A/N: Just one more chapter to go after this one, so sorry for spamming your inboxes today.

Confrontation

Somehow, the brains on the ship managed to cook some spectacular plan how to get close enough to Narada (that was name of the Romulan ship as he learnt). The intricacies of the plan are 'get on the ship', 'find Pike' and last but not least 'find a way how to destroy that motherfucking future ship'. It had been decided that only Spock and Jim will transport on Narada. Sulu was handed the conn. "If you'll see tactical advantage, take it," said Jim to him, Sulu nodding gravely. The ship was sneaking to system Solu, hiding behind planets, so Romulan's sensors wouldn't see them.

Time to leave for Narada came. Leonard was a bit surprised that when he run to the transport room, there had been Uhura and Spock kissing. Ugh. Brain bleach was definitely on program later. Jim just stood there, looking slightly uncomfortable, until he saw Leonard coming up to him.

"Hey," Leonard said softly, when he was in arm reach. "Thought you could use someone to tell you come back in one piece."

"Thanks, Bones," he responded with a grateful smile, although he made sure no one else can really see that. "I know you would miss all the excitement I bring into your life, so keep the dinner warm for me, darling!" he added in his usual style, grinning about the way it made Leonard grumble something about idiots. Before he could think about it too much, he stepped close and hugged Jim tightly. The kid tensed for a moment, before he hugged him back.

"So return in one piece, kid," Leonard whispered. Breaking the embrace, he gave Jim his patented scowl and growled: "because if you return in more pieces, I will sew them all together only so I can kill you afterwards, ya hear?"

Jim just nodded and then he and Spock were enveloped in the white light, sending their atoms through space right to Narada. Uhura run to bridge, he back to sickbay. Too soon there was some spaceship acrobatics, which left them in the middle of nowhere; shooting at Narada, all of them praying it would be enough. He was monitoring the communication, so when Jim shouted "Scotty, beam us up – NOW!" he was already jumping to his feet, yelling at medical emergency team to come with him to transport.

There was no time to really take a look at Jim or Spock, his hands full with preparing Pike for emergency surgery. He only heard 'Centurian slug' and knew they had to act quickly, before even more damage could be done. The thrashing of the whole ship few moments later was something he could definitely live without, as it tended to make things more difficult, even if he wasn't performing spinal surgery. But even if he finished Pike, there was no rest for him – as soon as he finished, there were several other patients who became critical in the last few hours. He only had time to rescrub.

When he finally made his way to the Bridge to yell at all the idiots who had been working non-stop as long as himself and got Jim to Sickbay, he looked just as bad as Leonard himself felt; tired, bruised and sore. He only croaked: "Hello to you, too, Bones," before wincing in obvious pain.

Leonard almost manhandled him towards the biobed. "Sit," he ordered, while scanning Jim. Massive bruising on neck - which definitely made it very hard to breathe, dammit, Jim, why took it you so long to come, bruised and cracked ribs, strained wrists, pulled muscles, countless abrasions…

Jim had been strangely silent during the assessment and during all the hypos Leonard gave him. Usually, he bitched non-stop about his lacking bedside manner, about the hypos being stabbed into his neck too viciously, and really, Bones, is this necessary, see, I'm completely fine. This time – nothing. He just sat there, his head down, shoulders slumped and overall looking like child who did bad and was to be scolded.

He quietly laid the protoplaser on the small medical trolley, before turning back to Jim. "Jimbo," he called quietly, "what's wrong?"

There had been no answer for a moment. When Jim finally raised his hand to return Leonard's gaze, he was dragging each move. "Sorry, Bonesy," he said, "too tired to be as much of a pain in the ass as you know me."

"Care to tell me what happened back on Narada?" he asked, while preparing next batch of hypos. Jim nodded and started telling him what they had done on the Romulan ship. "So, we transported to Narada, right in the sight range of a bunch of Romulans…"

"Holy smoke, Jim!" he exclaimed later, when Jim told him about being choked by Nero and Ayel, "why didn't you come to see me sooner? Any strangulation injuries are damn dangerous; it's a miracle you are still breathing!"

Something in Jim face made him stop his you-are-such-an-idiot tirade. "Jim?"

"Leonard," Jim said, in seriousness unusual for him, "do you believe in me?"

Part of Leonard had been deadly afraid of this question, expecting something like this to come ever since the scene at the bridge. First was letting him get nerve-pinched by Spock and marooned on Delta Vega. And then the whole "Great – now we do not have any Captain, or the First Officer. And hell, you gotta be kidding me, Jim!" scene…

Jim's eyes were once again full of stars, dimmed by exhaustion and hurt. And also full of fragility, which Jim usually didn't show much. He saw him looking like that only once – right after his first try at Kobayashi Maru. They both got terribly drunk back then. Now, they couldn't. Jim was the Acting Captain and he was the Chief Medical Officer, at least until they got to Earth. He will have to repair Jim without the help of his most trusted bourbon, and renew the trust they had between themselves before.

"Jim, he spoke quietly, as I speaking to a distressed child, laying a comforting hand on Jim's shoulder. "You know me. I complain too much, I drink too much. I'm generally pain in the ass too much. I used to be a looser, too. But Jim," he forced Jim to look him in the eyes again, "you were the one who showed me that there are much more win scenarios, if I happen to be willing to risk for a bit. So yeah, I believe in you, even if the recent events do not show the trust."

"You let them maroon me on Delta Vega, Bones," said Jim, accusation clearly sounding in his voice, making Leonard wince.

"I know," he nodded after a second of hesitation. "I know I should stand by my friend, especially since he never had been proven wrong, if he had a hunch about anything. But Jim," he lowered his voice, "I had medbay full of wounded people. As much as I didn't agree with that pointy-eared hobgoblin, I couldn't let myself get kicked off the ship with you. It was enough that he didn't throw me in the brig after the yelling I gave him on the bridge afterwards."

Jim let his eyes wander around the sickbay. Most of the broken parts of Enterprise had already been removed or at least repaired with the little resources they had. The patients who didn't necessarily needed to be monitored all the time were released to their cabins, only the critical ones staying in medbay, several of the nurses checking their vitals while making lists of what resources they had left. The most critical patient had been Captain Pike.

"How is he?" he asked, nodding his head in direction of the man. Leonard sighed. "That depends on your point of view, kid. He will live – but there is no estimate about how well he recovers from that Centurian slug I removed from his brain-stem."

The blonde just nodded before yawning. "So tired, Bones," he mumbled, "but I can't sleep. Do you think you could give me something to make me sleep?

"Kid," he said apologetically, "I would give you something – but right now, your body could react badly to it, after all the stimulants and other things I pumped in you in the last few days."

"'s okay," Jim mumbled, "'s not like I have a place to sleep, after all."

That had really startled Leonard. "What do you mean that you have no place to sleep?"

Jim gave him a sardonic grin. "You forgetting, Bones, that first of all, I'm not even supposed to be here. Stowaway, remember?"

"Well, then you are going to sleep here," blurted Leonard. Yes, Jim sleeping in sickbay would definitely make his life easier, since he wouldn't have to worry about the kid being completely alone in somewhere else, while he is stuck to sickbay for Lord knows how long.

Jim gave him another blank stare before he nodded. To Leonard's surprise, Jim let him help to prepare for sleep, allowing the older man to lay him on the bio bed.

Leonard turned around to look for a blanket when Jim's sleepy voice stopped him: "Bones… do you think Frank will be glad…?"

He didn't have to say anything more. Will Frank be glad to hear from his nephew? Will he be glad to know that the idiot of a nephew is alive?

"Ya bet he will, kid, ya bet he will," he said quietly, small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. For all the devil-may-care attitude he really was just a kid sometimes, thought Leonard fondly, as he unfolded the spare blanket, laying in over Jim. Resting his hand on Jim's shoulder shortly, he allowed himself a small smile. "Sleep well, Jimbo. I got you."

And this time, he won't leave him.