Day 56: Crossroader's Bar and Casino

[fourstonewalls]

Doyleton, Lana had surmised within the first few hours of her last visit, was too ordinary. Nothing this trip, even the abandoned building, had made her reconsider that assessment. She hadn't found the point where the small town stopped, and the lie started, where she could slip in a well-placed word and start to unravel the whole shebang

Comments

[doneinthree]

Kirk shook his head with a rueful smile. Honestly, he couldn't say he was surprised - he knew that determined look, that stiff-backed posture which so succinctly spelled out the fact that they were no longer only friends and colleagues. This was what he'd traded for the right to wear his uniform. Now he had responsibilities. Expectations of conduct. The weight of authority behind his words and actions, to back up those decisions which he thought were right. He reached again for that ball of self-indulgent moroseness, and found it wasn't there. Neither was disappointment. He didn't even know if he would've preferred Bones to have answered differently.

Typical, Jim. Some part of him always had to rebel a little, even when it was against himself. Kirk tapped a finger on the table beside the full shot, just once, the exact span of time in which he considered downing that one too. But... the moment had passed. He slid off the stool to stand steady, gaze direct, before McCoy. He'd spent too many years playing drunk and

[doneinthree]

From his stance to the look on his eyes, there was no question that Kirk had readied himself for a confrontation, which made his expression of surprise all that more noticeable when Bones dropped his gaze. That was it? He'd been prepared for- well, something a lot worse than that. Calling any doctor unfit for his job was asking for a fight; doing it to Bones practically guaranteed it. Not only was he not giving Kirk an earful right now, he'd said thanks.

But then the thing which always made Bones different from most of the doctors Jim had known was that Bones would never hesitate to go above and beyond the call for his patients, even at the cost of his pride, and there was no small amount of pride there. So it was bad, then. In a way, he would've preferred an argument, because at least there would've still been that little seed of doubt over whether or not he was overreacting. Like this, knowing that Bones thought he was right to relieve him... Kirk sighed and glanced off for a second, looking less like a Starfleet captain