Biting into his lower lip, he cursed a nice streak in his head before stepping back away from him with an apologetic smile. He didn’t want to answer Jim’s question or inquiring tone. He’d never meant to say that out loud and honestly, it would be a lot better if he’d never said it. Lifting a shoulder slowly, in that universal noncommittal gesture, the doctor turned to the food on the stove.
Shifting pots around and checking things to make sure they were cooking, he moved to the rice and kept his eyes on the task of hydrating it just a little before warming it up carefully. Well, his avoiding the question was about as efficient as ignoring an elephant in the room. Checking on the vegetables one more time, he pursed his lips and bit at them with nervous energy.
“Stages of severity I guess.” He knew he cared about Jim far more than a friend the day he put his entire career with Starfleet on the line and smuggled him onto the Enterprise. Not that he knew just what degree at that point. Then little things, small sacrifices and ridiculous decisions to make sure he could follow him where he went. When did he become that devoted of a person? Certainly wasn’t for his wife. And then Jim died. That likely flipped his world upside down and inside out more than anything else.
How did you deny you cared that much about a person after something like that? It just got written off and repressed to the wayside in favor of their friendship. Things were just… easier that way. “Not that it matters.”
no subject
Shifting pots around and checking things to make sure they were cooking, he moved to the rice and kept his eyes on the task of hydrating it just a little before warming it up carefully. Well, his avoiding the question was about as efficient as ignoring an elephant in the room. Checking on the vegetables one more time, he pursed his lips and bit at them with nervous energy.
“Stages of severity I guess.” He knew he cared about Jim far more than a friend the day he put his entire career with Starfleet on the line and smuggled him onto the Enterprise. Not that he knew just what degree at that point. Then little things, small sacrifices and ridiculous decisions to make sure he could follow him where he went. When did he become that devoted of a person? Certainly wasn’t for his wife. And then Jim died. That likely flipped his world upside down and inside out more than anything else.
How did you deny you cared that much about a person after something like that? It just got written off and repressed to the wayside in favor of their friendship. Things were just… easier that way. “Not that it matters.”