"It's really weird that you can't talk," Joanna said. Leonard leaned against the door to her room and watched as Jim braided his little girl's hair for church.

"Can. Just hurts," Jim rasped.

"I'm sorry, Miss Jim," Jo sighed.

"My fault," Jim told Jo.

"How?" his daughter asked.

"She wouldn't stop talking after I told her to rest her voice. Now she's stuck without a voice," he chuckled. Jim glared at him. "Don't look at me like that, I warned you." She raised an eyebrow. "So maybe it was my fault too."

"How?" Joanna asked.

"We had a fight," Leonard half-answered.

"But you're not fighting with each other anymore, right?" Joanna looked at him.

"No, we're not. I doubt Miss Jim would've stayed with us last night if we were," he chuckled.

As much as Jim wanted to go home, Sheriff Pike recommended that should she spend another night with Leonard. After a conversation with Jo, to make sure it was alright with her, Leonard talked Jim into staying with them. Not that he actually had to talk her into it. Jim didn't have it in her to fight with anyone about anything, she just nodded and went with it. After having dinner with the Kirks, plus Scotty and Pavel, Leonard took Jim and Jo home. He had intended to talk to Jim but the three of them fell asleep on the couch.

"Would've," Jim muttered.

"Really?" Leonard asked.

She gave him a nod as she finished Jo's hair and mouthed, "Safe with you."

"Are you getting all sappy on me?" he asked, trying to ignore the warmth that rolled through him since he knows that she doesn't feel safe with a lot of people. Jim rolled her eyes. "I won't tell anybody that Jimmy Kirk is such a girl." She smiled and slowly shook her head. "You can try to kick my butt if it'll make you feel better."

"I'll help you, Miss Jim," Joanna said. Jim and Jo gave each other a fist bump.

"You're supposed to be on my side," Leonard told his daughter.

Joanna shrugged, "Sisters before misters, daddy."

"Here comes trouble," George muttered at the end of Sunday service. Leonard followed his line of sight to the older woman heading their way and let out a quiet groan.

"Leonard. George. It's good to see you fine young men in church," she smiled.

"Misses Erving," both men nodded.

"Where are those sweet babies?" Misses Erving asked.

"They're over there with my sister and the sheriff," George said. Jim stopped to say hi to Pike, Jo and Peter went with her.

"I heard about what happened. I would say that that girl shouldn't be out in that big house all alone," Misses Erving said. "But after that mess with her step-daddy, I can't say I fault her for staying away from people. That man was a piece of work. Always yelling at them and grabbing her by her hair. Well, I don't have to tell George any of this. I still don't think it's safe for Jamison to be without a man in the house to protect her. "

"Actually, I was there and she did a good job of protecting herself," Leonard pointed out. He wasn't touching the sexism of that remark with a ten-foot pole.

Misses Erving looked at him, "You know what I mean, Leonard. I always thought she'd run off with the Leighton boy but she stayed. I don't know why."

"She wanted to stay," George said. Leonard was curious about who they could be talking about but he wasn't going to ask either of the people with him.

"Uh, I should probably collect Jim, Joanna and Peter. It was nice to see you, Misses Erving. George, we'll drop Pete off later," Leonard said with a smile.

"Keep him as long as you want, man," Jim's brother smiled as Leonard practically ran from his neighbor.

"Don't give me that look, Jim," Leonard heard Pike say as soon as he was close enough. "I'm not changing my mind."

"Hate you all," Jim said, her voice barely audible.

"No, you don't and stop talking," Leonard smiled. She looked at him, he could tell that she had something that she wanted to say but knew her voice wouldn't let her. Jim reached into her bag and grabbed her phone. She tapped out a message and sent it to him.

He pulled me from the roster until Thurs. I may not have a voice but that doesn't mean I'm useless and I'm starting to feel that way. What the hell am I gonna do for three days if everyone is bitching about me being in my house and I can't go to work?

"You can hang out with me and Jo," he reminded her.

You have work and she has school.

"No, she has school Monday and Tuesday but not on Wednesday. Clinic's closed this week save for emergencies," the doctor sighed. The original plan was for the clinic to be open during Thanksgiving week but with no appointments scheduled, there wasn't a point. Leonard decided that he'll just make house calls for urgent care but that was it.

Meanwhile, there's a murderer running around and I can't do anything about it.

"You'll catch him, Jim. Maybe the sheriff will let you have copies of everything so you can look it all over while your voice is healing. I'll even help," Leonard said, looking at Pike.

"We can do that," the sheriff nodded. "I can drop everything off at McCoy's later."

"See, that wasn't so hard," Leonard told her. "I know you're chomping at the bit but you need to rest your voice or it won't come back any time soon."

I suppose that means I should just stay at your house.

"Would be safer than you being at home alone without the ability to call for help. It's up to you," Leonard smiled.

You're annoyingly adorable right now.

He smiled, "I know."

"What are you doing?" Leonard asked Jim when he walked into his kitchen. She was sitting at the table with a notebook.

Trying to decide something.

"Like what?" he asked.

Like if I should give you something.

"What would that something be?" Leonard gave her a look. Jim flipped to the back of the notebook and handed him two pieces of paper.

Since I can't talk, you should read this.

"You wrote me a letter?" he asked, trying to figure out just when she had the time for this. Jim nodded and wrote something else in the notebook before turning it so he could see.

I wrote it last week thinking that if I could get it all down I could ignore it so that I could sleep and work. Didn't actually help. I never planned on giving it to you but being without a voice I'm left with few options, this is the best I can do.

"If you want to just wait until you can talk, I won't mind."

I want you to know. I'm a complicated mess who doesn't let people see what's going on in my head. That letter says more than I ever would.

"Should I read it now?" Leonard asked. She shrugged before pointing upstairs and leaving him in his kitchen. He sat down in the seat that she vacated at the table and unfolded the papers, finding Jim's small, neat handwriting in its mix of standard and cursive.

Bones,

Where the hell do I start with this thing? This letter is long overdue since it's all been tumbling around in my brain for weeks but I could never get up the nerve to say any of it. Yes, I'm aware that I talk a lot but you'll notice it's never really about my feelings. Hell, I do a damn good job of keeping those to myself, if I'm being honest. Since this is a piece of paper, I can say whatever I want and you can't do that scowl thing that you do. Well, you can but I don't think it'll have the same effect. Anyway, I decided that writing what I'm thinking would be best. It might be a bit jumbled but that's me. So here goes.

What exactly is a girl to do when a hot doctor moves into town? Drool. Then decide that he's way too good for you and resign yourself to being his friend. Which worked out spectacularly, mind you (That was half sarcastic, just so you know). I honestly don't get how we ended up being so close. I mean, you're really awesome and I'm really not. Some people might actually consider me to be crazy. Most of the time, you probably consider me to be crazy. Not that I blame you because I probably am. God, this harder than I thought.

Silver lining; that I'm not nearly as screwed up as I spent my life thinking I was. Thanks for that, by the way. I mean, I have some friends, don't get me wrong, but none of them were really brave enough to go digging into my psyche. I still haven't figured out why you care but you do and I'm grateful for it. Other than one failed attempt at having a normal relationship, I've never been one to put myself out there. The more someone knows about you, the easier it is to hurt you and I didn't want to give someone that chance. I figured that the best way to keep my heart from being broken was to do all the breaking. Then you happened.

At first I was confused. I didn't really know what I wanted. I didn't know if I wanted to take a chance, which is saying a lot because you know I'll do just about anything at least once. I decided that being your friend would be better for the both of us since we're both a little bit messed up in our own ways, me more than you, but the more time we spent together, the closer we got and it became obvious that this connection we have isn't a fluke. I see the best parts of myself when I'm with you. I'm reminded of the person I could've been before I built all the damn walls I use to protect myself from getting hurt. And I realized that the reason I could never give my heart to someone is because it was always meant for you. Yes, that was sappy as hell but since you aren't actually reading this, I don't care.

You. You are so amazing and I don't even think you realize it. The depth with which you love others, even though you pretend you don't, is nothing short of inspiring. The loyalty that you have for the people you care about is like nothing I've ever seen before. And your integrity is why I have an unending respect for you. Even when you're at your breaking point, you keep going. I wish I was half the person you are sometimes. Then I figure that that would be a bit much so the idea goes away. You understand what I'm saying, at least, I hope so. You, Leonard Horatio McCoy, are quite possibly the best person I know.

I take that back, you're the second best. Joanna has you beat, hands down. I guess that's your fault too. She's so much like you it's insane. I love watching you together. You're so loving and patient with her and she looks at you like you slayed all the dragons and hung the stars in the sky. As someone who never got the chance to meet my father, I know how important your relationship with each other is. I'm grateful for every minute of it that I get to see.

I can admit that I'm kind of terrified (I get scared a lot more than I like to admit) writing this but I figured you should know. I don't know what to do about the feelings of wholeness and happiness that I feel when you're close. Usually I just say whatever randomness I can to fill silences but I think you've started to figure that out too. While I have some idea of what your feelings might be, I don't actually know. Just do me a favor; don't tell me until you're ready to.

Jim

Leonard had to read the letter twice before any of it sunk in. She loves him. Not that she wrote those exact words in the letter but he didn't need to be a genius to read between the lines. Jim, who doesn't open up to anyone, poured her heart out to him. What's more, it wasn't the random bullshit that usually comes flying out of her mouth. Leonard glanced at the kids in the living room playing a video game before he went upstairs.

Jim was laying along the bottom of his bed, her eyes were closed and she had a heat pack on her neck. He stared at her for a long moment. She had changed her clothes, looking much more comfortable in jeans than she did in the skirt she wore to church. Jim's hands were resting on her stomach and she was tapping out something with her fingers before she grabbed her phone and typed something. His phone beeped.

Not nice to stare.

"It's not like you didn't know I was here. Throat bothering you?" he asked, stepping into the room and sitting down next to her head. She tapped out a message and showed it to him.

Not too bad. Jim smiled, her eyes opening. Hi

"Hey, darlin'. I read your letter."

Figured. Too long for me to say at the moment. Not that I actually would. I'm not that brave.

This sucked. Part of Jim's charm is that she never stops talking. She mutters things to herself or goes off on tangents when her brain runs away with her thoughts. Right now, she was practically muzzled and not only did it make her miserable but he missed hearing her normal voice. Leonard couldn't help but feel responsible and it must've been written all over his face. She poked his leg.

Not your fault, Bones.

"If I remember correctly, I made you talk to me," Leonard said with a small smile.

Jim let out a snort. Can't make me do anything. Big girl, could've said no. Just didn't want to.

"You are a stubborn little shit," he chuckled.

Like that's news to you... or anyone in the county. She smiled at him before sending another message. You okay?

"Why wouldn't I be?" Leonard asked.

You were worried about me.

"That's not really new. I'm not too worried at the moment, though. You're here, you're more or less alright. You love me," he sighed. Jim's eyes widened and she opened her mouth. "Don't. You didn't have to say it. What I can't figure out is why you went out with that Finney guy."

Lonely. Jim shrugged. I was around you all the time and it was like torture. Tried to be normal. Didn't work. You're amazing and I'm a mess. A pathetic mess with trust and abandonment issues.

"Not pathetic. We all have our problems. At least you weren't in denial," Leonard pointed out.

So, what now?

"Since neither of us is working tomorrow, how about we do something?"

Like a date?

"Yea, a date. What do you say?" he asked.

I can't say anything. Doctor's orders.

"You know what I mean, smartass."

I would love to go on a date with you, Bones.