#supportive!bones

Except he doesn’t. He does however take one glance at the necklace and asks how his favorite girl is feeling that day. (Turns out his best friend in med school had the same thing on a bracelet.)

Just looking off the edge of the dock and into the seemingly endless depths of the lake was making Jim’s chest tight. The waves lapped lazily at the edges of the dock, making the platform rock gently with the swells and fall of the water. The longer Jim stood there the more it seemed like the dock was moments away from capsizing, but he also couldn’t get his feet to understand that they should just move already. 

“Jim?”

Jim jumped, torn between relief that he seemed able to move now and cold dread as he imagined himself toppling over into the dark lake. 

“Whoa!” Bones dropped a steady hand onto Jim’s shoulder, balancing the other man before he could flail himself off the dock. “Sorry, Darlin’. Didn’t mean to startle you.” Bones took one glance at Jim’s face and narrowed his eyes. “What’s wrong?” “Nothing’s wrong!” Jim insisted, throwing a quick grin in Bones’ direction and screaming internally for the man not to let go of his shoulder. 

“Bullshit. You look like someone just asked you to swallow a phaser.” 

Jim glanced back down at the water and swallowed hard. “Okay so, I might, not be entirely comfortable with bodies of water I can’t stand up in.” He looked to the doctor and waited for the snort and scathing, yet fond, comment. All he saw was a raised eyebrow, waiting for him to finish explaining. Jim’s shoulders slumped. “I know it doesn’t make any sense. It just freaks me out.You can’t see what’s down there! There’s nothing between you and just-just–”

“Unbreathable, endless, blackness?” 

“Yeah.” Jim admitted sheepishly. “I guess you understand how that feels.” Bones nodded and squeezed Jim’s shoulder, obviously fighting a smile. 

“There’s one thing that you have on water that I don’t have on space, though.” He pulled Jim down to the edge of the dock and sat them both down so that they’re feet were in the water. “You can swim in a lake.” Jim swallowed hard and watched the water swish up around his ankles. “That means going into it.” 

Bones nodded.” That’s true, but things are a lot less scary when they don’t have complete power over you. You learn to swim, and all of a sudden you have something that can get you out of the water. We’ll take it slow, but I think you learning would help.” 

Jim sighed and let his head fall against Bones’ sun warm shoulder. “You wouldn’t mind teaching me to swim?”

Bones just plucks up one of the flowers and tucks it behind Jim's ear. 

"Darlin', relax. It can wait a couple of hours." So Jim takes a deep breath and just lets him self fall back into the tall grass with a loud "Oof". 

Bones sits down next to him and runs a hand through his hair. 

Except Bones has been so supportive and constant in Jim's life, that Jim just grins and tells him not to get stolen. Jim is okay with Bones going out without him, because Bones has proven time and time again, that he only thing that would keep him away from Jim is death itself. 

The thing about being a genius level repeat offender, is that no one expected Jim to actually succeed. With no expectations of living up to his potential he managed to slide by on minimal effort. Now though, he was trying to finish a demanding, extremely competitive four year course in three years.

Jim wasn’t handling the stress as well as he’d like. Finals were here and the book he’d been trying to study for the last three hours was starting to blur in front of him. He rubbed his eyes and groaned. If he didn’t pass these finals he’d be lucky to be able to finish the command track in four years instead of just getting kicked out. 

The kicker is he’d been trying, really trying. He’d never been this motivated in his life, with maybe the exception of trying to be a failure. Suddenly Jim’s chest felt tight and he realized he was going to fail. He was going to do exactly what he’d been trying to show people he’d do all his life, he was going to fail. 

Jim’s breath started coming fast and harsh, burning his lungs. He heard a thud of someone’s feet hitting the ground behind him and all at once Bones’ had spun Jim’s chair around and had the blond’s face in his hands. 

“Jim. Breath. You already know this shit inside and out.” He stroked his thumbs across Jim’s cheeks soothingly. “It’s just a final, even if you fail, it isn’t the end of the world. Just breath.” 

Jim took a long shuddering breath and nodded slowly. 

“Thank, Bones.”

The doctor nodded and stroked Jim’s hair back. 

“Come on, time to take a break.”  He lead Jim away from the books and back to the bed. “You need a nap or something.”