Reading Time: 119 Minutes

Title: Against All Odds
Author: Meri
Fandom: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Drama, Family, Romance, Science Fiction, Slash
Relationship(s): Captain Christopher Pike/Dr. Leonard McCoy
Content Rating: R
Warnings: *No Mandatory Warnings Apply. Illegal drugging of characters, Very brief BDSM negotiation that doesn’t end up going anywhere, Discussions Of Child Abuse, Discussions of Mental Health Issues
Beta: SerpentsGarden. Thank you for your stellar beta. Also Grammarly and Text Aloud
Word Count: 76,369
Summary: Doctor Leonard McCoy and Captain Christopher Pike both have their share of struggles. Their first meeting should have gone very differently than it did. McCoy was looking for one thing but ended up finding something completely unexpected. At their second meeting, Doctor McCoy saves Captain Pike’s life, although Pike is unconscious at the time. Their third meeting didn’t go as expected either. By the fourth time they meet, they can’t ignore the undeniable connection between them. Could it be a soul bond? As far as either of them knew, soul bonds weren’t supposed to happen the way this one did.

After a while, they began to wonder if there was a larger conspiracy that was trying to keep them apart.
Artist: ImaliFegen89 — thanks so much for your lovely artwork!

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Chapter Seven

The Enterprise
The Following Morning

Chris woke up in Len’s gorgeous bed. It was huge and made of beautifully carved wood. He wondered idly how Len even got this thing onto a starship. It was definitely not regulation, and it looked like it belonged in a museum or something. As Chris woke more, he became aware of Len wrapped around him, and all thoughts of Len’s bed vanished.

Even through the layers of their sleep pants, he could feel what was pressed into his ass. He shivered, not sure if there was time for that.

“I can almost hear you thinking,” Len said, his arms tightening, pressing into him a little more.

Chris shivered. “I’m thinking maybe there’s time for you to keep doing that. If you’re feeling up to it, I mean.”

“I’m definitely up for it, darlin’, but the question is, are you?” Len was silent for a second. “Well, you’re more relaxed.”

“Are you scanning me or reading me in some way?” Chris asked. He wasn’t sure how he felt about that. Whatever he was doing, it wasn’t noticeably intrusive.

“I’m not doin’ anythin’ bad. Just assessing how you’re feelin’.” His accent was slightly thicker.

Chris concentrated on him and could feel that Len wanted him. Chris turned over, gathering him into his arms. There was something so comforting in knowing that he and Len were going to build a relationship together. “I’m feeling pretty good right now, Sweetheart. I was thinking that we’re going to have something that will sustain us both.”

Len blinked at him and then smiled. “You know, I hadn’t considered that. I’ve been too thrilled about having you for as long as you’d want me.”

“Soulbond. You don’t get to do this with anyone else ever again,” Chris said. He had never been possessive, but with Len, it might be different.

“I’m good with that,” Len promised. “I want to find your mark now. And mine, too. I thought it was supposed to be on our wrists, but it’s not there on me. I guess I will be making that inspection for it, right now.”

Chris kissed him slowly. It wasn’t on his wrist either. But he got up and took off his sleep pants and held his arms out. “See anything?”

“No. Turn around.”

Chris did as he was asked.

“Found it,” Len said triumphantly. He reached out and put his hands on Chris’ hips and brought him closer, and then leaned down to kiss the skin on the small of his back. Then he sucked a couple of long kisses into Chris’ back.

Chris sighed in pleasure at the feel of Len’s mouth on his skin. “What is it?” Chris asked.

“My initials, LHM, and a little circle with a heart in it. It would be cute if we were twelve,” Len grumbled.

“What does the H stand for?”

“Horatio,” Len said.

Chris laughed and turned around. “Let me see yours.”

“It should be the same thing.” Len stood and turned around. “Is it there?”

“Yes. My initials, CMP, and a heart with a circle around it,” Chris said, leaning forward to kiss it as well. “The M is for Marcus. After my grandfather.”

“As much as I want this, we’re still too old for it,” Len said. “It doesn’t make sense that it is happening now.”

“I know what you mean. I’ve never heard of two people our age finding their soul mate this late or like this,” Chris said. “I get the feeling we’re missing something with this. But –”

Then his alarm went off. He had a meeting with Jim for breakfast and then Bob April.

“Damn,” Len said. “I was looking forward to a little cuddling from you, if nothing else.”

“I think we can do better than a cuddle,” Chris said, taking him into his arms and wrapping a hand around him. “What do you think?” he moved his hand up and down slowly.

“That’ll do,” Len said, doing the same thing, and he leaned in to kiss Chris deeply.

*****

After extracting a promise from Len that he wouldn’t go into Sickbay for more than four hours and that he wouldn’t go down to the starbase at all today, Chris left to meet with Jim. Then, he retreated to his actual quarters to take the call with Bob April.

Bob April’s image formed on the screen. “What can I do for you, sir,” Chris asked.

“I wanted an update from you about what’s going on with you and Dr. McCoy,” Bob said, and he did not look pleased.

This wasn’t Chris’ fault. “It’s definitely a soul bond. We’ve both found the marks this morning.”

“I’ve never heard of a soul bond developing between two people the way you’ve described it, especially not with two older people,” Bob said, sounding pretty perplexed by it.

Yeah, Chris hadn’t either. He looked at Bob. “I suppose it’s possible that I’ve just met my perfect partner, and it just happened this way. Because I’ve been all in on him since I met him.”

Bob sighed. “You both will need to file the change of status paperwork. I think you know that we were going to offer you Starbase 11. And I’m sure a doctor as good as Doctor McCoy can do something with the mess in the hospital there.”

Yeah, Chris was pretty sure Len could take care of it. “I think he’ll shred it like pulp wood. They are never going to be the same.”

“That’s actually what I’m hoping for because what’s there now can’t continue. It’s a complete disgrace,” Bob said. “Mendez and Collins both have a lot to answer for.”

“Yeah, about them, what’s going on?” Chris asked. “I would like to question Mendez about what he thought he was doing here.”

“It’s already been done,” Bob said. “Mendez refused to say anything. Unfortunately, Special Ops hasn’t been able to get anything out of either of them. You’ll need to investigate what was allowed to happen there.”

“I’m surprised you even got Collins,” Chris said. “He’d fled the starbase at some point in the last few days.”

“He tried to use public transportation to escape, and we got him at the main transport hub in that sector,” Bob said, shaking his head. “And as you can imagine, he has not been cooperative.”

“I’m sure he wasn’t,” Chris agreed.

“Are you okay?”

Was he? Chris wasn’t sure what he was. “I am still furious about the staff calling in that BarTier to nearly kill Len. I’ve had all of those who stood around and watched, arrested, and held for questioning. I have never been so enraged in my entire life, not even at my father.” Although he’d been furious a lot growing up.

Bob knew about what Chris’ family situation had been like when he was a child, and what had happened with that. “I do understand that. I’ve felt it myself when Sarah was threatened. Although despite being a doctor, she can take care of herself quite well.”

“Presumably, so can Len. He did go through the Academy, so he must have some combat skills.” Although Chris wasn’t sure of that.

“Probably not as good as your previous CMO. You should ask Doctor McCoy about that. You’re still going to need to get to know each other,” Bob said.

“Yeah, there’s that too,” Chris said. He was looking forward to that part and everything else. There were things that he never thought he’d have that were now going to be his. And while that delighted him, it also troubled him. They were most of the way in love without knowing each other. He had no idea how this was going to work.

“How are you coping with this, really?” Bob asked, looking hard at him through the screen. “This has to have upended your life.”

“You know, it has. And I could not be more thrilled about it,” Chris said. “Except, I have a serious need to protect him. And he and I both have other issues that need to be addressed.”

“I’ve been telling you that for years. But,” Bob sighed. “You and he are probably going to need some time alone together to work through some of this.”

“I’m sure you’re right, but we don’t have the time right now. Especially if I’m going to take over Starbase 11. We’ve still got an active investigation going on. I need to get down there in a few minutes.” Chris sighed again. “I’ll have the paperwork to you by the end of the day.”

“Very good. The sooner we get it, the sooner we can process the changes.” Bob smiled at him. “Congratulations. This is going to be wonderful for you, both of you. It’s going to change your life.”

“It already has,” Chris agreed.

*****

Starbase 11
The Next Morning

Len was feeling pretty good and was headed down to the Starbase hospital. Jim and the Enterprise were going to leave in a few days. Len was going to miss them. Especially Jim and Spock. But life went on, and he had a new challenge to work on.

“Let’s try this again,” Len muttered as he went into the administrator’s office, which was now his office. He was unsurprised to find it empty. This was going to be an uphill battle. He straightened up the office, filing the printouts into a locked file cabinet where they would be safe. As he came out, he was surprised to find an admin sitting at the desk in front of his office.

“Who are you?” The young man asked. His tone wasn’t as belligerent as some of the people Len had spoken to, but it wasn’t friendly either.

“Who are you?” Len asked in return.

“If you don’t tell me who you are, I’ll call security,” he threatened ominously.

Len thought about it for a second. “Go ahead. I don’t care. I’m going to be in charge here at some point very soon.”

His eyes widened, and he didn’t look quite so confident. “McCoy? They said Mal took you out the other day. How are you even alive after that?”

Len snorted. “There is an excellent medical staff on the Enterprise and your friend Mal has been arrested. And after some healing, he was only slightly damaged from my soulmate going berserk on his ass for trying to kill me.”

He gasped. “I hadn’t heard that part,” he said. “Look, I don’t want any trouble.”

“Too late for that,” Len said. “What is your name?”

“Gerald Monaghan. I did what I was told to do.” Now, he sounded like he was pleading.

“And why would you do that if you knew it was wrong?” Len asked.

“I wanted to live,” Monaghan said flatly. “You did what you were told, or they let Mal or one of the others pound on you for a while.” It didn’t sound like he was lying.

“Why did you stay?” Len asked.

Monaghan looked at him like he was crazy. “You’re kidding, right? I have no credits and nowhere else to go. They barely pay me to do this job, and then, they take half of that in rent.”

“I hadn’t heard anything about that,” Len said. “How long has this been going on?”

“I’ve been here for almost two years, and there are people who have been here longer.”

“Can you write that up for me? Name names. I’ll protect you,” Len promised. Well, Chris would protect them, if he couldn’t. “We need to know this information.”

Monaghan looked more terrified.

“Look, there is a new commodore taking over the starbase, and he’s going to make a lot of changes. It’s going to get better here. I promise you that. You’ll get paid what you were supposed to and back pay.”

“How do I know you’re not lying to me to get me to incriminate myself?” Monaghan asked, but there might have been a spark of hope in his eyes.

“I guess you don’t, but you had to know the previous situation couldn’t last forever. It’s illegal. This is a Federation Starbase.” Len could not believe this had been allowed to happen at all, but what Monaghan just described would require a lot of setup. That meant it couldn’t be anything other than carefully planned.

Monaghan looked at him as if he were trying to assess what Len was saying. “Okay. What did you want to know?” he finally said.

“Everything that has happened to you since you came to Starbase 11 and how you came to be here with no credits at all.”

“Everything, really?” Monaghan seemed like he was going to need a lot of reassurance.

Len wanted to snap, but the poor man looked scared enough without him unleashing his temper on him. “Send it to me when you’re done.”

“I have some other friends in the same situation. Do you want to hear from them, too?”

“Yes. That would be very helpful.” Len went back into the office and sent Chris a quick written message.

*****

After he left his office, Len went to the nurses’ station, and it was fully staffed. Unsurprisingly, none of the nurses who had been there two days ago were still there. Maybe Chris actually had fired them all. These nurses looked terrified of him.

“I’m Doctor McCoy,” Len started. He tried hard to keep his tone in the friendly range. “I’m going to be taking over as new head of the hospital.” While he hadn’t actually been given official word that he would be taking over, Admiral April had told Chris that was the plan and that was good enough for Len to run with it. These people were going to need a lot of direction, and he was the only one who could give it to them.

“What can we do for you, sir?” One of them asked tentatively.

“Names, first. I want to know who I’m dealing with. And what your job is, and something about what your situations are on the starbase,” he said.

“Amy Davenport, physician’s assistant. What situation are you talking about?” she asked.

“Anything out of the ordinary with your employment?” Len asked and glanced at the rest of them. “And what are your names?”

“None of your damned business,” one of them told him. Ah, there was the belligerence he’d been expecting from them.

“You’re dismissed. Get your belongings and get out,” he said and flipped open his communicator. “This is Doctor McCoy. I need security at the nurses’ station on the ground floor immediately.”

“You can’t fire me,” she snarled, clearly outraged. “I know my rights.”

“I can do anything I damned well please,” Len snapped. He was pretty sure he could back that up. “If you have a problem with that, take it to the Starfleet Labor Relations Board. And bring documentation because that’s what I’m going to do.”

“Can I help you, sir,” someone in a Starfleet security uniform asked pleasantly.

“Please escort Ms. ‘not going to tell me her name’ out of the hospital. Make sure she doesn’t touch anything on the way out, and if she resists, go ahead and arrest her.”

There was a brief struggle, but the security person was stronger than she was. She looked human and small, but clearly, she was something more substantial than she seemed.

He turned back to look at the rest of them, and they all seemed to cringe a little. That would not do. “I’m not going to put up with that kind of belligerence towards me or any of the people we’re supposed to be serving. That said, I’m not going to treat you unfairly, either.”

A couple of them gave him a speculative look, and a couple of others didn’t look like they believed him. Well, time would tell them the truth of that, he supposed.

“Her name is Mary Smith,” one of the men said. “I’m Benjamin Taylor. I’m a registered nurse. She was a complete nightmare. I’ve been stranded here for more than a year, and she was one of the worst of them.”

“Worst of who?” Len asked, glancing at Taylor.

“The complicit staff. She would report on anyone who didn’t toe the line. And they would fine you, if you didn’t do what they wanted,” Taylor said. “If they took enough of your credits, you didn’t have credits for food.”

Len took a deep breath, but he just nodded. He looked at the woman next to Taylor.

“Janet Willard. Also, an RN,” she said. “I have been here about a year, too. I transferred in, thinking this might be a good place to start a family. My wife also has a job here, but it’s been terrible. No one outside knows how bad things are.”

“I’m assuming you tried to get a message off the station?” Len asked.

Willard nodded and went on, “Nothing ever happened. We assumed that it was intercepted in some way. From Collins down, everyone in this hospital is either doing something illegal or complicit. Nothing is anything like where we’ve been before. My wife is Starfleet, so Collins couldn’t do anything about her salary, but he paid most of us on the nursing staff half of what we were promised, less than that in some cases. I want to know what happened to that money. We’re barely surviving with what they were charging us for rent.”

“You do know your wife and you, for that matter, should have had base housing. They don’t charge for that,” Len said. This was worse than he’d thought. It was outrageous that it had been allowed to go on as long as it had. There had to be someone on the other end who was making sure anything sent to Starfleet didn’t make it to whomever it was supposed to go to. Or there was a pile of complaints somewhere that no one had bothered to do anything about.

“We didn’t know that,” another one said. “I’m B’telle Sigal. I’m a medical technician, a contractor. They deducted the rent out of our pay before we ever saw it. And it kept going up. We are always behind in other bills.”

“Did all of you file complaints?” Len asked.

Several people shook their heads.

“You’ve met Mal Farquhar. There are one or two others like him. You didn’t want to argue with them,” Amy said.

Len sighed. “And I guess leaving the station was not an option?”

“No,” Taylor said. “There were never enough credits to even consider it.”

Len sighed. “I want you to write up your experiences in as much detail as you can. And I want a list of people who are still here that shouldn’t be. And whether or not you’ll testify against them.”

“I can tell you right now, if you charge Mary or Mal or anyone else who did this, I guarantee I’m going to testify,” Sigal promised.

“Me too,” Taylor agreed.

“I will as well,” Amy said, too.

Well, that was promising. “Write up your stories and send them to me. I’ll write a report to the higher ups and send it on.”

“What about the new commodore?” Taylor asked tentatively.

“What about him?” Len looked at him. “I don’t understand what you’re asking me.”

“He went berserk when Mal tried to take you out. I’ve never seen anything like that. He actually was going to kill Mal. Is he always like that?” Taylor looked a little distressed.

“No. He’s actually a regular Boy Scout most of the time,” Len said, hiding a smile. “Apparently, I’m his soulmate.”

“You didn’t know,” Willard said. “I knew the second I met my wife.” She smiled a very sweet smile as if it were one of her favorite memories. “We were very young, though.”

“As much as I’m happy about it, I have no idea how it happened,” Len said, truthfully and a little chagrined.

“You are one lucky man,” Taylor said.

“Oh, I got that part,” Len said and couldn’t help smiling.

*****

It was late when Len got back to the enterprise. He’d compiled the first of the narratives into his report and sent it on to Chris, Jim, and Admiral April. It seemed that some of the staff weren’t just criminally negligent. They were also criminals who had spread fear among the rest of the staff. He’d have to see how well the staff did their jobs when they weren’t afraid of being killed by one of those goons.

Mary Smith was in custody. They’d DNA tested her and found her to be a Romulan. Len was sure it was related to the situation with Chris’ accident. But they needed a way to tie it all together. And so far, nothing had presented itself.

And speaking of Chris, where was he? Len had reached his quarters and palmed the door, but his big bed was sadly empty. He turned around. “Computer, where is Commodore Pike?”

“In the guest quarters on deck five.”

Len realized belatedly that despite what Chris had said a few nights ago about moving in, he wouldn’t use his authority to go into Len’s quarters without permission. Not until they’d talked about it and formalized something. And until this minute, Len had been so busy he hadn’t even thought about that. Now, he’d better go retrieve his wayward lover and drag him home. Len sighed. Damned Boy Scout.

He buzzed the door of the guest quarters, and Chris answered, wearing casual clothes. Len looked at him, licking his lips and wanting to wrap his arms around him. Did he need to ask? If he needed to think about asking, then he needed to say something. “Why aren’t you in my bed waiting for me?” That came out sharper than he’d meant it to.

Chris smiled widely at him. “Apologies. Shall we remedy that now? Or would you like to come in and share this bed?”

“Nope. I want you in my bed. And I want to have my wicked way with you there. Does that appeal to you?”

“Very much so, Sweetheart. I’m all in on that.”

He reached out and took Chris’ hand and led him out the door, down the corridor and then one deck down to his quarters. Once inside, he turned to Chris, who looked like he was trying hard not to laugh at him, but Len didn’t care. He wanted Chris in his bed.

“Take off your clothes,” Len ordered. “And get into bed.”

Chris folded his arms over his chest, still looking like he was trying not to smile. “If you want them off, you’re going to have to do it yourself.”

Len just looked at him and scowled. He was tired and grimy and just wanted to look at Chris. To touch and taste him. And Chris wanted to play games. “Why don’t you take my clothes off, then?”

“I could do that. But you wanted mine off. So, you need to see to that,” Chris said very reasonably.

He had a point. Len stepped forward, took hold of the hem of Chris’ shirt and lifted it over his head. He ran his hands gently down Chris’ chest, and he drew in a breath. Something was telling Len that he should go slowly and gently. Even if he wasn’t sure where it was coming from, him or Chris, he always listened to that kind of cautioning intuition.

All right then, slow and easy it would be. He kissed Chris and then pulled back to take off his own shirt.

“Thought I was going to do that,” Chris said.

“Why don’t you relax a little and let me steer for a while,” Len suggested and leaned in to kiss him.

“Whatever you’d like, Sweetheart,” Chris murmured against his mouth. “However you’d like it.”

“I’ll take good care of you,” he promised, stepping close again and undoing the fastenings on Chris’ pants. He stripped everything off Chris, along with his boots and socks. He then tossed his own clothes in a pile on the floor. “Come ‘mere, my darlin’.”

He laid Chris out on the bed and started down his body, using his hands and mouth, making Chris moan. When Chris’ head was pressed back into the pillows and his hands were twisted in the sheets, Len urged him over onto his belly and started to suck kisses down his spine. Chris’ response was enthusiastic and so filled with pleasure.

That was good. That was what Len wanted. After using his mouth on him, which also had a very positive response, Len slicked his fingers.

After a bit of time, there was a gasp and a sigh from Chris.

“Darlin’,” Len asked, just to make sure.

“Good,” Chris said. “Now. Finish it.”

Len took his hips and pressed forward, slowly, easily. Chris gasped again and then moved back against him.

“Move now,” Chris ordered.

Len was only too happy to do as he asked. He moved, and this time, Chris moaned softly. Len tried to keep an even cadence, but the heat and slickness were so enticing that he was getting lost in it. Chris’ response urged him on. Len reached for him and stroked in time to his own movement.

He was panting, his heart racing hard, and every cell in his body was focused on what he was doing and making sure that Chris was enjoying it as they moved together over and over. Finally, there was no more room inside him to contain what he was feeling, and Len was so amazed to feel it move through him with such force and such joy. He’d literally never felt anything like it.

He was gasping for breath when he finished. So was Chris.

“Oh, God,” Chris said, panting.

“Yeah,” Len agreed.

*****

Chris rolled over and gathered Len into his arms. He hadn’t expected that. It was beyond anything he ever even fantasized about, so much so that it felt like it was an alternate reality. How could he be as old as he was, and as experienced as he was, and still have something that marvelous happen to him?

“As cliched as it is to say this, I have never felt anything like what you just did to me,” Chris said, needing to say something to convey how much that affected him.

Len leaned up on an elbow and looked at him. There was a well-earned, smug expression on his face. “I’m assuming that was good?”

“I don’t know, Sweetheart. I think good seems like much too simple a word to describe it. But I don’t even have words for it.”

“I’ve said I was empathic, and well,” Len continued. “I had a strong feeling about how I needed to do this with you right now.”

“Clearly, that was the right way,” Chris said and looked at him. Something wasn’t quite right. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing is wrong per se,” Len said. “But I am not usually this aggressive, sexually, I mean, especially about what we just did. Generally, if I’m attracted to someone, I’m usually happy to take whatever they want to give me.”

Chris was surprised. Len had told him what he wanted from the beginning. But maybe that was the problem. “What do you attribute that to?”

“I don’t know. It’s possible that the soul bond between us had something to do with it. Maybe it’s trying to equalize things,” Len suggested.

“Equalize how?” Because Chris thought they were equal in their relationship.

“Because of how we met, I think you still think of me as someone in your care. Someone you need to take care of,” Len suggested. “I’m a grown-assed man, and I don’t need to be taken care of.”

“I need that,” Chris said truthfully. He also thought that Len might not want to admit it, but he did need someone to, if not take care of him so much as care deeply about him. Chris needed that, too. “I need to take care of my people. Which you are now at the top of that list in my life.” Chris looked at him. “You’re going to need to get used to that.”

Chris could feel something in Len relax.

“I guess I can live with that. But I’m also going to take care of you,” Len said. “I loved what we just did, giving you pleasure like that.”

“It’s all about giving each other pleasure. That’s what’s important,” Chris said and yawned. “Did you get dinner?”

Len laughed and licked his lips. “Didn’t I just have you for dinner?”

“Doesn’t work that way,” Chris said. “Let’s get dressed and go to the galley.”

“No. I’m too tired to get out of this bed,” Len said. “You’re a lot of work.”

“Nothing you can do about that now since you’re stuck with me,” Chris said, a hand cupping Len’s face as he leaned in for another kiss.

“Definitely. Isn’t that great?” Len grinned as he pulled back, so clearly pleased with the idea that they were stuck with each other.

“It means we’re going to have to learn about each other,” Chris said. “And while we should be very compatible, we’ll need to watch what we say and do until we really get to know each other better.”

“Probably. We should also have some long conversations about the past. Maybe even go on a few dates or something like that. As much as we’ve been very intimate, we don’t know each other all that well.”

“Or hardly at all,” Chris said and knew he was right. “I know you’re a fantastic doctor, and you know I’m a good officer –”

“Total Boy Scout,” Len confirmed.

“That, too.” Chris sighed. “I don’t know any of the details about your life. The fun stuff, and the stupid stuff, and the inconsequential stuff that a lover knows.”

“Some of that you’re just going to have to learn over time, getting to know me. But my favorite color is blue, and I like any kind of strawberry ice cream. I sleep on the right side of the bed, and I prefer my own bed to anyone else’s. Oh, and this bed? It’s coming with me to Starbase 11.”

Oh, that was so adorable. Chris cuddled him a little closer. “That stuff, but some more important things, too. Things we haven’t ever talked about.”

“Like what,” Len asked.

Chris breathed out. This wasn’t supposed to be where he asked, but, “What happened to you that made you need to break yourself down to your barest element to fix it.”

A series of emotions played over Len’s face. There was no mistaking that he knew exactly what Chris was talking about. He could also feel that Len was deeply reluctant to talk about it.

“If I say that I will tell you the truth about that, just not right this second, would you let it go?” Len asked.

“Of course,” Chris replied. “In your own time and in your own words. I’m going to have to tell you about my relationship with my father and the aftermath of that, as well. And that won’t be an easy story to tell.”

Len nodded. “That was something I’d already made a mental note to ask you about.”

There was a part of Chris that recoiled at the thought of telling anyone else about his father. Some of his closest friends knew some of it, but he’d never told anyone all of it. It was just too painful. But he knew he’d have to tell Len. There was no choice. He sighed. “Now, though, you need to eat. If I replicate something for you, will you eat it?”

“Probably,” Len said. “You don’t like replicated food? What do you eat?”

Chris smiled at that. “I can cook.”

“Really? I love to eat home cooked food. My momma knew how to cook,” Len said, and when he’d said something about his mother, he seemed very sad.

And somehow, Chris knew that was connected to the why of what Len needed. But he wasn’t going to ask about that right now.

“Will you eat something?” Chris asked.

“Sure,” Len said, sitting up and then getting out of bed. He rummaged around in a drawer and found some sleep pants. “Why do you always sleep in sleep pants?”

“Because we’re on a ship, and when an emergency happens, I don’t want to have to rush out of my quarters naked.”

“Is there a funny story there?” Len asked, smiling.

“Not for me, but someone else. And I promised myself that would never be me.”

Len laughed. “I can see that about you.”

*****

Chapter Eight

The Enterprise
The Next Morning

Len had a meeting with Jim and Chris about the situation at the hospital. He’d sent some of the findings to Admiral April as well.

In fact, Admiral April was on the screen when he went into the meeting conference room. He appeared to be deep in conversation with Chris and they both looked up.

“Admiral, Commodore,” Len said, sitting down. “Am I late?” He thought he was ten minutes early. He’d hoped to get his notes together before giving his report.

“Not at all, Doctor,” April said. “The commodore was briefing me on the number of Romulans that are turning up.”

“Yeah, I was wondering if we could do DNA tests on everyone in the hospital. Probably on the whole starbase,” Chris said. “Though it seems to be concentrated there.”

“We’d need to do a subsection of the nursing staff and doctors, and if they came up clean, we could do wholesale testing of everyone else,” Len said. “Is it legal?”

“Very much so,” Admiral April said. “How bad is the situation in the hospital, not the nursing and regular medical staff. I’ve seen your reports. But what about the doctors? Most of them should have been Starfleet.”

“Yeah, about that,” Len said. “I haven’t talked to that many of them yet. But the ones that I have met are under-qualified. Or possibly just underwhelming in their service. It had to have taken a real effort to gather that many mediocre doctors in one place.”

“What can we do about it?” Chris asked. “I haven’t had to deal with medical personnel since I was your first officer, Admiral. Una did most of it for me. I just approved it. And there aren’t that many doctors on a starship. Not like in a hospital.”

Admiral April nodded. “Four, maybe five on a starship with two to three hundred beings.”

Len nodded to that. “This is an order of magnitude more than that. And to have all of them be in the 65th to 70th percentile range of competence is statistically unlikely.”

“Can we transfer them out?” Chris said. “I don’t want them here.”

“If they haven’t done anything wrong, no. Being mediocre isn’t a crime,” April said. “We can start the process, but it would take as long as it took to transfer them in.”

“Let’s see what the DNA tests say,” Len suggested. “It doesn’t make sense to gather them here. Unless this is linked to Chris, sorry, Commodore.”

“How do you mean that,” April asked. “I’ve heard Captain Kirk’s theory that somehow this was linked to the commodore.”

“I have been thinking about it,” Len said. “The events all fit together. The lack of competent medical personnel here. The baffle plate rupture on the training vessel, which had been inspected many times in the last few years –”

“Has anyone checked the maintenance schedule for the Republic?” Chris asked.

“We did when this came up when all of this first happened,” April said.

Before he could say anything else, the door to the conference room slid open, and Jim and Spock came in.

“Admiral, Commodore, Bones,” Jim said in greeting. “I asked Spock to join us. And I see you’ve started early. So, catch us up.”

April gave them a brief synopsis of what they were talking about. “So, to answer your question, Commodore, the Republic had routine maintenance done on a regular basis, just like all the other ships. We also had our engineers look at what caused the baffle plate rupture. At first, it looked like a weakness in the plate itself, but upon closer inspection and with some in-depth computer analysis, one of the engineers found that it had been deliberately split. And in such a way that when it failed, it exposed the occupants of the room to the highest amount of radiation possible. It was only the commodore’s quick thinking that made sure so many survived.”

“Any idea who had access? Or why?” Jim asked. “This still seems to be tied to the Commodore.”

“I have a theory,” April said. “I think that second vision might have been faked.”

Chris choked. “How would that even be possible.”

“That, I don’t know, but given all the facts you’ve told me, it doesn’t make sense. You were due to be promoted off the Enterprise long before that encounter with the Romulans at Outpost 4,” April said. “Going back further than that, how likely was it for the Klingon monks on Boreth to allow anyone to have a second crystal for any reason?”

“If the whole galaxy was at war?” Chris asked. Wasn’t that what the other him had said?

April shook his head. “I don’t buy it. You said in your report from when you went to Boreth that the Klingon High Chancellor L’Rell said that the monastery had almost no contact with the outside world. How did they make their way through the Federation, which supposedly was at war with the Romulan Empire, to contact the future you? How did you get there the first time?”

“Ash Tyler contacted Chancellor L’Rell to obtain safe passage for us to go to Boreth,” Chris said. And while the Discovery had jumped there with the spore drive, L’Rell had met them there. The future him would have either had to travel through Klingon space to get to the planet, or the time monks would have had to travel through the Federation to get to him. “I hadn’t thought of that. But I left the Enterprise because I had to, to make sure that all the events happened the way they were supposed to happen.”

“Wait,” Len said. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. What encounter did you have with the Romulans? We encountered them a few months before I met you.”

Chris sighed. “When I told you that I couldn’t change my fate, I knew that because I was told by a being who was supposed to be the future me. He said he was from an alternate timeline where I had escaped my fate by writing a letter to one of the cadets who was supposed to die that day. I told him and the other cadets not to be in the engine room when the baffle plate ruptured. Future me showed up in my quarters and knew some things about me that I had never told anyone, and he finished my damned sentences. That convinced me that I would help start a war with the Romulans that would kill millions.”

Len rubbed the back of his neck and looked at Chris. “How would that work?”

“You would never have been there,” April said again. “I thought that at the time. But then, I wasn’t completely sure because if you hadn’t been promoted to Fleet Captain, you could still have been on the Enterprise.”

“By the time the promotion came through, I felt like I had no choice but to take it and leave the Enterprise. I’m not sure I would have made that choice if I’d not felt that way,” Chris said.

Len looked like he was trying to work out what was going on. “I am more convinced than ever that Jim is right. But how do we prove it.” Len sighed. “All of this folds into what we’ve already known. In some manner or other, this is all hinged on the Commodore and the accident.”

“I believe I can add to that,” Spock said. “Mr. Scott and I have been running in-depth diagnostics on the incendiary device. We believe it went off before it was programmed to do so.”

“What?” Jim said. “When do you think it was meant to go off?”

Spock cleared his throat. “We think it was possible that it was to ignite when the Commodore was on the station, possibly beaming in. The explosion could easily have disrupted the transporters. Thus, killing anyone using them.”

“How do you know that?” April asked. “And how do we prove it was Romulans?”

“Haven’t we caught several of them?” Chris asked. “Maybe question them? What about Mendez?

“They have all been sent to Special Ops for questioning,” Bob said. “And Mendez was DNA tested, and he isn’t a Romulan. He’s human from a colony world.”

“And the others?” Jim asked. “Are they Romulans?”

“Mary Smith is, but those who stood and watched the BarTier try to kill Doctor McCoy were not Romulans. Most of them were humans,” April said. “And Neither Mendez nor any of the others are saying anything yet. We’re at a standstill with all of them.”

No joke, Len thought. “We’re going to have to clean up the mess here. But what about the larger conspiracy?” he asked.

“I have a special ops agent coming out to Starbase 11. I think they can help with interviewing the doctors and other staff,” April said. “They should be there shortly.”

“Any help we can get will be appreciated,” Chris said.

“I’ll have new orders for the Enterprise in a few days. This isn’t your mess.” April looked at Jim. “I’ll also send out a temporary doctor for the ship. I’ve had several requests already.”

“Thank you, sir. I’d actually like to interview anyone before they come on board,” Jim said.

“I’m sure we can work that out,” April agreed. “Oh, and Commodore, you’re officially acting head of Starbase 11 until we can get the paperwork pushed through to make you permanent. Doctor McCoy, the same goes for you and the hospital. Also, you’ll get your promotion to captain as well.”

“Thank you, sir,” Len said. “I’d also like to talk to whoever goes to the Enterprise to replace me. I want to make sure that they are what and who they should be.” He didn’t want just anyone taking over for him. Not that he thought that April or Jim would allow that, but the CMO was just too important to the ship to leave it to chance.

*****

After the meeting, the team went back down to the starbase. Chris had planned to request an office to work out of, but since he was officially acting, he could take Mendez’s old office. He should probably request quarters as well. He should also ask for double the space since Len would also be sharing them. And Len’s big bed. Chris smiled at that. God, he found every single thing about Len adorable and hoped it didn’t change as they got to know each other better.

With a sigh, he pushed his mind back to the tasks at hand. He’d have time to daydream about Len later.

Mendez’s office was on the top floor of the central administration building of Starbase 11. Chris knew his office had been cleared of Mendez’s personal possessions once he’d been arrested, and they had left anything that might have been official information for Chris to deal with.

The yeoman’s desk sat in front of the entrance to the office. A young woman with dark hair was sitting at the desk. “Good morning,” she said nearly without inflection. “Can I help you?”

“I’m Commodore Christopher Pike,” Chris said. “I’m acting commander for Starbase 11. And I’m going to be using this office from now on.”

She nodded, looking a little frightened. “I’m Julia Piper. I am, was, Commodore Mendez’ admin.”

“You’re not a yeoman? You’re wearing a Starfleet uniform.” Chris was surprised by that.

“This is what I was told to wear. I’m not in Starfleet,” she said, clearly uncomfortable.

“I see. Well, that is a violation of several different uniform codes for Starfleet,” Chris said, wondering if he sounded as prissy as he thought he did. “Tomorrow, just wear your regular work clothes.”

“Yes, sir,” she said, looking a little relieved. “What can I help you with today?”

“I’ll be interviewing everyone on Mendez’ staff. And going through all the information on what’s in the office. I’m also expecting someone from Special Ops.”

She nodded, and he started to go into the office and then turned around. “How about we start with you?”

“Me, sir?” she said, looking terrified again.

“What’s wrong?” Chris asked.

“Nothing, sir,” she said, squaring her shoulders. “Do you want me to come in with you now?”

Something about the way she said that set off alarm bells in Chris’ head. “Why are you afraid of me?”

Piper blinked at him, as if she couldn’t believe he’d asked that. “I heard that you tried to kill Mal Farquhar and would have succeeded if three other Starfleet officers hadn’t pulled you off him.”

Well, Chris should have known people would talk about that. “He attacked my soulmate.”

She visibly relaxed. “No one mentioned that part. Though, I’m surprised Mal was that stupid. How did he not know?”

“How would Farquhar know about the soul bond? We barely knew about it ourselves. And for the record, I don’t generally, or ever, do anything like that. I’m much more diplomatic,” Chris said and smiled at her.

“Wait. This is a new soul bond?” Piper looked shocked again. “That isn’t supposed to happen with someone so old — ” She stopped and blushed. “Sorry, sir, I meant no disrespect.”

Chris just laughed. He and Len were old for a soul bond. “It’s fine. It was a surprise to both of us. That’s another thing. Doctor McCoy will be in and out of my office all the time, especially once we finally get settled here.”

Again, she relaxed a little more. “Very good, sir. I’ll make a note of that. What did you want to interview me about?”

“Mendez, the work, and pay rules, housing rules. Everything you can tell me about the issue with not paying people and charging exorbitant amounts for renting their quarters. And anything else you want to tell me about.”

“Half of my salary was taken for rent of my quarters. I never agreed to that, but there was nothing I could do about it,” Piper said.

“No family or anyone you could have reached out to?” Chris asked. “How did you get this job?”

Piper shook her head. “No family at all. And I couldn’t finish school and had no prospects. I saw an ad for the job here, and I wasn’t really qualified, but I applied for it. Mendez interviewed me over the comm and said he’d train me for it. I didn’t think about it then, but it sounded too good to be true. And, of course, it was. That was two years ago. I’m still broke, but I do now have some admin and technical skills,” she said. “I worked a lot, much more than regular hours, but I also took some courses.”

That was surprising. “You should be getting some back pay, as well as whatever he promised you for a salary going forward.”

“Thank you, sir,” she said. “I’m relieved to hear it.”

“Do you want to hire a replacement for yourself, or would you consent to stay for a while, maybe with a raise in pay, and help out.”

She blinked at him. “Seriously? Why would you want me? I mean, you just met me.”

“I’m a fairly good judge of character. You made the best of a terrible situation and sought to better yourself during it. You’re probably a lot more marketable than you were when you started. I like that in my staff.”

She grinned at him. “Thanks. I just knew that I couldn’t stay where I was. I knew Mendez couldn’t sustain this for much longer. I assume there was a bigger plan in play here, but there were too many variables he couldn’t account for over the long haul.”

Now, Chris was surprised by her. She was either much smarter than she’d first appeared, or she was something else altogether. “How do you mean that. Did you know what he was trying to do?”

“I could make a guess,” she said and met his eyes. “I’m not stupid by any stretch of the imagination.” She sighed and looked down. “I have other issues which I’m not going to talk about right now.”

“Fair enough,” Chris said. Maybe he should take a page from Len’s book. “Why don’t you write up what happened since you’ve been here and send it to me. Include what you think might have been happening here overall.”

She nodded. “I heard from someone on the medical staff that they were asked to do that. I actually already wrote it up.”

“Very good. Please send it to me,” Chris said and went into his office.

*****

The office was huge, bigger than Chris was expecting. The floor-to-ceiling windows provided a panoramic view of the starbase below and the mountains beyond that. The landscape was magnificent, and Chris stood and looked out for a few minutes. It was beautiful here.

He turned back towards the office. A holographic display projected data onto a transparent screen, showing live status updates of the station, incoming communications, as well as the status of the Starbase’s defense perimeter in space.

In the middle of the room, there was a large desk made out of what looked like titanium and some kind of crystalline material. And it was piled high with actual paper files, padds, and data chips. The conference table off to one side was also made out of the same materials as the desk and was also piled with things that needed to be gone through. Both seemed rather upscale for Chris’ tastes. He supposed he could change things once he settled in.

Chris spent an hour clearing off his desk and putting things away and then another couple of hours reading through various reports on what was going on. He still needed to set up an interview schedule. There was just so much that hadn’t been taken care of, for what looked like months. He sighed.

“Commodore Pike,” Piper said. “Dr. McCoy is here to see you.” She sounded a little amused.

“Send him in, please,” Chris said and stood up from his desk.

Len came in, and Chris wondered briefly if he could get away with kissing him. He’d made it around his desk when Len invaded his space and slid his arms around him. At that point, Chris just leaned in and kissed him.

It was supposed to be a light kiss on his mouth, but damn, it deepened immediately with contact. And wow, that felt so good. Something inside him relaxed, and he tightened his arms. Len’s tongue made contact with his, and his brain flipped off and his body on. He leaned back on the desk, and Len pushed harder against him. Almost of their own volition, his hands slid down Len’s back and onto his ass, pulling him even closer.

He lost track of time and everything else once the kiss deepened a little more.

Somewhere in the background, he heard the door open, and someone said, “Fuck. Apologies, sir.”

With his few remaining working brain cells, he recognized that voice. “Not now, I guess,” he said against Len’s mouth.

Len nodded, loosening his hands and licking his lips. He stepped back slightly but didn’t drop his arms completely. “Yeah.”

Chris raised his head to see Erica Ortegas, dressed in all matte black except the silver of her delta and two shiny solid black stripes on her uniform sleeve.

She smirked at him and looked positively gleeful. “I should have let your admin announce me. I really didn’t expect to find you like that.”

Chris straightened up, and Len stepped back. “Erica? What are you doing here?”

“I thought you knew,” Erica said. “I’m with Special Ops now.” She cleared her throat. “Can I talk to you privately, sir?”

Chris took a breath. “You probably want to talk to Dr. McCoy as well.”

She nodded.

“That would be me,” Len said.

She looked between them, clearly surprised. “I hadn’t heard you were involved with anyone, sir.”

“More than involved. Brand new soul bond,” Chris said and smiled at Len.

“Are you going to introduce us?” Len asked a little sharply.

“Apologies,” Chris said, trying not to smile at him again. “Commander Erica Ortegas, this is my soul mate, Doctor Leonard McCoy. Len, this is Erica. She used to fly my ship when I was captain of the Enterprise.”

He turned to look at her, holding out his hand. “Good to meet you, Commander.”

“And you, Doctor,” she said, shaking his hand. “Doubly glad since I know you saved the Commodore’s life.”

“Joseph M’Benga helped a lot with that as well. Along with Christine Chapel,” Len said.

Erica nodded and then glanced at Chris. “I’ve never heard of anyone finding a soul bond match at your age.”

“I haven’t either,” Chris agreed.

“Well, it clearly happens,” Erica said. “And I’m very pleased for you, sir.”

“Thanks. I’m pretty pleased by that myself.” And he smiled at Len. “But that’s not why you’re here.”

“Not completely, anyway. Admiral April sent me here. But I was glad to come out here since I’d heard about the accident. And the ongoing investigation. It sounded like something we’d be able to help with.”

“Let’s sit down,” Chris said, waving them both to the conference table.

*****

It had taken over an hour to get done with the briefing with Commander Ortegas, and that didn’t include the time he’d spent kissing Chris before that. Len definitely needed to get back to the hospital. He hadn’t expected to be gone anywhere near as long as he had been.

The path between the main administration building and the hospital was a concrete walkway that was lined with plants that emitted a soft glow. Len found the light soothing and wondered exactly what they were.

Being outside was the part that Len was going to love the most about not being on a ship anymore. No more recycled air, no more constant hum of the engines, and no more not seeing the sun for weeks at a time. There were benches along the walkway. He was already planning to eat his lunch outside at least once a week. Although, he should probably figure out what the climate was like here, too.

The front of the hospital had a large entrance that was framed by glass panels rising up at least two stories, with plants growing just beyond the glass.

As he approached the door, two men, both wearing security uniforms, though they didn’t have deltas on them, stepped in front of him on the walkway. There was no one else around, which was a little strange, but it was the middle of the afternoon.

He sighed. “What do you want?” The last thing he needed right now was someone else taking another swing at him. He was trained in both combat and self-defense and could probably do some damage to them, but there were two of them, and they were both bigger than he was. Which was more problematic. On the other hand, he knew where to hit them to make it hurt the most.

Neither of them said anything as they came closer, and one of them was flexing his hand in and out of a fist. Len stepped back and glanced around. Maybe he should try to run for it —

“Doctor McCoy,” Commander Ortegas called. “Do you have a second?”

“Sure,” he said. And looked at the two of them. They looked surprised to see her. But they didn’t seem deterred. Well, two on two were better odds. And Len was pretty sure that Ortegas could take them both on her own.

In fact, one of them said, “I suggest you turn around and leave. You don’t need to be here, missy.”

Ortegas looked very amused by that. “Really? That’s what you’re going to go with,” she asked, smiling with all her teeth. “What the fuck are you going to do about it?”

They were clearly too stupid to realize what kind of threat she was. “We’ll just take you both out,” a third one had joined them. This one, Len recognized as a doctor from the hospital.

“You can certainly try.” Ortegas pulled a phaser out and shot the last one without even warning him. He went down without a sound. “Next?” she asked as she pulled the trigger again, and one of the other two went down.

The last one just looked at her, seemingly surprised she was armed. Ortegas pulled the trigger a third time. Then, she pulled out her communicator. “This is Commander Erica Ortegas. Please send security to the front of the hospital.”

Within a minute or two, a couple of security people showed up and took charge of the three of them.

“Run DNA on them,” Ortegas said. And the security people nodded. “I’ll be by to talk to the three of them when they are awake.” She turned to look him up and down. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine, thanks,” Len said. “How did you know?”

“Apparently, Chris, the commodore, has a sixth sense where you’re concerned. He sent me after you, right after you left,” she said. “He also said that he didn’t need to be tempted to kill anyone else.”

Len laughed. “I’m assuming you heard about the BarTier.”

Ortegas looked amused. “Yeah. I was shocked to hear about that. I served with Chris for a long-damned time, and I can’t tell you how out of character that is.”

“I’ve been told. But you didn’t know about the soul bond?” Len asked.

“No. That’s a lot more private. Most people won’t gossip about it. Not where Chris Pike is concerned, anyway.”

“Did you want to talk to me about something, or did you just come to rescue me? I’m getting tired of people trying to take me out,” Len complained.

“I’ll bet. And no, if I have any questions, I’ll talk to you about it when it comes up. Right now, I’m going to see what’s going on with those three.”

“They are probably Romulans, who are universally belligerent and seemingly all stupid,” Len said.

“How do you mean that?” she asked.

“That third guy was one of the doctors I’d already talked to, and he barely knew enough about medicine to answer my most basic questions. I don’t actually think he’s a doctor, despite supposedly having a medical degree.”

“That’s disturbing since he’s practicing medicine here.”

“Yeah, my thoughts exactly,” Len said. “Thank you again.”

*****

Early Evening

Len walked back to Chris’ office, and his admin just waved him through.

“Darlin’,” Len said as he came in, and Chris looked up. “How’s your day been?”

“Long, so far. Where are Jim and Spock?” Chris asked as he stood up and walked over to where Len was standing. He leaned in and kissed him.

“They’ve beamed back to the Enterprise already. Do you want to get some dinner before we go back to the ship? I found a place on the concourse where they cook their food from scratch,” Len said as he pulled back from the kiss. He’d asked around, knowing that would be something Chris might enjoy.

And he looked just delighted. “Yes. Thanks. That would be lovely. It’s been too long since I’ve eaten anything that was home cooked.”

“I thought so,” Len said, holding out his arm.

Chris slid his arm through Len’s, and they left the office. The night was warm, and there was still some light as they strolled over to the concourse where the shops and restaurants were.

“I love Andorian food,” Chris commented as they were seated.

“One of the few things I have always enjoyed about space travel is the food. So many worlds with so many different ways to prepare things,” Len said. “I love Andorian food, too.”

“I’m a pretty good Andorian cook. I can do a fair rendition of most of the traditional foods. Some of the more modern dishes didn’t appeal to me as much,” he said, opening the menu.

“I’m already looking forward to you cooking for me,” Len said. “Where did you live before the accident?”

“San Francisco,” Chris said. “I have a house in the city with a big kitchen.”

“I’ve heard you had a kitchen on the Enterprise, too,” Len said.

“I did. I used to cook for my crew. And sometimes, to get my command staff to talk to me about whatever was bothering them at the moment, I’d make dinner for them.”

Len smiled at that. “You and Jim have a completely different command style.”

“Each captain is different,” Chris said.

Someone took their food and drink orders and quickly brought them their drinks. Len sipped his bourbon.

“We should probably save the heavy stuff for a more private discussion, but tell me about yourself,” Chris said.

“That’s a little too general. What exactly do you want to know?” Len asked.

“In general, tell me about your family,” Chris said. “What your life was like before you went into Starfleet. I don’t know. Anything interesting. I’ve read most of the Enterprise mission reports. Even some of the classified information.”

“You know, it’s all tied together,” Len said, thinking about the whole narrative of what happened between them and everything else. “Each separate thing that happened to each of us seemed to be built on something else that happened. I met Billy-Ray at fifteen. He was all in on my sister, Beth, from the second they met. I would have said they had a soul bond, but they were too young for it. Although, I always believed they had some kind of bond. Billy-Ray disappeared for several years after Beth died, and he finally contacted me after he bought the club on Risa.”

“At some point, and I’m not sure when exactly, William got involved with my brother, Jon,” Chris said. “Who also lost his wife. Emily was killed in a shuttle accident. Jon and Emily met in college and were inseparable.”

“Okay, that’s the first of a series of coincidences that don’t seem like much in and of themselves, but when you look at the whole picture, you can see it starts there,” Len said. “So, it seems to start when Billy-Ray opened that club.”

“Jon suggested the club to me after I broke up with my girlfriend. She and I had a tempestuous relationship. I loved her, and I think she loved me, and we were very compatible in some ways, but everything else wasn’t as good. We couldn’t make it work over the long haul.”

“Can I ask about how you were compatible?” Len asked curiously.

“I can’t discuss the details with you. It would violate her privacy, and I’d never do that,” Chris said earnestly.

Len could have guessed the answer before he even asked, but he was curious about that. “That’s fair.”

“Just let me say she and I were very compatible in some ways, but it wasn’t enough,” Chris said, maybe a little sad. “I still care for her. But we were done years ago.”

“And so, you found what you were looking for at Billy-Ray’s club,” Len asked. He wanted to ask what it was, but maybe he could guess.

“I went to Risa once or twice a year. Whenever I had enough time to get there and back. I knew I could trust William to find someone who I wanted to be with,” Chris said. “It was a couple of years later that I found out that he and my brother were involved.”

“Yeah, I found out by accident,” Len said. “I was happy that Billy-Ray had found someone to keep him company.”

“Do you have more family? You mentioned a daughter.”

Len was saved from answering for a moment by the food being served. And then they ate in silence for a while. Finally, Len knew he had to say something. If not right at this second, then eventually.

“So, my daughter doesn’t speak to me. I’ve never understood why. I tried to keep in touch with her after the divorce, but after a while, she stopped answering my comms and didn’t respond anytime I tried to get in touch with her. I still send her gifts on her birthdays and for Christmas. But it’s been almost eight years since she responded to anything.”

“Have you tried to see her?”

“No. I haven’t been back to Atlanta since the term after I graduated from the Academy. I had a fellowship for that term,” Len said quietly. Trying to keep the emotions out of his voice, or it would overwhelm him.

Chris reached out and took his hand. “I’m so sorry.”

“You can feel what I’m feeling, can’t you?” Len asked surprised and comforted by Chris’ concern and kindness.

“Especially after I took your hand,” Chris said. “That’s the soul bond, isn’t it?”

“I think so. Your compassion is like a balm on the wound. It won’t heal it, but it feels like it’s slightly less painful right now.” And that relaxed something tight inside Len.

“I’m so glad. There is a part of me that wants to keep you safe and comfort you and I don’t know what else,” Chris said. “We should go back to the ship.”

Len nodded. “Yeah. I want your arms around me.”

“One more thing. Since we’re both officially acting, and with the certainty that our positions will become permanent soon, I’ve requested shared quarters for us on the base. We should be able to move in there in a few days.”

“Not without my bed,” Len said. “I move nowhere it doesn’t go.”

“Of course, sweetheart. You’ve made that clear,” Chris said, smiling at him. “I wouldn’t deprive you of your beloved bed.”

“And my beloved in it,” Len said, looking right at him. He was going to be hard-pressed not to fall in love with Chris immediately. It would be so damned easy, and at this point, why shouldn’t he? Chris already belonged to him.

“Him, too,” Chris assured him. “Though, how did you get that bed onto the ship? I’m pretty sure that’s against regulation.”

“Not if you’re a doctor, and it is written into your recruitment contract,” Len said with a smirk. But given his mental state when he’d been recruited, he was surprised he’d even thought to ask about it.

“Seriously?” Chris asked, looking pretty surprised by that. “How did you get them to agree to that?”

“I only wanted two things from them when I joined. One was to be able to change my duty station without any questions. I had been in a bad situation in Atlanta, which I needed to be extracted from, and I didn’t want to ever face that again. The second thing was my bed. I’ve slept in that bed all my life. My great-grandfather built it by hand out of real wood. It was in storage when I was at the Academy because it wouldn’t fit into my dorm room. Hell, it barely fit into my small quarters on my first ship. But they made it work.”

“I’m sure they did. I know you went to the Academy late,” Chris said.

“I did. I graduated in three years even while also working at the Starfleet hospital in San Francisco.” Len shrugged. It didn’t matter now, anyway. “As long as the bed comes with me and you as well, I’m good with new quarters. That will give us some more time to get to know each other in private.”

*****

The Enterprise
Later That Night

Chris sighed as he settled into Len’s bed. He was exhausted. It had been a long-damned day. And tomorrow promised to be just as long, unending into the foreseeable future. But dinner had been delicious, and he’d appreciated that Len had gone to the trouble of finding somewhere that he’d thought Chris would enjoy.

As Len got into bed, Chris turned to him, gathering him close, his hands sliding down Len’s back. “How are you doing, Sweetheart?”

“Okay. I guess you know how I felt to be talking about my daughter.”

“I did. And I’m sorry,” Chris said and kissed him softly.

Len turned into him, his mouth opening, and Chris deepened the kiss. But he pulled back after a moment or two more. “There’s more to that. I thought maybe I should finish at least that part of it.”

“Do you want to sit up and talk about it?” Chris asked, although it might have been more comforting to hold Len while he talked.

Len just shook his head. “It’s good now,” he said. “My momma is still alive. And I haven’t talked to her since my sister’s funeral. She was angry that I couldn’t find a cure. Well, not fast enough. I’m assuming you know that I did find one, well, a colleague and I, at the fleet hospital. But there’s more there, too. My daddy died of Pyrrhoneuritis. Do you know what that is?”

Chris nodded. Pyrrhoneuritis was a fast-moving degenerative disease that caused a great deal of pain to the person with it, and it was nearly always fatal.

“I turned off his life-support when he asked me to. I had promised. And when the time came. Neither my sister nor my momma were pleased with me over that. Especially when the cure came a few weeks later,” Len’s voice was strained.

Chris could feel him trying to deal with the pain of just talking about it, and he held Len tighter.

Len breathed into his shoulder for a while. “But he was in so much pain that he didn’t want to go on. I could never reconcile it.”

“You did what he asked. That was all you could do,” Chris said, stroking his hand up and down Len’s back. “You honored his life by promising him he could leave it with dignity and then keeping that promise. I’m sorry your mom couldn’t see that. I’m assuming your sister got sick not long after that?”

“Yes. And I was also getting a divorce from Jocelyn, and she and her daddy took everything I had. And I just let them for joint custody of my daughter.” Len was relaxing a little under his hands.

“And she stopped speaking to you a couple of years after that without a reason,” Chris said.

“I never knew why. And so, that’s where things are with my family.”

“You’re carrying around a lot of pain from that,” Chris said. “I’m going to assume you’ve never talked to anyone about it?”

Len shook his head. “I have some trust issues.”

“Yeah, me too,” Chris said, completely understanding what that was like. It was hard to trust a stranger with your secrets, even one trained to help. “We’re going to have to learn to trust each other.”

“I think the soul bond is going to force that,” Len said, leaning up to look at him. “It’s doing that now. I don’t think I’ve ever told anyone all of that at one time.”

“I’m glad you told me. And yes, I’m sure it is the soul bond,” Chris agreed. “I’m okay with that. I think I need someone I can trust absolutely.”

Len let out a sigh. “I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to talk about all of this with anyone else, but I do trust you.”

“I know. And I hope you know I’ll never betray that trust.”

“I hope you know the same thing for me, too,” Len said, kissing him. “I’m so tired. And yet, I want you so badly right now.”

“Whatever you want, Sweetheart,” Chris said. “What can I do for you now?”

“Somethin’ soft and slow. I want to feel your mouth and hands on me,” Len requested softly.

Comfort. Yeah, Chris could do that. He tightened his arms and rolled Len onto his back. For a while, they just kissed, and then Chris worked his way down Len’s body slowly, with an attention to detail. Len moaned, and his hands tangled in the sheets, and finally, panting and groaning, he let himself go.

“Thanks,” Len said, one of his hands in Chris’ hair. “What can I do for you?”

“Pretty much anything you want,” Chris said. “Your response is always such a turn-on.”

Len cuddled him closer and put his hands to good use. Chris didn’t last long, letting himself enjoy the simple pleasure of Len’s soft kisses and his hands moving on him. And finally, they both slept.

*****

Chapter Nine

The Next Morning

Chris and Len settled around the table with Jim, Spock, Erica, and Bob April on the screen.

“I think we have a working theory, but there’s no real way to prove it,” Erica started. “Captain Kirk is probably correct that we’re dealing with Romulans, who had some foreknowledge about what was going to happen to the commodore and created an elaborate conspiracy to change it for the worse.”

“As far as we can tell,” Jim said. “They wanted to completely disable or kill Commodore Pike. However, we don’t know why.”

Chris looked at them and sighed. “You know, in the second vision, the future me said something about me wanting to think I was important to history, and he basically told me my only importance was not letting someone else die for me. Several people, if you count the cadets I saved.”

“That was what made you give up the idea of saving yourself and the cadets,” Bob asked. “I knew it had to be something.”

“I was always going to save most of the cadets, and someone had to know that no one was going to take my place, not on my watch,” Chris said.

“I’m pretty sure everyone knew that about you,” Jim said. “It was not a secret.”

And Spock nodded. “Indeed, sir. The captain is correct.”

“Exactly,” Erica agreed as well. “I didn’t know all the details of this, but I do know you well enough to know that.”

“What are you saying,” Len asked. “That someone knew him well enough to manipulate him into not writing the note to the cadets to not be there.”

“If that was true, how did they create the second vision,” Chris asked. Which had always been the sticking point of this discussion.

“That’s the key to all of this. You accepted what was going to happen after that,” Bob said. “I remember you telling me about it. And I said at the time that I thought it was possible that the original vision you saw was just a possibility. I think Una said the same thing.”

“And it turned out that you were right,” Jim said. “There were too many random factors that couldn’t be accounted for like Bones and Doctor M’Benga working together to save you. The rupture of the baffle plate was much worse than it was supposed to be. And finally, Dusty Swender jury-rigging the communications console to send out that distress call. We didn’t realize it at the time, but her ingenuity saved everyone on the Republic.”

“I don’t think she knows that,” Chris said. “I didn’t realize it, either.” Of course, he’d been unconscious at that point.

“She might not know it, but the admiralty definitely does,” Bob assured them, sounding like they were going to see her honored for it, too.

Chris hoped so. “So where does that leave us? We’ve still got a Romulan infiltration on this starbase. And a group of underqualified medical professionals.”

“I think the first thing we do is run DNA tests on everyone here,” Len said. “I think I mentioned that I want to do the people who have been the most helpful first. Then, we can do everyone else.”

“Then what about giving all the medical staff professional tests to see what they know. Anyone who fails it can be shipped off since they shouldn’t be treating patients, anyway,” Erica suggested.

“An excellent idea, Commander,” Jim said. “We can help administer it before we leave.”

“When are you leaving, Jim,” Len asked.

“Probably a few days. Maybe a week. We’re going to return to Starbase 1 and pick up some supplies and the temporary doctor and head out for a bit of exploration for a while.”

“I’m sure you’ll enjoy it,” Len said, sounding like he wouldn’t, which was probably true.

*****

By the time the meeting was over, Len was done. He was exhausted, and it was only lunch. After spending some time in sickbay, he then went to his quarters, where he needed to start packing up his possessions to be transported to his new quarters. He sat on his bed and looked around. There wasn’t much there, aside from his bed. In comparison to some of the other ships he’d served on, he hadn’t been on the Enterprise that long.

He wasn’t sad about leaving the ship so much as leaving his crew, Jim and Spock. There were many things that he wasn’t going to miss at all, like the constant darkness or the continuous life-threatening danger, or someone actively trying to kill him on a regular basis. Well, he’d been nearly killed on the starbase as well, but hopefully, they’d mitigated that, and unlike space, once it was alleviated, it was likely to stay that way for a while.

The door chimed. “Come,” he said, leaving the bedroom.

Jim came in, and Len waved him to the sofa. “What can I do for you?” Len asked.

“I just wanted to talk to you, Bones,” Jim said, sitting on the sofa. “I haven’t had a chance since all of this started.”

Len looked down and sighed. “I know. Too many things have happened all at the same time.”

“How are you holding up?”

“Better than usual. Chris is…” Len shrugged.

“Basically, everything you need,” Jim suggested. “He’s going to be a great comfort to you with all the other problems in your life.”

“How much do you know about that?” Len asked, trying hard not to sound ungrateful for Jim’s concern. But he found it difficult to talk about this with anyone.

Jim glanced at him. “Aside from the bits and pieces you’ve told me over the years, I’ve had a few reports of the results of your previous extracurricular activities that I can put two and two together.”

He drew in a breath. “I’m sorry if that offends –”

“You damned well know me better than that to even think such a thing about me,” Jim cut him off, sounding a little insulted. “I’m just worried about you. And of all people, I understand what it’s like to need help to get through the long night. We all have our own demons.”

“I know,” Len conceded. Jim knew better than most people what it was like, even without Len going into the details of his. “Mine have been quiet since I met Chris. But it’s only been a short time. I’m sure they’ll come back.”

“Does he know?” And just the way Jim said that, let Len know what he meant. Those previous extracurricular activities.

Len just laughed. Jim did know him very well. “Yes. He knows. And it’s not something I can discuss with you.”

“We’ve been friends for a very long time, so you should have been able to tell me anything. You do know that I’m not twenty-two anymore,” Jim said with a mock glare.

Len snorted. He remembered what Jim had been like when they’d first met. All charm, smarts, and neurosis. Len had the neurosis and the smarts but none of Jim’s charm. “I know,” Len said. “It’s just not something I can verbalize, even to Chris. Although I think he does understand. I hope you do, too.”

“Of course,” Jim said. “I am going to miss the hell out of you, Bones. I’ve been told that Dr. Bosworth is a good physician and surgeon. Do you know her?”

“Grace Bosworth? Len asked and glanced at Jim, who nodded. “She’s an excellent surgeon. I’ve worked with her several times over the years. You and the crew will be in good hands with her.” That was a relief. Len relaxed a little.

“That’s high praise coming from you,” Jim said, sounding relieved, too. “I think Nyota and Christine, along with Commander Ortegas, are planning some kind of good-bye party for you.”

“Ortegas just met me,” Len pointed out. But he’d liked her, and clearly, Chris thought very highly of her.

“Apparently, the three of them are old friends. They all served together when Chris was captain. I suspect there will be a lot of alcohol involved.” Jim laughed. “It sounds like a good time.”

“He said that Erica flew his ship,” Len said with a laugh. The party did sound like fun. And something to help everyone cope with losing him from the ship.

“I actually tried to get Ortegas to stay, but she’d already been recruited by Special Ops,” Jim remembered.

“She seems to have helped figure out what we know with this. I think that we are missing something, and for the life of me, I can’t figure out what it might be,” Len said. It felt like things weren’t quite lined up the way they should be. Len wanted to figure out the puzzle, but there were pieces missing.

“I agree. But there are too many parts that don’t quite fit together. The only linchpin we have is Chris. But what if it wasn’t him?” Jim said thoughtfully. “What if it was you? Or your coming together with Chris.”

“I don’t know how it could be me,” Len said, thinking about it. “I wonder if it’s something with the soul bond?” That might make more sense, especially given all the anomalies that happened around their bond.

“How? Or more importantly, why?” But Jim looked thoughtful. “Wait, it’s pretty unique in that you and he are much older than most of those who have a soul bond. It’s not unheard of, but it’s actually rare enough.”

Len thought that was probably true. “That it’s rare makes far more sense than not happening before. I can’t believe that everyone meets their soul mate either in their mid-twenties to their mid to late thirties or not at all. That actually makes no sense to me.”

Jim nodded, still looking thoughtful. “It could be anything at this point.”

“I don’t know,” Len said. The door opened, and Chris came in. Len breathed in, just happy to see him. He stood as Chris came to him and leaned in for a kiss. It was hard to resist deepening it, but Jim was here, so he pulled back quickly. “How was the rest of your day?”

“Long. We’ve got so much work to do here,” Chris said with a deep sigh. Len could feel how tired he was. “Everything all right?” He glanced at Jim.

“I just came by to talk to Bones. I’ll have ops bring you some more storage bins for your belongings. And we’ll beam the bed anywhere you want it. But we’ll need exact coordinates,” Jim said with a smile.

“Thanks, Jim,” Chris said. “We should have coordinates in a day or two. We certainly can’t separate Len and his bed.”

“I understand that,” Jim said, standing. “I’ll see you both tomorrow for the next briefing.”

“Good night, Jim,” Chris said.

*****

Chris looked at Len when the door slid shut. He stepped up beside Len and gathered him close to hold him. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, really,” Len said. “It’s just leaving. I do want to be with you, and I definitely want to be out of space.”

“We’ll still be in space, even on the planet. Going back to Earth would mean not being in space.” Chris leaned in and kissed him, and Len turned into the kiss. His hands slid down Len’s back and cupped his ass, pulling him closer.

“Nice,” Len murmured. “I’m good with not having to be on a ship and not having to be beamed anywhere for weeks at a time. Maybe getting to see the sun every day.”

“I can guarantee that. As I said, our quarters will be ready in a few days. Do you need help packing? Most of my personal possessions are in the hold and will be beamed directly into our quarters.”

“I didn’t realize you knew you were staying?” Len said, seemingly surprised by the notion.

“I didn’t know for sure, but I brought enough of my belongings to keep me for a few months until I can have the rest delivered. I don’t have my pots and pans or my dishes, but I do have my knives and some other things I knew I wouldn’t be able to get out here.”

“Does that mean I’m going to get a home cooked meal soon?” Len sounded pretty hopeful about that.

Chris was looking forward to cooking for Len. He leaned in and kissed him again. “We’ll have to see what we can find on the concourse. I thought I saw some shops that have fresh ingredients.”

“I’m so looking forward to that,” Len said. “But now, my darlin’, I think we should get something to eat and then go to bed. I might have some plans for you tonight. If you’re not too tired.”

“I doubt I’m ever going to be that tired,” Chris said as a tiny shard of anticipation started to work its way down his spine. Oh, he liked those kinds of plans. “Do you want to eat here? Or go to the galley.”

“I guess we should go to the galley. I want to be around so that people can say goodbye. I’m going to miss the crew a lot more than I will being on the ship.”

“We should go before we get distracted,” Chris suggested. It would be too easy to get sidetracked and not end up getting anything to eat.

*****

They ate in the galley and several crew members stopped by to congratulate them and to tell Len goodbye. By the time they made it back to Len’s quarters, it was clear to Chris that Len was pretty much done for the night.

Maybe it would be Chris who took care of him. “You seem like you’re done in, Sweetheart,” Chris said as they came in.

Len took his hand and led him into the bedroom, turning into his arms. “I need you now,” Len murmured.

“Whatever you would like, Sweetheart,” Chris promised. Whatever he needed.

Len just sighed. “I just need you to hold me for a while,” Len said, his head bent to Chris’ shoulder.

“I can do that. Let’s get into bed,” Chris suggested. Len nodded, and Chris could tell what he wanted. He stripped off his own clothes quickly and then started on Len’s a little more slowly, enjoying the simple pleasure of doing it. As he settled into the bed, Len nestled beside him. “Tell me what you want, Sweetheart.”

“I want you to fuck me, all slow and easy,” Len said.

“I can definitely do that. I can drag it out a long time,” Chris agreed.

“Not too long.” Len smiled and kissed him.

“I’ll move you along, I promise.” Chris bent his head to kiss Len again. He moved slowly down Len’s body, licking and kissing, his hands smoothing over Len’s skin. All of it was easy, sweet, and so enjoyable. Len moaned, his hands on Chris’ arms and shoulders and then into his hair as his hips moved up. And he whined when Chris didn’t complete what he’d been doing, even if he’d asked for something else.

He turned Len, kissing his back and then lower, sucking a kiss into the soul mark and then lower still. Len groaned again. The sounds of Len’s pleasure excited Chris, and he knew exactly what he was doing to Len, and it delighted him just as much as what he was doing aroused Len.

After a while, he could feel that Len needed more, and Chris’ slick fingers started to work him open. Len’s loud moaning told him as much as the bond did that Len was enjoying it. Chris loved that feeling, the knowing that he was pleasuring Len, the surety that he was giving him what he needed.

But soon, it was time for more. Len turned over on his own, and Chris helped Len arrange his legs, holding them apart to move against him. A gasp and then a sigh from Len and Chris started to move. After a moment or two more, it was all sweet heat and slick movement, and Chris got lost in it so easily.

He reached out with his still slick fingers and wrapped his hand around him, stroking firmly. Len made a high-pitched, delight-filled sound, and then, he was done. Chris held on for a moment more and then let himself give in. Pleasure slid over and through him, and it was glorious.

Chris collapsed on the bed beside Len, still panting and trying to get his breath back.

“My Darlin’, you are amazin’,” Len said, rolling onto his side, gathering Chris into his arms, and then kissing him so sweetly. “That was perfect.”

“I’m always going to want to take care of you. Anyway, you want to let me do that.”

“And you do,” Len murmured, pressing a kiss to Chris’ chest. “Now, we need to sleep.”

Chris kissed his temple and listened to his breathing even out.

*****

Chris couldn’t sleep. He eased out of Len’s embrace and stood. It hadn’t been hard to get used to Len’s octopus imitation, and Chris loved waking up with Len wrapped around him. However, it made getting out of bed a little trickier, if he didn’t want to wake Len, which he didn’t. He rummaged through his clothes and found something comfortable to put on.

The observation deck should be deserted at this time of night, and Chris headed there. Of course, there was someone there.

“Chris?” Jim said, looking up at him. “You’re up late.”

“I couldn’t sleep,” Chris admitted, taking a seat beside him and looking out at the stars. “You’re up, too.”

“I don’t sleep well when I have too much on my mind,” Jim said, also gazing out at the stars. “Something bothering you?”

“No,” Chris said. “Well, nothing more than general worry about what’s going on here.”

“How is Bones? He seemed quiet this afternoon. Not his usual self,” Jim asked.

“I think he’s fine,” Chris said, not really sure that was true, but he didn’t think he could talk about Len with anyone yet. “It’s all still very new and different.”

“Yeah. I talked to him earlier. He’s troubled by all of it, I think.”

Chris agreed with that assessment. “I think there are a lot of things coming together.” And truthfully, Chris was worried about that.

“Take care of him for me,” Jim said. “He thinks that grumpy personality will protect him from being hurt anymore. I’ve known him for a long time, and he’s hiding behind it.”

“When did you meet him,” Chris asked, curious. Len hadn’t mentioned when they’d met, only that it had been a long time.

“At the Academy. I moved into his dorm room right after I met him, and we shared that room for the three years he was there,” Jim said, smiling fondly. “We were both hot messes, and I think we helped each other stabilize. Or he certainly helped me.”

“He talks about you with great affection, which speaks of a closeness that means a lot to him,” Chris said. “I suspect you both helped each other. As you said, he hasn’t had it easy.” Though Chris thought that perhaps Jim hadn’t either. But that wasn’t any of his business unless Jim wanted to tell him.

“He and I bonded over our family trauma,” Jim said and then laughed. “You know, I had forgotten this until right now, but I went to your shuttle aerodynamics lectures.”

Wait. What? Chris hadn’t given those lectures very often. “That would have been when I was waiting for the Enterprise to be refitted before the first five-year mission. I had forgotten about being there, then, too.”

“It was a great lecture. Now that I’m thinking about it, I remember that you said your first officer corrected you on something.”

“Una Chin-Riley. I was a very young lieutenant when I first gave that lecture, and she came up to me after and said I’d done my reentry wrong.” Chris smiled at the memory. It was hard to believe how young they both were then. “Annoyingly, she was right about that.”

“It was an excellent lecture. I think I went to it twice,” Jim said, grinning.

“I’m glad you enjoyed it. I wish I’d met Len then,” Chris mused. That they were that close and didn’t meet was disconcerting.

“Yeah,” Jim seemed thoughtful. “You should have. If you don’t mind my asking, how old were you then?”

“Thirty-eight, I think,” Chris said, thinking about it. “Len would have been –”

“Thirty-two,” Jim said. “He was assigned to a ship later that summer after he finished his fellowship. I only had one more term after that.” Jim paused for a second. “There was something else with that, too, but I can’t remember what it was now.”

Chris needed to remember to talk to Len about their not meeting when Len was at the Academy. He glanced at Jim, and it was clear that Jim saw the implications there as well.

But Jim went on, “I gave up being top of the class to graduate a term early and go out with the Yorktown right after that.”

“You know, I think I heard about that. And, of course, the Kobayashi Maru,” Chris said and laughed when Jim looked down and actually blushed.

“Yeah, that,” Jim said. “I don’t like to lose. I took it several times.”

“And finally, rewrote the code so that you could rescue the ship. I would never have thought of doing that,” Chris said. “I was impressed with your ingenuity.”

“I thought they were going to throw me out for it,” Jim admitted.

“Instead, they gave you a commendation for original thinking,” Chris remembered. “You deserved it. Original thinking keeps you and your crew alive when there are no good options.”

“You’re one of the few people who has ever said something like that,” Jim said, meeting his eyes. “I have always felt that the no-win scenario was a crock. Sometimes it’s a bad choice, but there is always a choice to make.”

“There are few enough people who even understand what it’s like to stand on the bridge of a ship with every single being looking at you and waiting for you to figure out how to save them,” Chris said. “I’ve been there, and it’s what you make of that moment that counts.”

“You have that so right,” Jim agreed.

They were both quiet, thinking about it.

“Do you have new orders?” Chris finally asked.

“We’re going to head back to Earth, and we’re going to pick up a couple of new graduates from the Academy,” Jim said. “Aside from a commendation for quick thinking and technical skills, Dusty Swender got her choice of assignments for getting that distress signal out. And she asked to work with Scotty. And Scotty was delighted to get someone as good as she is to mentor. I’m sure he sees himself training her up the right way.”

“That’s wonderful. She deserved some recognition for what she did,” Chris said.

“I’m not sure she knows this, but her brother, Derek, and his wife, Candice — bondmate really, since they were bonded on Vulcan — are also joining the crew.”

“Candice is not a Vulcan name,” Chris commented. But he remembered that Len had told him about Candice helping out. “They were on the Yorktown.”

“That’s right,” Jim said. “I’m glad to have them. Candice works for Starfleet as a doctor. So, I’m losing one great doctor and getting two more, plus a baby engineer and a chief of security. And a couple of other top graduates.”

“Congratulations on that. I’m glad Len’s absence has been mitigated somewhat.”

“Yeah. I’ll still miss him. But life goes on. And truthfully, I think he’ll be happier on a starbase than exploring space. Plus, there’s you. And I could not ask for better for him than a soulmate,” Jim said.

“I’m sure once we get things stable on Starbase 11, we’ll be seeing you. And hopefully everyone else, too,” Chris said. It would be nice to see people as they came through.

“It would be wonderful to have a place for shore leave in this sector,” Jim said. “I’ve heard that Starbase 11 used to be a great place to stop. There were all kinds of activities, as well as the farming community, the mountains, and an ocean. But lately, no one stopped here unless they had to.”

“I’ve heard that,” Chris said. “It looks like Mendez was trafficking people, mostly humans in dire circumstances, into low-paying jobs and then charging them exorbitant rents so that they only had a fraction of what they should have to live on. I’ve requested a complete audit done, as well as restitution for those who had been victimized.”

Jim shook his head. “Clearly, he wanted this starbase to be as unpleasant as he could make it, and that fits with what they were trying to do.”

“Yeah. At this point, I think we’re just going to go through and interview everyone and make sure they want to be there. And are getting paid fairly for their work,” Chris said. “I hope to make some big changes fast, so that the people there realize things are going to improve.”

“I’m sure they are all going to be grateful for that,” Jim said, standing. “I’m going to bed now.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Chris said. He spent a few more minutes looking at the stars and then stood, too. It was time to get back into bed and try to get some sleep.

*****

Chapter Ten

Later That Night

When Chris got back to Len’s quarters, all the lights were on, and Len was sitting on the sofa with his head back, breathing hard.

“Sweetheart?” Chris asked. “What’s wrong?”

Len sat up and looked at him. “I got a comm from Joanna. Jocelyn has died, and she wants me to come back to Atlanta. She sounded so angry. And said that this was the very last time she was going to try to contact me.”

“That would imply she’s tried in the past and didn’t hear back from you,” Chris said.

“Yes. It would. And as far as I know, this is the first time since she was fourteen that she’s tried to contact me,” Len said, his voice devoid of any kind of emotion.

But Chris could feel his outrage and pain through their bond. “We’ll go back –”

“You don’t have to go –”

“Do not even finish that sentence.” Chris looked at him. “This is not you alone anymore. It’s you and me and we’re in this together.”

Len was shaking his head. “No. I don’t want you to have to deal with what’s –”

“Fuck that,” Chris said, taking a deep breath and trying to rein in his temper. He could feel that Len wanted to withdraw, and he couldn’t. “What did I just say? It’s you and me together. Go pack whatever you need. I’m going to call Jim right now and ask him for a shuttle. He’s going to need to oversee things here until we can get back.” Chris thought of something else. “You know what? I’m going to borrow Erica’s Special Ops shuttle, and from what I’ve read, it will be even faster than the Enterprise.”

“You can’t just do that,” Len said, his eyes wide and surprised.

“Oh, you just watch me,” Chris assured him. “I am owed so many favors, by so many people, for everything I’ve done for them over the years, and I’m about to collect on that right now. When is the funeral?”

“In three days, Atlanta time,” Len said.

“Okay, go pack, and let me arrange this.” Chris needed to get Bob first. And then Erica, who would be annoyed at being woken up for anything at this hour. “Go,” Chris ordered.

Len got up from the sofa. He was still naked, and Chris’ eyes strayed to his soul mark. And despite the grim circumstances, his heart squeezed at the sight of it.

*****

As Chris expected, Bob understood without a lengthy explanation. And Erica, once she’d been promised proper accommodations on the Enterprise and some coffee, she agreed to lend him her shuttle. She also offered to fly them to Earth, but Chris had kept his pilot’s license up to date and had been itching to try out one of the long-range, high-speed shuttles. He probably wouldn’t enjoy it as much this time, not with Len a mess, but it would still give him a feel for it. Jim said he was fine staying a few extra days and hosting Erica during that time. Although Chris thought it was likely to be at least a week.

Less than three hours later, he and Len were in the shuttle, headed towards Earth and Len’s past. If they had time, Chris might see if some of his family was around to meet Len since it would likely be a while until he got back there. Also, they were all likely to accept Len without a question and with much delight, which Len might need after what Chris was expecting to find in Atlanta.

The Special Ops shuttle was streamlined with a functional design and had technology that Chris hadn’t seen before in a shuttlecraft. He’d read some of the briefing documents about it, but touching it for the first time was exciting. The cabin was compact, with seating along the sides rather than in rows.

There was a cargo area in the back with pulldown beds to sleep on. As much as Chris had never been fond of having holographic displays on his old ship, the system monitoring information was on a clear scroll above the console. It was actually very useful and easy to read, showing him navigational data, system diagnostics, and communication logs that were continuously updated in real time.

Len was slouched in the copilot seat, with his head back against the headrest. His eyes were closed. And he was radiating so much pain that Chris was having a hard time concentrating. Fortunately, the shuttle could almost fly itself at this level of warp. He was only needed to monitor what was going on.

After making sure the shuttle was on course and performing as required, Chris reached out to take Len’s hand. “Maybe it’s time for the rest of the story?”

Len opened his eyes and looked at him. “I think I hit most of the salient points already. I don’t know what to expect. I’m sure my momma won’t be there for the funeral. She couldn’t stand Jocelyn from the moment she met her, and of course, Momma was right.”

“Tell me about Jocelyn, then.”

“I met her in my second year at Ole Miss, and I was just past eighteen — I skipped a year in high school. She was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. I swear to God, even as young as I was, I knew I was making a mistake when I met her, but I could not help myself. It was more than her beauty, which truly was only skin deep. It was her intelligence, the excitement she generated, and her daring. I did things with her I’d have never done otherwise,” Len said and sighed.

“I had been raised in rural Georgia just outside Atlanta, and I was so idealistic. I was going to be a doctor, just like my daddy, and save the whole world. Find cures for diseases and help all the people.” Len’s laugh was bitter. “She took one look at me, and she wanted me. I could feel how much she wanted me, and flattered did not begin to cover how that made me feel. And well,” Len shrugged. “I let her have anything she wanted.”

Chris took a second to reconcile the image that description evoked with the man he was getting to know now. It didn’t work very well, but it had also been a long time ago, and Len had had time to change a lot since then. “What happened?”

“I married her right out of college. I’d already been accepted to medical school, and she wanted me to take a gap year so that we could travel. I flat-out refused. That was the first time I’d ever said no to her. I was not giving up my dream of being a doctor, even for her. I was at the top of my class in college, and by the time I got to medical school, I was a rising star.”

Len cleared his throat and met his eyes. “I knew I had some kind of gift for understanding how things needed to be fixed. Add to that my empathy and understanding of how my patients were feeling. I still had to work hard and keep learning, or it wouldn’t come to anything. She didn’t like the hours I was putting in and got pregnant in my second year. By the time I hit my residency, she was just about done with the marriage. But not with me.”

Chris squeezed his hand. “Go on. What did she do?”

“I’d won some awards for my research and had some other credits. I got the top residency for trauma surgery that was offered on Earth, and it was at Atlanta General. I sometimes wonder if I had taken something else, something out of Atlanta, if it might have gone better for me.” Len paused, and that stretched out for a while.

“But?” Chris wanted to keep him talking.

“But she cheated on me. And by that point, I just wanted quit of her. She made me pay for joint custody and my damned bed, which she hated and threatened to burn regularly. It’s real wood,” Len said.

“Yeah, I knew that,” Chris said. There was a feel to real wood that had never been replicated. “What happened after that?”

“My daddy died, and my sister was sick. I was trying to work on cures. Not fast enough, of course, but I spent most of my spare time doing that. Jocelyn and her father started trying to get me fired from Atlanta General, where I’d been hired after my residency. Their campaign was bad enough that my supervisor told me that she was holding the big brass off, but she didn’t know how long that would last. She gave me a glowing recommendation letter and perfect performance evaluations, but she said it probably wouldn’t be enough. She told me I needed to leave Atlanta.”

“Did you?”

“Not quite then. I’d moved out after the divorce, and I started to drink myself sick every night. Billy-Ray was still practicing, and he knew Adriana Boyce. She is married to Doctor Phil Boyce — do you know him?”

Chris nodded. Phil had been CMO on the Enterprise for three years of Chris’ first five-year mission as captain. He was also one of Chris’ closest friends, but that was a story for another time. “Yes. I know him.”

“Anyway, he came to Atlanta at Billy-Ray’s request and recruited me into Starfleet.” Len sighed. “He got me into the Academy for the next session a few weeks later.”

Phil must have used all his pull to arrange that, and they must have wanted Len badly because Chris had never heard of someone getting in like that or certainly not that fast. “Why did you go to the Academy?”

“I wanted to stay on Earth as long as I could to see Joanna. I saw her every month when I was at the Academy. But the longer I stayed on earth, the more likely it was that Jocelyn and her father might find a way to derail my career or just plain destroy me. I couldn’t understand why she wanted to hurt me so badly.”

Chris suspected it had to do with control rather than anything specific that Len had done. “You do know that no matter what they did, they would not have been able to do anything to you once you’d joined Starfleet.”

“Phil told me that repeatedly. But every time I saw Joanna, Jocelyn would threaten me. Sometimes, her father, Richard Tredway, was there, too. I wasn’t sure what I believed.”

“Finally, I graduated, and I managed to take a postgraduate fellowship for a few more months, but when I finished that, I was assigned to a ship. I stayed in touch with Joanna for three or four years after that, but then, she didn’t answer my comms anymore. I got a couple of messages from her, but they were short and scrambled. I could never get back to her by comm. I’d write to her, but she never responded. I don’t know what happened,” Len finished. “I would blame Jocelyn, but I have no proof she did anything at all.”

“And you weren’t talking to your mother either,” Chris said. It was interesting that his two closest family members suddenly were not speaking to him. And for no real reason. There wasn’t a fight or some other event that precipitated it.

“No. No contact with her either,” Len said sadly.

“Did she have any contact with William?” Chris asked.

“I don’t know. I’ve never asked him,” Len said. “I just couldn’t bear to think about it.”

Chris wasn’t sure what he could say to that. William probably hadn’t been in any better shape than Len after he left Atlanta.

*****

A beep alerted Chris that they were coming into range of Earth and they would be dropping out of warp. Len was asleep in the back. Chris had sent him back there after their discussion. He’d napped at the console.

Chris was directed to a shuttle bay station at Starfleet’s Earth Dock, and he and Len would beam into Atlanta from there. He’d arranged for a hotel and rental car. They had about a day before the funeral, and Chris was going to need some sleep.

There was a noise, and Len took the copilot seat again, yawning. He handed Chris a cup of replicated coffee. Someday soon, Chris thought, he was going to get real brewed coffee and cook real food. For now, this would have to do.

“Thanks. How are you feeling,” Chris asked, sipping his coffee. It wasn’t terrible.

“I’m all right,” Len said.

Chris could tell he wasn’t and that Len didn’t want to talk about it. All Chris could do was try to support him through this.

“We’ve got rooms at the St. Regis in downtown Atlanta. There should be a car waiting for us when we beam down.”

Len smiled wanly. “You took care of everything.”

“I do that,” Chris said with a half-smile. He wanted this to be as smooth as possible for Len. “Also, we’ll have fresh dress uniforms to wear to the funeral.”

“Thank you,” Len said.

They parked the shuttle where space traffic control indicated and then beamed down to the transportation terminal in Atlanta. As promised, there was a car waiting, and Chris got them to the hotel without incident. He’d booked a suite.

“Lights,” Chris said as they came in. The lights were a soft, ambient glow created by embedded light strips in the smart panels in the walls.

Len looked around. “This is nice,” he said, moving to the glass panel windows and darkening them to nearly opaque to cut the glare of the morning sun. “I’m not sure how this is going to go. But now that I’m here, I might try to see my momma after the funeral.”

“Maybe try before it?” Chris suggested. He had a feeling that the funeral was going to be painful, but maybe it would give Len some closure to everything. Chris wished he knew how Len’s daughter was going to react to him being there. Something didn’t feel right about that.

Len looked at him. “Why?”

“Just a thought,” Chris said. “We could go later today.”

“I guess I could call her,” Len said, and there were so many emotions playing across his face and roiling through the bond. “I have spent a long time trying not to think about her and what that rejection did to me.”

“I’m sure it was terrible. But you had lost your dad, and she’d lost her husband and then your sister, all within a year of each other. That had to devastate her. That she didn’t get in touch with you again speaks of her being hurt, too.”

“She was always pretty stubborn.” Len sighed. “And after a while, maybe it gets to be too long.”

“That stubbornness seems to run in the family,” Chris noted.

“It does. As well as holding a grudge,” Len added.

“I’m going to go have a shower and try to sleep for a few hours,” Chris said, going into the bedroom of their suite and giving Len some privacy to call his mother.

*****

Len watched Chris leave the room and looked at the communicator in his hand and the big monitor on the desk adjacent to the sofa. As much as he didn’t want to think about doing this, he knew Chris was right. If he was going to talk to his momma, then he needed to do it now, before he saw Joanna.

He sighed and put the comm into the monitor. “Leonard McCoy to Eleanora McCoy.”

It rang long enough for Len to think she might not answer. But at the last second, before it disconnected, she did. Her face formed on the screen. She looked older than he remembered. Her dark hair was shot through with gray, and there were lines around her mouth and her eyes. Of course, it had been so many years. He was sure he looked older, too, and worn out.

“Leonard? Why are you calling me now?” Her tone was cold.

This was a mistake. “I’m in Atlanta. I was hoping to talk to you. I guess it was too much to think that after all this time, you’d forgiven me,” Len said, his throat starting to tighten. Despite everything that had happened and all the time that had passed, he was not sure he could stand another rejection from her.

But she blinked at him and tilted her head like she didn’t understand something he’d said. “What was I supposed to forgive you for?” Her tone was perfectly flat.

“For not finding a cure for Daddy or Beth in time,” he said, trying to keep any emotion out of his voice. That’s what she said then. That it was his fault they’d died. That, for all he was supposed to be brilliant, he hadn’t been quick enough about it to save them.

“What are you talking about?” she asked angrily, “Is that why you left. Who told you that?”

“I heard you say it, loud and clear, to someone you were talking to at Beth’s funeral,” Len said. He could not believe that she couldn’t remember that.

“I said no such thing,” Eleanora said. “I don’t know where you got that idea from.”

“I heard you,” Len said. “I know I did.”

“I was angry at you. Because you were drunk at your sister’s funeral –”

“I was not drunk,” Len insisted. He hadn’t started drinking to excess at that point, it had come a few weeks later. “I might have had a drink before it. But I wasn’t drunk.”

She tipped her head. “I remember you being drunk, but it’s very vague. You said you heard me say something I do not remember saying. Did you see me and who I was with?”

“Why are you asking me this now?” Len demanded. But the question also surprised him. She wasn’t dismissing what he’d said as his imagination. “I saw you from behind, off to one side, when I was coming out of the bathroom. You were so angry.”

“You must be misremembering because I never moved from where I was sitting in front of Beth’s coffin. Billy-Ray and his momma were with me. I couldn’t move or think or do anything. I was in a bad state.”

“Yeah, so was I, but I saw you,” Len said. The memory itself was so vague, almost like a dream.

“What was I wearing?” she asked. As if that mattered at all.

“I don’t remember. It’s been too many years,” Len said. “What difference does it make?”

“What were you wearing? Do you remember?” she asked.

And he didn’t remember that either. It was all too vague. But there was something to what she’d just asked, something else. After a second, he remembered. “I want to say you were in black. But that’s not right. We all wore light-colored clothes for spring because Beth said we had to. She said that we had to go on.”

“And yet you remember me wearing black, or whoever said what you heard was wearing black,” she said.

“I think so. Whoever it was who was talking wasn’t wearing light clothes. So, I don’t know,” Len said. “Why did you think to bring it up?”

“If I perceived you to be drunk, and you weren’t, and you think I said something that I didn’t, there has to be another explanation for what happened,” Eleanora said. “And that we all wore light-colored clothes was something else that was different.”

“Like we were supposed to remember something that didn’t happen.” And God, that just dovetailed with what had been going on. “Do you think we might have been drugged in some way? But why?” Len asked without thinking. That had to be it, though. Even as he thought it, some part of his mind rejected the possibility.

“That, I can’t tell you,” Eleanora said and then sighed. “I’ve always wondered why things weren’t clearer to me. I’ve got good recall for most things. I remember all the details of your Daddy’s funeral but very few from Beth’s.”

“That’s frightening,” Len said, and he needed to talk about this with Chris. “Was there something else that sticks out in your mind about any of this?”

She shook her head and looked at him. “I can see that you thought badly of me and might have stopped speaking to me because of it, but why did you stop contacting Joanna.”

Len took a deep breath. “No. That’s not true, either. I tried to contact Joanna every year on her birthday and at Christmas and sometimes at other times, too. She never answered my comms after she turned fourteen. For a while, Jocelyn took my calls and told me she didn’t want to see me. But after a year or two, I never got her, either. I’ve written or recorded at least thirty letters to her over the years.”

Eleanor gasped. “I don’t know what happened with Jocelyn, but Joanna doesn’t think you tried at all.”

“Well, I just told you that wasn’t true,” Len said, annoyed. This just got more and more complicated. But what if this was part of the whole thing, too?

“Well, given that you weren’t talking to me either, it wasn’t a hard assumption to make,” Eleanora pointed out. “But if something else was going on, then that might be the explanation.”

“I just don’t know what it is yet. I’ll probably need to talk to Joanna after the funeral. I wouldn’t bother her now.”

“I think that’s probably a good idea. I think she’d understand that this whole thing might have been manufactured for some reason. I can’t imagine why, though.”

“I can’t either. Jocelyn is dead, and I’m assuming Richard is as well. They were the only two people who hated me enough to do this to me.” Len could not imagine someone going to this much trouble to hurt him. It didn’t make sense.

“I do not know what happened between the two of you, but I do know she was a mistake from the beginning,” Eleanora said as if that were something he didn’t already know. Though, to be fair, she had never actually said that out loud to him, but it had been clear what she thought.

“I know that. I knew it at the time, too, and I paid a heavy price for doing it anyway,” Len said. “Why didn’t you ever try to contact me? Especially if you felt things weren’t right at the funeral.”

“Same reason you didn’t contact me, either. I’m your momma. I taught you how to be stubborn and pigheaded by example. I wish you’d been more like your daddy. He’d never have allowed this to go on this long.”

“At least you admit it,” Len said, trying not to smile at her. “You’re just as bad-tempered as I am, aren’t you?”

“I’ve always thought it was part of my charm,” Eleanora laughed.

“Mine as well,” Len said. “So, there’s a lot for us to talk about, to catch up on, but the most important thing is that I have recently met my soulmate.”

Eleanora’s eyes widened, and her mouth dropped open. “Aren’t you a little old for that?” she asked, her lips twitching up into a smile.

“I guess not, since it happened. And if you want, you can meet him. He brought me here,” Len said, smiling. “He’s pretty wonderful.”

“Of course he is. He’s your soulmate. A soul bond guarantees he’s going to be everything you need or want in a partner. When did this happen?”

“Recently, a couple of months ago,” Len said. “It’s a complicated story.”

“Why don’t you come out to the farm this afternoon for dinner, and we can talk more,” Eleanora suggested.

“Just like that?” Len asked incredulously. “I can’t believe it will be that easy.” Especially not after all the years they’d just spent apart.

“Oh, it won’t be easy. I’m sure I’m going to be very annoyed with you for a while. But I have missed you, my son, and I would dearly love to see you in person,” Eleanora said. “So, yes, and bring, what is his name?”

“Christopher Pike,” Len said. “He’s in –”

“Starfleet. I heard about his rescue of the cadets a couple of months ago.” She looked at him. “And that you and another doctor saved his life.”

Len nodded. “He’s asleep now since he flew us here from Starbase 11.”

“I’ll see you both later,” Eleanora said.

*****

Chapter Eleven

The McCoy Farm
Later That Afternoon

Len set the car down at the edge of the driveway leading up to the family farm. After Len had told Chris what his momma had said about Beth’s funeral, he’d been silent the rest of the drive. Len could tell he was thinking about what he’d said.

Momma’s house looked the same as Len remembered, a sprawling farmhouse that had been built over many generations. Solar panels were integrated into the roof, which provided the energy that ran the house. The wide front steps led up to the huge front porch. When he and Beth were young, the whole family would eat dinner out on the porch all summer long. The old-fashioned porch swing was still there, too, along with railing screens that could be adjusted to provide additional shade and heat control when it was hot in the summer.

Eleanora opened the door before Len could knock. “Come in,” she said and reached out for Len.

He went easily into her arms and held her tightly, breathing in the scent of home that she always represented. A lump formed in his throat, even as the knot that had been in his belly for all the years they’d been apart started to ease.

“Momma,” Len said, with a breath that sounded like a sob. He wasn’t going to cry. Or yes, maybe he was.

Eleanora was crying and holding on to him so tightly. “I’m sorry, son. I shouldn’t have been so stubborn.”

“Me neither, Momma. I’m sorry, too. I can’t believe we let it go this long. I have missed you so much,” Len said and tried to fight back another sob. It wasn’t working very well. He could feel the tears on his cheeks.

“Come in. Let’s sit down and talk,” Eleanora said.

Len let go of her and turned to Chris. “Chris, darlin’, this is my momma, Eleanora McCoy. Momma, this is Christopher Pike, my soulmate.”

Momma turned and smiled widely at Chris. She had never, ever looked at Jocelyn like that. “I am so very pleased to meet you, Commodore,” she said.

“Chris please, ma’am,” Chris said, holding out his hand, which Momma ignored, and pulled him into a hug.

“You should call me Momma, if you’d like, or Eleanora otherwise,” she said, waving him to a seat in the living room.

Chris smiled at her. “Momma it is,” he said.

Len glanced around the living room, noting the changes and that it hadn’t changed that much. The big wood-framed windows filled the room with light and gave a view of the surrounding lands. The modular furniture, upholstered in earth tones, was new, but there were still family pictures on the mantle over the fireplace. When Len was a kid, that fireplace had burned wood or other materials in a clean, environmentally friendly way. He wondered if it still worked.

Momma smiled widely at Chris. “Would you like some iced tea?”

“Sure, thanks,” Chris said, sitting down, and Len sat beside him and took his hand. Len was pretty sure his hand was shaking, and Chris’ was warm and steady. This had already been harder than he’d thought it would be, and he hadn’t thought it would be easy.

Eleanora came back with tall tea glasses on a tray. She handed one to Chris and then another to him. He took a sip and sighed in pleasure. It had been so long since he’d had proper sweet, iced tea. Chris looked surprised after the first sip, but he took a second sip and then smiled. “That’s really good,” he said.

Len just grinned at him. “Momma, I explained to Chris about what you said. And I’m not sure what we should do about it. I think that Chris is going to report it to Starfleet. There’re some other events that have taken place that would play into this as well,” Len said. There was no use beating around the bush with Momma. She didn’t tolerate that any better than he did.

Eleanora’s expression was surprised, but she said, “Do you have any other questions, Chris?”

Chris nodded. “When did you realize something wasn’t right with the funeral. I mean, aside from Len walking away without a word.”

“I thought he’d cool down and come talk to me. But it went on for a long time, and finally, I realized he might have been angrier than I thought.” Eleanora sighed. “It was more than a year later when I finally could think straight. I was so devastated by what happened.”

“What would I have been angry about? Len asked. “You’d accused me of being drunk, but that wasn’t that big a thing. Especially as my drinking did get much worse after Jocelyn and her father started in on me.”

“That’s another subject we should discuss, but I kept going over it in my mind, and it was all so blurry. My memories aren’t like that. Yours aren’t either,” she said, looking at Len.

“No, you’re right,” Len said. “I’ve got good recall, and aside from what I thought you’d said, I can barely remember anything else from Beth’s funeral.”

“Another thing,” Eleanora said. “Every time I thought about you, I felt like you didn’t want me to contact you. It was vague. And it went with you being angry at me. And then, I would get angry again. Like it was fresh.”

“Exactly,” Len agreed. He’d forgotten about that part. “I would think I should contact you, and the next thought would be that you’d rejected me and that I didn’t want to be hurt like that again.”

“I didn’t reject you at all,” Eleanora said.

“And I wasn’t angry with you.” Len sighed. He’d been a lot more hurt than anything else, and that hurt never healed. And as time went along, he’d learned to ignore it, well, until something brought it back, and then he’d struggle to cope with it.

“I think I’m going to have to contact Admiral April and let him know there’s another piece to what has been going on,” Chris said, standing.

“Maybe we should wait and talk to Joanna, too,” Eleanora suggested.

“Why?” Chris asked. “Specifically, I mean. I think what is going on with the two of you needs some scrutiny from a more objective source other than me. Something is going on here that might be connected to other events that are occurring elsewhere.”

Eleanora nodded. “I understand that, but we’ve got another discrepancy there. Joanna believes Lenny hasn’t tried to contact her for eight years, and Lenny believes that she was the one who wasn’t connecting with him,” Eleanora said and looked at him. “And you never came back. Why was that?”

“I thought about it many times, but every time I did, it was the same as when I thought of you. I’d think that I couldn’t go back to Atlanta because I couldn’t deal with being rejected again,” Len said. “Thinking about it now makes me wonder just how I could have thought that. Because as stubborn as you are, you love me.”

“I do. That has never changed.” She held out her hand, and Len took it.

He could feel her love for him, and he hoped she felt the same. There were tears in her eyes.

“And I love you, too,” he whispered, and his voice cracked.

Eleanora sniffed and looked at Chris. “Something isn’t right with all of this.”

“You’ve got a point, Momma,” Len said. “It’s pretty clear already that something or someone was doing this to us, probably to keep us all apart.”

“I’m sure whatever it was they did to us, it made it hurt too much to think about contacting each other or coming back to Earth after you left,” Eleanora said.

“That’s true. I guess we’ll talk to Joanna after Jocelyn’s funeral.” Len wanted to talk to her now, and not just about that. Just to see her. He’d missed her so much, and it hurt to even contemplate that this might have been done on purpose.

Chris took Len’s hand. “Maybe you both should talk about something else for the moment. I’m going to excuse myself right now and let you both talk. I should check in anyway. Let them know what we’re working on.”

“There’s a comm link in my office, if you want some privacy. It’s down the hall and to your right,” Eleanora said.

“Thanks,” Chris said, moving out of the room.

“Why don’t you tell me about your life for all these years. Maybe start with what Jocelyn and that bastard of a father she had did to you. I had no idea she was that malicious,” Eleanora said. “Though I’m not surprised by it, either.”

Len sighed and told her the truth of what the two of them had done to him. Eleanora’s mouth was a tight, straight line by the time Len finished. “I’m sure that Joanna didn’t know anything about this. She would have told me.”

“How much did Jocelyn let you see Joanna?” Len wished he’d known that sooner that Joanna was in contact with Momma. Maybe that would have spurred him to reach out to Momma, and maybe he could have written to Joanna via her. Sitting here now, he was having trouble with how long it had been. Yes, they were both stubborn, but he loved her, and she loved him. How could they have let it go so damned long?

“Jocelyn let me see her twice a year, once on Joanna’s birthday and during Christmas. Either Christmas Eve or during Christmas Day. That was before Joanna turned eighteen. After that, I see her fairly often.”

“I’m surprised that Jocelyn let you see her at all,” Len said. Jocelyn was as selfish as they came and could be just plain mean when she wanted. There had to be something in there for her to have allowed his momma to see Joanna at all.

“I have no idea why she did. I asked Joanna about it, and she said something about a trade. But as the years went on, she spoke less about her momma. I didn’t want to push too hard with her,” Eleanora said. And then sighed and looked at him. “I should have mentioned this to Chris, but I called Joanna after I talked to you this morning. She said she would come by later.”

“What?” Len said. He could not believe she’d done that. And then did not tell him immediately. “You just decided to do this?”

“We all need to sit down together and work this out. I don’t think she was happy about seeing you right now. I’m not sure why. I told her what you said,” Eleanora said. “I don’t know that she believed me. Or you.”

“I’m sure she’s probably furious. And not without cause,” Len said. God, it just killed him that she thought he was the one to abandon her. He’d given up so much to be able to stay in touch with her.

Chris came back into the room, looking thoughtful. “I talked to Bob April about what you both said. And, well, he wants to talk to you both, and probably Joanna too. He said he’s going to come out to Atlanta tomorrow and interview all of us in person. When is the funeral?”

“Tomorrow at 11:00 am, but I wasn’t planning on attending. As much as I love my granddaughter, I detested her mother.”

“Me, too,” Len agreed. “If Joanna wants me to go, I will. But I don’t want to.”

“I’ll do whatever you want with regard to that,” Chris said, sitting back down on the sofa and taking Len’s hand, threading their fingers together.

“You won’t have to decide until after you talk to Joanna. As I said, she should be here in an hour or so.” She looked at him. “How has your career gone?” Eleanora asked. “That was something Billy-Ray didn’t know. He said he only saw you maybe a few times a year.”

“That was true. He’s got a club –”

“On Risa. Yes, I know,” Eleanora surprisingly didn’t sound disapproving of that, which Len was glad of. Though, Len would bet she didn’t know the details of the club.

“My career in Starfleet has gone well,” Len started. “I can’t say I’ve enjoyed all of it, but I’ve continued to learn new things, so I’ve liked that. I’m going to be taking over the hospital on Starbase 11. Once the transfer goes through, I’ll be promoted to Captain.”

“I guess you don’t know that I’m now the Executive Director of Atlanta Children’s Hospital,” Eleanora said, and she seemed pleased with that.

Len shook his head. She’d been headed in that direction her whole career. “I didn’t know. Congratulations –”

“It’s been five years, but thanks. Even though it can be traumatic sometimes, I enjoy it.” She looked at Chris. “Tell me something about yourself, Chris.”

“What would you like to know?” Chris asked.

“Whatever tidbits you want to tell your mother-in-law.” She smiled at Chris’ as his mouth dropped open.

“I guess you are or will be. How does this work? Do we actually need to get married?” Chris asked.

“Well, I’d like to get married, but truthfully, we don’t have to. We’re soul-bound, so it’s the same as being married,” Len said.

Chris laughed. “Okay. I was born on Earth in Mojave Province. You may have heard of my family. They run the Pike Foundation, which is –”

“One of the largest charitable organizations on Earth. I’ve worked with Amelia Pike for years,” Eleanora said.

Well, that was a surprise, Len thought. Chris hadn’t mentioned that to him yet.

“She’s my mother, adopted mother,” Chris said and glanced at Len. “This hasn’t come up before since we’ve only been together for a short time. But she was my aunt on my father’s side. She adopted me and my brother when I was twelve, and I lived with them until I went to the Academy.”

Len realized that was another connection between Chris’ mother and his own.

Momma’s eyes went wide, and clearly, she knew something about whatever caused Amelia Pike to adopt Chris and his brother.

“I can tell from your expression that you know,” Chris asked.

Momma nodded. “She and I are close friends. Have been for years. I knew she adopted her two nephews. You and your brother, Jon. And he is Billy-Ray’s…whatever he is.”

It was all Len could do to not let his mouth drop open. “How did you meet Amelia Pike?”

“She and I worked on a child trafficking incident together that was maybe twenty years ago. Those kinds of things tend to be traumatic, and she and I got to be friends over the years.”

“Twenty years ago, I was a newly promoted First Officer on the Enterprise under Robert April,” Chris said. “I was promoted to captain after the five-year mission when Bob was promoted to commodore.”

“Twenty years ago, I was still working at Atlanta General,” Len said. “It was even before we knew Daddy was sick.”

Momma looked surprised. “Why would that be an issue?”

“There are a lot of coincidences between Chris and me,” Len said. He wasn’t sure what else he could tell her. “The fact that you and Chris’ momma are good friends is yet another one.”

“From the way you say that, son, I’m thinking that you don’t think it’s a coincidence. How many are there?” Momma asked.

“Quite a few,” Chris said. “We shouldn’t talk about it yet. It’s very complicated.”

Momma looked like she wanted to say something else, but she just shook her head. “All right.”

“Going back to what my momma might know that I don’t. Will you be telling me about the part that you left out?” Len asked, trying to keep his voice even. Not telling him something important was the surest way to annoy the fuck out of him.

Chris looked at him. “Of course. It’s not an easy story to tell.”

But before Len could say anything else, the doorbell chimed.

“Well, she’s early,” Eleanora said. “I should have anticipated that.”

“We’ll finish this conversation later,” Chris promised.

And that was fine with Len. He wasn’t looking forward to whatever was coming now. But maybe it would be resolved, one way or another.

*****

Eleanora answered the door. A beautiful young woman with dark hair and hazel eyes came in with a man who was older than she was but probably not yet thirty. He was dark-skinned with light eyes and short black hair, and he was dressed in a Starfleet lieutenant’s regular duty uniform. Chris wondered if he’d just gotten off shift. Neither Len nor he had worn their uniforms for a casual visit with Len’s family.

Both he and Len stood as she came in.

Joanna came across the room, stalking towards Len, who was standing slightly in front of him. She looked furious and so much like Len with that scowl on her face. Chris thought it was adorable right up until she hit Len in the face with her fist.

“Joanna!” Eleanora said sharply. But Joanna ignored her and focused on Len.

“How could you abandon me?” she snarled with all the hurt in the world threaded through her tone. “I wrote to you and tried to contact you for years.”

Len sucked in a breath, and Chris could feel his devastation from the blow. His eye was already starting to swell and blacken. “I tried to call you every year on your birthday and Christmas. Every year, Jocelyn said you weren’t available.”

Joanna frowned at him. “Did you think to write to me –”

“Of course I did. I wrote and called and only ever got your mother,” Len said, a note of pleading in his voice. “She told me you didn’t want to talk to me.”

“Did you think she might have been lying to you?” Joanna asked. “Because that was totally a lie.”

Len shook his head. “No. I didn’t think that. I had joint custody. She knew I could have taken her to court.”

“Well, you should have done that. Because I wanted out of that house for years before I escaped,” Joanna snapped with so much anger in her voice.

“Escaped?” Len and Chris asked at the same time.

“Who the fuck are you?” Joanna growled as she focused on Chris. “Why are you even here?”

“I’m your father’s –”

“You brought a date to meet me? Really?” She drew back her fist to punch him again, and without thinking, Chris stepped forward and caught her fist, holding onto her wrist.

“You are not going to hit him again.” Len was bleeding misery all over their bond, and Chris was having a hard time reining in his need to protect Len. “Please, step back,” he ordered.

“Chris, please don’t hurt her,” Len said, trying to stand between them, his hand going over Chris’.

The young man had also stepped forward, one of his arms going around Joanna’s shoulders and the other on her arm just above where Chris’ hand was. “You’re going to need to let her go. Right now,” he said to Chris in a very firm tone. But his concern was apparent.

Chris nodded and did manage to let go of Joanna’s wrist, basically releasing one finger at a time. It was more challenging than it should have been. “As I said, do not hit him again. I’m new to this, and my control isn’t as good as it should be where he’s concerned.”

“Soul Bond?” the young man asked, sounding like he didn’t believe it.

“Less than three months old,” Len said. “He’s very protective of me. He nearly killed a BarTier in my defense.”

The young man’s eyes widened, and then he looked suddenly horrified. “Commodore Pike?” he choked out.

Chris nodded. Another time, that expression might have been funny, but not right this second. “I guess everyone has heard about that by now. What’s your name, Lieutenant?”

“Zach, Zacharyah Bowen, sir,” he said. “She is my soulmate. I could not let you hurt her.”

“Trust me, I understand that,” Chris said and took a breath. “But I think we should let the two of them talk now. Let’s go into the kitchen.”

Zach hesitated for one second, and Chris could see him threat assessing the situation. Then he nodded. “All right,” he said.

****

Chris moved back through the house to the kitchen, which he’d passed coming from Eleanora’s office.

They sort of looked at each other for a moment. “I’m guessing you’re waiting for Joanna to finish college?” Chris asked.

“She finished two years ago. She just started her third year in medical school, and when she’s done with that, she’s going to go through OCS, and we’ll eventually serve together. I’m going to be stationed in Atlanta until she’s ready to join me on a ship.”

“You just got off duty?” Chris smiled.

Zach looked down at himself and smiled. “Yeah. I wasn’t expecting to run into you. I did know that Doctor McCoy served, but I didn’t think he’d actually notice the uniform.”

“Probably not. Joanna is very angry. And he’s very hurt,” Chris said. Normally, he wouldn’t discuss this with anyone, but this man was already family to him through Len and their soul bond.

“I can feel her anger. I’ve spoken to her a few times about it, but she didn’t want to talk about it. And I could feel your protectiveness of Doctor McCoy, too.”

Chris just smiled at that. “How long have you and she been together? Where did you meet?”

“I gave a lecture to her college class in her second year. She’d finally gotten away from her mother to college, and then she met me. That was just over four years ago.”

“I’m sure that was epic. What about her mother?” It probably wasn’t any of his business but forewarned was forearmed, and anything he could find out to help Len get through this was fair game.

Zach was looking at him, probably threat assessing him again.

“You don’t have to say if you feel that it would be betraying Joanna’s trust. Or her mother’s,” Chris added.

“I don’t think that. She doesn’t talk much about Jocelyn. I met her a few times, but she didn’t like me very much. And well, after I met Joanna, Jocelyn didn’t get a say anymore. If Joanna hadn’t been of age when we met, I could have taken custody of her until she was an adult. We’d have lived with my parents, of course.”

Chris nodded. From what he could tell, that probably would have been a better solution than whatever happened before Joanna met Zach. “Ever hear of a soul bond with two people as old as Len and me?”

Zach whistled. “No. Can’t say that I have, sir.”

“You should call me Chris. You’re my son-in-law. I’m not sure how that’s going to work out for us, but Joanna is my daughter, too.”

“I knew that. And I think she knows, too. So, when she stops being mad at Doctor McCoy, she’ll probably accept it,” Zach smiled.

*****

Chapter Twelve

The McCoy Farm

Before Len could get a word out, Momma announced she was going for a walk and was going to leave them to talk. Len looked at Joanna as the door closed. “Why won’t you accept the fact that I tried to get in touch with you. Do you want me to be the bad guy here? I have missed you and wished I could do something about that, but it’s done. You’re an adult now, and I’m assuming married –”

“Zach and I are bonded, but we’re not married, well, not yet,” she snapped. “I didn’t say I didn’t believe you. I can tell you believe what you’re saying. But Momma got worse and worse, and I needed you, and I couldn’t find you.”

“I’m sorry. Your Grammy said that she was in touch with Billy-Ray. He knew where I was. Or at least how to get a message to me,” Len said, and something else occurred to him. “Zach is in Starfleet. He could have found me very easily. All he needed was my name.”

“He offered. More than once. But I didn’t want that. After all the years of trying to write to you, I wanted you to get in touch with me,” she said and then stopped, holding up her hand. “Wait. I can’t believe I’m saying that. Why didn’t I let him try?”

No. Damn it. Len sucked in a breath. “What did you think when he asked you?”

“Just exactly what I said. That I’d tried for years, and now it was on you to get in touch with me. It had been four years. And I missed you desperately. I don’t understand why I was so stubborn.” She seemed upset now, and that didn’t seem like the person who just came in and slugged him.

He closed his eyes for a moment and resisted the urge to touch his eye, which was throbbing. “It might be something similar to why I didn’t get in touch with Momma. I felt like I was afraid she’d reject me again, and I thought that every time I thought about her. She said that she didn’t get in touch with me because she thought I was still angry. I was never angry with her.”

“Are you saying both of those things weren’t true?” Joanna’s eyes were wide, and she looked devastated. “Someone did something to us? How? Why?”

“I think it’s possible. But I, we don’t know why,” Len said quietly. “This is just one more thing in a long line of things that have happened. We should let Chris know about this.”

She nodded. “And Zach, too.”

“If you didn’t let Zach do anything. I guess Billy-Ray wouldn’t have worked either for the same reason,” Len said.

“I do talk to Billy-Ray occasionally. But he’s never mentioned you. I didn’t know you were in touch with him. But you’re right, it probably wouldn’t have mattered,” Joanna said, letting out a breath. “As I am thinking about it, I can hear an echo of what I was told. I don’t know where or when, but I was supposed to wait for you to get in touch with me because I had already spent all those years writing to you. And that you didn’t get in touch meant that you had abandoned me.”

“Which I hope that you know would never happen,” Len said. “I don’t understand where my messages, calls, and presents went. There should have been physical evidence.”

“I don’t know. I spent as little time as possible in that monstrosity that she called home when I was a teenager. And I moved out for good the day after I met Zach,” Joanna said.

Len looked at her. “Tell me what your mother did to you.”

“She was very unpleasant to start with, and that just got worse as she got older. Mean like her father. Only I never expected it to be directed at me. She would say terrible things to me. But as I got older, I just learned to ignore her,” Joanna said and took a breath. “But it wasn’t just me, either. It was you, too.” Joanna sighed. “I found the account where she kept all your credits. And she left me a letter for you. I’ve been thinking about reading it, but I’m not sure I want to know. I only found out about the account after she died. It’s got almost a million credits in it.”

“Yeah. I paid for joint custody. And my bed.”

“She ranted about that bed,” Joanna said and laughed, still sounding a little bitter about everything. “I mean a bed, really? That’s sort of, I don’t even know, but a bed?”

“It was all I got to keep of everything that was mine in that house or anywhere else for that matter,” Len said. “Your great-great-grandfather built that bed of real wood with his own hands. I wanted it. She literally took everything else I owned.”

“How was that?” Joanna asked. “As far as I could see, she was the one who was unfaithful.”

“Did she tell you that?” Len asked, surprised that Joanna knew.

“I went through her accounts and all her documents. She left a hefty sum of credits to a Charles Parker. I don’t even know who he is.”

“He was a friend of mine. Not even a good one, obviously,” Len sighed. “You did meet him several times when you were a child. Especially before I left. You don’t remember?”

Joanna looked puzzled, and then she seemed to concentrate for a moment. “Yes. You’re right. I did meet him. But I can’t remember anything about him or what he looked like.”

“This might be part of it. He might have told you to forget about him,” Len suggested, and that resonated with him. This wasn’t random.

“Why?” Joanna asked.

“It might be connected to all the other things, most of which I can’t talk about right now.”

She huffed at him. “Of course not. Can I ask you why on earth you married Jocelyn?”

That was not what he expected her to say next. All he could do now was tell her the truth as he knew it. “I thought I loved her. Or maybe it was the idea of her that I had in my head.” He looked at Joanna. “If I had been smarter about it, been less worried about what she might do to me, I might have come back to Atlanta after I couldn’t get in touch with you. I should have.”

“Maybe, maybe not. I do know what she did. Jocelyn kept everything. All the letters between her father and her. Her father was a total nightmare. I’m glad he’s dead.” She meant that, too.

“So am I,” Len said. “How bad was it with him?”

“He was cruel to everyone in his orbit. I couldn’t stand to be in the same room with him. But he died just before I lost touch with you,” Joanna said.

Len wasn’t unhappy that Jocelyn was gone, either. “If you’ve gone through her system, do you know what she did so that we couldn’t communicate?”

“The only thing I can think of is that I spent my birthdays and Christmas Eve or day with Grammy,” Joanna said. “Jocelyn asked me what I wanted for Christmas when I was fourteen, and I told her I wanted to spend it with Grammy, who I hadn’t seen in over a year.”

“So, you weren’t home when I called you,” Len said. “And wouldn’t have been home most of the times I called.”

“I didn’t think of that, then. I’m sure I thought you’d call back,” Joanna said.

“I usually didn’t have a lot of time to talk. My captain would try to get me in range of a subspace relay, but it wasn’t always possible. And then I’d send you a written comm.”

“Which I didn’t get,” Joanna said, and then she tipped her head like she was thinking of something. “You know what, she could have blocked that with the parental override of my padd.” She picked up her padd and typed something into it. “Damn it all. She rerouted your comms to an encrypted folder on her server. Until now, I have never even thought of looking for something like that. Wait a sec, let me see what I can do. It’s locked to her ID, which is now mine as well.”

Joanna fiddled with the padd again. “There are dozens of messages from you. Dating all the way back to when I was fourteen,” Joanna said, sucking in a deep breath. She tilted her head for another second, clearly looking through the comms. “Oh, God. There’s one from this year.”

“Every year,” Len said. He’d just sent a few lines about how he was doing and then ended it as he always did by telling her that he was sorry for whatever happened, that he missed her terribly, and that he loved her.

She opened it and read it and then put a hand on her mouth, her eyes filling. And she started to cry. “I love you, too. I have been so angry, and it wasn’t even your fault.”

“I’m sorry,” Len choked. “I wish –”

There were tears on her cheeks as she turned to him. “Daddy.”

He opened his arms, and she came into them, and he held her tightly. It had been so long. “I missed you so much,” he said, trying not to cry himself.

For a long time, he let her cry, holding onto her. She finally stopped and kept her head on his shoulder for a moment.

“I’m so sorry,” she said. She let go of him and stepped back. “I never thought she’d do something like that to me. I always thought she cared about me, at least at one time. But she obviously did something to me and to you and Grammy.” Joanna paused again. “Or not her. Because, you know what –”

“What are you thinking,” Len asked when Joanna said nothing for a moment or two more.

“I’m not sure she could have done that on her own. It takes knowing what you’re doing or at least being able to follow instructions. She just wasn’t good at those kinds of tasks. Even when I was a child, I always had to set things up for her or figure out how something worked because she just wouldn’t or couldn’t.”

“Your mother wasn’t stupid by any means,” Len said. Jocelyn was very clever when they were in school together. But that was more than twenty-five years ago.

Joanna’s brow was creased. “Even if, by some miracle, she managed to set this up, it should have become available to me when she died. And it wasn’t. I had to explicitly look for it. That makes no sense, either.”

“How good are you with this kind of thing?” Len asked.

“Pretty damned good,” Joanna said. “I’m much more interested in being a doctor, but knowing how to properly use a padd is necessary for life.”

“I’m not that great with one,” Len admitted. “I can use it for what it’s supposed to do, but I have to ask the computer to do the fancy stuff.”

“She could barely use it for what it’s supposed to be used for,” she said. “And she refused to have voice-over computers in the house.”

That seemed counterproductive, especially if she didn’t know how to use a padd that well. “So, she had someone do this or allowed someone to do it,” Len guessed.

“Why?” Joanna asked.

But Len had no answer. “I don’t understand either. I think we’ve got to talk with Chris about all of this. He’s good at seeing all the angles.”

Joanna laughed. “Yeah. He’s something else, isn’t he?”

“Oh, darlin’, you don’t know the half of it,” Len said and couldn’t help but smile.

“Pretty sure I do,” she said. And then looked at him. “Because Zach is –”

“Everything?” Len guessed. He was pleased she’d found someone to take care of her and whom she’d take care of. Someone who would love her just for who she was.

“Yeah,” She smiled. “He’s been wonderful to me. I still can’t believe I met him like two days after my eighteenth birthday.”

“I’m going to take a guess that Jocelyn was not pleased with him, mostly because there was nothing she was going to be able to do about it,” Len said.

“Nope. That was great,” she said. “I’m in medical school. She hated that, too. I took care of her as best my schedule would allow. But mostly, I hired people to do it. In the end, she had made my life so miserable and her own as well. I didn’t know what was wrong with her, and I couldn’t force her to get any help. By the time she died, no one cared anymore. I don’t know if anyone plans to come to the funeral.”

Len didn’t say anything about that. “I’ll be there. And send me the note she left me, I’m sure I won’t like it.”

“Probably not,” Joanna agreed. “Zach’s been so good with all of this.”

“He seemed very nice. I’m thrilled to be back in your life, no matter what role that takes,” Len said.

“Any role you want, Daddy. I’m thrilled that we figured some of this out. I feel like a weight has been lifted from my chest,” Joanna said. “How did you find out about your soul bond?”

“It wasn’t the immediate thing we’ve been taught about. We kept saying we thought it was a soul bond because we were instantly very attached to each other, but we weren’t completely sure until Chris went after the BarTier that attacked me, and Chris would have killed him if he hadn’t been pulled off. From what I heard, it took three Starfleet officers, one of whom was a Vulcan, to stop him. And finally, Spock had to use a nerve pinch.”

“You didn’t realize it before that? I mean, how could you miss it?” Joanna asked. “The second I met Zach, I knew.”

Len shrugged. “It’s not the first thing you jump to when you’re our age,” Len said. They probably should have known sooner. And thinking back on it, it should have jumped out at them when they’d met at the club the second time, especially given their deep attraction to each other. “Tell me how you met Zach.”

“I looked at him, and he looked at me, and we just knew. I felt the connection happen. We went out for coffee after his lecture and then, well, kissed. It was not even a real kiss, just a quick touch on the lips. When I looked at my wrist, I had his initials and a cute little heart on it. He’s got the same mark with my initials.”

“We never felt anything like that. We finally looked for the mark on each other, but even then, it was just confirming it. We should have known sooner, especially after he was so protective of me,” Len said, looking at her. “I was terrified he’d hurt you.”

Joanna shook her head. “I don’t think it’s in his nature to intentionally hurt anyone, not unless there was a threat. I’m pretty empathic, and that feels true about him. I got the feeling when he had my wrist that he was fighting himself, that he didn’t want to hurt me. Thinking about it now, I could feel his need to protect you.”

“I would say that’s a good assessment of him,” Len said. And then smiled. “He is Starfleet’s Boy Scout.”

Joanna laughed. “If you’re anything like me or Grammy, you’re not very nice, well some of the time. I’ve always thought of it as impatience, but whatever it is, Zach finds it funny. I growl, and I’m in a bad mood, and he just laughs at me. Sometimes, he just pets me, tells me he loves me, and gives me a cup of coffee.”

“Yeah. That. It must run in the family.” Len looked down and hoped he didn’t blush. “Admiral April is going to interview us tomorrow. I know the funeral is then, but after, maybe, he’ll want to talk to you as well.”

“I’ve debated even having a service. I am just so worn out by all of the drama with Jocelyn. I did what I was supposed to do, but I’m done now,” Joanna said. “And she was always obsessed with you.”

“That was the problem,” Len said. “She wanted a version of me she made up in her own mind. Not the person I actually was.” Len had always suspected that because he was the one who walked away, that made her want him more.

“I knew that. But now it’s time for us to go find our guys,” Joanna said. “And maybe get Grammy back from her walk so she can cook dinner.”

“It’s been a long time since I’ve had homemade food,” Len said, smiling. And he remembered just how good a cook his momma was.

“I’m starting to smell something coming from the kitchen. Maybe we should check it out,” Joanna suggested.

He put a hand on her arm. “Are you okay now? I’m not going to let you go again.”

“I’m a grown-up now, and I have missed you terribly. We should talk more while you’re here. But I’m okay. You won’t get rid of me easily, now. I want to get to know you as you are now.”

“Me, too. I missed so much of your life,” Len said sadly. “I want to make up for that.”

“Well, I’ll be in Starfleet, and I’m sure I’ll be able to get to wherever you are now and then for shore leave and such. We’ll see each other,” Joanna promised.

Len nodded. He would make sure of it.

*****

When Len and Joanna went into the kitchen, Chris looked up from the stove and smiled at them. Momma was there and explained that she was pleased to let Chris use her kitchen to make dinner for everyone. Len could tell that Chris was enjoying himself.

“So, what’s for dinner,” Len asked, smiling at Chris.

“A simple variation on Coq au Vin,” Chris said.

“Oh, I love that,” Joanna said, smiling delightedly.

“Me, too,” Len agreed, coming to stand next to Chris while he cut up the chicken and mushrooms. He was struggling not to put a hand on Chris while he was using a sharp knife. But Chris seemed to know what he was thinking and paused long enough to turn to Len and lean in for a quick kiss.

As it always did when Chris touched him, something relaxed in Len.

“It’s going to take an hour to cook properly once I get it into the pot,” Chris said. “We should all sit down and talk about what’s going on here.”

“I agree,” Eleanora said. “Did you figure out what the communications problem was and why you weren’t able to stay in touch?”

“I think we did. It was rigged against us.” Len explained what he and Joanna had talked about. “We don’t think Jocelyn could have set up the rerouting. Joanna believes she didn’t have the technical skills.”

Eleanora nodded. “She might have at one time, but she became a parody of herself over the years.”

“What does that mean,” Len asked. “I find that hard to believe. She was very bright when I knew her.” Too smart. He’d always been drawn to intelligence in his partners.

“She seemed to be eaten alive with anger and distrust after you left her.” Eleanora paused and then sighed. “Or maybe it was after her father died. In the years that followed, she was less and less like she’d been when she was younger,” Eleanora said. “I didn’t see her that often. Not like Joanna did.”

“I tried never to be home,” Joanna said. “I graduated high school a couple of years early and then was in college by sixteen. As I told you, I met Zach right after my eighteenth birthday.”

Zach nodded. “She and I moved in together right after that. I mean, we knew we were always going to be together forever at that point.”

Len nodded to that. “There’s one more thing, too. Like Momma and I, Joanna also didn’t want to reach out to me. She wanted me to reach out to her. Which, of course, I tried to do, but the communications were rigged not to let me connect.”

“Yeah, at the very least, I should have let Zach contact you. And I refused. He honored that,” Joanna said.

“I could not have done anything else,” Zach said. “Even though I thought you were wrong –”

“Which you told me more than once,” Joanna agreed and turned to smile at him. “I told you that I’m way too stubborn for my own good.”

Zach smiled back. “I did know that. But this was your daddy, and I couldn’t interfere,” he said, sounding frustrated maybe. “Even if it would have been for your own good.”

And Len knew he was right. Even now, he would not consider doing anything that could remotely be considered a betrayal of Chris’ trust. “I understand that completely,” Len finally said and glanced at Chris.

“I agree. The soul bond would not allow that,” Chris agreed. “After dinner, I think we should talk about a timeline for what happened with everything between the three of you.”

“Maybe we should wait for Billy-Ray. I asked him to come home, too,” Joanna said. “Though he didn’t reply. I guess we’ll find out tomorrow.”

“Actually, I’d like to have it down before we add anyone else in,” Chris said.

“Why did you ask Billy-Ray to come home for this?” Len asked. “I didn’t think he cared for Jocelyn any more than anyone else did.”

“He probably didn’t. But,” she shrugged. “I wanted to see him. He’s still my uncle. And I have good memories of him and Aunt Beth.”

“I guess that’s fair,” Len said.

“So, why don’t we eat,” Chris said. “And then we can talk informally about the timeline of this.”

Len nodded. “I think it’s a good idea. Then we can compare it with what Billy-Ray remembers.”

Eleanora and Chris served dinner, and it was so damned good. Len had two plates of it. Which he could tell made Chris feel good. He could see a lot of delicious food in his future.

*****

“So, this seems to begin with Beth McCoy’s funeral,” Chris started.

“Or does it?” Len asked. “Could it go back further?”

“Possibly as far back as my meeting Amelia Pike,” Eleanora pointed out. “That seems to be the first connection. Although, it was the most likely to actually be a coincidence since she and I have a professional connection.”

Chris nodded. “Nothing came of it, either. You and she became friends, but there was no trauma related to it.”

Eleanora glanced at Len. “Then David’s death or Beth’s. Those were two of our closest family in less than a year.”

“Under normal circumstances, I would say that was just a horrible tragedy. But now, given everything, we should take that into consideration,” Chris said.

“Is there a way to test for it this far after the fact,” Eleanora asked. “If one of them was deliberately infected, that –” she stopped and took a breath.

“Not Daddy,” Len said. “That was a hereditary disease. Do we know if anyone else in his family died of it?”

“I think it did run in the McCoy family,” Eleanora said. “Every few generations. So, is there a way to figure out how Beth got Messores’ Syndrome? All of the doctors at the time seemed to think she was young for it. But not young enough that they felt it wouldn’t be possible.”

Len shook his head. “I went over her medical records at the time and found nothing out of the ordinary except, as Momma said, her age. But again, it was only about ten years. And there were other cases documented of people even younger getting it. We tested for it then, but there would be no way to know how she contracted it, just that she had it. And now, she was cremated, so the DNA left in her ashes would be useless for that.” Len sighed. “Maybe we should go back to things that were out of character –”

“Like your entire relationship with Jocelyn?” Eleanora suggested.

From what Len had said, that was very true. “But that could have been about just being young and stupid,” Chris said.

“Well, there’s that,” Len said with a grimace. “But I still believe I did that to myself. I knew she was going to be a mistake when I met her.”

“I wonder if it’s too late to DNA test her,” Chris asked.

“A piece of hair will tell you that,” Len said, he looked up at Chris. “I doubt it.”

“Doubt what,” both Joanna and Zach asked at the same time.

He looked at Len, wondering how much he should say. Zach was in Starfleet, which mitigated some of the security issues with someone he didn’t know. But talking about Romulans and their possible involvement was need to know only. “Maybe collect some samples before the cremation?”

Len just nodded. “I’ll do that. I can get a courier to come out and send it to the Starfleet lab in Atlanta.”

“What are you both talking about,” Joanna asked, frowning at them and sounding annoyed.

Chris thought she was adorable. Just like her daddy when he was annoyed. Not that he’d say that to anyone right now. But he glanced at Len, who smirked at him. He probably knew what he was feeling.

“It’s something more sensitive. And we aren’t going to be able to talk about it yet,” Chris said. “Will you allow your father to take some samples from Jocelyn?”

She glared for a second, and Zach put his hand on her arm, then she sighed. “Sure. Why not? I’d like an explanation at some point.”

“I think that might have to wait,” Len said. “At least until we know something more.”

Joanna looked like she might say something about that, but Chris shook his head slightly. “So, what happened with the communications between you and Joanna?”

“That was another thing,” Len said and told the rest of them what they’d found out.

“So, something else just occurred to me,” Joanna said. “I sent the comm to you this last time from home, not Jocelyn’s network, and on a new model padd. I had broken my old one and lost some of the data in it. It had no connection to Jocelyn or her network.” She paused for a second. “I wonder if we could look at that and see what it’s set up to do for my comms to you from her house.”

“That’s an interesting thought. We should go over to Jocelyn’s house and check out her entire network set-up,” Len said. “Maybe right now. Because if it’s been tampered with, whoever did that might come back and try to change it.”

“If it’s been tampered with that long ago, then they probably wouldn’t think we’d realize something like that, not at this late date,” Chris said. “On the other hand, maybe we should go anyway, just to make sure.”

“Well, you’re going to need me to get in since my hand is the only one programmed into the door right now,” Joanna said. “Jocelyn never let me add Zach.”

Zach rolled his eyes. “Like I said, she truly didn’t like me.”

“I love you,” Joanna said. She leaned over and kissed him. “So, that’s all that really counts, and I wouldn’t worry about it.”

“That’s all that matters,” Zach said, smiling at her, one of his fingers reaching out to caress along her cheek. He looked at them. “So, yeah, where Joanna goes, I go.”

Chris wasn’t sure this was a good idea, but the more they could find out, the more it would help them in the long run. “All right. I’m going to call Starfleet Atlanta and have someone meet us there.”

“You do know that I’m an engineer, right?” Zach said. “And I am qualified to take care of this for you.”

“I didn’t know that. You never said what you did,” Chris pointed out. “But I want someone who is not involved. And you are.”

“I’m going to be there anyway,” Zach countered.

“Doesn’t matter, we need to do this by the regs,” Chris said. He wanted everything documented and above board. “I hate to eat and run, Eleanora, but this needs to be looked into.”

“It’s fine. I don’t mind cleaning up after that amazing dinner. I might ask you for the recipe,” Eleanora said, smiling and standing. “Lenny,” she embraced him. “I’m so glad to have you back.”

Len held her for a moment. “I’m so glad to be back, Momma. I have missed you so much.”

She hugged Chris, too. “It was very good to meet you, Chris.”

“And you as well,” Chris said as he pulled back and stepped out onto the porch that ran the length of the front of the house.

As they all walked down the driveway back to their car. “Do you both have a car?” Chris asked.

“Yes,” Zach said. “We’ll meet you there. Do you know where Jocelyn lived?”

“I lived there for about six years,” Len pointed out with a sigh.

“Right. Apologies,” Zach laughed.

*****

 

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