The shuttle landed after two smooth hours of flying. Bones had kept his death grip on his strap the entire time, though, looking pale and as if he were two seconds away from carrying through on his promise and vomiting all over the floor. Jo had passed out about an hour into the flight, her head lolling towards her chest to rest against her toy.

Jim had tucked her blanket in, a habit he supposed. After that, he could hardly take his eyes off of Bones, had watched every emotion flicker over that pinched face. He still couldn't quite believe he was staring at him again, after so long and everything that had happened. It was quite possibly the hardest thing he had ever done, not reaching over and touching Bones; not making sure that the man who sat on the other side of his sleeping daughter was the man he had parted with in New Orleans.

Every once in a while, Bones would open his eyes just long enough to glance at Joanna with unfathomable eyes, before he looked up at Jim. Each time he met Jim's gaze a different emotion stared at him, anger, confusion, sadness, sometimes even longing. It was mostly anger and sadness, though. Jim met them as best he could, trying to convey…god, anything, anything at all. He knew he didn't succeed that well.

Jim was quite aware of the fact that nothing he said could ever properly explain all of this to Bones. He didn't even know where to begin trying. How could he even try to explain something this huge? Everything he had done had made sense to him. There had been no contact, because there had never been any contact information exchanged. No names had been exchanged in their three days together. Jim hadn't known here Bones lived, and the doctor hadn't known where he lived.

He had never tried to find Bones, though he had briefly considered it. Joanna had half of Bones' DNA and that would have narrowed the potential men. He knew Bones was a doctor from the southeast, and that he had travelled through hospital expenses to attend a medical seminar. He very well may have eventually found Bones, knowing all of those variables, even though it may have taken a year or two. He had decided not to try, though.

He had made the conscious and, at the time, very logical choice to raise Joanna on his own. He had made the choice to never tell Bones. It wasn't that he hadn't thought Bones would come through, or that Bones wouldn't want to have her, but he had been married. Bones had made the choice to go back to his wife and try to make things work with her. Jim hadn't wanted to help ruin the chances. He thought that if he ever found Bones, telling him about their daughter would destroy the doctor's marriage.

It had all made sense, but looking back on it, in the moments between when Bones would look at him with those hurt almost-green eyes, all of his reasons, all of his logic sounded hollow. He felt selfish, like he had hidden their daughter from the other man and that wasn't what he had intended.

However, in the light of seeing him again, he began to wonder what he would have done had they exchanged actual names or known where the other lived. He wondered about his own integrity. Whether, if he had had all of that information at his disposal, he would have told Bones about Joanna. There still would have been the fact that Bones was married, and he had tried to be an adult about their parting. He still didn't think he would have called.

It was a double-edge sword. On one side, he really had thought about the consequences, and had honestly held Bones' marriage at a higher priority. On the other side, he had withheld Bones' choice to know his child; he had made the decision to withhold that choice.

Because of these factors, he may as well sign himself up for a thorough tongue-lashing and possibly having the one person he had ever wanted to have a lasting relationship with hate him. This was going to be fantastic.

Jim helped untangle Jo from her seatbelt, though she had it almost all the way off by the time Jim had unclasped his own restraints. Even in her half asleep state, Jo was better at getting out of almost every sort of fastening. She waited for him in her seat, while he reached under to grab their bags.

He was more than aware that Bones was waiting for him, too, watching, probably glaring at Jim's back. When Jim came back up, he met Bones' stare, keeping quiet and refusing to move until everyone else had left the shuttle. When, finally, the last person had left, he took a deep breath.

"Look, I know what you must think of me," he tried.

Bones shook his head, vehemently. "You don' know sh-" he stopped, remembering Jo, who looked impatient to get up and move again. He swallowed the curse. "You don't know what I'm thinking."

He stared at their daughter, and Jo wiggled under the scrutiny. Jim held his tongue until he could think of something appropriate to say. He had known this conversation wouldn't be comfortable, but Christ, this was a lot more difficult than he thought it would be.

"What's her name?" he asked quietly, sadly. There was a soft snort. "Jesus, what's your name?"

"Her name's Joanna," he answered, feeling his heart contracting inside his chest as Bones seethed silently and just a little brokenly. He really hadn't meant it to come to this. "And I'm Jim Kirk."

"McCoy. Leonard McCoy."

Jim cracked a half-hearted smile. "I like 'Bones' better."

The doctor finally tore his gaze away from their daughter, flashing up to Jim. Before he could regret making a joke right in the middle of probably the most serious conversations he would ever have, Bones cracked just hint of a smile, longing in his eyes this time. "So do I, Jim," he said honestly. He scrubbed at his face tiredly, shoving one of his hands through his hair, making it look even wilder. "I really don't want to have this conversation on this death trap."

Jim nodded, but then remembered. "I've gotta meet Captain Pike."

"Jim, we have to talk!" he growled, causing Jo to look up at him with a small glare of her own. She didn't like it when people talked meanly.

"I know that, Bones!" he snapped back, momentarily forgetting that Bones didn't know he wasn't running away. He picked up Jo's blanket from her lap, folding it over his arm so she wouldn't trip over it on her way down the stairs. "Pike is helping me get some things settled. I need to talk to him about rooming, and daycare centers and I need to find out if there's some system for cadets who need employment. I promise we will talk, but…"

"I'll go with you," Bones cut in.

"Bones…" Jim was honestly at a loss of what to say, but Bones didn't need to follow him.

Bones swallowed, looking angry, tired, but more than that, ashamed. "Kid," he said, and though the nickname irked Jim now, it brought back a lot of good memories. "I walked away from you for a woman who just took the whole damn planet from me in a divorce I knew was coming, even then. And though I am…really livid right now, I'm not letting you out of my sight. I made that mistake once." His eyes went back to Joanna, who was holding onto her sehlat with a pout on her face. "Look where that got me."

Jim blinked. "You're divorced?"

"As of about a week ago, give or take a few days." Bones eyes met his and some of the anger was back, but Jim was beginning to doubt who it was all directed towards. He didn't doubt that quite a bit of it went to him, but he wondered if it was all directed at him. "I left her about four months ago, though. She was sleeping with my best friend."

Jim snared the hateful remark he wanted to make about both his ex-wife and his best friend. Mostly he wanted to ask if this was a dream, because this was way too much to handle all at once. He was enlisting in Starfleet, Bones and he had been reunited in the simplest of terms, but beyond that, Bones was not only accepting this bomb of a meeting between him and his daughter, but he was single too. Jim's mind was reeling. There was too much to think about and consider.

He was almost relieved when Pike came out of the cockpit, slowing in his long stride when he saw the two of them still in their seat, Joanna waiting impatiently between them.

"Ride's over, kids. You'll have to get back in line if you want another one," he said with a small confused look on his face.

+ststst+

When Pike had said that he would get Jim started in the right direction, what he actually meant was 'I will give you neon lights to guide by.' He had taken them from the Academy's hangar bay, through endlessly winding halls in the administration offices, until they were at his plush office, seated in even nicer chairs, with Joanna on Jim's lap holding onto her toy and their bags on the floor beside him. Bones chose to stand, leaning against the old fashions hinged-oak door that had been shut after they entered.

Captain Pike personally handled his and Bones' registration forms, as well as their testing dates. Jim needed to find his 'niche' as Pike had called it, though the captain was almost positive that he would be in the Tactical track. He also thought Jim should test and see which classes he would automatically be able to clip out of his mandatory curriculum, since he had made it so clear he was getting out of the Academy in three years. Bones had to take the test to find out exactly where to place him in the regular Starfleet Medical track for human, as well as how extensive his knowledge of Xeno-anatomy and physiology was.

They were both scheduled for the following Monday to take all of their placement tests, but Pike had worked them both opposite each other. Jim would be taking his first placement test at nine, Bones would have his first at noon, Jim again at three, and Bones' last one would be at five. How he had worked it out that perfectly, Jim would never know, but he was pretty sure Christopher Pike was bordering on godhood at this Academy.

Jim had only briefly worried about the plan of action, but with one glance at Bones he knew that it would be no problem. Bones would gladly watch Joanna while he took his tests. When he looked at Pike the man gave him a discreet but professional glance that all but asked, 'you doubt my awesomeness?'

He worked out rooming for both quickly and efficiently in a manner nearly too good to be true. He had given Jim and Joanna a two room suite and Bones a single suite after a five minute vidcall to the Head of Housing. All he had given were extenuating circumstances for Jim, and told the woman on the other end that the doctor was well past needing a roommate, and since Pike had already checked and noticed that she still had about ten single-suites left in the medical dorms, it shouldn't be too much of a problem for McCoy to have one.

He had told them both that it would be best for them to take their placement tests before trying to enroll in any classes, and the same with either of them looking for a job. Depending on how high their scores were, and he had no doubt they would be phenomenal, the Academy could find them jobs that would automatically work around their schedules, some of which could be counted as electives.

The Academy didn't offer care centers as part of the package, but the student board always had postings for people willing to watch children for whoever the hell had them. And if that wasn't enough and Jim would prefer something more professional, Pike even gave him a listing of some of the close children's centers.

He had given them both a padd, with maps of the academy grounds, access to the student web-board, basics about San Francisco, and general information about the rules of the academy. He had also handed them Starfleet issue communicators, pre-programmed with his various contacts, the contact for their individual residential assistants as well as the Head of Housing, and information center.

The captain had thought of everything for them both, having recruited both of them, as Jim found out ten minutes into the meeting, and he had been pulling strings for both of them, Jim was positive. They were out of his office in two hours, with the promise their uniforms would be waiting for them on Monday, and that he would be their counselor for their time at Starfleet, or until he was given his ship, which, surprise, was the Enterprise.

When they were outside of the office, after Pike had told them to see him about their schedules on Tuesday, they stood for an awkward moment. Jim had Jo's hand in his, their bags thrown over his shoulder, while Bones had his hands stuffed into his coat pockets. They stared at each other for a drawn out moment, searching for a safe topic of conversation until they could have the one that really needed to be had.

When he could find nothing better to say, Jim adjusted the bags on his shoulder. "I'm going to go set our things down in our rooms and then find somewhere to take Jo for lunch. You, uh…you wanna join us," he asked, both hopeful and dreading Bones' answer.

The doctor hesitated for maybe a second, his face pinching into an almost scowl, before nodding. "Yeah, I'll meet you on the quad."

Jim nodded too, unsure of what to say, so he tugged Jo's hand and turned towards the exit that would be closest to where their suite would be located. He looked over his shoulder briefly, to see Bones taking the opposite direction, seeing as how his suite was located on the other side of campus. He looked tense. Jim could see that even under the baggy coat he had been wearing all day. He turned back around, heading more swiftly to their new home for the next three years.

Thirty minutes later, after entering into their suite and finding out that both his and Maggie Jay's apartment could easily fit into his 'new home,' and pulling out a jacket for Jo for the slight drizzle outside, they made it back to the quad. Bones was relatively easy to find, being the only person besides Jim and Joanna not wearing red.

He was facing away from them, so Jim called out to him. When Bones spun on his heal to look for him in the crowd, Jim was almost taken back three years to New Orleans. They had been in the French Quarter when a scene not unfamiliar to this one had happened. Jim had fallen behind to look at something one of the off-world vendors had been selling, and Bones had grown bored and went to look at something else. It had been crowded with earth-dwellers and aliens alike, and Jim had called out to him. Just like now, Bones had raised his hand to wave his exact location.

Jim shook himself of the nostalgia, picking up Jo so he could lengthen his strides. Bones had shaved, and combed his hair while he was at his dorm, and he looked a lot less crazed for it. He looked really damn good, actually. Put together, like he had…well, like he had most the time they were in Louisiana. The rest of the time he had looked debauched and heady.

Jim hitched Joanna more comfortably onto his hip. He really needed to stop thinking about Bones like that.

"How long have you been waiting?" he asked the doctor as soon as he was in hearing distance.

They started towards town together, Bones pulling out his padd to gather some more directions, even though it was fairly simple to leave the campus grounds.

"'Bout five minutes," he answered distractedly. "You know where you wanna eat?"

Jo answered quickly, leaning across Jim so that she could tell Bones, "I want mac'roni cheese."

He stared at her, before a small smile broke out on his lips. "Macaroni and cheese it is."

He looked at Jim fleetingly, his smile lingering, but the happiness that had been in his eyes combated against other things.

Jim looked away. "So, there's a hamburger place not too far away. Maybe about a block from the campus ground. Quick walk, maybe fifteen minutes."

He didn't have to look to know that Bones' signature eyebrow raise had been bestowed on him. They began walking together. Neither of them said a word and after about five minutes, Jo began babbling to liven up the silence. Jim was honestly glad for the noise, but he wasn't sure that it was helping his case with Bones. He could feel the stares he received from the other man, just as well as he had on the shuttle.

"And I have a ship…and I'm gonna be the…the captain, and Sellit is gonna be my pilot, and we're gonna fly all over space. That's what pirates do; they fly over space in their ships, and eat lotsa fruit when they're hungry and fight dragons and play catch when they're bored…"

Jim smoothed her hair down, the water collected from the drizzle helping to keep it from frizzing up again. A smile began pulling at his lips as she continued to tell them what she was going to do as a pirate. He looked over to Bones, telling him, "She's going to be a pirate when she grows up. That's been her plan for the last four months now."

Bones gave a short nod of something caught painfully between amusement and heartache. "She'd be good at it."

He thought the doctor might say something about thieving hearts, or ensnaring the mind, but he didn't. He didn't have to. Jim saw it plainly in his eyes as he looked at Joanna with a love that had sprung up instantaneously and in no way was anything less than what Jim felt. It was a parent's love and that didn't need to emerge like other loves, it just did. It was immediate and without question.

Jim hefted her up again, not deterring Jo's ramblings which had moved on to her favorite show about a young Andorian who was friends with a human, Vulcan, and an Orion. Jim knew without a doubt that the show had several misgivings, but the message was good, and children weren't supposed to know the nature of the universe when they were barely three.

Another heft and he let out a small groan. "Okay, Jo-bear, you're getting heavy." He looked at Bones for a moment, still seeing the love that only parents had in their eyes. He asked, "You wanna carry her for a while? I'd let her walk, but she tends to get easily sidetracked. She picks up rocks and…"

"Yeah," Bones said readily. "Yeah, hand her here."

They did a small trade off, Bones handed Jim his padd, and Jim handed their daughter to him, telling her, "He's going to carry you. Try not to squirm too much." And for his warning, she squirmed just to spite him, he was sure.

He cast an apologetic smile to Bones, but the doctor was wholly unaware of it. He was totally and completely fascinated by Joanna. His murky green eyes trailed over her face, and he petted her dampening brown hair. A small smile began playing on the corners of his lips again.

"Hi there, little miss," he said with a mixture of emotions clouding and thickening his voice.

Jo didn't notice, she looked at him and gave him one of her smiles, her discontent with him from the shuttle having been wiped away by spending all of their morning together. "Hello," she greeted him, despite the fact they had been with each other for going on five hours. "Do you wanna be part of my pirate ship?" she asked.

Bones' smile was full now, radiant. "I would love nothin' more, Jo."

She smiled, and they began heading toward the hamburger place. Jim followed slightly behind them, watching with myriad of emotions welling up in his chest as Bones carried on a conversation with their daughter.

+ststst+

Lunch was a small affair. Joanna got her macaroni and cheese, and Jim and Bones both got hamburgers. They ate in relative silence, broken only by the conversations they had with Joanna. They tried a few broken conversations with each other, but the longer they waited to have the conversation that Bones was dying to have and Jim was trying not to get nauseous over, the more tense the air between them became.

When it came time to leave, Jim paid for the meal, and held the door open for Bones, who was once again carrying Jo, and there was some sort of unspoken agreement that they would be going back to Jim's suite for this conversation, which was probably a wise decision. Joanna had lost two hours from Iowa to California. Taking another nap would help her get accustomed to the change, and give him and Bones plenty of time to at least start hashing out the troubles between them.

At his suite, Jim took Jo from Bones, already half asleep on his shoulder and put her in her bed in her new room with her sehlat safe in her arms and her favorite blanket over her shoulders. He wasn't sure how that arrangement would work out, honestly. Jo had shared a room with him since the day she was born. For the moment, he thought he should try to get her accustomed to her own room, and he would work on himself later. He stayed with her until he knew she was down for her nap, and that she wouldn't hear them talking. Jo was curious to say the least and wouldn't sleep if she knew adults were conversing in the other room.

Then slowly, he made his way out to his living room, where Bones waited for him on the standard gray couch that Jim was sure every room came with. He didn't hesitate, even though he desperately wanted to. He had never really been hesitant, prone to delaying sure, but hesitant…

He cleared his throat as he stepped into the room, walking over to settle himself on the sturdy coffee table. Bones watched him approach with the same closed off expression he had given him just after he deduced who the other half of Joanna's DNA belonged to.

He started out simply, with a new approach to best explain himself, and not to abort any of Bones' temper. "I would like to say I would have called…"

Bones snorted derisively, a little coldly, like all the emotions he had had earlier were just kind of drained from him, leaving him hollow and bitter. Jim couldn't slight him that. He could only imagine how hard this would be for the doctor. "At least you're fucking honest."

"It's not that I didn't want you to know, or that I thought you wouldn't want her. But you had just gotten back with your wife and even if I had known who you really were, or where you lived…" Jim met his glare evenly, shaking his head. "I didn't want to run the chance of ruining what could have been a happy ending for you."

"So, you would have let me live my life never knowing I had a daughter?" he growled angrily, coming forward to lean his arms against his thighs. They were less than a foot away from each other, Bones' face pinched with anger.

"Yeah, I guess I would have." Jim knew how terrible that sounded, but he was going for honesty, he wasn't trying to make excuses for himself, he was done with that, at least when it came to his personal life, people he cared about. He did care about Bones, too. He had never gotten over him.

And he was going to lose him after today, all over again. He was prepared for that; he really was. No explanation he could give would fix this for Bones, no matter how much he wished it would. The best he could do was include Bones on their daughter's life now. He would give the explanations though, because Bones deserved to hear his reasoning. He deserved to hate Jim with logical motives.

"That's really shitty, Kid."

He let the name slide again.

"What would you have cared, Bones? You never would have known!" It was the truth. If he and Bones hadn't met again, if one of them had stayed home or if they had come at different times, Bones never would have been the wiser, and he would continue living. For as truthful as it was, though, it was the wrong thing to say at that moment. Bones' glower went supernova. Jim started over again. "I never expected in a million years to meet you again. I thought I was doing the right thing, the adult thing!"

"Well, you did meet me again."

As if he hadn't just been there for the last seven hours! He tried not to let the tone of voice get to him, the one that yet again insinuated his utter stupidity, but he couldn't. He could take the anger, and the hatred, but he was fucking tired of being called stupid.

"Am I hiding her from you now?" he asked, his irritation seeping out into his words. A glare of his own was beginning to pull at his features, but he couldn't rein it in. He knew this would be a difficult conversation, but why did Bones have to insult his intelligence? "I know that doesn't make up for these last two years, but can I, at least, get brownie points for not being an asshole about this entire situation?"

"I mean, because really, if we wanna get pissy about this entire chain of events, you did leave me!" Had Jim not been so irate he probably would have laughed at the incredulity of his statement. They were both acting like they had been in some committed relationship, like Bones had left, and just to spite him, Jim had hid their daughter from him, when in reality it had only been a three day fling and they had both known it, no matter how much they had wished they hadn't at the time.

He was angry, though, because it had meant something, and Bones still meant something to him, beyond having given him without a doubt the best gift of his life. He was angry because he was pinning this all on Jim, and he deserved a good portion of it, but he wasn't in this alone. "You went back to your wife, and I went back to Iowa. By the time I found out about Jo, we hadn't seen each other for a month and a half and silly me, I thought you and your wife had worked everything out, and that I was a distant memory. I thought I was doing you a favor."

"Some damn favor," he snarled, but for a moment it looked like it hadn't been directed at him.

"How was I supposed to know that? I thought everything had been patched up and you would be making babies with her in your perfect house complete with picket fucking fence."

"That shouldn't have mattered!" Bones said vehemently. "You should have considered me and Joanna! What the hell were you going to tell her?"

Jim shrugged, not understanding why it would have mattered. Obviously he wasn't going to tell her now. He answered though, "I don't know! I probably would have told her what my mother told me until I was old enough to understand. That her other father was gone. And when she was old enough I would have told her the truth. I was a slut who slept with some random guy for three days in New Orleans. Probably woulda thrown in an apology for never having the smarts to ask for his actual name."

"That's it? Really?" he asked, his eyes telling Jim exactly how lackluster he thought that was.

Jim threw his hands up into the air. "What else is there?"

"Maybe why you never fucking told me."

And they had come full circle. "I told you why! Why are we even discussing this?" he demanded. "You're here now. You know she's yours and I'm not going to disappear tomorrow. And even if I wanted to, you know my name; you could find me." He groaned in frustration and ran a hand through his short hair.

"Look, I'm sorry that my rationalization isn't good enough for you," he drawled, still feeling irritated, but more than that sad. "But it's all I have. Take it or leave it. Hate me for it, I'll understand, but know that it's the only fucking answer I can give you and that no matter how many times you ask that will be all I can tell you."

Something flickered underneath the anger, and then Bones' fury drained out, too. He leaned back on the couch, and rubbed at his eyes tiredly. "I don't hate you, Jim. I really don't. I'm mad and I'm confused…and I'm a little hungover," he admitted.

He took his hand away from his eyes, looking directly into Jim's electric blue gaze. The emotions were back, emotions besides the rage; sadness, confusion, longing. Jim swallowed against his quickly fading aggravation. "The rationalization isn't good enough," Bones continued, "but I can accept it."

Jim looked at him, with maybe a little bit of disbelief in his eyes. He had been prepared for Bones to leave, or at the very least not be willing to talk to him anymore. He had been thinking of the ways he could still arrange visits between him and Jo, while keeping a somewhat civil tongue with each other. He had just been ready for the heartache to sharpen. To know that he could see Bones, but he could never touch him again.

But that didn't sound like what Bones' wanted. Bones had accepted it, even if it wasn't good enough and that sounded a lot like…he didn't know what, but he was hopeful for it, no matter what it was.

Jim nodded, and finally looked down at the narrow patch of wood flooring between them. They sat in silence for several minutes, listening to the sound of each other breathing and their own adrenaline pulsing in their ears before it finally faded out. The quiet was tense, but not as much as it had been earlier. They had apparently hashed out what they needed to today, and it only took…Jim glanced at the chronometer. It only took about thirty-five minutes.

He would have to wake Jo in about twenty minutes, or he would never get her to sleep tonight. He was vaguely very pleased with both he and Bones for having never raised their voice. He supposed sitting in close proximity to one another had helped that, but still. He had expected just a little bit of hollering. None of his past flings and he had ever been able to get through an argument without screaming at each other, and the discussions they had yelled over had been much less important that the one he and Bones just finished.

"I'm going to have to wake Jo soon. Is there something else we need to talk about this afternoon?" he asked quietly, looking back up to see that Bones resting his head on the back of the couch. His eyes were closed, and though he was tense still, he almost looked comfortable with both of his arms sprawled out along the back as well.

He took a deep breath, asking as tiredly as Jim felt, "When was she born?"

Jim smiled a little at that. "December 14th," he answered, and when Bones looked up curiously, Jim knew he wanted more details. "She was seven pounds, nineteen inches long. Massive amounts of brown hair. I swear she was born with that head of hair…her full name is Joanna Lynn Kirk."

"That's perfect," he said, and he actually sounded like he meant it.

"She is. Light of my life." Jim said, sliding from the coffee table to one of the free cushions on the couch, gaining the other man's attention. He angled his body towards Bones, and when Bones had pulled himself up to a sitting position, Jim began talking again, "I'd like to get Jo settled in around here before we do anything. She's never moved before and I don't necessarily know how she'll adjust but if you'd like, we can set up meetings and maybe the first weekend of next month she can stay with you…?"

Bones stared at him for a long time, disbelief lingering in his eyes, like Jim had just offered him the world on a silver platter. "Really?" he asked in a hushed voice. "That's it? We just start setting up visitation?"

"Do you not want to?" Jim asked, a playful smile gracing his lips as Bones all but jumped back on his words.

"Of course I do!" he said automatically, when he saw Jim's smiling starting though, he rolled his eyes. "You're a prick!" he told him, in what would have been sincerity if Jim didn't remember that exact tone of voice haunting him from three years back. If the air between them hadn't still been a bit taut, Jim thought he may have come back with a dirty reply like he would have in Louisiana. As it was, he waited for the moment to pass, not at all surprised when Bones picked up where he had left off, "You're really just going to let me in to her life, just like that?"

Jim looked down at the space between them, reminding him, "I told you I wasn't going to be an asshole about this. She's your daughter, too. You deserve to see her."

Bones simply nodded again, slowly, unsurely, as if he still expected Jim to yell 'just joking!' He didn't though; instead he slapped Bones' leg resolutely, before hopping off of the cough. "I've gotta go wake up Jo," he said heading back towards her room. "I'm gonna have a small talk with her before we come back out, though, so it'll be a couple of minutes…" he paused, turning back to Bones' who had apparently been watching his retreat. Curiously, hopefully, he asked, "Can I assume you'll be sticking around for a few hours?"

Bones gave him a hint of a smile, still looking a little shell shocked. Jim felt a bit of it thrumming through him as well, that disbelief that things were really unraveling the way they were. He was trying to keep it together, though. He was going to keep it together. He was giving himself no other choice. He took the doctors almost-smile as a yes, and he went to their daughter's room, intent on telling her who Bones was.

He was unsurprised when Jo's only reaction to him telling her was to go climb into Bones lap, snuggling her head beneath his chin and telling him with all the genuineness only a toddler could convey, "I missed you, other daddy."

Even though they had never met each other, he didn't doubt that she had missed Bones, and when Bones wrapped his arms around her, and whispered the same thing into her wild, curly hair, Jim didn't doubt that it was possible to miss something you never had. He gave them a few moments to themselves, excusing himself to the bathroom to splash cold water on his face, and rein his emotions even further under control.

+ststst+

A/N: Much love to you all.

(pop, lock, and drop it)

InnocentGuilt