The kid found him leaning against one of the old McCoy peach trees. Its leaves and stems had drooped downwards due to the sheer weight of the ripe peaches that covered the tree. They oddly reflected his mood. He felt as if the whole world was weighing down on him.

He watched as the kid sank down beside him. "Hey," the kid whispered. He pressed a cold glass of what Leonard assumed to be iced tea into his hands. Leonard drank it greedily. He hadn't realized just how thirsty he was,

The kid didn't press or prod. They sat there in silence. The stars twinkled with all their might over the polluted Georgian sky.

It was Leonard who broke the silence. "You probably know what I did." He shifted his gaze to the main house. He could already hear the sirens whining in the distance. It would be too late, too late to prevent a son from killing his own father. He wondered if he had just damned himself for eternity. "Anyone can put two and two together."

"I ain't going to judge you Bones. You did what you thought was right. No one's going to blame you."

Leonard ran his hands over the glass. "I murdered my father, Jim." It was first time he called the kid Jim outside of introductions.

"You let him keep his dignity. That's more than what most people could say."

They watched as the house lit up from the siren's glow. They could see the outline of a body bag being transported out of the house and then being loaded into the awaiting ambulance. He saw his mother being lead out of the house. He knew eventually he would have to play the part of the dutiful son. However, at that moment all he wanted to do was sit next to Jim, Jim who didn't judge him and seemed to know how he felt. His mother would hate him once she found out what he had done.

When his mother rejected the autopsy, he felt sick. "There was no mystery, Doctor. My husband was sick with an incurable disease. We all knew his time could come at any moment." His mother had said those words with more willpower than he thought she was capable of. Leonard didn't know whether to let out a sigh of relief or become further consumed with guilt. His father would be buried. His mother would never know her own son had aided in his father's death. Only Jim knew.

It was the day after they had buried his father in the McCoy plot that the news hit the airwaves 'Cure for Pyrrhoneuritis Found'. It was the cruelest irony that the world could dish out to him. He couldn't bear to see his mother's face. She commed him the moment the news broke out. "If only he could have hung on for another two weeks." She didn't blame him for not finding the cure. She was just too grief stricken and wanted to lash out at the world.

However, to Leonard it felt like the greatest punch to the gut. He called in all his sick days and locked himself in his study surrounded by his large collection of alcohol and outdated food synthesizer. By the end of the week, Jocelyn had given up attempting to get him to leave the room. She didn't understand. She couldn't understand, for she didn't know what he had done. In her eyes, she just thought that Leonard was grief stricken. She had never been close to her parents. After their wedding, the delicate relationship she with her parents had all but fell apart. Her harsh words sliced through the locked door. "Stop being so immature! It ain't always about you Leonard. Even now Joanna's crying and all you can do lock yourself in your study."

After another week, in his drunken haze he vaguely recalled Jocelyn yelling through the locked door that she taking Joanna to her friend's house. She sounded tired and at her wit's end.

When Jim finally broke through the lock, he wondered why it had taken the kid so long.

"Go away, Kid." Leonard mumbled.

"No Bones. Enough is enough."

"I don't want your pity Jim. I don't want a damn lecture either."

"I ain't here to give you either Bones."

"Then what the fuck do you want?"

Jim picked up one of his empty bourbon bottles. He tossed it into the recycler.

"It's not too late Bones."

Leonard snorted out a delirious chuckle. "I thought you were a genius, Kid."

"Nobody blames you, Bones."

"That's because nobody knows. I was stupid and selfish. I was tired of working long hours. I was tired of the fucking medical board giving me shit. It was too easy to give in. I should have fought him, Jim."

"You ain't selfish, Bones. That ain't why you did it, and you fucking know it." It was the first time Jim had ever cursed. He stepped in front of Leonard, blocking any escape paths he could possibly take. "You did it to preserve his dignity. He was in pain. You gave him salvation."

"How you know I did it only 'cause I hated missing out on Jo's life?"

"Because you ain't that type of person, Bones."

"And how do you know that?"

"I know Bones. You know the love Jocelyn and Joanna have for you. You knew that they would understand."

Leonard laughed bitterly. He passed Jim the PADD that was sitting on the table next to him. The same PADD he had used to murder his father. He watched from the corner of his eyes as the kid's eyes widened. Jim set the PADD down. "It ain't too late Bones. You can still fix this."

"I don't think I can, Jim. Some things aren't fixable." He had been wondering for a while now when Jocelyn would serve him the divorce papers. He had been gambling with time on two regards and lost them both.

"That's bull, Bones and you know it." The kid lightly jabbed him in the chest. "I'm going to help you win Jocelyn back."

"And how are you planning on doing that?"

The kid picked up another one of the bottles. He tossed it into the recycler. "Jim Kirk's Ten Step Plan to Perfection." He smiled cocky. "First step, we got to get you and the house cleaned up." He wrinkled his nose. "You wreak, Bones."

It turned out the kid really was serious. He even seemed a little miffed when they completed step three and were sitting on his patio swing each holding iced teas.

"I thought you were joking."

"I never joke, Bones."

Leonard ran his fingers over the glass. He looked up at Jim. The kid had turned away and was looking into the distance. It was times like these that Leonard really wondered about the other man. Jim seemed to always give and give and never want anything in return. The more Leonard thought the more he realized he really knew nothing about the kid. Jim Kirk had literally tumbled into his life, and after a short conversation at the hospital Leonard had invited him into his house. He let the question he really wanted to ask 'who are you?' be replaced by the more selfish questions of "Why are you helping me?"

Jim turned around. He bit his lower lip. "Somebody has too." It seemed like such a strange answer, and Leonard knew that wasn't even true.