Happy Trekmas Fic: More Than
Title: More Than
Author: Caera1996
Rating: G
Series: Star Trek: AOS
Pairing/Characters: Jim Kirk/Leonard McCoy
W/C: 2,639
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Summary: Leonard responds to Jim’s call for help when he gets sick, and in the aftermath of that incident, they begin to realize there’s more between them than just friendship.
Notes: Written for rakuyoutenshi’s Happy Trekmas request. I hope you like it!
If there’s anything Leonard disliked more than being forced to dress up and pretend to give a fuck about making a good impression on visiting dignitaries, it’s being forced to do it during time that’s supposed to be his. But when he’d tried to plead his case to Dr. Puri - he had classes and medical shifts and research…his schedule was a lot more packed than the average Academy Cadet, he didn’t have time for this - he was swiftly shut down.
“Dr. McCoy, as a Cadet, none of your time is “yours”. You will report to Kessler Hall and you will be engaging and polite. That’s an order.”
Fuck that. He would go, but damned if he was going to be “ordered” to be happy to be there.
And that was how he found himself in Kessler Hall, drink in hand and trying to figure out what the hell was being served to eat. Nothing from Earth, as far as he could tell. Attempting to be as inconspicuous as possible, he sipped his drink as he scanned the crowd, thinking about everything he could be doing instead of being here. Like eating food he recognized. Or, even better, sleeping.
There were about twenty Cadets, visible in their reds, mingling among the crowd. He had no idea what the criteria was to be included in this little ass-kissing session, but apparently he’d done something to be among the unlucky few. He wished he knew what so he could stop doing it.
Suddenly laughter, familiar laughter, rang out and caught his ear. Surprised, Leonard turned to see Jim, surrounded by a few people, talking and laughing. He was the center of attention of that group, and he looked to be in his element.
His ever-present scowl lessening slightly, he watched Jim interacting with Starfleet officials and a couple of dignitaries, and his stomach did a funny fluttering thing he usually associated with impending nausea. But that’s not what this was, he knew. It was worse than that. This was realizing that his friendship with Jim was developing into something more. At least on his side of things.
He was watching Jim - staring, actually - when their eyes met. Jim smiled and gave him a little wave. Caught, he reflexively looked away, then scowled at himself. He wasn’t some stupid kid with a crush. He was a grown-ass adult. With a crush.
Jim excused himself from the group, snagged some type of little pasty-looking thing, and headed over to where Bones looked like he was trying to make himself part of the décor.
“Hey, Bones!” Jim said. “Didn’t know you were coming tonight. Though I’m not surprised.”
Leonard arched a brow. “Didn’t know I had to come until this afternoon,” he replied. He grimaced as Jim stuffed a pastry into his mouth. “Do you even know what that is? How do you know you’re not allergic to it?”
“It’s fine,” Jim said, waving his concern away. “I’ve had, like six of them so far. Ooh…and some of these…” he snagged something that looked like a flower bud stuffed with some kind of pale blue mixture as a server walked by with a tray. “These are good.”
Leonard rolled his eyes at him, then something Jim said caught up with him. “Wait…why aren’t you surprised?”
“What?” Jim asked when he finished swallowing the bite in his mouth.
“Why aren’t you surprised I’m here?” he clarified.
Jim gave him a strange look, then huffed a laugh, shaking his head. “You don’t have any idea what this is, do you? Do you ever read your messages?”
Feeling defensive, and like he missed something fairly important, he threw a hand up. “I’m a doctor Jim! I’m busy!”
A teasing smile played around Jim’s lips. “Mmm-hmm. Bones, you’re here because of your neural regeneration research. I’m here because of my propulsion programming research.” He turned to the room and pointed out a few of the other cadets. “Mae is here because of her cross-species genome project, Uhura is here because of her linguistics…”
“Okay, okay, I get it,” he said, for the second time in about five minutes feeling a little foolish. “I think I remember reading something about this. I forgot the date.”
Jim looked at him sympathetically. “Hey, man…hospital shifts, classes, research…it’s no wonder.” He turned when he heard his name being spoken. Pike was gesturing that Jim should join him and another person McCoy didn’t recognize. “I should…”
“Yeah, go,” Leonard said.
Jim clapped him on the shoulder, as usual, a little too hard. “See you later.”
Then he was gone, and Leonard briefly entertained the thought that Jim meant that, and would see him later. He was surprised at how much he wanted that. Wasn’t too long ago when he wanted everyone to leave him the fuck alone. But Jim just…he just found a way in anyways. And now Leonard wanted him there. Damnit.
Rolling his eyes at himself, he turned away intending to get another drink. Instead he turned right into Dr. Puri ushering one of the dignitaries to him because he was “interested in hearing about” the research he was doing regarding regenerating neural pathways. He wanted to say it was way too complicated for an “in a nutshell” discussion with someone who didn’t have a neuro background. What he actually said, under a stern warning look from Puri, was that he’d be happy to discuss it. Checking an irritated sigh, they settled at one of the seating areas arranged for conversation, and he resigned himself to spending the rest of the evening answering inane questions.
What seemed like hours later, but in actuality wasn’t nearly that long, the evening came to an end. Leonard shook hands with the few people he’d been speaking with and retreated as hastily as he could, all the while being engaging and polite. Looking around, he realized that Jim was already gone, and he tried to tell himself that he wasn’t as disappointed as he felt.
He headed out into the night, making the trek from Kessler Hall to the living quarters reserved for medical staff. Larger, more private, and frankly, more like a real individual living space, they were a hell of a lot better than the regular cadet housing which were nothing more than crappy college dorm rooms. As far as Leonard was concerned, it was the one major perk of being a doctor as well as a Cadet, despite the insane hours and extra workload.
Tired, and glad the day was over, he palmed the sensor panel at his door and stepped inside. He half expected to find Jim there, getting into his stuff, messing around at his computer station, or “cooking” in the small kitchenette area, but he wasn’t.
Leonard was honest enough with himself to wish he was.
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Jim lay curled in the fetal position on his side. He was sweaty and shaky with pain, his insides feeling like they were twisting themselves in knots. He groaned, pressing his face to the pillow. This was bad…and he had no idea what was wrong. He felt like he was going to throw up - almost wished he would, at this point - but he hadn’t so far. Squeezing his eyes closed as they teared because of the pain, be made a decision.
He hated to comm Bones so late, but something was wrong…and he was scared.
Reaching for his comm unit, fumbling with it on the bedside table, he managed to flip it open.
“Bones? Oh…fuck…you there?” Jim waited a couple of beats, then just as he was going to try again, Leonard responded, sounded tired and irritable.
“For fuck’s sake, Jim…it’s three in the damn mornin’. You better be dyin’ or so help me…”
Jim let out a pained laugh that sounded more like a sob. “I feel like I’m dyin’, Bones. Something’s wrong.”
In the dark of his room, Leonard sat up. He didn’t sound like he was kidding. “What’s the matter?”
Jim gasped at a particularly violent stab of pain. “My stomach,” he ground out. “It’s really bad.”
A stomach ache? He stood, stumbling towards the desk where he’d draped his reds over the chair. “Okay, damnit, I’m coming. But Jim, if it’s that bad, call Medical, for God’s sake.”
“No,” he choked out.
Rolling his eyes at his stubbornness, Leonard hurriedly pulled on his clothes and raised his voice to be heard in the communicator. “Jim, I’ll be right there…”
“No,” he said again. He whimpered before he managed to get hold of himself again. “Please Bones…I-I’m scared.”
And that, more than anything else, convinced Leonard that whatever this was, it was an absolute emergency. Jim Kirk was a lot of things…honest about feeling weak in any way was not one of them.
“Hang on, Jim,” he said. “I’m coming.”
Curling up tighter, he tucked his head down and gripped the pillow, trying to breathe through the pain as he waited for Bones to get there. Tears continued to leak from his tightly clenched eyes, and suddenly he realized he was tasting blood in his mouth from biting his lip.
So wrapped up in his own misery, sweating and shivering, he didn’t even hear Bones come into his room…didn’t even know he was there until he felt gentle hands moving over him, and he whimpered again, this time in relief.
Bones was there. He would be okay.
Leonard was shocked at the state he found Jim in. His complexion was ashen, and his blood pressure was low…getting dangerously low. His t-shirt and boxers were soaked through with sweat, but his teeth were chattering. Most heartbreaking of all were the whimpers that he couldn’t control. And Leonard, who was used to dealing with the sick and broken, held his tricorder in shaking hands.
This wasn’t just anyone. This was Jim.
“Jim, I know it hurts, but I need to see what’s going on,” he said. “I need you to lay flat for me.”
“Bones,” Jim gasped out, his face scrunched up in pain. “Help me, please…it hurts so bad.”
“I am, darlin’, I am,” he said, keeping his voice soothing and calm, the endearment just slipping out. “I need you on your back. C’mon…that’s it.” He helped Jim roll over, putting a hand on his forehead and pulling up Jim’s shirt. Jim gripped the blanket, and dug his heels into the mattress, in too much pain to keep his legs flat down. Leonard gently palpitated his stomach and Jim cried out, tensing.
“Okay, okay Jim…shhh.” He studied the tricorder again for a moment. Leonard wasn’t sure what caused it, but something he’d ingested was wreaking havoc on the lining of his stomach, and that was what was causing his pain. This was very serious. Without more sophisticated imaging and scanning equipment, he had no way of knowing how much damage was being caused. He had to get Jim to Medical. But first, he had to relieve his pain.
Flipping open his communicator, he put it on the bed by Jim’s hip and called in for an emergency medical transport team. While he spoke and gave all the information he had, he loaded a hypospray.
“Bones,” Jim said, turning back on his side. He opened his eyes, the blue swimming behind tears that fell down his cheeks when he blinked. He hand closed on Leonard’s arm in a shaking grip. “Don’t send me there alone…please stay with me.”
“I am, Jim, I promise,” he said. He pressed the hypospray to his neck gently. “This is for the pain. You should get some relief right away.” With nothing else he could do while waiting for the med transport to get there, he knelt at the side of Jim’s bed, one hand holding Jim’s tightly, the other soothing him with a tender touch on his head. As the drug took effect, Jim’s body relaxed slightly, some of the lines of pain on his face smoothing away. “That’s it, try to relax. I’m not leaving you…you’re gonna be fine.”
Jim was finally able to breathe easier, his tense muscles relaxing as the horrible pain in his gut finally abated a little. He still hurt, and still felt so sick, but Bones was there, and he wasn’t afraid any more. Whatever was wrong, Bones would help him…he already had. Jim tried to stay awake, stay focused on Bones’ voice…but it sounded like he was so far away, even as he held on to him…he was just so, so tired…
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Jim stirred. His brow furrowed and he turned his head, moving his legs under the blankets. Hearing Jim rouse slightly, Leonard looked up, blinking sleep out of his eyes. He was exhausted. It’d been ten hours since he answered Jim’s comm, and he hadn’t slept yet.
Leaning forward, resting his elbows on Jim’s bed, he waited while Jim came fully awake. Jim took a couple of deep breaths, confusing the feeling of coming out of sedation with being held down, as he realized he couldn’t get sluggish limbs to move. Feeling claustrophobic under the blankets, his heart rate and blood pressure shot up and Leonard murmured to him, trying to keep him calm.
“Shh…you’re okay, Jim. You’re okay. Open your eyes. Come on, now, darlin’.” He held Jim’s hand and tapped his cheek, and finally Jim blinked awake. Leonard’s eyes swept over the bio monitors, and then he met Jim’s confused eyes, smiling slightly. “Welcome back.”
“Wh…what happened?” Jim croaked out. Leonard poured some cold water into a cup with a straw and held it for him.
“Slow,” Leonard said warningly.
Jim nodded and sipped carefully, the cold water feeling like heaven in his parched mouth and throat. He cleared his throat and tried again.
“What was wrong with me?” he asked.
“Well, apparently the combination of those little flowers with the blue goo…that you thought were so delicious…and the alcohol you drank that night didn’t mix well in your sensitive stomach,” Leonard said, injecting just enough of a teasing tone in his voice to assure Jim that he was fine now. “The combination made for a caustic mixture that severely irritated the lining of your stomach. You were this close to vomiting blood. Why the hell did you wait so long to comm me?”
“What about everyone else?” Jim asked, ignoring Leonard’s question. “Everyone was drinking and eating…was anyone else sick?”
“All of the other guests have been notified, but no one else has reported any ill effects. Apparently your particular body chemistry couldn’t handle the interaction.”
“Wonderful,” Jim said, bringing a hand to his eyes.
“Jim, you’re fine now. Just…stick to food from Earth from now on, okay? Or…get it cleared first.”
Jim dropped his hand and rolled his eyes, then focused on Leonard.
“Thanks for coming so fast,” Jim said. He flushed as he remembered how pathetic he must’ve seemed. “And for staying with me. I just…I didn’t know what was wrong, and…”
“Jim,” Leonard said, cutting him off. “Of course I came for you. Of course I did. And you don’t have to thank me. I care about you. I want you to call me.”
Jim held Leonard’s gaze, his blue eyes intense and focused. Then he looked down to where Leonard held his hand, rubbing his thumb over the back of his hand. Embarrassed at giving so much away, Leonard started to pull away. Jim tightened his hold on him, and they stayed like that for a long moment. There were no words between them, not yet, but so much was said in those seconds.
Finally, Jim smiled slightly and pulled, moving over on the bed. Feeling uncertain, but following Jim’s lead, Leonard settled himself on the bed beside him. Jim sighed, closing his eyes as he rested his head on Leonard’s shoulder.
And Leonard…he allowed himself to feel the possibility.
.
Author: Caera1996
Rating: G
Series: Star Trek: AOS
Pairing/Characters: Jim Kirk/Leonard McCoy
W/C: 2,639
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Summary: Leonard responds to Jim’s call for help when he gets sick, and in the aftermath of that incident, they begin to realize there’s more between them than just friendship.
Notes: Written for rakuyoutenshi’s Happy Trekmas request. I hope you like it!
If there’s anything Leonard disliked more than being forced to dress up and pretend to give a fuck about making a good impression on visiting dignitaries, it’s being forced to do it during time that’s supposed to be his. But when he’d tried to plead his case to Dr. Puri - he had classes and medical shifts and research…his schedule was a lot more packed than the average Academy Cadet, he didn’t have time for this - he was swiftly shut down.
“Dr. McCoy, as a Cadet, none of your time is “yours”. You will report to Kessler Hall and you will be engaging and polite. That’s an order.”
Fuck that. He would go, but damned if he was going to be “ordered” to be happy to be there.
And that was how he found himself in Kessler Hall, drink in hand and trying to figure out what the hell was being served to eat. Nothing from Earth, as far as he could tell. Attempting to be as inconspicuous as possible, he sipped his drink as he scanned the crowd, thinking about everything he could be doing instead of being here. Like eating food he recognized. Or, even better, sleeping.
There were about twenty Cadets, visible in their reds, mingling among the crowd. He had no idea what the criteria was to be included in this little ass-kissing session, but apparently he’d done something to be among the unlucky few. He wished he knew what so he could stop doing it.
Suddenly laughter, familiar laughter, rang out and caught his ear. Surprised, Leonard turned to see Jim, surrounded by a few people, talking and laughing. He was the center of attention of that group, and he looked to be in his element.
His ever-present scowl lessening slightly, he watched Jim interacting with Starfleet officials and a couple of dignitaries, and his stomach did a funny fluttering thing he usually associated with impending nausea. But that’s not what this was, he knew. It was worse than that. This was realizing that his friendship with Jim was developing into something more. At least on his side of things.
He was watching Jim - staring, actually - when their eyes met. Jim smiled and gave him a little wave. Caught, he reflexively looked away, then scowled at himself. He wasn’t some stupid kid with a crush. He was a grown-ass adult. With a crush.
Jim excused himself from the group, snagged some type of little pasty-looking thing, and headed over to where Bones looked like he was trying to make himself part of the décor.
“Hey, Bones!” Jim said. “Didn’t know you were coming tonight. Though I’m not surprised.”
Leonard arched a brow. “Didn’t know I had to come until this afternoon,” he replied. He grimaced as Jim stuffed a pastry into his mouth. “Do you even know what that is? How do you know you’re not allergic to it?”
“It’s fine,” Jim said, waving his concern away. “I’ve had, like six of them so far. Ooh…and some of these…” he snagged something that looked like a flower bud stuffed with some kind of pale blue mixture as a server walked by with a tray. “These are good.”
Leonard rolled his eyes at him, then something Jim said caught up with him. “Wait…why aren’t you surprised?”
“What?” Jim asked when he finished swallowing the bite in his mouth.
“Why aren’t you surprised I’m here?” he clarified.
Jim gave him a strange look, then huffed a laugh, shaking his head. “You don’t have any idea what this is, do you? Do you ever read your messages?”
Feeling defensive, and like he missed something fairly important, he threw a hand up. “I’m a doctor Jim! I’m busy!”
A teasing smile played around Jim’s lips. “Mmm-hmm. Bones, you’re here because of your neural regeneration research. I’m here because of my propulsion programming research.” He turned to the room and pointed out a few of the other cadets. “Mae is here because of her cross-species genome project, Uhura is here because of her linguistics…”
“Okay, okay, I get it,” he said, for the second time in about five minutes feeling a little foolish. “I think I remember reading something about this. I forgot the date.”
Jim looked at him sympathetically. “Hey, man…hospital shifts, classes, research…it’s no wonder.” He turned when he heard his name being spoken. Pike was gesturing that Jim should join him and another person McCoy didn’t recognize. “I should…”
“Yeah, go,” Leonard said.
Jim clapped him on the shoulder, as usual, a little too hard. “See you later.”
Then he was gone, and Leonard briefly entertained the thought that Jim meant that, and would see him later. He was surprised at how much he wanted that. Wasn’t too long ago when he wanted everyone to leave him the fuck alone. But Jim just…he just found a way in anyways. And now Leonard wanted him there. Damnit.
Rolling his eyes at himself, he turned away intending to get another drink. Instead he turned right into Dr. Puri ushering one of the dignitaries to him because he was “interested in hearing about” the research he was doing regarding regenerating neural pathways. He wanted to say it was way too complicated for an “in a nutshell” discussion with someone who didn’t have a neuro background. What he actually said, under a stern warning look from Puri, was that he’d be happy to discuss it. Checking an irritated sigh, they settled at one of the seating areas arranged for conversation, and he resigned himself to spending the rest of the evening answering inane questions.
What seemed like hours later, but in actuality wasn’t nearly that long, the evening came to an end. Leonard shook hands with the few people he’d been speaking with and retreated as hastily as he could, all the while being engaging and polite. Looking around, he realized that Jim was already gone, and he tried to tell himself that he wasn’t as disappointed as he felt.
He headed out into the night, making the trek from Kessler Hall to the living quarters reserved for medical staff. Larger, more private, and frankly, more like a real individual living space, they were a hell of a lot better than the regular cadet housing which were nothing more than crappy college dorm rooms. As far as Leonard was concerned, it was the one major perk of being a doctor as well as a Cadet, despite the insane hours and extra workload.
Tired, and glad the day was over, he palmed the sensor panel at his door and stepped inside. He half expected to find Jim there, getting into his stuff, messing around at his computer station, or “cooking” in the small kitchenette area, but he wasn’t.
Leonard was honest enough with himself to wish he was.
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Jim lay curled in the fetal position on his side. He was sweaty and shaky with pain, his insides feeling like they were twisting themselves in knots. He groaned, pressing his face to the pillow. This was bad…and he had no idea what was wrong. He felt like he was going to throw up - almost wished he would, at this point - but he hadn’t so far. Squeezing his eyes closed as they teared because of the pain, be made a decision.
He hated to comm Bones so late, but something was wrong…and he was scared.
Reaching for his comm unit, fumbling with it on the bedside table, he managed to flip it open.
“Bones? Oh…fuck…you there?” Jim waited a couple of beats, then just as he was going to try again, Leonard responded, sounded tired and irritable.
“For fuck’s sake, Jim…it’s three in the damn mornin’. You better be dyin’ or so help me…”
Jim let out a pained laugh that sounded more like a sob. “I feel like I’m dyin’, Bones. Something’s wrong.”
In the dark of his room, Leonard sat up. He didn’t sound like he was kidding. “What’s the matter?”
Jim gasped at a particularly violent stab of pain. “My stomach,” he ground out. “It’s really bad.”
A stomach ache? He stood, stumbling towards the desk where he’d draped his reds over the chair. “Okay, damnit, I’m coming. But Jim, if it’s that bad, call Medical, for God’s sake.”
“No,” he choked out.
Rolling his eyes at his stubbornness, Leonard hurriedly pulled on his clothes and raised his voice to be heard in the communicator. “Jim, I’ll be right there…”
“No,” he said again. He whimpered before he managed to get hold of himself again. “Please Bones…I-I’m scared.”
And that, more than anything else, convinced Leonard that whatever this was, it was an absolute emergency. Jim Kirk was a lot of things…honest about feeling weak in any way was not one of them.
“Hang on, Jim,” he said. “I’m coming.”
Curling up tighter, he tucked his head down and gripped the pillow, trying to breathe through the pain as he waited for Bones to get there. Tears continued to leak from his tightly clenched eyes, and suddenly he realized he was tasting blood in his mouth from biting his lip.
So wrapped up in his own misery, sweating and shivering, he didn’t even hear Bones come into his room…didn’t even know he was there until he felt gentle hands moving over him, and he whimpered again, this time in relief.
Bones was there. He would be okay.
Leonard was shocked at the state he found Jim in. His complexion was ashen, and his blood pressure was low…getting dangerously low. His t-shirt and boxers were soaked through with sweat, but his teeth were chattering. Most heartbreaking of all were the whimpers that he couldn’t control. And Leonard, who was used to dealing with the sick and broken, held his tricorder in shaking hands.
This wasn’t just anyone. This was Jim.
“Jim, I know it hurts, but I need to see what’s going on,” he said. “I need you to lay flat for me.”
“Bones,” Jim gasped out, his face scrunched up in pain. “Help me, please…it hurts so bad.”
“I am, darlin’, I am,” he said, keeping his voice soothing and calm, the endearment just slipping out. “I need you on your back. C’mon…that’s it.” He helped Jim roll over, putting a hand on his forehead and pulling up Jim’s shirt. Jim gripped the blanket, and dug his heels into the mattress, in too much pain to keep his legs flat down. Leonard gently palpitated his stomach and Jim cried out, tensing.
“Okay, okay Jim…shhh.” He studied the tricorder again for a moment. Leonard wasn’t sure what caused it, but something he’d ingested was wreaking havoc on the lining of his stomach, and that was what was causing his pain. This was very serious. Without more sophisticated imaging and scanning equipment, he had no way of knowing how much damage was being caused. He had to get Jim to Medical. But first, he had to relieve his pain.
Flipping open his communicator, he put it on the bed by Jim’s hip and called in for an emergency medical transport team. While he spoke and gave all the information he had, he loaded a hypospray.
“Bones,” Jim said, turning back on his side. He opened his eyes, the blue swimming behind tears that fell down his cheeks when he blinked. He hand closed on Leonard’s arm in a shaking grip. “Don’t send me there alone…please stay with me.”
“I am, Jim, I promise,” he said. He pressed the hypospray to his neck gently. “This is for the pain. You should get some relief right away.” With nothing else he could do while waiting for the med transport to get there, he knelt at the side of Jim’s bed, one hand holding Jim’s tightly, the other soothing him with a tender touch on his head. As the drug took effect, Jim’s body relaxed slightly, some of the lines of pain on his face smoothing away. “That’s it, try to relax. I’m not leaving you…you’re gonna be fine.”
Jim was finally able to breathe easier, his tense muscles relaxing as the horrible pain in his gut finally abated a little. He still hurt, and still felt so sick, but Bones was there, and he wasn’t afraid any more. Whatever was wrong, Bones would help him…he already had. Jim tried to stay awake, stay focused on Bones’ voice…but it sounded like he was so far away, even as he held on to him…he was just so, so tired…
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Jim stirred. His brow furrowed and he turned his head, moving his legs under the blankets. Hearing Jim rouse slightly, Leonard looked up, blinking sleep out of his eyes. He was exhausted. It’d been ten hours since he answered Jim’s comm, and he hadn’t slept yet.
Leaning forward, resting his elbows on Jim’s bed, he waited while Jim came fully awake. Jim took a couple of deep breaths, confusing the feeling of coming out of sedation with being held down, as he realized he couldn’t get sluggish limbs to move. Feeling claustrophobic under the blankets, his heart rate and blood pressure shot up and Leonard murmured to him, trying to keep him calm.
“Shh…you’re okay, Jim. You’re okay. Open your eyes. Come on, now, darlin’.” He held Jim’s hand and tapped his cheek, and finally Jim blinked awake. Leonard’s eyes swept over the bio monitors, and then he met Jim’s confused eyes, smiling slightly. “Welcome back.”
“Wh…what happened?” Jim croaked out. Leonard poured some cold water into a cup with a straw and held it for him.
“Slow,” Leonard said warningly.
Jim nodded and sipped carefully, the cold water feeling like heaven in his parched mouth and throat. He cleared his throat and tried again.
“What was wrong with me?” he asked.
“Well, apparently the combination of those little flowers with the blue goo…that you thought were so delicious…and the alcohol you drank that night didn’t mix well in your sensitive stomach,” Leonard said, injecting just enough of a teasing tone in his voice to assure Jim that he was fine now. “The combination made for a caustic mixture that severely irritated the lining of your stomach. You were this close to vomiting blood. Why the hell did you wait so long to comm me?”
“What about everyone else?” Jim asked, ignoring Leonard’s question. “Everyone was drinking and eating…was anyone else sick?”
“All of the other guests have been notified, but no one else has reported any ill effects. Apparently your particular body chemistry couldn’t handle the interaction.”
“Wonderful,” Jim said, bringing a hand to his eyes.
“Jim, you’re fine now. Just…stick to food from Earth from now on, okay? Or…get it cleared first.”
Jim dropped his hand and rolled his eyes, then focused on Leonard.
“Thanks for coming so fast,” Jim said. He flushed as he remembered how pathetic he must’ve seemed. “And for staying with me. I just…I didn’t know what was wrong, and…”
“Jim,” Leonard said, cutting him off. “Of course I came for you. Of course I did. And you don’t have to thank me. I care about you. I want you to call me.”
Jim held Leonard’s gaze, his blue eyes intense and focused. Then he looked down to where Leonard held his hand, rubbing his thumb over the back of his hand. Embarrassed at giving so much away, Leonard started to pull away. Jim tightened his hold on him, and they stayed like that for a long moment. There were no words between them, not yet, but so much was said in those seconds.
Finally, Jim smiled slightly and pulled, moving over on the bed. Feeling uncertain, but following Jim’s lead, Leonard settled himself on the bed beside him. Jim sighed, closing his eyes as he rested his head on Leonard’s shoulder.
And Leonard…he allowed himself to feel the possibility.
.