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1
Scotty was in the middle of checking (for the third time, Keenser pointed out) the main engine’s upgrade for any errors- totally engrossed in his PADD as he compared the readouts to what the half-wit engineers had told him they did- when something plopped in his lap with a thud. “Keenser, what did I tell ye 'bout keepin' a good grip on your tools?”
He looked in his lap, expecting to find a dropped wrench that he would lob at his little alien friend, only to find a stack of technical manuals instead. And a nice pair of legs in front of him. His eyes followed them up until he was staring at Uhura's face. He definitely did not let his gaze linger at any other parts of her anatomy either. He was a gentleman after all. “You're not Keenser.”
“Always so observant, Mister Scott.” Uhura smiled at him before lowering herself to the floor to sit beside him, their knees brushing slightly. He may have started blushing, just a wee bit. She motioned at the manuals she had deposited into his lap, “I know you chose to not take leave on the starbase while they were making repairs, but while I was looking for new linguistics books in the bookstore, I noticed these in the front display. I figured you could use some new reading material.”
If Scotty wasn't blushing before, he certainly was now. He was touched, incredibly so, that Uhura had thought of him. At all. And had brought him a gift. “Thank you, lass. I appreciate it. Truly.”
“You'll especially like this one,” Uhura picked up the top manual from his lap, flipping it open about a third of the way through and pointed at the article. “Someone wrote an article about your transwarp beaming equation. They called you 'quite possibly the greatest engineering mind of the century'.”
“They should be careful, lest they give me an ego.”
Uhura laughed and handed him the manual back, taking a moment to straighten her uniform as she stood. “At least it would be an earned one, Scotty. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to shower before my shift. I need to be refreshed after dancing almost all afternoon.”
Scotty nodded, looking down to read the article himself. He made it to the third sentence when Uhura called over her shoulder before the doors shut behind her.
“You should consider taking shore leave next time, Scotty. Maybe we could dance together.”
Scotty stared at the doors for several minutes after they shut behind her, his face crimson.
“I didn't know you two were a thing.” Keenser piped up, having joined Scotty at some point while he was distracted.
“We... We aren't. She's just a dear friend, that lass.”
Beside him, Keenser rolled his eyes. Humans.
- - -
2
“Can ye hold that light more to the leftish?” Scotty asked, barely lifting his head to look beyond the inside of the communications console. The thing just shorted out while they were in the middle of talking to Starfleet about a new Class M planet. Luckily for them, Montgomery Scott just happened to be on the bridge.
“'To the leftish?'” Uhura repeated, her tone incredulous. She had been ready to crawl under the console before Scotty insisted he take care of the problem. “Could you be a little more precise, Scotty?”
“You know, a tad this away!” He motioned vaguely with his free hand, several wires in the other.
“Oh, you mean like this?” Uhura glared and shone the light directly in his eyes, causing him to yelp.
“Can you believe it, Hikaru? Bickering like a married couple.” Chekov shook his head as he watched the two of them from his post.
“Jealous?” Sulu responded with a smirk.
“Not at all.” Chekov turned back to his own console, snickering.
“Will you just get out of there and let me repair my own console, Scotty! I already know what needs to be rewired!”
“And I could have already had it fixed if ye wouldnae insist on shining that light in my face!”
- - -
3
Scotty hated being on the away team. Hated being so far from his ship. They better not let anything happen to her while he was stuck on this surprisingly beautiful planet, being taken on a tour with the rest of the team by the reptilian ambassadors of the world. The Blotstma (Scotty was thankful Uhura was a part of the away team this time; there were far too many consonants in their races' name to be pronounceable without her help) were taller than the average human, the shortest he had seen being at least 6', with long, narrow bodies and light red scales covering their hairless bodies. And though their faces were elongated, it was still easy to read their emotions. And they seemed friendly enough.
“And here is our capital's most thriving market,” Xenm (what was it with this planet and unpronounceable names?) motioned around zirself to the stalls surrounding them. The vendors seemed to sell all kinds of wares- from fresh produce to artwork to all sorts of doohickeys crafted from metal. Doohickeys being the technical term, of course. “Please, feel free to browse as you please. Whatever you desire, let myself or one of my attendants know and it is yours. Only the finest gifts for our Federation friends.”
That was all the away team needed to hear and they were off to explore the market. Scotty decided to hang back, keeping an eye out just in case there was some kind of ambush. Not likely to happen, but he could never be sure enough. He had meant to watch each of the team's movements, he had. Honestly. But his eyes kept getting drawn to Lieutenant Uhura, standing at a flower cart. He watched as she pointed at each type of flower and inquired its name, as she gently picked them up to smell them, as she smiled at the owner of the cart.
“Your mate is quite lovely. Would you have us give her a bouquet on your behalf?” Xenm asked from behind him, zir arms folded across zir midsection as ze watched him watch her.
“M-my mate?” Scotty jumped, feeling the blush rise to his cheeks. “'M afraid you got that a bit wrong, Ambassador. Unless 'mate' means something different on your planet.”
“My apologies, Traveler Scott. You look at her the way I look at my mate. I meant no offense.”
“None taken.” He paused for a moment, bouncing on his heels. He took a deep breath and nervously looked back at Xenm. “But could ye get her a bunch of the prettiest ones? The, ah, the purpley-pink ones? She's taken a liking to them, I think.”
“As you desire.” Xenm smiled knowingly, beginning to crossover to the stall.
“B-but don't say they're from me!”
- - -
4
They had taken to eating lunch together, when Scotty could remember to tear himself away from his work to eat. Today was one of those days.
“So here she comes over the hill, completely covered in mud. I swear, I nearly jumped out of my skin and got out of there like a bat outta hell. I was grounded for a week, and me dad gave me a stern lecture, but I bet he would have done the same.” Scotty's hands settled back onto the table after being so animated during his story. His eyes crinkled around the edges as he beamed at her, “And that's the story of the mud monster that ate my mom.”
“You're too much, Scotty.” Uhura was laughing, hard, her shoulders shaking and tears building up in her eyes. She brought up her hands to cover her mouth, but Scotty reached across the table to stop her. He held her hands in his, still smiling.
“You've got a lovely laugh, lass. And a smile that could light up an entire solar system. It'd be a right shame to hide it.”
Bones rolled his eyes and made a gagging noise from several tables over. He hitched his thumb at the pair and looked at Jim, “Could they be any more obvious?”
“We're still taking bets on how long it'll take for them to get together. You want in?” Jim responded, grinning at his grumpy friend.
- - -
5
When Uhura awoke in sickbay, she was surprised to find Scotty sitting in a nearby chair, fast asleep. Her side hurt as she attempted to move and sit up, forcing her to lay back down.
“I wouldn't suggest doing that, Nyota.” Nurse Chapel spoke, approaching the bed with a PADD. “You have two fractured ribs from that fall. Would have been a broken wrist too, but we managed to mend that while you were unconscious.”
“How long have I...?” Uhura stared up at her friend, a mixture of pain and confusion evident on her face.
“Twenty-eight hours, give or take a few minutes.” Chapel walked over to a dispensary and, after punching a few commands in, walked over to Uhura with a hypospray. “This is a pain-reliever. It may make you loopy, but you should stay awake.”
Uhura nodded as Christine pressed the hypo against her arm, wincing as it made contact. She wasn't as big of a baby about hypos as the Captain was, but they still stung. The drug took effect after a minute, the pain in her ribs dying to a dull ache. She looked over at Scotty, tilting her head. “He been here the whole time?”
“He followed Captain Kirk from the transporter room after he was beamed up carrying you. We had to force him to go eat something, but he came right back after he was done.” Chapel smiled as she looked at the sleeping engineer. “I don't think anyone's ever seen him out of engineering for so long. Well, not without being forced to stay out.”
Uhura continued watching the man who had become such a close friend to her since the start of the mission, studying him.
“He really cares about you, you know. Possibly as much as he does the ship.” Chapel said, walking out of the room to go care for her other patients. “Just page for me if you need anything.”
A few minutes later and Scotty began to stir, stretching as much as he could in the chair. He smiled lazily at her as he blinked his eyes open, “I see you're awake. How are ye, lassie?”
“Always so observant, Mister Scott.” She returned the smile, sitting up as much as she could. “Just a few damaged ribs. Nothing major. I feel better though, knowing that someone was watching over me.”
- - -
+1
“Are you sure she'll like this? Do I look okay? What if I say something wrong? What if she changes her mind? I cannae do this. I should stay with my ship, I understand how she works.” Scotty was a nervous wreck, to say the least. He paced around the turbolift frantically.
“Scotty. Calm down. She's totally into you. And what girl doesn't like a nice romantic dinner and shore leave with her new lover.” Kirk elbowed the older man gently in the ribs, trying to tease him to get him to stop panicking so much. It didn't seem to be working. If anything, it only seemed to make his face turn so red that Jim thought his chief engineer might pass out. Seriously, that couldn't be healthy.
“I just don't want to muck things up, Captain. I cannae take that kind of rejection from her.” He looked like a madman. Jim remembered times when he wore similar expressions, but those had been over high school chicks because back then dating a week was a long term commitment.
“You're going to do fine. If you can remember to breath first.” The lift's doors opened to the corrider leading to the transporter room. Jim gave his friend a pat on the back before shoving him out into the hall. “I've got the ship, now go get 'er, tiger.”
Scotty spun around to make more worried commentary, but the lift had already closed. He stood staring at the doors for a moment before taking a deep breath to try and compose himself. It worked, but only marginally.
“There you are. I was beginning to think you ditched me for the ship.” Uhura wrapped her arms around his waist, hugging him from behind.
“Of course not.” Scotty grinned, relaxing more as she held him. He could do this. They were going to have a good time.
“Come on, the transporter's waiting.” Uhura pulled away and tugged on his arm to get him to move. “Our room is ready and I'd rather not waste any time I can get with you.”
“Aye, lass. The feeling is mutual.”