Title : Namesake

By: Commander Consy Leliana Janeway Coffee

Consy nursed a streaming mug of coffee as she stared out into space thoughtfully. She couldn't sleep and had gotten out of bed.

"Leliana..." Chase said softly as she approached, "Why don't you come back to bed?"

"I couldn't sleep and I didn't want to wake you." She replied, still gazing outside.

"I'd have thought you knew by now that I sleep lightly." She smiled. "You on the other hand, it's any wonder you can sleep at all considering the amount of coffee you drink." She teased.

"Coffee does not hinder my sleep." Consy said seriously.

She laughed, "I wouldn't dream of putting myself between you and coffee..." When she noticed the start of a frown cross her lovers features she stopped, "I'm teasing Leliana." She said very sweetly, and in a gentle voice.

Consy sipped from her mug, "Coffee could never compete with you Chase..." She stretched out a hand and took one of Chase's in hers. She gently caressed the back of it with her thumb. "However much I love coffee I would give it up for you any day if you asked..." She lowered the mug onto the coffee table.

"Hmm, but we both know that I wouldn't do that to you." Chase lifted both her hands in hers and kissed them. "So tell me what's keeping you awake?"

"Nothing of importance really," she answered dismissively.

"Anything that is keeping you awake has to be important."

She replied gently and jokingly. "I couldn't think straight without coffee."

"You're trying to change the subject." She replied

Consy dashed her eyelashes "Am I?"

Chase nodded. "Cute." She kissed the bare shoulder "but ineffective against me."

"Obviously."

Chase continued to look at her intensely, waiting.

"I've just been wondering about my name Chase... I choose the name Consy many years ago because I was tired of being called Kid. Coffee was selected because I wasn't ready to be called a Janeway. I didn't think it was who I was but Coffee seemed an obvious and correct choice at the time. Consy Coffee is what I go by; it's who I am and what I'm known as. Yet when I abandoned that name for a year and went to the section, I chose to adopt my real birth name. The one you came to know me as Chase. I chose to become Leliana. Now that you are here and that others hear you calling me Lelian they are confused. To be honest, even I feel confronted and confusion. It is as if I have two distinct identities. One as Leliana Janeway and the other as Consy Coffee." She paused, drinking from her hot coffee.

Chase chose to speak at this time, "Are those two identities really distinct? Think about it. Isn't Consy with Leliana all the time? And isn't the opposite also true?" She paused. "If you'd prefer, I can stop calling you Leliana."

Consy shook her head. "No." She looked thoughtful, " I like that you call me Leliana." She kissed her. "I'm just wondering if I should change my Starfleet records and adopt my true name."

"What difference would it make? The people you know would continue to call you Consy. It would not solve your perception of two distinct identities?"

"Right... unless." She stood and went to her desk. She pulled up a list of Starfleet officers with compound first and last names. She looked more specifically at the trill's. They usually added the name of the symbiotic life form to their namesake and could use either. They modified there name as the joining was done. Consy and Leliana were joined... it made sense to adopt both names. She pulled up her file and made the modification. As of today, her record would read: Consy Leliana Janeway Coffee