Years later, when their kids are grown up, when Jim's grave is ten-years-old, a young woman comes knocking on their door. It's the same door they carried each of their children through for the first time, the same door they painted and repainted, tacked on The Kirk-McCoys and an Enterprise shaped door knocker.
She says she's doing a thesis on Jim. Just on Jim. Not on the Enterprise or his missions or Tarsus, lots of people like to focus on that.
Bones twists his ring on his finger, offers her the sweet tea Jim always loved. "Just Jim, huh? Isn't that a bit ambitious?"
"Not when you think you can do it justice, sir."
"Call me Leo." Bones tells her, settling into his chair in their sunroom.
"Leo," she says and smiles. She takes out a notebook, an actual notebook, and a pen. Things most have cost a fortune.
"What do you want to know?"
Her eyes are alight with a kind of mischief only seen on his children's faces now. The original mischief maker is gone.
"How'd you meet? Was it love at first sight?"
Bones snorts. "Well, the thing is. You can tell a lot about a person if they let a total stranger vomit on them. First thing I said to him. Was it love at first sight? Maybe." He shakes his head. "If I only knew back then what I know now."
If he got to tell Jim one more time how much he loved him. If he got a chance to meet the love of his life one more time. If only.
