[fic] The Boy Who Was Too Young, Part 6
Title: The Boy Who Was Too Young, Part 6
Rating: mild NC-17
Pairing: Bones/Jim, OMC/Jim
Warning: mpreg, teenagers who are really too young, reference to abortion
Thanks: To both lifebehindadesk and hebrewhammer42 for the awesome beta jobs.
Summary: Leonard can tell something is up, but he's not willing to push any boundaries between Jim and himself. And back in Riverside, tensions are rising between Frank and Jim.
Chapter One | Chapter Two | Chapter Three | Chapter Four | Chapter Five
Author’s Note: I've gone back through the previous chapters, and revised them a bit, as well as added location and dates. Most of these dates were probably self evident, except for the first scene in the first chapter, which actually happens between the Riverside parts and the Enterprise parts. Exactly what's going on in that scene will be evident by the end of the story. Also, if the formatting on this chapter appears messed up in any way, please let me know. :( I'm worried the paragraphs will run together, and not display the paragraph breaks. The formatting appears fine on my computer, but I'm paranoid that it will appear as giant blocks on other displays. So let me know?
Enterprise 2258
Leonard sends vids to Joanna every few weeks and messages more often than that. It is difficult getting a direct call face to face, as Jocelyn guards his daughter like he was a villain. However, even she can’t deny Joanna's own pleas to speak to Daddy.
His daughter talks about every mundane aspect of her life, from her favorite purple ponytail tie to her fury at a broken doll. She loves running around in a tank top and shorts, and she cried to Daddy when she discovered her feet were the largest in her class. At the time, he soothed her insecurities with words of how beautiful she was, but he yearned to grab her in his arms, to hug and kiss her tears away, and hold her all night.
Her hair is brown like his, but he sees Jocelyn in her pale skin and bony shoulders. He knows she’ll grow into those large feet to be tall and elegant just like her mother.
Here on the Enterprise, life is just getting rolling. They have been on assignment for a month now, and all the newness is finally starting to feel normal. Leonard had been impressed the first time he saw the Enterprise, the day he smuggled Jim onto the ship. As batshit crazy as it is to be out in space, getting shot at by psychopathic Romulans, Leonard grudgingly admits he has fallen a little bit in love with this ship.
Jim is way past falling in love. Leonard’s never seen the man stand straighter than when he walks to the bridge, and never seen the man more humble than when he talks about the crew.
The kid has grown from a rebellious, sure-of-himself ass into a loyal, sure-of-himself ass with the charisma and cunning to win over even his fiercest critics. Leonard has grown from a shy but determined med student into the CMO of Starfleet’s flagship. And in becoming CMO, he’s become Jim’s primary physician. Every time he treats his Captain, a part of McCoy is dying to find out about the red tape on Kirk’s profile.
The first time Leonard treated Jim, when they were both in the Academy, he had been surprised to see that a privacy request guarded a locked file on Jim's medical record. Approval to see the protected information required permission from James T. Kirk or emergency situation approval from Dr. Angela Carter. Leonard had questioned Jim, but the kid just joked it off as embarrassing STDs. Then, for the rest of their time at the Academy, Jim had cleverly avoided medical checkups with Bones.
Now out of the Academy, and after what was probably the most unlikely near-death situation possible in any time-space continuum, Leonard can see just how adept Kirk is at bluffing when asked questions he doesn’t want to deal with. The Captain is able to politely steer around unwanted issues without drawing attention to himself. It makes McCoy more curious, and more cautious, every time he is faced with that privacy request in Jim’s file. Jim still denies him approval to view it. But as CMO he can now override Jim’s permission…
He is not stupid enough or rude enough to do that, though his curiosity is just killing him. He would miss Jim’s playful grin if he did. And something in Jim’s smiling eyes says that his trust in Bones is honest and hard won. It’s daunting to think about, and keeps Leonard from ever entering his override; from betraying the kid’s trust. He wants to please Jim, with an earnestness he hasn’t had to deal with since things soured between himself and Jocelyn. Sometimes he has to ignore a slight twinge in his libido when Jim turns those bright blue eyes on him, and Leonard's imagination gives him a flash of those cheeky eyes looking up at him, or the thought of Jim's breath on his cock...
He knows better than to fancy those thoughts. James Kirk has always been a ladies man, but Jim doesn’t react well to male advances. Jim had aborted a good friendship with Gary Mitchell when the man became interested in more. Gary’s affection had been returned with sudden cruelty, and Jim had absolutely destroyed the man’s interest, and the friendship.
---------------------------------
Riverside 2249
Jim woke up to the burrrr of a modern snow blower. It was two hours before school, and already the daylight shown through the window. From his bed, he could see the flurry of snow. The world was bright white and blinding. If Sam and he were still kids, they would run out in glee, throw snow balls at each other, and grab their sleds. But Sam was gone, and Jim couldn't get on a sleigh because of this parasite in his belly.
Maybe he should go sleigh regardless. Screw any danger.
He lay in bed, laying just as he had when he woke up, entertaining the idea until his mind went blank.
---------------------------------
"I cleared all the snow this morning without you," Frank waved his cup of coffee, dripping snow from his boots onto the kitchen floor. Jim didn’t even look at him, just kept eating his oatmeal. "I figured you'd be too delicate in your condition to go out in the cold yourself. But maybe once you're feeling better you can help out around the house again. Remember that winter the snow blower was broken?"
That was the year Frank thought Sam and Jim needed to learn the ancient way of clearing snow, with shovels.
---------------------------------
“Hey, James,” Lucy Smith slowly came up behind him in the school hall. He closed his locker, hiding the prescriptions.
“Hey,” James answered quietly. They both stood awkwardly.
“I know it’s been a long time since we talked,” she admitted. “And I know that you’ve had a lot of girlfriends besides me, so, I mean, I’m not thinking I’m special or anything…”
“You are,” He answered, kindly. His eyes dropped diffidently.
She paused, and smiled bashfully. “So are you. Look, I’m not trying to flirt or anything. I just wanted to check and see that you’re all right.”
Any magic in the moment dropped when he sighed, and turned away. “I’m fine.”
She frowned, her expression filled with disappointment. “I’m worried about you. Everyone is.”
Jim grunted in aggravation, leaning back against the lockers. “Everyone should mind their own goddamn business. I’m fine! It’s a tumor, all right? They’re going to take it out in a few months, and then everything will be back to normal. So just fuck off.”
She stood straighter, affronted. “Alright. You’re fine. But what I don’t understand is why the hell a tumor is turning you into such an asshole.” She turned and walked back to her friends, who waited twenty feet away. Her best friend, who Jim had kissed at freshman Homecoming, glared.
Jim’s friend Robert came up behind him and whispered, “Jesus Christ, you need to chill.”
---------------------------------
Christmas and Jim's birthday were awkward affairs this year. Jim aborted any party attempts due to feelings of embarrassment and shame. Friends still gave him gifts, but inwardly, Jim looked at each gift as a pity present.
His mother and he had an uncomfortable vid call, and James avoided Frank when the man tried to take him out to eat to celebrate. But the worst was that afternoon, when the call from Sam came in.
Jim had locked himself in his room, reading Earnest Hemingway, when Frank knocked on his door.
"What is it?"
Through the door Frank said, "You brother's on the phone!"
James hesitated, scared for a moment. "I don't want to talk to him!"
Frank was silent. Then he opened the door, and glared at Jim. "Talk to your brother."
"No!"
"Godda-" Frank bite back the curse. "Can you hold for a moment?" He asked the phone.
George’s tiny phone voice snipped back, "What's wrong? It's his birthday, you've been nice to him today at least, right?"
Frank gritted his teeth in aggravation, and argued, "I need to talk to your brother, George," then put the line on hold before the college student could disagree. Jim was still glaring from him bed.
"I don't want to talk to him," the boy growled.
"You're going to have to tell him eventually," Frank argued crossly.
"I don't. Want. To."
"It's your birthday. You have to talk to him."
"No!"
And no amount of coercing would convince Jim to talk with his brother, by vid or even phone. That night Sam sent a data asking if Jim was okay, and if Frank had been particularly harsh lately. Jim deleted the message and rolled over in bed, lonely.
---------------------------------
Three feet of snow covered the ground, and the cold soaked in through his room’s window. Life sucked. Everything sucked.
With self pity came restless energy. That evening, he turned up the music in his room. Angrily, Jim pumped his dumbbells, his biceps flexed, sweat dripped off his forearms and cheeks. Then he dropped the dumbbells, and jumped into plank, did five push ups, kept his heart elevated with his blood pounding in his ears. Then he turned over to do sit ups, circuiting his exercise. The strange weight in his core was throwing off his balance, but he wouldn’t let it get in his way.
For breakfast, he had three eggs and orange juice. At school that day, he told himself ‘screw counting calories,’ and had a hamburger, fries and slice of chocolate cake. Back home for dinner, he snubbed the salad and veggies Frank had left him in the fridge and replicated BBQ ribs with mashed potatoes. He didn’t even take the vitamin the doctor wanted him to take. He did another forty-five minutes of interval training before bed.
The next morning the food didn’t sit well in his stomach. He stumbled into the bathroom at four in the morning to puke up his guts. He felt terrible as he stumbled back into his room, remembering days when his mother would stroke his hair, tuck him into bed, and hold a glass of water to his lips. She used to say, “Relax, honey, just relax. Everything will be all right.”
---------------------------------
At school, his friends obediently pretended nothing weird was happening, but they walked on egg shells around him. Just like all the adults around town. They politely did not bring up the issue, not acknowledging something James and his parents hadn’t acknowledged to the public yet.
The teachers were nosy, as they were used to intervening in their student’s lives, but they didn’t know what to make of him. They worried about his grades, they worried that he’d stopped trying, they worried that he was sick, but thankfully the principal and nurse were the only ones informed exactly what Jim’s sickness was. The gym teacher took offense that he wasn’t allowed to play James T. Kirk in baseball that spring. “You’d better stay in shape son. I’m not happy that you’ll be missing your sophomore season.”
---------------------------------
Frank stood in the doorway of James’ room as Jim pressed 150 lbs. “The doctor told you to stop.”
“I can make my own damn choices.”
“But I don’t trust you to make smart choices.” The man stepped into Jim’s room, and pulled the bar out of Jim’s hands; Jim snarled in protest. They played tug of war until Frank finally wrestled control.
The argument escalated, and the entire evening was ruined, but it was the next day that was the most horrible. Jim came home from another humiliating day at school, to find all the equipment gone from his room. His room had been stripped bare, all his music gone, his model cars and starships vanished, and even his hidden girly magazines were missing. His computer had been locked down to the barest functions. Worst was that his Dad’s antique books were also gone.
He ran down the stairs, the weight of his stomach making him sway. “You fucker!” He screamed into the kitchen, looking left and right. “Where’s my stuff?! What the hell did you do with my stuff?!” He swung through the dining room and the empty living room, and then ran back through the kitchen and into the garage, where Frank was programming next year’s crops.
“You have no right!” Jim screamed, grabbing his stepfather by the shirt. “That’s my stuff! Give it back, you have no right!”
Frank was impassive, obviously expecting this. “You are in my house-”
“This is my mother’s house!”
“And I’m in charge! I’m sick of your bullshit; if you’re going to act like a spoiled brat, then I’m going to treat you like a spoiled brat-”
“You can’t control me!”
“You can’t control yourself!”
Jim’s teeth were bared, and his vision was getting blurry. “But you took my books. My stuff. You have no reason to! You shouldn’t have taken my weights, but why the hell did you take my fucking stuff?! You have no right!”
“You’ll get your things back once you prove you deserve them. And mind your mouth.”
Jim let go of his stepfather’s shirt, shoulders still trembling. He walked backwards, staring at the person he hated more than anyone else in the world. He gulped, and could feel a tear run down his cheek, so he turned and fled the garage, not wanting Frank to see him cry.
---------------------------------
He thought about lighting up the whole damn house, just to keep Frank from having it. Thought about burning all of the crops. They owned the entire ten thousand acres on the southwestern side of Riverside. Frank would rage at the money and food lost.
He wanted to do it. He wanted to just destroy everything.
So he snuck out of the house that night, and crept through snow and ice to Jacob’s Bar and Grill on Main Street. He went into the alley, and slipped in through the backdoor. In the storage room, there were crates of liquor and beer. He grabbed as many bottles of rum and vodka as he could carry, and then snuck out again.
Next Chapter
Rating: mild NC-17
Pairing: Bones/Jim, OMC/Jim
Warning: mpreg, teenagers who are really too young, reference to abortion
Thanks: To both lifebehindadesk and hebrewhammer42 for the awesome beta jobs.
Summary: Leonard can tell something is up, but he's not willing to push any boundaries between Jim and himself. And back in Riverside, tensions are rising between Frank and Jim.
Chapter One | Chapter Two | Chapter Three | Chapter Four | Chapter Five
Author’s Note: I've gone back through the previous chapters, and revised them a bit, as well as added location and dates. Most of these dates were probably self evident, except for the first scene in the first chapter, which actually happens between the Riverside parts and the Enterprise parts. Exactly what's going on in that scene will be evident by the end of the story. Also, if the formatting on this chapter appears messed up in any way, please let me know. :( I'm worried the paragraphs will run together, and not display the paragraph breaks. The formatting appears fine on my computer, but I'm paranoid that it will appear as giant blocks on other displays. So let me know?
Enterprise 2258
Leonard sends vids to Joanna every few weeks and messages more often than that. It is difficult getting a direct call face to face, as Jocelyn guards his daughter like he was a villain. However, even she can’t deny Joanna's own pleas to speak to Daddy.
His daughter talks about every mundane aspect of her life, from her favorite purple ponytail tie to her fury at a broken doll. She loves running around in a tank top and shorts, and she cried to Daddy when she discovered her feet were the largest in her class. At the time, he soothed her insecurities with words of how beautiful she was, but he yearned to grab her in his arms, to hug and kiss her tears away, and hold her all night.
Her hair is brown like his, but he sees Jocelyn in her pale skin and bony shoulders. He knows she’ll grow into those large feet to be tall and elegant just like her mother.
Here on the Enterprise, life is just getting rolling. They have been on assignment for a month now, and all the newness is finally starting to feel normal. Leonard had been impressed the first time he saw the Enterprise, the day he smuggled Jim onto the ship. As batshit crazy as it is to be out in space, getting shot at by psychopathic Romulans, Leonard grudgingly admits he has fallen a little bit in love with this ship.
Jim is way past falling in love. Leonard’s never seen the man stand straighter than when he walks to the bridge, and never seen the man more humble than when he talks about the crew.
The kid has grown from a rebellious, sure-of-himself ass into a loyal, sure-of-himself ass with the charisma and cunning to win over even his fiercest critics. Leonard has grown from a shy but determined med student into the CMO of Starfleet’s flagship. And in becoming CMO, he’s become Jim’s primary physician. Every time he treats his Captain, a part of McCoy is dying to find out about the red tape on Kirk’s profile.
The first time Leonard treated Jim, when they were both in the Academy, he had been surprised to see that a privacy request guarded a locked file on Jim's medical record. Approval to see the protected information required permission from James T. Kirk or emergency situation approval from Dr. Angela Carter. Leonard had questioned Jim, but the kid just joked it off as embarrassing STDs. Then, for the rest of their time at the Academy, Jim had cleverly avoided medical checkups with Bones.
Now out of the Academy, and after what was probably the most unlikely near-death situation possible in any time-space continuum, Leonard can see just how adept Kirk is at bluffing when asked questions he doesn’t want to deal with. The Captain is able to politely steer around unwanted issues without drawing attention to himself. It makes McCoy more curious, and more cautious, every time he is faced with that privacy request in Jim’s file. Jim still denies him approval to view it. But as CMO he can now override Jim’s permission…
He is not stupid enough or rude enough to do that, though his curiosity is just killing him. He would miss Jim’s playful grin if he did. And something in Jim’s smiling eyes says that his trust in Bones is honest and hard won. It’s daunting to think about, and keeps Leonard from ever entering his override; from betraying the kid’s trust. He wants to please Jim, with an earnestness he hasn’t had to deal with since things soured between himself and Jocelyn. Sometimes he has to ignore a slight twinge in his libido when Jim turns those bright blue eyes on him, and Leonard's imagination gives him a flash of those cheeky eyes looking up at him, or the thought of Jim's breath on his cock...
He knows better than to fancy those thoughts. James Kirk has always been a ladies man, but Jim doesn’t react well to male advances. Jim had aborted a good friendship with Gary Mitchell when the man became interested in more. Gary’s affection had been returned with sudden cruelty, and Jim had absolutely destroyed the man’s interest, and the friendship.
---------------------------------
Riverside 2249
Jim woke up to the burrrr of a modern snow blower. It was two hours before school, and already the daylight shown through the window. From his bed, he could see the flurry of snow. The world was bright white and blinding. If Sam and he were still kids, they would run out in glee, throw snow balls at each other, and grab their sleds. But Sam was gone, and Jim couldn't get on a sleigh because of this parasite in his belly.
Maybe he should go sleigh regardless. Screw any danger.
He lay in bed, laying just as he had when he woke up, entertaining the idea until his mind went blank.
---------------------------------
"I cleared all the snow this morning without you," Frank waved his cup of coffee, dripping snow from his boots onto the kitchen floor. Jim didn’t even look at him, just kept eating his oatmeal. "I figured you'd be too delicate in your condition to go out in the cold yourself. But maybe once you're feeling better you can help out around the house again. Remember that winter the snow blower was broken?"
That was the year Frank thought Sam and Jim needed to learn the ancient way of clearing snow, with shovels.
---------------------------------
“Hey, James,” Lucy Smith slowly came up behind him in the school hall. He closed his locker, hiding the prescriptions.
“Hey,” James answered quietly. They both stood awkwardly.
“I know it’s been a long time since we talked,” she admitted. “And I know that you’ve had a lot of girlfriends besides me, so, I mean, I’m not thinking I’m special or anything…”
“You are,” He answered, kindly. His eyes dropped diffidently.
She paused, and smiled bashfully. “So are you. Look, I’m not trying to flirt or anything. I just wanted to check and see that you’re all right.”
Any magic in the moment dropped when he sighed, and turned away. “I’m fine.”
She frowned, her expression filled with disappointment. “I’m worried about you. Everyone is.”
Jim grunted in aggravation, leaning back against the lockers. “Everyone should mind their own goddamn business. I’m fine! It’s a tumor, all right? They’re going to take it out in a few months, and then everything will be back to normal. So just fuck off.”
She stood straighter, affronted. “Alright. You’re fine. But what I don’t understand is why the hell a tumor is turning you into such an asshole.” She turned and walked back to her friends, who waited twenty feet away. Her best friend, who Jim had kissed at freshman Homecoming, glared.
Jim’s friend Robert came up behind him and whispered, “Jesus Christ, you need to chill.”
---------------------------------
Christmas and Jim's birthday were awkward affairs this year. Jim aborted any party attempts due to feelings of embarrassment and shame. Friends still gave him gifts, but inwardly, Jim looked at each gift as a pity present.
His mother and he had an uncomfortable vid call, and James avoided Frank when the man tried to take him out to eat to celebrate. But the worst was that afternoon, when the call from Sam came in.
Jim had locked himself in his room, reading Earnest Hemingway, when Frank knocked on his door.
"What is it?"
Through the door Frank said, "You brother's on the phone!"
James hesitated, scared for a moment. "I don't want to talk to him!"
Frank was silent. Then he opened the door, and glared at Jim. "Talk to your brother."
"No!"
"Godda-" Frank bite back the curse. "Can you hold for a moment?" He asked the phone.
George’s tiny phone voice snipped back, "What's wrong? It's his birthday, you've been nice to him today at least, right?"
Frank gritted his teeth in aggravation, and argued, "I need to talk to your brother, George," then put the line on hold before the college student could disagree. Jim was still glaring from him bed.
"I don't want to talk to him," the boy growled.
"You're going to have to tell him eventually," Frank argued crossly.
"I don't. Want. To."
"It's your birthday. You have to talk to him."
"No!"
And no amount of coercing would convince Jim to talk with his brother, by vid or even phone. That night Sam sent a data asking if Jim was okay, and if Frank had been particularly harsh lately. Jim deleted the message and rolled over in bed, lonely.
---------------------------------
Three feet of snow covered the ground, and the cold soaked in through his room’s window. Life sucked. Everything sucked.
With self pity came restless energy. That evening, he turned up the music in his room. Angrily, Jim pumped his dumbbells, his biceps flexed, sweat dripped off his forearms and cheeks. Then he dropped the dumbbells, and jumped into plank, did five push ups, kept his heart elevated with his blood pounding in his ears. Then he turned over to do sit ups, circuiting his exercise. The strange weight in his core was throwing off his balance, but he wouldn’t let it get in his way.
For breakfast, he had three eggs and orange juice. At school that day, he told himself ‘screw counting calories,’ and had a hamburger, fries and slice of chocolate cake. Back home for dinner, he snubbed the salad and veggies Frank had left him in the fridge and replicated BBQ ribs with mashed potatoes. He didn’t even take the vitamin the doctor wanted him to take. He did another forty-five minutes of interval training before bed.
The next morning the food didn’t sit well in his stomach. He stumbled into the bathroom at four in the morning to puke up his guts. He felt terrible as he stumbled back into his room, remembering days when his mother would stroke his hair, tuck him into bed, and hold a glass of water to his lips. She used to say, “Relax, honey, just relax. Everything will be all right.”
---------------------------------
At school, his friends obediently pretended nothing weird was happening, but they walked on egg shells around him. Just like all the adults around town. They politely did not bring up the issue, not acknowledging something James and his parents hadn’t acknowledged to the public yet.
The teachers were nosy, as they were used to intervening in their student’s lives, but they didn’t know what to make of him. They worried about his grades, they worried that he’d stopped trying, they worried that he was sick, but thankfully the principal and nurse were the only ones informed exactly what Jim’s sickness was. The gym teacher took offense that he wasn’t allowed to play James T. Kirk in baseball that spring. “You’d better stay in shape son. I’m not happy that you’ll be missing your sophomore season.”
---------------------------------
Frank stood in the doorway of James’ room as Jim pressed 150 lbs. “The doctor told you to stop.”
“I can make my own damn choices.”
“But I don’t trust you to make smart choices.” The man stepped into Jim’s room, and pulled the bar out of Jim’s hands; Jim snarled in protest. They played tug of war until Frank finally wrestled control.
The argument escalated, and the entire evening was ruined, but it was the next day that was the most horrible. Jim came home from another humiliating day at school, to find all the equipment gone from his room. His room had been stripped bare, all his music gone, his model cars and starships vanished, and even his hidden girly magazines were missing. His computer had been locked down to the barest functions. Worst was that his Dad’s antique books were also gone.
He ran down the stairs, the weight of his stomach making him sway. “You fucker!” He screamed into the kitchen, looking left and right. “Where’s my stuff?! What the hell did you do with my stuff?!” He swung through the dining room and the empty living room, and then ran back through the kitchen and into the garage, where Frank was programming next year’s crops.
“You have no right!” Jim screamed, grabbing his stepfather by the shirt. “That’s my stuff! Give it back, you have no right!”
Frank was impassive, obviously expecting this. “You are in my house-”
“This is my mother’s house!”
“And I’m in charge! I’m sick of your bullshit; if you’re going to act like a spoiled brat, then I’m going to treat you like a spoiled brat-”
“You can’t control me!”
“You can’t control yourself!”
Jim’s teeth were bared, and his vision was getting blurry. “But you took my books. My stuff. You have no reason to! You shouldn’t have taken my weights, but why the hell did you take my fucking stuff?! You have no right!”
“You’ll get your things back once you prove you deserve them. And mind your mouth.”
Jim let go of his stepfather’s shirt, shoulders still trembling. He walked backwards, staring at the person he hated more than anyone else in the world. He gulped, and could feel a tear run down his cheek, so he turned and fled the garage, not wanting Frank to see him cry.
---------------------------------
He thought about lighting up the whole damn house, just to keep Frank from having it. Thought about burning all of the crops. They owned the entire ten thousand acres on the southwestern side of Riverside. Frank would rage at the money and food lost.
He wanted to do it. He wanted to just destroy everything.
So he snuck out of the house that night, and crept through snow and ice to Jacob’s Bar and Grill on Main Street. He went into the alley, and slipped in through the backdoor. In the storage room, there were crates of liquor and beer. He grabbed as many bottles of rum and vodka as he could carry, and then snuck out again.
Next Chapter