Title: Many Bells Down (2/?)
Author: klmeri
Fandom: Star Trek AOS
Pairing: Kirk/Spock/McCoy
Summary: Sequel to Along Comes a Stranger; Riverside ‘verse. Dating Bones and Spock is wonderful, better than Jim imagined. Then Bones’ mother arrives, Spock receives the offer of a lifetime outside of Riverside, and Jim has to make a series of choices that could completely change his – and ultimately Riverside’s – future.
Previous Parts: 1

Part Two

“You’re quiet today, chico.”

Jim looks in askance at his boss. “I’ve been singing Aerosmith for the better part of an hour to annoy you.”

Jose doesn’t bother to lift his head from under the hood of the car engine he is inspecting. “So you don’t want to talk about it.”

“Nope.”

Jose grunts. For the next ten minutes, there are only the sounds of work. Then, “You haven’t said anything about your family in a while.” Family is how Jose categorizes the word boyfriend. The man hasn’t quite figured out why Jim needs two of them.

Dialing up the volume on the old radio, Jim starts banging his wrench against a recalcitrant lug nut. Eventually he’ll get around to using the correct tool to take it off. While working, he catches sight of Jose’s boots in his peripheral vision. The boots track in a wide circle around Jim.

The radio goes dead. Jim stops pounding on the hub-cap and frowns at the silent radio, smacks it once. Then Jose straightens up from his crouch with an unplugged cord in his hand. The man says expectantly, “Well?” At Jim’s baleful glare, Jose adds, “Believe it or not, I know a thing or two about relationship problems.”

Jose’s divorced, having left his ex-wife back in Cincinnati, and he never talks about it. Jim immediately comprehends the value of the offer Jose is making.

Kirk scratches the back of his neck with the wrench in his hand. “It’s complicated.”

“So the mother-in-law is giving you trouble.”

He perks up. “How did you know that?”

“It’s always the mother-in-law.”

“Technically she’s not my mother-in-law.”

“Feels like one, I bet. She giving you crap?” reiterates the man.

Jim stands up and discards his tool for a proper drill, sighing out all his frustration. “The real problem is that she doesn’t acknowledge me at all, like I’m fucking invisible.”

“Mmm,” murmurs his boss. “It could be worse.”

“How?”

“Say she offered to buy you off.”

Jim scoffs then considers Jose’s expression and does a mental flip. “Wait, what? No, man, that stuff only happens in soap operas.”

Jose takes out a rag to wipe his grease-blackened fingers as he talks. “Where there’s a rich man and a poor man, there’s always disparity. My ex-wife’s family has money—mucho, si? To her mother I was an ethnic nobody. Shoulda been her gardener, not the man in love with her daughter.”

“Oh jeez, I’m sorry, Jose.”

“Hey,” says Jose with a shrug, “that’s people. What I’m telling you, Jim… There wasn’t anything I could do to change her mind if she didn’t want it changed. My Bella—my ex-wife—she’s the one who had to tell her mother to back off and let us be. Your doctor needs to step up.”

Jim almost says that he doesn’t think that’s going to happen. Instead he remarks offhandedly, fiddling with a piece of paper in his pocket, “I don’t think Bones knows there is a problem.”

“Then he needs his ass kicked for not paying attention!” snaps Jose, taking Jim by surprise with his sudden temper.

“It’s not his fault,” Jim says in Leonard’s defense.

Jose grumbles something under his breath.

Jim says again, more insistently, “It’s not his fault!”

Jose turns away. “We need to finish the Hyundai before lunch.” And that, apparently, is Jose’s way of ending their heart-to-heart moment.

Jim is not going to argue, not when he can still read the lines of frustration—and possible anger—in Jose’s face. Without a word, Kirk snags the cord for the radio and plugs it back into the outlet, then switches the receiver to AM radio. The music of a classical piece fills the silence of the garage. Jose likes classical music, Jim knows, and maybe mellifluous chords will soothe his boss when words cannot.

He is still thinking about what Jose said when lunchtime arrives. Because Jim feels slightly bad for upsetting his generally easy-going boss, he offers to take Jose to the diner for a meal. Jose says there is no way in hell he is going to wait tables. Jim assures him, “Mom won’t enlist you, man. I promise. But you can watch me run around.”

Which, it seems, is good enough entertainment for Jose.

Plugging one ear with a finger against the noise of the lunch crowd, Jim taps his foot with impatience while the pay phone rings and rings. His mother wouldn’t let him use the diner’s phone because the line needs to be open for incoming to-go orders. He’d nicked a few quarters from the register, ignoring her admonishment of “Jim! That is not your piggy bank!” and promised hastily to return the change later (which means the next time he remembers to).

“C’mon,” he tells the stupid phone.

Someone picks up. “Cochrane Law Firm. How may I direct your call?”

“Mr. Spock, please.”

The voice pauses. “Mr. Spock is in a meeting. Shall I transfer you to his voicemail?”

Jim hesitates, finally says, “All right.”

When Spock’s voice comes over the line, politely informing his caller that he is unavailable and to leave contact information, Jim holds his breath. He is acting ridiculous, of course, as though Spock has been gone for months when it has only been days. At the beep, Jim says, “Uh, hi, it’s me. Just checking in. We’re fine. We, um,” he blushes and lowers his voice, “miss you. See you on Friday.”

Jim puts a hand over his face after he hangs up, embarrassed that he sucks at leaving coherent voice messages.

“Awww, isn’t that sweet?”

Jim spins around. A beautiful, dark-haired woman smiles at him. He demands, before he can stop himself, “What are you doing here, Marlena?” His mother would have chewed rocks rather than hire her as a waitress for the new diner.

Her eyes skip around the room. “To eat lunch. I assume this is still a public restaurant. Nice decor, by the way.”

Knowing that if he doesn’t walk away, he might do something foolish, Jim ignores her and heads back to the booth he is sharing with Jose. Marlena, who hates to be ignored, digs her fingers into his arm as he passes her. “I hear Leonard’s mother is in town,” she says sweetly. “I doubt she thinks much of you, Jimmy. She’ll be looking for the right woman for her son.” Her smile is malicious.

Jim clamps a hand on her wrist. “Let go, Marlena. And don’t talk to me again.”

They lock gazes. She says at last, “Tell that red-headed bitch to keep away from me. I missed three days of work because of her.”

Jim is of the opinion that Marlena got what she deserved. “You leave my family alone, and they will leave you alone.” It’s the only promise he can offer.

She lets him go. To his retreating back, however, the woman says loudly, “Fuck your family, Kirk! You ruin everything!”

Jim says nothing as his mother drops what she is doing behind the counter and heads in Marlena’s direction, no doubt to drag the woman through the exit by the hair. Uhura, coffee pot in hand, isn’t far behind. Except Marlena Moreau gives the women a nasty smirk and walks out of the Enterprise Diner on her own.

Jose, smart enough not to ask, slides a bowl of banana pudding at Jim. They finish their once-leisurely lunch in a hurry and return to the auto shop, not a word spoken between them.

It’s dark outside by the time Winona Kirk arrives at the farm, tired but smiling as she steps through the kitchen door. Jim is at the stove reading the back of a jar of sauce for the umpteenth time. Then he leans over a pot to sniff the steam. It’s not burning, he decides, which is good.

“I was going to cook, Jimmy,” his mother says as she sheds her coat and purse.

“You’re busy all day. You need a break.” He adds indignantly, “And I am capable of making food.”

She puts a hand against his cheek, says with fondness, “Didn’t you almost ruin Spock’s kitchen?”

He mumbles, “Wasn’t my fault. It was a gas stove.”

When she questions what’s in the pot, he shows her the jar. Winona remarks that prepared spaghetti sauce still needs a few extra spices to make it taste better. She also comes up with a bell pepper, mushrooms, and an onion in addition a spice rack. Subsequently, Jim is gently nudged aside while his mother chops more ingredients and fixes the sauce to her liking.

“What’s in the oven, dear?” she asks.

“Garlic bread.”

After checking on it, she says conversationally, “You and Robert take such good care of me. I’m a lucky woman.”

“Bob?” Is she trying to tell him something?

“Mmhm. Robert says he’s worried that I am working too hard. I told him he needs to worry about his own self, with the heart attack and all. He makes me dinner sometimes. I didn’t realize he could cook so well.”

Jim admits honestly that he is somewhat surprised. “Are you dating Bob?”

“I would have never dated Robert when I was under his employ.”

“Which doesn’t answer my question,” he points out.

She is smiling to herself. “You know I’m content as I am, Jimmy. That doesn’t mean I would be offended by male company once and a while.” Then she announces that the bread looks done and lets him pull out the baking sheet from the oven and transfer the bread slices to a basket on the kitchen table.

They enjoy a stretch of companionable silence, Jim slumped over the kitchen table and Winona at the stove. But after some minutes, she stops slowly stirring the pot of bubbling spaghetti sauce and wants to know, “What’s wrong?”

Jim blinks, caught in the act of stealing a piece of warm garlic toast. Rather than answering, he stuffs the bread into his mouth and shrugs.

Her response is to pull out a chair at the kitchen table and sit down to wait on him to swallow. “I know that look, Jimmy. What’s the matter?” Her gaze drops pointedly down to his hand, more specifically to his fidgety fingers.

Ah crap. He has a habit of tracing invisible patterns on the tabletop when there’s something on his mind. She knows that; in fact, she’s the one who told Spock about it during a Sunday meal. Spock had thanked her graciously for the insight into Reading the Signs of a Withdrawn Jim Kirk. Then the combined stares of Winona, Leonard, and Spock had forced him to blurt out the news he had thought would be unwelcome: the Harley was restored and ready to ride. But Bones had sighed around a fried chicken drumstick and said, “Quit lookin’ like we’re gonna set fire to Jose’s shop.” Jim had started. Had they already known about the Harley? “We knew this day was coming, kid. Just don’t… Be safe, okay?”

“I’m fine.”

“James Tiberius. It’s too cold to sit outside by the fence at midnight and have this conversation.” Her face softens. “It’s just the two of us here. Can’t you tell me, baby?”

He doesn’t necessarily want to talk about his love-life with his mother but he tries to hedge around the subject. “It’s nothing. I guess I miss Bones and Spock.”

She frowns. “Spock I understand, but don’t you see Leonard every day?”

“Not really.”

She props her chin in her hand, looking not so much like a mother as an interested confidante.

Jim relaxes and describes the situation, Bones’ absence and Spock’s elusive attention. He is careful of what he says about Eleanor, because as innocent and sweet as Winona looks, she wouldn’t hesitate to go toe-to-toe with Bones’ mother if she heard that the woman wasn’t treating her son right.

Winona gets up to turn down the sauce to a simmer and drop noodles into another pot of salted boiling water. Then she returns to her seat and speaks. “As much as you love them, Jimmy, and as much as I believe they love you, your relationship is still new. You haven’t worked out all the kinks yet. Honestly, some of what’s troubling you now may always be an underlying issue—but when people are in love, they learn to accept the good and the bad.” She smiles. “You’ve done wonders for Leonard, so let him have his time with his family. I promise he won’t forget you, Jim. Nobody could.”

“But what about Spock? Should I worry?”

“Aren’t you worrying already? And it hasn’t helped you one bit, has it?”

He makes a face.

She threatens him with a spatula then sobers. “The best you can do for Spock is not hound him. There’s nothing more stubborn than a man who isn’t ready to talk about what’s on his mind. But he’ll come around. Though I do suggest that you let him know he is worrying you. He’ll come around faster that way.” She punctuates her advice with a saucy wink that makes him laugh.

He is about to inquire after the edible state of the spaghetti when his stomach does it for him with a loud growl. Winona says, amused, “The noodles should be ready in five minutes.”

God, how he loves his mother. He tells her so. She returns the sentiment with equal measure.

Jim is facedown on the couch caught in a hazy dream when a hand starts a slow rub between his shoulder blades. At first he is certain that he is still dreaming and clutches one of the couches’ pillows more tightly. Then the pleasant rubbing stops, and in his dream he mumbles “Not cool” and twitches his back muscles unhappily.

Something brushes against the curve of his ear. “Jim,” it says. “Jiiimmm.”

The haze vanishes in an instant and there’s no way he can hold onto it. Not that he’d want to. Jim peeks open an eye. “Bones?” he questions sleepily, turning onto his side.

The edge of the couch sinks as Jim’s legs are rearranged across Leonard’s lap.

The thought comes to him that now is the best time to take advantage of this situation. Jim hauls himself upright, tilts Leonard’s jaw just so, and kisses him. When Bones winds his fingers into Jim’s short hair, tugging at it in a clear sign of more, Jim deepens the kiss. They stay like that for as long as Jim can stand it, until his muscles protest his twisted position with sharp painful insistence. He lets go of Bones and flops back down on the couch, groaning but grinning.

The doctor’s strong hands knead one of Kirk’s calves. “Why are you napping in the middle of the day?”

He was lonely, had intended to close his eyes only for a moment so he could picture the people he was missing most, and had unintentionally fallen asleep. Jim says nothing of that. “I’m bored.”

Bones’ snort is soft. “Then you ought to be at Spock’s, idiot. Entertaining Joanna for an afternoon defies boredom.” The man’s eyes darken. “She was asking where you were. Was wonderin’ that myself, Jim.”

Jim is silent for some seconds. “It’s important that you are able to spend time with her,” he says by way of explanation.

Leonard narrows his eyes. “Since when did spending time with you and spending time with Joanna become mutually exclusive events?”

He shakes his head quickly. “That’s not… Bones, I swore to myself I wouldn’t intrude when it came to your family. This is your time.”

Bones shoves Jim’s legs from his lap to the ground without warning, then plants a hand next to Jim’s head so that he can lean over Kirk and bring their faces within inches of one another. “You’re a fool,” Jim is told, “if you think my ‘family’ doesn’t include you. What’s this really about, kid? I go home to Joanna every night but that doesn’t mean I don’t keep expecting you to walk through the damn front door. I thought—” Bones breaks off from whatever he was going to say next. “JoJo likes you, Jim.” It’s almost a plea.

Jim sucks in an unsteady breath before confessing in a whisper, “But your mother doesn’t.”

Bones sits up again, frowning. “She likes you.”

Jim sits up, too, and faces away. “Yeah right. I know how to interpret her kind of look, Bones. It says I might as well be shit on the bottom of her shoes.”

“I would know if she doesn’t like you! Hell, my mother wouldn’t keep an opinion to herself to save her life!”

Jim rakes a hand through his hair. If Bones can’t see what’s obvious, then how could Jim possibly convince him? “Forget it.”

Leonard grabs his arm. “Listen to me. I swear it’s not you, Jim, no matter what you think. She’s—mixed up. She thinks I won’t go back to Georgia because…”

Jim looks at his boyfriend, then, catching that pause and knowing what it means. “Because of me. Because this is where I live?” He barks out a laugh, the sound surprisingly bitter. “That makes perfect sense! Of course you wouldn’t be stuck here because of Spock. I’m the one who lives in Riverside. This is my home.”

His laugh ends as abruptly as it began. “So she came to take you back to Georgia, huh, Bones.” Damn, he should have known that would happen; but he was just too blindingly happy, living in fanastyland. The idea of Bones leaving is akin to a knife in his heart. Jim stands up, pretending otherwise. “Eleanor will call here in another minute looking for you. I bet you didn’t tell her where you were going.”

“I’m a grown man. Where I go is my own business.”

He says nothing else, instead stalks to the bathroom.

Bones raises his voice from the couch. “Jim! Damn it, Jim, we need to talk!”

He knows from experience that shutting the bathroom door does little in the way of sound-proofing. Jim leans against the sink counter and shivers, then turns on the tap and wipes down his face and neck with chilled water. He waits, but Bones isn’t beating down the bathroom door as normally happens when they argue and Jim walks away from the conversation.

Inexplicably terrified that Leonard has left him, Jim jerks open the door and hurries back into the living room. Bones isn’t gone, however. His boyfriend is standing next to the wide-open front door. Framed within the doorway is Eleanor McCoy, Joanna McCoy pressed up against her grandmother’s side.

“Prince Jim!” cries the little girl when she spies him. Joanna scoots away from her grandmother and runs across the room to hug Jim’s knees.

“Princess!” he crows. He makes a show of picking her up and exclaiming over how heavy she is.

“I’m a good size for m’age. Granny says so,” she informs him.

Jim nods gravely. “You are perfect, Princess. Even your nose is perfect. It looks just like your daddy’s.” He tweaks it fondly.

Joanna covers her nose and cranes her head around to look at her father, inspecting his face with wide eyes. Eventually she protests, “His nose is lots bigger.”

“You’re still growing,” Leonard tells his daughter, amused. Then, to Eleanor, “You didn’t have to come all the way out here, Ma.”

Eleanor McCoy adjusts the angle of her hat and removes her gloves but keeps her purse tucked in the crook of her arm—a sign, Jim gathers, that she isn’t planning to visit for long. “I know you don’t live at Mr. Spock’s, Leonard.” Her eyes flick over to Jim. “Am I invited in?”

Jim nods dumbly, quite dismayed by how he must appear—rumpled and messy. The apartment, unfortunately, is in similar condition. He cringes as Eleanor walks around the couch, sharp eyes studying each nook and cranny and every discarded used napkin or untidy surface. The older woman sits daintily on the edge of the recliner chair.

“Joanna, come here and sit,” she says firmly.

Joanna’s lower lip pushes out in a pout, so Jim picks her up, swinging her a little to make her laugh, and plops them both down onto the couch.

She says, “Daddy! Daddy, sit by me!”

Leonard obeys, his mouth stretching in a smile as she climbs into his lap. “You’re gettin’ too big to sit on someone, JoJo.”

The little girl beams at Jim as she kicks her heels against Leonard’s legs. Jim beams back, both of them ignoring her father.

Then the questions begin: “Do you live here, Daddy?”

“Sometimes.”

“But why? Uncle Spock’s house is bigger! ‘N it has a pool!”

“Sometimes I stay there, too.” Bones hugs Joanna against his chest. She squirms.

“Granny says it’s foolish to live in two houses.”

“Joanna!” gasps Eleanor. “We do not repeat what others say. It’s ill-mannered.”

Jim laughs silently. The woman most certainly wouldn’t want Joanna to repeat anything she said. “Bones is my roommate, Princess, which means he has his own room here,” answers Jim. He shoots a sidelong glance at Bones before continuing. “But Uncle Spock is alone in his big ol’ house, so sometimes we have a sleep-over there, too.”

Eleanor stiffens, but Joanna finds this answer acceptable. She nods judiciously.

Leonard’s mother interrupts before the little girl can query further about their “sleep-overs” or the exact nature of a roommate relationship. “There’s no need to take the bus home, Leonard. We brought the car.”

Joanna turns, her mind undoubtedly leaping to a great idea, and flings her arms around her father’s neck. “Daddy, I saw the ice cream store! Can we go there?”

Jim is rather proud of introducing her to the Ice Cream Shoppe. Nyota’s aunt and uncle took an instant liking to the blonde-haired child. They let her have an extra scoop on her ice cream cone for free. (Jim had tried to slip them more money for the treat but they wouldn’t take it, saying they are always pleased when Kirk brings them new business.)

Bones pats her back, and Jim instantly knows that the man is going to cave. It’s funny how helpless Bones is when faced with Joanna’s very sweet, little girl giggle of Daddy. But Jim seen her stomp her feet in temper and rumble Daaaaddy! like a thundercloud too. The girl doesn’t do tearful tantrums, only heated and quite scary ones. He thinks she must have inherited such behavior from Bones. Spock had agreed with this observation.

Leonard says, “Sure, darlin’.”

Joanna is off the couch and by the front door in a split second. The adults follow more sedately. Jim waves a hand at his attire, saying, “I should change first.”

“Oh, we didn’t mean to disturb you, Mr. Kirk,” Eleanor McCoy says. “I can see you need your sleep. Go on and rest.”

Jim’s heart drops to the floor.

Leonard is staring at his mother, brows drawn together. He says to Jim, “We can wait five minutes.”

Eleanor searches her son’s face for a moment. Then she takes Joanna’s hand and says, “We’ll wait in the car.” Leonard opens the door for them.

Jim doesn’t need to see any more. He goes to get changed, wondering if he’s made a terrible mistake. He hadn’t considered that if a wedge is driven between Bones and his mother, Eleanor could take Joanna back to Georgia in a heartbeat, could make it difficult for Leonard to see his daughter again.

Fuck, he thinks, pulling on a pair of clean jeans. Just… fuck.

Suddenly he wants Spock home more than ever.

Next Part

Related Posts:

• Many Bells Down (12/12) – from November 9, 2011
• Many Bells Down (11/12) – from November 8, 2011
• Many Bells Down (10/12) – from November 6, 2011
• Many Bells Down (9/12) – from October 30, 2011
• Many Bells Down (8/12) – from October 28, 2011