starlogs | ( closed ) and I'm floating in the most peculiar way

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( closed ) and I'm floating in the most peculiar way

WHO: James T. Kirk & Leonard McCoy
WHERE: Enterprise
WHEN: February 14th (+ another thread later on)
WHAT: Waking up with no power and zero gravity isn't their idea of fun.
WARNINGS: Nothing aside from Bones panicking and Jim hating himself a little later on. Possible mentions of death too.

When things actually started going down, Jim was too fast asleep to realize. Even the faint glow filtering through the windows as the nearest ship blew up wasn't enough to wake him, eyes shut for a while longer. The fifteen minutes of peace that followed would be the last bit of decent and unhindered rest he'd likely get in a while.

It started with a strange tingling sensation, at first. As the systems started malfunctioning, it was the engines shutting down completely and the whole ship going dead silent that had him waking up. His heart thrummed to the beat of the engines and the warp core, and suddenly everything felt... misaligned.

He nearly startled awake at that, shoving the blankets off of him in one sudden move as he got to his feet. Except his feet touched the ground for about a second or two before his whole body started to float, as if weightless, and the more he struggled to reach the ground, the farther away he got from it.

"What the fuck—" he looked over sharply, seeing Bones's silhouette starting to lift from the bed even in the dark of the room. Despite the evident lack of gravity, he tried to glide over to him. "Bones. Wake up, wake up— Bones!"

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"No, I was joking..." He breathed out a soft laugh, tipping his head in a faint nod. "Yeah, sure. That works." He was more implying that he might not be so lucky after all himself, but having to explain it now made him feel a little like a jerk. Besides, he knew damn well he was lucky, having Bones in his life. Wouldn't call it anything else.

"Oh, has he? And here I thought I was your nurse. Guess you'll teach anyone, won't you." Said in a teasing tone that almost implied Bones was easy in any way. Like Jim could talk. Well, not seriously, but he could poke fun at Bones about it. Still, that was nice. Bones might be grumpy as hell about it but Jim knew how much he liked people taking interest in the kind of work he did.

He was thoughtful for a moment, then— "Does 'delicious' count as something to aim for?"

"Gee, thanks, sweetheart." Rolling his eyes, he let out a soft sigh. No point getting fussed over any of that. Jim was just bein' a brat to yank his chain. So he let it go. Eyes closed he felt tired even thought he should be more worried about the situation and not getting lulled to sleep by how warm it felt curled up against Jim.

"Just cause he's learnin' doesn't make him who I want with me all the time." Obviously the exhaustion liked making him just say what's on his mind. Cause he didn't mean to just blurt that out. Clearing his throat softly, he shifted just a little bit. "But yeah, I'll teach any willing to learn. Keepin' 'em is an entirely different story."

Huffing a soft laugh, he shook his head. "Guess it'll have to do."

"Anytime, honey," he murmured in a teasing tone, lips quirking in amusement. Honestly it might not be such a bad thing if Bones did fall asleep right now. At least his breathing would stay calm and he wouldn't be panicking, and Jim would have some time to try and think of a way out of this mess.

Not like Bones worrying even more would solve anything, anyway. They both knew the good doctor tended to freeze up when he went past a certain level of worry, so.

"But you want me with you all the time?" There was a hint of surprise to the tone, though he was more pleased to hear it than anything. Not that he'd ever doubted it, of course. It was much the same for him, after all. He wouldn't trade Bones's company for anything. Except maybe for Bones's safety right now. "Good. Keep me, then."

Like some damn alley cat, as Bones once called him.

Snorting softly at that, he tamped down the thought he actually wouldn't mind if Jim meant it when he used endearments. No point in even considering that. Instead he moved on to the next question. "Yeah, Jim. I do. Just you." He commented lightly, trying not to linger on it that much. Jim was about the only one he wanted with him all the time.

Smiling just a little at the 'keep me' comment, he hugged Jim a little tighter. "That mean you've been tamed down enough to be a indoor-outdoor cat?" He teased lightly and tipped his head up to touch his nose to Jim's chin. "Yeah darlin', I'll keep ya."

And he meant it. "Bout to fall asleep... not usually a good idea when the chance of oxygen is runnin' out." But they might have to think about that in the future if the power is out too long.

Well he could mean it, but they both knew that was more Bones's thing. Jim did always like it, though. Sometimes he thought back to the first time Bones slipped and called him 'darling' out of the blue. Despite his unending amusement and the fluster that took up Bones's face and had him looking like a ripe tomato, it had become kind of... a thing. One of those little quirks that had grown on him over time.

"God, that's all so damn romantic, Bones. You goddamn sap," he huffed, but said it all with a warm, fond tone nonetheless. He chuckled at the question, reaching for the shell of Bones's ear and pinching it lightly. "Well, you let me out sometimes. Don't I always come back?"

So yeah, he was as 'tamed' as could be. Well, as much as one could tame James T. Kirk anyway.

He tipped his head down a little, catching a glimpse of Bones's face, his hand cupping the back of Bones's neck again. "That's alright. I'll wake you up in a bit, long before oxygen runs out." Again, not their main concern, all things considered. Unless there was some breech in the bedroom that was slowly sucking it out, and he seriously doubted that.

"It wasn't that bad." He snorted in irritation but didn't move otherwise. Though, his eyes opened up a bit at that last part. "Didn't realize I was keepin' ya locked up that much. But yeah... ya do." Jim did tend to come meandering back before he knew it. Lowering his lashes again, he let out a soft sigh before they fell closed completely. "Guess I am a bit of a harpin' voice in you life."

Really. No wonder he felt like he was runnin' in place sometimes with the way they were with each other. And he really didn't want to think about it. He'd just try to be less like that in the future. If only cause it must get mighty annoying if nothing else.

"Promise?" Not just because he was afraid of falling asleep and not waking up as oxygen deprivation was prone to doing to people, but also cause he wanted to help if Jim needed it in the near future. Even if he didn't know what he could do. Too bad he was already well on his way to falling asleep.

"Almost sounds like a bad thing when you say it like that." In all honesty? Sure, there were times when Bones frustrated the hell out of him. Good intentions aside, the doctor just had a way of pushing some people's buttons with how outright stubborn and annoying he could be about making his point, but it wasn't like Jim could talk much. He knew he was a source of headaches for the doctor far more often.

But all in all, he'd never say Bones was in any way unwelcome in his life. Not even on the days when he tired of listening to the doctor would he ever say he didn't want him there. And nothing Bones could do would ever make Jim want him gone. It would be like not having ground to stand on, or gravity to tell him what's up and down.

"Promise. I'll be right here, doc," he murmured softer as he felt the doctor relax against him. Pressing a soft kiss to his forehead, he curled his arms comfortably around Bones, keeping him close as he fell asleep.

Humming softly, he shifted close but still in a way that was comfortable for the both of them. One nice thing to being weightless meant he could hold on without having limbs fall asleep on him. Not that he actively considered that. He just started to drift off to sleep to the feeling of Jim's lips against his forehead sending a warm feeling rushing through him.

He liked that closeness. the feeling of nothing else in the world mattering beyond them right there. And it made it so much easier to fall asleep. In fact, he slept so deeply he barely stirred when Jim did move later to get up. True, it was colder without him, but he felt no urgency to get up. Not really. Not yet.

After all, Jim did promise.

For a while Jim was fine with just laying there, doing nothing. But he definitely couldn't find enough peace of mind to fall asleep along with Bones. As glad as he was that the doctor wasn't panicking at the moment, he knew he was carrying the worry about their current situation for the both of them.

He used that time to run a number of possibilities through his head. Both the causes for this power failure, and courses of action he could take to get them out of this mess. Worse came to worst, they had to find a way to get out of the ship, either back to the Eluvio or just get a shuttle up and running and try their luck on some planet nearby. Eventually, at some point during those painfully long and silent hours, he got his hands on his comm device, but it didn't help at all. The thing could turn on but the whole network was down. Well, that probably ruled out Eluvio so far as solutions went.

Eventually, after some long hours, Jim reached the end of his patience. He suppressed a groan for the umpteenth time, and making sure not to wake Bones up, he wiggled from underneath the belts and pushed himself towards the closet, rummaging through it for anything he could use to force the doors open. The clothes hangers didn't look nearly strong enough, but... well, he had to try something. He grabbed one then dragged himself along the wall until he reached the door, starting by trying to pry the doors open, not exactly remembering to keep himself quiet as to not wake up the doctor.

Part of him noted the movement and sounds in the room. But even half asleep, he knew it was Jim and gave him no reason to worry. Not immediately anyway. But eventually his thoughts cleared up from the soft sounds mixed in with the cold of the room. Stretching out a little, he furrowed his brow and pulled out from under the covers to look at Jim. Part of him wondered just how long he'd been out, but he didn't ask...

And part of him was a little upset that Jim didn't wake him. Not that he was gonna bring that up. "I think I can hear the wheels turnin' in your head from across the room. What are ya plannin' darlin?" Slowly sliding out from under the belt, he rubbed at his arms and pushed toward the dresser to find one of their thermal undershirts. He didn't bother looking back at Jim as he pulled his t-shirt off and trade it out.

Too wrapped up in his own efforts to pry the door open, Jim didn't even notice the doctor waking up until he heard his voice from behind him. Hands stilling, he glanced over his shoulder, eyebrows raising as he huffed out a sound, not quite smiling.

"Not planning anything," he said with a tone that implied he would very much like to have a plan. Any plan, really. "Just trying... to get this stupid door open," he tried and tried again to stick the hanger between the two doors, to no avail, and he let out a frustrated sound, letting go of the hanger to focus on the control panel again instead. "There's gotta be some way to do it."

"Uh huh. Just don't go gettin' yourself hurt. First aid in zero gravity is a bitch." Carefully closing the drawers again, he straightened his shirt as best he could before pushing off the dresser to the other side of the room where Jim was. Lightly catching himself on the wall, he slowed the impact and lowered down a little to get a look at whatever he was doing.

"Well, still the option of dismantling something to find an item with more leverage." Glancing about the room, he wondered if any of the furniture had the right kind of frame work for that. And honestly, even a phaser would do no good. Assuming one had enough power to even melt a hole in the door, it may not even be big enough to get a hand hold.

"Yeah, I know. You told me," Jim said somewhat dismissively, still busying himself with the task at hand. A task that proved to be pretty much pointless anyway. Not like anything changed from before, and Jim knew his ship well enough to know there wasn't even some kind of manual override so it'd be easier to open the doors. It made no sense, really. Even with a power failure like this one the doors should still work; power couldn't just go down on the whole ship like this, completely out of the blue. Leaving them dead in the water, so to speak.

Wheels turning in his head at a frantic speed as he tried to make sense of the situation, he shoved both hands into the panel, blindly following along the wiring and feeling along for anything amiss, or anything that might actually unlock the doors. "We can always use the—"

Before he could get the rest out, the engines roared back to life, the faint murmur of noise and vibration reaching him a little too late. Arms still disappearing into the wall, the energy flickering through the systems had him getting shocked, and he let out a cry of pain as his arms jerked away, and he fell right on his back on the floor when gravity started working again. "Shit!"

He told him. Right. Which was why Jim was still futzing about like he could revive the ship like Frankenstein's monster. Pulling himself closer to the wall, he hovered here in silence, figuring it better to stay quiet while Jim worked. His eyes drooped closed as he listened to the sounds of Jim's hands in the panel as well as the words that started to slip out of his mouth.

And then he felt it. The sudden rumbling hum of the power and a sudden sinking feeling. The next thing he knew, he was impacting with the floor with a thud that dully ran up his spine. Hissing sharply, he started to curse his luck until he heard Jim's curse and the tell tale sound of electricity shorting.

Turning to the blonde, he scrambled to pull Jim away from the panel entirely and practically against his chest. A look of worry creased his brow as he curled his fingers carefully about Jim's biceps as he looked over his shoulder. "You alright? Did you get shocked?"

Jim's face was twisted into a frown, eyebrows knit together and eyes closed, lips pressed tight as he held his hands to his chest. He flexed his fingers, trying to work the ache and discomfort out of the muscles, feeling them pulled taut from the burst of that electric shock alone.

"Yeah— I'm fine," he breathed out deeply, the sound shaking its way out of him. Slowly he blinked his eyes open, the room now with a dim light that at least let him see Bones's face a little more properly. "Nothing much, just got caught off-guard."

There may be tiny burn marks on his fingers, but Jim wasn't paying them much mind now. They had other things to worry about. "Help me up. We need to figure out what happened."

Catching Jim's hand, he frowned hard in a way that furrowed lines into his brow. Without listening to him, he started to massages into the palm and along the fingers to get them to loosen up. He knew the pressure points, knew how to work the nerves and get the blood flowing. But he also knew if he went to get his medkit, Jim would make a break for it.

So he pulled a stunt he really hadn't done before, cause honestly, other than his daughter no one deserved that much of his attention anyway. "Shut up for a second and be still. You just got fucking electrocuted." He grounded out the words before drawing his hand closer to his lips and drew one of the burned fingers into his mouth gently. No, it wasn't the top of the list of things to do with someone was burned, but he knew it helped with the pain and he'd clean them in a moment when Jim stopped trying to fix everything right that instant.

His hands lightly worked the tautness out of Jim's hands before he drew back and blew on the burned skin. "We just spent however many hours without power, gravity or oxygen... giving me max, ten minutes to fix this won't hurt none, now would it?" Hazel eyes moved to stare down at Jim hard and unmoving.

Well, Bones wasn't wrong there. First chance he got, he'd have just gotten up and out of there, and he'd feel completely justified doing so. Power might be back up, but even so it was easy to tell they were running on auxiliary mode at best, which meant something was still wrong, and he needed to figure out what that was, sooner rather than later.

But all that pretty much flew out the window when Bones lifted his hand up and pretty much sucked on one of his fingers. There was very little that Bones could've done right now to surprise and distract Jim quite as much as that, and he stilled where he sat, eyes lifting up and head tipping back so he could look at the doctor. Well, stare was more accurate.

He opened his mouth, taking him a moment to finally say anything, and when he did it was much quieter and calmer too, as he offered a small nod at Bones. "Okay. I can do that."

Part of the action was to get Jim to stop. To just take a damn minute and slow down. But also cause he honestly had nothing at his fingertips to heal Jim's wounds small as they were. And old fashioned as that tactic was, he knew damn well he wouldn't do that for anyone else. Not that he'd say that out loud.

When Jim seemed to pull it somewhat together and agree, he held his gaze just for a moment before he finally pulled away. His fingers slid over Jim's hand before he finally completely let go to rush to get his kit. He said only ten minutes. He would do that for Jim. Pulling out the items fast, he moved back to the blonde and dropped down beside him.

He had exactly what he needed to heal the burns and clean them before running a tricorder over Jim to make sure the shock didn't do anything else adverse to him. Leonard kept his word and snapped the kit closed in less than ten minutes. Not that he didn't reach out and slide a hand to the back of Jim's neck, a brow lifted. "See? Told you it didn't hurt none. Now you'll be workin' on all cylinders to do whatever work you need to do." And he'd be useless again.

Well, it sure had the desired effect. More than just that, even, since Jim was rendered speechless and stunned into stillness at the surprising action. Not that it bothered him, not even a little, but he wasn't really sure what to make of the warm tingling feeling that crawled down his spine and left the hairs at the back of his neck standing on end.

So he just sat there, still and quiet for a change, watching Bones while he tended to his injuries with the same care and precision as ever. It drew a smile from him despite the current situation, and once Bones was done, he shifted onto his knees, leaning a little closer and planting a quick peck on Bones's cheek.

"Thanks, Bones," he said as he put a hand on the doctor's shoulder, then got onto his feet, reaching a hand out to help the other man up. "Come on, let's figure this out." Because as far as he was concerned, Bones wasn't useless. Plenty of ways he could still help, even if he couldn't take an engine apart and put it back together.

God help him, but his eyes fell closed at the feeling of that brush of a kiss to his cheek. If even that tiny of a gesture was making him almost lost his breath, he was all but doomed. Jim always had him in some way shape or form, wrapped about his little finger. Now it was worse than it had ever been before. Because now he felt like he was that teenage boy with a crush and it went even deeper than that. He just didn't want to admit just how much.

Tipping his head up as Jim stood up, he breathed in slowly. "You're welcome." It was so little a thing, Jim thanking him. But he meant the whole damn universe to him. So maybe, just maybe, when Jim pulled him to his feet, he suddenly leaned in and hugged him. And he didn't want to talk about how he once again caught the back of Jim's neck to push his head down just a little to return that kiss to his forehead lightly.

"Lead the way, captain." Letting him go, he let his hand slip away. If it wasn't in a professional manner, he knew how much that one simple title softened when he said it. How it sounded more like an endearment and not just some rank... and if it was in professional manner, god he new it came out with as much respect and admiration as he felt for the other man. Even when he was hoppin' mad at him for doing something stupid. But then, that's just how it was. It was one thing he didn't have to question, and he didn't plan to.

The hug was surprising but not unwelcome, and Jim wrapped his arms around Bones instinctively and without thought. They'd never been the kind for this sort of thing before —hugging, kissing, whatever else—, but honestly Jim didn't mind it in the least. He liked it a lot, actually. And in the situation they found themselves in, it offered a kind of comfort and a notion of safety he knew he wouldn't get from anyone else.

And he liked not feeling alone. He'd spent a good portion of his life feeling lonely enough as it was, he didn't want to feel that way again. The fact that it was Bones here with him of all people was of course an added bonus.

Settling a hand on the doctor's arm, he gave it a gentle squeeze and let go, smiling a little more reassuringly at him as this time he managed to get the door to open. Quickly he changed into a pair of pants and shirt resting on a chair nearby, then slipped on his boots, so he was a little more properly attired to run around the ship.

Once Bones was ready too, he headed out the door, so they could both sort out this mess and hopefully fix whatever was wrong with the ship.

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( closed ) and I'm floating in the most peculiar way

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