Sit and Watch
Adrenaline rushes through his veins. The tropical colors of the forest blur together as he sprints, leaps, and dodges his way to the one and only person that can get his heart to drop, explode, and fall to pieces with one single word.
"Bones."
It was supposed to be routine. It was supposed to be safe. It was supposed to be okay. It wasn't supposed to happen. What had started as fine, ended disastrous when a storm blew in, disrupting the signal to the Enterprise, leaving them utterly stranded on a planet that will more than likely swallow them whole and spit their ashes out, and that's if they have any luck.
He pauses briefly to catch his breath, but the one word over that had been whispered mere seconds before the impact of gushing water kept him going.
The storm had brought a waterslide down the mountains; unfortunately the waves took them both out, and had left them separated. He can only hope the blond idiot isn't dead. But with any luck, he'll just be gravely injured and on the brink of death and he'll have to jump headfirst into whatever is possible to slam the door shut in Death's face and pull Jim away from the darkness.
Leonard's heart finally stops when he hears his name called weakly from behind.
Turning around, his breath catches his throat and the thump in his chest drowns his ears. Jim's slumped sluggishly against a tree, face paler than snow, lips as blue as his eyes. His overall appearance is lethargic and lacking the usual energy bouncing within.
He swallows, taking a moment to force a breath into his lungs before darting to his best friend's side, assessing the immediate damage.
"Damn it Jim, goddamn it." He mutters mostly to himself as he eases Jim to the ground, the kid's clothes still wet and soggy from being swept away in the flood.
Jim tries for one of those glamorous smiles, but it ends in a nasty wet cough.
Leonard brushes the blond hairs back, "Hold still Jim, you're going to be okay, I'm just gonna take a look okay?"
His captain nods sternly, but the pain is evidently etched on his face.
Slowly, Leonard peels the golden uniform up, holding in a sudden gasp. It's bad, it's terrible, it's unfixable, not here.
Jim's ribs are all misaligned, his right lung has bruising incasing all around and he can only assume it's been punctured. The kid has minutes to live, tops.
The blond coughs again, blood surging from his mouth, causing him to choke.
Eyes widening, Leonard rolls Jim onto his side, watching as the thick crimson blood splutters from Jim's icy blue lips. It's then he notices the raspy breathing, the hitches in the blond's wheezes.
"You're okay Jim, I'm gonna get us outta of here." Leonard declares, nodding his head, but Jim's eyes only gaze up at him pitifully.
How does he know?
"Bones…" Jim whispers his name.
Leonard shakes his head, "Jim do you have your communicator? I lost mine, but there's still time, we can contact the ship and I'll get you in sickbay. I know you hate the place but it'll only take a couple days to get you back to normal. Please Jim just hang on, I can handle this-"
"Bones, please." Jim pleads with him, grabbing his hands.
Leonard hadn't realized his surgeon hands had started shaking, until Jim's own shivering hands grasped his. He stares down at Jim's hands; they're so strong, so firm, and experienced.
"Not this time."
The words that leave Jim's mouth are unreal. This isn't how it's supposed to end, their supposed to die together, back to back and because of Jim's own stupidity, not because of some storm. This isn't how it ends; this is not how James Tiberius Kirk dies.
"No Jim, you listen to me, you're not dying on this planet. We have time, plenty of time, it's not that bad Jim, you're going to pull through, trust me." Even Leonard doesn't believe his own words, they're just useless filler, avoiding the inevitable.
"Bones, please. I-I, I don't want to die alone."
Tears slip down Jim's cheeks, he's asking Leonard to do something he'd never thought he'd have to do.
"No." Leonard chokes out, shaking his head wildly, "Stop being absurd, you're not dying here. You hear me? You're not dying here!"
Jim would've flinched if he weren't so damn exhausted.
"You can't die Jim, I can't be alone."
Leonard then realizes how selfish he is being. Jim's on Death's doorstep and he's going to let him do it alone all because he can't come to terms with the fact Jim is dying.
"I'm sorry Bones-I really am." Jim's sobs begin to shake his body, causing more pain to ignite in his abdomen.
Seeing this, Leonard collapses beside Jim, and finally doing what Jim wanted him to do in the first place, he holds him. He brings Jim against his chest, stroking his hair as he sobs and mumbles his pathetic apologies.
"For god's sake man, don't die saying sorry to me; you've earned that much, even though you are a pain in the ass." Leonard grumbles half-heartedly, but nonetheless makes Jim stop crying and actually chuckle.
He sighs, looking up at the sky, and there she is. Through the wisps of gray storm clouds she glistens in the sky. They must've come down lower to use the ship's scanners to search for them.
"Hey, Jim, see her up there?"
"Where?" Jim asks hoarsely, consciousness leaving his exerted body.
Leonard directs Jim's gaze with a pointed finger, "Right there, there's your girl."
His captain smiles happily up at the Enterprise, "She's pretty right?"
He smirks down at Jim, "She's the most beautiful girl out there. You've done good Jim."
The blond nods slowly, satisfied with the answer.
Leonard glances up, watching the Enterprise in her search for them, and within the next moment, he glances down at Jim, whose life has slipped through his hands. His captain's body is heavy against his and it's then that his nickname has become a reality. He's just bones.
He longs to call Jim's name, to shake him awake, to do anything but simply watch, but in the end it's all he can do, sit and watch.
Realization of Jim's death settles within him, causing him to jolt and burst into a world of darkness. Pants escape his mouth and the bed sheets pool around his lap. Its then he comes to the bittersweet conclusion that the whole damn thing is a dream.
His lips quiver and his head falls into his hands as he begins to sobs helplessly, Jim's lifeless eyes staring at him. It was all just too real. Leonard tries to calm himself, but he's left sniffling for nearly a half hour.
"Pull yourself together damn it." Leonard growls to himself, rubbing his weary face with both hands.
Still, he can't shake Jim's very vivid death, and can't help but wonder, did it happen?
He keeps telling himself that Jim's alive and well, but the ache in his heart won't let him sleep, so instead, he climbs out of bed and slips on a pair of sweats before leaving the privacy of his quarters.
Rather quickly he makes it to Jim's room, opening and closing the door after himself. His heart begins to pound within his chest and for a moment the bed looks vacant, but then the sight of blond hair poking out beneath the massive blanket catches his eye. Jim's curled up on the edge of the bed, sleeping peacefully in silence, not so much as a snore coming from him.
Leonard breathes a sigh.
Even though there's relief surging through his body at the sight of Jim alive and well, he still can't block Jim's death from his mind. So instead, he pulls up Jim's desk chair and plops down, after all, the only thing he can do at the end of the day is sit and watch.