Chapter Text
When Jim careened into the VIP quarters late on the afternoon of Jim’s visit with Pike, Bones stood in the kitchen making a sandwich.
“Hey, Jim, want one?”
Without a word, Jim rounded the counter, grabbed Bones’ face and pulled him close for a deep, passionate kiss. The mayo-covered knife slid out of Bones’ nerveless fingers to clatter on the granite countertop as Jim swept his tongue into his mouth. Bones slid his arms around Jim’s waist, all thoughts of lunch forgotten with Jim’s enthusiastic greeting. He nipped Bones’ lower lip and then broke free, grinning up at Bones.
“Hi, honey, I’m home.” Jim slid one hand down Bones’ bicep and forearm, twined their fingers together and said, “Let’s go for a walk.”
Jim tugged Bones out of the apartment and waited until they were outside, strolling along the leafy paths leading to the campus quad, Jim, still holding his hands to explain, “Lockhart has cameras all over the apartment…”
“So that display was for him then?” Delicate apple and cherry blossoms rained down like pink and white confetti as the warm spring breeze shook the trees. The sunlight streaming through the new leaves painted Jim in stripes of gold and shadow, his blue eyes glowing with the contrast.
“Well, now that we’re friends with benefits…”
“I don’t want a friends with benefits arrangement, Jim.” Bones yanked his hand away and turned to walk back toward the apartment, his heart aching in his hollow chest. There’d been moments that Bones convinced himself that Jim wanted him, especially after his conversation with Chris Pike. But, no, it’d all been an illusion. Jim didn’t really love him and want him. It’d all been for naught. It was over.
“I don’t want to be friends.” Jim called to his retreating back. Bones’ shoulders slumped. He’d known he was risking his friendship. That was why he’d never made a move before. He’d hoped, believed, wished that he could persuade Jim into more…and now, instead of the happily ever after he’d wanted, he lost his best friend too.
“Okay, Jim.”
Jim walked up behind him, wrapping his arms around him from behind. Bones stilled in his arms, his breath warm across his neck. He rested his shoulder on Bones’ shoulder and said, “Bones, I saw the footage, all of it. We did a good job. Convinced everyone. You even got me to believe it. You said that thing about the ice cream…that really happened.”
Bones nodded, pressing his lips together. He kept his face turned away. He didn’t think he could bear to see the pity on his friend’s face. “You really fell in love with me, didn’t you, Bones?”
“Years ago, darlin.”
“Bones, why didn’t you just tell me how you felt? Why go through all this?”
“I never planned to tell you. I figured it was just my problem to deal with. But when I saw us on all this sites…well, it made me believe in happy endings again. And, at least I’d get to have the life I’d dreamed of for a bit.”
“The Evan Williams and the prime rib?”
“Jim Kirk in my arms. I did what you’d do, darlin’, I saw the opportunity and I took it. I just figured it was my one chance to find out what we’d be like together, even if it was just pretend. We’re about to go our separate ways after the Academy and…I am sorry, Jim.”
“Did you never guess why I was such a horrible actor the whole time? Why I was so nervous and tense?”
“Nobody likes being manipulated.”
“I didn’t want you to guess.”
“Guess what?”
“That I love you. That it was real for me too, Bones.” Bones turned in his arms to stare at him. “So, Bones, how about it? I think we should really give them all something to talk about, don’t you?”
“Now that we know it, let’s really show it, darlin’” Bones smiled at him and, cupping Jim’s cheek kissed him. When Jim’s arms came to wrap around him, he knew that somehow, they’d found their way home, together.
“I have a plan…”
* * *
At Jim’s suggestion, Lockhart decided to air the proposal portion the Jim and Bones show live. Two nights later, Lockhart insisted on filming them, dressed up, eating dinner together at the VIP apartment. They ate on the balcony, jazzy music drowning out the sounds of the city bustling below, watching boats bob on the bay as the sun dipped toward the horizon. Even though it was totally manufactured, and as fake as a film set, Bones had to say, Lockhart knew how to turn on the romance.
At Lockhart’s insistence, Bones fed Jim a bite of pasta from his fork and, as Jim licked at the red sauce near the corner of his still slightly swollen lip, their eyes met, that incredible awareness shimmering to life between them. After dinner ended, they walked to the railing and Jim took both his hands, smiling up at him.
Jim dropped to one knee in front of him, still holding his hands. Bones remembered the moment he’d done this once before, for the wrong person. Back then, his hands shook so badly he’d nearly dropped the ring with a tiny diamond in it. Jim smiled up at him, calm, cool, collected.
Jim licked his lower lip and drew a deep breath, staring up into Bones’ eyes. “Bones, would you marry me?”
“Thought I already did that, Jim.”
Lockhart and the film crew gasped as Jim stood and kissed him, just a brief press of his still slightly swollen mouth, and stepped back, their hands still clasped.
“Go to commercial.” Lockhart shouted. “Kirk! McCoy! What the hell does he mean he already did that?”
“I married them, yesterday, bedside ceremony in medley.” Christopher Pike’s booming voice echoed over the hushed set, as Jim and Bones stood at the balcony, their arms loosely around each other. Chris wheeled into the harsh glare of the spotlights.
“I mean, we love each other, we’ve been best friends for three years, why wait?” Jim said and Bones nodded in agreement. “And, just like you promised, Lockhart, we’ll be setting sail on the Enterprise, as Captain and CMO, right?”
“If you think, after this little stunt, either of you are going to get postings on the Enterprise…”
“Lockhart?” Admiral Marcus stepped out of the shadows to stand by Chris Pike’s chair. “I don’t think you want to finish that threat, do you, son?”
Lockhart gaped at them, bypassing crimson and turning purple as Marcus strode closer. “When you came up with this harebrained holo-show scheme, you assured me that Doctor McCoy and Captain Kirk agreed to it. I’m sure you just failed to mention that you blackmailed two of our finest officers into compliance. See me tomorrow, my office. Dismissed.”
Marcus strode closer to Jim and Bones and shook both their hands. “Congratulations on your marriage. I’m sure you’ll give all of us plenty to talk about.”
And as Bones leaned down to kiss his new husband, he whispered, “How about love?”