Fic: Discourse (Kirk/McCoy)
Title: Discourse
Pairing: Kirk/McCoy
Summary: The crew arrives, and Jim does the captainy thing
Rating: Teen/PG13
Word Count: 3820
A/N: #39 in the Two Men & a Motorbike series. Follows #38: Prescription. Thank you to everyone who reads/comments! ♥!!
There are five hundred and fifty-seven crew members currently assigned to work on the Enterprise. Today, Jim has met every single one of them. Even with his excellent memory, the names and faces began to blur by mid-day. He’s going to review personnel files during the next few days until he can place a name to every face that he sees. It’s a lot of people, but it is a large ship, so he knows that it probably won’t even seem like that many once everyone is settled in. Technically, he can add a few hundred more to the crew in the future, since they’re running on a minimum level right now. With the loss of so many cadets and training officers recently, there just isn’t enough personnel to go around.
The members of crew who will be working in laundry are a few people that he made sure to know before he officially met them. They will be dealing with all his linens and clothes, even with the automation process in place. He knows that it’s best to keep himself on their good side, not only because they’ll be dealing with some of his personal items but also in an effort to keep rumors to a minimum. The last thing he needs is for his sex stained sheets to lead to gossip about who his partner is. The fact that a logical deduction would likely point to Bones isn’t the only reason, though. It’s also because he doesn’t want anyone to think that he’s fraternizing with junior staff or to give anyone an opportunity to take advantage.
Since he has a well-earned reputation from his academy days, he knows that he’s going to be more careful than most captains when it comes to being friendly and his natural habit of flirting. While he doesn’t really plan to change that, he also doesn’t want to give anyone any ammunition that could reflect poorly on him if someone decides to issue a complaint. It might be awkward enough having some of his former one night stands in his crew, but he thinks that’ll be alright because he never lied to any of them or promised more than a few hours of fun. However, Pike stressed to him before he left Earth that there will be those around that he can’t trust, so Jim’s trying to keep that in mind. Pike gave him a lot of advice, and some of it is actually useful, which means he’s probably going to be slightly paranoid until he works out his own balance.
One positive about spending nearly all day standing around doing meet-and-greet is that he hasn’t had to sit down a lot. After last night, he’s pretty sore, despite the fact that Bones used some salve to try to make it better. It’s nothing compared to broken ribs or a broken nose, but it does make him cringe every time he’s sat down today. Of course, he doesn’t intend to tell Bones that the slight pain has lingered because he wants to do it again. If Bones somehow thinks he hurt Jim, there’s a great risk for repeat performances in the future. Not immediate future, since Bones has the whole stress-focus means no erections or sex drive issue, but eventual future. He’s trying not to think about that right now, though.
The last shuttle has been emptied, so Jim goes to his office to check his messages. He leans over his desk as he turns on the PADD, stretching before he starts to read. There are a couple of new messages from Starfleet and one from Pike wishing them luck on their mission. He answers the ones requiring his attention and leaves the ‘here’s a bunch of boring information that you already know but we’re sending it again anyway’ ones to deal with later. Those are starting to pile up, so he’ll have to take the time to go through them soon, but he’s saving them for tedious days when there’s nothing to do. After he’s finished with his correspondence, he reviews the information about tomorrow’s departure. They don’t have a set destination yet, which kind of sucks. He’d like to know where they’re going first, but at least they’re going, so he can’t complain.
Once he’s sure that nothing else requires his attention tonight, he leaves his office. He goes down to the first deck of general staff quarters and walks the corridor, just checking on things and making sure everyone’s settling in alright. It’s impossible not to smile as he watches everyone meet their roommates and their neighbors. This is his crew now, and it’s really pretty cool to listen to them talking and to hear ‘Hello, Captain’ as he walks by. He stops when he reaches the room that Chekov is going to be sharing with Sulu.
“Getting settled in, boys?” he asks as he leans against the doorframe.
“Oh, hello, Keptin,” Chekov says, smiling as he looks up from the trunk that he brought with him. “It is a wery nice room.”
“Bed is comfortable, so I’m happy,” Sulu tells him. “Bit surprised about some things.” He glances pointedly at Chekov and arches a brow. “But it could be worse.”
Jim nods. “Yes, it could be.” He figures that Sulu expected his own room, but there just isn’t space for that at the moment. He’s been told to leave several officers’ quarters open for guests, so Sulu’s going to have to deal for now. At least he gave him a roommate that shouldn’t be too much of a pain in the ass. Plus, he let him have one of the smaller private rooms instead of forcing him in with several roommates.
“I saw five people sharing down that way,” Sulu says, motioning behind Jim. “I prefer the privacy here, definitely.”
“Here, Keptin. Gaila and I made these yesterday.” Chekov hands him a container and smiles. “She is not wery good yet with the baking, but these were best of batch.”
He lifts the corner of the container and smiles when he smells chocolate and sees cookies. “If you two keep feeding me sweets, my uniforms aren’t going to fit anymore.” He closes the container. “Guess I’ll have to run a few laps around the observation deck later.”
“Aren’t you going to share, Jim?” Sulu asks as he steps closer and sniffs the air. “It’s really rude to show off cookies without at least offering. Especially ones with chocolate.”
“I have more, Lieutenant Sulu,” Chekov says, pointing to a container on his bed. “The keptin needs to eat those, but I will share with you.”
“Carry on, boys,” Jim says, making a quick exit before he’s forced to share his cookies. He’s definitely going to see about adding ‘making sweets’ to Chekov’s job duties list, even if it means finding ways to exercise on the ship. In a couple of weeks, maybe he can suggest a sex-based workout for him and Bones. He grins at that idea and continues down the corridor to his next destination.
When he reaches the room, the door is open and Gaila sees him before he can greet her. “Oh, good. You got your cookies. I made them!” she says with a smile. “They were nothing more than lumpy mounds of dough before I added the appropriate heat to turn them into something edible. Cooking is fascinating. Do you do it?”
“Yes, Chekov gave them to me,” he tells her. When she starts going on about cooking, he begins to wonder why he decided to stop by to see her specifically. “Not very often. I’m more of a replicator dependent type of guy unless someone else is cooking for me.”
“My little brother is going to teach me how to make other things. He says that I need to learn how to apply the proper amount of heat first, though, because I made things too hot,” she explains. Jim wonders how many people on-board are going to do a double-take if she calls Chekov her little brother publicly. She frowns before she smiles. “It is alright to make mistakes while I learn. I am enjoying the opportunity to learn archaic human cooking rituals.”
“I’m sure you’ll get it down eventually,” he reassures her. He looks around her room and arches a brow. “Where’s your roomie?”
“Nyota is not in a social mood. She has wandered off to be alone.” Gaila hesitates before she adds, “She is unhappy, but it is not the fault of the ship or of you, Captain.”
Jim nods slowly. It takes him a minute to connect the dots and figure out why Uhura might not be in the best of moods. “You can call me Jim when we’re in private,” he murmurs distractedly.
“I plan to sometimes, but I like calling you captain.” She shrugs. “Are you eating properly?”
He rolls his eyes. “Yes, I am. You don’t have to nag me about that anymore, by the way. Doctor McCoy has been transferred here, so he can monitor all that if he wants to.”
“Your doctor is here?” Gaila grins. “That is good news. He did not want to go that day, so he must not be so sad now.”
“I think he’s pretty happy about it,” he says with a slightly smile. He shakes his head before he starts thinking about Bones. “I’d better finish my rounds. Talk to you later, Gaila.”
“I will speak with you soon, Jim.” She smiles before she goes back to unpacking.
Bones is busy in medical and, as tempting as it is, Jim knows that he probably shouldn’t disturb him. Not when some of the medical staff will be stopping by to meet their new CMO. So he decides to head down to Engineering. When he reaches his destination, he makes sure that no one is watching before he goes into the storage area and makes his way over to Jess. He sits on the floor next to her, opening the container to get a cookie. “The ship is crazy right now,” he tells her quietly. “Hundreds of people are getting settled in and unpacking. It’s completely chaotic and I kind of love it. The past week has been so quiet, even with Bones and Scotty around.”
He takes a bite of the cookie and lets the chocolate melt in his mouth. It’s silent here, which is much needed at the moment. It feels like his head is overflowing with information, and his face is sore from smiling so much all day. While he’s enjoying all of it, he knows that he needs a brief respite since it’ll be later before he can retreat to his room. Not that he’s really in a hurry for that, since Bones isn’t going to be there tonight. Sleeping has been easier the last week, even when Bones gets up and sneaks out in the pre-dawn hours. Jim knows that he’ll adjust to sleeping alone again, but it’s not something that he’s looking forward to.
“How are you liking this whole being in space thing?” he asks Jess as he leans against the wall next to her. He tugs her tarp off and arches a brow. “I see that Scotty must have been here. Well, he can shine you up all he wants, but I’m always going to be your favorite.” He sighs. “I’m going to be pretty busy taking care of the crew and this ship, though, so don’t think that I’ve forgotten you if I don’t have time to stop by too often.”
With a shake of his head, he stands up. He pats her handlebar and smiles as he thinks about everything they’ve been through over the last three years. He might not get a chance to ride her much now that he’s on this mission, but he’s still glad that he brought her along. After he puts the tarp back on her, he picks up the container of cookies. “I’ll see you soon, girl.”
Things aren’t nearly as quiet when he leaves the storage area. There are people talking all over the ship, meeting each other and learning their way around. Most of them are like him, so this is their first real time working on a ship. Everything a couple of months ago happened so fast that it wasn’t really possible to just walk around and discover the layout of the place. He walks through the ship and ends up on the observation deck. When he first arrives, he thinks that he’s alone, but he notices someone standing in the shadows looking out the window.
Uhura turns her head slightly when she hears him, and he can see that her eyes are glittery. There aren’t tears on her face, but it’s still obvious that she’s doing an Uhura version of crying. Damn it. He doesn’t know what to do in this sort of situation. Tears always freak him out a little, mostly because they usually indicate emotions that can’t be controlled, which is always frustrating.
“Lieutenant.” He greets her as he approaches the window. It doesn’t take a genius to know that she’s upset. He even has a pretty good guess why, and it’s an annoying Vulcan pain in the ass. It’s easy to make some quip about her moving on or finding someone better, which might be pretty easy because he doesn’t really get why anyone, much less someone like her, would want Spock anyway. But he remembers the look on her face weeks ago when he and Spock were going to get Pike, so he can’t make light of the fact that the man she must love chose a future that didn’t include her.
“Captain,” she says stiffly. After three years of trying to get under her skin, he places that tone immediately. It’s the ‘leave me the fuck alone, you annoying hick bastard’ tone that he often heard whenever he made a valid point during the Xenolinguistics Club meetings.
“You can call me handsome instead of Captain, if you want,” he offers graciously. He can’t say anything to cheer her up, but having Gaila and Chekov around to distract him when Bones left was helpful, so he can annoy Uhura to distract her. He’s good at annoying at her, at least.
“Don’t you have a ship to run, Captain?” she asks. “Or someone who might appreciate your obnoxious attention and would love for you to pester them?”
“It’s running well right now.” He winks at her. “Besides, you know that you’re my favorite person to pester.”
“Lucky me,” she says dryly. She frowns at him but doesn’t say anything else.
He waits a few minutes, rocking back onto his heels and then forward a few times while staring at the dark space all around them. “So, what brings a pretty woman like you to a place like this?” He grins at her. “And are you going to tell me your first name yet?”
“You know my name, Kirk,” she tells him. “Save the juvenile pick-up lines for someone who might be interested, if you can find anyone brainless enough to fall for them.”
“Ah, but, see, that doesn’t count because you didn’t tell me,” he says simply. If it was only about knowing her name, he’d have hacked her files years ago. It’s a matter of principle, really.
She looks at him and blinks before she scowls. “You’re a strange man, James Kirk.”
“I’m also devastatingly attractive and good in bed,” he points out. He purses his lips and studies her as if he’s in deep thought. “Is it an embarrassing name? Are you named after where you were conceived? Is it Fluffy Mattress Uhura?”
She snorts then frowns even more. “Go away, Captain.”
“Hmm. I’ll take that request under consideration, Lieutenant,” he tells her, glancing at her briefly before looking back out the window. “I guess I could you tell something embarrassing about me, if it’d make you feel more comfortable to finally give me your first name.”
“Since you have no shame, I doubt you even could,” she mutters before she rests her forehead against the window and stares out at the nothing surrounding them.
In a way, she’s right. He learned years ago that it’s better not to get self-conscious about stuff because it just makes a person weak and lets something have power over them. Still, she’s not looking so weepy now, so he’ll try to think of something. “Oh, I’ve got it,” he says suddenly.
“Don’t damage what few brain cells you have left, Captain. You might need them to, oh, keep us all alive.” There’s no real malice to her words, so he doesn’t get offended by them, but he really does hate that so many people just assume he’s a pretty face. As if he’d have been able to do four years in three at the academy if that were the case.
“You might not believe this,” he says, ignoring her teasing because he’s actually thought of something embarrassing to share, “but, when I was a kid, I was a real teacher’s pet. Always got highest marks in my class and kissed ass real well.” It helped keep Frank’s attention off of him, and his mother actually looked at him whenever he did well in his classes, though never for long. She must have been seeing his father even then, he figures.
“You a kiss ass? Goodness, no. I don’t believe that at all.” He doesn’t even have to look at her to know that she’s rolling her eyes. Good. If she’s doing that then she’s not moping about Spock.
“When I was ten, I volunteered to perform in this play that the English teacher was all excited about. Never bothered to ask what play or find out what I’d have to wear,” he tells her as he frowns slightly and looks out the window. “I had to wear tights, and there was a performance for the school and parents, all the other students there and everything.”
She snickers. “Tights?”
“Yeah. Green ones.” It had been terrifying, he remembers, because he wasn’t used to having all that attention, hadn’t been as fond of it as he is now, and Frank had been forced to go because his mom had been off-planet. He shakes his head slightly and forces a grin. “In this one scene, I had to bend over to pick up something, and the tights ripped. I wasn’t wearing anything under them, since they were so tight, and I ended up mooning everyone.”
“Seriously?” She’s fighting a laugh, which is a lot better than crying. True, it’s at his expense, but he’s the one who brought all this up, so he can only blame himself for not remembering all the pesky details before he started telling the story.
He shrugs. “A few of the kids started calling me names after that, and George, my older brother, he kept getting in fights because of some of the crude things those kids were saying.” He hasn’t seen George in a dozen years, not since Frank kicked him out and George left without ever looking back, but he can’t really hate him because George bore the brunt of it for all those years. He tries to remember that when he wants to hate George. He shakes his head slightly. “So, yeah, I think that’s worse than an embarrassing first name.”
When she doesn’t say anything, he looks at her and sees that she’s staring at him. She isn’t laughing anymore, but at least she doesn’t look so miserable, either. He arches a brow, and she looks away with a frown. “My name’s Uhura,” she tells him, sounding more like her old self.
“Uhura what?” he asks, smiling slightly as he pushes away the memories of his childhood and remembers a night at a bar that changed his life instead.
She glances back at him and her lips curve slightly into a faint smile. “Just Uhura.”
He reaches over and lightly elbows her arm. “They don’t have last names in your world?”
She pauses for a moment, obviously thinking, before she says, “Uhura is my last name.” She swats at his arm and rolls her eyes.
“Ah, what, don’t they have first names in your world?” he asks, trying to remember what he said that night. “Oh, wait. Let me guess. Is it Jim?”
“God, you’re so impossible,” she mutters. She smacks his shoulder and shakes her head. “I’m leaving now before your brand of crazy starts to rub off on me.” For a minute, he thinks she’s going to say something else, but she closes her mouth and just stares at him curiously before she leaves the deck.
After she’s gone, he sighs and runs his fingers through his hair. His energy is starting to fade, which isn’t that surprising since it’s been a long, busy day. He leaves the observation deck and takes the turbolift down to deck 9. When he arrives at Bones’ door, he looks around casually to make sure that no one is paying any attention to him before he types in the code and steps inside.
“I have cookies,” he announces when Bones looks up from the PADD he’s reading. Please don’t send me away. He bites his lip and steps closer. “I, uh, thought I’d share before they’re all gone.”
Bones frowns slightly and studies his face intently. “What kind?” he asks finally, putting the PADD down.
Jim opens the container and smiles with relief. “Chocolate chip. Not replicator made, either.”
“Well, are you going to stand there teasing me with them or come over here and share?” Bones grumbles. He scoots over and pats the spot next to him.
“Be nice or I’ll just eat them in front of you,” he warns as he walks over to the sofa. Bones’ room isn’t as big as his, but he at least has the space for a sitting area and a desk. “Nice room.”
“Not the captain’s quarters, but I like it,” Bones says. “Had to get Scotty to make me those bookshelves using some spare parts from Engineering, but he seemed to enjoy the challenge.”
“Did he?” Jim frowns slightly and looks at the bookshelves. Now, every time he sees them, he’ll think of Scotty making them for Bones as a favor. If Bones needed shelves, he should have asked Jim.
“Jim, come here.” Bones is watching him in that intense way. “You look worn out.”
“I am,” he admits, ignoring the irrational jealousy over shelves as he focuses on Bones. He sits down next to him and leans closer, kissing him thoroughly, not pulling away until he can’t think of anything but Bones. When he breaks the kiss, he gets a cookie and breaks it in half, giving Bones half. Bones moves his arm around Jim's shoulders and pulls against him. Jim smiles, snuggling closer as they eat in comfortable silence.
End
#38: Prescription | #40: Go
Pairing: Kirk/McCoy
Summary: The crew arrives, and Jim does the captainy thing
Rating: Teen/PG13
Word Count: 3820
A/N: #39 in the Two Men & a Motorbike series. Follows #38: Prescription. Thank you to everyone who reads/comments! ♥!!
There are five hundred and fifty-seven crew members currently assigned to work on the Enterprise. Today, Jim has met every single one of them. Even with his excellent memory, the names and faces began to blur by mid-day. He’s going to review personnel files during the next few days until he can place a name to every face that he sees. It’s a lot of people, but it is a large ship, so he knows that it probably won’t even seem like that many once everyone is settled in. Technically, he can add a few hundred more to the crew in the future, since they’re running on a minimum level right now. With the loss of so many cadets and training officers recently, there just isn’t enough personnel to go around.
The members of crew who will be working in laundry are a few people that he made sure to know before he officially met them. They will be dealing with all his linens and clothes, even with the automation process in place. He knows that it’s best to keep himself on their good side, not only because they’ll be dealing with some of his personal items but also in an effort to keep rumors to a minimum. The last thing he needs is for his sex stained sheets to lead to gossip about who his partner is. The fact that a logical deduction would likely point to Bones isn’t the only reason, though. It’s also because he doesn’t want anyone to think that he’s fraternizing with junior staff or to give anyone an opportunity to take advantage.
Since he has a well-earned reputation from his academy days, he knows that he’s going to be more careful than most captains when it comes to being friendly and his natural habit of flirting. While he doesn’t really plan to change that, he also doesn’t want to give anyone any ammunition that could reflect poorly on him if someone decides to issue a complaint. It might be awkward enough having some of his former one night stands in his crew, but he thinks that’ll be alright because he never lied to any of them or promised more than a few hours of fun. However, Pike stressed to him before he left Earth that there will be those around that he can’t trust, so Jim’s trying to keep that in mind. Pike gave him a lot of advice, and some of it is actually useful, which means he’s probably going to be slightly paranoid until he works out his own balance.
One positive about spending nearly all day standing around doing meet-and-greet is that he hasn’t had to sit down a lot. After last night, he’s pretty sore, despite the fact that Bones used some salve to try to make it better. It’s nothing compared to broken ribs or a broken nose, but it does make him cringe every time he’s sat down today. Of course, he doesn’t intend to tell Bones that the slight pain has lingered because he wants to do it again. If Bones somehow thinks he hurt Jim, there’s a great risk for repeat performances in the future. Not immediate future, since Bones has the whole stress-focus means no erections or sex drive issue, but eventual future. He’s trying not to think about that right now, though.
The last shuttle has been emptied, so Jim goes to his office to check his messages. He leans over his desk as he turns on the PADD, stretching before he starts to read. There are a couple of new messages from Starfleet and one from Pike wishing them luck on their mission. He answers the ones requiring his attention and leaves the ‘here’s a bunch of boring information that you already know but we’re sending it again anyway’ ones to deal with later. Those are starting to pile up, so he’ll have to take the time to go through them soon, but he’s saving them for tedious days when there’s nothing to do. After he’s finished with his correspondence, he reviews the information about tomorrow’s departure. They don’t have a set destination yet, which kind of sucks. He’d like to know where they’re going first, but at least they’re going, so he can’t complain.
Once he’s sure that nothing else requires his attention tonight, he leaves his office. He goes down to the first deck of general staff quarters and walks the corridor, just checking on things and making sure everyone’s settling in alright. It’s impossible not to smile as he watches everyone meet their roommates and their neighbors. This is his crew now, and it’s really pretty cool to listen to them talking and to hear ‘Hello, Captain’ as he walks by. He stops when he reaches the room that Chekov is going to be sharing with Sulu.
“Getting settled in, boys?” he asks as he leans against the doorframe.
“Oh, hello, Keptin,” Chekov says, smiling as he looks up from the trunk that he brought with him. “It is a wery nice room.”
“Bed is comfortable, so I’m happy,” Sulu tells him. “Bit surprised about some things.” He glances pointedly at Chekov and arches a brow. “But it could be worse.”
Jim nods. “Yes, it could be.” He figures that Sulu expected his own room, but there just isn’t space for that at the moment. He’s been told to leave several officers’ quarters open for guests, so Sulu’s going to have to deal for now. At least he gave him a roommate that shouldn’t be too much of a pain in the ass. Plus, he let him have one of the smaller private rooms instead of forcing him in with several roommates.
“I saw five people sharing down that way,” Sulu says, motioning behind Jim. “I prefer the privacy here, definitely.”
“Here, Keptin. Gaila and I made these yesterday.” Chekov hands him a container and smiles. “She is not wery good yet with the baking, but these were best of batch.”
He lifts the corner of the container and smiles when he smells chocolate and sees cookies. “If you two keep feeding me sweets, my uniforms aren’t going to fit anymore.” He closes the container. “Guess I’ll have to run a few laps around the observation deck later.”
“Aren’t you going to share, Jim?” Sulu asks as he steps closer and sniffs the air. “It’s really rude to show off cookies without at least offering. Especially ones with chocolate.”
“I have more, Lieutenant Sulu,” Chekov says, pointing to a container on his bed. “The keptin needs to eat those, but I will share with you.”
“Carry on, boys,” Jim says, making a quick exit before he’s forced to share his cookies. He’s definitely going to see about adding ‘making sweets’ to Chekov’s job duties list, even if it means finding ways to exercise on the ship. In a couple of weeks, maybe he can suggest a sex-based workout for him and Bones. He grins at that idea and continues down the corridor to his next destination.
When he reaches the room, the door is open and Gaila sees him before he can greet her. “Oh, good. You got your cookies. I made them!” she says with a smile. “They were nothing more than lumpy mounds of dough before I added the appropriate heat to turn them into something edible. Cooking is fascinating. Do you do it?”
“Yes, Chekov gave them to me,” he tells her. When she starts going on about cooking, he begins to wonder why he decided to stop by to see her specifically. “Not very often. I’m more of a replicator dependent type of guy unless someone else is cooking for me.”
“My little brother is going to teach me how to make other things. He says that I need to learn how to apply the proper amount of heat first, though, because I made things too hot,” she explains. Jim wonders how many people on-board are going to do a double-take if she calls Chekov her little brother publicly. She frowns before she smiles. “It is alright to make mistakes while I learn. I am enjoying the opportunity to learn archaic human cooking rituals.”
“I’m sure you’ll get it down eventually,” he reassures her. He looks around her room and arches a brow. “Where’s your roomie?”
“Nyota is not in a social mood. She has wandered off to be alone.” Gaila hesitates before she adds, “She is unhappy, but it is not the fault of the ship or of you, Captain.”
Jim nods slowly. It takes him a minute to connect the dots and figure out why Uhura might not be in the best of moods. “You can call me Jim when we’re in private,” he murmurs distractedly.
“I plan to sometimes, but I like calling you captain.” She shrugs. “Are you eating properly?”
He rolls his eyes. “Yes, I am. You don’t have to nag me about that anymore, by the way. Doctor McCoy has been transferred here, so he can monitor all that if he wants to.”
“Your doctor is here?” Gaila grins. “That is good news. He did not want to go that day, so he must not be so sad now.”
“I think he’s pretty happy about it,” he says with a slightly smile. He shakes his head before he starts thinking about Bones. “I’d better finish my rounds. Talk to you later, Gaila.”
“I will speak with you soon, Jim.” She smiles before she goes back to unpacking.
Bones is busy in medical and, as tempting as it is, Jim knows that he probably shouldn’t disturb him. Not when some of the medical staff will be stopping by to meet their new CMO. So he decides to head down to Engineering. When he reaches his destination, he makes sure that no one is watching before he goes into the storage area and makes his way over to Jess. He sits on the floor next to her, opening the container to get a cookie. “The ship is crazy right now,” he tells her quietly. “Hundreds of people are getting settled in and unpacking. It’s completely chaotic and I kind of love it. The past week has been so quiet, even with Bones and Scotty around.”
He takes a bite of the cookie and lets the chocolate melt in his mouth. It’s silent here, which is much needed at the moment. It feels like his head is overflowing with information, and his face is sore from smiling so much all day. While he’s enjoying all of it, he knows that he needs a brief respite since it’ll be later before he can retreat to his room. Not that he’s really in a hurry for that, since Bones isn’t going to be there tonight. Sleeping has been easier the last week, even when Bones gets up and sneaks out in the pre-dawn hours. Jim knows that he’ll adjust to sleeping alone again, but it’s not something that he’s looking forward to.
“How are you liking this whole being in space thing?” he asks Jess as he leans against the wall next to her. He tugs her tarp off and arches a brow. “I see that Scotty must have been here. Well, he can shine you up all he wants, but I’m always going to be your favorite.” He sighs. “I’m going to be pretty busy taking care of the crew and this ship, though, so don’t think that I’ve forgotten you if I don’t have time to stop by too often.”
With a shake of his head, he stands up. He pats her handlebar and smiles as he thinks about everything they’ve been through over the last three years. He might not get a chance to ride her much now that he’s on this mission, but he’s still glad that he brought her along. After he puts the tarp back on her, he picks up the container of cookies. “I’ll see you soon, girl.”
Things aren’t nearly as quiet when he leaves the storage area. There are people talking all over the ship, meeting each other and learning their way around. Most of them are like him, so this is their first real time working on a ship. Everything a couple of months ago happened so fast that it wasn’t really possible to just walk around and discover the layout of the place. He walks through the ship and ends up on the observation deck. When he first arrives, he thinks that he’s alone, but he notices someone standing in the shadows looking out the window.
Uhura turns her head slightly when she hears him, and he can see that her eyes are glittery. There aren’t tears on her face, but it’s still obvious that she’s doing an Uhura version of crying. Damn it. He doesn’t know what to do in this sort of situation. Tears always freak him out a little, mostly because they usually indicate emotions that can’t be controlled, which is always frustrating.
“Lieutenant.” He greets her as he approaches the window. It doesn’t take a genius to know that she’s upset. He even has a pretty good guess why, and it’s an annoying Vulcan pain in the ass. It’s easy to make some quip about her moving on or finding someone better, which might be pretty easy because he doesn’t really get why anyone, much less someone like her, would want Spock anyway. But he remembers the look on her face weeks ago when he and Spock were going to get Pike, so he can’t make light of the fact that the man she must love chose a future that didn’t include her.
“Captain,” she says stiffly. After three years of trying to get under her skin, he places that tone immediately. It’s the ‘leave me the fuck alone, you annoying hick bastard’ tone that he often heard whenever he made a valid point during the Xenolinguistics Club meetings.
“You can call me handsome instead of Captain, if you want,” he offers graciously. He can’t say anything to cheer her up, but having Gaila and Chekov around to distract him when Bones left was helpful, so he can annoy Uhura to distract her. He’s good at annoying at her, at least.
“Don’t you have a ship to run, Captain?” she asks. “Or someone who might appreciate your obnoxious attention and would love for you to pester them?”
“It’s running well right now.” He winks at her. “Besides, you know that you’re my favorite person to pester.”
“Lucky me,” she says dryly. She frowns at him but doesn’t say anything else.
He waits a few minutes, rocking back onto his heels and then forward a few times while staring at the dark space all around them. “So, what brings a pretty woman like you to a place like this?” He grins at her. “And are you going to tell me your first name yet?”
“You know my name, Kirk,” she tells him. “Save the juvenile pick-up lines for someone who might be interested, if you can find anyone brainless enough to fall for them.”
“Ah, but, see, that doesn’t count because you didn’t tell me,” he says simply. If it was only about knowing her name, he’d have hacked her files years ago. It’s a matter of principle, really.
She looks at him and blinks before she scowls. “You’re a strange man, James Kirk.”
“I’m also devastatingly attractive and good in bed,” he points out. He purses his lips and studies her as if he’s in deep thought. “Is it an embarrassing name? Are you named after where you were conceived? Is it Fluffy Mattress Uhura?”
She snorts then frowns even more. “Go away, Captain.”
“Hmm. I’ll take that request under consideration, Lieutenant,” he tells her, glancing at her briefly before looking back out the window. “I guess I could you tell something embarrassing about me, if it’d make you feel more comfortable to finally give me your first name.”
“Since you have no shame, I doubt you even could,” she mutters before she rests her forehead against the window and stares out at the nothing surrounding them.
In a way, she’s right. He learned years ago that it’s better not to get self-conscious about stuff because it just makes a person weak and lets something have power over them. Still, she’s not looking so weepy now, so he’ll try to think of something. “Oh, I’ve got it,” he says suddenly.
“Don’t damage what few brain cells you have left, Captain. You might need them to, oh, keep us all alive.” There’s no real malice to her words, so he doesn’t get offended by them, but he really does hate that so many people just assume he’s a pretty face. As if he’d have been able to do four years in three at the academy if that were the case.
“You might not believe this,” he says, ignoring her teasing because he’s actually thought of something embarrassing to share, “but, when I was a kid, I was a real teacher’s pet. Always got highest marks in my class and kissed ass real well.” It helped keep Frank’s attention off of him, and his mother actually looked at him whenever he did well in his classes, though never for long. She must have been seeing his father even then, he figures.
“You a kiss ass? Goodness, no. I don’t believe that at all.” He doesn’t even have to look at her to know that she’s rolling her eyes. Good. If she’s doing that then she’s not moping about Spock.
“When I was ten, I volunteered to perform in this play that the English teacher was all excited about. Never bothered to ask what play or find out what I’d have to wear,” he tells her as he frowns slightly and looks out the window. “I had to wear tights, and there was a performance for the school and parents, all the other students there and everything.”
She snickers. “Tights?”
“Yeah. Green ones.” It had been terrifying, he remembers, because he wasn’t used to having all that attention, hadn’t been as fond of it as he is now, and Frank had been forced to go because his mom had been off-planet. He shakes his head slightly and forces a grin. “In this one scene, I had to bend over to pick up something, and the tights ripped. I wasn’t wearing anything under them, since they were so tight, and I ended up mooning everyone.”
“Seriously?” She’s fighting a laugh, which is a lot better than crying. True, it’s at his expense, but he’s the one who brought all this up, so he can only blame himself for not remembering all the pesky details before he started telling the story.
He shrugs. “A few of the kids started calling me names after that, and George, my older brother, he kept getting in fights because of some of the crude things those kids were saying.” He hasn’t seen George in a dozen years, not since Frank kicked him out and George left without ever looking back, but he can’t really hate him because George bore the brunt of it for all those years. He tries to remember that when he wants to hate George. He shakes his head slightly. “So, yeah, I think that’s worse than an embarrassing first name.”
When she doesn’t say anything, he looks at her and sees that she’s staring at him. She isn’t laughing anymore, but at least she doesn’t look so miserable, either. He arches a brow, and she looks away with a frown. “My name’s Uhura,” she tells him, sounding more like her old self.
“Uhura what?” he asks, smiling slightly as he pushes away the memories of his childhood and remembers a night at a bar that changed his life instead.
She glances back at him and her lips curve slightly into a faint smile. “Just Uhura.”
He reaches over and lightly elbows her arm. “They don’t have last names in your world?”
She pauses for a moment, obviously thinking, before she says, “Uhura is my last name.” She swats at his arm and rolls her eyes.
“Ah, what, don’t they have first names in your world?” he asks, trying to remember what he said that night. “Oh, wait. Let me guess. Is it Jim?”
“God, you’re so impossible,” she mutters. She smacks his shoulder and shakes her head. “I’m leaving now before your brand of crazy starts to rub off on me.” For a minute, he thinks she’s going to say something else, but she closes her mouth and just stares at him curiously before she leaves the deck.
After she’s gone, he sighs and runs his fingers through his hair. His energy is starting to fade, which isn’t that surprising since it’s been a long, busy day. He leaves the observation deck and takes the turbolift down to deck 9. When he arrives at Bones’ door, he looks around casually to make sure that no one is paying any attention to him before he types in the code and steps inside.
“I have cookies,” he announces when Bones looks up from the PADD he’s reading. Please don’t send me away. He bites his lip and steps closer. “I, uh, thought I’d share before they’re all gone.”
Bones frowns slightly and studies his face intently. “What kind?” he asks finally, putting the PADD down.
Jim opens the container and smiles with relief. “Chocolate chip. Not replicator made, either.”
“Well, are you going to stand there teasing me with them or come over here and share?” Bones grumbles. He scoots over and pats the spot next to him.
“Be nice or I’ll just eat them in front of you,” he warns as he walks over to the sofa. Bones’ room isn’t as big as his, but he at least has the space for a sitting area and a desk. “Nice room.”
“Not the captain’s quarters, but I like it,” Bones says. “Had to get Scotty to make me those bookshelves using some spare parts from Engineering, but he seemed to enjoy the challenge.”
“Did he?” Jim frowns slightly and looks at the bookshelves. Now, every time he sees them, he’ll think of Scotty making them for Bones as a favor. If Bones needed shelves, he should have asked Jim.
“Jim, come here.” Bones is watching him in that intense way. “You look worn out.”
“I am,” he admits, ignoring the irrational jealousy over shelves as he focuses on Bones. He sits down next to him and leans closer, kissing him thoroughly, not pulling away until he can’t think of anything but Bones. When he breaks the kiss, he gets a cookie and breaks it in half, giving Bones half. Bones moves his arm around Jim's shoulders and pulls against him. Jim smiles, snuggling closer as they eat in comfortable silence.
End
#38: Prescription | #40: Go