Title: The Beginning
Author: Caera1996
Rating: G
Disclaimer: Not mine.
W/C: 1,034
Note / Summary: One-shot within TBoPE series (no need to read anything else to get this). This is the result of the anonymous request: "I'd like to see a scene from the beginnings of TBoPE, Jim's perspective of realising he found Leonard attractive, debating the pros and cons of dating someone with a child and the ethics of getting involved with a student's parent. Possibly sat at home thinking to himself before he IM'd Leonard asking for that first date."

I hope you like it!

Jim knew he had to go food shopping, and he didn't have much hope as he opened the refrigerator and peered inside. Some milk, a few bottles of water, soda, some butter, bread that probably stale, a styrofoam take-out container that had something in it – he couldn't remember what or from when.

"Slim-pickins," he murmured. He was hungry…but it was late and he was more tired than hungry and didn't really feel like going out. Snagging the milk, he pushed the door closed and opened the jug, taking a whiff. The smell made him pause, and he flipped on the kitchen light to find the "use by" date.

Five days passed. "Crap," Jim said. He sighed, and poured what was left of the milk into the sink. So much for cereal.

Just as he was resigning himself to taking a quick run to Nick's Crispy Tacos, he idly pulled open the freezer.

"Oh – awesome!" he exclaimed. A frozen Stouffer's pizza – he'd totally forgotten that was in there. Perking up at the promise of dinner, he spent a few minutes turning on the oven and getting a drink, then he stuck the pizza in the oven, carefully setting the timer for just fifteen minutes. As long as there were instructions on the box, he was good to go. But instructions or no – the easiest (and most common way) Jim ruined dinner was by letting it burn.

While the pizza was working, Jim went to wash up and change, mind wandering over the day. It'd been a pretty good day, as far as work was concerned. The best part of the day was the morning, though. And the afternoon. Drop-off and pick-up.

A smile, which Jim was pretty sure was a stupid one, crossed his face as his thoughts wandered to one particular parent he got to see at every drop-off and pick-up.

Bones – Leonard…no, Bones is better…there was something about him. Even from their first meeting, when it was plainly obvious he absolutely didn't like the idea of a guy teaching his kindergartener, there was just this…inexplicable feeling that they should know each other. It was weird, and a little disconcerting. Not to mention probably inappropriate (though that was really his last concern).

But still…it was there. And Jim…he was pretty good at paying attention to what was put in front of him.

Plus, it didn't hurt that Bones was totally hot and obviously very intelligent.

But – he was also living completely for his daughter. He'd made that clear when they'd taken the kiddos to the playground last weekend.

He heard the timer go off in the kitchen, so he hurried back to it, and pulled his dinner out of the oven. Instead of sitting down to watch tv, he parked himself at the little dining room table with a soda and munched the pizza thoughtfully.

There were risks, he knew, in involving himself with a parent of one of his students. Of course, there was a risk in letting Bones know that he was interested, just in case Bones was interested, too – and that hadn't gone over too badly. Bones hadn't exactly confirmed about himself what Jim'd pretty much announced, but he didn't shoot him down either. So…maybe?

Jim finished the pizza, left the plate and the baking sheet in the sink to deal with later, and headed into his bedroom with his can of soda. He settled down on the bed, and pulled his laptop towards him, propping himself up with pillows at his back and resting the computer on his lap. He clicked through his email, checked a couple of news sites, his thoughts on Bones the whole time.

They'd had a good time together last weekend. The girls had fun, sure…but theyhad a good time, too. Bones was a little snarky and sarcastic and had a dry sense of humor that Jim really liked. And he had a feeling that the snarkiness and sarcasm were maybe more of a natural defense. Because when it came to his daughter…he was nothing but tender and loving. And Jim really liked that too.

But what would that mean for him, to get involved with someone who had a child? What would it mean for that child? Jim was pretty sure he could handle it, himself. He loved kids, he had a lot of practice with kids thanks to Sam and Aurelan, his brother and sister-in-law. But what if Bones didn't want to get involved with anyone precisely because he had a child?

Logging into the school's network, he checked his account and answered a couple of emails from parents, and a couple from co-workers.

You could just ask him if he wants to do something.

Idly, he clicked on the McKinley IM service, a brilliant idea of Hikaru's. Parents and teachers could register email addresses to have IM chats. Although most of the teachers were initially skeptical about whether or not such a thing would catch on, Nyota was a forward thinking person, and she gave him the okay to implement the program. About a year later, it was a hit – and teachers found it easier and time saving than trying to catch parents on the phone or asking them to come in for relatively minor conversations.

What's the worst that could happen, really?

Scrolling down the parent names, he stopped at McCoy, Leonard. For some reason, Jim was surprised that he'd registered his email address for something like IMing, but he had.

He's probably not even on.

Jim let his cursor hover over Leonard's name for a moment…then clicked.

He let out a breath he hadn't even really realized he'd been holding as he stared at the screen, waiting to see if, by some chance, Bones was still up and online and willing to take an IM from him. A tall order. A very, very small chance.

And after a few minutes, Jim was shaking his head at himself – at how ridiculous he was being – and was just about to cancel and log off, but stopped himself when a chat window opened. His heart jumped, and he sat up quickly, taking a breath.

Okay, Jim. Be cool.

JKirk: Hey Bones…you're still up.