leftwithmybones | (no subject)

(no subject)

It's taken a hell of a duck to get away from Jim with his weird protective thing going on, but McCoy refuses to sit around and do nothing just because Jim's in a weird mood. She grabs her medkit and a pair of comfortable blue scrubs before heading to the clinic for the day. It's peaceful in the way that work makes her and lulls her into a familiar frame of mind. Eventually, the only thing that pulls her away is the grumbling of her stomach and she's off to the kitchen, pinning her hair up a little tighter before making lunch.

When she hears the smallest scuffle of noise, she eases back and raises a brow suspiciously in the doorway, not seeing anyone at eye level. "Who's there?" she demands, rolling her eyes. "Jim, I swear to god, if you're here to cart me off home, I'm gonna punch you in the face."

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There was a scurry of footsteps and then a tiny face appeared over the counter as a boy jumped up as high as he could to see who was in the kitchen. "Hi hi!" Then he ducked around the counter so he could look up at her. Bran Stark, five years old with working legs and a grin so wide it had to hurt his cheeks.

He jumped again just because it was fun and he could. "You can't punch me in the face!"

Well, she'll be damned. If she didn't know any better, she would say that looks like Bran Stark's little face, but the movement and the youth are a couple things that might have her thinking twice if not for the fact that he even sounds somewhat similar. "Says who?" she drawls, even though she's got no intention of doing anything like that. "Maybe I'll just go for your organs, tickle you into submission, huh?"

The very mention of tickling was enough to set Bran giggling and before back behind the counter. "I'll tickle you first!" He declared and waved his hand as if in a menacing tickling gesture. Then he hopped up and down a few times so that his eyes kept popping over the counter. "You want something on a shelf? I can get it! I can climb."

"Yeah, I'm noticing that," she says, giving him a marvelled look as she crosses over and picks him up like he weighs nothing at all, like McCoy has to figure out exactly how tiny he is right now. She sets him back on the counter so he's taller than her, looking up into his eyes. "How old are you, kid?"

He didn't protest being picked up; five is an age young enough that being carried wasn't so unheard of. But once he was on the counter he set to fidgeting at once, kicking his legs or flexing dirty bare feet, like if he was still for even a moment everything would go numb again.

"Five!" He held his hand up for emphasis but then Bran looked thoughtful, a younger mirror of a common expression. "Ummm but ten too? Because we had a party! And there was ice cream and I got wolf throwers. But also five!" It didn't really bother him at all because he could feel everything. "And Reynald's big! And Jon's a girl! And I can climb!"

Summerfell had had an eventful morning.

"Well, that sounds like a hell of a morning," she says, grateful that things were pretty calm on her side apart from Jim's little show with hiding all her clothes away from her. "I remember your party, it was a pretty good thing," she says with a nod, putting some breakfast on the stove. "You want something to eat, kiddo?"

"Yes! I can help!" He was going to get things from all the high shelves even if it meant making a whole tower of furniture to stand on. Then Bran laughed again, delighted with himself that he had recognized her. No one else called him 'kiddo.'

"Doctor Leonard! You're a girl too!"

"What are you talking about?" she asks, opening up the cupboards to start getting ingredients for pancakes. The name strikes a chord, makes her slightly wary. She's heard that name before, today. "I'm always a woman, Bran," she says pointedly, like she needs to remind him about being polite.

"Ummm." He stood up on the counter to try and reach a shelf where the pots and pans were and started to tug out the biggest one. "Because I'm five and ten? And so you're a lady 'nd a man grown. Like Jon! He's pretty but you're really pretty."

Bran didn't sound very fussed about any of it. No one accepts magic easier than children.

She's not entirely sure what he means, but kids (of ten, of five, and of any age) can have an overactive imagination sometimes, so McCoy feels like letting it slide. She leans over to help him with the pan, making sure he isn't going to tumble over the edge because it's too heavy. "You don't have to flatter me," she says. "But it'll get you blueberries in your pancakes if you do."

Blueberries!" Doctor Leonard could likely have said she was going to put anything at all in them and Bran would still be thrilled. He bounced on his toes and leaned on her shoulder while watching her make the batter. "We're going to go to the beach and I am going to go swimming and we're going to have a picnic and then-" He had run out of breath. "Then I don't know."

Her smile is a dazed and fond thing as she reaches up with one hand to ruffle Bran's hair lightly, like she would if this were Joanna sitting on the counter beside her. "What about horse riding?" she suggests, seeing as he's got full motility of his legs and she knows that might not last very long. "Running? Didn't you tell me once you liked to climb?"

"I ran almost the whole way here and it was wonderful. Best ever!" Even when he'd got a stitch in his side and hopelessly out of breath. He loved it even when his legs were all made of shaky jelly. "Yes, climbing! First the weirwood, like at home. Then do you think I can get to the top of the World Tree?"

"I think you could get to the top of anything," she promises, smiling at him fondly while her insides twist with that easy-to-define knowledge that it's hope and want and that seeing Bran this small is only making it clearer how bad she misses her kid back home and how bad she wants to be a parent again. "You want bacon, too?"

He all but glowed with pride and pleasure she said that. Yes, he could climb anything, and he never, ever fell. Even if he remembered the blue of the sky as he fell away from the tower. He hadn't fallen; a younger mind could face that without fear because it didnt matter now. Now he could walk again.

"Bacon, yes," he exclaimed. "Can I put it in the pan please please please?"

She beams right back at him, holding out the strips of boar bacon and gesturing to the pan. "Alright, but when it starts sizzling, you ease on back before it splatters up and burns you. Hear me?" she clarifies, not wanting an injured boy on her hands.

"I hear you." He leaned over with exaggerated caution and wiggled the strips of bacon between little fingers before dropping them down into the pan. Giggling, he retreated again. "Space bacon?"

"Boar bacon," she says, pulling a face and keeping a hand on Bran's shoulder to make sure he doesn't lean too far forward to get himself a face full of grease. "It's not the best stuff. If we were back on earth, my family had a farm with the most incredible livestock you'd ever taste."

"Boar bacon!" He gestured for Doctor Leonard to lean in so Bran could tell him a secret. "Sometimes, um," Bran held his hand up to whisper into her ear. "Sometimes Summer eats the boars. I just know it. I don't go in him any more but I can tell he eats all the boars."

She leans in, faintly bemused as she listens to his secret. "Well, tell him to make sure he doesn't go too hog-wild," she advises. "We need to make sure there's enough to keep breeding and keep us going throughout all the rough months."

"I promise!" Bran set to climbing down from the counter, but then when he realized how short this made him he went scrambling over to push a chair back to the store. "Is Jim a lady too?"

McCoy gives him a strange look. "Why would Jim be a lady? No, he's the same as always, same as me," she replies, giving Bran a curious look as she ruffles his hair one more time before fixing it, giving him a brief smile. "You okay? Feeling good?"

Bran gave this question the serious contemplation it deserved. "Ummmmmm 'cause Jon's a girl? And I'm little? And Reynald is big!" He was practically a man grown which sounded like the dullest thing in the world right now. "I feel great!" He did a little wiggly dance that showed off his working legs to her. "And I don't need the Teslachair ever!"

"Well, sorry to disappoint, but Jim is Jim is Jim," she says. "Same as ever, same pain in my ass," she guarantees with a fond smile. She plates up the bacon and some eggs, handing it over to Bran. "You look great, kid," she praises. "I'll have to take you out on the horses, for sure, let you show me your skill."

"Yes, horse riding!" Something he could do normally, but now he'd be able to feel the rhythm of Shadow's gait and use his knees to guide her. It didn't occur to him that Shadow might be rather too big for him at his current size. "And Reynald says I can play in his castle as much as I want! Do you want to play dragon attacks with me?"

"Sure, kid," McCoy promises with a fond smile, pouring him a glass of orange juice to go with the meal. "Hey, here," she coaxes. "Eat up. You're a growing boy again and you need all the nutrients you can get."

"Nutrients!" Bran grinned at her, as cheerful a child as there had ever been. Then he took up the glass of juice with hands small enough that it took two to hold it. After a few furious bites he came up for air while trying to stab a whole pancake onto his fork. "We're going to go swimming. I didn't go in the ocean before, and I was sad, but now I can, and I'm happy!"

"Maybe I'll even lurk around you for that," she says, given that she wants to make sure that the sudden use of his legs doesn't turn into a disastrous day when they stop working at an inopportune time. "Make sure no one drowns and all."

"Yes, swim with us!" Bran beamed at her then took a bite of his pancake. "And- and-" He seemed too excited, like he was trying to eat while saying ten different things at once. "Summer is going to come! But you can swim, Summer can't swim."

"I'd be happy to swim," McCoy promises with an easy smile. "We'll go have ourselves a little swimming date, you and I. We'll see how far you can stretch out those legs of yours."

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