[The Too Cool Verse - Some Things You Should Know]

[nyota_uhura24]

[ooc: The Too Cool Verse is not part of tbg cannon! I will label all posts with the verse name so that no one gets confused. In this verse, McHura never break up. :)]



Continued from this point: As she looked up at him, he slid closer to her on the couch and tipped her chin up slightly with his fingertips so that he could look her in the eyes as he spoke. "I just don't want to lose you, darlin'... You mean the world to me and I love you so much it's hard to believe."

Leo hugged her back, and she held on to him, wanting him to know that she could accept the fact that he was already a father. He explained how frustrating it was that he couldn’t be around for his daughter, and she nodded sympathetically. It was hard enough to be away from her father and siblings - she couldn’t even imagine what it would be like to spend so much time apart from a child, especially when she was of such a young age. “I’m sorry, Leo,” she said softly. “I know how much you must want to be with her.” She frowned when he explained the court statement. “That’s awful,” she whispered, taking his hand and squeezing it reassuringly. "But I know you're there for her as much as you can be."

He tilted her chin up and her eyes widened at the words. She felt uncomfortable about John’s feelings for her, but she’d never meant to make Leo think that she was less than certain of their relationship. “You’re not going to lose me. Leo, I love you.” She cupped his face with her hand and smiled. “I want to be with you and no one else. Please don’t doubt that. It was just hard to hear that from someone I consider to be such a close friend. I don’t know how to act around him. I… I do want to stay friends with him,” she said, hoping it wouldn’t make Leo uncomfortable, “but I’m not sure how to be a good friend to him right now.”

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[bones-mccoy63.livejournal.com]

The warmth of her embrace was reassuring as well as comforting and it brought a soft smile to his lips. He looked forward to spending time with Joanna and Nyota sometime in the future and he was glad that she was comfortable with the fact that he already had a daughter. As she squeezed his hand, he brought it to his lips and kissed it gently. She was so damn understanding. He didn't know how she did it juggling so many languages and her job and him and a huge family, but no matter what, she always seemed to know exactly what he meant and how he felt. It was one of the reasons McCoy had fallen so madly in love with her so quickly.

Leonard let out a slow breath of relief as she cupped his face in her hand and he pulled her closer, pressing his forehead against hers. "I love you, too, Nyota. I just want you to be happy. I'm glad I'm the one you want to be with," he said with a chuckle. "Especially considering I'm not sure I'd be able to take no for an answer." And with that, he kissed her softly. They hadn't been able to spend very much time together since the attack, but now that everything had slowed down, he was happy to be able to just relax with her. "I understand that you don't want to just ignore him, but I think you should talk to him about it so that he knows you're not on the market. Once he accepts that and stops hitting on you, I"ll be just fine with it, darlin'."

[nyota-uhura24.livejournal.com]

Nyota knew that it wasn’t going to be easy to introduce her into Joanna’s life, but she wanted to be a part of it. It crossed her mind that maybe it was early in their relationship for her to meet Leo’s daughter, but they already felt so comfortable with each other that it felt okay to at least talk about it. He’d told her about her daughter, she’d talked about the death of her mother. There was a lot of trust between them. There were a few things she still wasn’t sure how to bring up, but it wasn’t anything that would have any bearing on their relationship. It was just… her.

She closed her eyes as he pressed his forehead to hers. “Mpenzi, you know I love you. Nothing is going to change that. I’m sorry if I made you worry. That was never my intention, and the one thing I am sure about is that I want to be with you.” She returned the kiss, leaning into his touch. She almost protected when the kiss ended, but they still had things to talk about. “He knows,” she said softly. “I told him. Maybe we shouldn’t be spending too much time together right now, but I’m sure he’ll get over it and we can go back to being friends.” And that was probably enough conversation about someone else.

She looked at him seriously. “Leo, this attack has been really stressful for everyone. I know sickbay was completely chaotic. Are you… all right?”

[bones-mccoy63.livejournal.com]

McCoy was glad that Nyota wanted to meet his daughter and wanted to be involved in that part of his life. It didn't strike him once that it may be too early for her to meet him. Not after the way she'd reacted to his revealing her existence. In fact, he mentally decided that once she introduced him to her family by call, he'd have her sit in on his next call with Joanna. That way they'd be taking those steps in stride and neither would feel uncomfortable about anything. One thing that he cherished most about their relationship was their honesty with one another. He never worried about her hiding things from him and he told her everything, so it was just so easy. Maybe that's why I fell so hard, so quickly?

He let out another slow breath as she reassured him once again. He did know that she loved him, he'd just been worried by the way she'd spoken about him while the plants were holding him in excitement. "Darlin', I know.. I just got worried. I mean, he's young, apparently attractive, and I've seen how close you two are. I don't doubt you, though, Nyota. If you say I don't need to worry about us or about you, I won't. It's him I'm worried about. Just... be careful, okay?" McCoy could tell that Nyota was finished with that conversation, so he didn't draw it out.

He ran a hand through his hair as she asked him about the attack and he shrugged a little. "I don't know... I mean, I feel alright. Should I not? I didn't get hurt.. and really, to be honest, the only thing that scared the shit out of me was not knowing if YOU were alright and then waiting for you to wake up. The worst thing that happened to me was working 37 hours straight. I'm okay... are you?" he asked, suddenly aware that they'd never talked about it.

[nyota-uhura24.livejournal.com]

She was honestly a little surprised herself that it was so easy to accept the fact that he had a daughter, but Joanna was a part of his family, and in a way that made her feel like Joanna was a part of her family, too. Have I really started to think of Leo as family already? On that note, when is he going to meet mine? She knew that her dad and siblings wanted to meet him and vice versa, but her family was honestly a little overwhelming at times. It would probably be better to just meet her dad, first, and then perhaps eventually have individual calls with her siblings. Meeting everyone at once would be a little much, although she would love to have him come to Nairobi with her and meet the whole gang. The thought made her smile.

She almost laughed when Leo told her that John was young and attractive. That was true, but not at all the point. How close they were was a little more of an issue, perhaps, but she had never thought of him that way. “I’m sure you don’t need to worry about him, and I’ll be careful,” she promised. It was a delicate situation, and her heart truly broke for John, but she knew where she wanted to be. “Thank you,” she added, “for trusting me.” It made her surer of their relationship than ever that he trusted her enough to still be friends with someone who had feelings for her, even though of course she probably needed to spend a little less time around John, at least for the moment.

It was a relief to hear that even though the attack had clearly been stressful for him, he seemed to be all right. When he asked her the same question, she paused. “I… I don’t know,” she admitted, and then let her gaze drop. “Leo, the nights that you’ve had to stay in sickbay I… I haven’t slept at all.”

[bones-mccoy63.livejournal.com]

"I'd trust you with my life, Nyota," he said lightly in response and he meant it with all his being. Sure, it was unsettling that John was so into her, but he knew that she would put him off if she had to. Besides, Uhura had really been 100% honest with him from the very beginning of their relationship and that was something he respected greatly. If she told him that everything was going to be alright, he was certain it would be so.

McCoy's face dropped into a frown and his eyes gleamed with concern almost immediately as she explained that she'd been having trouble sleeping when he wasn't around. He sifted a gentle hand through her hair as he tried to catch her gaze. "Darlin', what's bothering you about it?" He paused before continuing. "I can't sleep well without you either, you know. Maybe it's just because we're so used to the comfort of being near one another that being apart is difficult?" He was trying to rationalize it for her, hoping maybe he could help. "And if you're having trouble sleeping.. I'll switch shifts with M'Benga on Fridays and Wednesdays so I don't work any gamma shifts, okay? Would that help?"

[nyota-uhura24.livejournal.com]

She blinked in surprise when he told her so easily that he trusted her with his life. “Well, I already trusted you with my life,” she teased lightly, tentatively putting a hand over her rib cage. It was mostly healed, although still a little sore. “But I trust you, too,” she said seriously.

He caught his hand in her hair and she looked back at him and smiled weakly. “I know that’s part of it. Now that I’m so used to sleeping with you there, sleeping alone is… even harder than normal.” He offered to switch shifts, but she shook her head. “No, no you don’t have to rearrange your work schedule for me,” she said, suddenly feeling guilty. She almost desperately wanted him to be there every night, but she didn’t want to interfere with his duties. “I need to get past this anyway.” She took a deep breath, trying to get the rest out as calmly as possible. “I just keep thinking about all the people we lost… Some of them were friends of mine. And I keep being afraid that if I go to sleep, I’ll wake up and I’ll… I’ll still be trapped under that bulkhead, with the ship exploding around me, and the PADD we need inches from my fingers, and…” She trailed off, blinking away the tears that were forming in her eyes.

[bones-mccoy63.livejournal.com]

He chuckled a little as he traced his fingers gingerly across hers on her side and nodded. "And I gladly did everything I could to make your recovery as swift and painless as humanly and medically possible!" Nodding as she replied that she trusted him, McCoy smiled softly. He knew that she trusted him, but it never hurt to hear it aloud again.

His smile faded quickly, however, when she began to cry. He lifted a hand to cup her cheek as he wiped at the tears forming in her eyes. "I know, darlin', but if you're having trouble sleeping, I want to. I want to be here for you when you need me and we both know that we both sleep better beside one another anyways. That'll just make life easier for each of us. I'll send M'Benga a message in the morning," he said, ignoring her insistence that he leave his schedule as is. He knew that she felt bad about it, but he was going to be there for her any way he could. It was really hard for him to listen to how she felt when he wasn't there and he wanted to avoid that. "Have you talked to Liz about the nightmares? Maybe she could help..."

[nyota-uhura24.livejournal.com]

"Thank you," she said. It felt a little strange to thank him for being her doctor, but she knew both how talented he was and how committed he was to medicine and to her. "I know I couldn't be in better hands," she said as she wound her fingers with his.

She smiled weakly as he wiped the tears out of her eyes, and then looked away for a moment, not wanting to admit how much she wanted him to be there. The prospect of having him beside her every night was extremely tempting, but... "Leo, are you sure? I really don't want to interfere with your duties," she said carefully.

When he suggested that she talk to Liz, she wasn't sure how to respond. Although she felt comfortable being around Liz, the idea of delving into her personal demons was a lot more frightening now that she knew about Liz's telepathy. She wasn't sure she'd be able to keep private those things she wanted to keep to herself. Sighing, she replied, "I think I'll be all right. I want to give it a little time first, at least. And as you know, having trouble sleeping is... nothing new. The attack just made it worse but... it'll get better." She smiled a little wider this time. "Especially if I have you here," she added, leaning forward to kiss him again.