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Saavik looked up to see the woman she had been waiting for walking over towards the table, some sort of coffee held in her right hand. She subdued her smile and nodded in greeting, “Joanna, I am glad we were able to meet.”
Joanna held up a ta’al, and gave a grin back as she sat down. “It’s good to see you again, Saavy. Oh, should I be calling you Captain Saavik now?”
“Saavik is fine, but thank you,” she held up a ta’al in return and felt the corners of her lips creep upwards. “I assume you don’t want me to refer to you as Doctor McCoy here?”
“Lord, no. That’s my dad’s name, it still feels weird being called that.”
“I must admit, it will be strange referring to someone besides your father as ‘Doctor McCoy’.”
“I hope people aren’t gonna accuse me of nepotism,” Joanna chuckled, “I mean you’re not gonna escape the allegations either, with two of the most famous men ever as your parents.”
“At least it gives us familiarity with each other before the mission. Speaking of that, the reason I wished to meet with you beforehand was so that we could build a mutual trust and knowledge of each other. Yes, we did know each other when we were children, but I am hardly the same person mentally I was 20 years ago. I want to make sure you are able to rely on me currently, especially in emergency situations.”
“Well, now it's your job to make sure those emergency situations don’t happen to begin with,” the doctor smirked, then something in her face softened. “When did we last see each other? Your dad’s fourty-fifth?”
It had felt longer than that; that blurred memory of the ethereal woman with the brown hair and the blue eyes felt almost like a fable to her now. “It must have been, yes.”
“I never would’ve imagined I’d see you again, let alone work together… but the universe is wonderful like that sometimes,” she smiled wider. Her lips were painted a deep maroon which contrasted her cool, fair skin perfectly. Saavik could feel her heart pounding in her side. Fascinating.
“I apologise if I wasn’t the most pleasant person to be around at the time. I was incredibly wary of strangers, I’m sure this didn’t help my socialisation skills.” Saavik felt guilt creeping into her stomach, flashes of blunt or accidentally rude things she had said to others scorched her mind. How un-Vulcan to fail at communicating. She immediately pushed the thoughts away, and tried to stop her eyebrows from knitting together.
“Oh there’s no need to apologise, don’t worry,” she placed her hand next to hers on the table, making sure to not make contact but to show clearly the kind of comfort she was trying to give. “Anyway, like you said, we’re both completely different people now.”
She once again lifted her hand up in a ta’al. “Na-shaya, Saavik. I am Dr Joanna McCoy, the soon-to-be CMO of the starship Pytheas.”
Saavik tilted her head slightly. “I do not understand. I already know this?”
“We’re starting from scratch.”
“Ah,” Saavik smiled despite herself and held up her own ta’al, “greetings, Joanna. I am Saavik, the ‘soon-to-be’ Captain of the starship Pytheas.”
Joanna grinned, “it’s nice to meet you.”
It felt like Saavik’s insides were moving like a lava lamp hearing her CMO’s slightly raspy voice, the hint of the south drawing her in. Oh no. Her cheeks flushed green and she immediately covered them with her hands. It didn’t seem like Joanna had noticed, with her alluringly blue eyes. Oh Surak! How cruel fate was that she would end up with a doctor so ethereally beautiful. Just imagine what a physical examination would feel like-
“So, first time captaining your own ship, huh? How’re you feeling?”
Saavik schooled her already neutral expression and set her gaze on the bridge of Joanna’s nose, making sure she didn’t catch a look at those dazzling blue eyes. “I acknowledge this is a significant opportunity, and I am beyond grateful for the amount of trust I’ve been given to take on the Pytheas. However, I’m also excited for what’s to come; hearing the stories my parents have been on makes me wish we were already onboard.”
“Ugh, not me. The more exciting your adventures are, the more patients come to my sickbay,” she chuckled, and rested her chin in her palm. “I can’t wait to be up there, it’ll be amazing, but I’m loving being on solid ground and not saving everyone’s life because the ensigns keep daring each other to lick objects.”
Saavik raised an eyebrow. “Personal experience?”
“Let’s just say… people get bored a lot on science vessels.”
Her eyes widened 10% realising that this was her problem now. “I see.”
“Well, with you in charge it’s gonna be great,” Joanna grinned and toasted her coffee to 3 years of adventure.