Title: Along Comes a Stranger (5/?)
Author: klmeri
Fandom: Star Trek AOS
Pairing: Kirk/Spock/McCoy
Summary: AU. Jim’s life in Riverside is uncomplicated until two men, both equally mysterious and compelling, arrive in town, bringing with them the promise of change.
Previous Part: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

This is short but I wanted to separate it out from everything else. I’m interested in the reactions to this backstory. Since this is a modern AU, I can’t write away an unpleasant reality. :(

Part Five

Leonard has Jim’s full attention. Jim sits in the chair he had braced himself against, knees no longer shaky but Jim figuring if he sat he wouldn’t run away.

McCoy is already apologizing—whether for the bombshell of information or the kiss Jim doesn’t know, really, or care. He raises a hand to tell Leonard to stop talking, to let Jim think. A short silence later, and he tells the man, “I believe that you wouldn’t say that about Spock unless you were certain, Bones. You owe me the details.”

Now McCoy sits, too, on the edge of the bed. They are close but not close enough to touch, which might be for the best.

Jim absentmindedly presses his fingertips to his mouth when Bones begins the story. His lips are lightly swollen, not physically painful but now a painful reminder of how he always leaps without looking.

“Spock and I met in college. Roommates, believe it or not, for the first year at the University of Georgia.” McCoy’s eyes light briefly as he says, “You can imagine how well that went. Spock’s a neat freak; I’m messy. He had to have absolute quiet and my snoring drove him batshit, though he was too bottled up to say so. Hell, Jim, we fought like cats and dogs most of the time. The only thing we agreed on was the importance of studying and no girls in the room. Needless to say, Spock and I both transferred as far apart from each other as we possibly could.”

It’s just a story, but Jim can’t help feeling a pang that it is also a history he was never part of. His own days at Iowa State were brief; he never encountered anyone worth knowing there that he hadn’t already known.

“It wasn’t until senior year that we… re-connected, I guess, almost out-of-the-blue. We were both getting ready to take the preliminaries for graduate work. Jim, I can’t explain it but it’s like we suddenly realized we had things in common—and they mattered more than the things we didn’t. I’m not saying we never argued after that—damn but Spock can be an annoying little shit sometimes—but we didn’t drive each other crazy. In fact,” McCoy’s color rises, and Jim forces himself not to look away, “I think I was gettin’ too dependent on him. He’s calm, you know? The calmest bastard ever. Ha, maybe ‘cause he ain’t Southern. Anyway, we studied together in cafes or coffee shops late at night. I—I found myself really liking him. It was unexpected.”

McCoy falls silent for some seconds before he picks up the story again. “He got into law school; I, into med school.” Jim says nothing at McCoy’s apologetic look, only tipping his head for Bones to continue. “I had had a few girlfriends on and off during college, experimented with guys too, but it never occurred to me why Spock did not talk about anybody that way. I figured he was… I don’t know, above that stuff. I didn’t know when I left him that he regretted never telling me he thought we could be something good together. He did tell me, though—later.” Again, McCoy’s tan skin flushes at a memory. “Long story short, Jim, I met Jocelyn while I was at Mississippi. It was kinda crazy. I think I was riding a high, dreaming about being a doctor. No one’s ever been a doctor in my family—“

Leonard shakes his head, seemingly chastising himself for some sentiment. Jim does not mention that he knows Leonard’s father was a salesman—and that he suspects McCoy is carrying around his father’s briefcase of unsold Bibles.

“Jocelyn, she’s my wife—ex, shit—was as clueless as me. Neither of us realized how long and tiring building my career would be, not just through med school but through residency. We married too young, Jim,” he tells Kirk earnestly. “And God help me for saying this, we had Joanna too young, too.”

McCoy sighs. “I’ll spare you the gory details. Joce was lonely since I was always working, and I was too tired to give her the attention she deserved. So she slept with an old friend who came into town. I can’t say I blame her now but I was mad, and we split. Marriage went down the crapper from there,” McCoy says almost wryly.

“How does Spock fit into this?” Jim wants to know.

“I made a bad decision” are McCoy’s gruff words. “I hunted him down because I was desperate. Joce threatened to take Joanna for good and I wasn’t thinking straight. I thought… if anyone could help me keep my daughter, Spock could. Fuck but that was the biggest fucking mistake ever.”

Jim flinches, not knowing why but suddenly sympathizing with Spock. “He came when you asked him to.” It doesn’t need to be a question.

Leonard slumps over, elbows on his knees. “He did. I know it’s not his fault but… Are you sure you want to hear the rest of this, kid?”

“Yes.”

“Jocelyn knew I liked men as much as women,” Jim is told flatly. “I never hid that from her. Well, the divorce proceedings weren’t as quick as they should have been; Spock argued over every detail, saying I earned my share. It pissed her off. And I don’t know how, but in the few times Jocelyn met Spock, she saw how he looked at me. At least, that’s what she told the judge.”

Oh shit, Jim thinks. He braces himself, as McCoy is doing.

“She wanted to hurt me, so she used Spock to do it. Maybe she thought she could steer attention away from her indiscretion by deflecting it onto me.” Leonard’s eyes are dark. “I don’t know how things work in your part of the country, kid, but where I am from, a man can do what he wants if he’s discreet about it. If he isn’t… I’m so damned ashamed of people sometimes, you know?”

Jim agrees “I know” without elaborating.

“So I got dragged through the mud, Spock did too—she told everybody we were sleeping together. We lost credibility and,” McCoy finishes, “I lost Joanna. Can’t have a queer raising a little girl.”

“Bones,” Jim warns low and tight, hands flexing, “if you say that again, I will hit you.”

“I would let you, if I ever meant it.”

For a moment, they are quiet. Then Jim feels that the need for movement so he rises and paces to the door and back. It’s a pitifully short distance but moving helps. “Let me tell you what I think happened after that, Bones,” he says.

Jim doesn’t wait for McCoy to reply. “Spock—a straightforward guy, right?—wouldn’t lie if you accused him of ruining your case.”

Now McCoy flinches. Jim pauses for a second, not sure if he is comforted by the fact that he accurately guessed the aftermath between Spock and McCoy once the custody case was lost. McCoy would be devastated but angry, too. Jim wonders briefly how Spock must have felt.

He continues. “Spock admitted his feelings. Did you punch him?”

“No. I called him a damn fool, though. Told him he compromised the case by accepting it when he knew he was a liability.” Leonard rakes a hand through his hair. “Which I shouldn’t have done. Joce would have probably pulled the same trick with any lawyer I had.”

Jim silently agrees. “So why did you run, Bones?”

“Jim…”

“Why?” he asks, implacable.

McCoy won’t look at him. “You didn’t see the way people looked at me. I couldn’t—she took my possessions and my daughter but I still should have had something left. It was my hometown, Jim. My friends, my family—those who pretended I didn’t exist… You don’t understand. And Spock wouldn’t let it go. He was just making things worse.”

Jim sinks beside McCoy on the bed. “You think there aren’t assholes in this town who want to beat the crap out of me because I sleep with men, Bones? Don’t be stupid. I’ve had my share of shit too. People suck.” He touches the man’s shoulder. “But there are some good people here, my mom being one of them. They stand by me, and I stand by them.” Sliding his fingers down McCoy’s arm, he takes the man’s hand and squeezes it. “If you stay in Riverside, you won’t regret it.” Jim grins half-heartedly, adding, “We could use a good doctor.”

McCoy does not smile back, merely searches Jim’s face. Then he sighs and asks tiredly, “What about Spock?”

“I don’t know. Not yet.” And he doesn’t, not at all, but Jim can’t tell Bones that he now desperately wants to speak with Spock, if only to gage whether the lawyer is an ally or an enemy.

He also cannot predict what may happen with Bones’ daughter—only that McCoy should not be apart from her for the rest of his life.

Jim Kirk won’t allow it.

He stays with Bones until after they have polished off the crumbles from the take-out boxes. Stepping out into the sunshine and basking in the warmth of it, Jim says, “You should come to the diner.”

McCoy remains in the doorway, still shrouded in the dim light of the motel room. “I can’t.”

“You can,” Jim tells him firmly. “You will. You need to meet my family.”

Leonard does not argue because Jim does not give Leonard the chance to do so. He strides to his truck with a confidence his mother says makes him none other than James T. Kirk, extraordinaire: “It’s part of why people are drawn to you, Jimmy, and why they trust you to help them.“

He is confident he can help Bones.

Next Part

Related Posts:

• Along Comes a Stranger (28/28) – from July 10, 2011
• Along Comes a Stranger (27/28) – from July 9, 2011
• Along Comes a Stranger (26/28) – from July 5, 2011
• Chapter of Doom – from July 4, 2011
• Along Comes a Stranger (25/28) – from June 30, 2011