Leonard had been a Jr. in high school when he started dating Jocelyn Darnell. The lived in one of those small towns where everyone knew everyone, but he had been the shy nerd in school and she had been a popular cheerleader. It was by the average clique standards that the two of them never really crossed paths, that was until Jocelyn had decided to make her ex-boyfriend jealous. It was this desire that had a young Jocelyn picking a shy Leonard out at a high school party (the kind the whole school practically went to.) and dragged him into a dance.
Of course her ex boyfriend Clay Treadway didn’t like that Leonard was ‘trying to steal his girl’ and the next day at school tried to start a fight. Much to everyone’s surprise it had been a fight that Leonard managed to win, and from that moment on Leonard and Jocelyn were considered to be going steady. All that summer, and through their senior year of high school the two were inseparable much to the dismay of Leonard’s mother, who did not care for the girl in the slightest.
The two of them started out great, they had enough in common and matching tempers that they seemed like a well enough mix. Enough so that they were even named their school’s prom king and queen their senior year. Most of their graduating class was convinced that despite what seemed like an odd mix at first, that the two were meant to be. Leonard of course had fallen hard, and would do anything to make Jocelyn smile, he was happy and relatively carefree. Any free time he could manage was spent following her around.
When it came time for them to choose a college, the both of them had agreed to go to the university of Mississippi together. Even despite the new surroundings and experiences that came with being undergrads, the two managed to still go strong. It honestly did seem like they were going to stand the tests of time, and Leonard truly believed that he found his soulmate, despite claiming to not have much belief in those sorts of things. Of course the couple wasn’t perfect and they would occasionally get into fights, and it could occasionally get verbally nasty. The two both had a way with words, and knew how to cut the other deep. However they always reconciled within a few days, and to this day Leonard claims that makeup sex is the best thing ever invented.
The two had still been going strong as Leonard eventually started medical school, enough so that Leonard had been seriously considering a marriage proposal, but he had told himself that he wanted to wait until after they were both out of school. The only hitch that the two ever really seemed to fight about was the idea of starting a family. Leonard desperately wanted to have kids once he was out of school and on his feet as a doctor, where Jocelyn didn’t want kids at all.
However the decision was made for them when the month before Leonard graduated from Med School, Jocelyn found out that she was pregnant. It came as a relative surprise since the two of them had always been so careful about birth control, but there had been one night where they had been particularly drunk and one thing led to another.
Once Leonard graduated from medical school, the two moved back to Georgia, moving into a relatively nice home in the suburbs of Atlanta. The two got married in a relatively small ceremony after Leonard finally proposed. Everything seemed like it was going to be okay, despite the stress that came with Leonard’s long hours of working at a hospital. There were unfortunately no shortcuts in the medical field, and he was more than willing to work hard for what he wanted. It didn’t help that he had his father’s reputation as a damn good doctor to live up to.
When his baby girl was born, she became Leonard’s world, from the moment she was born he was wrapped around her little finger. Joanna became a complete daddy’s girl, most of the time preferring the attention and affections of her father over that of her mother’s. All of his very little spare time ended up going to his daughter, which unintentionally started the strain on his marriage, since by default he didn’t give his wife nearly as much attention as she deserved.
However things were still okay, things were going well enough. Things didn’t take a hard downward spiral until Leonard’s father got terminally ill. Leonard who had always been very close with his dad, became obsessed with finding a cure. All he could think about was trying to keep his father alive long enough for him to find some cure for him, determined not to loose him. However no matter how much time he threw into research, and how close he managed to get.. He just couldn’t find that last missing piece he needed to save his father.
Two years into Leonard’s marriage his father was suffering and with no cure in sight begged his song to just put him out of his misery. Leonard of course had outright refused at first, not only not wanting to let go of his father, but he had taken an oath to do no harm. However his father had finally broken down Leonard, and on October 10th, 2252 David McCoy passes away. Though on the death certificate it clearly states that he succumbed to his illness, Leonard is the only one who knows the truth.. That he had been overdosed on pain medication.
Having killed his father took it’s toll on Leonard, he took up going to the bar after work a bit more and became incredibly distant from Jocelyn, and anyone other than Jojo. He was filled with so much guilt over what he had done, that he couldn’t seem to cope, and it did not help that he couldn’t tell a single soul about what he had done, not only because it would put his medical license at risk, but.. Because he couldn’t take the thought of anyone else knowing about the horrible thing he had done.
Leonard becoming distant from Jocelyn seemed to be the breaking point for their marriage. She felt extremely neglected that her husband wouldn’t even so much as give her the time of day, or let her in on what has been troubling him. She could tell that it was more than just his father passing away, she knew he was hiding something but she could never get Leonard to talk about it, no matter how hard she tried. This led to fight after fight, and though they always did the best to wait until after Joanna went to bed, never liking to fight in front of her.
Eventually it all became much, and Leonard had pushed her so far away, that he ended up pushing her right back into the arms of Clay Treadway. A year after his father died, Jocelyn finally had enough and filed for divorce, which came as a slap in the face to Leonard, who despite having been distant still had the hopes that they could make it work because he did love her very much.
With the filing for divorce came the long drawn out custody battles over Joanna. Leonard wanted to have the right to see his daughter as much as he wanted, because that little girl still was his world and refused to let her go, especially to the woman who had never wanted kids in the first place. The whole thing was drawn out over a span of about a year, the two only ever seeing each other at meetings with their lawyers.. Except for once instance, that being May 9th, their anniversary and though despite everything that was happening Leonard had gotten himself relatively drunk and found himself calling her up.
The two spent one last drunken night together, reliving what use to be, just one more one last time. Though it had felt so right in the moment, the two had been together for thirteen years and in a moment of weakness shared one last night together. However when the morning came, so came the feeling of regret over what they had done. Especially since Jocelyn was technically in a relationship with Clay.
Finally in Febuary of 2255 the divorce was finalized, with primary custody of Joanna being awarded to Jocelyn. However Leonard was still given full visitation rights to his daughter, which he had every intention of utilizing refusing to be fully gone from his daughter’s life. Leonard was incredibly bitter and hurt over the divorce, still unable to fully able to let Jocelyn go, and had decided being forced to watch Jocelyn start her new life was too much and the rash decision to join Starfleet happened.
It had been his need to get as far as he could from having to see Jocelyn be happy, his guilt over his father’s death ( A guilt that tripled when a cure was found for the illness was discovered), and the death of a young girl, a patient of his who had the dream of one day becoming a Starfleet Captain had been the final push for him to say ‘Fuck it’ and sign up for Starfleet. That was how one Leonard Horatio McCoy ended up on that shuttle in Riverside, Iowa.
