set phasers to mckirk

A figure slid into the seat in front of Jim, knocking him out his reverie. Jim looked up to see Leonard fumbling with his backpack as he placed the salad he had bought on the table in front of him. Jim snorted. Fucking life science kids and their health-nuttery.

“Sorry, sorry, I’m a terrible person,” Leonard apologized, wincing. He popped the lid of his salad bowl open, and stuffed a forkful of lettuce into his mouth.

Jim just grinned. “Nah, it’s cool. What kept you?” he asked, leaning forward in his chair.

A bright smile took over Leonard’s face. “I was at my virology lecture, right? And so we were talkin’ about Reoviruses today. And they’re a pretty shitty class of viruses as in, they don’t do much on the disease causin’ lethality stage. And so you’d think that ‘cause they don’t do much, no one would really study ‘em, right?” he babbled, gesturing widely with his hands. His salad lay on the table, forgotten.

Jim nodded, a stupid smile taking over his face. He was majoring in History and English, he didn’t have a clue what Leonard was talking about. But just seeing him talk so animatedly about something he was so clearly passionate about was enough to make anyone fall in love. Not that Jim was in love with Leonard or anything, Jim thought, with a shake of his head.

“So what they found out was, that if you tried to grow a Reovirus within a regular ol’ cell, nothin’ much would happen. But stick it in a transformed cell, one that’s dependent on Ras or an active EGF receptor, and bam! You get a shit ton of replication just like that!” Leonard said excitedly.

“What’s Ras?” Jim interjected.

“Oh, it’s a protein within cells. When it’s workin’ normally, it switches on other proteins and genes, to cause cell growth, differentiation and stuff. But if it mutates, what happens is, the Ras is never shut off and causes uncontrolled growth. Cancer,” he replied, with a wicked glint in his eye.

Jim nodded, completely enraptured again.

“Now, I bet you’re thinkin’ okay, so Reovirus only grows in the presence of Ras. And Ras causes cancer. So if you injected a cancer patient with a Reovirus, it wouldn’t grow on normal cells, ‘cause there isn’t any Ras there. But once the virus gets to the tumour, it can start to properly replicate itself and target the bad, cancerous cells!” Leonard finished, grinning triumphantly. “And so I had to talk to my prof after lecture about that, because that’s just insane. This could be our cure for cancer, Jimmy!”

Jim just gazed at Leonard, nodding. “Fascinating, that’s amazing Bones,” he said, in complete agreement. Although Leonard was probably more fascinating to him than the Reovirus.

Leonard raised an eyebrow. “I’ve been friends with you for like a month and I still have no idea why you call me that,” he said, turning his attentions back to his now soggy salad.

“Because you wanna be a doctor. You’re gonna be an ol’ sawbones,” Jim explained.

“You’re a strange kid, you know that?”

“Bones, you’re only a year older than me, if I’m a kid, so are you,” Jim said, rolling his eyes.

“Yeah, but I’m an older kid,” Leonard retorted, grinning.

-

“You sure you wanna come sit in my lecture with me?” Leonard asked, glancing at Jim as they walked. “Eukaryotic Gene Expression is as dull a course as they get.”

Jim nodded his head. “Yeah, I wanna see what a science course is like. Plus I’ll entertain you through the dullness,” he said, grinning.

“You’ve been warned,” Leonard replied, holding the door to the lecture room open for Jim.

They got seats near the back. Leonard pulled out his laptop to take notes, and Jim a novel for one of his English classes. Leonard looked at the book Jim had taken out of his bag, and raised an eyebrow.

“Only if it gets too boring,” Jim whispered hastily. “I’m here for the science, promise.”

Leonard just rolled his eyes, and turned his attention to the professor who had begun speaking on the finer points of gene silencing via DNA methylation.

Jim looked at Leonard, who was completely engrossed in the lecture, fingers flying over his keyboard as he tried to note down everything the professor was saying.

“Cytosines in a CpG dinucleotide typically are methylated, which helps to distinguish newly synthesized DNA from older DNA during the proofreading process in DNA replication…” the professor explained, his German-accented voice soothing to Jim’s ears, despite the fact that whatever he was saying was Greek to him.

Except not really. Jim was fluent in Greek.

So he watched Leonard taking notes for a while, smiling whenever Leonard smiled at something particularly interesting the professor said. Smiling when Leonard frowned, getting the tiny crease between his eyebrows as he typed something down, adding about five question marks after it to remind himself to look it up later.

In doing so, he eventually drifted off to sleep within the first half hour of the two hour lecture. Leonard shook him awake after the lecture ended, an amused look on his face.

“Told you it was dull,” he said, helping Jim put his stuff back in his bag.

“You didn’t think it was dull,” Jim pointed out.

Leonard’s face softened into a smile. “Yeah, ‘cause it’s my major. I complain about it, but I really do love this stuff.”

Jim just smiled back. “Yeah, I know.”

-

Jim took the elevator to the eleventh floor of the library in the early hours of the morning, still bleary eyed and half asleep. He needed books for his history essay, because the professor didn’t believe in web-based sources like the ancient old bat she was.

Perusing through the stacks on the nearly empty floor, he glimpsed a familiar figure, frantically writing out notes on one of the study tables.

“Didn’t expect to see you here, Bones,” Jim said in hushed tones, striding towards Leonard.

“Been here since about 5am,” Leonard said, yawning before he spared a small smile for Jim. “Got my neuro midterm later today, thought I’d get some last minute studyin’ done.”

Jim sat down in the seat in front of Leonard. “What are you studying?”

Leonard’s face lit up. “BDNF! It’s a neurotrophic factor, basically helps your brain strengthen synapses and stuff. It improves memory, concentration and it’s even implicated in stuff like depression, anxiety disorders and schizophrenia,” Leonard explained, gesturing at his notes. “But, the gene that makes BDNF has got two different polymorphisms, which is what I’m readin’ right now.”

“Polymorphisms?” Jim asked, nonplussed.

“Yeah, different types of the gene, essentially. Some people have the regular type, with a Valine at position 66. But others have got the type with Methionene at position 66. An’ that’s the type that’s not really that good for you,” Leonard said. “People who have the Met66 version of the BDNF gene have a visible reduction in hippocampal dependent memory, and it’s thought that’s because the Met66 version of the gene has a more difficult time in being secreted, so it can’t spread from cell to cell…”

Leonard kept talking, explaining the differences between then Val66 and Met66 polymorphisms of BDNF, but Jim had zoned out. All he could see were Leonard’s excited eyes, the way he was gesturing with his hands, so completely engrossed in what he was talking about that Jim couldn’t stand it anymore.

He leaned across the table and grabbed Leonard’s collar, pulling him forward and kissing him soundly on the lips.

He fell back onto his chair with a dazed look on his face after Jim pulled away. He looked at Jim and blinked, confused.

Jim just shrugged. “You talking science does things to me. Also, I’m kind of in love with you, just so you know.”

Leonard’s face relaxed into an easy smile. “Dinner tonight, after my midterm? I can tell you all about the Red Queen hypothesis, and why scientists think sex may have evolved.”

It takes Jim a full minute to realize that, when Scotty is saying it, dickhead isn’t a pet name. 

But what if it didn’t start out that way. 

—-

When Jim is officially given command of the USS Enterprise everything is so busy that he doesn’t notice right away, but he realizes he’s hardly seen Bones at all. And when he does it is all official business and Bones follows his orders to the letter. In fact Bones seems to take everything Jim says as a literal order.  And Jim can’t understand it because Bones has never had a respect for authority, in fact the academy threatened to fail him over it multiple times. 

And Bones calls him Kirk.  And the name has never sounded colder. 

So finally, when Jim can’t stand everyone walking on eggshells around him, he corners Bones and confronts him about it. 

“Bones’ whats going on?”

"In regards to what Captain?" Bones eyes are searching the room, clearly trying to determine a plan b exit strategy. 

But Jim a master of tactics and he’s already blocked the only exit. “Cut the ‘Captain Kirk’ crap Bones. You’re supposed to be my best friend.” 

Is that an order” Bones growls back, but his face softens just a bit when he meets Jim’s eyes. "aw hell Jim. I don’t know how to do this. You’re Captain now. I thought it would be easier if we did the whole professional thing. But you make it so damn hard."

"I don’t know if you noticed this but I don’t actually outrank you by that much Lieutenant Commander & CMO." 

"I didn’t want you to think that I didn’t respect you as a Captain. Because kid, there is no way I would be here if someone else was in charge of this tin can. And well I figured you didn’t need me trailing around you all the time anymore, you’ve got enough on your plate as is and plenty of other people in your life now.”

“Don’t be stupid. I always need you. We both know I wouldn’t have made it through the academy without you there to yell at me. After everything you’ve done for me don’t tell me your going to give up on me just when I need you most. Bones I want you to disagree with me, I don’t just want you here because you are the best CMO in the fleet. I want you here because you are my friend and the only one stubborn enough to argue with me. You make me better, always have, since day one.” And because he can see Bones starting to come around he finishes with "besides I can always order you to shut up."

"you know" Bones says casually “I can always uses my medical override to put you in your place.” 

The next day no one mentions it when Bones addresses the Captain as Jim over their official ship wide Comm. And no one brings up the fact that the CMO is actually needed on the bridge either. 

And maybe the first time Bones disobeys a direct order and drags Jim to sickbay despite his protests the crew is a little shocked.

And the first time a new ensign hears the CMO call their Captain an immature asshole to his face they have to discretely disguise a shocked gasp. 

And they do have bad fights sometimes that end with one of them pulling rank, doors being slammed and finally private apologies in their quarters. But they’ve learned a delicate balance.

This Lion King thing is like McKirk lore for me, like can you imagine it; it’s just after the events of the Narada, maybe only a couple days after, just before Jim gets his commendation.

They’re at the part with all the wildebeest and Simba is clinging to that tree thing and Mufasa is trying to get to him, trying so hard and all Jim can thing about is the Kelvin, about George. He’s heard the final transmission between Winona and George; he can hear it now, the static, the waver in his voice. 

"Tiberius? No that’s the worst." 

Leonard watches Jim watch on as Simba flies through the air, he’s the hitch in Jim’s breath as Mufasa catches the cub. Scar is a close fit for Nero, Leonard thinks, with the scar over his eye, a pink tattoo against his dark fur. 

"Jim," he whispers, taking Jim’s hand into his own. Jim’s fingers are cold but Leonard starts rubbing warming circles over his knuckles. 

Simba’s cry of “Dad!” as Mufusa is carried off by Wildebeest is the moment Jim finally looks away from the screen and Leonard pauses the film. 

"I’m sorry," Leonard says quickly, he’s seen this film before he should have known, he should have never subjected Jim to this. 

"No," Jim says gently, wiping his eye with the heel of his hand. "It’s fine," he whispers weakly, "I’m being ridiculous," he continues, commanding the playback to continue. 

But then Leonard’s stomach turns too; they watch Mufasa’s assent in tense silence, the music ebbing through them like a rush of thick crimson blood. Jim even jumps when Scar’s claws clamp over Mufasa’s then he looks away and Leonard squeezes his hand. 

And by the time Simba pulls on Mufasa’s ear and the lion just remains motionless Leonard has tears in his own eyes. 

"Bones?" Jim whispers, manually turning the volume down with the remote control and turning to face him. 

"You think it was Simba’s fault?" Leonard asks, "like he should have known, should have listened an’ stayed with the Pride." 

"You don’t think it was Scar’s fault?" Jim counters. 

It’s a coded conversation, a loaded one too in so many ways. Leonard knows what Jim’s asking and it’s a completely different thing to what Leonard himself is saying. 

"You’re not to blame for George’s death, Jim," he says firmly, "the crew of the Narada are, Nero is, but not you kid." 

"But you said-"

"I was," Leonard pauses, looking down, drawing his hand back to his chest, "I was talkin’ ‘bout me." 

"I don’t understand," Jim frowns, "you’re dad was ill, Bones you couldn’t have-"

"He asked me," Leonard whispers, "an’ I did it." 

"Asked you to what? Bones I don’t-"

"I euthanised him," Leonard continues, over Jim’s interruption. "Gave him a morphine overdose," he exhales a long breath but doesn’t move away when Jim rejoins their hands. 

"Bones," he starts. 

"They found a cure two months later," Leonard says quickly, "he have still be alive, he could have been cured." 

"You couldn’t have known that," Jim says, "you were doing what was right by him at the time, you were following his orders." 

"I should have said no," Leonard says, "m’practically Scar." 

"Don’t be ridiculous," Jim counters, using his free hand to cup Leonard’s jaw and make the doctor look at him, “you were being merciful,” he says. But Leonard doesn’t seem to agree, the tears well up in his eyes again and Jim can feel some of his own threatening to burst over the levee. “Would you look at me?” Jim questions. 

Hazel eyes flicker up at him, they look shattered and afraid. 

"You’re a good man, Leonard McCoy," Jim promises, dropping his usual endearment in the hopes of showing his lover how serious he is. "And a lion you might be," he smiles, "but Scar you are not.” 

Leonard scoffs at that, lips pursing into a smile which only serves to make Jim grin wider. 

So, I wrote a thing. It involves a) gamer!Bones, and b) Slender. I watch a lot of Toby Turner playthroughs, so stuff like this inspired the fic and how Bones plays it. oOo

Can you roll your tongue like this?