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Bones honestly doesn’t know what triggered it. He was arguing with Spock when he heard a loud thunk and turned towards the source of the noise. He walked over to the captain’s chair and saw Jim sitting on the floor. When he looked up, Bones swore.
“Shit!” he exclaimed, he knew that look.
Bones quickly grabbed his comm and called Kevin.
“Kid, I need you to get up here. Yes, I know you’re working. Yes , it’s an emergency! Why would I be calling you if it wasn’t an emergency? He needs you.”
He shoved the communicator back into his pocket and gently grabbed Uhura’s arm, preventing her from moving closer to Jim.
“I want to help him,” she said in protest.
“Don’t get any closer. It won’t help and you could get hurt.”
A few seconds later, Kevin Riley stumbled out of the turbolift, out of breath from running. He looked around and, seeing him curled up on the floor in front of his chair, slowly walked over to Jim and crouched down in front of him.
Uhura gave Bones a look, not understanding why this random lieutenant was allowed to go near Jim when even his senior crew members weren't.
Kevin sat down and reached out, tugging on the hem of Jim’s shirt.
“JT, I'm scared,” he said softly, knowing that it would be the quickest way to get a response.
Jim’s head snapped up and he pulled Kevin into his lap, wrapping his arms around the younger boy. Uhura looked like she was about to say something, but a look from Bones stopped her in her tracks. He walked over to Jim, who was partially present now, and crouched down next to him. Jim had his face buried in Kevin’s hair and was, almost silently, murmuring reassurances to him. Kevin had his eyes open and was looking at Bones, who laid a hand on Jim’s shoulder.
“Jim, where are you?” he asked quietly, and Jim shook his head. “I can’t help you or Kevin if you don’t tell me where you are.”
Jim seemed to consider this and murmured, “We’re hiding.”
“Where, Jim?”
“In a tree. We have to be quiet and still. If they see us they’ll kill us,” Jim said, tightening his grip on Kevin who leaned against him harder, trying to keep him alert. Having someone to take care of kept him from drifting any further away. His kids were too important to him for him to let that happen.
“Who’s chasing you Jim?” Bones prompted, knowing that Jim needed to work through his memories in order to escape his flashback.
“The guards. He sent the guards after us, he wants to kill my kids, I can’t let him hurt my kids.”
At that, the rest of the crew looked at each other. They’d been confused the whole time, but now they were completely lost. Since when does Jim have kids?
“Please don’t let him hurt anymore of my kids. Bones, please. Don’t let him kill them.”
Bones sighed, glad that Jim recognized him.
“Jim, I won't, I promise. You have Kevin right there and I can call Thomas for you, if you want?”
“Tommy?”
“Yeah, Jim. Tommy. Do you want me to call him?”
Jim vigorously nodded, and Bones grabbed a padd off of someone’s station, typing in the number that he’d memorized after Jim introduced him to Thomas.
“Hello, this is Doctor Thomas Leighton, how can I help you?”
“Thomas,” Bones said, and the young man looked up at the screen.
“Leonard? Whose padd are you calling from?”
“I honestly have no idea, but it doesn’t matter. Here,” he said, handing the padd to Kevin, as Jim refused to let go of him.
“Crap,” he said quietly. “Hey, Jimmy, what’s up?”
“Tommy?” Jim said softly, looking at the padd.
“Right here, big brother.”
Now that Jim was occupied with Thomas, Bones stood up and slowly walked over to the far side of the bridge, gesturing for the crew to be quiet and follow him.
“What is going on, Dr. McCoy?” Spock asked quietly.
“Jim hasn’t exactly had the best life,” Bones said with a sigh. “He’s got PTSD ten times over, and sometimes he gets flashbacks, which is what this is.”
“What does he have to do with that?” Uhura asked, glancing at Kevin.
“They’ve known each other since Jim was 13.”
“He mentioned kids?” Sulu asked, curious.
“That’s something you’ll have to ask him yourself, Sulu.”
He looked over and, seeing that Jim was more alert, walked over to him. Bones crouched down in front of him and he looked at him.
“You good now?” he asked.
“Better.”
“Great. Now let’s go, because you’re on medical leave for the rest of today and maybe tomorrow.”
“Booonesss…” he whined, “C’mon.”
“No.”
Kevin stood up, rolling his shoulders before he reached down and helped Bones pull Jim up off of the ground.
They quickly led him off of the bridge and Bones glared at the rest of the crew when they opened their mouth, and they took the hint, staying quiet.
Once the doors to the turbolift closed they all got back to work, and it was quiet until Sulu said, “Someday. Someday , I will learn something about that man.”