A Nickname for Everyone - August 18th
Twisted Shorts August Fic-a-Day Challenge - Day 18
Title: A Nickname for Everyone
Author: hermione2be
Rating: PG/FR13/K+
Crossover: BtVS/Star Trek: Into Darkness
Disclaimer: I do not own any of BtVS/Angel or Star Trek people, places, or ideas. This fiction is done simply for pleasure and I receive no profit.
Summary: A year later, Buffy has a new normal on Enterprise.
Notes: Part 7 - Links Page
Seasons: Post-series/Star Trek: Into Darkness
Characters: Buffy, Spock, Kirk, Uhura, McCoy, Sulu
Word Count: 2180
Buffy frowned at her orders. Shock had been immediate. Kirk and Spock had decided to keep her secret. And she had been assigned as a secondary tactical officer on the bridge of the Enterprise.
“Why?” she asked softly.
Kirk was grinned at her. “Only you would question a choice assignment.”
“That’s not what I mean,” she said. “Tactical makes sense. Secondary over first.”
“Then what are you questioning, Slayer?”
Buffy leaned forward. “Keeping my secret.”
Kirk nodded once as he considered her. “You could have left. You could have lied.” He watched her carefully. “You could have asked for an assignment away from me, so no one would know your secret. Or pretended not to know how to save Simpson’s life. But you didn’t, with no regard for your secrets, you saved her.”
Buffy nodded sharply. “Yes, sir.”
“I’m going to keep calling you ‘Slayer,’” he informed her.
“Given your penchant for nicknames, I don’t think anyone will notice,” she replied with a smile.
“Nicknames?”
“Bones, Scotty.” She tilted her head in amusement. “It reminds me of someone I once knew.”
“Not a Klingon, I hope.”
She shook her head. “No. Vampire, annoying bloodsucker, had a nickname for everyone.”
His eyebrows rose in surprise.
Buffy shook herself from her memories. Nearly a year Enterprise had been exploring under the leadership of Captain Kirk with Commander Spock as his First Officer. And Leonard McCoy as the thing she avoided as often as possible.
She pulled herself up the side of the active volcano in annoyance. Sometimes she did not understand any of them, not Kirk, not Spock, and not McCoy. She was indestructible, a matter Kirk and Spock had managed to keep to themselves. Yet, she was - without orders - scaling the volcano in an environmental suit to effect a half-assed rescue attempt in the event things went sideways.
And with Kirk in charge, things seemed to go sideways more often than not. No sooner had the thought crossed her mind, than she saw the shuttle careening out of the volcano, barely hidden by the billowing ash. She scoffed.
“Slayer to Commander Spock,” she said. “You still alive in there?”
“Surprisingly,” he replied.
“Great,” she muttered as she pulled more line from the reel. She jumped over the side, dropping rapidly until she was close to the magma. She looked around, spotting Spock on a small crop of rocks, twenty meters below. She thanked her luck and dropped straight down, nearly missing the rock.
“What are you doing here?” Spock demanded.
“I always have a backup plan,” she told him. She looped a cable through his suit and hooked him to her. “Is the charge set?”
“Yes. We have four minutes.”
“And here I thought we’d be rushed.” Buffy handed him a pickaxe. She looped an arm around his waist. “If the line snaps, get that into the closest rock.” She pressed a button on her belt and jumped as high as she could. The cable jerked as it reeled them up. It was uncoordinated.
“Will you, shut up?” Buffy demanded suddenly, her head ringing with the arguments from the bridge of Enterprise. “I’ve got the Commander, we are nearly out of the mouth of the volcano. Give us another minute. Don’t risk exposure.”
There was a stiff silence. She ignored it as the line got caught fifteen meters from the top.
“Damnit,” she muttered. “The reel must have gotten stuck. Grab my waist.” She did not wait for him to comply as she released him and started to pull them up the rope for remaining distance. As she finally got a hand around the rough edge. It cut through her glove, exposing her hands to burning heat and corrosive gases. She grabbed Spock’s bicep and shoved him over the side.
Spock pulled her up. “We are out of the volcano,” he reported.
The words barely left his mouth as they heard the detonation go off. Buffy wrapped an arm around Spock and threw them backwards, away from the mouth. Rocks snagged her suit, their combined weight making it give way. She grit her teeth and tilted her head back making sure they would not fall into any of the flowing lava.
They tumbled to a stop on a ledge.
“Ow,” Buffy whimpered after the pain started to set in. She released Spock, letting his weight roll to the side.
He sat up, pulling off his helmet. Spock looked down at her. “Are you injured?”
“Nothing much,” she said, her breathing shallow. “Think my lung is collapsing.” She nodded frantically. She gasped for air, her body working against her awareness. She seized, her back arching off the ground as a keening sound spilled from her lips. Then it ended and she fell back against the ground.
Spock watched her, aware that this was a temporary state. He pulled off her helmet. As far as he knew, only he had seen her regenerate. The process was quick, normally complete in under three minutes.
He had reached one hundred and forty-five seconds when Buffy’s chest expanded and she sat straight up, gasping for air. She looked around, piecing together what had happened. Spock could see the deep cuts in her suit, but the skin beneath was undamaged. Blood streaked her skin and pooled on the rocks where she had lain.
“Ouch,” she said, shifting her hips.
“Are you recovered?” Spock asked.
It was a silly question, but she appreciated his predictability.
“Yes.”
“Lieutenant Winters and I are fine,” Spock told the captain through the com. “We will travel around the side of the volcano and meet a shuttle there.”
“Did you just volunteer me to walk after I saved you?” Buffy asked.
“Since your reason for saving me was to prevent the Captain from violating the Prime Directive, you would be walking to continue to keep Enterprise from the indigenous people.”
She sent him a look as she stood. “Fine.”
88888888
The shuttle that picked them up had Sulu and Doctor McCoy. Once they were heading to Enterprise, Buffy grimaced, keeping her back to the cold titanium plating of the bulkhead. She had no interest of letting McCoy within three feet of her. Luckily, Spock had suffered a scrape on the way down the mountain. Superficial, she was sure, but he remained quiet as McCoy fussed and fumed.
“Can Enterprise leave?” Buffy asked, directing her question at the pilot.
“As soon as the suns go down,” Sulu assured her. “There is no moon tonight, we should remain unseen.”
“Okay, mission accomplished.” She sank into the seat opposite Spock and McCoy. She leaned her head back and tried to relax. Crossing her arms over her chest and closing her eyes, she focused on her breathing.
In. Out. Expand. Contract.
The air in front of her shifted. The scent of man, oak soap, and medical alerted her to McCoy’s change in attention. She opened one eye to glare at him. “Can I help you?”
He glared back as he scanned her with one of his instruments.
“I’m fine,” she told him.
“Like hell you are,” he growled back. “Did anyone even know you were down there?”
“Spock, about two seconds after I landed next to him.” She thought about it, closing her eye again. “Possibly Scotty, but I talked so fast, I don’t know that he remembered after I walked away.”
“You are a special kind of idiot,” he told her.
Buffy curled her fist into her seat.
“Lieutenant,” Spock’s quiet voice cut through her emotions.
She opened her eyes and shook her head at McCoy. “Get away from me, Doctor.” When he ignored her, she reached forward and plucked his device away.
He looked up at her. “What?”
“Leave me alone, you sanctimonious asshole.” She deftly threw the device over his head.
Spock caught it as she had thrown it without the intent of damaging it.
McCoy’s face mottled.
“Doctor,” Spock said, “perhaps you should join Mister Sulu at the front.”
McCoy was stiff, seething with rage has he took his medical device from Spock and stomped to the front of the shuttle.
Sulu, being the more even tempered of them all, closed the doors.
“You and Doctor McCoy are quite adversarial,” Spock observed.
Buffy leaned forward until her elbows landed on her knees and she could place her face in her hands. “Maybe we’re too alike,” she said.
“I do not see how that is possible.”
“To quote a brilliant witch: we have a saving people thing.”
“Was this something your friend said?”
“No. Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter series.” She rubbed her face. “If I didn’t like being tactical officer so much, I’d find a position that meant I could avoid the Medbay all the time.”
“It is, in fact, not your position as tactical officer that caused this interaction with the Doctor. Rather, it was your Slayer abilities and sense of responsibility.”
“Like I said, a saving people thing.”
“You did not think the mission would succeed?”
“I tend to assume people are more likely to die than to succeed,” Buffy told him as she propped her chin on her fist to look at him. “Not my first volcano.”
“I appreciate-”
“Don’t, Spock, please,” she said. “Even enduring McCoy is worth keeping you alive.” She grinned to soften her words.
He studied her a moment before nodding.
88888888
McCoy slammed a drawer and pulled open another one.
“Something wrong, Bones?” Kirk’s voice startled him, which only served to increase his temper.
“No,” he practically roared in response.
Kirk’s infuriating smirk was in place. “Was Spock an uncooperative patient?”
“The Vulcan I can handle,” McCoy practically spat. “It’s that woman who always ends up in dangerous situations.”
The smile slowly melted from Kirk’s face. “She doesn’t-”
“This makes nine times in four months,” Bones retorted. “And she refuses immediate medical checks, just shows up in Medbay hours later.” He snapped, “Why did you have to assign a hoyden as a tactical officer?”
His friend frowned. “You really don’t like her.”
“You could have chosen anyone else,” McCoy said, suddenly tired, all the anger fading from him. “Why did it have to be her?”
“You have to admit, Bones, she’s good at her job.” Kirk made a small motion with his hand, mentally acknowledging that she was amazing at her job. With a keen eye and ear, seemingly prepared for most situations when she was boots on the ground. She was a chameleon during first contacts, easily accepting the abnormal customs and finding a leader or warrior to talk to.
“She may be. But why is she so reckless?”
Kirk rubbed the back of his head. “For all her recklessness, how often have you had to treat Slayer for injuries?”
“For as often as she is in yours and Spock’s scrapes…only a few bumps and bruises.”
And if Kirk remembered correctly, those times Buffy had injured herself to avoid her torn clothing being too suspicious. He shook his head, refocusing on McCoy. “What is this really about, Bones?”
“Nothing.”
Kirk frowned at his friend, trying to decipher his stiff body language. “Wait…”
“Go away, Jim.”
88888888
Buffy sat cross-legged on the floor of her quarters. She was trying to meditate away her overall irritation. Not that it was doing her any good.
The door slid open and she gave up.
“I’m sorry,” Uhura said.
“No, it’s your quarters too,” Buffy waved off her attempt to leave. “I wasn’t having much luck anyway.”
“Spock said you were upset,” she said as she sat down to remove her boots.
Buffy laughed. “I’ve got to stop emoting near him.”
“Why?”
“I’m…friends with the older Spock. I tend to forget myself. His extra hundred and forty years make quite a bit of difference.” She made a vague gesture with her hand. “Then again growing up a Halfling, I imagine it took decades for him to realize that keeping a tight rein on his emotions was not necessary. Or it could have been his Kirk and McCoy.”
“His Kirk and McCoy?” Uhura asked.
“Apparently much of the senior staff of his Kirk’s Enterprise was the same.” She scoffed. “Except you’re all supposed to be several years older.”
“What do you mean?”
Buffy smiled. “From what he will and won’t tell me, Nero sped up several events.”
Uhura looked at her carefully. “Did the Spock…the older one - did he know you in his time?”
“No, I was never part of Kirk’s Enterprise.” She shrugged. “I’m just an oddity that seems to amuse Spock.”
Buffy froze as she felt Uhura hug her.
“Thank you, for saving him.” Just as quickly she returned to changing for bed.
Knowing Uhura tried to control her emotions and the outburst would cause her embarrassment, Buffy simply ignored it. She put away her meditation supplies, securing it in her footlocker. She crawled into bed.
She had nearly fallen asleep when she heard Uhura stifling her sobs. She cringed. It was a normal emotional reaction, relief. She considered saying something, but no words came to her. Prime Spock has to be wrong, there is no way I could be ship’s counselor.
Title: A Nickname for Everyone
Author: hermione2be
Rating: PG/FR13/K+
Crossover: BtVS/Star Trek: Into Darkness
Disclaimer: I do not own any of BtVS/Angel or Star Trek people, places, or ideas. This fiction is done simply for pleasure and I receive no profit.
Summary: A year later, Buffy has a new normal on Enterprise.
Notes: Part 7 - Links Page
Seasons: Post-series/Star Trek: Into Darkness
Characters: Buffy, Spock, Kirk, Uhura, McCoy, Sulu
Word Count: 2180
Buffy frowned at her orders. Shock had been immediate. Kirk and Spock had decided to keep her secret. And she had been assigned as a secondary tactical officer on the bridge of the Enterprise.
“Why?” she asked softly.
Kirk was grinned at her. “Only you would question a choice assignment.”
“That’s not what I mean,” she said. “Tactical makes sense. Secondary over first.”
“Then what are you questioning, Slayer?”
Buffy leaned forward. “Keeping my secret.”
Kirk nodded once as he considered her. “You could have left. You could have lied.” He watched her carefully. “You could have asked for an assignment away from me, so no one would know your secret. Or pretended not to know how to save Simpson’s life. But you didn’t, with no regard for your secrets, you saved her.”
Buffy nodded sharply. “Yes, sir.”
“I’m going to keep calling you ‘Slayer,’” he informed her.
“Given your penchant for nicknames, I don’t think anyone will notice,” she replied with a smile.
“Nicknames?”
“Bones, Scotty.” She tilted her head in amusement. “It reminds me of someone I once knew.”
“Not a Klingon, I hope.”
She shook her head. “No. Vampire, annoying bloodsucker, had a nickname for everyone.”
His eyebrows rose in surprise.
Buffy shook herself from her memories. Nearly a year Enterprise had been exploring under the leadership of Captain Kirk with Commander Spock as his First Officer. And Leonard McCoy as the thing she avoided as often as possible.
She pulled herself up the side of the active volcano in annoyance. Sometimes she did not understand any of them, not Kirk, not Spock, and not McCoy. She was indestructible, a matter Kirk and Spock had managed to keep to themselves. Yet, she was - without orders - scaling the volcano in an environmental suit to effect a half-assed rescue attempt in the event things went sideways.
And with Kirk in charge, things seemed to go sideways more often than not. No sooner had the thought crossed her mind, than she saw the shuttle careening out of the volcano, barely hidden by the billowing ash. She scoffed.
“Slayer to Commander Spock,” she said. “You still alive in there?”
“Surprisingly,” he replied.
“Great,” she muttered as she pulled more line from the reel. She jumped over the side, dropping rapidly until she was close to the magma. She looked around, spotting Spock on a small crop of rocks, twenty meters below. She thanked her luck and dropped straight down, nearly missing the rock.
“What are you doing here?” Spock demanded.
“I always have a backup plan,” she told him. She looped a cable through his suit and hooked him to her. “Is the charge set?”
“Yes. We have four minutes.”
“And here I thought we’d be rushed.” Buffy handed him a pickaxe. She looped an arm around his waist. “If the line snaps, get that into the closest rock.” She pressed a button on her belt and jumped as high as she could. The cable jerked as it reeled them up. It was uncoordinated.
“Will you, shut up?” Buffy demanded suddenly, her head ringing with the arguments from the bridge of Enterprise. “I’ve got the Commander, we are nearly out of the mouth of the volcano. Give us another minute. Don’t risk exposure.”
There was a stiff silence. She ignored it as the line got caught fifteen meters from the top.
“Damnit,” she muttered. “The reel must have gotten stuck. Grab my waist.” She did not wait for him to comply as she released him and started to pull them up the rope for remaining distance. As she finally got a hand around the rough edge. It cut through her glove, exposing her hands to burning heat and corrosive gases. She grabbed Spock’s bicep and shoved him over the side.
Spock pulled her up. “We are out of the volcano,” he reported.
The words barely left his mouth as they heard the detonation go off. Buffy wrapped an arm around Spock and threw them backwards, away from the mouth. Rocks snagged her suit, their combined weight making it give way. She grit her teeth and tilted her head back making sure they would not fall into any of the flowing lava.
They tumbled to a stop on a ledge.
“Ow,” Buffy whimpered after the pain started to set in. She released Spock, letting his weight roll to the side.
He sat up, pulling off his helmet. Spock looked down at her. “Are you injured?”
“Nothing much,” she said, her breathing shallow. “Think my lung is collapsing.” She nodded frantically. She gasped for air, her body working against her awareness. She seized, her back arching off the ground as a keening sound spilled from her lips. Then it ended and she fell back against the ground.
Spock watched her, aware that this was a temporary state. He pulled off her helmet. As far as he knew, only he had seen her regenerate. The process was quick, normally complete in under three minutes.
He had reached one hundred and forty-five seconds when Buffy’s chest expanded and she sat straight up, gasping for air. She looked around, piecing together what had happened. Spock could see the deep cuts in her suit, but the skin beneath was undamaged. Blood streaked her skin and pooled on the rocks where she had lain.
“Ouch,” she said, shifting her hips.
“Are you recovered?” Spock asked.
It was a silly question, but she appreciated his predictability.
“Yes.”
“Lieutenant Winters and I are fine,” Spock told the captain through the com. “We will travel around the side of the volcano and meet a shuttle there.”
“Did you just volunteer me to walk after I saved you?” Buffy asked.
“Since your reason for saving me was to prevent the Captain from violating the Prime Directive, you would be walking to continue to keep Enterprise from the indigenous people.”
She sent him a look as she stood. “Fine.”
88888888
The shuttle that picked them up had Sulu and Doctor McCoy. Once they were heading to Enterprise, Buffy grimaced, keeping her back to the cold titanium plating of the bulkhead. She had no interest of letting McCoy within three feet of her. Luckily, Spock had suffered a scrape on the way down the mountain. Superficial, she was sure, but he remained quiet as McCoy fussed and fumed.
“Can Enterprise leave?” Buffy asked, directing her question at the pilot.
“As soon as the suns go down,” Sulu assured her. “There is no moon tonight, we should remain unseen.”
“Okay, mission accomplished.” She sank into the seat opposite Spock and McCoy. She leaned her head back and tried to relax. Crossing her arms over her chest and closing her eyes, she focused on her breathing.
In. Out. Expand. Contract.
The air in front of her shifted. The scent of man, oak soap, and medical alerted her to McCoy’s change in attention. She opened one eye to glare at him. “Can I help you?”
He glared back as he scanned her with one of his instruments.
“I’m fine,” she told him.
“Like hell you are,” he growled back. “Did anyone even know you were down there?”
“Spock, about two seconds after I landed next to him.” She thought about it, closing her eye again. “Possibly Scotty, but I talked so fast, I don’t know that he remembered after I walked away.”
“You are a special kind of idiot,” he told her.
Buffy curled her fist into her seat.
“Lieutenant,” Spock’s quiet voice cut through her emotions.
She opened her eyes and shook her head at McCoy. “Get away from me, Doctor.” When he ignored her, she reached forward and plucked his device away.
He looked up at her. “What?”
“Leave me alone, you sanctimonious asshole.” She deftly threw the device over his head.
Spock caught it as she had thrown it without the intent of damaging it.
McCoy’s face mottled.
“Doctor,” Spock said, “perhaps you should join Mister Sulu at the front.”
McCoy was stiff, seething with rage has he took his medical device from Spock and stomped to the front of the shuttle.
Sulu, being the more even tempered of them all, closed the doors.
“You and Doctor McCoy are quite adversarial,” Spock observed.
Buffy leaned forward until her elbows landed on her knees and she could place her face in her hands. “Maybe we’re too alike,” she said.
“I do not see how that is possible.”
“To quote a brilliant witch: we have a saving people thing.”
“Was this something your friend said?”
“No. Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter series.” She rubbed her face. “If I didn’t like being tactical officer so much, I’d find a position that meant I could avoid the Medbay all the time.”
“It is, in fact, not your position as tactical officer that caused this interaction with the Doctor. Rather, it was your Slayer abilities and sense of responsibility.”
“Like I said, a saving people thing.”
“You did not think the mission would succeed?”
“I tend to assume people are more likely to die than to succeed,” Buffy told him as she propped her chin on her fist to look at him. “Not my first volcano.”
“I appreciate-”
“Don’t, Spock, please,” she said. “Even enduring McCoy is worth keeping you alive.” She grinned to soften her words.
He studied her a moment before nodding.
88888888
McCoy slammed a drawer and pulled open another one.
“Something wrong, Bones?” Kirk’s voice startled him, which only served to increase his temper.
“No,” he practically roared in response.
Kirk’s infuriating smirk was in place. “Was Spock an uncooperative patient?”
“The Vulcan I can handle,” McCoy practically spat. “It’s that woman who always ends up in dangerous situations.”
The smile slowly melted from Kirk’s face. “She doesn’t-”
“This makes nine times in four months,” Bones retorted. “And she refuses immediate medical checks, just shows up in Medbay hours later.” He snapped, “Why did you have to assign a hoyden as a tactical officer?”
His friend frowned. “You really don’t like her.”
“You could have chosen anyone else,” McCoy said, suddenly tired, all the anger fading from him. “Why did it have to be her?”
“You have to admit, Bones, she’s good at her job.” Kirk made a small motion with his hand, mentally acknowledging that she was amazing at her job. With a keen eye and ear, seemingly prepared for most situations when she was boots on the ground. She was a chameleon during first contacts, easily accepting the abnormal customs and finding a leader or warrior to talk to.
“She may be. But why is she so reckless?”
Kirk rubbed the back of his head. “For all her recklessness, how often have you had to treat Slayer for injuries?”
“For as often as she is in yours and Spock’s scrapes…only a few bumps and bruises.”
And if Kirk remembered correctly, those times Buffy had injured herself to avoid her torn clothing being too suspicious. He shook his head, refocusing on McCoy. “What is this really about, Bones?”
“Nothing.”
Kirk frowned at his friend, trying to decipher his stiff body language. “Wait…”
“Go away, Jim.”
88888888
Buffy sat cross-legged on the floor of her quarters. She was trying to meditate away her overall irritation. Not that it was doing her any good.
The door slid open and she gave up.
“I’m sorry,” Uhura said.
“No, it’s your quarters too,” Buffy waved off her attempt to leave. “I wasn’t having much luck anyway.”
“Spock said you were upset,” she said as she sat down to remove her boots.
Buffy laughed. “I’ve got to stop emoting near him.”
“Why?”
“I’m…friends with the older Spock. I tend to forget myself. His extra hundred and forty years make quite a bit of difference.” She made a vague gesture with her hand. “Then again growing up a Halfling, I imagine it took decades for him to realize that keeping a tight rein on his emotions was not necessary. Or it could have been his Kirk and McCoy.”
“His Kirk and McCoy?” Uhura asked.
“Apparently much of the senior staff of his Kirk’s Enterprise was the same.” She scoffed. “Except you’re all supposed to be several years older.”
“What do you mean?”
Buffy smiled. “From what he will and won’t tell me, Nero sped up several events.”
Uhura looked at her carefully. “Did the Spock…the older one - did he know you in his time?”
“No, I was never part of Kirk’s Enterprise.” She shrugged. “I’m just an oddity that seems to amuse Spock.”
Buffy froze as she felt Uhura hug her.
“Thank you, for saving him.” Just as quickly she returned to changing for bed.
Knowing Uhura tried to control her emotions and the outburst would cause her embarrassment, Buffy simply ignored it. She put away her meditation supplies, securing it in her footlocker. She crawled into bed.
She had nearly fallen asleep when she heard Uhura stifling her sobs. She cringed. It was a normal emotional reaction, relief. She considered saying something, but no words came to her. Prime Spock has to be wrong, there is no way I could be ship’s counselor.