[fin] Sipping the Night Away

[Pandora Mendelsohn]

Pandi took a seat at the bar and ordered a glass of red wine. It wasn't often that she spent much time in bars, but tonight seemed to be an exception. She wasn't really in the mood to spend an evening in the rec room, but she didn't want to sit alone in her quarters either. She thanked the bartender when he brought her the glass of wine. She then turned and sipped at her wine as she watched the hustle and bustle of the bar's patrons.

[Leonard McCoy (Audrey)]

The good doctor padded into the bar, looking somewhat harassed. He muttered something under his breath with the words 'damned training' and '..doctor not a gymnast...' somewhere in there. He'd just gotten done with a fairly routine workout because he'd made a promise to himself to stick to the regiments he'd gotten used to while inn the Academy training program, although, at this point, that was probably going to become an empty self-promise pretty soon.

Aching, he'd gone back to his room, showered and changed and now he wanted a drink, so he headed to the bar and ordered a good old Earth beer to reminisce about days past. "Miller, draft." Then he plunked down on the seat beside the woman and quickly engaged in an age old tradition. "Would you share a toast with me?" As his first drink aboard the ship, Bones felt this needed a moment of praise. It would not be his last.

[Pandora Mendelsohn]

Pandi looked over when a man took the seat next to her. He looked somewhat irritated and hadn't really expected him to want to converse with her. She had to admit that she was rather surprised when he turned to her and asked her to join him in a toast. "I'd be delighted to." She said with a smile as she raised her wine glass. "So, what are we toasting to?" She asked.

[Leonard McCoy (Audrey)]

As his bottle was set down, McCoy picked it up, barely letting it hit the bar top. Then he turned toward his companion for the moment and lifted the bottle in the gesture of a toast, tilting it slightly to clink on the more sophisticated glass of wine. "To," he thought for a moment with the twist of a 'whatever' smirk. "alcohol, and someone to drink it with."

With a nod, he then brought the bottle to his lips, taking a long pull. Once he'd managed that first drink, he gave the woman a bit more focus and offered an introduction, "Leonard, McCoy."

[Pandora Mendelsohn]

"I'll drink to that." Pandi said with a small smirk when the man gave the toast. She took a sip of wine as she watched him in a musement. "It's nice to meet you Leonard MCCoy." She said as she offered a hand for a handshake. "Pandora Mendelsohn, but most of my friends call me Pandi." She said with a smile. "Do you come here often?" She asked. This was her first time in the bar so she had no idea which out of the people around her were regulars and which ones weren't.

[Leonard McCoy (Audrey)]

Pandi? The name itself was almost too sugary-cute to come out of his mouth, but it caused an easy smile, a near-trademark of the south from which he was born and bred, to spread over the generally gruff doctor's face as he took the offered hand. "My pleasure."

McCoy set the bottle down and leaned against the bar himself with one arm. "First timer, I'm afraid. Although, I think this may become my regular seat." With an air of humor, he 'tested' the stool, giving it a half turn each way and then stretching out before leaning back against the bar. "Yep, this'll do nicely."

Then, with a surge of ache from his still sore muscles, he groaned under his breath and began to rub one shoulder. "I swear, that's the last time I try to keep up with twenty year-olds in the gym." Leonard often seemed unhappy unless he could gripe about /something/, because he certainly wasn't out of shape. Just, out of practice maybe.

[Pandora Mendelsohn]

Pandi couldn't help chuckle as the man, Leonard, "tested" his stool. "This is my first time here as well. I only just arrived on the ship in the last few days." She said with a small smile as she took another sip of her wine. When he indirectly complained of what she suspected must have either been sore muscles or perhaps a minor injury, she let her eyes wonder over his body. He was quite attractive and seemed to be in quite good shape from what she could tell.

"I don't know, you look like you'd be able to give them a run for their money." She said with a teasing smile. He didn't hardly even look old enough to be saying something like that.

[Leonard McCoy (Audrey)]

Leonard responded with an eloquent grumble, but the tug of a smirk on his lips gave away that he appreciated the sentiment behind the woman's words. "Maybe, if I slowed them down with a hypo of mild sedative." He chuckled to himself but then realized he probably should explain that and added with a dismissive gesture of his hand, "Don't worry I'm a doctor."

[Pandora Mendelsohn]

Pandi's mouth opened and she looked at Leonard in mind shock when he mentioned about giving the others a hypo. "Oh, you're a doctor so that makes it ok, hmm?" She teased slightly.

[Leonard McCoy (Audrey)]

Leonard looked at her back, his look bordering on impish. He was possibly spending too much time with Jim. "I believe so, yes," he replied offhandedly, hoping she wasn't taking him seriously. At any rate, he took another sip from the beer. "And what do you do around here, if I might ask?"

[Pandora Mendelsohn]

Pandi laughed when Leonard confirmed that it was ok because he was a doctor. She shook her head slightly. "I guess then when I'm in sickbay, I'll have to make sure someone else gives me a hypo if necessary so I know I can trust the correct medication is in it." She said, but flashed him a large grin to let him know that she was only joking, just as she assumed he probably was. If he really did stuff like that she doubted very much that he'd still be in Starfleet. In general Starfleet didn't seem like an organization that was tolerant of that sort of thing. Then again, she'd never met the ship's XO either.

"I'm one of those egg-headed science nerds that spends most of my time cooped up in the labs." She teased when he asked what she did. After a soft chuckle she gae him the serious answer. "I'm an astrophysicist." She said before taking another sip of her wine.

[Leonard McCoy (Audrey)]

Leonard lifted his brows, but caught only a large grin in return at her comment, so he chuckled. Ah, an astrophysicist... "So you spend most of your day looking out into space...I spent most of my time trying to avoid doing just that." It was true that he did his best to forget that he, and everyone on board, were hurdling through space, thousands of miles per hour, propelled inside of a bucket of bolts--albeit it a modern, shiny fancy new bucket--and outside of that perceived safety was the blackness of space and about a million ways for a humanoid to die.

Beer helped. He took another drink before giving his throat a small clearing. "Sorry, I have a /slight/ phobia about space," he murmured.

[Pandora Mendelsohn]

"Well, isn't that a bit tough?" Pandi asked. "To live in space if you have a phobia about space, I mean." She explained her question before taking a sip of her wine. Her glass was nearly empty by this point, not that it mattered. She had an interesting companion for the moment and that was even better than the wine. "I've got entomophobia, or a fear of insects, but I don't think I could ever handle being an Entomologist." She said with a slight chuckle.

[Leonard McCoy (Audrey)]

"Not as tough as living on the same planet as your ex-wife," he muttered, having just lowered his beer enough to do so. Then, as he took another drink, he then set the bottle down and sighed. "I manage. Anyway, they say the best way to get over a fear is to immerse yourself in it...so, color me 'immersed'."

[Pandora Mendelsohn]

"I should have known there was probably an 'ex' involved." Pandi said as amusement and her light British accent coloring her voice. "Exes have a way of making even the simplest of things complicated." She said turning a bit more pensive as she drank the last of her wine. She waved for the bartender to fill up her glass. "I'm here because of my ex-husband. He delibrately transfered to the ship I was serving on. It was a science vessel so of course it wasn't very big. I couldn't get away from bloody idiot." She stopped herself when she realized she was ranting. "Anyway, that's why I transfered to this ship." She said with a smile as she decided to change the subject. "What do you do for fun around here?" She asked.

[Leonard McCoy (Audrey)]

McCoy quirked a brow again in curiosity as she commented on how she 'should have known'. The only way she could have thought that was if she was also--ah, there it was. Leo's expression softened into one of empathy for someone having been through a shared experience. If the simple things were complicated, than the complicated things, like children, became a battlefield, held during a tornado, in the black of midnight, in deep winter.

The subject was changed and Leonard happily obliged. "To be honest, I generally just end up following Jim around when we're both off duty. He tends to find enough 'fun' for a shipload of sailors," he smirked.

[Pandora Mendelsohn]

"I don't believe I've met this Jim. What does he do?" She asked as the bartender filled her wineglass. She lifted it from the bar and took a sip.

[Leonard McCoy (Audrey)]

McCoy smiled from behind the rim of his glass. "Mostly flirt with women, when he's not busy saving planets, which is a step up from getting the snot beat out of him -- which I imagine happened more or less on a daily basis before he joined Star Fleet and became the X-O of this ship." He smirked a bit and finished off his beer.

Despite his disparaging remarks, there was a clear fondness in the man's voice when he spoke. He set the now empty beer bottle down, but did not as for another as he'd only been looking for something to take the sting of defeat off, not get drunk. He began to rub at his shoulder again.

[Pandora Mendelsohn]

"Oh, so you mean Jim as in Commander Kirk." She said with a smile as she gave Leonard an impressed look. "Sounds like you've got friends in high places." She half wandered what the man was doing talking to her then. She was just one of the lowly science officers. "Did you injure your shoulder?" She asked when she noticed that he was rubbing it again.

[Leonard McCoy (Audrey)]

"That's the one," he confirmed, although a touch of amusement etched his features at the look on her face. He wasn't a 'high falutin' -as his grandfather would say- kind of guy who was either impressed, or had the drive to surround himself with the wealthy or famous. Which is why his friend would always be just, 'Jim'.

"Nothing to be concerned about, just some sore muscles," he assured her. He leaned back a little with a stretch and then reciprocated the conversation back to his company. "What about your ideas of 'fun' around here?"

[Pandora Mendelsohn]

“I hope they feel better soon.” Pandi said with a smile when he said his muscles were just sore. Though, she was glad that’s all it was and that it wasn’t something serious.

“I enjoy playing chess.” She offered. “On the last ship I was often in the rec center playing chess. I’m not very good at it, but I still enjoy playing. I also enjoy reading and listening to music.” She paused for a moment as she took a sip of wine. “I’ve heard good things about the lounge. The Chief of Recreation on this ship arranges supposedly finds some of the best performers.” She said. She hadn’t yet been to one of the performances so she couldn’t say for sure, but everyone she heard talk about it swore that’s the way it was.

[Leonard McCoy (Audrey)]

His drink done, Leonard simply leaned back slightly to listen to the woman speak and he nodded. "That sounds quite nice, actually. I could stand for taking in a show sometime." Offering up a congenial smile, the doctor stood from his seat. "Well, perhaps I'll catch you at another chance to relax in the lounge sometime. But now you'll have to excuse me...there's an age-old mantra in medicine...'thy paperwork is never done'." He smirked good-naturedly and tipped his head in a gallant style bow.

[Pandora Mendelsohn]

"Then I guess I'll see you when I see you." She said with a smile as he stood. She intended to sit and people watch for a bit, at least until she finished her wine and then she'd probably leave as well.