Chapter 1
The first time Leonard meets the kid, nurse Chapel is all but dragging him through the hospital doors and blood is pouring out of him like a tap.
"He's been stabbed; a couple found him lying on the street and brought him in." Chapel, bless her heart, only looks slightly put out that he's been brought in half an hour before her shift ends.
"You know, their car smelt really weird, like kind of like pineapples, but not pineapples?" The kid is tall and skinny and trying to look at everything while stumbling along with Chapel and it's only when Leonard wraps an arm around his waist to help get him to a gurney he realizes exactly how skinny he is: Leonard can feel ribs and hips digging into his arm and side.
Being this close, Leonard also realizes that the kid is filthy. He smells musty and there are at least five rips in his clothing that Leonard can see.
"Chapel go get us an operating room, hopefully he didn't get hit anywhere important. You got a name, kid?" Chapel hesitates for only a second to make sure the kid's hand is still putting pressure on his abdomen before flitting away with a 'yes Dr McCoy'.
"Are you a good doctor?" It takes him a few seconds to turn his head and look at Leonard, but when he does Leonard's face to face with eyes so blue they look like they belong in one of Joanna's Disney films.
"I'm a great doctor, don't you worry about that."
"If you don't feel like being a great doctor today, Dr McCoy, I won't mind."
Leonard wants to ask what the hell he means by that, but before he gets the chance, the blood loss must catch up to the kid because suddenly the kid's half way to hitting the floor before Leonard gets a better grip and rushes him into surgery.
It goes smoothly and the kid will only have a small scar to show for the whole incident.
It's only once he's crawling into bed next to Jocelyn that he realizes they never got the kid's name.
-0-
The second time they meet, Leonard gets the name, and he's still running their conversation through his head when he climbs into bed that night.
"Dr McCoy, the great doctor." The kid looks even thinner in the hospital bed, and even though he's being treated for the blood loss, he's still nearly as pale as the white paint on the walls.
At least Leonard knows why now.
"John Doe, the stabbing victim. Feeling better today are we?"
"John Doe? I thought that was just a movie thing."
"The movies got it from us, kiddo, now would you like to tell me your name and maybe how you ended up getting stabbed?"
The kid just smiles like Leonard told funny joke and shrugs, and Leonard realizes they must have him on the really good stuff because no one should be that cheerful with that many stitches in their abdomen.
"Jim. Close to John, but not quite."
"There a last name to go with that, Jim?"
"Not one that matters. When can I leave?"
"Not anytime soon, I'm afraid. Two weeks at the least, you're lucky the knife didn't hit anything. How old are you?" Leonard looks up from Jim's chart to eye him. If he had to guess, he'd say definitely over twenty, but younger than Leonard's own 28 years on the planet.
"Twenty-three."
"Do you know who stabbed you?"
"Yep." He pops the 'p' and starts poking at the IV line in his hand. "I don't want to press charges, before you ask. I'm a nice guy like that."
"Uh huh." Leonard makes a show of going over Jim's chart again before he speaks again; there's barely anything written on it apart from the quick notes he just added, but if it gives him time to put off this conversation, he'll read it back to front ten times. "One last question, Jim. How long have you been using cocaine?"
He expects Jim to get angry, or defensive, hell, he expects Jim to shut up completely.
What he doesn't expect is for the kid to burst out laughing.
"Wow, you really don't beat around the bushes, do you Bones? I like it. How'd you find out? Blood test? I bet it was a blood test."
Bones?
His confusion must show because once Jim calms down to quiet chuckles he waves a hand in the air.
"Surgeon. Sawbones. Bones. Hey you know this stuff is really good. Do you think they'll let me take some home with me?"
"No. For some strange reason hospitals thinks it's a bad idea to hand out morphine to drug addicts, no idea why though." His sarcasm just makes Jim laugh more, which in turn makes Leonard roll his eyes. "If we could get back to the question at hand, please, and yes, we had to take a sample of your blood before we started a transfusion. You must've taken a hit recently for it to show up as much as it did."
"Weird. Yeah. Anyway, I don't know. A while, I guess, few years maybe?" The easy going smile is back on Jim's face, and Leonard can't help but wonder if he's this cheery naturally, or if it's just because he's high as a kite right now. "I can't quite remember exactly, but time is relative anyway so I guess that doesn't matter too much, right Bones?"
He doesn't say anything for a moment, because when they trained you how to deal with drug addicts at med skill, they didn't say what to do if the addict in question is cooperative and quotes Einstein at you.
In the end, Leonard just mumbles something about having a nurse check in with him and he leaves the room. He most certainly does not run away, despite what the gang of nurses at the nurse station say.
-0-
"The guy with the stab wound turned out to be a drug addict." He's been lying in bed for half an hour, listening to Jocelyn breathe as he runs over his conversation with Jim, thinks about the shadows around his eyes, about how his hair could've been blonde, but was too dirty to tell, and the way his bones protruded so much it looked painful.
Leonard has decided he's not going to think about when he walked past Jim's room later in the afternoon and saw him looking out the window, any traces of a smile gone.
He's also not going to think about Jim's words when he was first brought in.
If you don't feel like being a great doctor today, Dr McCoy, I won't mind.
"That's nice dear." Jocelyn's not listening, too close to sleep to really listen, and Leonard doesn't really care.
"I don't think he wanted me to save him."
Jocelyn doesn't reply.
When he goes back to the hospital the next day, Jim's room is empty and no one remembers seeing him leave.
Leonard wishes he was surprised.