Hamate

After Spock and Nyota have disintegrated, but before Jim jumps in and snatches him off the market, McCoy finds himself talking relationships with the aforementioned slighted woman in a mostly-abandoned rec room. He's already dispensed his half an hour rant about the ex-bitch and all of the entanglement that having a child provides, swirling around some awful replicated bourbon in a glass that reflects his mood, his message, and the awful alpha shift they've all just gotten off of. She's got water in her glass, and he hasn't asked why as she starts in on her lecture about Spock.

"Things just... changed, I guess." Nyota rolls her glass around by the rim. "It wasn't easy anymore. I mean, it was never easy, but it wasn't that hard, either." Her mouth twitches. "Never like you and Kirk."

McCoy's spine shoots straight. "Now, wait, you know that it's not like that with me'n Jim, right?"

Nyota smiles; they're both too quiet and serious right now to laugh. "Oh, yes, that's not what I meant. Even if you two aren't romantic, you're still close, but you're easy close. It just clicks with you two." She sips at her water. "Anyone can envy that."

"Well, it's taken years of puttin' up with each other to get here, y'know." She nods, and they fall silent for a moment, lost in their respective liquids and the hum of the few others in the rec room.

"Have you ever thought about it?" He glances over with an eyebrow raised. "With Jim, I mean. Seems a natural step, at least in consideration."

He shrugs and considers. "We talked about it, back when we were roommates at the Academy." He swallows a mouthful of his drink before continuing quietly. "Fact a'the matter was, we just ain't physically attracted to each other. He's a fine-lookin' gent, don't get me wrong, but..." He shrugs again, bigger. "He's a dumb kid, and God knows I love him, but I've never felt the need to push it farther. And he hasn't, either."

"Mmm." Nyota pulls a knee up to lean on it and stares blankly at the far wall. "Good for you, I guess."

Another long silence falls. This time, McCoy breaks it.

"So next time you hear some dumb chit hypothesizin' about where Jim's stupid nickname comes from, you can tell 'em I said to fuck off."

That surprises a laugh from Nyota at last, and the conversation turns to the latest returns from the gossip mill.