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Today had been a long, never ending succession of talking to diplomates and Jim doing his absolute best not to look back at Sarek and check on Leo every five seconds. It was hard though, considering how Leonard’s morning had started.
Thankfully, the Vulcan Ambassador seemed reluctant to let Leonard out of his sights. Even when he would put him down, Sarek held Leo’s hand and kept him close to his side. The only time Jim had seen him release Leo’s hand was when Leo decided to play with the Gorn ambassador’s kids during lunch, and that had ended with Christine having to heal a bunch of cuts on Leo’s hand when things got a little too rough. Leo seemed to have enjoyed himself though and it was the first time he had been really personal with anyone who wasn’t part of the crew or Spock’s parents, so Jim was going to chalk it up as a win.
Jim was just glad he wasn’t the only one keeping a close eye on Leo. In fact it seemed like most of the crew was helping to make sure that Leo didn’t run off again or get scared by anything. Whenever he was in a room the crew would get really quiet and made sure not to raise their voices too loud so they wouldn’t scare him.
Spock was the most protective of Leo though. Regardless of his father’s careful care of the little boy, Spock had situated himself at their side at all times and would continuously check on Leo. He had even come into the habit of playing with Leo’s new Sehlat stuffy and talking to him through it as if he was a human father trying to impress his kid.
It was kind of cute, but Jim hoped Spock didn’t get too used to it. He still wanted Adult Leo back as soon as possible.
Now, Jim was standing in the middle of his mess hall surrounded by diplomats and cheerful conversation, and for the first time ever he wished he could be anywhere else. Preferably, he would have liked to be tucked away safely in his room with Spock and Leo, showing Leo all of the pictures that he had collected over the last two years of space travel.
He thought it might be something Leo liked., and Spock would probably enjoy the chance to get away from the Andorian Ambassador’s son who was currently trying every trick in the book to get into the Vulcan’s pants. It was an adorable attempt, but something that would have been cut off within five seconds if Leo was his normal adult self. He didn’t do well with other people flirting with his boyfriends, ever.
“No!” Jim’s head snapped around when he heard Leo cry out. Zooming in on Sarek and Leo, Jim sighed when he saw the little boy trying to squirm his way over Sarek’s shoulder and away from Admiral Marcus. Apparently there was no age at which Leo would not proclaim his great dislike for the admiral.
“I’m sorry,” he turned back to the Andorian Ambassador and smiled weakly “i’m going to have to go rescue a tiny little Starfleet officer. I’ll be right back.”
The Ambassador nodded, a smile playing at his lips while Jim turned on his heel and ran over to Sarek, reaching his destination at the same time that Spock pulled himself to a hard stop beside his father after extracting himself from a conversation with Nyota, the Gorn Ambassador and the Orion ambassador.
Leo didn’t stop wiggling when Spock and Jim showed up though. Instead, he dropped his stuffed Sehlat to the ground and pulled himself over Sarek’s shoulder, grunting when Spock caught him from falling to the ground.
“Leonard, it is not wise to remove yourself from someone’s grasp when you’re mid air.” Spock explained softly, placing Leonard’s feet on the ground carefully and letting go, only to have Leonard hide behind his leg and glare up at Admiral Marcus.
“I don’t like you.” Leo grumbled.
“I didn’t do anything.” Marcus protested, glaring over at Jim as if this was somehow all his fault. “Captain Kirk, why exactly do you have a child at a diplomatic meeting?”
“He’s not just a child…” Jim whispered, keeping his eyes on Leo. “He’s...it’s kind of hard to explain Admiral.”
“Well do try.” The Admiral growled, ignoring the fact that Sarek had now turned his back to him and knelt down in front of Leo, picking up his Sehlat Teddy and holding it out to him.
Watching as Leo took his teddy cautiously and moved out from behind Spock’s leg to hug Sarek around the neck, Jim smiled to himself. “Well, Sir, he’s kind off…” He drew in a deep breath and took a moment to gather his thoughts. “That little boy is kind of...Doctor McCoy.”
“Doctor McCoy?” Marcus’ glared over at the little boy “do you mean the Doctor McCoy who died a month ago?”
“I’m not dead!” Jim groaned. The last thing he had needed was for Leo to scream that out at the top of his lungs in the middle of a diplomatic gathering. The rest of his day was going to be hectic.
“Spock,” turning to look at his first officer, Jim smiled weakly “why don’t you go find Mr. Sulu and have him take care of Leo for a little while. He could probably use a break from this gathering since his husband isn’t here to entertain him.”
“I will return as soon as that is done, Captain.” Spock assured him, leaning down and hoisting Leo up into his arms carefully. Wrapping his arms securely around Spock’s neck, Leonard gripped his teddy tightly in his hands and glared back at Admiral Marcus, sticking his tongue out at him while Spock walked away with his father by his side.
Once Spock, Sarek and Leo were gone, Jim turned to face Admiral Marcus and sighed. “Why don’t we go to my office.” Jim waited for Admiral Marcus to nodded his head before turning on his heel and heading towards the door.
On the way out he glanced over at Nyota, smiling to himself when she nodded. At least he could count on her to get everyone back to talking and end the insufferable silence that had blanketed the room the moment that Leo had started to scream.
Jim, however, well he was probably going to hear a lot more yelling after he explained the situation.