Fic: Life Changed on a Shuttle. (2/?)
Title: Life Changed on a Shuttle (2/?)
Author's Name: pixelmayhem
Pairing: Kirk/McCoy
Rating: G It will go up in later chapters.
Chapter Summary: The start of a new life still has a lot of familiar angles. And a lot of things to work out.
Warnings: AU
Word count: 2189
Disclaimer: I don’t own them. I just like to see them all bendy. I promise to return them.
Series Summary: McCoy boards the shuttle with Joanna and they start a not so nuclear family as Jim talks to her while her dad freaks out.
A/N: Part 2-This is a “What if” universe and I have big ideas for them. You see some of them start to unfold here. Bones and Jim are pretty wary and broken and their masks are fully up but they’re starting to find their stride.
This is sort of part 1 of part 2. There’s a whole other section to go with this but it was giving me fits so I figured I’d post this now and hopefully be able to post the rest either late tonight or sometime tomorrow. Again Un-beta’d. If you see something that needs changing just let me know. Also I don’t know French so that bit might be mangled. If it needs changing, ditto! Hope this meets expectations.
Previous Parts: Part 1
When Jim wakes up the next morning he’s fully clothed and laying on top of the bed. At least he took off his shoes. His head is pounding and he’s not sure if it’s from all the damage it’s maintained or if he’s hung-over. He didn’t think he drank that much but that Sontaran special hit like a rock and he’d had three. His mouth feels like he’s been gargling with sand and forgot to rinse.
His roommate is snoring loudly across the room, just like he was when Jim came back in the early hours this morning. Guy sleeps like a log. He’d met him after coming back from family housing to wash his face.
He’d been unpacking and had made a face when he’d seen Jim saunter in. Jim’s fine with that, he doesn’t have to like him and so long as they don’t get in each other’s business they’ll get along fine. He’d introduced himself as Charles and seemed to have a lot of paraphernalia to do with engines and warp cores so Jim figures he’s going for something in engineering.
Jim rolls himself out of bed and walks into the bathroom to splash water on his face. He swishes a mouthful of water around hoping to be rid of the sandy feeling. Instead all it does is allow him to taste it more clearly. Looking at himself in the mirror he grimaces.
No wonder Charlie-boy made a face. If he looked even half this bad before he went to bed last night he’s surprised no one called the morgue to ask for escapees.
He’s also not so surprised that he struck out last night. Granted he hadn’t been trying too hard, just testing the waters. Still it was a little strange, he’s gotten offers before when he’s looked worse. Just means he’ll have a bit of a challenge till he gets used to the landscape of the locals.
Studying himself closer in the mirror he notices his shirt still has blood stains from his nose and it looks as if he’s been rolling around in grease and dirt. He definitely needs to clean up and he could use some presentable casual clothes. The Reds are gonna get boring very quickly.
Jim was suddenly very glad he accepted that guy’s offer for his bike. When he’d tossed him the keys he’d just wanted to leave Iowa unfettered. But the guy refused to take the bike without giving him some compensation. It wasn’t much but the guy wouldn’t let him hand the bike over without it. Now he can see it was a good thing. He could afford some supplies and other necessities.
It’s still fairly early in the morning. If he leaves now he can get what he needs, come back and clean up and then head over to bug Bones and Joanna. There are errands to run and having Bones complaining in the background will help with the tedium. His roommate is still snoring when he leaves.
He heads into the first thrift store he sees. Campuses are good at attracting them intergalactically which is good for Jim. Grabbing what he needs, he swipes his credit stick when the cashier asks. The guy’s pretty hot and turns him down flat when he makes a pass. He figures the cashier likes them less bloody and cheerfully heads right next door to the pharmacy and picks up supplies to make him look human again.
Returning to his dorm room he throws his purchases on the bed and sorts through them. Grabbing what he needs he carries it all to the bathroom and proceeds to clean up.
Stepping out of the bathroom in clean clothes and freshly shaven he feels as good as he knows he looks. He doesn’t hear the sound of sawing logs and sees Charlie at the table near the replicator munching half heartedly on a bowl of cereal and glaring at it like it offended him.
“Morning Charlie! What’s the matter there milk gone bad?” He smiles at his roomie trying to share the joke.
Charlie-boy lifts his head like it’s too heavy and glares. “It’s Charles.”
“Sure thing Charlie-boy.” He gives his most disarming smile and a wink.
Charles flushes and gives a huff. Huh well that means he cleaned up well. It’s not an avenue he’s planning on exploring though since he has to live with the guy and he’d like to remain on good terms for the duration.
Charlie gives him a once over “Are you a morning person?” He asks sounding a bit disgusted.
Jim laughs. “Not normally, no. Special circumstances, special case this morning.” He never could get comfortable the first night in a new place. It’ll take him a while to settle in.
“Thank god.” He mutters and goes back to acting offended at his food.
Deciding to leave him to it he tugs at the bottom of his shirt to straighten it, grabs his Padd and heads out the door with a skip in his step.
He’s halfway to family housing when he sees a familiar face heading towards him. Placing his best leer on his face he waves.
“Uhura!” She stops in her tracks making a desperate face, like she’s deciding whether to ignore him or run. She chooses run and does an about face. He jogs after her. “Uhura! Hey Uhura!”
When he catches up to her she stops and faces him looking pissed. “What do you want?” She snaps.
“Nothing.” He grins “Can’t I say hi to a friend when I see her on campus?”
She rolls her eyes. “You don’t even know me.”
He bounces on his toes a little and rocks back on his heels still grinning. “I will. I know you like xenolinguistics and a good Cardasian Sunrise. I know you’d rather take care of a persistent guy on your own and don’t think violence is the answer.” Cupcake had been sporting a scarlet handprint all through the shuttle ride. “By the end of the semester we’ll be friends. You may not like me, but we’ll be friends.”
She can’t seem to help the small smile that passes over her face. “And how do you plan on accomplishing that?”
“You’re not the only one who has an interest in many tongues.”
She makes an amused yet disgusted face. “You’re something else Kirk.”
“See! It’s working already! J'attends avec impatience de te revoir en classes. Laters!” He grins at her shocked face and leaves without a response.
Reaching his destination he deftly pushes the necessary buttons to let himself in.
The door swishes open and he sees Bones sitting at the table in the kitchen drinking a cup of coffee. Joanna is across from him chewing on what he would call a pop tart, her legs swinging back and forth, too short to reach the floor.
“Honey I’m home!” he announces loudly
“ ‘im!” Jo squeals, mouth full of food and waving her arms, sending crumbs flying.
There’s that raised eyebrow again. “Should I even be surprised you know the code for our door?”
Jim smirks. “Do I really need to answer that?” He walks over to the table and spins a chair around to perch on its back.
It looks like Bones has been on his own shopping spree since Joanna has new clothes and Bones is wearing jeans and a t-shirt that Jim knows he wasn’t hiding somewhere yesterday.
Bones clean shaven is a completely different creature. Scruffy he was striking in a dangerous way. Today he looks edible. Jim notices he’s getting his own once over and leans back in his chair to stretch. Bones flushes but meets his eyes straight on, unashamed.
Jim grins but drops it turning to look at Joanna again. “What’cha got there Jo?”
She holds out her food, offering it to him, so obligingly he leans forward and takes a bite. “Mmm strawberry.” He says smacking his lips. Chewing with her mouthful she nods and offers him more. “That’s alright Jo, it’s your breakfast you finish it.” He tells her with a grin and leans forward to wipe some crumbs off the corner of her mouth.
Watching their interaction Bones asks “What are ya doing here kid?”
“I figured I’d pick you both up and we could run our errands on campus together. I also brought my Padd to compare schedules to see what classes we have together.”
“I doubt we’ll have any classes together Jim. We may be start up cadets but I’ve already got my specialty taken care of. Wait errands?”
“Right errands” he says ignoring the classes bit, they will have classes together if Jim has anything to say about it. And anyway he’s still got to set it up so he has something with Uhura too, might as well kill all his birds with stones, or stone all his birds? Damn! Get it done in one swoop. “I’m sure you need to get checked in at medical to get yourself on the roster. And since you’ll be on roster you’ll also need to get Jo all set up and registered for day care, specifically registered as a child of medical personnel. All of which will likely be a long a boring process. I’m sure Jo will need some handsome entertainment for the day.”
“You’ve got it all figured out huh kid? Did you even think we might not be here this morning?”
“Um no? You don’t exactly seem particularly outgoing and Jo’s still too small to get able to manipulate you to be more sociable. And anyway it’s not that easy to get a four year old up and ready when you lack supplies and able-bodied help.”
“Know a lot about that would you?” Was the sarcastic supply.
Jim hides his grimace and changes the subject quickly. “Anyway I figured we could get your errands done and grab some lunch. Work out where we’ll need to be, the necessary and boring stuff, but with company.”
Seeming to know when to concede or maybe just realizing he could use the company Bones drops the argument. “Fine we’ll finish eating and head out.” Bones says draining the last of his cup.
Instead of gloating at his win Jim just inclines his head and reaches out to take the cup when Bones sets it down. Standing he walks over and places it in the recycler for processing.
When he sits down again Jo’s stomach gives a gurgle and she laughs.
“My tummy is doing homeostasis!” she says sounding out the word like she’s testing its flavor.
Jim gapes a bit and looks at Bones who shrugs. “She wanted a bedtime story, all I have at the moment are old textbooks on my Padd.”
A look of understanding crosses Jim’s face. “You couldn’t make something up? Repeat one from memory?” He asks amused.
Bones is still unphased. “She wanted something new. Anyway she seemed to enjoy it.”
“It was a hypothesis!” She chirps happy to use another big word
“You remember what a hypothesis is Jo?” Bones asks drolly, like he knows the answer. He’s scrutinizing Jim now, watching his reaction as Joanna answers. Jim’s trying not to stiffen under the hard look.
She nods. “It’s a scientific way of understanding things. You think of an experiment and its outcome and then test it and record the results. Like the story last night. I wanted to hear it.”
Jim laughs. “Did you like it?” He focuses on her sparkling eyes instead of the hard ones of her father.
She shrugs. “It was inner’stin’ but I think I’ll prolly want a regular story tonight.”
“What’s your favorite bedtime story?” Jim asks curious
“I like lots of stories.” she said at the same time Bones replied “Rikki Tikki Tavi”
Jim grinned at Bones knowing that meant it was the one she asked for the most. “So what did you read her?”
“The introduction to my old xenobiology textbook.”
Jim snorts. “That’s definitely not the usual bedtime material.”
Joanna slid off her chair and walked over to her father’s chair to pull on his pant leg. “Done!”
“Alright then,” he said brushing some crumbs off her outfit “go and get your coat and we’ll get going.”
“Kay!” she said scampering off excitedly
Bones grabbed her plate from the table and stood to put it in the receptacle. Pointedly not looking at Jim. “You took the hypothesis bit in stride. Most people freak out when that kind of thing happens with her.”
Jim’s surprised at the statement and the implied question. “Nah, she’s gifted right? Nothing to freak out about. Just means she has a different level of understanding and learning.”
Bones visibly relaxes as if Jim’s passed some sort of test. Joanna runs back into the room jacket in hand. “Ready!”
The three of them head through the living room and towards the front door. As they‘re about to exit Bones pauses.
“Hey kid don’t forget your jacket. You left it here last night.”
Jim smiles and steps outside “Leave it for now. It’s too warm outside to have to lug it around all day.”
Previous Parts: Part 1 | Part 3