Work Text
Leonard shuffled into the kitchen after lighting a small fire in the fireplace and poured himself a nice cup of steaming coffee from the pot in the corner. He sighed softly as he brought the mug under his nose and closed his eyes, inhaling deeply, taking in the familiar scent. It was a brief reprieve from the reason why he was here. Leonard’s eyes popped back open as he felt a cool chill run over him and immediately set into a low glare as he shuffled over to the window and peered outside. All Leonard could see out the window was a stark layer of white, covering everything for miles. A freak snowstorm that no one had expected to actually hit had blown through San Francisco, dumping a few feet of snow seemingly overnight, effectively shutting down the entire panicked city. If his medical conference had only gotten out a few hours earlier he could have avoided this whole fiasco, but that would have been too easy. At least they had offered to put him up in a small rental to wait out the storm until he could catch a flight back to Georgia. The downside? He was going to be stuck here through Christmas. With no flights in or out, there was no way leave San Francisco, nevermind that practically all of the roads and highways had been shut down a few hours ago so he couldn’t get to the airport even if there were flights running. Joanna was back in Georgia with his mom, both probably enjoying the milder winter weather, he wasn’t looking forward to calling her later and telling her the bad news. Jim was stuck further down in southern California for a conference of his own, but he hadn’t heard from the blonde since he called and checked in late yesterday afternoon. Leonard’s glare turned into a scowl the longer he stared at the snow. He closed the blinds and shuffled to the front room and peered out of the big bay window, hoping for a different scenario in the front yard. Leonard sipped his coffee gingerly, muttering under his breath when the view was the same, maybe even worse in the front with all the snow drifts. Leonard sighed softly as he went over in his head how he was going to break the news to Jo, when he swore he saw something against the white backdrop outside. He stepped closer to the window, squinting up against the glass as he stared outside, thinking his mind was playing tricks on him. Surely no one would be dumb enough to be outside in this storm, frostbite in these temperatures was a real possibility. That’s when his eyes picked up on the bright yellow beanie, bobbing around in the snow and the barely visible blonde hair underneath to match. “What the hell?” Leonard mumbled as he continued to stare out the window. It couldn’t be could it? There was no way… As soon as his eyes finally focused in on the face and what features he could make out, the figure seemed to slip dramatically and disappear from view in a cloud of snow. Yep, that was Jim alright. “Son of a bitch!” Leonard growled as he sat down his coffee hastily and bolted to the front door and grabbed his coat and boots, not bothering to take the time to change out of his pajama pants as he flung open the door and trudged through the deep snow. “Jim! Is that you?” Leonard managed to yell over the howling wind as he walked quickly through the snow, making his way over to where he thought the figure had fallen. “Bones?” Came a tiny reply, followed by a groan that was almost lost in the howling wind. Leonard would have missed the reply if his head hadn’t been angled just right. “Good god, Jim!” Leonard said as he got a look at Jim laying in a heap on a pile of snow. Forgetting about the snow, forgetting about the reason why Jim was laying in said pile of snow, Leonard hurried over, anxious to assess Jim. No telling what kind of injuries he had done to himself, let alone how long he had been walking in this god forsaken snow storm. Leonard’s mind was running a mile a minute as he quickly made his way to Jim’s side. “Bones! Look out for the…” Jim tried to warn Leonard but it was too late. Leonard’s foot hit the same patch of ice that Jim had, sending the brunettes feet out from underneath him only to come crashing down flat on his back, knocking the wind out of him. “Bones?! Are you okay?” Jim asked frantically and tried to scramble over to Leonard’s side, but let out a tiny groan of pain in the process. Leonard didn’t say a word but held up his hand with one finger in the air. Jim didn’t need to look to know which finger Leonard was holding up. “Not a word, Jim.” Leonard said with a strained huff as he gathered himself and tried to get the air back in his lungs from his abrupt tumble, continuing to hold his hand in the air. Thankfully his head had fallen back on the lawn side, under a fresh pile of snow and not on the concrete and ice next to him. Leonard grunted with a twinge of pain as he pulled himself up slowly and carefully from the patch of snow and ice, standing and stretching and making sure he didn’t hurt anything other than his pride. Satisfied there was nothing major amiss, Leonard reached down a hand to help Jim up. The blonde looked at Leonard’s hand like it was going to bite him as he shrunk back slightly. “Don’t worry, I’m going to murder you in the comfort of the house where it’s warm, there’s no way I’d do it outside where there might be witnesses. Now come on so we can get inside, it’s freezing out here.” Leonard grouched as he reached further for Jims hand while trying to pull his jacket tighter around himself at the same time. Jim slowly reached out and grabbed Leonard’s ungloved hand and allowed the brunette to pull him up slowly. Jim stood for a moment and checked on himself, patting all areas and making sure he was all in one piece, which he surprisingly was. Maybe finally he had managed to not seriously injure himself for once. Jim was pleased and smiled under his scarf as he went to carefully shuffle across the ice this time, he went to take his first step and put pressure on his leg and he immediately yelped in pain and brought his leg back up; yep there it was. Leonard didn’t miss Jim’s quiet yelp, even muffled by a scarf and the wind, Leonard would know that sound anywhere. Leonard leveled his eyes and pursed his lips into a fine line at Jim who shrank back slightly, but didn’t utter a word and made his way to Jim’s injured side, supporting the blondes weight as they slowly made their way to Leonard’s door. Jim tried his best to keep his suffering to himself as they walked but each step sent a small, sharp jolt of pain through his foot and up his leg, causing another tiny whimper to seep through his scarf and filter into Leonard’s ears. Finally making it to the porch, Leonard kicked the door open softly and helped Jim inside. The blonde sighed quietly as the warm air hit his face, it was only then did he realize just how cold he was as a chill shot through him from the contrast of temperature. Leonard helped Jim in front of the couch and started undressing the blonde silently and throwing his wet, snow covered clothes and boots back in the tiled entryway, out of the way and off the carpeted floor to dry. Once Jim was completely out of his wet clothes, besides his shirt and underwear which thankfully stayed dry, Leonard laid Jim down on the couch and propped his injured leg up on a pillow, throwing a blanket from the back of the couch over the blonde.“Bones?” Jim asked quietly and cautiously as he watched Leonard palpate his leg, only jumping once or twice when the brunette hit a particularly tender spot further up his leg. Leonard’s features only soured more at Jim’s intrusion of his thoughts as he paused his examination of the blondes leg. “Jim, as soon as I figure out if your injuries are less than serious, I’m going to murder you.” Leonard started out tightly, his scowl falling perfectly back in place as Jim swallowed quietly to himself and sank back into the couch, ready for his lecture. Leonard was deep down, very glad to see Jim but on the other hand… “What in gods name were you thinking, kid? You could have gotten yourself frostbite and have all your toes fall off or even die out there if you had broken a leg somewhere! How the hell did you even make it out this far?”“I was thinking that I didn’t want my apparently unappreciative boyfriend alone on Christmas so I checked the weather after my conference since we managed to get out a little early yesterday evening and saw the storm coming in. So I managed to rent an SUV and drove through the night to get here. I only got stuck down the road so I didn’t have far to walk.” Jim said softly from the head of the couch, giving Leonard a bland explanation with no excuses so it wouldn’t make the brunette even angrier. Jim had learned to pick his battles years ago and this is one he couldn’t argue himself out of.It seemed to work for the time being as Leonard pursed his lips once more, ignoring his own increasingly aching back, and started up his examination again in silence. The only sound in the room was the crackling of the small fireplace in the corner of the room that Leonard had lit while he waited for his morning coffee to brew. Jim got lost in the flames as he watched them lick around the logs lazily, he didn’t even realize that Leonard was done and staring up at him until the brunette cleared his throat. “Although despite what you may think, I do appreciate the sentiment behind your actions Jim, you’re still an idiot for even trying to attempt it.” Leonard said sternly but Jim could sense the softness around the edges of his words. He knew that Leonard wouldn’t want to be completely alone at Christmas, no matter how much he said otherwise, especially stuck out here with no way to get to him or to Jo and Jim couldn’t let that happen if he could help it. “I know, but I’m still your idiot.” Jim said with a crooked smile and twinkle in his eyes as he looked down at Leonard who only sighed in frustration. “My idiot with a possible hairline fracture on his fibia. It doesn’t feel like a break or a sprain and I don’t have anything here help immobilize it, or help with the pain besides regular acetaphetamine. Hell I can’t even be exactly sure what it is without access to a hospital and an x ray.” Leonard complained as he ran his hand through his hair slowly. “Bones, it’s okay. It doesn’t even hurt that bad.” Jim said as he reached out and placed his hand on Leonard’s arm, trying to distract the brunette but he should have known it wouldn’t be that easy. “Like hell it’s okay, Jim! You need to stay off and keep weight offyour leg until we can get you to a hospital to make sure it’s nothing serious and there’s no telling how long that’ll be.” Leonard sighed loudly as he glared out of the window next to the couch but didn’t pull away from Jim’s light touch. “Then I’ll stay off it, whatever you need me to do, I’ll do it, no arguments.” Jim replied quietly, trying not to incur anymore of Leonard’s wrath or make him any angrier than necessary, he could feel that Leonard was on a knifes edge between calming down and flaring back up. He knew once Leonard had some time to process, he would be fine, this was by far not the stupidest thing he’d ever done but he didn’t dare bring those up for comparison.“Sit here and don’t you dare move.” Leonard said with a quiet sigh, his icy mood already starting to melt slightly now that they were back inside and knowing that Jim hadn’t injured himself too badly. Jim nodded his agreement as he settled into the couch and rearranged the blanket over him and fixed the pillow behind his head. He might as well get comfortable since he was sure Leonard would be watching him like a hawk until he could get his leg properly looked at, which he was actually okay with for once, as long as Leonard wasn’t alone for Christmas, he’d deal with anything. “What an idiot… of all the stupid ideas…” Leonard grumbled half heartedly to himself as he made another pot of coffee to refill his lukewarm cup and poured Jim his own fresh cup. He wasn’t angry at Jim for coming up here necessarily, he was angry at the way he did it. Driving through the night instead of getting sleep that he needed, trying to beat a god damned blizzard and almost breaking his fool neck in the ice and snow… Leonard sighed softly as he leaned against the counter to gather himself, pinching the bridge of his nose. He knew Jim’s intentions were nothing but good and had his best interest at heart. Truth be told he wasn’t looking forward at all to being stuck here by himself, especially for Christmas and he probably made himself sound a little more upset about it on the phone with Jim than he had meant to and now Jim was here and being angry about it wouldn’t do either one of them any favors. Leonard opened the small cabinet and pulled out some over the counter pain medicine, taking a couple himself then dropping a couple more in his hand and picked up the mugs of coffee and made his way back into the small living space.Jim’s head was leaning over the end of the couch and his eyes were closed but his breathing was deep and even, he was only dozing. “Here kid, drink up and take these, you’re freezing.” Leonard said as he stood next to the couch and held out the steaming cup of coffee and medicine next to Jim’s hand. Jim’s eye peeked open slightly, revealing a striking sliver of blue before blinking them open completely. He sat up on the couch and took the cup of coffee and pills in his hands. The heat of the mug was welcome as he wrapped his hands completely around it and sighed as he took a sip and popped the medicine with no complaints, already feeling better from just the coffee alone. Leonard then tapped Jim’s knee lightly, signaling for the blonde to scootch over and let him in. “Will you hand me my jacket, Bones?” Jim asked as he fixed the couch and pillow under his leg so Leonard could sit behind him. Leonard raised an eyebrow in question but did as Jim asked as he shook the jacket off in the entryway and brought it over and laid it next to the couch. Jim leaned over so Leonard could sit down behind him, resting his head in the brunettes lap as he gazed up at Leonard’s face, trying to figure out his mood and whether it was safe or not to proceed.“I’m sorry, Bones. I had to do it, you sounded so down on the phone and we both would have had a very upset little girl if I hadn’t at least tried.” Jim said suddenly as he tried to apologize and rationalize his hasty decision in why he had decided to brave a blizzard.“We what?” Leonard asked over his mug of coffee as he quirked an eyebrow sharply. He knew that Joanna would be upset that he couldn’t make Christmas but she wasn’t young enough that she wouldn’t understand, besides they’d make it up to her as soon as they were home. Jim didn’t offer an explanation with words, he only dug around in his coat until he pulled a couple boxes out from in between the shell of his two coats he was wearing and handed them to Leonard.“Merry Christmas, Bones. I don’t think Jo would want you to wait, she’ll want to tell you all about them later when you call her.” Jim said with a small smile as he sat up slightly so Leonard could balance the boxes in his lap, trying not to move his leg too much.“Is this the only reason why you drove all night so you could deliver Christmas presents?” Leonard asked as he sat his coffee mug down on the small end table by the couch and picked up the small boxes and peered at them in their brightly colored, yet messy wrappings.“Well, not the only reason.” Jim replied as he leaned over and kissed Leonard’s cheek, making the brunette snort quietly and flush a faint color of pink.“Idiot.” Leonard huffed softly as he began opening the first box curiously, removing the lid with care and setting it to the side. Peering inside, his mood changed dramatically as he pulled out the small square booklet and began flipping through the pages.“Oh, Jim.” Leonard said quietly, not trusting his voice to speak any louder. Jim only smiled as he watched Leonard flip through the small photo album that held all the photos they had taken with Jo over the past couple of years when they went to see her. Some of them Leonard remembered, like the trip to the beach and others he didn’t realize a photo was even being taken, like when Jo had sat on his lap while he was sitting in his favorite chair, both dozing when Jim had snapped a photo.“Thank you, Jim.” Leonard added as he closed the album and brushed his hand over it fondly. Jim didn’t say anything in reply, only nudged Leonard’s other box closer to his hand with a grin on his face, causing the brunette to chuckle. “Alright, alright. You’re worse than Jo when it comes to presents you know that?”Jim only grinned more brilliantly and shrugged as he watched Leonard finger the ribbon that held the lid of the box on it before giving it a gently tug, pulling it off the box. Leonard let out a small bark of laughter as he pulled out the two stethoscopes that were inside the box.“How many do you think I need?” Leonard asked with a small grin as he inspected them both carefully. “Well I noticed your other one was getting kind of ratty. It was Jo’s idea, she customized this one.” Jim said as he grabbed the end of the stethoscope and brought it up for Leonard to see. The diaphragm and bell of the stethoscope were white and on the underside it had a faint red heart with Joanna and Jims initials inside of it. “You’re lucky I talked her out of getting the tubing and ear pieces bright pink. You don’t know what I had to bribe her with to get her to go with a dark blue.” Jim shook his head solemnly as he gazed at Leonard as the brunette ran a finger over the heart and their initials, swearing he could see a fine misty sheen appear in Leonard’s eyes before it was quickly blinked away.“She always was a good negotiator.” Leonard chuckled as he immediately wrapped the stethoscope around his neck, intent on putting it to immediate good use as soon as they were back at his clinic.“I decided to get you a digital one for fun. It gives you all your readouts on the little screen here and you can even hook it up to your phone wirelessly to record and save heart beats, it has ambient noise reduction and all kinds of stuff.” Jim explained like he was a kid in a candy store with any kind of technology as he pushed different buttons and explained all the features. “Jim, you didn’t have to do all of this for me.” Leonard said quietly as he sat his digital stethoscope gingerly back inside the box and sat it on the table next to his coffee, feeling slightly guilty for being mad at Jim after him and Jo apparently went through all this trouble for him. “Of course I did. Jo basically threatened me anyway, the photo album was all her idea. She’s the one who picked all the photos. If you want to be the one to tell her that then be my guest.” Jim said as he held his hands up, wanting nothing to do with that conversation. Just like her father there was no arguing with that child, you’d lose every time. “I’ll pass on that one, thank you Jim.” Leonard said with a small laugh as he leaned over and kissed Jim on the cheek, causing a smile to creep up on Jim’s face. “So what did you get me, Bones?” Jim joked, beaming brightly as he held out his hands, causing Leonard to snort and roll his eyes. “Feeling confident are you?” Leonard asked with a small grin as he took another sip of coffee. Jim only made grabby motions with his hands as he stuck them out farther, causing Leonard to smack them out of the way. “Alright, infant, here.” Leonard said as he reached into his backpack and pulled out a very large bottle of Blantons and put it in Jims hands. “Damn, Bones. Is this for me or you?” Jim said with a slightly raised eyebrow and a low whistle to follow. “Does it matter? You always end up drinking my liquor anyway so might as well get something we both enjoy. But if you don’t want it.” Leonard said with a slight huff as he began to make a grab for the bottle. “On second thought, it’s a very thoughtful gift. Thanks, Bones.” Jim said as he moved the bottle out of Leonards reach and set to work on trying to get the lid open. Leonard leaned over and managed to grab the bottle out of Jims hands. “Bones, no fair. Give it back.” Jim whined as Leonard sat the bottle back on the floor beside the couch. “For one, it's only 10am, Jim. For two, you can’t drink with pain medicine in you. We’ll drink it later, I promise and whining about it won’t get you some any faster.” Leonard said as he finished his cup of coffee, thankful for the pain killers that were finally starting to take effect and relax his back. Jim sighed dramatically as he laid heavily in Leonard’s lap, but didn’t actually argue. It was tough for Jim to listen to Leonard and not offer up his usual whining or argument, he was trying his best for the sake of Christmas. Jim also got another reward as Leonard started to thread his fingers through Jim’s still slightly damp hair, making his eyelids droop dangerously. “Keep that up and I’m going to fall asleep, Bones.” Jim said quietly, speech slurring ever so slightly from not getting any sleep all night and the pain medicine kicking in. “Exactly. When’s the last time you got any sleep, Jim? You probably need it. Get a couple hours and I’ll wake you up and we can make something to eat and then call Jo, okay?” Leonard said as he leaned down slightly and kissed Jim’s forehead softly, then going back to threading his fingers through the blondes hair. “ ‘kay Bones, love you.” Jim readily agreed as he closed his eyes and snuggled further into Leonard’s warmth as he began to doze as the weight of the past few hours began to drag him down, barely registering Leonard’s reply as he echoed Jim’s sentiment before he was fast asleep right where he wanted to be.