Chapter 2: Facing facts
"Can I get you anything, Klarie?", Canterico asked finding her sitting on a porch swing outside their house a month later.
"No.", She answered in her usual flat voice. A voice that wrenched his heart every time he heard it.
"Not even something to eat?"
"I'm just not hungry yet.", She said even though he knew she hadn't eaten anything all day.
"Not even some water with a bit of lemon?", He offered worrying about her becoming dehydrated from too much sun.
"Yes. That sounds good.", She said smiling faintly as he rushed to do so. Just as the painful memory of the morning after her miscarriage came flooding back to plague her.
"You're awake. How do you feel?"
"Sore. What happened to me?", She asked with sleepy eyes from their bed where Canterico had carried her the night before.
"You had labor pains. Remember?", He asked taking her weak hand in his strong one.
"Sort of. I was talking to you about the futon before Perseus left my lap."
"And then?"
"The baby came.", She said with a smile that almost broke him in two.
"Yeah, it came."
"What was it?", She asked as he began to feel slightly sick.
"The baby was a girl."
"I told you so. Can I hold her, or is she sleeping?", She asked gazing at him with those placid, blue eyes that could see through souls when it wished.
"No, you cannot hold her. She is sleeping the sleep of
eternity in the mossoleum.", He said taking her tight in his arms as she began to wail.
"You mean she's dead?"
"Yes."
"Did you name her?"
"Yes."
"What? What did you name her?"
"What you wanted, Share."
"Shut up with that! Her name! What was her name?", She sobbed with heavy tears as he confessed it all.
Cassioklario: The name you picked. She breathed for two minutes, and then she died."
"What did that doctor do to me?"
"She cut you open, and removed the baby. Seasection they call it."
"And then what?"
"She breathed like I said. Then she just stopped. I knew she was dead, because--was
"Because you could sense it."
"Yes. Because I could sense it.", He said crying with her now as the sadness hit them both head on. Just as past melted into present, and the water appeared.
"Thank you.", She said with fresh tears in her eyes.
"You're welcome. I'd do anything for you.", He said taking
her into his arms as she began to cry like she always did at this time. Something she'd done for a whole month.
"There's something I have to tell you. Maybe I should wait though.", He said sitting beside her after she'd stopped her cry.
"You can tell me. What is it?", She asked sipping the water with parched lips.
"I have to go away on business for a week. I want you to stay with your mother. Can you do that for me?"
"What about Perseus? Who will take care of him?"
"Then can I have Jennifer come here?"
"Yes. That might be nice.", She said as her eyes went to saucers, and she zoned out.
"No, Klarie. Look at me.", He ordered as she did so.
"One, two."
"Wavy ocean blue."
"Three, four."
"Calm, quiet sandy shore."
"Five, six."
"Footsteps coming up quick."
"Seven, eight."
"I know that gate.", She said with a knowing smile then.
"Nine, ten."
"Can, it's you again.", She said embracing him as he gave a sigh of relief. Because he had just narrowly retrieved her
unfiltered mind from the universe.
"I won't go."
"Yes, you will."
"And what if this happens while I'm gone?"
"It won't."
"I don't know, Klarie. I'm worried about you."
"What will make you stop?"
"Maybe if you start eating. Start acting like you used to."
"I'll try." "That's all I ask.", He said kissing her head before going into the house to pack. Because his wife's word was her bond.
Colonel Graff sat in his office on his ship near Jupiter Station. As he mulled over just whom would be the best for the job to kidnap Klarie Glorio. Captain Jonathan Archer's only, adopted sister. As he thought, "Romulans would do the trick". Just as he launched himself away to find some.
"Klarie! Where are you?", Jennifer Archer called from the front hall of her daughter's house.
"I'm in the kitchen, Mom! Come in!", She called. Just as Jennifer entered the kitchen to find Klarie baking.
"Hi. What smells so good?"
"You don't recognize your own recipe?", Klarie asked smiling at her with a floured apron on. One Jennifer had made for her last birthday.
"Orange-nut Bread. It looks just like--was
"You did it? I was just thinking that myself before you arrived."
"How are you?"
"I'm getting back to myself. As much as I can.", She said hugging her mother as close as she could without getting flour all over her.
"You certainly look beautiful. You lost weight.", She said forgetting herself for what Canterico had told her before he'd left.
"It's ok if you know about the miscarriage. I understand that now."
"But your brother can't know?"
"He wouldn't understand like you may. Would you like to try some?", She asked bringing a fresh loaf of bread from the hot oven just then.
"Yes, I would. With cocoa too?"
"If you like?"
"I would like. Klarie, will you be ok?"
"I'll be fine. I'm even better now that you're here."
"Now I know that. Every mother knows that without being a Betazoid."
"Am I that obvious?"
"No. You just have such beautiful hair, and the most vivid
10
eyes one could have for your--was
"My species. I understand that. I do."
"I never meant anything else than love by it."
"And I always knew that."
"Did you? Did I love you enough, Christaklarie?", Jennifer asked with wonder in her eyes.
"Yes. You, and Daddy, and Jonathan all loved me more than enough.", She said going back to a time she thought she'd never know again. But did, because she wondered who her real parents were once and a while. Especially once she'd been told about her father.
