Bones' Wish

by Starsinger

Don't own them.

Jim was waking up. He could hear Bones' voice responding to something Chris was telling him. He could hear another girl's voice. He also knew he didn't want to open his eyes to another lecture Bones would give him on charging in where Angels fear to tread. He also knew he just butchered that saying. He knew he was in for a lecture because his back hurt and there was a tube down his throat helping him breathe. "Okay, Jim, open your eyes. You're chewing on the end of your breathing tube and you weren't doing that an hour ago," Chris said. With purely a mental sigh Jim opened his eyes and looked up at Captain Christopher Pike and Cadet Leonard McCoy. Both men were peering down at him like he was a specimen in a bottle leaning casually on the bed rails keeping him in bed. Jim waved at the contraption in his mouth. "Oh, you want an explanation?" Chris said with a smirk. Kirk shrugged.

"The knife nicked your diaphragm, the muscle below your lungs that expands and allows you to breathe," McCoy explained. "You've been out a couple of days, and you'll have that down your throat for a couple of more days, just to give your diaphragm time to heal. You should be out of here and giving your instructors hell again in a couple of more weeks. As for that lecture," Jim looked down at his lap, "I hope someone like you is around if Joanna ever gets into that kind of trouble." Jim looked up startled into Bones' grin. His eyes glistened with pride as Bones looked at his friend. Bones handed him a PADD, "For your classwork, your teachers, for some reason, won't accept rescuing a young girl from rape as a legitimate excuse from doing it. Bad manners, apparently." Jim grinned at his gruff manner as Bones left him alone with Chris.

"You did good, son," Chris told him. "Those men would have killed that girl, on top of raping her, and dumped her in the bay. Had a Betazoid go in and read them, just in case. Not allowed in court, but they will go to jail for their assault of the girl. Admiral Hayes is most impressed, you've made a powerful friend, which is why you can afford this private ICU room."

I'd wondered about that. Jim typed on the PADD. How am I supposed to speak Vulcan like this? The words were frustrated.

"I assume the question is rhetorical, Jim. I think T'Gren wants you to work on your literacy. Just be grateful that they've shifted away from using symbols instead of letters."

Yeah, even Surak found that practice illogical. They started to shift away from it after they met the Andorians. Funny how meeting a warrior race inspired writing.

"Vulcans and Andorians are staunch allies, Jim, remember that. They both found value in each other hundreds of years before either of them found Earth." Pike patted him on his shoulder before turning to leave, "Get better, Jim, you've got a couple of medals coming your way, even if that hadn't been an admiral's daughter." Jim nodded, deep into stellar cartography. Chris turned to smile at the younger man before leaving, Jim was coping extremely well with a tube down his throat. The truth was, Jim had to admit, he'd been struggling to breathe while lying on the ground, and he trusted Bones without hesitation. The man was more like a brother to him than his own brother had ever been. He briefly wondered about Sam, and wondered where he might be, or if he was even alive.

Jim's musings were briefly interrupted later by the entry of a young woman with honey blonde hair and a pale face. Some might have found her plain, but there was a certain aura about her that he couldn't quite put his finger on. He smiled as he recognized her and the older man at her side. "Cadet Kirk?" Admiral Hayes asked. Jim nodded.

Call me Jim, he quickly punched out on his PADD

The Admiral nodded, "I'm Donald to you, young man. You rescued my little girl. Her mother died five years ago, and she's all I have left."

"Daddy," the Lisa said, clearly uncomfortable. She stepped forward and laid a hand on his, "Thank you, Jim."

Hayes looked at the PADD in Jim's hand, "Vulcan? Aren't you a command track?"

Yeah, a friend in linguistics needed a partner, and I'd just finished Anthropology. Jim shrugged. Hayes looked at Jim carefully, apparently making his own evaluation of the young man.

As they left Hayes stopped by and talked to McCoy, "What's that boy's aptitude?"

"Jim?" McCoy asked. "He's twenty-four and has two masters degrees one in Theoretical Physics and another in Engineering from the University of Moscow. Speaks four languages fluently and is working on his fifth. He's reckless, headstrong, a pain in my ass, but inspires those around him to do better and go further. Oh, he's a tactical genius, he finished his tactics classwork two weeks into the class and slept the rest of the time. Frustrated his teacher to no end when he knew the answers better than the instructor, and told him what would have worked better. His mind works, mostly, at dizzying speeds that no one can keep up with."

"Is he Xenophobic?" the Admiral asked.

"Are you looking for a flaw in the boy?" McCoy asked. "Got a big one for you. He has an enormous chip on his shoulder because of his father, George Kirk. When Pike recruited him, he'd been in and out of jail several times. One of these days, that look before you leap attitude is going to get him killed. I say he'll make captain of some ship before he's thirty. There are bets going around that he does it before he's twenty-eight. He also has no sense of self-worth because of an abusive step-father and a neglectful mother. There are days I just want to go beat the crap out of them."

"There's something you're not telling me," Hayes said flatly.

"There is, but it's not my secret to tell. Outside of me and Chris, there are only eight others who know it, and they haven't seen him in years."

Hayes left and Jim finished his schoolwork. After he was discharged from the hospital, Jim was besieged even more by the female student body. When he and Uhura finally met up for another late night study session he thanked her. Uhura smiled, "I'm just glad you trusted me enough to send Lisa to me. Where's McCoy?"

Jim smiled, "Chris was right when he told me I'd made a powerful friend when I rescued that girl. I dropped a note with Donald about Joanna's birthday. McCoy should be down visiting her about now."

Uhura looked at Jim for a long time, "You're a good man to have around, Cadet Kirk."

"Why thank you, Cadet Uhura!"

Oh, internet is out, will be until Wednesday night, sorry. Sporadic updates until then.