Title: The Letter
Author: Caera1996
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Prompt: #5 - GUESS WHO: Bones sends Jim a Secret Admirer letter on Valentine's Day. (Jim_and_Bones Sweetheart Challenge)
Rating: G
Warnings: None
Word Count: 615
A/N: Paired with LJ user adrianalazarey http : / / adrianalazarey . livejournal . com / 4598. html "I Love Us" from Jim's p.o.v. (Bring all parts of the url together (remove all spaces) to read her story.
2260.45
Captain, Confidant, Friend –
I'm actually not sure how to address this letter – each of those titles is an apt description for you now. And let me tell you, when I first met you, I never thought that would be the case, not with those words anyway. Honestly, I thought (at first) that you were an arrogant prick. Picking up women was a game, bar fights were a hobby, and you were too damn cocky for your own good. You were always good for a distraction, but that was it. I wasn't about to let myself become dependent on someone like you. You weren't the dependable type.
But, somehow, and I'm not even sure when it happened, or how, that changed. I think it happened slowly, over time. We kept getting thrown together, and I started to realize that a lot of things I thought I knew about you – things I assumed, along with everyone else – were just a smokescreen. And the person underneath all that smoke was a different person all together. Turns out you were actually the dependable type. Imagine my surprise.
You've changed so much from when we first met. You're still so young, but you're not the kid on the shuttlecraft anymore. You've grown…became the type of person anyone would be lucky to have as a friend, the type of person who sets an example by words and actions, the type of leader who not only bears the rank of Captain, but who lives it with everything he is.
Now don't go getting a big head over this. I'm not saying it to inflate your ego. I'm saying all this because every now and then I get the sense that you still feel like you're not living up to a standard set for you by a man you've never met. And while it's not necessarily a bad thing to continue to strive for something…we all have expectations we're trying to live up to…I wanted you to know that you've met that standard in my eyes, and in the eyes of your crew. And now you're the standard. You're my standard. I'm a better person because of you. I'd lost myself, and didn't even realize it until you found me.
But I have a new problem now. Captain, confidant, friend…while all of these are still true, I've realized that you've become something more to me, and that maybe this relationship we have isn't finished developing yet. I don't know for sure if you feel the same, and I'm not exactly sure how to go about asking. I've never been good at this kind of thing – and as you used to take great pleasure in teasing me about the fact that I never had a date when you need an actual datebook to keep all of your engagements in order – I'm sure that comes as no surprise. So, I decided that if you're going to indulge the crew's asinine desire to observe a holiday that barely passes as such even back home, I may as well put the opportunity to use.
You probably know who this letter is from by now, so the ball is in your court – do with it what you will, but know that your friendship is more important to me than anything else that may or may not be for us.
I'm lucky to have you in my life, and I just wanted you to know that.
Your (not so) Secret Admirer
P.S. If you don't know who this is, I want to make damn sure I'm there when you go to talk to the person you think wrote it, because that is going to be one hilarious conversation.