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obscure-reference-girl · 1 year

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Masks & Misunderstanding Chapter 6

Pairing: Pavel Chekov/Leonard McCoy

Warnings: Swearing

Word Count: 4743

Summary: Leonard thought that a nightclub where you had to wear a mask was idiotic, but he humored Jim and accompanied him to the club during shore leave anyway. After Jim fucked off into the crowd of dancing bodies without so much as a ‘never you mind’, Leonard went looking for him and found something unexpected. Meet unexpected: sexy, young, blonde...and if he reminded him a bit too much of a certain Russian navigator he wasn't going to linger on that thought.

Chapter Summary: Leonard settles into being Pavel's friend...or at least he's trying his best...he swears.

AO3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/45899593/chapters/117117565

Author’s Note: Alright Ladies, Blokes, and Non-binary folks, are you ready for some fluffy crack? This was entirely too much fun to write. It is ridiculous and self indulgent, but isn't that what fanfic is for?

It turned out that it was a lot harder to be someone’s friend when you knew what your cock felt like pounding into their ass. Or, at least, it was for Leonard McCoy. The smallest gestures-that had seemed perfectly innocent before-were now laced with sex and tinted with desire. Had he really never noticed the way that Pavel bit his lip while playing chess? He had certainly watched enough matches between the lieutenant and their captain and first officer. He had even played Pavel himself a few times though lord knew that Len was no great shakes at the game. Pavel demolished him every time, little Russian chess genius. It seemed like that was how everything was going these days, Pavel just plowed through his life like a tractor reaping the season’s harvest and leaving a path of destruction and nothing but Pavel in its wake.

He could have pined in peace if he hadn’t known that Pavel was, at the very least, attracted to him…cared for him. Knowing that there had actually been a chance made him feel like a Denebian Slime Devil was slowly eating his heart. The more time he spent with Pavel as ‘friends’ the more Leonard realized just how stupid he had been. Pavel didn’t need his protection. Len was really just trying to protect himself from getting abandoned again. He was such a fucking idiot. He had lost his chance and he wasn’t going to fuck up one of the only friendships he had just because he had finally come to his senses.

So he steeled himself to be just friends with Pavel, to be the best friend Pavel had ever had. Pavel deserved that. But lately it was getting more and more difficult to stick to his guns. Leonard had agreed to help Pavel get his field medic certification for away teams which meant that they were spending more time together than ever. This was great on the being a good friend front, but it wasn’t doing wonders for Len’s sanity. Today he and Pavel had agreed to meet for lunch and then Jim had given Pavel the rest of the afternoon in sickbay.

When Leonard reached the mess hall, Pavel was already sitting at a table in a secluded corner. His arms were folded on the table with his forehead was pressed into them and he was muttering to himself, his adorable accent even thicker than usual.

“Meester Chekov do zees, Meester Chekov do zat. I cannot do zat! Nobody can do zat! It’s not possible.”

“You have to stop performing miracles Pahsa,” Leonard said as she slid into the seat next to him. He slapped Pavel on the back.

“Bones is on an away mission, but I need a chief medical officer.” Pavel said, doing an imitation of the captain. “You visited medbay once didn’t you Chekov? Good, you’re my new CMO.”

Leonard snorted at Pavel’s reference to his brief stint as Chief Engineer.

“You did great.” He said.

“Mister Chekov, did you break my ship?” Pavel continued with his imitation. Leonard laughed again.

“Well you hadn’t actually broken it, in the end. You kept Scotty’s jury rigged engine room from falling apart and no one died. I’d even go so far as to call that a success.”

Pavel laughed and rolled his head to the side, looking over at Len.

“You have a pretty low bar for success Leonard.” Pavel said. Len just shrugged.

“My best friend is Jim Kirk. No point in setting the bar too damn high.”

When they arrived in the medbay a half hour later, Christine had an equipment requisition file she needed Leonard to sign off on so he asked Pavel to wait in his office for a few minutes. When he returned, Pavel was seated in Leonard’s chair with his heels kicked up on the desk and was rummaging about the drawers.

“What are these?” Pavel asked, pointing to the contents of a drawer. Leonard peered over the desk and broke out in a conspiratorial grin.

“Oh those? Those are my stress balls.” Len explained.

“I have never seen you with a stress ball before,” Pavel observed.

“Oh no, I don’t squeeze them. I throw them at Mr. Spock and the Captain when they come to bother me. Great stress reliever.”

Pavel laughed. It was free, and full, and sent shivers down Leonard’s spine.

“Anyone else I would think is joking,” Pavel said, shaking his head. “But you would just actually do that.”

“Yeah, yeah, come on, let’s get to work.” Leonard plucked a stress ball from the drawer and chucked it at Pavel’s head. It bounced off and Pavel laughed again as he pushed himself up to stand and followed Len out into the medbay. Leonard walked them over to a biobed and leaned his hands onto it. Pavel rested his hip against the other side and crossed his arms, slightly cocking his head at Leonard.

“So what’s on the agenda today Professor McCoy?” Pavel asked slyly, dragging out the word professor.

“Have you gotten to the chapter on emergency medicine without a tricorder?” He asked Pavel, already knowing the answer.

“I’ve gotten through all of the chapters.” Pavel replied.

“Of course you have, Pasha” Leonard said despairingly. “Well, I was thinking that today we could cover some basics for dealing with breaks and sprains if your equipment craps out on you.” Leonard jerked his head at several bandage rolls. “Lord knows you tinker with medical tricorders and dermal regenerators enough to already know your way around them.” Leonard slapped a hand on the biobed. “Hop on up.”

Pavel turned and placed his hands on the bed behind him, pushing up to sit on it. He swung around so that he was facing Leonard and propped one foot on the biobed so that he could rest his chin on his knee.

“Playing doctor now, are we?” Pavel asked coyly. He gave his eyebrows a shrug and smirked at Len, adding, “Kinky.”

“Just take your damn shoe off,” Len grumbled. “Sock too. And pull up your pant leg a bit.”

Pavel did as he was told, but his eyes were still twinkling with mirth as Leonard grabbed a long bandage strip.

“The most common injury you’re liable to deal with is a sprained ankle.” Leonard explained, determinedly not looking at the smirk Pavel was still wearing. He grabbed Pavel’s foot and began demonstrating the proper technique to wrap it. “You want to keep the ankle at about a ninety degree angle. Start with two passes around the ball of the foot…” He explained. As his fingers slid up Pavel’s ankle Pavel jerked.

“Do I need to tie you to the table,” Leonard growled.

“Is that a threat or a promise…Doctor?” Pavel replied, putting heavy emphasis on Leonard’s title.

“Oh it’s a promise, all right. Apparently I have to gag you too.” Leonard said. It was something he frequently threatened to Jim, but to Pavel it was addressed in a much more teasing manner. With a lurch of his stomach he realized that he was-there was no other word for it- flirting with Chekov. He gave himself a mental head slap and continued explaining the procedure.

This pattern of flirting continued over the course of the next few weeks as they made their way to deep space three for routine maintenance of the exterior hull. Pavel would flirt with Leonard. Leonard would flirt back. Leonard would do complex mental gymnastics to convince himself that it was casual and harmless. The knowing looks from Jim weren’t helping this last bit.

Speaking of Jim, it seemed like he found every excuse to smash Len and Pavel together like they were tiny ceramic figurines he was telling to kiss. He sent Pavel down to sickbay with unnecessary reports, asked Leonard to join him and Pavel in the mess before quickly making an excuse to leave, and he had even instituted a mandatory senior staff game night for “team building”. Somehow Pavel and Leonard were always paired off or seated next to each other and Len knew that Jim was behind it.

When their game night coincided with their first evening docked at deep space three, it was no exception. Leonard and Pavel were sitting side by side on one of the couches in the rec room. The senior officers were playing charades tonight and somehow Pavel had drawn Leonard’s name. Scotty was teamed up with Spock which Leonard thought was sure to be amusing and Sulu and Uhura were also paired up which he found to be completely unfair considering they were two thirds of the three musketeers, Leonard having the remaining third for his partner. Jim, naturally, was presiding which meant that the prompts were getting progressively suggestive as the evening wore on.

Uhura had just somehow correctly guessed “bouncing on an exercise ball” from Sulu’s haphazard squat bouncing that looked very much like he was bouncing on a dick. This meant that Leonard and Pavel were miraculously were tied with Uhura and Sulu. While it had been positively hilarious to watch Scotty and Spock try to guess that the other was “swatting a fly on their ass” or “milking two cows at the same time”, they hadn’t been particularly successful.

“Tie breaker!” Jim announced. “Pick your fighters!” Leonard didn’t like the delighted look on Jim’s face.

“I’ll do it,” Pavel told Leonard. “He’ll have a much harder time embarrassing me.” To be fair, he was probably right.

Pavel and Nyota joined Jim and read their last clue. Nyota shot Jim a disparaging look and Pavel swallowed hard. Leonard was about ready to smack Jim upside the head.

“Alright,” Jim said turning to press a button on his digital hourglass. “Time starts….now!”

If someone had asked Leonard what he was supposed to be doing during the ensuing fifteen seconds he wouldn’t have been able to tell them. His brain seemed to have temporarily left his body. When it returned, his only thought was that surely Jim wouldn’t have actually used whatever obscene act it looked like Pavel was trying to perform.

The only reason the round was so short was that Sulu was swift with his answer of, “Eating a popsicle, Jim you fuckhead!”

Nyota ran back over to Hikaru and gave him a high five, while an exasperated Pavel returned to sit next to Leonard.

“Come on Leonard! That one was easy!” He cried.

“That?” Leonard spluttered. “That was obscene!”

“I was eating a popsicle!” Pavel exclaimed.

“You are not allowed to eat popsicles ever again.” Leonard said.

“Why Len, did that bother you?” Pavel said, drawing out ‘bother’.

“Oh, shut up.”

The morning of the last day of repairs Leonard was stuck in a corridor arguing with Spock over lab equipment. Spock wanted to borrow several liters of biofluid for an experiment and Leonard insisted that it couldn’t be spared at the moment. Len was just about to tell the hobgoblin that he could live long and get fucked when Pavel strode purposefully down the corridor. He walked right up to Leonard who had been momentarily speechless, tracking Pavel’s movement. Len parted his lips to greet him, but never got that far because Pavel fisted a hand in the front of Len’s uniform and dragged him into a searing kiss. For several moments Leonard’s brain short circuited as it tried to process the fact that Pavel was kissing him.

“My birthday was today. I’m twenty, not a teenager anymore.” He whispered against Len’s lips before quickly turning on his heel and walking away, seemingly unaffected. Leonard, on the other hand, was very affected. His lips felt hot and tingly. His skin felt too tight. His brain was a foggy mess.

“I…uhh…I…” Leonard spluttered.

“Your speech seems to be impaired doctor.” Spock supplied helpfully. “Might I suggest a visit to Nurse Chapel?”

“Y-yeah that sounds like a good idea,” Leonard mumbled. He turned in a daze and began making his way towards the med bay.

Leonard had been heading to the medbay anyway when he had run into Spock that morning. He did not, of course, actually take Spock’s advice and speak with Christine. He didn’t need help to parse out exactly what had him thrown. He had kissed Pavel Chekov. Or rather, Pavel Chekov had kissed him. Leonard had been too astounded to do much kissing back. Mostly he had had just stood there like a dumb lump, too shocked to so much as form a single word. Len had been thinking about kissing Pavel since the night at the club.

It had been his biggest regret, even before he knew who he had been with, not knowing what the other man’s lips felt like. Now he knew and it was driving him to distraction. He made his way through his shift in sick bay distracted and inefficient. Christine had certainly noticed-she kept elbowing him in the ribs when he spaced out.

Jim caught Leonard as he was leaving sickbay later that afternoon.

“Hey Bones,” Jim began and Leonard braced himself for it. Spock must have told the captain about the encounter in the corridor. “It’s Chekov’s twentieth birthday, you know.” Okay, not what he had been expecting.

“I’m aware…” Len started cautiously.

“So we’re going down to the station to celebrate,” said Jim, slapping him on the upper arm. “There’s a bar that does karaoke.”

“Karaoke,” Leonard said incredulously. He didn’t quite want to believe what he was hearing.

“Yep,” Jim said, popping the p. “Karaoke.”

“No,” Leonard said shortly. “Not happening. I’m a Doctor, not a lounge singer.”

“Aw come on Bones. Pavel wants you there.” Jim whined, giving Len his best puppy dog eyes.

“Damn you Jim Kirk,” Leonard griped. “You’re going to pay for this one. I don’t how and I don’t know when. But you are going to pay.” He said, emphasizing each word.

Jim just laughed and told him, “Meet me at the transporters, twenty hundred hours.”

At eight fifty, Len changed into a pair of black slacks and a dark-blue, button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. He met Jim at the transporter room and Jim gave him a quip about “forearm porn” before they beamed down to the station. The bar was only what would have been a couple of city blocks from the station transporter platform. When they arrived, a small group of people was already gathered by the entrance. Pavel was there, of course, along with Sulu, Uhura, Scotty, Christine, and surprisingly Spock. Jim plowed through the group and asked a waitress for a table.

The bar was dimly lit, with a depressed section of floor in the center scattered with round tables and their accompanying chairs. A small stage was located at one side of the depression. The surrounding elevated area housed the bar itself and standing tables. The waitress led them down three small stairs into the depressed area and sat them at a table near the stage. A female Andorian was singing, quite badly, as her friends laughed and clapped a few tables over. Jim ordered a round of drinks for the table as everyone situated themselves around it. Then he turned to face them all.

“Thank you everyone for coming.” Jim said, the king presiding over his court. “As you all know, our favorite navigator turned twenty today. So we’re here to get him properly drunk and sing very badly!” There were a few laughs and appreciative claps. “Now, as a little birthday present I’ve asked Pavel to choose everyone’s songs.” Now there was a chorus of groans.

“You better not screw me over Pasha!” Sulu exclaimed, using the nickname reserved for close friends. Pavel just laughed darkly. He wasn’t giving anything away.

The group talked and laughed as they drank, half listening to whatever wailing happened to be emanating from the nearby stage. Pavel has ended up sitting between Nyota and Leonard and Len was trying to figure out just how accidental the frequent brushes of Pavel’s knee against his own were. They were a couple of drinks in when the first person from their group was called up. Sulu took the stage tentatively, clearly uncertain about what song Pavel might have selected for him. The dulcet tones of Creep by Radiohead began and Sulu gave a happy laugh. Pavel smiled indulgently.

“I went easy on him,” He said. “This is his go-to karaoke song.”

“You mean you nutters subject yourself to this on a regular basis?” Len asked. Pavel laughed and waved him off as they returned their attention to Sulu. He really wasn’t half bad.

Scotty was up next with a hilarious rendition of Walking On The Moon by The Police. His accent made it positively ridiculous. By the end of the song, Nyota’s head was on Pavel’s shoulder and she was shaking with laughter, tears in her eyes. Pavel himself looked like he had received the best possible birthday gift and Leonard suspected that Scotty would be hearing renditions of the song ringing through engineering for weeks to come.

Scotty was followed by Christine, who had entirely too much fun singing Cindy Lauper’s Girls Just Want To Have Fun. She wasn’t good, exactly, but what she lacked in talent she made up for with enthusiasm.

Leonard’s own name was called next and he made his way up to stage cautiously. Jim gave him a wolf whistle and Len shot him a death glare. He took hold of the microphone gingerly, like it might be diseased, but laughed when the music started and he recognized the song. That little bastard!

“Really?” He yelled at Pavel in mock outrage. “Really? I told you that in confidence.”

“Come on Pav,” Len could hear Jim demand. “You didn’t go with country?”

“But why would I miss the opportunity to share Len’s affinity for The Beach Boys with you all.” Pavel replied, his smirk evident in his voice.

Leonard was glad for the two shots of tequila in his system as he started singing Kokomo. He made it through the song without incident, unless you counted Jim doing an exaggerated parody of sexy dancing incident which at this point in his life Leonard did not. Len did snort into the microphone when Christine smacked Jim on the ass, but otherwise he managed to keep a straight face. As he returned to the table, the next singer was announced. Or rather singers as it turned out.

“Nyota Uhura and uh…Mister Spock?” The MC announced. It looked like he was bemusedly trying to figure out if Mister was actually Spock’s first name or alternatively why the hell someone would be announced at a karaoke bar as mister anything.

“Hey! Why does Spock get a duet?” Leonard demanded, punching Pavel in the arm.

“Because I took pity on him.” Pavel replied with a shrug.

It turned out that the duet was Total Eclipse of the Heart by Bonnie Tyler. Nyota, of course, sounded fabulous. Spock could sing too, but he looked immensely relieved that his requirement was minimal. When they returned to the table he gave Pavel a nod. “You are a good man Mister Chekov,” He said. Jim burst out laughing and almost missed his name being called.

When he did finally take the stage it was for a raucous display of Take on Me by Aha. Much like Christine, Jim compensated with showmanship and ludicrous dancing. It didn’t matter that he couldn’t hold a tune, by the end of the song the entire bar was clapping and cheering.

Jim gave a dramatic bow and returned to the table with a shit eating grin. “I had them save the best for last.” He informed them just before Pavel’s name was called.

Pavel walked up to the stage with a confidence that was likely in part to a generous amount of vodka, but also seemed to be a natural self-assuredness. When he was standing behind the microphone Leonard finally really registered what he was wearing. Pavel was wearing an impossibly tight black t-shirt with a low V-neck and tight black pants tucked into black boots. With his tousled curls falling every which way over his forehead he looked like one of the edgy rockstars Leonard had a thing for as a teenager.

When Pavel started singing Leonard didn’t immediately recognize the song. He did, however, notice that Pavel had the voice to match his look for the evening. It was low and soft, a little bit edgy, and sexy as hell. Leonard started to register the lyrics and shifted uncomfortably when he noticed their sexual nature. When the chorus started he was finally able to place the song, I Touch Myself by Dyvinyls. Sweet baby Jesus.

Jim flashed Pavel a mega-watt grin and double thumbs up before turning to Leonard.

“Don’t you just love this song Bones,” He said with a smirk. Leonard wondered momentarily if Joanna would forgive him for killing her Uncle Jim.

“You knew about this,” he hissed threateningly at Jim.

“Sure did!” Jim hooted happily. “Work it Pav!” He hollered towards the stage.

Pavel was certainly “working it” as Jim said. The majority of bar’s occupants were watching with rapt attention as Pavel sang and danced across the stage. He looked like sex on a stick. By the time he neared the end of the song, Leonard’s pants were uncomfortably tight and his nails were digging viciously into his palms. He felt like he may have forgotten to breath for the past several minutes.

“Ohhhh, I don’t care ‘bout anybody else when I think about you I touch myself.” Pavel leaned forward a bit, his knees bending, and shrugging his right shoulder forward as he ran his and down and back up his inner thigh. The whole time, he never broke eye contact with Leonard. That is, until he quickly spun around to face the back of the small stage, still singing into the microphone.

“Ohhhh I don’t care ‘bout anybody else,” he was shaking his ass in time the music and god if those pants weren’t sinful. Leonard almost groaned out loud, realizing they were the same tight leather pants that Pavel had been wearing that night at the club on Iliria 4. Pavel turned over his shoulder to smirk at him before continuing, “When I think about you I touch myself.”

“Ohhhh I don’t care ‘ bout anybody else,” He turned the rest of the way forward and finished with his arm not holding the mike extended, finger pointing right at Leonard. “when I think about you I touch myself.” He gave a dramatic finish, dropping his head back and bringing his hand to his chest, clawing his fingers into his shirt.

“Ow Ow!” Sulu cheered.

Jim and Christine wolf whistled and Spock gave them a withering look.

Uhura shouted, “All right Pasha, shake that ass!”

Pavel went pink and ducked his head as he returned to their table.

Leonard shifted uncomfortably in his seat trying to surreptitiously adjust himself. Jim was shooting him knowing looks so he kicked him under the table.

“Ow!” Scotty hollered. “What was that for?” Apparently he had misjudged the kick.

“Muscle spasm,” Leonard said with a shrug and an attempt to sound innocent. Jim snorted. Bastard.

They stayed at the bar for a few hours, ordering snacks and more alcohol. Jim flirted incessantly with the waitress. Several of their group decided to sing more songs of their own choice including Scotty’s rendition of Friend’s in Low Places, Jim and Christine’s Don’t Go breaking my heart, and Sulu and Uhura’s energetic version of Wannabe. When things were finally wrapping up and Jim had paid, Leonard excused himself to the restroom.

When he returned to the table he found it empty with the exception of Pavel. Len gestured around at the empty chairs in question.

“Jim insisted on leaving,” Pavel explained. Of course he did. Leonard had his suspicions about Jim’s motives.

“I offered to stay behind and make sure you got back ok,” Pavel continued.

“Yeah right,” Leonard said, shaking his head. “Like I’m the one from this group that needs minding. Can you even see straight kid?” The familiar moniker slipped out accidentally, but Pavel made no sign of unhappiness and didn’t try to correct him.

“Leonard, I’m Russian.” Pavel said as he stood up and slung on his jacket. He said it simply, as though it explained everything.

They left the bar and were walking almost shoulder to shoulder down the station promenade when Leonard decided to challenge the statement.

“That doesn’t mean you have a higher alcohol tolerance than the general population,” he insisted. Regardless of the fact that you seem to be walking straighter than I am, he added in his head.

“Oh, but it does Len.” Pavel replied, bumping Leonard’s shoulder with his own.

Leonard stopped and turned to Pavel.

“You’re ridiculous, you know that?” He demanded. Pavel turned to face him and Leonard was abruptly made hyper-aware of their proximity.

“Yes I am,” Pavel laughed. “But you know you love it.” He had leaned closer to almost whisper the words in Leonard’s ear. Len shuddered and tried to take a step back, but realized that there was a wall behind him.

Suddenly Pavel was kissing him again, his hands threading through Len’s hair. And this time Leonard wasn’t going to be a passive statue. He grabbed the lapels of Pavel’s jacket and hauled him closer as he pressed desperately against Pavel’s lips. He slipped his tongue between Pavel’s parted lips and rolled it against Pavel’s own. If the whimper that escaped from Pavel was anything to go on, he deeply enjoyed the sensation. The sound sent a pulse of heat straight through Leonard making his stomach tense and his cock twitch. Growling into Pavel’s mouth in response, he flipped them around to push Pavel’s back against the wall. Len’s hands came to press against the wall at either side of the other man’s head and he returned to his thorough and fierce exploration of Pavel’s mouth. He pressed his body against Pavel’s and could feel the erection straining against the leather pants that hugged his body like a sin. Len ground down into him and Pavel’s hands dropped to Len’s shoulders, nails digging in through the fabric of his shirt.

Pavel broke the kiss, breathing heavily, and Leonard locked his mouth onto the pulse throbbing in Pavel’s neck instead. “Pasha,” Leonard breathed against his neck. He could feel a shiver run through the younger man’s body. Pavel let out another whimper, and this time it formed the shape of a name. His name. “Leo.”

The endearment pulled Leonard back to his senses and he drew back slowly, taking in Pavel’s swollen lips and disheveled jacket.

“We should get back,” He said finally. Pavel nodded reluctantly and accompanied him back to the transporter pad, both of them trying to steady their breathing as they went.

When they were safely back aboard the enterprise, Len walked Pavel to his room. He lingered, leaning against the wall, his arms crossed. Pavel placed a hand on Leonard’s forearm and Len trapped it under his own.

“I should be going,” He said, returning Pavel’s hand to its owner.

“It is my birthday you know.” Pavel said suggestively.

“Trust me, I’m aware,” Leonard huffed with a laugh. “And right now I’d really like to give you a present to remember, but we’re both drunk.” He sighed.

“You just have to be the responsible old man, don’t you?” Pavel said despairingly.

“Hey, I am an old man.” Len responded.

“Obviously not that old,” Pavel said in reply gesturing towards Len’s obvious erection, unaffected by the copious amounts of alcohol. Leonard laughed at his brazenness.

“I guess not.” He said. “But yes, I do have to be responsible.”

“I know,” Pavel sighed, scrubbing a hand over his face. “It’s part of why I love you.”

Leonard froze, not entirely sure what to make of that. Pavel didn’t even seem to notice what he had said and Len decided it was just the alcohol talking. Surely he just meant that it was a thing that he liked about him (the way Leonard loved how direct Christine was). He watched as Pavel fumbled with the entrance code for his quarters and turned to leave when Pavel was halfway through the door. Len turned back for a second and gave Pavel a small, hopeful smile.

“Goodnight, Pasha.”

“Goodnight Leo.”

#star trek alternate original series #pavel chekov #mccoy/chekov #mcchekov #leonard mccoy #fanfic

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obscure-reference-girl · 1 year

Text

Masks and Misunderstandings Chapter 4

Pairing: Pavel Chekov/Leonard McCoy

Warnings: Swearing (because it’s Bones), mild description of injury/medical procedure

Word Count: 4197

Chapter Summary: Leonard finally learns the identity of the man from the club (cue gasps of shock I’m sure).

Author’s note: If you have made it this far, I would love to hear what you think! Ideas? Things that you would like to see happen? Drop me a line! Comments always provide the best inspiration.

AO3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/45899593/chapters/116373964#workskin

The day of his STI test Leonard was scheduled for a night shift and he had arranged with Christine to have his test run just before the start of his shift. This left plenty of time to work himself up over the fact that he had behaved like a crazed teenager. By the time that Leonard made his way to the medbay that evening, he had worked his mind into a perfect storm of self-loathing. When he entered medbay he wasted no time, gave Christine a meaningful look, and jerked his head towards his office. She followed him in, closing the door behind them. Before Leonard knew it, she had drawn his blood and it was being analyzed by a tricorder. Unfortunately this left him with Christine’s undivided and inconveniently observant attention.

“You sure you still don’t want to talk Len?” She asked.

“I’m sure,” He began. She gave him one of her signature ‘I wasn’t born yesterday’ looks and Len felt himself continuing against his better judgement, “Ah hell, I don’t know Chrissy…” He trailed off, not able to make himself complete the thought.

“You’ve been extra broody lately.” She said.

“Christine,” He exclaimed in offense, “I don’t brood.”

“Oh yes you do Leonard McCoy, you brood almost as badly as Mister Spock.”

“Now, there’s no need to be hateful.” That got a laugh out of her and he couldn’t help but smile himself. “I guess being alone is just getting to me. I just can’t get this guy out my head. It doesn’t help that Pavel-” he broke off, realizing what he had been about to say. Christine’s carefully shaped eyebrows shot halfway up her forehead.

“What exactly about Mr. Chekov,” She asked rather delicately.

“He reminds me of the guy, okay?” Leonard winced, unable to meet her eyes.

“And you’re sure he isn’t the guy?” She pressed.

“Of course I’m sure. There’s no way that he would ever do that with-with me.” He spluttered.

“Why are so sure about that Leonard?” She insisted.

“I just am.” He said with a stubborn jut of his chin. Christine raised her hands in defeat though she appeared unconvinced. The tricorder must have decided to take pity on him because it beeped at that very moment. Christine quickly assessed the read-out and gave him a smile.

“All clear Len,” she said.

He finally let out a breath that he hadn’t realized he was holding. “Thanks Chris-“

He would have to be satisfied that she knew how deeply he appreciated her because the comm blared overhead before he could give her a proper thank you.

“Engineering to medical!” Scotty’s voice came ringing through the room accompanied by the sound of an alarm and what sounded suspiciously like hissing steam. Leonard held down the button on the comm panel on his wall to respond.

“Medical here Mr. Scott.”

“We have one for emergency medical transfer.” Well at least that was sure to get his mind of off things.

“Standing by,” He replied and he and Christine ran out to the central medbay and started to scrub in.

***

Leonard had just finished scrubbing in when the transporter began to materialize a figure onto the designated biobed. And because the universe had one fucked up sense of humor, it was Chekov. He was even paler than normal and breathing with great focus like he was trying his damndest not to pass out. Len felt his heart plummet into his stomach.

“What’s the damage Mr. Chekov?” Len asked as he started to assess Pavel’s injuries. There were small pieces of shrapnel scattered up his left leg with a few larger pieces lodged in his abdomen. Leonard whipped out a tricorder and started locating the worst of it while Christine cut away Pavel’s pants leg.

“Chyort voz’mi, Len, I’m a navigator, not a doctor,” was his tight-lipped reply. Leonard laughed in spite of himself. He knew that Chekov was mocking him. He recognized the Russian version of Damnit.

“You know damn well what I mean. What happened?” Leonard groused.

“I got into a fight with an exploding conduit,” Pavel said with a small shrug that was followed by a grimace of pain.

“Let me guess, the conduit won,” Leonard replied dryly. The tricorder informed him that Pavel had been very lucky and the shrapnel hadn’t hit anything too major. It looked like the worst of the damage was a punctured spleen.

“You could say that,” Pavel winced as Christine removed a piece of shrapnel from his leg, quickly running a dermal regenerator behind it.

“If Jim isn’t the death of me, I think it’s going to be you.” Leonard said witheringly. “Experimental engineering,” he continued under his breath, “experimental limb removal is more accurate.” He raised his voice back to its normal level and looked up to give pavel a sympathetic smile. “I’m going to have to cut this shirt off of you.”

Pavel nodded sharply. His eyes were squeezed shut and his lips were a thin white line.

“Give him a hypo for the pain,” Len told Christine. He let her handle that while he sliced away Pavel’s uniform. “It looks like this is the worst of it.” He said, referencing the large piece of shrapnel in Pavel’s upper left side. “A punctured spleen, nothing I can’t handle. Gonna’ hurt like a bitch though.” Christine had given Pavel the hypo but it wouldn’t work fast enough to completely mask the feeling of a large piece of metal being removed from an internal organ. Pavel nodded again and braced himself.

“On three,” Leonard said. “Three, two-“He pulled out the shrapnel on “two” and quickly pressed down on the wound with a wad of sterile gauze while he ran a dermal regenerator around the site.

Chekov let loose a long string of Russian swearing. Despite being the youngest member of the crew Chekov was one of the most advanced in the field of creative swearing. He was proficient in the several languages he spoke including Vulcan and Standard, but he was particularly adept at stringing together phrases in Russian that could make even the captain blush (naturally, because he was a fucking genius, Jim happened to speak Russian-as he put it ‘enough to fuck or fight with’). Leonard, being only a simpleminded surgeon, did not speak Russian. However, he’d spent enough time around Chekov to pick out several of his favorite key words including ‘Sooka Sin’, and ‘Blyat’, which meant ‘Son of a bitch’, and an equivalent to ‘fuck’, respectively. He was also pretty sure he caught something that roughly translated to “train station whore”. Leonard couldn’t help but chuckle.

“It’s better if you don’t expect it,” He explained.

“You can’t really believe that,” Chekov said incredulously.

“Well yeah, it really doesn’t make a lick of difference, but it can’t hurt to try. That should be the worst of it though.” Leonard offered. Now that the only life threatening injury was dealt with, he could take a deeper look at the tricorder results. “It looks like you might have a few broken ribs from the explosive force, and a fractured talus from where you hit the wall.”

“I broke my foot?” Pavel asked.

“Technically you broke your ankle…and your elbow. You fractured your proximal radial head. You’ll have to stay overnight while they heal. But hey, think of it this way, it’s a hell of a lot better than a hundred and fifty years ago when you would have been in a sling for a month.” Leonard said. He felt strongly that the general population didn’t appreciate just how lucky they were to have modern medical science.

“You’ll have me back in engineering in no time doctor.” The pain killers were obviously kicking in and Pavel was relaxing back into the biobed. He was getting a bit of color back in his face and his voice wasn’t quite so tight.

“I have half a mind to tell Scotty not to let you back in.” Len scolded.

“Da,” Pavel replied, slipping temporarily into Russian, “but you know he wouldn’t listen to you. He likes me too much.”

Leonard shook his head, torn between exasperation and amusement. He turned to Pavel’s chest to work on removing the last few fragments and froze. He blinked quickly several times. His eyes had to be playing tricks on him because his memory was dredging up the same lean torso with those exact moles and just that smattering of freckles, glistening with sweat not from pain, but from exertion, strobe lights beating off of it.

“Is everything okay, doctor,” Pavel asked. He placed a hand on top of the one Leonard currently had resting on his chest. A hand with those slim, strong fingers that had- fuck.

“Of-of course lieutenant,” Leonard shakily replied. “I think Nurse Chapel can take it from here.” Len didn’t give him a chance to respond. He turned quickly and did his best to walk, not run, back to his office where he promptly threw up in the sink.

He rinsed out his mouth and collapsed into his desk chair, digging his fingers into his scalp. He didn’t even know where to start. He had had sex with Pavel Andreievich Chekov. No, no, he’d fucked Pavel Chekov. He had roughly fucked the youngest member of the crew the dark hallway of a nightclub. Pavel was only nineteen for fucks sake. To make matters worse, Leonard had also been fantasizing of, dreaming about, and masturbating to thoughts of said teenager for two fucking weeks.

He didn’t know what to feel. (Actually he did - he felt like a fucking dirty old pervert.) He didn’t know what to think. He should have recognized Chekov. He had noticed all of the similarities. Why hadn’t he listened to the part of his brain that had been functioning with common sense?

Ultimately it came down to the fact that he had picked Chekov up at a club and fucked him senseless.

Except he hadn’t picked up Pavel, had he? Pavel had picked up Leonard!

This, of course, begged the question: was this something Pavel did regularly? The thought made Leonard sick. And if that wasn’t just fucking hypocritical. It’s not like he had any room to judge. He had only been only too happy to take Pavel up on what he was offering. But the thought about Pavel doing that with other people…it made him feel nauseous. It wasn’t disgust…it was jealousy, he realized. Positively sickening jealousy. Leonard suddenly felt like all of the air had gone out of his lungs. He couldn’t breathe. Oh god, he was having a heart attack. Fuck, no, he was having a panic attack. He lurched forward and hung his head between his knees, trying to calm his breathing.

***

Leonard spent the next few hours buried in paperwork that he had been avoiding for weeks. If his personal trauma was good for nothing else, at least it was good for getting the brass off his back. There were several small injuries that came in over the course of the evening, but Pavel had been transferred to a private room by the time that the first had come in so Len hadn’t yet had to face him.

It was nearing midnight by the time he acknowledged the fact that he couldn’t avoid checking on Pavel any longer. The med bay was quiet and he had sent Christine home early. He could handle anything that came in until Dr. M’Benga joined him in a few hours.

“You can do this,” he told himself. He would just go in there, assess how Pavel’s bones were healing, and quickly make his retreat. He grabbed a tricorder, braced himself and pushed the button for entry to the room.

“Come in,” came the response. When he entered, Pavel was awake and intently reading something on a padd.

“That had better not be plans for conduit design,” Leonard said with a levity that he didn’t actually feel.

“No, it’s the design for the warp core emergency coolant system.” Pavel replied with a smirk that made Leonard’s heart lurch. He should have recognized that smirk when he saw it at the club. Len tried to school his expression and stay professional.

“I need to take a look at how your bones are coming along,” He explained.

“Sure thing doctor.” Pavel set the padd down on the table next to the biobed and flicked the blanket off to one side. He was wearing a pair of standard issue boxers and nothing else. Leonard resolutely looked down at the tricorder as he ran it over Pavel’s ankle. The tricorder beeped as an image of the bones in the area materialized on the screen.

“It’s looking good,” he said in an attempt to break the silence. It wasn’t much of a conversation starter and they lapsed back into awkward silence as he shifted to examining Pavel’s radius. When he moved onto the ribs he had a harder time keeping his thoughts strictly professional. He ran his fingers over Pavel’s side out of habit. It wasn’t strictly necessary given the tricorder, but he preferred to feel things for himself. He jerked his hand back like he had been burned at the soft moan that escaped Pavel’s lips. “Sorry.”

“You did not hurt me Len,” Pavel said. Len could feel his face heating up and tried to viciously stamp out any thoughts that were not purely medical in nature.

“Everything looks good kid,” Len said. He turned to leave before he could do anything stupid like offer to kiss everything better, but slim fingers wrapped around his wrist stopping his escape.

“Len,” Pavel began slowly. “About the other night…”

“What other night lieutenant? The chess tournament?” Leonard hoped to god that Pavel really was referring to the chess tournament in which he had beaten Jim, Scotty, and Spock and not what he thought Pavel was referring to.

“You know very well what I’m talking about.” Pavel said indignantly. “The night at the club. Last shore leave.”

“Can we not do this now,” Leonard asked.

“When do you plan to do it Leonard? I’ve waited two weeks, but it seems like your plan is just to never talk.” It was then that Leonard realized something that made his stomach churn and his heart feel like it was doing a line-dance. Pavel had known it was him that night at the club. He had known.

“You knew it was me! You had to have known,” Leonard exclaimed. He was trying very hard not to yell.

“What do you want me to say Leonard,” Pavel asked. Leonard could see something registering in Pavel’s expression. He looked like he had been punched in the gut.

“Just tell me the truth?” Len bit out.

“Yes, yes I knew, okay?” Pavel exclaimed. He hung his head.

“No! No it’s not okay!” Leonard tried to keep his voice from wavering. “Why would you do that to me?” He added without meaning to.

“I didn’t realize that I did anything to you.” Pavel scoffed. Leonard had to admit, that stung. “How was I supposed to know that you didn’t know it was me? You were standing there staring at me like you wanted to consume me. I was surprised sure, but I wasn’t going to fucking question it! I didn’t-” He went suddenly quiet. His voice sounding small in a way that Leonard has rarely heard. He hated it, hated that he was the cause of it. “I thought for the past two weeks that you’ve been avoiding me because you regretted it. I don’t know which is worse.”

Leonard tried to let this information sink in. Not only had Pavel known it was him, he had thought that Leonard knew who he was too.

“How could you think that I knew?” Leonard demanded. “I would never have done that if I had known.”

“Right, because you’re not attracted to me.” Pavel said scathingly.

Leonard didn’t even have it in him to try to deny it at that point.

“I think you know that’s not it.” He scrubbed his hand over his face and sighed. “Look kid, it would be entirely inappropriate.”

“I’m not a kid, Doctor.” Leonard didn’t fail to notice Pavel’s cool tone and the use of his professional title. “I think you know that better than most.” Pavel might as well have slapped him across the face.

“I guess not,” Leonard scoffed, “If you make it a habit of having anonymous, unprotected sex in nightclubs. Actually, you know what, that’s even more juvenile. Pulling stupid stunts like that.” He would later have to admit that his response was largely informed by his hurt.

“You fucking hypocrite. You can honestly stand there and lecture me on unsafe sex? You were there just as much as I was.”

“I wasn’t the one with medical grade lubricant at the ready!”

“For fucks sake. I’m not a celibate recluse like you! But for your information-not that you deserve any sort of explanation of what I do or do not choose to do in my leisure time,” Pavel was positively shaking with indignation now, “it wasn’t even mine! Hikaru passed it to me when we got to club as a laugh.” When he stopped, he was breathing like a winded rhinoceros and Leonard realized that regardless of his personal feelings, he desperately needed to take a step back and remember his professional obligations.

“Look, I’m sorry, Kiii-Pavel,” He corrected himself at the last second. Pavel had a point. If nothing else, he did owe it to him to stop calling him Kid. It would be damn difficult though. “You need to be resting. That was completely unprofessional of me.” Pavel narrowed his eyes at him, so he continued with a sigh, “and just plain wrong. You don’t deserve to be spoken to like that.”

“Thank you,” Pavel said. He paused before continuing emphatically, “I really don’t make a habit of doing that Leonard.” He looked almost sheepish and it made Leonard’s heart clench.

“Yeah, I know, I have the clean STI tests to prove it,” Len huffed. Pavel paled a bit.

“I’m sorry Leonard. I didn’t even think-“

“You mean you didn’t get yourself tested?” Leonard demanded.

“Well…no,” Pavel explained, “I knew it was you.”

“That’s beside the point. You have to take care of yourself.” Leonard wanted to throttle the kid.

“You’re always taking care of me Leonard, I knew I could trust you,” Pavel responded sheepishly.

“I wouldn’t go that far Kid.” Leonard winced at the slip-up. “I wasn’t exactly responsible either.”

“You really had no idea that it was me?” Combined with the pained look on his face, the slight waver in Pavel’s voice staked Len right in the heart.

“No. I mean I may have noticed some similarities,” He admitted. “And don’t think I didn’t feel plenty guilty about that…but no.” Len took a deep breath and gathered up the courage to meet the kid’s eyes again. “You need rest,” He said.

“We will talk more later,” Pavel said.

“Yeah Pav, we’ll talk more later.” Leonard acquiesced before making his escape.

***

As soon as he was relieved by Doctor M’Benga, Leonard made a b-line for Jim’s quarters. Using his medical override, he ignored such social niceties as knocking and strode right in. Strictly speaking, this wasn’t the safest of moves as there was never a total guarantee that Jim would be alone, but he would take his chances. He marched into Jim’s bedroom and dropped like a sack of potatoes, slumped down and head thrown back, into the armchair he knew Jim used for reading. Jim startled awake and did a double take.

“Fuck! Bones! What are you doing here?” He asked as he scrambled into an upright position.

“I need my fuck up of a best friend right now and not my captain.” Leonard said by way of explanation.

“Okay,” Jim said, drawing out his response. “I can do that.” He had obviously gathered the gravity of the situation. Leonard wasn’t in the habit of bursting in unannounced. That was Jim’s specialty.

Len resolutely stared at the ceiling as he choked out the reason for his visit. “It was Chekov?”

“What was Chekov,” Jim asked.

“The guy from the club. The one I had sex with. It was Pavel Chekov.” Leonard ground out.

“Wait, bones…you fucked Chekov?” Jim asked. Leonard meant to reply with words, but all that came out was a beleaguered groan as he dropped his forehead down to his palms with a loud thwack.

“You fucked Chekov?” Jim repeated in disbelief.

“Don’t make me say it Jim.”

“Fuck,” Jim breathed. “Wow. Good for you Bones.”

“What,” Leonard exclaimed. “What do you mean ‘good for you’? Aren’t you even a little freaked out by this?”

“Why? You’re clearly freaked out enough for the both of us,” Jim replied as he scooted over to sit at the side of the bed.

“Come on Jim!” Len demanded. “Be serious! He’s the youngest member of the crew! He’s only nineteen for fucks sake!”

“Yes, Bones,” Jim said slowly like Leonard was a little slow on the uptake. “He’s a member of the crew of the federation flagship. He’s the chief navigator, not to mention a hell of an engineer. He’s a distinguished graduate of star fleet academy and a successful officer. He is not in your direct line of command so there aren’t any rules against it and he’s a perfectly legal adult.”

“Barely! Jim I’m old enough to be his father!” Leonard sighed, returning his head to his hands.

“I don’t seem to recall your having fathered children at the ripe old age of fourteen.” Jim said.

“Okay, maybe not reasonably old enough to be his father. But I’m definitely too old for him.” Len argued.

“I think that’s for him to decide Bones. He’s old enough to make his own decisions and he’s damn well smart enough to make good ones.” God, Leonard hated when he couldn’t fault Jim’s logic.

“That’s another thing!” Leonard exclaimed. “He knew it was me the whole time! Why the hell would he do it, Jim? I’m a crotchety, thirty-three year old, divorced, father! Oh God, you don’t think it’s a-a daddy thing.” He asked, pulling a face like there was a particularly nasty taste in his mouth.

“Come on Bones, we both know that Chekov has a perfectly wonderful relationship with both of his parents. This isn’t a fetish.”

“Regardless, I’m well passed my prime.” Leonard insisted.

“You’re thirty-three Bones,” Jim said with a long-weary look. “You’re not exactly passed you’re expiration date. You aren’t even nearing middle-aged.”

“Well I have the damn mileage, that’s for sure.” Leonard groused. Jocelyn had made sure of that.

“Look Bones, I know you don’t see yourself very clearly, but as your best friend I like to think I know the good, bad, and ugly about you. And I happen to think that there are a lot of reasons why Chekov might want to be with you. Yes, you’re cynical, and surly, and aviophobic, and oblivious as hell sometimes-“

“Not exactly making a strong case here Jim.” Leonard said, but Jim continued as though Leonard hadn’t interrupted him.

“But you’re also highly intelligent, very attractive, and incredibly brave. You excel at your jobs as a doctor and as a commander. You’re loyal. You know damn well that you can be charming when you want to be. Not to mention that you’re damn well one the most caring people I’ve met in my entire life,” He said. “And don’t worry I won’t let anyone in on that last little secret,” He added when he saw Leonard’s scowl. “To be perfectly honest you’re one of the only people whose ass I wouldn’t kick for screwing around with Chekov.”

“I’m not ‘screwing around’ with him,” Leonard objected.

“Exactly! It was a one-night stand and it seems like no one got hurt.” That wasn’t exactly true. Len’s heart felt like it had been trampled by a herd of Rigelian Ox, but he didn’t bother correcting him. “If you’re so freaked out by it, you can leave it at that and no harm done…and well…if you decide to pursue it further, you know my thoughts on the matter. Now, it’s almost 2am and you have to be back in medbay in what-” he broke off to look at the clock, “six hours? Get out of my quarters and get some damn sleep.”

***

Leonard tried to follow Jim’s advice. He really did. But he found himself still lying awake two hours later, glaring at his alarm clock that was mocking his dwindling time to rest. He couldn’t quite get over just how collected Jim had been about the whole thing. He seemed completely unaffected by Leonard’s tryst. It was easy for him though, he didn’t live in Leonard’s head (even if he often seemed to). He wasn’t party to Leonard’s guilt and shame. For him it was as simple as act on it or forget about it. The problem was that Leonard didn’t think he could bring himself to act on it…and at the same time he really couldn’t convince himself that he wanted to forget it.

#star trek alternate original series #mccoy/chekov #mcchekov #pavel chekov #leonard mccoy

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