Title: The Basics of Primary Ed., Part 11
Author: Caera1996
Pairing: Kirk/McCoy
Rating: This part PG, NC-17 overall
Disclaimer: Oh, so definitely not mine.
Summary: Kindergarten AU – Jim is a kindergarten teacher. Leonard is the parent. This part: Back at school, Joanna shows Jim some of what she can do. Everyone prepares for a family cookout.

Joanna kept her head down over the worksheet she had long after she was finished with the questions. Most of the kids were still working. They were talking and working together, and she'd already finished it, but Miss Kelley was with them at the Math Works station and she didn't want Miss Kelley to know.

Miss Kelley was nice, but she liked to talk about why Joanna had answered the questions the way she did, or asked her to explain something she drew, or asked her to read what she wrote. She was always asking Joanna to talk about her work, and she didn't want to, so she pretended she wasn't done yet.

It was so loud in the classroom…it was always loud in Mr. Kirk's classroom…and sometimes Mr. Kirk was the loudest one of all. Letting her hair fall over her shoulders, she peeked at the other kids at the Math Works station. There were two others. There should have been three others, but Stephanie wasn't in school today. Christy and Paige were on the other side of the table, working together. Joanna liked Christy okay. Sometimes Stephanie ate lunch with Christy, so Joanna would too, and Joanna and Christy would talk a little, but she didn't feel like it today. Paige liked to play hopscotch with Stephanie. Joanna was pretty good at hopscotch, but she didn't want people to watch her, so she never played. But a lot of the time she thought she could hop on one foot better than the other kids. She looked back down on her paper. Miss Kelley was still watching them work.

They were going to the Media Center today…Joanna liked to call it a Media Center instead of a library. It sounded more grown up that way. She wished they would hurry up and go. It was much quieter in the Media Center, because you weren't supposed to talk. Joanna knew she could sit and read, and no one would expect her to answer questions or explain the story or ask her to read out loud. She loved going to the Media Center.

Sighing, she glanced up from her paper and accidentally caught Miss Kelley's eyes. Joanna looked back down.

"I'm not done," she murmured, when Miss Kelley crouched down next to her.

"Do you need any help Joanna?" She shook her head no. "Can you tell me how you figured this one out?" Joanna shrugged. Miss Kelley stayed by her side for a moment longer. "Okay, sweetie. I'll check to see if you need any help in a few minutes, okay?"

Joanna just nodded. A few minutes later, she decided she was bored just sitting there. She was done. Looking up, she saw that Mr. Kirk had put the collection basket out on the table in front of his desk. She would go turn it in and say hi to Samantha, and then maybe it would finally be time to go to the Media Center.

Picking her paper up, she made her way across the room. Miss Kelley saw her go, but she was talking to someone else at the nearby science station. Looking around, she saw most of the kids were busy talking or playing or working on their worksheets. Mr. Kirk was over at the social studies table, but he looked up as she walked by.

"Joanna?" Joanna stopped and walked over to him. He was sitting on the floor next to the table, so she was taller than he was right now. Mr. Kirk was smiling at her. She liked his smile. His eyes kind of smiled too. "You seem especially quiet today. Are you okay?"

Joanna shrugged and nodded.

"Stephanie's not here," she replied.

"Oh, I see…You know, you could talk to Christy even if Stephanie's not here." Joanna shrugged again and scuffed her shoe against the floor. "I bet she'll be back tomorrow, though, okay?"

"Yes."

"You finished your math?" Joanna nodded. "Can I see it?" She handed it over to him. A moment later he looked back up at her. "This is very good. How did you learn to count by two's?" Joanna bit her lip and took her paper back. She didn't mind talking to Mr. Kirk as much as she minded talking to Miss Kelley.

"You just count the numbers that split," Joanna said. Mr. Kirk nodded encouragingly.

"What do you mean 'split'?" he asked. He watched as she struggled to put what just kind of made sense to her into words.

"Like if you have two pennies? That splits. One and one."

"Oh, I see…so if I have four pennies…"

"That splits two and two."

"Okay, I see what you mean," Mr. Kirk nodded. Joanna smiled a little. Now he was teasing her. Of course he saw…he was the teacher! "But…what if I had…seven pennies?" Joanna shook her head right away.

"That doesn't split. Six splits three and three, so seven can't."

"What numbers add up to make seven?" Joanna thought about that. Three and three was six. Seven was one more than six, so…

"Three and four." She paused, her eyebrows furrowed as she thought about that. "Or four and three…I think. It doesn't matter which one gets the extra." Mr. Kirk's eyebrows went up high on his forehead when she said that.

"That's very, very good. Do you know another two numbers that could make seven?"

"Umm…" Joanna was trying to think, but the kids at the social studies table were listening to her and it was getting harder to figure it out because she didn't want them to watch her like that. Her face felt hot and she wanted to go. Joanna studied her shoes as she unconsciously crumpled her paper a little bit in her hand. These questions weren't fun anymore. Mr. Kirk glanced over at the kids.

"That's okay, Joanna," he said. "We can try that one later…But you did really, really good work."

"Thank you. May I look at Samantha?"

"Sure." He watched as she placed her paper in the turn-in basket and then go to the terrarium.

That is one smart little cookie, Jim thought.

"Daddy?"

"Yes, Baby?"

"I'm five." Leonard smiled, glancing at Joanna as she picked grapes off the stems and dropped them in a colander.

"I know you're five. Pretty soon you'll be too big to sit on the counter." Joanna rolled her eyes.

"Five isn't a baby, you know."

"Oh, it isn't? I thought you were always going to be my baby," he replied, reaching over to gently tweak her nose. She pushed his hand away, giggling.

"Can Stephanie come over some day?"

"Sure," he said. "We can ask her mom the next time we see her at parent pick-up, okay?" Joanna nodded happily.

"Okay." Leonard couldn't wipe the smile off his face. Jim's idea of asking Stephanie to be responsible for showing Joanna around the classroom had been a stroke of genius. Not only did she manage to draw Joanna into the class a little more, she'd made dropping off at the beginning much easier, and Jim had said that Joanna was speaking more to the other kids Stephanie played with. And now Joanna wanted to have her friend over for a visit. It was great – and so much better than it was when she'd just started…nearly a month ago now. God, time flies.

When Leonard asked Jim what made him choose Stephanie for this particular role that day, he'd just kind of shrugged.

"Stephanie's always been pretty low-key. She plays and has friends, but she's not one of the kids who are bouncing off the walls. I also know she has at least one younger sibling, and I just thought she'd be the right temperament for Joanna."

Jim's assessment was spot on.

"I'm done Daddy," Joanna announced. He looked over at her handiwork. The stems were indeed picked clean of red and green grapes.

"Okay, thank you for helping. Do you want to do something else, or do you want to go play?"

"Go play," Joanna answered.

"All right." Wiping her hands with a damp cloth, Leonard lifted her down from the counter, kissing her forehead in the process. "Try not to make too much of a mess in your room. Mr. Kirk should be here pretty soon, and then we'll get going."

"Okay…Daddy, why do you call him Mr. Kirk?" Leonard looked down at her in surprise.

"Uh…well, that's his name."

"But then why doesn't he call you Mr. McCoy?" While Leonard was trying to come up with a reason that made sense, because really, that was a pretty good question, Joanna said, "You can call him by his real name if you want to. I won't mind."

"Oh no?" he asked, amused by her precociousness. Joanna shook her head. "What will you call him?" Joanna gave him a look that he recognized as one of his own…used to convey the idea that the person he was talking to couldn't possibly be as dense as he or she sounded.

"Mr. Kirk! He's my teacher!" she exclaimed. "'Bye Daddy…I'm going to play in my room."

Turning back to cutting up melon, he shook his head. It was incredible how much he loved her. She was the best thing in his life.

Maybe one of the best, he amended to himself. Jim was also turning into one of the best things in his life. And how amazing was that? He never, ever thought he'd have an opportunity like this with someone like Jim. Honestly, he didn't even know he wanted it until it he realized how much he would miss without Jim in his life. But, he was still kind of waiting for the other to shoe to drop and Jim to come to his senses.

Leonard was nothing if not completely honest with himself…and he had a lot of baggage. A divorce, a child, and a whole lot of issues that he'd never bothered to confront, because being with Jocelyn had kind of negated them. He'd been so sure that Jim would get fed up with him quickly. They'd been seeing each other every weekend for a month, and a few times during the weeks as well…and they'd only been in bed together twice, though heavy make-out sessions were slightly more frequent. What twenty-six year old guy would be okay with all of that? And not only be okay with it, but be patient and compassionate?

Apparently, somehow he'd been lucky enough to stumble across the only one in known existence.

Or, more likely, there was another shoe around somewhere just biding its time.

"Bones?" A few gentle thumps on the bottom of the back door meant that Jim was using his foot to knock. "Can you let me in?"

Leaving the melon on the cutting board, Leonard wiped his hands and pulled it open for him. Jim had two handfuls of grocery bags.

"What's all this?" Leonard asked, taking some of the bags from him.

"Just some stuff for the cookout. You're making a fruit salad and brownies…which smell amazing by the way…so I thought I'd make a macaroni salad."

"Okay…but why are you making it here?" Leonard asked. Jim put the rest of the bags down on the kitchen table and smiled.

"So I have an excuse to spend more time with you," he said simply. "Where's the munchkin?"

"In her room."

"Good." Jim leaned in for a kiss, wrapping his arms around Leonard and responding enthusiastically when he felt Leonard reciprocate quickly. He was getting much better at accepting these displays of affection. He didn't automatically tense up in Jim's arms as much anymore, and he stopped being more of a passive participant and kissed back.

Letting his hands roam Leonard's back, he stroked lower, eventually hitting the waistband of his jeans. That made Leonard stiffen, and he broke off the kiss, moving away from Jim. There was a small smile on his face, but a slightly guarded look in his eyes.

"Joanna could come back in here any second," he said quietly, explaining. Jim nodded, smiling reassuringly. He knew that wasn't what called the abrupt halt to the kiss, but now was not the time or the place.

"You know, I wanted to talk to you about her," Jim said easily, turning his attention to the grocery bags and giving Leonard the space he needed.

"Yeah? Everything okay?"

"Everything's just fine. Have you ever had her formally assessed for intellectual ability?" Leonard watched as Jim fetched a pot and filled it with water for the macaroni. He wondered where this was going.

"Well, there was a series of simple tests for McKinley – as you know." Jim nodded. "Aside from that, when she was three, I did try to assess her formally because I realized she was actually reading her books and not just looking at the pictures."

"How did that go?" Jim asked, though he thought he could guess. Leonard shook his head.

"It didn't go at all. She wouldn't let me leave the room without pitching a fit, and she wouldn't talk to the person trying to test her. They told me to wait until she was more socially developed and try again in a year or two. I haven't tried it again yet."

"I think you may want to. She did some math work with even numbers yesterday that was pretty fantastic for a five year old. This was in stations…she did it by herself, finished before anyone else, and didn't get one wrong." He paused what he was doing and turned to look at Leonard. "What really amazed me, though, was her ability to extrapolate number relationships based on identifying even numbers versus odd."

This is why he's a teacher, Leonard realized. Jim's affection for all of his students, his obvious pride in their abilities, and his excitement for the whole educational process translated into his love for teaching and his desire to provide his charges with the best experiences he could.

"I'll look into it again," Leonard said. "Maybe now that she's older she'll be a little more cooperative. Or…could you do it?"

"Me?" Jim paused, thinking. "Well…that might be a possibility."

"She likes and trusts you…It's a pretty safe bet she'd cooperate for you." Leonard had a point. But…

"I have to think about it, Bones. I might not be the best person to do it," he said, thinking back to Nyota's earlier warning. Leonard looked up.

"Our relationship?" he asked. Hesitantly, Jim nodded. To his relief, Leonard just shrugged. "Well, as long as you're her teacher, I honestly don't care if she's formally assessed or not right now. She's only been in school for three weeks. I know she's smart as a whip. I just want to make sure her social development continues as well."

Jim nodded. He totally agreed with Bones on this, and it was such a refreshing change from dealing with some of the more hyper-concerned parents. Running the cooked macaroni under the cold tap, he turned to throw Bones a smile.

"Let me just pull this together, and then let's get going. I told Sam and Aurelan we'd be there by eleven."

"Hey…I'm ready. You're the one who's making us late," Bones replied as he shifted things in a cabinet, looking for a bowl for Jim to use.

"Details, Bones," Jim replied, smiling.