Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Leonard McCoy had known from the start that Jocelyn wasn’t his ‘one’. Of course he had known, they had first seen each other’s marks while at school together and had known, even then, that they were not matched. Teenagers were not expected to keep themselves to themselves while waiting to meet their one though, and they had fit well at first. To the end of high school and all through college they stayed together; Jocelyn never seeing a mark that matched her own and Leonard not even looking. He was busy with his studies and, in all honesty, didn’t much like the idea of fate. He loved Joce, and that was enough for him. So when, after another fight with her mother, Jocelyn announced her wish to marry him, despite their markings, he went out and bought a ring. They were happy together, even though he caught her almost every night tracing the delicate petals of her flower on her right wrist. Even though he sometimes found himself doing the same to his own, wrong mark.

-

The night before he was meant to leave Russia, Pavel Chekov’s mother come to him and wrapped a heavy bandage around his wrist, covering his mark. Anna said nothing of it, but worked with her lips pressed tightly together. Tying the end securely, she nodded to herself and stood; asking if he had finished packing. Pavel nodded and he was left alone again, not quite fourteen and waiting in the dark to leave his home.

The next morning, Anna slapped at his left hand for tugging at the bandage as they waited for his name to be called to board.

“There will be many people who would take advantage of you,” she told him in stuttered English, glancing behind her at her Russian-only-speaking husband and he tapped his foot, “do not allow them to do so because of your 3Hak. Keep it hidden, unless you know for certain. Understand?”

“дa, mama.” No, he didn’t quite understand, but he could tell this was serious. His mother always took their marks seriously.

-

Joanna was just a few weeks shy of four when Jocelyn finally told him. Leonard, for his part was fairly happy with his life; he had a steady job that he loved, a beautiful wife, and the most perfect little girl he could ever have dreamed of. His marriage wasn’t perfect by any means – Jocelyn had been pulling away for years now and Leonard himself was hardly the easiest man to live with. Somewhere deep down he knew why he couldn’t save their marriage. Because despite her joy at being ‘different’ and ‘rebellious’ at marrying a man who didn’t share her mark, Jocelyn was a romantic at heart, and wanted the perfect life. Marrying her childhood sweetheart and having a doctor for a husband was not quite good enough.

She had met him at the store apparently, he had just moved here on business and they had reached for the same bottle of wine with their right hands. That was it, according to her. The last twelve years with him be damned. They had argued, in hushed tones throughout the night. Somehow it was all his fault, of course.

They were holding together, just barely. Her, refusing to speak with him unless necessary and constantly sneaking out to meet him, and Leonard laying awake at night and staying late at work. The last straw was her ‘one’ coming to Joanna’s birthday party, with his own card and his sleek suit; Jocelyn hanging off his arm with a smug smile on her face. The only thing that stopped Leonard from punching him in the face for daring to come to his house was Joanna giggling happily in his arms.

-

Pavel met Hikaru Sulu at the start of his third year at the Starfleet academy. Despite having had two different roommates the previous two years, Pavel had to wipe his sweaty hands on his jeans before offering to shake and introduce themselves. Almost instinctively, both men looked down at the others’ wrist, Pavel glancing curiously at the little dot design before looking back up, and Sulu raising his eyebrows at the fabric wrapped around his arm.

Unlike his last two roommates, Sulu barely batted an eyelash to Pavel’s age, instead diving straight into what Pavel’s major was going to be and determining whether they would have classes together this semester. Sulu seemed to be very outgoing, keeping the conversation rolling from one subject to the next and not allowing it to lull like Pavel would have.

It would be around two weeks into the term before Pavel would ask why Sulu hadn’t pushed for information or balked away from having an underage roommate. Sulu had laughed, a bit more breathless than Pavel after their morning run.

“Why would I care? We’re friends, yeah?”

And Pavel would wish then, just a little bit, that his mark matched Hikaru’s.

-

The Enterprise was a beautiful ship, anyone who laid eyes on her would have to admit it. No expenses were denied when kitting her out either, she was top of the range and state of the art for everything from her engines to her toilets. And her crew was only the best of the best as well, if not slightly odd. But then, with the infamous Jim Kirk, straight out of the academy at her helm as Captain, the rest of the crew was unlikely to be boring. The First Officer was a half-Vulcan and that said plenty. Chekov was incredibly proud to be her head Navigator, though when people continuously second-glanced him in the halls, he was very glad that Hikaru was by his side as head Helmsman.

“Chekov, Pavel. Doctor McCoy is ready for you.”

Pavel glanced up at the sound of his name and stood when the pretty nurse smiled at him. He followed her into the medbay, to a curtained off section for his medical examination. A man already dressed in scrubs motioned at him without looking up from his PADD.

“Up on the table, and be ready to answer questions promptly – I’ve got a lot of people to get through.”

The nurse rolled her eyes but touched his arm softly to turn him to the bed. Pavel was just seated when the doctor looked up, eyebrows raising high on his brow.

“Jesus, how old are you, kid?”

Pavel raised his chin. “Seventeen, sir.” He managed not to roll his ‘r’ quite so much, but his ‘v’ came out more like a ‘w’. McCoy glanced back at his PADD and tapped on it.

“Didn’t think Starfleet even schooled anyone under eighteen.” He said softly, nevertheless pulling out a small machine and switching it on.

“дa, I am the exception.”

“An exception.” The nurse corrected gently as McCoy stepped closer and hovered the machine over Pavel’s body, ticking away.

Eyeing the little contraption as its noise sped up over his left elbow and face, Pavel shook his head distractedly. “I do not think so. I am the only one to ever enrol at the academy at fifteen – I am the exception.”

McCoy snorted as he moved back, abandoning his ticker to pick up his PADD and scan over it. “He’s got you Chapel, pass me a travel hypo, would you?” He looked straight at Chekov, who felt his cheeks heat up just a bit. “Elbow?”

“I broke it as a child, falling out of a tree.”

Eyes falling back to the PADD, Bones hummed, no doubt taking in the other injuries at the time. He didn’t call Pavel out on it though. “Ever left Earth without your jabs? Ever contracted a dormant virus? Ever touched down on a Class 3 infected planet or higher?” The questioned rolled from his mouth as he flashed a light quickly in both of Pavel’s eyes.

“HeT. No.”

Bones nodded and took the hypo from his nurse. “Not scared of needles are you?” He asked, uncapping it.

Chekov shook his head and pulled the neck of his shirt to the side in allowance of the jab. “HeT, hypos are very good. Were invented in Russia.” Still, he winced as the needle pierced his neck.

“That’ll prepare your body for the launch tomorrow. Here, Christine,” He handed the now useless needle back to Chapel to be disposed, and flicked a finger across his PADD, cocking his head at the next screen. “Not registered your mark?”

Immediately, all three pairs of eyes in the room dropped downwards. Pavel’s arms were bare from his t-shirt sleeves down but his wrist was covered with a tight line of material; the entire of Bones’ arms were covered by his long sleeved black shirt he wore under his blue scrubs; Christine’s arms were bare under her own, her circle of a mark so faint it would have been a simple birthmark, except for the almost black line through it.

“No,” Pavel started slowly. “I have not. I do not bare it, it is… a thing I do not do.” He finished lamely, tugging at his wrap.

Christine jumped to his rescue. “I wouldn’t worry about that; it’s not just you on this ship that hasn’t registered!”

“Other people hide theirs?”

“I think the Captain does; and our First Officer, Spock.” Her eyes went a little distant then. “But then, Vulcans are very different to us…” McCoy coughed and Chapel went red. “I- er, I don’t think I’ve never seen yours, Doctor, but you’re registered, aren’t you?”

McCoy huffed and threw his PADD on the bed next to Pavel. “None of your business – and I’ll thank you not to gossip about personal details, nurse.” He snapped at her, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “All done for now, Navigator, you can go.”

Pavel slid off the bed, glanced between the two and then shuffled out. McCoy found his eyes following him out, going the whole length of him and back up before tearing his eyes away.

“Next, Chapel.”

Chapter Text

-

“Bones!”

McCoy huffed out a breath of air and let his PADD fall to his desk, there was no way he was going to get any work done with Jim babbling in his ear. “Captain.”
Jim pouted as he came into the office, folding his arms as the door rushed closed behind him. It was amazing how childish one man could be. “We’re off duty, Bones,” Bright blue eyes flicked over the folders and PADD on McCoy’s desk. “Though I see you’re doing overtime. Again. Honestly, we’ve only been in space for what, three weeks? There’s not that much paperwork to do!”

“Exactly, I want to keep on top of it so it doesn’t pile up quite so high later.” There was a second chair on the opposite side of his desk, but Jim jumped up to perch on top of it instead.

“You need to relax more, Doctor McGrumpy.”

Bones rolled his eyes. “Not all of us can spend all day spinning round in a massive chair playing king, Jim.”

“Yeah,” Kirk smiled. “My chair is awesome.”

With a sigh, Leonard got up to grab two glasses from a shelf. “What do you want?” He asked as he poured a few fingers of golden liquid in to both glasses.

“You took psych classes, right?” Bones hummed in agreement as he passed Jim his glass. “Well, how much do you know about relationships in a confined work place?”

“Well,” McCoy took a small sip of his drink and sat down in his seat. “That all depends on the people, really. Is it you?” And despite his reputation, that would actually surprise him. When it came to his job, Jim Kirk was actually all work and no play.

Kirk shook his head, anyway. “Nah, it’s Scotty down in engineering, and Uhura, my communications lieutenant. Their marks match.”

“I see,” Bones took another drink. “Speaking from case files, there aren’t many instances in which matched or unmatched relationships interfere with work. Generally matched partners are held in high respect and tend to work well together anyway.” He shugged. “Occasionally yes, in confined areas and high stress jobs the close proximity and threat of injury or worse can make matched pairs focus solely on their partners but, let’s be honest; Uhura and Scotty both have good heads screwed on and they love their work, as far as I know them.”

Jim nodded. “That’s what I figured too. I just don’t want it to cause any issues.”

Bones gave him a hard look. “You can’t treat them any differently because of their relationship, Jim. The Federation in particular is very careful about that – you know they actually try to put all matched partners on the same ship if moving out? Besides, they don’t work in the same department and they’re pretty much on level with command. Scotty is up on the bridge... well, just as little time as I am.”

“Yeah,” Kirk agreed. Then downed his drink and said it again. “Yeah. You’re right. I mean, I wouldn’t force them to choose, obviously. And I wouldn’t change the way I treat them. I just -” He sighed and rolled his right sleeve up, looking at the delicate swirls and lines of his mark. Abruptly, he shoved the sleeve back down. “I just wanted to talk it over.”

-

Pavel knocked on the metal door and, when a voice came behind it to allow him entrance; he hit the button to make it open with a whoosh. Inside, McCoy was stripping off his gloves and balancing several files under his arm. “Doctor McCoy.” He greeted, stepping in.

“Ensign.”

Wrinkling his nose at the title, Pavel stepped forwards and caught the files as they slipped. “I do not like that title, I plan to move up very fast from it.” Bones blinked at him and took the offered files from his hands. “You may call me Chekov, or Pavel. We have known each other for almost two months now and we still have many years to go.”

“I don’t doubt you’ll skip though the ranks, kid.” Throwing the files on the nearest desk and the gloves in the bin and, before Pavel could argue the nickname, he turned and raised his eyebrows expectedly. “What can I do for you?”

Chekov held out a slim file of paper. “The Captain would like your signature on this report from the last mission.”

McCoy grunted and took it, flicking through it to find the needed page. “Trust Jim to be allergic to almost every flower on a planet he’s never been to before.” He glanced at Pavel before grabbing a pen. “Any reason he couldn’t send it to my PADD?”

“The messaging system on his PADD seems to have stopped working.” The corners of the Ensign’s mouth twitched. “He has yet to ask Mister Spock to fix it for him.”

“Ah well, the hobgoblin did give him a bit of a chew out for touching random plants when his file says for him to do otherwise.”

Pavel shook his head. “The Captain keeps trying to sneak down to find someone else but Mister Spock keeps intercepting him. Is silly; I took many technology and engineering courses at the academy. I could fix it for him very easily.”

Closing the file and passing it back to Chekov, McCoy found himself giving a small chuckle. “I’m not surprised you took on extra courses – I bet they were for fun too.”

“They were most interesting.” Pavel nodded at him and turned to leave. “Thank you, Doctor.”

“Leonard,” McCoy was just as surprised as Pavel was at the word. “First name basis tends to go both ways.” He said, awkwardly. “It’s Leonard.”

Embarrassing as the exchange was on his side, the slow smile growing on Chekov’s face was well worth it.

-

A loud series of bangs hit the other side of the boulder that McCoy was currently couched behind, dust flying up and over the body of the man he was trying to save.

“Damnit, Jim.” He muttered, pulling a wad of padding from one of his pockets and pressing it against the wound on the man’s stomach. He wasn’t sure how the natives of the planet misleading the away team and taking them away from the city in order to start firing their weapons at them was Kirk’s fault but he wasn’t a hundred percent that it wasn’t the Captain’s fault either. And generally, Jim is guilty until proven innocent.

Either way, the fact remained that two red-shirted security officers were dead and another was going to follow if Bones couldn’t stop the guard that was shooting at his cover. He had no idea if anyone else was injured, no energy left in his gun or communicator and a dwindling supply of medical supplies.

“Damnit, Jim.” He said again, wincing as more shots hit his only defence. There was a sound of another weapon going off much closer and McCoy turned just as a golden blur darted into his shelter and he found himself with a lap full of a Russian Navigator.

“Leonard!” Somehow, Pavel was still all smiles and, even more amazingly, McCoy found himself smiling back. “You have a very persistent warrior attempting to remove you from your rock.” Rolling off the Doctor’s lap, Pavel winced at a pain in his side.

McCoy motioned to the man behind him. “I’ve noticed but there’s not much I can do, kid.”

Pavel narrowed his eyes at the state of his comrade. “I will allow you to use that name, but only as I turn eighteen tomorrow and then you will be unable to use it again.” He scrambled to the side of the man. “Is there anything I can do? I do not know quite where your guard is aiming from.”

“Got juice left in your phaser?” Pavel nodded. “Good, because I do know where the ass is hiding. Pass it here, and put pressure on our injured’s dressing.” Chekov complied and was almost too focused on the bleeding man under him to watch McCoy throw himself out from the cover, shoot three times and dart back in. No more shots hit their rock. “Well, that’s one thing taken care of.” He muttered, passing Pavel back his phaser and taking over his position on the man’s bandage.

Flicking up his communicator, Pavel’s dirty face grinned at him. “That was quite impressive. Mister Scott! Two to beam up, please! Medical standing by!”

“Two?” Bones grabbed his forgotten med bag and frowned at the Ensign. “You’re injured, Pavel, you should come up too.”

“HeT. I need to find the Captain. I will see you when I get back up.”

McCoy kept his eyes on Pavel, even as he disappeared.

-

The next day, after a slightly painful trip back to the Enterprise and an absolutely huge pile of paperwork to sign, Pavel limped back to his room, already feeling the effects of his painkillers wearing off. He was tempted to go back to the med bay but he didn’t McCoy to see him in such a state over a little gash. Besides, all he wanted was his bed.

It was only after he had removed his shirt and boots and sat down on his duvet that he saw the items on his desk. A hypo labelled with the code for pain medication and a fresh roll of bandage. A little note sat on top of them, two words scribbled in a messy scrawl that made Pavel grin sappily.

‘Happy birthday.’

-

Chapter Text

-

After that, Pavel didn’t see Leonard for two weeks. Occasionally he would think he had spotted him in the halls, but when he looked again, the man was gone. Even when he found excuses to walk past the med bay, he couldn’t seem to catch the man. But today, he and the Beta shift Navigator had switched shifts and Pavel was synthesising his lunch when the bright blue of McCoy’s shirt caught his eye. With the Doctors back to him, Chekov was able to walk up to the table and set his tray down before McCoy had even seen him.

“Hello, Leonard, do you mind if I sit with you?” And without waiting for an answer, he sat opposite the man and picked up his spoon. “You are not an easy man to find.”

McCoy blinked at him and cleared his throat, cheeks heating up. “You’ve, ah... been looking for me?”

Pavel’s eyes went wide and he shook his head. “No! Well, I mean, not really. I meant that I had not seen you. And that, generally... Ah, the Captain!” With a bright red face, Pavel dunked his roll into his soup and bit into it, only able to hum a reply when Jim said hello and sat down next to McCoy.

“Bones, as a Doctor, maybe you can tell me: do Vulcans get drunk off chocolate or is that a myth?”

With a frown, McCoy batted at Kirk’s hands as they attempted to get at his sandwich. “I’m not telling you any personal information about people on this ship – damnit, Jim!”

Jim bit into the stolen apple and pouted around his mouthful. “But they’re my people, Bones! Fine, guess I’ll just have to experiment.”

“Why do you want to get Commander Spock drunk, Captain?” Pavel asked, finishing his mouthful and tilting his head to the side.

“Because it’ll be funny!”

Bones thought it was more so that he could get caught in the act; Jim liked attention and Spock had no pigtails to pull. “Speaking of ‘your people’... you still need to send someone down to my lab and sort out that damn log computer. It refuses to let me read through my previous entries without solving one of those old sudoku things first.”

Kirk grinned. “A bit of brain training every day won’t kill you, Bones.”

“Damnit man, I’m a doctor, not a mathematician!”

Holding up his hands in surrender and talking through his mouthful, Kirk subsided. “Okay, okay. I’ll sort it out, I’ll -” His eyes fell on Chekov, who immediately leant away from the table. “I’ll send Chekov!”

“You will?”

“You won’t.” Pavel had sounded confused, but Bones shook his head. “It’s not even his job.”

Jim made a noise of impatience and swallowed. “He fixed my PADD up in like, five minutes. I’m sure he can fix whatever you’ve done to your log. Besides, you know what Scotty’s like with his rotas; he’ll throw a fit if I try and steal one of his guys any time this week. But I can give Chekov the last hour or so off his shift. Well?”

McCoy glanced at the Ensign, who was watching him carefully. He shrugged his acceptance and Pavel bit his lip. “I would be happy to assist you, Leonard.”

Glancing between the two at the first name with suddenly suspicious eyes, Jim took another bite of his apple. “There,” He said, his mind working at warp to decide what was going on. “Sorted.”

-

After lunch, Bones had a completely full schedule; a small party of men and women from the science departments were going down to a new federation planet in a few days, so new that any visitors had to have a series of vaccinations. McCoy spent a large portion of his afternoon jabbing people in the neck – more so than he usually did in an average day, actually.

So it was only in the early evening, when he was able to escape to his office that he remembered Jim’s plan for Pavel to fix his computer – though he only ‘remembered’ when he stepped through the door without looking and kicked Chekov in the shin.

“дерьмо!”

McCoy stepped back quickly at the exclamation, looking down to stare at a pair of legs sticking out from under his desk. “Pavel?” He asked, sure that there was no one else that swore in Russian but more than willing to tear anyone else out for entering his office without permission.

A torso and head joined the legs from under the desk. “дa, doctor, you looked busy so I let myself in.”

The words barley penetrated Bones’ mind; Pavel had discarded his yellow shirt and was instead in the standard issue black undershirt with his black trousers and boots. Leonard had never really given much thought to the garment but now he was taking very careful stock of it. The short sleeves showing off Pavel’s toned arms and the high neckline and dark colour making an unavoidable contrast to the pale skin beneath it. The shirt had always felt tight to avoid it messing with the colour-coded uniform shirts but surely it didn’t fit everyone like a second skin like that, did it? Pavel had always seemed older than his age but now he looked it too, with his curls falling back away from his face, his cheeks tinged with pink and his eyes looking up at McCoy expectedly.

“What?” Bones shook his head to force himself to look away from the body, quite literally, spread out on his floor.

“I said, I hope you do not mind my not waiting for you.” Pavel pushed his top half up, leaning back on his elbows.

McCoy allowed himself one last look at the Navigator before swallowing hard and offering him a hand up. “No, no. Of course not.” He must have misjudged Chekov’s weight, because the Ensign ended up standing a lot closer to him than he expected. Pavel’s cheeks went bright red but he didn’t step away; McCoy did instead, coughing and sliding past Pavel to stand by his desk. “Any luck with the damn thing?”

Instantly, Chekov relaxed and smiled, nodding and waving his hands as he spoke about compartments and rerouting and words that flew right over Bones’ head.

“So... yes?”

Chekov grinned cheekily. “дa, Leonard. You should have no more problems.”

“Well, thank god for that. You’ve no idea how annoying it was to- hey!” McCoy cut off when Pavel stepped up close to him. He took a half step back but found his hips pressed against his desk and with still only a small gap between him and Chekov.

“Perhaps you could thank me instead? I do not think any god had much to do with it.” Somehow Pavel was even closer, their bodies just shy of touching. With his eyes looking up with hope and nervousness, McCoy was finding it very hard to unlock their gaze.

Leonard lifted his hands and then thought better of it and pressed them onto the desk behind him. “Look, Pavel... I know there’s... something here that I’m- that we’re feeling but-”

But Pavel’s smile was blinding. “I knew you were feeling it too!” And then Pavel’s hands were on Leonard’s shoulders and his lips pressed against his and McCoy had to breathe in sharply through his nose at how right it all felt; Chekov close and leaning into him. All too fast, Pavel was shifting back away, just enough to put an inch of air in between them. “извините, sorry. I just...” He bit his lip and moved a hand from Bones’ shoulder to touch his cheek.

With a lot of effort, McCoy took that hand in his own. “Pavel, no. I’m sorry, you’ve no idea how sorry, but we can’t.”

Pavel flinched and recoiled as if hit and McCoy winced as their hands separated. “What? Why!?”

Bones sighed and rubbed his forehead, turning to the side to avoid looking at the hurt on Pavel’s face. “Jeez, there’s so many reasons... most of which end with that fact that I don’t do casual, and you don’t wanna be tied to someone like me. And I sure as hell don’t deserve someone like you.”

A hand touched his shoulder and he tensed. “Please do not talk about yourself like that, Leonard.”

With a huff, Bones opened his mouth to reaffirm the truthfulness of his statement when a beeping came from Pavel’s pocket. They both looked at it as Chekov removed it. “You should answer that,” McCoy said, sighing when Pavel shook his head. “You’re still on duty, Ensign, you’ve gotta answer it.”

Pavel frowned at him and span round on his heel, flipping the communicator open as the office doors opened for him.

-

“Are you gonna tell me what’s wrong?”

Pavel shook his head into his pillow and Sulu, standing by his bed with his arms crossed, sighed heavily. He had to leave for his shift in a few minutes but he really didn’t want to leave with Pavel curled up on his bed facing the wall.

“You were fine last shift – happier than usual, actually, leaving early and all. So I take it it’s not work?”

Another shake of his head. Hikaru frowned and glanced at the door before sitting next to Pavel’s pillow.

“...Is it Doctor McCoy?”

Now Pavel’s shoulders flinched and his whole body stiffened. Sulu nodded to himself and touched Pavel’s arm softly.

“Ah. I’m sorry, Pasha.”

Chekov made a soft noise and turned, pressing his face into Sulu’s thigh and curling himself tighter.

Sulu pushed a hand into the curls in his lap. “You know I’m not huge on this whole fate thing but... it might work out, you know? If it’s meant to be, or whatever. You never know.”

There was no reply this time, not even a movement of the head. Hikaru looked at the door again before settling into the mattress a bit more. He could be late just this once.

-

Chapter Text

-

Jim looked over his shoulder as the bridge doors opened, motioning to the McCoy as he entered, looking somewhat hesitant.

“Bones!” He exclaimed as the man neared his chair. Kirk blinked down at Chekov as the Ensign visibly stiffened at his call. “Tests all done?”

Glancing at the back of Pavel’s head, Bones turned to Jim and handed him a PADD. “Yeah, all sorted. Team’s drafting up a vaccine now but it’ll probably be a day or so before it’s finalised, made and distributed to whoever is goin’ planet-side.”

“Spock?”

“I estimate the science department will be done with their calculations in approximately two-point-3 days, Captain.”

Kirk grinned at Bones. “Approximately.” He echoed, smile fading when he saw McCoy wasn’t paying him any attention and was instead focused on his Head Navigator, who was staring determinedly ahead at absolutely nothing. “Bones? Anything else?”

Startled, Bones shook his head in negative. He wavered for a moment before turning on his heel and walking out like a man with a purpose, not looking back once. Chekov, Jim couldn’t help but notice though, turned his head slightly to watch the man walk away.

Kirk sat back in his chair, tapping against the given PADD. Interesting.

-

“Doctor McCoy? The Captain is here to see you, he says he won’t wait...”

Bones sighed as Kirk strolled in through the curtain separator, Nurse Page trailing off, shifting her weight from foot to foot. Feeling bad for her, McCoy waved her away and span round on his stool by the medical bed to glare at Kirk.

“Damn it all, Jim, I’m with a patient. Can’t this wait?”

Sprawling himself into the bedside seat, Kirk smirked unrepentantly. “You’re my CMO, surely I get to see you whenever I choose? Besides, you’ve plastered up plenty of broken arms; you don’t need to give it your full attention – how’s the arm by the way, Palmer?”

The man on the bed gave a wonky smile. “Wrist completely shattered sir, don’t think I’ll be going planet-side this time ‘round. Pain hypos are pretty good though.”

Turning back round with a roll of padding wool, McCoy frowned at Palmer. “You certainly won’t be going on the planet exploration. I don’t even want you at your station for the next seventy-two hours while the meds are still in your system; understand?” Huffing, he glanced up at Jim, motioning to Palmer to place his arm where it was needed. “What’s so important then?”

“Nothing. I just know this way you can’t run away.” Looking up from wrapping the arm, Bone’s narrowed his eyes suspiciously at Kirk. “Look, you can either tell me what’s going on, or I can start guessing.”

Shifting round to put the plaster wraps into a waiting bowl of water, Bones shook his head in confusion. “What the hell are you on about? Nothing’s going on.”

“Okay, guessing it is then! I guess it has something to do with Ensign Chekov.”

McCoy stilled, holding the damp roll of wrapping in his hand and allowing it to drip twice onto the scrubs covering his uniform. “What’s wrong with the kid?” He asked gruffly, moving forwards to start applying the wrap.

“Well he’s been pretty mopey lately - since I got him to fix your log machine three days ago, actually. Then there’s the fact that you and him can’t be in the same room together without acting like a couple of awkward school girls.”

Bones made a squawking sound, flushing and incredibly aware of Palmer raising his eyebrows at the pair of them. Reaching the end of his roll by Palmer’s elbow,

McCoy snarled at Jim as he started to smooth out the wet plaster. “We are not acting like school girls-!”

“Oh yes you are!” Jim pushed himself out of his chair and walked round to the other side of the bed, facing Bones and folding his arms. “What happened? You two seemed pretty comfortable the other day-”

Standing up abruptly, McCoy turned and pushed a plaster-covered hand over Kirk’s mouth. “Damnit, Jim!” Kirk sputtered as Bones released his mouth, and then yelped as he was grabbed by his shirt and bodily pulled through the curtains towards Bones’ office. McCoy barked an order at Nurse Chapel to finish off the plaster, finally letting Kirk go as the office door slid shut behind them.

Kirk wiped his mouth off with his sleeve. “Ew, Bones, I so could have been allergic to that!”

“That doesn’t usually stop you from putting things in your mouth,” Bones snapped back, though he did hand over a box of wet wipes from his desk, taking a few of the wipes to use on his hands. “You- you can’t just go around saying personal crap like that to people -”

“Ah-ha! So it is personal then!”

“No! Well, yes. But, damnit, I don’t know!” Bones ran both hands through his hair and leaned against the front of his desk with a sigh. “I’ve told him nothing can happen, anyway.”

“What?! Why?! Wait,” Kirk sat down heavily in one of the chairs by the desk. “You actually got to the stage of talking about it? ‘Cause that’s some development in itself, I’ve gotta say. I mean, at the Academy you’d just blow off anyone who was interested and leave me to deal with them.”

Bones huffed out a breath, very tempted to get the bourbon out of his filing cabinet. “Well, this is different.”

He could feel Jim’s eyes burning holes in the back of his head. “Look, you like Chekov? You care about him, find him attractive and want to get to know him more, yeah?” McCoy didn’t answer and Jim leant over to flick him on the ear. “Yes?”

“Ow, yes, yes, alright.”

“Then what’s the problem? He obviously likes you.”

McCoy slouched down more onto his desk. “Let’s face it, Jim, given pretty much any option, I’m not anybody’s first choice.”

Kirk frowned and then stood and walked over to stand next to Bones, nudging his weight into his side. “Maybe he should get a say in this too?”

“...maybe.”

-

It was three days later when McCoy found himself outside Pavel’s door. He had been standing in the hall for several minutes, talking himself into knocking before talking himself out of it again. With a deep breath, he raised a fist. Then he dropped it and took a step back.

Damnit.

Bones groaned and let his head fall back, eyes closed. But he snapped back to attention when the door in front of him opened unexpectedly.

He wasn’t sure if he was disappointed or relieved when Sulu stepped out with a face full of surprise.

“Doctor McCoy.”

“Morning, Sulu.” Silence fell and McCoy glanced around the empty hall. “Is, er, is Chekov in?”

The door snapped shut behind Sulu. “No.”

McCoy winced. “Oh. Okay. Well, when you see him on duty, can you let him know that I called in? And that I’m sorry, for before. He’ll know. And that I called to talk to him.” Feeling totally foolish, Bones nodded and then turned to walk away. Behind him, he heard Sulu sigh heavily and call after him.

“Doctor.” Sulu caught up with him and gestured back at the room. “He should be back tonight. He ended up going on that planet expedition to help collect samples.”

“Oh.” Bones had been in labs all day yesterday, and today was his day for a night shift so it was understandable he had missed the vaccines. “Thanks.”

Sulu pulled a face. “Yeah, just don’t make me regret it.” And McCoy scowled, wondering how many people knew about what was happening between him and Pavel.

-

Bones was just turning the corner towards the canteen when he and Uhura almost crashed right into each other. Instinctively, McCoy put out a hand to steady her.

“Sorry, Lieutenant- hey,” He tilted his head at her. “Weren’t you going down to that Doo-Doo planet?”

Uhura made a face that Bones dimly recognised from when he had seen her telling Kirk off. “Doo-mosh-doo.” She pronounced slowly, poking him in the chest. “And I was down there. But some of the landing crew had to go up some rocky terrain which proved rather unstable. No one was badly hurt,” She added quickly. “Bumps and bruises. But we thought it better to all come back and try again tomorrow. The natives were very agreeable.” Uhura’s eyes glanced over his shoulder and her serious look was replaced by a dazzling smile. Following her gaze, Bones spotted Scotty jogging up to them.

“Nyota!” Scotty was immediately in Uhura’s personal space; right hand to her neck and his left to her waist, pressing his forehead to hers. “I jus’ heard, are ya okay?”

Letting out a little laugh, Uhura nodded, raising her hand to his right arm and touching her fingers to the six crossing lines mirrored on her wrist. “I’m fine, Scotty, I wasn’t even on the sample team.”

Bones watched them for a second, his mind wondering how easy it could have been had he and Jocelyn matched marks. Then, Uhura’s words made him tense.

“Wait, did you say sample team?”

-

Pavel winced as the nurse washed out the graze on his knee. It was definitely not the worse injury of the trip – Ensign Thea of the Science department had hit her head and was still being forced to repeat the date and her name – but the world’s surface had been dusty and there was plenty of dirt trapped in the cut. Nurse Evans pulled a face in sympathy as he patted the cut dry.

“Sorry.” He said, switching gloves to dab some cream onto Pavel’s knee, just like he had done to the single cut on Pavel’s cheek.

Hissing, Pavel waved a hand. “Is not your fault.” He managed a smile for the training nurse, blinking as the man’s blue skin flushed to the shade of his uniform under his scrubs. Both of their heads snapped up as the curtains parted and McCoy strode in. Chekov and Evans stared at McCoy, who glanced between the two before plucking the roll of gauze out of Evans’ hand.

“I’ll finish him up, Misher.” Evans blinked at Bones before nodding with a slight frown, raising a hand to Pavel in farewell and leaving through the curtain.

Bones stepped up to Pavel, fingers hesitating over the care skin of his knee as he inspected the wound. Seemingly satisfied with Evans’ work, he started unrolling the bandage around the injured knee. Chekov looked off to the side, biting his lip in confusion while the doctor worked, only looking up when McCoy spoke to him.

“I’m sorry. About before. I just.” He huffed at himself, Pavel staring at his bent head with wide eyes. “I can’t really understand what the hell you could see in me.

Anyway, it was... wrong of me to not allow you your, um, input. Of the situation.” He tied off the bandage but didn’t move away, eyes glancing up to Pavel’s face and narrowing at the sight of the strip of gauze. “Any other damage?”

“HeT. Leonard,” Pavel steeled himself and then put both his hands on McCoy’s shoulders, before the doctor could step back. “This time, then, you will allow me my ‘input’ and you will not push me away.” It wasn’t quite a demand, but not a question either. Chekov gave Bones no time to rely anyway, pressing his mouth to the doctors with a touch more hesitance than last time.

The worry was unneeded though, as McCoy reacted more positively than the first time; taking a step closer to the bed, mindful of Pavel’s knee, and letting his hands find Chekov’s hips as his eyes closed. Delighted, Pavel pushed closer, wrapping his arms around Bones’ neck and fumbling to deepen the kiss with a tilt of his head.

-

Chapter Text

-

Pavel’s hands flittered nervously around his waist as he tucked his shirt into his jeans. Flicking on the mirror-hologram attached to the wall, he shook his head immediately and untucked the button-up again. It was ridiculous for him to be so nervous, considering he and McCoy had been seeing each other for almost three weeks. Although they had only been on two actual dates (once when Pavel had managed to talk McCoy into sneaking into an empty room in engineering to watch an old movie on his PADD and the second when Leonard synthesized ice cream and showed Pavel pictures of Joanna) they had met up for lunch when possible and had gotten in the habit of meeting up while walking to and from shifts almost every day.

But this date was different; they were going to have dinner in Pavel’s room and Hikaru was on a night shift. Which left very little chance of an interruption. Pavel flushed at his own implication, hands idly tucking his shirt back in. He wasn’t planning anything, as such. But so far their most passionate kiss had been their second one, so if things went to the next stage, he wouldn’t complain. The more time he spent with Leonard, the more he enjoyed his company. More than just an attraction now, Chekov was definitely falling for the older man. Better still, he was sure the feeling was reciprocated.

A knock on his door broke him out of his thoughts. Pavel jumped slightly and moved to touch the panel to open the door, leaving the front of his shirt untucked. Bones’ smile hello was easy and Pavel found himself smiling back, shirt completely forgotten.

-

“- and I told him it was a bad idea; a very bad idea, I said, but would he listen to me? Oh no.” Pavel paused to take a breath, very aware that his fast talking was beginning to turn his v’s into w’s and elongate his e’s more than usual. Perched on the side of McCoy’s desk, he swung his legs gently. “Mister Scott is very clever and knows much about this ship but he never learns to take mine or Keenser’s advice.”

Seated at his desk and typing up his last report, Bones smiled indulgently at the boy. “So what happened to this dog-thing then?”

“A uni-dog,” Pavel corrected. “Commander Spock returned it to Engineering about an hour later. Apparently it had been transported into his shower.” Leonard snickered and Pavel grinned at him in response, huffing when he checked his PADD for the time. “I will have to leave for my shift in a minute.”

Bones turned back to his work, tapping on his PADD without hitting any keys. “You know you can always tell Scotty no, right? Especially when you’ve got a long night shift like tonight.”

Pavel shook his head, even as a smile and a blush grew on his face. “Nyet, I enjoy being busy and I like helping Mister Scott in Engineering.” He bit his lip, enjoying the idea of McCoy worrying over him. “I promise not to over-do it, though.”

Opening his mouth, McCoy was cut off by a knock on the door. Without waiting for his answer, the door opened and Kirk stuck his head into the room. He glanced at both of them as he stepped in, smiling. “Alright Bones? Hey Chekov.”

Chekov scrambled off the desk. “Evening, Captain.” He nodded at Kirk and headed towards the open door. “See you for lunch tomorrow, Lyonya?”

Bones’ confirmation was drowned out by Kirk’s squawk. “You don’t have to leave on my account, Ensign.”

“I have to get to my shift, Captain.”

“Oh,” Kirk blinked. “That time already? You should have finished ages ago then Bones!” He said, pointing an accusing finger at the doctor who scowled in response.

“Tell me about it.”

Jim caught Pavel’s eye as he went through the doorway. “Told Spock to give you the Con when he gets off shift, Chekov.”

Pavel nodded. “Aye, Captain.” He smiled at them both before leaving fully, tapping the door to close behind him.

There was silence for a few seconds, but it didn’t last as Jim stepped up to McCoy’s desk and sat in the empty seat opposite the doctor. “So,” he drawled, drawing out the word. “Lay-an-ya?”

Rolling his eyes at Jim’s constant inability at languages, Bones huffed and turned back to his logs, trying to keep his cheeks from flushing. “It’s a Russian diminutive – a nickname thing, kinda.”

“For sweetie-pie?”

“For Leonard, you ass.” Bones snapped without heat, throwing his pen at Kirk and rubbing his forehead. “What do you want?”

Kirk shrugged. “Thought we could go get a drink in one of the rec-rooms.”

McCoy narrowed his eyes at the innocence in Jim’s tone. “I refuse to spend another night listening to you bitch about your hard on for your First Officer.”

“Hey!” Kirk sat up straight and pouted dramatically. “I was not bitching, I was... whining. Emotionally. ...Fuck.”

Standing up with a sigh, McCoy motioned for Kirk to lead out of his office. “Jim, you know I’m going to give you the same advice you gave me,” Bones said as he typed in the lock code for his door. Turning to Kirk as the computer confirmed his order, he looked him straight in the eye. “Talk to the damn hobgoblin.”

“But I know what he’ll say. It’ll involve protocols and logic and the word no. I hate the word no.”

Despite the childish words, Kirk’s voice was quiet and his face resigned and sad. McCoy huffed a soft sigh and put an arm over Jim’s shoulders, leading him out to the hall. “You know what I’ve learned on the month I’ve had to deal with your damn crew? One, sex pollen is a thing; two, never underestimate how fast a space creature can reproduce; and three, people can really surprise you if you give them a chance. If you’re serious about this, give him that chance.”

“...That was really quite deep at the end. Shame about the start; I told you never to bring those fuzzballs up again.”

“Shut the hell up.”

-

Pavel was awoken rudely the next morning by Sulu jumping on him and knocking the breath from his lungs. “Hikaru...” He whined weakly, kicking and twisting until Sulu received a knee to the stomach and was forced to straddle Chekov’s calves rather than his stomach. “What is it?”

“Time to get up is what it is.” Pavel could hear the grin in his voice and pulled his head from under his pillow to glare at his friend.

“I suppose by now I should be used to being woken in such a violent matter...”

Sulu snorted. “We can’t all be only children; I had nineteen years of this.”

Pavel wiggled his feet. “You are getting heavier I swear. Get off me or I will call your mother.”

“Meanie.” Still, Sulu swung himself off of both Chekov and the bed at the threat, searching his pockets once he had straightened up. “That reminds me though; a chip came for you. Uhura says the instructions were in Russian so I assume it’s a new video feed from your parents.” Hikaru pulled the chip from his pocket and tossed it to Pavel who had pulled himself into a sitting position. Catching it instinctively, Pavel hummed as he set it safely on one of the towers of books by his bed.

“I do not start my next shift until tomorrow morning now, so I will make one to send back today, I suppose.”

Hikaru hummed in response, picking up a stray PADD from the floor and checking the time. He still had just over an hour of lunch left and he could synthesize his food here, or join Pavel and the doctor for lunch in the mess. “Oh, hey, have you told them about McCoy yet?” Chekov shook his head and Sulu frowned. “You should; it’s been like, what, two months? You getting serious?”

Pulling his knees to his chest so he could hide the no doubt dopey smile growing on his face, Pavel nodded. “I like to think so.”

“Have you seen his mark yet?” Hikaru motioned at his wrist, as if Pavel didn’t know what mark he had meant.

Chekov hesitated. “No,” He said slowly. “He has a piece of self-staying gauze over it and has not seen mine either.” He didn’t mention that he and Leonard had seen every other part of each other as that was far too much information. It was just over two months into the relationship and they were just starting to get comfortable in their habits when Chekov stayed the night in McCoy’s room. But they didn’t shower together and both their wrappings stayed on at all times. “We have not talked about it yet.”

“You should.”

Nodding, Pavel sighed. He wasn’t looking forward to telling either of his parents and the possibility of unsettling his new relationship just added to his dread.

-

Still uneasy a few nights later, Pavel lay curled up into McCoy’s side with his face tucked into his neck. Bones was on his back, one arm curled around Pavel and the other hand occupied with flicking through his messages on his PADD before they went to sleep. Shifting restlessly, Pavel eventually tightened his grip on McCoy’s waist to get his attention.

“Lyonya?”

“Hmm?”

Pavel closed his eyes tight. “I told my parents about us the other day.”

The clicking of McCoy’s PADD stopped and then started again. “Is that what’s had you worked up lately? What’d they say?” His voice was calm and easy and opening his eyes, Pavel couldn’t see much but he could definitely feel Leonard had tensed.

“It was a recorded feed, not a video call. I will know in a few days, I guess.”

Pressing a kiss to Pavel’s head, McCoy rubbed his hand down the younger’s back to soothe him. “It’ll be fine, I promise, Pasha.”

Pavel didn’t answer, and let the silence start up again. Steeling his nerve again, he spoke again before he could talk himself out of it.

“Lyonya?”

“Yes?”

Forcing himself away from the heat of Bones’ body, Pavel sat up on his knees on the bed, pulling the cover into his naked lap, if only for the feel of security. McCoy frowned and half followed, pushing himself up to lean on his elbows. “Would you like to see my mark?”

The words were rushed and probably more accented than usual due to nerves but McCoy obviously understood as his eyebrows rose. He blinked up at Pavel a few times before sighing and sitting up to place his PADD out of the way. Pavel might have been worried at the sigh, but McCoy sat close to him and took his hand once they were sat facing each other.

“Not especially.”

Oh. Not the reaction Pavel had expected. Or hoped for. Or feared.

“Oh. Okay.” His mind was, for once, blank of anything to say. McCoy gripped his hand tight and shook his head.

“Not because of not wanting to know. Pavel, I just –” He sighed heavily and used his free hand to run through his bed-messy hair. “I’ve had one relationship ruined by these damn marks and, while I’d give anything to match you, I don’t want to see it happen again.”

Pavel frowned. “We would not have to end this just because we do not match.”

“Yeah, ‘cause that worked out so well for me before.” Bones winced at his own words. “Sorry. I just- I’m just not ready yet.”

McCoy’s face was tinged with worry, as if he thought Pavel was going to get straight up and walk away from him. Instead, Chekov nodded. “Okay.” Bones blinked at him, confused, and laid back down when Pavel pushed at his bare chest to do so. Pavel crawled on top of him, bringing the covers with him and laying down on Leonard, shifting around till they were both comfortably entwined. “Okay.” He said again, and McCoy relaxed entirely.

“Thank you, darlin’” He murmured and Pavel smiled into his shoulder.

“I have never shown anyone my mark, but when you are ready, I will show it to you.”

-

Chapter Text

-

“Don’t ya see? This could completely rewrite energising and teleportation as we know it!” Scotty slammed down his fork to reinforce his point and, next to him, Sulu jumped in surprise.

Frowning, Chekov shook his head. “дa, or it could tear a hole into the fabric of time.” Sitting opposite Scotty in the mess hall, Pavel waved the half-eaten chip he had stolen from McCoy’s plate in the air. “Winchester’s law clearly states-”

“Were ya not listening to me before, laddie? We’re disregarding Winchester’s law.”

Next to Pavel, McCoy looked up over the table to meet Sulu’s eyes. They both sighed and shook their heads, resigned to their fates and quite happily staying out of the conversation completely. Pavel had been with Scotty all morning and, as far as either Hikaru or Leonard knew, this argument had been going on since then. Bones and Sulu had happily sitting at their table when the men – both covered in grease and dirt – had come in talking heatedly. Pavel had been in such a rant that when Scotty had synthesized his food, he had followed the man to the table without making his own. When they had both sat and it became apparent that Pavel was unwilling to leave the conversation for food, Bones had dutifully gotten up to do it for him. The gesture had actually paused the conversation long enough for McCoy to be rewarded with a blinding smile and a distracted kiss.

Now, Chekov snorted, rolling his eyes. “Tch, and by disregarding this law, how do you expect to keep the timelines in order?” Leonard smirked, hearing Pavel’s r’s starting to roll more than usual.

Scotty grinned. “That’s the entire point!”

This time when McCoy glanced at Sulu over the table, the man was looking distinctly more worried. Pavel however was wrinkling his nose and straightening his back, causing the foot he had wrapped round McCoy’s ankle to twitch upwards. “Time-travel.” He stated blankly. “Because this ship does not get into enough trouble, you want to give this crew the power to travel though time?”

“We don’ get into that much shit... right Sulu? McCoy?”

Hikaru’s wince was more than enough answer for the both of them, but McCoy dropped his burger to his plate to hold his hands up in a peace gesture. “Sorry, Scotty, I’ve done that once and I never wanna go though it again. If you want someone to back you up on adding another five-thousand ways to die though stepping onto that damn energiser then you’re looking at the wrong guy.”

Pavel was now tapping on the table, eyes narrowed in thought. “I suppose... I suppose you would use a formula similar to Doctor Sanders’ first destination formula for the time. Though it would have to be connected to the location index...”

“Aye, see it is possible!”

With Scotty nodding enthusiastically and Pavel now looking intrigued, Bones untangled his foot from Pavel’s and stood from the table. “Not that this isn’t mighty interesting, but I have a new nurse to train up.” Technically, Hale was a qualified vet, but, Tribbles excluded, they didn’t come up to animals needing care often and Hale apparently wanted more to fill his day. Working in Medical on the Enterprise would definitely fill his day. Bones glanced at Hikaru. “Coming?”

“Well I don’t want to stay here, anyway.”

Sulu grabbed his bag and Scotty’s muffin while the Engineer was distracted. McCoy shook his head and pressed a kiss to Pavel’s temple.

“See you later tonight, Pash.”

-

Kirk winced as the needle pierced his neck, the hypo hissing as it injected its contents into his bloodstream. McCoy paid him no notice and, to his glee, neither did Hale, who had been warned that the Captain tended to need more than his fair share and simply took the hypo to be disposed of.

“Owie...”

“I’d say maybe this’ll teach you to go poking ‘round at Sulu’s plants but I know there’s no point.” He slapped at Kirk’s hand, which was reaching up to rub at the spot. “Don’t be such a baby.” The new nurse returned to the room with the PADD to be signed, the computer under his arm as he stripped off his gloves. Bones followed suit, rolling up his sleeves after to wash his hands – though it was only an allergy shot and nothing that anyone could catch, it was a very good habit to fall into in his line of work. It was only after he had dried his hands and turned back to Kirk that he noticed him looking at him strangely. “Jim?”

“Why the hell do you still wear that thing?” He asked, motioning to McCoy’s arm. “Surely you don’t need to keep your mark covered now that you and Chekov are all lovey-dovey.”

It was said with only a little tinge of jealousy, but McCoy still twitched in annoyance and yanked his sleeves back down. “None of your business.” He snapped.

Kirk’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Have you not seen each other’s marks? Holy shit, Bones, seriously? Is this about the age thing? Hale, you’ve been there, tell him he’s being stupid.”

For his lack of tact, Kirk received a very dark glare from the vet. McCoy knew from his files that Hale’s match was young – only being accepted to the academy this year in fact. With his partner’s dad being head of the academy’s security, both members of the relationship were probably very aware of this situation. The man informed Kirk, curtly, that he wasn’t getting involved and then left the room.

“I like him.” Bones announced, while Jim huffed.

-

After so long a friendship with Jim, Bones had learned to shrug off most of his comments. The conversation they had had in the medbay that day, however, grated on him all afternoon and well into the evening. He wasn’t even sure what was annoying him exactly about it all; maybe it was a mix of Jim’s lack of boundaries, the idea of everyone else noticing and wondering and Pavel bringing it up the night before last. Either way, by the time got back to his room that night, he was tense and irritated.

Late as it was, Pavel was in his room already - having had his key code for several weeks now – dressed down in pyjama bottoms and an old academy track shirt, curled up on the side of the bed he had claimed as his own and smiling tiredy at McCoy. Instantly, Leonard felt himself relax. Placing his PADD on the desk, he walked over to the bed to toe off his shoes while he pressed a kiss to Pavel’s lips. Chekov smelled like McCoy’s shampoo and radiated warmth from a shower not long taken.

Bones longed for one of his own but was much more eager to get into bed and do his best impression of hibernation. He potted around for a little, washing himself up and getting changed while Pavel talked about his day and asked after Leonard’s. He half-heartedly checked his PADD for any emergency messages before flicking the light off and climbed into his side of the bed.

It wasn’t long till McCoy was half asleep, on his side dozing with Pavel curled up to his back, the navigator’s breath puffing steadily against the back of his neck and an arm flung over Bones’ waist. His eyelids were getting heavy when Pavel shifted in his sleep behind him, legs stretching out and then relaxing and his hand moving from its place on his stomach to his arm. Dimly, it took McCoy a minute to realise just what was happening and, blearily, he glanced down to see Pavel’s hand curled around his right wrist, his thumb stroking right where his mark was under his bandage. Immediately frustrated, Bones shook off the wayward hand with a mumbled ‘get off’.

Pavel’s body stilled behind him.

Not totally asleep then, Bones thought with a wince. Time seemed to stand still but neither of them moved or spoke; both far too worried about bringing the conversation up and starting an argument. Eventually, they drifted into an uneasy sleep.

-