Today’s flash is brought to you by Bones

Leonard was surprised to see his friend sitting by himself nursing a drinking in Ten Forward. Grabbing himself a drink, he made his way over to Jim’s table.

“What are you doing here?”

“Drinking.”

Bones pulled out a chair and sat. “Where’s Spock?”

“We had a fight…again.”

Leonard frowned. “Again?”

“That’s all we’ve been doing, Bones. Be careful what you wish for. I wanted a Vulcan boyfriend and now…it’s always so contentious.”

“Always?” he asked, skeptically. ‘Bit of an exaggeration, isn’t it?”

Jim just shrugged and took a large swallow of whiskey.

Leonard decided he was far too old for this and he had never set out to be a relationship counselor, but since this was Jim, he’d try.

“From my view, Spock is about as smitten as a guy can be.”

“Yeah?” Jim asked, doubtfully.

“That Vulcan would do anything for you, Jim. Even drink poison meant for you.”

“Who’s trying to poison me?”

“You know what I mean. Not to get too corny but there’s an old song called ‘Everything I Do, I Do For You’ I think Spock could be singing. Fortunately, we’re spared from that,” Leonard cracked. “But I think you get it. What’s prompted this anyway? You having regrets?”

“When I visited my brother and his wife on Deneva, everything was so…good between them. They were so happy and in sync.” Jim paused. “They were like relationship goals.”

“Okay, sure. But what you were seeing was a couple who knew they had visitors, their family, and they were on their best behavior, weren’t they?”

“Probably,” Jim acknowledged.

“You don’t know what goes on behind closed doors, do you? I’m not saying they don’t have a good marriage, but I am willing to bet a million credits, it’s far from perfect.”

“Yeah, okay.”

“Despite what you might think, I think Spock can play nice in front of others too. But he wasn’t there with you. It was just you and your mom there with your brother’s family.”

“I was afraid it was too soon to drag Spock along with me.”

“I doubt he would have felt dragged, Jim. And that’s your problem here. I think Spock expected to be asked to go and when you didn’t, it might have hurt him a little.”

Jim looked down. “I didn’t think about that.”

“I know. You’re used to being on your own. Plus you think your family is way worse than they are. They are your family though and Spock wants to be your family too, so you have to let him in, Jim.”

As if on cue, Leonard noticed Spock approaching their table.

Jim turned as Spock arrived.

“Spock, I’m sorry.”

“It is I who owe an apology.”

Jim rose from his seat, put his hand on Leonard’s shoulder and squeezed. “Thanks, Bones. See you later?”

Leonard smirked. “I’d say not until tomorrow from the looks of it.”

Spock quirked a brow, but Jim laughed.

Leonard’s work was done as the two departed Ten Forward.

And there was Leonard drinking alone.

“Figures,” he muttered, and downed his drink.