āyou canāt be here now.ā Jim is hiding a secret & its making him distressed & lose sleep and pining!Bones tries to confront him
Itās rare that Leonard uses his medical override, but he hasit for a reason after all, and now seems as good a time to use it as any. āJim-āhe starts as soon as the door slides open.
Jim jumps up from his desk, his hair wild and his eyes neardesperate. āBones!ā he shouts. āYou canāt be here now!ā
Leonard crosses his arms over his chest and prepares tostare Jim down. He tries to ignore the way his heart squeezes painfully when helooks Jim over. His skin is pale, his cheeks a sallow, and the thick smudgesunder his eyes have gotten even more pronounced. From a medical position thingsdonāt look too great, as Jimās boyfriend- āJim,ā he says slowly. āYou look likeshit.ā Heās tried tiptoeing around this already, and so far, Jimās managed tobrush him off. But thereās only so much he can take.
āGee, thanks, Bones,ā Jim replies sarcastically.
Sighing softly, Leonard invites himself into Jimās room. āLook,āLeonard says softly. āI donāt know what I did butā¦I understand if you want toend things between us. Normally I wouldnāt push, but itās effecting your work.Hell, even Spockās worried in his own Vulcan way.ā Honestly, Leonard hadthought things were going well between them. After two years of being in asteady relationship, both on and off Earth, Leonard had been positive that theywere far beyond this.
But Jim hasnāt spoken to him for nearly two weeks now, and āshitādoesnāt even begin to cover how bad Jim looks. As Jimās doctor, hell as hisfriend, Leonard knows he should just put Jim out of his misery.
āConsider us broken up. There, I did it for you, no need foryou to stress anymore,ā he says softly, fighting down his own disappointmentthat it had apparently come to this. He doesnāt want to leave Jim but...if itāll help Jim, if it will let him sleep and do the job he loves, Leonard is more than willing to make the sacrifice, make this as easy as possible for Jim. āIf you want, Iāll even request anotherassignment I wouldnāt want-ā
āBones!ā Jim interrupts him, if anything, looking even moreharried and desperate than before. āNo, thatās not it at all. Donāt break upwith me, please. Itās just-ā Jim drops his eyes and runs a hand through hishair, making it stand up even worse than before. āThis isnāt how I wanted to doit,ā he mutters, clearly more to himself than Leonard.
Taking a deep breath, Jim closes the distance between themand takes Leonardās hands carefully into his own. āIāve been planning this forweeks, but I havenāt gotten anywhere really, and I canāt stand not being ableto talk to you because Iām afraid Iāll spill the secret, or you thinking that Iwant us to break up. Itāsā¦fuck. Itās the exact opposite!ā
Leonard stares at Jim in confusion, not daring to hope thatJimās saying what he thinks Jim issaying. Of all the ways heād thought this conversation might go, this hadnāt even crossed his mind.
āLeonard Horatio McCoyā¦will you marry me?ā
