oooh, I have a prompt: Bones somehow learns that Jim was on Tarsus
It’s Pike who tells him.
Leonard has known Jim for over two years now and they’ve been inseparable ever since. He is a man of science, a doctor, he knows that nothing is promised in life. He has lost so much throughout his years - his father, his marriage, his daughter - but he has one certainty left.
It’s that Jim Kirk will be in his life one way or another.
Others must see it too, because one day Bones is called to Pike’s office, and Pike tells him.
“I know how important you are to Jim,” he tells him.
“I also know how important Jim is to you,” he tells him.
“That’s why I’ve decided to tell you something that Jim won’t tell you.”
And Pike tells him, “I’m only telling you so that you now, so that you understand him more.”
And Pike tells him, “You must never tell him you know.”
“What are you saying?” Bones asks, lips pressed together, heart beating fast against his rib cage.
“Jim was on Tarsus IV. Jim is a Tarsus Nine.”
Bones feels the world shattering around him, and yet when he opens his eyes again, breathless and cold, nothing has changed in the world apart from his perception of it.
That night, he doesn’t come back to his room.
He walks and walks, thinking so many thoughts at the same time that he can’t come up with anything, and his mind is like a storm and he’s in the eye of it, and everything around him is moving but he’s not really there.
Jim was on Tarsus IV. Jim is a Tarsus Nine.
It’s unfair, he wants to scream, it’s so wrong. Not Jim, not bright strong beautiful Jim.
And yet it makes sense, a terrible maddening sense. Jim’s fixation on food, the way he always makes sure everyone else is eating before he starts on his own plate, or how he has secret stashes of food, just in case, he says.
It explains the nightmares too, and the sleepless nights, and the heaviness in his eyes he gets sometimes, or how old he appears at times, drained and overcome.
That explains also Jim’s strength. Jim’s courage and unwavering sense of justice. His kindness, his softness also, hidden away under a carefree mask.
“I’m only telling you so that you know, so that you understand him more,” Pike told Bones and Bones understands Jim more than ever.
He also loves and respects him more than ever.
Bones comes back to their room as the sun rises.
“Where were you, man? I was worried sick. Oh, shit, are you okay? Fuck, what happened?”
Bones says nothing. He takes a step towards his friend - amazing and heroic - and puts his arms around him, and holds him tight.
“Bones?”
“I just need you to be here. Please.”
He can feel Jim nod, “Okay. I can do that.”
They won’t mention this again, but now Bones knows, and he understands.