The Book of Ben, Chapter 1
Part Four in the "Jon and Erika" series. Their family now complete with Adalie, Frankie and Ben, Jonathan and Erika's story continues as Jon serves as the Starfleet Chief of Staff before going on to help form the Federation. More sweet family fluff.
A/N: This time, Erika's not going to be pregnant! I hope you all enjoy this latest installment. As usual, please read and review.
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"Admiral?" The intercom line from her aide's desk beeped.
"What is it, Asa?"
"Admiral Dykstra is on the line for you."
Erika frowned. She couldn't fathom why the head of Starfleet's Research and Engineering division would be calling her unless it had something to do with her husband. What had he done now?
"Put him through," she replied warily.
"Yes ma'am." A second later the standard Starfleet seal on her computer screen was replaced by the image of the admiral.
"Joe, what can I do for you?" she asked, trying to be cheerful.
"Hi Erika," Dykstra muttered. "Listen, by any chance is your husband over there with you?"
"What did he do?" she put her face in her hands.
"It's what he didn't do that is bothering us," Dykstra said with a half smile. "He's not home with the kids today is he?"
Erika shook her head. "He went to pick up our eldest from school and then take her to daycare. He should have been back by now."
"Have you gotten a hold of his staff yet?" Erika asked hopefully.
"We thought we would try you first."
"Good thinking," she nodded. "When I find him…?"
"Send him over here. We've got some things to go over with him before the end of the day."
"You got it."
"Thanks Erika," Joe gave her a grateful look that Erika was more than used to seeing from other officers who were having some sort of issue with Jon. Most of the time it was because Jon was asking them to do something that they felt was impossible, impractical or even insane. Sometimes it was because of something he had said in a meeting when he let his passion get the best of him. The scientists who had first proposed the secondary hull retrofit to the NX class had given her that look when she agreed to at least ask Jon to think about their ideas without throwing the plans at them, literally. The doctors at Medical had given her that look when Jon refused to go in for his physicals and she had finally gone around his back and gotten it on his agenda. Trip had given her that look when she promised to make Jon reconsider forcing his best friend to watch another water polo match. This was going to be one of those times.
She quickly left her office and headed towards the lift, her mind trying to think of all the places Jon could be. She knew that in this day of technology there was probably a faster way to track him down but right now she very much wanted to look him in the eye and ask him what on Earth was going on.
It wasn't unusual for him to be called away without a moment's notice, either to brief the council, meet with the allies, or do something else that Erika was certain she didn't have clearance for. He was the Chief of Staff of Starfleet after all; it was an incredibly time consuming job that usually chewed up and spat out officers within a few years. Jon had only been in the office for seven months and already she noticed signs of fatigue in him that hadn't been there before. She had asked him about it the other night, and he had smiled tiredly.
"You know how when we first became commanders, everything we did seemed terrifying and new? It took all this energy not to fall apart, to just hold yourself together and trust that you knew what you were doing," he had said when she asked. She had nodded, reaching up to brush his hair back from his forehead. "It felt like that was the most important thing in the world, the center of our universes. I went through the same thing when I became a captain. It was like treading water for the first couple months."
"And now?" she had asked, tilting her head to the side and looking at him intently.
"Now I can only laugh at how seriously I took everything," he chuckled. "That work was important but I really had no idea how much heavier the burden was for those above me. This," he had gestured around his office, "this is much bigger than anything I could have imagined. I don't know how Greg Black did it all those years. I feel foolish for ever thinking that what I was dealing with was even significant compared to this."
"But it was significant," she had said, holding his gaze. "It was the most important work anyone could be doing back then. Yes this is different but it in no way diminishes the very real pressure we felt to accomplish our goals. The whole planet was watching us."
"They used to stop us on the street," he had laughed remembering.
She had nodded, touching his cheek with her hand. "You are doing amazingly. Everyone says so. I know you probably don't feel like that right now. You are allowed to relax."
"Thanks, Rike," he had said softly.
Now as she walked into the outer offices, she wondered if he had decided to take her advice. His staff nodded at her respectfully and she went straight into the private office of the most powerful man in the organization.
There was the Starfleet Chief of Staff, lying on the floor and coloring with his five-year-old daughter. They had several coloring books splayed out across the finely polished wood floor and a large box of crayons placed in the middle. Every now and then, Jon would look up and realize he didn't have the color he needed and, upon noticing that his daughter had it in her little pile of favorite colors, whisper politely asking to borrow it for a minute. Sometimes he would point to his picture, one that Adalie no doubt had picked out for him to color, and as her opinion about what color the tree should be or what color the sky should be. It was one of those moments that Erika was walking in on now.
"Hey, Addie?"
"Hmm?"
"What color should the sun be?" Jon asked, as he looked up noticing Erika standing in the doorway, her arms folded but a smile on her face.
"Yellow, of course," Adalie answered without looking up.
"Of course," Jon repeated. "But what if I wanted to make it blue?"
"Our sun isn't a b-type star, Dad," their daughter sighed exasperatedly.
"Does my picture have to be realistic?"
"Yes," Adalie noticed her mother watching them closely and frowned at Jon.
"Is Mom still watching?" Jon asked, conspiratorially.
Addie turned her head to glance at her mother cautiously. Erika gave her an encouraging smile and watched as her daughter turned back to the man lying on the floor, nodding.
"Does she look mad?" her husband pressed on with an exaggerated expression of worry. Adalie studied his face seriously then looked back at her mother.
"Nope."
"Do you think she's here because I missed a meeting because I was coloring with you?" he leaned his face close to his daughter's and her serious look changed to a bright smile. He gave her a quick kiss on the forehead and stood up.
"Hi," he said, as he walked over to his wife.
"You didn't miss a meeting," Erika said with a frown.
"Oh good, I had lost track of…"
"You missed three," she continued. Jon's eyes widened.
"You're kidding," he insisted, raising a hand to his forehead.
"Nope," she said. "They called me over because they thought you would be in my office." She watched as the realization slowly set in and her husband collapsed on the couch. "They called me because no one has seen you all afternoon. You want to tell me what happened?"
"She didn't want to go to daycare," Jon said simply, nodding at their daughter who was busy still coloring.
"Tell me the other two aren't running around this building unsupervised," Erika groaned.
"No, Ben and Frankie are still there," Jon admitted. "Someone just didn't want to go after kindergarten so I told her that if she was very quiet she could come here and play in my office while I worked."
"That sounds like a sensible plan," Erika acknowledged, but then again most things her husband did started out sensibly. "What went wrong?" None of them ever seemed to end that way.
"Coloring looked more fun?"
"Jon!"
"What? The meetings weren't that important or someone would have actually called over here to find out why I wasn't there. Besides," he said, giving her a grin, "Someone recently told me that I am allowed to relax a bit from time to time."
"Just make sure you get to R & D by the end of the day, okay?" she sighed as he nodded dutifully. "Well, at least let me see what you were coloring."
Jon's smile grew. "Hey Addie, bring our pictures over here to show Mom."
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