three sheets to the wind [open]

[first_donoharm]

After the endless stream of hungover officers, the emotional confusion that had been Ensign Martine and Lieutenant Romaine, the always-draining conversation with Jim, and the absolute clusterfuck of a confrontation with Spock in the officer's lounge, McCoy well and truly needed a drink. Maybe five. He wasn't sure yet how many he needed, but he'd

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[oh_hellonurse]

Nurse Chapel had been thankful when her relief had arrived as it had been one hell of a busy day in sickbay. And though she wasn't expected anywhere, she had plans to head to the Officer's Lounge to see what was going on.

And she had orders to avoid any glasses, cups, mugs and any other drinking utensil that Jim Kirk offered her.

Heading down the hall, she was scanning the medpad in front of her and almost walked right past Doctor McCoy. Almost. Blinking, she looked both ways down the hall and then stepped closer. "Sir? Doctor McCoy. Are you okay?"

[first_donoharm]

Oh look! Bones thought, a bit excited to see another person after what seemed like quite a while. "Nurse Chapel!" he exclaimed. "Excellent, just the capable woman I wanted to see." Capable, what a fun word, he thought, and repeated it in his head a few times. Capable, capable.

Then, snapping back to the present, he stared at the woman in front of him. "Yes, I'm quite alright. Much better than I was earlier, in fact. I'm just wondering what I should. Erm. What I should do, now I have some time to myself."

Then, as soon as he said the words, he spun around and began walking briskly down in the opposite direction. "Let's go see Jim," he said, more to himself than anyone else. "He'll know what to do." After taking a few steps, he noticed the nurse wasn't following, but standing there staring openly at him. "Well, come on, Nurse Chapel! Time waits for no doctor!" Honestly, some people, he thought.

[miraromaine]

Head and eyes down, Mira's focus was on the collection of beakers cradled in her arms. She was coming from the chemistry lab, where she borrowed a few containers to bring over to the bio laboratory. I think they actually forgot to give me one, she thought, counting the glasses and examining their shapes.

As she rounded the corner, she heard voices coming from the other side of the hall. She looked up, but did not expect to come encounter with whoever it was so quickly. Her body rammed into another's, and a beaker slipped from her grasp and shattered onto the floor. Why does this keep happening? Yesterday she bumps into Ensign Chekov and today she runs into... Her eyes glanced up... Doctor McCoy?! Perfect.

"Guess now I'll have to make a trip back to the chem lab. This is payback for earlier, isn't it?" she groaned.

[first_donoharm]

"Lieutenant! My apologies..." Bones knelt down to attempt to help pick up the mess, but found shattered glass and unidentifiable chemicals a bit of a hazard. Even drunk, he was still a doctor, not a complete idiot. He stood back up, a bit shaky at his sudden movement. "Perhaps we should call someone to clean this mess up. Nurse, if you could...?" While Chapel took care of that, he stepped closer to Romaine. "The chemicals didn't splash you? The glass, none of the shards...?" He reached for his scanner-- only to realize it was back in the medical bay. Damn. He'd have to just trust her word until he got his hands on another.

Then he remembered why he was in the hallways in the first place. "Lieutenant Romaine! You are a very qualified individual. You wouldn't be on this ship if you weren't. There's no need to finish your shift, Nurse Chapel and I are in need of your expertise in..." he tried to think of a clever, subtle way to say Jim's quarters. "... Jim's quarters."

[first_donoharm]

Bones stood outside Jim's door knocking. Well, not knocking so much as pounding.

What Jim saw when he opened his door was this:

Bones, obviously trashed, with a shit-eating grin on his face. His hands are dripping blood on the floor. His shirt has a small tear in it. There are still some shards of glass in his hair. He took the beaker from Romaine so is holding a science beaker full of bloodied glass. His eyes have one of his various "I am a crazed lunatic" gleams.

"Hey Jim!" Bones cried, throwing a scratched arm around his best friend. "I brought beautiful women!" He looked around, seeing Romaine but not Chapel. "Or, well, woman."

[thecaptainkirk]

Jim, for his part, had been busy. Very busy, actually, doing something he very much enjoyed. Someone, for that matter. Luckily, they'd been ducked under the covers, something Jim liked to do when he was actually having fun in bed, a little childish but it let him separate the times when sex was just sex from the times when he was taking his time enjoying himself

[first_donoharm]

"An hour? An hour?" Bones couldn't believe what he was hearing, right up until his memory came back to him. Three years of sharing a room with Jim, after all, had taught him a lot about his friend's mannerisms. This one screamed, I am hiding a girl under the covers, please don't call me on my bluff. Bones remembered the first few nights when he hadn't picked up on Jim's attempt at subtlety. Those times had been very awkward.

Still, Bones was pissed. This was his best friend, and some ensign hussy was going to cut into their drinking time? Back at the Academy, if Bones had asked Jim, he would have abandoned whatever or whomever he was doing. This was mostly because it usually took Jim hours to convince Bones to have any fun at all. And now Jim was actually turning him awayHe tried to be reasonable. What he knew of Angela Martine was good, mostly. She was brash and confident, but she worked it to her advantage. Bones could appreciate that, especially since it made her a great match for Jim. Reasonable, sensible McCoy understood that

[thecaptainkirk]

Jim would have been more reasonable about Bones cutting into their drinking time if they hadn't already had some drinking time, like they did almost every day they could get away with it since their first week at the Academy. Being alcoholics and misfits in a crowd of shiny, eager cadets was what had brought them together. And now Bones knew him, and he was supposed to understand what that excuse was.

But they'd talked just beforehand about McCoy thinking Jim might not need him anymore, and he understood. He was just going to have to make himself available for Bones for the next few days, until his friend realized that nothing between them had changed. Just because there were other people Jim could be with didn't mean he didn't still want those other people to include his best friend.

Thinking for a second - and literally just a second, because a drunk Bones was an impatient Bones, Kirk knew - Jim came up with a solution. "No, just. Okay. You caught me. I have that full bathtub in my bathroom. And because she doesn't have one, just

[setphasersto]

Everything seemed to be settling, and Angela the tension she didn't know she'd been holding start to melt a little. Drinking seemed like the only solution to destroy any of the lingering awkwardness within the group, and she was more than happy to participate.

But first, she needed to do something about her makeshift clothing. She briefly considered saying fuck it and pretending it was a toga party, until she looked down to adjust the fabric and found that McCoy had bled on her. "Oh, damn," she said, sounding surprised. Angela wrinkled her nose in slight disgust. Being practically naked was one thing but she had no interest in anyone else's blood

[first_donoharm]

He wasn't supposed to like Martine much, but emotions aside, even Bones could admit she was a sight for sore eyes. Especially since he'd seen her down those two shots on the security disc. Jim and he had rewound that particular bit a couple times. For posterity's sake, of course.

Now, realizing fully that she really was only gripping a sheet to herself, Bones' head flooded with images from the disc. Oh fuck, no no no no, he mentally chanted. God no, no, out of my head, NO. He squeezed his eyes shut, willing the thoughts away. Opening his eyes again, he grinned around the table.

Then, he looked at Spock. After he'd seen the Vulcan's drinking on the disc, he'd looked up something to say if he ever had the distinct pleasure of being there when Spock drank again. "Humans have a habit, you know, of giving toasts before drinking. Usually we list things we really wish will happen. Like what Martine just did. So Spock, I wanted to toast you." He paused; this was going to be very hard to pronounce when drunk. "S... sa... sagluvau." He

[miraromaine]

Mira had been stopped in the hall, broken beakers and practically abandoned the end of her shift (even though the CMO encouraged it) to get to the Captain's quarters, so not partaking in a few drinks would be a waste. And she was not one to waste her, or anyone else's, time. Her expertise was needed, and if that meant joining in, then she wasn't going to disappoint.

She copied Angela's movements, and leaned toward the table to take a glass of whiskey for herself. She smiled at the ensign and raised her glass. She didn't know about toasting to more people getting naked, but less fighting was enough for her. "Cheers," she said, taking a drink.

[sonofsarek]

The whole situation had made little sense to him. The shift of emotions in all parties seems so sudden, but rather than plague himself with trying to find the logic in the obviously illogical situation, he instead decided to take Jim up on that drink. Somehow they all made more sense to him when he was inebriated

[first_donoharm]

There was some sort of movement at the door Bones didn't really follow, and then Janice was there. "Janice!" he said, throwing his arms out. "Excellent, another fine woman with expertise." He favored the Yeoman with a rare lopsided smile. After all, she'd been the one to bring him coffee. Bones didn't forget things like that, and made a point to make sure she settled in with a drink. She was the lowest-ranking officer in the group, and he didn't want her feeling uncomfortable

[setphasersto]

"Excellent!" she approved with a grin. He had a solid head start, and Angela half hoped he would get blacked-out and pass out so she could win by default. She ignored the fact that he seemed to be drunk enough that he was hitting on all the women, because it was kind of weird.

Angela lined up her own shot, and tossed it back. "Okay, but here's the thing. We can just sit around like a bunch of alcoholic losers and do shots all night, or we can have fun."

She paused (which she imagined to be for dramatic effect. "We should play a game." It wasn't a question, it was a statement. She was also pretty sure it was the best idea she'd had all night.

[first_donoharm]

People tended to forget that Bones grew up in the deep South, where drinking was not only a pastime but an art. Alcoholism, he thought wryly in the voice of his gran, ain't nothin' but a family thang. But thankfully, it also gave him the upper hand during aggressive plays at bars. Or, in this case, captain's quarters.

"I've played games you haven't even heard of, missy," he told her, accent slurring his words together into a constant drawl. "List the rules, name the stakes. Ain't a game you can name me an' Jim haven't beat 'afore."

Which was, for all intents and purposes, true. While Bones couldn't match Jim for women, he could more than keep up in the booze department. Some of their craziest ideas had been in the midst of extraordinary benders.

[thecaptainkirk]

Jim laughed so hard he was shaking, listening to his two friends challenge each other to drinks. Angela acted with Bones unlike anyone he'd ever hooked up with; acknowledging Bones was there, but not demanding Jim choose between the two of them. She could hang out as a friend - that part was new.

"We absolutely should," Jim agreed, throwing an arm around Angela's shoulder and toasting to Bones' apparent agreement. Bones was right, he and Jim had played them all and tended to win. By a lot. And drinking games were like...instant bonding. "Pick your poison." He stood up to get another bottle from his mini-bar, so there would be enough for continued shots, and bring it back to the table.

[miraromaine]

Mira found herself laughing at Jim's story of a failed pick-up, particularly at how absolutely baffled he still was about it all. But she started to choke on her own giggles when his attention turned toward her. Guess she wasn't going to get away without being picked after all.

"Mmm, okay," She thought for a moment before answering, "Dare." Something told her she was going to regret it that decision.

[thecaptainkirk]

Dares were Jim's favorite. And he had a favorite default that no one but Bones had heard before. "Let me make you a drink. You have to drink it." He stood up, crossed over to his bar and poured Mira a shot of Jagermeister and took a drink out of his replicator.

"They used to call these Jager bombs," Jim explained, putting the glass and the shot down in front of Mira then tugging Angela back into his lap. Hands behind his back once again, of course, once he was sitting down. "You down both at once, like a double drink."

[miraromaine]

Mira eyed the glass and shot that was placed in front of her. It was ironic that whether she took the dare or chickened out that she was going to become significantly intoxicated. It didn't help that while the turns passed over her, she just continued to sip at her own drink. If she wasn't drunk yet, then she was sure to be after this.

She took the glass in one hand, and the shot in the other. She'd seen the drink before, so she knew how it was commonly done, but never tried it herself- until now. "Well... Santé!" she said, raising them to the rest of the group with a smile that read here-goes-nothing. Dropping the shot into the glass, she quickly put it to her lips to avoid spilling everywhere (it didn't help much). She consumed the drink, instantly feeling the burn of the Jagermeister. After a few good gulps, the drink was emptied out.

She slammed the glass back down as if she was out of breath. "Oh, merde," she hissed to herself. Heat was rising rapidly to her face, and soon spreading out along the rest of her body

[first_donoharm]

The image of Mira taking the shot would forever be burned into his memory along with the very similar image of Angela taking the two shots at the party. Bones wished he didn't have such a good memory. This was going to come back to haunt him.

"Truth," he said, not trusting himself to perform any more dares at the moment. God knew what other pieces of clothing he would have to lose.