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It was no wonder that Spock and McCoy considered themselves to be rivals.
They were constantly discussing the pros and cons of philosophical questions for Jim. They both knew that was one of their primary duties for their captain, besides being his second and third in command. Their other great duty was a personal one: to be Kirk's best friend. Neither was his only best friend. Neither could be, because they were halves in his eyes now and always would be. But as the two parts of the whole which they represented, they became the mighty person worthy to be the loyal companion of James T. Kirk. For Kirk was that huge, that dynamic, that universe-sweeping that no mere person could fill that coveted niche at his side alone.
But if someone could stand alone by Kirk, it would be Spock for he seemed to have that edge professionally. McCoy knew that, and he knew that Spock knew that. And like the camel in the ancient riddle who smiles because he knows the hundredth name of God, Spock was serene in his knowledge. McCoy had to contend himself with knowing that he had a similar background with Kirk and that they had been students together at Star Fleet Academy. Kirk and McCoy had been friends longer. Spock could never take those things away from McCoy. So logic soothed McCoy with the knowledge that Spock could never be all things to Kirk as Spock wished he could be. Even the mighty Spock had to concede a few crumbs of Kirk to McCoy. Spock just couldn't have all of Kirk. Spock had to share, and McCoy knew that knowledge wrangled Spock.
Now if Kirk would just understand all of that.
The proverbial light bulb might as well have turned on over McCoy’s head as it does for cartoon characters.
That was it!
Kirk just needed to be reminded how important McCoy was to him! He had to realize that nobody could take McCoy’s place, not even the mighty Spock. All Kirk needed was a subtle reminder.
McCoy grinned.
Or maybe not such a subtle one.
“Where are we headed, Bones?”
“You’ll see! You’ll love it!”
Kirk gave McCoy his best lazy grin. “You know if it wasn’t you, Bones, I wouldn’t be going so blindly into something. I like a little more background first.”
“I know.”
“But I trust you, Bonesy.”
McCoy could hear just the slight undertones of doubt and apprehension in Kirk’s voice. That gave McCoy a thrill. Kirk was cautious but he still trusted McCoy.
That should’ve been enough for McCoy, but he decided to see his plans through, anyway. If he didn’t, there was a possibility that Kirk might begin to suspect that his longtime friend was slipping in the mental department. Couldn’t have that. Besides, McCoy wanted to have this time together with Kirk. It would remind him of old times. And it would remind Kirk of what McCoy meant to him. Or so McCoy hoped.
Kirk looked around him. “Iowa?”
“Actually, Indiana. I didn’t want to get too literal.”
“What town is this? Any one I should know, or have heard of?” Kirk asked as he looked at the storefronts on main street. The buildings could have been anywhere, any place, U.S.A., mid-Twentieth Century.
“It’s Anytown, Indiana. I didn’t want to get too--”
“Yeah, yeah, I know. Too literal. What are we doing here, Bones?”
“We’re gonna do an old fashioned weekend in Small Town, U.S.A.”
“I would’ve never guessed this destination in a hundred years.” His lazy grinned flashed at McCoy again. “I was expecting a thousand and one nights in the Casbah. With all sorts of willing females panting after what they think that I’m toting around inside my trousers. I figured that we’d show up back on the Enterprise in a couple of days all whittled down to nubbins compared with what we’d been when we left. I thought we’d squint in the sunlight and not be able to think about sex for the next month.”
McCoy’s heart gave a leap, but he didn’t voice what he was really hoping for. It had a lot to do about sex with someone, but not with harem women, though. “Anything can happen here, but first let’s grab some burgers and fries at this diner.”
Kirk glanced up at the sign and grinned. “'Diana’s Pantry? Down Home Cooking Served Here?' Are things still this quaint?”
“They are for us, Jim.” His heart gave another leap, but it was because he knew that he had pleased Kirk so much.
After eating, they strolled down the tree-lined residential street.
“Have any idea where we’re going?” Kirk asked after a couple of blocks. “Or are we just soaking up the local color?”
McCoy pointed at the three-story Victorian house in front of them. The sign out front read ‘Ginny’s Rooming House. Room and Board. Accommodations by day or month.’
“I take it that’s where we’re staying.”
McCoy smiled.
“Good. I was getting tired of hauling my gear around.”
Ginny was the motherly type. “You boys have already eaten your supper?!” Her Ben Franklin glasses did not hide her bright blue eyes or mess up her silver hair as they bent over her ears. “But that’s part of your package deal!”
“You didn’t know when we were getting in exactly, Miss Ginny,” McCoy said smoothly in his best Southern gentleman voice. “We didn’t want to put you out any.”
“Now isn’t that the sweetest thing! So kind and considerate!” Ginny said, flustered by his charm. “But you boys will take breakfast with us in the morning, won’t you?”
“Yes, ma’am, it would be a pleasure,” McCoy continued as he gave her a partial wink. “Now if you would be so kindly as to show us to our room?”
“I saved the one with two twin beds, just like you asked for,” she said as she led them up the open stairs. “Will you boys be joining us in the living room to be watching television this evening? I’m sorry, it’s only black and white. Folks in Indianapolis have color sets now, we understand, but it hasn’t reached our little town yet. We’ve been promised that it might happen in the next ten years, but I’m not holding my breath any.”
Kirk rolled his eyes and wondered what he’d gotten himself into. Just what era had McCoy projected them into, anyway?! At this point, Kirk was hoping for indoor plumbing and not an outhouse hidden by lilac bushes in an obscure corner of the backyard.
“Not this evening, Miss Ginny. Jim and I have plans.”
You have plans, Kirk wanted to amend. I don’t have the foggiest idea of what in the hell will be happening next.
He could’ve never guessed.
“Bowling?” Kirk said as he looked at the six lanes. He wouldn’t have guessed this destination if he’d been given a hundred chances to speculate.
Kirk saw that three of the lanes were busy. Several loafers sat on stools at the snack bar idly watching the quiet action. They glanced at Kirk and McCoy and registered them as strangers, then went back to the bowling as a thrown ball scattered pins at the end of an alley.
Just as Kirk had gotten the idea that their big Friday night on the town was going to be walking more residential streets, McCoy had led him back downtown and into the bowling alley. It looked so out of date that Kirk figured that there were teenagers in back racking up the pins instead of an automatic pin setter. Just how far back in time had they stepped, anyway?!
“That’s right! Bowling! I bet you haven't done this in ages!”
“Well, you’re right,” Kirk had to admit. “Not since I was a kid.”
“I thought so. Come on! Let’s grab a lane and get our shoes and bowling balls picked out. What do you want to drink? Pepsi or Coke? Want some chips?”
Kirk gave him a smirk. “Going all the way with this quaintness thing, aren’t you?”
“It’s an America that once was.”
“It’s an America we never knew.”
“But it’s an America we love.”
McCoy had him there. Americans loved an abstract ideal of their homeland, not the reality. Mom and apple pie was what Americans wanted, not the jet setter divorcee mother or a pie filling that ever grew on any tree that neither one of them would recognize.
After the bowling, they grabbed a pizza at the local pizzeria.
“I’m surprised that a town this size can support a place like this.”
“The town’s bigger than it looks, Jim. It even has a state teachers’ college located here.”
“That explains it. Here comes some of the college set now,” Kirk noted as the place began to fill with noisy young people.
“The movie’s just getting out,” McCoy explained.
“The movie. Of course,” Kirk mused. “I’m surprised that you didn’t drag me to it,” he goaded with a gentle grin. "What would they have here now? Cinerama? Technicolor?" His eyes enlarged. "Three-D?!"
“The movie was too way out for us. It was an early space epic. We would’ve laughed all the way through it and would’ve made ourselves very unpopular.”
“A lot of mistakes, huh? It might’ve been fun.”
“I didn’t want to chance being lynched by the locals. These kids believe this stuff. And I didn’t want to stifle any imaginations, either. The next Wernher von Braun might’ve been in that theater tonight and been inspired by what he was watching.”
“Last week, if you’d told me I’d be sitting in an old-time pizza joint with a bunch of excited teenagers with cheeks rosy from chilly autumn air, I might’ve had you take one of your psych evaluations. This is truly different, Bones. I like it.”
“I thought you would.” McCoy was happy. He’d pleased Kirk and that pleased McCoy.
“Dig into that ham and eggs, boys,” Ginny advised the next morning at the breakfast table. “This is going to be a big day in town today.”
“It should be a lot of fun,” McCoy agreed.
Kirk set down his fork. “Did I miss something?”
“It’s football homecoming at the college,” Ginny answered. “There’s a big parade this morning and then the big game is this afternoon. Of course, here’s a big rivalry with the visiting team.”
“Of course,” Kirk agreed. He looked at McCoy. “Really got out the big guns, didn’t you?”
McCoy tried to shrug with innocence. “It just worked out that way.”
“And I expect tomorrow is church followed by a fried chicken dinner at the VFW.”
“Of course, Captain,” Ginny answered. “We will be guests of my brother who was a career soldier in Europe and Japan before he retired.”
“And he probably has shrapnel in left leg, too,” Kirk said with a tight-lipped grin.
Ginny looked amazed. “How did you ever know that?!”
Kirk glanced at McCoy who tried to look innocent. “Oh, just a feeling I had.”
But Kirk stood on a downtown street corner with McCoy and watched the homecoming parade with its homemade floats and had a good time. It did remind him of days gone by, and Star Fleet seemed further away the longer he was on this trip with McCoy.
The football game was thrilling. The two Star Fleet officers stood in the stands and cheered as enthusiastically for the home team as the locals did. And when their quarterback scored the winning touchdown in the last few seconds of the game, Kirk and McCoy went wild along with everyone else. Everyone around them was laughing and kissing, so they laughed and kissed each other, too.
Then stared at each other while the noise of the crowd continued.
“Uh, great game,” McCoy muttered as he finally tore his eyes away.
“Yeah. Great,” Kirk muttered.
That was the last they really said to each other except for brief grunts and one-word sentences.
“You boys aren’t eating very much supper,” Ginny complained. “I would’ve thought that being out in that brisk autumn air all afternoon would’ve build up some appetites in you. I made that smothered steak and mashed potatoes just for you.”
“It looks good, too,” McCoy said diplomatically, “But I guess we’ve been pretty busy and tired ourselves out.” He was worried about Kirk who still was not talking.
“Then maybe you should have an early night. But I'd been hoping that you would be watching the Miss America pageant with us.”
That got Kirk’s attention, and he looked at McCoy as if McCoy had really gone too far with the Americana theme.
Kirk barely waited until their room’s door closed behind them before he opened his mouth and proceeded to make up for his silence of the last several hours.
“Just what is going on here, Bones? And don’t you dare ask for an explanation! Everything but Uncle Sam and Buffalo Bill have paraded past me ever since I got here, and I suppose that they will show up tomorrow.”
“I just wanted to remind you of your roots,” McCoy said miserably.
“I’m in no danger of losing my memory anytime soon. I remember the world of my childhood and the symbols of my American heritage. Space travel will never replace it. Each is important to me.” He cocked his head. “What made you think that I was trading my past for the present?”
“It wasn’t your past I was afraid you were leaving behind,” McCoy muttered without looking up.
Kirk frowned. “You?! You thought that I was forgetting you?”
What the hell, McCoy thought. Tell him the truth. He can only kill me once.
“I thought that I was losing you to Spock.”
Kirk looked stunned.
“I know,” McCoy said miserably. “I’m cheap. I’m stupid. I’m dumb. But I’m also jealous.” He was feeling and sounding petty, but he kept plowing ahead. “I know that I should be coy and cutesy and make you think that everything’s okay while my heart is breaking. But I’m losing you and I can’t stand that! You needed me once, but now all you can see is a guy with green skin!”
Kirk grabbed McCoy and kissed him hard. McCoy collapsed into a heap against Kirk’s shoulder while dry sobs shook him. He’d been wracked with sorrow because he knew he was losing Kirk. Then suddenly he was weak with relief and joy because Kirk was his again. Kirk wouldn’t have kissed him and kept holding him up if Kirk was planning on casting McCoy aside.
“I’m still seeing a guy with green skin,” Kirk muttered into McCoy’s hair. “You’re green because you’re jealous as hell. You said so yourself.”
McCoy pulled his head off Kirk’s shoulder. “You’re forgiving me?”
“Because you fought to keep my love?! Hell, I can understand that. But, Bones, you gotta have more faith in me.”
“You’ve been pretty thick with Spock,” McCoy complained. He knew that he was whining, but he thought that he had a good reason.
“He’s my friend,” Kirk reminded him. “But you’re the guy I love. Always will. Don’t forget that.”
McCoy grinned shyly while tears shone on his face. “I might need some reminding.”
Kirk’s face softened into a gentle smile. “Nothing would give me more pleasure.”
Then they sealed their bargain with a kiss. A nice long one.
The next morning Ginny beamed with approval as Kirk and McCoy tore into their ham and eggs. “You boys are feeling better this morning, I can tell.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Kirk agreed and sent McCoy a secret wink.
McCoy had the grace to blush.
“Did you have some problem last night, though? I thought I heard furniture being moved.”
“We pulled the twin beds together, for, ah, warmth,” Kirk explained. He didn’t even look at McCoy. He knew that McCoy’s blush would have deepened. “Sorry if we disturbed you.”
“Think nothing of it, boys. I want my guests to be comfortable.”
“That we were, ma’am. Quite comfortable," Kirk reassured her. "I haven’t slept that well in a long time.”
McCoy dropped his fork to cover his sudden coughing fit.