Work Text:
“Congratulations, Jim,” Christopher Pike says as he shakes the teen’s hand. “We’ll see you next week, then.”:
“Thank you,” Jim says, swinging his backpack over his shoulder. “I’m excited to be here.”
--------
“And lastly, this is the chemical closet. You probably won’t do that for a while, if at all. We usually let the managers or the more experienced guards.” Pike points to the the door that’s unmarked but always closed to prevent snooping eyes and the chance of accidents.
“Sounds good,” Jim nods. “I’m due to start in like, five minutes, so should I just hang out here for a few minutes?”
Pike shrugs. “Whatever you want, kid. You’re replacing Carol this shift and you’ll be working with Leo for a while, so if you want to go introduce yourself, that might be a good idea.”
Jim spots a blonde girl with a bob pacing the deck and checking the clock, and figures that must be Carol. “I’m Jim,” he says when he reaches her, sticking out a hand. “I’m the new guard here.”
“You must be my replacement today,” she observes, and Jim’s surprised to hear her speak with a London accent that’s only slightly faded into an American midwestern.
“Uh, yeah, guess so,” Jim says. “Anything I should know?”
“Don’t piss off Leo,” she says, nodding towards the guard in the chair. “When I leave, he’ll probably be the roaming guard for a while, so you get to start in the chair. As long as you don’t make him mad, you’ll do fine.”
Jim raises an eyebrow. “Is he really that mean?”
“He hit Spock- he’s a swim instructor, you’ll meet him soon- over the head with his rescue tube one day for critiquing his position in the chair.”
Jim chuckled. “I think we’ll get along fine.”
“That’s what everyone thinks,” Carol mutters. “Anyway, my time’s up, so you can take my tube if you’re already punched in.”
Jim nods. “Yeah, Pike had me do it as soon as I got here. Thanks.” She passes him the tube and winks, waving to Leo up on the stand.
“Jim Kirk,” he offers when the other lifeguard reaches them, and Leo nods.
“McCoy. Leonard McCoy. Most people call me Leo. Hop up on the stand and I’ll take Carol’s place roaming for a while. We shouldn’t have any issues, this Y is usually pretty quiet.”
“With my luck, I’ll have someone on my first day,” Jim jokes, but Leo just shakes his head.
“No jokes,” Jim mutters to himself as he climbs the ladder. “Note to self.” He waves goodbye to Carol and settles in for a long couple of hours.
--------
Of course, knowing Jim, he’s completely right. He’s been on shift for two hours and is getting ready to signal Leo and ask if he wants to switch positions, because the other guard looks like he’s getting tired on his feet and Jim’s back is sore from the hard chair.
A kid no more than ten chooses that moment to come running into the pool and take a tumble into the water as he loses his footing on the deck. Luckily, it’s the deep end, so they probably won’t have to backboard him. Leo blows his whistle and yells for everyone to get out of the pool before jumping in, and Jim rushes off the stand to herd the rest of the patrons towards the locker room.
“Jim, call 911!” he hears Leo yell. “I think he broke his leg!”
Jim swears and flips the switch to activate the emergency plan before grabbing the phone and making sure that no one remains on deck. He explains the situation and knows he’s supposed to wait by the phone, but Leo needs the first aid kit and probably help keeping the kid calm, so he opts to grab the bag and run for the stairs that Leo is leading the boy up.
“Grab his other arm if you can,” Leo directs. “We’re going to take him to the bench over there until EMS arrives.”
Jim ducks and bends his needs to stay at a good height for the much smaller boy, who is starting to cry again.
“My leg hurts!” he wails, and Jim starts talking to him again.
“It’s gonna be okay, buddy. I’m Jim, and this is Leo. What’s your name?”
“Zachary,” he sniffles, and Jim eases him down onto the bench.
“I like that name,” Jim says. “Is your mom or dad here with you?”
Zachary nods and wipes his nose. “Yeah. My mom’s in the training center.”
“Can you tell me her name, and we’ll get her down here?”
“It’s Mary. Mary Weller.”
Leo’s already got his gloves on and he nods when Jim looks over. “Go call the front desk. Extension 145. Get his mom on the way and come on back. I can handle a broken leg.”
By the time Jim gets back from the phone, Leo’s got Zachary’s leg stabilized and while there are still some tears welling up in the little boy’s eyes, he’s stopped crying so much and Leo’s got him smiling at some story or another. Jim realizes that he can’t really do anything else, so he waits by the door for Mrs. Weller to come in so he can get her contact information.
EMS takes mother and son to the hospital in the next ten minutes, and they open the doors back up to let people into the pool again.
“I couldn’t have kept him calm without you,” Leo admits while they’re watching the stream of patrons reenter the deck. “You were really good with him.”
“I couldn’t have stabilized the leg like that,” Jim returns. “I guess we make a pretty good team.”
“I told you I can handle a broken bone, and you didn’t listen,” Leo says a little gruffly. “Sorry.”
“Nah, it’s cool,” Jim says, waving a hand. “I was glad you were here for it, Bones.”
Leo proves that he’s better than Jim at eyebrow raises right then. “Bones? What happened to Leo, like a normal person?”
Jim shrugs. “You told me you can handle broken bones, and you were really great with it. Plus, Leo just seems kind of bland, and I don’t think you’re bland at all.”
Leo blushes. “Uh, thanks. Anyway, you want to switch- I’ll go in the chair and you can roam?”
Jim nods. “Yeah, I was actually just about to suggest that when the kid fell. Do you want to do the accident report, or should I?”
“I’ll do it,” Leo says, running a hand through his hair. “You put the mom’s information on the desk, right?”
“Yeah, it’s on top of the pile.”
--------
Jim meets Nyota Uhura when Leo leaves four hours into Jim’s six hour shift, and he’s impressed by her attitude. He soon figures out that she harbors a crush on the infamous Spock that Carol mentioned when his class begins and Nyota can’t keep her eyes off of him. Jim teases her a little bit before handing his tube off to Hikaru Sulu, who welcomes Jim like everyone else and bids him good night.
As much as Jim hates that an accident happened on his first day on the job, he’s happy he got to meet Leo and he may or may not check the schedule to see when their schedules next overlap.
Tomorrow they’re scheduled to work eight hours together. Jim leaves with a spring in his step, despite the September chill.
--------
“Let’s hope we don’t have to rescue anyone today, Bones,” Jim chirps as he stuffs his coat in the locker with his name scrawled on the front.
“Fingers crossed,” Leo replies dryly and clips his fanny pack on. “I’ll see you out there.”
Okay, so Jim’s not as great of a flirt as he thought. He’s going to have to step up his game.
He positions himself directly across from the lifeguard stand and does his best to catch Leo’s attention, but the other lifeguard is too focused on watching the pool. After two hours, Jim grabs his water and tries to look like he’s getting overheated on the deck, and pulls his shirt off.
That grabs Leo’s attention, and he blushes when Jim sees him looking. “Check,” Jim mutters to himself, and starts walking around the pool again, roaming lazily to watch the whole two patrons in the water on a Sunday morning. “Where do you go to school?” Jim asks, meandering over to stand next to Leo’s platform.
“North,” Leo grunts. “How about you?”
“Auburn,” Jim admits. “Academy kid. I hate it.”
“Auburn or Academy?”
“Yes.”
Leo laughs. “Yeah, I’ve heard Academy sucks. How bad is it?”
“It’s not terrible, except for the fucking homework, man. Like, I get home and I have six hours of AP Calc and AP Physics and an English paper due in four days and an Econ test in the morning. It’s hell. Other than that, it’s not hard. And non-Academy electives are literally the easiest thing in the world after being in Academy. How’s North?”
Leo scowls. “It’s alright. I mean, we don’t really have much trouble, but it’s just kind of... Stagnant after a while. It’s literally the same kids for all four years. Nothing ever happens.”
Jim laughs. “Sounds an awful lot like Academy. We haven’t had a new kid since sophomore year, and it was one boy and one girl. Yay for us.”
“We at least had a couple new kids every year. Change things up a bit.” Leo blows his whistle at a couple of kids hanging dangerously on the lane line and directs them away, and Jim’s impressed.
“Would you want to go grab some coffee or something after this?” Jim asks tentatively, and Leo leans over to look at Jim properly.
“Like a date?” It’s a slightly accusatory tone, but light.
“Uh...” Jim starts to blush. “No, not really. I mean, unless you want it to be, in which case it totally could be, because I mean, I’m totally cool with that, but if you-”
While Jim’s busy babbling, Leo’s climbed down from the platform and captures the blond’s lips in a kiss. Jim drops the tube in his hands because he never expected Leo to be that forward about it, and he slides his hands onto Leo’s waist, leaning into the kiss.
“I’d love it to be a date,” Leo says when he pulls back. “Hop up on the stand and I’ll roam for a while.”
Jim clears his throat. “Uh, okay. Yeah. Sounds good.” He falls over the tube at his feet and Leo catches his arm before Jim nods. “I got it now.” He picks the tube up in his hand and climbs up while Leo moves across the pool to Jim’s previous position directly across from the chair and winks at the blond.
Jim can’t wait for the last six hours to pass.
--------
When their shifts are finally over, Leo practically throws the rescue tubes to Nyota and Carol and grabs Jim by the wrist, dragging him into the closet to clock out.
It ends with Jim being pressed against the wall and Leo furiously kissing the blond, who is practically a puddle on the floor now.
“Are we actually going to get coffee?” he manages to gasp out, and Leo growls.
“We should probably at least leave the closet,” he murmurs, and Jim laughs.
“You did not just make that joke.”
“Oops,” Leo says, but he sounds completely unapologetic. “Starbucks down the road in twenty minutes?”
Jim nods and motions Leo towards the door. “Let’s go, then.”
Carol winks at Jim when he passes by her again to grab his water and now soaked t-shirt, and he ducks his head to hide his burning face, but he’s grinning, especially as Leo reaches over to interlock their fingers as they walk into the locker room.
--------
The next time they’re on shift together is a week later, and they’ve been on three coffee dates in between work and school and one movie date. They’ve shared countless kisses and can’t keep their hands to themselves, and Jim already went over his monthly message limit and had his cell phone confiscated by his mother. They’ll only be in the same room for four hours this time, but Jim has been bouncing off the walls ever since Leo kissed him for the first time.
They can’t keep their eyes off of each other across the pool and Jim almost misses several potential accidents that he averts at the last second, making a mental note every time to keep a better watch and consistently failing. Leo laughs at him every time and Jim makes faces back, and they talk back and forth, mouthing the words for entire conversations at a time. Leo asks how school is; Jim rolls his eyes and invites Leo to a party his friend Scotty is holding, Leo scoffs and says he’d rather go to a movie with Jim, and Jim winks, saying that he’s free that night.
By the time Leo’s shift finishes first, Jim still has another two hours, so Leo says he’s going to go get some food and come back and lap swim, so Jim waves him off and climbs up on the stand while Carol starts roaming and shoots Jim a questioning look that he chooses to ignore and just keep working.
Until Leo returns in what Jim can only assume is the suit Leo has from swimming on his school team and starts swimming laps in the lap lane under Jim’s platform.
By the time Jim’s shift if up, he’s pretty much drooling and Carol is shoving him towards the door and urging him to take Leo out to that movie they were planning to see.
He’s glad he became a lifeguard.