I usually take Sunday’s off on this blog as many have likely noticed. I mean I blog 6 days a week doesnt hurt to take one semi off right? But I decided since it is Mothers day and a good day…I would post some more of the story, you are welcome Melda. lol
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Day 31
Some days are just bad. For example, today.
His eight-hour hour shift has unexpectedly turned into a thirteen-hour shift. An accident in engineering has caused a lot of smoke and panic and a lot of injured students. Nothing really serious, mostly smoke inhalations, bruises, fractures and minor head wounds, but it’s just so many of them that it takes hours and countless medical staff until everyone is taken care of.
McCoy misses two evening-classes and he skips lunch and dinner, but it needs to be done. He curses a lot during the day, but deep down he knows he wouldn’t go before the last of his patients is taken care of, even if he had a choice. It’s just not who he is.
When he arrives at his dorm it’s almost 10 pm and he can’t decide if he’s more starved or more exhausted. Sleep and food both sound incredibly appealing right now.
He stops dead in his tracks when he reaches his room.
Jim sits in front of his door on the floor. His eyes are closed and his head rests against the door frame in an angle that looks unnatural and painful. What the hell …?! McCoy’s eyes widen. Oh shit … damn it.
“Jim.” He crouches down beside him and gently touches his shoulder. “Jim, wake up.” Impossible long eyelashes flutter and Jim makes a small tired noise.
“…Bones?”
“Why the hell are you sitting on the floor?” He’s really sorry, and being genuinely sorry somehow always translates in sounding grumpy and annoyed.
“Huh.” Jim startles and looks around himself as if he doesn’t even know where he is. The kid really needs more sleep. He looks confused. “I … didn’t we have a date? I thought we had. I was waiting for you and I just got tired, I guess.” He sounds apologetically, as if he’s the one who completely forgot about their appointment for dinner and homework.
If possible, McCoy feels even worse now. “Why didn’t you wait inside for me?” He barks without thinking.
“Because … I don’t have the security code?”
That’s true. Somehow it’s still unexpected. Then again he doesn’t know why he’s so surprised. Of course Jim doesn’t have the security code, because he never told him.
“It’s okay though. Couldn’t go to my room anyway,” Jim admits. “Steve is hosting one of those parties again and locked me out.” He rubs his eyes and yawns.
“There was an accident in engineering,” McCoy hears himself say. “I got caught up in work and I completely forgot.” It’s as close to an apology as he ever gets.
Jim frowns worriedly. “Is everybody okay?”
“Don’t worry, it’s just minor injuries. Just a lot of students. We’ve got it all under control.”
Jim’s eyes go unexpectedly soft. “You must be tired.”
As if that is the problem and not the fact that Jim has been locked out from the only two places he could stay.
“Yeah well, you don’t look so fresh yourself,” McCoy replies. He stands up and offers Jim his hand. “How about we skip learning, order some pizza and doze off on the couch?”
Jim beams. “Best idea I’ve heard all day!”
And McCoy thinks some days are not so bad, no matter how they start.
Day 32
McCoy has now idea why he does it, well, he does have an idea, but still … He can’t be serious, can he? And it’s not like he’s responsible for the kid and has to offer him a place to stay or so. And he doesn’t feel guilty for last night, he doesn’t. It’s probably just because he’s an old sentimental fool and somebody short-circuited all his higher brain functions or some benevolent alien took over his body and decided that he still needs to do his three good deeds like the little Boy Scout he never was.
Anyway, Jim Kirk is sitting opposite him in McCoy’s dorm, reading some book on guidelines for first contacts, when McCoy starts talking and can’t stop in time.
“My security code is 74219Alpha3.”
“Excuse me?” Jim looks puzzled and McCoy wants to hit the nearest wall head first. This is such a bad idea.
“The code. To my dorm,” he says instead.
“You’re giving me the code to your room?” Jim still looks perplexed.
“Are you deaf?”
“Are you you?”
McCoy sighs. “Fair enough.”
Silence stretches between them until Jim breaks it. “So, 74219Alpha3 it is?”
“Your memory is unbelievable.” McCoy rolls his eyes.
Jim just grins at him and starts reading again.
Some time later, McCoy is absorbed in paperwork about his latest patients, when he hears Jim say a quiet “Thank you”. Against his will McCoy has to smile.
Day 33
Thing is, with Jim having the security code he can walk in on McCoy all the time. He should have thought about that, but when it comes to Jim Kirk McCoy isn’t really good with the whole thinking thing. Must be Jim’s “leap without looking” attitude rubbing off on him.
So McCoy is lying on his bed, his eyes closed and enthralled by the music of Beethoven’s 9th symphony – that’s music they just don’t compose anymore – and only notices Jim’s arrival when the mattress dips on one side.
He expects some snide remark about old-fashioned music for an old guy, but instead Jim keeps silent, somehow maneuvers around McCoy and leans against the headboard.
Day 34
“I’m hungry.”
McCoy doesn’t bother to answer the whiny voice. He’s a doctor, not a nanny.
“Booooooooooooones.”
McCoy has to blink twice, before he realizes that Jim actually poked him in the side. He groans. “What?”
“I’m hungry!”
McCoy looks disbelieving at the grown-up man, whishing him to mature right now. When he realizes this probably won’t happen any time soon, he sighs and points at the kitchen. “There has to be some yoghurt left in the fridge.”
Jim beams at him and before McCoy can growl, Jim is on his way.
Day 35
Jim doesn’t even bother to greet him, but strides straight into the small kitchen, bends down to the fridge and retrieves a yoghurt. Then he slumps down on McCoy’s couch.
“So, how was your day?” He asks, a spoonful of McCoy’s food in his mouth.
Day 36
One, two, three, McCoy counts in his head from the moment Jim enters his dorm. Four, five –
“Bones!”
He looks up from his pad. “What?”
“Where’s my yoghurt?”
McCoy takes a breath and leans back against his chair. “Oh, you mean my yoghurt? The one you have eaten the last two days, so that I didn’t have any left?”
Jim swallows and has the decency to look halfway ashamed. Of course that has the half-life of beryllium. “Yes,” he says, slumping once again down on the couch. “When do you buy some more?”
“When do I … “McCoy can only stare, then he explodes. “God damnit, Jim! I’m a doctor, not your mother!”
Jim flinches and for the briefest moment McCoy can see some kind of old hurt in his eyes and great, now he feels like an asshole.
Jim coughs and straightens and the moment is gone as soon as that. “I’m sorry,” he says and excuses himself.
For a few minutes McCoy stays seated, wondering how he could have possibly fucked this up. He had the right on his side, for fuck’s sake! But that’s Jim for you, right down to the core.
McCoy had it all planned out. Getting through the academy on a mix of misery and alcohol and then Jim happy-go-lucky Kirk came striding into his life, not caring for his careful laid plans, but instead he had sobered him up and made him actually want to learn new stuff and excel in his profession.
And now McCoy has somehow managed to hurt the kid. He sighs and gets up. Time to buy some more yoghurt.
Day 37
McCoy is just done with showering when he hears Jim entering his dorm. He sighs in relief and wonders once again when he started to actually look forward to Jim’s company. He must be getting senile.
“Hey, Bones!” Jim smiles at him when he leaves the bathroom toweling his hair. “Look what I brought!”
McCoy looks and raises his eyebrow in question. “What’s that?”
“Jello!” Jim looks at him like any three-year old would have known it and opens the door of the fridge. “Oh, you got yoghurt!”
“Yeah … eh – “He tries to find the right words, but turns out he doesn’t need to.
“Cool,” is all Jim says and smiles while he stows the jello away. When he’s done, he stands up and is still showing all his teeth. “Don’t eat the red jello, okay? I love it, and I bought you green.” Jim holds green jello out to him, waiting expectantly.
“Okay,” McCoy says stunned, takes the jello, and then they sit next to each other down on the couch, eating it.
Day 38
“What have you been doing?” McCoy asks as soon as Jim has entered his dorm and let himself fall down onto the couch next to the doctor.
“Huh?”
“You stink. And you’re getting my couch all wet!”
“Whoa, love you, too.”
“No, seriously,” McCoy points at Jim’s wet face, “you’re drenched to the bone and you stink.”
“I’ve been running,” Jim explains, as if it’s the most normal thing to go running during a downpour.
“It’s raining cats and dogs.”
“Your point?” Jim looks at him and really doesn’t seem to understand McCoy’s problem.
“Go, get a shower. I don’t wanna treat you for pneumonia,” McCoy says and points at his bathroom door. Jim blinks at him.
“You’re letting me use your shower?”
“Well, you’re here and you’re wet. I’m not a monster.” He pushes Jim off the couch and smirks at him. “Just don’t use all the hot water.”
Jim smiles back at him before he vanishes into the bathroom.
Day 39
“Bones! Just the man I was looking for!” McCoy resists the urge to drop his books and run away in the other direction when Jim intercepts him on the way to his room. This tone in his friend’s voice never bodes anything particularly good.
“No,” is McCoy’s natural reaction to Jim’s enthusiastic smile, which doesn’t falter the slightest bit at McCoy’s rebuff. Instead Jim slings one arm around McCoy’s shoulders and steers him in the opposite direction to his room. McCoy has no idea why his feet decide to obey Jim’s command.
“Jim … no … I don’t want to … “He looks at his still grinning friend from the side when they walk outside the dorm. It’s only then that he stops. “What exactly is it that I don’t want to do?”
“Oh, now you decide to ask?” Jim smirks.
“Just tell me!”
“Football!”
“What?” McCoy raises his right eyebrow.
“Aw, come on!” Jim points at the sky. “It’s a beautiful day! Perfect blue sky, a soft breeze whispering in the trees,” now he spreads his arms and McCoy thinks he’s just on this side of looking ridiculous, “beautiful women in short skirts. What more can you want?”
“Peace and quiet and for you to grow up? Haven’t you played enough football in college?”
Jim stares at him for a second, looking as if that’s a hilarious assumption. “I’ve never set foot inside a college.”
Now it’s McCoy’s turn to stare, but he gets sidetracked when Jim starts grinning again and breaks out into a sprint across the lawn.
“Come on! Last one on the field has to pay for the beer tonight!” he yells over his shoulder and despite himself McCoy starts to run after him, smiling widely and enjoying the way the sun warms him from the inside.
Jim is right, it’s a beautiful day.
Day 40
The sky is pitch-black when McCoy comes back from his double shift at the hospital. He feels exhausted and is contemplating skipping dinner and just to fall face-first on his bed, when he smells it. He follows the delicious odor to the kitchen counter, where he sees the still steaming plate and a note next to it.
“You’re a doctor, not a skeleton. Enjoy the meal and don’t wait for me, Cheryl said I’ve got to help her study!” It says in Jim’s handwriting and McCoy gets this odd feeling in his belly, this feeling of belonging and being so important to someone that he gets self-made food instead of replicator-produced molecules. He didn’t know he’s missed it this much until now.
He sits down and pulls the plate up to him. Its mac and cheese, a little bit burnt around edges, but that doesn’t matter. What matters is that Jim cooked for him, even though one of the first things about him that McCoy learned was that Jim is well-skilled in convincing a replicator to get him something that’s not even in its program, but when it comes to things you store in the fridge he will settle for his beloved red jello.
Yet McCoy is fond of home-made dishes and Jim knows that. McCoy smiles one of his rare, encompassing smiles, and digs into the macs.
