Disclaimer: I do not own Stat Trek: 2009 or Unstoppable (2010).
)o(
Jim stretched his arms above his head as he sat up in bed, glancing round he notices his bedroom door is open, giving him a clear view of the rest of his apartment. In the kitchen his best friend and brother-in-law, Leonard 'Bones' McCoy was cooking breakfast. Forcing himself to his feet Jim walks over to the closest, as he sorts through it for suitable cloths he thinks about how his best friend and brother-in-law come to be living with him.
The moment Jim had become friends with Leonard McCoy, he knew he'd made a friends for life. They had meet on a shuttle bus, on their way to university, after Leonard McCoy had threatened to throw up on him and then thrown up on him shortly after, they'd become fast friends. When they had both graduated, Jim had introduced Leonard to his older sister, Sam Kirk.
Leonard and Sam, after a few months of dancing around each other, finally started dating and a year later they were married. Jim had been both best man and the one who gave Sam away at the wedding, it had been a little complicated but they had made it work. Winona Kirk, their mother, hadn't turned up.
She been working and Sam still hadn't forgiven her for that.
A year after that their daughter was born, Jim had been over joyed at having a niece and Leonard had been the proudest father on the planet, while Sam couldn't get over the fact she'd given birth to a child so beautiful and perfect. And they'd been happy, but then Sam had started texting a guy at work, Clay was his name and Leonard had demanded to know what was going on between them.
After finding out Sam had cheated on him with Clay, Leonard went around to Clay's house and threatened him, that if he ever went near his wife again, he'd pay. It didn't help Clay had a friend who was a police officer. So after Jim had bailed Leonard out, Leonard had moved in with Jim, Sam had kicked Leonard out and refused to let him see his kid.
After grabbing some cloths, having a quick shower and changing, Jim headed out into the kitchen, where Leonard had set out two lots of breakfast. Jim smiled as he sat down and picked up his fork and stared at the pancakes before him, he had to admit it, Leonard was a good cook and it wasn't just pancakes he could make to perfection.
Leonard, who was sitting on the opposite side of the table to Jim, frowns at his appearance. Jim was dressed in warn jeans, a tartan shirt, a black zip-up hoody under a denim jacket which almost matched his jeans, with a high visibility vest over the top.
"What the hell are you doing today?" Leonard questions, staring at Jim.
Jim grins as he tucks into his breakfast, "Today is my step-fathers final day working on the rail roads, he asked me to join him."
"Is that even legal?" Leonard frowns.
"Come on, Bones." Jim rolls his eyes. "How could you forget? I'm a conductor."
"You haven't worked on the railroads since before you went to uni," Leonard points out, his lips twitching upwards slightly at the use of his nickname.
Jim shakes his head slightly, "I'm still qualified… So what's got you in such a good mood this morning?"
Leonard glares at Jim for a moment, "Sam has just sent through the divorce papers."
"I always thought you and Sam would last," Jim mutters. "I still can't believe she'd go for a guy like Clay."
"Yeah," Leonard answers. "Well she did."
"So what else has happened?" Jim asks.
"She wants full custody over Jo."
)o(
Jim walked through the building, reading through the papers he needed for the day, frowning he looked round, before folding up the paper and heading over to a desk. Twisting the handle of his bag, he glances round. Frank didn't want anyone to find out he was working with him today, as in Frank didn't want anyone to know they were family, it would cause too many questions and Frank didn't want to answer them. So Jim was going to have to act like this was the first time they had met.
"Hey?" Jim asks, the guy sorting through the stacks of papers on the desk. "Do you know where I can find Frank Barnes?"
"What?" The guy questions.
"Frank Barnes?" Jim repeats. "Do you know where I can find him?"
"Oh," The guy answers. "Over there. Good luck."
Jim nods, frowning at him, before looking at where he had pointed. Frank sat at a table talking with a couple of other workers.
"Excuse me?" Jim questions, reaching the table just as the men sitting there stopped laughing. "I'm looking for Frank Barnes."
"That's me." Frank answers holding up a hand.
"I'm Jim Kirk," Jim introduces himself. "We're working together today… Train 12.0.6."
"12.0.6?"
"That's the one."
"Is that the profile?" Frank questions, pointing towards the folded paper in Jim's hand.
"Yeah," Jim answers holding it out. "You want to take a look?"
Frank just takes them and Jim almost rolled his eyes at his step-fathers behaviour. Sure Frank didn't want anyone to know who Jim was, all part of the 'don't let anyone know it's my last day' plan. But this was just annoying.
"How's it going?" Jim nods to one of the men sitting by Frank, when he notices his stare.
The man just glares at Jim.
"You got a problem?" Jim asks.
"I have no problem." The man answers. "I don't like working at a damned day-care centre."
"Yep, well… I don't like working at a retirement home. So…" Jim answers, with a 'don't mess with me' attitude.
"Alright," Frank quickly cuts in. "Well, I tell you what, I'll finish my coffee and I'll meet you on the wagon."
Jim turns his gaze back to Frank, "Sounds good."
Jim takes back the profile, picks up his bag and turns to leave.
"12.0.6?" Frank questions once more, double checking.
"Yep," Jim answers, glancing over his shoulder. "That's the one."
Frank sits back and watches Jim go. He picks up his coffee cup and takes a sip, hiding his smile.
)o(
"What's our date?" Frank asks as he takes a seat in the van beside Jim, which would be taking them to the track they needed.
"They want us going on light power to pick up 25 cars in Stanton and from there on to Wilkens." Jim answers rolling his eyes, without even looking at the paper.
"Any slow orders?"
"No." Jim answers.
"Are you sure?" Frank replies. "They're highlighted in red."
"No," Jim repeats, this time looking at the paper, double checking. "No slow orders."
"Alright." Frank mutters.
Jim glances at him and smiles.
It was just like old times.
They enjoy the rest of the somewhat bumpy drive in silence.
Finally they arrive at their destination.
"I've only got one rule and one rule only," Frank explains as they walk towards their train. "You do something, you do it right. You don't know how to do something, you ask me, alright? Likewise, if you need something from me, you better speak up, you're the conductor. Once that thing is moving, it's your train. You're the guy driving it."
"Frank- Dad," Jim corrects himself when Frank raises an eyebrow. "You give me that speech every time. I know what I'm doing."
"Just making sure, kid" Frank chuckles.
Jim rolls his eyes and the both board the train. Jim places his bag in the front before heading out and counting the cars they needed. Suddenly his phone rings. He pulls it from his pocket and flips it open.
"Yeah." He answers.
"Jim," Bones' voice echoes down the phone. "I finally got a break, Sam no longer wants custody. Looks like Jo's coming home!"
"That's fantastic!" Jim exclaims.
)o(
Hey! I hope you enjoyed this.
Blessed be,
TreeOfLife1997.