A/N: Thank you Kat7CA, Adriana and princess-wallflower for your reviews! Your words and support make me so happy. This takes place between the 2009 movie and Into Darkness.
The First Time
She Left Him
It wasn't as if she was leaving him exactly. But as Bones had been the one to bring it up to him (as if it were common knowledge, a passing comment and not something that totally blind-sided him), Jim couldn't help but feel like she was.
Leaving the Enterprise without first telling the Captain? Without informing him at all?
"She was requested by Admiral Marcus himself-"
"Why did she tell you and not me?" Was all Jim could get out, having not paid attention at all to what his friend had gone on to explain. In retrospect, he should have listened. He should have asked more questions than that one simple one he couldn't wrap his head around.
Bones actually looked a little sorry, his mouth pursed as he quietly sighed.
"She wanted my opinion." He revealed.
And suddenly he knew. It wasn't that he was sorry for Jim, it was that he felt guilty. Guilty, because he was a part of the decision-making process. Guilty because he had been there when she was driving herself mad over the offer and never told him. Guilty because he told her to go.
The thoughts must have shown on his face.
"Jim," Bones began, extending an arm as if to show he had nothing to hide now. "She needs to do what's best for her. The move sounds promising for her career."
Her career. Right. Her future.
Her future that didn't include him.
He didn't say anything more to Bones.
He left the bridge.