Fic: Party of the Third Part (STXI AU, Kirk/McCoy, PG-13)
Title: Party of the Third Part
Artist: pouf
Author: sail_aweigh
Rating: art G/fic PG-13
Genre/Pairing: Contemporary AU, Kirk/McCoy pre-slash
Word Count: 6580
Warnings: swearing, child in minor medical peril
Art Thumbnail:
Divorce
Fic Summary: Jim Kirk had no use for deadbeat dads, until he did.
Link to Art:
A/N: Written for trekreversebang, inspired by the fantastic draft by pouf, betad by the lovely lindmere.
Leonard looked down at the papers on the table and then back at his wife. "What's this all about, Joce, really?"
"Just sign the papers, Len. You know and I know this has been coming for a long time."
He slapped his hands down on the table. "No, I don't." It came out a lot louder than he meant it to, but this wasn't making any sense to him. "I don't know that. Maybe because I don't see you enough to know what's going on in that darn fool head of yours."
"Even if you saw me, you still wouldn't know," she glanced down at her fingernails rubbing at one of them as if to smooth away his accusation like a smudge of dirt on the nail. "You haven't asked me about work, about the house, about my health, about Joanna's grades or anything about our life together as we know it for such a long time, I feel like I'm living with a hermit."
Leonard placed his head in his hands. "You know how important this research is, Joce. You know."
"Len, he's gone. I know the research is important, but it doesn't have to be done tomorrow, or even in the next six months. Give it a rest."
"I can't. If I can save even one person from suffering the same pain as my father, I'll keep working on this until the earth goes cold."
"Well, you've pretty much got that handled; this house may as well be in the Antarctic for all the heat I find in the bedroom these days."
Leonard pushed away from the table with both hands, the chair screeching against the floor in distress. "Maybe if you didn't come home stinking like Clay Treadway's cologne, you'd find a warmer welcome there! Damnit, Joce, we don't need to be airing our dirty laundry in front of your trained monkey."
He cast a disparaging glance at the third person at the table.
That gentleman shifted uneasily in his seat, lifting his hand to fiddle with his tie. "Ah, sorry, but I don't work for Ms. Darnell. I'm in the divorce branch, not the patent--"
"Ms. Darnell?" Leonard interrupted. He crossed his arms over his chest as he looked over at Jocelyn.
"Yes, Len. I dropped the McCoy over a year ago. Hyphenating was a mistake. Do you know how much more it costs getting letterhead and signs made, just because of an extra six letters?" She fussed with the lapels of her shirt. This was as close to nervous as Leonard had seen her in a long time.
"Five letters, Joce."
"The hyphen counts; it's another fifty dollars when you're talking gold leaf on a window. And the amount of time I wasted just signing my name was disgusting."
Leonard scoffed. "I'm sure it's billable. We talked about that when we got married. You said you were fine with hyphenating."
"Well, I'm not. I'm trying to make a name for myself beyond Atlanta. Hyphenating complicates the issue."
"You could have said something. I've always supported your career."
"And I don't want or need you to. What I want is to make my business the premier law firm of Atlanta." A slim finger came out to point at him, like a skewer pinning his name to a specimen box of antiquated patriarchal ideals. "My business, Len; so it should have my name."
His hands flew up to stem the flood of explanation he's finally getting. "Fine. All you had to do was say so. That doesn't require a divorce, for Christ's sake."
Jocelyn sighed. "It's not just the name, Len. It's not enough, it's--"
"What you're saying is, I'm not good enough for you." Leonard leaned forward and looked her in the eyes, his turn to pin her to the spot with his glare. "You're regretting turning down Treadway, now, aren't you? He can get you into doors in Atlanta society I can't."
"No, I don't regret marrying you. The first few years were wonderful and I've got a beautiful daughter from it. But we haven't been working towards the same goals for a number of years. I need someone who can be there for me, besides in name only. Clay has the time, he makes time."
Leonard leaned his head against one hand, closing his eyes. "Then can't you give me just a little more time, to absorb this? To finish my research? I'm close, Joce, so close. Then, I'll be there, I promise." He opened his eyes and saw only determination and implacability facing him.
He slumped down in the chair, placing his hands limply in his lap, where he stared at them in resignation. "Fine. Where do I sign?"
A masculine hand pushed a fountain pen and the thick sheaf of papers in front of him. Colored tabs called out the places requiring either a signature or just his initials. "Color coded? Don't tell me you did that with your notes during school, too. Did you shine up an apple to place on your professor's desk to make sure he remembered you fondly?"
The flying monkey smirked. "It wasn't an apple that I shone, but she did like it on her desk. And I didn't take notes. Didn't need to, photographic memory." Leonard looked at the self-satisfied expression on the extraneous lawyer's face and wanted to wipe it out with his knuckles. The hand that had fiddled with the tie before now smoothed it down with a self-satisfied air. Leonard lifted his lip in a sneer, but bent his head to the papers attentitively.
He grunted and started signing. "Well, since Clay already seems to have put up territorial markers around Jocelyn, I'm pretty sure those techniques have been wasted on her. Keep it that way and I won't see you disbarred for misconduct before this ink finishes drying."
He threw the pen down with finality and stood up. "I think I'd better leave while I've still at least got my bones. If there's nothing else, m'dear, I will bid you adieu so I can pack. You can send whatever's left of the carcass that you don't want to my office." He took one blind glance around the kitchen before he turned and left toward the front of the house. The two people left in the room heard him ascend the stairs to the second floor where a door was banged closed.
Silence fell across the kitchen while the lawyer gathered the papers together and slid them into his briefcase. After buckling the case shut, he stood and looked down at Jocelyn where she sat seemingly rooted to the chair.
He hesitated for a moment, reaching out a hand that she waved away. "Are you sure--"
"Yes. You better leave. Len will never get violent, but his tongue is sharper than any scalpel he'll ever wield. You might actually find holes in your soul when he's done with you. Thank you, Jim; it made it easier having you here where you could deflect some of his ire." She reached out then and took his hand, holding it for a moment before she let it go. Jocelyn dropped her head back and closed her eyes, shutting out the sight of her spoils. Jim stood for a few more moments in apparent indecision, then shook off whatever thought was holding him back. Her pose was a clear dismissal.
He walked to the front of the house, passing the stairway with a brief glance up into the well of darkness at the top of the stairs. All was quiet as he continued on to open the door and let himself out into the night. He hated divorce cases, no one came out of them looking good. Not even friends.
Leonard smeared antibiotic salve on the wound on the putative "patient's" forearm with the q-tip, then set it down on the sterile tray to pick up the gauze. The door to the room opened with a resounding bang against the wall, a beefy commando holding it open with his rifle pointed straight at him. Startled, Leonard dropped the roll of gauze he'd just picked up. Before he had time to realize what had happened, he found himself held tight by an arm around the neck with his back to the sweaty chest of the drug-runner he'd been trying to bandage. The muzzle of the man's gun was digging into the soft flesh of the underside of his chin.
"Whoa! Whoa! What's going on? I was only trying to help." His look fluttered from face to face of the small group of commandos that had come barging in the door with guns drawn. He would have called this a Mexican standoff, except for the fact he was in Guatemala.
"How many of them are there?" barked a man wearing lieutenant's bars on his collar.
Leonard started to answer, "I saw three--" but was cut off when the arm around his throat tightened. He clutched at the arm, but without much force. The infected area he'd been treating rested just under his chin and he hestitated to do further damage to it.
"¡Cállate!" The gun dug deeper into the flesh of his chin. Leonard was silent. He honestly didn't know how many men had infiltrated the clinic; he'd only seen the three go into the dispensary where the drugs were kept. Still, he thought he'd better shut up as told or he'd be unable to be of any help, if this wasn't to be resolved without bloodshed, as he wasn't entirely sure it wouldn't be.
"Tenemos veinte soldados que rodeaban la clínica. Ponga su arma por tierra. Put your gun down." The lieutenant gazed steadily at the Guatemalan, his rifle trained unerringly at the man's head. Leonard held his breath, hoping he wouldn't have to take more extreme measures than just bandaging the man's arm for an infected bug bite when this was all over.
The pressure of the gun eased and he started to let out his breath in relief. That was, until a number of gunshots echoed through the small building. As the gun started to come back up two things happened. With a muttered, "I'm sorry," Leonard dug the fingers of one hand into the wound where the infected bite was inflamed and raw, the other hand into the pressure point in the man's elbow. The drug-runner cried out in pain as his hand spasmed open, releasing the grip on his gun and allowing Leonard to wrench it away from him. The second thing really caught him by surprise.
"I thought you quit swimming with the sharks when you divorced Jocelyn, Bones?" The voice came from behind him, and he could practically hear the smirk in it.
"Oh, hell, there goes the neighborhood," Leonard groused. He pushed the whimpering thug into the waiting arms of one of the soldiers, before turning around to see the last person, besides Jocelyn, he would have expected to find in a small village in Guatemala. "James T. Kirk, Esq. Slumming?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Leonard finished up the bandaging job on the drug-runner while Kirk and his unit rounded up the rest of the smugglers and prepared them for transport. When that was done, he spent the next little while quickly restocking and inventorying the drug cabinet with all the recovered drugs the bandits had tried to steal. It was just a little ironic that men running major quantities of cocaine through the countryside were desperate for things like penicillin, Vicodin and Viagra. Christ, he only had the Viagra by accident. One of the previous volunteers at the clinic had kept a mistress on the side whenever he came down to help out and he seemed to need the extra boost. The expiration date on the pills was six months ago, but the bandits didn't care. About the time he had locked up the cabinet and its inventory, he heard Kirk telling his men he'd meet them back at their quarters that evening and something else he couldn't hear over the the sound of a truck engine revving into gear and pulling away.
He walked back into the kitchen and gave a start of surprise when he found Kirk sitting at the small table, his hat removed and his rifle propped in the V made by the kitchen counters meeting in the corner. The room was small enough that he'd be able to reach it from where he sat at the table. Leonard gave him a dirty look, but didn't say anything as he reached under the kitchen sink and pulled out a bottle of clear liquid.
"It's a local brew, like moonshine, be careful with it," he said before pulling out two mismatched drinking glasses from the cupboard.
Leonard watched as Kirk poured a little into one of the glasses and then raised the glass to his nose, giving it a sniff. He didn't seem to think twice as he brought the glass to his lips, tipped his head back slightly and tossed the whole thing back at once. He closed his eyes and breathed out through his nose with a little humming sound.
"Whoo-ey. Good stuff. Tastes a little like what my uncle Frank used to make out back behind the barn."
Leonard poured himself a finger's worth and repeated Kirk's actions for himself. "Where was that? You don't sound like you come from moonshine country."
Kirk rolled the small glass between his palms. "Small town in Iowa. Far enough away from any urban centers that we could do things like distill grain alcohol and the local authorities would turn a blind eye as long as we left a few jugs out for them. I mean, Iowa and corn are kind of synonymous, you know."
"Iowa. How in Sam Hill did you end up in Atlanta?" Leonard splashed a little more of the alcohol, known as quetzalteca locally, into each of their glasses.
Kirk looked at his glass and when he picked it up this time just sipped at it a little. He put the glass down and looked up at Leonard with a wry smile. "How did you end up in Guatemala, Bones?"
Leonard choked on his next sip of the fiery liquor. "'Bones'? Where the hell do you get 'Bones'?" He aimed a glare at the grinning man opposite him, before knocking back the rest of his glass.
"Aw, c'mon. You don't remember telling Jocelyn to leave you your bones when she was done picking over the carcass?"
Leonard closed his eyes and shook his head. "Hell, I barely remember that month. I moved into my office with a case of Basil Hayden and didn't see hide nor hair of my staff or a patient until the case ran out." He looked at Kirk consideringly. "So, you're saying you ended up in Atlanta because of a woman?"
"More or less. My girlfriend at the time got work at the CDC after we graduated from Columbia. I followed her down thinking we were going to get engaged." Kirk looked out the window. "She was pregnant, it made sense, it would have been the right thing to do and I did care for Carol." He stopped speaking, a bleak look in his eyes.
Leondard didn't press him to talk. Instead, he capped the bottle of quetzalteca and returned it to its place under the counter. After putting the glasses in the sink to be washed later, he moved to the little refrigerator along one wall. He pulled out two bottles of beer, popped the tops off with the magnetic bottle opener stuck to the front of the refrigerator and placed one in front of Kirk before returning to his seat.
"Listen, Kirk--"
"Jim. Call me Jim. I'm not a stranger."
"No, but you're not exactly a friend, either," Leonard said with a hint of indignation.
Jim picked at the label on the bottle, peeling a corner away where the condensation was loosening the glue underneath. "Could be. Maybe."
"Jim, other than arresting smugglers, I have no idea what you're doing here or how you ended up in the Army. Don't you have friends in your unit?" Leonard took a swallow of his beer. He wasn't really sure he wanted it at this point, but at least it was cold in the muggy heat that permeated the building despite the laboring of the little air-conditioner stuck in one window of the kitchen.
The other man shook his head. "We're a reserve unit. We usually only see each other once a month for drill. Right now, we're down here on an exchange program with the Guatemalan army to teach them urban counter-terrorism techniques. This little maneuver today was just to curry favor with the local authorities. My unit will be down here for two more weeks and then we're going back to Atlanta." His face got a pinched look to it, his mouth drooping at the corners. It didn't look natural, or nice, on him.
"There's nothing for me there, Bones. Carol left and I have no idea where she went or if she even had the baby. I've been volunteering for every extended training mission I can get my hands on, so I don't have to go back to our condo. The law firm isn't going to put up with it much longer." He scrubbed both hands over his face, whether in fatigue or to mask tears, Leonard wasn't quite sure.
"I'm sorry, kid. That was a crap thing for her to do."
Jim nodded and let out an unsteady breath. "Yeah, it's one of the reasons I thought you might understand. I'm sorry, Bones. Sorry I ever helped Jocelyn keep Joanna from you. I thought I was helping a friend, but it was wrong."
Leonard sat silent for a moment before leaning forward in his chair and extending his hand out to Jim across the table. "You help me get to see Joanna and I'll do what I can to find out where, or if, Carol had the baby." Jim didn't even hesitate. He reached across the table and shook Leonard's hand.
"That's a deal, Bones."
Leonard knew he shouldn't be in the kitchen; this wasn't even his house. Well, his house, anymore. But he was willing to bet that Joce hadn't gotten rid of his stash in the cupboard above the refrigerator in the past two years. It wasn't like he had hidden it from her, but it was where things they only used once or twice a year were kept, so it was possible she hadn't thought to clear it out. She wasn't a bourbon drinker and, if he remembered correctly, the only other things in the cupboard were a waffle iron, a cookie press and a hand-held blender for making smoothies. None of these were things that Jocelyn had ever been known to use, so chances she had found and disposed of the bottle of Woodford Reserve he kept there to keep out of little hands were slim to none.
And there it was. He pulled the bottle down and went over to the cupboard that held drinking glasses. Leonard looked out the kitchen window as he splashed some of the bourbon into the lowball glass he found. Outside, the tent canopies fluttered in the light breeze, the flower arrangements placed around the perimeter were slowly drooping and shedding their petals across the lawn. Joce and Clay were holding glasses of champagne, chatting with some friends in the shade of a large oak. They looked flushed, a little sweaty from the late spring heat and happy as clams at high tide. He wished them well, but it was a little hard being around so much happiness when he had yet to feel comfortable with the thought of moving on. For the moment, he was content with rebuilding his relationship with Joanna. He would start dating eventually, but for now he wanted to spend time getting to know his daughter better and regaining her trust.
Right now, she and her cousins were busy jumping around to some pop songs the hired band were playing as the older people were congregating around the open bar. He gave an amused snort--what kind of bar didn't carry bourbon? They'd already done the requisite first dance and its formalities, but with so many lawyers and business owners in this group, it was turning more into a major networking opportunity than a wedding reception. The kids' enthusiasm was the only thing keeping this anything resembling a celebration among its participants.
Leonard gave a last glance out the window before pulling a chair out from the table and sitting down with his drink. He rested both arms on the table with the drink between them, letting the alcohol work its way into his system. His eyes closed as he listened to the faint strains of music through the closed windows; another reason to come inside--central air. Long legs slid forward into a more relaxed position as he picked up the bourbon for another sip and nearly choked on it when a hand clapped him on the shoulder.
"Damn it, don't sneak up on a man that way!" Leonard wasn't really surprised by the merry laugh that came from behind him. He'd seen Kirk in the crowd of people at both the wedding and then the reception dinner. He was just surprised he wasn't outside swimming with the rest of the sharks, trolling for chum. No, that wasn't fair. Jim had worked hard to wring concessions out of Jocelyn so he could get Joanna every other weekend, his share of holidays and for a summer vacation of two weeks. The kid was just young and had held slightly idealized visions of his co-workers in his head when he'd first started work in a major law office. He'd grown up a lot in the past two years; events had forced him to.
Leonard held up the bottle with his eyebrows raised in question. Jim nodded and Leonard rose from his seat to get another glass. When he turned back around from the cupboard, Jim was sprawled out in a chair with his jacket undone and his tie hanging loose around his collar, two buttons unbuttoned.
"Make yourself at home, kid. It's what I do." He plunked the glass down in front of him, pouring a couple of fingers of bourbon into the glass. Once he was seated again, he raised his glass in salute. Jim returned it and they tapped glasses before taking sips of their respective glass.
"How come you're not outside trading Pokemon cards with the other kids?" Leonard relaxed into his chair, letting his feet slide out and find a comfortable angle.
Jim scoffed. "The other kids only had Dunsparce and he's lame; I didn't want him, either." Leonard's eyes watered when he snorted bourbon up his nose. Jim's eyes got a little big, before he gave a sheepish smile. "Sorry."
Leonard waved the apology away. "Christ, Jim. I was kidding, but I don't think you were."
"Well, yes and no. I didn't actually trade any cards with the kids because I don't have any on me. But I collected them myself. I've still got a box of them at my mom's house in Riverside." He looked at Bones diffidently. "Do you think Jo would like them?"
Leonard looked at him consideringly. "You don't want to save them for the future, for--?" he trailed off, unsure how to raise the question of David.
Jim shook his head. "No. I don't know if I'll ever catch up to Carol. Last time I heard she was on an eco-research station in Costa Rica, but getting any kind of court order through international courts in child custody matters takes a lot of time and money. She heard about it and took off again." He looked down at his hands. "I'd like to meet him just once, Bones."
Leonard shifted his chair around the table, so he was seated next to Jim. He put his arm around Jim's shoulders and gave a little tug, pulling him into his side. Jim tucked his head between Leonard's shoulder and neck. He let out a long, wobbly breath.
"Sorry. Seems like all I do is fall apart around you."
Leonard gave him a quick squeeze. "Quit saying you're sorry. That's what friends are for."
He could feel Jim smile into his neck. "Is that what we are, friends, now?"
"Yeah, yeah, we are. We drink together, we take care of each other, we listen when it's needed and kick the other's ass when it's needed. Sounds like friends to me."
"Thanks. I think I kind of knew that, but we started off on such a bad footing, that there's times I'm just not sure." Jim placed his hand on Bones' shoulder and rubbed his arm.
Leonard enjoyed the feeling. He had to admit, he didn't get touched with affection frequently. Oh, Jo hugs were great, but that was his kid. Being touched by another adult felt good. Didn't hurt that Jim was a very touchy-feely kind of guy and had a habit of standing just a little too close, encroaching unconsciously on his personal space. He wondered if Jim did this with everyone or just him? He was a little startled to find himself getting mildly aroused thinking about it.
Out of curiousity, he lowered the hand he was hugging Jim loosely with to just below the belt on his pants and ran his thumb along his iliac crest. He felt Jim give a little shudder and turn his face closer into Leonard's neck, his lips brushing the stubbled skin there. Leonard shivered slightly. They remained like that for a long while without speaking.
Jim did speak finally. "Is this going somewhere, Bones?" The hand that had been rubbing his arm moved to his hip instead, flirting with rise of his buttocks. Leonard found himself flexing the muscles in his legs as his arousal grew, thinking he'd like that touch on bare skin. He let out a sigh.
"Not the time or place, kid. Just testing out a theory." He leaned sideways in the chair a little and turned toward Jim, dislodging him from his place against his shoulder and forcing him to lift his head. He placed one palm against Jim's face, the thumb rubbing softly over his bottom lip. Jim smiled into the caress.
"This feels like more than friends. Is it?" asked Jim. He raised one hand to mirror Leonard's. They looked at each other in silence for a few moments before Leonard moved his hand to cover Jim's. He held it there for a second, then lifted Jim's hand off his face. He placed a brief kiss in the palm before placing Jim's hand back in his own lap.
"I don't know, Jim. I haven't felt anything like this since I was in high school. It's a little unsettling." He picked up his glass and took a sip of the forgotten bourbon. It was turning out he might need this for more than getting past Jocelyn's remarriage. "I had my moments of experimentation, like most horny teenagers, but once I met Jocelyn I set my sights on her and didn't look back."
Jim clasped his hands together in his lap and looked down at them. "So, are you looking at all?" Leonard thought he detected a note of yearning in the voice.
"Yes and no. I've only just started spending time with Jo again and I want to concentrate on that for a while. Can you understand that?"
"Hell, yeah. I'd give up everything to have some time with David. I understand." He ran a hand around the back of his neck and gave Leonard a rueful grin. Jim picked up his glass and threw back the little bit left in it, then stood up rather abruptly buttoning his shirt and tightening the knot on his tie.
"I should get going. Burning daylight and the trading card business is booming out there. I should go get a piece of the action with the big kids this time." He clapped Leonard on the shoulder and gave him a two fingered salute before turning away.
"Jim." He hesitated on the threshold, turning back towards Leonard. "I'll call you."
Jim unleashed an incandescent smile, blew him a kiss and left.
Leonard opened the door to the examining room, only to see Jim Kirk down on the floor on his hands and knees with a giggling toddler clinging to his back with both legs and a deathgrip around his neck. Jim was tossing his head and making neighing sounds that sounded more like a donkey braying than any horse he'd ever heard. Leonard cleared his throat loudly and when that didn't seem to have any effect called out loudly, "Jim!"
Jim's head turned towards him, face flushed and laughing. "Bones! Hey, hang on."
"Okay, David, time to get down." Jim held onto the arms around his neck, while the little boy wiggled both legs over one side and onto the ground. Once his feet were on solid ground, Jim sat back on his heels and swung David onto his lap. The little boy promptly stuck one thumb in his mouth and held onto his father's arm with the other hand.
"Thanks for agreeing to see David. I know there's very good pediatricians in this town, but I wanted someone I knew."
"Jim, you understand if I find anything unusual, I'll have to refer you to another doctor." Leonard saw him nod as he sat at the computer on its movable counter and, after adjusting the height of the counter, opened the file on David Marcus. It had already had things like his height, weight and blood pressure entered by the nurse. A fairly complete patient history had been entered and he didn't see anything out of the ordinary; he turned and said so to Jim.
"That's exactly the problem, Bones. Everything looks so ordinary, but I can tell there's something wrong. There are times he has a hard time breathing for no apparent reason. The other doctors say he gets overexcited and just forgets to breathe. What kid forgets to breathe? Another one said asthma, but I had asthma as a kid and there's no wheezing. He just starts gasping."
Leonard grunted. "Put David up on the examining table, would you? I want to listen to his heart."
"His heart?" Jim looked startled, but lifted David up onto the table as asked.
Leonard lifted the little boy's shirt and placed the chestpiece of his stethoscope on his upper chest. "Deep breath, David." The little boy looked at him uncertainly, then at his father. His face took on a pinched look, his mouth screwing up in preparation for unleashing a sound that neither man was prepared to hear.
Jim reached over and smoothed his hand over the child's hair. "Shhhh, shhhh. Bones just wants to listen to you breathe, kiddo. Let's show him how to do it. Deep breath in!" Jim sucked in a deep breath and then blew it out hard. "And all the way out. Okay, tiger?"
David stuck one finger in his mouth and just looked at his father with big eyes. Jim did it again, this time throwing his arms out and making a funny face. This illicited a giggle from David.
"You try it now," coaxed Jim.
David threw his arms out and took a deep breath and then blew it out with a raspberry.
Leonard rolled his eyes and muttered, "Two peas in a pod."
"Bones, why don't you do it on me so he can see how it's done?" Jim turned towards Leonard and lifted his shirt for him. Leonard placed the stethoscope on Jim's chest and listened while Jim breathed in and out, moving the stethoscope to a different position after each breath. David watched interestedly.
"Me, me, do me!" The little boy lifted his shirt and stuck his chest out. Leonard obliged and placed the stethoscope on his chest. This time he was able to listen to David's breathing and his heart at the same time.
Leonard tucked his stethoscope away and straightened David's shirt for him. "You're done, kiddo. Jim, you can get him down. Have a seat by the computer, I'll be right over."
Jim picked David up and after stopping to dig for a toy truck in his carryall, went over to the seat Leonard directed him to. Once seated, he handed the truck to David and they waited for Bones to join them. Leonard came over and took the other seat in front of the computer. He clicked the mouse to open a new screen and started typing.
"I'm ordering a couple of tests, Jim, and referring David to a pediatric cardiologist, Geoff M'Benga. He's very good at what he does. Now, I want to talk to you about what I think is going on. It was very subtle, but it's possible David has a heart murmur caused by an atrial septal defect. An echocardiogram will give us a better picture of what's going on there." He made a couple more keystrokes before backing out of that screen and then out of the file, pushing the computer table to one side when he was finished. Leonard turned to face Jim. "I'm not even 100% sure it's there, but from your description of shortness of breath it sounds like he has a very small hole between the atria of his heart. It can cause shortness of breath and fatigue, in extreme cases lack of appetite and failure to thrive. David doesn't look like that's been an issue. If it hasn't been detected until now, it means it really is quite insignificant as these things go. An extremely small defect will often close up on its own, without surgical intervention. After the echocardiogram, we'll keep monitoring him every six months to see if there are any changes. If it hasn't closed on its own by the time he's ready to start kindergarten we can do a cardiac catheterization, a nonsurgical means of plugging the hole."
Jim remained very quite for the first few moments, but Leonard could see him clenching and unclenching his fists. He reached out and took one of Jim's hands in his own, opening the fingers out and massaging his hand. "Jim, it's not that bad. This is very treatable and David will make a complete recovery. He can live a totally normal life."
Jim's mouth opened and closed a couple of times. Then through gritted teeth he said, "How could she have let this happen?"
"Don't be an ass. Nobody let this happen; it's congenital. I just told you I'm not even sure I've got the right diagnosis. Which is why you're taking David to M'Benga and I've ordered the appropriate tests."
Jim let out a shaky breath. "Yeah, okay. It's just--I've finally got him in my life after three years of not knowing him, Bones. I don't want to lose him before I even have him. Three years of chasing Carol around the world. It's hard. Hard to forgive her."
"Little pitchers, Jim," Leonard admonished him.
Jim pulled David close with one arm and gripped Leonard's hand tight with the other. A wobbly grin crossed his face. "He's mine now, right? Let bygones be bygones."
Leonard reached up with one hand to pull Jim close by the back of his neck. He rested his forehead against Jim's. "You're the better person; think it, feel it, be it." He gave a light tug on Jim's neck with each homily.
Jim gave a quiet laugh. "Will do, oh, Great Swami."
"Huh, 'Great Swami.' I think I like that better than 'Bones'. At least it acknowledges my greatness, instead of sounding like something the dog dug up." Leonard let go of Jim's neck and sat back, giving the other man a smirk.
Jim's smile slid into a leer. "But I dig your bones, Bones."
Leonard rolled his eyes. "That was so lame, I'm buying your lines orthotics so they can get off the ground."
Setting David on the ground, Jim watched as he pushed the red firetruck around the legs of the chair that he was sitting in. He looked back up at Leonard, the look on his face turned calculating. "What line would work with you? I'm serious."
"You don't need a line. Just gotta ask."
"Then, I'm asking," Jim said softly.
Leonard smiled at him. "You ready to resume the Saturday afternoon football beatdowns? It's the Cyclones against the Badgers this week."
"Badgers, phhht. We'll blow them away." Jim laid the pun out with a straight face while flicking his hand dismissively. This elicited a groan from Leonard, who shook his head at him. Then Jim got serious. "You're okay with this, really? I know I haven't been around much, lately. I was afraid you'd think I was blowing you off for good."
Leonard laid a hand on Jim's leg. "Nah, remember when I said I wanted to spend time with Joanna and you gave me room to do that? Same thing. I understood the need to bond with David."
Jim's hand settled over his. "I might want a little more this time. Is now a good time for that?"
Leonard turned his hand over under Jim's and gave a tug, pulling Jim in close. "Never better. Come over Saturday; we'll watch football, ogle the cheerleaders, drink some beer. See where it goes. I think we'll both like it. Hell, I'd like more right this minute, but not with Junior around." His breath ghosted across Jim's face and Jim shut his eye's momentarily in anticipation when Leonard started speaking, but nothing happened, much to his dismay.
Jim opened his eyes and drew back with a rueful smile when he took in what Leonard had just said. "Yeah, not the time and place right now. And it's time to get David home before his schedule gets all out of whack." He dug through the carryall by his side and pulled out a small sweater. "Come on, David. Time to go home." He took the firetruck from David and held the sweater up. David turned around and let Jim tug the sweater's sleeves up his arms.
"Can I have a juice box, Daddy?" Jim zipped up the sweater and pulled it straight.
"You bet, kiddo. Let's wait until we get out to the car, though." Tossing the carryall over one shoulder, he picked David up with the other and settled him on his hip.
Leonard held the door open for them. "Don't forget to stop at the referral desk on the way out. They should have your appointments ready for you to pick up."
Jim gave him a look of gratitude. "I'll do that. Thanks for everything. It's a relief to finally know what's going on. With David and with us. I've missed you."
"Me, too, Jim. Me, too. I'll see you Saturday." Leonard guided them out the door with one hand on the small of Jim's back.
"With bells on, Bones." The words trailed behind Jim as he walked down the hallway. "They'll be blowing in the wind."
Leonard let his head thunk against the door as he closed it behind him. "I've really got to break him of the pun habit," he murmured to himself, but he found himself laughing anyway. Goddamn, he'd missed the kid. Saturday couldn't come soon enough.
Artist: pouf
Author: sail_aweigh
Rating: art G/fic PG-13
Genre/Pairing: Contemporary AU, Kirk/McCoy pre-slash
Word Count: 6580
Warnings: swearing, child in minor medical peril
Art Thumbnail:
Divorce
Fic Summary: Jim Kirk had no use for deadbeat dads, until he did.
Link to Art:
A/N: Written for trekreversebang, inspired by the fantastic draft by pouf, betad by the lovely lindmere.
Leonard looked down at the papers on the table and then back at his wife. "What's this all about, Joce, really?"
"Just sign the papers, Len. You know and I know this has been coming for a long time."
He slapped his hands down on the table. "No, I don't." It came out a lot louder than he meant it to, but this wasn't making any sense to him. "I don't know that. Maybe because I don't see you enough to know what's going on in that darn fool head of yours."
"Even if you saw me, you still wouldn't know," she glanced down at her fingernails rubbing at one of them as if to smooth away his accusation like a smudge of dirt on the nail. "You haven't asked me about work, about the house, about my health, about Joanna's grades or anything about our life together as we know it for such a long time, I feel like I'm living with a hermit."
Leonard placed his head in his hands. "You know how important this research is, Joce. You know."
"Len, he's gone. I know the research is important, but it doesn't have to be done tomorrow, or even in the next six months. Give it a rest."
"I can't. If I can save even one person from suffering the same pain as my father, I'll keep working on this until the earth goes cold."
"Well, you've pretty much got that handled; this house may as well be in the Antarctic for all the heat I find in the bedroom these days."
Leonard pushed away from the table with both hands, the chair screeching against the floor in distress. "Maybe if you didn't come home stinking like Clay Treadway's cologne, you'd find a warmer welcome there! Damnit, Joce, we don't need to be airing our dirty laundry in front of your trained monkey."
He cast a disparaging glance at the third person at the table.
That gentleman shifted uneasily in his seat, lifting his hand to fiddle with his tie. "Ah, sorry, but I don't work for Ms. Darnell. I'm in the divorce branch, not the patent--"
"Ms. Darnell?" Leonard interrupted. He crossed his arms over his chest as he looked over at Jocelyn.
"Yes, Len. I dropped the McCoy over a year ago. Hyphenating was a mistake. Do you know how much more it costs getting letterhead and signs made, just because of an extra six letters?" She fussed with the lapels of her shirt. This was as close to nervous as Leonard had seen her in a long time.
"Five letters, Joce."
"The hyphen counts; it's another fifty dollars when you're talking gold leaf on a window. And the amount of time I wasted just signing my name was disgusting."
Leonard scoffed. "I'm sure it's billable. We talked about that when we got married. You said you were fine with hyphenating."
"Well, I'm not. I'm trying to make a name for myself beyond Atlanta. Hyphenating complicates the issue."
"You could have said something. I've always supported your career."
"And I don't want or need you to. What I want is to make my business the premier law firm of Atlanta." A slim finger came out to point at him, like a skewer pinning his name to a specimen box of antiquated patriarchal ideals. "My business, Len; so it should have my name."
His hands flew up to stem the flood of explanation he's finally getting. "Fine. All you had to do was say so. That doesn't require a divorce, for Christ's sake."
Jocelyn sighed. "It's not just the name, Len. It's not enough, it's--"
"What you're saying is, I'm not good enough for you." Leonard leaned forward and looked her in the eyes, his turn to pin her to the spot with his glare. "You're regretting turning down Treadway, now, aren't you? He can get you into doors in Atlanta society I can't."
"No, I don't regret marrying you. The first few years were wonderful and I've got a beautiful daughter from it. But we haven't been working towards the same goals for a number of years. I need someone who can be there for me, besides in name only. Clay has the time, he makes time."
Leonard leaned his head against one hand, closing his eyes. "Then can't you give me just a little more time, to absorb this? To finish my research? I'm close, Joce, so close. Then, I'll be there, I promise." He opened his eyes and saw only determination and implacability facing him.
He slumped down in the chair, placing his hands limply in his lap, where he stared at them in resignation. "Fine. Where do I sign?"
A masculine hand pushed a fountain pen and the thick sheaf of papers in front of him. Colored tabs called out the places requiring either a signature or just his initials. "Color coded? Don't tell me you did that with your notes during school, too. Did you shine up an apple to place on your professor's desk to make sure he remembered you fondly?"
The flying monkey smirked. "It wasn't an apple that I shone, but she did like it on her desk. And I didn't take notes. Didn't need to, photographic memory." Leonard looked at the self-satisfied expression on the extraneous lawyer's face and wanted to wipe it out with his knuckles. The hand that had fiddled with the tie before now smoothed it down with a self-satisfied air. Leonard lifted his lip in a sneer, but bent his head to the papers attentitively.
He grunted and started signing. "Well, since Clay already seems to have put up territorial markers around Jocelyn, I'm pretty sure those techniques have been wasted on her. Keep it that way and I won't see you disbarred for misconduct before this ink finishes drying."
He threw the pen down with finality and stood up. "I think I'd better leave while I've still at least got my bones. If there's nothing else, m'dear, I will bid you adieu so I can pack. You can send whatever's left of the carcass that you don't want to my office." He took one blind glance around the kitchen before he turned and left toward the front of the house. The two people left in the room heard him ascend the stairs to the second floor where a door was banged closed.
Silence fell across the kitchen while the lawyer gathered the papers together and slid them into his briefcase. After buckling the case shut, he stood and looked down at Jocelyn where she sat seemingly rooted to the chair.
He hesitated for a moment, reaching out a hand that she waved away. "Are you sure--"
"Yes. You better leave. Len will never get violent, but his tongue is sharper than any scalpel he'll ever wield. You might actually find holes in your soul when he's done with you. Thank you, Jim; it made it easier having you here where you could deflect some of his ire." She reached out then and took his hand, holding it for a moment before she let it go. Jocelyn dropped her head back and closed her eyes, shutting out the sight of her spoils. Jim stood for a few more moments in apparent indecision, then shook off whatever thought was holding him back. Her pose was a clear dismissal.
He walked to the front of the house, passing the stairway with a brief glance up into the well of darkness at the top of the stairs. All was quiet as he continued on to open the door and let himself out into the night. He hated divorce cases, no one came out of them looking good. Not even friends.
Leonard smeared antibiotic salve on the wound on the putative "patient's" forearm with the q-tip, then set it down on the sterile tray to pick up the gauze. The door to the room opened with a resounding bang against the wall, a beefy commando holding it open with his rifle pointed straight at him. Startled, Leonard dropped the roll of gauze he'd just picked up. Before he had time to realize what had happened, he found himself held tight by an arm around the neck with his back to the sweaty chest of the drug-runner he'd been trying to bandage. The muzzle of the man's gun was digging into the soft flesh of the underside of his chin.
"Whoa! Whoa! What's going on? I was only trying to help." His look fluttered from face to face of the small group of commandos that had come barging in the door with guns drawn. He would have called this a Mexican standoff, except for the fact he was in Guatemala.
"How many of them are there?" barked a man wearing lieutenant's bars on his collar.
Leonard started to answer, "I saw three--" but was cut off when the arm around his throat tightened. He clutched at the arm, but without much force. The infected area he'd been treating rested just under his chin and he hestitated to do further damage to it.
"¡Cállate!" The gun dug deeper into the flesh of his chin. Leonard was silent. He honestly didn't know how many men had infiltrated the clinic; he'd only seen the three go into the dispensary where the drugs were kept. Still, he thought he'd better shut up as told or he'd be unable to be of any help, if this wasn't to be resolved without bloodshed, as he wasn't entirely sure it wouldn't be.
"Tenemos veinte soldados que rodeaban la clínica. Ponga su arma por tierra. Put your gun down." The lieutenant gazed steadily at the Guatemalan, his rifle trained unerringly at the man's head. Leonard held his breath, hoping he wouldn't have to take more extreme measures than just bandaging the man's arm for an infected bug bite when this was all over.
The pressure of the gun eased and he started to let out his breath in relief. That was, until a number of gunshots echoed through the small building. As the gun started to come back up two things happened. With a muttered, "I'm sorry," Leonard dug the fingers of one hand into the wound where the infected bite was inflamed and raw, the other hand into the pressure point in the man's elbow. The drug-runner cried out in pain as his hand spasmed open, releasing the grip on his gun and allowing Leonard to wrench it away from him. The second thing really caught him by surprise.
"I thought you quit swimming with the sharks when you divorced Jocelyn, Bones?" The voice came from behind him, and he could practically hear the smirk in it.
"Oh, hell, there goes the neighborhood," Leonard groused. He pushed the whimpering thug into the waiting arms of one of the soldiers, before turning around to see the last person, besides Jocelyn, he would have expected to find in a small village in Guatemala. "James T. Kirk, Esq. Slumming?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Leonard finished up the bandaging job on the drug-runner while Kirk and his unit rounded up the rest of the smugglers and prepared them for transport. When that was done, he spent the next little while quickly restocking and inventorying the drug cabinet with all the recovered drugs the bandits had tried to steal. It was just a little ironic that men running major quantities of cocaine through the countryside were desperate for things like penicillin, Vicodin and Viagra. Christ, he only had the Viagra by accident. One of the previous volunteers at the clinic had kept a mistress on the side whenever he came down to help out and he seemed to need the extra boost. The expiration date on the pills was six months ago, but the bandits didn't care. About the time he had locked up the cabinet and its inventory, he heard Kirk telling his men he'd meet them back at their quarters that evening and something else he couldn't hear over the the sound of a truck engine revving into gear and pulling away.
He walked back into the kitchen and gave a start of surprise when he found Kirk sitting at the small table, his hat removed and his rifle propped in the V made by the kitchen counters meeting in the corner. The room was small enough that he'd be able to reach it from where he sat at the table. Leonard gave him a dirty look, but didn't say anything as he reached under the kitchen sink and pulled out a bottle of clear liquid.
"It's a local brew, like moonshine, be careful with it," he said before pulling out two mismatched drinking glasses from the cupboard.
Leonard watched as Kirk poured a little into one of the glasses and then raised the glass to his nose, giving it a sniff. He didn't seem to think twice as he brought the glass to his lips, tipped his head back slightly and tossed the whole thing back at once. He closed his eyes and breathed out through his nose with a little humming sound.
"Whoo-ey. Good stuff. Tastes a little like what my uncle Frank used to make out back behind the barn."
Leonard poured himself a finger's worth and repeated Kirk's actions for himself. "Where was that? You don't sound like you come from moonshine country."
Kirk rolled the small glass between his palms. "Small town in Iowa. Far enough away from any urban centers that we could do things like distill grain alcohol and the local authorities would turn a blind eye as long as we left a few jugs out for them. I mean, Iowa and corn are kind of synonymous, you know."
"Iowa. How in Sam Hill did you end up in Atlanta?" Leonard splashed a little more of the alcohol, known as quetzalteca locally, into each of their glasses.
Kirk looked at his glass and when he picked it up this time just sipped at it a little. He put the glass down and looked up at Leonard with a wry smile. "How did you end up in Guatemala, Bones?"
Leonard choked on his next sip of the fiery liquor. "'Bones'? Where the hell do you get 'Bones'?" He aimed a glare at the grinning man opposite him, before knocking back the rest of his glass.
"Aw, c'mon. You don't remember telling Jocelyn to leave you your bones when she was done picking over the carcass?"
Leonard closed his eyes and shook his head. "Hell, I barely remember that month. I moved into my office with a case of Basil Hayden and didn't see hide nor hair of my staff or a patient until the case ran out." He looked at Kirk consideringly. "So, you're saying you ended up in Atlanta because of a woman?"
"More or less. My girlfriend at the time got work at the CDC after we graduated from Columbia. I followed her down thinking we were going to get engaged." Kirk looked out the window. "She was pregnant, it made sense, it would have been the right thing to do and I did care for Carol." He stopped speaking, a bleak look in his eyes.
Leondard didn't press him to talk. Instead, he capped the bottle of quetzalteca and returned it to its place under the counter. After putting the glasses in the sink to be washed later, he moved to the little refrigerator along one wall. He pulled out two bottles of beer, popped the tops off with the magnetic bottle opener stuck to the front of the refrigerator and placed one in front of Kirk before returning to his seat.
"Listen, Kirk--"
"Jim. Call me Jim. I'm not a stranger."
"No, but you're not exactly a friend, either," Leonard said with a hint of indignation.
Jim picked at the label on the bottle, peeling a corner away where the condensation was loosening the glue underneath. "Could be. Maybe."
"Jim, other than arresting smugglers, I have no idea what you're doing here or how you ended up in the Army. Don't you have friends in your unit?" Leonard took a swallow of his beer. He wasn't really sure he wanted it at this point, but at least it was cold in the muggy heat that permeated the building despite the laboring of the little air-conditioner stuck in one window of the kitchen.
The other man shook his head. "We're a reserve unit. We usually only see each other once a month for drill. Right now, we're down here on an exchange program with the Guatemalan army to teach them urban counter-terrorism techniques. This little maneuver today was just to curry favor with the local authorities. My unit will be down here for two more weeks and then we're going back to Atlanta." His face got a pinched look to it, his mouth drooping at the corners. It didn't look natural, or nice, on him.
"There's nothing for me there, Bones. Carol left and I have no idea where she went or if she even had the baby. I've been volunteering for every extended training mission I can get my hands on, so I don't have to go back to our condo. The law firm isn't going to put up with it much longer." He scrubbed both hands over his face, whether in fatigue or to mask tears, Leonard wasn't quite sure.
"I'm sorry, kid. That was a crap thing for her to do."
Jim nodded and let out an unsteady breath. "Yeah, it's one of the reasons I thought you might understand. I'm sorry, Bones. Sorry I ever helped Jocelyn keep Joanna from you. I thought I was helping a friend, but it was wrong."
Leonard sat silent for a moment before leaning forward in his chair and extending his hand out to Jim across the table. "You help me get to see Joanna and I'll do what I can to find out where, or if, Carol had the baby." Jim didn't even hesitate. He reached across the table and shook Leonard's hand.
"That's a deal, Bones."
Leonard knew he shouldn't be in the kitchen; this wasn't even his house. Well, his house, anymore. But he was willing to bet that Joce hadn't gotten rid of his stash in the cupboard above the refrigerator in the past two years. It wasn't like he had hidden it from her, but it was where things they only used once or twice a year were kept, so it was possible she hadn't thought to clear it out. She wasn't a bourbon drinker and, if he remembered correctly, the only other things in the cupboard were a waffle iron, a cookie press and a hand-held blender for making smoothies. None of these were things that Jocelyn had ever been known to use, so chances she had found and disposed of the bottle of Woodford Reserve he kept there to keep out of little hands were slim to none.
And there it was. He pulled the bottle down and went over to the cupboard that held drinking glasses. Leonard looked out the kitchen window as he splashed some of the bourbon into the lowball glass he found. Outside, the tent canopies fluttered in the light breeze, the flower arrangements placed around the perimeter were slowly drooping and shedding their petals across the lawn. Joce and Clay were holding glasses of champagne, chatting with some friends in the shade of a large oak. They looked flushed, a little sweaty from the late spring heat and happy as clams at high tide. He wished them well, but it was a little hard being around so much happiness when he had yet to feel comfortable with the thought of moving on. For the moment, he was content with rebuilding his relationship with Joanna. He would start dating eventually, but for now he wanted to spend time getting to know his daughter better and regaining her trust.
Right now, she and her cousins were busy jumping around to some pop songs the hired band were playing as the older people were congregating around the open bar. He gave an amused snort--what kind of bar didn't carry bourbon? They'd already done the requisite first dance and its formalities, but with so many lawyers and business owners in this group, it was turning more into a major networking opportunity than a wedding reception. The kids' enthusiasm was the only thing keeping this anything resembling a celebration among its participants.
Leonard gave a last glance out the window before pulling a chair out from the table and sitting down with his drink. He rested both arms on the table with the drink between them, letting the alcohol work its way into his system. His eyes closed as he listened to the faint strains of music through the closed windows; another reason to come inside--central air. Long legs slid forward into a more relaxed position as he picked up the bourbon for another sip and nearly choked on it when a hand clapped him on the shoulder.
"Damn it, don't sneak up on a man that way!" Leonard wasn't really surprised by the merry laugh that came from behind him. He'd seen Kirk in the crowd of people at both the wedding and then the reception dinner. He was just surprised he wasn't outside swimming with the rest of the sharks, trolling for chum. No, that wasn't fair. Jim had worked hard to wring concessions out of Jocelyn so he could get Joanna every other weekend, his share of holidays and for a summer vacation of two weeks. The kid was just young and had held slightly idealized visions of his co-workers in his head when he'd first started work in a major law office. He'd grown up a lot in the past two years; events had forced him to.
Leonard held up the bottle with his eyebrows raised in question. Jim nodded and Leonard rose from his seat to get another glass. When he turned back around from the cupboard, Jim was sprawled out in a chair with his jacket undone and his tie hanging loose around his collar, two buttons unbuttoned.
"Make yourself at home, kid. It's what I do." He plunked the glass down in front of him, pouring a couple of fingers of bourbon into the glass. Once he was seated again, he raised his glass in salute. Jim returned it and they tapped glasses before taking sips of their respective glass.
"How come you're not outside trading Pokemon cards with the other kids?" Leonard relaxed into his chair, letting his feet slide out and find a comfortable angle.
Jim scoffed. "The other kids only had Dunsparce and he's lame; I didn't want him, either." Leonard's eyes watered when he snorted bourbon up his nose. Jim's eyes got a little big, before he gave a sheepish smile. "Sorry."
Leonard waved the apology away. "Christ, Jim. I was kidding, but I don't think you were."
"Well, yes and no. I didn't actually trade any cards with the kids because I don't have any on me. But I collected them myself. I've still got a box of them at my mom's house in Riverside." He looked at Bones diffidently. "Do you think Jo would like them?"
Leonard looked at him consideringly. "You don't want to save them for the future, for--?" he trailed off, unsure how to raise the question of David.
Jim shook his head. "No. I don't know if I'll ever catch up to Carol. Last time I heard she was on an eco-research station in Costa Rica, but getting any kind of court order through international courts in child custody matters takes a lot of time and money. She heard about it and took off again." He looked down at his hands. "I'd like to meet him just once, Bones."
Leonard shifted his chair around the table, so he was seated next to Jim. He put his arm around Jim's shoulders and gave a little tug, pulling him into his side. Jim tucked his head between Leonard's shoulder and neck. He let out a long, wobbly breath.
"Sorry. Seems like all I do is fall apart around you."
Leonard gave him a quick squeeze. "Quit saying you're sorry. That's what friends are for."
He could feel Jim smile into his neck. "Is that what we are, friends, now?"
"Yeah, yeah, we are. We drink together, we take care of each other, we listen when it's needed and kick the other's ass when it's needed. Sounds like friends to me."
"Thanks. I think I kind of knew that, but we started off on such a bad footing, that there's times I'm just not sure." Jim placed his hand on Bones' shoulder and rubbed his arm.
Leonard enjoyed the feeling. He had to admit, he didn't get touched with affection frequently. Oh, Jo hugs were great, but that was his kid. Being touched by another adult felt good. Didn't hurt that Jim was a very touchy-feely kind of guy and had a habit of standing just a little too close, encroaching unconsciously on his personal space. He wondered if Jim did this with everyone or just him? He was a little startled to find himself getting mildly aroused thinking about it.
Out of curiousity, he lowered the hand he was hugging Jim loosely with to just below the belt on his pants and ran his thumb along his iliac crest. He felt Jim give a little shudder and turn his face closer into Leonard's neck, his lips brushing the stubbled skin there. Leonard shivered slightly. They remained like that for a long while without speaking.
Jim did speak finally. "Is this going somewhere, Bones?" The hand that had been rubbing his arm moved to his hip instead, flirting with rise of his buttocks. Leonard found himself flexing the muscles in his legs as his arousal grew, thinking he'd like that touch on bare skin. He let out a sigh.
"Not the time or place, kid. Just testing out a theory." He leaned sideways in the chair a little and turned toward Jim, dislodging him from his place against his shoulder and forcing him to lift his head. He placed one palm against Jim's face, the thumb rubbing softly over his bottom lip. Jim smiled into the caress.
"This feels like more than friends. Is it?" asked Jim. He raised one hand to mirror Leonard's. They looked at each other in silence for a few moments before Leonard moved his hand to cover Jim's. He held it there for a second, then lifted Jim's hand off his face. He placed a brief kiss in the palm before placing Jim's hand back in his own lap.
"I don't know, Jim. I haven't felt anything like this since I was in high school. It's a little unsettling." He picked up his glass and took a sip of the forgotten bourbon. It was turning out he might need this for more than getting past Jocelyn's remarriage. "I had my moments of experimentation, like most horny teenagers, but once I met Jocelyn I set my sights on her and didn't look back."
Jim clasped his hands together in his lap and looked down at them. "So, are you looking at all?" Leonard thought he detected a note of yearning in the voice.
"Yes and no. I've only just started spending time with Jo again and I want to concentrate on that for a while. Can you understand that?"
"Hell, yeah. I'd give up everything to have some time with David. I understand." He ran a hand around the back of his neck and gave Leonard a rueful grin. Jim picked up his glass and threw back the little bit left in it, then stood up rather abruptly buttoning his shirt and tightening the knot on his tie.
"I should get going. Burning daylight and the trading card business is booming out there. I should go get a piece of the action with the big kids this time." He clapped Leonard on the shoulder and gave him a two fingered salute before turning away.
"Jim." He hesitated on the threshold, turning back towards Leonard. "I'll call you."
Jim unleashed an incandescent smile, blew him a kiss and left.
Leonard opened the door to the examining room, only to see Jim Kirk down on the floor on his hands and knees with a giggling toddler clinging to his back with both legs and a deathgrip around his neck. Jim was tossing his head and making neighing sounds that sounded more like a donkey braying than any horse he'd ever heard. Leonard cleared his throat loudly and when that didn't seem to have any effect called out loudly, "Jim!"
Jim's head turned towards him, face flushed and laughing. "Bones! Hey, hang on."
"Okay, David, time to get down." Jim held onto the arms around his neck, while the little boy wiggled both legs over one side and onto the ground. Once his feet were on solid ground, Jim sat back on his heels and swung David onto his lap. The little boy promptly stuck one thumb in his mouth and held onto his father's arm with the other hand.
"Thanks for agreeing to see David. I know there's very good pediatricians in this town, but I wanted someone I knew."
"Jim, you understand if I find anything unusual, I'll have to refer you to another doctor." Leonard saw him nod as he sat at the computer on its movable counter and, after adjusting the height of the counter, opened the file on David Marcus. It had already had things like his height, weight and blood pressure entered by the nurse. A fairly complete patient history had been entered and he didn't see anything out of the ordinary; he turned and said so to Jim.
"That's exactly the problem, Bones. Everything looks so ordinary, but I can tell there's something wrong. There are times he has a hard time breathing for no apparent reason. The other doctors say he gets overexcited and just forgets to breathe. What kid forgets to breathe? Another one said asthma, but I had asthma as a kid and there's no wheezing. He just starts gasping."
Leonard grunted. "Put David up on the examining table, would you? I want to listen to his heart."
"His heart?" Jim looked startled, but lifted David up onto the table as asked.
Leonard lifted the little boy's shirt and placed the chestpiece of his stethoscope on his upper chest. "Deep breath, David." The little boy looked at him uncertainly, then at his father. His face took on a pinched look, his mouth screwing up in preparation for unleashing a sound that neither man was prepared to hear.
Jim reached over and smoothed his hand over the child's hair. "Shhhh, shhhh. Bones just wants to listen to you breathe, kiddo. Let's show him how to do it. Deep breath in!" Jim sucked in a deep breath and then blew it out hard. "And all the way out. Okay, tiger?"
David stuck one finger in his mouth and just looked at his father with big eyes. Jim did it again, this time throwing his arms out and making a funny face. This illicited a giggle from David.
"You try it now," coaxed Jim.
David threw his arms out and took a deep breath and then blew it out with a raspberry.
Leonard rolled his eyes and muttered, "Two peas in a pod."
"Bones, why don't you do it on me so he can see how it's done?" Jim turned towards Leonard and lifted his shirt for him. Leonard placed the stethoscope on Jim's chest and listened while Jim breathed in and out, moving the stethoscope to a different position after each breath. David watched interestedly.
"Me, me, do me!" The little boy lifted his shirt and stuck his chest out. Leonard obliged and placed the stethoscope on his chest. This time he was able to listen to David's breathing and his heart at the same time.
Leonard tucked his stethoscope away and straightened David's shirt for him. "You're done, kiddo. Jim, you can get him down. Have a seat by the computer, I'll be right over."
Jim picked David up and after stopping to dig for a toy truck in his carryall, went over to the seat Leonard directed him to. Once seated, he handed the truck to David and they waited for Bones to join them. Leonard came over and took the other seat in front of the computer. He clicked the mouse to open a new screen and started typing.
"I'm ordering a couple of tests, Jim, and referring David to a pediatric cardiologist, Geoff M'Benga. He's very good at what he does. Now, I want to talk to you about what I think is going on. It was very subtle, but it's possible David has a heart murmur caused by an atrial septal defect. An echocardiogram will give us a better picture of what's going on there." He made a couple more keystrokes before backing out of that screen and then out of the file, pushing the computer table to one side when he was finished. Leonard turned to face Jim. "I'm not even 100% sure it's there, but from your description of shortness of breath it sounds like he has a very small hole between the atria of his heart. It can cause shortness of breath and fatigue, in extreme cases lack of appetite and failure to thrive. David doesn't look like that's been an issue. If it hasn't been detected until now, it means it really is quite insignificant as these things go. An extremely small defect will often close up on its own, without surgical intervention. After the echocardiogram, we'll keep monitoring him every six months to see if there are any changes. If it hasn't closed on its own by the time he's ready to start kindergarten we can do a cardiac catheterization, a nonsurgical means of plugging the hole."
Jim remained very quite for the first few moments, but Leonard could see him clenching and unclenching his fists. He reached out and took one of Jim's hands in his own, opening the fingers out and massaging his hand. "Jim, it's not that bad. This is very treatable and David will make a complete recovery. He can live a totally normal life."
Jim's mouth opened and closed a couple of times. Then through gritted teeth he said, "How could she have let this happen?"
"Don't be an ass. Nobody let this happen; it's congenital. I just told you I'm not even sure I've got the right diagnosis. Which is why you're taking David to M'Benga and I've ordered the appropriate tests."
Jim let out a shaky breath. "Yeah, okay. It's just--I've finally got him in my life after three years of not knowing him, Bones. I don't want to lose him before I even have him. Three years of chasing Carol around the world. It's hard. Hard to forgive her."
"Little pitchers, Jim," Leonard admonished him.
Jim pulled David close with one arm and gripped Leonard's hand tight with the other. A wobbly grin crossed his face. "He's mine now, right? Let bygones be bygones."
Leonard reached up with one hand to pull Jim close by the back of his neck. He rested his forehead against Jim's. "You're the better person; think it, feel it, be it." He gave a light tug on Jim's neck with each homily.
Jim gave a quiet laugh. "Will do, oh, Great Swami."
"Huh, 'Great Swami.' I think I like that better than 'Bones'. At least it acknowledges my greatness, instead of sounding like something the dog dug up." Leonard let go of Jim's neck and sat back, giving the other man a smirk.
Jim's smile slid into a leer. "But I dig your bones, Bones."
Leonard rolled his eyes. "That was so lame, I'm buying your lines orthotics so they can get off the ground."
Setting David on the ground, Jim watched as he pushed the red firetruck around the legs of the chair that he was sitting in. He looked back up at Leonard, the look on his face turned calculating. "What line would work with you? I'm serious."
"You don't need a line. Just gotta ask."
"Then, I'm asking," Jim said softly.
Leonard smiled at him. "You ready to resume the Saturday afternoon football beatdowns? It's the Cyclones against the Badgers this week."
"Badgers, phhht. We'll blow them away." Jim laid the pun out with a straight face while flicking his hand dismissively. This elicited a groan from Leonard, who shook his head at him. Then Jim got serious. "You're okay with this, really? I know I haven't been around much, lately. I was afraid you'd think I was blowing you off for good."
Leonard laid a hand on Jim's leg. "Nah, remember when I said I wanted to spend time with Joanna and you gave me room to do that? Same thing. I understood the need to bond with David."
Jim's hand settled over his. "I might want a little more this time. Is now a good time for that?"
Leonard turned his hand over under Jim's and gave a tug, pulling Jim in close. "Never better. Come over Saturday; we'll watch football, ogle the cheerleaders, drink some beer. See where it goes. I think we'll both like it. Hell, I'd like more right this minute, but not with Junior around." His breath ghosted across Jim's face and Jim shut his eye's momentarily in anticipation when Leonard started speaking, but nothing happened, much to his dismay.
Jim opened his eyes and drew back with a rueful smile when he took in what Leonard had just said. "Yeah, not the time and place right now. And it's time to get David home before his schedule gets all out of whack." He dug through the carryall by his side and pulled out a small sweater. "Come on, David. Time to go home." He took the firetruck from David and held the sweater up. David turned around and let Jim tug the sweater's sleeves up his arms.
"Can I have a juice box, Daddy?" Jim zipped up the sweater and pulled it straight.
"You bet, kiddo. Let's wait until we get out to the car, though." Tossing the carryall over one shoulder, he picked David up with the other and settled him on his hip.
Leonard held the door open for them. "Don't forget to stop at the referral desk on the way out. They should have your appointments ready for you to pick up."
Jim gave him a look of gratitude. "I'll do that. Thanks for everything. It's a relief to finally know what's going on. With David and with us. I've missed you."
"Me, too, Jim. Me, too. I'll see you Saturday." Leonard guided them out the door with one hand on the small of Jim's back.
"With bells on, Bones." The words trailed behind Jim as he walked down the hallway. "They'll be blowing in the wind."
Leonard let his head thunk against the door as he closed it behind him. "I've really got to break him of the pun habit," he murmured to himself, but he found himself laughing anyway. Goddamn, he'd missed the kid. Saturday couldn't come soon enough.