Fic: Que Sera Sera (2/15)
Fandom: TOS/TNG/ST XI -slight AU where there isn’t a 16 year gap between the events of Generations and Star Trek 2009.
Beta: The wonderful triskellion. Any remaining mistakes are all mine
Pairings: Kirk Prime/McCoy Prime/Spock Prime, Kirk/Spock/McCoy, Scotty/Uhura
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: minor character death
Summary: Spock Prime went to save Romulus from a supernova and failed, leaving him in a universe that is similar and still so different from his own. Meanwhile in another part of the galaxy Kirk Prime was freed from the Nexus by Captain Picard and survived. Not believing that Spock Prime is dead Kirk Prime goes in search of him, and travels to the universe created when Nero went through the black hole. In that universe Kirk and Spock are starting on their five year mission, determined to write their own destinies after their encounters with Spock Prime. Unlike them McCoy doesn’t trust destiny as far as he can throw it, and he has his own problems to deal with, like getting custody of the three year old daughter he didn’t know he had.
Que Sera Sera
When the Enterprise finally made its way back to Earth, Leonard ‘Bones’ McCoy did something he had only seen in cheesy old movies, he kissed the ground in joy. They had survived!
From then on he was on an adrenaline high, which was good because once they had saved the Earth and the rest of the Federation the real work began. For over a week he helped run Starfleet Medical into overdrive. Casualties from the Enterprise and the refugees from Vulcan poured into the facility. To make matters worse aftershocks from Nero’s drill caused the entire city and the surrounding area to shake. Another state of emergency was addressed on top of the one they already had. Many of those injured during the earthquakes were diverted to Starfleet medical to ease the flow of patients to other hospitals; and so Bones’ work continued. Kirk and Spock stayed by his side to help as much as they could, while Chekov, Sulu, Scotty, and Uhura ran around campus drumming up supplies and volunteers.
Meanwhile the rest of the fleet was dispatched to Vulcan to search for survivors. Miraculously there were some. A few dozen starship escape pods were found. A handful of Vulcan evacuation ships were discovered on Delta Vega, along with one very annoyed Starfleet officer. They too were brought back to Starfleet Headquarters. With the news of the Vulcan atrocity spreading families swarmed the campus, desperately hoping to find their loved ones among the survivors.
Kirk and Spock worked tirelessly to identify everyone. With Uhura’s help they flooded communications and Starfleet databases, to get in contact with the Vulcan colonies and embassies on other worlds, to determine who had and had not been on or near Vulcan during the disaster. Still, during the entire proceedings, even as some of the follow shipmates were embracing their families with tears of joy running down their faces in the hallways, Spock, Bones, and Kirk never talked about their own families.
Bones’ divorce had left a lot of unhappy people in its wake, including his parents. They hadn’t talked much in the last three years so it never occurred to him to call them and let them know he was all right. Jim’s mother was on one of the ships doing rescue operations in the fleet. He hadn’t been contacted by Winona and so saw no reason to confirm that one of the last members of her family was very much alive. For Spock the only family he had left was currently at the embassy shoring up alliances and soothing diplomatic feathers. Sarek was letting the political structure know that the loss of Earth’s oldest ally’s home world could be overcome, and that no other worlds were at risk from this. Now was unfortunately not the time for heartfelt personal discussions.
So it was truly shocking when, after living on caffeine and stimulants had nearly gotten them checked in as patients themselves, Kirk and Bones went back to their dorm room and Bones found several messages from his parents. They sounded frantic in all of them and told him to call them back right away.
Taking his outdated communicator and going out on the small balcony, so as not to disturb Kirk who was currently snoring up a storm on the couch, because the tremors had burst a pipe in the wall and the bedroom was now flooded, he called them back.
“Mom, Dad? What is it?”
Elaine Dora McCoy looked upon the slightly distorted image of her baby boy.
“Oh, David, he’s alive!”
She turned away from the screen, sobbing into her husband’s shoulder.
Bones stared at them, utterly confused. This was not what he had been expecting.
David McCoy tried to discreetly rub at his eyes, and cleared his throat.
“We’ve been calling you for two days, Leonard. No one could tell us anything. They just kept saying you weren’t on any list!”
Bones nearly dropped the communicator. Oh, sweet Jesus they had actually thought he was dead!
“I’m so sorry I’ve been on staff at Medical since my ship got back to Earth. They wouldn’t have put my name on any of the lists.”
Elaine let go of her husband and glared at her son. “And you couldn’t find two minutes to call us!?”
Bones felt like he was five years old again, with his hand caught in the cookie jar. He shrugged helplessly.
“With the way things have been between us I didn’t think you would want me to.”
“You thought that we wouldn’t want to know that are only son wasn’t dead!” Elaine yelled.
“I believe your exact words were ‘if you walk out of here in disgrace I never want to hear from you again.’ Was that your way of saying you loved me?”
Elaine scowled and lowered her eyes.
“That’s no excuse. The divorce was hard on everyone and to think that you would be so thoughtless now…along with-with everything else.”
David put a hand on her shoulder.
“Elaine, don’t blame him he doesn’t know.”
She sighed and squeezed his hand. “You’re right, you’re right I just…it’s hard, David, it’s just hard.”
Bones raised an eyebrow at that. Between his mother’s words and her actions she seemed almost…frail, never a word he would use to describe her. His mother did not act like that, ever.
“What’s going on? What don’t I know?”
David sighed and pinched the bridge of nose, looking like he really didn’t want to talk about this, and Bones was starting to think he really didn’t want to hear about it.
“Leonard…there’s been an accident.”
That time Bones did drop the communicator.
After scrambling to pick it up and make sure it wasn’t broken he held it with trembling hands.
“What happened? Are you two all right?”
“Yes,” David said, “we weren’t involved-I mean not directly I…it would really be better if you were here to talk about everything, Leonard. This…this isn’t something you should be told like this.”
He could go to see them then. The worst was over, at least here. He could afford to leave now.
“I’ll be out there on the next flight out then and…”
He looked at them. They seemed tired, drained really. Bones knew some of that was from worrying that he was gone forever. Even if the relationship had been strained for the past few years they had deserved better than this.
“Mom, Dad, I love you.”
“We love you too, son. We’ll see you soon.”
Bones nodded. With that he turned off the link and slumped again the railing, wondering what he was going to do with himself until the shuttles left in the morning. He was so wired about whatever had happened with his folks that it would take him at least two hours to fall asleep now. It would probably be longer because he would have to sleep on the floor; the couch wasn’t big enough for two. That would just be murder on his back and…oh to hell with it he would sleep on the shuttle. He couldn’t get anxiety attacks if he closed his eyes for the entire trip anyway.
With the rest of the night now free to do nothing but worry he went to prepare. Sloshing his way through the bedroom, Bones rescued as many items of clothing as he could and stuffed them into his old gym bag. Then he went into the bathroom to try and make himself presentable. No need to show up back home looking like Grizzly Adams, these were his parents after all. If they had taught him anything is was that he was to look respectable in their home. He went into the shower and did his best to wash off the sweat, blood, and memories of recent events. He combed his hair, shaved off his beard, and brushed his teeth. Then tossed all those used grooming items into his bag. When he thought he finally looked like a human being again he went back out to the balcony to wait.
He sighed as he leaned the railing and looked out at the Academy. It was still so strange. The campus was so quiet now. For the three years he had called this place home there was always something going on. If Kirk wasn’t dragging him off to some bar, or dragging people in from the bar trying to start a party in their dorm room, then there were people holding games on the lawns in front of the dorm buildings. Shuttles were always going in and out, the researches labs always had their lights on for experiments that were running day and night.
Now the lawns stood empty. The research building was dark. The shuttles were on a strict schedule, and Bones knew that when graduation came around most of his classmates would never cross the stage. Bones gave a world weary sigh as he slid down into the tiny chair he and Kirk had managed to squeeze out there, closed his eyes, and listened to the crickets chirp.
***
By some miracle he did manage to sleep away a few hours in that chair and in the morning he left a note for Kirk, grabbed his bag, and headed across campus.
As he walked across the shuttle-bay, Bones saw that Spock was there too. He stopped for a moment as he saw that Spock was talking to another Vulcan who was dressed all in black. Bones quirked an eyebrow at that, he looked like a Vulcan elder judging by the grey hair, but Bones didn’t remember seeing him during the relief efforts. Bones shrugged and walked on, he had probably just overlooked the elder in the chaos of everything, forgetting a face was pretty easy in times like this and right now he had more important things to worry about.
He was going home.
***
It was hot and muggy as Bones stepped out of the air conditioned shuttle-port. Summer had official arrived in Georgia. He sweated hard as walked down to the bus station and he bounced around, cursing silently, as the bus travelled on the roads to the edges of Atlanta.
He couldn’t help but smile though when he finally caught sight of his childhood home. It still hadn’t changed. He got off the bus and made his way slowly across the sprawling grounds, passing the rows of peach trees that were ready to be picked. Walking across the long porch he had played on so much as a boy, he breathed in the sweet smell of the honeysuckle growing on the pillars that held up the roof. Then he straightened his shirt and smoothed down his hair and knocked on the door.
The door opened a minute later to reveal his dad.
“Leonard! You made excellent time. How was the trip?”
“Bumpy.”
“Yes, fixin’ the roads is on the county to do list I’ve been assured.”
David ushered him inside had him drop his bag down into the nearest chair and then looked him over. He smiled warmly as he put his hands on Bones’ shoulders and admired his son.
“You look good, Len.”
“Thanks, Dad.”
“Oh, Leonard, thank heavens you’re here!”
David stepped back and Elaine ran over and hugged her son tightly.
“Hi, mom, nice to see you too,” Bones squeaked out as his mother kept squeezing his rib cage.
Elaine kissed his cheek as she let go and smiled at him as she tried to dry her tears.
“Come on let’s all sit down.”
They made there were into the living room and were just about to sit down when David suddenly doubled over, gasping in pain, and leaned on the table for support.
“Dad!”
Bones dove into his pocket and he pulled out his scanner. In a family full of doctors he knew how important it was to keep one on hand.
“I’m all right, I’m all right! You don’t need to run that fancy gadget over me.”
Bones pulled the instrument back and frowned at the results.
“High KT numbers, high blood pressure, and low white count don’t say fine to me.”
David sighed. “I should have known better than to think I could slip this by you.”
“Dad, what’s wrong?”
His father sighed and stared at the floor. “I’m dying, Leonard.”
David sat down and spent the next ten minutes explaining his condition.
Bones did his best to take it all in. This was the kind of news he had to deliver to others. It was never something he thought he would ever receive. At least not yet, his dad was always so healthy. “But Dad, you’ve always gone for every check-up and exam they had to have got it early.”
“You know that doesn’t matter for this disease, Len. I’m sorry to have to tell you this when you’ve had God knows what else going on.”
“Dad, all you friends are in medicine or research they must be able to do something.”
David nodded softly.
“Yes, we’ve all known each other for years. So, they’ll provide the best comfort and care they can when it becomes necessary.”
Bones nodded slowly, this was the way his dad was. He always was one to face problems head on.
“How long?” Bones asked.
“I’ve got about two years.”
Bones stood up leaned over the table and hugged his dad.
“I’m sorry.”
“I am too, Len,” David said as he pulled away. “Sorry I have to put you all through this and sorry that this wasn’t even what we wanted you to come here for.”
Bones let his jaw fall open in shock, his knees gave out and he collapsed back onto the couch.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“I wish we were.”
They say there in silence for a while until Elaine finally spoke up.
“Like we said when you called, Leonard, there’s been an accident. It was just on the highway, on the turn they promised they were going to fix in a month.“ Elaine stopped for a moment, her hand pressed to her mouth and then continued. “ Jocelyn was in the car…the call came in just yesterday. She-she didn’t make it.”
Bones gasped. No, it couldn’t be.
“You’re sure it was her?”
Elaine nodded.
Bones sank back into the couch cushions and buried his face in his hands, feeling every ounce of energy drained out of him. Just like that she was gone. Why did he keep losing everyone?! She was his ex-wife of course they hadn’t parted on friendly terms, but just because he didn’t want to see her again that didn’t mean he really never wanted to see her again. She was so young she should have had so much time.
Bones sighed slowly. “Mom, Dad, I’m glad you told me in person, but you didn’t really have to do that. We were divorced, all of our assets, items, were divided up three years ago. Anything in her Will and estate will have nothing to do with me.”
“That’s where you might be wrong, Leonard,” Elaine said. “There was a passenger in the car, a three year old girl; her daughter.”
Bones pulled his head up from his hands.
“She met someone else so soon?”
“No, not that we knew of...and that’s why you’re here, Len. We wanted you to test yourself to…to see if she’s yours.”
***
Bones was numb as he went to the hospital. After he explained his situation he was taken to an exam room for testing. When the test was over and the results known a nurse told Bones to follow him and he was shown into a room with a single occupant. They had told her she was stable and could wake up at any time.
Bones pulled over a chair and sat next to the bed. As he looked at her he rubbed his hand over the bandage on his left middle finger. It was such a small thing. It had been such a short test and yet it had changed his whole life.
It had told him that he was a father.
Bones looked at the child who looked so small and fragile in the hospital bed, tears filling his eyes. She was his little girl. They told him her name was Joanna. It was a pretty name. He reached for her, running his hand lightly over her soft brown hair that fell just beyond her shoulders. He wondered what colour her eyes were.
Then he started to wonder how he was going to rearrange his life to deal with raising her. He knew neither set of grandparents would be up to the task now. His mom had his dad to worry about and Jocelyn’s parents were overwhelmed by their own grief. He couldn’t blame them Jocelyn had been their only child. Still it was terrifying to think that it would all be up to him. He had enough trouble keeping his life together as it was.
Suddenly there was a moan from the bed just then and the little girl opened her eyes, they were brown like his. She licked her lips and tried to talk, but only managed a dry cough.
Bones opened up a package of moist wipes that the nurses had left on the small nightstand near the bed. Carefully wiped her mouth and let her drink from the cup of water the doctor had left for her. When she had drank her fill she asked him an important question.
“Mama?”
That one word made Bones want to curl up on the floor and die.
“Mama…mama can’t be with you anymore,” he answered softly.
Joanna started crying
“I want mama!”
She started crying harder and the agitation set off the alarms in the monitoring machines. Being three years old the sound only served to frighten Joanna further and she started screaming for her mother all the more. Bones just sat there helplessly as the doctor and nurses rushed in to calm her down.
How was he ever supposed to make a life, a family, for her out of this mess?
Chapter 3
Beta: The wonderful triskellion. Any remaining mistakes are all mine
Pairings: Kirk Prime/McCoy Prime/Spock Prime, Kirk/Spock/McCoy, Scotty/Uhura
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: minor character death
Summary: Spock Prime went to save Romulus from a supernova and failed, leaving him in a universe that is similar and still so different from his own. Meanwhile in another part of the galaxy Kirk Prime was freed from the Nexus by Captain Picard and survived. Not believing that Spock Prime is dead Kirk Prime goes in search of him, and travels to the universe created when Nero went through the black hole. In that universe Kirk and Spock are starting on their five year mission, determined to write their own destinies after their encounters with Spock Prime. Unlike them McCoy doesn’t trust destiny as far as he can throw it, and he has his own problems to deal with, like getting custody of the three year old daughter he didn’t know he had.
Que Sera Sera
When the Enterprise finally made its way back to Earth, Leonard ‘Bones’ McCoy did something he had only seen in cheesy old movies, he kissed the ground in joy. They had survived!
From then on he was on an adrenaline high, which was good because once they had saved the Earth and the rest of the Federation the real work began. For over a week he helped run Starfleet Medical into overdrive. Casualties from the Enterprise and the refugees from Vulcan poured into the facility. To make matters worse aftershocks from Nero’s drill caused the entire city and the surrounding area to shake. Another state of emergency was addressed on top of the one they already had. Many of those injured during the earthquakes were diverted to Starfleet medical to ease the flow of patients to other hospitals; and so Bones’ work continued. Kirk and Spock stayed by his side to help as much as they could, while Chekov, Sulu, Scotty, and Uhura ran around campus drumming up supplies and volunteers.
Meanwhile the rest of the fleet was dispatched to Vulcan to search for survivors. Miraculously there were some. A few dozen starship escape pods were found. A handful of Vulcan evacuation ships were discovered on Delta Vega, along with one very annoyed Starfleet officer. They too were brought back to Starfleet Headquarters. With the news of the Vulcan atrocity spreading families swarmed the campus, desperately hoping to find their loved ones among the survivors.
Kirk and Spock worked tirelessly to identify everyone. With Uhura’s help they flooded communications and Starfleet databases, to get in contact with the Vulcan colonies and embassies on other worlds, to determine who had and had not been on or near Vulcan during the disaster. Still, during the entire proceedings, even as some of the follow shipmates were embracing their families with tears of joy running down their faces in the hallways, Spock, Bones, and Kirk never talked about their own families.
Bones’ divorce had left a lot of unhappy people in its wake, including his parents. They hadn’t talked much in the last three years so it never occurred to him to call them and let them know he was all right. Jim’s mother was on one of the ships doing rescue operations in the fleet. He hadn’t been contacted by Winona and so saw no reason to confirm that one of the last members of her family was very much alive. For Spock the only family he had left was currently at the embassy shoring up alliances and soothing diplomatic feathers. Sarek was letting the political structure know that the loss of Earth’s oldest ally’s home world could be overcome, and that no other worlds were at risk from this. Now was unfortunately not the time for heartfelt personal discussions.
So it was truly shocking when, after living on caffeine and stimulants had nearly gotten them checked in as patients themselves, Kirk and Bones went back to their dorm room and Bones found several messages from his parents. They sounded frantic in all of them and told him to call them back right away.
Taking his outdated communicator and going out on the small balcony, so as not to disturb Kirk who was currently snoring up a storm on the couch, because the tremors had burst a pipe in the wall and the bedroom was now flooded, he called them back.
“Mom, Dad? What is it?”
Elaine Dora McCoy looked upon the slightly distorted image of her baby boy.
“Oh, David, he’s alive!”
She turned away from the screen, sobbing into her husband’s shoulder.
Bones stared at them, utterly confused. This was not what he had been expecting.
David McCoy tried to discreetly rub at his eyes, and cleared his throat.
“We’ve been calling you for two days, Leonard. No one could tell us anything. They just kept saying you weren’t on any list!”
Bones nearly dropped the communicator. Oh, sweet Jesus they had actually thought he was dead!
“I’m so sorry I’ve been on staff at Medical since my ship got back to Earth. They wouldn’t have put my name on any of the lists.”
Elaine let go of her husband and glared at her son. “And you couldn’t find two minutes to call us!?”
Bones felt like he was five years old again, with his hand caught in the cookie jar. He shrugged helplessly.
“With the way things have been between us I didn’t think you would want me to.”
“You thought that we wouldn’t want to know that are only son wasn’t dead!” Elaine yelled.
“I believe your exact words were ‘if you walk out of here in disgrace I never want to hear from you again.’ Was that your way of saying you loved me?”
Elaine scowled and lowered her eyes.
“That’s no excuse. The divorce was hard on everyone and to think that you would be so thoughtless now…along with-with everything else.”
David put a hand on her shoulder.
“Elaine, don’t blame him he doesn’t know.”
She sighed and squeezed his hand. “You’re right, you’re right I just…it’s hard, David, it’s just hard.”
Bones raised an eyebrow at that. Between his mother’s words and her actions she seemed almost…frail, never a word he would use to describe her. His mother did not act like that, ever.
“What’s going on? What don’t I know?”
David sighed and pinched the bridge of nose, looking like he really didn’t want to talk about this, and Bones was starting to think he really didn’t want to hear about it.
“Leonard…there’s been an accident.”
That time Bones did drop the communicator.
After scrambling to pick it up and make sure it wasn’t broken he held it with trembling hands.
“What happened? Are you two all right?”
“Yes,” David said, “we weren’t involved-I mean not directly I…it would really be better if you were here to talk about everything, Leonard. This…this isn’t something you should be told like this.”
He could go to see them then. The worst was over, at least here. He could afford to leave now.
“I’ll be out there on the next flight out then and…”
He looked at them. They seemed tired, drained really. Bones knew some of that was from worrying that he was gone forever. Even if the relationship had been strained for the past few years they had deserved better than this.
“Mom, Dad, I love you.”
“We love you too, son. We’ll see you soon.”
Bones nodded. With that he turned off the link and slumped again the railing, wondering what he was going to do with himself until the shuttles left in the morning. He was so wired about whatever had happened with his folks that it would take him at least two hours to fall asleep now. It would probably be longer because he would have to sleep on the floor; the couch wasn’t big enough for two. That would just be murder on his back and…oh to hell with it he would sleep on the shuttle. He couldn’t get anxiety attacks if he closed his eyes for the entire trip anyway.
With the rest of the night now free to do nothing but worry he went to prepare. Sloshing his way through the bedroom, Bones rescued as many items of clothing as he could and stuffed them into his old gym bag. Then he went into the bathroom to try and make himself presentable. No need to show up back home looking like Grizzly Adams, these were his parents after all. If they had taught him anything is was that he was to look respectable in their home. He went into the shower and did his best to wash off the sweat, blood, and memories of recent events. He combed his hair, shaved off his beard, and brushed his teeth. Then tossed all those used grooming items into his bag. When he thought he finally looked like a human being again he went back out to the balcony to wait.
He sighed as he leaned the railing and looked out at the Academy. It was still so strange. The campus was so quiet now. For the three years he had called this place home there was always something going on. If Kirk wasn’t dragging him off to some bar, or dragging people in from the bar trying to start a party in their dorm room, then there were people holding games on the lawns in front of the dorm buildings. Shuttles were always going in and out, the researches labs always had their lights on for experiments that were running day and night.
Now the lawns stood empty. The research building was dark. The shuttles were on a strict schedule, and Bones knew that when graduation came around most of his classmates would never cross the stage. Bones gave a world weary sigh as he slid down into the tiny chair he and Kirk had managed to squeeze out there, closed his eyes, and listened to the crickets chirp.
***
By some miracle he did manage to sleep away a few hours in that chair and in the morning he left a note for Kirk, grabbed his bag, and headed across campus.
As he walked across the shuttle-bay, Bones saw that Spock was there too. He stopped for a moment as he saw that Spock was talking to another Vulcan who was dressed all in black. Bones quirked an eyebrow at that, he looked like a Vulcan elder judging by the grey hair, but Bones didn’t remember seeing him during the relief efforts. Bones shrugged and walked on, he had probably just overlooked the elder in the chaos of everything, forgetting a face was pretty easy in times like this and right now he had more important things to worry about.
He was going home.
***
It was hot and muggy as Bones stepped out of the air conditioned shuttle-port. Summer had official arrived in Georgia. He sweated hard as walked down to the bus station and he bounced around, cursing silently, as the bus travelled on the roads to the edges of Atlanta.
He couldn’t help but smile though when he finally caught sight of his childhood home. It still hadn’t changed. He got off the bus and made his way slowly across the sprawling grounds, passing the rows of peach trees that were ready to be picked. Walking across the long porch he had played on so much as a boy, he breathed in the sweet smell of the honeysuckle growing on the pillars that held up the roof. Then he straightened his shirt and smoothed down his hair and knocked on the door.
The door opened a minute later to reveal his dad.
“Leonard! You made excellent time. How was the trip?”
“Bumpy.”
“Yes, fixin’ the roads is on the county to do list I’ve been assured.”
David ushered him inside had him drop his bag down into the nearest chair and then looked him over. He smiled warmly as he put his hands on Bones’ shoulders and admired his son.
“You look good, Len.”
“Thanks, Dad.”
“Oh, Leonard, thank heavens you’re here!”
David stepped back and Elaine ran over and hugged her son tightly.
“Hi, mom, nice to see you too,” Bones squeaked out as his mother kept squeezing his rib cage.
Elaine kissed his cheek as she let go and smiled at him as she tried to dry her tears.
“Come on let’s all sit down.”
They made there were into the living room and were just about to sit down when David suddenly doubled over, gasping in pain, and leaned on the table for support.
“Dad!”
Bones dove into his pocket and he pulled out his scanner. In a family full of doctors he knew how important it was to keep one on hand.
“I’m all right, I’m all right! You don’t need to run that fancy gadget over me.”
Bones pulled the instrument back and frowned at the results.
“High KT numbers, high blood pressure, and low white count don’t say fine to me.”
David sighed. “I should have known better than to think I could slip this by you.”
“Dad, what’s wrong?”
His father sighed and stared at the floor. “I’m dying, Leonard.”
David sat down and spent the next ten minutes explaining his condition.
Bones did his best to take it all in. This was the kind of news he had to deliver to others. It was never something he thought he would ever receive. At least not yet, his dad was always so healthy. “But Dad, you’ve always gone for every check-up and exam they had to have got it early.”
“You know that doesn’t matter for this disease, Len. I’m sorry to have to tell you this when you’ve had God knows what else going on.”
“Dad, all you friends are in medicine or research they must be able to do something.”
David nodded softly.
“Yes, we’ve all known each other for years. So, they’ll provide the best comfort and care they can when it becomes necessary.”
Bones nodded slowly, this was the way his dad was. He always was one to face problems head on.
“How long?” Bones asked.
“I’ve got about two years.”
Bones stood up leaned over the table and hugged his dad.
“I’m sorry.”
“I am too, Len,” David said as he pulled away. “Sorry I have to put you all through this and sorry that this wasn’t even what we wanted you to come here for.”
Bones let his jaw fall open in shock, his knees gave out and he collapsed back onto the couch.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“I wish we were.”
They say there in silence for a while until Elaine finally spoke up.
“Like we said when you called, Leonard, there’s been an accident. It was just on the highway, on the turn they promised they were going to fix in a month.“ Elaine stopped for a moment, her hand pressed to her mouth and then continued. “ Jocelyn was in the car…the call came in just yesterday. She-she didn’t make it.”
Bones gasped. No, it couldn’t be.
“You’re sure it was her?”
Elaine nodded.
Bones sank back into the couch cushions and buried his face in his hands, feeling every ounce of energy drained out of him. Just like that she was gone. Why did he keep losing everyone?! She was his ex-wife of course they hadn’t parted on friendly terms, but just because he didn’t want to see her again that didn’t mean he really never wanted to see her again. She was so young she should have had so much time.
Bones sighed slowly. “Mom, Dad, I’m glad you told me in person, but you didn’t really have to do that. We were divorced, all of our assets, items, were divided up three years ago. Anything in her Will and estate will have nothing to do with me.”
“That’s where you might be wrong, Leonard,” Elaine said. “There was a passenger in the car, a three year old girl; her daughter.”
Bones pulled his head up from his hands.
“She met someone else so soon?”
“No, not that we knew of...and that’s why you’re here, Len. We wanted you to test yourself to…to see if she’s yours.”
***
Bones was numb as he went to the hospital. After he explained his situation he was taken to an exam room for testing. When the test was over and the results known a nurse told Bones to follow him and he was shown into a room with a single occupant. They had told her she was stable and could wake up at any time.
Bones pulled over a chair and sat next to the bed. As he looked at her he rubbed his hand over the bandage on his left middle finger. It was such a small thing. It had been such a short test and yet it had changed his whole life.
It had told him that he was a father.
Bones looked at the child who looked so small and fragile in the hospital bed, tears filling his eyes. She was his little girl. They told him her name was Joanna. It was a pretty name. He reached for her, running his hand lightly over her soft brown hair that fell just beyond her shoulders. He wondered what colour her eyes were.
Then he started to wonder how he was going to rearrange his life to deal with raising her. He knew neither set of grandparents would be up to the task now. His mom had his dad to worry about and Jocelyn’s parents were overwhelmed by their own grief. He couldn’t blame them Jocelyn had been their only child. Still it was terrifying to think that it would all be up to him. He had enough trouble keeping his life together as it was.
Suddenly there was a moan from the bed just then and the little girl opened her eyes, they were brown like his. She licked her lips and tried to talk, but only managed a dry cough.
Bones opened up a package of moist wipes that the nurses had left on the small nightstand near the bed. Carefully wiped her mouth and let her drink from the cup of water the doctor had left for her. When she had drank her fill she asked him an important question.
“Mama?”
That one word made Bones want to curl up on the floor and die.
“Mama…mama can’t be with you anymore,” he answered softly.
Joanna started crying
“I want mama!”
She started crying harder and the agitation set off the alarms in the monitoring machines. Being three years old the sound only served to frighten Joanna further and she started screaming for her mother all the more. Bones just sat there helplessly as the doctor and nurses rushed in to calm her down.
How was he ever supposed to make a life, a family, for her out of this mess?
Chapter 3