When it rains, it pours... [Sickbay - open to all - sick, healthy, just wandering through]

[dctr_mccoy]

What a fucking bad morning...

The morning's unexpected meeting with Tina regarding Sam hadn't quite changed his mind about keeping the man under wraps for a bit longer. He knew he'd need to talk to Spock about him... hell, he needed to talk to Spock about all that was going on, if any sort of plan was being made, if anyone had heard anything

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[rn_chapel]

Tina got the message about the rash of food poisonings just as she was heading to sickbay to report for her shift. She made a quick detour by her quarters and rolled a few clean uniforms into a bundle that she tucked under her arm on her way. She had a feeling that it was going to be one of those multiple-changes-of-clothing kind of days, and figured she'd save herself some walking.

That set the tone for the first part of her shift, in which nearly every thought was vomit-related. But at the first pause in the activity, as she stood with her hand resting lightly against a patient's forehead - medically unnecessary, but soothing and calming - Tina looked up, searching the room with her eyes for Dr. McCoy. She was more than capable of worrying about multiple people at once, after all.

When he met her eyes after she'd been studying him from across the room for a while, Tina offered him a tired half-smile, hoping he'd read in it a reminder that she was there, if he needed her, and went back to work.

[dctr_mccoy]

It was one of those days when no one got much of a break, and Bones knew that his staff weren't going to take care of themselves any better than he took care of himself. He called up the galley, had a selection of sandwiches and salads sent up to them, and had them placed in the little area in the back where they sometimes took their breaks.

When Tina finished working up a chart of her last patient, he tapped her on the shoulder. "Go take fifteen minutes," he told her, knowing she'd work until she dropped if he let her.

[rn_chapel]

"You're the boss," Tina said, stripping off her gloves and smock and wondering if it was time to change her shirt again. "You've been taking breaks too, right?"

[dctr_mccoy]

"Yeah," he nodded vaguely, sitting down heavily in one of the chairs. "I think we've seen the last of the plague there," he told her. "All the replicators have taken orange juice off-line, and anyone who had any this morning should have, theoretically at least, been in by now."

At his words, the doors slid open and another ensign wobbled in, looking pale and holding their head. "Or I could be wrong," Bones grumbled. "It's happened before..."

[rn_chapel]

"Hardly ever though, right?" Tina put a hand on his shoulder as he started to move, gesturing to where one of the nurses was already heading toward the poor kid. "Robert's got it. Relax for a minute. Have you eaten anything?"

Tina followed her own implied advice and helped herself to a sandwich.

[dctr_mccoy]

McCoy eyed the plate of food, grabbing half a sandwich. "Been picking at things all morning," he told her, a half-truth at best. "Had some lovely pie for breakfast, thanks again for that."

[rn_chapel]

Tina nodded. She wanted to follow up with questions about whether he'd slept, or drunk anything that wasn't alcoholic, but she did have some sense about when not to push. She poured him a glass of water and handed it to him without comment, instead.

"Have you heard anything from your guest since breakfast?"

[dctr_mccoy]

"Nope," he told her, taking the water and downing it before he realized how thirsty he was. "Imagine he's going to just wander by here eventually when he gets bored."

[rn_chapel]

Tina poured him another glass. "What are you going to say to Spock about him, when you get there?" She held up a hand as his eyebrow started to twitch. "I'm just trying to help. You don't have to confide in me if you don't want to."

[dctr_mccoy]

Bones took the water, held it for a while before taking another drink. "That he'd be smart to have someone going along that is... willing to do whatever it takes to get them back."

Bones didn't use the word 'expendable' but it might have crossed his mind.

[rn_chapel]

"Ah," Tina said. "Well, that should be logical enough to appeal to him."

She quickly downed half of her sandwich.

"Anything else going on in your head that you want to tell me about?" She doubted it, but it was worth a try."

[dctr_mccoy]

There was something he wondered, but...

Leonard looked at Tina, then looked down, sighing. "Can I ask you something, and you won't laugh or smile or make one of those faces?" he asked, his own face full of questions.

[rn_chapel]

"Of course," Tina said. Faces? She'd have to ask Nyota or Nova or someone if she had a face-making problem, later.

[dctr_mccoy]

"What does everyone on board know about me and Jim?" he asked quietly, looking around to make sure no one was around.

[rn_chapel]

Tina blinked. "Well, I think everyone knows that you've been best friends for years."

She took a drink from her own glass before continuing.

"But most people on board probably know that you started sleeping together recently, and that you spent shore leave together, though the captain's no more exclusive than he's ever been. And then there are things that no one knows, but a few people guess, like that you've probably been in love for quite a while, but haven't actually said anything to each other about it yet."

She shrugged, smiling sadly to try and soften what she guessed must be a painful break in McCoy's illusion of privacy. "The Captain and the CMO are celebrities on a ship like this. People pay a lot of attention to both of you."

[dctr_mccoy]

It was what he thought, though that part about them being in love... surely not many saw that. A few, maybe... "Everyone is asking me if I'm okay. 'You alright there?' 'How you holding up?' 'You doing okay?', shit like that. "

Bones shook his head. "Then they give me that look, like someone died and I'm the grieving family. It's just getting to be a bit much, you know?" he admitted to her.