A truth that's told with bad intent - Act Two, Scenes Five to Seven
Title: A truth that's told with bad intent - Act Two, Scenes Five to Seven
Author: nikki4noo
Beta: aquila-star and the lovely Anna
Word Count: 4,307
Rating: PG (some mild swearing) will increase in later Acts
Pairings/Characters: Kirk/McCoy, Joanna McCoy and various OCs
Summary: Bones finds himself in the predicament of being engaged, to THE Captain James T Kirk. How to get out of the situation? Well, consider one nine year old girl and a Starship Captain to the rescue. What could possibly go wrong?
Time to go shopping, the introduction of Rascally and the return of a certain Ida-Mae. Jim also receives something he never expected.
Disclaimer: Not mine, dammit!
A/N: Written for this accidental/fake marriage prompt at space_married - (13) Could be Jocelyn/old med school friend/relative/etc but they start on how Jocelyn has moved on and is being BAMF without Bones so he gets fed up and says he's engaged. To a Starfleet captain! Hijinks ensue! I will be posting an update on this once a week. I did vary slightly from the original prompt but I hope the requester likes where the muse took me.
There is no well-defined boundary between honesty and dishonesty. The frontiers of one blend with the outside limits of the other, and he who attempts to tread this dangerous ground may be sometimes in one domain and sometimes in the other. ~ O. Henry (Rolling Stones, 1912)
Bones resolved that he would not allow Jim and Joanna to provide directions in the future. The pair were a very bad set of back seat drivers. He knew that Jim loved to be in control, but the constant directions and instructions he and Joanna were providing was very distracting for Bones. Not a grumble could pass his lips though, because he knew that Jim was doing his best to get Joanna out of her funk. He was utterly amazed they actually found the Mall, although it hadn't moved from the spot that he remembered from three years ago.
He was horrified that these things still existed from the 20th Century, it used to be torture when Jocelyn would drag him along in the early days of their marriage. Now the prospect of entertaining a nine year old girl made him shake in his boots. Not that he was going to let anyone see that of course. He steeled himself to follow Joanna and Jim through the glass sliding doors and into the climate controlled environment that reminded him a little too much of shuttles and starships.
"Warn a man!" Bones complained as he nearly collided with Jim, who had stopped just past the doors.
"Do I need to send you off for eye tests, old man?" Jim had the gall to smirk at him. "The doors are made of glass, Bones, most people tend to look through them as they enter."
"Most people don't damned near stop as soon as they walk through," Bones gripped back.
Jim just laughed as he pulled on Joanna's hand, "Right, young lady, where to first? We have some of your Dad's money to spend, and the day is half gone already, cause someone was slow getting ready." Jim raised one heavy eyebrow in Bones' direction.
Bones just growled in response and deigned to not respond that Jim took long enough in the shower and was the last down for breakfast.
Joanna smiled at Jim, but it wasn't the full grin that Bones was used to. It seemed that the good natured grumbling between the two wasn't something she was used to. It was just what the pair of them did, but he could see that his daughter just didn't understand that. Adults were weird and strange creatures when you were that age.
"Hey JoJo," Bones said quietly as he squatted down so that he was face to face with her. "Don't worry about Jim and I saying stuff like that to each other. We do like each other, it's just how we talk." He explained quietly as he carded one hand through her hair.
Jim still had hold of Joanna's hand and he squeezed gently to get her attention. "Yeah, Joanna. It's just the way your Dad and I show that we care about each other. Boys are weird like that. Sooner you learn that the better."
Bones had stood up, "hey! No giving my daughter pointers about boys. She's too young for that and she don't need advice from you." Bones poked Jim in the chest.
Jim dealt with Bones' telling him off the way he did all the other times. He laughed.
"C'mon you two, time to show me what Atlanta has to offer a farm boy from Iowa," Jim said tugging on Joanna's hand.
The three of them wandered slowly along the ground floor, talking and laughing as they pointed out things that amused them in the various shop windows. Joanna led the way, tugging Jim this way and that. Bones happy to follow behind observing his daughter and his best friend. Jim was very comfortable in his uniform whether it be as a cadet or as a Captain. Bones had seen him a few times in casual clothes, but it was pleasant to see how relaxed and comfortable he was following around a nine year old. Bones also was aware of the titters and stares the three of them were getting. There was a small group of young kids that alternated between giggling and pushing each other forward. Obviously daring one another to approach them.
Bones had enough of being the center of most of the other shoppers attention and directed Jim and Joanna away from the display they were staring at. Bones couldn't believe what they were looking at it so intently. How could stuffed toy cats, in clothes and stupid poses around a wheelbarrow enthrall Jim or JoJo? He grumbled to himself about how insane this place was as he pulled Jim and JoJo into the store, with each on either side of him.
"Lord help us, it gets worse," Bones declared as he stopped at the entrance to the store and looked around.
"Now who is stopping in doorways?" Jim asked, one eyebrow raising as he tried to imitate Spock. Unsuccessfully in Bones' own opinion.
Bones moved away further into the store, having no idea where to go but Joanna soon sped off down one of the aisles and so he let her explore on her own as he slowly wandered down the one straight ahead of him. A store clerk seemed to wander into their line of sight, but a glare from Bones sent the clerk scurrying back behind the safety of the large green alligator dressed in a tuxedo and topped off with a jaunty top hat that was perched on the cashiers counter. Bones did muse to himself that if the alligator was going to invite you to be dinner, at least he dressed for the occasion. Every Southern gentleman was taught to appreciate good manners and this alligator sure did have manners.
"You really haven't lost that talent," Jim observed.
Bones turned back to subject the same glare on Jim, but Jim was pouting at him while holding a rabbit under his chin. That the rabbit was dressed up in the weirdest outfit he had ever seen with every conceivable color placed somewhere on the outfit and holding a carrot that was shaped like a heart, should have made Bones scowl even more, but it was just too absurd and a bark of laughter escaped him.
The pout disappeared very quickly as Jim stepped close to Bones, the stuffed toy dropping down to the ground, forgotten. Jim reached for Bones hand and lightly gripped his fingers, eyes serious, no mischievous twinkle that seemed such a normal part of his mien. "I like you here, like this," Jim murmured. "Happy."
"Damn it Jim," Bones grouched as he stepped away and bent over to pick up the forgotten rabbit. "Who designs these stupid things? I swear it is like some Russian designer was let loose. Let's put as many colors and patterns in a small area as possible and call it good taste!" Bones stepped around Jim and put the rabbit back on a random shelf. Apparently Bones decided that the rabbit needed to make friends with some frogs, who were dressed in pink and yellow tutus. He walked off, face slightly flushed and willing to blame it on the humidity should anyone ask, now trying to seek his daughter out. He was not using her as a decoy, no sirree, not at all. He then swore long and hard under his breath to discover one of those kids from the group that had been following them around was standing and chatting merrily with his daughter.
"Hi Daddy," Joanna said as she spotted her father. "This is Anna, she goes to my school." Joanna introduced the young girl standing next to her. The bright gray eyes that were turned towards him, lit up even more and Bones looked over his shoulder to discover Jim standing behind him, with that damned rabbit back in his hands. Bones refused to comment that the rabbit and Anna had a bit in common in the teeth department. His upbringing kicked back in as he politely greeted Anna and introduced Jim.
Anna then reverted into what Bones would only describe as a mini Jocelyn. All sweetness and light and after something. Before the three of them could realize what was going on a camera was pressed into Joanna's hands, Bones was shoved to the side with the rabbit back in his hands and Jim was pulled down, resigned smile on his face as Anna beamed at the camera. No one else would realize that Jim's smile wasn't that he was totally enthused about having his photo taken with a random person that he just met, but there was a look in his eyes that Bones could read.
Bones went to put the rabbit on the shelf to discover that Jim had snatched it away from him.
"No mistreating Rascally," he was told.
"Rascally?" Bones queried.
"C'mon Joanna, we need to rescue Rascally," Jim said as he stepped away from Anna and towards Joanna.
Joanna offered the camera back to Anna as she said, "here Anna. I hope you have a nice break and see you back at school." Before turning and skipping after Jim who was heading for that alligator.
Bones couldn't hear what Jim was leaning down to say to Joanna that caused a wide grin on her face. He caught up to the pair as Jim was handing over some credits, too many as far as Bones was concerned, and the rabbit was being handed back in a box, his ears poking out the top. Joanna lifted her hands up to offer to carry it, but the look on Jim's face had Bones shaking his head no.
"Nah, your Dad needs to do something, so he can look after Rascally," Jim declared, shoving the box into Bones' arms. "Where to next, Joanna?" Jim asked as they started to walk out of the store, pointedly turning away from the group that was surrounding Anna and her camera. Jim quickly moved across the mall floor and into a lift door that was open, before the group could figure out that they had left the store. Bones had to nearly run to keep up with the man and Joanna was laughing in delight, obviously at the sight of him with that damned rabbit in his arms.
"Pick a floor," Jim told Joanna. She looked at the pair of them and then a smile sneaked across her face that was reminiscent, to Bones, of Jim up to mischief. But if his mother was there, she would have told him that her granddaughter's expression was way too familiar to herself. That most recently she had seen it regularly on her sons face when he was about the same age and then well into his teenage years. Joanna hit floor three and stood back to continue to smile at the two men and crossed her arms. On a nine year old it should have been ridiculous, but it put the fear of God and the universe into both men instead.
The doors slid open and Joanna rushed out.
"JoJo!" Bones called, "stop!"
The two of them exited the lift to find Joanna, standing under a palm tree and tapping her foot.
"You are slow!" Joanna declared and then turned back to scurry off along the walkway.
"Joanna Eleanora McCoy! You stop right now!" Bones called out to her.
His daughter stopped but didn't turn around.
"Don't go running off missy," he told her as they joined her. "Now where is the fire?"
"Sorry, Daddy, but I have somewhere I need to take you and Jim," Joanna said turning pleading eyes up at her father.
"You are done for, Bones," Jim told him slapping him on the back and taking Joanna's hand again and letting her direct him to where she was originally headed.
She dragged the pair of them into the large department store and into the menswear section. She turned to grin at them as she stood amongst racks of swimwear. Jim and Bones looked at each other, bemused.
"Do you have some swim trunks, Jim?" She asked.
"No, I don't," Jim responded.
"If you want to join me and Daddy, you are going to need some," Joanna declared.
Jim remembered the discussion the night before, the mention of sprinklers, and he rubbed his hands in glee as he looked around at the selection at his fingertips.
"JoJo, lets go find the seats, this is gonna take a while," Bones said as he walked with his daughter towards the low chairs that were situated near the changing rooms, ignoring the protest from Jim.
Bones spent a nice time just leaning back against the wall, his daughter tucked under one arm and watching Jim scrunch up his nose, purse his lips and frown as he made various selections. Bones was able to find out what had made JoJo smile as her and Jim purchased that damned rabbit. Jim had congratulated JoJo on her handling of Anna, that she was polite but helped him get away. Jim, it seemed, had unwittingly confided in his daughter about the downside to saving the planet. That now everyone thought they owned you, that you needed to talk to them all, to have photos and generally not be allowed to spend time being normal and ignored. He hugged JoJo a little tighter and pressed a kiss into her hair. It was at this time that Jim swept past them both, almost hidden under a large pile of trunks.
"He does only need one, doesn't he?" JoJo asked.
"Well, baby girl, see that's just Jim. He likes to have a lot to chose from, he will then pick one out and it will be perfect," Bones told her.
Father and daughter sat in comfortable silence until the godawful muzak that was trilling out of the roof speakers was drowned out by Jim yelling for Bones. He rolled his eyes at his daughter and handed over the god damned rabbit for safe keeping before entering the dressing rooms.
"What?" Bones asked standing in the small corridor, deciding that if Jim was going to yell at him for attention, then he wasn't going to bend over and peek under the doorways to find the cubicle Jim was in.
One down the far end opened, so Bones headed towards it. He stopped at the doorway to find Jim now shirtless, still in his socks and wearing obviously his preferred choice of swim trunks. They had a pretty pale blue, white and black swirling pattern, but something about them seemed to be bothering Jim. He was twisting back and forth, looking at himself in the mirrors.
"You called me in here just so you could look at yourself longer?" Bones gripped as he lent against the open door.
Jim pulled the trunks tight and presented his back view to Bones, "do these ones make my ass look fat?" He asked.
Bones reached into the room and smacked Jim up the back of the head. "You dumbass! Don't call me in here for nothing."
"Aww Bones, I was just trying to make you feel like a proper fiancee!" Jim smirked at him, while rubbing his head.
Bones rolled his eyes. "They look good, now can we get out of here? Young girl needs amusing and there is only so long she is likely to like sitting still with her ole dad."
"Has she complained yet?" Jim asked and before Bones could answer, Jim continued, "no, I bet she hasn't. That girl would sit with you until the world ended. That's one hell of a kid you have Bones."
Bones ducked his head as he blushed. "Well, yeah," he agreed. "Now get some clothes on, you idiot, so we can get outta here." On that note Bones strode out of the dressing rooms, not once glancing back. If he had he might have stumbled at the intense look on Jim's face.
Jim felt even more naked as he slowly pulled his favorite choice of trunks off. He had no cunning plan when he called Bones in, just a desire to see what his reaction would be to the trunks. He fell back into the old ways of teasing Bones, skirting around his attraction for his best friend and hiding it amongst banter and silliness. Bones standing there with a blush staining his cheeks, should not have looked manly, but there was just something about him that even doing something that was a patented Southern Belle look, he still managed to look rough and tumble and all together too gorgeous to Jim.
Jim took a deep breath and willed his heart to slow down as he finished dressing. He put his non preferred choices in a neat pile by the door for the assistants and walked out with the trunks he was going to buy.
***
Joanna directed them down the escalators instead this time. As always the ground floor was full of contrasting scents of the various perfumes and those perfectly coiffed attendants who tried to foist various options at the three of them. One particularly insistent salesperson who was offering some ridiculous sounding bottle towards Joanna incurred Bones wrath, Jim had to drag him away quickly before a full blown lecture could be given about the errors of today's society in trying to corrupt minors and make them grow up well before their time.
"Well, I do declare LH, you really do still like to terrorize the general populace who are just doing their jobs," a distinctly elderly voice, dripping venom stopped the men in their tracks. Jim felt Joanna reach out to grip onto both him and Bones and Bones had tensed beside him.
"Hello Ida-Mae, there are certain standards that should be maintained and trying to get a child to wear a perfume named 'Eden's desire' just ain't appropriate in my book. If you think that is acceptable, well bully for you!" Bones said. His own voice declaring his dislike for the other speaker.
At the mention of the elderly woman's name, Jim slipped an arm around Bones, to rest at the base of his spine and they turned to the side to face the harridan that was the cause of their little charade. She was surrounded by a battery of women, all around the same age range. A bunch of biddies was what Jim thought of them. Twittering amongst themselves at the possibility of blood shed. Well if they wanted a scene, Jim was well prepared to give them a scene.
"Bones, is this Aunt Ida-Mae you have been telling me all about?" Jim asked, saccharine sweet smile plastered on his face.
Before Bones could respond, the old biddy got in first. "You must be that Captain Kirk that the planet seems to be enamored with," she said.
Jim pulled Bones in a little closer, shielding Joanna from the women with their bodies. "Well, here with Bones, I am just Jim, but yes I am Captain James T Kirk. Pleasure to make your acquaintance. I would shake your hand put I am a little tied down at the moment." Jim lifted up the two bags in his left hand.
"Bones? You mean LH? Well, what a delightful nickname you have given him. Youngsters these days!" Ida-Mae declared, eyes sparkling. "One does wonder how on earth you came up with that particular pet name, considering what I have heard."
Jim smiled as he lent forwards, drawing the women in closer as he looked left to right, checking that no one else was listening, as if he was about to impart a big secret to his closest confidantes. The group stepped closer involuntarily. Bones wisely held his tongue but with his right hand, held it out so that Joanna could hold on tight. Jim noted that Joanna was no longer holding onto him but had moved over to the other side of her father.
"You see ladies, my mother raised me to be a gentleman, and I never kiss and tell.” Jim smiled and winked as he stepped back and started to walk out of the store, taking Bones and Joanna with him, leaving the group of gossiping biddies cold. But then that streak of mischief, that was never far from his surface, manifested and he decided to give them a little something in the form of his right hand that had been resting at the small of Bones' back, just above his belt and feeling the heat of Bones' skin through his shirt, slipped down and patted one firm ass cheek.
"Jim!" Bones growled.
"What?" Jim replied, innocent expression on his face. "I had to give them a little something. But you growl at me again and next time I'll pinch it!"
"Let's get out of here, I've had enough of this place," Bones declared. "You don't want to look anywhere else JoJo?"
Joanna bit her bottom lip, worrying it before speaking, "can we go to the bookstore?" She asked.
Bones smiled at her, "great idea," he agreed.
The three of them walked quickly towards the exit. They had taken a few steps when Bones spoke up again, "Jim."
"Yeah?" Jim queried back.
"You know they can't see us anymore, you can move that hand of yours." He told him.
"It's quite comfortable there, Bones," Jim replied.
"Jim," Bones spoke again.
"Oh alright," Jim groused as he moved his hand away reluctantly. "Way to spoil a guy's fun!"
***
Jim sat on the bed contemplating the item in his lap. A gift from Bones. An honest to goodness present. One that was valuable and rare. He almost didn't want to touch it. If paper could burn then this was certainly doing so into his thighs. A book. A real book. Actually there was three books in one.
As much as Jim had enjoyed most of the morning's visit to the Mall, and when had the Universe imploded so that he, James T Kirk, thought a trip to the Mall was a fun thing? He ignored the little altercation with Ida-Mae and her purple-haired army of mini dragons, well, except for the last part, that was fun. Bones' ass was something he shouldn't be thinking of, but the man was too attractive and he had had thought so for nigh on three years. The best part of the visit was seeing Bones smile and laugh. That isn't to say that he hadn't done so in the past three years, just that the scowl and the grumpiness at the world seemed to be more his normal state of mind. Here, back in the state that Bones professed to dislike almost as much as Jim disliked Iowa, it seemed that Bones' personality was switched. The grumpiness was still there, but smiles seemed to come so easily to him.
The reality was that neither of them actually disliked the states themselves, it was certain people that made their trips back to their childhood and young adulthood so painful. It was no wonder that both of them latched onto each other from that moment on the shuttle. Jim had heard many a comment that the pair of them seemed so mismatched, but he knew better. Deep down there were shadows and pain and hiding going on to protect their true selves. Even from each other to a degree. There was never any asking or pushing, just a non-verbal acknowledgment that they understood each other.
Which brought Jim back full circle to the book on his lap. He ran gentle fingers over the cover. The blue cloth cover rough under his pads. He turned the book sideways to look again at the side writing. An elegant script in silver embossed into the cloth. It read "Young Hornblower Omnibus by C.S. Forester". Jim snorted as he remembered his initial thoughts on seeing the title, when it was in Bones' hands. Then Bones handed it over to him and told him that his father had handed him a copy of the first of these novels when he was a teenager.
Joanna had interrupted the memories with a tug on her father's hand and pulling him towards another section. Jim had followed slowly, handling the book reverently. The smell of the store was unlike anything Jim had smelt before. The smell of musty pages dominated the air. It was a pleasant, bringing thoughts of times gone by when books like these were common place. Joanna was waxing over a book even older than the one in his hands, it had a printed cover of a watercolor scene, four children in a row boat and a dog swimming in the water. The sheen of the cover still there over two centuries later.
The trip had ended with Bones purchasing both books, and when they got home he placed the Hornblower one in Jim's hands while Joanna raced up the stairs carefully holding her own book, off to place it on her shelves with the rest of her precious collection. Jim had tried to hand it back, horrified at the gift and knowing the cost, but Bones had smacked his hands away and pressed the book into his chest. Devina had then done her own silent little entrance to apparently dust the flowers on the hall table and Jim had to accept the present. Bones headed up the stairs after his daughter, leaving Jim standing in the entrance hall with the book and a bemused expression on his face.
Books were something to be treasured between the McCoys it seemed. Bones revealed that his father had presented his son with a gift of a book each year and on special occasions and achievements. When Joanna was born, Bones and his father then continued on the tradition, handing over his own collection to his daughter and both men adding to it.
Now here Jim was, handling his own book gently. The start of his own collection. He was in so much trouble.
Act Three, Scenes One to Five
Author: nikki4noo
Beta: aquila-star and the lovely Anna
Word Count: 4,307
Rating: PG (some mild swearing) will increase in later Acts
Pairings/Characters: Kirk/McCoy, Joanna McCoy and various OCs
Summary: Bones finds himself in the predicament of being engaged, to THE Captain James T Kirk. How to get out of the situation? Well, consider one nine year old girl and a Starship Captain to the rescue. What could possibly go wrong?
Time to go shopping, the introduction of Rascally and the return of a certain Ida-Mae. Jim also receives something he never expected.
Disclaimer: Not mine, dammit!
A/N: Written for this accidental/fake marriage prompt at space_married - (13) Could be Jocelyn/old med school friend/relative/etc but they start on how Jocelyn has moved on and is being BAMF without Bones so he gets fed up and says he's engaged. To a Starfleet captain! Hijinks ensue! I will be posting an update on this once a week. I did vary slightly from the original prompt but I hope the requester likes where the muse took me.
There is no well-defined boundary between honesty and dishonesty. The frontiers of one blend with the outside limits of the other, and he who attempts to tread this dangerous ground may be sometimes in one domain and sometimes in the other. ~ O. Henry (Rolling Stones, 1912)
Bones resolved that he would not allow Jim and Joanna to provide directions in the future. The pair were a very bad set of back seat drivers. He knew that Jim loved to be in control, but the constant directions and instructions he and Joanna were providing was very distracting for Bones. Not a grumble could pass his lips though, because he knew that Jim was doing his best to get Joanna out of her funk. He was utterly amazed they actually found the Mall, although it hadn't moved from the spot that he remembered from three years ago.
He was horrified that these things still existed from the 20th Century, it used to be torture when Jocelyn would drag him along in the early days of their marriage. Now the prospect of entertaining a nine year old girl made him shake in his boots. Not that he was going to let anyone see that of course. He steeled himself to follow Joanna and Jim through the glass sliding doors and into the climate controlled environment that reminded him a little too much of shuttles and starships.
"Warn a man!" Bones complained as he nearly collided with Jim, who had stopped just past the doors.
"Do I need to send you off for eye tests, old man?" Jim had the gall to smirk at him. "The doors are made of glass, Bones, most people tend to look through them as they enter."
"Most people don't damned near stop as soon as they walk through," Bones gripped back.
Jim just laughed as he pulled on Joanna's hand, "Right, young lady, where to first? We have some of your Dad's money to spend, and the day is half gone already, cause someone was slow getting ready." Jim raised one heavy eyebrow in Bones' direction.
Bones just growled in response and deigned to not respond that Jim took long enough in the shower and was the last down for breakfast.
Joanna smiled at Jim, but it wasn't the full grin that Bones was used to. It seemed that the good natured grumbling between the two wasn't something she was used to. It was just what the pair of them did, but he could see that his daughter just didn't understand that. Adults were weird and strange creatures when you were that age.
"Hey JoJo," Bones said quietly as he squatted down so that he was face to face with her. "Don't worry about Jim and I saying stuff like that to each other. We do like each other, it's just how we talk." He explained quietly as he carded one hand through her hair.
Jim still had hold of Joanna's hand and he squeezed gently to get her attention. "Yeah, Joanna. It's just the way your Dad and I show that we care about each other. Boys are weird like that. Sooner you learn that the better."
Bones had stood up, "hey! No giving my daughter pointers about boys. She's too young for that and she don't need advice from you." Bones poked Jim in the chest.
Jim dealt with Bones' telling him off the way he did all the other times. He laughed.
"C'mon you two, time to show me what Atlanta has to offer a farm boy from Iowa," Jim said tugging on Joanna's hand.
The three of them wandered slowly along the ground floor, talking and laughing as they pointed out things that amused them in the various shop windows. Joanna led the way, tugging Jim this way and that. Bones happy to follow behind observing his daughter and his best friend. Jim was very comfortable in his uniform whether it be as a cadet or as a Captain. Bones had seen him a few times in casual clothes, but it was pleasant to see how relaxed and comfortable he was following around a nine year old. Bones also was aware of the titters and stares the three of them were getting. There was a small group of young kids that alternated between giggling and pushing each other forward. Obviously daring one another to approach them.
Bones had enough of being the center of most of the other shoppers attention and directed Jim and Joanna away from the display they were staring at. Bones couldn't believe what they were looking at it so intently. How could stuffed toy cats, in clothes and stupid poses around a wheelbarrow enthrall Jim or JoJo? He grumbled to himself about how insane this place was as he pulled Jim and JoJo into the store, with each on either side of him.
"Lord help us, it gets worse," Bones declared as he stopped at the entrance to the store and looked around.
"Now who is stopping in doorways?" Jim asked, one eyebrow raising as he tried to imitate Spock. Unsuccessfully in Bones' own opinion.
Bones moved away further into the store, having no idea where to go but Joanna soon sped off down one of the aisles and so he let her explore on her own as he slowly wandered down the one straight ahead of him. A store clerk seemed to wander into their line of sight, but a glare from Bones sent the clerk scurrying back behind the safety of the large green alligator dressed in a tuxedo and topped off with a jaunty top hat that was perched on the cashiers counter. Bones did muse to himself that if the alligator was going to invite you to be dinner, at least he dressed for the occasion. Every Southern gentleman was taught to appreciate good manners and this alligator sure did have manners.
"You really haven't lost that talent," Jim observed.
Bones turned back to subject the same glare on Jim, but Jim was pouting at him while holding a rabbit under his chin. That the rabbit was dressed up in the weirdest outfit he had ever seen with every conceivable color placed somewhere on the outfit and holding a carrot that was shaped like a heart, should have made Bones scowl even more, but it was just too absurd and a bark of laughter escaped him.
The pout disappeared very quickly as Jim stepped close to Bones, the stuffed toy dropping down to the ground, forgotten. Jim reached for Bones hand and lightly gripped his fingers, eyes serious, no mischievous twinkle that seemed such a normal part of his mien. "I like you here, like this," Jim murmured. "Happy."
"Damn it Jim," Bones grouched as he stepped away and bent over to pick up the forgotten rabbit. "Who designs these stupid things? I swear it is like some Russian designer was let loose. Let's put as many colors and patterns in a small area as possible and call it good taste!" Bones stepped around Jim and put the rabbit back on a random shelf. Apparently Bones decided that the rabbit needed to make friends with some frogs, who were dressed in pink and yellow tutus. He walked off, face slightly flushed and willing to blame it on the humidity should anyone ask, now trying to seek his daughter out. He was not using her as a decoy, no sirree, not at all. He then swore long and hard under his breath to discover one of those kids from the group that had been following them around was standing and chatting merrily with his daughter.
"Hi Daddy," Joanna said as she spotted her father. "This is Anna, she goes to my school." Joanna introduced the young girl standing next to her. The bright gray eyes that were turned towards him, lit up even more and Bones looked over his shoulder to discover Jim standing behind him, with that damned rabbit back in his hands. Bones refused to comment that the rabbit and Anna had a bit in common in the teeth department. His upbringing kicked back in as he politely greeted Anna and introduced Jim.
Anna then reverted into what Bones would only describe as a mini Jocelyn. All sweetness and light and after something. Before the three of them could realize what was going on a camera was pressed into Joanna's hands, Bones was shoved to the side with the rabbit back in his hands and Jim was pulled down, resigned smile on his face as Anna beamed at the camera. No one else would realize that Jim's smile wasn't that he was totally enthused about having his photo taken with a random person that he just met, but there was a look in his eyes that Bones could read.
Bones went to put the rabbit on the shelf to discover that Jim had snatched it away from him.
"No mistreating Rascally," he was told.
"Rascally?" Bones queried.
"C'mon Joanna, we need to rescue Rascally," Jim said as he stepped away from Anna and towards Joanna.
Joanna offered the camera back to Anna as she said, "here Anna. I hope you have a nice break and see you back at school." Before turning and skipping after Jim who was heading for that alligator.
Bones couldn't hear what Jim was leaning down to say to Joanna that caused a wide grin on her face. He caught up to the pair as Jim was handing over some credits, too many as far as Bones was concerned, and the rabbit was being handed back in a box, his ears poking out the top. Joanna lifted her hands up to offer to carry it, but the look on Jim's face had Bones shaking his head no.
"Nah, your Dad needs to do something, so he can look after Rascally," Jim declared, shoving the box into Bones' arms. "Where to next, Joanna?" Jim asked as they started to walk out of the store, pointedly turning away from the group that was surrounding Anna and her camera. Jim quickly moved across the mall floor and into a lift door that was open, before the group could figure out that they had left the store. Bones had to nearly run to keep up with the man and Joanna was laughing in delight, obviously at the sight of him with that damned rabbit in his arms.
"Pick a floor," Jim told Joanna. She looked at the pair of them and then a smile sneaked across her face that was reminiscent, to Bones, of Jim up to mischief. But if his mother was there, she would have told him that her granddaughter's expression was way too familiar to herself. That most recently she had seen it regularly on her sons face when he was about the same age and then well into his teenage years. Joanna hit floor three and stood back to continue to smile at the two men and crossed her arms. On a nine year old it should have been ridiculous, but it put the fear of God and the universe into both men instead.
The doors slid open and Joanna rushed out.
"JoJo!" Bones called, "stop!"
The two of them exited the lift to find Joanna, standing under a palm tree and tapping her foot.
"You are slow!" Joanna declared and then turned back to scurry off along the walkway.
"Joanna Eleanora McCoy! You stop right now!" Bones called out to her.
His daughter stopped but didn't turn around.
"Don't go running off missy," he told her as they joined her. "Now where is the fire?"
"Sorry, Daddy, but I have somewhere I need to take you and Jim," Joanna said turning pleading eyes up at her father.
"You are done for, Bones," Jim told him slapping him on the back and taking Joanna's hand again and letting her direct him to where she was originally headed.
She dragged the pair of them into the large department store and into the menswear section. She turned to grin at them as she stood amongst racks of swimwear. Jim and Bones looked at each other, bemused.
"Do you have some swim trunks, Jim?" She asked.
"No, I don't," Jim responded.
"If you want to join me and Daddy, you are going to need some," Joanna declared.
Jim remembered the discussion the night before, the mention of sprinklers, and he rubbed his hands in glee as he looked around at the selection at his fingertips.
"JoJo, lets go find the seats, this is gonna take a while," Bones said as he walked with his daughter towards the low chairs that were situated near the changing rooms, ignoring the protest from Jim.
Bones spent a nice time just leaning back against the wall, his daughter tucked under one arm and watching Jim scrunch up his nose, purse his lips and frown as he made various selections. Bones was able to find out what had made JoJo smile as her and Jim purchased that damned rabbit. Jim had congratulated JoJo on her handling of Anna, that she was polite but helped him get away. Jim, it seemed, had unwittingly confided in his daughter about the downside to saving the planet. That now everyone thought they owned you, that you needed to talk to them all, to have photos and generally not be allowed to spend time being normal and ignored. He hugged JoJo a little tighter and pressed a kiss into her hair. It was at this time that Jim swept past them both, almost hidden under a large pile of trunks.
"He does only need one, doesn't he?" JoJo asked.
"Well, baby girl, see that's just Jim. He likes to have a lot to chose from, he will then pick one out and it will be perfect," Bones told her.
Father and daughter sat in comfortable silence until the godawful muzak that was trilling out of the roof speakers was drowned out by Jim yelling for Bones. He rolled his eyes at his daughter and handed over the god damned rabbit for safe keeping before entering the dressing rooms.
"What?" Bones asked standing in the small corridor, deciding that if Jim was going to yell at him for attention, then he wasn't going to bend over and peek under the doorways to find the cubicle Jim was in.
One down the far end opened, so Bones headed towards it. He stopped at the doorway to find Jim now shirtless, still in his socks and wearing obviously his preferred choice of swim trunks. They had a pretty pale blue, white and black swirling pattern, but something about them seemed to be bothering Jim. He was twisting back and forth, looking at himself in the mirrors.
"You called me in here just so you could look at yourself longer?" Bones gripped as he lent against the open door.
Jim pulled the trunks tight and presented his back view to Bones, "do these ones make my ass look fat?" He asked.
Bones reached into the room and smacked Jim up the back of the head. "You dumbass! Don't call me in here for nothing."
"Aww Bones, I was just trying to make you feel like a proper fiancee!" Jim smirked at him, while rubbing his head.
Bones rolled his eyes. "They look good, now can we get out of here? Young girl needs amusing and there is only so long she is likely to like sitting still with her ole dad."
"Has she complained yet?" Jim asked and before Bones could answer, Jim continued, "no, I bet she hasn't. That girl would sit with you until the world ended. That's one hell of a kid you have Bones."
Bones ducked his head as he blushed. "Well, yeah," he agreed. "Now get some clothes on, you idiot, so we can get outta here." On that note Bones strode out of the dressing rooms, not once glancing back. If he had he might have stumbled at the intense look on Jim's face.
Jim felt even more naked as he slowly pulled his favorite choice of trunks off. He had no cunning plan when he called Bones in, just a desire to see what his reaction would be to the trunks. He fell back into the old ways of teasing Bones, skirting around his attraction for his best friend and hiding it amongst banter and silliness. Bones standing there with a blush staining his cheeks, should not have looked manly, but there was just something about him that even doing something that was a patented Southern Belle look, he still managed to look rough and tumble and all together too gorgeous to Jim.
Jim took a deep breath and willed his heart to slow down as he finished dressing. He put his non preferred choices in a neat pile by the door for the assistants and walked out with the trunks he was going to buy.
***
Joanna directed them down the escalators instead this time. As always the ground floor was full of contrasting scents of the various perfumes and those perfectly coiffed attendants who tried to foist various options at the three of them. One particularly insistent salesperson who was offering some ridiculous sounding bottle towards Joanna incurred Bones wrath, Jim had to drag him away quickly before a full blown lecture could be given about the errors of today's society in trying to corrupt minors and make them grow up well before their time.
"Well, I do declare LH, you really do still like to terrorize the general populace who are just doing their jobs," a distinctly elderly voice, dripping venom stopped the men in their tracks. Jim felt Joanna reach out to grip onto both him and Bones and Bones had tensed beside him.
"Hello Ida-Mae, there are certain standards that should be maintained and trying to get a child to wear a perfume named 'Eden's desire' just ain't appropriate in my book. If you think that is acceptable, well bully for you!" Bones said. His own voice declaring his dislike for the other speaker.
At the mention of the elderly woman's name, Jim slipped an arm around Bones, to rest at the base of his spine and they turned to the side to face the harridan that was the cause of their little charade. She was surrounded by a battery of women, all around the same age range. A bunch of biddies was what Jim thought of them. Twittering amongst themselves at the possibility of blood shed. Well if they wanted a scene, Jim was well prepared to give them a scene.
"Bones, is this Aunt Ida-Mae you have been telling me all about?" Jim asked, saccharine sweet smile plastered on his face.
Before Bones could respond, the old biddy got in first. "You must be that Captain Kirk that the planet seems to be enamored with," she said.
Jim pulled Bones in a little closer, shielding Joanna from the women with their bodies. "Well, here with Bones, I am just Jim, but yes I am Captain James T Kirk. Pleasure to make your acquaintance. I would shake your hand put I am a little tied down at the moment." Jim lifted up the two bags in his left hand.
"Bones? You mean LH? Well, what a delightful nickname you have given him. Youngsters these days!" Ida-Mae declared, eyes sparkling. "One does wonder how on earth you came up with that particular pet name, considering what I have heard."
Jim smiled as he lent forwards, drawing the women in closer as he looked left to right, checking that no one else was listening, as if he was about to impart a big secret to his closest confidantes. The group stepped closer involuntarily. Bones wisely held his tongue but with his right hand, held it out so that Joanna could hold on tight. Jim noted that Joanna was no longer holding onto him but had moved over to the other side of her father.
"You see ladies, my mother raised me to be a gentleman, and I never kiss and tell.” Jim smiled and winked as he stepped back and started to walk out of the store, taking Bones and Joanna with him, leaving the group of gossiping biddies cold. But then that streak of mischief, that was never far from his surface, manifested and he decided to give them a little something in the form of his right hand that had been resting at the small of Bones' back, just above his belt and feeling the heat of Bones' skin through his shirt, slipped down and patted one firm ass cheek.
"Jim!" Bones growled.
"What?" Jim replied, innocent expression on his face. "I had to give them a little something. But you growl at me again and next time I'll pinch it!"
"Let's get out of here, I've had enough of this place," Bones declared. "You don't want to look anywhere else JoJo?"
Joanna bit her bottom lip, worrying it before speaking, "can we go to the bookstore?" She asked.
Bones smiled at her, "great idea," he agreed.
The three of them walked quickly towards the exit. They had taken a few steps when Bones spoke up again, "Jim."
"Yeah?" Jim queried back.
"You know they can't see us anymore, you can move that hand of yours." He told him.
"It's quite comfortable there, Bones," Jim replied.
"Jim," Bones spoke again.
"Oh alright," Jim groused as he moved his hand away reluctantly. "Way to spoil a guy's fun!"
***
Jim sat on the bed contemplating the item in his lap. A gift from Bones. An honest to goodness present. One that was valuable and rare. He almost didn't want to touch it. If paper could burn then this was certainly doing so into his thighs. A book. A real book. Actually there was three books in one.
As much as Jim had enjoyed most of the morning's visit to the Mall, and when had the Universe imploded so that he, James T Kirk, thought a trip to the Mall was a fun thing? He ignored the little altercation with Ida-Mae and her purple-haired army of mini dragons, well, except for the last part, that was fun. Bones' ass was something he shouldn't be thinking of, but the man was too attractive and he had had thought so for nigh on three years. The best part of the visit was seeing Bones smile and laugh. That isn't to say that he hadn't done so in the past three years, just that the scowl and the grumpiness at the world seemed to be more his normal state of mind. Here, back in the state that Bones professed to dislike almost as much as Jim disliked Iowa, it seemed that Bones' personality was switched. The grumpiness was still there, but smiles seemed to come so easily to him.
The reality was that neither of them actually disliked the states themselves, it was certain people that made their trips back to their childhood and young adulthood so painful. It was no wonder that both of them latched onto each other from that moment on the shuttle. Jim had heard many a comment that the pair of them seemed so mismatched, but he knew better. Deep down there were shadows and pain and hiding going on to protect their true selves. Even from each other to a degree. There was never any asking or pushing, just a non-verbal acknowledgment that they understood each other.
Which brought Jim back full circle to the book on his lap. He ran gentle fingers over the cover. The blue cloth cover rough under his pads. He turned the book sideways to look again at the side writing. An elegant script in silver embossed into the cloth. It read "Young Hornblower Omnibus by C.S. Forester". Jim snorted as he remembered his initial thoughts on seeing the title, when it was in Bones' hands. Then Bones handed it over to him and told him that his father had handed him a copy of the first of these novels when he was a teenager.
Joanna had interrupted the memories with a tug on her father's hand and pulling him towards another section. Jim had followed slowly, handling the book reverently. The smell of the store was unlike anything Jim had smelt before. The smell of musty pages dominated the air. It was a pleasant, bringing thoughts of times gone by when books like these were common place. Joanna was waxing over a book even older than the one in his hands, it had a printed cover of a watercolor scene, four children in a row boat and a dog swimming in the water. The sheen of the cover still there over two centuries later.
The trip had ended with Bones purchasing both books, and when they got home he placed the Hornblower one in Jim's hands while Joanna raced up the stairs carefully holding her own book, off to place it on her shelves with the rest of her precious collection. Jim had tried to hand it back, horrified at the gift and knowing the cost, but Bones had smacked his hands away and pressed the book into his chest. Devina had then done her own silent little entrance to apparently dust the flowers on the hall table and Jim had to accept the present. Bones headed up the stairs after his daughter, leaving Jim standing in the entrance hall with the book and a bemused expression on his face.
Books were something to be treasured between the McCoys it seemed. Bones revealed that his father had presented his son with a gift of a book each year and on special occasions and achievements. When Joanna was born, Bones and his father then continued on the tradition, handing over his own collection to his daughter and both men adding to it.
Now here Jim was, handling his own book gently. The start of his own collection. He was in so much trouble.
Act Three, Scenes One to Five