A/N: So, the extent of medical knowledge is what I've found on Google, so if I screw anything up, I apologize in advance for being a lazy researcher.
On a side note, The Finest Hours finally came out and I can't wait to see it tomorrow (or this evening, cause once again, it's after midnight). I'm sure Chris Pine is once again gonna wow me with his amazing blue eyes- I mean acting talent. Totally meant his acting talent. (In all seriousness, though, he is a great actor, and I'm excited for another dose of that talent that I haven't already seen a billion times - not that there's anything wrong with watching Star Trek and Into Darkness again and again and again and again and you get the picture - plus several other movies on the side).
Winona was shaking as she stepped into the house. Leonard looked up from Jane's tea party, instantly getting to his feet and going over to Winona. "What's wrong?" he asked, forcing his voice to be calm even as his heart began to pound, his gut telling him Jim was the source of Winona's distress, because he always was the source of someone's distress, wasn't he?
She fought for breath. "He- Jim- he's in pain-"
Crap, crap, crap, I should've known he was gonna go and do something like this. Every damn time he leaves the ship-
Get a grip. You're a doctor, you're supposed to be used to this.
Leonard gripped her shoulders reassuringly. "Hold on a second and breathe," he said, talking as much to himself as to Winona.
"But-"
"Breathe. Calm down, then tell me." Even though I really want to know right now.
Winona quickly swiped away a couple escaped tears. "We had just gotten our food, a-and he finally couldn't fight the nausea anymore, so he ran to the bathroom. H-he was in there for a few minutes, so I sent Sam to check on him, and when Sam came out, he said that Jim had c-collapsed."
"Where is he now?"
If they sent him to a hospital and they don't know he's allergic to essentially everything-
But Winona pointed outside. "Car. He's in and out of c-consciousness, but when I started to call an ambulance, h-he started panicking-"
"Because he knows he's allergic to a lot and if the EMTs don't get that memo fast enough, it would just make things worse – you did good. Now, my medkit is in our room next to the nightstand. Go get that, please."
She nodded and hurried upstairs. Telling Jane to stay where she was, Leonard went outside. Aurelan was getting out of her own car, and Leonard called to her to call an ambulance. She nodded and, with a glance at Jim, ducked back into her car to get her phone.
Sam was setting Jim down on his back in the grass, and struggling with it. Jim wasn't fighting him, per se, but he was writhing in agony, and Leonard knew how strong the kid was. He jogged over to Jim's other side to help, pushing him down onto his back while trying not to hurt him.
"Hey, Jim, you've gotta calm down, kid," Leonard urged. Winona jogged outside with his medkit, and Aurelan went to stand beside her.
His eyes fluttered open for a moment. "Bones…?"
"Yeah, kid, I'm right here."
Jim's hand reached out blindly towards his voice. Leonard took it and guided it to his side – where Jim's fist grabbed his shirt in a death grip – in order to leave his own hands free to treat Jim. Sam started to back away, but Leonard shot him a glare, and the elder Kirk brother resumed keeping Jim still, although the writhing had weakened significantly. Leonard reached up to Jim's neck and found a racing pulse; the kid's skin burned with fever.
"Jim, where does it hurt?" Leonard asked, making his voice as clear and steady as he could.
Jim's reply turned into a ragged cough, and Leonard prepared to roll him onto his side, but the cough died, leaving Jim limp and silent apart from ragged breathing. He yanked his medkit open and pulled out the tricorder, but when he waved it over Jim, the readings were perfectly normal.
What the hell?
He tossed the tricorder aside. "That's not working. Sticking to the old-fashioned way, then," he muttered to himself. "Jim, I need you to talk to me. Jim?"
Damn it. Don't do this to me. I did not fix you up after all of those away missions just for you to die in your own front yard.
"Jim."
"He grabbed here before he collapsed," Sam spoke up, tapping a spot on Jim's upper abdomen. The young captain went rigid under the light touch, his eyes snapping open again.
"So it hurts there?" Leonard checked.
Jim managed a jerky nod. "A-and back."
"I'm gonna look at your abdomen, and it's gonna hurt," Leonard warned him. Barely waiting for another feeble nod, Leonard pushed Jim's shirt up and felt the area Sam had indicated. Jim tried to flinch away, but Sam awkwardly maneuvered himself to hold his legs and torso still at the same time. It was definitely swollen and, apparently, very tender.
Wailing sirens announced the ambulance's arrival. Leonard waved Jim's family back and informed the EMTs of the situation as he helped them load Jim into the back of the ambulance, climbing in behind him.
Leonard ran through Jim's symptoms. Nausea and vomiting, fever, increased heart rate, swollen and tender abdomen, upper abdominal and back pain…
Pancreatitis, maybe? He'd need to test the levels of amylase and lipase in Jim's blood to be sure, and probably do some imaging tests. And how severe it was remained to be seen…
-LLAP-
Aurelan watched the ambulance fly away. "Sis" was the only word circling her mind, echoed in Jim's hesitantly happy voice. I just met him.
Leonard hadn't looked like Jim was dying, though. She thought so, anyway. It had been hard to glimpse his face as he moved Jim, but she hadn't seen desperation, just the normal worry anyone felt when someone they cared about was in pain. In fact, he had moved with the calm confidence of someone who knew exactly how to fix the situation, even if his movements had been tinged by the concern he felt for Jim as a little brother. And if Leonard was able to act that calmly, then Jim would be completely fine.
Unless Leonard was just really good at playing the detached doctor. All those years of being CMO of the Enterprise, he'd probably had plenty of practice.
Winona moved first, beginning to walk to her car. "I'm gonna go to the hospital. Aurelan, do you want to come or stay with the kids?"
Aurelan twisted to look at her house, but instead ended up looking at her husband. He still stood where he'd moved to when the ambulance arrived, his gaze locked on the last place the ambulance had been visible from the house. She could practically see memories flickering through his hazel eyes; his forehead crinkled a bit, the way it did when he was thinking through a complex problem. Her own mind flashed back to the way he'd carried Jim out of the restaurant, holding him close and tight. In the heat of the moment, she hadn't dwelled on it, but in this quiet moment, she would say his body language had bordered on protective. Which meant…
He cares. However deep down, however unconsciously… Sam knows Jim is his little brother.
So what changed? What made him forget? Was it when Jim left? When he was suddenly all over the news for saving the planet? Or something we don't know about?
"Aurelan?" Winona repeated.
She started, her mind jerked back to the question at hand. Her husband was emotionally open, and she knew why – should she take this opportunity to drive a few points home? Or should she wait and think it over?
Wait. Talk it over Winona – she might know more about this than you do. She probably does, because however much Sam loves you, Winona is his mother.
"Uh, yeah, I'll go to the hospital with you. Sam?"
He blinked, slamming back to reality. "Yes, Aurelan?"
"Make sure the kids know their Uncle Jimmy will be fine, ok? I'll call as soon as we get more news."
"All right."
With almost visible force of will, he turned around and went inside, picking up Leonard's discarded tricorder as he went. Aurelan glanced over to see Winona watching Sam intently.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Aurelan asked.
"I think I am."
-LLAP-
Winona paced around the hospital's waiting room, drawing her sweater more tightly around herself – she'd run into the house to fetch it before she and Aurelan left. It was the softest material she'd ever felt, and a beautiful, faintly shimmering dark purple. She made a point to wear it as often as possible, so long as she knew it wasn't in too much risk of getting soiled. It was her most treasured piece of clothing – even if it had been hideous and uncomfortable, she still would have loved it, purely because Jim had given it to her. It had been his first Mother's Day gift to her since he'd left elementary school and his teachers stopped making the kids make cards to celebrate it. She would've understood completely if he'd just sent her a card or something quick and simple, but instead he had clearly put a lot of thought into the sweater, probably even consulting either Carol or Uhura about it (since his fashion sense seemed to be limited to Starfleet uniforms, t-shirts, jeans, and sneakers), and taking the time to ask someone back home on Earth to order it for him.
It was that sentiment that made her think she was the luckiest mother in the galaxy. For 29 years, she had done everything wrong, and yet she somehow managed to earn the golden-hearted affections of the boy she'd wronged countless times.
So now she clutched it close, hoping that luck would rub off on Jim's current situation.
"Winona, relax," Aurelan advised. She sat in one of many rickety, faux wood chairs that lined three of the waiting room's sterile white tile walls. The four was covered by several doors – one to a turbolift, one to the hallway beyond, and one to the bathroom. A few small tables occupied the room, too, each one with a vase of flowers in the middle that was surrounded by old-fashioned paper magazines covering a wide range of medical topics. Aurelan was currently flipping through one about the psychology of love.
Winona continued pacing. "It's been two hours, Aurelan."
"And Leonard is the Chief Medical Officer of Starfleet's flagship for a very good reason. Jim is in good hands."
"You just reassured me without actually reassuring me."
"Well, I'm not gonna lie and say Jim is fine."
"You could've said he will be ok."
"That's nothing the nurses haven't already said."
"But he's my son."
Aurelan stood and put her magazine down, leaving it open to mark her spot. Walking over, she grabbed Winona's arm to stop her. "And he's my brother."
"In-law," Winona pointed out.
Aurelan tilted her head and leveled a look at Winona that said "Oh, come on." "I'm an only child, Winona, and the closest thing Jim has to a sister is his communications officer. You had to realize that we'd grow close. And that means I'm almost as worried about him as you are."
Winona raised an eyebrow. "Almost?"
"We both know nothing rivals a mother's love for her child. Not even the love between the closest siblings."
"True," Winona conceded. All right, if Aurelan could act this calmly, then so could she. Winona took a deep breath and mentally shook herself – though she didn't let go of her sweater. "So, Sam."
Aurelan released Winona's arm. "He definitely cares about Jim."
"Yes, he does," Winona agreed.
"You say they used to love each other, except I haven't really seen much evidence of that. I'm not accusing you of lying or anything, it's just..."
"They don't seem to have many good memories with each other," Winona finished. "Believe me, I've found myself wondering if they actually loved each other, or if I was just seeing what I wanted to see. But seeing the way Sam reacted when Jim collapsed, I know I wasn't completely imagining it. Something just… happened to make it seem that way."
Aurelan nodded. "So, the question is why Sam has buried those feelings."
Winona shrugged helplessly. "So many things could've caused it."
"Well, let's start with what we know: Sam thinks Jim is trying to copy their father so he can get attention. So, what's happened that would have given Sam that opinion?"
"Jim's first interview," Winona theorized. "Sam and I were channel-surfing when we saw it, and we were both so stunned we stopped to watch it. Jim was in his dress uniform, and pretty much every question the interviewers asked him was about either George's influence or how Jim felt being Earth's hero at such a young age. Now that I think about it, maybe he did a little too much basking the spotlight – at least, that's how it looked."
"Logical enough," Aurelan murmured. "Sam spends his whole life remembering what Jim was like as a little kid, maybe even missing that little brother he'd known, and suddenly the adult version of Jim is flung in his face, and Jim is so completely different that Sam hates him for it."
Winona found herself nodding agreement. "So all we've gotta do is make Sam realize that, somewhere underneath all the narcissism and everything, Jim is still the good boy he grew up beside?"
"Basically."
Winona rubbed her face, feeling a headache coming on at the mere thought of unraveling everything Jim had become in the last eighteen years. "Great."