Snippet 5e

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Dark hair, dark eyes.

A crease in the forehead that didn't seem foreign - he worried a lot, apparently. But he was very in control, very stubborn, and very willful. He could hold your stare for any length of time, and handle any situation that came his way no matter what it entailed.

He also had a bit of a headache at the moment, it seemed. The throb was almost non-existent - but it was still there. It was one of those odd little feelings that could enter the back of his mind...like those foreign little feelings of happiness, sadness, or anger. It was indescribable, how one could feel an emotion or a faint sense of pain without actually experiencing it. But most everyone did, at least a few times in their lives.

He wondered what could be giving him a headache right now...


"Jim. Jim. JIM!"

Jim's head snapped up, his expression a little dazed as it came to rest upon Uhura's face, from where she was staring intently at him from across the library table. He came back to earth, suddenly remembering where he was, and attempted to give her a casual smile.

"Done with the second half of the library's books already?" he teased, though completely aware that he'd been caught daydreaming.

"You done with even a page of yours?" Uhura said, quirking an eyebrow at him before sitting back in her seat. "Seriously, this can't be good for you. Do you even pay attention to a second of your classes anymore?"

"Sure. But rarely more than that." Jim said with a grin, sitting back in his chair as well and shrugging. "It's not my fault Bones has a headache."

Uhura frowned. "Bones? You've named him now?"

"You know that's what I call him. I haven't heard a full pronunciation of his name yet, and the only other image I've had associated with him is a bunch of bones lying out on a table - so, yeah. I've stuck with 'Bones'."

"Great," Uhura muttered, shaking her head and looking down at her PADD. "I'm sure he'd be very flattered if you ever end up meeting him."

"Thanks for your kind words," Jim said dryly. "Now what'd you come all the way up here for, anyway? I was studying."

"Right." Uhura gave him a deadpan look before glancing back down at her PADD. "Don't forget we have that tour tomorrow. We're looking at the shuttle bays today and the hospitals. You might want to pay attention this time."

"I will," Jim said half-distractedly, feeling that odd little throbbing in the back of his mind again. He was beginning to suspect that maybe Bones suffered from migraines. "So you'd better let me finish my book, or else I won't be prepared."

"How thoughtless of me," Uhura narrowed her eyes at him, moving to get up - but she seemed to think of something else beforehand, and sat back down. "...by the way, how'd that date with Marie go?"

"The usual. Took her out, let her blab about her life, then passed out after ten shots." Jim shrugged again, flipping idly through a few more pages in his book. "Girls are all the same."

"Wow. You really are really in the Slump, aren't you?" Uhura shook her head at him. "Maybe you should see the counsellor, Jim. You'll never get through your final seminar if you can't keep your mind on task. You've got to learn to deal with this."

"I am dealing with it," Jim snapped. "Have you seen even the slightest dip in my grades? Sure, my participation kind of sucks, but I'm not flunking anything. I don't need a fucking counsellor. I'll be fine."

"Yeah. I've heard that one before," Uhura sighed, standing up at last and picking up her PADD. "Just be there on time for the tour tomorrow, Jim. Professor Dalton will probably re-consider his opinion of you just slightly if you actually show up when you're supposed to." She turned around then and started to make her way out of the room.

Jim watched her go, rolling his eyes afterward and looking back down at his book - which, truthfully, he hadn't managed to finish a single chapter in. Giving up, he decided to turn in for the night, and re-shelved the book where it belonged before he went to return to his dorm room.

Sulu was already in bed when he arrived. It was a Tuesday night, so it was understandable. Sulu had 4:30 AM marshall training tomorrow, and he always tried to get enough sleep for that. Jim had teased him about it at first, but now he learned to just try and be quiet when he entered the room and saw that all the lights were turned out except the one in the bathroom - giving him just enough light to see by as he headed to his room.

It took him just a few minutes to change out of his uniform and into a set of faded sweatpants, brushing his teeth and switching off the light before climbing into bed. He'd done enough homework for the night, he decided, and getting enough sleep would probably help him get up in time for the tour tomorrow.

He couldn't wait for the tour part of his entry class to be over-with. He'd already seen most of the places himself, and hearing Dalton blab about stupid historical facts about the places did nothing for his attention span. He just wanted to get a general layout of the places and then leave. But, no. Of course it had to be more boring and informational than that.

He lay awake for a while, staring up at the dark ceiling above him. He noticed that the throbbing in his head had stopped, and found his thoughts once again turning to the little presence that seemed to linger there with him.

Maybe Uhura was right. Maybe he should be looking for some sort of counselling...no, just some kind of distraction from this phase he was going through. It was by far the toughest thing he'd ever had to face. It had to be worse than any kind of drug addiction, because with a drug addiction you usually know that, somewhere out there, the thing you crave is within reach. But, for all he knew, Bones could be a Betazoid living billions and billions of lightyears away.

He really had to learn to move past this. But why - why did it have to be so damn hard?

Sighing to himself, Jim rolled over into his pillow, hugging it to his face and closing his eyes. He already knew what would be waiting for him in his dreams - the same dark-haired, dark-eyed man that he'd been dreaming about since he was a teenager. He'd just have to get through the dream and move on, though. Just like every other night before this one.

But even as he prepared himself for the mental trip that it would be to fall asleep with these thoughts in mind, he couldn't help but concentrate once more on the vague image of the dark-haired man that came into his head.

'Sleep well, Bones.'

*

"ALLLL right, is everyone here?"

Dalton peered over the heads of the students, mentally counting heads - and momentarily stopping halfway through the list when he got to a certain name. "Jim Kirk?"

"Here," Jim's hand came up over the heads of the other students. A few rows ahead, Uhura smiled to herself in satisfaction.

"Good," Dalton said, giving him a look before turning toward the rest of the group. "Well. Today, as you know, we will be visiting the shuttle bays and the hospitals that are most prominently used by Starfleet. You are all encouraged to take notes and consider these places as the centers for your seminar projects, and to ask whatever questions may come to mind as we explore the premises. Are there any initial questions before we begin?"

Jim raised his hand.

Dalton turned suspicious eyes on him. "Kirk?"

"Are we going to see any dead people at the hospital?" Jim asked innocently. "And if they are, should we expect them all to be wearing red shirts?"

A small titter of laughter went through the crowd, but Dalton looked completely unamused. "That will be all from you, Mr. Kirk," he said bluntly, before turning around and starting to lead the way toward the shuttles. "Everyone to your assigned shuttles. We will all meet at the shuttle bay."

"Smooth, Jim," Uhura muttered to Jim as they walked toward their shuttle. "How about next time you just mention that he looks sexy in his uniform or something?"

"You read my mind," Jim said as though in great admiration. "I will so do that next time. Just for you."

Uhura glared at him before shoving past him to board the shuttle.

-

The tour of the shuttle bays proved to be just as boring as Jim had thought it would be. After all, there was only so much a person could take in about the history of ancient shuttle-making gurus before he starts to yawn and wish for a cheeseburger in the middle of the lecture.

It was more than a relief when the tour finally ended, and they all boarded the shuttles ahead to head off to the hospitals. In this place, Jim thought, there was at least a chance to see something interesting or unusual. Then only unusual thing he'd spotted in the shuttle bay was a Scotsman singing a lullaby to one of the engines.

When they arrived at the hospital, it was easy to see why it was one of Starfleet's finest. Immediately anyone could tell that the place was rigged with all the latest technology and scientific findings of the 21st century. The hospital was bustling and busy as well, so Dalton kept the group moving quickly to get inside and get the tour going.

"Over here, you can see the observation rooms," he pointed out as they made their way into the deepest part of the hospital. "Notice the elexetron machinery, and the advanced corders that have long replaced the x-ray machines. All state-of-the-art technology, and all the advancements that serve to make this hospital one of the best in the nation."

"Just looks like a big oven to me," Jim muttered, yawning as he walked beside Sulu through the hallways. "How much more do we have to see of this place?"

"I don't know," Sulu said, leaning toward him with a slow smile. "That girl over there is really hot though, eh?" he asked, pointing to the girl just ahead of them with an unnaturally short skirt on.

"Keep dreaming, my asian friend. One day you may actually get a female to like you," Jim said in mock-seriousness, patting him on the back as they continued to walk. "Despite your ugly mug and all the trimmings."

Sulu shoved him, garnering them both a nasty look from their tour guide. "Kirk, Sulu - pay attention back there or it'll mean a report from both of you."

"Sorry, sir." Sulu said, giving him a nod before looking at Jim with an "oops" expression.

Jim rolled his eyes, making a point to linger toward the back of the group from that point on and make sure he could mildly meander as much as he wanted to, without getting called on.

They continued down several more corridors of the hospital. Dalton kept them moving, but the procession went far too slowly for Jim's liking. Boredly, he began to stare off into some of the windows that they were passing, ignoring most of what Dalton said the closer and closer they got to the more complex rooms of the hospital.

"These are the examination rooms," he vaguely heard Dalton blabbing as they continued to walk down the pristine hallways. He brought them around another corridor and continued to gesture around. "As you can see, these are also state of the art. And here," he stopped, causing the rest of the group to come to a halt around him. "You can see some of the plaques that were hung here many years ago, stating the rank and position of all the most notable - "

Jim stopped listening after that point. Sighing, he put his hands in his pockets and turned away from the back of the group, wandering toward some of the windows in the wall again that looked into some of the examining rooms. Pausing by one, he peered inside, spotting the back of a dark-haired doctor standing by a patient on one of the examining tables, obviously looking him over.

'I wonder what it'd be like to be a doctor," he thought absently, watching the dark-haired doctor pick up another tool to scan over the patient. 'I'd probably royally suck at it...'

The patient began to cough, and Jim saw the doctor put his tool down to help him sit up a little as he tried to catch his breath. The patient nodded after a moment and the doctor released him and moved to the other side of the bed to get him some water.

Jim followed the doctor's movements semi-curiously right up until he reached the other side of the bed - and consequently turned around to face the patient, showing his face for the first time.


And that was it.

Every muscle in Jim's body seized up. His breath suddenly cut off in his throat - not quite as a gasp so much as a complete failure of every normal activity his body normally took part in.

There was a rush of heat - no, just an intense warmth that spread throughout his body. He felt every sense in his being suddenly lock on the face of the doctor, zooming in on every last one of his features. A binding feeling - like the feeling of steel cables lashing out and attaching onto every stronghold they can find seemed to leave his spirit and connect to the man on the other side of the glass. An emotion like nothing he'd ever felt or dreamed he would feel filled him, and spread through every fiber of his being like it was an incarnation of his very soul.

And he knew...suddenly...who that man was.

He was the man he'd dreamed about since he was old enough to think. The one that had held the other half of his soul since he'd first come into the world. The one he'd had in his thoughts every waking moment for the past five or six years...and now, suddenly, he was right here in front of him.

This couldn't be true. This couldn't be happening...

...and yet nothing else could possibly make him feel like he was high on the highest drug and in cardiac arrest at the same time.

And the doctor hadn't even looked at him yet.

Feeling utterly weak in the knees, and almost mad with happiness, Jim barely felt himself moving forward, lifting a hand tentatively as he stared at the doctor's face - and cautiously, but insistently, tapped on the glass of the window, hoping to get the dark-haired man's attention.

At the tap the doctor looked up, and then Jim felt it - in the back of his head - a connection. It the most satisfying feeling of completion that he could second to nothing. The brown eyes stared at him for a moment, and he could almost feel the same sensation taking place again, but in the man across from him instead. All at once it happened, and no movie ever made about the sensation even came close to the reality.

The doctor blinked after a moment, his eyes on him as he walked to the side of the bed quickly and handed the man the water. After he had done so he went at a jog to the end of the room and opened it up, stepping outside with a look of complete and disbelieving shock. "Well I'll be damned..."

Jim barely restrained himself from throwing himself at the doctor the second he came fully into view. He could hear traces of a natural, charming southern accent on the deep voice, and the dark brown eyes that greeted him were a mixture of experienced seriousness and surprised happiness.

Even that was almost too much to take in at the moment. Every inch closer that the man came toward him seemed like another inch toward the purest feeling of happiness that a human being could experience.

This couldn't be real.

"Oh my god," he barely heard himself blab out as he took a step toward the doctor, a purely giddy smile on his face as he reached out to lightly touch the side of the other man's face - which somehow, to him, seemed familiar enough to belong to someone he'd known his entire life. He knew this man inside-out - he knew it. And yet, somehow, they were also meeting now for the first time. He let out a small, pathetic laugh, barely able to keep control of himself now. "...hi."

"Hi?" The other man laughed incredulously, the dark eyes shining with an unbelievable happiness as he suddenly stepped forward and enveloped him in a huge, tight hug. His scent was exactly what Jim imagined it to be, and it almost automatically made him relax. "My god Jim, I can't believe it's you."

"You know my name," Jim half-laughed as he hugged him back, almost overwhelmed at the feeling of completion and security that had sudden enveloped his entire being. It was better than anything he could have possibly imagined this moment to be. The feeling of this man close to him was truly the wholeness he'd been waiting for his entire life. He suddenly felt like he had absolutely no control over his speech or feelings anymore. "I've been calling you 'Bones' for years...I know it's really Len-something, but I never heard the whole thing...god, I've been waiting for you for so long...I can't believe you're actually here..."

"I know," The doctor said, withdrawing with an absolutely adoring smile on his face as he put a hand on the side of Kirk's face. "I had a feeling I'd see you here but I didn't know when. I just prayed it wasn't the ER," he said with a slight laugh filled with happiness, leaning forward and giving him a gentle but firm kiss. The sensation that sparked between the two of them echoed in the back of their minds, intensifying it as they moved closer together. Nurses passed and neither of them noticed for a blissful moment free of time, and the withdraw was painfully reluctant as the doctor moved back just slightly, his eyes still creased in a gentle and kind smile. "Leonard McCoy."

"Jim Kirk," Jim said with a smile bright enough to add to the light of the room, unable to tear his gaze away from the sparkling dark gaze that was fixed on his. It was pure bliss alone just to look at him - but the kiss had somehow managed to feel even better. And somehow, he knew, he would never, ever get enough of it. Impulsively, his lips moved forward to touch against McCoy's again, the taste of it sending pure ecstasy through the blood in his body. "It's so good to see you!"

"Doctor McCoy?" a nurse suddenly spoke from behind them, as a blonde woman peered at them with slightly wide eyes from in another observation room. "Doctor - you're needed in surgery in five minutes. Dr. Boma is looking for you."

McCoy nodded. "I'll be there." he said, watching as she turned before looking back to Jim. "I'm sorry, Jim."

"I'll wait for you," Jim said, almost on top of his words, nodding to him almost desperately. "When do you get done for the day?"

"After the surgery." McCoy said, taking his hands with a quick squeeze. "Don't worry about the tour - I'll tell them your shadowing and I'll take you home."

"Okay," Jim said, feeling pathetically and truly at the mercy of every whim of this man's words at the moment. He still couldn't take his gaze off of the dark brown one before him. This had to be what hypnosis felt like... "I'll just wait in the lobby - good luck in there..."

McCoy smiled fondly at him, leaning down and giving him another kiss before tearing his hands away and heading toward the OR.

Jim watched him go, feeling a terribly uncomfortable feeling of separation settle over him as McCoy disappeared from sight. He was held together at the thought that they'd see each other in a couple hours, but still...the skin of his hands seemed almost icy cold after the doctor's fingers left his. If he'd had even an ounce-less of self-restraint, he knew he'd be chasing right after him down that hallway...

He could not have been more detached from the real world if he'd consciously tried. Which was why it took Sulu several attempts to get his attention when he came back to see why Jim was lagging behind near one of the examination rooms.

"Jim? Hey, what the hell Jim?" Sulu shook his shoulders again, beginning to look alarmed. "Can you hear me?"

"Hem - what?" Jim stuttered, blinking suddenly as though he'd come into focus for the first time under Sulu's words. He turned vaguely toward the Asian - and something his gaze suggested to Sulu that he still wasn't quite right in the head, even when his gaze came to rest on the fencer's face. "What's wrong?"

"What the hell is wrong with you, man?" Sulu asked in alarm, watching him warily. "You need a nurse or something?"

"Haha-no," Jim laughed rather airily, giving him a look that was a perfect mixture between being completely high and amused at Sulu's words. "I feel amazing. I feel - God, this is unbelievable..." he turned slightly, reaching up a hand to dig into his hair as he smiled off down the hallway that McCoy had disappeared into. "...he's un-fucking-believable...!"

"What is?" Sulu asked, his alarm rising as he watched him. "Dude if you were smoking something you better tell me before I call someone."

"Smoking - ? No, I wasn't smoking," Jim chortled, patting Sulu on the back before turning and giving him an absolutely ecstatic smile, placing both hands on the Asian's shoulders. "I found him, Sulu! I found Bones! He's here! In this hospital!"