Daystrom Institute, quarters of Commander Data and Civilian Administrative Coordinator Leora Eileen O'Reilly-Soong, two weeks later

"Leo, there is a communication for you on a secure channel." Data was puzzled, then concerned. "I believed the inquiry to be closed… was it not?" There were things about the entire incident that Data had resigned himself never to understand, at least until his wife chose to tell him whatever she had held back. The knowledge that she hadn't told him everything didn't disturb him; he knew that sooner or later she would be moved to share everything with him. As she did in all things, sooner or later.

"Signed, sealed, and consigned to history… or infamy. Depending on your perspective," Leo reassured him. Since resigning from Starfleet she'd felt positively unbound from restraints she'd never fully comprehended until they were gone. And she still had the life that Jean Luc Picard had so feared she'd given up… her husband, her work, and her friends.

"Stop worrying," she chided, "you'll fry a circuit! I'll take it in my office."

She went to the in-quarters office space ("No more work stations in the middle of the living room!" she'd declared upon her return) and sat before the comport.

"O'Reilly-Soong here. On visual, computer." Then, "Well I'll be damned. To what do I owe this unexpected, uh, 'visit'?"

"Just thought I'd offer congratulations. You got the last word after all."

"'Last word?' What do you mean?"

"I mean, former Administrative Executive Lieutenant, that Gul Lemec thought he'd gotten his own back, his rejoinder for your 'promise' to him after the captain was returned from Celtris III. The communication that 'never happened.'"

"Oh, that. I should've known you'd have found out about that. Been at the game so long, and all. Well thanks, I guess. How's Captain Picard?"

"Mending rapidly. And completely unaware that I had any involvement in his dramatic recovery."

"Thanks, by the way. I never got a safe chance to say it."

"Thanks for what? Our communication never happened, either."

Leo leaned back in her chair and laughed out loud. "I knew there was a reason I liked you! It's why I left you out of it, by the way… Starfleet needs all the 'throwbacks' it can get. Thanks for everything, Captain. You are still a captain, right? No promotions?"

Her caller erupted with laughter of his own.

"That'll be the day. I'll give your regards to Jean Luc. Jellico out."

Still smiling to herself, Leo returned to the living room to settle on the sofa next to Data. "No worries," she promised him, "the good guys are still ahead."

Data nodded, still somewhat confused. Even after years together, Leo's cryptic pronouncements could leave him at a loss.

"Cara mia," he began, then shifted gears with positronic skill, and kissed her cheek. "I will take your word for it."