Prologue

Okay, I know that there are a lot of fics out there on how Jim and Bones met, but I've decided to take a shot at it. This Prologue was originally just going to be an author's note; however it got very, very long. So I've decided to just make a chapter on background information and what my plans are for this.

First off, this is my "big project" of fan fiction (for now). As such, I am breaking my one-story-at-a-time rule. This means that while I'm writing this, I will occasionally post other stories as it suits me. Do not panic though; I have every intention to complete this and have an entire outline planned out.

Now, on to the story. I figure that if something made Jim and Bones into the best friends they are now; it must have been more than an accidental happenstance. Something fairly big/important must have happened for them to bond so closely, and I am not taking the path of the reboot and simply saying that they went to the Academy together. Far from it.

I hope y'all are prepared for some math. I'm trying to ground this into the original canon timeline as much as I can. This takes place over ten years before the five year mission. Yes, Jim and Bones have known each other that long. In The Corbomite Maneuver, McCoy tells Jim that Lt. Bailey reminds him of himself (Jim, that is) "about, oh, eleven years ago." This being in the beginning of the mission, one can conclude that they have known each other for at least that long. Now, in the episode The Deadly Years, Kirk states that he is thirty-four. This is in the second year of the mission, and so in the first year, when McCoy made that comment, he would have been thirty-three. 33-11= 22. At the very least when they met, Kirk would have been twenty-two years old.

I'm pushing it a little further back and saying he's twenty-one (but it could be close to his birthday). My reasoning is that the events on the planet Diodorus occur when Kirk is fairly fresh out of the Academy. We all know that he graduated the Academy in only three years. Assuming one entered Starfleet Academy at eighteen (right after high school) he would be twenty-one when he graduated, whereas most people who graduate would be twenty-two (this reasoning is supported with Chekov, who joined the Enterprise in its second year. He was twenty-two in Who Mourns for Adonais, which would suggest that he graduated and the Enterprise was his first assignment; which is why he joined "late"). In this story, Kirk is twenty-one years old, going on twenty-two when he meets McCoy. I heard somewhere that he was on the Republic for a short time, but mainly on the Farragut before the Enterprise. Thus, this involves some of that 'short time' he is on the Republic. Ben Finney was also on that ship; this takes place after the incident with him that led to Court Martial, and I'm saying that Kirk got promoted as a result from it.

McCoy is tougher. I could get down and dirty and trace back the years from Encounter at Farpoint when he's 137, put I'm already doing enough math as it is. I've seen some sources which say that he was born in 2227 and that the mission occurs in 2267, however these vary. Suffice it to say that, because McCoy is in his early forties during the original five-year mission, he will be in his early thirties during this story (which is a little over eleven years before the mission).

Similar to the Academy, I'm saying that McCoy's time in medical school at Ole Miss lasted four years (some sites back this up saying he was there from 2245-2249) Let's still say that he was twenty-two when he graduated. Somewhere in his early twenties he has the whole Jocelyn/Joanna/divorce thing, and then joins Starfleet (let's say he's in his mid to late twenties when he signs up; like 25. Some books say that he met Jocelyn in college, so they could have married young and had Joanna right after he graduated; give them a few years). Once the Academy's over, he starts star-hopping with the medical teams, as some canon suggests (joining outposts and landing parties like on Capella IV). In this story, he is already part of the medical/science outpost on Diodorus when Kirk arrives. He's been in Starfleet a little longer than Kirk.

I'm going to try really hard to not have McCoy call Kirk 'kid' or 'son'. He never did that in The Original Series, although he did once call him Jim-boy (This Side of Paradise). I've always felt that Kirk and McCoy are equals, and that you often forget that they're different ages (McCoy often seems younger and Kirk often seems older). Saying 'kid' to me seems to suggest an older, wiser man explaining something to a younger, more foolish man (which, I know, is a bit extreme, but that's the idea). They are equals. Besides, the one saying 'kid' often turns out to be the leader, and I want to show some of Kirk's leadership qualities in here. So he can't be 'kid'.

In the end, this story takes place a little over eleven years before the five-year mission. Kirk is twenty-one, McCoy is in his early thirties, and they will meet and grow very close to each other based off of the events of the planet. This is most definitely adventure. More canon details may come out as the story progresses. Lights, camera, action.