When Bones went to get the paperwork ready for Jim to be signed out, Uhura had looked at him with a completely new look he had never seen or imagined she possessed in her expansive arsenal of expressions. It was soft, understanding and completely unlike the glare she had settled on him when she told him how she came upon his visit to the hospital. She stood from her chair elegantly, all smooth and flowing, coming to stand by his bedside.
And then, just because she was a contradiction in terms, she pinched his arm… hard!
Jim jerked, which really didn't make him happy because osteo-generator or not, his muscles were still tender and his nerves were still healing and the contraction of muscles that had occurred made him aware just why he should never be incapacitated for a fight again. He grabbed his arm away from her, literally holding it across his body as if he could protect it from further attack by doing so. Glaring up at her, he said, "I'm injured already. I don't need more bruises from you."
"It wasn't intended to bruise," she said matter-of-factly. She crossed her arms, shaking her head at him exasperatedly. "You're pouting and you have no reason to."
Jim was so confused. "Broken bones no longer qualify as a reason to pout?"
She sighed with a shake of her head, her hair, which she had left loose, swinging gently with the motion. "You're not pouting because of broken bones, Kirk. Why don't you just let him in?"
His face fell slack, even as his heart tightened. "You too?" he asked, with a marginal hint of disbelief in his tone.
"What?" she asked, her features matching her tone in its confusion. He sometimes forgot the he left her out of the loop. Come to think of it he left everyone out of the loop.
It wasn't that he meant to, not to the level that he obviously was managing to do so. He just…not to sound morose, but he never really had anyone to talk to. He never really had anyone to share secrets with, and he never had a connection of people like he had growing here in San Francisco. He never had someone to give his secrets to, so it was fairly easy to keep them to himself. Maggie Jay knew him so well due to a constant companionship over three years - it was hard not to know someone well after that long. He was unaccustomed to opening up after just one month, though, to sharing secrets just because people cared and they really wanted to know.
He was unused to Bones, and the idea that Bones wanted him as much as he wanted Bones. Of course, he had known Bones wanted him, but Jim hadn't believed it was to the extent that it was. He hadn't wanted to believe that he was the one who was doing wrong. He wanted to save everyone pain in the long run, but was it honestly worth it if everyone was in even more pain now? Was it really worth it if his and Bones' feelings for each other never waned and they lived the rest of their lives like this because Jim was afraid of a day he could never know was coming.
"I don't even know what I'm doing anymore," he muttered to himself, pressing his uninjured hand to his face.
"Well, that makes two of us. You have passed pouting and gone straight to brooding now," Uhura said with exasperation. She patted his leg forcefully and vaguely he wondered if she did anything gently, anything at all. He took his hand away from his face and dropped it over his stomach to glare at her, which, for the record, went unnoticed as she sat down on the bed next to his knees. "Look, I've been watching the two of you…"
"Who knew you were a voyeur?" he interjected.
Her glare didn't go unheeded. As she shot it at him, he clamped his lips in silent apology. "Linguistics isn't only about the spoken word, Kirk. I watch people as well, it's what I do." She paused as if to gather her thoughts. "Look, Kirk, I know other people's views aren't always important, but you should see the way you look at each other. You should see how happy you look when he's talking to you and how longing he looks when you re-direct a conversation away from what he wants to hear about you. I don't know what your hang ups are, Kirk…but it's always worth the effort to try."
He listened to her with the conflicting feeling of his heart sinking and rising simultaneously. She grabbed his hand and gave it a squeeze. "You think too hard about these things."
He wanted to ask her how she knew, but he supposed after a month and a half of being his friend, it was hard not to notice these things. He hadn't exactly been the easiest person to live with or even know; he knew that. It had probably been really easy for a woman like Uhura to pinpoint what the discontent between Jim and Bones had been.
He sighed, looking down at his newly sewn wrist, the precision that Bones had probably put into it, because he just wasn't one to slack on such things. He was probably like that with most things, including relationships. He scoffed as he thought about how Bones had stayed in a marriage he knew was ending even three years before it ended. Again, though, that was a double-edged sword. If he had stayed in a relationship he knew was ending, what was to say Bones wouldn't stay with Jim…just because…
He felt another tug on his hand and he looked up to Uhura, who watched him with a patient gaze that was almost like Maggie Jay's, yet still…somehow more earnest. He smiled at her, feeling pretty confident in its sincerity, though he knew it was fake.
"I can't help it," he told her with a helpless shrug. "You have a kid, and everything is so much more serious than it was. It isn't just my life I'm fucking with; its Joanna's too. It's hard to make concrete decisions when it's not just your life in the balance."
She stared at him for moments on end, calculating and weighing. Finally she took a deep breath. "Then you shouldn't be in Starfleet. Every decision you make isn't just for yourself when it comes to the work we'll be doing. Even yeomans make decisions that could affect the crew of wherever they're stationed. If you can't make a decision for two people, you can't be expected to make the choice for hundreds."
She stood up, then, from his biobed, giving his hand one final squeeze. She left the room, her gait calm and serene as if she had just solved his damn problems for him. Perhaps she had. If he couldn't fix a simple problem like this, he was no good for the Federation. For being a genius, he was pretty damn useless.
Well, he wasn't about to drop out of Starfleet. He had to learn to take the initiative. Small steps first. Coming here in the first place, though he knew that his mind had been made up with the help of others, had been the first small step. Letting Bones back into his life, though a little larger, had been the second. With two small steps under his belt, he felt it was a good time to move into middle steps.
He had to make this decision now. He had the evidence, though most of it was circumstantial.
Maggie Jay was right. Uhura was right. He thought, maybe, women in general were just meant to be right. But he had to learn how to get his impulsivity back. He had to take this leap. It would hurt and he would doubt, but he could do it.
+ststst+
Bones had called a cab for them, because although Archer's house was only about four blocks away, with newly healed ribs…
Jim wasn't going to be walking that.
So they stepped out into the hovercab, old and rickety though it was. Bones had been quiet since he had found Jim alone in the room. He hadn't even asked where Uhura had gone, just returned Jim's cadet reds to him as well as the few things he had had in his pocket at the time, including his surprisingly still-intact communicator.
As they settled into the back seat, sinking down into the old memory foam that really wasn't even worth its weight in salt, Jim gently started talking, asking about Joanna to get the ball rolling. He had nothing but the utmost faith in the captain and admiral's ability to watch their daughter, but Joanna wasn't always predictable.
"Was Joanna okay when you left her with Archer?" he asked Bones after telling the bored looking alien creature that Jim had just forgotten the nationality of where to take them. A resolute nod, and the alien's long finger reached out to put up the partition between them before putting in the coordinates.
Being an older make of hovercab, it took a few seconds for the Plexiglas to separate them from the driver completely, and Bones waited for it to erect and lock completely. For a moment, Jim thought it was a new form of punishment being enacted against him, and though he didn't think it was undeserved, he had thought Bones had terrible timing for this and was about to tell him as much, when they heard the gentle click of the partition. Then Bones nodded.
"Yeah," he said, looking out the window as they merged into the late Saturday afternoon traffic next to the civilian hospital Jim had spent his night in. He looked a little worried as the hovercar swerved suddenly and quickly and the cabdriver quickly brought them up to speed. His hazel eyes, drought with emotions Jim would be able to identify if he had looked Jim in the eye at all in the last hour, were focused on the other cars as they zoomed by and around them. "Yeah, she was excited to see the damn dog."
Jim smiled at that. She and Porthos were two peas in a pod, both out to cause as much mayhem as their little bodies would allow. "She probably didn't get to sleep until three or four, then."
It seemed like it shouldn't be possible for a little girl to stay up that late, but if she had proper motivation, mainly a dog, he could see her staying up all night without a problem. There had been a few nights up in Iowa where she hadn't slept simply because Jim hadn't, and he had tried everything, including letting her sleep in his lap. He probably would have resorted to putting a little alcohol in her juice if he had had any handy at the time.
"No, she was very energetic when the captain called. I couldn't get her to lie down to save my life and it was one thirty by then." He shook his head, a small smile curling at his lips, but just as suddenly it disappeared. The scowl was back, as he said, "Pike was pretty fucking excited to see how ragged she had run Archer when he left."
Jim was going to label that sneer 'The Pike Sneer.' He may or may not add 'of doom' later, but for now he rolled his eyes. "He's not that bad, y'know."
"Yeah, I'm sure you don't think so," he growled and his hand began tapping irately against his knee.
This was not how Jim thought this cab ride was going to go, but he would deal. He didn't exactly know how he thought this conversation would go, but they would get there eventually.
"Seriously, Bones, what don't you like about him?" he asked curiously, trying to turn in his seat to look at Bones directly. The old memory foam was stiff and unforgiving and muscles protested his movement vehemently. He rolled his eyes and fell back into his previous position, probably coming off as a petulant child, but willing to blame it on the backseat.
He couldn't turn towards Bones and the doctor was stubbornly looking out the window, his jaw twitching, and his eyes watching the other hovercars around them.
"You want me to share?" he asked derisively, still not looking at Jim. "That's rich."
He deserved that. He didn't deny it. He swallowed thickly, very clearly telling himself to 'just share, Jim. Share; it's what you're teaching Jo to do.' He stared at Bones for a moment, his heart hammering in his chest again, just like it had when Bones had confessed that he was falling more and more in love with him. He told himself to just do it. Take the leap, and deal with the fallout while moving forward.
"Bones," he said a little too loudly in the silence of the cab. The doctor snapped his attention over to him with a small glare that did nothing for the nervous flutter in his stomach. He felt the slight tremor he had experienced on the shuttle take over his body. He met Bones' gaze, stealing himself to just get it over with, to just get it out there. "You want me to share? Okay. I'm a mess. I am a fucked up package wrapped in problem paper with an issue bow on top! I don't know how to be what you want."
Not exactly what his plan had been, but Christ, he was scared and the first thing that came to his mind whenever he thought about 'relationships' was just how fucked he was. He was exactly as he had described himself, and if Bones really wanted to get to know him, that was going to have to be one of the first things he understood thoroughly. If Bones wanted to take not only Joanna but Jim too back into his life, he was going to have to realize…
Bones' glare intensified. "There is no being what I want, Jim. You just fucking are what I want. Christ, what can I do to convince you? You think I haven't noticed you have problems? Trust me; your actions haven't exactly screamed fields of sunflower happiness. But you're acting like I don't have my own issues, as well. Neither of us is perfect! We can try to work through them, though, if you let yourself…"
"I don't want to regret this…and I don't want you to regret me."
"You have no idea how slim a chance there is of that happening."
Jim believed him. For this one moment in time, Jim believed Bones totally and completely. His heart was still pounding and there was still a fine tremor coursing through his muscles, but he had made up his mind. He was going to do this.
He reached out his hand quickly, decisively grabbing onto Bones' and threading their fingers together.
"Okay."
"What?" Bones asked, his eyes going impossibly wide as they switched between Jim's face and their interlocked hands. His brows fell in confusion as Jim carefully maneuvered closer, pressing them thigh to thigh and then closer still.
"Okay," Jim repeated, reaching out for Bones and nearly breathing a sigh of relief when his fingers found the doctor's pulse beating just as rapidly as his own. Bones wasn't completely sure of this either. They couldn't be sure of this, but they did need to try.
They could do this.
Jim could do this.
His hand wove through soft, dark hair, staring into hazel eyes that still looked just a little hesitant. Jim wondered if this is what he had looked like the first time they had tried this, unsure and more than a little conflicted. A small smile flashed across his lips before he yanked Bones toward him, feeling the doctor finally react by clasping on to his upper arm.
Jim brushed against soft lips that were obviously kept hydrated and unsurprisingly, though they took a moment, his lips were met. One slide, two, of lips against each other, and Jim all but said fuck the ribs, surging forward, his tongue lapping against the seam of Bones' mouth before bringing the man's upper lip between his teeth. Honestly, the doctor tasted like hospital and not enough sleep, but this kiss was still like everything and nothing like he remembered, cautious at first but quickly morphing into the way they had always been at their core, intense.
Their hands flew all over the place, grasping at hair and clothing, and if one hand went beneath someone's shirt, well that wasn't really new for them…just kind of forgotten. Jim just let himself be washed away. His heart still hammering as Bones crawled onto his lap as if physically trying to make sure Jim didn't run anywhere else ever again, Jim very carefully, very calculatingly, told his brain to just shut up for these next few minutes.
Just feel…
He felt, alright. He felt everything he had dreamed of and everything he remembered; hands on his skin and skin beneath his hands; chests against each other and groins grinding in a familiar rhythm. And then he felt the way the cab slowed down and a very indignant grumble starting in Bones' chest working its way up his throat and out his lips to scatter against the skin of Jim's jaw. Bones seemed to remember himself as the hovercab came to complete halt, and more importantly, that though Jim was young and more than up for anything Bones had to offer, he had just had his ribs and wrist sewn back together. The doctor's return to his own body was immediate. He checked against muscles and rubbed soothing at skin as if Jim had actually been aware that something had been wrong with them for the past few minutes.
"Are you okay?" Bones asked, sitting mostly in his seat, but still with one leg hooked over Jim's and his arms and hands suddenly everywhere like an octopus, making sure no damage had been done.
Jim smiled at that, his own hands running over any inch of skin or mutilated uniform—he had dressed in a white t-shirt and cadet red trousers—that he could reach. "'M fine, Bones. Don't worry."
It wasn't totally the truth. God knew his heart was still beating rapidly and the tremor in his hands had yet to dissipate. However, he had taken the leap. He had shared…body and mind, and it felt kind of relieving - while still somehow managing to feel like he had jumped into a vat of boiling oil. His skin felt like it had burned off, exposing all of his insides to the doctor, but morbid as it was, the cool air against exposed nerves was kind of intriguing. He didn't feel like the world had dropped out from beneath his feet and he definitely counted that as a win.
Eyebrows fallen with concern, a small frown seriously working his forehead, Bones muttered, "Don't worry, he says…"
And though that sounded like New Orleans, some part of it was reassuring. Continuity, he thought. They had loved each other for three years without ever having seen another. Just think of all the ways they could love each other when they were in front of, living with, and breathing beside one another.
There would be bad times; Jim knew that. There would be bad times, hard times, trying times, but there would be good times, too.
There would be great times; he told himself. Maybe those times would make the fallout worth it.
+ststst+
They stumbled out of the cab, the alien driver looking bored and apathetic, as if two Terran males hadn't been all but molesting each other in the back seat. Bones had paid the fare, pressing his thumb to the identification pad, and for a moment as the rickety, old, yellow hovercar drove off they were completely at a loss for what to do. They had kissed…well, made out really, and Jim was pretty sure that he had given in to the idea that they could at the very least try to make this work. Apparently, outside the cab this was a completely different reality.
They stood at the end of Archer's drive shifting through various awkward poses. Jim had his hands on his hips; Bones had his arms folded over his chest. Bones had his fists pressed into his pockets; Jim rubbed at the back of his neck. Jim almost thought that this should feel more…oh, he didn't know, normal, but it was definitely just a little awkward and not for the fact that they weren't supposed to be doing this or that they didn't know how to pick back up again.
Jim was pretty sure they knew exactly where to pick back up again, and that was what caused the stir between them. Jim had gone without sex for seven months, near eight, and God only knew how long Bones had gone without. He was almost positive that they were both pretty sure what the other wanted to happen.
Bones scoffed, suddenly, with a small shake of his head. Pulling one hand out of his pocket he tugged on Jim's jacket, he said, "Come on, Jim. Let's go grab Jo before Pike ruins her forever."
Though said with a marginal amount less disdain than previously when speaking of the captain, Jim had had enough. "Hold up, there," he said as the other man shifted to walk away. "What is the deal with you and Pike?"
Bones' scowl loosened a little, but he looked around at mostly anything but Jim. His answer, however, remained unknown. A small smirk took Jim's features and he put his hands back on his hips, determined to wait for the doctor's answer. In retaliation, Bones crossed his arms across his chest again, still looking in the general direction of not-Jim. They entered into a battle of wills, seeing which on could out-stubborn the other, even though they knew it would be a fifty-fifty shot.
Finally, Jim continued, "I'm content to wait here all afternoon."
"It's nothing. It's just…it's stupid…" Bones muttered, finally deciding to focus on a tree settled in the median of the road. Jim wasn't sure but he though a blush may have been creeping up his cheeks, staining them a delicious shade of red in the fading sunlight. It was a good look on the doctor; made him seem younger.
Jim's heart beat dangerously in his chest, apprehension and excitement probably slamming his circulatory system into overdrive. He almost fidgeted, but denied himself that habit. Instead, he took a deep breath and plowed on.
"Come on, Bones. I doubt it can be that stupid. I mean seriously, look what I just spent the last month doing." He smiled, trying for light-hearted rather than self-deprecating or self-pitying. It seemed to do the trick, when Bones looked up at him from under thick dusting of eyelashes.
"He seems…very fond of you." It literally sounded like someone had pulled the confession out of him and that he had tried very hard to keep his teeth clamped against the words. The red of his cheeks intensified as did the scowl, because the doctor was aware that he was blushing and he probably didn't like it.
"Oh!" Jim said immediately, horror widening his eyes. He had never really thought of that, had never even entertained the idea of that notion. That was just…wow, that was just ... Pike was good looking and all, but no! No, Pike was…Pike was…"No, I don't think that's anything you need to worry about," Jim finally said, still trying to deduce exactly what Pike was.
"I wouldn't be too sure. He sure dotes on you an awful lot," he retorted with a grimace.
"Hey, I'm his dead friend's son."
That was a pretty crass way to put it, but he was still trying to figure out why Pike and, hell, Archer had been so nice to him ever since his arrival. It wasn't just because of George Kirk. Jim didn't even know if Archer had known his father. Pike had made it clear that it wasn't his father's image that had caught his attention, and Jim never got the feeling that George's image was what held his attention. He was just like…he vaguely remembered the drug induced conversation between Pike and himself. Jim had called him 'dad,' though it had been kind of sarcastic, but he kind of felt that fit.
Pike was beginning to feel like what Jim had always imagined his father would have been like, had he lived.
"Are you going to keep the glaring down to a minimal?" Jim asked, hoping that he had assuaged Bones' fear, or, at least, diverted it.
He looked shocked; that was for sure, his head finally picked up to look at Jim. It wasn't because his father was dead. Jim remembered telling him that in New Orleans. So it was logical to deduce his surprise was over being told that Jim's dead father had known Pike.
However at the glaring comment, the astounded look melted into agitation. "I'll consider it," he grumped, taking Jim by the sleeve of his jacket to pull him up the short drive to Archer's large, cushy-looking house.
The house, itself, looked rather modern, made out of brick, with those nifty windows that shaded as the sun's rays waxed and waned. The doors, though, were antique, with a doorknob and a bolt-lock. Jim stared at it for a moment, wondering what it was with the antique doors. Pike had one for his office, and Archer had one at his house. They were so old-fashioned and really kind of ugly, though Jim supposed it was a good security measure.
No one could pick doorknobs and keylocks anymore. Anyone you met could probably hack a security code, but locks…those were a thing of ancient past. Jim could still pick them, though. Hell, his house had been almost one hundred percent antique doors and Frank hadn't been above locking them with Jim still inside that room. As he got older and stronger, kicking the door open usually proved to be the easier method, but when going for stealth, he could pick the old locks.
He reached out to press the alert system, when Bones stopped him this time. Jim momentarily thought that they would never actually get to the 'picking Joanna up' part of this visit if they kept this up with each other. He turned to ask Bones what was up now, but he found his mouth otherwise occupied by soft lips and an amazingly hot tongue teasing at his lower lip.
Jim definitely liked this part of giving in.
He tangled his hand in Bones' hair, mussing it further than he had in the hovercab, and angling the kiss how he pleased before delving his tongue between the doctor's lips, tasting the man once again. Fast paced and possessive, Bones pulled him closer by his shoulder and hip until they were flush against each other. Jim felt the rush of excitement similar to what he had felt in the cab flood through him as their hips lined up.
And then the goddamn door opened reminding Jim exactly of where they were.
He and Bones pulled away from each other at near the same moment, though Bones gave an almost-chase after his lips as he started to pull back, maintaining the pressure of skin lying against skin for a second longer. Their grips on each other loosened considerably and Jim took a full, admittedly painful step away from the doctor as they both turned to see Pike standing there with what could have been irritation if he hadn't looked so damn pleased and amused.
Without saying a word, the captain turned away and returned to the depths of Archer's house, leaving them standing on the small porch. Jim turned to Bones, snorting when he saw the smug gaze watching Pike's retreat into the house.
"Feel better?" Jim asked as he stepped through the doorway.
Bones almost looked like he might smile as he said, "Can't deny that I really kinda do."
They followed the trail Pike had taken just seconds before them and entered into a large living room that was scattered with papers and padds and actual crayons. It looked like a hurricane had blown through, but Pike - stepping over a still Archer, who lay apparently dead on the ground as Bones and Jim entered the danger zone - stepped through it like it was nothing, even pausing to run his hand over Joanna's head as he passed her. She was obviously the eye of the storm, judging by the way she had an entire stack of papers in front of her and four and a half million broken crayons scattered around her little legs.
"Dear God," Bones breathed behind him, looking at the mess that Joanna had made of the admiral's living room. He had never seen the sheer destruction their daughter could inspire when given paper, mainly because Jim never had actual paper for her to use. He let her color on his padd, but he as a rule, never had paper for this exact reason.
Jim thought about agreeing with him just for the sake of pretending to be a good person who couldn't believe their child had created such a mess, but Pike, now sitting on the couch with Porthos cuddled up in his lap and changing the channel on the holoscreen while Jo wasn't looking, didn't seem to care. Jim would help clean up before they left, but for the moment, the mess wasn't what caught Jim's attention.
He returned his vision to the corpse on the floor. "Did you kill Archer?" he asked Pike.
That was when Joanna realized he was there. Her head shot up and around to the doorway and a shrill shriek erupted from her mouth, startling most everyone in the room, including Porthos, who barked, with its pitch and volume alone, and nearly causing Archer to jump out of his skin asking, "What is it?"
"Daddy!" Joanna hollered, standing up quickly and breaking her broken crayons even further. "Popsicle!"
Jim cast Bones an incredulous look as she ran over to them as fast as her little legs would waddle towards them. The doctor only sent him a self-conscious shrug before Jim bent down to pick her up, firmly ignoring his muscles' protests as he scooped her up off the floor.
"Daddy," she said again, burying her head under his chin, looping her arms around his neck. He nuzzled his cheek against the top of her messy brown curls, his eyes turning to Bones to continue giving him curious stares.
"Hey, Jo-bear," he said pressing a kiss into her hair. He stepped into the mess, his daughter still in his arms and Bones following closely behind them as if afraid of a misstep.
Archer slowly, very slowly, pulled himself off the floor and fell into a large, fluffy seat, covering his eyes with his palm. "Thank God you're here," he breathed.
Jim took a seat at the other end of the sofa and Bones took his seat on the arm of it, watching how Joanna burrowed further into the comfort of Jim's arms and probably looked up at Bones with her big wide eyes. Pike, still flipping through channels and petting a quieted Porthos, told the admiral, "They're just staying for dinner, Jon. Then they'll have to leave again." He paused for a moment, his lips curling into a cruel, cruel smile. "They're gonna leave Joanna with us again tonight."
There were three stunned 'what's from the crowd and the smile grew to near maniacal. "Yeah, they're gonna have fun-times tonight. Can't have fun-times with a child sleeping in the next room."
Jim didn't deny that that actually sounded like a pretty fabulous idea and glancing at Bones, he wasn't opposed to it either. They looked back to Pike who gave them a sly wink before Archer moaned from behind them. "I don't have the stamina for this."
Pike rolled his eyes, smirk still on his features. "Jon, if you can stare down an angry Vulcan woman, you can deal with a toddler for another night. Just think of what it'll do for the cadets' morale."
"The cadets should consider what they're doing to my morale. I'm exhausted," he whined.
"You've been dirtside too long, old man."
"Because I like sleep!"
Porthos moaned, dropping his head heavily onto Pike's leg. Joanna turned to look at him curiously, but had yet to wiggle out of Jim's grasp to go play with the dog. Jim was kind of glad for that. He wanted to hold her as long as she let him after being away from her for so long and apparently before being away from her for so long, again.
Pike scoffed, rubbing the dog's ear for a moment as he muttered, "And he says I'm addicted to sleep."
Jim smirked. "Nah, you're just allergic to morning."
Everyone except Pike laughed.
Joanna after fifteen minutes of being in his lap had decided she no longer needed his love and reassurance of life and crawled into Bones' lap for a few minutes, until her attention was none-too-shockingly called away by Porthos. Dinner showed up about an hour later, by which time Archer had fully awoken and gained some pleasantness. They ate in the living room after rearranging Joanna's scribbles. Bones wasn't quite so glary, though it didn't completely halt - not that Jim had expected it to.
Joanna, by the time Jim and Bones were preparing to leave again for the night, had declared Pike to be 'grampa' and Archer to be 'meany,' which had caused them all giggles for several different reasons. Jim had headed towards the room Archer said Joanna had 'pretended to sleep in' to check that she would be okay for another night visit. He had no doubt that she would be fine. Hell, he had packed enough for her to move in for a week, but it was better safe that sorry. Sellit lay on the bed, apparently forgotten for the first time in eons, and probably due to the dog in the living room. Her blanket was twisted together with a green microfiber blanket.
She looked to be all set. She had enough clothes and pull ups and she wasn't uncomfortable with the men playing host to her. They seemed to be able to keep her fed, and at least Archer had been able to control her attempts at destroying anything important, thus earning him the name 'meany.'
When he came back into the living room, Bones was standing with a few of Joanna's scribbles in his hand, most of the others missing from the floor. He had probably cleaned up a little for Archer and Pike.
Joanna was sitting on the couch, her eyes wide and mouth hanging open as she fought to stay awake. According to Archer, she hadn't gone to sleep until four and had woken when Pike arrived at ten thirty that morning. She hadn't taken a nap either, which meant she was probably losing the battle against sleep. The admiral had taken Pike's place on the sofa, and Pike leaning against the back of Archer's previous seat.
Jim waved at them, trying not to gain Joanna's attention as they left, just in case she started crying. He and Bones would be back to pick her up at ten tomorrow morning.
+ststst+
They had contained themselves for the cab ride back to the Academy and hadn't even so much as groped each other as they ran quickly across the grassy lawn, or through Jim's suite building, Jim's injuries and aches forgotten as Bones smiled lustfully at him. The moment the door slid shut behind them, however, and the security locks had been enabled, Jim pulled the doctor out of his t-shirt and all but slammed him into the nearest wall, attacking his lips and jaw with kisses meant to brand.
Bones was divesting him just as quickly. His leather jacket slapped against the floor with a heavy 'thud' and his cadet jacket was soon to follow. His own undershirt was a little harder to coerce off of him, seeing as his hands didn't want to leave Bones' warm skin and his lips were near glued to Bones' pulse point. The doctor got managed to shove it up to his armpits before he dragged well-kept nails down parallel to Jim's spine causing him to involuntarily thrust his hips against Bones.'
Simultaneous groans of pleasure were pulled from their lips and their eyes met in the lowered lights that Jim had left going last night and today. A feral smile pulled at Jim's lips and Bones managed to yank Jim free of the shirt, throwing it somewhere into the kitchenette, where they soon followed behind it as they pushed and shoved one another into the room.
Bones collided against the table; grabbing it for his own support as well as so the table wouldn't go anywhere. Jim already had his trousers undone, hands shoved down the back of them to knead Bones' ass and he worked hot, open-mouth kisses against tan, muscled chest. Bones' heavy breathing was nearly music to his ears and the short gasp he was awarded when was divine.
Jim removed his hands from Bones' pants as he dropped to his knees, his eyes watching the doctor as he pushed down his red pants that had no business looking as good as they did on Bones' ass. There was a minor problem when they got to the boots, but with the look Bones sent him, it was judged unimportant.
Neither of them took long the first time. It had been so long since their last sexual escapade and even longer since they had each other and that was the more important part. It had been so long since they had had each other. The excitement that this was who they had been dreaming of for nearly four years made it hard to hold back. Bones came gripping the table so hard his knuckles were white after only a few minutes and Jim not long after him, holding on to the edge of the seat and promising he would disinfect the entire kitchen tomorrow.
They had then taken a few moments to grab their clothes off the entryway and kitchen floor before Jim found canola oil on his counter, left out from the last time he had cooked. They had quickly taken everything to Jim's bedroom, dropping already forgotten clothing on the floor and kicking shoes and the rest of their clothing off. Holy God, Jim almost hadn't remembered how much Bones liked to ride him, or more importantly how good he was at it. Memories came back full force as he watched Bones above him and it was better than heaven to know that he had this man back again.
He didn't even consider what it would be like if they ended, only held tighter to Bones, his hands running over still tan skin and kissing as they moved together in a familiar rhythm that should have left them long ago.
Both spent and gasping recovery in Jim's bed, Jim started letting out small breathy laughs. Fuck, he felt good. He felt better than good, really. He felt amazing. Bones still lay on top of him, having yet to move onto the bed. His head was buried in Jim's shoulder, his breathing just as uneven as Jim's was. He seemed unwilling to let even centimeters come between them.
Gentle kisses pressed against his neck, and one of the doctor's hands slowly came up to massage the skin behind Jim's ear. "Laughter isn't appropriate right now, Jim," Bones said, amusement clear in his voice even Jim couldn't see his face.
"Whatever you say…" Jim's laughter doubled as what Joanna had called Bones earlier came back again. "Popsicle."
Bones bit him for that one, though it tickled more than anything else. Jim hunched his shoulder up to get Bones to stop, still chuckling as Bones growled, "It's better than 'papa.'"
Trying to contain his elated laughter and failing somewhat miserably, he brought his hands up to play along the broad expanse of Bones' shoulder blades, dancing and twirling designs under a cooling sheen of sweat and into warm, tan skin. "Where the hell did you come up with that?"
"From a play my mom took me too as a kid," he answered, finally lifting his head away from Jim's shoulder and reluctantly pulled himself away from Jim, causing them both to make noises of protest.
A silent few moments, in which Bones licked his way into Jim's mouth. His hands flattened against the doctor's back, rubbing firmly and pulling them flush as their lips and tongues danced a familiar tango.
The other shoe would drop. He knew that.
The other shoe always dropped, but for now, this was fucking awesome.
+ststst+
A/N: Ha! *smiles*
(hey macarena!)
InnocentGuilt