A/N: Summer is only two weeks away... Then I won't have school sucking up my writing time/energy/inspiration.
Who else is uber excited for Star Trek Beyond? I'm so excited for it I get distracted all the time. I loved the first trailer (unpopular opinion, I know, but I love me some action alongside the feels and humor), but I can't stop watching the second trailer... Or stop imagining what all the Spock and Bones one-on-one scenes are gonna be like. The sass will be deadly and beautiful and I can't wait.
Anyways, here's chapter 12! (Sorry it's a wee bit shorter than usual, but I wanted to get it posted.)
What the hell? Leonard thought as Sam shoved past him, nearly making him drop his chicken salad. He turned to look at him, but the retreating back told him nothing. Suddenly suspicious, he hurried to take the few steps that would take him back into Jim's room.
The young captain was sitting up, blinking at the door. He didn't really seem to register that Leonard was there.
"He has nightmares," he finally said.
"Yeah," Leonard confirmed, remembering his earlier conversation with Aurelan.
"About me," Jim added, confusion seeping into his voice.
"He told you that?"
Jim's gaze shifted to Leonard, and it was so confused and pained that Leonard's heart wanted to break. "About not protecting me. Bones, have I misjudged him this whole time? Have I hated him for no reason?"
"No," Leonard said quickly. "No, it hasn't been for no reason. He didn't protect you – just because he hates himself for it doesn't change that. But it can change how you view each other now."
Slowly, Jim nodded. He refocused, realizing Leonard carried food.
"Is that chicken?"
-LLAP-
A few hours later, Leonard sat in a chair on one side of an old-fashioned Monopoly board set upon a small table. To his left sat Peter, and across from him sat Henry. To his right was the biobed, where Jim stretched out, Jane tucked in his arms, her eyes riveted to his PADD, currently playing one of her shows. Aurelan sat just behind her sons, playing the role of the banker. Sam and Winona sat on the other side of Jim's biobed, discussing plans for an addition to their house.
As he awaited his next turn, Leonard let his gaze rest on Jim and Jane. Jim looked more relaxed than Leonard had ever seen him, his interactions with the kids coming naturally, even more so than captaining the Enterprise. His mind drifted to time spent with Joanna, all of the stress and negative emotions she had wiped away by simply being in the same room as him.
Maybe that's what Jim needs – a kid of his own.
On the Enterprise? Heck no. And good luck getting either one to agree to it, as devoted as they are to their careers.
A triumphant "Yes!" from Henry jolted him from his thoughts. He refocused on the board, realizing that Peter had just set his piece down on Henry's best property – Peter was bankrupt.
"Dang it," Peter mumbled as he slid his money over to his twin.
Leonard rolled the dice, his heart sinking as he landed on Jim's best property. "Dang it," he echoed.
Jim and Henry high-fived each other.
"You always beat me," Peter muttered.
"Well, sweetie, maybe you should take a page out of your brother's book next time," Aurelan advised.
"Or just accept that some people will beat you at some things every time," Leonard joked, flashing a mock-glare at Jim.
"It's not my fault you stink at some games," Jim protested.
"I let you win."
"You would never do that to my ego."
Winona chuckled. "He has a point, Leonard. Peter, why don't you and Henry go to the kids' area outside? You can work off some of that caffeine and repair your own ego."
"Sweet!" Peter exclaimed, jumping up and running out, Henry a couple steps behind.
"Be careful," Aurelan called after them.
"Boys," Sam sighed.
"You have no room to talk," Mom rebuked playfully. "Remember that time when-"
"Don't," Sam groaned.
"Well, now she has to," Leonard pointed out. Sam shot a glare at him, though it wasn't as unfriendly as it had been before. Leonard stared right back, pointedly sipping a glass of water. They both missed the uncomfortable glance Jim shot at them.
The eye contact hardly lasted a second, but it didn't go unnoticed. "Or maybe it's Jane's turn to play with the adults," Winona suggested.
Jane forgot her show immediately, sitting up with an excited "Yay! Tea party!"
Jim set the PADD aside as Jane jumped off the bed to grab her pink box. Leonard, Jim, and Sam each accepted a small pink plastic teacup, but Aurelan politely declined as she switched seats with her husband. Jane set two stuffed animals on the table, introducing a sparkly pink unicorn as Mr. Fluffy and a blue teddy bear as Señor Blue. Things went well, until Jane asked what she probably thought was an innocent question with a simple answer.
"Why are you always yelling?"
The three men exchanged uncomfortable glances. Jim conveniently chose that moment to cough, giving Leonard an excuse to fuss over him, leaving Sam to stumble through an answer.
"We, um… We have some differences of opinion, sweetie. That's all."
That's not all, Leonard grumbled silently.
Jane blinked. "You and Mommy have a lot of differences."
"We do," Sam agreed cautiously.
"You always stop yelling," Jane pointed out, as if the answer to all the universe's problems lay in the simple statement.
"That's different, sweetie."
"Why?"
Leonard tilted his head, realizing with a jolt that her confusion was justified. Jim and Spock argued all the time, their viewpoints clashing like fire and ice, but they inevitably made up, successfully returning to the relationship they'd had prior to the argument. Maybe it was their proximity, or their close friendship, or something else entirely, but they managed to put every argument behind them, and maybe even grow closer because of them. Their clashes kept their minds sharp, the amends afterwards reinforcing their bond.
Why wasn't every argument like that?
The obvious answer was their friendship. But they had practically hated each other before Nero, each one making some fairly nasty remarks about the other, and still they found a way to get over their differences and save the world together.
So if their relationship could start so roughly and endure despite everything, why couldn't Sam and Jim do the same? Jim and Winona had, after all.
But Leonard had been pushing for that to happen, as had Spock. Now it was Aurelan and Winona pushing for it. All Leonard was doing now was being hostile towards Sam.
Jim might love Winona and Aurelan, but they just didn't have that same influence over the young captain. He was still learning to trust them, whereas he had been unconditionally trusting Leonard and Spock for years. It was only natural, then, that Leonard's attitude towards Sam would be more influential. Maybe it was a bit conceited to think, but if Leonard could learn to tolerate Sam instead of snapping at him every time he was in a room with Jim, the road ahead for the two brothers would be easier.
"Because…" Sam began.
"Because some people are just more stubborn about some things," Leonard explained, carefully keeping his tone mild. Sam flashed him a suspicious glance anyway, but he ignored it and took a sip of his fake tea.
Jane thought this over for a moment, then nodded. "Ok."
Aurelan stood up. "Why don't we go find your brothers, Jane?"
"But-"
"If we don't get them in time, we'll miss the ball dropping," Winona added, holding out her hand.
"Fine," Jane agreed, a bit petulantly. She walked outside, passing right by her grandmother's hand. Aurelan followed, but Winona hesitated for a moment.
"Darn," she murmured. "She's growing up."
They always do.
Not that he would get to see Joanna grow up.
"What do you mean, 'stubborn?'" Sam demanded as soon as she walked out.
Leonard barely held back a sarcastic tone. "Relax – I was talking about me, not you."
"But you're both stubborn," Jim pointed out.
They shot identical looks of irritation at the young captain. He settled back with a cheeky grin.
"Sam, can we talk in the hall?"
"Sure," Sam agreed uneasily.
"Aw, come on, don't leave me alone," Jim complained.
Leonard pointed at Jim's PADD. "Text your girlfriend," he called over his shoulder.
Outside, with the door shut, Leonard made a conscious effort to remain at a comfortable distance with nonthreatening body language. "We've got our differences," he began. "But if we've got one thing in common, it's that we care about this family. And since neither of us want to hurt it, especially the kids, we've gotta learn to get along. I'm not saying how well or anything, just that we need to. Can we agree on that?"
Sam nodded.
"And you do want to be Jim's brother, right?"
"Yeah," Sam confirmed, quiet but unhesitant, shooting a glance at the door.
"So I realized in there that an obstacle to that might be us."
Sam's brows furrowed in confusion. "Us?"
"Our dynamic. The way we're always tense and hostile to each other."
"Jim protected me from you," Sam observed.
"Yeah, he did. And that's probably not a good thing. It might mean he's starting to like you, but it also means I'm hurting your relationship. If all he's getting from me is hostility, that ruins your chances. And if he gets hostility from you, that also-"
"-ruins my chances. So, we need to like each other, for everyone's sakes."
"Basically."
Sam was silent for a moment. "You said earlier that you're a father, too. What are your kids like?"
Leonard shook his head. "I'd tell you if I could."
Sam paled. "They aren't-"
"No, no, she's fine. I've got one – Joanna. She's thirteen now, but her mother divorced me seven years ago, and I haven't seen her since. I never even saw it coming. We were a happy family one day, and the next I was shoved out the door with a bag of belongings."
"That's… almost worse," Sam whispered, glancing towards the stairs where his kids had gone.
"Not quite. I still have the hope of getting to see her once she turns 18, at least. But at least that let me meet Jim; I never would've joined Starfleet if I'd had another option. And now I can't imagine life without him. That kid is the most annoying thing in the universe, but he's also one of the best people of any species, both in heart and mind. We're lucky to be his family."
"You adopted him, didn't you?"
"When I met him, I was at rock bottom, he was covered in his own blood, and we were both hungover with nothing to our names. We adopted each other. That's just how Jim works; he attracts the broken with his own brokenness, and they fix each other."
"He won't be broken forever, will he?" Sam asked concernedly.
"Some breaks you can't fix," Leonard murmured. "And that's when you stick together like glue and support each other."
"The ball's gonna drop! The ball's gonna drop!"
Sam smoothly swung open the door while Leonard stepped out of the way, just in time for Peter to race into the hospital room. Henry wasn't far behind, following slowly enough to hold Jane's hand, with Winona and Aurelan just behind. Leonard and Sam followed them in.
The men took up positions on either side of Jim. Leonard scooped Jane into his arms, Aurelan standing beside him. Henry sat beside Jim, who wrapped an arm around the boy, while Peter bounced excitedly beside Sam and Winona.
By unspoken agreement, the adults each rested a hand on Jim, Sam and Leonard taking his shoulders and Winona and Aurelan taking his hands.
Standing together like this, they watched the ball drop.