[Discovery] -- [Lenny and Jimmy]

[kirktastic]

Jimmy was curled up on the bed, watching Lenny over top of his book in his hand. He laughed, eyes bright, and clutched tighter at the PADD. He was laying on his stomach with Lenny against the bed, looking over his shoulder. He had Hamlet beside him, as they hadn't been able to replicate Leo. Instead, when Lenny was busy, Jimmy buried himself in his books.

Now Lenny was showing him all the neat things he had learned to do with the PADD. Jimmy, evidently, was just a little too young for things like padds and communicators. Lenny was eight. That was almost ten! Ten was old!

Comments

[dctr-mccoy.livejournal.com]

"I was lookin' up Iowa, since you told me you lived there. They got pictures here, he said, pulling them up on his datapad." Lenny's fingers slid around, until it displayed a farm full of corn fields. "That what your place looks like?" he asked, showing it to Jimmy.

[kirktastic.livejournal.com]

"Uh huh!" Jimmy nodded, "That's just like it! We have a big house that's all wooden and our barn's wood too!" Buildings built entirely out of it were getting rarer.

[dctr-mccoy.livejournal.com]

"Cool," Lenny told him. "Momma said when we get back we could all drive up there and see it."

He stretched out on the bed. "What town do you live in?"

[kirktastic.livejournal.com]

"It's a tiny place called Riverside," Jimmy informed Lenny, shifting forward more, "Its probably a super long way from your house."

[dctr-mccoy.livejournal.com]

Lenny punched it in, waited for the information to appear. Riverside, Iowa... he read quietly, frowning, "... a city in rural Washington County, Iowa, United States, along the English River on Iowa Highway 22."

"Riverside Shipyard was the Starfleet Shipyard 2-1A construction facility located in Sector 47 Riverside, Iowa, Earth. The USS Enterprise was constructed there in the 2250s." 2250's? That didn't make any sense... it was just 2235, right?

The next sentence caught his eye. "Riverside is the hometown of Captain James T Kirk, of the Federation Starship Enterprise, who defended the Earth against the Romulan criminal Nero and helped to save the Federation." He looked over at Jimmy, warily. "What's your middle name?"

[kirktastic.livejournal.com]

Jimmy... blinked. He got off the bed so he could look closer, "...Tiberius. T." He said softly, amazed. "Another James Kirk...?"

[dctr-mccoy.livejournal.com]

"Hmmm." This was strange. "Jimmy, when's your birthday?" he asked, hitting links and pulling up new pages (http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/James_T._Kirk_%28alternate_reality%29), a picture appearing in front of him that looked strangely familiar.

[kirktastic.livejournal.com]

"January 4th!" He said very proudly, "2233." He was very proud to know that, as some of his classmates hadn't known the year. He tried to keep up with what Lenny was pulling up, looking at the picture. "That looks like Sam!"

[dctr-mccoy.livejournal.com]

But Lenny was scanning the page. Lots of the stuff on it was complicated, too confusing for his reading level, but he did notice a few things. One, that picture looked a little like Sam, but it had Jimmy's name underneath it. It was Jimmy's name, with Jimmy's birthday, and had the town he was from.

The other thing that caught his attention was a link at the bottom to another familiar name - Leonard McCoy (http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Leonard_McCoy_%28alternate_reality%29). He stared at it a long time before pressing it. Another picture, someone that looked familiar, with his birthday, his home town. His information... but stuff that hadn't happened yet.


Last, but not least, the dates were all wrong. It was all in the future.

"Computer, what is today's date?"

Today is Stardate 2259.43

Lenny looked at Jimmy, frowning. No, not frowning. Looking scared.

[kirktastic.livejournal.com]

Jimmy's eyes went wide, and he looked just as scared. He let out a breath that turned into a whimper, "That isn't the date. That isn't the date! ...I..." He took the pad, looking at the picture of Leonard McCoy and Lenny sitting on the floor.

"What's going on?" He whispered.

[dctr-mccoy.livejournal.com]

But Lenny was reading the little article about him. "This here says that... it says that Leonard McCoy works on the Enterprise, that's this here ship... and they you're the captain.

That didn't make sense! Jimmy was a little kid, littler than him - how could he be his captain!? He flipped back to the page for Jimmy, and read some there. "It says... oh hell, I don't understand this. It says that there was a fight,a battle, and then they made you captain."

That didn't make sense. None of this made sense. "I don't get it," he finally admitted, handing the PADD over to Jim. "I'm not a doctor, I haven't even gone to high school!"

[kirktastic.livejournal.com]

Jimmy gently took the PADD, staring down at the words on the screen. Something was coming together in his head, a small idea that was taking shape as more things were being added to it. The date was in the future. Stuck in time. Unstuck in time. The man staring back at him from the picture that looked a little like Sam, little like his father.

He looked at Lenny, then back down, and said quietly, "I think that these people are us."

[dctr-mccoy.livejournal.com]

Lenny shook his head. "No," he said. "It can't be." The idea was too crazy to imagine. He didn't want to be a grown-up. He didn't want it to be 2259.

He wanted to go home and go to sleep in his bed and wake up and none of this happened. "...wanna go home now."

[kirktastic.livejournal.com]

He didn't want to go home. He just wanted to be here with his family and be happy and be a kid. "I don't know what's wrong." He whispered, tears coming up in his eyes. "If it's 2259... that means I'm, I'm..." He closed his eyes, very carefully trying to do the math. He finally had to write it out on the padd, slow and steady. "26?"

[dctr-mccoy.livejournal.com]

"No," he said, "no. You're just six. Don't be stupid." He took a deep breath and let it out, shuddering. Pulling the padd back, he began reading, really reading. "This here says we work on this ship. Says I'm a CMO, I dunno what that means..." he twitched a little, "and you're the captain."

It was the extent of their relationship, as far as the public record went. "Computer, who is the captain of this ship?" he asked. This couldn't be. Momma would have told him, right? Daddy? Jimmy's family? Sam?

Sam was old... like they were supposed to be old.

The captain of the Enterprise is James Tiberius Kirk, born 2233.04 on medical shuttle number 37 after the attack on the USS Kelvin-

"Okay, stop...Computer, where is the captain now?" he asked, looking more angry than anything else. This was some sort of trick, and it wasn't funny.

Captain Kirk is located in this room.

[kirktastic.livejournal.com]

Could a heart race and explode at the same time? That's what it felt like. Jimmy was silent, staring at the PADD.

Captain Kirk is located in this room. The captain of the Enterprise is James Tiberius Kirk. Attack on the USS Kelvin.

"I'm the captain. I'm 26." He whispered.

Then he started to cry.

[dctr-mccoy.livejournal.com]

"Cut it out," Lenny said, putting an arm around him. If Jimmy cried much longer, then he was gonna start soon, too.

"Look, we gotta figure this out, okay?" He took a breath. "Computer, who am I? Tell me somethin' 'bout me."

Lt Commander Leonard Horatio McCoy, born 2227.235 in Atlanta, Georgia, North America, son of Emma Reegan McCoy and David McCoy. Currently assigned Chief Medical Officer on board the USS Enterprise.

He looked sadly over at Jimmy, almost believing it now. "We're the ones that are messed up, aren't we. The others, your brother, my parents -they're normal. It's us that's wrong." We're wrong.

[kirktastic.livejournal.com]

"Yea," Jimmy whispered, trying to hide his tears from another boy but unable to. They were wrong. "...they lied to us." He choked back on a sob, confused and scared. They were old people. They worked on this ship. No one told them.

[dctr-mccoy.livejournal.com]

He looked at the picture again of Jimmy, then the one of himself, all grown-up. "Ah shit," he called out with a sigh. "The shirts, remember? We was wearing those shirts when we met." Lenny had been wearing a blue shirt, like the kind that kitty's owner had on, and Jimmy - Jimmy had been swimming in a huge gold shirt. Just like the guy in the picture. Shit.

Another dark thought crept into his head. "If we work on the same ship, how come we didn't know each other when we saw each other?"

Maybe we're not friends?

[kirktastic.livejournal.com]

"...yea. We were... we..." The shirts. His had been gold, and Lenny's had been blue.

Jimmy looked at Lenny with wide eyes, terrified. "...Maybe we don't know each other. Maybe we aren't even friends..." Tears built up in his eyes, scared and sad. "Maybe we hate each other."

[dctr-mccoy.livejournal.com]

"We work on different teams," Lenny agreed. "Red means operations," he added knowledgeably. He'd gotten that from that guy he'd talked to the other day. "Engineers wear red. I dunno 'bout the other colors."

Things started clicking in his head. People looking at him funny, smiling at him. Tina asking him about working in space. His momma not answering when they were going home. He was home.

"I don't think we hate each other, not if we have to work together on this ship," he said, trying to talk himself into believing that. He couldn't think that they hated each other - who could hate Jimmy? He was a nice little kid... "Might be, we just didn't know each other well, might not have recognized each other." He gave Jimmy a sad smile. "But we're friends now, right?" Bestest friends, he thought to himself, hopefully.

[kirktastic.livejournal.com]

"YEA!" Jimmy said immediately, looking to Lenny with wide eyes. "You're my best friend." Almost defiant, a little scared Lenny had a better friend. He tried to think about it, "Could we... really just not be friends? Or not know each other? Or... or..." All of it made him upset. "What if we don't remember we're friends in the future? What if we suddenly get big? Are we supposed to be big or are we always small or... or..."

[dctr-mccoy.livejournal.com]

"I'll remember," he told him. "I promise, if we get big, I won't forget. I remember things real good." All of a sudden an idea hit him, from when his momma told him that they should be pen pals. "I know!" he called out, an excited look on his face. "We should write each other a note, so that when we're big, we'll know that we were friends! Best friends!" he agreed.

Then his face fell again. "Thing is... I don't know when we're gonna get fixed, so we should do that soon. Maybe... put them somewhere safe, or give them to someone to keep for us,'til we're grown again?"

He thought a moment. "Captain Blasto's got Lt Rocko as his second-in-command. You got a lieutenant?" he wondered. Had to, captains always had a helper.

[kirktastic.livejournal.com]

"I dunno about a lieutenant, but that's a good idea!" He looked up towards the ceiling. "Computer! Who is Cap...my um, second-in-command?"

The First Officer of this ship is Lieutenant Commander Spock.

"...You mean the guy... we got mad at us cuz of his cat and chocolate?" Jimmy swallowed, not too sure about this. The note was a really, really good idea though.

[dctr-mccoy.livejournal.com]

Lenny looked down at his little scar from the cat attack, a war wound he carried proudly now. "He did know our names," Lenny told him. "And we didn't get into too much trouble."

"Maybe we could put them in your room, so they don't get lost? Think the computer will let us in the captain's room?"

Maybe the sensors would recognize Jimmy? Hopefully?