[For Jim] you've always been so cunning with those great escapes

[girlsolo]

Twenty-one days later, Kate's bored of grief. She's bored of gritty eyes and headache tonics. She's bored of alcohol that doesn't make anything better. Sex is a little less boring, but she's pretty damned sick of feeling guilty for feeling good for a little while. Today, she decides when she gets up, is going to be different.

Maybe she'll go find Magnus and talk to her. Probably not. She's been weird. Maybe she'll go find Will. That seems like a good idea. She's been avoiding him since Declan disappeared and she misses him. Especially after the conversation with Bella the other day. Maybe she'll find Daphne and see how she's doing or go talk to Steve, who she's also been avoiding since Declan left. Maybe she'll go see Tesla in his new place and thank him and Alcuin for - shudder - looking out for her or apologize to Dr. J for using him as a petsitter.

The day seems full of possibilities when she pulls on her cowboy boots, but by the time she's done killing the scorpion that stung her calf (with extreme prejudice), treating the sting with a cool compress, and burying more dog shit than one puppy should be able to crap overnight, Kate's thinking shooting rattlesnakes or javelinas is all the different she can take. Breakfast happens and she's even less impressed with food than she's been for most of the month. Turns out, scorpion stings aren't that big of a deal. She's not allergic but the low-level pain and weird numbness makes her nauseated.

She finds a tonic for that and treatment for the scorpion sting, and by the time that's done, she's real clear on the fact she's not going to be marching around the desert shooting anything today. Sitting inside the Compound with the kids at the Children's Office or in Dr. J's shady library-hut playing with William's probably about all she's good for. Either way, she's got to go pick William up, and that's where she's headed when she sees Blondie striding the streets like she owns them.

Blondie is actually kind of a cool chick, one on one. But her face hurts one of Kate's people and that's reason enough not to get buddy-buddy with her. At least not until Jim can see her without feeling like the kid in that picture of his she's been keeping for him. So she ducks aside until Blondie passes (not like she figures she's high on her list of people to stop and chat with, but Kate's awkward at small talk when she's trying), heads down another street and runs smack into Jim, heading exactly where he shouldn't be.

"Hey, babe." She grins at him and puts a little extra flash in her eyes to keep his attention. Nothing's changed since they knocked boots in some ways. Except she's stopped trying not to notice how hot he is and she figures he's doing the same.

Comments

[chasedthestars]

Jim's been testing out his spurs. He wouldn't dare put them in the vicinity of an actual horse, but when it comes to stomping down the alleys, they're really pretty awesome. Jim will be sad to see them go, though Bones promises they will, along with all the rest of the Old West when the island returns to normal.

So he's getting in all he can, drawing up with a surprised smile when he finds himself suddenly face to face with Kate. "Hey yourself," he says with an easy grin. He shakes his ankle at her. "Check out these bad boys."

[girlsolo]

Eyes widening to roll, Kate shakes her head at him, then winces lightly. Scorpion stings, it turns out, make her nauseated and scorpion sting tonic makes her lightheaded because she's too nauseated to eat.

She hooks her fingers in his belt at his hip and smirks up at him. "Bad boys, seriously?" Kate sounds almost disappointed when she adds, "They still talk like that in the future?"

[chasedthestars]

"Did I mention I'm from Iowa?" he asks, "Least cool place on the continent." He curls his hand around her arm, a gesture that would be casual but for the concern in his eyes. "And I know that wasn't so bad as to warrant nausea, so what's with the wincing? You been hitting the tequila without me?"

[girlsolo]

"Saskatchewan's pretty uncool," Kate answers, fingers curling tighter in his belt and stepping in a little closer. It's part distraction-ruse to keep him from Emma and part...she really feels kind of shitty and she always feels better around him. "I'm fine, Jimmy." That comes out a softened purr of a sing-song tease. "Breakfast with a scorpion. That's all."

[chasedthestars]

"'Cause that doesn't sound poisonous," says Jim, brushing off her cavalier attitude with the recognition of a man who's adopted similar many times before.

"You see anybody for it yet?"

[girlsolo]

"It takes more than one little scorpion to take me out." But she knows the tone, the don't bullshit me, Katie tone that sounds half like Declan and half like Will. She'd wince again, different kind, but she's still sick of grieving.

"It's not lethal. I got a treatment from the apothecary. That made me nauseated. I didn't eat. And now I'm a little lightheaded." Normally missing one meal wouldn't make her lightheaded, but she's been drinking her dinner a fair amount lately. "I'm fine."

[chasedthestars]

"Great!" Jim barks cheerfully. "'Cause I'm starving, and now I have a lunch buddy." He slings an arm over her shoulder with a sly smile, gentle but insistent. "You can tell me all about nineteenth century scorpion cures while we eat, I know Bones would be thrilled to see me take an interest."

[girlsolo]

"Nineteenth century scorpion cures are the same as twenty-first century scorpion cures, just subtract aspirin and add nasty-ass potions." Kate looks up along her shoulder at him and then smiles. Kinda hard not to smile at him when he gets like this, so she just rolls with it. "But I guess I can be your lunchbuddy anyway. I've more than proven my skill with you being hungry."

It's probably a measure of how not great she's feeling and how much she wants to keep him from seeing Emma, that the quip only barely grazes the innuendo.

[chasedthestars]

"That's it?" Jim asks, squeezing her shoulders, "that's all? Now I know you're poorly. C'mon." He turns them out of the alley. "Rattlesnake sandwiches or whatever the hell it is today on me. Maybe even some whiskey if you make a happy plate."

[girlsolo]

"You promise me whiskey on you and I'll perk right up." She would too. Something about Jim Kirk, naked skin and a bottle of whiskey...yep, just what the apothecary ordered.

Except they're heading the wrong way. So she kind of digs in her heels. "There's a good place, back the other way. Let's go there? I liked the soup yesterday. Can we go there?"

[chasedthestars]

"Must be some soup," says Jim, and though he wonders at her previously unprofessed love for the dish, he steers them in the direction Kate seems to favor. Whatever that's about, he'll get it out of her once she's fed.

"They got those cool little oyster crackers or something?"

[girlsolo]

"Yeah." Kate kind of rolls her eyes, but only a little. Her head still hurts. "Cool little oyster crackers and the ghost barkeep is super hot." For that, she gives him a little grin, elbows him in the ribs and keeps walking without walking out from under his arm.

Smoke and mirrors. She's been doing this so long it's second nature. The only reason the mirrors are cracked is because she cares. Too much.

[chasedthestars]

"Girl hot or boy hot?" Jim asks, "I gotta know what I'm dealing with here." He walks slow, hip out to take some weight off her leg whether she wants it or not. "You know if your leg falls off, someone's going to have to push you around in a wheelbarrow. Luckily I'm available."

[girlsolo]

"Listen, if I can survive having a bullet cut out with bourbon and a pocket knife, I'm not going amputee over a scorpion sting," Kate says and kind of rolls her eyes but goes with letting him take some of her weight anyway. She gets it. Plus...

It's a thing. He keeps saying this stuff. Like he's going to be there if she needs him. And it's not something she's used to, so it always shuts her up a little. Yeah, he's teasing but that just makes it sharper. You don't joke about shit like that when you don't mean it. Not people like her and Jim.

She's not planning to say it, but the flash of golden blonde hair where it really shouldn't be calls for desperate measures:

"Boy hot." It's an after-thought, a little too slow. Her eyebrow hitches upward, mouth quirks a little. "Didn't know you 'dealt' with that. You just got about 200% hotter."

[chasedthestars]

"Hey, discriminating cuts out half the acts of depravity one can commit in a lifetime," says Jim, "and I take that kind of thing seriously. Besides, there's more than gender to consider when you meet aliens for a living. And I'm supposed to embrace all kinds of local customs. They teach that at the Academy." Jim grins. "You believe that?"

[girlsolo]

"...wait, seriously? They teach you that? Sign me up." She hates school. Always did. Not because she wasn't good at it. Secretly, she'd been really good at it and no one, not even Will and Magnus knew, she'd actually been in the choir until she quit. It was just...dumb. Pointless in a world where things like your dad getting blown up in front of your eyes can actually happen.

She slides past that thought to grin at him. "I'm an equal opportunity pervert."

[chasedthestars]

"Yep," Jim nods, mind likewise slipping back, though to happier, sweatier memories than Kate. He stops them in front of a likely looking building.

"Is this the place? Or are you gonna frogmarch me halfway across town before you're satisfied?"

[girlsolo]

At that, Kate glances past him and over her own shoulder and then shrugs. "Might be, might not be. I got no clue." She leans up and busses a kiss against his jaw. "Just saw Emma walking where you were headed and decided you didn't need to see that."

[chasedthestars]

"Ah," Jim hums, dragging out the sound as he decides how he feels about that. Conflicted, mostly, about how much it still hurts to see Emma, about how it helps to know that Kate is looking out for him. Thing is, fragile as Jim actually is about all of this, the last thing he wants is for anybody to know it.

"Now it all makes sense. You know, I won't freak out and hit a wall every time I see her. Or go have drunken waterhole sex, though that one's actually a shame."

[girlsolo]

"I know." Kate does, because Jim's strong even if it's still raw. Backs of her fingers rubbing against his abs, she smiles up, eyes wicked. "Just hoping for the waterhole. Soak my calf, suck your cock. You know. Afternoon delights." 'Course what she really means is, "Or you know, just figured there's enough stuff on the island to fuck you up. Not much good as a wingman if I can't steer you around the potholes or whatever."

[chasedthestars]

"God, you got a mouth on you," Jim laughs, slapping her ass to propel her inside the bar. "Dirtiest wingman ever." Steering her by the shoulders towards the counter, he adds, safely tucked behind her, "Thanks. Still rather not see her if I can help it."

[girlsolo]

It's obligatory. She can't help it. "You know you love my mouth," Kate says without even bothering to look back over her shoulder. But she does lean slightly into him, taking the weight off her leg. Yeah, she's going with that. "Welcome, babe. All part of the service."