Chris and Veda have one child, LeNora (because L'Nora is a very traditional Kriosian name that sounds like it could also be human, thus the spelling). Genetic testing is mandatory for all babies on Earth, so they knew even before she was born that she would be an empathic metamorph like her mother. The second in a little more than twenty years, Veda had believed it was impossible, but it was actually hybridization. According to her doctor, any child they had was guaranteed to be a metamorph, which sounded even more impossible. Despite their best efforts, they only ever had Nora.
To Chris, his girls are his whole world. He is an incredibly devoted father, and Nora grows up loved by both her parents. But as kind of a mother as Veda is, she doesn't raise Nora with much of her Kriosian heritage at all. Chris wonders if it's a coping mechanism, that Veda has thrown herself into Earthly living and rejects almost all aspects of what she considers her previous life. He doesn't push.
And in credit to Nora's lack of curiosity, she doesn't ask either. She is loved and nothing else matters.
At thirteen, Nora begins hormone therapy to suppress the hormones that build and eventually cumulate in her finiis'raal. She sees a doctor regularly to monitor that her puberty is progressing normally otherwise, and by the time she is in her 20's at the academy, she's under the care of Dr. McCoy, who inherited her chart because he seems to specialize in the cases no one else can figure out.
Her crisis peaks when they warp out to answer Vulcan's distress call.
Pike will always be a little bit of a hypocrite when it comes to his daughter, and when Nora is summoned to the bridge, she meets his smile with a raised eyebrow
"Captain, it is against regulation for a member of engineering to come onto the bridge without reason."
"I have a reason, I just wanted to see you before we warped out." He continues to smile like just being in the same room as her has made the universe and everything in it all right.
She sighs. "Captain, is that all?"
"Yeah, that's all. Proud of you, sweetheart. Love you."
Suppressing her finiis'ral while she was growing was not so difficult, but as she gets older, the hormones have become less effective. She maintains her right and want not to imprint but Bones eventually runs out of medications to give her, at a dosage he can no longer condone.
Bones makes her comfortable as best he can, promising that he'll work on a new drug every moment he has to spare, but then her discomfort and deteriorating condition attracts the attention of a friend: Sol Guerra, security chief of the enterprise and Undine, infiltrator series. At this point, no one knows, and no one can know. He was sent to assess humanity in every way, and so far he has only found that they are... far from harmless. But easily subdued, so the mission continues.
He's fond of Nora first, which is funny because she's only half human, and he's not surprised when she tells him Dr. McCoy has no help for her. Scanning her DNA is easy, synthesizing a drug for her is even easier, he has the recipe before she is done speaking, but for the sake of his cover, he simply says "I have some background in genetics. Give me time."
By the time Vulcan is destroyed and her father is kidnapped, she's run out of time. Scotty coming aboard the ship is an excuse to finally remove herself from her duties, and not just because she fainted on the bridge, asking what's happened to her father as Bones reached to catch her (his tricorder was already in his hand when he saw how pale she was, sweating profusely and barely on her feet when she was speaking).
Sol finds a modicum of privacy to administer the drug, in his private quarters. Bones had protested vehemently that she be taken to sick bay, but Sol pointed out that as chief of security he had private quarters that shared no walls or vents to other living areas, easily quarantined and away from any staff that might begin to react to her pheromones.
"And what about you?" Bones bit at him. "You're not immune either."
"I have not used my quarters since we left. They are not contaminated by any pheromones of any species, and if you are truly worried, your medical override works on any door on this ship, doctor, including mine."
And suddenly Bones knew that both Spock and Sol were out to annoy him at any cost.
Nora wakes up feeling like she has just broken the worst fever of her life, and she sees Sol taking his hand back from her neck. Her eyes are too bleary to see the syringe of his finger morph back into perfectly normal human anatomy, and she summons the strength to speak.
"Your father has just been received by sick bay. He's going to be just fine."
For a little while, it seems that everything is going to be all right and the day is saved. Bones is the only one still working when they land, and despite his better judgment saying to leave well enough alone, he trusts his gut more. And Sol bothers both.
He gets a single pill from Nora to study it, and while Bones has no ego when it comes to people's health and well-being, he is more than suspicious when he discovers he can't reverse engineer it.
"These capsules are perfectly smooth down to the molecules and they have no seams, now that's downright impossible for someone to make in their spare time... Nora, as your physician you know I am over the moon that you're getting the help you need, however it comes... But as your friend, I need you to be careful."
"Leonard, what would you have me do?"
And as she looks at him with all the trust in the world, he can't bring himself to tell her to stop. Not when he believes he has failed as a doctor by not having an alternative.
"Be careful. Tell me everything. If anything changes at all."
"All that's changed so far is that I feel incredible. Clear for the first time in weeks."
He just sighs. "Then I'll keep working, and you keep doing what you're doing."
After goodbyes, Jim swaps places with Nora in the chair in Bones' office.
"Did you see that?" He grins with barely restrained gossip, jerking his head to the window.
"No, Jim, I was working. Some of us do that, you know... See what?"
"Nora and Sol. And who said rescuing a pretty girl's father didn't come with perks?" Jim smiled wider as Bones shoved himself into the same window. Down below, Nora greeted the security officer with a grin, and he leaned down to accept her kiss.
"She's dating the bastard?!"
