Chapter Text
No movie ends precisely with the resolution of the hero's objective. You have to reveal the new life your hero is living now that she's completed her journey.
February, 2010
Leonard still didn't like red carpets, even if now Jim could hold his hand as they walked down it, and even if people were no longer asking intrusive questions about his father. As they walked along they saw Data, the Variety reporter who'd done McCoy's first interview about That Which Survives.
"What's the status on the next Bibi Besch movie?" he asked. "Are the rumors true?"
"Yep," Jim said. "Last one for me and Carol. You'll see Bibi training a new spy-girl in the next movie. We're introducing a terrific actress, Tasha Yar, and I think she's going to be fantastic in the part. We start shooting in, what, two months?"
"Something like that," Leonard replied.
"And you wrote it, McCoy?" Data asked. "Quite a departure from That Which Survives."
"Well, so is the movie opening tonight!" Leonard said. "And I've been working on action films for the last six years, so writing one from scratch was pretty doable."
"You two recently moved into a house in Pacific Palisades?"
"Yeah, it's a gorgeous place," Jim said, "plenty of room for the kids."
"Domesticity! Sounds like quite a change for you, Jim."
"You gotta change it up!" he replied. "Do new things. I spent plenty of time partying in this town." He turned to Leonard. "Now I'm doing something else."
"And is it true that you based this romantic comedy on your own relationship?"
"Nope," Leonard said. "No truth to that whatsoever. Totally fiction."
On the big screen, a lawyer played by Carol Marcus was engaged in a passionate lip-lock with another lawyer played by Geoffrey M'Benga.
"Nice as this is," he said, "I still have to pick up my daughter at school."
"How about I pick her up on the bike?" she asked. "We get fifteen more minutes of kissing, and you can start dinner while I'm gone."
"That's the most romantic thing anyone has ever said to me," he replied.
Cue music, pull back, pan to ocean, fade to credits.
If he hadn't known better, Leonard would have wondered if he had deja-vu. Once again Jim was pacing in the back of the theater at a premiere. Once again Spock was standing, impassively, near the door, though now he was joined by Uhura. Once again Leonard himself, with his daughter, was sitting in the audience next to Carol, watching her movie premiere.
"How were they?" she asked, meaning her breasts, because that's what she always meant, and because she rather bravely filmed the love scene about four months after she stopped breast feeding.
"Good, they were good," Leonard said, in his most reassuring tone, and Carol smiled. The performances, no one was worried about; Jim had suspected Carol had a talent for light comedy and she'd proven him right.
When they got to the back of the theater, Joanna said, "I just don't know why Jim had to be made into a girl."
"Single fathers score very highly with the romantic comedy target demographic," Spock said.
"But that's why Jim was made into a girl instead of Dad," Joanna said, "and anyway Carol is better at pretending to be Jim than pretending to be Dad. Geoff M'Benga is really good at pretending to be Dad, though."
"I noticed," Nyota said.
"What I want to know is, why did it have to be about a man and a woman?" Joanna asked.
Leonard winced. "Because Mr. Pike probably wouldn't have given us enough money to make a movie about two men, Jo. Because he doesn't think anyone would go see it."
"Maybe they don't see them because you don't make them," Joanna said.
"Well," Leonard said, "there is the pirate movie coming up."
"I've always liked lady pirates," Nyota said.
Leonard looked up at Jim, who was thinking. "That could work," Jim said. "Really well."
"We'll get a lower budget," Spock said.
Jim waved a hand. "We've done it before," he said. "We can do it again."
"That went well," Leonard said, climbing into the limo with Kirk.
"Yeah," Jim replied. He tapped the side of Leonard's thigh. "You know what I used to do in the car between the movie and the party?"
"I've learned it's better not to guess," Leonard replied.
Jim raised his eyebrows.
"You've got to be kidding me."
"Started with Carol."
"Of course. And ended with?"
"Lenore."
Leonard turned to face Jim fully. "Not Miri?"
"No, actually, though she totally jumped me. But I didn't feel like it."
Leonard grinned. "Because you'd already met me!"
"No, because I didn't want to reward Miri for her possessive behavior."
"Come on, you were all over me at that premiere."
"I wasn't all over you!"
"Yes you were with your sad eyes and aren't-you-coming-to-the-party."
"Whatever, the point wasn't to rehash our sex lives."
"No, I'm pretty clear that you want to have sex right now in the back of this car. And I'm telling you that I'm not cleaning up the mess—"
"Not much mess."
"—or going into the party with semen on my breath."
"Not that either."
"What else is there?"
"There's straight-up fucking, Bones."
"And how is that not messy?"
Jim smiled and pulled a small plastic bag out from under one of the seats. Inside was a towel and two suit hangers.
"Well I can guess what those are for," Leonard said suspiciously, though he was disrobing.
Jim pulled two condoms out of his pocket and set them on the dash behind them. "One of those is for you of course."
"Thanks, but I ain't fucking you dry, Jim."
"You won't," Jim said, folding his trousers over the hanger.
"So you're self-lubricating now?"
"More like pre-lubricated."
Leonard, who'd gotten his jacket off, stopped with his trousers halfway down his legs. "Are you serious?"
Jim nodded. "Slipped into the bathroom while you were putting Joanna into a car to go home. I knew she'd put up a fight, so I had time."
"Jim, the next time you try to get me to fuck you in the back of a limo? Start there."
Jim liked to think they were merely a little disheveled when they arrived at the party. He spotted Nyota and Spock, who had also just arrived, which wasn't surprising as Spock often liked to stay behind a little at a screening.
Jim noticed something odd, and motioned Nyota to come closer. "What is it?" she asked.
"Your, um, well, just turn around," he said, and when she did he undid the hair clip near the crown of her head and flipped it so the correct side was facing out. "Do stuff like that, Nyota, and everyone's going to think you were fucking in the car."
Nyota coughed.
"Oh my god," Jim said, and walked around in front of her. "Oh my god, seriously?"
She held up her hands. "Jim—"
"Seriously?" He started to laugh, which brought Leonard back over to his side, with Spock not far behind.
"What is it now?" Leonard asked.
"Spock, you have the best girlfriend ever," Jim said.
"I am well aware of that, Jim," Spock replied, and Nyota smiled.
"You," Leonard said, pointing at Jim, "are a nut."
"I am well aware of that as well," Spock said, and led Nyota into the party.
"Have we seen everyone?" Leonard asked.
"I think so," Jim said, finishing his drink and setting the glass down. "And Pike's already left, so."
"So there's nothing keeping us here?"
"Not a damn thing," Jim replied.
"Good, let's go."
"You know what we could do," Jim said.
"What?"
"On the way home, we can stop by Milk, get some fudge sauce, some caramel, some ice cream …"
"We're going to get some real ice cream and not that soy stuff, right?"
"I'd think you'd be glad that someone makes a frozen treat that my son and I can eat without having sad tummies, Bones."
"Sad tummies?" Leonard asked. "We are raising a toddler."
"So ice cream sundae party?"
"Two great ideas in one day, Jim," Leonard said. "I'm going to have to hang on to you."
"Somehow, I don't think that will be a problem," Jim replied.