Fourteenth ficlet
Title: Deceptions
Author: Constance Truggle
Fandom: Star Trek:XI/DOOM
Rating: FR13
Pairing: Mentions of past Buffy/Bones
Summary: What really happened all those years ago?
Disclaimer: I don't own anything Buffy, Star Trek or DOOM.
Word Count: 1228
Author's Note: For hellbells101, because she makes me feel all squishy, like warm mud between your toes.
Follows The Best of Us.
He was dead. She knew he was dead. They'd told her that! He. Was. Dead! So, if he was damned dead, then why the hell was he standing in front of her? Because this couldn't be happening. She didn't hallucinate, and her friends wouldn't take active part in her hallucinations, anyway, even if she did. Right? So why was her old comrade and friend, someone who went through hell with her, talking to this long dead bit of her past? But no, this long dead bit of her past was now speaking. Was he talking to her? Why couldn't she hear anything? And there, her vision went black.
When Buffy woke up, it was to find herself in the sickbay of the Enterprise, her Captain watching over her.
“How long have I been out?” she asked softly, almost scared that the ghost from her past was going to make another appearance.
“Almost twenty minutes. Buffy, you're really pale. Are you sure you're okay?” Jim asked, his voice at normal modulation. And it was his voice that brought her ghost back, her face draining of whatever blood it had left in it.
The doctor checked her vitals and her readings and generally did everything a good, efficient doctor was supposed to do. Then he turned his piercing eyes on her. “What are you doing here?” he asked, rather harshly in her opinion. Must have sounded that way to Jim, too.
“Bones!” he said, sounding just as shocked as Buffy felt.
“Finally picked up the microscope, then?” Buffy asked, her mocking tone in no way hiding her still-unnatural pallor.
“Wait. You two know each other?” Kirk asked, incredulous. He pinched crossed his arms and waited when both simply looked away from each other and from him. One of them would break; he was sure of it.
Finally, Buffy spoke, but it was to McCoy first. “Am I good to go?” At his nod, she jumped up and headed towards the door. She paused just before leaving and said, “No, Jim. I used to know a guy who looked like him, but I don't know that man.”
Two pairs of eyes watched her go; one with regret, the other with sorrow tinged amusement.
“Alright, Bones. How do you know Buffy?” Jim Kirk asked his friend.
“I could ask you the same, kid,” came McCoy's reply.
“Not really something I can talk about,” Jim said in such a way that it insinuated one thing and meant another. McCoy was pretty skilled at reading his friend by then, however, and figured it was just touchy subject. He had no idea just how touchy that particular subject was.
“I dated her once,” Bones grudgingly offered. It was worth it when he saw the kid's jaw drop just enough to show his shock.
Buffy was sitting in the Officer's Mess when McCoy and Jim walked in. Once they had their food, Jim made a beeline for her table, forcing the irascible man to follow him. With a twist of his lips and a nod to the empty seats across from her, Jim sat down. She smiled at him, ignoring the doctor wholeheartedly.
Jim took a few bites of food before finally looking up at his old friend. “So, Bones tells me he dated you once,” he said. Buffy's expression shuttered faster than a shelter door in tornado season in Kansas.
“Huh. I didn't think you got that blank, and I'm pretty sure I saw some of your emptier looks before,” Jim continued blithely between bites. “At any rate, if it was a bad breakup that you don't want to talk about, that's fine. However, there is something I need to know.” He leaned forward slightly, dropping his voice just a bit. “If you two can't work together, then the Enterprise is going to have problems. If the Enterprise has problems, then I have problems. I need to know that you can put your problems aside for the sake of this ship. It's either that or I'll be switching your schedules around so you don't have to work together.”
Both Buffy and Bones stared at Jim, tension visible in the lines of their bodies. Eventually, Bones said, “If you wanna have this talk, kid, it's best we go somewhere else. I can't guarantee that somebody can keep her temper in check.”
Buffy bristled, calming only at the touch of her Captain's hand on her arm. She glared at McCoy and hissed, “If I recall correctly, I'm not the one with anger issues!” Taking a deep breath, she pointedly put her silverware together atop her plate and picked it, standing to take it over to the recycler. Before she moved, though, she glanced at Jim. “We can talk in my quarters.”
Buffy led the two men to her quarters, waving them to the couch before she started pacing. “I dunno, Jim. Maybe it would be better to put us on opposite shifts. Unfortunately, I can't really use a different doctor, since he knows my history better than anyone and won't question it. But otherwise, I'm thinking it'd be best.”
“What happened, Buffy? Ah! Not you, Bones,” he said sharply when Bones opened his mouth to speak. “You weren't this bitter even after what we saw. What'd he do?”
She bit her lip, uncertain. Sure, this was Jim, after all. He didn't balk at killing Kodos' soldiers when he was only fourteen. He didn't go to pieces over the dead, mutilated, decaying and often cannibalized bodies he came across in his trek to survive. But this was also John. The only man she'd loved since Spike. The only one she'd even dated since then. There had been a few trysts over the years, but mostly she just kept to herself. Then she saw how uncomfortable the man looked, how angry, too. That made her furious. He had no right to be mad at her!
“He left. I went out to work one day, and when I got home, he was gone. No note, no call, no nothing. His boss said he'd died in the line of duty, so I mourned him and moved on. And now... now he's here and he's supposed to be dead and I'm gonna kill the sonuvabitch!” She snarled the last bit, looking mad enough to take on a Klingon and win, to Jim's way of thinking.
“Now hold on there, darlin'!” McCoy said. “I did no such thing! In fact, that's pretty much my story!”
Buffy blinked at him, realization slowly coming to her as she stared fixedly into his brown eyes. No deceit that she could tell, but then, he'd always been one for brutal honesty when it suited him.
“What- But that means- Shit! So your guys and my guys didn't want us to, what? Combine super powers and take over the world?” she scoffed, but both men could tell her derision wasn't aimed at them this time. “If they weren't dead, I'd kill them all.” Her voice was deadly calm and it gave Jim chills.
Kirk decided it was time to bow out and let them sort themselves out. They could let him know later if they still needed to be split up.