[HALLOWEEN PARTY!] -- [Open to ALL PLAYERS!] -- [IC Event!]

[kirktastic]

It had gone out as an announcement over a month ago, sent to every padd and station by one very excited Captain. A Halloween party! Must come in costume, must have fun!

Despite the hell that had been going on for the last few days, Kirk was determined that it still would happen. After a long discussion with the ship's quartermaster, along with a small army of crewmen who wanted to help, the largest rec room was decorated.

A huge buffet table had been prepared by the galley and sat spread out, all in Halloween theme. Green punch with floating eyeballs, cake decorated to look like a gravestone, a huge bowl of candy, a holographic severed hand that was scurrying around on the table top. There was even a bar set up with quite an expanse of liquor that had been secured on Risa.

There was a small seating area off to one corner, a huge dance floor, tables spread out for a real meal, and a small corner set up for music.

(OOC: Just like the thread with Risa... this is a party that's 'open' from now until Sunday night at midnight! Go nuts! This IS supposed to be IC, like the Risa party, so keep that in mind!)

Comments

[joanna-mccoy.livejournal.com]

"I'm not sure if he or Spock was worse," Joanna smiled reminiscently. "They both knew what I was capable of considering I'd been on her since I was seven and you know how Jim feels about putting in less than your best work."

"I honestly don't know," Joanna admitted. "I don't know how this works, what I'm supposed to call you. I'm working on not brooding alone but...it's hard. Weird."

[dctr-mccoy.livejournal.com]

"You can call me whatever you want, sweetheart," he said, using the nickname without realizing. I just want you to be happy, and if you can't be happy yet, I want you to be safe." He fiddled a little with one of his arrows. "I think its what he would have wanted."

[joanna-mccoy.livejournal.com]

Joanna nodded. "Keep remindin' myself he'd want to see me happy. He liked when I was havin' fun, making discoveries, and just playin'. Liked when we'd work together, me in my field and him in his, and liked evenings in the suite, readin' journals, or books. Never did get the hang of chess."

[dctr-mccoy.livejournal.com]

"Sounds like you grew up with a lot of love," Bones told her, smiling. That made him happy, that she'd been taken care of, cherished. "I want you to be comfortable here, for as long as you want to stay on board."

[joanna-mccoy.livejournal.com]

"Surrounded by it," Joanna said softly. "There were assholes, but we had them back on earth too. Honestly, I don't know that I'd want to leave. Might have, the old ship, if Pavel and Hikaru had gotten command of the new ship bein' built, go be the science officer on their ship, but..."

[dctr-mccoy.livejournal.com]

"If you're as good a Science officer as you say you are, there will be a place for you, once your paperwork is approved." Bones gave her what he hoped was a warm smile. "Starfleet lost a lot of people recently, and someone with your background would be snapped up fast."

Not that Bones wanted her to leave - but he knew she wasn't happy here, and more than anything he wanted her to be happy.

[joanna-mccoy.livejournal.com]

"I think I'll stick around. The only reason I wanted to leave was ex boyfriend issues, really," Joanna admitted. "He was a big problem and only Pavel knew about it which is why he kept threatening to steal me off."

"And I was trained by Spock." She smiled proudly. "And Christine too."

[dctr-mccoy.livejournal.com]

It was strange that she knew them, but it wasn't them, it was other people who might be as different as they were from the other Jim, Spock, and Bones. "You'll be welcome if you stay," Bones told her. "I'll be glad to have you, for as long as you want."

[joanna-mccoy.livejournal.com]

"Better or worse, the Enterprise is what I know," Joanna said softly. "Since I was seven and mute, up through high school. Daddy made me do a year on a planet. Hated it."

[dctr-mccoy.livejournal.com]

Bones looked confused. "Made you... why did he do that?" That didn't sound like something he'd come up with.

[joanna-mccoy.livejournal.com]

"Because I'd been on the ship since I was seven," Joanna said. "And he wanted me to be sure that being a Starfleet officer, in space with some experience of living on a planet again now that I was more grown up. Also, it gave me a chance to have some distance, to regard my aunts and uncles and parents and older brothers as my senior officers rather than just family."

[dctr-mccoy.livejournal.com]

He looked around the room at the crew, wondering what it would be like to have a child on board, how it would change their relationship to her, and to each other. Family, that was the word she said, and it made him think about the people in this room differently.

"Tell me about your fathers," Bones asked quietly. "If it's alright - I just... I'm curious what is was like, what kind of father I was."

[joanna-mccoy.livejournal.com]

Joanna closed her eyes for a moment, and tried to figure out how to explain her Daddy and Papa. "Daddy was the quiet strength...he was just always there, and he didn't let me get away with stuff. I used to get grounded to the CMO's office and have to write lines."

"Papa...I didn't talk for about a year after earth imploded. Papa was the first one I talked to. He and Daddy weren't dating then, but they were best friends...and even then I knew that if something was wrong with Daddy, then Papa was the one to call. He was just Uncle Jim then. He only once ever really took full advantage of the Papa name to give me a very well earned chewing out."

[dctr-mccoy.livejournal.com]

There was so much when Joanna spoke, everytime, that led to more and more questions in Bones' head that he wondered how many years it would take before he knew everything. "You didn't speak for a year?"

Of course, a seven-year old who'd lost everything - had to be fucking traumatic.

[joanna-mccoy.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, but then Daddy got sick," Joanna nodded. "So I had to talk, to call someone. That someone was Papa, of course."

[dctr-mccoy.livejournal.com]

"He took care of you," Bones said softly. It was a strange idea, not completely out of the realm, but... Kirk spoke of children with derision, it wasn't anything he ever spoke about, having a family like that. To think of him with his own daughter - his stomach tightened a little at that. It shouldn't worry him, but it did.

"How did he get sick?" Bones was curious.

[joanna-mccoy.livejournal.com]

"He took care of Daddy," Joanna corrected. "He didn't have the first or second clue what to do with me. By then, he'd babysat often enough to have had the third clue. But he called the medics, and lost the argument about me staying there to watch over Daddy in sickbay."

"I think it was overwork, and not sleeping, with some kinda measles thing filling up sickbay. Y'know, taking care of everyone and not sitting down to rest ever?"

[dctr-mccoy.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, I know about that," Bones told her. She looked so young sometimes, and in that outfit, she looked to him like a little girl playing at dressing up.

Not that he'd tell her that... "I'm sorry, Joanna, these questions, they must be bothering you. You don't have to talk about it if you don't want."

[joanna-mccoy.livejournal.com]

"No...I don't mind," Joanna said softly. "I'm the one who remembers them...and I got to keep remembering them. Hurts but..."

[dctr-mccoy.livejournal.com]

"I like hearing about them too," Bones told her. "Anytime you need to talk, you know I'm here. I know I'm not your dad, but..." he shrugged. "I'd like to be your friend."

[joanna-mccoy.livejournal.com]

"Friends would be nice...or maybe family?" Joanna glanced at him hesitantly from under her eyelashes. "I've kinda gotten used to creating my own and something tells me you might make good family."

[dctr-mccoy.livejournal.com]

"Family would be even better," Bones told her, reaching out to put his hand on top of hers. "I'd like that. Alot."

[joanna-mccoy.livejournal.com]

She turned her hand and squeezed his. "I miss them so much."

[dctr-mccoy.livejournal.com]

"I know they'd be so proud of you, sweetie," Bones told her, "You survived, and that's all a parent could hope for. Nothing else matters."

[joanna-mccoy.livejournal.com]

"No, Papa and Daddy would be yelling at me for not securing myself in the escape pod," Joanna said fighting back tears. Not today for those.