Suspended Imagination Chapter 1: Gotta Be Somebody
Chapter 1: Gotta Be Somebody
Leonard McCoy was many things. A doctor, an ex-husband, and a father, were only a few of them. He'd married his high school sweetheart, Jocelyn, after he graduated medical school, when he was 25, and Jos had gotten pregnant within a year. Joanna Lynn McCoy was the light of his life, but he could never shake the thought that he was missing something, that there was something else he should be doing. So he threw himself into his work, carefully carving out family time that was never enough for his wife.
She began an affair with Clay Treadway, the asshole whose nose he had bloodied back at the school dance in high school. He turned a blind eye to it at first, since she wasn't snapping at him anymore, and it gave him more time with his work and his JoJo. When she was suddenly pregnant, and there was no way it could be his, however, the anger started to burn, along with that restless feeling. Something itched in the back of his mind, but trying to figure out what it was only caused immense pain, so he shied from picking at it.
Joanna was two when they divorced, and as such, she didn't understand anything more than that Dada wasn't going to be home anymore. Leonard had tried to fight for custody, but Jocelyn's family was far more powerful than his, and it resulted in not only losing Joanna, but the plantation (which had been in his family for centuries) and his practice. He tried to bear it with dignity, but when he couldn't get a job anywhere in the South, he realized what had happened. The Darnells had black-listed him, effectively making it so that he couldn't work anywhere, ever. Jocelyn herself had made the calls, he later learned, not wanting him to have anything beyond what she allowed. He tried all over the world, but no one would take him on and risk their wrath.
The only place he hadn't tried was Starfleet, and something told him she'd done this on purpose, too. His salvation was to come with the knowledge that he was being forced to go to a place that he absolutely hated: Space. He had never liked flying, but after taking a class on and then working at a crash-site for a shuttle, his aviophobia had grown to exponential proportions. Jocelyn's final revenge for ignoring her was to kill him slowly, without even touching him.
He kept searching the faces around him for no reason, part of him hoping to see something familiar, but nothing stood out for him. Until the morning that he was to board the shuttle for the Academy. He had his trusty flask and a seat in the bathroom when a tiny Commander dragged him out, forcing him to sit in full view of the rest of the ship (which didn't matter so much) and a full view of the window (which mattered quite a lot). The man sitting next to him was the only other person in civilians, and so he struck up a conversation, anything to distract him from his impending death.
"I may throw up on you."
(Chapter 2: Microscopes are Prudent)
Leonard McCoy was many things. A doctor, an ex-husband, and a father, were only a few of them. He'd married his high school sweetheart, Jocelyn, after he graduated medical school, when he was 25, and Jos had gotten pregnant within a year. Joanna Lynn McCoy was the light of his life, but he could never shake the thought that he was missing something, that there was something else he should be doing. So he threw himself into his work, carefully carving out family time that was never enough for his wife.
She began an affair with Clay Treadway, the asshole whose nose he had bloodied back at the school dance in high school. He turned a blind eye to it at first, since she wasn't snapping at him anymore, and it gave him more time with his work and his JoJo. When she was suddenly pregnant, and there was no way it could be his, however, the anger started to burn, along with that restless feeling. Something itched in the back of his mind, but trying to figure out what it was only caused immense pain, so he shied from picking at it.
Joanna was two when they divorced, and as such, she didn't understand anything more than that Dada wasn't going to be home anymore. Leonard had tried to fight for custody, but Jocelyn's family was far more powerful than his, and it resulted in not only losing Joanna, but the plantation (which had been in his family for centuries) and his practice. He tried to bear it with dignity, but when he couldn't get a job anywhere in the South, he realized what had happened. The Darnells had black-listed him, effectively making it so that he couldn't work anywhere, ever. Jocelyn herself had made the calls, he later learned, not wanting him to have anything beyond what she allowed. He tried all over the world, but no one would take him on and risk their wrath.
The only place he hadn't tried was Starfleet, and something told him she'd done this on purpose, too. His salvation was to come with the knowledge that he was being forced to go to a place that he absolutely hated: Space. He had never liked flying, but after taking a class on and then working at a crash-site for a shuttle, his aviophobia had grown to exponential proportions. Jocelyn's final revenge for ignoring her was to kill him slowly, without even touching him.
He kept searching the faces around him for no reason, part of him hoping to see something familiar, but nothing stood out for him. Until the morning that he was to board the shuttle for the Academy. He had his trusty flask and a seat in the bathroom when a tiny Commander dragged him out, forcing him to sit in full view of the rest of the ship (which didn't matter so much) and a full view of the window (which mattered quite a lot). The man sitting next to him was the only other person in civilians, and so he struck up a conversation, anything to distract him from his impending death.
"I may throw up on you."
(Chapter 2: Microscopes are Prudent)