss.
As he kissed you, you felt yourself melt into it, as your whole body seemed to tingle. Finally you felt whole, knowing that your soulmate was finally holding you. He may have been in front of you the whole time, but the wait for this moment, was worth it.