ladiesbingo prompt: hadrons

Summary: Sometimes the changes wrought by time travel weren't exactly direct.

Disclaimer: Not mine, just this story.

REBOOT

Cambridge, Massachusetts
December 24, 1985

Massachusetts wasn't Donna Elesee's favorite place in the world, especially in the winter, but research jobs weren't easy to come by and this was a plum position working at the Astrophysics Institute. She'd already survived nearly six years here anyway, earning her doctorate at M.I.T.

It wasn't really the place that was getting her down.

She finished preparing the phyllo dough, wrapped it up and put it in the refrigerator for tomorrow's dessert. The rest of her Christmas dinner would be store-bought and pre-prepared, something that would horrify her mother if she was still alive. Sosa Elesee cooked everything from scratch, and although she'd been supportive of her daughter's ambitions and passion for the sciences – she'd even helped her pick the right school and opportunities, key for navigating a difficult profession – she insisted that Donna learn how to cook all the important recipes.

Mama had been too ill to cook last Christmas and she'd had no appetite. She was gone by the end of January, her body ravaged by cancer.

Traditions were being observed haphazardly this year, her first Christmas ever spent entirely alone. She hadn't bothered with a tree or any other decorations, but she'd bought a wreath for the door so there was a small touch of something. Her dinner would be store-bought, but the baklawa had to be homemade. Later, after she'd cleaned up the kitchen, showered and dressed she would go to Midnight Mass as usual.

Things might've been different if Mama hadn't gotten sick. Maybe she wouldn't have gotten cold feet about marrying Sam Beckett this past June and they'd both be spending Christmas with his family. Unlike her first fiancé, Sam was a really decent guy with a good heart and any woman would be lucky to marry him. Yet when it came time to go through with the wedding she was gripped with paralyzing fear. Maybe Mama would've reassured her that she had no reason to be afraid.

Or maybe she would've talked her out of it. By the time they were serious and ready to introduce each other to their families Mama had already been diagnosed and had problems of her own. Donna had no idea what she thought of Sam, but she did know that her views on marriage had changed after she'd been abandoned by her husband and left to raise a little girl on her own. Her father hadn't provided anything, not even financial help as far as Donna knew, although her memory of him was such a blank she couldn't remember his name, even though his surname had been hers at one time. She and her mother never talked about him after he left.

Mama always worked to support them. She spoke Arabic and French fluently – languages she taught Donna – and worked as a French teacher. She'd lived in France with her sister Rafqa before she was married, and after he left she packed up their lives and moved them overseas to Paris for a short time, to live with her. Donna was only around seven or eight at the time but she remembered she enjoyed living and going to school there, and she liked her Aunt Rafqa. But they only stayed for a little over a year before returning to the states, to Patterson, New Jersey. A year later they moved again, to Toledo, Ohio, another place that she liked but unfortunately had to leave. Before Donna turned fifteen her mother moved them three more times, to Chicago, Oakland and finally back to Ohio. Mama seemed to have a need to eject from her life periodically, which meant she had to also.

They were settled in Marion, Ohio when it came time to look at colleges. She'd always done very well in school, in spite of changing them all the time, and she consistently got A's. But they didn't have money so her choices were limited to schools that would offer scholarships and other financial aid. Mama convinced her to go to Lawrence College, a small local Catholic women's college, not only because their Catholic faith was important to them and she was offered a full scholarship for her grades and her language skills, but because Lawrence College had partnerships and exchanges with several prestigious science and academic institutions, nationally and internationally. That translated to great research and study abroad opportunities for her, opportunities that would turn out to be key to her getting into M.I.T. for graduate level study, which opened up further doors in a competitive and difficult field. Donna would always be grateful to Mama for steering her on that path.

And here she was now, doing research at the Astrophysics Institute in Cambridge and getting paid well for it.

There was a time when she'd been focused on theories related to time, on the possibility of time travel. She and Sam were kindred spirits in that way, though she approached it with an astrophysics background while he specialized in quantum physics. It was all wishful thinking. Sam wanted his father and his brother back. She wanted her father back. Then she lost her mother to breast cancer and she understood that nothing, not even time travel, could've stopped that.

Mama might've steered her right when it came to Sam, just as she had with her college education. Then again, she still might've made the same choice.

At the end of the day Donna couldn't bear the thought of being abandoned and disappointed by another man.

#

Cambridge, Massachusetts
December 24, 1985

Massachusetts wasn't Donna Elesee's favorite place in the world, especially in the winter, but since her mother was settled here for the time being this is where they were spending Christmas.

Sam came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her just as she finished preparing the phyllo dough. "What's that?"

"It's the dough for tomorrow's dessert."

"Which is?"

"Baklawa." She gently extracted herself from his embrace and went to put the dough in the refrigerator. "An Elesee holiday tradition."

Donna turned back to him, allowing him to take her in his arms again, and leaned up to kiss him.

Having Sam Beckett in her life during last year's crisis had been a real blessing. He wasn't an oncologist but he was an M.D. and he did as much as he could to care for Mama when she was feeling especially ill and to make her comfortable. He offered support to both of them.

She loved her in-laws. Thelma Beckett was lovely and she'd really hit it off with Sam's younger sister Katie. She was even warming up to Al Calavacci, Sam's best friend and chosen family. Al would be working with her and Sam on their pet research project.

There were so many other ways that they were blessed. Mama was still alive and in her life. She'd received treatment at one of the best medical centers in the Boston area; an experimental new treatment that had kept the cancer in remission for over a year. Colonel Wojohowitz had unexpected connections and excellent benefits. When Donna told her father how sick Mama was he came through for both of them and helped her get into the program. She'd been well enough to attend the wedding in June; Donna and Sam changed the location from Taos, New Mexico to Boston so she wouldn't have to travel.

Had Donna not reunited with her father so many years ago, under circumstances that to this day she considered truly bizarre, her mother might not have survived. A lecherous English literature professor at Lawrence, who started loitering about the science building, understood quantum physics and talked about time travel, had taken it upon himself to drive her to Washington, DC to see her estranged father so they could be reunited. Normally she kept her distance as much as possible from this professor, but this was such an odd set of circumstances she'd been compelled to go along with them to see what happened.

Sam shared her passion for physics, specifically time travel. Their research project was about that and Sam was convinced they could actually travel in time. When she recounted to him the story of that professor and the reunion with her father, she half-joked that maybe one of them already had. But she was half serious too. Professor Bryant seemed genuinely puzzled to be in Washington, DC instead of Ohio when she rejoined him and the couple who'd accompanied them, and once back at Lawrence College he never returned to the science building. It was a strange anomaly.

Though he did stop drinking after it.

"Your mom looks good."

"She's still getting her strength back, but she does look better. And she's happy to have her hair back." Donna leaned her head against Sam's chest. "I already scheduled my first breast cancer screening for January."

His arms tightened around her. "Good."

Sam had been keeping up on early studies into cancer and genetics, among all the other things he kept up with. She'd started to read some of the materials he'd given her, but there was a lot to go through and she didn't read as fast as he did – nobody in the world did. But it made sense that there might be genetic links, and since early screening was available now it was wise to take preventative measures either way.

"We should probably go in and visit with everyone," Donna said reluctantly.

They kissed once more then went into the living room to rejoin their expanded family. Donna went over to her mother, hugged her and took a seat on the couch beside her.

Mama smiled affectionately, took her hand and laced their fingers together.