When they're at each others bedsides in Sickbay-praying, hoping, wishing that the other one will wake up-Jim and Bones have been known to say the most random things.
Bones plans their future, a future he can't guarantee, but a happy one all the same. Jim, Bones, Jo and the kids he knows Jim would love to give a home to and adopt.
Jim tells Bones secrets that he'd never realized were kept hidden.
"I keep a list. Of things I'd like to do before I die. I know I'm not going to live long. Captains usually don't. Especially Kirks." Jim winces around Bones' hand that's pressed close to Jim's mouth. He had held it ever since he settled in next to Bones after M'Benga finished surgery, brushing kisses over bruised knuckles as Bones' eyes fluttered in deep coma-like sleep. "But I guess I figure that if I do most of the things on this list, I'll have lived the best possible life."
He moves up, resting his elbows on the bed and presses a dry lipped kiss to Bones' forehead. "Number one is marry you. Number two is live together in a house with Jo. Even on shoreleave. Number three..."
What they don't both realize is that each of their random bedside vigil talks, no matter how maudlin or sappy, are intertwined. And they both take them to heart, somehow having heard the words their partner's said and committing them to memory.
Bones tries his best to fulfill ever item on Jim's list. Jim tries his hardest to make it home on every away mission, so that he can give Bones the future he wants for them.
And together, they make it happen. And while it's not the best happily ever after, it's theirs and that's enough.
