"What is with you and the damn Beastie Boys?" Leonard asked in the car.

"You woke me up and dragged me out of my house in the middle of November, the least you can do is let me listen to whatever the fuck I want for a while," Jim said with an eye roll.

"Twenty minutes, then I'm changing it," he told her.

"Fine by me," she shrugged. Leonard watched her out of the corner of his eye as she bobbed her head and quietly sang along. "My dad." He gave her a quick look. "The answer to your question is my dad liked the Beastie Boys. There's a crawl space behind the closet in Sam's old room and I found this cassette of Licensed to Ill. Sam told me that it was our dad's but that I was too young to listen to it. I listened anyway and now, I'm a lifelong fan."

"My dad was a Billy Joel fan. And not the dozen or so songs that everybody knows, the sad, depressing stuff."

"So that's why you're grumpy," Jim smiled.

"Hey. I'm not…"

"You are. Like to the point where people ask me about it."

"People talk about me?" Leonard asked.

"It's a small town, we all talk about each other," she chuckled. "You are the focus of a lot of rumors."

"Do I wanna know?"

"There are some about Gaila, others about your marriage and, of course, a bunch about me."

"Like what?"

"Umm… Okay, so you know how I spent the night at your house after we got our Mulder and Scully on?" Jim asked. He gave her a nod. "Gaila called me as soon as I left. Misses Erving saw my car and told everyone who listen that we fucked each other."

"You're kidding," he chuckled.

"I wish."

"Sweet Misses Erving who lives across the street from me?"

"Yes, that sweet Misses Erving. She told me that I need to stop sinning and to leave you be because you need a Godly woman to help you take care of your daughter," she told him.

"What!?" Leonard chuckled. "She did not."

"Oh, yes she did. I was talking to Pavel, one of Spock's students who helps out on the farm year-round, his cute little face turned bright red. He was sputtering in his adorable Russian accent, it was hilarious."

"That's it. I'm moving to… California," he laughed.

"No, you can't go. Don't leave me with those people," Jim said, her hands wrapping around his arm.

"You can come with me if you want."

"Why didn't you bring Jo on this trip? I mean, I'm sure she'd get a kick outta something like this, right?" Jim asked as they had a late breakfast in Dubuque, Iowa, on the west bank of Mississippi River at the Iowa/Illinois and Iowa/Wisconsin borders.

"You mean other than the fact that she's at school?" he smiled. Riverside Elementary was still closed but the kids were using the extra spaces in the high school. Jim nodded and made a motion with her hand to continue. "I wanted to spend some time with you without her."

"Uh…"

"Don't. It's not like that."

"You mean, you don't like me?" she asked.

"I never said that," Leonard sighed and he could almost feel himself blush. "Look, I'm trying to be a friend and talk without having to edit for little ears."

"So, this trip is about me and not you?" Jim gave him a look.

"That's what I said."

"And what if I don't believe you?"

"Why wouldn't you?"

"Because I'd bet that you haven't taken a break since you got married. As a matter of fact, your one-and-a-half-day trip to Georgia is the first time you've taken off work in a decade, excluding the whole mess with your ex, sick days and Joanna's birth," she told him. He gave her a look. "You were working the day she was born, weren't you?"

"She was almost two weeks early, my leave hadn't started yet," he chuckled. "How do you do that?"

"It's my superhero ability," Jim smiled. "Face it, Bones, you need a break just as much, if not more, then I do."

"I guess."

"I don't guess, I know. The truth is out there."

"Whatever you say, Mulder."

"So, where are we going, Agent Scully?"

"I don't know. My vote is east," Leonard said, opening the map on his phone. They could take US-151-N to Madison, Wisconsin or they could take US-20-E and I-90-E to Chicago. Madison was closer but Leonard's never been to the Windy City before, not including sitting around O'Hare International. "How does Chicago sound to you?"

"Oooo, Chicago's good. After we go to the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium around the corner," she said with a smirk, her phone in her hand.

"Okay, I pick the next stop after that."

"Deal."

"Why do you have a problem with Prince? How do you have a problem with Prince?" Jim asked like he was crazy.

"I don't not like Prince, I'm just not a fan. He's okay," Leonard shrugged from the passenger seat.

"Okay? He's arguably one of the best musicians to ever live. What is wrong with you?" she groaned. "I'm seriously reevaluating our friendship."

"Over Prince? You would stop being my friend over Prince?" he gave her a look.

Jim didn't say anything for a second, then she glanced at him. "Thoughts on the Raspberries?"

"Who?" Leonard replied. Jim glanced at him with a look of shock on her face. "Before her love, I was cruel and mean. I had a hole in the place, where my heart should have been. But now I've changed. And it feels so strange. I come alive when she does all those things to me. And she says…"

"Please, go all the way. It feels so right, being with you here tonight," she smiled as she sang a few lines of the old song. "We can stay friends."

"So, that was the deal breaker?" he asked.

"Yes," Jim chuckled. "No, I'm just kidding. I wouldn't stop being friends with you no matter how questionable I find your taste in music to be. Really, who else has the balls to walk into my office and threaten to sedate me while I'm armed? Or show up in my bedroom and tell me what to do on my day off? Chris isn't even that brave and the man is practically my dad. Face it, you got everyone beat."

"Damn straight."

"I still think you're an idiot for not liking Prince," she smiled.

"Well, I don't care what you think."

"I don't believe that for one second, Bonesy."

"I don't care what you believe," Leonard chuckled.

"Yes you do," Jim said. "You care a lot more than you want to."

"Maybe," he sighed. "Or maybe I just care more than you're used to."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You're very good at keeping people, even your friends, at arm's length. But you said it yourself; I know more about you than most people do, including some of your family. I don't think that's an accident. You've sorta been on your own since you were little. Other than George and Chris, nobody ever really bothered to give a damn but I do and you can't figure out why."

"So, tell me."

"I don't know."

"You don't know if you should tell me?" she asked.

"No. I don't know why I care so damn much," Leonard sighed. He did know, he just wasn't brave enough to admit it. Jim glanced at him for a second and he had the distinct feeling that she knew he was lying his ass off but she didn't call him out. "Just know that I do."

"I know."

"Come on, Bones," Jim smiled.

"No," he told her.

"Don't be a baby, this was your idea," she chuckled.

"No. Chicago was my idea. Willis Tower was your idea," Leonard pointed out. "I'm not going out there."

"It's just a clear floor," Jim said.

How she talked him into going up to Skydeck, he'll never know. Well, he does know; she held his hand in both of hers, did a little pout and bat her eyelashes at him. Like a sucker, he said yes to going up to the 103rd floor of Willis Tower. However, Leonard drew the line at going out on what most people call The Ledge, the clear balcony boxes overlooking Chicago.

"Not gonna do it," he shook his head. "I have acrophobia. You know what that means?"

"Yes, it's an extreme and irrational fear of heights. You also have aviophobia and yet, you still manage to get in an airplane. More than one, actually."

"Jim…"

"Fine, can you at least take my picture?" she sighed, holding out her phone. Leonard took a step closer to grab the device when Jim's other hand shot out, wrapped around his wrist and pulled him into the glass box. "Can't believe you fell for that."

"I swear to God, Jim. This is not funny."

"It is funny because you're perfectly fine, Bonesy. I would never let anything happen to you and you know it. Besides, there's an amazing view. Open your eyes and look."

"I hate you."

"You couldn't hate me if you tried," Jim said. Leonard could get away from her if he really wanted to but he found himself rooted to this spot and it had nothing to do with the amazing view that he cracked his eyes open to see. The feeling of Jim's body pressed against his back, her arms wrapped around him, hands resting on his stomach and her chin on his shoulder was not something that he would forget anytime soon.

"That was still mean," Leonard whispered.

"You'll get over it. Just… look at that view. It's not the same from over there."

He intertwined his fingers with Jim's, "No, I guess it's not."

"You don't have to walk me to my door, Bones."

"Did you ever consider that I'm a gentleman and walking a lady to her door is a habit that I have no intention on shaking?" he smiled. After grabbing dinner in Chicago, because you can't go to Chicago without getting pizza, they made the three-and-a-half-hour drive back to Riverside, bickering about music the whole time.

"That would imply that I'm a lady. Misses Erving made it very clear that I'm not," Jim chuckled.

"She doesn't know what the hell she's talking about because I see a lady."

"You should tell her that," she smiled.

"Just might. Is she really that nosy?" Leonard asked.

"She really is. Be careful about your outside activities or the whole town will hear about it."

"Good to know. I should probably go get Jo."

"You know, it's late. She's probably asleep," Jim pointed out.

"Probably. I should still go," he smiled. "And you should get inside. It's cold."

"Only because you're such a southerner," she said before she pressed a quick kiss against his cheek. "Goodnight, Bones."

"Goodnight, Jim," Leonard said. He watched her go into the house before he headed back to his car.

Okay, so a kiss on the cheek probably doesn't mean anything, especially since Jim is a little on the touchy-feely side. But she doesn't go around kissing people, on the cheek or otherwise. Leonard was trying not to read too much into it when his phone rang. Except, it wasn't his phone, it was Jim's phone in the center console.

"Lieutenant Kirk's phone," he answered when he saw that the call was from the station.

"Doctor McCoy?" Sheriff Pike was understandably surprised.

"Yea."

"Why do you have Jim's phone?"

"She left it in my car," Leonard answered honestly. "I'm outside her house. Gimme a minute and you can talk to her." Leonard hopped out of the car and jogged up the handful of stairs before giving the door a quick knock. He heard a crash, like something got knocked over. "Jim, you alright?" he called as he opened the door. Then he heard someone -who wasn't Jim- yell. "Jim!" he called again.

"What's going on?" Pike asked but Leonard wasn't paying him any attention. He rushed into the kitchen just as he heard gunshots.

"Jim!"

"I'm fine," she croaked as she pulled a rope from around her neck, gun still in her hand and pointed at the back door.

"Sheriff, I think you better get over here," Leonard said into the phone before hanging it up and tossing it on the table. "Are you okay?" There was glass all over the kitchen floor and she was bleeding from a few different places, including her head. He grabbed the towel off the counter and held it against her wound. "Jim, are you okay?"

"Depends on how we're defining 'okay'."

AN: Dun dun duuuuuun! The plot thickens, as they say.

Jim and Bones are singing Go All The Way by The Raspberries. If you get the chance to listen to it, you'll find the lyrics are very Jim/Bones.

Edit: April 22, 2016. Oh, my heart. I wrote this story before Prince passed away and I cannot express how much he influenced me to just create the things you want to create and not give a damn about what other people say about it. He will be sorely missed.