The Long Silence [for losthunter]

[boldygoing]

Jim had been looking forward to getting drinks with Hunter after the end of the Nibiru mission.

Sure, it didn't exactly go according to plan, but when does it ever? And with the news of a five-year mission in the works, not yet assigned to a ship, he's pretty excited that the Enterprise might have a shot at the most prestigious and ambitious assignment Starfleet has ever offered. No crew is more prepared, he feels. And getting to explore uncharted territory every day for five years is a dream come true.

But that's before he gets called into Pike's office and busted back to fucking cadet.

Before the admiral tells him that the Enterprise is no longer Jim's.

Before Pike tracks him down in a dive bar, spiraling into the black hole of his own thoughts, consuming everything except the horrible, sinking feeling in his gut that somehow he's done everything horribly wrong, and the admiral tells him that he's not out of the running just yet.

He's not captain anymore. But Commander Kirk is the first officer of the Enterprise now, and as awful as it is that Spock has been reassigned, it's a rope thrown to a drowning man.

He's not okay. But maybe eventually he will be. And he barely has time to process any of this before the call comes in, that there's an emergency session called at Headquarters. Something like that is never, ever good news. And no matter what it's about, Jim has the distinct feeling that he's not going to be able to get around to having drinks with Hunter tonight.

He hurries to get into his gray dress uniform, and fires off a quick text message to the now-familiar number. Need raincheck. Emergency @ HQ.

Surely he'll have the time to reschedule later, once the crisis is over.

Comments

[boldygoing]

Uhura can understand his enthusiasm. Though Jim is still nowhere near healthy, he's been slowly improving, and this is a big step towards recovery.

Fortunately it does not take long to walk far enough into the hospital that they don't need to worry about being overheard. "He's been in and out ever since then. Doctor McCoy says he'll probably still sleep a lot, but it's real sleep now."

[losthunter]

"Has someone had the opportunity to 'debrief' him on the last couple of weeks?" There is so much classified information they can't talk about with Hunter around. He doesn't want his presence to prevent Jim from learning information that is important to his own welfare.

[boldygoing]

Uhura nods slightly. "The parts that Doctor McCoy feels are important, anyway. Too much stress is bad for his recovery, so he doesn't know what happened in the city yet. We're not allowed to tell him, even if he asks. But he's still on some fairly heavy-duty painkillers, so he probably won't think about it." She smiles slightly as they arrive at the door to the captain's room, and activates the decontamination beam. "Just do what you've been doing. He'll be glad for the company."

[losthunter]

"Avoid any stress-related news. Gotcha." Hunter feels a little nervous about seeing Jim today. "No big line-up of crew members clamoring to check in, yet?"

[boldygoing]

"No, but Pavel's trying to put together a Get Well Soon holocard signed by the whole crew," she says, smiling fondly. "Doctor McCoy didn't want him overwhelmed by well wishers. Just senior staff, family, and friends."

She nods towards the door, now that they're cleared for entry. "Do you want to see him alone?"

[losthunter]

"Could I?" Hunter has understood their concerns for their captain, and has not minded the fact that he had not been alone with Jim yet. It would have been hard to be alone in the room with him, when he was just sleeping.

[boldygoing]

Uhura nods. "He's going to be here for a while. We'll all have a chance to talk to him privately, and I know you've had to come from out of town." She'd noticed on a previous visit that his accent isn't native to San Francisco, and assumes he's from this Earth's New York. There's really been no reason not to dissuade her from believing that.

"Besides," she says with a teasing look in her eyes, "I think we're all pretty sure by now that you're not about to throw him out the window the moment you've got him alone."

[losthunter]

Hunter is fine with Uhura assuming that he is from this Earth's New York. He can handle pretending to be from the 'Big Apple', even with all the changes to the city since his own timeline.

"He might have broken our date, but he had good reason." Hunter teases back. It feels good to tease again. To feel comfortable enough in Jim's recovery that it doesn't feel forced.

[boldygoing]

Uhura smiles and pats his arm. "Go say hi. I can wait my turn." There's a set of chairs along one wall, a short ways down the hallway, and she heads in that direction, perfectly at ease with allowing Hunter into the CCU room alone.

[losthunter]

Hunter enters the CCU room, flashing Uhura a grateful smile as she heads torwards the chairs along the wall. He heads towards the bed, and moves a chair to Jim's side, as he has done several times before.

"So you are awake, and without needing that one magical kiss." He smiles at the man laying there in the bed.

[boldygoing]

Jim's eyes were closed when Hunter first entered the room, but he blinks up at him now, his reflexes blunted by the painkillers. It takes him a moment to focus and realize who exactly is talking to him, but he manages a smile. "Hey," he says, his voice rough from not being used in a couple weeks. "Magical kiss?"

[losthunter]

"Because you were Sleeping Beauty." Hunter gently takes Jim's hand in his. "I was told that if I tried, that it might encourage the rest of your crew to try it too."

[boldygoing]

"Oh." His laugh is more a soundless huff of air, but he gives Hunter a dopey sort of smile. He squeezes the other man's hand a little, nowhere near as strong as he is when he's healthy, but at least he's responding now. "Probably right."

His smile falters a little and he blinks again, frowning slightly at Hunter. "You're really here." He sounds confused, which should be understandable, considering he's still pretty drugged.

[losthunter]

"Spock sent me a message, using your communicator." He explains. "And I have been here every day since then."

He is not sure how aware Jim is right now, but feels he should let him know about the assumption everyone else has. "They all think I am from your New York City. That I have just come in, from out of town."

[boldygoing]

"Thought I dreamed hearing you." Jim doesn't remember much of the coma, and what he does remember is pretty scattered and fragmented, but that's one thing that sort of makes sense now.

It takes him a moment to process what Hunter says, and he doesn't have the energy to raise his eyebrows, but he does huff out another nearly silent laugh. "Almost right. Just the wrong New York."

[losthunter]

"You could hear me?" Hunter is glad that some things had made their way through to him, even while he was healing in a comatose state.

"Or do you just dream of me regularly?" He chuckled lightly.

"And McCoy wanted to know how we met, since he recognized I wasn't a Starfleet individual. I told him a trade market." Another 'almost right'.

[boldygoing]

Jim smiles slightly, trying to pin down the bits and pieces he remembers. "Poetry?" he asks. He can't recall the words, but he does recall Hunter's voice reading something, its cadence the sort you might expect from reading verse.

"Hmm." He closes his eyes for a moment, one side of his mouth quirked up in a smile. "You taking lying lessons from Spock?"

[losthunter]

"Yes. And a few books that I thought you would enjoy."

Hunter chuckles lightly at that comment. "Well, you do know... it is only logical to let them believe what they need to believe. It would be too messy to open up the can of worms."

He is not going to mention the fact that the others have been telling him half-truths too. Since he knows it has to do with classified information. And he doesn't want anything to slip that would be considered too stressful.

[boldygoing]

At the moment, Jim doesn't seem to notice that anybody's trying to keep anything from him. That would mean more thinking than he's really prepared to do just yet. Besides, he's just remembered something else, and he opens his eyes again, looking up at Hunter. "I missed our date."

[losthunter]

Hunter reaches up to gently touch Jim's cheek. "You were protecting your ship and crew."

[boldygoing]

It's a perfectly reasonable explanation, but Jim still feels a bit guilty about it. "It all happened so fast..." In a way, he's still reeling from the attack that killed Admiral Pike, the firefight that started this whole spiral into destruction. Everyone else has had a few weeks to process it, but for Jim, Pike might as well have died yesterday.

[losthunter]

After helping memorialize the 97 people who were killed in the attack, Hunter knows a little bit more about Admiral Pike. And how important he was to Jim.

"I am sorry you lost him." He says softly.

[boldygoing]

It's a good thing that Jim doesn't have to try to explain. Even if his thoughts were more coherent at the moment, he's not sure he could articulate just how important Pike has been. The man who talked him into joining Starfleet - outright dared him to enlist. The man who believed in him when no one else did. Who came down on him with harsh criticism when he needed to hear it, no matter how much he hated it, resented it at the time. Jim had never known what it was like to have a father.

And now he's gone.

Jim draws in a deeper breath and lets it out slowly. "Thanks." All anyone can do is offer their condolences, and he has to be content with that. At least they care enough to say something.

[losthunter]

Hunter reaches up to gently run his fingers through Jim's hair. He can only let Jim mourn in a way that is natural for him. And he knows that it still must feel so raw in Jim's mind.

He is uncertain if he should mention the memorial. So he doesn't. Not until he can talk to someone else beforehand.

"Just wait until you see the nurse who has been giving you sponge baths."

[boldygoing]

Jim smiles slightly, though his heart isn't truly in it. "You hitting on them for me?"