Ficlet: Star Trek
Sometimes, he forgets that Bones isn't the only doctor on the Enterprise. He dwells in a happy little head space where he reads reports from the other doctors and hears stories about them, but, generally, acknowledges them as legend, and not real individuals. So, when he finds himself in a bind and wanders into medical, hand bleeding, he's shocked to find McCoy absent as well as Nurse Chapel.
In their stead stands a man named M'Benga who greets him and asks him what happened. He discovers, as he's seated on a bio-bed and a scanner's run over his hand, that M'Benga's not some golem of a healthy imagination but an actual person and a friendly one at that. Unlike Bones, he smiles and chats as he tends the injury, seals it up and wraps it. Lectures don't apply; he gives suggestions for further care and requests--not demands--that the Captain come see him in the morning just in case. Then he sends Kirk on his way with a friendly shoulder pat, and Kirk stands in the hallway, shell-shocked.
It's later, towards the end of his shift, when McCoy sits next to him that he's finally come to terms with it all.
"Bones," he begins conversationally, slicing at his steak.
"Yes, Jim-I-want-to-die-of-heart-disease?" McCoy chews on a salad.
"Did you know that you have a terrible bedside manner?"
McCoy raises an eyebrow. "It's been mentioned. Why?"
"I just want you to know," he sticks a large, bloody piece in his mouth and chews, "that I miss it."
In their stead stands a man named M'Benga who greets him and asks him what happened. He discovers, as he's seated on a bio-bed and a scanner's run over his hand, that M'Benga's not some golem of a healthy imagination but an actual person and a friendly one at that. Unlike Bones, he smiles and chats as he tends the injury, seals it up and wraps it. Lectures don't apply; he gives suggestions for further care and requests--not demands--that the Captain come see him in the morning just in case. Then he sends Kirk on his way with a friendly shoulder pat, and Kirk stands in the hallway, shell-shocked.
It's later, towards the end of his shift, when McCoy sits next to him that he's finally come to terms with it all.
"Bones," he begins conversationally, slicing at his steak.
"Yes, Jim-I-want-to-die-of-heart-disease?" McCoy chews on a salad.
"Did you know that you have a terrible bedside manner?"
McCoy raises an eyebrow. "It's been mentioned. Why?"
"I just want you to know," he sticks a large, bloody piece in his mouth and chews, "that I miss it."