Jim exhaled. Gave Bones a rather irritated look. "Look, Spock told me everything, so you can drop the cagey attitude. I know I die, Bones." He didn't realize until that moment how much that would hurt like hell to say, almost as if admitting it outloud to someone other than Spock was... cementing the future, in a way.

A muscle jumped in his jaw, and he waved it off with irritation. "I've already got like a million plans to go back and fix it, case closed." This felt too much like Bones fussing at him, after Pike died. That memory of the shuttle ride where Carol came aboard.