leftwithmybones | (no subject)

(no subject)

This could be a very, very bad idea. Still, Bran's interested and it'll give Jim someone to talk about space with who won't freak out and have a panic attack at the memory. It's why he shows up to Bran's next appointment with an extra body in tow, with the hope that he can sit at the back and make sure Bran continues the stretches right.

"Remember," he says pointedly to Jim, giving him two prodded fingers in his side. "He's young and he's interested in space. That's no reason you get to brainwash him with space glory. Behave," he says, hoping that Jim understands the message between the lines -- that Bran's from a different world and a different time and their personal relationship doesn't have to be the main event, here.

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"Mean right back," Jim repeats, resisting the urge to help Bran onto the bed. It's probably something Bones has him working on, and in any case, help might not be wanted. "Why didn't I make that deal with you when we met?" he asks Bones.

Settling into a chair, he says to Bran, "You can call me Captain if you want, but most people here call me Jim."

"And I can be very mean," Bran said seriously but his mouth curved with the start of a smile. "Jim then. And you really captain a starship?"

He wheeled over so that he was right next to the bed like they had practiced even if he couldn't make the shift all by himself. He had to press his lips together in embarrassment but then raised his head to look at Doctor Leonard. "Do I lift myself up and then you help me, like last time?"

"You lift yourself up, then you settle, and then I'll get you some weights," he advises, taking one of the seats and making his home there, just so Bran doesn't think that he's about to help (even though he will if it comes to that).

"I am," Jim tells Bran, and he knows as well as Bones does that Bones will leap right out of that chair he's settled in if need be, and fights to hide a smile. "You know, that's probably where I went wrong. I'm not very good at being mean. Bossy, though."

Jim's eyebrows lift. "I am a champion at being bossy, but that's part of captaining a starship. There's a lot that can go wrong when you're flying around in space."

"Alright." He' wasn't at all sure this would work, but Bran set his hands and started to lift himself out and up. It's not smoothly done, and and on the first attempt he got up only high enough to perch on the armrest of the chair. From there he reached to pull his legs up and one more lift got him on the mattress.

I did it. Even if I didn't do it right, I still did it.. He smiled and then settled his legs so they were dangling over the side before looking at Jim. His first question was already prepared after spending an afternoon mulling it over.

"When you're flying in the sky, what do you do about the clouds? Are they more or like floating islands or big lakes?"

McCoy smiles warmly as Bran accomplishes his task, rolling his chair forward to give Bran a light squeeze on his knee. "That's it," he praises, settling back in the chair and giving Jim a warning look. "Remember, he's completely new to this."

Jim responds with a look that he hopes clearly conveys a reminder that he is an accomplished Captain, thank you very much, one extensively trained in diplomacy and bearing an actual mandate to interact with less technologically advanced cultures with aplomb.

"Islands," he says, "for a while, at least, but when you get really high, they're more like mountains and valleys stretching out below you, all in white. But we don't see them for very long in our starships. We fly those much, much higher than the sky. We fly them way out into the stars."

He couldn't feel it but the hand on his knee still made Bran smile at him proudly. Then he let out a little huff of breath and imagined how it would look to see a sky like that. Maybe there were sky people that lived up there, children who were more bird than boy who didn't even know what the ground was. Bran was wide-eyed just at the idea.

"So, the night stars are up higher than the day's sky? How close to the stars can you get?"

"Too close," is McCoy's opinion on the subject, giving a grumpy sound that gets caught in his throat. "And yet, some people like it. Jim sure as hell can't get enough of it," he points out, giving him a fond smile.

"Pretty close," Jim agrees, and where Bones' face is all dread, Jim's is all delight. "The thing about stars, though, is they only look small because they're so far away. Up close, they're...well."

Leaning forward, Jim looks at Bran. "What's the biggest thing you can imagine?"

"The Wall," Bran said after a moment. he thought of it the first time they'd seen it after cresting a hill when it'd looked far away and dull as stone and its massive expanse when standing at its foot. "It goes all the way from the Bay of Ice to Eastwatch, and it's more than a half mile high. It's the biggest thing in the world."

McCoy watches him cautiously, hoping that all this talk about space and the expansive nature of the world isn't going to get Bran overexcited. "Don't see the big fuss," he admits from his seat. "Sure, space is huge. Eternal and unending, but it's not like it's much to look at when you're in the thick of it. Now, when you're on the ground and looking up...that's something else."

"Space has many virtues," Jim is quick to interject, "and that Wall sounds huge. It must have taken forever to make. Stars are like that, too, except they're even bigger, and they take millions of years to form."

"Except what are the stars?" The exercises he was meant to be doing have been forgotten as Bran looks at them intently. "If they're not monsters' eyes that spy on you or dead kings or all the other things. What are they when they're places?"

McCoy gestures with a hand, shooting Jim a bemused look. "I'm gonna let you take this one. I'm a doctor, not an astrophysicist. To me, stars are just pretty balls of gas in the sky."

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