Fic: Wanderers Far At Sea, STXI/Buffy/Angel fusion, Kirk/McCoy, R (5/5)
Title: Wanderers Far At Sea
Author: sail_aweigh
Artist: votaku
Mixer: vengefuldemon69
Betas: thistlerose, lindmere
Series: AOS
Characters/Pairings: Kirk/McCoy, Uhura/Spock, Spike/Surprise Guest, Khan, Marla McGivers, Joanna McCoy
Warnings: beheadings and gore, swearing, minor character death
Rating: R for violence and language
Word Count: ~39,000
Summary: STXI/Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel the Series fusion. Jim has kept one part of his life a complete secret from his best friend Bones, but now it appears the bizarre occurrences happening to Joanna McCoy may force him to reveal things to Bones that will either sunder their friendship forever or bring them closer together than either had ever expected. Can Bones trust Jim with Joanna's life, when he's been lied to by his best friend about his very nature?
"Captain!"
Jim welcomed the shout that echoed across the docking bay. They'd been fighting the Scourge for twenty minutes and, while they had made some headway against the mass of demons, it felt like they were pushing the rock of Sisyphus up the hill and were in danger of having it roll back over them soon if they didn't get reinforcements. The sound of his first officer's voice told him that Engineering was once more under the control of his own personnel. With the added forces, they should be able to regain complete control of the starship in a timely manner.
"Jim!"
"Yo! Come on in, Spock, the water's fine!" Jim blocked a bare-fisted overhand blow aimed at his head with his left forearm. It hurt like a son of a bitch, but he gritted his teeth and pushed through the pain. He was able to divert the blow down to his left and deliver a resounding whack on the head to the demon with the pommel of his sword. The stunned demon sagged to the side where one of the Slayers used her own sword to cleave him in two.
Jim spun around as a demon hand clenched around a knife bounced away along the floor just to his right, victim to Bones' increasing competence with the battle axe that he'd picked up in Spike's office. Kicking the hand out of his way, Jim fended off the injured demon's attack with the edge of his sword into the demon's arm. Bones' axe swept low and hacked into the side of one knee, driving the demon to the floor. From there, Jim took its head off with a two-handed swing. As he looked around to assess how much needed to be done, Jim could see that Uhura was still grappling with Falgoreth farther down the hangar deck. A number of the Scourge were helping the Old One by tag-teamimg Illyria, while the Slayer squad was tied up with the bulk of the demon mob.
"Spock, get your ass over here!"
Jim was happy to see a mass of red shirts following behind Spock as he made his way across the floor of the docking bay. He didn't have a weapon, but with his increased Vulcan strength he was able to bodily throw the demons that tried to attack him away from himself and into the path of the convoy. The red shirts following in his wake were using their phasers set on kill. A number of them had knives and short swords strapped to their sides, too. Spock must have filled them in on the nature of the current threat. At the back of the pack was one gold-shirt; he could tell from the shape of the sword, a katana, that it was Sulu come to get in on the action. That was fine by him.
"Jim, Nyota has informed me that the Mutari generator is being wielded by a demon named Khan. He has sequestered himself on the auxiliary Bridge, for what purpose is uncertain since we have regained control of the master computer and all ship functions have been confined to Engineering." Spock grappled with a demon briefly before putting him in an arm-lock and pushing him into the path of two of the security party following him. They quickly dispatched the demon with a phaser stun and a sword through the neck. Jim was satisfied that the melee would soon be brought to an end.
"Let's wrap this up, Spock; rescue your snuggle-puppy over there and get that Mutari generator shut down." Jim swiped the arm of his sleeve across his forehead, sopping up the sweat dripping into his eyes.
Spock straight-armed a demon in the throat, then drove him down with a fist on his shoulder. "Nyota would, I think, object to being referred to as a 'snuggle-puppy', Jim." They both watched as Bones' axe came around and took the head off. Jim saw Spock give the doctor an appreciative nod at his quick and decisive action. Bones had already mentioned in passing that he didn't feel it was much different than chopping up a cord of wood for his parent's cabin, it was all in the follow through.
"But you don't object, Spock? Not going to come to your girlfriend's defense?" Jim took in his first's posture, it was relaxed, but vigilant--not pissed off.
"I think we can both agree she is more than capable of defending herself, in any guise." Spock looked over to where his bondmate was attempting to hold Falgoreth pinned to the deck with her lower tentacle cluster. The demon had morphed from its shell of Marla McGivers into something resembling a great snake. Unfortunately, Illyria was being stymied by a number of demons who would attack multiple tentacles at once making it hard for her to gain the advantage.
A quick glance around informed Jim that they had less than a handful of demons left in their part of the hangar bay. The security party could finish this up. He'd leave one Slayer with the red shirts. They needed to subdue Falgoreth before it grew as strong as Illyria. As of yet, it was about half the size of Illyria but it had incredible crushing power in its coils. It couldn't do any major damage to Illyria, but it was large enough to get a human in its coils and crush it. Jim was unsure what other powers it might manifest, though; they didn't need another demon with the ability to manipulate time and space the way Illyria could have at full strength. Human shells just weren't meant to hold the full power of an ascended Old One. They didn't need both of them going nuclear in the quadrant at the same time; who knew just how much of it they'd take out in their combined destruction? Best to get their hands on the Mutari generator so they could reverse the operation and shunt all that excess power back into the pocket dimension Wesley Wyndham-Price had created to hold it.
"Spock, take the Slayers to help subdue the remaining Scourge that are pestering Illyria. Stay out of the way of Falgoreth, though; we don't want to lose anyone to that thing. I'm going to find Khan and secure the Mutari generator. Bones, stay with Spock and the Slayers, they can watch your back." Jim didn't stop to see if his orders were followed, he reached inside and shifted.
As soon as Jim materialized on the auxiliary Bridge, he realized he was going to have problems; there was more than just the Scourge demon he expected on the Bridge. Khan had resurrected not just one, but two Old Ones. He wasn't sure who the first one was anymore, because the current one was still being ravaged by the resurrection process and it was obvious that this one was Marla McGivers. She was still alive, for now, her body wracked by shivers, low moans emanating from her chest. Jim knew it was too late, though; once the process started, it couldn't be reversed.
He was even more surprised by feeling another presence at his side; he'd intended to confront Khan alone. A quick glance at the hand on his shoulder and the ring on the little finger confirmed his worst fears--it was Bones. If Jim survived this mission, he was going to kill his friend, hoped for lover.
"Hedging your bets, Khan?" Jim held up a hand and fired off a bolt of fire from the palm of his hand that hit Khan in the chest. He heard Bones whisper a low curse at his side in surprise.
Khan staggered at the blow, but shrugged it off. He pointed to his chest where an incision trisected it, his skin dimpled by the items embedded in his body. "I am her high priest, I bear her gifts. As she gains power, so do I."
"Then we have no choice, do we?" Jim threw another blast, but this time at the figure of Marla McGivers. He was staggered when his arm was pulled off target by Bones, the firebolt going wild to slam into the bulkhead where it left a singe mark.
"What are you doing, Jim? You'll kill her!" Bones shook him by his upper arm where he had grabbed Jim.
"It's too late for her, anyway, Bones; once the process starts, it can't be reversed. Don't you think Spike and Angel would have saved Fred if they could have once they realized what was happening?" Jim wrenched his arm away from Bones, threw both hands up and fired at McGivers again. This time his blasts hit their target, but they bounced off the hardened shell of McGivers' skin; the transformation was too far along.
Khan laughed at them from where he stood holding the Mutari generator. "Our time has come once more, pure demons will rule not just one measly planet. We will rule the galaxy and someday the universe. There will be no stopping us once we have released all the Old Ones from the Deeper Well."
"Not gonna happen on my watch, buddy." Jim knew he had only one chance to do what he could to save them all. If he destroyed the Mutari generator, they would have no way of reversing the effects on Uhura, much less Falgoreth and McGivers. He couldn't leave the newly resurrected Old Ones loose in the galaxy either. There was only one place he could think of to take them where they would be no danger to the rest of the universe. Giving Bones his instructions through a mental link, he ran straight towards Khan while Bones ran over to McGivers. As soon as they were all in physical contact, Jim teleported them back to the hangar bay as close to Illyria and Falgoreth as he could get them.
"Uhura, send us to Vahla ha'nesh, now!" Jim held Khan as immobile as he could with more than just his arms, creating a kind of straight-jacket with his magic. Unfortunately, while his magic could do quite a bit, with everything that was being demanded of him he was running out of internal resources. They had to get the danger out of there to where it could be contained.
"I cannot. The portal between here and there was time-locked by Angel before he destroyed Wolfram and Hart." Illyria finally had Falgoreth bound by her lower tentacle cluster. The demon was still struggling, but it had the combined might of Illyria and all the Slayers holding it down. They just couldn't destroy it because its skin was impervious to their weapons. Spike, Spock, Sulu and the security party stood guard.
"I can open the portal; just get us to it, please." Jim bent over with his hands on his knees, breathing in deep gusts of air trying to maintain his grip on Khan.
"As you wish." This time the wrench to elsewhere was even more disorienting than before. When they materialized, everyone stood in front of a portal with arcane symbols carved around it, the same ones Jim had seen in Jo's drawing of Falgoreth's sarcophagus. Jim straightened long enough to take the poignard out of his boot and slash it across the palm of his left hand. As soon as it started to bleed, he slapped his palm onto the center of the portal. The portal shimmered open around them and they were swallowed into the depths of Illyria's abandoned temple, the dim light inside it throwing only a faint illumination over the shattered remains of her army lining the cavernous walls.
Jim sagged to the dusty floor just on the other side of the portal, his shoulders slumped against the wall behind him. He felt his grip on Khan relax, unable to maintain his control any longer. The danger was only partially contained in this realm. Vahla ha'nesh had been phase-shifted in time, so anything that happened here could have no effect on the universe where it had originated, but the portal was still open. There were two things that had to be done to keep everyone completely safe.
"Get the Mutari generator," he directed Spock. "We need to neutralize the Old Ones. Figure out how to reverse the effect and depower Falgoreth. Maybe we can save McGivers with it, too, despite how far along the transformation is." Spock acknowledge his words, turning away to gather up the security team and Spike to attack Khan from all sides, taking him down and wrenching the Mutari generator out of his hands. Jim watched only long enough to verify that Spock had the device in hand and was studying it intently for clues on how to reverse the alterations done to it.
"Bones, get out your dermal regenerator; the portal won't close until the bleeding stops." Jim held his hand up to Bones, watching as he opened up his medical bag and removed the requested instrument. After kneeling down next to him, Bones ran it over the palm, sealing the cut and leaving a pink line across the center of his hand. Once the cut closed, Jim looked at the portal and watched as the shimmer of air over it flowed away as the wall behind him solidified once more. The portal was closed, for now.
Bones tucked the regenerator away in his kit, but didn't let go of Jim's hand. "You're exhausted, Jim. If you do anymore magic, you're going to drive your body to the point of collapse." He rubbed his thumb gently over the faint mark on Jim's palm, a mark that had been there before this, too.
"That's an acceptable outcome, Bones. I'll take it." Jim gave him a small smile.
"What's unacceptable?"
Jim shook his head. "Nothing, as long as we stop the Apocalypse."
Bones gave him a startled look. "There was an Apocalypse?"
Jim chuckled. "Many. Ask Buffy how many she's stopped in her life. Pretty much at least one a year."
Bones thumb stilled over the mark on Jim's palm. "You've done this before, haven't you?"
Jim clenched Bones hand and tugged him closer, encouraging him to sit. Spock had the Mutari generator, Falgoreth was held pinned by Illyria, and McGivers was still incapacitated by the transformation process; he could relax for a few minutes and take some time to reassure Bones, answer a few of the myriad dammed by his lips.
"What, stopped an Apocalypse? Helped a couple of times," Jim admitted.
"Well, that, too, but I've always wondered where that scar on your palm came from. Was that trying to stop an Apocalypse?" Bones sat down next to him.
He let out a small sigh. "No, that was something more personal. It's from the first time I tried to open a portal with my own blood when I was fourteen."
Bones eyes widened a little at the confession. "When your mother was on Tarsus?"
Jim grimaced. "Yeah. I wasn't successful as you can see."
"Couldn't you have just teleported?" Bones pulled Jim sideways until he was tucked under one arm. Jim relaxed into his side, letting his head drop back onto Bones' shoulder. It was nice to let someone take care of him for a while; it left him feeling remarkably content despite the ongoing danger.
"Teleportation is more or less instantaneous. I tried to open a dimensional portal that would take me back in time. After I got word that mom had been killed by the Scourge." Jim looked down at his other hand where he picked at the seam on the side of his pants.
"I'm sorry, Jim," Bones said gently, his arm pulling him just a little bit closer into his side with the words.
"Yeah, well I found out the hard way just what I was capable of. I'd only recently discovered that I could do magic, really minor stuff, but I was desperate. It left me in a coma for nearly a week. My step-father thought I'd tried to commit suicide." Jim pulled his hand free and waggled it. "Not the standard place to attempt that, but Frank wasn't thinking any clearer than I was. I awoke from my coma nearly thirty pounds lighter, I'd used so much of my own energy stores to try and power the portal along with the blood."
They were interrupted when Spock came up to them holding the Mutari generator. There was a look on his face that Jim wouldn't dare categorize as a smile, but a look that he nevertheless associated with Spock being very satisfied, as with solving a challenging puzzle or beating him at 3D chess.
"The device is ready to be activated in the manner it was originally intended. Reversing the circuitry was simple, however, I could not determine what many of those circuits were intended to do." Spock bent his head, a tacit admission that part of the puzzle had still eluded him.
Jim pulled his legs under him and stood up. He could feel Bones doing the same thing by his side. Jim smiled in gratitude at Bones when he felt a steadying hand on his shoulder. Once vertical, they lined up abreast with Spock and proceeded to where Illyria and the Slayers had Falgoreth pinned to the floor.
"Falgoreth first, to make sure the Mutari generator is working properly." Jim waved a hand at the snake demon writhing on the floor.
Spock lifted one eyebrow at Jim, as close as he came to exhibiting a sneer. "I am 99.87% sure it will operate according to its original specifications, Captain."
"It's that point three percent that could lead to another Apocalypse that I'm worried about, Spock. Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. Let's do it."
With a hum, the machine started up and a beam of light shot out to hit Falgoreth slightly behind the head. They could see a different beam, this one of blue energy, being drawn into the Mutari generator. Falgoreth's struggles grew weaker, until it was apparent that they didn't need the Slayers to help Illyria keep him pinned to the floor. The blue energy finally faded away and the Mutari generator wound to a stop. Where Falgoreth had been there was now a young man, his body covered in what looked like a rubbery green body suit and his skin a sallow yellow. He looked up at them from orange eyes with vertical slits for pupils. Illyria picked him up with one tentacle and shook him.
"Hey, Uhura, knock it off. He's mostly harmless, now." Jim gestured at Illyria to place the demoted demon back on the ground.
"I would teach this usurper that his machinations are for nought. He is lower than you that were the muck at our feet." Illyria gave him another vigorous shake, disregarding Jim's command.
"Lt. Uhura, put him down. Now." Jim bellowed the command sternly, counting on her ingrained response to his authority and her human name to bring her back to a sense of self.
Illyria straightened her carapace, bobbed her head and rapped out her acquiescence, "Aye-aye, sir." The tentacle holding Falgoreth lowered him to the floor, dropping him the last few feet. Not so compliant after all, but it fulfilled the letter of the law, so Jim wasn't going to bitch.
"You two, Padmi and Gabrielle? Secure him." The two Slayers took out a pair of manacles each from their utility belts, binding his wrists and ankles together.
"What are you going to do with him, Jim?" Bones looked at the creature, his brows pulled down in thought.
Jim ran his hand through his hair. "Can't take him back to our dimension as long as the Mutari generator is functional; the wrong person or demon gets their hands on it again, we're back to square one and Apocalypseville. Before we make a decision, let's see if we can reverse the transformation process on McGivers."
The three men walked over to where the Slayer was lying on the floor, curled up in a fetal position, wracked with shivers. Bones pulled the tricorder out of his medkit and ran it over her body.
"This says she's got a parasitic infection. If we can find what will purge the parasite, we may be able to reverse it." Bones looked at the analysis again and his eyebrows flew up in surprise. "Wait. The parasite is dying, we may not have to do anything to cure her, she may cure herself."
"How?" Jim asked.
"Our demon," Buffy said softly from behind him.
"You're not a demon, Aunt B." Jim's protest was instinctive. Slayers were the most powerful source for good he knew.
"Close enough. The Shadow Men chained the First Slayer to the Earth and forced the essence of a demon into her; bound it mystically so when one Slayer died, another arose to take her place. Marla's demon essence is fighting the essence of the Old One." Buffy hugged her arms tightly around herself, her face drawn in anguish.
Bones placed a hand on her shoulder in consolation. "That's barbaric. Isn't there any way the process can be reversed, so young women don't have to be Slayers?"
Buffy shook her head. "I nearly destroyed us all when I shared the power in order to take down the First Evil. It boomeranged back on me, superpowering me, and I ended up destroying the Seed of Wonder trying to fix it."
"What happened when you did that Aunt B?" Jim hadn't heard this part of her story before.
Buffy looked off in the distance. "It created a new dimension, sucked all the magic out of our world and left us unable to defend ourselves against demons and pure evil."
"But we do have magic, I use it all the time," Jim protested. He threw a few sparks out of his fingertips that sputtered weakly and faded out before they hit the ground. "Well, most of the time."
"I got it back." Buffy blushed a little.
Jim looked at her a little puzzled, then smirked at the red flush across her cheekbones. "Like Austin Powers, you just needed to get your mojo back, huh?"
"Jim, you're really cute, but I don't talk about my sex life with my nephew, okay?" Buffy tossed her head, kicking at the blade of her scythe where it rested against the floor.
"You bragging about the time you shagged tall, dark and forehead in outer space, again, pet?" Spike drew up behind Buffy and draped one arm over her shoulders.
Buffy clapped a hand against her face, covering her eyes. "Tell me again why I agree to have anything to do with you, William?"
"Bugger, she's using the proper first name, better mind my Ps and Qs like a proper Victorian gentleman, gents." Spike winked at them, his hand tugging at the pair of handcuffs he had buckled to a belt loop of his pants.
Jim hid his laugh behind his hand, turning it into a cough. Bones slapped him on the back, his mouth quirking up in a grin. "Gonna live there, kid?"
"Yeah, yeah, as long as you don't pound the breath out of me, Bones." Jim flapped a hand at him, waving him away. He thought he heard Bones mutter something under his breath about doing that later and he felt his ears pink a little. Not something he wanted his great-aunt knowing, either.
"Jim, we must decide on the disposition of the Old One, Falgoreth, and Khan. We cannot, in good conscience, leave them here," Spock interrupted. "This realm is barren. If we do not, or cannot, destroy them, we must contain them somehow."
Jim turned to face Spock. "You're right, Spock. We can take McGivers and Illyria back to the Enterprise, but the other two need to be put where they can't do any damage." He rubbed his chin in thought for a moment.
"Spike, the closest solar system to DS6 is Ceti Alpha, correct?"
Spike tipped his head back, considering the location. "Might do. Ceti Alpha V is uninhabited and is habitable. Could set them there and they can have their very own little realm to muck about in. Make minions of the wildlife if they have the hankering."
Jim clapped his hands together. "Good. Let's get everyone back to the ship, stash the bad demons in the brig for now, while we depower Illyria and make sure that McGivers is really on the road to discovery." With that decided, he strode back over to the portal. He was just taking his knife out of his boot when he felt something rush him from behind. Fangs sank into his neck and a burning pain immediately radiated up his neck exploding into his brain. The last thing he saw was Buffy's scythe slicing past his cheek and a gout of yellow gore before everything faded to black.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2264.50
Dear Dad,
God, I am so stupid! How can you want me for a daughter? It was all there in front of me, even in my dreams! It shouldn't have taken Mr. Wells telling me about it for me to understand. And he didn't so much tell me as shove a stake in my hand and then push me at the grave. It was so horrible! Why does it have to me? Why do I have to be this Slayer girl that Mr. Wells keeps yammering on about?
Have you ever heard of the Slayer, Dad? I sure as hell hope not, because if you did and never told me I will never forgive you. Never!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When Jim woke, his head ached like he'd been on a three-day bender with a case of Romulan ale chased by a case of Saurian brandy. The beeps of the biobed, even as soft and unobtrusive as they were supposed to be, stabbed at his ears. He could sense the overhead lights were on from the translucence of his eyelids. There was no way he was opening his eyes until those lights were off. He opened his mouth to speak, but was forestalled when a straw was stuffed between his lips.
"Drink." Bones voice was gruff, like he could use the water as much as Jim could right then. He didn't hesitate, though, and started sucking on the water as fast as he could.
"Whoa, slow down, tiger; you'll choke." Bones pulled the straw back, forcing Jim to swallow what was in his mouth and left him gaping a little like a fish out of his element. He cleared his throat.
"More?" His tongue darted out to wet his lips; he could feel how dry and chapped they were.
"Only if you promise not to try and drown yourself while drinking it." The straw came back and Jim sucked slowly this time, cherishing the liquid as it hydrated the parched membranes of his mouth and throat.
"You're so dry because we had you on a ventilator for the past week." Jim could hear Bones pulling a chair into position by his biobed. He took a couple more slow sips and let the straw drop from his mouth.
"Lights? Off?" The query came out raspy, but understandable.
"Sure, kid." Buttons were pressed and Jim could sense the room around him dim through his eyelids. Jim took his chances and opened his eyes a little. The view was a little smudged, probably a build up of mucous from his eyes being closed so long. He reached up to rub at them, only to have them brushed away. Instead, a damp cloth was applied to the lids and the corners. He gave a sigh of pleasure; the moisture felt good there, too. When he finally opened his eyes all the way, he could see Bones sitting in the chair by his bed. Bones looked as bad as Jim felt, he was sure; bags you could pack for a week trip to Risa sagged under his eyes, his stubble was nearly at the ready for deer hunting season stage where it no longer itched, and his hair had that shine of oil that said it hadn't been washed in at least three days.
"How bad was it?" Jim wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer. If this latest disaster had scared Bones off permanently, it didn't really matter one way or the other.
Bones sighed. "Your heart stopped once before we got to the Presidio, another two times once we got you into medical at Starfleet. Then it was just a matter of countering the toxin Falgoreth pumped into you as fast as we could before it ate too much tissue away and destroyed your brain and nervous system."
"As long as I can still occasionally beat Spock at 3D chess, I don't care." Jim knew it was a feeble joke, but he figured alive was all that really mattered after that litany of death he'd managed to cheat.
"Shouldn't be a problem. Although, if it meant you'd lost some of those corny lines you picked up off of Spike, I don't think I would have minded." Jim was amazed; Bones was joking about it instead of berating him for putting himself into danger.
"Okay, who are you and what have you done with my boyfriend?" Jim reached out to poke at Bones chest. Maybe he was hallucinating.
"Are we?" Bones wrapped his hand around Jim's, stilling his nervous fingers.
"Well, yeah?" Jim gave him a hopeful look.
"You were pretty pissed at me, you passive-aggressive little shit." Bones' mouth turned down at the corners, but he didn't let go of Jim's hand.
Jim closed his eyes for a second, then opened them and looked Bones straight in the eye. "Yes, I was. I felt like you didn't trust me after all the years we've known each other. It was hard earning this crew's trust when I was so young when they gave me command. I always felt you were the one person I could count on to believe in me. But you wouldn't trust Jo with me, Bones. That hurt, but I think I got it straight in my head, now. I could have had a little more patience. After all, you followed me into what might well have been Hell, even when I tried to leave you behind."
"I do trust you, Jim. In fact, I've got something to show you." Bones mouth turned up in pleasure. "Hold on a second, I'll be right back." He stood up and placed Jim's hand back on top of the blankets, but not before he squeezed it gently.
"Wait! What about the Enterprise? Is Uhura back to normal? And McGivers?" Jim propped himself up on his elbows, where he wobbled for a couple of seconds before he collapsed back on the bed. He couldn't believe he'd nearly forgotten about them. All he'd cared about was that the world was still here and he still had Bones by his side. He hadn't allowed himself to feel like that for years. Jim thought his heart might have grown three sizes since he woke up.
Bones patted his hand. "They're all safe. Uhura is normal size, although still a little on the acerbic side. She played hide and seek with Spock for a little while before she let him do an "Honey, I shrunk the wife" schtick on her. McGivers woke up a couple days before you, and is in the custody of the Coven while they make a determination on how to handle her case. She's still waffling on whether she intended to get herself hijacked by an Old One or if it was pure accident. Bit of a nutter, as Spike would say."
"Good, that's good." Jim breathed out a sigh of relief.
"Now, let's get that surprise out of the way before you exhaust yourself remembering a million other petty details that just don't matter right now." Bones finally turned and left the room for the outer waiting room of the suite.
Jim wasn't sure what it was that Bones could have to show him, but he waited obediently for him to return. It couldn't have been more than a minute before Bones reappeared in the doorway.
"I have someone who wants to say 'hi.' You up for it?"
"Don't know. But I'm not ready to go back to sleep yet, so bring them in." Jim fumbled for the bed controls, getting the head of the bed raised just a little before he was engulfed in skinny arms that practically got a strangle hold on him.
"Hey, Jo-bug. I didn't know you were going to be here. Heck, I didn't know I was going to be here." Jim patted her on the back, smiling to the air since she had her face buried in his neck. He could feel her giving little hiccuping sobs.
"What's wrong? Why are you crying?" Jim raised his eyebrows at Bones in query. He got a shrug and a hand waggle in return.
"I almost killed you, Uncle Jim." The words came out in between little hitches of breath.
"How do you figure that?" Jim was startled at the thought that Jo might consider herself in any way responsible for anything that had happened in the past two months.
"I wrote you about my dreams. If I hadn't sent that letter with the funny words, this never would have happened to you." Jo pulled back and wiped her sleeve across her eyes, smudging her mascara. Shit, she was wearing mascara. Jim didn't think he was ready for that, yet.
Jim reached up to touch her cheek. "Sweetheart, those letters helped save the universe. Don't you ever regret sending them."
"But--"
Jim shushed her off with a finger to her lips. "You will learn as a Slayer that the mission is what matters. Whatever you do that means the planet, the galaxy, the universe is here to survive for another day is the most important thing you can do and it is."
Bones and Jo looked at him a little doubtfully. Jim looked at Jo with encouragement.
"What's the most important thing in the world to you, Bug-a-bear?"
Jo instinctively turned her face toward her father. "Daddy is. Then Mom, and you, Uncle Jim."
"Exactly. Your family is the world. Your mission is saving the world, your world, your family."
Jo nodded seriously at his words. "I can do that. I want to do that. Even if it scares Dad."
"Welcome to the Scooby Gang." Jim pulled Jo into a big hug and smiled at Bones over her head. They had lots of time to explore the strange new world that would be their relationship. It could wait the few moments it took him to reassure a newly fledged Slayer that she would always be a part of their family, even if other duties made her feel isolated they would always be there for her. Always.
Author: sail_aweigh
Artist: votaku
Mixer: vengefuldemon69
Betas: thistlerose, lindmere
Series: AOS
Characters/Pairings: Kirk/McCoy, Uhura/Spock, Spike/Surprise Guest, Khan, Marla McGivers, Joanna McCoy
Warnings: beheadings and gore, swearing, minor character death
Rating: R for violence and language
Word Count: ~39,000
Summary: STXI/Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel the Series fusion. Jim has kept one part of his life a complete secret from his best friend Bones, but now it appears the bizarre occurrences happening to Joanna McCoy may force him to reveal things to Bones that will either sunder their friendship forever or bring them closer together than either had ever expected. Can Bones trust Jim with Joanna's life, when he's been lied to by his best friend about his very nature?
"Captain!"
Jim welcomed the shout that echoed across the docking bay. They'd been fighting the Scourge for twenty minutes and, while they had made some headway against the mass of demons, it felt like they were pushing the rock of Sisyphus up the hill and were in danger of having it roll back over them soon if they didn't get reinforcements. The sound of his first officer's voice told him that Engineering was once more under the control of his own personnel. With the added forces, they should be able to regain complete control of the starship in a timely manner.
"Jim!"
"Yo! Come on in, Spock, the water's fine!" Jim blocked a bare-fisted overhand blow aimed at his head with his left forearm. It hurt like a son of a bitch, but he gritted his teeth and pushed through the pain. He was able to divert the blow down to his left and deliver a resounding whack on the head to the demon with the pommel of his sword. The stunned demon sagged to the side where one of the Slayers used her own sword to cleave him in two.
Jim spun around as a demon hand clenched around a knife bounced away along the floor just to his right, victim to Bones' increasing competence with the battle axe that he'd picked up in Spike's office. Kicking the hand out of his way, Jim fended off the injured demon's attack with the edge of his sword into the demon's arm. Bones' axe swept low and hacked into the side of one knee, driving the demon to the floor. From there, Jim took its head off with a two-handed swing. As he looked around to assess how much needed to be done, Jim could see that Uhura was still grappling with Falgoreth farther down the hangar deck. A number of the Scourge were helping the Old One by tag-teamimg Illyria, while the Slayer squad was tied up with the bulk of the demon mob.
"Spock, get your ass over here!"
Jim was happy to see a mass of red shirts following behind Spock as he made his way across the floor of the docking bay. He didn't have a weapon, but with his increased Vulcan strength he was able to bodily throw the demons that tried to attack him away from himself and into the path of the convoy. The red shirts following in his wake were using their phasers set on kill. A number of them had knives and short swords strapped to their sides, too. Spock must have filled them in on the nature of the current threat. At the back of the pack was one gold-shirt; he could tell from the shape of the sword, a katana, that it was Sulu come to get in on the action. That was fine by him.
"Jim, Nyota has informed me that the Mutari generator is being wielded by a demon named Khan. He has sequestered himself on the auxiliary Bridge, for what purpose is uncertain since we have regained control of the master computer and all ship functions have been confined to Engineering." Spock grappled with a demon briefly before putting him in an arm-lock and pushing him into the path of two of the security party following him. They quickly dispatched the demon with a phaser stun and a sword through the neck. Jim was satisfied that the melee would soon be brought to an end.
"Let's wrap this up, Spock; rescue your snuggle-puppy over there and get that Mutari generator shut down." Jim swiped the arm of his sleeve across his forehead, sopping up the sweat dripping into his eyes.
Spock straight-armed a demon in the throat, then drove him down with a fist on his shoulder. "Nyota would, I think, object to being referred to as a 'snuggle-puppy', Jim." They both watched as Bones' axe came around and took the head off. Jim saw Spock give the doctor an appreciative nod at his quick and decisive action. Bones had already mentioned in passing that he didn't feel it was much different than chopping up a cord of wood for his parent's cabin, it was all in the follow through.
"But you don't object, Spock? Not going to come to your girlfriend's defense?" Jim took in his first's posture, it was relaxed, but vigilant--not pissed off.
"I think we can both agree she is more than capable of defending herself, in any guise." Spock looked over to where his bondmate was attempting to hold Falgoreth pinned to the deck with her lower tentacle cluster. The demon had morphed from its shell of Marla McGivers into something resembling a great snake. Unfortunately, Illyria was being stymied by a number of demons who would attack multiple tentacles at once making it hard for her to gain the advantage.
A quick glance around informed Jim that they had less than a handful of demons left in their part of the hangar bay. The security party could finish this up. He'd leave one Slayer with the red shirts. They needed to subdue Falgoreth before it grew as strong as Illyria. As of yet, it was about half the size of Illyria but it had incredible crushing power in its coils. It couldn't do any major damage to Illyria, but it was large enough to get a human in its coils and crush it. Jim was unsure what other powers it might manifest, though; they didn't need another demon with the ability to manipulate time and space the way Illyria could have at full strength. Human shells just weren't meant to hold the full power of an ascended Old One. They didn't need both of them going nuclear in the quadrant at the same time; who knew just how much of it they'd take out in their combined destruction? Best to get their hands on the Mutari generator so they could reverse the operation and shunt all that excess power back into the pocket dimension Wesley Wyndham-Price had created to hold it.
"Spock, take the Slayers to help subdue the remaining Scourge that are pestering Illyria. Stay out of the way of Falgoreth, though; we don't want to lose anyone to that thing. I'm going to find Khan and secure the Mutari generator. Bones, stay with Spock and the Slayers, they can watch your back." Jim didn't stop to see if his orders were followed, he reached inside and shifted.
As soon as Jim materialized on the auxiliary Bridge, he realized he was going to have problems; there was more than just the Scourge demon he expected on the Bridge. Khan had resurrected not just one, but two Old Ones. He wasn't sure who the first one was anymore, because the current one was still being ravaged by the resurrection process and it was obvious that this one was Marla McGivers. She was still alive, for now, her body wracked by shivers, low moans emanating from her chest. Jim knew it was too late, though; once the process started, it couldn't be reversed.
He was even more surprised by feeling another presence at his side; he'd intended to confront Khan alone. A quick glance at the hand on his shoulder and the ring on the little finger confirmed his worst fears--it was Bones. If Jim survived this mission, he was going to kill his friend, hoped for lover.
"Hedging your bets, Khan?" Jim held up a hand and fired off a bolt of fire from the palm of his hand that hit Khan in the chest. He heard Bones whisper a low curse at his side in surprise.
Khan staggered at the blow, but shrugged it off. He pointed to his chest where an incision trisected it, his skin dimpled by the items embedded in his body. "I am her high priest, I bear her gifts. As she gains power, so do I."
"Then we have no choice, do we?" Jim threw another blast, but this time at the figure of Marla McGivers. He was staggered when his arm was pulled off target by Bones, the firebolt going wild to slam into the bulkhead where it left a singe mark.
"What are you doing, Jim? You'll kill her!" Bones shook him by his upper arm where he had grabbed Jim.
"It's too late for her, anyway, Bones; once the process starts, it can't be reversed. Don't you think Spike and Angel would have saved Fred if they could have once they realized what was happening?" Jim wrenched his arm away from Bones, threw both hands up and fired at McGivers again. This time his blasts hit their target, but they bounced off the hardened shell of McGivers' skin; the transformation was too far along.
Khan laughed at them from where he stood holding the Mutari generator. "Our time has come once more, pure demons will rule not just one measly planet. We will rule the galaxy and someday the universe. There will be no stopping us once we have released all the Old Ones from the Deeper Well."
"Not gonna happen on my watch, buddy." Jim knew he had only one chance to do what he could to save them all. If he destroyed the Mutari generator, they would have no way of reversing the effects on Uhura, much less Falgoreth and McGivers. He couldn't leave the newly resurrected Old Ones loose in the galaxy either. There was only one place he could think of to take them where they would be no danger to the rest of the universe. Giving Bones his instructions through a mental link, he ran straight towards Khan while Bones ran over to McGivers. As soon as they were all in physical contact, Jim teleported them back to the hangar bay as close to Illyria and Falgoreth as he could get them.
"Uhura, send us to Vahla ha'nesh, now!" Jim held Khan as immobile as he could with more than just his arms, creating a kind of straight-jacket with his magic. Unfortunately, while his magic could do quite a bit, with everything that was being demanded of him he was running out of internal resources. They had to get the danger out of there to where it could be contained.
"I cannot. The portal between here and there was time-locked by Angel before he destroyed Wolfram and Hart." Illyria finally had Falgoreth bound by her lower tentacle cluster. The demon was still struggling, but it had the combined might of Illyria and all the Slayers holding it down. They just couldn't destroy it because its skin was impervious to their weapons. Spike, Spock, Sulu and the security party stood guard.
"I can open the portal; just get us to it, please." Jim bent over with his hands on his knees, breathing in deep gusts of air trying to maintain his grip on Khan.
"As you wish." This time the wrench to elsewhere was even more disorienting than before. When they materialized, everyone stood in front of a portal with arcane symbols carved around it, the same ones Jim had seen in Jo's drawing of Falgoreth's sarcophagus. Jim straightened long enough to take the poignard out of his boot and slash it across the palm of his left hand. As soon as it started to bleed, he slapped his palm onto the center of the portal. The portal shimmered open around them and they were swallowed into the depths of Illyria's abandoned temple, the dim light inside it throwing only a faint illumination over the shattered remains of her army lining the cavernous walls.
Jim sagged to the dusty floor just on the other side of the portal, his shoulders slumped against the wall behind him. He felt his grip on Khan relax, unable to maintain his control any longer. The danger was only partially contained in this realm. Vahla ha'nesh had been phase-shifted in time, so anything that happened here could have no effect on the universe where it had originated, but the portal was still open. There were two things that had to be done to keep everyone completely safe.
"Get the Mutari generator," he directed Spock. "We need to neutralize the Old Ones. Figure out how to reverse the effect and depower Falgoreth. Maybe we can save McGivers with it, too, despite how far along the transformation is." Spock acknowledge his words, turning away to gather up the security team and Spike to attack Khan from all sides, taking him down and wrenching the Mutari generator out of his hands. Jim watched only long enough to verify that Spock had the device in hand and was studying it intently for clues on how to reverse the alterations done to it.
"Bones, get out your dermal regenerator; the portal won't close until the bleeding stops." Jim held his hand up to Bones, watching as he opened up his medical bag and removed the requested instrument. After kneeling down next to him, Bones ran it over the palm, sealing the cut and leaving a pink line across the center of his hand. Once the cut closed, Jim looked at the portal and watched as the shimmer of air over it flowed away as the wall behind him solidified once more. The portal was closed, for now.
Bones tucked the regenerator away in his kit, but didn't let go of Jim's hand. "You're exhausted, Jim. If you do anymore magic, you're going to drive your body to the point of collapse." He rubbed his thumb gently over the faint mark on Jim's palm, a mark that had been there before this, too.
"That's an acceptable outcome, Bones. I'll take it." Jim gave him a small smile.
"What's unacceptable?"
Jim shook his head. "Nothing, as long as we stop the Apocalypse."
Bones gave him a startled look. "There was an Apocalypse?"
Jim chuckled. "Many. Ask Buffy how many she's stopped in her life. Pretty much at least one a year."
Bones thumb stilled over the mark on Jim's palm. "You've done this before, haven't you?"
Jim clenched Bones hand and tugged him closer, encouraging him to sit. Spock had the Mutari generator, Falgoreth was held pinned by Illyria, and McGivers was still incapacitated by the transformation process; he could relax for a few minutes and take some time to reassure Bones, answer a few of the myriad dammed by his lips.
"What, stopped an Apocalypse? Helped a couple of times," Jim admitted.
"Well, that, too, but I've always wondered where that scar on your palm came from. Was that trying to stop an Apocalypse?" Bones sat down next to him.
He let out a small sigh. "No, that was something more personal. It's from the first time I tried to open a portal with my own blood when I was fourteen."
Bones eyes widened a little at the confession. "When your mother was on Tarsus?"
Jim grimaced. "Yeah. I wasn't successful as you can see."
"Couldn't you have just teleported?" Bones pulled Jim sideways until he was tucked under one arm. Jim relaxed into his side, letting his head drop back onto Bones' shoulder. It was nice to let someone take care of him for a while; it left him feeling remarkably content despite the ongoing danger.
"Teleportation is more or less instantaneous. I tried to open a dimensional portal that would take me back in time. After I got word that mom had been killed by the Scourge." Jim looked down at his other hand where he picked at the seam on the side of his pants.
"I'm sorry, Jim," Bones said gently, his arm pulling him just a little bit closer into his side with the words.
"Yeah, well I found out the hard way just what I was capable of. I'd only recently discovered that I could do magic, really minor stuff, but I was desperate. It left me in a coma for nearly a week. My step-father thought I'd tried to commit suicide." Jim pulled his hand free and waggled it. "Not the standard place to attempt that, but Frank wasn't thinking any clearer than I was. I awoke from my coma nearly thirty pounds lighter, I'd used so much of my own energy stores to try and power the portal along with the blood."
They were interrupted when Spock came up to them holding the Mutari generator. There was a look on his face that Jim wouldn't dare categorize as a smile, but a look that he nevertheless associated with Spock being very satisfied, as with solving a challenging puzzle or beating him at 3D chess.
"The device is ready to be activated in the manner it was originally intended. Reversing the circuitry was simple, however, I could not determine what many of those circuits were intended to do." Spock bent his head, a tacit admission that part of the puzzle had still eluded him.
Jim pulled his legs under him and stood up. He could feel Bones doing the same thing by his side. Jim smiled in gratitude at Bones when he felt a steadying hand on his shoulder. Once vertical, they lined up abreast with Spock and proceeded to where Illyria and the Slayers had Falgoreth pinned to the floor.
"Falgoreth first, to make sure the Mutari generator is working properly." Jim waved a hand at the snake demon writhing on the floor.
Spock lifted one eyebrow at Jim, as close as he came to exhibiting a sneer. "I am 99.87% sure it will operate according to its original specifications, Captain."
"It's that point three percent that could lead to another Apocalypse that I'm worried about, Spock. Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. Let's do it."
With a hum, the machine started up and a beam of light shot out to hit Falgoreth slightly behind the head. They could see a different beam, this one of blue energy, being drawn into the Mutari generator. Falgoreth's struggles grew weaker, until it was apparent that they didn't need the Slayers to help Illyria keep him pinned to the floor. The blue energy finally faded away and the Mutari generator wound to a stop. Where Falgoreth had been there was now a young man, his body covered in what looked like a rubbery green body suit and his skin a sallow yellow. He looked up at them from orange eyes with vertical slits for pupils. Illyria picked him up with one tentacle and shook him.
"Hey, Uhura, knock it off. He's mostly harmless, now." Jim gestured at Illyria to place the demoted demon back on the ground.
"I would teach this usurper that his machinations are for nought. He is lower than you that were the muck at our feet." Illyria gave him another vigorous shake, disregarding Jim's command.
"Lt. Uhura, put him down. Now." Jim bellowed the command sternly, counting on her ingrained response to his authority and her human name to bring her back to a sense of self.
Illyria straightened her carapace, bobbed her head and rapped out her acquiescence, "Aye-aye, sir." The tentacle holding Falgoreth lowered him to the floor, dropping him the last few feet. Not so compliant after all, but it fulfilled the letter of the law, so Jim wasn't going to bitch.
"You two, Padmi and Gabrielle? Secure him." The two Slayers took out a pair of manacles each from their utility belts, binding his wrists and ankles together.
"What are you going to do with him, Jim?" Bones looked at the creature, his brows pulled down in thought.
Jim ran his hand through his hair. "Can't take him back to our dimension as long as the Mutari generator is functional; the wrong person or demon gets their hands on it again, we're back to square one and Apocalypseville. Before we make a decision, let's see if we can reverse the transformation process on McGivers."
The three men walked over to where the Slayer was lying on the floor, curled up in a fetal position, wracked with shivers. Bones pulled the tricorder out of his medkit and ran it over her body.
"This says she's got a parasitic infection. If we can find what will purge the parasite, we may be able to reverse it." Bones looked at the analysis again and his eyebrows flew up in surprise. "Wait. The parasite is dying, we may not have to do anything to cure her, she may cure herself."
"How?" Jim asked.
"Our demon," Buffy said softly from behind him.
"You're not a demon, Aunt B." Jim's protest was instinctive. Slayers were the most powerful source for good he knew.
"Close enough. The Shadow Men chained the First Slayer to the Earth and forced the essence of a demon into her; bound it mystically so when one Slayer died, another arose to take her place. Marla's demon essence is fighting the essence of the Old One." Buffy hugged her arms tightly around herself, her face drawn in anguish.
Bones placed a hand on her shoulder in consolation. "That's barbaric. Isn't there any way the process can be reversed, so young women don't have to be Slayers?"
Buffy shook her head. "I nearly destroyed us all when I shared the power in order to take down the First Evil. It boomeranged back on me, superpowering me, and I ended up destroying the Seed of Wonder trying to fix it."
"What happened when you did that Aunt B?" Jim hadn't heard this part of her story before.
Buffy looked off in the distance. "It created a new dimension, sucked all the magic out of our world and left us unable to defend ourselves against demons and pure evil."
"But we do have magic, I use it all the time," Jim protested. He threw a few sparks out of his fingertips that sputtered weakly and faded out before they hit the ground. "Well, most of the time."
"I got it back." Buffy blushed a little.
Jim looked at her a little puzzled, then smirked at the red flush across her cheekbones. "Like Austin Powers, you just needed to get your mojo back, huh?"
"Jim, you're really cute, but I don't talk about my sex life with my nephew, okay?" Buffy tossed her head, kicking at the blade of her scythe where it rested against the floor.
"You bragging about the time you shagged tall, dark and forehead in outer space, again, pet?" Spike drew up behind Buffy and draped one arm over her shoulders.
Buffy clapped a hand against her face, covering her eyes. "Tell me again why I agree to have anything to do with you, William?"
"Bugger, she's using the proper first name, better mind my Ps and Qs like a proper Victorian gentleman, gents." Spike winked at them, his hand tugging at the pair of handcuffs he had buckled to a belt loop of his pants.
Jim hid his laugh behind his hand, turning it into a cough. Bones slapped him on the back, his mouth quirking up in a grin. "Gonna live there, kid?"
"Yeah, yeah, as long as you don't pound the breath out of me, Bones." Jim flapped a hand at him, waving him away. He thought he heard Bones mutter something under his breath about doing that later and he felt his ears pink a little. Not something he wanted his great-aunt knowing, either.
"Jim, we must decide on the disposition of the Old One, Falgoreth, and Khan. We cannot, in good conscience, leave them here," Spock interrupted. "This realm is barren. If we do not, or cannot, destroy them, we must contain them somehow."
Jim turned to face Spock. "You're right, Spock. We can take McGivers and Illyria back to the Enterprise, but the other two need to be put where they can't do any damage." He rubbed his chin in thought for a moment.
"Spike, the closest solar system to DS6 is Ceti Alpha, correct?"
Spike tipped his head back, considering the location. "Might do. Ceti Alpha V is uninhabited and is habitable. Could set them there and they can have their very own little realm to muck about in. Make minions of the wildlife if they have the hankering."
Jim clapped his hands together. "Good. Let's get everyone back to the ship, stash the bad demons in the brig for now, while we depower Illyria and make sure that McGivers is really on the road to discovery." With that decided, he strode back over to the portal. He was just taking his knife out of his boot when he felt something rush him from behind. Fangs sank into his neck and a burning pain immediately radiated up his neck exploding into his brain. The last thing he saw was Buffy's scythe slicing past his cheek and a gout of yellow gore before everything faded to black.
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2264.50
Dear Dad,
God, I am so stupid! How can you want me for a daughter? It was all there in front of me, even in my dreams! It shouldn't have taken Mr. Wells telling me about it for me to understand. And he didn't so much tell me as shove a stake in my hand and then push me at the grave. It was so horrible! Why does it have to me? Why do I have to be this Slayer girl that Mr. Wells keeps yammering on about?
Have you ever heard of the Slayer, Dad? I sure as hell hope not, because if you did and never told me I will never forgive you. Never!
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When Jim woke, his head ached like he'd been on a three-day bender with a case of Romulan ale chased by a case of Saurian brandy. The beeps of the biobed, even as soft and unobtrusive as they were supposed to be, stabbed at his ears. He could sense the overhead lights were on from the translucence of his eyelids. There was no way he was opening his eyes until those lights were off. He opened his mouth to speak, but was forestalled when a straw was stuffed between his lips.
"Drink." Bones voice was gruff, like he could use the water as much as Jim could right then. He didn't hesitate, though, and started sucking on the water as fast as he could.
"Whoa, slow down, tiger; you'll choke." Bones pulled the straw back, forcing Jim to swallow what was in his mouth and left him gaping a little like a fish out of his element. He cleared his throat.
"More?" His tongue darted out to wet his lips; he could feel how dry and chapped they were.
"Only if you promise not to try and drown yourself while drinking it." The straw came back and Jim sucked slowly this time, cherishing the liquid as it hydrated the parched membranes of his mouth and throat.
"You're so dry because we had you on a ventilator for the past week." Jim could hear Bones pulling a chair into position by his biobed. He took a couple more slow sips and let the straw drop from his mouth.
"Lights? Off?" The query came out raspy, but understandable.
"Sure, kid." Buttons were pressed and Jim could sense the room around him dim through his eyelids. Jim took his chances and opened his eyes a little. The view was a little smudged, probably a build up of mucous from his eyes being closed so long. He reached up to rub at them, only to have them brushed away. Instead, a damp cloth was applied to the lids and the corners. He gave a sigh of pleasure; the moisture felt good there, too. When he finally opened his eyes all the way, he could see Bones sitting in the chair by his bed. Bones looked as bad as Jim felt, he was sure; bags you could pack for a week trip to Risa sagged under his eyes, his stubble was nearly at the ready for deer hunting season stage where it no longer itched, and his hair had that shine of oil that said it hadn't been washed in at least three days.
"How bad was it?" Jim wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer. If this latest disaster had scared Bones off permanently, it didn't really matter one way or the other.
Bones sighed. "Your heart stopped once before we got to the Presidio, another two times once we got you into medical at Starfleet. Then it was just a matter of countering the toxin Falgoreth pumped into you as fast as we could before it ate too much tissue away and destroyed your brain and nervous system."
"As long as I can still occasionally beat Spock at 3D chess, I don't care." Jim knew it was a feeble joke, but he figured alive was all that really mattered after that litany of death he'd managed to cheat.
"Shouldn't be a problem. Although, if it meant you'd lost some of those corny lines you picked up off of Spike, I don't think I would have minded." Jim was amazed; Bones was joking about it instead of berating him for putting himself into danger.
"Okay, who are you and what have you done with my boyfriend?" Jim reached out to poke at Bones chest. Maybe he was hallucinating.
"Are we?" Bones wrapped his hand around Jim's, stilling his nervous fingers.
"Well, yeah?" Jim gave him a hopeful look.
"You were pretty pissed at me, you passive-aggressive little shit." Bones' mouth turned down at the corners, but he didn't let go of Jim's hand.
Jim closed his eyes for a second, then opened them and looked Bones straight in the eye. "Yes, I was. I felt like you didn't trust me after all the years we've known each other. It was hard earning this crew's trust when I was so young when they gave me command. I always felt you were the one person I could count on to believe in me. But you wouldn't trust Jo with me, Bones. That hurt, but I think I got it straight in my head, now. I could have had a little more patience. After all, you followed me into what might well have been Hell, even when I tried to leave you behind."
"I do trust you, Jim. In fact, I've got something to show you." Bones mouth turned up in pleasure. "Hold on a second, I'll be right back." He stood up and placed Jim's hand back on top of the blankets, but not before he squeezed it gently.
"Wait! What about the Enterprise? Is Uhura back to normal? And McGivers?" Jim propped himself up on his elbows, where he wobbled for a couple of seconds before he collapsed back on the bed. He couldn't believe he'd nearly forgotten about them. All he'd cared about was that the world was still here and he still had Bones by his side. He hadn't allowed himself to feel like that for years. Jim thought his heart might have grown three sizes since he woke up.
Bones patted his hand. "They're all safe. Uhura is normal size, although still a little on the acerbic side. She played hide and seek with Spock for a little while before she let him do an "Honey, I shrunk the wife" schtick on her. McGivers woke up a couple days before you, and is in the custody of the Coven while they make a determination on how to handle her case. She's still waffling on whether she intended to get herself hijacked by an Old One or if it was pure accident. Bit of a nutter, as Spike would say."
"Good, that's good." Jim breathed out a sigh of relief.
"Now, let's get that surprise out of the way before you exhaust yourself remembering a million other petty details that just don't matter right now." Bones finally turned and left the room for the outer waiting room of the suite.
Jim wasn't sure what it was that Bones could have to show him, but he waited obediently for him to return. It couldn't have been more than a minute before Bones reappeared in the doorway.
"I have someone who wants to say 'hi.' You up for it?"
"Don't know. But I'm not ready to go back to sleep yet, so bring them in." Jim fumbled for the bed controls, getting the head of the bed raised just a little before he was engulfed in skinny arms that practically got a strangle hold on him.
"Hey, Jo-bug. I didn't know you were going to be here. Heck, I didn't know I was going to be here." Jim patted her on the back, smiling to the air since she had her face buried in his neck. He could feel her giving little hiccuping sobs.
"What's wrong? Why are you crying?" Jim raised his eyebrows at Bones in query. He got a shrug and a hand waggle in return.
"I almost killed you, Uncle Jim." The words came out in between little hitches of breath.
"How do you figure that?" Jim was startled at the thought that Jo might consider herself in any way responsible for anything that had happened in the past two months.
"I wrote you about my dreams. If I hadn't sent that letter with the funny words, this never would have happened to you." Jo pulled back and wiped her sleeve across her eyes, smudging her mascara. Shit, she was wearing mascara. Jim didn't think he was ready for that, yet.
Jim reached up to touch her cheek. "Sweetheart, those letters helped save the universe. Don't you ever regret sending them."
"But--"
Jim shushed her off with a finger to her lips. "You will learn as a Slayer that the mission is what matters. Whatever you do that means the planet, the galaxy, the universe is here to survive for another day is the most important thing you can do and it is."
Bones and Jo looked at him a little doubtfully. Jim looked at Jo with encouragement.
"What's the most important thing in the world to you, Bug-a-bear?"
Jo instinctively turned her face toward her father. "Daddy is. Then Mom, and you, Uncle Jim."
"Exactly. Your family is the world. Your mission is saving the world, your world, your family."
Jo nodded seriously at his words. "I can do that. I want to do that. Even if it scares Dad."
"Welcome to the Scooby Gang." Jim pulled Jo into a big hug and smiled at Bones over her head. They had lots of time to explore the strange new world that would be their relationship. It could wait the few moments it took him to reassure a newly fledged Slayer that she would always be a part of their family, even if other duties made her feel isolated they would always be there for her. Always.