"You know that saying? When you can't walk, you crawl? When you can't crawl, you find someone to carry you?"
Jim grunts again, this time burying his face almost into the crook of Bones' armpit.
"Mnhm."
"I'm never carrying your heavy ass again."
Jim sighs and Bones feels his arm dip with the dead weight Jim has become. His adrenaline has since worn out. He was now tired. Down to his bones. He had nothing left to fuel him since the panic set in and pushed him forward after seeing the dart pierce Jim's neck. He waved his tri-corder frantically over his husband's skin and found that the dart was laced with some substance and watched as Jim first complained that everything felt fuzzy, then blurry, then heavy before sinking to the ground, just about to smack his head on rocks under their feet if Bones hadn't grabbed him in time.
But another tri-corder wave confirmed that whatever substance had hit Jim's bloodstream was neither lethal or overly dangerous. More like a heavy sedative. They need only get to the beam out point so Bones could administer a counter-active serum and the Captain would be the awake, pain in the ass he always was.
He felt relief course through his veins, replacing the dread and fear he felt earlier. No, Jim would not die on a planet they hadn't even made first contact on. No, Jim would not leave him alone and powerless to do anything to stop or reverse it. Annoyance settled in his mind. It was just like Jim to get hit with a sleep dart. Lazy bastard.
He kissed the top of Jim's hair before he dropped him, as gently as possible, onto the beam out point and stretched.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
The rain hit the wooden roof, slowly at first; each rain drop distinguishable and enough to make Leonard flinch. And then the heavens opened up and it was like hundred of antiquated guns firing bullets onto a tin surface.
He wanted to cover his ears but he couldn't move.
His body ached from the position he had frozen in. His fingers squeezed at the edges of his other hand's digits over his kneecaps, his legs folded up against his chest. He was reminded of himself as a young boy, in the same position on his grandmother's porch, rocking in the warm Georgia air. He had stopped rocking a long time ago and that was when he went from going mad to being completely numb.
The Paces Pares people, of the smallest planet the Enterprise had encountered had promised them just what their name suggested. Peace. They were empathic people, communicating easily with impressions and feeding off happiness and contentment.
Leonard had thought they were too content.
Jim had laughed hooked an arm around his waist and pulled him in, "This is exactly what we need. Content." He had sighed into the word like one would finding just the right spot under warm blankets.
What they hadn't known was that the Paces Pares used their easiness as a shield, blocking out the bitter truth of their world from outsiders, not that they encountered many. The land that they lived on was as psychic as the people themselves but of a more volatile nature than anything they encountered. If there was a spectrum for this sort of thing, the people themselves and their home were on total opposites.
Spock passed out after two hours on the planet and Jim had screamed into the communicator for a beam up as the Earth shook.
Only Spock was beamed back in time.
What seemed like days could only have been hours as the Paces Pares got as close to panicked as Leonard had ever seen them. Their Earth, they explained, using words they had never had to utilize before, was angry. Required sacrifice. They made a motion with their hands that Leonard did not like at all. Next to Leonard as the words were fed into the wheels of Jim's ever moving brain, his husband paled.
It took seconds for him to regain his color as he demanded a way off the planet, a way to get their comms working, a way for the Paces Pares to bargain with their world.
There was no way, they said. No way that they would all survive. They could not do it. They were no strong enough. Their bright and glowing visages shimmered. If Leonard looked hard enough he could see a shadow nearly swallow their forms.
It was hours after that when Leonard and Jim had their first fight. Minutes later and Jim stormed off along, seconds after he collapsed.
"We are sorry. So sorry. Sorry." The Paces Pares whispered as he gathered Jim up and led him to the small structure. "He is the strongest being here. Content."
And so Leonard did everything, trying to ignore the pressure at the back of his neck, just above his spine. The way he felt listless, like a whole had swallowed every thought he ever had about the future. His hands shook as he brushed fingertips over Jim's face. He curled up next to him, he kissed his forehead, his jaw, his neck.
"Please, please."
At some point, everything turned grey. He doesn't remember slumping over sideways but as he wakes up it's to a room too cold and pins and needles all up and down his body.
Leonard doesn't need to touch Jim to know he's gone.
There is no grief because there is nothing left. So he just gathered himself up and watched as the shadows formed shadows and the breath came out of his mouth like thin tendrils of smoke.
The rain stopped and still Leonard has not moved.
His husband woke up with red eyes and a downturned mouth. Jim sat up and arranged himself like a baby finally allowed to move on his own, unsure of where his legs and arms should go.
"What have you done to him?" Leonard asked because there is a monster that has settled in Jim's bones and he wants it out.
"We did not expect what we received. There is a balance here and now it can not be maintained." The voice was not Jim's voice. It was too high, too wrong sounding. Leonard cannot flinch because he is still numb but at that moment he wanted nothing more than to rear back.
"We ask you a question, Healer. If you were to know that every form of you and your Leader were to end up like this, would you choose a different path?"
His voice was hoarse when he spoke a second time, refusing to look at Jim. "Like fate?"
"That is a Terran concept. But it will suffice. Yes. Even if we were to give you another chance. Turn back the clocks to restore what was, would you choose it?"
Leonard thought of the pain that he felt and would feel in the future, underneath the hazy cloud of shock only to be magnified. He remembered Jim on the day they meant, nothing but a kid with a burden. He remembered him on their wedding day, and on countless days since then.
"Yes." He told the being. "Over and over again."
Jim adjusted again, his body slumping. "So it will be."
There is no flash of light or shaking of the Earth like before. One moment Leonard is in a position he has held for too long with a mind becoming rapidly more blank and the next he is in a hard plastic seat, his head pounding and the tumultuous heaving of his stomach signifying the great need to vomit.
"I may throw up on you," he says to the twenty-six year old Jim Kirk, wearing two day old clothes with bloodstains and a cocky grin promising a world of fuckery to anyone who gazes upon it.
Leonard swallows hard and sits back. He wonders if they truly are doomed. But the thought is like the nausea, it's strength ebbs away as he settles. Besides, he just bought himself six years to figure out a way to make sure they never encounter the Paces Pares. And he's going to make the most of it.
I really need a McKirk avengers AU where Jim is Tony and Bones is Bruce
OH GOD that sounds super cool! (maybe if you look around someone's written it before?) but karolmarcus likes marvel related stuff and mckirk if you want to talk about it with her!
The thing about the town is that everyone has a novel in their back pocket.
Leonard fucking hates when he goes out on a date, meets a friend of a friend, goes to pick his daughter up from kindergarten and they immediately start talking to him about their story. He doesn't fucking care about their story.
He almost hates it as much as when his boss, Chris Pike, makes him babysit the interns.
"Jesus, Chris, their just babies. What do you want me to do, give them a manuscript and left them color on it?"
Pike raises an eyebrow at him from across his desk. "If I remember correctly that's exactly what you had Joanna do during bring your kid to work day."
Leonard grins at him. "It was a shit manuscript anyway."
Chris hands him an application and resume. He groans. If he has to read another cover letter about how the kid was an NYU creative writing major who desperately wanted to write novels just like Enterprise Books published he was going to quit.
"James T. Kirk. George Kirk's kid?" He asked and flipped a page to skim the resume. Not an NYU student then.
"Yep." Pike says and pulls a manuscript, thicker than his father's old dictionary sitting on a shelf behind his own desk, toward him.
"And?" Leonard waits for more information.
"And nothing. Looks like a good recruit. Like you to train him."
"Wait, you hired him already?"
"Yeah, he's on the Bridge."
Pike flips open the manuscript and props up his elbow as he settles in to read.
Leonard rubs at his temple and tries to remember that he does this for the writing, the feeling of coming across a good manuscript, raw and open for suggestion. He does this for the finished product, of seeing the book hit the NYT best seller's list. Not to oversee crap interns. Even if they happen to be George Kirk's kid.
The bridge is the only area in the whole 5th floor office space that isn't cluttered by books. In fact, you won't find one book there. Company rule. Food usually dominants the space. Spock and Uhura provide most of it, choosing to bake and cook for the employees and taking pity on the salaries publishing people make by offering lunch and snack alternatives. He'd never admit it but Spock's vegetarian chili is to die for.
Scotty and Gaila take up primarily spots at the table, chowing down on Uhura's pasta bolognese. Jim Kirk sits casually in one of chairs off to the side of them his eyes roaming over the room. He's not what he's expecting. Average height, maybe a bit shorter than Leonard himself. Those same bright blue eyes that skim the room with interest are alight instead of the stormy gaze Leonard might expect. He's got a small smile, as if anyone who might look at him could feel as if they were being let into a private joke. He's also older that Leonard thought. And one quick look at the resume confirms his suspicions. He's a few years out of college already.
"You. Kid." Leonard says as he pops his head into the room and beckons with one finger.
He hears Scotty say, "Good luck, laddie."
Jim matches his stride as they walk back toward Leonard's office. There's a grouping of cubicles not far from it that they usually place interns. He figures that'd be a good spot to drop the kid off at.
"You're a little old to be an intern, aren't you?" He mentions.
Jim's eyes narrow but he shrugs. "Took my time to get here."
He nods. He won't question it past that. "You have editorial experience?"
"Sort of."
"Alright, well, we can get you set up with the slush pile. It's shit work but someone's got to do it. You used to writing coverage?"
"Sort of." Jim says again and Leonard really wants this day to end. Fucking interns.
He begs off with the excuse of gathering materials but he really stomps his way back to Pike's office.
"Is he even qualified?"
Pike's leaned back in his chair at this point, a sign he actually likes what he's reading and puts the manuscript down when Leonard enters to his office.
"In some ways, very."
"He didn't even apply, did he? Not by himself?"
"There may have been some urging on my behalf." Pike sighs.
"I quit."
"Oh, Leonard, be reasonable. Look, you want the truth? I taught a creative writing class last semester, saw his manuscript. It's beautiful, Len. Absolutely stunning. Needs work but what doesn't? But he won't query. Doesn't want to publish it. He's a great writer and had an eye for critique. You teach him some stuff and I think we'll not only get his novel but he'll be a better editor than you."
Leonard is so blown away by everything his boss has just said that the only thing he can do is deflate. He lets his shoulders sag and the breath spill out of him. "Well, shit."
After a beat, Leonard feels the tension ebb back into his body. "Why give him to me? You know I don't have patience for this."
"Actually..." Chris gave him the grin that Leonard shared earlier. The shit-eating one his mama usually threatened to rinse his mouth out with soap for. "He requested he work with you."
"You're shitting me."
"He knows your work. About that little novel you wrote five years ago you pretend doesn't exist. And besides, I think it would be good for you."
"To have an intern to worry about?"
"More like a protege."
Leonard groans but somehow finds his way back to Jim's cubicle.
"Should we start again, Bones?"
Leonard freezes. Bones is the character in the first and only novel he's ever written. And only a handful of people know about it.
"So you did your research?" He grunts and hands Jim a stack of the smaller manuscripts.
"Had to. And don't worry, I'll make this all worth your while. It'll be fun. Promise." Jim licks his bottom lip as he sets the manuscripts on the floor and Leonard tries to get his breathing back under control.
He had a feeling this was going to turn out to be a long few months but at least they would be interesting.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
"Does Spock make a face? Bones makes a face. Kind of like..." Jim lets his eyes roll toward the back of his head and scrunches up his nose. He looks ridiculous.
"No, Spock maintains a calm demeanor."
Jim straightens. "You're lying."
Uhura raises one eyebrow in a perfect imitation of her husband. "I am not."
"You're telling me that when he changes the baby's diaper, he makes no facial quirks?
"Yes, Kirk."
"Unbelievable."
She smirks at him. "Sorry to disappoint."
Jim sighs and looks down at the comm unit she pushes in front of him.
"Hey is that-" He squints down at his own face, taken from a weird angle. He looks horrified.
"Blackmail. Your husband sent it to me after you changed Maddy's first first diaper."
"Hey!" He tries to snatch the comm from her but her neatly manicured fingers deftly pluck it off the table before he can grab it.
"Maddy's quite the shitter. Can you blame me? George always had easy diapers."
She laughs. "Just remember, I have this on you."
"I bet you I can get something juicy on you too. Spock'll totally help me."
"You wish, Jim. Spock would never."
"Wanna bet?"
And so the Kirk-Uhura blackmail war began. They don't call a truce until Amanda's wedding.
