Stardate 48754.56

(Sunday, 3 October 2371, 10:00 AM local time)

Chapelle Sainte-Anne, LaBarre, France

The old stone church is not as full as it was five days before, but the congregation includes many of the same faces. The Picards have been part of this community, in general, and this church, specifically, for centuries. The people here may not socialize much with the surviving family, but they still see the captain and his family – by blood, by marriage, and by choice – as 'their' people.

And Starfleet isn't the only unit known for protecting their own.

The ceremony this morning, is not a funeral mass, and the weather seems to understand that, because while the morning air is crisp, the sun is bright in a cloudless sky.

Once again, Captain Picard and Doctor Crusher share the front pew with Marie Picard and her sister, but the end of the pew is occupied by myself and Data. Once again, I am a few places behind the captain as we proceed toward the nave to receive communion. Once again, after mass, we adjourn to the cemetery in the churchyard, but this time, we are there to watch the placing of the headstones for Robert and Rene Picard.

It's a short procedure. The parish priest speaks a few words and says a prayer, and we observe a moment of silence.

And then it is done.

And so is our time in France, at least, it is for Data and me.

The night before, we celebrated the third anniversary of Mom and Ed's marriage, the six of us (the boys had returned to their mother's care on Friday). We'd gone to a local restaurant, eaten amazing food, drunk far too much wine, and laughed a lot.

Sure, the laughter had been punctuated by more somber moments, but that's how family behaved: you mourn together, you celebrate together, and it doesn't matter who is technically related to whom.

My mother pulls me into a fierce hug. "Come for a visit soon," she says. "I know you and Data will be with us for Thanksgiving but come for a mother-daughter weekend when you can."

"I will," I promise. "I want to."

I hug Ed, as well, and he kisses my forehead. "Thank you for being such a good sister to my boys," he says. "I love you, Zoe."

I laugh into his overcoat and catch the combined scents of peppermint and pipe tobacco. "I love you, too," I tell him, and it's not just words. My stepfather is one of my people now.

Data wraps his arms around me from behind and we watch their flitter take off. They'll be back in San Francisco in less than two hours. "Are you ready to go home?" my fiancé asks me, referring, not to the quarters we once occupied on the Enterprise, or the jungle hideaway on Terlina III, or even the dorms at Yale, but the condo in New Haven we bought in the summer between my freshman and sophomore years at school.

It was meant to be a refuge for me when I couldn't take dorm life, as well as a place we could stay when Data came to Earth to visit me, but now it was more. Now it was the first home we decorated together and would live in every day until he was reassigned.

"I am," I say. "I'm even ready to be back in class."

"Then let us make our farewells." Data releases his hold on me, and we walk back to the grave site. He raises his voice to address his colleagues. "Captain, Doctor, Zoe and I must return to Connecticut." He glances at me and then offers the slightest of smiles. "My fiancée has school tomorrow."

We all laugh, even though his joke isn't that funny. Data gets a full-arm handshake from Captain Picard followed by a clap on the shoulder, and then Beverly pulls him into a hug. "It meant so much to Jean-Luc for you to be here all week," she tells him. "Thank you."

He steps away, and the doctor hugs me as well. (I don't remember a week with so much hugging in my entire life, but I don't object, I just return the gesture.) "Take care of Data," she tells me. "And let him take care of you, hmm?"

I chuckle softly. "Take your own advice, doctor…"

And then I turn to the captain, and I can tell he has no words, which is fine, except that I don't either. Finally, he just says, "Zoe…" and my name on his lips is weighted with more emotion than I'm accustomed to seeing from him, even after the last week. We don't embrace, but he lifts my hand and places a kiss on my knuckles, and I step closer to kiss him on the cheek. His beard repressor must not be working terribly well, because his whiskers are scratchy.

We move away from each other, but before I can turn around and join Data, he smiles softly. "Perhaps when you're twenty-five."

It takes it a moment to sink in, and then I laugh.

(=A=)

Stardate 48756.10

(Sunday, 3 October 2371, 11:30 PM local time)

New Haven, Connecticut

Freshly bathed and wearing one of Data's black uniform tees, I'm reading in bed when my partner enters our room carrying a mug of mint tea, which he places on my nightstand. "Be careful," he warns, "it is very hot."

"You're very thoughtful. And I'm not sure I deserve it."

"I do not understand," he says, but I think he does understand and wants me to explain.

"The day the captain learned about his brother and nephew… the day of Worf's promotion ceremony… after you pushed Doctor Crusher into the water… you wanted to install the emotion chip, and for once you didn't just go and do something, you asked me, and you listened when I asked you not to."

"In retrospect, it was a wise decision. I am not sure I could have performed adequately during our mission if I had also been attempting to assimilate the contents of the chip." He pauses, and I use the time to reach for the tea he'd brought and take a cautious sip. Cool enough to drink, good. "However, I confess that I found myself wishing for it many times during the past week."

"Wishing for it? Why?"

"I am not certain that I provided adequate support."

"I've never found your support to be lacking," I tell him. "Ever. And I'm fairly certain that none of the other people who leaned on you this week – the Captain, obviously, but also Ed and the boys, Marie…" I trail off. I can see that he isn't ready to accept my assertion. Still, I can't help but add, "You don't need it, you know. You have emotions of your own."

"Perhaps…."

But I cut him off. "I shouldn't have stopped you."

"Zoe?"

I set my mug back on the nightstand and fiddle with my ring for a moment. Then I hold up my hand, showing him. "When you gave this to me, you asked me to take a leap of faith with you, and I did – I am. But when you wanted to insert that chip, I broke faith with you, Data. I didn't stop you because I was afraid Lore had boobytrapped the chip. I knew you had already eliminated anything he'd done. I stopped you because I was afraid you wouldn't be you anymore. That whatever that chip did, it would cause you to realize that I wasn't a good match for you, after all, or that you didn't love me, or that-." I trail off, take a breath, start again. "Anyway, I was wrong. Watching everyone processing their grief this week, dealing with my own, and trying to be strong for Michel and Remy, I realized that there is nothing on that chip that can touch what we have."

"Zoe?"

"I comm'd Geordi while you were in the shower, earlier. I asked him to come for a visit the week after next. I don't have classes; it's our October Recess, and the seminar you're teaching isn't until December, so you'll have six weeks without any duties to perform… "

"… which should be ample time to accommodate myself to the chip."

"Yes."

"Are you certain, Zoe?"

"I'm certain I love you. I'm certain I'm going to marry you. I still don't think you need it, but I'm not the one living inside your head…"

"This will be… just another etude," he tells me.

"No. It'll be another leap of faith."

He captures my left hand and teases my engagement ring with his thumb. "You are part of me, Zoe. I am devoted to you, and I love you."

"I love you, too," I tell him. "So, so much."

"May I ask you something now?" I nod, and he continues, "You and Captain Picard had many quiet conversations. May I know what you discussed?"

"Lots of things," I say. "But mostly they revolved around two things: faith and family." I drain my mug and set it aside. "I hadn't realized Captain Picard was a practicing Catholic. I asked him about that, and he said there were no atheists on starships, and we went on from there." I pause and turn my hand in his. "He said that everyone has faith in something, even if they can't necessarily define it. Even you."

"I see."

"We've never really discussed religion or faith or spirituality in any great detail. You know I go to mass sometimes – Episcopal mass – but you haven't ever asked me why, or what it means, and I've just assumed that if you had any beliefs of that kind you'd tell me. It didn't… I should have known to ask you. I ask you about everything else."

"It is a discussion we should have before we commit to a wedding venue," Data says, "but it is late, and it has been a long week for both of us."

"But soon? We'll discuss it soon?"

"As soon as you wish… after tonight."

I laugh. "As you wish, Basil, darling." But my mood turns serious again. "I heard what Beverly said to you as we were leaving. You're special to him, you know. You and Beverly and Geordi and everyone from the Enterprise who were at the funeral… you're more than just Captain Picard's crew. You're his family. And you, Data, I 'm pretty sure he sees you as the son he never had."

I see his eyebrows lift and fall, his way of expressing dubiousness. He opens his mouth to contradict me, but I stop him with a finger to his lips. "I got closer to him when we started dating, and that relationship has evolved over the past few years, but I was always just outside the curtain. I think… I think I've been invited inside."

Data takes a few seconds to consider – a lengthy time for him – and then smiles the smile that is still – always – just for me. "I believe you are correct. Are you ready for me to turn out the light?"

I smile back at him and pull my (his) shirt over my head. "Now I am."

In the darkness of our bedroom, Data and I come together for tender lovemaking, the kind that gives him pleasant dreams, and sends me into blissful sleep. As I'm drifting off, I feel him twisting a section of my hair between his fingers. "Why did the captain mention you being twenty-five?"

I muffle my laughter against his chest. "The night of the funeral, when we were playing Tög, he told me not to call him sir while we were staying in his house. I asked what else I should call him, and he suggested I use his name. I told him I would when I was thirty."

"Ah! And he was offering a compromise."

"Something like that," I yawned. "Love you, Data. Need to sleep."

"I love you, too."

~ Fin ~

NOTES: Most of my notes are in previous chapters. I've always maintained that Data never needed that chip, that he just needed a safe place to explore android emotions, and I'll explore that more when the main timeline catches up. For now, thank you for reading, and take a moment to tell your friends and family that you love them.