Chapter Text
“Jim, get up!” Joanna shoves at Jim’s shoulder more aggressively than probably necessary and shouts just on the off chance that he actually has his aides on. When he does not respond, she shakes him again just for good measure. “Come on, Pops, Dad got up like two hours ago why are you not up yet?”
Jim cracks an eye open, catches sight of Joanna, and sighs dejectedly. He rolls over onto his back so that he can sign. [[Why are you waking me up?]]
[[It’s your birthday.]] Joanna signs back with a frown. [[And your promotion becomes official today.]]
Joanna watches as Jim rolls over onto his stomach again and groans into the pillow. He’s a bit louder than probably necessary but the guy can’t hear himself, so she gives him a pass.
The pass only lasts about five seconds before she grabs his arm and heaves him into a sitting position. He glares up at her but doesn’t fight it, which Joanna counts as a total success. [[I hate you.]]
Jo gives one final tug to get him on his feet. [[No, you don’t. Come on, Dad’s been working on your birthday breakfast for an hour.]]
[[Pancakes?]]
Joanna rolls her eyes at the hopeful look on his face. [[Yes. He made pancakes.]]
Jim grabs the remote to his aides from the bedside table and turns them on. “Sweet. Now get out, I need to get dressed.”
Joanna leaves him be with a salute right before she closes the door. She runs downstairs to the kitchen of the fairly large farmhouse to find her dad still at the stove and still wearing that same dorky apron. “He’s up, finally.”
“Was he grumpy? It is his birthday.” He looks almost genuinely worried when he asks with a slight frown.
“Nah, he’s cool.” Jo assures him and swipes a piece of bacon from the heaping plate. “Just the usual crotchety old man signing.”
Leonard gets a sort of goofy smile on his face and nods. Jo sees him subconsciously spin the ring on his finger. She rolls her eyes and steals more bacon. “Here, I’ll finish those pancakes, you go wish your husband a happy birthday.”
This earns Joanna a wide grin and a kiss on the top of the head. “Thanks, Jo, you’re the best.”
She waves him off with a tongue stuck out. “Yeah, yeah, just go.”
Leonard takes the stairs two at a time and wrenches the door open to find Jim pulling his favorite purple v-neck shirt over his head. “Hey, old man.”
“I’m twenty-nine, hardly old.” Jim retorts once he’s finally got the shirt on. “And especially not compared to thirty-five.”
“You wound me.” Leonard says with fake hurt in his voice even as he wraps his arms around Jim’s waist and presses and open mouthed kiss to his neck. “Happy birthday.”
Jim groans and tilts his head back so that it rests on Leonard’s shoulder. “Stop that right now before that breakfast you worked so hard on gets cold.”
“Microwaves are a beautiful thing.”
“Jo will kill us. And my parents are right down the hall. And Spock’s parents are in the room next to that.” He turns around in Leonard’s arms and darts in to kiss him swiftly and too lightly. “Really, the whole family is in this house and if we make any of them wait to eat, they might all kill us.”
Leonard pulls a face and nods. “That one time your cousins walked in on us was…less than fun.”
“I think Dee still has the pictures for blackmail.”
Leonard gives Jim’s ass one last pinch before taking his arms away from around his waist and taking his hand instead. “Come on, let’s get some food in you before the big announcement.”
-
Jim has never been one for big birthday celebrations. He’s had a few small parties with Sarek and Amanda, and a few gatherings with friends in the past, but for the last eight years, his birthday hasn’t been something to celebrate, per say.
He fidgets with the watch he got eight years ago today and frowns slightly. Part of him feels wrong having a big party with all of his friends, but then Joanna catches his eye across the room and gives him thumbs up and the tight feeling in Jim’s chest loosens.
When he married Bones just a little bit over a year ago, part of him felt guilty. He felt like he was somehow stealing the life that Jocelyn should have had. In all honesty, he almost chickened out and probably would have if it weren’t for Joanna coming in and telling him how excited she was to have Jim joining the family.
A year later, and almost two years after Jim and Leonard almost gave up on whatever it was that they had back then, Jim is happier than he thinks he has ever been in his entire life. Every single Avenger, Sarek and Amanda, and even Pike and Number one managed to get out to Iowa for the weekend to celebrate his birthday in Riverside at the old farmhouse. Jim watches them all mill about and can’t help the swelling of his heart.
Two years ago, he would not have been able to tell you what having a family really feels like.
“Happy birthday, Jim!” Winona throws her arms around his neck and kisses him on the cheek. “How does it feel to be almost thirty?”
Jim laughs and hugs her back. “Pretty good. You’ve got a lot to look forward to in, what, three years?”
“Technically, I’m ninety-six.” Winona says with a snarky grin. “Technically.”
“Whatever.” Jim rolls his eyes and catches sight of George standing just behind her. “Hey, Dad.”
“Happy birthday, Jim.” George makes like he’s going to shake Jim’s hand but pulls him in for a bear hug instead. “Proud of you. You have a beautiful family.”
Jim grins so wide that he thinks his face might actually break. “Thank you, I’m very lucky.”
“Not as lucky as us.” Leonard’s voice comes out of nowhere and he winds an arm around Jim’s waist, pulling him close and kissing him on the cheek. “Happy birthday.”
“I swear, Bones, you’ve only said that to me about thirty times today.” Jim laughs and hip checks him lightly. “Careful, someone might mistake you for some sort of sap.”
“Don’t tell anyone.” Leonard’s eyes crinkle up in half of a smile and Jim cannot help but grin back.
Winona and George watch them fondly and Jim catches them smiling like fools and giggling to each other. “Alright, show’s over. Go socialize.” He gestures at the rest of the party and waves them off in one broad sweep of his arm.
Leonard is staring at him when he finally turns back to him. “What? Do I have something on my face?” He touches his mouth instinctively.
Leonard shakes his head and takes Jim’s hand away from his face. “It’s just that you look happier than you have in a long time on your birthday.”
“Can you blame me? After all we’ve been through, birthdays were not exactly my favorite thing in the world.”
Leonard’s face darkens just for a moment and he looks down. “No, you definitely have a reason for it. I’m just glad that we’ve been able to move past it together.”
Jim looks up over to where Joanna is standing with her girlfriend, Maria. “Jo looks happier, too.”
“She is. You helped a lot with that.”
“Please, all I did was make sure she didn’t shoot herself in the foot.” Jim scoffs and leans his head on Leonard’s shoulder. “She did the rest herself.”
Joanna catches them staring at her and sticks her tongue out at them. She does put her drink down, though, and excuses herself to join them. Maria looks slightly lost before Chekov and Sulu come over and start obviously teasing her.
“You two are being all sentimental again, aren’t you?” Joanna says accusatively and points a finger between the two of them.
Jim grabs her fast and pulls her into a hug, which Bones rounds out to make a regular family group hug. Joanna squirms to get free, to no avail. “Jo-Jo, we just love you so much! We’re going to miss you terribly when you go to college!”
“Ugh, get off!” Joanna finally manages to shake herself free. “You two are the worst. I’m going to NYU, I’ll be like fifteen minutes away.”
“Fifteen minutes too far!” Jim exclaims dramatically and clutches his chest. “However will we cope, Bones?”
“Might have to adopt another one to replace her.” Bones speculates seriously. “Rent out her room.”
Joanna holds up one finger. “Okay, first, you two should totally adopt another kid. I want a little sister.” She holds up another finger. “And two, if you let anyone touch my room, I will have your heads on a platter.”
Any retorts they might have made are cut off by Chris Pike standing on a chair and clinking a fork on his glass. “If I could have everyone’s attention?”
And because it’s Pike and he controls a room like no other, everyone actually goes silent and pays attention. “Thank you. Jim, we are here today to celebrate you.” He holds up his glass to Jim. “When I first met you, you were eighteen and too skinny and you had run away with the circus.”
He pauses for laughs and Jim blushes when everyone turns to look at him. “Today, eleven years later, you are almost unrecognizable compared to him. Hell, you have a family. I am so proud to have gotten to know you so well and I look forward to seeing you grow even more through the next part of your life.”
Everyone claps, assuming Pike is done, but he puts up a hand and says, “Sorry, folks, not quite finished. I actually have an announcement about Jim and Leonard’s future.”
Leonard squeezes Jim impossibly closer and smiles at him too wide.
“Over the next year, I’m going to be letting go of the reigns a bit and Leonard’s going to step up and pick up the slack.” A few people gasp and Pike grins. “I’m an old man, people, and while I’m not totally leaving, I’d like to spend more time with my wife.”
An unashamed, “Hell yeah he does!” Comes from Number one, who grins and holds her glass up. “Continue, honey.”
“And while McCoy is going to be stepping up to become Director McCoy, Jim has graciously agreed to take the lead on the Avengers initiative. From now on, you all will have the much friendlier face of the Kirk-McCoy union to answer to.”
A few laughs through the crowd of people and even one “here here!” has Leonard blushing and Jim kissing his cheek. “It’s okay, baby, I like it when you’re grumpy.”
“Happy birthday, Jim. You have an amazing family and I think I speak for everyone when I say that we’re very happy and incredibly relieved that you’ve matured as much as you have. “ Pike raises his glass and everyone cheers loudly.
Jim cheers with the rest of them when someone hands them both drinks and turns to Bones with a small smile. “Here’s to the future.”
Bones smiles and clinks glasses with him. “To the future.”