Work Text:
When Robert "Robbie" Scott woke up on the morning of July 5, he had no idea how this day would go for him.
It was supposed to be a normal day at work, even though his working place had changed. When he had been offered the opportunity to participate in an exchange program, Robbie immediately accepted.
San Francisco! A bonnie place with beautiful weather. And on top of that, the Scotsman was closer to his son, who was studying at Starfleet Academy.
It was a win-win situation.
However, Robbie was not to arrive at his workplace.
He entered the huge bank building early in the morning. He wanted to check that everything was in order with regard to his banking business. After all, a move like this from Scotland to the United States brought a number of changes with it.
The building was already busy. Many employees were already there, but also customers. It was a huge bank.
He was just about to look around, fascinated, when he suddenly collided with a person.
"Oh, I’m sorry!"
He just managed to grab the woman by the arm before she could stumble.
As surprised as she seemed, a smile quickly formed on her lips.
"Oh, it’s no problem, everything's fine. Nothing happened after all," she said soothingly, and Robbie returned the smile shyly.
This woman... looked simply stunning. Her long brown hair hung open over her shoulders and her blue eyes had something almost mischievous in them. Scott couldn't help but stare at her.
"You... are welcome to let go of my arm, though."
It wasn't until the moment the woman spoke the words, that Robbie realized he was still holding onto her. He blinked a few times before his gaze fell on his hand, still closed around his counterpart's arm. Quickly, he let go.
"I-I’m sorry."
My goodness! What was wrong with him? He hadn't acted like that in years, after all. It was just so embarrassing!
But the lady didn't seem to take it amiss.
"Stop apologizing now, will ya? There's nothing wrong with being bumped into by such a handsome gentleman."
With a wink, the woman gently patted Robbie on the shoulder before walking past him.
He couldn't help but turn to look at her. She was just... amazing!
But before the Scotsman could even follow and address her, loud voices suddenly filled the interior of the building.
"Everybody down! Now! This is a robbery!"
It wasn't long before the bank's customers and employees were surrounded by six masked, armed people.
They were pushed into corners and forced to lie down on the floor.
Of course, the beautiful woman was lying not far from Robbie. He would only have to reach out an arm and he could touch her.
"Nobody move or we'll pick you off one by one!"
Robbie felt his heart racing. It was precisely because of events like this that he hated going outside. He much preferred to be alone with his blueprints and the components of the shuttles and spaceships. Technology, after all, was not as unpredictable as humans and other living things.
His eyes fell on the lady lying next to him. She... hardly looked scared like most of the others. There was rather something like dislike and annoyance in her look.
"You‘re going to drain all the accounts and transfer the money to this device!"
One of the bank robbers threatened a frightened young man standing behind one of the counters with a phaser, a strange device in the other hand. What were these guys thinking!
If Robbie had had the courage, he would have just jumped up and told these criminals off, but he cared about his life. He would not be stupid.
One of the bank robbers was standing very close to the hostages, pointing his phaser at them. He seemed restless, kept looking over his shoulder.
"Hurry up! I'm sure the police will be here soon!"
But the rest of the group kept their cool. They guarded the doors or urged other employees to also transfer money to their strange devices.
It didn't take long, however, for one of the hostages to try to get up and escape.
A big mistake...
Screams went through the hall as the sound of phasershots rang out and the woman who had gotten up fell to the floor.
Robbie covered his ears in fright and winced. The sight they got to see shocked him deeply.
A steaming wound adorned the abdomen of the hostage who had attempted to escape, and blood was pouring from her mouth.
"We told you nobody moves!" roared the man, who had been waving his phaser around unsteadily before. His accomplices stared at him in disbelief. Probably no one should have been hurt. However, they quickly regained their composure and continued.
"S-so k-keep your heads down!" the man who had fired stammered.
Robbie swallowed hard as he looked at the injured woman. She was breathing shallowly, somehow trying to hold the wound in her stomach closed with her hands.
Someone had to help her.
And that someone was none other than the lass he had bumped into earlier.
Slowly she sat up, her hands raised. But quickly a phaser was pointed at her.
"Hey, get back down!"
The brown-haired woman, however, didn't even think about it. She just glared at the criminal.
"I'm not going to try anything. I just want to help her." She nodded to the injured woman.
The hostage-taker looked from one woman to the other.
"N-no. You stay where you are."
An annoyed groan escaped the lady, who by now was crouching, ready to get up.
"She needs help! And I'm a nurse. So let me see her! Or do you want to have murder on your conscience in addition to bank robbery?"
Robbie's eyes widened. He admired the woman very much for how self-confident she appeared.
The robber stepped unsteadily from one foot to the other before he nodded eventually.
"O-okay. But if you try to escape, t-then I will kill you, you understand?"
The nurse merely rolled her eyes once more as she stood up and slowly walked over to the injured woman, kneeling down beside her.
Robbie watched in fascination as the bonnie lass spoke soothingly to the other. As brusque as she had been with the hostage-taker, she was all the more affectionate with her patient.
He felt bad, knowing that he had to help too somehow.
And suddenly he had an idea. Damn it! Why hadn't he thought of it earlier?
Carefully, the Scotsman reached into his pocket and pulled out his communicator. He would just have to somehow open the program that he had installed on it for emergencies.
The hostage-taker's attention was on the nurse who was tending to the injured woman. As unobtrusively as possible, Scott pressed a few buttons and sent a silent shouting prayer to the heavens that his plan would work.
"What the-"
Hearing the voice of one of the bank robbers, he couldn't help but smirk.
"What's going on?"
"Our devices don't work anymore!"
Slowly Robbie got to his feet and quickly some phasers were pointed at him, but they no longer scared him.
"I have turned off all technical devices that are not protected by certain software within a radius of 50 meters. Neither yer strange devices nor yer phasers are working."
While the police would not be able to use their phasers either, Scott was sure that the ladies and gentlemen could overpower these criminals with sheer physical strength as well.
"So now ye're going to kindly let the hostages go."
Robbie didn't know where he got this sudden confidence from, but looking at the injured woman and the nurse, he realized it was the right thing to do.
The bank robbers exchanged indignant looks, but when they heard the sirens of the approaching cavalry, they had to realize that it was over.
“So… you are a technician, huh?”
Robbie turned around from watching the criminals get arrested, when he heard the familiar voice of the nurse coming from behind him.
A smile crossed his face.
“Well, y-yeah. I guess ye could call it that. I design and build spaceships and shuttles. And if the technical devices have a mind of their own,” he held up his communicator, “I’m ready to shut them down in case of emergency.”
The nurse raised an eyebrow, looking kinda amazed.
“Now that’s something. I could use a program like that too.”
Robbie shrugged, feeling a soft blush on his cheeks.
“I… could install it on yer communicator too, if… ye want to.”
His counterpart just chuckled.
“What? Without knowing what I’d do with it? What if I’m a criminal mastermind?”
She wiggled her eyebrows, running a hand over the Scotsman’s arm. Robbie blinked in confusion which caused the lass to laugh even more.
“I’m joking.”
They looked at each other for a moment, before the nurse stretched out her hand.
“Leah McCoy.”
Robbie stared at the hand offered to him for a while, before he smiled and took it.
“Robert Scott.”
And in that moment a special bond was created between two people who were meant for each other. A fateful meeting.