Chapter Text
“We’re here, Papa, look look look!” Joanna tugs on his hand, craning her neck to take in the windows of the shop.
“We sure are, sweet pea.” Leonard pushes the door open and is momentarily overwhelmed by the kid-packed interior — Build-A-Bear, really, what had he been thinking — but the sharp twist of uncertainty is quickly dispelled as a small form darts past him and into the store, dark curls bouncing. Right. He’d been thinking that Jo would like it, and obviously she does, so what’s there to be self-conscious about? Lots of parents his age come to Build-A-Bear with their kids.
Relax. He does his best to give in to just enjoying the time with her, and is mostly successful. Once in a while, he catches himself wishing they could have done this on her actual birthday, instead of two days after, but Jocelyn’s not about to give up birthdays with her little girl. Leonard can't entirely blame his ex-wife for that.
Joanna is in her element. With the animal (a little stuffed lioness), scent (strawberry), and sound (purring in one paw, an unnerving giggle in the other) picked out, it's time for Nala to be stuffed. A young man with uncannily blue eyes handles that procedure, grinning as he shows Jo how to operate the foot pedal. At the end of the process, he holds up something small and red. “Time for the heart ceremony!”
Heart ceremony? Leonard can't help raising an eyebrow as the young man (Jim, according to his nametag) explains that a special ceremony has to be performed in order to bring Nala properly to life. Jim crouches in front of Joanna and holds out the little red heart to her. For an employee who must do this dozens of times a day, his smile seems surprisingly genuine.
Joanna, though, ducks away and wraps her arms around Leonard’s leg, suddenly shy. Leonard brushes a hand through her hair in a familiar gesture of comfort. “Hey, what's up, Jo?”
“I don't wanna, Papa,” she whines, pressing her face into his leg. “What if I mess up?”
Well. Bringing a lion to life is kind of a big responsibility for a five-year-old. “You're not gonna mess up, sweetheart,” Leonard says gently, but Joanna just keeps clinging to his leg. Leonard looks up, stymied, and finds Jim watching them keenly.
“Hey, Jo,” Jim offers, with a questioning glance at Leonard. He nods slightly, and Jim goes on. “Do you think maybe your Papa could do the heart ceremony for you?”
“Now, hang on —” Leonard has gotten a glimpse of what the heart ceremony entails from the people ahead of them, and isn't sure he's up for it.
But Joanna looks up at him hopefully with big eyes and says, “Please, Papa?” and Jim gives a little smirk as he passes Leonard the heart, urging, “You heard the lady.” So Leonard takes it, raising his eyebrows when he feels it beating gently in his hand.
“You know,” he mutters, mostly to himself, “when I applied to med school, I wasn't expecting to be magically reanimating any lions.”
Jim's smirk widens. “Well, if you're more comfortable with traditional medical techniques, I bet mouth-to-mouth would do the trick,” he suggests, holding the lion out to Leonard.
Leonard just scoffs, because giving mouth-to-mouth to a stuffed lion in a public shop is decidedly not on his list of priorities, and examines the heart instead. “What do I do?”
“Well,” Jim begins, eyes sparkling, “first you have to rub the heart on your head for wisdom, then your belly for friendship, your shoes for soul, and finally your own heart, for love.” His Adam’s apple bobs slightly. Leonard does as he's told, feeling increasingly foolish but aware of Jo’s upturned face, watching him. “And now to complete the ceremony, you have to spin around three times — good — then touch your toes, and then reach your arms up over your head and jump as high as you can.”
Leonard has to cheat on the touch-your-toes bit, bending his knees as he stretches down, and even so the action makes his hamstrings burn like a bitch. He shoots Jim a quick glare as he straightens up, sure that the younger man is enjoying this far too much, but Jim just flicks a pointed glance toward the ceiling, and Leonard reluctantly reaches his arms up and jumps into the air.
That done, a grinning Jim slips the heart into Nala and ties off the hole in the lion’s back with a practiced gesture before showing Jo how to feel the animal's new heartbeat. Jo’s smiling again, eyes wide as she examines her new friend, and Leonard’s self-consciousness is soon forgotten in the face of her glee. His hamstrings still hurt, though, and he rubs the back of his knees with a grimace. “My poor old bones,” he gripes, and catches Jim smirking again at the remark.
The bear-building process involves several more steps and a lot of giggling. Joanna has a hard time picking out accessories, trying out a cowboy theme and some kind of mermaid/fairy mashup before settling on spectacles and a white lab coat. Leonard feels a funny twinge in his chest when she picks up a tiny stethoscope and slings it around her lion’s neck, proudly proclaiming that “now Nala’s a doctor just like you, Papa!”
Leonard pays, trying not to be too put off by the price — more than worth it for the look on Jo’s face. As they leave, he glances over his shoulder with a small smile, and finds himself looking into a pair of startling blue eyes across the room. Jim grins easily and raises a hand in farewell. Leonard manages a nod in response, then lets Jo pull him out onto the sidewalk, still bouncing with excitement.
***
Wednesday night, and Leonard can be found in the corner of one of his favorite bars, contemplating a fourth glass of bourbon with a sour expression. He spins the glass on the table, watching the surface of the liquid tilt and swirl, then looks up reflexively when someone approaches his table.
“Look at that!” exclaims the young man, plopping down across from him. “Doctor Bones himself.”
Head already somewhat fuzzy, it takes Leonard a little while to place the kid. When he does, all that comes out of his mouth is, “Doctor Bones?"
Jim shrugs and takes a sip of his beer, leaving a thin mustache of foam on his upper lip. He wipes it away with his sleeve. “I didn't know your name, and I needed something to call you. Jim Kirk, by the way,” he adds, raising his glass.
Leonard returns the gesture. “Leonard McCoy.”
“Hm.” Jim tilts his head, considering. “Nah, I think I'll keep calling you Bones.”
“You got somethin’ against my name?” Leonard arches an eyebrow, and Jim shrugs again.
“Nope. Just got used to thinking of you as Bones.”
Leonard scoffs, and doesn't think about the revelation that Jim has apparently been thinking about him.
“So where is Little Miss Bones tonight?” Jim asks, taking another sip. He watches Leonard with what seems like genuine interest.
“Joanna is with her mother,” Leonard says shortly. Then, because he's slightly drunk and decidedly unhappy, he allows himself to add a sullen, “In Georgia.”
“Oh.” Jim's lips purse just a little, and he scrutinizes Leonard for an uncomfortable second before letting his gaze drop to the glass of whiskey. “I'm sorry.”
“Yeah.” Leonard downs the rest of his glass and wipes his mouth with the back of his hand. “So,” he continues, suddenly eager for a change of subject, “what's a nice young Build-A-Bear employee like you doin’ in a dump like this?” It's hardly a dump, but a fairly respectable and, by San Francisco standards, reasonably-priced place like this just doesn't have the same ring.
Jim snorts into his beer and sets it down, eyebrows raised. “Shit,” he grins, “are you hitting on me?”
“What — Jesus, no, I —” Leonard splutters, wishing he still had some bourbon in his glass. “No, for God’s sake.”
“Relax, man, I'm teasing,” Jim laughs. His expression turns a little rueful as he rubs his neck and admits, “Actually, I got stood up.”
Leonard raises both eyebrows in surprise. “Really?” he blurts, before his whiskey-laden mind can shut him up. “Who the hell would stand you up?”
“Oh my God, you are hitting on me.” Jim’s eyes are dancing with amusement, and Leonard slumps forward, groaning as he rests his head in his hands. He should really know better than to allow himself to talk to people after four drinks.
There's a nudge against his shin, and Leonard twitches. “Hey,” says Jim, and nudges him again. Leonard chances a glance up and finds Jim still smiling, but somehow softer. Though that could just be the alcohol. “I didn't say I wasn't interested, Bones.”
Leonard rubs his hands over his face and orders another drink.