Hi all, first off, I know I should update Chemistry Sucks. I'll get there, okay? I promise. But it's Christmas time and I wanted fluff. Christmas fluff, to be specific. This is just cute McKirk, with Joanna there visiting her Dad and Uncle Jim for Christmas. This is my first one-shot, so reviews and feedback of any kind are always more than welcome.
"DADDY! IT'S CHRISTMAS!" I heard a shrill voice screeching as it approached my bed. A small body launched itself onto the bed, snuggling between Jim and I. "Daddy," she whispered to me, "Daddy, wake up! It's Christmas!"
"Yeah, Jo. I know. I'm gettin' up." I said before kicking the covers off. Joanna then turned on Jim.
"Uncle Jim, it's Christmas!" She said excitedly.
"uhg… Christmas?" Jim asked groggily. He turned to face Joanna and his sleepy expression was chased away by pure child-like excitement. "Christmas?!" He asked again much more animatedly before jumping out of bed and lifting her into the air. "Did you say it's Christmas?!" He asked as he spun her around. She laughed and kicked the air.
"Yeah it's Christmas, Uncle Jim!" She squealed.
"Well what are we still doing here?! Let's go see what Santa brought!" Jim exclaimed, setting the little girl down. "C'mon, Bones, you ready!?"
"Yeah, yeah. Let's go, honey." I said while placing my hand on her head. She let out an excited scream as she ran from the bedroom. Jim put a hand around the back of my neck and kissed me.
"Merry Christmas, Bones." He said smiling at me. Not his flashy, James-Tiberius-Kirk-smile, but a smaller, warmer smile. I couldn't help but smile back.
"Merry Christmas, darlin'. We'd better get out there before Jo goes nuts with the anticipation." A scream came from downstairs.
"DADDY! UNCLE JIM!" Jim laughed.
"That's our cue." He said. We hurried downstairs and were met by a picture-perfect image of Jo jumping up and down on the couch waiting for us before diving into her presents.
"Can I open my presents now?" She asked trying her hardest to be patient. It was an impressive feat, especially considering she was only four.
"Sure, honey. You can dive right in." I said.
"Oh, oh, open the big one first!" Jim ran over and plopped down on the couch. Joanna happily obliged. The living room was instantly filled with wrapping paper and ribbon. Her eyes were lit up but she didn't seem to know what the present was. To be honest, I didn't really know what it was. It was some strange building-contraption that Jim bought her.
"...What is it?" She asked Jim uneasily. His excitement was completely unfazed by our confusion.
"It's a marble run!" He said grinning ear to ear. "You build a track, and then you send a marble down, I had one as a kid, it's great! I'll show you after you open your other presents." He said as he gestured for her to continue. The promise of playtime with Uncle Jim made the smile on her face stretch even wider as she opened a few more presents. There was a doll from Scotty, a book of fairytales from Uhura, a children's encyclopedia from Spock, and a toy PADD from Jocelyn. She pulled the last gift from under the tree, it was mine. She opened it up and smiled. It was a teddy bear. My old teddy bear. My father gave it to me when I was about Jo's age. She dug it up from some of my old things before.
"Thank you, Daddy. I love it." She ran up to me and wrapped her little arms around my neck. I pulled her into a tight hug.
"You're welcome, honey. I'm glad you like it." She giggled and grabbed the bear. My PADD rang. I answered it and Jocelyn's face appeared on the screen.
"Leonard." She said curtly.
"Merry Christmas, Jocelyn." I said with a forced smile. I might not like her, but it's Christmas and Jo doesn't need to deal with her parents bickering today of all days.
"Mommy?!" Jo asked excitedly. I handed her the PADD and she thanked her mom for her gift before talking about all of her other presents.
"...and Uncle Jim said we're going sledding later!" That peaked my interest. I turned to Jim.
"That's news to me." I said with my eyebrows raised.
"C'mon, Bones. It's a winter wonderland out there, and Jo said she'd never been sledding before. Please?" He gave me his best puppy dog face. I was spending the holidays with two four year olds, apparently.
"Sure, but you're both going to be bundled up! The last thing I need is for you two to spend the rest of shore leave sick." I warned.
"Okay, baby, but I'll let you go now to play with your Daddy and Uncle Jim. Could you give the PADD back to your Daddy?" Jocelyn asked her gently.
"Okay Mommy. Merry Christmas!" She said before handing me the PADD.
"Hello, Leonard." She said a little more warmly.
"Hi, Jocelyn. How are you?" I warmed my tone a little more as well.
"I'm fine, Leonard. Could we talk privately for a while?" She asked, lowering her voice a bit. Jim and Jo seemed to be occupied breaking in the marble run.
"Sure," I said as I walked into the kitchen. "what's on your mind?"
"Well, I wanted to talk to you about Jo. I think… I think she misses you. I understand that you have a very busy schedule and you don't always know where you're going to be or when you'll have time, but I think that Jo needs to have more steady contact with you. I was wondering if we could set up maybe weekly communications? I understand that it might not always work out to be the same time, and you might have to miss a week or two every now and then, but I honestly believe that our daughter needs to see you more often. I don't think it's working right now, you talk to her maybe once a month. At best. I think that you need to talk to her more often and if you can't find time in your schedule for her then I think it's cruel to keep her stringing along hoping that someday her father will find time for her. It's either weekly communications, or at least every other week, or nothing. I'm not trying to be unreasonable, but I'm trying to do what's best for Jo." Weekly communications. I could see my little girl every week.
"Absolutely. Weekly communications sounds wonderful, Jocelyn. What about Fridays? I don't want to take time from her homework. Friday nights at seven? I could certainly work my schedule around it. Or any other night for that matter." I started talking a mile a minute. Jocelyn let out a sigh.
"Oh thank God you're alright with it. Friday's sound fine. Do you want to tell Jo or should I?" She said with an honest smile.
"I'll tell her. Thanks, Jocelyn. I couldn't imagine a better Christmas present." I said.
"Merry Christmas, Leonard." She responded before ending the communication. I looked into the living room and saw Jim and Jo sending a marble down the track they had built.
"Are we going sledding or what?" I called out to them.
The snow was swirling around the park. Jim was pulling a sled along behind him with Jo riding on it. She giggled and could hardly move with all of the snow clothes she was wearing. I carried another sled under my arm as we trekked up the hill. We reached the top of the hill and I saw Jo grow a little uneasy.
"You okay, honey?" I asked gently. "You know you don't have to do it if you don't want to." I assured her.
"I know. I want to. Can I ride with you?" She looked up at me.
"Sure, honey." I put the sled down and sat on the back of it before putting my arms out for Jo to join me. She paused for a minute.
"Can I go first?" Jim piped up. The worry faded from Joanna's face as she nodded enthusiastically. Jim dropped the other sled on the ground, back up, took a running start and jumped onto the sled. Landed on his stomach and flew straight down the hill. He screamed in excitement as he raced down the hill. Jo started laughing and climbed on the sled with me. Once Jim was standing at the bottom, I asked Jo if she was ready. She nodded. I started pushing the sled until gravity took over and we started racing down the hill. She seemed a little uneasy and I pulled her closer to me.
"You're alright, Jo." I said. By the time we reached the bottom of the hill she was laughing uncontrollably. As soon as we both got up off the sled I was hit in the face with something cold. Jo and Jim started laughing as I fell to the ground. When I looked up I saw Jim handing Jo a small snowball.
"Jo, you're not gonna hit your daddy with a snowball, are you?" I asked. She shook her head. She turned around and threw the snowball at Jim's face. It fell a little short and hit him in the chest. He clutched his chest and dramatically fell to the ground.
"I've been hit! I'm down! I'm down! She got me! I see the light! I.. I… see, I see… the light…." He trailed off as he 'died'.
"Good shot, Jo!" I called over to her in between laughter. Jim got up and scooped up some loose snow. He ran over to Jo and threw the snow into the air over her head. She laughed and fell down, imitating his 'death'. He scooped up some more snow and started running towards me.
"Oh no, no more snowballs Jim!" I argued as I ran away from him. He caught up to me and tackled me to the ground. Before I knew it I was on the ground with Jim covering me.
"Jim, get off of me." I said, pushing him lightly.
"Nope. I don't want to." He said before going completely limp on top of me.
"Umph! Dammit, Jim! Get off of me!" I yelled at him. He leaned down and kissed me. I kissed him back. We just stayed there for a while, forgetting about the rest of the world until Jo climbed on top of Jim and sat down.
"You guys are gonna get cooties. If you get cooties and then kiss me will I get cooties, too?" She was completely serious. Jim and I erupted into laughter.
"No, honey, you won't get cooties. They don't work like that." I assured her.
"'kay, good!" She said before leaning over Jim to plant a kiss on my cheek and one on Jim's too.
"Aw, thank you honey." I said as she climbed off of him back.
"Daddy, I'm cold." She shivered. We grabbed the sleds and headed home for some hot chocolate.
Joanna had drifted off halfway through the children's movie she insisted we watch, snuggled in between Jim and I. We continued watching because neither one of us could reach the remote without disturbing Jo. I felt the nervousness emanating from Jim.
"You okay, darlin'?" I asked him quietly.
"Huh? Oh, yeah. Yeah I'm okay. I'm actually, I'm a lot better than okay. This has been the best Christmas I've had… in a long time. So… thank you. For the first time in a long time, I feel like I have family." Jim said quietly.
"Feel like you have family? Darlin', you have family. On that note, I, uh, I have somethin' I wanted to ask you…" I trailed off as I gently lifted Jo and laid her back down on the couch before walking across the room to grab a small box from the cabinet. I walked back to Jim, who was standing now, and knelt.
"We are a family, and I want everyone to know it. So, James Tiberius Kirk, will you marry me?" I asked as I opened the box and held it up to him. He looked like he was in complete shock. After a second or two he dropped to the ground as well and wrapped his arms around me.
"Yes. Absolutely." He whispered in my ear. I held him close, wrapping my arms around his middle.
"I love you, darlin'." I replied.
"Love you, too." He answered. Joanna began to stir.
"I'll get her to bed, we can tell her tomorrow." I said, standing up to pick up my little girl. There was one thought that kept replaying in my head: He said yes. He said yes. We were going to get married, because he said yes.
Joanna just couldn't top my haul this year for best Christmas presents.
I'm actually not sure what universe I'm in right now. Might be 2009, might be TOS. However you wanna read it. My Kirk feels more 2009-y but I don't know if Joanna even exists in that universe! Which is a serious question I have. If I ever meet JJ Abrams or Karl Urban, that's what I'm going to ask.