Four

"Do you ever stop moving?"

"Nope," Victoria pushed past Jim, dirty dishes in hand, and ignored him as she dumped them in the sink and picked up a fresh pile. Jim blocked her route, folding his arms across his chest. Victoria didn't even blink. "Out of the way, kid."

"You're going to combust," Jim sighed, taking the stack of plates from her hands and gesturing for her to lead the way.

Victoria rolled her eyes, but didn't fight him. They exited the living-room by the glass doors back onto the porch, where people were milling about casually. "You sound like Katie."

"Katie?"

"My friend. Never mind," Victoria grimaced. "If you did remember her name, I'd be afraid."

"I'm not that bad!"

"You're a pig," Victoria pointed to where he should put down the plates, and kissed his cheek when he did. "But you're still my favourite."

"Really?" Jim grabbed her in a bear hug, ignoring her shriek of laughter. "Because I think you have a new favourite."

"I do?" asked Victoria in amusement.

Jim nodded, looking for a moment exactly like the three year old who had captured her heart when he had wandered into her yard and declared he was running away from home. Teasingly, he tugged on a lock of her hair. "I saw you getting cosy with Bones, Tori."

Victoria huffed and pushed him away, giving him a stern look. "Jim."

"Tori," Jim mimicked her stance, even raising his voice to try and match her pitch.

Victoria aimed a punch at his arm, which he dodged. "He is your best friend!"

"So?" Jim shrugged, automatically grabbing her fist before she could hit him again. "You tried to set me up with Katie," he pointed out.

"I did not," protested Victoria. "I said if you didn't want to call her, she wouldn't call you. There's a difference."

"Okay, so you tried to set me up for a one-night stand with Katie," Jim waved a hand dismissively. "You want that with Bones? I can –"

"Stop it!" hissed Victoria, her eyes widening in panic when she saw that Jim was about to call him over. "James Tiberius Kirk, I swear to God I will –"

"What is it, Jim?" beer in hand and an almost bored look on his face, Leonard McCoy seemed to materialise out of nowhere every time Jim called him over, despite the sour expression. Inwardly, Victoria wondered why he didn't just stay away, even as she attempted to give him a smile. He responded with a wink. Swoon.

"Hey, can you take him away?" Victoria spoke quickly before Jim could say something stupid. "He's being annoying."

McCoy rolled his eyes and grasped Jim's shoulder. "How many times have I told you to leave the lady alone, Jim?"

Undaunted, Jim threw Victoria a cheeky smile before nudging McCoy pointedly. "Too many times."

"Try and listen then," muttered Victoria.

Jim chuckled. "I feel like you guys are my parents already."

Victoria wanted the ground to swallow her whole. Since when did she allow Jim to treat her like a teenager with a crush? Trying to ignore his obvious remarks, she turned away and busied herself with setting out the plates she had brought out. However, McCoy's answer to Jim made her giggle. "Don't know why you feel that way. I always said your mama was a saint for puttin' up with you."

"My mom didn't put up with me, Tori did," snorted Jim. Victoria was sure McCoy heard the slight bitterness in his tone when he spoke of his mother, but it was gone as soon as it seeped in.

"Then we'll call her the saint," said McCoy easily. Out of the corner of her eye, Victoria saw him take a few paces back, as if to pull Jim away. She smiled.

"Ah, but Tori is no saint, Bones!" Victoria's eyes widened. The cheeky bastard! "Did I ever tell you…" Jim's voice carried across the garden as they walked off, and Victoria groaned quietly before slipping back inside the house, shutting the glass door behind her firmly. Mentally plotting the various ways she could permanently silence Jim Kirk without actually killing him, she began to clean up the sitting-room.

Fifteen minutes later, she sighed. Maybe she was overdoing it, she thought tiredly as she tossed another empty can into the bin. Hikaru had certainly made it clear there was no reason for her and Ben to invite his entire crew to their house and host them for an evening, but Victoria had insisted. Not only did she feel the need to show that it was Hikaru's house as much as anyone else's, she had missed Jim Kirk terribly. Having practically raised the idiot, his achievements over the years had made her proud, and she was more than a little smug about how he still seemed to worship her. It had been adorable when he had been a child, but now that he was a grown man it was positively gratifying.

Yes, Victoria liked having Jim back in her life, but she would be lying to herself if she said she didn't want to see Leonard McCoy again. It had been years since their first meeting, of course, and she doubted he remembered very much of her, but their conversation earlier that day as they had walked to her car had made her smile, and Victoria hadn't smiled in a very long time. There was no chance of anything happening, despite what Katie had said at the wedding three years ago and what Jim was trying to do now. Even she knew McCoy was married to his work and got into life-threatening situations on a daily basis despite his complaints, and she was too busy to even contemplate starting something she couldn't see through to the end. If she had listened to Spock and Jim and taken that position on the Enterprise, however…

No. That was ridiculous. If she had allowed Jim to get her onto his ship, she'd have been dead already, not to mention the fact that leaving Ben and Demora would just be a very bad idea for all sorts of reasons she couldn't bring herself to think about at that moment. Victoria rolled her eyes, firmly pushed all thoughts of romance out of her mind, and made quick work of the living-room. She put the bin to one side, knowing that Ben would take it out later, and made her way back outside. She hovered at the very edge of the threshold, fingers wrapped around the door to hold it open as she discreetly watched McCoy and Scotty chat quietly, slightly away from the rest of the group. McCoy was scowling. She rarely saw him smile, but he had smiled at her just that morning and –

Suddenly, the door she was holding began to move and was slammed shut forcefully, making her shriek as her fingers got caught between the wall and the door. "Tori? Shit, what is it?" Jim slid open the door immediately, a look of panic on his face at her scream.

Victoria cradled her left hand to her chest gingerly. "I'm going to kill you, Kirk."

Jim's eyes nearly bugged out of his head. "Was that your hand?"

"Yes," she hissed. "What the hell made you close the door like that?"

"You kept yelling at me to keep it closed today!" protested Jim. Victoria's fingers had already swelled up, and she was wincing as she attempted to move them. Jim ran a hand through his hair. "I'm going to – damn, what the hell, Tori – Bones!"

Victoria cursed as the blonde man ran out of the house, closing the doors loudly behind himself again. He would break them if he wasn't careful. If he hadn't broken her hand already, she'd have to punch him later. Glancing down, she hesitantly tried to flex her fingers, only to gasp quietly at the stab of pain that ran down her arm at the effort. She doubted anything was broken, but her little finger was at a slightly odd angle. It made her feel faintly ill.

"What the hell happened to you?" McCoy's shocked voice made her look up, and she groaned when she realized Jim had succeeded in sending the doctor to her.

Jim was peering at her suspiciously from over McCoy's shoulder, and Victoria rolled her eyes. "Do I look like I need a doctor, kid?"

"Yes," he said stupidly. When McCoy turned away from Jim with an annoyed huff to take a look at her hand, the dumb expression shifted and the blonde captain gave her a very obvious wink.

Victoria narrowed her eyes. "Why you little –"

"I'll punch him for you later," assured McCoy. He gave Jim a glare, and the younger man obediently left the room, his movements almost meek. The doctor turned back to Victoria, raising a questioning brow. "What'd he do?"

She tried to wave him off, conscious of why Jim had sent him in. "It's nothing, caught my hand in the door."

"It looks like mincemeat," McCoy ignored her protests and took her hand between his own, his movements so careful that Victoria was thrown off for a moment. How could a man with a permanent frown on his face, who was constantly in a bad mood, be so gentle? She had no answers. McCoy was speaking again. "First aid kit?"

"Kitchen," said Victoria dumbly.

McCoy snorted and looked up from her hand, his eyes drawing her in hopelessly. They were the colour of melted chocolate. Oh, she was a goner now. "You're goin' to have to tell me where in the kitchen, darlin'."

"Right. Sorry. Under the sink."

"On it. You sit tight," Victoria had barely blinked before she realized he had guided her to the sofa and sat her down. Another blink and he was back, the ghost of a smile on his face. Victoria raised a questioning eyebrow. He smiled widely. "Haven't seen a kit this old-fashioned in a long time."

"Oh," she blinked. "Yeah, I grew up with these around. I don't know how to use the new ones."

"You should keep 'em just in case. You've got a kid in the house, and no hospital for miles," pointed out McCoy. Victoria looked sheepish.

Despite his comment, McCoy clearly had no problem using the outdated material. He took things out with a practiced ease that made Victoria wonder just where he had seen the kit in the first place. It didn't take him long to determine that three of her fingers and her thumb were fine, only bruised. Her little finger, however, was definitely broken.

Victoria sighed. "How bad is it?"

"I can fix it but it's going to hurt," warned McCoy. Victoria bit her lip. He gave her a sympathetic look. "You want me to call Jim in?"

"Why, so I can punch him?"

He chuckled. "I was gonna say for moral support."

She shook her head. "I can handle it."

McCoy didn't look like he believed her. "Here," to her surprise, he held out his left hand. She glanced at him curiously, but his eyes were merely watching her kindly. Deciding not to push her luck, Victoria took it. His hand was much larger than hers, but warm and comforting. He squeezed. "Just hold on, okay?"

Victoria nodded dumbly, too lost in his eyes to notice that he was smiling a little. She blinked, and felt a sharp pain go through her hand, before it went down to a dull ache. He had set her finger without telling her.

"That's got to be the oldest trick in the medicine handbook," said Victoria. She cleared her throat, slightly embarrassed that her voice was hoarse.

McCoy chuckled. "My favourite trick."

Apparently, he carried his own medical bag everywhere, but had been unwilling to fetch it from the car in case her hand needed immediate attention. He did bring it in, however, offering her a hypospray that reduced the pain in her hand and another that would ensure the bone would heal overnight. He bandaged her finger efficiently after that, and added an extra layer to the rest of her hand so she could avoid bumping the tender fingers. Victoria tried to flex when he was done, noting that the bandage would still allow her to use her hand partially. "Can I go punch Jim now?" she asked.

McCoy laughed. "Don't punch him on my account, I'd rather spend my time patching you up than listening to him and Spock argue."

Victoria smiled. "Here's hoping I don't make this a habit."

McCoy inclined his head. "Since I spend half my time in space, you probably shouldn't."

Victoria wrinkled her nose in distaste. "I still don't know how you do it."

"A lot of alcohol, and a lot of poker, darlin'."

"Two of my favourite things."

"Really?" his eyes twinkled. "Think you can play one-handed?"

Victoria smirked. "You're on."