This has been on the back burner of my mind since I saw the movie weeks and weeks ago. Massive inspiration struck today and I wrote the whole thing in an hour. This is one of the best things that I have written in a while, if I do say so myself. I hope you all enjoy it.

Note: Italics indicate flashback. This is more artistic and therefore, the grammar is not textbook correct, but it is written this way for a reason.

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek. This is purely for entertainment purposes only. Pinky swear.

Bleedme Blue

Berry bubblegum scent wafted through the air on that first date. It was summer skies and sweetheart eyes as she slipped through his fingers in their chase through the park. The grass grew too high and tickled his calves as he ran after her.

Growl in the back of his throat, but everything was just play.

Sunlight made that blonde hair glow like a halo and washed out jeans fit her so well. Legs stopped racing, but teenaged hearts continued. She was breathless, her berry mouth open and he could smell her bubblegum too well. Golden curls spilled down her back, strips of silk. A southern belle centuries too late.

He can see it perfectly: that white shirt with the hearts and the gingham trim. The cotton was too thin and the fabric couldn't cover those pink bra straps. One slipped down that pale shoulder and it was a shaking hand that returned it to its home.

An apple-pie-kiss with a promise of more.

Location, location. They were too far away in the same farmhouse. Cold sheets. Cold nights. But that couch was warm with someone else. Her clothes smelled of someone else.

Silky hair with monster smile. She could have been a model with that torch-you-alive stare.

It was simultaneously sudden and a long time coming. Their lives lost those exclamation marks that once littered the air with their impropriety.

There was a packed bag and a Starfleet pamphlet. A photograph of a little girl was shamed by his endless memories.

It should have been enough to keep him home, but no one wore gingham anymore.

Starfleet is everything he expected, but the details must have escaped his imagination. There's a loud boy next to him and he has to be a boy because men don't smile so pretty.

Loud boy's named Jim and he's amazing, just ask him. McCoy never expected this. Never expected him. Their first year is a whirl wind of studying and medicine, of bars and girls, of laughter and fuck ups.

Friendships founded on alcohol, sex, and tests shouldn't work, but Jim can do the impossible. Everything is his or made to be his and McCoy is just another item on that list. Jim takes the liberty to rename him.

Bones is a better name anyway.

He calls. She answers. She hangs up immediately. Joanna doesn't get her birthday wishes. She doesn't even want them. Mother-poison is stronger than arsenic and she wants nothing to do with her father.

He never should have left her with whatsername, but hindsight is twenty-twenty.

Eternal optimist, Jim saves the day like a magician pulling a rabbit from a hat. Teeth click against glass in a symphony of swears and drinking. Alcohol, blurry vision, slurred speech.

If the tone of his daughter's voice matches her mother's face, he will still burn with that torch-you-alive stare.

Good night.

It's their first kiss and they're not even drunk. Neither can understand that one. Metal melts in his robot body as he stares into those bleedme blue eyes. He realizes, God, we could have been something perfect. Something hot-cold flickers between them.

Peach cheeks puff and blow. Captivating movement and Bones can't explain. Jim breathes out, running running running away.

They won't talk about this later. Unspoken promise. Their academy days finish without another churning incident.

Unfortunately.

Vulcan is gone. Earth is safe. Narada is gone. Enterprise is safe. How does one celebrate? Water glass cracked and promises broke.

Loud darkness blasts in the old dorms. Jim enters without knocking.

Bleedme blue eyes. Changed with maturity and millions of casualties. Charged with an apology and a need.

Somehow, it's tangled sheets and everything unspeakable. Crushing lips and scruff and grip and gnarled hearts and anger in the bathroom when everything overwhelms. Tanned skin, dark hair, blonde locks. Oh, that's a charming and devious smile.

Changes from oh-god-what-are-you-doing to oh-god-don't-stop.

Expletives fly with clothes, and the air hails them both down, falling like meteorites from the sky. Threads of rain pass the window. Why weren't they doing this the whole time? It's right. It's so right. Isn't it?

Too enthralled with hands and lips and fingers and tongues and palms and teeth. Legs twist until he's not sure which shaking knee is his.

Since he first met Jim, he was following and finding. But somewhere down the line, they've made their own paths and Bones is losinglosing everything. Useless. Careless.

Only love can break your heart.

Medicine always smelled foul, but the promise of seedy mixed-Jim-Bones scent in the captain's quarters always made up for that. Now medicine smells better than the emptiness in his own room.

Sticky kisses slip past, roaming hands fall away. Hands he'll never hold again. He's known for years, love doesn't mean being happy. Regardless, he'll miss those eyes.

Enterprise is up and running and Bones has been replaced.

Because it's one or the other. And in the end, Jim's going to pick the chair.

The End

Thank you for reading. Please, please review. I am considering extending this into a full story. This one-shot would be an overview of the actual story. I would write out the vignettes into full chapters with dialogue, description, plot, etc. However, if no one is interested in an extension, then I'll leave this as is.