After dinner, Jack had started to look a bit sleepy. His eyelids kept closing and his head bobbed up and down on his chest. He murmured every now and then and woke up with a start. Gina looked over at him and sighed.

Markeil drummed his fingers on the table and looked at the sleepy child. "Your son is welcome to rest in one of the rooms here."

Gina gave him a thankful smile and then picked her son up in her arms.

He opened the main door and the familiar hallway was revealed again. Gina stared in wonder, as did Jack. The walls were a glimmering white and the floor was so polished that it looked like glass. Jack looked worriedly up at his mother when Markeil keyed in the command to open a door on the other side of the hallway; it seemed as though this would be his bedroom for the night.

Jack's concerns seemed to be sated when he saw the grandeur of the room – his own, private room. He grinned up at his mother, nearly squealing with joy. "Can we stay here forever?" he asked excitedly, running into the room.

"Calm down, Jack. You don't want to get yourself all worked up, do you?"

"But this is so cool!" he maintained, awe filling his eyes. "It's so big and shiny! And what's that?" His eyes had settled on something.

Markeil swiftly cleared his throat. "It's a replicator," he told Gina quietly. "I can have it deactivated, if you want."

"That would be an idea," she concurred. There was no telling what her mischievous son might get up to if he were left alone with a machine that could recreate anything that he wanted.

After Markeil had left, after Gina had thanked him, after Jack had quietened down, Gina sat down on the bed. Her son dutifully copied her. He sighed.

"Come on, let's get you under the the covers. You are tired, aren't you?"

Jack's little face screwed up in indignation. "I'm not tired."

Gina smiled. "Yes. Yes, you are."

The child conceded and was soon ready to sleep. "I want Spiny," he muttered, his eyes opening and closing.

Gina sighed and pulled the blankets over him. "Try not to think about it, Jack," she said softly, stroking his head. "I'm sure that Spiny's having a wonderful time."

"But I miss him," he continued to lament. "And I miss Daddy. I don't like it here. It's strange."

Gina sighed. "I know that you miss Daddy, but he's busy, isn't he, darling? And don't say that you don't like it here; that's a silly thing to say. You had a nice time with Orelia, didn't you?"

He conceded a small 'yes' and yawned.

"Maybe we can look for Spiny tomorrow," she suggested. "Would you like that?" By the time that she looked down for an answer, he had fallen asleep. She kissed him on the forehead then got to her feet, skulking quietly out of the room.

"He went straight to sleep," Gina told Markeil, as if he was truly interested in the matter, before standing by the window.

"That is good," came Markeil's monotonous reply. "I am glad that you accepted my invitation."

Gina glanced over at him; he was now stood beside her. "And I do believe I am glad that I accepted." She afforded him a little smile, but no matter how small it was, it would never be insignificant to him.

"I am sorry for having snapped at you earlier for inquiring about the maid, Orelia."

Gina simply shrugged. "Well, it was really none of my business. I shouldn't have asked anyway."

"But I know a great deal about what you have busied yourself with these past three years," he, nonetheless, continued. "You have married and had a child. That is a great deal."

Gina pursed her lips and turned around. She was no longer staring out of the large window, watching the shuttlecars speed past into points in the distance. She was now looking at him directly. "And it was my choice to tell you about all of that."

Markeil's lips twisted into a grim smile. "You are so very difficult, Gina." Seeing her somewhat offended look, he added, "I will tell you everything, then."

She cast him a look that said, You don't really need to, but he continued anyway.

Leaning against the window ledge, he spoke genially, "After you left and joined your ship, my planet and Thanatos entered into peace negotiations."

"And Captain Picard was finally able to arrive," Gina interjected, yet, despite the serious subject matter, she had adopted a light-hearted tone.

Markeil nodded swiftly. "The Captain oversaw our negotiations, lobbying, in fact, for both Hypnos and Thanatos to join the United Federation of Planets."

Gina could remember that; it had been a joyous day when Hypnos and Thanatos had been announced as candidates. Indeed, whenever there was the possibility of a Federation newcomer, most Starfleet employees felt charmed.

He continued. "Our president, Jevail, and Thanatos' president, Myklos, both resigned from their posts. I myself took up a position in the Hypnite Senate."

"You told me that," Gina conceded. "The day I left."

The day you left, he repeated in his head. "Anyway, my position was very prestigious. I was in charge of a team which oversaw the removal of corruption in my planet's government. I did meet your Captain once. He was a good man, and meeting him did remind me of how, perhaps, wrongly my people had acted." That phrase made Gina raise an eyebrow; Markeil's impression of Mr Darcy was indeed uncanny.

"It sounds like you did very well for yourself after I had gone."

"The two events are simply coincidences. I would rather have achieved much less had I been in your company." Then he sighed angrily; he had not wanted to say that, only think it. "And I did no better than you yourself."

"When I arrived here this morning, with Jack, and we stepped off of the transport, seeing the rebuilt Hypnos made me smile. It looked nothing like how I remembered it. I presume that similar rebuilding programmes have taken place on Thanatos?"

Markeil nodded. "Indeed. It seems that finally our two worlds' conflict is over. That we can start over again."

"You do realise that it won't be easy – at least, I don't think – for the Thanatosians to forgive your people quickly?" She thought of the Bajorans' hatred for the Cardassians, after the latter had spent fifty years enslaving and oppressing the former.

"Of course, I understand that the scars run deep. But both sides have lost family and friends and colleagues." He slapped his thighs with finality and took a deep breath. "You should be proud of your son. He is the spitting image of you." And his father, he couldn't help but think.

Gina rewarded his appraisal with a beautiful smile. "I am very proud of him." She fell silent, as did he. She saw his eyes wander over to the replicator and she wondered if he was about to get himself another drink. But he did not. He stayed put. "Markeil," she began again. "Do you miss your parents?"

He didn't look uneasy, and yet he didn't seem to welcome to question. "I had a mother and a father like every other person would, and they were very dear to me. But I was too young to understand what had really happened. All I knew back then was that they were wrongly taken from me. That some being much more powerful than I had snatched them away, that I was alone."

A tear sprang to her eye and she tasted salt. She wondered if she should comfort him.

"But that was a long time ago, and I have learned to cope with it. Just as I have learned to cope with the losses of many of my friends. I think that that was why I was so eager not to have you leave me. You would still be alive, not living with the eternal shades who comfort my parents, but you would be very far away."

She saw that he had looked away, that he did not wish for her to see his face. But in the reflection given off by the window, she could see he glistening tears, as if they were tiny stars, in the corners of his eyes. She instinctively held out her hand, the way that she might have done three years ago, and he took it, relishing the contact and the intimacy.

"I am over it now, though," he said bravely. "I barely think of them now. It is simply a fact of life. But you... you think of your parents often?"

Gina smiled wistfully. "Everyday." It had been especially awful for her, she recalled, when her husband's parents had come to visit their grandson. It had finally hit home then that her son would only have one set of grandparents. And yet she didn't know who to blame for it. It wasn't her parents' fault. Never. But could it be hers? Those thoughts rarely crossed her mind; she could not let them, for they would have destroyed her.

"Will you tell me about your life on the Enterprise?" he suddenly asked, the question somewhat catching her unawares.

She let loose a short laugh. "Why, are you finally going to consider my advice?"

"About joining Starfleet?" He snorted. "No, no. I am interested in what you might have to say."

"Well," she began uncertainly, flexing her hands on the window sill. "Things went back to normal pretty quickly after we left Hypnos' orbit and after the peace had been negotiated. Within a few days, I was back at my post, resuming my usual duties." She saw his intrigued expression, so continued. "I'd be in Engineering most of the time, usually with Geordi, that is, Commander La Forge. Other times, with... with Data."

"You have no need to speak quietly, for that is all in the past."

Of course it is, she mused ruefully. "Anyway, I'd be on the Bridge at other times, manning the Operations console, manipulating the ship's heading and speed. In my spare time, I didn't really get up to much. I enjoyed going to the Holodeck – you have them on your world, don't you?"

He smiled grimly. "We do. Sometimes, it is nice to escape reality, is it not?"

She afforded him a small nod. "I would also go to Ten Forward. It's sort of a bar-cum-restaurant type thing. All of the stuff sold there is replicated so it's nothing to rave about, but sometimes, it's good enough to make you think that you're home. That you're back on Earth." Without really knowing it, she glanced at the door behind which her son was sleeping.

He had followed her eyes. "And your son? Was he on the ship, also?"

She shook her head. "No, no, he couldn't have. I mean, the Enterprise does have facilities for that but I didn't see how I could wake him up in the morning, send him off to school, with him not knowing if I might return from an Away mission."

"He stays with his father, I take it?"

She nodded sadly and tears pricked her eyes. She looked away to wipe them away. "He does. He does."

"But now...?"

Gina sighed wistfully. "Jack wouldn't let me leave without him. Besides, Alex – uh, my husband – isn't on Earth at the moment."

"Oh?"

She couldn't lie to him, so she said plainly, "He's the Earth Ambassador to Vulcan."

"Impressive," he said, meaning it. The news was doubly important for him; firstly, he had had his own thoughts about becoming the Hypnite Ambassador to the Federation, and secondly, those hopes had been dashed, for he wasn't sure if he could be in the same environment as Gina's husband. "Right... well... it must have been a long day for you, and I'm sure you're weary for it."

"Are you trying to get rid of me, Markeil?" she inquired, a mischievous smile playing on her lips.

He adopted a look of mock-indignance. "How could you ever think that?" He laughed and then sobered.

"I've got a room booked, but since Jack's already here..." she began, trailing off when she realised that she wasn't quite brave enough to finish her sentence.

"Well, what's the point in leaving if you're only going to come back in the morning?" he decided. "I've got no objections to you staying here."

I'm sure you don't, she thought, but it wasn't with malice. And so she stood up, sighed, gave him a grateful look. "You're certain?"

"I'm certain," he echoed. "There's space enough for you to share with your son."

"That would be fine," she agreed, before slipping through the doorway, and the door closed, and Markeil was left alone. Alone to think, to wonder, to hope. Perhaps, even to dream.