"Come here often?" Leonard couldn't help himself when he spotted Jim at the football game. She was leaning against the side of the bleachers in her uniform. Unlike Sunday, she was wearing her bulletproof vest over her coat.

"Too much it seems, I went to school here. At least it's the end of the season," she smiled, not missing a beat. She glanced at him. "Where's mini-you?"

"Joanna is over there with Gaila, your nephew and your mother," he met Winona Davis when Peter and Joanna starting talking to each other about some video game and the three adults were left to themselves. Gaila gave him a nudge, pointed Jim out and urged him to talk to her, so he went. "You know, your mother doesn't look old enough to be your mother."

"That's because the woman doesn't age," Jim shrugged. "I used to think it was creepy but now I just think I'll be lucky if I got those genetics."

"I bet your dad gets a kick outta that," he said.

"Uh… he's dead."

"I'm really sorry. I had no idea."

"It's okay, you're like the only person around here who doesn't know that," she smiled.

"Still sucks. I lost my father a few years ago. Nothing's been the same since," Leonard sighed. Cancer was a heartless bitch. It didn't matter what treatments his father did or how hard the man fought, cancer still won and David McCoy lost.

"I'm sorry. Were you close?" Jim asked.

"Yea. He's why I became a doctor. I wanted to be just like him," he smiled. The memory of his father watching him graduate from medical was one of his favorites.

"I bet he was proud."

"He was. Funny thing is… this whole 'small town doctor' thing is much more his speed. He'd get such a kick out of this," Leonard said with a chuckle. "What about you? Were you and your dad close?"

"I never met him. My dad died the day I was born, almost twenty-seven years ago. He was responding to a domestic and got shot in the neck trying to get this woman away from her lowlife husband. He was in the OR when mom went into labor and died two minutes after I was born. Some people think he passed his soul to me. As grim as it is, sometimes I think it might be true. I mean, how many geniuses grow up on farms and become cops."

"I'm guessing it's not many. I'm sorry. I can't imagine not knowing my dad. That's… wow."

"Yea," she smiled just as her radio crackled to life. Jim listened for a few moments before she smiled at him. "Gotta go. Fist fights at Quark's are my favorite." She injected so much sarcasm into that sentence, Leonard found it impossible not to laugh. "See ya, Bones."

"Why 'Bones'?" he asked as she walked toward her vehicle.

"Sawbones is slang for a surgeon," Jim called back. "I can't keep calling you Doc because Boyce is Doc, so you're Bones."

"How'd you know I was a surgeon?" Leonard asked as she got into the Charger.

"Oh, Doctor McCoy, you'd be surprised at the things I know."

He was late. In the little more than a month he's been in town, picking Joanna up from school was a simple thing. He didn't schedule any appointments between two-thirty and three-thirty, which wasn't difficult, giving him plenty of time to get to the school, have a snack with his daughter and get back to the clinic, where Jo did her homework in his office or hung out at the first desk with Gaila. Unfortunately, this week has been crazy and now, he was really late. He wanted to blame it on his patient, but the old man couldn't really be faulted for being old or asking a million questions.

"I'll be back," he called to Gaila as he rushed past her and Boyce talking in the reception area.

"She's not at the school anymore," the redhead said.

"What?" Leonard asked, stopping in his tracks and turning to look at her.

"Joanna's not at the school. Jim called when you didn't show up. Since you were with a patient, I told her it was okay to take Joanna to the Kirk Farm, it's right down the road. Jim got called to the station for an emergency, so she's not there anymore but my sister says Joanna can stay as long as you need. She's doing her homework with Pete, then they're gonna help Winona and George with some of the easy chores."

"That's very nice of them," Leonard sighed, the urgency draining out of him. Joanna was fine.

"We all look out for each other around here. Besides, George has a huge soft spot for his sister, he'll do just about anything she asks. Used to drive my sister crazy until Arlene learned to use it to her advantage. The two of them teaming up on him is hilarious."

"I'll bet."

"Here," she handed him a piece of paper with the Kirk Farm number written on it. "If you want to check on Joanna, just call. Somebody usually answers it."

"Thanks, Gaila."

"No problem."

Leonard was genuinely surprised to get an invitation to dinner when he called the Kirk Farm to check on his little girl. Other than school and work, the pair of McCoys had kept to themselves since they moved to town. They weren't trying to be standoffish, he just wanted to get his bearings before he started interacting with people on a personal level. His ex-wife being a cheater might have a little bit to do with it too.

He followed Gaila, who was also going to dinner, down the main road before they turned onto a fairly large property. There were two houses, that he could see, a barn and a few other structures. Looking around some more, he could tell that these weren't the only buildings on the Kirk Farm. He parked his car next to Gaila's and hopped out, taking a better look around as he did.

"It's actually bigger than it looks," Gaila chuckled. "Winona bought the farm next door when we were all in high school and nearly doubled the acreage. Corn's the major crop but they grow wheat and apples too."

"Who lives over there?" he motioned to a house about fifty yards away, on the other side of the barn.

"My sister, George and Pete. Technically, it's Jim and George's property, some provision in their father's will, so it makes sense for them to live here. Jim lives in the house on the other end of the farm. She has a bit more privacy than everyone else since nobody goes over there much."

"That's gotta be nice," he smiled. His neighbors were a bit more nosy than he'd like. He couldn't blame him, he was probably going to be the new guy until someone else moved to town and, according to Gaila, that could take a decade.

"It is. She's been out there since she was seventeen or so and did a lot of the work herself," the redhead shrugged as they walked up the three stairs in front of the house and into the front door. "Honey, I'm home."

"Back here, Gaila," came the voice of Jim's mother from the back of the house. Gaila hung up their jackets before she led him through the warm and welcoming home.

"That smells good," Gaila smiled. "Need help?"

"Nope," a woman, who Leonard figured had to be Arlene thanks to the reddish-brown hair, said as she walked into the room. "We got it… and you can't cook."

"I'm telling mom you said that. She taught me, same as you and I cook just fine," Gaila pouted.

"If you say so, Gigi. Hi, Doctor McCoy, Arlene Kirk," the woman smiled.

"Hi," he said as he looked around.

"She's outside with George and Peter," Arlene told him. How did she know what he was thinking? "I know that look anywhere. She's fine. She even helped me milk the cows."

"Joanna helped you milk a cow?" Leonard asked.

"More than one. She's a quick learner, that one," Winona said.

"That she is," he chuckled. His baby girl is as city as they come so the idea that she milked cows is funny. "I really have to thank y'all…"

"Oh, stop it. That girl can't spend all her after school time with you. I bet you got through your day faster without having to worry about her," the older woman said to him. "She's welcome here with us anytime."

"I might have to take you up on that," Leonard chuckled. She was right, Jo can't be with him all the time, it'll drive them both crazy. "Hadn't really thought about it, to be honest. Can't fault me for wanting to keep an eye on her."

"Protective much," Arlene muttered.

"Considering that my ex-wife cheated on me, dumped me, divorced me, ruined my career, gave up custody to Joanna and didn't even ask for visitation…" he let the sentence drop knowing the three woman understood him.

"Never let Jim meet your ex," Gaila told him.

"That girl has a particular disdain for people who just throw away their children," Arlene sighed.

"Because of her father?" Leonard asked. They all nodded but he could tell there was more to it, especially when this look crossed Winona's features. He wasn't going to ask but he sure as hell wanted to. "Is she like him? Her dad."

"You have no idea," a tall man said as he walked into the room with Joanna and Peter. By process of elimination, Leonard knew that the guy with the same blonde hair and blue eyes as Jim had to be George. "I remember him and Jim… She's so much like dad it's crazy. George Kirk."

"Leonard McCoy but I'm guessing you knew that already."

"I did spend the afternoon with your daughter," George smiled before he ordered the kids to get cleaned up for dinner. Joanna kissed Leonard on the cheek before she ran off, having some conversation with Peter. "She's a good kid."

"I try," Leonard smiled.

"You boys and Gaila need to get cleaned up too," Winona said. "Go."

"Yes, ma'am," was the response the three of them gave her before following the giggling children, Arlene laughing at them the whole time.