Author's Note: Thanks for reading. I appreciate the reviews!
Jean-Luc left for the Rikers' cabin early the next morning. The sun had not yet risen, and the children were still sound asleep.
"After the children wake up, after they've eaten breakfast, come down to Will and Deanna's with them. We'll...have to try to explain." He sighed. It wouldn't be easy.
Beverly nodded and kissed his cheek, running her hand over the stubble that was badly in need of a shave. "We'll be there soon." She knew that he and Will needed time to discuss the details of the situation. They were friends, but there had always been the element of captain and first officer in their friendship, even after all these years. If Jean-Luc still had a ready room, then he and Will would need to disappear behind the door for a while to review their mission.
In the early, pre-light of dawn, Jean-Luc made his way down the mountain, more by feel than sight. The rocky ground was familiar under his feet, and he knew the path to the Rikers' cabin well. He took time to analyze their situation. Their leaving presented more problems than what to tell the children. What would they tell the people of the cove? How could they explain their imminent departure to Neil, and Alice, and Christy, and David? And all the rest of the families they'd come to know over their ten years in Cutter Gap? They couldn't just disappear. Or could they? Jean-Luc smiled and shook his head. No. They couldn't become a mysterious legend. Their sudden leaving had to have an explanation - something that their friends in the cove would believe. But ten minutes later, when he climbed the front porch steps of the Riker cabin, he had no solutions to their problem. He hoped Will or Deanna could offer more options than he'd been able to generate.
The door opened even before he had a chance to knock. Will's tired face looked out at him, and then he stepped back.
"Jean-Luc," he greeted, "I wasn't expecting to see you so early. Everyone's still asleep. Come in," he invited when he realized that the older man hadn't stepped inside.
Jean-Luc shook his head. "I think...we'd better talk out here."
A trace of confusion lit Will's eyes, but he stepped out onto the porch, drawing his robe tighter around him. Jean-Luc moved over to one of the rocking chairs and sank into it. Will sat in the chair next to him.
"What is it, Jean-Luc?" he asked. And his captain told him.
~vVv~
A half hour later, Jean-Luc found himself preparing breakfast for the Riker children while Will and Deanna spoke on the front porch. The boys knew there was something wrong. Sam had sensed it the moment he'd awakened, even before he'd seen Uncle Jean-Luc sitting by their fireplace. He and Thomas had tumbled out of bed and hurried over to him.
"Is Mama all right?" Thomas asked immediately, looking around the cabin and seeing no trace of his parents.
"Your mother is fine. She and your father are talking on the front porch." He'd gotten up and crossed over to the kitchen area. The boys followed.
"The baby?" Thomas started toward his parents' sleeping area.
Jean-Luc's voice stopped him. "She's fine, too. Fast asleep. So is Matilda. Now, what do you boys like for breakfast?"
"What's wrong, Uncle Jean-Luc?" Sam asked stopping next to the dining table and staring at his uncle's back.
Jean-Luc turned around. "Nothing's wrong, Sam." The boy's dark eyes let him know that he didn't believe his words. "Well...it's nothing bad. There's…a possibility that… well, we all may be...moving."
Thomas's mouth fell open. "Moving?!"
"Umm...yes." Jean-Luc pursed his lips, and turned back to the kitchen cupboards. "Now, where does your mother keep the oatmeal?"
"On the second shelf, Jean-Luc." Deanna's voice came from the front door.
Thomas ran over to his parents as they came inside. "Uncle Jean-Luc says we're moving. Are we?"
Jean-Luc turned around and shrugged at his former ship's counselor. "I, umm...I told them you might be moving." He looked at Will and Deanna hopefully, aware that their decision might be different than the one he and Beverly had made.
Deanna smiled. "Your uncle's right, Thomas." She smoothed her hand over his dark brown hair. "We are moving."
Jean-Luc breathed a sigh of relief and shared a meaningful glance with Will.
Sam, who was still standing next to the table, stared over at his mother. "Are we...are we going home, Mom?"
Jean-Luc's eyes narrowed with confusion as Deanna crossed over to her eldest son. Sam was empathic; they'd all realized that when he was young, but could he possibly have known their well-guarded secret all these years?
Deanna sat down at the table next to him and took his hand in hers. "This is your home, Sam," she said softly.
Will joined her and held a hand out to his son as well.
Sam took hold of it and moved closer to them. "It's my home, and Thomas', and Matilda's, and Lucy's." He looked over at Jean-Luc. "And Andrew's, and Margaret's, and Walker's." The children's names tripped quickly off his tongue. But then he slowed down and turned his gaze back to his parents. His next words were quiet and deliberate. "But...it's not your home...is it?"
Deanna shook her head, tears gathering in her dark eyes. Eyes so much like Sam's. She felt Will's arm wrap around her shoulders.
"No, Sam. You're right. Your father and I, and Uncle Jean-Luc, and Aunt Beverly…we had…have another home. And it's time for us all to go back."
Footsteps sounded on the front porch, and Thomas, who was still standing next to the door, jumped in surprise. He turned and opened the door. The rest of the Picard family trooped inside.
Jean-Luc smiled across the room at them. "I think you're just in time."
~vVv~
Breakfast was forgotten as they settled both families around the fireplace, although Will managed to supply the adults with hot cups of strong black coffee. They'd need it, he reasoned as he sat down on the floor beside the rocking chair where Deanna was situated. He leaned his back against her legs. Matilda, who had awakened when Beverly and the children had come in, climbed onto his lap. He wrapped his arms around her and looked at the assembled children. Their eyes were large and round, waiting for the story that their parents would have to tell them. Will glanced up at Deanna. As counselor, she was the logical person to begin.
She smiled faintly and touched his shoulder, giving it a reassuring squeeze. She looked over at Jean-Luc, sitting across from her, next to Beverly. "Jean-Luc, could you tell the children about...starships?"
And he nodded, understanding immediately. The story they'd kept hidden all these years was just that. A story. And the best way to explain to the children was to tell them that story in simple terms. He smiled. Deanna was always telling him that he had a talent for storytelling.
"Papa...what's a starship?" Andrew looked up at his father.
"Well, I'll tell you." He cast his eyes around the group of children. "You all know what a ship is, right?"
They all nodded, and Walker answered aloud. "Ships are on the ocean," he said with all the wisdom of a four-year-old, which, in his case, was wise indeed, for he had never even seen an ocean.
"That's right, Walker. Ships sail on the ocean. Now...where do you think a starship would sail?"
"On the stars?" Sam asked. "Or...through the stars," he amended his response.
"A ship can't sail through the stars," Margaret disagreed with him, but then turned and looked at her father. "Can it?"
"Well, not now," he answered truthfully. "But someday, hundreds of years from now, men and women will be able to build ships that can sail up into the sky - all the way past the stars, and the sun, and the moon. Millions and millions of miles into space. They'll be able to discover new planets. Some of them very much like Earth, and some very different."
Thomas stared up at him. "How do you know, Uncle Jean-Luc?"
Jean-Luc looked over at Deanna. It was her turn to continue the story.
She took a deep breath. "Thomas, your uncle knows about those ships, because he and Aunt Beverly, and your father and I used to live on one of them."
The boy's face clouded with confusion. "But…he said they wouldn't be made for hundreds of years."
"They won't be." She sighed. This wasn't going to be easy. "Sam," she looked at the boy, "when's your birthday?"
"September 1," he answered with a proud smile. He'd turned nine just two weeks earlier.
"And in what year were you born?"
He squinted at his mother. Surely she knew when he was born. After all, she'd been there. But he answered anyway. "1904."
"That's right. And Andrew, when is your birthday?"
"July 7, 1905." He included the year since Aunt Deanna had asked about Sam's birth year.
She nodded. "And Margaret and Thomas were born in 1906, Walker in 1909, and Matilda in 1911."
"Lucy was born in 1913," Thomas stated.
"Very good, Thomas," his father grinned at him.
"Mom, why are you asking about our birthdays?" Sam questioned.
"What year will it be in one hundred years?"
Sam thought for a second. "2013," he answered.
"And in two hundred years?"
He shrugged. "2113."
"Sam, I was born in 2336," Deanna said simply, then gave him time to add up the years.
He shook his head in disbelief. "But that's over four hundred years from now. That's not possible." He stared at his father. "Dad?"
Will took a deep breath. "I was born in 2335. We were all born four hundred years from now," he said, looking around at the adults. "And we lived and worked on a very large starship. Until one day, we took a trip on a smaller ship and there was an accident, and somehow...we traveled back in time and landed here, on this mountain, about ten years ago."
Margaret moved closer to her mother and looked up at her. "I...I don't understand, Mama." She was scared. Beverly could tell. They all were. Even Sam, who seemed to understand a little better than the others.
Beverly reached down and placed her hands on Margaret's shoulders. "It is confusing, and I know it's frightening, but it's true. When we came here, we didn't think we would ever be able to go back to our starship, to our time. We thought that the mountain would always be our new home. And that's why we never told you about our past."
"You mean the future," Andrew said.
Beverly smiled at her son's quick response. "I guess our past is the future."
"Can we see a starship?" Walker asked, crawling over to his father and placing a hand on his knee. He didn't understand much of what they were saying, and Jean-Luc was relieved. The transition would be much easier for Walker and Matilda.
"Yes, Walker, you can see a starship. Very soon." Jean-Luc glanced over at Deanna, and she nodded. He continued. "Last night, I was contacted by one of the people who live on our ship. They've been looking for us for several weeks now, and somehow they found us. You see, we've been here for over ten years, but for the people on the ship it hasn't been that long."
"You mean people can travel in time just like they travel through the stars," Sam said, figuring it all out in his head.
"Sometimes," his uncle replied. Jean-Luc studied the small faces that surrounded him. "And now that they've found us, they're ready to take us home."
"When are we going?" Sam turned toward his father.
Will looked up at Jean-Luc. "Day after tomorrow?"
And Jean-Luc nodded. They would go in two days - less than seventy-two hours to leave behind a place that had been their home for ten years.
"Will a ship come and get us?" Thomas asked.
Will sighed. "Not exactly."
~vVv~
They spent the rest of the afternoon answering a million questions and trying to explain concepts and ideas that the children could barely grasp. Transportation had not been an easy process to describe, and they did the best they could not to frighten the children further. They also had to decide what they would tell their mountain neighbors.
"Umm...a family emergency?" Will suggested, looking around at the adults.
"Yes," Beverly nodded, trying to suppress a laugh, "I think this constitutes a family emergency."
Will rolled his eyes. "That's not what I meant."
"I know," Beverly said apologetically. "It's actually a good idea. We could say that one of our relatives is seriously ill and we need to go back to...wherever...to be with them."
Jean-Luc nodded. "It's probably the best reason we can come up with. Where should this fictitious relative live?"
"Alaska?" Will volunteered, suppressing a laugh of his own.
"No, France," Jean-Luc grinned.
Deanna frowned. "Boys..." Her voice held an edge of warning. The men fell silent. They always knew they were in imminent trouble whenever Deanna or Beverly referred to them as boys.
Will sighed. "You're right. I think we're just..."
"The stress is getting to all of us," Beverly said. "Unfortunately, we can't afford to let it."
She looked over at the children gathered on the floor in front of the fireplace. They were playing checkers or drawing. It was late afternoon, and they'd been inside almost all day. The remains of their lunch still littered the dining table that the adults were sitting around.
"Missouri," Deanna said suddenly, and they all looked at her. "My mother in Missouri. She's...gravely ill. And she needs us."
"Wait till I tell Lwaxana that you tried to kill her off," Will smiled.
"In a few days, you just may have a chance to talk to her," Deanna replied.
"All right," Jean-Luc announced, suddenly sounding like a commanding officer. "It's decided. Deanna's mother in Missouri...St. Louis...needs us to be with her. And, Beverly will be able to practice medicine in a city the size of St. Louis. And Will and I can find jobs." He looked over at Will. "Now, I suggest you and I ride over to Neil's place and tell him about our sudden news."
Beverly reached out and placed a hand on Jean-Luc's arm, stemming his eagerness. "Wait a minute, how can this be sudden news. It's not like we've received a letter from Missouri informing us of Deanna's fictitious mother's fictitious illness."
Lines creases Jean-Luc's forehead. "You're right. Somehow we..." He stopped and thought for moment. And then a gleam lit his eyes. "The telephone at the mission house. Perhaps there's some way that Data can patch through a call..."
Will leaned forward. "From Missouri?"
"Why not?"
Will shrugged. "Why not?"
~vVv~
It was after supper when David Grantland rode into the Rikers' yard. Will rode back with him to the mission to return the call to St. Louis. When he returned an hour later, the cards had been dealt, and their bluff had been played.
"I told David and Christy we'd be leaving day after tomorrow, and then I went by Neil's. He said he'd come by to help us pack. They're puzzled, but I think they believe it enough not to question too much." He shook his head. "I'm sorry that Alice won't be back from Cataleechi. She's been a good friend."
"She has," Jean-Luc agreed. "We'll miss them all. But, we have a lot to do between now and Tuesday. We have to move house, or at least make it look like we're moving house."
"Is that moving house, or moving ship?" Will questioned.
"It's more like jumping ship," Jean-Luc mumbled. "We can donate the cabins and most of the furniture to the mission, but we'll have to load the wagon and take the horses and the mule. I suppose we can travel a couple of miles from here, and then have the ship transport us up."
Beverly's eyes widened. "Everything? Wagon? Horses? Mule?"
"We can't just leave them in the middle of the road. Perhaps we can take the animals to your house on Caldos. The children would like to spend some time there I'm sure."
Beverly groaned and leaned against Jean-Luc. "I wish we could just go now."
He hugged her to him. "We'll make it."
~vVv~
