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[chasedthestars]

If Jim were thinking clearly, he'd be worried about his state of mind. He'd stepped into the mist near dino territory and into something like a dream, but it had always been like a dream. He's twenty five and the youngest Captain Starfleet has ever seen - and maybe he's done his best to earn it, but that's never going to sound like anything other than a spectacular dream any time Jim says it aloud.

And now it's happening again.

Jim stands in the middle of his old quarters, the floor a bit smoother for the passage of his boots as he paces. He'd been so happy, at first, to be home. He' Captain again, of a ship, a real ship, one that didn't exist solely in memory but in the deepest reaches of space. Hell, Jim had been so happy when he'd first seen Spock that he'd kissed him, narrowly avoiding another embarrassing pinch.

But now...now Jim is wondering where Bones is. Or rather, Jim is wondering how Bones is. He knows they'll be nothing less than best friends, now that Jim's wandered back into his first, best destiny, but Jim wants more. He thinks he probably always did, and now that he's had it on the island, he's not ready to give it up.

Jim can't help but notice, though, looking down at his hands for the twentieth time - there's no ring on his finger.

Drawing a breath, Jim walks to the comm and smacks it to life. "Bones," he barks down a private channel. "My quarters, now."

Comments

[leftwithmybones]

McCoy had received the communication in the middle of his shift and glared at the speaker for about five seconds before he was on his feet. No matter what he protested, he was an idiot who did whatever Jim Kirk wanted, at the end of the day. He narrowly remembers to grab Jim's things from the physical he'd run on him earlier in the day, carrying the box with him as he walks through the halls of the ship.

He finally makes it to Jim's quarters after having to stop about ten times for crewmembers to remind them of their physical appointments. He uses his access code to head into their quarters, already in the middle of bitching as he's walking in. "I ever tell you I hate this time of year more than anything? Whole damn ship of people and they all need an approved physical," he mutters, shaking his head. "And I have to sign off on every last one of 'em."

[chasedthestars]

He smells like Medical. Jim had almost forgotten the way the scent of Bones' own private torture bay clung to his skin. It isn't like the lab on the island, it isn't like the smell of their shared home. But it still smells like home - the one Jim would have chosen for them, shared quarters on the Enterprise the one fantasy he'd have plucked from all possible fantasies.

Maybe he can still have it. He just has to win Bones' affections all over again. No problem, right? It'll just be the most important thing he's ever done.

Jim swallows, throat dry with nerves, and pastes on a smile. "I told you to let the nurses do some of them. You know Chapel's chomping at the bit to get more experience." Idling forward, Jim moves to grab Bones' bundle from his hands. "C'mon, stay a while."

[leftwithmybones]

"Damn it, Jim," he huffs without much heat when Jim takes the box from him. He grabs it back from him and fiddles with the lock of it, opening it up and digging past the few vitamin oral pills he'd brought for Jim to take to get at the ring, holding it up and tapping Jim in the forehead with it lightly. "Chapel can do the rest of them, but I still need eyes on each crew-member unless you want me to have my license pulled for an oversight."

"And you forgot this," he says gruffly, trying to hide the fact that he cares this much about Jim wearing the thing when, previously, he had said it hadn't mattered. Maybe he cares more than he said when it comes to Jim wearing the ring. Maybe Bones wants the rest of the ship to know who Jim belongs to. He lightly takes hold of Jim's hand, splaying it over his own palm as he slides the ring back on like it's their wedding day all over again. "Why'm I staying, huh?" he asks warmly, fond gaze skimming over Jim's body.

[chasedthestars]

Jim flinches - his default reaction to Bones tugging anything suddenly from a box from Medical - and blinks when Bones raps him on the forehead. He's still staring when Bones folds his hand over his, fingers warm and calloused and familiar, and slides the ring onto Jim's finger where it belongs.

"You - " Jim starts, because he hadn't expected it to be like this. He thought that when he went home, it'd be right back to the point he'd left it. He never thought he might go forward in time, but if this is where the island has spit him out, happily married to Bones and a Captain, Jim can't say he's complaining.

"It's just been too long since I've seen you, is all," he finally says, tucking his nose against Bones' throat to breath him in. "You smell like Medical."

[leftwithmybones]

It's comfortable, standing here like this and he smiles against Jim's temple, tipping his head to the side as his breath trickles over Jim's hairs at the nape of his neck. "Makes sense, seeing as I've been there nearly all day," he replies, voice rumbling low and steady. "Thought for a second you were calling me up here for a quickie," he admits.

[chasedthestars]

Jim laughs, pulling back with a quick nip to the long tendon of Bones' throat. "I thought you were taking your sweet time getting up here," he says. "Playing hard to get?"

Still grinning, Jim steps back to look at him, curious to see what differences lie between this Bones and the one he's known on the island, but none are readily apparent. He looks like Bones, his Bones, and the last knot in Jim's chest releases.

His mouth is open to ask Bones about their wedding when he sees it, a picture by the bed he'd been too keyed up to notice before. It's them in their dress uniforms, everyone in life Jim's ever loved standing with them, even his mom, and Pike in the place of officiator.

"Jesus," Jim breathes. "This is exactly what I would've - " he says and corrects himself. "This is exactly the wedding I wanted."

[leftwithmybones]

"Told you, I was working," he murmurs, reminding Jim of his first love (not Bones', but Jim's, that being the ship and all her components). He raises his brow when Jim starts talking about their wedding, stripping off his shirt while Jim rambles on about it. "I know, darling, it's why we had it the way we did," Bones says.

"You feeling okay, Jim?" he asks, shaking the box from medical. "You forgot your vitamins earlier, too."

[chasedthestars]

Jim turns abruptly, but instead of the hypo he'd been dreading, all Bones has in his hands is a box. "No stabbing," he murmurs with a faint smile, "That's a nice change. When'd I train you out of that one?"

[leftwithmybones]

He shrugs absently as he digs out the oral pills. "Much as I enjoy the face you make when I stab you, I figured if I wanted this marriage to last more than a year, I might want to look into turning all your yearly injections into an orally taken pill," he says, holding out a few of them to Jim in his palm. "Last thing I needed was to be divorced because I was too stab-happy," he says wryly, dropping the pills into Jim's palm so he can strip off his boots, next.

He's not saying he's preparing himself for sex, but he had a few rounds of coping with some disgusting crap in Medical today and could use the change of uniform.

[chasedthestars]

Jim takes the pills with wonder, pushing them into his mouth and swallowing while he watches Bones' progress with interest. He pulls his own shirt over his head.

"What if I was calling you up here for a quickie?"

[leftwithmybones]

"Damn it, Jim," he wrinkles his nose in eye-rolling ...well, not disgust, but maybe the epiphany that Jim's mind really does revolve around sex. "I smell disgusting and I'm pretty sure my skin has a thin layer of illness on it. I'm not exactly Mr. Sex right now."

"However," he says, before Jim can sulk. "I'm about to take a water shower with your credits to get that smell off, so you've got ten minutes in the shower to be creative."

[chasedthestars]

"You know better than to challenge me by now," Jim grins, stripping his shirt over his head with spectacular efficiency. He's mostly nude before Bones can even get his socks off.

"Which means you want me to rise to the occasion." He sweeps a hand towards the shower. "After you, Bones."

[leftwithmybones]

He'll never stop being impressed in the rate in which Jim can go from fully clothed to absolutely naked. Hell, it practically deserves a commendation. He rolls his eyes and sits on the bed to pry off his socks in a calm, even manner. That said, he's also taking this extra time to let his gaze roam over Jim's body. "Slow down, darling, I got a lot of layers, here. Medical gets cold, you know."

[chasedthestars]

"Ten minutes, Bones!" says Jim with a sharp clap of his hands. He leans his hip against the bathroom door. He's lost his island tan, it seems, skin space pale again like he hasn't seen it in ages, but Jim knows he looks good.

Snaking an idle hand between his legs, Jim strokes himself once. "Tick, tock."

[leftwithmybones]

Bones scowls thickly as he gets the last of his clothes off and takes a few long strides to get behind Jim, wrapping a hand around Jim's dick without much of a warning at all. "Can't you wait a damn minute?" he complains, without much heat, walking them in the direction of the shower. "Impatient ass."

[chasedthestars]

"Pays off sometimes," Jim manages, letting Bones frogmarch him into the shower. He turns on the water, taking most of the first blast of cold water against his own body to cool himself off, lest Bones' presence at his back end things too early. He winces, then sighs as the water warms.

"Ten minutes?" he says. "I feel like twenty's better."

[leftwithmybones]

"Some of us have to go back to work when all this is said and done," Bones says mildly, because the truth is he's already given in to what Jim wants because he wants that, himself. After all, a good warm shower takes a lot of time to appreciate and even the most moronic person he's got down in Medical can handle themselves for ten additional minutes. Still, even as he finishes speaking, he's busy laying kisses against Jim's shoulder, working his way up the neck, brushing against the hairline. "Any adventures in Captaining today, darlin'?"

[chasedthestars]

Jim can't exactly own to jumping dimensions, and he has no idea what this version of himself was up to earlier today. "Paperwork," he says, because it's always a safe bet. "Nothing awesome." He leans his head back against Bones' shoulder, eyes closing for every warm close of lips against his skin, savoring it while he reaches back for two handfuls of Bones' ass to bring him closer.

"Definitely nothing as awesome as this."

[leftwithmybones]

"Reminds me that I ought to drop by your ready room at some point," he muses, reaching over to turn the water a touch hotter. He's always liked it just that side of scalding to indulge in the comfort of it. "Ask me what I spent most of my shift doing," he prompts, lazily winding his hand around Jim's dick and absently stroking.

[chasedthestars]

Between the hot water and Bones' sturdy grip, Jim all but melts back against him, eyes closed against the spray. "What'd you spend most of your shift doing, Bones?" he asks, licking his lips. "Was it this?"

[leftwithmybones]

"No, you infant," he murmurs, but he did spend a lot of time thinking about it. "I spent my shift signing off on medicals so my husband can get us back to actually doing what we're supposed to be doing instead of sitting up here in dead space until I can approve everyone as fit and healthy. Know I finished your physical today, but I think I could use a second look."

[chasedthestars]

"Be as thorough as you like," Jim encourages, twisting in Bones arms to face him before he fastens his mouth to the juncture of his throat. "Leonard Kirk-McCoy, going out of his way to get the Enterprise back into unknown space. It's like something out of my wildest fantasies."

[leftwithmybones]

"Yeah, yeah, for better or worse was in the damn vows and as much as worse might be careening around in space where my blood pressure can soar off the chart, it's what you want," he says, softly. "And this ain't a compromise," he adds, tipping his head back and letting out a low groan at Jim's mouth on him. "Happy wife, happy life, right?" he teases.