Sick Bay Prime hums with life, and confusion. A young engineer lies in his bed, saved from death.

Lieutenant O'Neill was barely awake in his bed, feeling weak and shivery still – he had come so close to losing that arm in an engineering accident. He was lucky to have merely lost a lot of blood and suffered a nice shock. The nurse who walked through the doors speculatively was a new face, no doubt about it. He would have remembered her, all tan and fair haired. He blinked to see her clearer, and she caught his eye as she scanned the rows of beds with an interested eye. She smiled slightly before looking past him and walking on, obviously searching for someone. It was early, but there was a lot of activity in the Sick Bay already. A nurse approached Blondie and began speaking earnestly to her. Lieutenant O'Neill stretched forward to strain his ears and hear what passed between them, but out of nowhere Dr. McCoy barrelled up and began berating him in his stern, doctorly manner.

'… serious this is. You're going to have to take it easy once you get out of here, give it some time to heal up … O'Neill, are you even listening to me?'

'Huh?' The young engineer blinked at the doctor with the steely eyes, who quirked an eyebrow, looking besieged.

'What in the hell has you so preoccupied?' he demanded, casting around for the source of the young engineer's distraction, before quite naturally his eye came to rest on the figures of the two nurses who blinked at him, giving the distinct impression that they had been trying to get his attention before he launched into his diatribe. Embarrassing.

'Oh, hello again, Nurse,' he covered (remarkably well, McCoy thought), moving from O'Neill's bedside towards her. The other nurse took her leave swiftly, and left the new kid looking up at him. Her awkward smile resolved to a more sincere one, and she bobbed her head in greeting. She wavered in the streamlined medical bay, with her shrewd blue eyes, pale hair and solid stance; a clash of confidence and fear married to a sense of determination to complete this task at hand and get on with things. Something he could admire.

'Hi, Dr. McCoy. I received a notice about my changed posting this morning, so … here I am!' she finished, her hands flapping with a little awkward motion of anticipation. Cute, or maybe cringy. Maybe she was both. She recovered her smile with a trace of wryness, and suddenly all the stupid jokes Jim had made about pretty blonde nurses over the last two or three months came flooding back to him, and McCoy felt irrationally edgy.

He glanced back down at the PADD in his hands. And then back up.

'Well, welcome to Sick Bay, Nurse DeChangy. Are you early?'

She nodded. He raised an eyebrow, and settled back into his day-to-day CMO mode, with perhaps just a further peppering of grim panic, because temperatures were rising all over the ship and if there was one thing McCoy hated, it was unnecessary illness. And he could feel it coming.

'Well, good, because right now we're down a damn good nurse and a sight too soon. We're heading forwards a 'flu pandemic and God knows how – oh, damn it all, have you had a 'flu jab yet?'

He looked so agonized that she desperately wanted to say yes, but could only shake her head, tongue tied. Dr. McCoy rolled his eyes and tossed his PADD onto the nearest vacant bed.

'Come on,' he gestured, harried, and setting off briskly into an examination room. She did as directed, and perched awkwardly on the table as he prepared an injection for her, grumbling away as he did so.

' – I mean, how'm I supposed to look after the normal casualties without this? 'Flu. I mean, come on! It's so curable, so unnecessary! If EVERYONE just got a jab before coming aboard, this would be unnecessary. Why is that not procedure anymore? Are you allergic to penicillin?'

Cally shook her head again. McCoy paused, and raised an eyebrow.

'Not much of a talker, are you?'

'I'm kind of overwhelmed,' Cally managed at last. McCoy raised the other eyebrow, and made an expression of consideration.

'Honest, too. Okay. I think we'll get along. Roll up your sleeve.'

She did as directed, as he observed her. She was just looking up to ask if it was far enough when he blurted out, 'Are you sure I don't know you from somewhere?'

She blushed faintly. Damn. Her kinship to Jim wasn't noticeable at first glance, but she knew McCoy to be a good friend of her brother's. Best be honest but not foolish. She didn't really want that baggage … not yet.

'I really don't think so, Dr. McCoy – first time I met you was at that interview.'

'Oh, I remember that,' he nodded, with a hint of displeasure. 'I hate people trying to tell me who I should hire to be part of my team. Really gets on my nerves.'

'I guess I got lucky.'

She was matter-of-fact about it, he noticed, when he glanced up. Still. She knew that she was lucky to be there.

'What's your name again?'

'DeChangy.'

'First name.'

'Callista.'

That was it, finally. He'd been wracking his brains – Casey? Molly? Christy? Eventually he'd just programmed the computer to call the nurse employed on the appropriate date, and her picture had flared up. He'd stabbed at it eagerly, sending the alert, forgetting to check her name in the process. Callista.

'Do people call you Callista?'

'Do people call you Leonard?'

He rocked back on his heels, stunned. Not displeased.

'No. Folks call me McCoy. Some of them call me Bones,' he said, widening his eyes and grasping her forearm, freckled and tanned, and administering the preventative vaccine. She held back a squeak as it stung.

'They call me Cally at home,' she said, at last.

He stepped back to let her off the table.

'Nice to meet you again, Cally DeChangy,' he said, glancing up between throwing the dispenser away and pressing the button to spray the chair with alcohol.

He said her name with the soft, French 'g' which made it beautiful in the mouth of someone who understood it.

'You too, Dr. McCoy.'

He smiled when he straightened up at last.

'Hmm. Got a good sense of when not to screw around with over familiarity with your senior officer, too. I think we'll get along, Nurse DeChangy.'

I hope so, she thought, seeing to the first patient on the ward he assigned her. Because you seen a ferocious man when riled.

The patient was a slender young woman who had been complaining of chest pains. She smiled at Cally, who smiled back, as she took her temperature.

'Where's Nurse Gupta?' the patient queried. Cally checked the stats on her tricorder and glanced back to the patient.

'I'm not sure. But I'm Nurse DeChangy, her relief.'

'Good news, that,' said the patient in the next bed; another woman, 'I was sure that Dr. McCoy might have an aneurysm without a relief for her. But you seem a nice sensible girl,' she said, comfortably. Callista couldn't hold back the grin of pride that a patient should have faith in her abilities.

'Open, please,' she requested politely, and the patient obliged. She was feeling more confident every minute, and look at that? She hadn't even fainted yet.

A/N: WELL, WELL, WELL.

Yeah, I'm really late. Sorry folks. But yeah ... apart from general inconsequential chatter about how college and life and stuff are so gushingly busying, I actually had the heart-rending experience of a full on DEAD laptop to contend with. I was gripped with the true fear of losing ALL THE THINGS which was terrifying, as I'm a total noob about backing things up ... might have had to go back to my pre STID days, which would have been, lets be honest, fairly dire.

Thanks as ever to my wonderful talkative bunnies, Cuckoo, RolodexThoughts, MariadoaBarrelroll and Anon22! I haven't had time to get back to you yet since my first task on recovering my laptop has been to frantically post this chapter ... to my mysterious 'Guest' thanks for the review, I will surely get back to you next chapter!

Thanks for holla-ing at yo' girl, folks. I'll holla back asap.

Thanks to all the lurkers, you guys crack me up, love it. ENJOY CHAPTER HURRAY MCCOY FIN