Bones groaned as he materialized on the Enterprise transport pad. Carol rushed over to him, apologizing profusely. But he ignored her and focused on his breathing and how the heck he's going to be a doctor with one hand. The torpedo closed in on his arm but there was no way to disarm it before it exploded, right when they beamed him and Carol back.

Blood dripped to the floor as he stumbled along the hallways wondering for the fifth time why he wasn't just beamed to the med-bay to make things easier. Carol was still fluttering around him and it took everything in him not to yell in her face but he was tired and in too much pain. Security officers helped him into sick bay, his nurses on hand.

He looked up and locked eyes with you, seeing tears threatening to fall but you swallowed and raised your head just a bit letting him know you weren't about to back out of this one. He just stared at you until he was set on a bed where he closed his eyes and let out a low breath.

Nurses rushed around, voices filling the med-bay at an alarming volume. Bones winced severely, his only hand cradling what was left of his arm to his chest. Several hands bustled at taking his shirt off and wrapping his stump. He peeked his eye open and growled.

"(Y/n) shut them up would you?"

You let out a small laugh. "Even as you writhe in pain you boss people around."

"Please."

You looked down at him and your smile fell. He just stared up at you, his eyes almost as pleading as his voice. You reached down and placed a hand on his shoulder nodding.

"HEY! Keep it down or I'll assign each of you a turn at taking care of his bathroom breaks." Instantly the room fell a few decibels. The stress in the doctor's shoulders eased up but only just. You turned back to him, holding him

In any other setting him laying there shirtless, his hair damp with perspiration and his eyes closed you would have found him temptingly attractive. But the groans of discomfort and the twitches of his body changed that quickly. The pain in his voice and agony in his eyes set your heart racing for other reasons. You blinked and got back to appointing orders as you gave him a half dozen hypos.

Bones growled, reaching up to stop your hand with his own as you gave him the last hypo. "You are lucky I only have one hand. God, those hurt."

You gave him a small smile and held his hand between both of yours. "Wish I knew it took you losing an arm to believe us when you used them on us. I would have chopped your arm off long ago."

He gritted his teeth and squeezed your hand in his almost too roughly. "You are not helping. Now knock me out or I'll have you reassigned."

You released his hand and nodded to the other nurse who had just finished wrapping his stump. Carefully you placed a thermal covering over his body, leaving his head out as he slowly started to slip into unconsciousness. You turned to leave but you heard your name grumbled out slowly.

"(Y/n)..."

You turned and raised a brow. "Yes?" You hesitated to reach out and stroke his brow but as he gasped for breath you pushed through protocol and did just that.

He blinked hard and looked up at you pleadingly. "You have to o-operate on it n-now."

You shook your head. "We can't. We have nothing to stop the bleeding. It was a crude cut and you are lucky to be alive. We need to calm your heart before we can start surgery."

He is damp brows furrowed. "Surgery?" He swallowed and his blink was long.

YOu nodded, continuing your gentle strokes. "I was an engineer on the Avalon and I think it's time we used those extra limbs we picked up last restock."

Bones groaned, his eyelids growing heavy. "I knew I cursed myself saying we didn't need them."

You gave him a sad smile and nodded. "Rest. Then we will start."

But something was wrong. A nurse came up to you and whispered in your ear that his blood wasn't clotting and he was bleeding too much. That worried you greatly. You stared down at your doctor as he fought the pain even in his induced sleep. With a quick reassessment of the situation, you decided to go ahead and start the surgery.

Soon enough your nurse crew stood around you as Bones finally laid peacefully after much persuasion on your part to let the hypos to their job. Carol laid resting as well, her worry over the doctor and her hand in losing his having put her in a state of hysteria. The poor woman blamed herself despite it being the torpedo that blew up.

You stood at his side where his wrapped arm laid on a slightly lifted table. Next to it was a quite impressive shining replica of his own arm and hand. It didn't take you long to modify it enough to fit the end of his arm but it would take you some more time to get it attached to his nerves and sadly you needed him awake for that. You will wait until the last possible moment to wake him.

But that time came far too quickly for your liking. You stared down at his calm face, a smile threatening to break out over your face at the thought of him waking to find you staring at him. You shook your head and nodded to the nurse across from you, allowing him to wake the doctor.

You held Bones' new hand as he started to blink awake. You stroked your thumb over the back of it hoping it would elicit some sort of response. But instead the good doctor's heart rate skyrocketed and his body started to spasm.

"Hurry, pass the neural neutralizer. Be sure to hold him steady. I don't want him further injuring himself."

You kept your hand where it was but let out a scream as his cold metal fingers clamped down on your own. You were sure you had a few broken bones now. But you focused on him, finding it easy to ignore the pain. His eyes were wild and his breathing was erratic. You reached over with your free hand and placed it on his cheek, forcing him to look at you. The neural hypo was administered and he started to relax but you could still see his pain.

"Bones. Bones. Hey, shhh, I'm right here. Look at me." You gave him a kind smile. "I need you to breathe and tell me if you can feel my hand in yours."

He took a deep breath and nodded, looking at his new hand clasped with yours. "What in God's name have you done to my arm?" He growled through clenched teeth.

YOu looked down at it and saw him try to move his fingers but they weren't reacting. You looked up at the monitor screen and your heart dropped. You were going to have to manually attach his nerve endings. Just as you feared.

You looked down at him and stroked his cheek. "You got injured. I have to work on your arm so I'll need my hand back. It's going to hurt, but you have to stay awake. I need you to tell me something, anything. Can you do that for me?"

He scowled at you and turned to look up at the ceiling. "Injured. Carol. The torpedo." He glanced at you. "It got stuck."

You nodded as you looked down at his arm and pried your fingers from his grasp. The monitors continued to beep as his heart rate refused to fall. You gave him another small smile.

"Yes. But tell me something happy. What of your daughter? How old is she now?"

Bones groaned as you started to peel back some of the metal plates just enough to get to where the flesh met the artificial limb. "Eleven I think. I forget. I'm a terrible father like that. Haven't talked to her in years. That damn woman who she calls mother won't let me."

You shook your head as you stared down at the complex wiring. You called over another nurse. Your broken fingers won't make this easy. "I highly doubt that; I'm sure you are a great father."

He hissed as you started to connect the right nerves. "I probably won't ever know."

You glanced at him for a moment before getting back to work, happy to hear his heart rate dropping. "I wouldn't say that either. You are still young."

"Not as I once was." He let out a bark of pain as you connected a few big ones. "And at this rate, I'm losing ten years to all this pain with how sloppy you're being."

You laughed, shaking your head again. "But can you imagine, the first crew member of any Starfleet ship with an arm fully made of metal! You'd draw every lady's eye. You'd be the talk of the town! Good thing you're a grown man so no need to go changing the size every few months."

The noise he made after you set some more nerve near almost sounded like a whimper. You glanced at him a raised a brow. He was biting his lip and squeezing his eyes shut.

"You are a grown man right?"

Bones peeked an eye open and glared at you. "Once you're finished let me lop your arm off and attach a cold metal contraption to all your open nerves. I'd like to see you take it laying down."

You grinned, focusing on the last few nerves. "And if I were to take it? I'd say I'd be in need of some sort of reward."

Bones' chuckled as he winced, his breathing still a bit rough. "Oh ho ho ho no, if anyone is getting a reward it will be me."

You took one last look at the arm and nodded to the helping nurse for him to close it up and start the recalibration as you turned to the doctor, your suddenly shaking hands sliding into your pockets.

"I suppose so. But before you go demanding things you have to agree to one thing."

Bones pinched his brows together and let out a breath. "Fine. As long as you are done poking me."

You winced as you looked at him. "Unfortunately I will need to keep close tabs on your arm for a few months. Making sure it works right and doesn't fail you unexpectedly and that it's responding to your movements and nerves well enough."

He rolled his eyes and huffed. "Well, I could feel every thing you were doing if that means anything."

You smiled. "It's a good start."

The nurse nodded and left, leaving you alone with the patient who was less than such at the moment. You took a stool and sat by him, taking his metal arm off the raised table and setting it on his chest.

"It will feel weird for a while but I have a feeling you will get used to it in no time."

Bones just stared at it as it laid limply on his chest. You saw a tear escape his eye but said nothing as you stood to wipe it before stroking back some of his hair and pulling a blanket over him.

"Rest. I will come check on you in a bit. Call if you need anything." You gave him a sad smile and made sure to catch his eye before you left. "I'm so sorry Leonard. I really am."

~

You stood outside his office, leaning against the door frame as you watched the doctor stare at his hand. It's been five months and he has been improving more and more each day. You were impressed, to say the least. But you were finding your need to no longer see him as a bittersweet result. No more moments alone with him.

Bones put his hand down and took a long draught of his copper drink. The reflection of your body on his arm altered him to your presence.

"Does it pain you this is your last time needing to poke and bend my arm?" He sent you a look of feighned frustration.

You shrugged a shoulder as you came to sit across from him, your arms coming to rest on the table as you put your chin on top of them. "Of course it does. How many nurses get to play doctor to their superior officer and the CMO of all people."

He snorted, taking another drink. He laid out his arm toward you, his fingers brushing against your own arm. "It didn't hurt one bit today. No pitching."

Your eyes widened and you smiled. "No pinching?"

He shook his head. "None."

YOu took his hand in yours and started to examine it. You moved it around, bent it forward and back ward. Tapped a few places and rubbed at smudges. You then moved to the fingers, bending and feeling each one. It was remarkable how life like it felt despite being titanium steel and other metals.

But bones wasn't thinking about how amazing it was. He was thinking about your touch. How gentle it was and how it made his skin burn like fire even where he no longer had skin. A few check-ups ago you asked if he could feel much of anything. He just shrugged and said that it was enough to know not to touch hot coils. But he didn't tell you that it was like his old hand, if not better. He could feel the blood rushing through your veins as he let you hold his hand in yours.

He searched your face as you concentrated and he found himself no longer in control of his body. His metal hand gently grasped yours, pulling your attention to him. His eyes held yours earnestly as he pulled you gently to him. He too came closer to you, his eyes never leaving you and his hand now took charge of holding yours.

You held your breath as you hoped for your dream to come true, to be held by him and kiss his worries and pains away. you loved the feel of his new hand in yours and you had no qualms with it stroking your skin. It was smooth and warm, not cold and rough like it's owner likes to act.

Wordlessly Bones closed the gap, pressing his lips against yours. You closed your eyes and sighed at the touch, your hands reaching up his arms. His metal arm moved from your hand, up your arm, to your neck and into your hair, giving you goosebumps but in the most pleasant way. The table between you two was the only reason you weren't in his arms. Your lips moved perfectly against each other but air was needed. Bones pulled back but didn't drop his hand from your hair.

"I know what I want my reward to be," he whispered as he glanced at your lips again.

You smirked, running your hand up and down his new arm. "Took you long enough."

He kissed your forehead and leaned his against yours as he closed his eyes. "You. If you'd take a maimed grouchy doctor. But only if you promise not to see me as your mechanical patient anymore."

You let out a light sigh, kissing his shiny wrist by your face as you closed your eyes. "As long it's only your arm that's made of steel and not your heart."

Bones chuckled at your cheesy line but you didn't care. "I escaped death once, I think I can handle a smile or two."

At that, you kissed him again but this time made sure to move to his side of the table and programming the door to shut and lock behind you.