AN: This chapter takes place in the time jump in Chapter 13 - so if you haven't read that recently (because I posted it like 4 years ago... woops! Sorry!) then it might be worth skimming it for a quick reminder! I have plans for some more action filled chapters coming soon (within the next 12 months... probably) so this is just a quick filler for now! Enjoy 3
Carol had been watching Jim for five full minutes.
Jim had been staring at the PADD in front of him for five full minutes.
It had been utterly silent between the two of them… for five. Full. Minutes.
"Well… isn't this romantic?" she noted wryly, leaning back in her seat at the dinner table.
Jim's head snapped up, eyes wide. "What?"
Carol breathed a laugh, "Nothing, Jim," she replied, "I was just saying… when you said 'date night', this isn't exactly how I pictured things going. I'm starting to get jealous of a computer…"
"God, sorry," Jim muttered, running a hand over his face, "I just… I got a message from Bones asking me to give Joanna a call. Our shifts haven't been lining up over the last few days, which I guess is why he didn't just ask me in person, but… apparently she's been acting weird recently."
"Weird how?" Carol asked, feeling sightly guilty now that she knew what was distracting him.
Jim shrugged, "Bones didn't really say," he replied, "He does say that she had a fight with Dylan and lied to him and Jocelyn about it, though, so… that can't be good."
Carol grimaced, "I didn't think anything could come between those two," she agreed, "From what I've heard, they're inseparable."
"Yeah," Jim murmured. He shook his head, snapping himself out of his mood, "Anyway. I'm sure it can wait until tomorrow. You deserve my full and complete attention, especially given that this whole date night thing was my idea."
Carol smiled at that, "As long as you're sure?" she checked.
"Absolutely," Jim said, "After the last couple of weeks… I think I owe you some time just for us. You've kind of… held me together recently."
"Jim, that's very sweet, but I think you might be giving me a tad too much credit," Carol said, breathing a laugh, "Besides… you don't have to thank me just for being here. We're…" she trailed off, realising that they hadn't exactly put a label on whatever they were yet.
Jim suddenly looked amused, "No, go on," he said, "I want to see what you're going to say next."
Carol rolled her eyes, slapping his arm playfully from across the table, "You know what I mean," she protested, "We're… close."
"Ah, yes, 'close'," Jim said, his tone still slightly teasing. He paused before continuing, "You know… maybe it is time for us to… you know. Be official."
It was Carol's turn to look amused, "The infamously polyamorous James Tiberius Kirk asking me to be official? Well how could I possibly turn a once-in-a-lifetime offer like that down?"
"No, no, do you know what? I take it back," Jim said, holding his hands up, "Maybe I do want to carry on living my infamous polyamorous lifestyle…"
Carol snorted, "Good luck finding someone else on this ship willing to sleep with you given that we're all stuck here for half a decade."
Jim grimaced, "Fair point," he muttered, "But, seriously, Carol… as much as I probably haven't shown it over the last few weeks, you do make me happy. You just… get me, I guess. And we've been through a lot together… so, if you want to be my girlfriend… I would like that. Very much."
Carol could see that Jim felt awkward, and the fact that he'd gone to the effort to ask her properly anyway almost had her tearing up.
She reached out and took one of his hands in hers, squeezing gently, "I would like that very much too," she told him. His face lit up, and she breathed another laugh as she leaned across the table to kiss him lightly, "Did you really think I'd say no?" she asked when she pulled away.
"I… had some doubts," Jim admitted, "That's kind of why it's taken me so long to properly ask. That, and everyone kind of hated me for weeks so it didn't really feel like the right time…"
"Probably a good call," Carol agreed. "So… what are you going to do about Joanna?"
Jim shrugged, "I'll give her a call tomorrow," he said, "See if I can't figure something out. I know the kid can be fiery, but… it's not like her to fall out with people, especially people like Dylan…"
Despite him insisting on focusing on her, Carol could see that thoughts of Joanna were weighing Jim down.
"Why don't you call her now?" she suggested.
Jim frowned, "But it's…"
"It's seven thirty," Carol interrupted, "Joanna will be going to bed soon. You'll just catch her if you try now and the connection isn't too terrible. And that still gives us plenty of time before Alpha shift starts tomorrow morning…"
She ran the edge of her foot suggestively up his leg as she spoke, and Jim's eyes widened in understanding.
"Okay, okay," he said, "I will call her. And then you and I will have the alone time that I promised you. Although I don't know what we'll do about dinner…"
Carol's eyes twinkled, "I'm sure we'll figure something out…"
Jim blinked at her, "You… are a force to be reckoned with, Dr Marcus," he said wryly.
Carol shrugged, "Well, I think you knew that from day one, didn't you?"
Jim smirked, "Yeah, I guess I did." He leaned across the table, kissing her lightly again, "See you at your place in an hour?"
Carol nodded, "Plenty of time for me to think up a creative way to celebrate us becoming official."
"You… are making leaving this really difficult," Jim muttered, and Carol laughed at him.
"Call Joanna," she said, "I can wait a bit longer. Just… maybe not too long…"
A couple of hours after Joanna's called with Bones, Jocelyn had just finished helping her sort out her school bag for the following morning. Nothing had been said about Dylan after the call, and the maths work that Joanna had been set had been tricky enough (for both of them…) that there wasn't much space for any casual conversation anyway.
"Okay, sweetie, time for pyjamas," Jocelyn said, resting a hand on Joanna's head.
Joanna nodded, "Can I please have hot cocoa before I go to bed?" she asked, using her best puppy dog eyes.
Jocelyn rolled her own eyes, but smiled, "As you finished all your homework, I suppose I can whip something up…"
Joanna grinned widely, "Thanks, mom."
She started up the stairs back to her bedroom, but suddenly paused halfway up. Jocelyn frowned.
"Jo? You okay?"
"Fine, I just… got a feeling," Joanna replied.
"A… feeling?" Jocelyn checked.
"Yeah, like something was about to…"
Joanna was cut off by the ring of the PADD in the living room, and she immediately spun around and raced back down the stairs.
"It's Uncle Jim!" she cried happily, jumping onto the sofa with the tablet in her hands and hurriedly pressing the 'accept' button.
"Uncle Jim! You called!"
"Hey, kiddo," Jim said, grinning back at her, "How's it going?"
"Great!" Joanna said excitedly, "I can't believe you and daddy both called in the same day! Did he ask you to?"
"He told me that he finally managed to get through," Jim said, figuring it would be a better explanation than 'your dad told me you were lying to your parents and wants me to figure out why', "So I thought I'd give it a try. I'm just glad the connection has held long enough for me to call."
"Me too," Joanna said, "What's been happening? Daddy said Scotty was experimenting with things?"
"Ha, yeah," Jim said, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly, "I may have let him play around with some potential alternative power sources. Admittedly not my best call, but it certainly made a few days between conferences interesting…"
Joanna laughed, "Wow, you must be bored."
Jim nodded, "We always knew this first year would be a bit boring, though," he said, "And it is still exciting too. We're starting to get close to some areas of space that we've never explored before, so that's going to be pretty cool."
"You could discover something completed new," Joanna said, her tone awed, "If you find something cool, do you think they'll name it after you?"
"Now there's an idea," Jim said, "I'll tell you what, Jo, if we find something really cool, I'll suggest naming it after you, how about that? You're much cooler than I am anyway."
Joanna's eyes widened, "That would be awesome."
"Dylan would probably be quite jealous, wouldn't he?" Jim said, keeping his tone casual to try to hide the loaded nature of his question.
Joanna paused before she responded, "I think everyone at school would find it very cool," she replied.
"Yeah, but Dylan wants to be a science officer, right? You know how scientists get, they love naming discoveries after themselves…"
"Yeah, I… I guess," Joanna replied.
Jim could see her fidgeting uncomfortably through the screen, "Jo? Is something going on with you and Dylan?"
Joanna fidgeted for a moment longer before sighing, "We… we had a fight."
Jim frowned, but was secretly happy that it had been that easy to get her to open up, "What kind of fight?"
"I… I said some things that were quite mean," Joanna admitted, "He… he was only trying to be nice, but I was feeling sad and I just… I said some things that I didn't really mean, but now he's upset with me and I don't know how to fix it."
"When did all this happen, Jojo?" Jim asked, concerned, "That's a lot of weight to carry on those little shoulders."
Joanna shrugged, "Like… a week ago, I guess?"
"Jo, you should have told your mom," Jim said gently, "She could have helped."
"I know, I just… I felt bad because I know I did something stupid, and I thought she might be disappointed."
"None of us could ever be disappointed in you, Joanna," Jim said firmly. He paused for a moment, "So… what did you say to Dylan that upset him?"
Joanna sighed again, "I… I was feeling sad because you and daddy hadn't been able to call for a while, and… and I missed you. But I don't think I really knew that that's why I was sad, so… when he asked what was wrong, I snapped at him and told him he wouldn't understand. And he tried to be a good friend and help, but that just made me angry, so I told him to go away and not to talk to me. Actually, I shouted it. Really loudly."
Jim raised his eyebrows, "And then he just… didn't talk to you for a week because you told him not to?" he asked, "Boy, this kid has a lot to learn about girls…"
Joanna looked slightly desperate now that she had finally told a grown-up the full story, "So what do I do?!"
Jim took a breath, "Well, as it happens, Jojo, I had a pretty similar problem not too long ago," he admitted.
"You did?" Joanna frowned.
Jim nodded, "See, I was really missing you, too. And life on Earth. And that made me pretty grumpy, and I took that out on other people on the ship. So everyone was mad at me and they didn't really want to talk to me, either."
"So what did you do? How did you fix it?"
Jim shrugged, "I apologised," he said simply, "I stood up, and said that I knew that the way I'd been acting was wrong, and that I was sorry for treating them that way. And do you know what they said?"
Joanna simply shook her head.
"They accepted my apology, and said they forgave me," Jim told her, "And we all had a good laugh about how silly I'd been. And now our friendships are stronger than ever."
"Really?" Joanna asked.
"Really," Jim confirmed, "We all make mistakes, Jo. That's just a part of life. The key is to own up to them and say sorry if you've hurt someone's feelings."
"But… that sounds so easy," Joanna said, slightly suspicious.
Jim breathed a laugh, "Well, in that case, it should be easy to fix this thing going on with you and Dylan, hmm?"
"Do you think he'll forgive me?" Joanna asked.
"I think that he probably already has, Jo," Jim told her honestly, "But you should still apologise if you think you hurt his feelings. And then you can put it all behind you."
Joanna nodded, "Okay," she said, "I'll say sorry tomorrow."
Jim took a breath, slightly shocked that he'd been able to solve Joanna's problem, "Sounds great, Jo," he said, "And hey, taking that step and apologising is a really grown-up thing to do. I'm sure if you did tell your mom the full story… she'd be pretty proud of how you dealt with it."
"Even though you told me what to do?" Joanna asked.
"Well… you don't have to tell her that bit," he said in a stage whisper, winking conspiratorially.
Joanna laughed, "Okay," she replied, "Thanks, Uncle Jim."
"You're welcome, Jojo," he said, "So, what else has been going on with you? Anything exciting?"
"We're making models of the solar system at school," Joanna said, "Daddy said if I send you a picture of my model, he'd get you to send me a picture of your model of the Enterprise that you made."
Jim grinned, "I spent weeks on that model," he said, "It has working lights and everything."
"Cool," Joanna said.
Jocelyn appeared in the doorway, a mug in hand, "Jo," she said gently, "I think it might be time to say goodbye to Jim. It's almost your bedtime."
"But mom…"
"No buts," her mother said, "I'm sure Jim will call again in a couple of days, won't you Jim?"
"I'll call again, Jo, don't worry," Jim promised, "Now that Scotty's done tinkering, I'll be able to call more often."
Joanna sighed, "Okay," she said reluctantly.
"I'll speak to you soon, Jo," Jim said, "Let me know how that thing you're doing tomorrow goes, okay?" he winked at her secretively again, gaining him a small smile in response.
"I will," she said, "Love you, Uncle Jim."
"Love you too, Jo."
Several hours later, Jim and Carol were laying in bed, Carol tracing random patterns on Jim's bare chest as he played with her hair absentmindedly.
"I forgot to ask," Carol said, breaking the comfortable silence between them, "Did you manage to solve all of Joanna's problems?"
Jim shrugged the shoulder that she wasn't laying on, "I gave her a solution to try," he said, "She said she's going to give it a go tomorrow. Poor kid had the weight of the world on her shoulders but didn't want to disappoint anyone by asking for help."
Carol breathed a laugh, "Now why does that sound familiar?"
Jim lifted his head, "I'm not that bad, am I?"
"I really don't know how to answer that nicely," Carol said honestly, "But still. I'm glad you helped her."
"Me too," Jim replied, "Thanks for pushing me to talk to her. I hate thinking of her struggling through stuff by herself. We're just… so far away."
"I know," Carol murmured, "But… she's got her mum. And Dylan again now, hopefully. And you've got all of us. The universe is a big place, Jim, but… as long as you have people who love and support you, distance doesn't mean anything."
Jim smiled, kissing the top of her head, "That was very poetic," he said teasingly, "But I appreciate the sentiment. And I'm grateful for you, you know that?"
"I do," Carol said, looking up and smiling back. She kissed him lightly, the kiss deepening for a moment before Jim paused, pulling back slightly as his smile turned to a smirk.
"How about… I show you just how grateful?"
